Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Lingonberry Tea

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Today we get all the vegetables and the greens we need, no matter how long, hard and strong the winter is. Life has not always been like that, and for generations seeking green during the snowy winter months was essential, a struggle.

An old Sami once told me a tale from his childhood. He and his siblings loved the long winters, loved to play in the white forrests from early morning till late night. Every day though, their old grandma came out, calling for one of them "find me some green tyttebær leaves, will you"

The tyttebær/lingonberries stay green all through the year, even deep down under the snow. The old Sami women used the green leaves to make "coffee".
Drinking it, her body was offered much needed vitamins and minerals. 

There is no snow around our cabin now, faced south, it easily melts in the sun. I gathered lingonberry leaves, put them in boiled water, making myself a mug of tea. Sitting down, reflecting on generations of foremothers.

I am proud to be the bead in my long chain.

 

 

Open letter to a grocery store king on Fat Tuesday

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Dear Ole Robert Reitan

Today is Fat Tuesday, and according to tradition I walk over to our local grocery store to buy salt meat and swede. In the store I find a quite good mixture of meat, but no salted one for my Fat Tuesday dinner.
A store employee passes by and I ask
"Do you have salt meat"
"I am sorry, if it not there we don't have any"
With a smile I continue: "But tomorrow is Fat Tuesday. How come you don't have any salt meat for the traditional Fat Tuesday dinner?

"Hæ?" (meaning WHAT)
"Fat Tuesday, tomorrow is Fat Tuesday and I plan to cook the traditional dinner with salt meat and swede"
"HÆÆ???"
"Fat Tuesday" I say once more.
"Fat Tuesday? Never heard of it"

 

In another grocery store, across the street, I find the meat I want.
Back home I call Ingrid and invite her, Marius and Marius' brother for Fat Tuesday saltkjøtt og stapp

 

 

Then I sit down and write an open letter to the owner of one of the few grocery chain stores in Norway, telling him that I can understand that an employee doesn't know much about food traditions. But as an owner of Rema 1000, one of the main food chains in Norway, I suggest that he should give his employees a course, and I invite him and those he wants to bring with him to The House in the Woods for a Fat Tuesday dinner.

 

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I have NOT hear a word back. 

 

 

 

 

 

The recipe book, and a giveaway because the day is so beautiful

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I guess we all have it, a handwritten book where we share our recipes.
The black currant marmelade your mother in law taught you to make.
The first meatballs you made as a newlywed.
The creamcake which is a must for every birthday and every Christmas.
The bread recipe you have known by heart for 40 years.
The special cake which was to die for when you ate it, you exchanged the recipe for tears, wrote it down, then you have never made it. 
The French roulé made by a visiting friend, recipe written down by her, in French!
Your mother´s krumkake recipe.

Yes, they are all there.

My old, worn, green recipe book, started when Terje and I moved into our first appartment. Followed us for almost 33 years.

In daily use.

I don´t need the recipe book any more. I know all the recipes by heart.
But is feels safe, comfortable, to have it with me when I bake, cook, plan a dinner, write a grocery list.

Today I am planning to buy a new fabric bound book.
Not for recipes, there is still room in my old one.

For menus.

 

Journal entries from dinner parties.
There are many of them in The House in the Woods.
And with this book I want to remember;
the guests, the flowers, the napkins, the starters, the main courses, the desserts,
the love and laughter,
the words.

 

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We are having house guests this week.
An Italian couple.
Last night they served us dinner.
Italian pasta
Delicious.

 

 

Do you have a recipe book which have followed you through your life, though every move?

Do you have a recipe to share?

 

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Because it is Saturday and because the day is beautiful, I am having a giveaway. An Icelandic handwoven bookmark.
Post a recipe, or a food tale in the comment section, and tomorrow I will pick a winner. 

Dinner for one

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Home alone does not mean only leftovers for dinner (though I must confess I do a great job trying to clean out the fridge.....which simply is NOT EASY when you are only one person)

But yesterday was NOT a day for fridge cleaning.

After work I walked down to the fishmarket to buy mussels.
I also stopped to buy some Californian white wine, which turned out to be almost impossible to get in Trondheim, "there is no demand for it" I was told. 
After visiting wine country and taking part in a wine tasting tour (stuff for another blog post), I really can´t understand why!

But back to my dinner.

Cook the spaghetti-
Fry garlic, leek and a shallot in a little olive oil. Add white wine. Steam the mussels, till they open. Just then, not before, not after, the spaghetti is perfectly al dente.
And even though it has rained all day, and will rain most of the night,
the sun fights away  the clouds, and give you a perfect hour on the terracce.

