EVENTYRHUS

Balsamic-Glazed Salmon Fillet

2012-01-25T18:39:00.000+01:00

Because yesterday´s post was way too long I decided to keep it short and simple tonight. We all know fish is good for us and there are numerous ways to serve fish....imagination is the only thing standing in the way. In case your imagination needs a little help here is a dish that is really yummy and turns plain ol´salmon into a magical dish. You can find the recipe HERE.

I served our salmon tonight with whole grain pasta and fresh veggies. For my pasta sauce I totally winged it but it turned out really good. I used the sauce for the fish that I had left over (probably 1/2 cup?) and mixed in about 100 grams of cream cheese, 1/2 cup cream, 2 TBSP light crème fraiche, about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese shredded and about 1tsp onion powder, garlic pepper, and salt to taste. Let it all simmer together until you get desired thickness and pour over pasta and mix well.

With the leftover pasta I´m already thinking of lunch tomorrow. I think I´ll sauté some onions and mushrooms together in a little olive oil and then add some chicken breast meat to the onions and mushrooms- give it a little zip in the pan and then add it to the pasta. I also have some sugar peas which would be perfect to add a little color to my chicken pasta salad :-) I´ll let you know how that works out tomorrow!

Have a great Hump Day everyone!

Until next time my friends....

Thoughts In My Head...

2012-01-24T20:05:00.001+01:00

I look at my attempt at a new lifestyle as much more then just what I put in my mouth and what I burn off. There are so many other aspects to a person´s life which affect their health and or weight. One of these is sleep. I have been thinking a lot about how little sleep I actually get compared to how much I should have. How much or how little you get can play a big part in how heavy you are or how skinny you are. Here are 16 other interesting facts I learned while surfing the web about sleep...click HERE. You can find a lot of information about sleep on the net and this is just one website I stumbled upon. Bottom line is you need your sleep if you´re going to function as you should and have a healthy life and a normal weight. I´ll be working on getting my 8 hours soon!

The great weight loss mystery isn´t really a mystery. It´s black and white. It´s so simple we don´t want to see what is right before us. It´s so simple but yet we insist that it must be a huge difficult thing or we would all be normal weights...It doesn´t matter what you eat as much as how much vs how much you burn off through exercise. There it is folks...in black and white...Every day they are telling you, Ok you can eat this...next day...no don´t eat that...next day, ok you can eat it as long as you eat something else with it. It´s too confusing. I think it´s better to focus on what you know for sure...you can´t lose weight unless you´re burning off more then you are taking in. Simple as that. However, people will continue to become millionaires off of the fact that we overweight people are looking for a quick fix...something that will get us across the finish line with minimum effort. Even if you get across the finish line with a fad diet, you will be running the race again before you know it...the results won´t last in the long run. It´s a simple equation that gives the perfect answer every time- eat less then you burn off and you´ll go the distance...

I´m totally for homemade vs pre-made food. A lot of people use the excuse that they don´t have time to make everything from scratch or they aren´t good enough. Those are excuses. Everyone can make time and everyone can learn what they want to learn. We humans are experts at making excuses for things we don´t want to do. Think back over the last excuse you used for something you didn´t want to do....see how easy it was to come up with that excuse? And that is what happens with weight loss. No matter what diet you follow, no matter if you eat less then what you burn off- the results won´t happen unless you are truly ready....truly committed. If you aren´t then I say don´t even try...why set yourself up for failure? Unless your heart is truly in it...save yourself the taste of defeat...it´s a nasty sour taste you´re just as well without. Only put in the effort when you´ve decided with all your heart that this is what you truly want.

I believe I truly want a healthier lifestyle. With that said though, I´ve thought I´ve truly wanted it before too. I´ve made valiant efforts only to crash and burn in a wall of excuses and lack of willpower. So why do I give you advice to not even try if you can´t commit and then I admit that I´ve tried and failed so many times? Because that is who I am. Internally I know exactly what I should do. I´m perfect in my little head...I have the answers to everything....however in practice I´m anything but perfect. I´m all human and then some. I haven´t got a clue and I mess things up more often then not. With this said though...I never give up. No matter how many times I fail...I keep believing I will get it one day. I will cross the finish line and keep on going with my healthy lifestyle forever. It won´t be a chore I cringe at the thought of...it will be natural....like brushing my teeth. I´ll look at bad weather and think...some rain clothes will take care of that....or some wool longs and warm sweaters, mittens, and boots would be perfect today! Instead of...thank God it´s so crappy outside so I can use the excuse that I don´t feel like going out in that horrible weather...I can stay in and complain about it on facebook with all my "friends". It´s attitude and while I have the perfect attitude in my head...I don´t always have the perfect attitude in practice. Anyone else recognize themselves in what I write or am I unique with these thoughts?

With all of this said..(and these are thoughts in my head so if I´m being very random here...sorry...but you´ve hung in this far so I must be saying something too entertain you or you just really have nothing better to do then read this) but with all this said...I´m again making a valiant effort for a better lifestyle and it involves walking my fur babies as well as trips to the gym and watching what I put in my mouth. As I mentioned in an earlier post...geocaching has been a fun way to exercise and go on an adventure all at the same time and we all love a little adventure in our lives now don´t we?

Today we broke the dogs into two groups and took two walks...first the little dogs and Nanna Banana..Then we took the next group and went Geocaching. We told Cookie we would be walking through the snow...she thought that sounded like fun...

Nanna Banana did too....

After we explained that walking through the snow didn´t mean with our entire bodies they caught on quickly....Our smart dog Jenny showed them what we meant....But Jenny rarely walks anywhere...why walk when you can run??

By George I think she´s got it now!!!

The woods is a magical place any time of the year but when it´s blanketed in snow there is something extra special about it...I just love the woods...

We are truly lucky to live in the woods...there are so many wonderful things to see here...

As we headed back to the house, Cookie ran far ahead of all of us...even Jenny who use to be the quickest dog we had, couldn´t keep up....something was telling us that Cookie had had enough of our walk and was ready to get back inside....we called to her and she stopped to look at us...she wouldn´t come though...no matter how much we called, she would just tilt her head and look at us as if she was thinking- Come on guys- we´re almost there!!

After much encouragement her need to be close to us overcame her will to get home quickly and she came flying back to us....

Once we tucked Cookie safe and sound inside the warm house we grabbed the last group of dogs and headed down to the marina here on the island. According to our Geocaching game there was a Geocache hidden down there. Off we walked....past the farms.....

Down past the sweet little church so many of you liked as well as I do.....

Til we came upon the marina....

But guess what? The Geocache isn´t exactly at the marina....it´s close...but not down where the boats are. I won´t ruin the surprise for the next person who wants to find it and perhaps by luck stumbles upon my blog and sees what it looks like but I will say this- get the program from Geocaching for your android telephone- Geocaching Live API as this has a distance measurer and a compass which will let you know where exactly your cache is...we found the area where the cache was but finding the actual cache was difficult but when we found it at last we had to laugh that we didn´t notice it before!!! We had been so close to giving up but then we found it....

WIth the cache found and signed there was nothing left to do but head back up to our cabin in the woods.....past the church....

and back up into the woods we love...

This was a very very long post. A lot of rambling in the beginning...but you know this girl has a lot of thoughts floating around up there in her head...and since my blog is like an online journal I write my thoughts down here and it´s up too you if you want to follow along the whole way or skim through the photos and be on your way ;-) But thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. I´m watching the ticker on the side...seeing where all of you are stopping in from. So many countries...so many interesting places...I wonder so many times how you happened upon my blog...did you stumble in, been here before, seen me somewhere else on the web and followed me home? hahahahaha....however you got here doesn´t matter, I´m just glad you´re here...I love to share my world with you and I hope you like what you see and come back again...I promise I´ll try not to be so chatty next time ;-)

Until next time my friends.....

Our First Treasure Hunt!

2012-01-22T16:20:00.000+01:00

A few posts back I told you all about Geocaching. I also mentioned that without a GPS we failed miserably trying to find our first cache. Today...armed with the Captain´s new cell phone which he has been able to download a Geocache program on and the GPS that comes with his phone we headed out again....into the cold...into the winter...into the woods...

It really is magical right now in the woods when the snow lays heavily upon the branches and you feel you´re walking in a winter wonderland....

Another positive about walking in the cold is the wonderful color you get in your cheeks...

She´s beautiful without the pink cheeks also but this color brings out her blue/green eyes don´t you think?
Ok ok, back to the Geocache.....the first one was at the Trollstein not far from our house...with the help of the GPS and the Geocache program we got close...

Then we saw it!!! Do you see it? Look hard....amazingly enough we´ve lived here for five years this summer and we´ve taken numerous walks past this tree and never ever been aware of this cache and it´s been there since 2008! I didn´t take photos of the stuff that was up in the box because to me that is half the fun of these things...seeing what you find. However, I will say there was some things I think we could have taken with us but we didn´t want too, so we left a little Kinder chocolate and decided to move on to the next cache..

On the way to the next cache which was at Helgøya church we passed an old abandoned farm which we walk past a lot with the dogs. The home isn´t lived in and I don´t know who owns the property but I dream of buying this place and taking down the old farm house and building a lovely home here. The views are breathtaking....don´t you think?

With the help of the Geocache program and GPS the next cache was no problem to find...there was also a clue on this one- "Behind a stone, Bak en stein" that helped a lot too...

I think Helgøya church is so sweet. For several nights there has been snow coating the trees outside the church and when the lights from the church shine on the snow covered trees it´s so neat..looks like frosted trees. I thought several times I needed to take my camera but every single time I walked out the door that thought eluded me...hahahaha...so today when we were down there I took some photos but unfortunately the frosted tree look was gone..still....there is something incredibly charming about this church and her little yard of trees...

After this Geocache find we turned our noses homeward....

Someone, I won´t mention any names to protect their identity but I can give you a hint- the person is in this photo, was having fun kicking the heavy snow filled trees so the snow would fall off and onto whoever was walking under...some people are so easily entertained!

Home sweet home.....

I can highly recommend the Geocache game to anyone. It gets you out and exploring the world and it´s fun!!! For we who are trying to live a better healthier life it´s a great excuse to take a walk and when I see how tired my doggies were after the walk I think several of us can benefit from more Geocaching walks!!! ;-)

Isn´t that right my big ol´puppy wawg??? Ahhh, look at that sweet baby!

Kiss Kiss Kiss!!!!

