Waiting for the monsoon...

...is the translation of Wachten op de moesson - the title of a Dutch novel by author Threes Anna that I finished reading today. Whereas the previous books that I have read have been page turners, I really had to struggle to get to the last page of this novel.

The plot is taking us to India, where we follow the life of Charlotte Bridgwater. Charlotte is living together with her elderly and disabled father in a decayed villa in Rampur, trying to keep up the image of her previous high-society life as a Brit in India. When the tailor in the village passes away, Charlotte is persuaded to let a new tailor set up his workshop in her villa so that all the ladies of the club still can have dresses made for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the club. As soon as the new tailor - a mute Indian by the name of Madan - moves in, Charlotte starts to fall in love with him.

This novel could have been a beautiful love story... One of the reasons why I struggled my way through this novel, is the constant changes in perspective and time. The way the plot ends was in my opinion also very unsatisfactory. So let's hope that the novel I will start on now, will be a page turner again!

Weekend...

...is going out for a hike together with the world's greatest husband, enjoying some pancakes with homemade strawberry marmalade together at the peak of Jendemfjellet (633 mtr) and taking a nap with a view together in the sun....

Weekend...

...is turning off my iPhone and enjoying the latest edition of my favourite Norwegian food and wine magazine - Maison Mat & Vin ...  Some great recipes in this edition...I'll definitely try out some of them and tell you all about it afterwards!

Some days...

...you find yourself on a plane back to work again, sad to know that your summer holidays definitely are over... (Yes...some days I fly to and from work...a 30 minute commute)

Coffee Walnut Cake

Today we'll be going out to the farm to celebrate (with sour cream porridge) that this year's grass harvest is done, and my father-in-law's 61st birthday (with lots of cake!). Whereas in The Netherlands it is the tradition that the person celebrating his or her birthday provides cake to the guests, here in Norway it seems to me that the tradition is the other way around - that the guests bring cake for the one we celebrate. Anyway, a great occasion to test out a new recipe - so I made Coffee Walnut Cake!

The recipe was originally for one layer covered with buttercream frosting, but it look so tiny to me - not at all like a big birthday cake.... So I made another layer to stack on top with buttercream frosting in between. Well....after carving a pretty big piece of the cake and having a bite or two or three....I understood that one layer would have done appetite-wise...This cake is rich!!!

Coffee Walnut Cake
(makes 1 cake of Ø 24 cm, consisting of 2 layers)

Ingredients:
- for the cake layers:
340 gr butter, at room temperature
280 gr sugar
6 eggs
280 gr self-rising flour
160 gr walnuts, chopped
5 tsp of instant coffee, dissolved in 2 tbsp of boiling water

- for the buttercream frosting:
4 tsp of instant coffee, dissolved in 4 tbsp of warm milk
190 gr butter, at room temperature
250 gr confectioner's sugar/powdered sugar

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.) Grease or line with baking parchment two springform pans of 24 cm in diameter.
3.) Start making the dough for the cake layers by mixing the butter with the sugar in a large bowl, until the mixture becomes light and creamy.
4.) Add the eggs one at a time.
5.) Sieve the self-rising flour and stir it into the butter/sugar mixture.
6.) Add the chopped walnuts and the coffee, and stir it into the mixture.
7. ) Divide the dough over the two springform pans.
8.) Bake the cakes 20 to 25 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
9.) Leave on a rack to cool down.

10.) Make the frosting by mixing the butter, powdered sugar and coffee mixture.
11.) When the cakes have cooled down, spread a little frosting on top of one of the layers.
12.) Stack the other layer on top.
13.) Cover the rest of the cake with the remaining frosting.
14.) Decorate with walnuts (and chocolate).

Enjoy!

Some days...

...nice surprises come by mail...

Thank you so much, Marèse! I really love the cupcake tea sieve you sent me! It was put to use straight away!

Apple Cinnamon Waffles

Today my husband was helping out at the farm of my in-laws, harvesting grass and turning the grass into round bales. It was a long and hard workday, so I surprised him with warm, fresh waffles when he came home. Not normal waffles, but waffles with a twist ... Apple Cinnamon Waffles....and they were delicious! Especially when eaten lukewarm, that's when you really taste the apple and cinnamon.

