More photos of Gingerbread House 2.0. We are a family of Starbucks addicts (got a $100 gift certificate at Starbucks as Christmas present), so it was only fair and square that we built a little Starbucks coffee shop as the family gingerbread house. A Christmas-y Starbucks with a touch of Hawaii by adding a small fruit market outside. I am quite pleased with the result (and yeah, we totally cheated on the whole logo-thing, looks a lot better this way I think).

NOW, it is time for breakfast and then we’re moving locations from Honolulu to Oahu’s North Shore and Turtle Bay Resort. The next week will be all beaches, scuba diving and surfing. A *real* vacation in other words.

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When it was mid-day, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a bough, which sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it. And when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away before them, and they followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of which it alighted; and when they approached the little house they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar.

“We will set to work on that,” said Hansel, “and have a good meal. I will eat a bit of the roof, and you Gretel, can eat some of the window, it will taste sweet.” Hansel reached up above, and broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted, and Gretel leant against the window and nibbled at the panes.

Then a soft voice cried from the parlor:  ”Nibble, nibble, gnaw, Who is nibbling at my little house?”

***

Me and my roommate decorated gingerbread houses today. Mine is the white one. She chose the cozy version, while I opted for fanciness (and failed). But in retrospect they look quite cute sitting on top of the bookshelf. Let’s hope they do not contain evil witches that come out at night and eat little children. That would be sort of awkward. DO YOU REMEMBER last year when me and my sisters built Gingerbread Hogsmeade?

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Two of my cupcakes *proud*

I was invited to decorate and eat cakes and cupcakes by the sweet Manuela from the blog Passion4Baking and Dr. Oekter at Bølgen&Moi Nydalen. Armed with frosting, cake decorations and and pre-made cakes&cupcakes we learned how to make roses and swirls. I am not really that much of cook, I like to eat food but I prefer to leave the making and baking to other people. Decorations are of course another matter entirely, but I still pretty much suck at it. But with Manuela’s help I managed to make a chocolate frosting rose and some other nifty little decorations that would surprise anyone who’ve seen me in the kitchen. Got a goodie bag filled with cake decorations and forms, and I am looking forward to trying out some of this at home. yeah.

Got to take the cake and cupcakes home, which meant a rocky road by bus from Nydalen to St Hanshaugen with Nora, while trying to protect the cakes from the constant lurks of the bus. And they actually survived. Now I am contemplating whether or not I want to eat them now, they are nearly too pretty to eat.

My cake, not entirely finished, but nearly there. Very pink and full of pearls.

Manuela in action (making her famous rose cake-decoration).

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Every year one of the family traditions is to make and decorate some sort of a gingerbread house. The last couple of years I’ve taken the role of “left-over candy”-eater and critic, while this year I decided to join in on the fun. Which meant that I came up with the idea and then forced my sisters to make my plan come to life. My first draft was Gingerbread Hogwarts none the less, but after some evaluation we decided that it would be slightly to ambitious, but by the time we got to that conclusion I was so into the whole Harry Potter theme that we had to do something Harry Potter. So we ended up doing Gingerbread Miniature Hogsmeade instead. We originally planned to build 8 houses (Shrieking Shack, Zonko’s, Madam Puddifoot’s, Three Broomsticks, Honeydukes, Hog’s Head, the post office and Hogsmeade Station), but once we started making the walls and ceilings, ambitions lost the fight to laziness and his gang. So we ended up making Zonko’s, Madam Puddifoot’s, Three Broomsticks and Hog’s Head. And I did help some, making the gingerbread foundations for 1 1/2 house and all of my characters, in addition to being creative director and head of the decorating department.

Zonko’s roof before I accidentally dropped it into the melted sugar. The destruction of the sign hurt more than the blister I got on my hand.

The girls at work.

Hedwig, Zonko’s Joke Shop, The Three Broomsticks, Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop and The Hog’s Head. I decorated all of them except Madam Puddifoot’s, which was put together by my sister Anneke.

McGonagall, Dumbledore, Draco, Snape, Hagrid, young Tom Riddle, Ron, Ginny and Mr Harry Potter. Hermione lost her leg in a freak accident (we suspect a splinching of some sort during the trip from Kristiansand to Hovden), but fortunately she has got some nice company from Fluffy. Apropos Fluffy, isn’t this kid the most adorable thing ever. And just to set things straight; Draco, Snape, Riddle, Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione are my decoration projects and creations (well, JK’s really, but these gingerbread versions are mine). I am quite proud of the result actually, especially since I am not a part of that group of people who seems to have been born in the kitchen.

