Food delivery

Home delivery of food has become more and more popular in Norway.

People seem to have lesser time on their hand,, places to go and people to meet and not everybody is very fond of planning their meals, but enjoy to eat good food.

This week I have tied out food homedelivery Adamsmatkasse.
Ingredients and recipes for 5 dinners, 1 tart pluss 4 kg fresh fruits.

What you see in the top picture is basicly what was in the boxes and it is supposed to be enough for a family of four. Doesn't look much does it and I have to admitt that I was a little worried that it would not be enough for the four of us still living in my household.
What does a family of four consist of?
Two adults and two small children, 4 adults, one adult and thre young children or a family like mine with one adult, two hungry teens(18 and 15) and a little wee one.
My fifteen year old who helped me carry the boxes in to the kitchen has passed 6'1" already, he snickered a little when he saw the amount of proteins

But oh well, best to keep an open mind 

During this week we had
Baked cod with romaesco and a cucumber- and dillsalad

My initial worry about this not being enough food was needless, there was enough.
MiniMe is a little bit oicky when it comes to vegetables, I tried to get her to try te romanesco and said "Look sweetie they look like mini christmastrees" where up on the little sweetie answered "I don't want to eat christmastrees" Jeez, mum needs to think about her analogies.

Baby romaine taco with corn, bellpeppers and beans.

Nothing bad to say about this dish exept that we ran out of lettuce, ha ha ha and I was worried about not enough proteins. We ended up eating half of it without lettuce, I did not feel like running to the store in the middle of dinner.

Fish augratin with lemonsauce and colorful vegetables

Front Ribs with homemade ajvar sauce and lime scented couscous salad. 
My "little" carnivores had been looking forward to this meal, but they missed bbq sauce. It was not because that the boys did not like the  ajvar sauce, it was just different.
The meal did fill us up, but sometimes the eye wants more then the tummy, the boys wondered if this was it and looking at MiniMes plate and hoping she did not want hers:)

She knew they wanted hers and took her time eating every little bit :D

Baked potato with ham, veggies and sourcream.

Tart Tatin a la Adam

For this recipe we only got the apples, most housholds have the extra ingredients like flour, butter and sugar.

I liked the variation of meals in this deliverybox and I feel it was healthy and nutitional as well.
I would recomend subscribing for food deliveries like this if you do not have time to prepare and your priority is not grocery shopping or if you have hectic periods that take you to other places but your kitchen. Besides it is only five meals and no breakfast and no lunch, so you do have to actually go groceryshopping once in a while. Another solution is to eat out, invite yourself to someone or invite someone to you:)

Blindtesting wines from Casa Vinicola Zonin

Photo: Sebastan Dahl

For norwegian translation go HERE

Mediterranean wines 

The unexpected elegance and freshness of the south of Italy.

I got an invitation with restauraneures and sommeliers to go to a Sommelier themed lunch at restaurant Onda at Akerbrygge in Oslo. We were going to taste and discuss the two Mediterranean wines, Masseria Altemura and Feudo Principi di Butera, two of CasaVinicola Zonin’s labels.

-The wine-maker’s aim is to gather sommeliers from various top-quality restaurants to discuss interesting themes in a relaxing atmosphere at a prestige venue.-

Where did I fit in this? I do not know. My interest for wine has grown over the years, so to me this was very interesting lunch and this was the first time to my knowlege that I have tasted Sicilian and Puglian wines. 

-The rich and long history of Southern Italy can be of endless inspiration in the rediscovery of its indigenous grape varieties: each one of these is far more capable of retaining its acidity in this warm climate than any of the international grapes.-

Casa Vinicola Zonin’s wine ambassador, Lorenzo Zonin, hosted this venue where we were going to blind test two of Casa Vinicola Zonins estates, Masseria Altemura from Puglia and Feudo Principi di Butera. With each course we got two different wines and we were supposed to guess from which area and which vintage the wines where from. Mr. Zonin guided us through the tasting, explaining the difference between the two wines. We looked at the color, we smelled the aromas and then tasted the wines.