Apple Cinnamon Waffles
(makes about 12)

Ingredients:
25 gr of fresh yeast (you could probably use 1 sachet of dried yeast instead)
4 dl milk, cold
4,5 dl of all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp of sugar
1 apple, grated
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
1,5 dl of melted butter

1.) Dissolve the fresh yeast in the cold milk.
2.) Mix the flour, salt, sugar, apple and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3.) Add half of the milk/yeast solution, and stir well.
4.) Add the rest of the milk/yeast solution together with the melted butter, and stir well.
5.) Set aside and leave to rise for a couple of hours at room temperature.
6.) Bake waffles in a waffle iron.
7.) Serve lukewarm, with your favourite topping.

Enjoy!

Some days...

...you are kept company by a tiny snail while cleaning blackcurrants before making blackcurrant marmalade...

Some days...

... you are living on the edge...

Today I went for a hike in the mountains together with my husband. We hiked to the peak of Rørsethornet, then across the egde onwards to the peak called Ræstadhornet and back again. This hike is quite well known, as it was featured in the reality TV show 71° Nord / 71° North a couple of years ago - a reality show that has been a success in many other countries.

Chocolate Pine Nut Cantuccini

One of my best friends here in Norway bought her first own apartment a couple of weeks ago....and as she is a passionate baker like I am .... not to forget a trained culinary chef (which I am definitely NOT), the kitchen that came with the apartment didn't meet her demands. So, off we went to the nearest IKEA (a 4 hour drive from our village of Molde....yes, IKEA stores are far apart here in Norway, strangely enough) to get one of those flat packed kitchens.

Putting all the cabinets together wasn't a problem, but there were some electric sockets that either needed rewiring or to be moved, and some plumbing needed to be done. So, all of a sudden her apartment got run down by handymen. What keeps handymen happy? Coffee, cakes and cookies!

So I made some Chocolate Pine Nut Cantuccini in my own kitchen (which also could do with an IKEA make-over) to bring over....Ok, cantuccini might be a bit fancy, and not as butch as these handymen...but these are delicious! First the rich chocolate taste hits your palate, then the pine nuts add texture and right in the end....a hint of lemon. You really have to make these at least once!! The recipe is from the Dutch cookbook TIP Bakken, which unfortunately seems not to be available anymore.

Chocolate Pine Nut Cantuccini
(makes about 30)

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 egg yolks
175 gr sugar
175 gr all-purpose flour
40 gr cacao
1/2 tsp of baking powder
a pinch of salt
125 gr pine nuts
1-2 tsp of lemon (or lime) zest

1.) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2.) Mix the egg together with one of the egg yolks and the sugar until it forms a light and airy mixture.
3.) Sift the flour, cacao and baking powder into the egg/sugar mixture, and add the salt, pine nuts and lemon/lime zest as well.
4.) Knead the mixture until it forms a dough.
5.) Shape the dough into rectangulars which are approximately 3 cm wide and 1 cm thick, and place them unto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

6.) Whisk the last egg yolk with a fork, and brush the dough with it.
7.) Bake the cookies for 10 to 15 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
8.) Remove from the oven, and let the cookies cool down a bit. Then cut the rectangulars up into smaller pieces, approximately 1 cm wide.
9.) Put the pieces back unto the baking tray lined with parchment paper, and bake them  another 15 to 20 minutes on the middle rack of the oven, until crunchy.
10.) Let the cantuccini cool down on a rack.

Serve these cookies with your favourite type of coffee....whether it's a latte or an espresso....dip them into the cofee and enjoy!

Mediterranean Vegetable Pesto Pie

A couple of days ago one of my friends posted a video on her Facebook page... a video that got me thinking. It was the 4 minute speech by Graham Hill - founder of Treehugger.com - on "Why I am a weekday vegetarian".

I have had exactly the same thoughts...I enjoy eating meat way too much to quit cold turkey, but on the other hand I don't want to contribute to meat factories, polluting the environment more than necessary and worse health... So where Graham Hill decided to eat meat only during the weekend, I have decided to have "veggie day" at least two days a week. I know, it's not much...but it's a start!