What do you think?

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I’m living on a budget of nothing at all at the moment, counting the days till I get my next payout. This means no coffee at the university (I am thinking about starting a campaign concerning that), no partying (at least not of the kind where I will be paying for anything), no new clothes and the fact that I need to survive on whatever food I have in the apartment. Today’s lunch/dinner consisted of things that have been spending some quality time in the freezer for at least 3 months, but which proved to be a fantastic meal anyways. Recipe you say? Well, here you go. Main ingredients consist of beans (which are ridiculously cheap) and chicken&vegetables (which can be bought frozen).

What you need:

1 chicken breast
1/2 can of brown beans
1/4 broccoli
2 yellow carrots
1/2 apple
Salt + pepper + whatever else you find fitting (I prefer “toscana krydder” )

1) Cut the chicken breast into slices and fry them with a minimum amount of oil in a frying pan.
2) Cut the broccoli, carrots and apple into whatever size you want them.
3) When the chicken is almost done, add the beans, broccoli and carrots. Let this fry for about 2-3 minutes. Season it.
4) Turn off the heat and then add the apples.
5) Pour yourself a glass of red wine and enjoy your meal.

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I don’t cook. It’s not like I can’t do it, I’m just terrible at it because I generally don’t like cooking. I like eating, and whenever I do cook something more than oatmeal it’s only because I’m near starvation and I don’t have any food left that can be eaten without challenging my cooking skills. But still, I sometimes venture out on that horrible journey, hoping I might find a well-tasting dish at the end of the road. Yesterday I decided to make me some homemade tuna sandwiches after my mum’s recipe, and it was a success, which ultimately led me to realize that I should share the recipe with you (because if I can make it, anyone can). So here goes:

You need:
1 can of tuna (in water, not sauce or anything else)
4 ss light sour cream

1/2 red onion or 1-2 celery (I prefer red onion)

1 ts lemon
1/2-1 ts coarse ground pepper

= mix it all together in a box, and your practically finished.
Take two slices of bread, apply the tuna-mix and top it off with some
ruccola salad or some slices of apple. Bon appetit.

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Yesterday was very educational, without getting to lecture-ish. We had a good conversation around the table and managed to agree on some vital issues when it comes to young girls and nutrition. To those of you who asked about healthy, cheap and good dinners (or meals in general), a varied meal is always a winner. You can use:

- Different kinds of vegetables: not just the same old every time, we need to be better to eat vegetables, and branch out a little. Visit one of the vegetable markets at Grünerløkka and buy something new and foreign thing.
- Fish: first price fish (the frozen ones) are very cheap, but is exactly the same fish as the ones you buy from Findus ++ Norwegians in general need to eat more fish. Or take tran.
- Beans – heat them and eat them with roasted vegetables or as replacement for meat in a tortilla.
- Fruit: eat different kinds of fruits as well, drink smoothies, eat bananas. If you want to get C-vitamin boost, always choose the fruits with the strongest colors.

Norwegian girls are bad at getting enough energy through their system. There’s a connection between what goes into your body and what goes out (via working-out and being in movement), and girls in general are lousy at eating enough of it. Alcohol is not healthy either, especially not in large quantum. Low-fat milk is not unhealthy. That’s a myth.

If you want to get slimmer, the key is to always exercise and eat healthy and ENOUGH. I’m not saying you should eat 32 slices of bread and 5 helpings at every meal, but don’t try to starve yourselves either. It will not do you any good, you’ll cut down on your storage energy and end up being tired, moody and stupid (if your brain doesn’t get enough energy, it can’t work as fast as it should, simple math).

And if you do have an obesity problem, talk to the school nurse or contact a nutrition expert who can help you loose weight in a healthy manner.

If you have any additional questions, write a comment and I’ll answer it or forward it to the nutrition expert.

Useful links: klara klok / pasienthåndboken / wikipedia /

BTW: If you want to you can now take a test on start.no to see what kind of morning-person you are (sponsored by Chiquita, and with the pictures of the four of us on the result page). In Norwegian unfortunately, you can find it HERE.

Imorgen skal jeg, Marie og Nora møte en ernæringsekspert i samarbeid med Chiquita kampanjen, og i den forbindelse tenkte jeg at jeg skulle spørre dere om dere har noen spørsmål i forhold til mat, trening og liknende. Hvor mange måltid trenger en gjennomsnittlig person om dagen? Hvor stort skal et måltid være? Hva bør det inneholde? Hvordan skal man endre kostholdet sitt hvis man vil gå ned/opp i vekt? etc. Gi meg noen gode spørsmål, så skal hun – og jeg – svare så godt vi kan.

