Just want to reccomend this lovely dish with salmon, from the blog Marias Salt&Søtt. I made it this evening, and it was really tasty! I served the fish with mashed potatoes, and boiled some garlic with the potatoes - gives a really nice flavour to it!

It was even approved by someone who doesn't really like fish; He said the topping nicely camouflaged the taste of fish...

Draumspel bilete

My dear friend Tiril has always taken beautiful pictures (I've mentioned her before...), and now she's given everyone a chance to get a piece of her universe in their own! She's started a "photo give-away", which means that by commenting on her blog, you can win a picture of your choice. Very generous, very worth it!

And if you're unfortunate not to win, you can comfort yourself with buying the picture here instead..

Friday feels like saturday

Dreaming of the sun in the rain

Last picture from www.photoatlas.com

Hamburger

En ekstremt enkel måte å lage skikkelig smakfulle hamburgere på følger under:

Du trenger:
1 pakke kyllingkjøttdeig
finhakket hvitløk (ett fedd) og litt finhakket løk (hvis du har)
salt, pepper
karri

Burger-tilbehør etter smak og behag

Framgangsmåte:
Bland kjøttdeig godt med en klype salt og pepper, ca. 1 ss karri og hvitløk/løk. Form til burgere (ikke for tykke, da er det vanskelig å få de gjennomstekt uten at de blir tørre), gjerne litt store i diameter - de krymper når man steiker de. Stek gylne i smør/olje og viderestek i ovnen ved 200 grader i 5-10 minutt etter behov, til de er gjennomstekte. Legg evt. en skive ost på hver burger mot slutten av steketiden, så den smelter.

*Bildet er hentet herfra

Delicious chocolate cupcakes!

At the moment (sorry if I'm rubbing it in for all of you hard-working people out there...) I have one week left of my nearly 8 week-long Christmas holidays. And my fingers are itchy, I'm constantly tired from to much sleep and I acctually can't wait to start the 4 month internship that - with my final exams - will be the last bridge to cross before I graduate as a clinical psychologist. But as it happens, to kill some time, I thought to try out a recipe I found a while ago. And I'm telling you, if I keep spending my holidays trying out anything as close to so overly delicious as these babies, I will probably double my weight in the little time left!

Here we go; the best cup-cakes I've ever had! Rich smooth chocolate muffin with a center of beautifully soft chocolate filling, all topped off with a Baileys-frosting. The recipe is picked up from smittenkitchen.com - it might look overwhelming, but it's just because it's explained in such detail...

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes

While the Guinness in the cake gets mostly baked out, the Baileys is fresh and potent, so if you’re making this for people who don’t drink you’ll probably want to swap it with milk, and leave the Whiskey out of the Ganache-filling...

Makes around 12 big cupcakes

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

1/2 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1/2 cup (100 grams) unsalted butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cups all purpose flour
1 cups sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream (for Norwegians; 1,5 dl Kesam is a winner!)

Ganache Filling
4 ounces (ca.100 grams) bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes)
2 to 3 cups confections sugar
2 ounces (ca.50 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
2 to 3 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Bring Guiness/stout and butter to simmer over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Beat egg and sour cream/kesam in another large bowl. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 15 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling:

Chop the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes:

Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to fill the cupcakes (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top, or just add the ganache with a spoon.

Make the frosting:

Whip the butter in the bowl with an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, until it's light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

[This is a fantastic trick I picked up while working on the cupcakes article for Martha Stewart Living; the test kitchen chefs had found that when they added the sugar slowly, quick buttercream frostings got less grainy, and tended to require less sugar to thicken them up.]

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Do ahead:

You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)

Waiting for Christmas

I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me

... until then, I'll make a Chrismas-home where I am.

Volkscycle

I am so happy, I could fly!

I have been reunited with one of the most memorable feelings from Amsterdam; riding a bicycle! I bought a brand-old Volkscycle last weekend, and it just feels so right! Wind in my hair, cruising along the beautiful scenery of Bergen really brightens up my day!

Here it is:

Nostalgic as I am, I named it Amsterdam.

Inspiration

"... imperfections are the nuances of the world, and beauty is shallow without them."



My wonderful and brave friend Tiril, who is such an inspiration. Admire her photseries 52; it's one year with new self-portraits every week.

Hverdagskos

Jeg skriver hovedoppgave i psykologi om dagen. Det er mye jobb, og hverdagene har vist at de kan strekke seg så laaaange som bare det. Da blir det ekstra viktig å spise gode ting, og å gjøre det fint for seg i heimen ved å lage kyllingspyd med sataysaus;

og energibar til å ta med på lesesalen:

* Bildet er hentet fra www.vaffelhjerte.com

Oppskrift på energibar

4 ss nøytral olje

3-4 ss honning

1,5 ss mørk sirup

150 g havregryn

50 g solsikkefrø

25 g sesamfrø

35 g kokos

50 g tørkede, grovhakkede aprikoser

50 g tørkede tranebær/kirsebær eller rosiner

(eller andre tørkede frukter)

en neve pistasjenøtter

en neve peanøtter

(eller andre nøtter)

Varm forsiktig opp olje, honning og sirup til det er smeltet. Bland resten av ingridiensene i en stor bolle; tilsett det flytende og bland godt sammen. Hell det over i en liten langpanne, press alt godt ned, og stek i ca. 25 minutter på 180 grader.

