A Little Slice Of Helgøya And A Birthday Greeting

Hello my friends...thanks for stopping by today. This has been a hectic week with work and the Captain leaving tomorrow for seven weeks we´ve been going non-stop. Thankfully after one day of work next week I´ll have off for about nine days! Gotta love holidays in Norway! 


This past Friday the morning show in Norway did a piece on the area where we live. Nes and Helgøya. Now this is in Norwegian so I am sorry for all of you who don´t speak Norwegian but you can at least see what it looks like around here. Under the scenes where they meet up with the bike club they are at the old Helgøya school which is just a very very short walk from my house. They also show bits from the Skafferiet which I have told you about before and Tingnes Spiseri which is a lovely restaurant here in the area and they serve as much locally produced food as possible, which is also depicted in this report. Then there is a little bit about a clothing designer in the area, a weight loss program in the area, and finally a guest farm where you can spend the night, apparently in the company of ghosts...if you believe in that kind of thing....so check it out if you want to see a little more from the area. The link is HERE. 

Beautiful Helgøya

If you´re not interested in spending the night with ghosts I can also recommend our apartment which we will be happy to rent out to those who are interested. As far as I know it´s ghost free....although you might be visited by a cat...or dog....I do not believe you´ll experience anything ghostly....the link to the apartment is on the sidebar here on my blog! 

Finally, my baby boy has a birthday today. He is 14 and it blows my mind that it´s been 14 years since I gave birth to him. He now wears a size 48 in shoes which I believe is over a size 12 in American sizes. He is almost as tall as his dad and I don´t think he is done growing...his sweet girly squeaky voice is gone and in it´s place is a deep strong voice. Although every now and then I still hear a crack in his laughter which makes me very happy! I´m still getting hugs from him and as long as I keep getting those I think I can deal with all of these changes...and while I tease him all the time that if he doesn´t do well in school he will be moving into our apartment and living with me for the rest of his days...I know someday he will move out, he is a smart cookie and a beautiful flower about to bloom and I´ll deal with that too...I am so proud of who he is becoming even though I think we still have some things to work on...he is definitely a pride and joy! Happy 14th Birthday Thomas Michael!!!

He´s requested Hot N´Spicy tonight so I don´t have to cook, we´ll be heading to the Hot N´Spicy Chinese restaurant in Hamar. However, he has requested dirt desert so I will make that for him. I was going to make a bikini cake but he is going to have a birthday party when we can find time so I might make it then...nothing like embarrassing him a little when I can...it´s so cute...hahahahaha....

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!! Until next time my friends.....

Dildo Dance And Some More Doggy Treats :-)

Yeah, pretty interesting title eh? For those of you who just HAD to click in to see what the dildo is going on here...then here is the story. You see last night we went to the theater production that Sarah´s class has written, produced, and directed. It´s a yearly tradition that the last year class does a theater production before their Russ times break loose the end of April. I guess they try and mix local humor with a tad of sexual references, since all teens are very absorbed by that subject it seems, and hip hop bee bop music and dancing. Now anyone 18 or younger reading this is probably laughing their asses off at my description of what I witnessed last night, hip hop bee bop is probably not how they would describe their music or dancing but it´s what I call it and this is my blog...so there! One of the scenes involved girls who came out walking up to the stage carrying glowing dildos to soft Enya music and once on stage they broke out into their dildo dance which if you were 18 or younger was probably HILLARIOUS....I was left with my mouth open and thinking, if this was the USA this would never fly...and then my final thought, "wonder what they will do those when they are done with this show???" Not that I really wanted the answer to that last thought....still.....

I will never stop being amazed at the differences between teens in America and teens in Norway and the way they are raised. While I think I was raised pretty liberal, I know that there are certain things that just never would fly in America and more so now then maybe when I was actually a teen, although I don´t think things like this would have flown then either....and to Norwegian teens I think this is completely 100% normal...they don´t even blink at it...its just plain and simple dirty fun humor and nothing more. And hey, when you´re 18...dirty, funny, and humorous are all cool things to be! 