Sorry I have no recipes for you this time. I´ve been trying to eat healthy and well, yeah of course I can come up with recipes when I´m eating healthy but so far it´s been some salad and lasagna...this is a pasta salad I made the other night. I did kinda a little stir fry thing in a pan first, cooked up a little whole grain pasta (which is why it looks so brown in the photo) and then chopped up a bunch of salad ingredients and then tossed the whole thing together- stir fry, salad, and pasta....a hearty and I´m hoping pretty healthy meal!

I´ve gotta run, Thomas is going to soccer and I´m heading to the gym with the Captain for a workout!! I know I´m amazing right??? hahahahaha.....ROFL!!!! Ok be good people!!!

Until next time.....

Hobbies

2012-01-20T17:22:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I wish I had a hobby that wasn´t hazardous for my health. Sometimes I wish I could fine tune my hobby so I was just as good at making the healthy stuff as I am the not so healthy. I try...I do, I have tried to stay away from pre-made food and make things as much from scratch as I can. I think that is healthier then eating things that are pre-made. It certainly tastes better. Like this spaghetti sauce I made the other day...it was REALLY good. I made this with chopped tomatoes, onions, basil, and garlic...slow cooked for a couple hours so all the flavors had time to truly marinate together and it made this otherwise dull pasta become a WOW dish...

I shaved a little fresh parmesan cheese over the top....every treat should have a "cherry" on top right? Or......an Oreo cookie....like these little babies I made the other day...

I´m working on a new and better lifestyle but sometimes certain occasions call for a special treat and when this beautiful lady turned 19 on Tuesday this past week, she didn´t ask for a cake...she asked for Oreo cupcakes. Which in some ways is a smart way to have a special treat like this then making a big cake...it´s easier to stop at an individual portion when they are already portioned out then it is if you have a big cake waiting for you to figure out how big of a piece you want. Only problem with cupcakes for birthdays...especially 19th birthdays is there isn´t so very much room for candles...

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail this past week. You see my dear friend Monica, you can check her blog HERE, has a great hobby. One that doesn´t add a kilo to your body! She has a hobby that I admire but feel personally I´d never have the patience for. She can crochet, knit, and make jewlery. We are both fans of another crafty lady named Mia who has a blog called Mia´s Landliv (She writes in English and Norwegian). Well, awhile back Mia showed us a blanket she had crocheted which was so lovely and when I met up with Monica, last spring, we both talked about how great that blanket was and I asked Monica if she would be interested in making a copy of Mia´s blanket for me since I would never have the patience to do something like that. Monica loved the idea and once the colors were decided she began. I wanted feminine colors, similar to what Mia used. Here is a photo of Mia´s blanket...

You can see more photos of Mia´s blanket through this link HERE. Now, you who visit me regularly know that I´m not the interior guru that Mia seems to be here...so my photos won´t be as fancy and I see now that I should have opened my blanket fully and taken a photo so you can see the whole thing. (I´ll do that tomorrow, it´s too dark now) In the meantime here is my blanket that Monica made me:

I told Monica I would like a sweet delicate edge to the blanket and she completely agreed. I think at first we got this idea from Mia´s blog but when I look at Mia´s blanket I don´t see the edge we have...but I love the edge on this blanket..it´s so sweet and very feminine. Here are some detail photos of the edge:

Isn´t this blanket wonderful? I´m so grateful to Monica for making this for me. She´s been working on this project as well as many others for months now and her effort shows in this amazing piece which will be something I can pass down someday to my kids and grandkids. In the meantime I´m going to enjoy sitting in my chair, wrapped in this lovely soft wool blanket, drinking a warm cup of tea on a cold winter night! It´s a big job but Monica would definitely help you out if you´re interested in a similar blanket...I can´t be the only person on earth who has no patience for such hobbies....am I? ;-)

Oh..it´s not really a hobby but the Captain got me hooked on this...has anyone heard of the game Wordfeud? You can download it on any Iphone or Android phone. We just bought a new TV from Samsung and along with the TV was what looks like a Samsung Galaxy S telephone but you can´t ring with it, but you can play games and surf the net and all kinds of other things with it. So I downloaded this game and have been playing with the Captain and Sarah who have android phones. (I don´t have an android phone.....yet) If you know about this game and play it feel free to send me an invitation for a game...my username is: amykip

So what hobby do you have? What hobby would you like to try? Let me know in the comment section of my blog...if you have a minute ;-)

Hope you´ll all have a great weekend. This is my last weekend with the Captain for the next five weeks. He´s heading back to his boat in Brazil. Is it just me or is time flying? I can´t believe he´s been home six weeks already!

Until next time my friends....

Dawg Cookies

2012-01-15T16:20:00.002+01:00

In our home we have at the moment 6 dogs living with us. 4 Leonbergers, 1 Australian Shepherd, and 1 Bichon Havanais. Jenny, our Aussie, is 3 years old today!

For Jenny´s birthday I decided to finally bake the dog cookies I had bought at the local pet store.

I had actually bought this mix because I wanted the doggy bone cookie cutter that came with the mix. As you´ll recall I´ve made cookies before but they always looked like....well....doggy doo....

The dogs loved the doggy doo looking cookies too but they didn´t look as cute as the doggy bone cookies..

When I saw how nicely these turned out I decided while I was at it, I might as well try and make my own doggy cookie mix and see how they would turn out. So I checked on the box to see what ingredients Ms. Betty Miller had used for her cookies and I had almost exactly the same things. Here is what I did:

I mixed the following:

about 200 grams whole grain flour (grov bakst mel)
2tsp garlic powder (hvitløkspulver)
1tsp sage (salvie)
1tsp Marjoram (Meirami)
1tsp Oregano
1.5dl beef bullion (with a little extra for brushing the cookies with before you bake them)
25 grams linseed (linfrø)
25 grams oatbran (havrekli)
50 grams oats (havregryn)
approximately .50 dl olive oil
I mixed this together and used a little regular flour (hvetemel) to get a dough I could roll out and then I used my nifty doggy bone cookie cutter...

Both cookies were liked by my gang...here you see the birthday girl getting to try first...check out that smile on her face as she gets a treat before the Leo girls....

We took the whole gang for a walk in the field but before we left we let the dogs who weren´t inside have a try...the girls sat patiently in line hoping to get another tasty cookie...

Even big strong sea Captains thought they were good...at least when the camera was pointed at them...thanks honey ;-)

Will definitely be tweaking and trying to perfect my doggy cookie recipe in the future and I´m sure the gang here will be willing taste testers!

Have you ever made a dog cookie for your fur baby (babies)? If you have a great tried and true recipe for the special doggy in your life, leave the recipe in my comment box and I´ll give it a try and let you know what the gang here thinks!

Until next time my friends.....

Five-Spice Beef Stir Fry With Broccoli

2012-01-14T18:06:00.002+01:00

In Norway there is a grocery store chain called Kiwi and every weekend they have different specials on either beef, chicken, seafood, or pork called Go´Helg (Happy Weekend) products. These are basic ingredients and they cost only 16.90 Norwegian kroner which for Norway is super cheap. So I had bought five packages of beef filets earlier and thought I´d use them for our Friday night dinner. I found this recipe HERE. I had almost everything except for snow peas. However, I had broccoli so that would be my green...

I also didn´t have the sherry or the alternative for the sherry so I used some dry white wine. After googling what I could substitute the dry white wine was the closest I had on hand and it worked out perfectly. I also didn´t have light soy sauce so I just used regular soy sauce- again with great results.

This was such a tasty meal which was enjoyed by everyone- even the kids! Thomas had a buddy spending the night and he also liked it...so it´s not just my own kids I pay off here...hahahahaha...Julia thought it was a tad spicy but the Captain thought it was perfect and I loved that it had a little kick too it. What´s your preference? Spicy or not so spicy??

Have a great evening everyone!
Until next time my friends...

Apple Raisin Cinnamon Rolls

2012-01-13T12:53:00.002+01:00

Had off from work today and decided to make Apple Raisin Cinnamon Rolls which I made for the kids yesterday at work. At work I made these as healthy as possible but at home I threw caution to the wind and splurged on a little extra sugar and icing...but these are also good if you want to keep it healthy! I also made these without milk as much as possible. The only place I used milk (cream actually) was in the icing but again, you can make this totally milk free if you´d like!
Here is what I did for the dough:
5 deciliters of warm water
50 grams of dry yeast
Mix these two together until the yeast dissolves.

In the mixing bowl combine the following:
150 grams sugar
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon
About 500 grams white flour

Pour the water and yeast into your mixture and add about 6 tbsp (SS) of vegetable oil. I used a kitchen machine to mix my dough if you don´t have a kitchen machine you can do this by hand...you´ll begin by mixing everything together and then add more flour as necessary until you get a dough you can pinch without it sticking to your fingers. You don´t want to use too much flour or you´ll get a heavy dough.

Let this rise for about 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Roll out into a rectangle and brush with melted margarine. (I used milk and salt free margarine) Add chopped apples and raisins. I used two big red apples and about 1.5 cups of raisins but here you can add or subtract after what you like. In the apple and raisin mixture I added about 1/2 cup light brown sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon- mix good and put on your dough...should look like this:

Roll together into one long log and cut about 1inch (2.5cm) no one will get angry if you´re a half an inch more or less here...place on baking sheet with baking paper....

Bake at 200C (about 400F) for about 15 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool and at this point if you´d like to put some icing on your rolls you can mix the following:

About 400 grams of powdered sugar (melis)
About 2 tsp vanilla sugar (Vanilla powder or you can use Vanilla extract)
25 grams melted margarine
2-3TBSP cream or whole milk
Mix until you get a creamy icing, put in a plastic bag and cut the end off...pipe onto your rolls and serve with a delicious cup of coffee or other warm drink of choice! Bon Appetite!

Now if these rolls don´t put a smile on your face hopefully this little sweetheart will...

Say it with me people, Fuzzy Wuzzy was a doggy <3

Have a great weekend everyone!

Until next time....

Snow Cactus And Snow Dogs From The Captain

2012-01-11T20:43:00.004+01:00

Today I kissed the Captain goodbye and headed to work as usual. I could see from my kitchen at work that it was a gorgeous day but usually by the time I get home there is only about half an hour of true daylight left and one hour of dusk. As I was driving home, the pink sky over the Mjøsa lake and the thick layer of fog just below the pink sky made me regret terribly not bringing my camera with me. What is the number one rule of photographers??? Bring your camera EVERYWHERE with you!!! You just never know when the perfect photographic moment will arise.

When I got home the Captain and I took two of the dogs for a quick walk and as we were walking and remarking about how gorgeous it was, the Captain says to me, "I borrowed your camera today hope that is ok?" I said, "Of course it is!!!" He was so excited to tell me about the photos he had taken and showed me the various places where he had been photographing earlier. I like that he is taking an interest in photography. It´s a great hobby and one of the things I love most about photography is seeing the world through someone else´s eyes as you do when you see a photograph. So I was really excited to get home and see what all he had captured. Below are the best results of his photography escapade today....

