Grøtfest!

Advent traditions in Norway

and in our house contains (among other things) this:

Risgrøt

(rice porridge or pudding)

Before Christmas the two teenagers in our house

invited some friends

for a Advent party.

Mommie dearest made

loads of rice pudding!

Rice
And milk

This was after the first round

and there was hardly any left at all!

The rice pudding is served warm

with sugar, cinnamon and butter in the middle

(you dip every spoonful in the melting butter )

At Christmas we hide a peeled almond or three

in the rice pudding.

The lucky one who finds it is not to tell

but hide it in his mouth or hand until every one has finished eating

then he reveals the almond,

and gets a price!

Usually the price is a pig made of marzipan.

It was a loud and happy party

with laughter and warmth.

and it went surprisingly well to mix

6 sixteen year olds

and 6 thirteen year olds!

(As it did last year and the year before)

December thoughts

I love candles

they burn so quietly

So peacefully

giving warmth and light

Every morning, afternoon and night

we burn several candles

This time of the year we only have daylight

a couple of hours in the middle of the day

if it's a clear day.

We stay inside and burn our candles

hibernating in the dark season.

The most eaten fruit of the season in Norway

is clementines

Not from here of course,

This one is a sweet treasure from Spain.

The smell of clementines

is the smell of Christmas!

In Norway it was common to clean your entire house

before Christmas.

This is not such a common tradition amongst my generation
Why should we do that, when no one can see a thing?

One trick is to burn Christmas incense

To make your house smell nice

And if you really want it to smell like you've actually cleaned ceiling and walls, then you can fill a little saucer with pine-sol and hide it behind a curtain in your living room, I'm just saying...

Salma and shortbread

It was time for some fish

and today we chose Salma

What a lovely color, I almost wanted to

eat it raw!

Cucumber salad

quick pickled

in vinegar, salt, sugar, black pepper and water

The salmon baked in the oven

it was the most juicy fish I've had in a long time

Oven baked potatoes,
bless them with the soft inside and the rough outside

A palette of color and taste!

Then a little baking

Shortbread, so simple

with a hint of cinnamon

Put the kettle on!

Tonka time

It's time to light candles

Light the fire

and enjoy fall!

We have no Tonka trucks

But when it comes to tonka beans
I got a few in a sweet smelling mail yesterday
from my friend Christo!

Now I have to google

Harvest time

Last year I brought a tomato home from Greece

I planted the seeds

and took good care of the plants

Like I've never done before!

But the summer was rainy, and cold.

Nothing like the sunny Greek summer!

From my lovely green tomato plants

I got only one decent tomato

The rest of them were small

At least it was a good tomato


And gave me new seeds for next year.
I'm not a quitter!!

In the backround

a couple of drying chiles

At least they came out red and lovely!

The sweetness of a ripe banana

When our bananas start to look like this

my husband wants to throw them away.

But inside there is mature sweetness

Perfect for a massive banana cake!
And he loves banana cake!
No more talk about throwing anything away!
Until next time he spots some brown bananas.

Lungemos and Tea time

There is something called "Lungemos" in Norway

Some love it, some hate it , some haven't even tried it

and there is them who haven't heard of it at all.

We used to have it for our dinner in the seventies,

cheap and good and very child-friendly

We used to mash out potatoes in it

and the taste was salty and spicy,

and no need to chew

It's the Haggis of Norway

made of meat, heart, lungs and other stuff from pork, lamb or cow.

(Lungemos means mash of lungs,

maybe that's what putting people off?)

Today I got a surprise at work.

A colleague brought me a book,

which she had got from someone.

Since I am a anglofile Norwegian girl

who loves to cook and bake, this was a treat for me!

A book about traditions, reciepes and little anecdotes..

Crumpets.. The first time I went to visit my husbands family
I got these round strange things, full of holes,
warm and dripping with butter
in what would become my mother-in-law's kitchen.
I might not try to make them, but there is other things in there
like scones, mincemeat pies, fruitcakes, tarts, biscuits and cucumber sandwiches.