For the first course we had Masseria Altemura-Fiano Salento IGT 2013 and
Principi di Butera-Insola Sicilia IGT 2013

The Fiano is a high-quality white wine grape variety used in southern Italy specially in Campania, the shin of Italys boot . It is mainly used as a varietal wine, wines that are being labeled after the grape variety they are prodused from. Fiano Is nutty and textured with floral and honey notes, spice and tropical fruit flavores

Like I had mentioned I had not tried any wine from these regions before and found it quite difficult since I did not have any refrence point to go by. First of all I do not drink much wine and Second pretty much the same as the first one :) and I must say that I think he tried to confuse us a little :) 

My way of telling if it is a good wine or not is if I can keep a straight face when drinking it and the more expencive, the straighter the face, he he he. Jokes a side, over the years I have gotten to know and taste different wines and have learnt that price and taste does not necessarily correlate with eachother.  you can get inexpensive wines that taste grate and expensive wines that are less than average.

I got the estates wrong and I got one vintage wrong. Some of the clues he gave us was that they were booth young, one more sophisticated than the other and one more fruity than the other

The second course we had braised shoulder of lamb fom Solun and bean casulet. 

This time I manage to place the wines and guess the vintage, lucky guess I think.

Principi di Butera-Deliella Nero D'Aviola 2008 from Sicily and the puglian Massera Altemura wa a Sasseo Primitivo Salento IGT 2012

The Deliella Nero D'Aviola has an intense ruby red color, with notes of black fruits with a touch of balsamic notes and hints of cocoa. The wine has well defined tannins and a touch of bitterness on the finish.

The Sasseo Primitivo Salento IGT 2012 has also an intense red color with scents of tart cherries, violet and sweet spicy hints, a warm and persistent wine. 

Last course was Norwegian cheeses with nut bread and marmalade. The wines was Principi di Butera-Symposio Sicilia IGT 2010 and Masseria Altemura-Altemura Primitivo di Manduria DOC 2010

The first one was a dark red wine with ruby reflections with a nose of ripe dark berries, plums, cherries, orange peel and hits of and black tea. Nutty nuances with a seductive bouquet of cedar, cloves and mocha and on the palate it is elegant, balanced and harmonious with a lingering finish of dark and red berries.

The latter was a deep ruby red wine with a nice nose and accents of roasted coffe and bread crust opening up to fragrances of nutmeg, eucalyptus and green pepper. It had a unusual full palate mixing spiced fruits with brandy and tobacco and a lingering aftertaste

Surprize Wine- guess the estate and the vintage

This time we only got one glass so we could not compare it to anything but memory.

This last wine reminded me of one of my old favorites a Cabernet Sauvignon, mid 1990s vintages from Napa Valley California and with what I have learnt by listening to Mr. Zonin and what I had previously tasted. I guest it to be from Sicily and from 2006. Why 2006? I guess because one of the clues was that it it was a little older than the previous vintages. I was wrong, it was a 2000 vintage and since it turned out to be a Cabernet Sauvignon, no wonder it reminded me of my old favorite :) I think I can enjoy this wine as well:)

Principi di Butera-Sanrocco Cabernet Sauvignon 2000

Intense garnet red with clean complex aromas of ripe dark red fruits and berries, pleasent notes of vanilla and spices. Harmonious and structured, the palate mirrors the berries and sweet spices with a lingering finish.

-Masseria Altemura

Is situated deep in the heart of the Salento Peninsula, an area permeated with Mediterranean characters  where the light breeze and the sea coalesce in unique alchemy. The total area of the property is over 300 hectares, of which 40 consist of olive groves and 150 are vineyards, planted with indigenous grape varieties and producing great wines such as Primitivo di Manduria. Masseria Altemura now represents one of the flagship estates in Puglian agriculture, restored with total respect for the environment and the original architecture

-Feudo Principi di Butera

Is situated in the south-eastern part of Sicily, near the cities of Caltanisseta, Agrigentto and Catania.

The estate once belonged to Sicily's first prince, Ambrogio Branciforte "Principi di Butera", whose title was bestowed on him in 1543. After an in-depth research on the area best suited for cultivating Nero d'Avola grapes, the Zonin family acquired and restored the estate. Its hilly terrain, proximity to the sea, optimal altitude, and  abundance of sunlight, combined with a unique limestone-based soil, provide ideal conditions for yielding outstanding wines.

Chocolatechip cookies with coconut flakes

These cookies are ordinary chocolatechip cookies with added coconut flakes.

Ingrdients
It is a fairly big batch, It makes about 6 trays with 9 cookies each.