I forgot to mention that the Captain was not alone on his photographic journey...Little Cookie and Isabella joined him.

I´m glad one of us has had the time to try out my new macro lens I got for Christmas! These are examples of the Norwegian Snow Cactus...cool huh?

In between shooting snow cactus the Captain took time to play with the fur kids...

Some enjoyed the snow more then others, although I think they all look pretty happy here...

Just wait big Sister, I´ll be right over!!!!

You coming Dad????? Let´s go take some more of those pictures!!!

Dad, take another picture of me....please....

Finally, the Captain wanted me to notice the cross in the next photo...he said it was like Mother Nature´s own church. A pretty interesting observation for a guy who isn´t very religious if you ask me! Do you see the cross?

After our walk and checking out the Captain´s photos from the day I made dinner. Tonight I didn´t use a recipe but just made dinner up. I based dinner on a dinner a co-worker told me she made the other night, Anita darling- if you´re reading this, thanks for the inspiration!!! She told me she used sweet chili sauce with cream to make a sauce for her dinner the other night. I think she used chicken but I am not sure? Anyhoot, for our dinner tonight I used four chicken breasts which I chopped into bite size pieces. I put them aside in a bowl and proceeded to cut up 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 orange pepper, and 1 green pepper into bite size pieces. I put these in a medium size baking dish. I cut up 1 small onion in medium size pieces and put these in with the peppers. I chopped up about 6 garlic cloves into tiny tiny pieces and put these in with the peppers and onions. Drizzle olive oil over the top and a dash of garlic pepper. (Yeah I love garlic and I was making this up as I went...so LOTS of garlic!!!) Stick these in the oven at 200C (about 400F) and let them roast for about 10-15 minutes? To be very honest I didn´t time anything, just looked and when it looked like they were starting to get softened I took it out and added the chicken pieces and back in the oven. While that was in the oven I started some rice and then I mixed up a sauce. I used half a box of mager kesam (the name in Norwegian) which is a type of low fat sour cream which you could also use or cremè fraiche. Then I used almost an entire box of cream (about 3dl which I´m guessing would be about a little over 1 cup- check google to be sure) Mix these two together and then add about 8 tbsp of sweet chili sauce, 2 tbsp soy sauce, a couple...two....three dashes of garlic chili sauce, a dash of oyster sauce and a dash of sesame seed oil. Mix well. Take your peppers and chicken out of the oven and add the sauce...mix well and stick back in the oven for about 10 more minutes. In all you´ll roast your chicken for about 30 minutes- or until done. (Mine was perfect...not dry and not raw) Serve this with your rice (I add 1 chicken bullion cube to my rice when cooking to give it some flavor).

Yum Yum!!!! :-)

I just wanna say thank you to all the people commenting lately on my blog! It is so fun to open my email and see another comment has come in! I´ve been to all your blogs (those who have) but I haven´t had time to actually read them yet and comment but I promise I will! It´s the least I can do when you´re so kind as to leave a message here for me to read! It´s silly to be so hung up in comments I know, but I can´t tell you how happy it makes me! Not because I need validation over what I´m writing but part of the great thing about blogs is that it helps you connect with people either in a similar situation or who has a similar interest (otherwise why would they be reading your blog??) and I LOVE "meeting" you all. Those who are faithful commentators, I feel I have a real connection too even though I´ve never met any of you except for Miss Kelli in Denmark. She´s a Texas gal, how can you not love a gal from Texas??? ;-))) Lady Fi blows my mind with her amazing photography and her hillarious Golden Retriever Oscar...the bathing King of Sweden! Mr. Jay is the world traveler I hope to be someday and he gives me advice about what to see and do when I finally get out. He´s also an amazing photographer, expat, and we share a love of food and have exchanged numerous recipes- you rock Mr. Jay! I can´t forget Miss Sylvia either...she has a home with the most amazing interior, I can only dream of such a home as long as I have 6 dogs but dream I do and Miss Sylvia makes it so easy! Finally, the adorable and ever so sweet Misha and her animal menagerie in beautiful Tennessee! Sweet Misha is as crazy about animals as I am...dare I say maybe even more so? If I was to die early I´d like to come back as one of her pets! Oh gosh and how could I forget Miss Julie and her beautiful family!! Her family get togethers make me yearn for something similar...what a blessed woman to have so much family around her! Oh there are SO many of you whose blogs inspire me, give me so many things I can´t begin to list everything here! I´d like to have a blog get together at my house...invite all of you I interact with here for some good food and we could take a walk in the woods and take pictures together! I say we do a potluck because I´ve seen some of the amazing food yáll make...mmmmmm......so who wants to come??? My house...say, summer 2012??? Anyone???

Until next time my friends....<3

Asian Nights

2012-01-10T21:05:00.000+01:00

Tonight I´m not going to bore you with a bunch of babble...I´m going to take you straight to the good stuff....tonight we made an appetizer, a main course, and a desert all with an Asian flare to it.
For our appetizer we had Crab Ragoons, you can find the recipe HERE. I couldn´t get hold of won ton wrappers so I used spring rolls...actually I´m going to give credit where credit is due here, Sarah used spring roll wrappers...because Sarah put this little dish together tonight. All I did was cut up the 1/4 onion...and while I think the won ton wrappers would have been better, the spring roll wrappers were NOT bad at all...this was actually our favourite dish of the evening...

We used sweet chili sauce for dipping these babies in and it was good.....reeeeeeeally good :-)

For our main course we had Asian Noodle Soup which you can find a recipe for HERE. With this recipe I had to make a couple adjustments as I couldn´t find vermicelli pasta or thin enough rice noodles...so I went with Spaghettini here in Norway which is a thin spaghetti noodle. This was ok but I think the soup would be better with smaller noodles. These were so big that a lot of the broth was sucked up by the noodles. It was still good though. I also couldn´t find Bok Choy here in Norway. I asked at the foreign market I usually buy stuff at and he just looked at me strangely and said they only had the vegetables I could see displayed. OK fair enough. So I bought some Chinese cabbage (Kinakål in Norwegian) to use instead. It was ok and considering I have never tried Bok Choy before I couldn´t tell what I was missing. I added just a little bit of cilantro (Koriander in Norwegian) at the end and my two youngest asked me why I had to put grass in the soup! HAHAHAHAHA....

Despite not having a lot of ingredients you "see" this soup really has a lot of flavor and is great if you´re looking for a noodle soup to warm you when you´re not feeling good.....

I´ve totally been hooked on Chai Tea since I tried some before Christmas. The place where I tried Chai Tea for the first time sold boxes of it with enough powder in it for 12 cups of tea for 170 Norwegian Kroner. Which is a LOT for tea- even in Norway. So when I was in Paris I looked everywhere for Chai tea but the closest I came was at Starbucks and they didn´t have anymore Chai Tea bags to sell. So I could only enjoy a cup there and of course I enjoyed every single drop...but really wished I could have bought a bag or two to bring home...guess I´ll have to go back someday just to see if they get some more in stock!!! hahahahaha...(not like I would need an excuse to go back to Paris but why not just throw this one in there for fun!!!)
So when I found this recipe for Chai Spiced Sugar Cookies (HERE.) I had to try it. Of course I did...and they didn´t disappoint us BUT next time I might put in a little less cinnamon and more of the other spices or increase the other spices and leave the cinnamon as instructed. I say this because the cinnamon dominates these cookies..so it tasted a lot like a snickerdoodle cookie and not so much like the Chai tea I´ve tried...never the less this is definitely worth trying...

I had today off from work which is always great...I wish I was a millionaire just so I could have the days to myself and do whatever I want...do you ever wish that? Of course I´m not a millionaire so my free days are precious. It was gorgeous today...

We spent the first part of the day grooming dogs and playing with bubbles and the dogs...little Cookie really enjoyed the bubbles but Nanna also found them fascinating...she just wasn´t as eager to chase after them as Cookie...

This afternoon we took Jackson to get his eyelid sewn. As his swelling has gone down the cut on his eyelid has opened more and the vet thought it was best he get it sewn. Now he is almost as good as new! She was really pleased with how well he was healing otherwise so that is great news!
OK folks, I have a question for you....if you HAD to choose which would it be, Asian food or Italian food?
Until next time my friends....

Looking For Something Fun And Adventuresome?

2012-01-08T10:31:00.000+01:00

Awhile back my friend Kelli, an American (Texas) gal living in Denmark, introduced me and the rest of her blog readers to an international game called Geocaching. You can read her post about it HERE. I saved the page because I thought it sounded really fun and really interesting and something I could maybe get my family into instead of constantly playing video games or computer games we could actually go outside in the real world and play a game!! Interesting idea eh??? However, as in a lot of things that I come across, I quickly forgot about the geocaching until this morning.

As the Captain and I were sitting here having our morning coffee and looking around online he started reading something aloud about geocaching and I said, HEY! I know that game!!! Well, now we are both registered users with the basic membership until we see how much we will be using this. After a late Sunday breakfast we put on our long johns, wool, and fleece clothing and headed out in what actually is a gorgeous winter day here in Norway....

Sarah joined us but the two youngest were still sleeping...they sleep a lot! The first Geo cache wasn´t more then a half a kilometer from our house (who would have known!) so we headed to that one first. The only GPS we had with us was the one from the car and we soon discovered it wasn´t going to cooperate with us, so we were basically without GPS which we now know is a necessity when playing this game. Otherwise it´s kinda like looking for a needle in a haystack. Especially when there is tons of snow everywhere. But the walk over to the first site was beautiful....

Sarah forgot her camera and when she saw a bunch of rabbit tracks she wanted to take photos for her science class so we told her to go back and get her camera and we would wait for her.....we waited.....

And we waited...until finally....

we could continue our walk to the Trollstein (Troll Rock) which was the destination for our first Geocache.

The walk over was delightful and one of the best things about this game, it gets you out and moving around...

We finally arrived at the spot...Trollstein (Troll Rock) but again, we quickly realized without a functioning GPS it was hopeless to find what we were looking for. We gave it a valiant effort and the minute the GPS we had brought worked, we thought we got in the correct area but we found nothing.

We questioned whether we should even attempt to go to the church here on Helgøya and look for the Geo cache there but it was such a beautiful day and we thought there wasn´t any woods down by the church so we might have better luck....

When we got to the church we took out the paper with the coordinates and the hint. The GPS wouldn´t even turn itself on so coordinates were a complete waste and the hint was, "Behind a rock".....yeah...right....in a church graveyard with a stone fence...sure...that would be easy- NOT! So we accepted defeat for the moment and decided we´d come back once we get hold of a hand held GPS and give it another shot on another day.

