Going to the Movies

We went to the movies last night to see Law Abiding Citizen with Jamie Foxx - which we really liked. We have been to the movies several times in Norway but I thought I would share some of the differences with you.

• A regular movie costs the equivalent of $20 USD. A premiere weekend the movie is more like $25.
• Most movies don't make it here for at least 2 months after they premiere in the US- there are some exceptions to that rule - some movies come out here the same week as the US but others never will make it here.
• All movies are subtitled - which can be funny since I can read the subtitles and realize the translation is not correct. It can also be annoying since the subtitles can move faster then the dialogue so the Norwegians are laughing during the punch line which you miss....
• Some movie theaters are large like you expect the US, but not all of them. The theater last night was tiny- it had maybe 40 seats and we swear our media room at home screen was just a large.
• You can reserve seats in advance which we thought we might hate but it makes it is nice (if you plan ahead) because you don't have to arrive early to get a good seat. But it also means you almost always have to sit right next to someone.
• You can bring in your own drinks, candy and snacks - which I love. Last night we sat next to a couple who had grapes- that is a great example of Norwegian snacks. We could also smell people eating oranges! Weird.

Speaking of Norwegian snacks- Jason had people at work tell him raisins are "treats" and they only allow their children to have them on Saturdays. We have had a similar experience with yogurt - they treat it like ice cream for their kids. It is a strange phenomena here.

Cookies

I was in a Christmas cookie mood so I made some Ginger Lemon Pinwheels on Sunday. There were time consuming since the had to be chilled three separate times but they turned out better then expected. They had a nice flavor - somewhat unexpected. Here is the recipe. Though I had to substitute maple syrup for molasses since that is not something you can buy in Norway.

After these cookie I prepared the dough for Gingerbread Men and chilled it until Tuesday when Jason and I had some time to bake and decorate. The cookie dough turned out really nice but we had never decorated before so that was more of a challenge.

Here is my tray of decorated of cookies

Here is Jason's tray of decorated cookies

Sweden Run

We made our last run to the Swedish border town to stock up before the winter. We buy canned soda, frozen chicken, bacon and Jason's favorite, chocolate covered banana chips. Here is our loaded chart!

We also had a nice lunch and enjoyed the snow. All the snow has melted in Trondheim since it has been "warm". It has been quite a different start of winter from last year. Last year this time we had several feet of snow, had been cross-country skiing and were shoveling the drive several times a week. This year - nothing!

Chocolate Babka and Darkness

Today I made Chocolate Babka which a twisted bread filled with chocolate and/or cinnamon - popular in Jewish culture. I had two recipes to choose from (my new book or Cooking Light) and I went with the light version. Here is the recipe. I struggled a bit with this one since the recipe calls for using a stand mixer (which I don't have here) and bread flour. Bread flour doesn't quite translate - I ended up with a type of bread flour but it was a lot grainer then the US type so this had more of a bite to it then I expected but it was yummy! Even with my complications I was pleased with the result.

After rolling out the dough - you add the layer of sugar and chocolate

After being baked

The inside - yummy!

As I mentioned last time - I have been waiting for the snow. We did get a dusting on Saturday which was great Christmas tree decorating weather. That didn't last too long but this morning we woke up to about an inch of fresh snow! Yeah! The snow is great because we are down to about 5 hours of sunlight a day- here is a picture out our back door of the sun setting at 2:35pm today!

Holiday Foods

Thanksgiving is a bit sad overseas- you have to work, nobody knows about it and the food just isn't quite the same (though we try hard). We had a potluck dinner with some American friends and it was a very nice evening. Since this is the time of year that food is really special I thought I would share some traditional Norwegian holiday food with you.

First we have the infamous Lutefisk (pronunced lutafisk). This is a very strange food - it starts as dried cod that is reconstituted in a water and lye solution which changes the consistency of the fish into jelly. At this point the cod is caustic and can't be eaten so they have to soak it in water for a week to make it edible. It is eaten at least once during the holiday season and is typically covered in bacon and mushy peas. They also suggest a shot of Aquavit (Norwegian liquor) before you consume it. We have tried it and neither of us was impressed to say the least.

