I have received a pinterest account: http://pinterest.com/norwegianne/

Can anyone recommend things I should follow?

For 2012, I’m going to try to track the books I read each month, so I have a way to know how much I read. I tend to read a lot of books, so I won’t go into detail on them.

January has been a month of comfort reading. When it is so dark outside so much – though it is starting to be lighter longer in the afternoons – I really want to curl up with the Happily Ever After stories. So, it’s chiefly been Mills & Boon for the quick reads.

January is also the month of New Years resolutions, or the OMG, I ate too much over the holidays-month. Hence, one of the books…

Books I read in January:

Anderson, Caroline – Miracles in the village

Arend, Vivian – Rocky Mountain Haven

Bourne, Joanna – The black hawk

Brooks, Helen – A heartless marriage

Gracie, Anne – Bride by mistake

Graham, Lynne – The banker’s convenient wife

Graham, Lynne – Crime of passion

Graham, Lynne – The Frenchman’s love-child

Graham, Lynne – Prisoner of passion

Graham, Lynne – Mistress and mother

Graham, Lynne – The reluctant husband

Graham, Lynne – Jewel in his crown

Green, Abby – The sultan’s choice

Hewitt, Kate – The Italian’s bought bride

James, Eloisa – This duke is mine

Kendrick, Sharon – The Sheik’s undoing

Kendrick, Sharon – Constantine’s defiant mistress

Lawrence, Kim – The price of scandal

Lee, Miranda – The man every woman wants

Marinelli, Carol – A shameful consequence

Milburne, Melanie – Androletti’s mistress

Monroe, Lucy – The Sicilian’s marriage arrangement

Philips, Sabrina – Valenti’s one month mistress

Queen of Twitter – Gin O’Clock

Reid, Michelle – Gold ring of betrayal

Reid, Michelle – The marriage surrender

Reid, Michelle – A passionate marriage

Roberts, Alison – The Italian doctor’s perfect family

Shaw, Chantelle – Dangerous infatuation.

Winters, Rebecca – The Italian playboy’s secret son

Winters, Rebecca – To Win his heart

Winters, Rebecca – To catch a groom

Winters, Rebecca – To marry for duty

Winters, Rebecca – The Italian tycoon and the nanny

Wolf, Robb – The Paleo solution

Yates, Maisey – Hajar’s hidden legacy

Sum= 36 books. (And I’m sure I’ve forgot some anyway.)

I’m still working my way through Regina Leeds’ book, albeit slowly. Last week I started planning for the game night I’ve got going on, and the trivia weekend the weekend after that – so even though I looked through the chapter on the second part of the kitchen organization, I haven’t implemented much yet.

My kitchen is so small that I’m not sure two weeks is needed. However, I am getting some good tips from the chapter that I will implement.

One example is that things that I don’t use often can be delegated to the top of the refrigerator. I will try putting my cake tins there, as they’re very difficult to stack in the cupboard, and I could (probably) use the cupboard space for other things.

One benefit to this book now is that I’ve finally managed to collect the boxes I used for the Christmas cookies – and will now finally clean and stow them away. Things take time. (I just took down the Christmas lights outside yesterday – it was so nice to come home to lights outside when it was so dark…)

It’s a sign I’ve been around enough geologists in my job that I understood some of the jargon in there. At least I understand cake.

To be frank – this cake was only made because I had a carton of buttermilk that was about to expire. I know that expiration date on buttermilk is not a firm date – the milk is fermented after all – but it was the kick I needed to make this. It is easy, quick and freezes quite well.

Unlike a lot of other cakes, I think that this doesn’t taste as good out of the oven, but the moistness of the cake makes it perfect for eating the next day – or freezing and then eating.

The original recipe comes from the amazing Norwegian website, Det Søte Liv.

Ingredients for the cake
250 g butter, melted and cooled.
800 g sugar
800 g all-purpose flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp baking soda
1 liter buttermilk/fermented milk product

1.  Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
2. Set the oven to 200 degrees
3. Add the butter, buttermilk and vanilla extract.
4. Combine well, until the batter is smooth and without lumps.
5. Pour the batter into a sheet-pan (30×40 cm), covered in baking/parchment paper. Make sure it is fairly even.
6. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
7. Cool the cake in the pan.

Frosting
100 g butter, melted and cooled.
500 g powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp cocoa
4 tsp vanilla extract
8 tbsp milk

1. Add all the ingredients together and mix until smooth.
2. Pour over the cake once it is cool.
3. Let the frosting cool before cutting (unless you want the jagged little edges that I have.)

Freezes well.

Bwhat? From February 1, a single 1-zone ticket for transportation (bus, tram, or underground)in Oslo, if purchased onboard, will be increasing to 50 kr ($8.2). The same ticket, if purchased online, will cost 30 kr ($ 4.9) .

If you’re going to Oslo for a shorter period of time, but don’t know how much you will take the tram/bus/underground, there is also the option of purchasing day-passes (which cost 75 kr (or $12.3) compared to the onboard-bought single-zone tickets and is valid in three zones) or week-passes might be cheaper than to buy single tickets.

Of course, that’s what they want you to do as well, because the reasoning behind the increase?

“Many transactions onboard means that we can’t keep the timetable.»

I think I have more respect for Stavanger’s rhetoric in that they want as many as possible to have travel-passes and the like and not buy tickets onboard – because driving around with cash makes the bus drivers a target for criminals.

If you can’t keep the timetable – adjust the timetable.

In January I’ve…

• Attended my first New Year’s Concert. (Will try to do this again – fantastic experience).

• Found a third knitting pattern for the knitted squares I’m knitting for a blanket/rug. (Living the wild life here)

• Spent time with friends inside…

• And outside.

The Danish court announced that Princess Marie gave birth to a princess at 8.27 this morning.

The girl weighed 2930 grams and is 49 cm long.

“She is beautiful. Healthy and in good shape and that’s the most important thing for us. I am also very satisfied with having a daughter,” Prince Joachim told the press after the birth.

There will be a 21 shot salute fired at Kronborg and Sixtus in Copenhagen at 12. In addition, the official Denmark will hoist the flags at that point.

The royal guard will also switch to their “Blue Duty Gala” wear.

Traditionally, her name will not be released before the christening.

Still going on about the Regina Leeds book One Year to an Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-week Guide to Getting Completely Organized for Good. I’ve made it to week 3 – and now we’re heading into kitchen territory. The first week is about planning how you’d like your kitchen to be – and what utensils can be eliminated, if you have a lot of them.

My kitchen is rather small, and lacking in counter space. I’ve solved that partly with adding an IKEA Stenstorp kitchen cart. It gave me a bit more counter-space, as well giving me a bit more shelf-space underneath. I’ve put the microwave there, as well as a couple of the other kitchen machines I use often.

The big advantage of the kitchen is the big cupboards. I can fit almost everything and the kitchen sink in there, if I arrange things around. However, the fact that they’re big, also means that they’re fairly deep and things can be difficult to locate. It’s also easy to just put things into them in the heat of the moment without thinking about if I’ll be finding them later…

A couple of things that I’ll be implementing at some point:

• additional containers for foodstuff for the pantry, to organize further. I have three containers, that I use for flour, cocoa and powdered sugar, already. I’ll be picking up
• 3 Step Kitchen Cupboard Shelf, or something similar. This would give me a bit more overview over pantry items, ensuring that I won’t buy double of anything. Hopefully.
• A permanent marker to label dates on items I put in the freezer, containers I open in the refrigerator…