 
As there is a corner at the fish market where they sell cheese, I bought a French brie, and with strawberries and red currants from the garden,
I had the perfect dessert.

 

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How do you treat yourself to solo dinners?
Do you usually cook for one, or for a whole bunch?
Do you love mussels?

I haven´t decided yet what to have for dinner today, but as I will have my reading group here tonight I might simply skip dinner after work (which is when we eat dinner in Norway), and make a salad or something for the group.

 

Grocery Shopping

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House guests and dinner guests are expected to fill The House in the Woods the coming week. We went grocery shopping last night, Terje, Marta and I.
Grocery shopping is something I usually do once a day, on my way home from work. I have never been one of those who shops BIG once a week, making plans for what to eat when and so on. I am more of a "on the whim" person.......deciding on my way home from work what to make for dinner that day, and then almost always need to stop at the grocery store to buy what I am to use.

Most often I shop at our local grocery store. There I know where to find everything I want, there I can chat with those working, there I can take the groceries home with me even if I have forgotten my purse, my credit cards or my money.

Most often I am satisfied whit what I find in the shelevs in my local store. Fresh fruits and vegetables, though the variety could have been better. Fresh meat. I miss fresh fish, but visit the downtown fishmarket a couple of times every week, so get what I need there......and there I can also get a good variety of cheese.

There are times thogh that I miss living in a bigger place, are at least a place with a Whole Foods Market. Ingrid has discovered this chain online, and took us the huge one in Kensington when we were in London in February.

While in San Francisco we saw people with Whole Foods bags, and I asked Jane if they had these stores in Elk Grove.

They did not.
But thay did have something else!

A Nugget Market!

And on our last day in Elk Grove, Jane took us there.

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In Heaven´s Grocery Store Lane there must be a Nugget Market. Opposite the Whole Foods.
I am completely sure about that.

And as I plan to continue to cook in heaven, I will be a regular customer. 

Outside the store, in Grocery Store Land, I will sit down with you,
we will discuss recipes,
plan menues,
chat....

I will invite you over to my place for breakfast.

We will visit the store together

And I will take you to where they sell the most important breakfast ingredient.

The Norwegian Brown Real Goat Cheese.
Ekte Geitost

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Where is your favorite grocery place?
How do you buy your groceries?

Who is the cook, the chef in your household?

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This coming week there will be a food festival here in Trondheim.

I can´t wait to take you there. 

Do you know how to make rømmegrøt?

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Do you know how to make rømmegrøt?  Oh, you don´t even know what rømmegrøt is? Rømme is a sour cream, grøt is porridge.
Rømmegrøt is the taste of Norway. The taste of my childhood.

Grandma Olga used to make the world´s best rømmegrøt, and my mother follows her tradition.
I have learned from them both. 

We have a very simple kitchen at Rastarbo. Simple, but perfect for creating feasts.
This time the goal was a feast for two. 

 And believe me, rømmegrøt is a feast.
For two. For twenty. 

Start with a couple of boxes of rømme. Add white flour, heat and stir.

Stir well!

The combination of the stirring and the heating force the fat out of the cream. The fat is poured over in its own bowl, and will be used on top of the rømmegrøt before eating it.

When you have enough fat, add more white flour, and then milk, a little at a time. Stir well.

Let the porridge boil for at least 10 minutes before serving.

A grøtpinne is always served with the rømmegrøt, salt meat and flatbread, and why not a few sweet tomatoes.

The porridge is served with sugar, cinnamon, raisins and the fat you got from the boiled and stirred rømme.

Dinner is ready!

Some Italian sun in The House in the Woods

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Since I started to travel to Italy regularly, about 10 years ago, Italian cooking has influenced my kitchen. Olive oil, pasta, garlic, arugula, balsamico, a million different types of spaghetti, half a million different types of beans........

The most important things I have learned are:

- make it simple

- use fresh ingredients......always

- paint with a bright palette

Many of the best cooking tips have been learned by following Italian chefs in their home kitchen. (Italian chefs read ordinary Italians.)

Two friendly kitchens in Roma, Annamaria and Sheri

Feasting on Francesco´s asparagus

Guests in Mauro´s kitchen

Making soups in a Tuscany farm kitchen (I can´t believe I never actually blogged about it......)

The making of an Easter cake in Terracina

 

I could go on, and on, and on........

 

 Another way of learning is cookbook. Like the one I got in the mail a couple of weeks ago - The Tuscan Sun Cookbook by Frances Mayes.

