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!