Yummy fish jello!

That is not mashed potatoes - it's lutefisk

The next is Ribbe which is basically pork ribs- sounds okay right? Wrong - they eat the fatiest part of the rib - the best part to them is the fat and they get the exterior fat layer good and crispy. Ribbe is usually eaten on Christmas Eve but you can get it at most places starting at the end of November - even at Ikea.

Check out that fat!

Last we have Pinnekjøtt - which translates as stick meat. It is a rack of lamb that is salt cured then dried outside for weeks. It then has to be soaked in water to reconstitute it - after that it is steamed in a pan with birch twigs. The final product has very little meat and lots of bone/grisle. This is usually eaten on Christmas day but again you can find it everywhere including Ikea.

Makes me so grateful for turkey and honey baked ham!!

Apple Cider Muffins

I got a new cook book in the mail last week and I think it will be my new staple for baking. It is called The Craft of Baking and this is the first attempt at the recipe from it. Today we have Apple Cider Muffins and boy are they good. A little more work then normal apple muffins but well worth it - they have apple cider, sour cream, shredded apple, three types of sugar and some cinnamon! If you are dying to have the recipe email me (or leave a comment) and I can type it out for you but there are no internet links for these recipes.

As a side note- there is no snow yet. It is cold and dark so I am waiting for the snow to make it better (like a true Norwegian!) but nada yet. Today it is about 33 degrees and raining.....and we are down to less than 6 hours of sunlight and it's fading quickly....come on snow!

And last but not least- click here for one of the top news stories in Norway right now. If only this was the biggest problem everywhere....good for a few laughs for various reasons.

Norwegian CPR

Yesterday I had to take an all day First Aid and CPR class for school. It was pretty funny for me considering I taught those classes in the US for years. The information was mostly good but there was very little practice of skills which is unlike the US version. The class was taught by the same company that delivered our furniture....strange combination of services if you ask me. The funniest things from the day:

• A burn in Norwegian translates as "fire injury" - we had to teach the instructor the word burn
• Diabetes in Norwegian translates as "sugar sickness"
• Heart attack translates as "heart sickness" - we thought he meant heart disease but after some questions we realized he did mean the actual attack
• They have 3 emergency numbers here (which I knew) - you call 110 for Fire, 112 for Police and 113 for Medical Emergencies. We asked our instructor (who is a paramedic) about how dispatch etc works here- he told us the phone will never be busy since 113 has 4 phone lines- what? Four phone lines- that is all they need? - can't wait until they have some catastrophic event

**I have uploaded some new photos to the "Newest Photos" Album on the right hand side**

Melting Moments Cookies

I was in a "Christmas-y" mood so I thought I would try some holiday type cookies. I decided on "Melting Moments" which are basically Mexican Wedding Cookies/Russian Tea Cakes without nuts (for Jason). They turned out yummy! I had a hard time with the first batch getting the powdered sugar just right but I finally found my method- rolling them in sugar instead of dusting them. I think I might make them with my students for holiday cooking in December. Here is the recipe I used if you are interested - it comes from a cool baking website!

And look out- at the store today I bought cookie cutters for gingerbread! They call it pepperkaker here and it is a big deal so I am excited to try my hand at it soon. Speaking of the store- I went grocery shopping today and took back our coke bottles. I had been lazy about taking them back so I had quite the collection- 38 to be exact. That got me almost $20 in return fees! Talk about a reason to recycle - but then again I paid the amount to start for the bottles!

Chocolate Shortbread and Chocolate Fudge Pie

I have been quite busy substituting in the past two weeks since everyone in Norway seems to have the Swine Flu. But I have squeezed in some baking - last week I made Chocolate Shortbread since I had all the ingredients on hand. They were pretty easy to make but not my favorite thing.

Chocolate Shortbread

This week Jason's boss from the US was in town for some project meetings so we had him over for dinner on Wednesday. It gave me a great excuse to cook. I made focaccia from scratch along with a Chocolate Fudge Pie. Here is the recipe. It turned out really good. I had to make the pie crust as well since you can't just go out and buy that there. After you cook the fudge part it has too cool before you add the whipped cream. It was actually even better the next day!

