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

Frost and mist in the Norwegian mountains

I've been to a conference about autism

It took place 1001 meters above the sea

in one of the Norwegian mountains.

Between the sessions, we went outside

to admire the wonders of nature.

The hotel was situated far up on one side of a valley.

The frost created a white sea of mist which was so thick

that all we could see outside the hotel was White

We climbed about 50 meters up the mountain, and came out of the mist

it was magical!

The frost covered everything with beautiful crystals

We expected a troll coming any time soon!

Rice pudding, no dairy

We have a bit of milk intolerance going on in our house

I'm experimenting

and trying out new recipes and ingredients

Today it's rice pudding, made on rice milk

That went well!

Served with cinnamon and a little knob of butter.

(Two little boxes to bring as a snack to work)

Hibernating is what I've been doing!

It's the season of hibernating.

My daughter is far up north going to school

My son is busy with his friends so I suddenly have much more time on my hands

I haven't been blogging much lately

I guess I have been on a break

Maybe I needed a little break, but now I'd like to

get on board again, alt least do it a bit more often

than I've done lately

I kind of miss it!

It's November but in my garden the Calendula officinalis

is still blossoming

and my dearest flower: Lupinus, My favourite!

I planted it this spring and at last, there is a Lupinus in my garden

I have special place in my heart for this flower.

Some people called it a weed and warned me not to plant it

but I've tried for years to get it to grow in my garden.