So today I made a vegetarian Mediterranean Vegetable Pesto Pie - a recipe I found in the cookbook Cappelens nye kokebok. I love the taste of pesto and was really looking forward to trying out this new recipe and this savoury pie of course....but I have to say that it wasn't the taste explosion that I had expected it to be. Anyway, I'll give you the recipe....your tastebuds might be different from mine!

Vegetable Pesto Pie
( Ø 24 cm)

Ingredients:

-for the pie crust:
3 dl of all-purpose flour
125 gr of butter, cold
2 tbsp cold water

- for the filling:
1 red pepper (capsicum)
1 yellow pepper
2 red onions
1 squash (courgette)
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground pepper
3 eggs
2 dl milk
1 dl pesto

1.) Start by making the pie crust. Put the butter and the flour into a medium-sized bowl and use two knives to cut the butter into small pices and to blend them with the flour. You might need to use your hands after a while to crumble the butter even more, and get a crumbly flour/butter mixture.
2.) Then add the 2 tbsp of cold water, and knead until it forms a dough.
3.) Cover the bottom and sides of a springform pan - 24 cm in diameter - with the dough.
4.) Pierce the bottom of the pie with a fork, and put it into the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes.

5.) Now you start with the filling by preheating the oven to 250 degrees Celsius.
6.) Wash the vegetables, remove the stalk and seeds from the peppers, and cut the vegetables into pieces - the squash (courgette) into slices, the onion into half moons and the peppers into rectangular pieces.
7.) Put the vegetables on a baking tray, and mix with the olive oil, pepper and salt.
8.) Roast the vegetables for 15 to 20 minutes on the middle rack in the oven.

9.) When the vegetables have been roasted, take them out and set them aside. At the same time, turn down the oven heat to 200 degrees Celsius.
10.) When the oven is 200 degrees Celsius, prebake the pie crust 10 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.

11.) Take out the pie crust and fill it with the roasted vegetables.
12.) Mix the eggs, milk and pesto together and fill the pie crust.
13.) Bake the filled pie 35 to 40 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
14.) Serve lukewarm together with a salad (I made a mediterranean salad with red leaf lettuce, romano lettuce and rocket /ruccola, mixed with sliced cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and a olive oil / balsamico dressing).

Enjoy!

Banana Blueberry Yoghurt Popsicles

With the temperature rising above 25 degrees today, as it has done every day this last week, I started to rummage in the kitchen cupboard the other day...trying to find those old fashioned popsicle molds I got from my mom some years ago.

When I was little my mom used to make yoghurt popiscles for me and my sisters....I guess these memories from back in the days are so strong, that I do not consider it to be summer until I have eaten a homemade popsicle in the sun...

The whole rummaging for popsicle molds came about after I found this recipe by Martha Stewart. These popsicles are delicious!!!

Banana Blueberry Yoghurt Popsicles
(makes about 8)

Ingredients:
450 gr ripe bananas
0,4 dl yoghurt (plain or vanilla)
3 tbs of sugar
juice of half a lemon
0,3 dl of fresh blueberries

1.) Peel the bananas and put them into a blender. Puree the bananas until smooth.
2.) Add sugar, yoghurt and lemon juice, and blend.
3.) Pour half of the mixture into the popsicle molds.
4.) Add blueberries to the remaining half of the mixture and puree a bit more. You'll want to leave some blueberry chunks into the mixture, so that it's not completely smooth.
5.) Pour the rest of the mixture into the popsicle molds.
6.) Transfer to the freezer and leave until frozen (this takes about 8 hours).
7.) When you want to serve a popsicle, dip the molds quickly in hot water (or hold under a running tap) to unmold.

Enjoy!

Some days...

... you find yourself at a seter (an old summer farm)...

...waiting for some homemade rømmegrøt (sour cream porridge)...

... and cooling off your feet in running glacier water...

Cupcakes

Today my husband and I are in Trondheim....He to get his motor bike fixed....Me to do some shopping.

One of the stores here in Trondheim that I always have to stop by, is the Danish shop named Søstrene Grene Handelskompagnie. So when I spotted these cute cupcake bowls, I just had to get them!