Right out of the oven

After it was "dressed"

Right before a bite!

The Most Expensive Car Wash

I needed to wash the car today since Jason has to shuttle his boss and others this week. I went to a drive thru at the gas station. Cheapest wash was $30! The cashier first offered me the $50 car wash- can you imagine paying that much at a drive thru place at the gas station? Well I sucked it up and paid $30 and drove in for my 2 minute car wash. Jason is thinking about quiting his job and starting a car wash business!

"Roo" take 2

As I was loading the audio for the last post I found out the the dogs will "roo" along with it. It was too funny so I got a video to share. Here it is - first few seconds or so is just me playing the audio from the last post then they join in. Notice what a lazy boy Dopler is?

"Roo"ing

"Roo"ing is a term for the singing that greyhounds can do. Some dogs do it when they are with others or when they hear other dogs. Our two dogs don't really roo, so we thought. I have been feeling sick so for the past two days I have slept in and Jason has taken the car to work. Each morning about 15 minutes after Jason leaves I can hear the dogs down in our foyer beginning to whine then "talk" then they full on "roo"for 2-3 minutes. Yesterday I tried to get my camera but they heard me which ended the singing but today I was prepared and caught this on tape. So here you go the "Sad Songs of Dopler and Stretch" (there is no video just sound).

I have actually heard them do this before on similar mornings. We wonder if they do it everyday after we leave? I hope not but who knows. Just another reason apartment living is not in our future :) Today I let them continue and after a minute or so they stopped and Dopler came back upstairs to his bed. When I came out from the bedroom he was calm and then Stretch ran upstairs too. We think Dopler is the instigator and Stretch is the harmonizer. Too funny!

Berlin- Part Zwei

Friday was once again cold and rainy. We headed to the outdoor exhibit called "Topography of Terror" which stands on the ruins of the Gestapo Headquarters. The exhibit is mostly photos but you can see a long section of the wall and the basements of the buildings, which is where the interrogations took place. It was interesting but very cold. After that we headed inside for some lunch at an American Diner themed place that had football on! After warming up we went to tour some old bomb shelters but when we got there we found out the English tours were done for the day. Then we wandered a bit - we tried to see the Berlin Cathedral but it was closed for some unknown reason. We headed to Alexanderplatz which was the main shopping area in East Berlin. We checked out the Galeria Kaufhof which is a huge department store and I got a cool new watch! We did some other wandering to see various buildings like the city hall etc then we went back to a huge new mall and wandered that for awhile. We really do miss shopping or just wandering a mall since we don't really have them here. We got some Jack Wolfskin items which we discovered is the "it" outdoor outfitter in Germany. Then we headed back to Potzdamer Platz for a quick dinner of leberkäse (yum!) and a movie in English with no subtitles. We saw District 9 and were pretty impressed.

Large section of Berlin Wall still standing at the Topography of Terror exhibit

Berliner Dom (Cathedral)

Jason with a Jeff Koons sculpture - we hate him- he ruined Versailles for us

Saturday we went back to the underground museum for our English tour. It was 90 minutes and very interesting. We toured one of the few remaining bunkers in Berlin as it was left in 1945 (and subsequently looted). The tour included several rooms and lots of information. I think it was one of the most interesting things in Berlin. After that we headed back down to the heart of town and had a nice lunch of the famous "Currywurst". Jason wasn't a huge fan but I thought it was pretty good.

Our lunch appetizers- beer and pretzels

After lunch we braved the line at the Reichstag - which was 90 minutes - to go up to the dome for a great view of the city. The views were nice but it had been raining so the pictures didn't come out very well due to the water on the dome windows. It was interesting for many reasons but the Reichstag is home to the Parliament and over 3 million people tour it every year since it is free to go to the dome. Can you imagine that happening in the US now?

View from the dome of the Reichstag

Later that evening we had a very nice dinner at Oscar & Co. Jason had an amazing potato soup I am going to try to recreate as some point. Then we went to see the Blue Man Group. It was a great end to our week.

