Good morning in September

The view as I went down to take the bus. Now, if only it was warmer, or I’d remembered my gloves…

Cooking chicken with white sauce

From my great grandmother’s cookbook from 1920, or thereabouts, I have now learnt how to make chicken with white sauce. It is quite simple, really.

You simply make it like you would make hen with white sauce.

That’s the entire recipe.

Granted, the hen with white sauce was the recipe before that, so it is not very strange, but it has become an internal family joke now.

Trying new things

Weather is crap today. Rain, rain, rain, rain… and you get the gist. I had originally planned on heading for the gym this afternoon – I’ve picked up Jillian Michaels’s Winning by Losing, and I’ve started the training programme in the book.

I’ve been to the gym twice this week.

After a week, (I started so-so last week) I’m already seeing small results. So, even if the weather is crap – and I can’t be bothered biking to the gym (no car, and no direct buses) I’m keeping up with the exercises. I’m picking out those I can do at home, without too much equipment, or improvising when it comes to the equipment part.

Every little bit helps.

Purple house

The purple house in the picture have received media attention in the local paper.

It’s just about the only house in that area of town with an untraditional colour. Most of the other houses are white or grey.

It seems everyone has an opinion on it – the neighbours have complained to the municipality, as they don’t think the colour suits the area.

And the articles online are overflowing with comments on how people should be able to choose the colour of their own house.

I walked past it yesterday. It is definitely a very visible house. But there are many houses in the area that are neglected… and it might be better for the municipality to focus on those first.

Summer weather

Sorry, Norway, but 60 degrees fahrenheit does not feel like summer weather.

I know a lot of people elsewhere are struggling with the heat, but here it is cold, grey and wet most of the time.

On the positive side, it usually doesn’t get that much colder for winter, here.

Inside gardening

When I was in London last year, I picked up some seeds. Now they’re bearing fruit. The cherry tomatoes are even tasting nice.

(more…)

Experimental Cooking: Homemade vanilla extract

At school, I was a terrible student when it came to the natural science subjects. I just could not see why we should cut a liver and get a reaction to it. Or to cut our fingers to test which blood type we were – when the hospitals could do that a whole lot more accurately, and under more sanitary conditions.

This puzzles my Dad, because I love to experiment, open gadgets, watch reactions and find out how things work. (Putting the gadgets back together again after opening them is less interesting.)

But, I think that if we had done experiments where I could see the use, I might have been more motivated. Such as homemade vanilla extract.

I’m trying this out because it seems to be a staple in a lot of recipes, yet, it is not available commercially in any food store I’ve been to in Norway. Artificial vanilla essence, yes, vanilla extract, no.

I bought vanilla beans, but then was faced with the alcohol problem. Curiously enough, we do have a lot of flavoured alcohol at home – tax free shopping – but very little without any additives at all. So that had to be acquired before I could start.

White wine vinegar, which is rather difficult to find in a regular Norwegian grocery store, ended up having the perfect bottle for the experiment.

I relied on the previous documented experiments of Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini and Elise of Simply Recipes. Both of whom have very detailed recipes, so I won’t repost that. I used a bit more liquid than they did, as my bottle was around 2 cups (4 dl) in size, and the vanilla beans looked so alone with a half full bottle.

The day after I put the vanilla beans into the alcohol, it had started changing colour. A week after, it was lightly brown.

Three months down the road, and the bottle is half full – I’ve used so much of it in baking and by making butterscotch fondue.

Bedding

One thing that seems to mark the difference in altitude between countries is the bedding. Warmer countries seem to go for blankets whereas Switzerland and Austria went for duvets.

Picnic on Lac Leman

Monaco