Old picture just to illustrate

3 cups roomtemeratured regular salted butter

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups all purpose flour

6 cups oatmel(blend after measuring)
2 tsp baking soda

When I make a big batch like this I usually devide it in three and make three different type og cookies. For each third of the batch I use 12 oz pack of semi-sweet chocolatechip morsels

Start by mixing the butter and sugar to a creamy consistency

Add in the eggs one by one.

add the vanilla extract

At the end ad flor, oatmeal and bakingsoda, mix untill everything is incorporated, but do not overmix.

As I mentioned earlier I add 12 oz of chocolate chips to a third of the batch and for the cookies on top I also added 1 cup of coconut flakes.

Make your own mixes, different colored chocolate, nuts and berries, there are so many possibilities, your imagination is the limit.

Place the dough in the fridge for aboout 30 minutes before you bake the it


Devide your dough into 18 equal parts and place them on a lined baking tray and bake them in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes on 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
When they are done, pull the bakingliner off the tray with the cookies on onto a cool tray.
A long baking time on a lower heat and quick cooling of the cookies gives you cookies thar are crisp on the outside and chewie in the middle.

Good luck and enjoy

A small birthdayparty for MiniMe

MiniMes birthday today, she turned 7.

She has been looking forward to this day, to have a small birthday party with her siblings and her parents. Everybody together to celebrate her day.

Unfortunatly her mummy has been bussy sewing skirts and dresses for her, so I forgot to bake something for her birthdaybreakfast in bed.

The solution was to run over to the local cafe and buy a couple of pieces of cake before she woke up, they only had brownie and carrotcake.

Well I made it and woke her up with a birthday song, her favorite cereal and the cake.

These pictures are really taken as soon as she woke up, she did not even have time to brush her hair.

But since we were going to have a small celebration, we baked a few things, MiniMe wanted chocolate cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies.

Like many small children she wants to help out with the baking.

She is quite a little assistant in the kitchen, but unfortunatly she is just like her mum and makes a lot of mess. Between the two of us we can really bomb the kitchen :D

Finished baking and time to get dressed, she wanted to wear the dress I made for her, a silk dress with a tullskirt. 

While I was making this dress I felt a little like Maria in Sound of Music. Remeber the scene where she sings My favorite things in her bedroom and hold the curtains that becomes the childrens playclothes?

This dress is made of some curtain scraps I had laying around.

We decorated a little to make the party look nice and she did a few finishing touches on our cakes. The piñata is just for decoration today, we will use it later this week when she has her birthdayparty with all her friends.

In this picture I have tied a ribbon around her waist to give the dress a little extra, but I think it looks a little more chic without the ribbon and since I made the tulle skirt as a separate skirt she can wear it on top of the dress as well or without the tulle.

It is a little difficult explaining how i did this dress, I copied the the dress in the previous blogpost, but made it sleeveless. and for the tulle skirt I will post something soon:)

Here are som pictures of the snacks we made.

Chocolate chip cookies with chocolate flakes

Chocolate cupcakes with a Magnolia bakery type of frosting, with a little help from me she acctually did the swirls on these cupcakes.

A small hart shaped chocolate cake with rasberry frosting for mummy little cutie.

Reuse of favorite dress

MiniMe has outgrown her favorite dress, a dress she got for her 5th brthday.

A Sonia Rykiel dress that we bought in Nice. 

The dress has been to short a long time now and has been hanging in her closet, she takes it out once in a while, looks at it and sighed, she has really been wanting to use it again. 

She found the black tulle that I have had lying arround.

Mini's dream for the time being is to become a fashion designer and she sews and staple clothes for her teddy bears and dolls. She suggested to sew on some tulle to extend the dress or sew a tulle skirt. She wondered if I could help her because she had never sewn on a sewing machine before, 

Sweet little one, of course I would help her.

We made a black tulle skirt with gray ribbon,

A nice petticoat she can use for parties and dress up and specially under her favorite dress. We made some other things too, I'll show them to you later.

Just as countless of little girls, MiniMe loves to wear her mummys shoes too.

She thought my shoes looked better with the skirt than hers do.

We are having a fun photosession this fall break.

Earlybird gets the worm

I seldom experience earlymornings during the week-ends. I like to sleep in and take it slow, lounge around in my underwear

When I woke up today I was thinking Earlybird gets the worm or the norwegian version of it.

