Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

@brittarnhild

 

@brittarnhild

@brittarnhild

A time for every purpose under heaven

@brittarnhild

As I sat there, icefishing, my only companions the snow, the frozen lake, the sun, the air, the silence, I knew that time is NOW to give Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods a break.

Short or long?
I don´t know yet.

 

But the break will end, eventually, and the door will again open up.

 

Winter vacation

@brittarnhild

We have been up in the mountains for a few days on a mini winter vacation. Internet was too slow for blogging. I´ll be back with a proper post tomorrow.

 

The twelve coffee cups

@brittarnhild

Half of my colleagues are men, the other half are women. From time to time we women decide that we want to meet after work to have some fun together (we also meet with the men, but that´s another tale), and several times we have ended up in The House in the Woods, cooking together, eating together. Long time readers of my blog might remember that some years ago we met to make spaghetti vongole, then a couple of years ago we made Cuban food using recipes from a cookbook by Cecilia Samartin. Yesterday it was time to meet again.

For the moment a young woman from Ethiopia works in our office, and we invited her to teach us to make Ethiopian food.

 

There were seven of us last night, and for two full hours we cut vagatables, we cut meat and grinded ut, we cooked, we braised, we made our own cottace cheese from milk, we laughted, we talked and we became more and more hungry.

 

 7 women working for two hours.
That´s 14 hours!

"I am so sorry" our Ethiopian friend said, "that we don´t have more time. This is Ethiopian fast food!"

 

When the food was ready, before we sat down to eat, our friend changed clothes. "My mother made me this for Christmas. It is all handmade. She also made similar outfits from my husband and for our two year old daughter"

 

After the meal it was time for the traditional coffee seremony. You remember the traditional Ethiopian coffee seremony from my visit to Ethiopia, don´t you.

Our friend spread a green cover on the wall, to resemble fress grass. On a small table she put out 12 tiny coffee cups, she filled a clay pot with strong Ethipian coffee, she sat down on a low stool, invited us to sit around her in a circle and served us coffee. And popcorn. Ethiopians always eat popcorn with their coffee.

 

"We are only seven women here, so why do you have 12 cups?"

"A good question. From old times the coffee seremony is a religious riual. The 12 cups are the 12 diciples. The pot is Jesus. The coffee poured from the pot is the tales Jesus told the diciples. When we drink the coffee it is the gospel spread throughout the world"

 

Coffee will never be the same again.
From now on it will be a word from Jesus.

 

 

Shrove Tuesday

@brittarnhild

It is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, feittirsdag, Fat Tuesday......or, what do you call today? The day before Ash Wednesday and Lent? Today´s traditional dinner in The House in the Woods is salt pork and mashed root vegetables.

It is so easy to celebrate the happy feastday. The days when we do something extra.....because we deserve it. We always deserve something extra, don´t we?

But what about the other days. The days of Lent. The days of sharing.
The days to do something for others.....because they deserve.

 

Ever since I wrote the book about Lent, it has been my mission to live Lent, to live simple. To take care. To pay forward.

 

I wonder where this path will take me this year.

The road less travelled.

 

 

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In Blåklokkeveien yesterday I shared a moment at a museum in Brussel, a museum where I went to see Peter Bruegel´s paintings. While googling Shrove Tuesday today I came over another Bruegel painting -
the fight between carnival and lent

 

He got the point Bruegel.
It is a fight,
and I hope both of them win

a time for everything

 

Sprouts and food travel tales

@brittarnhild

While the first sprouts are up in the kitchenwindowsill I am writing the first memory food travel tale in Caffe Avec.

 

The soup with two colours

@brittarnhild

It was in Berlin we tasted this double soup for the first time. We had spent a long morning in the museums and then climbing the top of the Berlinerdom. We were cold and hungry and when this soup came to our table in the small café where we finally sat down for a late lunch, it tasted like a kiss from heaven.

On our last day in Berlin we took our friends to the same café. The setting was all the same, the soup was all the same, though, still yummy, the heavenly kiss was not there anymore. Well, heavenly kiss or not heavenly kiss, I loved the soup and decied I would try to make it at home.

Which I finally did yesterday, on Valentine´s Day.

The red soup is made by beetroot, red onion, salt and pepper, the white one of califlower, leek, garlic, salt, pepper and vegeta.

In two different pots I boiled the vegetables and water for 15-20 minutes, then blended the vegetables and the water with a handblender. Make sure you don´t use too much water. The soups are meant to be thick and creamy.

Taste and add more pepper if necessary.

Tada.........the soup is finished and the Valentine kiss ready to digest ;-)

 

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I have written several food and travel tales lately here. I think it is time to move them over to Caffe Avec.......and hopefully there will be more there in the future.

 

 

Funny Fruit

@brittarnhild

Buying fruit and vegetables in any Norwegian grocery store is often a quite boring task. All the apples have the same size, the califlowers are tightly wrapped in plastic, the carrots look like they are shaped in a mold. They tell us it is because of the EU standards. When you buy a potato you shall know its size before arriving in the store, if the apples are too small, people will not buy it.......at least that´s what "they" say. Tons of fruits and vegetables are thrown away in Europe every year because of this. Can you believe it!

   

One of the grocery store chains, and lucky for us, the one closest to our home, Bunnpris, is about to change this. They are trying out a concept they call Snål frukt & grønt, Funny Fruits & Greens.

Small red onions, funny carrots, swedes in all shapes.

 

All of a sudden buying groceries at Bunnpris is almost as fun as buying groceries in India.

I visit the Snål frukt & grønt corner every time I buy groceries.
My kitchen fills up with healthy, fresh food,
and I am trying out new recipes.

Lent starts next week, and I am looking forward to cook with Funny Fruit.

Funny Fruit which is told to be at least 30% cheaper because of its funny shapes!

We live in a crazy world.

 

The three first photos are from our local Bunnpris store, the others are from the baazar in Mysore, India, where I am buying fruits and vegetables with Sheri, my mamma India´s daughter.