Norwegianne.net

Norwegianne.net

  • Second recipe

    From the 5 Ingredients cookbook, was the orange and chocolate shortbread.

    And… it tasted relatively bland on its own. There’s no salt in the recipe. (I feel like just by using a salted butter, you could make it more flavoursome.)

    I ended up drizzling it with Maldon-salt, after testing it without. And then I brought it to work, where they ate it, and complimented me.

    Although I got compliments, I feel pretty sure that they might like something from another cookbook better. I am rather MEH about this cookbook.

    Summa summarum: the 5 Ingredients cookbook will be weeded from my collection.

  • Hoarding cookbooks. Should probably *do* something with them.

    Hoarding cookbooks. Should probably *do* something with them.

    So, I’ve been wanting to do something with the “gazillion” of cookbooks occupying a cabinet in my kitchen.

    For one thing, I keep buying them, and will eventually run out of space. I guess.

    I made myself a challenge, to cook my way through them, to see which I want to keep and which I want to discard. My one rule for this “challenge” is that I have to cook two recipes from each cookbook before I decide its fate.

    That means, I have to find two recipes in each cookbook that I *want* to make.

    The first cookbook I picked, is the “5 ingredients” (Amazon affiliate link) cookbook by Jamie Oliver.

    I see that I bought it on Amazon in July 2018. I had not opened it before this week, when time came to pick the first recipe.

    • What I especially liked about the book, right from the start is the photos of the ingredients on the side of the recipe. It makes it quite accessible.
    • I would have liked, if all the names of the recipes could have been in the Table of contents in the front of the book, in addtition to being in the index in the back.

    The recipe was the Pasta with pears and gorgonzola.

    I made a single portion.

    Mine did not look as good as Jamie’s. Not by a long shot. But it did taste very good, was quick-ish to make without a lot of faffing about. So good that I made it again the next day.

    pasta with pears and gorgonzola sauce

  • Podcasts

    Weirdly enough, I am one of those people who cannot stand to listen to radio with all its interruptions. But give me a podcast and I am there.

    The only thing is, I mostly have to listen to all of the episodes of a series… and so I’ve been mainlining #amwriting, and once I was up to speed on that… I started on the West Wing Weekly.

    Of course, now I’m gathering up episodes on the other one as I am going ahead on WWW.

  • How “German” is the new king?

    Because I saw this on Twitter, and it really exemplified something I’d been wanting to do, just about every time English media call the royal family German… (I’m using where the birth place is located today – since the further out we get, the more the borders of Europe changes.)

    King Charles III:

    Born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

    Parents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑 🇬🇷

    Grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 – 🇬🇷💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

    G grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🇩🇰💑🇷🇺- 🇦🇹💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

    G g grandparents born in: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🇩🇰- 🇭🇷💑🇩🇪- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿- 🇩🇪💑🇩🇪- 🇷🇺💑🇩🇪- 🇩🇪💑🇵🇱- 🇩🇪💑🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 – First generation with people born in what is today’s Germany.

    When we get to the 6th step backwards, we’re also repeating people, and we’re also getting the same people on different steps. I was originally going to go back to I got to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but:

    One: Prince Philip’s great grandfather was Christian IX of Denmark (incidentally, born in Germany). But, because his daughter Alexandra married into the British Royal family, she and her parents are on the same step of the g g grandparents, and it would really be a mess going even further back.

    Two: The first flag on the last line of flag emojis, and the last flag – the two English flags, are two of Victoria and Albert’s children – and going another step back there would also mean they would be repeated both in the start and the finish of the line. (And then my head started to hurt.)

    In addition to that, once we get further and further back – the birth places of the less royal people in the line-up, become more difficult to track and verify.

    Eh, it amused me enough to write the post anyway. (Which isn’t anything to scoff at since it has been a whole pandemic since the last time I posted anything here.)

  • Death of Ari Behn

    Death of Ari Behn

    For some odd reason or another, it has been my Dad who has informed me of the death of the royal exes. First Diana in 1997, and now Ari Behn in 2019. Odd, because he’s really not hugely into monarchy as a concept or as a reality.

    But anyway, Ari Behn – former spouse of Princess Märtha Louise, and father to her three daughters, took his own life on Christmas Day.

    The funeral will be this Friday in Oslo Cathedral – and also be televised. I find this choice strange. Not Oslo cathedral, but the seeming necessity of having it televised.

