Friday, April 30, 2010

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

I need an uplift!

I woke up with a bad cold today.  It's actually not a surprise, I have been tempting my luck by not using enough warm clothes these past few days.  You see, when the spring starts showing its face in this side of the world and the sun starts to shine and HEAT again, we the naive and hopeful people start wearing spring clothes, so, during the day it's all good and perfect, but... when the sun stops shining and the wind starts blowing, it's another story.  Just a bit less than two weeks away from my final final final presentation at school, it is just not a good time to be getting sick.  Today I will stay at home and I will avoid the cold and dreadful weather that Bergen is offering (except for the doggy walk of course) and work on my videos from the comfort of my living room, but I need something to uplift my spirit, so, here it is.  A bit of Beck, whom I love with all my heart!


Monday, April 26, 2010

BREAKFAST

I love breakfast.  Not the way Jonas loves breakfast with bacon and eggs and all that is possible (that's nice too though), but I love the simple and humble "continental" breakfast.  The other day we were making a fruit tartalet for my mother in law's birthday.  It required peach jam as part of the ingredients.  Something I never buy or eat, so, thinking on the fact that I hate throwing away food or waste of space in the refrigerator, I thought I could maybe eat it for breakfast with cottage cheese on top of bread, let me tell you: HEAVEN!!!!!!!! Toasted sunflower bread, a bit of butter, cottage cheese and a spoon of peach jam.  Doesn't get much better than that.  And ofcourse, do not forget a good cup of coffee.  Today it's the turn for Calderón-Chirripó-Costa Rica from Supreme Roasters (small roaster in Oslo with amazing talents!).  This coffee is round a clean, with some berries and fruit hints.  Perfect breakfast coffee!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Boots

These booties are the ones... I don't even know how much they cost, probably A LOT (yes, just checked, and they are completely out of reach!), but I am in love with them.  Maybe I'll spot something similar at a more affordable price or maybe they'll put them on sale eventually ;)

These are Acne's "Pistol Short"

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Waffles

Jonas made waffles today.   He is the cutest! (sorry, strongest, toughest!)

Jonas' instructions to eat waffles:
1. Waffles must rest so they get crispy.
2. Things you can put on them:
3.  Sour cream with raspberry jam.
4.  Butter with brown cheese.

 A happy man.

Dogs don't eat waffles!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Eden!

My friend Eden (whom I haven't seen in the longest time) just started her own blog about food and everyday things.  She is a master in the kitchen, and not only that, cooks the proper way: with the freshest most local products she can find.  Of course, she lives in San Diego, where the weather is obviously much better than here in Bergen, Norway, and it is possible to grow much more, but that is the thing, it is possible to grow a lot, and she actually does it.  Look at this artichoke! (I am writing with jealousy now!):


Anyways, she posts great recipes constatly with step by step picture instructions, so, make sure to take a look!  I am craving to try the "Pan-Seared Halibut with Lemon Beurre Blanc, Rosemary potatoes and creamed broccoli".  This is her picture, but I will post my own as soon as I find some Halibut in this town.

Aren't they beautiful???

With the spring showing some signs of coming (well, in Bergen you can actually expect anything, in the last two days there has been sunshine, rain, hail and SNOW!!!!, the weather is completely bananas!), and the flowers starting to bloom, I took the first steps towards having some vegetables in our garden.  I have planted (indoors for the time being) some winter squash, different varieties of carrots and tomatoes.  Look at my baby tomato plants!!!!!

I found Renee's Garden website  very useful.



And the very ugly but effective home-made greenhouses :)



And some carrots as well, the squash needs a bit more time....


For the carrots, I'd follow the same instructions above, but I used milk cartons.  
The carrots need space underneath them to grow down!

Soon enough (as soon as there is no danger of frost in the evenings, as seen above, it snowed yesterday!), we will be working on out plant beds outside and eating veggies all summer and autumn.
The next project is the herb garden and I will post pictures of that too.


Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Blue chairs for Nicca

Ok, ok.  Since you changed your mind, here is a picture that you might find cool then.  It's Wengers Wishbone Chair in different shades of blue ;)

What a kitchen!

Just some interior delight I found at Emmas Design Blog.  The kitchen made me think of my sister in law Nicca, who talked about wanting green chairs in their new dining room.  I know this isn't what she meant, but green chairs: couldn't help but thinking of her (miss you!!!).  Anyways, here are the pictures, and a link to the rest of the house. As Emma defined it in her blog, the industrial/retro/country style is just very well put together.  Not too much not too little.  Definitely very Scandinavian.  Love the hints of baby blue in the cabinets, and I would have never thought of using tiles to cover a kitchen wall to wall, I would have thought it might look too much like a bathroom or a hospital, but somehow, they pulled it off.  Very cool, very cool I must say.


Monday, April 12, 2010

Heaven!

Today I found a very nice website called "The Pioneer Woman Cooks".  I was looking for a recipe for tonight.  Jonas and I have made a deal, every week, each one of us will make a new, cheap, hopefully healthy recipe so we don't fall into a routine.  I found a very good looking recipe for pasta with shrimp, and since I already had all the ingredients it was just meant to be done.  It was AMAZING!!!!!!  I followed the recipe, used a very nice extra virgin olive oil we got in Italy, "La Badia" and a nice Chardonnay.  After we took it off the pan, we put it in the grill, it was fantastic to get the flavors from the coal in and we got to use the balcony.

The Northern Lights in Bergen.

Last night was possible to see the Norther Lights here in Bergen.  That doesn't happen often here in the southern parts of Norway.  Usually people travel to the north to maybe be able to see them.  I am sad I couldn't see them, but, maybe some other night I will be lucky to catch them!

Welcome Spring!

This is the forecast for the week!  Just thought I should share it :D
http://www.storm.no/vaer/bergen













Sunday, April 11, 2010

Sunny sunday and spring!

Today we grilled for the first time!  How nice is to finally have some warmer days.  I love the spring.  I think it's my favourite season.  In my country, we have only two seasons, the dry one and the rainy one, but every day of the year the sun sets and raises at around the same time.  The temperature doesn't vary that much, and well, the year doesn't change that much.  Don't get me wrong, I love it, sun everyday and great temperature all year is great!  But, being here in Norway and really experiencing the winter, spring, summer and fall, makes me appreciate the good weather very much.

Spring is my favourite because the days start being longer, because I can start planting my little garden, I can be outside without a million layers of clothes, the sun is warm, the flowers are blooming, people seem to be in a better mood, they smile more, the fleemarket season starts, we can start using our balcony, it is beautiful and exiting!

Anyways, here are some nice projects I found at a great blog called Between the lines, now that I have a sewing machine, this is a great way to start with some nice DIY projects! Well, whenever I have time to do it, since I am on the last month towards my bachelor project presentation.  Now that I am trying to be greener and save the planet (that sounds pretty hippy and I am SO not!) I might try to make at least one of this grocery bags.


Monday, April 5, 2010

Hello again!

Well, we are back and well from a very nice skiing trip.  It was a very nice weekend with family and friends.  I managed to stay on my feet most of the time without falling down so much and at the third day, I was actually enjoying myself.  So, it was a great success (for that I thank my lovely parents in law who invited us over to join them in Geilo and my angel husband who was going next to me all the time and who is made up of patience.  I LOVE YOU JONAS!).

PROOF

First day

 Second day, a bit better :)

 Jonas, the very handsome coach

 Third day!!!  That day was a lot of fun!! 
Olav and Nicca joined us around the lake :)

This was a very nice trip!