E: Tomorrow I’m meeting a nutrition expert together with Marie and Nora, and on that occasion I wanted to ask you if you had any question about nutrition, what to eat, when to eat, etc? Give me some really good questions please, so I can impress her with them and the intelligence of my readers ;)

4-5 cups of tea, 2 smoothies, 2 cups of coffee, two pieces of ryvita, porridge and 2 fruits (mostly apples). That’s what I eat&drink these days. Every day. Same routine. Tea addict, and on my way to becoming addicted to these smoothies (chiquita: mango and banana, yum), as well.

Might need some change, some more pasta and vegetables and chicken. I generally LOVE food beyond anything, I just suck at making food, so I always pick the easiest sort. If it’s more complicated than putting a frozen pizza in the oven, there’s a 99% chance I wont do it. Do any of you suffer from the same problem, or are you all housewives in the making?

150gr hvetemel
140gr sammalt hvete (grov)
120g sukker
ca 1 dl skummet melk
2 middels store egg
6 ss solsikkeolje
1 ss bakepulver
2 bananer
50gr rosiner
3 ss friskpresset appelsinsaft
revet skal av 1 appelsin (bruk appelsin som du tar saften fra)

1. Legg rosinene i en liten bolle, hell på appelsinsaft. La ligge i bløt ca en time.

2. Forvarm ovnen til 200 grader. Sikt de to meltypene sammen i en stor bolle. Tilsett bakepulver og rør inn sukker. Bland godt.

3. Mos bananene og ha dem i et målebeger. Fyll på melk slik at det blir totalt 2 1/2 dl.

4. Visp eggene lett sammen i en stor bolle. Visp inn bananmelken, olje, bløtlagte rosiner (med saften) og revet appelsinskall. Lag en fordypning midt i de tørre ingrediensene, hell det våte oppi og rør FORSIKTIG sammen til en luftig røre. Ikke rør for mye (da mister deigen luften og muffinsene blir harde og flate).

5. Fordel røren i formene (anbefaler amerikanske former, som er større og mer solide enn de vanlige små). Stek muffinsene i ca 20 min til de er godt hevet, gyldne og faste.

6. Les litt blogger, se på TV eller hør på denne sangen noen ganger imens du venter. Alternativt rydd opp.

6. Ta muffinsene ut av ovnen når de er ferdige, la dem hvile i 5 min, server varme med en kopp fruktte. NAM!

Oppskriften kommer fra boken: “1 røre, 100 muffins”. Koster 99kr pÃ¥ ARK Majorstua akkurat nÃ¥, sÃ¥ vil anbefale at alle som liker muffins løper og kjøper den. Pronto.

My dinner today. Homemade pita pizza. I love Malin and Hanna, my personal chiefs..

Anneke (min søster) lagde disse muffinsene til konfirmasjonen, fantastisk gode, helthelthelt nydelige!

300g mel
1 teskje natron
220g usaltet smør (romtemperert)
200g sukker
2,5dl hardpakket, brunt sukker
4 store egg
178g Dronning kokesjokolade
2,5dl kjernemelk
2-3ts vaniljesukker

Sett ovnen på 180 C°. Smelt så sjokoladen i en kjele med kokende vann mens du rører innimellom. Kjøl den deretter ned i 5-10 minutter. Bland melet og natron i en bolle, ha smøret i en annen, stor bolle og bland med miksmaster til det er kremete og jevnt. Hell sukkeret i bollen og bland godt i ca. 3 minutter. Ha i eggene ett etter ett, mens du rører. Bland inn sjokoladen. Ha i de tørre ingrediensene i tre deler, ha kjernemelken og det tørre annenhver gang. Bland så godt, men ikke slik at luften går ut. Hell røren i store muffinsbeholdere, men ikke fyll dem helt opp. Stek så i 20-25 minutter, og sjekk med en gaffel eller lignende i midten. Når det ikke henger igjen noe deig på gaffelen er de ferdige. Kjøl ned før du tar på glasur.

VANILJESMØRKREMGLASUR:

220g usaltet smør
15-20dl melis
1,25dl melk
3ts vaniljesukker

Hell smøret i en stor bolle og bland litt over halvparten av melisen, all vaniljesukkeret og all melken. Bruk miksmaster til å blande til det er glatt og kremete, ca. 3-5 minutter. Gradvis heller du i resten av melisen, rundt 2dl om gangen. Bland godt etter hver gang til glasuren er ordentlig tykk. Om du vil kan du også blande inn litt konditorfarge.

Enjoy!

Source: Cosmopolitan.