    There have been an odd collective outpouring of sorrow in Norway, or at least the Norwegian media. The last time it felt like this, was the sorrow after the Utøya/bombing affair. Before that, I guess it was King Olav’s death.

    I never met Ari Behn. I’ve read his books. I’ve followed him in the media, by virtue of being a royal watcher and a librarian. But I think it is hitting me, and others, because it was depression. Because it was a suicide. It throws out entirely the circle of life. It is an unnatural ending to a life.

    Now, I think it is partly because it was Ari Behn, but also because it was a suicide – and that was announced. That a fairly successful author and artist and former member of the royal family went to that step, it may make it seem like the darkness of depression really can touch anyone, anywhere in society.

    And, what ultimately is left, are three girls who shouldn’t have had to face this in their lives. Three girls who should have had their father with them longer.

    (The featured image to this post is the ferry between Horten and Moss – Ari’s hometown.)

  • Education of the British royals

    Generally, it kind of feels like whenever I do a blog post in my mind about royalty now, it is usually whenever someone has said something wrong. Or… if not wrong, then just used the basic facts to imply something is wrong.

    Let’s use this example: a couple of days ago, the Daily Mail posted the story about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex allegedly having chosen an American-community school in the UK for their as of yet unborn child. The headline: they might be shunning Eton.

    Which, really is nothing wrong – except the wording in the article makes it sound like Eton is the preferred school for the young royals to attend. (Or the Daily Mail is just happy that they get to trash Eton? Because there was a similar story when Prince George started school.) Granted, it is just across the river from Windsor, and the aristocracy has had a tendency to send their sons there. But the British royal family haven’t.

    When the Duke of Cambridge started Eton (after being in day schools in London and boarding at Ludgrove after that) in the 90s – it was not a royal tradition. It was then seen as snubbing of Gordonstoun – the school William’s father, paternal grandfather paternal uncles and cousins, Peter and Zara, attended.

    (William and Harry’s maternal grandfather and uncle, on the other hand, did go to Eton.)

    And before Prince Philip joined the royal family, having attended Gordonstoun – Queen Elizabeth’s father and (most of) his brothers were also educated at home, until the time came to send them off to the Naval college as cadets when they were 13.

    Likewise their father and uncle before them went into the Navy as cadets.

    King Edward VII attended a home school, put together by Prince Albert with the idea of what a British monarch should know.

    (To be fair, Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, Queen Elizabeth’s uncle did attend Eton. )

    Also, the kid isn’t born, yet, and whatever school he or she will attend, is not going to be an issue for the next couple of years. Really.

  • The difficulty

    I am currently going through my Amazon recommendations, and though there are many books there that certainly should be read – I click them away, and kind of feel guilty about it.

    Books that are absolutely worthy. Either by virtue of topic or skill of the writer – or both.

    But so many books, so little time – and I have too many books already.

  • A challenge?

    A challenge?

    I might be petty, but if you’re finished with your Goodreads challenge on January 1st – then it isn’t a challenge at all. Is it?

    Let me clarify. My Goodreads challenge is 600 books. That means, this year, I aim to read 600 books. To most people, that is a lot of books. BUT: I fully realise that everybody has a different reading speed, and different priorities. So, I understand those that go for 10 books. Or other numbers.

    My pettiness is more about wondering about the aims of anyone who manages to finish the challenge in less than a day.

    And yet, at the same time, it isn’t a competition, so I don’t know why I am bothered by this at all?

  • Mette-Marit’s continued history of ailments

    In 2013, I posted about the Crown Princess’ history of ailments and unfortunate accidents. (Some of you have supplied updates in the comments on that post.)

    Today, she, her husband and her doctor revealed in an interview (as well as in a press release from the court) that she has been diagnosed with chronic pulmonary fibrosis. They haven’t quite figured out more specifics – but she will undergo testing.

    It has been going on for a while, though they did not specify for how long in the interview.

    It is only recently that they have discovered what it is, and since she will require time for hospital appointments – both for further clarification and treatment – and have low points in her health – they have decided to share rather than have her absent without a specific reason. The illness is in an early stage.

    In March this year she was hospitalized – and had to cancel the attendance at the book fair in Leipzig.

    In November 2017 – she got benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.

    In December 2016 – she got pneumonia.

    Autumn 2015 – she was advised by her doctor to cancel the trip to Brazil because of frequent infections of the airways.