@brittarnhild
A dear friend sent me a message: "I have been given a lot of mackerels. There is more than I can eat. Do you want some?"
Of course we wanted some, and the next day she turned up at our front door with six fat, big mackerels. Five were put in the freezer, one was left in the fridge to be used the next day.
Fish, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, beets, sour cream. I checked the kitchen before going to work the next morning. Yes, everything was there, I did not need to do any grocery shopping on my way home from work.
I love cooking dinner, and as I am almost always home from work before Terje, I have dinner ready when he arrives. I took the fish out of the fridge, and then.......I knew I had a challenge. The fish still had head and tail and offals. What was I to do? I have prepared fish a million times, but either bought from the fish market or the grocery store, or if I had fished it myself, Terje has always been there to clean it for me.
Well, a woman is a woman, I told myself, found the sharpest knife I had and started working.......
.......and it worked perfectly well.
Soon the fish was frying in the pan, and when Terje came home a little later, the first thing I heard him say was: "Mmmmmm, what is this lovely smell?" I beamed.
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In old times advent was a period of fasting. Eat less in preparations for the coming holidays. If you come to Norway in December today, you might wonder if it is a month of eating the most you can. A kind of competition to stuff yourself, kind of prepare your body for all the food you know Christmas will bring. We are trying to make advent a more simple period of the liturgical year of the church. We are not vegetarians, but eating less meat, more fish and seafood and vegetabels, is one way we live.
Mackerels from a friend made a perfect addition to our advent menu.
And I´ve dome something I´ve never done before.......I´ve removed the offals of a mackerel :-)
By the way, next time I will boil the head and use the stock for a fish soup.