The day wasn´t a complete waste...the walk was beautiful....

When we got home the Captain wasn´t done with his adventure seeking, he climbed the snowy roof of the garage and over on top of the apartment and shook the snow off the TV antenna then kindly posed for a dashing, look-at-me-on-top-of-the-roof photo!

Camera shy? I think not.....Ok, so I promised to take a photo sitting in my new reading corner so you could see what the view was from the chairs...it´s not exciting but here it is...just because I promised to show you...

So while you don´t see the actual fire in the fireplace, it´s still nice to sit here...you can look out the windows and see the pretty snow...

Well, we didn´t find any Geo caches today but we will get a GPS and be back at it as soon as we can. In the meantime if you want to check out this fun game, you can visit Kelli´s blog post about it in the link above or go direct to the Geocaching page HERE. Happy adventure hunting everybody!!! When you´ve found your first Geo cache let me know or if you´re already playing let me know what the best cache is you´ve found so far!

Until next time my friends...

French Silk Pie And A Reading Corner

2012-01-07T21:55:00.001+01:00

So today we took down our Christmas decorations and packed them away for the next 10-11 months when we will take them out and begin that whole ordeal all over again....hahahaha, uff, I sound like Scrooge but I´ve lost my Christmas spirit over the years. I´m not sure what happened, maybe it was being so far from my family all these years or sometimes having to celebrate Christmas without the Captain home? I don´t know...maybe it´s that I feel that Christmas has become so materialistic. I love to buy things for my family but hate feeling like I HAVE to have something for them by the 24th (in Norway we open gifts on the 24th) of December. I know it´s my own doing and I have the power to buy tickets to go back to the states and visit family during the holidays or I can choose to not give gifts at Christmas but then what kind of Scrooge would I be? Hmmm...it´s a catch 22 really....

With the large amount of room suddenly available to me now that the tree is packed away I decided to make a little reading corner and open up some space in front of our fireplace.

What I would like to someday do, would be to take away the cabinet you see on the right with the dishes and replace it with a handmade book shelf that would wrap around from the back of the one chair, next to the window and around where the cabinet stands now. On the other side, which you can see here....

Is another cabinet. I´d like to get an antique cabinet of some sort...I´ll know it when I see it...to have my china in and our alcohol that the Captain brings home from tax free after each of his travels.

What do you think? It´s very peaceful sitting here, even though you don´t have a direct view of the fireplace, you see the fireplace but not the fire...still, it´s nice...I´ll have to sit in the chair tomorrow and take a photo for you...it was too dark tonight.

The Captain has been begging me for a French Silk Pie. He fell in love with the French Silk Pie after trying one at a restaurant called Spears in Wichita, Kansas. I didn´t really feel like baking tonight...but what don´t we do for the ones we love?

I used this recipe HERE. I made my own pie crust as you can´t buy those in Norway. Any ol´pie crust recipe will work- the internet is full of them. Now, a couple things could have been better with this...first, my pie crust fell slightly on the one side..but not enough that it ruined the whole thing, just wasn´t that pretty the whole way around. Also I think it looks like too much whipped cream and not enough of the chocolate fill. But the recipe calls for Cool Whip and you can´t get that in Norway so I had to make my whipped cream from scratch. So I miscalculated how much I needed :-) Also you could do some chocolate shavings on top here but I figured this was good enough and the Captain wasn´t complaining as he dove into this baby...I love making him food...he´s always so happy to eat whatever I make :-)

My baby is going to his first New Year´s ball next week and so today the Captain and Thomas went out and got Thomas his first suit. He might have had one when he was little but I don´t remember...the last years he´s been wearing nothing but a t-shirt and jean and I can barely get him to wear sweaters let alone anything as nice as a suit...so I got all teary eyed when I saw him come up the stairs looking so handsome and so grown up!

He stands like this because his favourite character from the show How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson, stands like this. You might remember his poses on our Rome trip...

*Shaking my head* I´m not sure what I´m going to do with this guy..he´s slightly corny...but he probably comes by that honestly enough, we´re all a little corny in this family. Deep down he´s a good kid and I know he´s going to be a good man someday..probably quicker then I want when I see the first photo of him above!

Thanks for your well wishes for Jackson yesterday. He´s doing much better today and the swelling in his ears is already going down so it´s all positive :-)

Hope you´re all having a great Saturday evening...
Until next time my friends....

Of Mice And Men....Cats And Leos...

2012-01-06T21:00:00.000+01:00

How many of you have seen THIS cartoon? I think these two characters remind me of my two Leonberger boys, Bently and Jackson. Bently would be the big kitty and Jackson would be Sylvester, aka George. The Captain also asked me tonight if I remembered the movie Of Mice and Men and the character Lenny? I said yes of course and he said, doesn´t he remind you of Bently? If you click HERE you can see a trailer for Of Mice and Men which gives you an idea as to how Lenny is. In this instance, Jackson is Lenny´s brother and Bently is Lenny. I think these two examples describe my boys pretty good. Good boys....but boys....and they are close in age, only a year between them.

Bently, Aka Lenny, Aka Big Kitty

Well, sometimes in a pack of animals there can be some disagreements. It´s no different then with humans. Put a bunch of humans together and you´re going to have squabbles sometimes. It´s life but where humans and animals differ is how they deal with their problems. Humans will go to great lengths to talk things through, discuss, analyze, try and make it better before getting physical (usually) but animals get physical right away....over and done with.

My boys, Bently and Jackson, had a disagreement yesterday right before I went to work. It was dark and they were in the back yard. I was drinking my coffee and checking out the latest on Facebook when suddenly I heard them fighting. I went outside to try and stop them but couldn´t see them let alone stop them...I just heard them. The Captain woke up and came outside and told me that we should just let them figure this out and not involve ourselves. When there has been disagreements in the house we´ve intervened and stopped them...but they were outside and we figured it was as good of a time as any for them to figure out who would be top dog between them. Sounds crazy I know, but everything we´ve read about dogs who fight, the boys will only fight to establish rank and then it´s over. It´s worse with the girls....let´s put it this way, there is a reason women are called bitches....cause we are vicious when we get threatened or attacked. A whole slew of emotions get involved where with guys I think it´s mostly just a matter of testing each other...they aren´t thinking about what they are actually doing...maybe that is generalizing and I´m sorry...shouldn´t do that but it´s just how I think.

Anyhoot....Bently being the bigger boy gave Jackson one big ol´whoopin. As I was leaving for work they came up from the woods and laid down on the yard...tired but not quite done...just taking a break. I went to work and sent the Captain a message later to ask how things were. They had settled down and Bently was washing Jackson´s sores. Kinda like he was really sorry for having to beat the crap out of poor little Jackson and Jackson was in shock....quiet and in a state of disbelief that he got his butt kicked SO BADLY.

We saw a bunch of sores on Jackson but none that were opened and needed stitches so we went to bed and decided we´d look him over again in the morning. Today when we got up it was evident little Jackson wasn´t feeling good. Usually he is the first one to the door to go outside in the morning but today he was the last....he just laid there. Lethargic and pathetic looking. He kept shaking his ears and upon closer inspection we saw his ears were big and puffy indicating an infection. Bently was acting fine, he had a scrape on his leg but not open and he was acting like himself....just a very very sorry version of himself. He (as well as the other dogs in the house) kept taking turns going past Jackson and washing Jackson´s face.

We got Jackson an appointment with the vet and she agreed with us that there was in infection but nothing that needed stitched up. She wanted to shave his head though so she could have a good check and see that there wasn´t anything we were missing so she told us to come back in a bit to pick him up. When we came back to pick him up we were met with this face....

I have to tell you, I jumped a bit when I saw this...and then I wasn´t sure if I should cry or laugh...it´s pathetic isn´t it? Look at that poor boy.....

Normally he looks like this....and now he looks like this....

Ugh, it´s disgusting and I guess we can kiss this show season goodbye, not sure how I could explain this look to a judge....it isn´t exactly following the breed standard....

I´m just hoping that Jackson learned his lesson here. That he´s the youngster and needs to mind his elders and not be so full of himself. I hope he won´t have to be put in his place again. I know Lenny...ugh...I mean Bently, didn´t mean to hurt him. He´s proved that over and over again with his apologetic facial washes on Jackson´s face. Also, none of the wounds were ripped open and needing stitches. Bently is much bigger then Jackson and could have easily ripped him to pieces if he wanted too...but all he wanted to do was put Jackson in his place and tell him to settle down and take it easy.

Are you going to listen Jackson baby???

Poor thing.....this is the fun part of having so many dogs, NOT!!...It´s never boring. Although I will say we´ve had peace for a long long time and there is no tension in the house now either, this was simply a disagreement that was handled like nature handles things, not like humans handle it and while it seems brutal and shocking, I´m hopeful they´ve worked things out and that everything is back on track now. Jackson is going to get top rated treatment and lots of love and care from all of us here and he will be as good as new in no time. Time will answer the question if he learned his lesson or not...he´s a smart boy so I´m hopeful and I know Bently just wants to be friends so I´m going to hang onto the positive in this ugly situation. If I could ask a little favor from you all it would mean a great deal to me. Keep Jackson in your thoughts for a speedy recovery and keep your fingers crossed he´s learned his lesson and will behave himself from now on. If you could do that for me and mostly Jackson, I´d be so grateful! You guys are the best!

On a side note, no small innocent eyes were witness to this ugly incident so life is still joyful and innocent for the small in the house....

Just as it should be....YIPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Until next time my friends.........

So We Got A Little Snow.....

2012-01-04T18:42:00.000+01:00

Last night it began to snow. Sarah had taken little Cookie and Jenny out for a final airing yesterday evening while the snow was falling and they had a blast. Cookie thinks snow is the best thing next to chicken necks...and that´s saying a lot. I wish I had thought to take a photo of her when they brought her inside totally covered in snowballs on her underside, but I was too busy laughing. She looked normal from the top but when you looked at her belly and underside she was covered in snowballs. So funny...but she wasn´t complaining!

I hadn´t noticed how much snow we actually got until I was heading to work this morning...as I was driving down to the main road from our house. I kept thinking, I have to call the Captain and get him to go take photos of the trees when it´s light outside! It was so cool driving in the dark with trees weighted down by the heavy snowfall! Being the ever obliging honey, the Captain went out and took these photos at first daylight...you can see our tire tracks from where we drove under the trees....that was fun.....

One positive side to all this white is that it´s easier to see the neighbours....