The rest of the performance was various sketches in connection with the overall theme of the production which was a Juliet and Romeo romance between two kids from the two neighboring cities of Brumunddal and Moelv. (Our kids go to the Brumunddal school) Below is my oldest, Sarah portraying a Nesning which is what the people around here call the people who live out here where we live...(basically farmers and country folks)..

Sarah is on the far left side....
There was more dirty fun Norwegian humor.....

And singing and dancing with all the Russ in their traditional outfits which they wear under the entire Russ weeks...

After the show we met a very proud Sarah and her friends....Sarah had been a big part of the behind the scenes crew so when the final performance was over she was smiling from ear to ear and what can I say....all dildos aside I was a very proud mamma also! 

Sarah and Thomas

Sarah and her friend Thea

After the show Sarah went with her Russ friends and attended a Russ Party. While the Captain, Julia, Thomas and I went to the Mjøsa Pizzeria and Restaurant for dinner. We haven´t been there since we came to look at this house 5 years ago and I really have NO idea why because it´s really good, not too expensive and nearby! Definitely going back to try their pizza sometime soon, last night I went with Lasagna and it so hit the spot! Below is the sky as we were driving home...we´re experiencing some beautiful weather lately. Very unusual for this time of year but I am not complaining...

Remember the dog cookies I shared with you all the other day? Well, I had taken in some to my favourite pet shop in Hamar too let the customers there have a taste and I have gotten a lot of great feedback about the cookies! The owner of the shop also asked me to figure out how much I wanted for the cookies and she seemed interested in buying some for her store! 

So this morning over coffee I was talking to the Captain about the possibility of this "calling" as I am calling it. I mean....all of you who read my blog enough know that I love to bake and you know my life revolves around my four legged fur babies (as well as the two legged ones)...So I feel like this is something I really could do successfully. 

Dog bakeries are not common here in Norway. In fact when I googled Dog Bakeries in Norway I only pulled up two discussions in forums about the possibility of starting one otherwise there was nothing. Some stuff about a dog bakery in China!!! However, Norwegians are definitely changing their attitudes towards their pets. They aren´t to the level that Americans are with their pets but definitely getting there!! When I think how people felt about their dogs 17 years ago when we moved here vs now, so many things are changing. The pet products industry here is growing and pet owners are more and more aware of what they are buying their furry family members. So the potential for selling gourmet dog treats is definitely there. 

I have 6 taste testers to help me decide which flavors would be best. I am thinking I should start out with only 4-5 different types and I can add on later. I also thought that I might be able to get in on the buying local kick that everyone is on by buying local honey, local apples, and local flour and eggs and maybe raspberries for a summer flavored cookie? The more the Captain and I were talking about this idea the more excited we were both getting! 

I was googling what kinds of ingredients are safe to give dogs and what to stay away from and then with the help of the recipe I shared with you guys the other day I decided to try putting together a peanut butter and apple cookie for my fur babies...they all love apples around here and peanut butter is a classic treat for dogs...and as a human I know apples and peanut butter are a wonderful combination so after a little back and forth I put these cookies together...

I use Barley and Rye flours for this, some oats, linseed, apples, peanut butter, olive oil, and a little beef bullion and egg. 

They turned out really well! Smelled so delicious I almost tried one myself but managed to resist. ;-) I instead let my taste testers try it and well.....Nanna would tell you how much she loved it if her mouth wasn´t so full.....

You can take my word for it though, they all six loved these!!! So we have a winner here...this will be one of the flavors I continue with. I am thinking a banana and honey flavored one, a chicken and/or beef flavored one, a fish flavored one and maybe one more not sure what yet? Any ideas??? Oh I have another question for you, what name should I have on my cookies? The Captain and I were trying to think of a name but couldn´t decide on one. So I ask you my clever and inspirational friends..what name should we call our cookies?? I am thinking at first to just deliver my product to already existing pet stores instead of opening a dog bakery. However, you never know what the future could hold if things take off!!! 

Well, it´s another lovely weather day. The Captain is at Thomas´s soccer match with Julia and Cookie and I am home with the rest of the gang. I am definitely taking a walk today but I am contemplating a bike ride around the island. I bought myself some winter bike tights the other day and a new helmet and some gloves so I better get some usage out of it. I hope whatever you do you have a wonderful Sunday. Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with me!!!

