Fishballs

Between all the baking and cooking, we sometimes long for simplicity

This is one of them.

Typically Norwegian, dreaded by many foreigners.

Loved by many kids!

And kind to an upset stomach.

We eat them with white sauce, like bechamel,

potatoes and vegetables.

Some add curry to the white sauce, to jazz it up a bit.

When Norwegians go traveling abroad for a while,

and try all sorts of exciting flavors,

many of them start longing for this after a while.

I've got mail!

Baking again, and feeling rather Chrismas spirited.

Coconut-macaroons with fine cut almonds

I checked my mail, and guess what!

My first christmas card had arrived!

From a new friend Antigoni in Greece!

That made me very happy!

With an ornament inside!

Thanks Antigoni!

Whish I could share some Christmas cookies with you and a cup of tea!

Lutefisk

Lutefisk (translated it means lye fish)

Yesterday we were invited to a lutefisk party at some friends house.

Since I forgot my camera, the photos are taken with my

slightly crappy cell phone,

but still, I hope you get the idea.

Lutefisk is dried codfish prepared in a potash lye.

(the dictionary says)

Use the link to get to know more about it!
It's almost cult food, going to a lutefisk party is kind of cool.

Except for the fact that I don't really like the fish at all!

I'd rather have ordinary cod.

But the good friends and the party is what I come for!

When eating lutefisk,

there is many different things you should eat together with the fish.

Good potatoes, mushy peas, bacon, lefse(told you about that before) ,

grated sweet goat cheese and mustard.

To drink: Jule øl (christmas beer or ale) and Aquavit
For entertainment we had a beer tasting competition.
I got them all wrong, but liked the beers.

Springrolls

Inside: cabbage, celery, onions, garlig and carrot,

soy sauce, chili, coriander and black pepper
The wrapping
Thin cheets from the oriental shop

Abit of water to make it stick

I line them up on a baking tray, cause I like to bake them in the oven instead of deep fry them.

I beat an egg and swab them lightly for a shiny surface

This time served with chicken legs and rice.

Or just with your hands without anything else.

Bread and circus

Since we're in a baking steam

bread came next.

I had so much going on at the same time,

so these loaves went oversized

while standing in queue

for the oven.

The smell of bread was just heart comforting!

And the circus? Well that was the cinnamon in the first loaf, the pesto in the second and the dried sweet red pepper in the third.

Thats about the circus level at this point.

Christmas baking part one

I'm in a baking mood.

Traditionally a proper Norwegian home should have 7 different

cristmas cookies. And there is more than 7 to choose from!

I'm not so in to counting the ones I have,

I bake the ones we like.

Today it will be chess biscuits.

Shortbread biscuits with cocoa in half of the dough.

Then I make "krumkaker"

I have no idea how to translate that, just see the picture.

I use this iron to bake them.
I make most of them kind of cone shaped

and some other shapes
Later I can serve them with cream and berries inside

Advent

Today one of our favorite periods of the year begins:
Advent

We're not strongly religious in our family,

but as most Norwegian do, we enjoy the advent time.
This is a few of the things we do when December starts:

We put lights and stars in the windows

We light the advent candelabra,

Purple is the advent color

and the candelabra has four purple candles,

one for each of the four Sundays before Christmas.

Yesterday we lit the first.

I've put up the kids' advent calendar.

I wrapped 24 small presents, one for each day until 24 of December.

The kids are not to old for this yet, at Christmas,

we all reconnect with our childish self!

Another Advent calendar

which doesn't cost to much

and smells really good is the Orange with 24 tacks of clove.

As you probably can guess, you remove one each day.

(and hope for the Orange to stay fresh until Christmas)

Finally we also have a "julekalender"

in the form of a tv-show or a program with 24 episodes,

one for each day.

Some are children or family- programs, and some are for adults.

The last category are often comedy-shows.

These are different sorts of counting down to 24th of December,

which is the main day to celebrate in the Norwegian Christmas

All this got me a bit peckish

so I had to make myself a little snack:

Lefse (like tortilla, the norwegian way) with smoked lambsmeat

(look1ng like like slices of salami),

basil, cucumber and sweet pepper.

After I took the photo I added some sour cream,

that goes well with the meat.

Then roll it up.

Mmm!