I have loved Frances Mayes´books ever since Under The Tuscan Sun came, many, many years ago. Then Bella Tuscany, A Year in the Worldand the Every Day in Tuscany. I have one set at the cabin, one set at home.......and often eat a few pages while cooking.....woops, read, not eat of course. Though I read them like other people eat chocolate, craving, licking up every bit, can´t stop and so on.......

Yesterday, the day I opened The Greenhouse, and planted the first flowers out in the garden (too early for planting, I know, but I couldn´t wait any more) it was time for some Italian Sun in The house in the Woods. Flipping though The Tuscan Sun Cookbook my mouth started to water when I came to Ann Cornelisen´s PASTA with ARUGULA and PANCETTA. No pancetta, so bacon had to do.

And it did! The bacon I mean.

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Ingrid and Marius could smell my cooking from where they live, and came, so we were five around the table......licking up some Tuscan Sun 

 

The recipe? Easy! Simple!Perfect!

The magic dough

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Three best friends gathered for a birthday celebration. Perfect food served led us to talk about food, and more food. Which we did.

One of us had spent a February weekend in Firenze/Florence, and had managed to get some pizza dough secrets from a pizza chef there. How to keep the dough fresh for several days, in the fridge. ready to use when you want a pizza, or some other kind of bread.

This was something I wanted to try. As I also wanted to try the magic salad the hostess served. So Friday night Marta and I were both in for a treat. The magic salad and a foccacia. I made a double foccacia dough and put half of it in the fridge. Half of the half was used for a few pastries for lunch on Saturday, the rest was used for a pizza for one Saturday night.

The Firenze chef was right. The dough was perfect.....actually I used my own dough recipe, the one I always use for foccacia and pizza, but I treated it the Firenze way.

 The wet rain loves our part of the world so much, it has no plans to travel anywhere else. From the rest of the world we get tidings of sun, warmth, spring flowers, outdoor life. Up here, in the rain, we look at each other, trying not to listen, reassuring ourselves that this shower can´t go on for ever.

How I would have loved to eat my lunch outdoors yesterday. The broccoli soup. The pastries made from the Firenze chef´s secret pizza dough. The fresh water. Yes, believe me, we have enough fresh water to last a lifetime.

Well, an indoor lunch can always be made spring green........

 

 

Back in my kitchen

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With all the travelling and all the working I have done lately, I have almost forgotten what my kitchen looks like, or how to cook. 

I cooked an Italian birthday dinner last Sunday for the whole big family, and that´s about all. Until this weekend that is!

Now it is time to get to know my kitchen again. To look through the fridge, the cabinets and the drawers to see what is there, to make grocery lists, to go to the fish market, to plan the menues, to open a bottle of white wine bought at the taxfree in Madeira, and finally start the foccaccia dough.

With the dough raising on the counter, it was time for the paella. Olive oil, garlic, leek and onion braising, filling the whole House in the Woods with the best smell there is.

Adding rise.

Stirring.

Then water, a little at a time, white wine. Keep on stirring. Sipping a little wine. Tasting a shrimp.......I must make sure that they are good, of course I must.

Salt, pepper, the dark yellow paella spices, bought in Spain by a colleague.

 

Frying some white fish.

On an impulse pouring some white wine from my glass over the fish.
Creating magic.

Just as the foccaccia was ready from the oven, the paella was perfect for serving.

Terje had already come down from his first floor studio, drawn by the smell, and had set the table. I hastily put together a green salad, filled a small bowl with black olives, and hocus pocus........Saturday night dinner was ready.

Even with a starter - marinated scampi.

Marta, her friend Elisabeth, Terje, me......candles, roses.

 

Home is where the heart is. Where the heart is, is where it is good to be.

East, west, home is best.

 

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On the menu today.........a vegetable soup (I found too many "almost not fresh any more" vegetables in the fridge), and then Shepherd´s Pie.

From The House in the Woods I am wishing you a blessed Sunday

Skrei, the Norwegian miracle

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Once a year a miracle happens up along the northern coast of Norway. Some time during January till March, millions of Arctic cods find their way to their sprawning fields along the coast. This ready to sprawn cod is called skrei.

This year is a very good year for the skrei. Skrei from Lofoten is sold at Ravnkoa, the fish market here in Norway. I stopped there after I had finished my Saturday morning walk yesterday, and when I saw the fresh fish on the counter, surrounded by cod roe, cod liver and cod tongues, I knew a party was on its way.

 

So last night was a skrei party night in The House in the Woods.

Skrei, roe and tongues boiled in salt water, liver and onion diced and cooked in a frying pan. Potatoes and carrots. Flatbread.

Seven around the table, and we ate till we were completely stuffed.

The miracle of the Norwegian skrei.

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A link to a very informative article about the skrei

Last year´s dinner for two