Until next time my friends.....

Bow Wow Nam Nam

This morning before I woke up I knew I wanted to bake something. Sometimes I am like that...before I wake up I know I want to do something and today it was baking. I am trying to limit my baking for we humans to Saturday. So I decided today would be some baked nam nams for the four legged babies in this house. 


I began by searching the internet for dog biscuit recipes. There are a million out there, just in case you´re wondering. Seems like everyone has tried their hand at making a treat for our fur babies and I understand why, when you love them like family members its only natural you want to make them something nice to eat. I found the following recipe HERE.  Again, you can pretty much choose whatever you want. I just wanted some measurements to follow as far as how much dry vs how much wet. Then I did my own thing. I made one flavor with beef broth. Another batch with cheddar cheese and bacon pieces, and a third batch with fish flavor using tuna juice and seal oil and fish broth. 

I kept pretty much all my dry ingredients the same in each batch and just switched out the wet ingredients for the different broths and fish juice. You just have to play with this. I also read somewhere that greens were good for dogs so I put spinach purée in each of these batches. Doggies should eat their veggies too :-)))

Mmmmm, yum yum...if I had a tail and fur I´d be gaining weight right now....or at least slobbering silly over the computer screen.....thankfully though I am not.....but someone is.....

My gang tried all of these flavors and LOVED all of them. However, they love most things I make but Bently is the one who is most picky....so I tried him first...and he thankfully gave me his blessing. He never left my side under the entire baking process and looked at me with his big brown puppy dog eyes as if to say..." Mamma, can I lick the bowl?"

I took samples of all these flavors to my favorite pet shop in Hamar, Anita´s Hund og Katt. Basically just to be nice because I like this shop so much and the two ladies who run it are just wonderful. However, there was a little tiny piece of me that started thinking, what if these were popular with the four legged customers and could be something I could do to make money with? I´ve been looking for something that I could do from home...Anita was very interested in having me possibly bake for them and told me to figure out how much everything cost me to make these cookies and how much I would want per kilo. See, that is where I get lost. I haven´t a clue. Same thing happened when I went to the bake sale for humans....had no clue what to ask for my stuff. I just bake, I don´t think about how much the flour bag costs that I use...and for my cheddar and bacon dog cookies, I just used left overs I had in my fridge...so I didn´t buy it with the intention of making dog cookies, I bought it for us. However, I will try and figure it out and see what I can ask. Would be super fun to do this, combining a beloved hobby, baking, with my other beloved hobby, dogs. So we will see. My gang is crazy about apples so I am thinking of making an apple peanut butter cookie tomorrow and see what they think of that....I´ll keep you posted. 


If you have a four legged baby you want to spoil rotten, try the recipe above and don´t be afraid to add different flavors and try things...anything made with love can´t be bad....


Until next time my friends....

Chicken With Grilled Lemon And Rosemary Sauce

I wish I could claim to be a world class food photographer but I am not and yáll know it...but this is dinner tonight and it tasted a LOT better then it looks in this very unprofessional photo. Never the less you now have an idea what this meal looks like and when you read the recipe below and see how easy it is to make I am sure many of you will give this a try. Not only is it fairly healthy it´s full of flavor in every bite. Putting the grilled lemons on the potato tray the last five minutes of the baking process allows the lemon juice to seep out unto the potatoes giving them a slight fresh kick in taste. I got this recipe from the latest edition of the Norwegian magazine, SMAK. So those of you lucky enough to be living in Norway can rush out and buy this magazine. There were tons of yummy recipes in the latest edition including a lamb leg recipe I am thinking of trying for Easter dinner this year and a Mango, Coconut, and Lime cheesecake I am considering making for the Captain this weekend. Below you´ll find the recipe for the above meal which I have translated into English and following that a vinaigrette recipe from the same magazine which I tweaked just slightly and used on my salad tonight. Enjoy my friends!

Chicken With Grilled Lemon And Rosemary Sauce

4 portions

4 large chicken breasts at about 150 grams each.