Why hello Misses Cow, how are you mooing???? Hahahahahahaha......that was my attempt at humor, anyone laughing??? I have moooooore where that came from if you´re interested....HAHAHAHAHAHA! Ok ok...what a tough crowd you are tonight!!!

So my friends, what´s the weather like in your corner of the world??

Until next time my friends...be good and drive careful :-)))

Do You Have Roots?

2012-01-02T21:49:00.001+01:00

Do you have roots where you live? I was born in Warren, Pennsylvania. I´ve lived in Mercer, Pennsylvania, Grove City Pennsylvania, Derby Kansas, Hutchinson Kansas, Bedford Texas, San Antonio Texas, Austin Texas, Pratt Kansas, Averøy Norway, and now Helgøya Norway.

I don´t feel I have any roots....anywhere. There is a little of me in every place I´ve lived. My roots have never had any garden to grow in which might be the reason I don´t feel I´ve come as far in life as some people around me. Sometimes I feel jealous of people who have been in one place all their life and know everyone within 20 kilometers of their home place.

Other times I think moving around a lot in my life has made me much more accepting of different people, different ways to think, different ways to do things. I think living in so many different places all my life has really helped me as an expat living overseas. It´s given me the qualities I needed to make it in a place that wasn´t my HOME. Qualities such as, positivity, perseverance, adaptability, and an accepting nature that respects the differences between us all and doesn´t make me feel that there is only one way things should be and that´s it!

It´s very cliché to say this but HOME truly is where your loved ones are. (Like this guy) I´ve learned that a potted plant that can be moved from place to place can be just as lovely as any permanent garden....so you, in essence, can take your roots with you! Then again, you all probably knew things like this...it´s just me who is slowly being enlightened right?? ;-) So where do you have your roots?

Made a turkey for our New Year dinner. It was DE-LICIOUS and that´s all there is to say about that one....*slurp*

The New Year is starting off pretty darn good....hope it´s going well for you also! Did you make any New Year resolutions you actually plan to keep this year??

Until next time my friends....

Welcome 2012!

2011-12-31T22:41:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year Everyone! 2012 arrived quietly here in the woods. For the dogs sake we are thankfully protected from hearing fireworks but it also means we don´t see anything either. So after a short hike out of the woods, we were able to watch the New Year fireworks. For an area without a large population they sure know how to put on a great show! But then again so do we....hehehehe.....

Well home again it was time for bed....

Some of us just can´t handle the late nights as well as others....

New Year´s Eve dinner consisted of a new recipe I decided to try after hearing a bunch of expats talk about pulled pork on facebook. We expats love to talk about food and I´m glad we do. I was in a rut and tired of making the same meals all the time. Listening to what other people miss eating reminds me of things I hadn´t thought about in a long time and where there is a will...there is a google so you can find a recipe and a way :-)

I used this recipe HERE. This was a good recipe BUT the Captain and I figured that 5-7lb roast was about 3 kilos. With this information in hand the Captain went to the store to get us a roast and came back with two roasts...one which was a little over 2 kilos and one that was about 1.5 kilos. We figured the 2 kilo was big enough and put the other in the freezer. Considering we were using less meat then the recipe required I cut the rub ingredients in half. However, I didn´t cut the BBQ sauce ingredients in half and what we learned was that the vinegar amounts in the BBQ sauce were way too much. The sauce had a very overpowering vinegar taste which I tried to soften by adding more brown sugar (to taste, didn´t measure) and some more ketchup (again just squirted it in without measuring). Despite my best efforts the vinegar was still very strong. So next time I would probably half the vinegar requirements in this sauce. Despite the strong vinegar taste my two youngest were kind enough to eat their sandwich and tell me it was good, although they didn´t want seconds (always a sign something isn´t a hit...especially when my growing 13 year old only wants one little sandwich and otherwise has a very healthy appetite.) Never the less we saved the remaining meat and sauce and Monday will be a leftover day with leftovers from New Year´s Eve and New Year´s.

The coleslaw recipe which follows this sandwich recipe is really good but again, a tang of vinegar which we already had plenty of in the sandwich, so I would maybe half this in the coleslaw next time also.

Sarah and her boyfriend Pål were with us for breakfast New Year´s Eve and everyone woke late as usual when it´s the holidays so for our brunch I made a breakfast casserole. I looked up some various recipes for breakfast casseroles but what I found was they are basically eggs and cheese and anything else your heart desires. For ours I used my own homemade pork sausage which I made using ground pork and sage and bacon. I also used the closest thing I´ve found to hash browns in Norway, Pytt I Panne. Put all this in a baking dish along with 12 eggs I mixed together with various spices, I´m not going into detail about the spices because it´s really up to you- what do you like? Garlic? Use garlic powder and a little onion powder? Grill krydder which is like a BBQ spice is quite popular here in Norway and goes really well with eggs. Use your fantasy and choose whatever spices you desire! Some breakfast casserole recipes suggested putting shredded cheese in with the egg mixture. I put mine on top. Again, you can really do whatever you want in this situation...it´s all good :-) Bake for about 40 minutes on the lowest rack in the oven at about 200C (400F) or until golden brown on top. We served just the casserole but some fruit would have been nice or some nice warm rolls or something...

The first day of the New Year we will be having roasted turkey with all the trimmings. I´ll blog about that meal tomorrow! I´ve been thinking a lot about what you´d like to read from me...what types of posts I should do and well, I guess I´ll just continue with what I´m doing. A little food, a little travel, a little pets, a little family, a little nature, a little exercise...a little bit of everything! Variation is the spice of life and we all need a little spice in our life don´t we?

So until next time my friends...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Excuse Me But Where Did This Year Go?

2011-12-26T23:50:00.000+01:00

Ok, let´s just establish that you´ve missed me....right? I mean...just a little maybe? Well, what I can with 100% accuracy say is that I have missed you all. Funny how writing an online journal which you may or may not get any feedback too can still make you feel good and feel connected....even when you write without response or much response. I see on my statistics that people are visiting my blog, which is really great! I´ve thought a lot in my self imposed break from blogging as to what I can do to encourage more comments, more interaction from my readers. I´ve read that successful blogs should be like having a conversation with your readers...not preaching to them. I´d like to think we do have some great conversations here, even though, as it is in true life, I am a little more chatty then actually listening! So maybe I should get better at that? Better at listening to who you are, what you want to hear, and how you feel about things I write? This process will be a lot easier when you communicate with me...so don´t be shy, use my comment sections and say hi! Let me know where you are in the world...let me know what you love to eat, what you love to do, what you would like to know about Norway...or me...or my dogs...or my family...or...what you like to eat....did I mention that??? Hahahahaha...

Ok, so where have I been these last weeks? I´ve been here...

With this sexy guy....

And this lovely couple....

We had a fabulous time in the City of Lights, Paris France! Although I have to say one thing, as spectacular as it was to see the sights in Paris, I have to admit that when I first saw the Eiffel Tower I thought....Is that it??? It´s so small! Of course it isn´t small, it´s HUGE but upon first glance you´re left thinking- huh....that´s it eh? I think we build things up in our minds, or at least I do and when you see the real thing, while it might be impressive it still might not be the fantasy that was built up in our minds. I noticed that in Rome also...when I first saw the Colosseum I was like- hmmm....Maybe it´s just me? Maybe I´m difficult to please? Maybe I´m the only one who builds stuff up in her head with expectations that can never possibly be lived up too no matter what it is...Roman Colosseum and Eiffel Tower being prime examples!!!! Never the less, the more I wandered around and looked at the impressive structure I was impressed...who couldn´t be? I mean let´s be real, you´re in Paris France first of all- which is totally cool and then you´re wandering around the Eiffel Tower prime hot spot for tourists around the world for centuries!

We also visited two amazing churches in Paris. You know it´s funny, I wouldn´t neccessarily call myself a major religious person...I have my beliefs...but the churches in Rome and now these in Paris have taken my breath away and made me feel very spiritual. Not sure exactly what it is about them..maybe the fact that for hundreds...in some cases (in Rome) thousands of years people have been coming to these holy places for peace of mind in times of difficulty, to express their love and devotion to a person, to a higher power, to seek refuge from a confusing world...I don´t know, I´m just throwing out some ideas here...but never the less there is a sense of humbleness that bestows upon me every time I enter one of these magnificent churches...I walk around with my mouth hanging open in utter awe of what I am experiencing which billions of other people have experienced before me...

The first church I will share with you from Paris was Sacrè Coeur...

A stunning church which isn´t THAT old as far as these historical churches go but is still amazing. It sits on the highest spot overlooking Paris and the view from the steps of the Sacrè Coeur are breathtaking. If you´re lucky you might be entertained by a fantastic street performer like we were...Youri was the name of the most entertaining street performer and you can see a video of one of his performances from the steps of the Sacrè Coeur HERE.

The next church my children knew all about from watching the Disney film The Hunch Back of Notre Dame. When I showed Julia the pictures from the church she was telling me details of the church and where certain statues were and so on all based on what she remembered from the Disney movie! I suddenly wished she had been with us on that particular visit so she could have given me the details while I stood there. However, she wasn´t there but I managed to be impressed never the less. I didn´t have all the details but the little I did know about this church and most importantly what I witnessed first hand left me in total awe and with a gapping mouth as I wandered around this most impressive church. Ladies and Gentlemen...may I present Notre Dame...

Amazing isn´t it? Oh it gets better...let´s go inside shall we? Check out these doors...

Inside my camera struggled to get decent photos but I got some nice shots of all the amazing stained glass windows...glass art at it´s absolute best...

Paris left so many interesting impressions on me...

A couple pieces of advice that I have learned after my first trip to Paris though. First, while some taxi´s are legitimate and ok, not everyone who stops to offer you a ride is to be trusted. We experienced this first hand and had one of the scariest rides ever with a taxi driver who was ready to pick a fight with someone- anyone and he was going to take us along on his shenanigans whether we wanted too or not. After that evening we learned very quickly how to use the Metro system, Paris´s underground public transportation network. It´s cheap and easy to use and while you should use common sense and keep an eye out for your personal possessions we never felt in danger on the Metro.

Another tip, stay longer then three days. A three day trip is for youngsters....not for we "well aged" adults. The four of us who travelled together started off super chatty and by Sunday we were so exhausted you barely heard any conversation...we´d look at each other and nod and taking exhausted photos of each other became a personal joke between us...but was it really????
Despite the short visit and cold rainy weather we experienced MOST of our trip there, Paris left a lasting impression on us. We will definitely be back hopefully with more time to explore this amazing city! We also hope that we´ll get the chance to travel with the Captain´s cousin and her husband again...we enjoyed them so much. There is nothing like traveling with people who appreciate similar interests, take life easy like you do, and who you can laugh and be yourselves with.