Jason with a Blue Man - they even talked to him!

Berlin - Part Eins

The theme for Berlin was COLD. We were cold, it rained and it was windy but we had a very nice time. I think we would have had a better time if the weather was a little warmer or drier. We were interested in how we would like Berlin since we had heard mixed reviews from others. My conclusion was that I liked it but I could see how others might not. It is a big city and very modern – you aren’t going to turn every corner and see some cool old building. Old buildings don’t exist in many parts of Berlin due to WWII. What struck me the most was how much construction has happened in Berlin in my lifetime and really in the last 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down. This is was Potsdamer Platz looked like in 1950 after the war and it belonged to East Berlin.

This is what it looks like now

So back to my recap. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and made it to our hotel after a few train and subway transfers. We checked in then took the subway into the heart of Berlin – called Mitte. We walked to the Brandenburg Gate and saw the spot where the Berlin Wall once stood. We walked over to the Reichstag but it was too cold to stand in line to go to its dome (plus the dome was closed for cleaning) so we wandered down the street to the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial is interesting and artsy (just 2700 concrete blocks) – under the memorial is the museum about the Jews that were murdered- it was interesting. It was getting late so we wandered to Potsdamer Platz (which is very confusing) and saw some Wall sections and then ate dinner at a great Asian place in the mall – ordering was an adventure but we finally got there!

Brandenburg Gate

Holocaust Memorial

Berlin Wall Marker - it used to run down this street between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate

Day Two included a late wake up and more rain so we headed to the museum island. We saw the Deuthscher Dom and Frazosischer Dom on the way then ended up at the famous Pergamon Museum. After waiting in the line in the rain we finally made it inside and were in awe. The museum focuses on classic Greek, Roman, Babylonian and Islamic art, which includes some massive pieces. The first being the Pergamon Altar which is HUGE then there is the Market Gate of Miletus which is HUGE and the zenith was the Ishtar Gate which is HUGE and pretty amazing. The rest of the collection is nice as well J After lunch and some leisurely window shopping we headed to Checkpoint Charlie – we toured the museum there, which was super crowded but very informative. We spent quite a while there, it was interesting to learn more about the history of the wall and all the things that people did to escape East Germany. We then headed to dinner in the Scheunenviertel part of town, which was more “hip” and we found a nice place to get a beer and schnitzel, which we were craving! More to come on the rest of our Berlin stay.

Checkpoint Charlie

Dresden

We took a great 2.5 hour train trip to Dresden, which is the capital of Saxony in Germany. We had our own compartment, which was nice, and we got our passports checked by German police - that may be the first time in about a year! Our hotel was right next to the very modern train station. After we checked in we headed into the heart of the city to explore since we are only here for the night. We had a good stand up lunch in the town square that consisted of bratwurst, fries and an unidentified patty.

Dresden is famous for the fact that it was almost completely demolished by the Allies in 1945 - almost 100,000 people were killed. The pictures of the destruction are amazing and the town has done a great job rebuilding; mostly in the last 30 years since it was part of East Germany. The most beautiful building to be rebuilt was the Frauenkirche which reopened in 2005. We wandered for a while until we were caught in a huge hailstorm! We then checked out the “New Green Vault” which is a museum of beautiful yet strange artifacts and art collected by the Germany Empire. It includes lots of ivory and some other interesting things including a cherry pit with 185 faces carved into it! For dinner we had tapas and sangria then went to the local mall to get dessert, which ended up being very fancy and delicious! We walked back to the hotel through the shopping district- I saw a TK Maxx (same as TJ Maxx) and was very excited- same place but not the same type of clothes (sad!). The next morning we had a great breakfast in the train station and headed off to Berlin on a two hour train ride.

Frauenkirche

The storm coming directly for us! This the the rive Elbe.

One of the many pretty views of the architecture - this is the Residenzschloss

Our very fancy dessert! We love Germany!