8-10 potatoes

2 Tbsp Rapeseed oil

Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper

2 Lemons

2.5 dl light cream

1TBSP chopped fresh rosemary

Approximately 20 black olives preferably with garlic flavor

Approximately 150 grams fresh salad greens

Now this was the recipe and here is what I did:

Chopped my potatoes into cubes and mixed them with sea salt and black ground pepper and oil. Pour out onto a baking sheet with baking paper. Bake in the middle of the oven at about 400F (250C) for about 20 minutes. 

Cut your lemons in two and fry them slightly in a little oil that you brush on the pan just until the lemons turn a little brown and have a "grilled" look. Once done place them on the potato tray when there is about 5 minutes left with the potatoes. 

Cut up your chicken breasts length wise in about 3-4 pieces. Fry them in the same pan you fried the lemons with a little oil until cooked through. While chicken is cooking, finely chop 2-3 cloves garlic (which wasn´t in the recipe but I thought it would be good with this meal) mix together with the rosemary and cream. I salted and peppered the chicken while they were cooking. Add the cream mixture and let come up just to a boil and then turn down and let simmer a few minutes. Then I tossed in a few olives before serving.

I mixed some fresh greens, a carrot, and a spring onion and some dried tomatoes for my salad and then I made the following vinaigrette:

Start with a basic recipe for vinaigrette which goes like this...

1dl rapeseed or olive oil

2TBSP White Wine or Red Wine Vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

Fresh ground pepper

I used olive oil and white wine vinegar.

Then I added the following:

1TBSP Dijon Mustard

2ts Estragon (fresh or dried)

1 finely chopped garlic clove

Thanks for all your kind words for yesterday´s post. I do understand life is good right now and we do have a lot going on so we are in the here and now, it´s just about learning to enjoy it instead of constantly thinking of tomorrow. But I am working on it! 

Have a go at this recipe and let me know what you think!

Until next time my friends...

Living Here And Now....

I have many faults. I am not a perfect human. Today I want to share one of my faults. I always dream of how things will be tomorrow, the next week, the next month. What is the problem with this you ask? It´s ok to dream you say? Yes, of course it is, but when it stops you from living in the here and now and appreciating what you have then it´s a fault not a good thing. Funny enough I married a guy who is very similar to me in this way...we both do a lot of living in the future...rather then the here and now. We are both restless and anxious for something to happen...anything, we don´t know what...just something...we aren´t content with what we have and constantly dream of something else...something better, something bigger...something that will give us something more then we have now...but it´s wrong...we have so much. We are so blessed. We live a great life and we should be more grateful for the here and now. We, thankfully, are both very aware of this fault and are doing what we can to try and change our bad habit...it´s not easy but I find comfort in my walks. The quiet hike with a fur baby or two...sometimes I walk with the Captain or one of my kids and we talk but sometimes we just walk together in silence...I like that....I am grateful for that time together without distractions. Even if we don´t say anything we are together....

Anywhere is paradise; it's up to you.  ~Author Unknown

I am so thankful for my family. I know someday all too soon they will be moving on with their lives and I am glad about that. Glad that they will be self sufficient human beings but I am going to miss them. I can´t imagine what it will be like to be here in the woods after the kids have moved out. I fear the silence will be deafening and I´ve been trying to prepare myself but how do you do that? How do you prepare yourself for one of the biggest and toughest milestones in your life as a parent? After spending 18+ years with someone they leave...one by one until you´re the only one left....well, you and your partner, given that your partner works nearby...if you´re like me you´ll be alone half the year...how does one prepare for that time?

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.  One is roots.  The other is wings.  ~Hodding Carter, Jr.

I guess it´s another reason to be appreciative of the here and now...right now....they are here and I can give them hugs and kisses anytime I feel like it....even if they don´t always think it´s cool...

What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.  ~P.D. James, Time to Be in Earnest

I would like to assume I am not the only one who tends to live a little too much in the what-could-be dreamy world of tomorrow? What do you do to learn too appreciate and value the here and now? If no one answers this I will throw myself down on the ground and cry my eyes out since it will then be obvious to me that I am the only one in the world who tends to dream a little too much about tomorrow instead of living in the here and now but I am going to keep my positive hat on and assume there are more of us out there, so come on....help me out here. I need some ideas to help me continue to learn to appreciate there here and now and I know you all are just full of great ideas :-)

Every now and then,
when the world sits just right,
a gentle breath of heaven
fills my soul with delight...
~Hazelmarie ‘Mattie’ Elliott, A Breath of Heaven

Cookie says, "Don´t worry Mom, you´ll never be alone! You´ll always have me and you can hug and kiss me anytime.....snuggle snuggle snuggle..." Oh my little Cookie monster....I love you.