Merk opp barene mens massen er varm, la det avkjøle seg, og skjær så opp etter oppmerkingen.

Oppbevares i en lufttett boks, holdbart i ca. en uke.

Balkanparty

Marta and me went to a balkanparty in Evanger, a small village one hour from Bergen. It was rural, exotic, beautiful and FUN!




We had lamb roasted whole on a pole, saw an authenic Balkan Orchestra and danced the night away!

http://www.balkanfest-evanger.com

Summerpostcard

I have finished travelling for the summer, and 'real life' is slowly picking up it's pace.

Holidays were good; I've been to Vienna (twice!), working, and visited my family in Germany. Always good to see them! My sister and me took my grandmother (76yrs) and her sister (88yrs) to see Vienna! The two ladies always wanted to go, but never had the opportunity. So we took a train, we came, we saw, we conquered! It was really nice, and they so much appreciated it.

As autumn is approaching, and a new semester is about to start, here is my plan for the following year; I will finish my degree in psychology (knock on wood), and hopefully we will release my first single in not to long. It's rather slow work, but it needs the time to mature and be proper, not hasty.

Hope you've had a good summer!

Cathrine

PS: Here are some pictures from Vienna

Boats for shoes

Wow! I've just had a friend and her boyfriend visiting, and when I saw his shoes I almost fell over! They were of the mark Crocs, and they were HUGE! I could survive on the ocean in these shoes! (Comment: acctually, I could survive on the ocean in one of them)! I could live in it, with a family! Wow. The biggest, boatiest shoes I ever saw...

Here they are, legendary!

Next to them are my shoes. I'm a size 7 - 7,5 (37/38), so they are not doll-shoes to make the contrast bigger.... I could fit both my shoes, and both my feet in one of his...

Slottsfjellfestivalen 2010

Back in Bergen after 3 beautiful days on the Slottsfjellfestival in Tønsberg, south of Oslo! Had so much fun, and I'm full of inspiration after so many wonderful concerts. Worth mentioning are Lissie (great performance by a young girl), Band of Skulls (ROCK!! Check out their album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey), Karpe Diem (norwegian popish-hiphopers, accompanied by a great band, Something Sally; surprisingly good gig, they owned the crowd!), the supercharming Rox, crazy Juliette Lewis and Helt Off with special guest Timbuktu.

The greatest surprise, however, came from british Ou est le swimming pool. They played the last concert saturday night, parallell with the somewhat more familiar Mew. We'd never heard of them before, and were supposed to hear a song or two before to head over to the danish guys. But all of a sudden we were "dancing the way we felt" and the atmosphere was glowing, pumping and sweating! Wow, they were amazing, and we had so much fun! I really recommend catching a show if you get the oppurtunity (and if you like dancing)!!

Here are a few memoirs from the days on the mountain by the Oslofjord:

Bella Mari

Supercool MarteStrickert and HåkonKinn

My new favourites; Ou est le swimming pool


Marte and me in the sunset

Thank you beautiful people for these superfine days!

Ordinary souvenirs

Today I've had a day off from working at the café (Smakverket, which, by the way, has been nominated for having the best coffe in Bergen here - click on the link and vote for us!!) I've been having coffee, reading newspapers and walking a bit in my beloved Bergen. So beautiful! And I was really happy when a Butterfly-lavendel decided to accompany me home.

I have also been inspired by my favourite blog Undikken to post some pictures from whatever happens on a regular-normal-everyday. So here are a couple of ordinary souvenirs:

Butterflylavendel

My supergreen sunglasses

...and, even though I've presented it before; Kadinsky, my greenUkulele!


(And for the really attentive ones; yes I DO love green. It makes me happy.)

PS: My "secret" tip for the summer; colors colors colors!

Studioreport

A small glimt from my previous studiosession in Voss - Lars and me were polishing lyrics, it's so much fun working with him! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luPwuQN4sN8&feature=channel

Matt dancing

Here is some feelgood for the day! Matt dancing around the world. I don't know why, but I find it really moving that he gets all this people dancing along with him! Makes me smile. Cheerio Matt!

Brief summary of Vienna

Brief summary of Vienna

Biking



Coffee & Wine


Music; Opera and more (luckily, because the opera, Tosca, was terrible!)



Green Ukulele


Sun




Laughter




Old Friends and New Ones

Danke für die super Ferientage!