Prague

We arrived in Prague Saturday morning around 9:30. We got to our hotel, which was in a great location, then we wandered for a while until Kenney and Ou arrived around 1pm. It was so great to see them! After lunch we spent the afternoon wandering the city – unfortunately it was raining (which ended up being the theme of the trip) but we saw a good bit. Our wandering included Old Town Square, Powder Gate, and the Church of St James, which has a 400 year old amputated hand of a thief hanging inside the door. We then walked up the Old Town Bridge Tower for some nice views of the city. Dinner was a traditional meal of goulash and either potato dumplings or pancakes. Ou and I both decided the pancakes where the best since the dumplings were weird.

Old Town Square

View from Tower Bridge

Sunday we saw Prague Castle, which is the largest ancient castle in the world. I think we were all a little disappointed with how expensive the castle was to tour and how relativity uninteresting it was but parts were very pretty. The most impressive part was St Vitus Cathedral, which was started in 1344, but most of the church was finished in 1953 but you would never know that from looking at it. Lunch was a great traditional meal with good beer. The Jasons had potato dumplings stuffed with smoked pork and I had a smoked chicken leg with my favorite potato pancakes. After lunch we wandered in the Mala Strana section of the city, which is near the castle and back over the famous Charles Bridge which was under construction so we couldn’t take in it’s entire beauty. Dinner consisted of delicious fried dough covered in Nutella and later a drink in a café with a crepe.

Our Nutella "dinner"

St. Vitus Cathedral

Monday we went to the “new town” and saw the dancing building and Wenceslas Square, which is where the end of communist rule was announced in 1989. Then we headed back across the river to explore Mala Strana again. We had some sun so we decided to check out the Petrin lookout tower, which looks like a mini Eifel tower. We had lunch at a decent Mexican place then headed to the funicular railway to go up the hill- unfortunately for us the funicular was closed for repairs so we hiked. We had some very nice views over the city but it started raining. We finished by walking back toward the castle – we stopped for some ice cream to escape the rain and ended up talking in that café for at least an hour. We finished up our shopping then headed to dinner in the town square- we had smoked sausage in the rain.J After some rest we headed back out for some dessert and good conversation.

Tuesday we parted ways with Kenney and Ou (sad). They headed to Munich then to Frankfurt and we headed to Dresden then Berlin via train.

Overall Prague was very nice but I think we had very high expectations based on all that we heard so we might have been let down a little there. The city is pretty and well kept- the people were nice and the food was good (at least in comparison to our Norwegian world). The best part for us was seeing good friends and spending time with them! Check back for more about the rest of our trip to Germany…I will add some more photos to our "new photos" album on the right side in a few days as well.

View over Prague

Snow? Really?

We have seen a few snowflakes in the past few days at our house. It even snowed for about 20 minutes the other day but it rained right after so there has not been any snow sticking. We woke up this morning to snow on the ground. It was just a dusting but still - really! It is only early October! Here is what we had today.....

This will be the last post for awhile since we are off to Prague, Dresden and Berlin on Saturday. We are super excited to see our friends Kenney and Ou in Prague and to escape Norway for a week! Luckily we have nice friends who will stay in the house to watch Dopler and Stretch so we don't need to kennel them.

Pumpkin Bread

Well today's cooking didn't go quite as planned. I wanted to make a light version of one of my favorite things- cannolis. The recipe called for phylo dough but to my surprise I couldn't find it - not even at Ultra, the fancy grocery store! So I had to go with a backup that included things I had on hand. Pumpkin bread it is - which I really like and I think it is such a great autumn food but Jason doesn't like pumpkin so he will be out of luck today. I made two loaves one with chocolate chips and one without so maybe he will be able to stomach the one with chocolate chips :) The loaf with chocolate chips may have had a wee bit too many which made it heavy and therefor it stuck to the pan. It didn't come out pretty but it sure tasted good!

Here is the recipe - I made it with less oil and real eggs (since egg substitute doesn't exist here) and I made it without the nut topping. I added about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of chocolate chips to the second half of the batter before adding it to the last pan (but you may want to add less since it didn't come out too well for me). Another good cooking fact- you can only buy canned pumpkin at the fancy grocery store and it costs about $6 a can!

Fresh out of the oven

My not so pretty chocolate chip loaf!

The plain loaf

The test pieces - yummy!