Until next time my friends.....

Egg, Bacon, And Cheese Biscuit Muffin

Good morning!! Hope your Sunday morning is as relaxing as mine. The Captain and I awoke at the unGodly hour of 6:30AM on a Sunday...all I can say is getting older SUCKS...both of us awoke for the same reason- had to go to the bathroom!! Can anyone relate to that??? Well, once awake there was only one thing to do...turn on the coffee machine and begin the day. Since it was Sunday and we had eggs and bacon planned I looked around online to see if I could find anything else to do with the usual eggs and bacon and I came upon this recipe HERE. Living in Norway and not having access to pre-made or break open a can and put them on the cookie sheet-biscuits I decided to make my own. I have no idea what has happened to my Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. She had begun disintegrating earlier after years of heavy usage but I was still able to find recipes. Now, however, she has disappeared and I am wondering if she made it into the trash or was eaten by one of my giant dust bunnies around here? I don´t know but never the less the biscuit recipe I usually used was in that book and so the hunt was on to find a new one. I decided upon this recipe HERE.  I doubled this recipe and it made 12 small muffins and 6 large muffins. Although after all is said and done I would not do this again with small muffins as the biscuit dough kept rising and pushing the egg fill out so by the time everything was said and done you had a lot of biscuit and not so much egg fill. But the big ones had plenty of everything. 


Here is how we start....

I use a regular glass to cut out my biscuits....

Place the biscuit dough into well greased muffin forms....

The Captain greased the muffin pans...he wants to learn to cook so I started him off easy....then I gave him a little bigger challenge...I asked him to fry up the bacon. He did a great job and we chopped it in big pieces and mixed it with the egg mixture. For cheddar cheese I found the following and used that. It wasn´t a dark yellow color but worked fine and had a nice taste. 

Pour the egg, bacon, and cheese mixture into the biscuit dough in the muffin forms and again, the bigger forms worked best for me as the little ones, my dough kept rising so much and so quickly that it pushed the egg mixture out and all over the muffin pan. The end results though weren´t bad at all...and we had a lovely Sunday breakfast. 

A little fresh fruit (melons are my favourite) and some juice and coffee and voila...perfect! Hope you all have a lovely Sunday. We are heading up to a place called Gausdal where our dear friends who we co-own Leonberger Shakira with, live. We are taking all the girl doggies and my camera..so if I get anything interesting I´ll share it with you. In the meantime I hope you´ll have the best day possible! Until next time my friends....

Oreo Cake

Looking for a sinful indulgence this weekend? Want something so rich and sweet it will put cavities in your teeth just by looking at it??? Have a try at this recipe, Oreo Cake. For my English readers I suggest using google translate to translate this recipe. I was going to do it for you but when I tried to glue the recipe in here and then preview my post I couldn´t see anything. So I deleted and started over. This time I´m going to leave it up to you if you want to translate the recipe or not...if you´re worried about a few calories I wouldn´t translate it...if you aren´t concerned about that and want to really go all out for your weekend treat then definitely translate!!! 


Now I will say that even this American who appreciates a good treat thought this was mighty rich and almost nauseating to eat. Thanks to Julia who accidentally spilled the cake onto the floor after everyone got a piece, we only got one piece. Trust me, that was more then enough!!! Again though, if you´re looking for something to sink your sweet tooth into this is a winner. As for myself, once was enough...some indulgences are only meant to be enjoyed once in your life and for me this was one of them. We´re all different though which is why I´m still going ahead and sharing this with you....because you might be just the type of person who loves this kind of stuff.....it is a very festive looking cake don´t you think?