"Morgenstund har gull i munn" 

Directly translated this means morning hour have gold in mouth.

This does not really make any sence other than it must be good to rise early.

So I googled it and found some information on Wikipedia.

Well the meaning is that earlybird getsthe worm or early risers has a bigger chanse to reach their goals.

The norwegian saying is from an old germanic version where the word mund was used and meant hand.

The islandic version uses give rather than have and suddenly the saying makes more sense.

Morning hour gives gold in hand.

Nice to know, rise early, shower, eat breakfast, get dressed and seize the day.

The underwear I am using is from Freya lingerie, I am sort of a spokes person for the brand.

It is one of the better lables I have used.

Good quality underwear that fits beautifully and looks gorgious.

Freyas underwear are suitable for girls of all shapes and sizes with cups fom B to K.

A good posture start with a good bra :)

Have a nice Sunday:)

Blinis and Caviar

Someone told me that he rather have $150 of meat or fish than a few mouthfulls of fisheggs.

I agree, but sometimes it feels good to indulge oneself.it might not be good for your wallet, but good for ones soul. That said, one can discuss how often indulging yourself is proper.

I saw this caviar from Rossini on instagram. I have not had any caviar in a while and they looked so temting. I googled and found out that I could get some at Kastrup airpot in Copenhagen.

From what I understad these eggs are from farmed sturgeons and not endangering the wild sturgeon population whitch is about to get extinct because of overfishing and just because of their roe.

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to Copenhagen for work and picked up a little tin of caviar and with this in the fridge I had to make some blinis. It has been years since I made these buckwheat pancakes.

“Round is the blini, yellow gold and hot like the sun, the symbol of sublime days, rich harvests, harmonious marriages and healthy children.”

– Alexander Kuprin.

For 4 servings you will need
1 cup luke warm milk
1/2 oresh yeast
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup plain flour
or use something glutenfree.
2 eggyolks
2 tbs melted butter
2 beaten eggwhites, soft peaks

Caviar
Sour cream
Chopped red onions

Pour the milk into a bowl and cruble in the yeast.
Add the flour and stir carefully until there are no more lumps, while stiring add the eggyolks, salt and butter, set the batter aside for an hour.

1. .
   Fold the egg whites into the batter mixture.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Add a spoonful of the batter and fry for 45-60 seconds, until golden underneath, then turn over and cook for 30 seconds on the other side. Remove the blini and place onto kitchen paper. Repeat this process with the remaining batter. Keep the blinis warm.

To serve, arrange sour crem, chopped red onions, blinis and the caviar on a tray and serve yourself and enjoy the little feast with some vodka or like I did with Champagne.

Sosial media gathering in Brevik Norway

Photo: Beate Hemsborg

I do not know how it is around the world or within the different areas of blogging.

But in Norway ther is a small group of girls who meet once in a while wheter they blog within interior, everyday life, food, fashion or beauty and makeup or a mix of the five I mentioned.

A couple of week-ends ago about 45 gals from all over Norway met up in a small place called Brevik by the Oslofjord. 

A picturesque place with summer houses and cottages on little surrounding islands.

Some of them have met before and som have not

One of the things I like with theese gatherings is that you meet the people behind the blogs and instagram accounts you follow and follow you. The other thing we always manage to have fun and we are exited to see eachother. 

NO RIVALRY.

I am  not saying that it does not exist in Norway the rivalry between bloggers, it is there and I have seen it develop over the years, Some see themselves as better bloggers or more popular.

BUT these events are still fun filled and everybody talks to everybody and we all get along.

Someone told me once that bloging is the new way for us grown ups to get to know new people.

When we were youmger we knocked on eachothers doors to play but we do not do that anymore.

This little event was organized by the girls behind the blogs Fabelaktig and Festfabrikken.

Two entreprenureal gals who knows how to throw a meet and greet.

When ever Ms. Fabelaktig throws one she always manages to put together fun and yummy filled goodiebags.

We got this little adorable Sonny Angel in the goodiebag, a little cheeky boy angle dressed only in headgear. He has become quite popular among women around the world, young and old.

we also got cup cake liners and paper straws.

Posters, postcards, sented candles, mugs, hot chocolate mix and chocolate coverd almonds.

Skarf, earings and nail polish with caviar pearls

Gift wrapper, chapstick and sunglasses.

The gift wrapper I used to cover MiniMes books :D