Now here we are at the end of 2011 and I´m left thinking back over this year that has gone by. How quickly time has flown and yet so much we have experienced. My mountain hikes with my kids this past spring/summer....

Our trip to Sweden......

And Rome.....

All the delicious things we´ve eaten....

And all the cute furry faces who have smiled our way.....

Yeah, it´s been a great year that went by all too fast and yet left such an impact on us all. And yeah...this is a very very long post with TONS of photos. If you´ve read this far....THANKS....it´s my last post of the year and I´ve been gone for awhile. Needed to recap the year and get caught up before we start the new year. I´ll be back the 1st of January with a hopefully new and exciting year to share with you. If you´re going to hang in there with me I´ll do my best to not disappoint you and thank you for taking the time to be a part of my life. I wish you all a continued warm holiday season. May your New Year be bright, prosperous, healthy, and happy! I look forward to spending more time with with my regular readers and getting to know new readers. See you in 2012!

Until next time my friends.....

Believing In Something You Can´t See

2011-11-29T09:58:00.001+01:00

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.
Victor Hugo

I think, well for me at least, one of life´s great questions is what happens to us when we are done with our life here on Earth? Don´t worry, I haven´t got an answer for you, so I am not going to try and convince you of something...however, it is a question that swivels around in my head constantly and I find myself being swayed in my decisions as to what I think happens to us by things I experience and things I hear. I know in my heart though that this answer will never be completely found until my last breath is taken. Still, it´s extremely interesting to ponder what becomes of us when we have drawn our last breath. Various religions believe various things, this isn´t a Sunday school class so I won´t try and act like I am all knowing about the various religions out there...but to say there are as many varied opinions as to what happens to us as there are people in the world is probably safe to say. Some believe we become one with nature again, while others believe we move on to a new life, others believe we go up to heaven and some believe our souls continue to live on here on Earth. I´m sure there are many other beliefs and these are just some...but that something happens to us after this life is something I like to believe in. Otherwise, what is the point of this life? What is the point of our existence here? To see what kind of education we can get? What kind of car we can afford? And how many friends we ultimately have? Why are we here?

Perhaps, there is no connection between why we are here and where we go next? I don´t know? I heard something one time about when you die, your soul eventually moves on to another life...and keeps repeating this until it just doesn´t move on someday. Which explains why some children are born with "old souls" while others seem forever childish. I don´t know really what I believe when it comes to that but it seemed to make sense...I have one child who acts like she has been through life before...she knows what she has to do and she does it...no questions...and then I have another two who act like they aren´t as concerned with what will happen next and are enjoying the moment...young souls perhaps? I don´t know?...I really and truly don´t but I wonder. My curiosity is extremely peeked by this subject. So peeked in fact that I did something yesterday I truly thought I would never do. Something I have actually resisted doing for many years, despite being around people who were constantly seeking the help of professional mediums...I would listen to what they would say, nod my head in amazement at the stories they told while thinking, "are these people serious? This is ridiculous!" While at the same time there was a voice in my head, somewhere, thinking, "Could this be real?" Is there anyone else here with several voices in their head or am I just lucky?

Anyhoot, yesterday I had my first conversation with a medium....who spoke to my Mother...or was it my Mother who spoke to him? Not quite sure how it all worked...and the anticipation I had up to our conversation was like waiting to visit the dentist, not knowing if it would be a good experience or a bad one. Simon Milton-Jones is from England and is now living in Norway, married to a Norwegian. An expat like myself who claims to be losing his grip on the English language just as I feel I am also...we had a good laugh about that...how crappy our English is becoming....then it hit me how shameful that fact actually is...shouldn´t be laughing about that...but it was great to relate that experience to someone who understood.

Our session began and my Mother came to Simon, apparently accompanied by a man whom we couldn´t exactly establish who this man was, but concluded that he was just someone helping to guide my Mom to Simon since this was her first time...you see...you never stop having to learn things...even in death! I think I expected Simon to come with a bunch of facts, a bunch of things he MIGHT have been able to nab off google if he searched hard enough...that is the skeptic in me, trying to figure out a way to explain what I was going to hear. However, the majority of things he shared with me were based on feelings, feelings you couldn´t have found through google. Information which he couldn´t have found no matter how hard he searched and I found myself thinking...."Holy crap...is this really happening? Did he just say what I think he said, which sounds SO MUCH like something Mom would have said or felt?" I kept trying to stay skeptic and when he would say something that wasn´t quite on the money I´d think, "Ahh ha....you are so wrong!" Then as if he could read my thoughts he would say something that was spot on and I was back to thinking..."Holy crap, he just did it again!" In between my conversation with Mom, Simon and I had a fun chat and laughed a bunch. I felt so giddy after we were done...kinda like you feel when the dentist appointment went really really well and you´re so relieved and can finally relax and enjoy the moment. I felt so good. I didn´t cry once...because things he told me brought back such happy thoughts about my Mom. It was fun to remember her in the various things he was saying and it was comforting to think maybe she really is still with me even though she isn´t physically with me.

My Mother use to love talking about death with me, probably to demonstrate that the thought didn´t scare her. I would always complain that I didn´t like the finalization of death. Of never being able to talk to her again. She would always respond by saying that she spoke daily with her Father and Grandmother and I would say, "yeah but Mom it´s not the same...they can´t answer you!" Still, she found comfort in her belief...in her faith. I was still doubtful. However, after yesterday...while I am still trying to find some explanation for what happened, I truly believe something happened. I believe my Mom was communicating with me in some way that I find incredibly hard to explain. I just feel like saying you have to experience it yourself and many of us are like that...incredibly disbelieving and stubborn until we experience it ourselves and then some of us suddenly feel ALL KNOWING...but we won´t get into that right now! ;-) I wouldn´t say I am all knowing and I still feel unsure about what I truly believe but in that moment...that conversation, I had no doubts of what I was experiencing. That is about as good as I can explain it.

So what do you believe in? What faith do you honor and how did you know it was the right thing to believe in? I think perhaps there are so many different faiths because we are so many different people in the world. That ultimately we all believe something happens but because we are so different our faiths have all become different in order to satisfy our differences and make us all feel that we have something we can believe in? I´m simply making an observation and could be totally off base here but it is an interesting thought don´t ya think?

The freezer challenge is still going, just been incredibly bad about taking photos and sharing the recipes...but will try and get better...sometimes it just doesn´t sound that exciting to write about pasta and meat sauce...I mean...really....zzzzzzzz....I´ve got tons of baking to do this week as I am attending a Christmas market on Saturday where I´ll be selling my baked goods for the first time. I hate baked goods from the freezer and feel there is a taste difference between JUST baked and baked and frozen...never the less I don´t have a lot of choice in the matter, some things will simply have to be baked and frozen or I´ll be doing nothing on Friday but baking until I have to go to my stand on Saturday and that just wouldn´t be good. I´ll post some photos of my baked goods as soon as I can....in the meantime, keep the faith!

Until next time my friends....

Oops...I Ate Dinner And Forgot To Take Pictures!

2011-11-25T21:56:00.001+01:00

My freezer challenge was on again today and we had the kebab meat (basically pork meat) that I had taken out of my freezer the other day along with iceberg salad, tomatoes, corn nibblets, onion, cucumber, and pita bread. It was so good....so good I forgot to take photos...I ate the whole thing and as the last bite was heading for my mouth I thought...OH SHIT....I was suppose to take photos of this!!! So.....please forgive me! Instead of photos of dinner tonight I´ll share with you a video from a song I love, sung by a Norwegian artist called Bernhoft (Jarle Bernhoft). Bernhoft was even on the ELLEN show! He is amazing and I love his soulful voice! This song is called Stay With Me...it´s gorgeous...

Take a listen and let me know what you think of him...but beware...this song will put you in a romantic mood...which isn´t good when you´re in Norway and your honey is in Brazil.....or where ever you are and your honey is ;-)

I bought a new plastic Christmas tree today and some decorations so tomorrow we´ll clean house and decorate. I have several days off and I need to use them wisely but I´m not very good at using my time wisely. I usually think I have so much time off and I´ll just rest today and get to things tomorrow and then nothing happens today or tomorrow! But I have to get better...I HAVE TOO! I am tired right now though...I feel it all over me..my eyes sting trying to stay open and I feel light headed...I´m not sick but exhausted...soon I´ll spend the weekend with my honey in Paris and celebrate our birthdays together, we´ll come home and have a wonderful Christmas holiday and I´ll be able to have time to relax and recharge. Right now though it feels like time is flying....anyone else feel that way?

Have a great Friday everyone!
Until next time my friends....

A Break In My Challenge And A Turkey On My Plate...

2011-11-24T18:59:00.001+01:00

Ok, tonight and tonight only I´ve taken a break from my challenge. It is after all Thanksgiving and while I was at the workshop for my job today I kept thinking about my family and friends in the states sitting down to a nice turkey meal with all the sides and deserts and while I was sad that I couldn´t be with them I was also thinking about how bad I am to take care of the traditions I´ve grown up with...just because I live in Norway. How in the world could I possibly have considered making kebab tonight instead of turkey? What was I thinking?

So after dinner I went to the store to find a turkey breast but found none that were not frozen. I did however find some turkey filets so I bought those. I had potatoes at home and brussel sprouts so I got a few things to make some stuffing or is it dressing? What is the difference between stuffing and dressing? Can anyone please explain that too me? Anyhoot...I had a can of pumpkin and well..before you knew it my Thanksgiving dinner at the last minute came about perfectly. While we made dinner Sarah had the Macy´s Thanksgiving Day Parade on live through earthcam.com! It was great and seeing Santa at the end of the parade signaled, as it has all the years I´ve watched this parade, that Christmas had finally begun...

Below you can see photos from our last minute Thanksgiving day dinner...

You can find the recipe for these brussel sprouts HERE. It´s super easy and super yummy!

For the stuffing, I chopped up a quarter of an onion, 2 stalks of celery, and 1.5 mushrooms and sauteed these in margarine in a frying pan. Added the last of my Roman Italian sausage chopped as well and then mixed this with my bread which Julia cubed for me. I added about 1.5 cups of chicken broth- just until everything was moistened and since I couldn´t find poultry seasoning and I didn´t have all the spices I needed to make my own poultery seasoning, I seasoned with garlic pepper, rosemary, and thyme, and onion salt. Bake at about 180C(375F) for about 30 minutes covered and then ten minutes without a cover. This could have probably stayed a little longer in the oven but we were hungry ;-)

We even managed to make Thanksgiving´s classic desert, pumpkin pie! Sarah made the pie crust and I added the pumpkin fill. I had a can of pumpkin mix which I just had to add evaporated milk too and 2 eggs then bake....voila...however, this Thanksgiving classic was met with mixed reviews by my darling children....