I´ll close this post up today with something just about as sweet as this cake above....my fur babies...we got a group portrait today...although Cookie wasn´t willing to be photographed for more then a second....she saw her opportunity to take advantage of a chew or two on the big dog´s bone while they were being photographed. That little pup sure is smart...

Have a wonderful Friday....Until next time my friends....

Bunny Ears And Puppy Dawgs...Oh And Some Plants Too!

In case you´re wondering, here is how the focaccia bread turned out....yum....

Sorry the photo quality is so bad, we have horrible lighting in the house when it becomes dark it´s almost impossible to get a good photo inside. However, I think you get the gist of this....it was yummy and with fresh shrimp and aioli it was a perfect Friday night meal :-)


This morning we had no bread and so I decided to try a recipe that I plan on using at work for Easter. The recipe is in Norwegian and you can find it HERE. I will translate the recipe with google translate for you below:


INGREDIENTS

3 ½ cups water
400 g flour
10 g of sea salt
25 g yeast
100 g wholemeal rye, coarse

some rye flour to sprinkle before cooking

HOW DO YOU (Fine thank you- gotta love the google translation)

Mix all ingredients but save 1/2 cup of water for later. Run the dough in a food processor with eltklo (this would be a dough hook) approx. 4 min at slow speed. Then increase the speed of approx. 7 minutes. Then add the last few drops of water, little bylittle, on the fly.(hahaha, on the fly...sure don´t want anyone catching you doing this...) The dough should be supple and have a glossy finish. Let the dough rest for approx. 1 hour.

Divide the dough into ten topics,(or pieces) and roll into round balls that are then shaped into sausages with a little pointy ends. Use a round stick or the like to create an indentation in the dough over each topic. Please take a meal,(you might be hungry at this point....but I think what Google was trying to say was use some more flour...just guessing) so do not stick stuck in the dough.(again what I think google is saying is so the stick doesn´t get stuck in the dough.) To get a deeper understanding of the topic, which will then be squeezed together a bit. Then push the topic together in the middle and gently twist around so that both ends of the subject is pointing in the same direction. Round caps raised by the recess.(I have no idea what they could mean here but what I did was to roll the dough into sausage rolls and then shape like bunny ears. I then used a knife which I made my indentations with down the middle of the "ears" and then let them raise another half hour) Have plenty of flour under the rolls. Raise the rolls until doubled in size.

When the rolls are done raised you turn them around and put them on a plate lined with baking paper. Sprinkle a little rye flour and bake in center of oven at 220 ° C (approximately 400F) for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on rack.


My ears aren´t indented as well as in the photo on the recipe but I was pretty close on the shape ;-)


Here is a photo of my dough and then finally my bunny ears....

We discovered a glorious thing this morning.....we brought the leonberger girls out and let the boys have a wiff....and to our delight they smelled them and then turned to us and were more interested in getting a cuddle from us!!! Halleluja, the big girl´s heat is over!!! Or at least on it´s way down, we will continue to watch them but the boys and girls can finally be in the same room again. The only one still in heat is little Jenny but hopefully she will be done soon and then we will just cross our fingers that little Cookie doesn´t get her first heat as soon as the others stop...but nothing will surprise me. 


So as we sat around the breakfast table and ate our bunny ears the Leos all took their usual places around the table as well and as usual we had to have a little fun with our dear sweet Nanna....she is just indescribably special. I can´t tell you, you just have to meet her to know...but she wins your affections without even trying! 

Jackson can never get enough cuddles.

I´ve been trying to find some plants that might have a possibility to survive in my house.  You see while I love plants I just never seem to make them live in my house. I either water them too much or too little. So I need plants who don´t mind if I forget them every now and then and I´ve found such a plant in the succulents family. I also broke down and bought a lovely blue orchid plant just because I fell hard for the color which I had never seen on an orchid before. Usually you see pinks or white or purple orchids...so when I saw the blue I had to have one and I understand they don´t need a lot of water...so that suits me well ;-)

Those of you who are gardeners  or at least have a green thumb...can you recommend any other plants who might do well in my home?? Give me some names and I´ll google them and see if I can find them!


Have a great Saturday everyone. We´re off to take the boys to Hamar for a little socializing and do some grocery shopping. I know...thrilling isn´t it??


Until next time my friends.....