Norwexican tamales for New Year

From my friend Christo

I got a huge box in the mail

with all I needed to make tamales

just in time for New Year!

 Corn husk, chile and masa

I used some pork

and it was simmering for three hours on low heat

 The chile soaking in some water

 Chile, sweet pepper, celery, and stock in the foodprocessor

 Shredding the pork

Letting it simmer for 45 minutes together with the pork

 Making the masa: corn flour, lard, baking powder, and stock

Soaking the husk

 Then wrapping the tamales, I loved that part of the job!

 Stacking them in the steamer

Waiting with excitement while the little packages

got ready for the New Years feast!

I had never seen a tamale in real life or tasted one

I was wondering, would it be right?

The meat in the chile tasted good

even the masa tasted ok before cooking

so I thought I would like it!

Bur what about my family?

I loved it, and even better,

they loved it!

Even my picky eater of a son and his girlfriend!

My husband and my daughter wanted it again very soon!

I told them what you said Christo, 

that eating tamales on New Years Eve means good

fortune ans happiness for the New Year!

Thank you for letting me  in om this food experience, I promise you

this will not be the last tamales made in this home!

To you and all my friends out there:

Happy New Year!!

12 days of Christmas

Inspired by the season

my husband wants to tell the real story

about his Christmas:

Merry baking

It's the time for baking.

According to the Norwegian tradition

it should be 7 different types of cakes and cookies

in a proper Norwegian Christmas home

There won't be seven types in our home

but there will these:

Nutty cookies, with hazel nuts and almonds

And coconut macaroons

And even dinner suddenly seems Christmasy

and it wasn't even deliberate

Beans and tomatoes, Ho Ho, Ho!!

Julebord and coconut cake

Last night we had our annual Julebord (Christmas party) at work

This year we chose to do it far out in the woods

Viking style!

The place was rustic, wooden and rough

the floor was of hard soil

and there was massive logs og the fire.

Even if it was kind of outside-ish, it was warm .

The tables was of thick wood, the chairs was of thick stumps of wood

with skins of reindeer to sit on.

The menue was grilled lamb and salmon

Outside there was kerosene lamps and torches to show us the way.

There was stars and moon above, and it was magical!

This afternoon back from the wilderness

I made a coconut cake

soft and cruncy coconut meringue on top.

Lovely

The calendar project II, and some Christmas baking

I've started on the Christmas baking

Tonight it was "Krumkaker"

Advent calendar is ready for tomorrow.

Every year this particular night, the last of November

since my children were born

I sit watching something on telly

(tonight it was The Polar Express)

and wrapping little presents for the calendar.

Now it's ready!

Half way to a thousand and some chicken nuggets

Advent

Today it's the first Sunday of Advent

The color of Advent is purple

Home made chicken nuggets are as easy as they are tasty

(and slightly messy when you make them)

Pieces of chicken breasts, first in flour, then in egg

and finally in crushed Pringles

Frying in my skillet

No fancy order,

just served with oven chips and broccoli

Some sweet and sour chili sauce to dip the good pieces in! Yum!

And do you know what?

This is post number 500!

I don't mess about!

Crackling and ashes

When I was going to post something about this piece of pork meat with it's crackling

I thought

have I written about this before?

I've been doing this blog since 2007, so I probably had.

I searched my blog

(feel free to do the same)

and found one post:

Almost exactly 3 years back in time

(give or take one day)

This is a common Christmas dinner in Norway

only not in our house,

it's kind of frowned to eat this in November

Many people take their Christmas food tradition very seriously!

We enjoyed in November anyway, as we did 3 years ago

according to my blog.

It's a bit nippy outside

so we keep a fire going when we are home.

Every now and then, the fireplace needs to be emptied

It is full of ashes!

Dinkie is waiting impatiently because she just loves the warming fire!

The ashes must be cold, the bucket shouldn't be flammable

(like mine is)

and you should never leave it on the steps outside your front door for later.

A few houses has burnt down over the years because of that!

Embers can keep warm inside of ashes for a long time!

My house is still standing, I emptied the bucket far from my house straight away!

Pears and inspiration

One of my friends treated his pears

in an intriguing way

Here in blog land, we're allowed to be inspired

by each others efforts.

So my pears got undressed

and started soaking!

A good warm soak, in red wine, lovely spices and citrus peel

Then cooling off and staying ther over night

The day after, the pears came out to rest

and the wine got reduced until thick syrup

Tanned and well rested

On a bed of cream made of an egg and sugar whipped fluffy

and mixed with whipped cream.

With the oh so heavenly syrup, the taste so concentrated tha you wouldn't believe it!

Trying to make it look pretty

Worth waiting for!

Thanks Christo Le Chien, for the inspiration!

The calendar project

My daughter Pink Princesse goes to school

far up north if Norway.

In a couple of days, the sun will disapper for quite a while

She is wondering how she will cope with it!

Where we live, further south, the days are short in the winter

but the sun never disappear completely so it will be her first time!

To cheer her up

I'm preparing a Christmas calendar

for the days in December until she comes home for her Christmas holiday!

One little present for each day.

A little break after the wrapping

Burger and chips, Little Chefs favourite!

He wants a calendar too!

I'll send them off, one package at a time

You can't beat getting mail!

That'll put a smile on her face

and make her feel special

my sweet girl!

Almondy nutties and Apple cake

Ok I admit it straight away

I didn't make the almond dough

It came shaped like a sausage from the supermarket.

But I did roll it in to little balls,

and I did peel the almonds

They looked a bit to goody goody

so I messed them up with some dark chocolate

(which I melted myself)

The apple cake on the other hand

was made from scratch,

It came, said hello

and disappeared within a short time

like cakes do in our house!

Served with whipped cream