The kids did think that if there was enough cream on the pie then it was edible....they took it to the extreme...don´t ya think?

After dinner it was time to unbutton our pants and kick back and relax.......some of us didn´t have pants to unbutton but we kicked back and relaxed never the less...

Tomorrow my freezer challenge is back on..and since we didn´t have kebab tonight guess what we are having tomorrow ;-)

I want to wish all my friends and family and all of the people who visit my blog a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even if this holiday isn´t in your country...there is no reason not to give thanks in this day and age...we all have so many things we could be thankful for and there is nothing wrong with promoting this thankful feeling one day a year(at least)! So be happy and be thankful!!!

Until next time my friends....

Pasta Carbonara- Eventyrhus Style!

2011-11-23T22:05:00.001+01:00

For my third night in my freezer challenge I decided to take out some bacon I had in the freezer, some pasta from the cabinet, and make pasta carbonara. I didn´t use a recipe but put it together like this:

I cooked up 1 kilo of pasta in salted water. In another pan I had chopped fresh broccoli which I steamed. In another pan I fried up about a quarter of an onion and 2 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. I also fried up the package of bacon (about 6 slices) which I had cut into bite size pieces. I also found a little Italian sausage left from our trip to Rome which I thought could be wonderful in this dish...so I cut up about 5 slices of this into bite size pieces and put this aside. (Do not cook this).

The pasta is done cooking when it´s al dente. What is al dente? Something between mushy pasta and chewy pasta. You just have to test your way forth to what you will consider al dente. I put in about 50 grams of butter, the onions and garlic, one slightly beaten egg, and then some of the cheeses I bought in Italy....first Pecorini Cheese...similar to Parmesean but a little stronger taste...yum...

Then we will have to have a little parmesean cheese...

Mix this completely with the pasta and add about 3-4 tablespoons of whole cream (yeah, this isn´t a diet dish in case you haven´t already noticed that)..I don´t measure, I just pour in enough to get a somewhat creamy texture- not soupy but slightly creamy. Add the bacon and Italian sausage- mix and finally the broccoli. Season with garlic pepper and voila...Pasta Carbonara Eventyrhus!!

YUMMY YUMMY!!!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the USA. However, there is no turkey thawing in my fridge. There are no fresh baked pies in there either. I won´t be making homemade mashed potatoes or decorating a beautiful table and expecting family and friends to join me around it. No, tomorrow I´ll be attending yet another workshop for the project at work I´ve told you about The Incredible Years or De Utrolige Årene in Norwegian. I love those workshops but there is something about knowing across the ocean my family will be gathering together in Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Texas and eating a huge feast and giving thanks and I will be at work..in Norway and dinner tomorrow....I´ve taken out kebab meat...yeah...not exactly turkey but will have to do after a work day.

I´m hoping to catch the Macy´s Day Parade online here, after work tomorrow. I have watched this parade every Thanksgiving my whole life until I moved to Norway and then someone shared a link with me a year or two ago and I was able to finally watch it again. The end of the parade when Santa comes always signaled the beginning of Christmas and the weekend after Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas. Despite the lack of Thanksgiving dinner, I´ll still have the parade and I´ll still decorate for Christmas this weekend...and who knows...maybe I´ll even bake a pie this weekend in honor of Thanksgiving? If the Captain was here I´d make a pecan pie...his favourite...maybe I´ll make one anyways and think of him like I always do <3

I wish all my American friends and family the very best Thanksgiving...think of me when you´re eating your turkey, stuffing, cranberry salad, dinner rolls, gravy, mashed potatoes and countless pies and cakes and giving thanks for the loved ones in your life... I know I´ll be thinking of you!

Until next time my friends...

Freezer Challenge Tuesday Night Dinner :-)

2011-11-22T21:32:00.001+01:00

Tonight I decided to do something with breasts....Chicken breasts that is! I gathered a little inspiration HERE. Although I only had 6 cherry tomatoes in the house and didn´t feel like buying another basil plant only to have it wilt into a black dying mess after a couple days- if anyone knows how to keep the basil plant alive let me know, I´d love to have fresh basil but every time I buy one from the store it only lasts a few days. So instead of Chicken Breasts Caprese we will call these Chicken Breasts Eventyrhus....I was going to write Amy but don´t want to seem conceited ;-) hehehehe....

So here is what I did:

I started by frying up some red and yellow pepper in olive oil until they got a nice well done look to them...kinda like this....

Next, take your chicken breast and place some plastic wrap over the breast and then beat the crap out of it....ok....that´s a bit much isn´t it? But bang it flat with a cleaver or a rolling pin (I used the rolling pin) until it´s flat like a pancake. In the center put one piece of prosciutto a couple slices of fresh mozzerella cheese, and your peppers....kinda like this.....

Roll this baby up and lay her gently on an oiled frying pan bun. If you have toothpicks (I didn´t) then secure your chicken package with those...mine did fine by themselves!

Brush some of the best balsamic vinegar you have over the top of these and shake on a little pepper and salt. I used garlic pepper and fine sea salt. Below is the balsamic vinegar I used..

To be really honest, I didn´t pay attention to how long I cooked these...I just looked at the color on the outside and when I saw the juices running clear I took them off and plated them up with some jasmine rice and garlic roasted asparagus- YUM!!!

It´s amazing how easy this challenge is going...who would have known I had so many yummy things in the freezer? I probably knew but forgot...hehehehe....Ok, tomorrow I´m working so the challenge will be finding something quick and easy and yummy- wish me luck!

Until next time my friends....

Freezer Challenge Monday Dinner

2011-11-21T22:14:00.001+01:00

Tonight I took out some ground pork from the freezer and fried it up in a pan. Dinner tonight would be taco pizza, my own recipe! :-)

I thought I had some taco spice package here at the house but when I found out I didn´t, there was only one thing to do, make one from scratch with the following recipe, click HERE. To this I added some plain tomato sauce I bought once upon a time when I visited my favourite foreign store in Hamar. I put this on my pizza dough which I made with about 10 grams of fresh yeast, 4 dl warm water, 3 tbsp olive oil, and about 1kg flour- oh and 1 tbsp salt. Sprinkled on some corn which I admit I bought tonight...I know was going to use what I had in the house but I didn´t have any corn and the main point of the challenge is to use the majority of ingredients from my freezer and fridge- which I am doing! :-)

I topped this with a mild cheese (Norvegia cheese here in Norway) some onion and red and yellow pepper and then topped it with chili corn chips- which I admit I also bought tonight..

Now this pizza was child friendly, but feel free to load it up with whatever you would put on a taco, guacamole, jalapenos, you name it- be adventurous!
I baked this at 200C/400F for about 20 minutes.

Serve this with some garlic dressing which if you can´t buy it you can easily make with some garlic (dried- you could also use garlic pepper and that would be great) and sour cream!

A pretty tasty start to my freezer challenge if I do say so myself! Tomorrow I am eyeing some chicken in my freezer so stay tuned for day two in my freezer challenge!

Until next time my friends!!

The Great Freezer Challenge!

2011-11-20T15:36:00.001+01:00

The smarty pants here in the house seem to have this idea that I am pretty bad about using up things before I go out and buy more...and they aren´t that subtle about letting me know how they feel either...eh hem....

Now, I will admit that I do buy more then I need and seldom go to the store because my cupboards are bare. This comes from the early days in my marriage where we had NO money...I mean NADA...NUTTIN, INGENTING TING-E-LING! I use to watch the grocery store advertisements come in the mail with great sales; Everything 10 kroner! Buy one get one free! Yet, I couldn´t take advantage of those sales because we had nothing. I don´t regret being poor at that point. I made the sacrifice to be home with the kids and I don´t regret that but it sure made things really difficult financially. As money got better I would take advantage of those sales...whether I needed things or not...just because they were on sale and I could afford it.

When we moved to our present home, one of the perks was a big walk in fridge with enough room for two families monthly groceries. This is very nice obviously, especially when you are planning for some big occasion that you have all this space, it´s a luxury! However, food gets lost in there....

I´m serious, it goes in...and then it gets forgotten or it gets shoved to the back of the shelves, or hidden under new stuff that comes in....and when you finally grab yourself and say TODAY we will clean out the fridge, you discover all these lovely food items that have gone out of date, turned green, or grown fur...it´s really quite embarrassing to admit this. I´m by no means well to do and I don´t have money to just throw away like that but it´s a bad habit that I don´t usually think about until it´s too late. I also get terribly ashamed every time I read about starving children in Africa. I think they´d probably give anything to spend a day in my fridge and when I end up throwing out food I get so angry with myself for being so thoughtless.

However, I want to put myself through a challenge now. For an entire week I will attempt to prepare meals using what I have in my freezer and my fridge. I´ll have to buy some more milk through the week because my children drink milk like it´s water...at least the two youngest do. So while we should have a cow permanently stationed in that giant fridge in order to satisfy them, buying the 1.75 liter jugs, which is the biggest milk jugs we can get here in Norway, will have to do. However, otherwise I will challenge myself to use what we have here in order to make our dinners for the next week. Of course I´ll post what I make....maybe we can both learn something this week? I am of course a little leary about making this challenge because I am expecting a busy week and so I´ll have to plan ahead- not really a quality of mine- but I will have to learn! So to start us off, I´m going to share with you the last two meals I have made here...

The first was coconut shrimp.

Now this was ALMOST as guiltless as the recipe calls for...however, toward the end of the baking in the oven I thought it looked a little dry. So I drizzled one of my many olive oils over ever so lightly and the results was as you see above. I sereved this with pasta and a salad. YUMMY!!!

Sticking with the seafood theme, tonight I made a delicious creamy fish soup This recipe is only in Norwegian so if you don´t have a translation program that works let me know and I will send you the recipe in English :-) I made a few adjustments to this though, when I made the broth, I increased it with almost a half a liter. So this made about 1.2 liters of soup. I also used parsley flakes instead of Kjørvel which when I looked up the translation for this word, I found chervil...which I still had no idea what that was, so I looked up the word and this word chervil is a herb in the parsley family. So I figured I was good if I used parsley. I also used a half a regular onion vs. the leek (purre) and I added one boat of fresh garlic. YUMMY....I also used cod fish and salmon fish and shrimp in this. I was going to make a yummy homemade bread to go with this but I am at the end of the week and totally in a recharge my battery mode which means doing NADA today so I am ready for the week ahead of me. So I grabbed some garlic bread we had in the freezer! (Good girl Amy!!) This soup was fabulous and hit the spot on this grey and drizzly day...

Not sure what we will have tomorrow? Think I´ll have to take a look in the freezer and see what I can find. Stay tuned folks and have all your questions answered; Can she do it? What will she be making? Will it taste good? Will she have enough food in her freezer and fridge so she won´t have to shop for a whole week? Will she be able to last longer then a week? Will the kids like what she makes?....All these questions and some hopefully interesting recipes will be heading your way in the days to come....so hang in there...In the meantime, tell me- are you good about using up all the food in your fridge or freezer before you buy more? What is the scariest thing you´ve found lurking in your fridge or freezer that you totally forgot about???? Leave your answers in the comment form below!

Until next time my friends.....

Cookie Crazy!!

2011-11-12T09:42:00.001+01:00

I´ve got a problem. A Cookie problem. Look....

Do you understand my problem? DO YOU??? I mean, when I got a little dog, I told myself she was going to be a regular dog...I wasn´t going to spoil her, treat her any differently then my other dogs...no matter the size...but look at her...

It´s her fault...she´s so freaking cute, I´m helpless. I can´t even get mad at her even though she is the naughtiest little pup I´ve ever owned. She chews on everything, she finds things on my floor I never thought existed- and insists on chewing them and not giving them to me, and when she barks at the big dogs I can´t bring myself to tell her no, even though I know I should...and sometimes I can mutter a little, "No no little Cookie bumpkin...don´t do that!" I´m really giggling at how incredibly cute it is to see this pint size puppy take on my giant lion dogs...Cookie´s insistence that she WILL be friends with the big dogs, despite Nanna´s grumbles to stay away, get me all gooey inside.....I need help!!!

And there´s more....look what I´ve bought so far for her...

Alright, in my defence...I was told by her breeder I couldn´t leave her alone the first months...so what am I suppose to do? Not do anything the first months because I have to be with her? Or find a way to take her with me....ok....so I chose option number 2 and got the incredibly cute (according to my teenage daughter) doggy bag you see above. I´m also not suppose to take her on long walks in the beginning...however, I have five other dogs who would very much like a long walk...and I can´t leave Cookie...so what to do? Yeah, you get a doggy backpack like the one shown above the doggy purse...that way when she gets tired you plop her in there and keep on going...win win for everyone! UGH....but there´s more...

Clothing....I got her clothing....WHAT??? Why are you guys looking at me that way, she was cold....shivering actually, the other morning when I took her out to go potty after she had slept a whole night! (which she has done every night since I got her- lucky me!) I mean, shall I just let her freeze??? No, I think not....and this is Norway, it´s dark in the winter...very dark...almost all day long...she needed a reflex vest like the big doggies...so what do you think? Am I hopeless? Am I doomed? I feel like everything is out of control and all the things I promised myself I wouldn´t do I´m doing...but I feel like many of these things are justified, it´s not because I want to be a Gucci Mamma....really, I don´t...completely want to be a Gucci Mamma, maybe a little less country bumpkin but never a complete Gucci Mamma..;-)

Yesterday I was having some ladies over for a Tupperware party and so I was making food and Cookie was chillin´...

She can chill just about anywhere as you can see....isn´t that just sooo cute??? Ok ok, the food...I know the usual fare at tupperware parties is cakes...but this is me you´re talking too...it´s not every day I have visitors so when I first get a visit I have to go all out, especially if I have warning someone is coming! So I cooked up a yummy batch of CORN CHOWDER. I did mine slightly different as I didn´t have any onion in the house (I know, what the heck?? Isn´t that weird? Me with no onions in the house?? HUH??) Anyhoot...I did have some shallot onions, so I used about 12 of those. I also added some garlic because....well....ya just gotta have garlic...I used about 3 cloves finely chopped. The rest I pretty much followed and I actually bought fresh basil to put on top of the soup and then totally forgot when I served the soup...ugh!!! So mine looked like this...but if you remember the basil then yours can look like Sweet Pea´s....

I let this baby sit all day long on a low heat and as with any soup that is allowed to marinate for several hours...the flavors just became better and better. This is a simple, warm, and delicious soup for those cold winter days when you need something warm and filling in your stomach...I even think you could get small children to eat this as there isn´t anything really "weird" in it- bacon, potatoes, onion, and corn....how simple can life get???

Then we had to have some cakes or it wouldn´t be tupperware, right? So I went with a Brown Buttered Brownie...

Julia asked me if I used dark chocolate in these as she felt the taste was really strong and she didn´t like dark chocolate (you see it´s not just Cookie who is spoiled in this house)...the strong flavor probably comes from the browned butter which will give it a little more nutty flavor and there is a teaspoon of espresso powder in there...but I thought they were really good and am glad I don´t have to share that many with the kids...hahahaha...of course that´s not good news for my arse, I´m usually quite happy when my children devour whatever I bake so there is less for me...but once in awhile it´s ok to have the whole bunch for myself!! :-) I got that fancy doggy backpack now...I´ll grab Cookie and a couple leos and we´ll walk off these delicious little morsels....

I also made a yummy cheesecake I´ve made before...the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars.

Unfortunately or shall I say fortunately (for me) my kids are crazy about this one...so I don´t have to worry about finishing this one off...*puh*.....this time though instead of making my own caramel sauce, which you can do....I bought some and it worked just fine.

Cookie was a sweet girl and slept pretty much the entire time I was making food....

UGH....look at that cuteness...you´re weak too aren´t you? She has that power over everyone I think....and you think this is cute, you should see her run....ugh, if only I could run like Cookie, I wouldn´t have to cook food to get people to like me...they´d just be like..."Oh Amy, skip the cheesecake...just run for us girl...it´s so cute!" But nooooo.....so I guess I´ll stick to what works for me and Cookie can stick to what works for her and I´ll just have to accept that I´m doomed to spoil this baby...maybe I can try and balance it a little with sensibility and a little spoiling?? That might work? Ugh...who am I kidding??? I´m Cookie Crazy...ugh!!!

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone! Until next time my friends....

I Am Not Even Shocked Anymore But I´m Greatly Saddened

2011-11-04T11:02:00.000+01:00

We are creating a world which is becoming indifferent to things which years ago would have shocked us completely. Some people reading this might say that what I am about to show you isn´t shocking to them and never has been, it was part of their upbringing, what made them decent law abiding respectful people- but did it really?

What I want to show you is this:

This was in the newspapers here in Norway today. Dagbladet writes that county judge William Adams beat his then 16 year old daughter with a belt for downloading games and music from the internet. In the video, which is quite disturbing, it´s obvious this girl has placed a camera where she can capture everything that happens without her parents knowing. Both parents beat their daughter in the video and threaten her verbally. This is a judge who has handled several family abuse cases over the years.

I don´t know what is more disturbing to me, the fact that this girl filmed this, put it out on the net not right away but several years later after what sounds like yet another family argument for these people and the daughter now 23 finally decides to take revenge on her parents by posting this video. Another disturbing obvious fact is that these parents whose job it is to protect and nourish their child are beating her and threatening her which makes me wonder what do they think they taught her? Finally, if you go to the you tube video and watch this and then read the comments under, the mind set of some people is terrifying.

Now while I agree that many kids these days have lost respect for....so many things, not just their elders but so many things including themselves...is this because they aren´t beaten anymore or could it be because they are left to themselves, more now then ever before? I respect the fact that in this day and age most families must have both parents working and single families are facing the challenges they always have by having no choice as to whether the parent would be at home or out working, but there use to be whole families who would raise kids...loving neighbours who were home, kids weren´t left on their own like they are today. In our quest to have EVERYTHING and to have it with minimal investment on our own parts, children are being terribly affected by this ever growing trend. We want the kids but have no time to invest in them. We want Things and Things take precedence over teaching our children right from wrong, teaching our kids about love and caring, and respect and so many other important life qualities such as...dare I say it, common sense? ;-)

I can hear many of you squawking that I´m generalizing and that not everyone is like this and you´re completely right. There are exceptions to anything. That is why even those children who weren´t beaten growing up became decent law abiding people, that is why there are loving and caring kids today even with both parents working and no immediate family around. There are exceptions and THANK goodness for that! However, the trend is clear..the facts are clear...things aren´t getting better in our society, they are getting worse in general and we have to ask ourselves why and really take a moment to think about it and be honest about it. I´m not about to give you parenting advice or family advice, I´m struggling every day to make the right choices for myself and my family and I´m by far a perfect parent/human. However, I don´t think it´s right to hit anyone...I don´t think violence solves anything and unfortunately talking doesn´t always solve things either. Sometimes we just can´t see eye to eye about things and we have choices....I believe in choices. We all have them. We can choose to act upon our feelings, we can choose to talk about our feelings, we can choose to walk away from our feelings...it´s our choice. Animals often act upon instinct...they don´t stop up and think, "hmmm, I can either eat this antelope or wait for a juicy water buffalo instead" or "I´m going to chase this cat....or I could just let him pass by without bother"....animals DO.....but we humans....we can CHOOSE.

I get so angry when people tell me that they can´t change things because this is how they have been all their life or this is just how it is or some other excuse...we humans are full of excuses! We all have choices to change things we don´t like. Maybe we can´t change the world, but we can change the things around and in our own lives if we really want too. Unfortunately though, change takes effort which isn´t something people are willing to invest much of anymore...so the bottom line is...change, choices, they all come down to each individual, what you´re willing to do, what you´re willing to invest, what is really really important to you.

*Deep breath* puh...sorry for the deep subject today folks. It´s not often I get on my soap box and give a lecture but sometimes my pot of what I can handle in life gets full and I have to pour out some things so I don´t cook over...and this was one of those situations. Don´t worry...I´m still a happy go lucky gal who tries her best to be postiive 99% of the time. In fact, I´m positive this will be a great weekend, tomorrow we will pick up Cookie. Isn´t she just so scrumptious you want to eat her up???

I´ve promised Cookie´s breeder some cookies when we come to pick her up tomorrow...I just thought, I can´t pick up my Sugar Cookie without bringing cookies- that is after all what she is being named after...one of my most favourite hobbies, cookie baking! So today I´m making snickerdoodles and some double chocolate cookies to take with us tomorrow.

Our weather has been so grey and wet these last weeks that I find my mind wandering back to our family vacation in Rome...the warm days and nights, the sunshine on my skin...I love Norway but I´m finding the crappy weather harder and harder to deal with..but I keep trying..I mean, there has to be positives with weeks and weeks of rain and grey skies right?? Something...anyone think of anything???? No.....yup, I can´t think of anything right now either, but sure there is something!!

Have a great weekend everyone! Until next time....