five years ago

Poh Poh’s hand-embroidered kebaya blouse, 30 years old but as beautiful as ever.

Georg Jensen meets some Malaysian leaves.

Mr. Snow, I can’t wait for the next five years!

great white bear

Only polar bears can make curling for a snooze up on an ice sheet look so inviting.  I’ve had a thing for polar bears ever since Little Jacket and I went to this exhibition in London, which traced and tracked down every single polar bear that ever made it to the UK… stuffed. The photos of some of their final resting places (pub entrance, cobwebby attic corner) were a little sad, but some of the (very large) individuals who made it in bear-son were imposingly impressive.

Now Steve Kaslowski (who possibly has even more of a polar bear thing than me) has photographed several of them in Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago, in quite different, distinctly un-stuffed states. Visit here for a view that will transport you thousands of kilometers up North in an instant. Happy travelling!

little house

As the site for many Myyear and Snow family (and friends) adventures, this little house has gotten quite a few mentions throughout My Year Online, but never the honour of its own photo.

This entry corrects that, and also serves to say that Mr. Snow and I will be going to visit again this weekend with Ma and Pa Snow. Mr Snow’s signed up for a 42 km cross country race… I think I’ll enter the waffle-sprint category.

fettbrød

Being at the cabin over the holidays meant that we could use the takke or griddle there. Mr. Snow is trying his hand at making all kinds of traditional flat breads, with much success so far.

This was the second Christmas he baked up a very high stack of delicious fettbrød, from a huge ball of dough that threatened to take over the whole kitchen at one point. They’re his hands you see rolling the dough out above, all according to Aunty Else’s treasured recipe.

The breads themselves are flat with a light criss-cross pattern from the patterned rolling pin, a little crispy, have a bit of bite to them and spread with butter and syrup make for the perfect after-ski snack.

Now, all we need is someone French to make a couple of huge crêpes on the griddle, and its baptism will be complete.

Update: I finally managed to remember get the recipe to a place where there is also internet! For those looking for their Oppdal roots, here it is (in Norwegian). It makes enough to feed a cabin full of people over the whole Christmas and New Year period (that standard international unit).

500g smult

500g margarin

2 – 3 kopper sukker

3 kg byggmel

1 l H-melk

litt hvetemel

La smult og margarin ligge frem i romtemperaturen et døgn til det blir litt mykt.

Rør det sammen med sukkeret, så ha i melk og mel.

Happy baking!

preikestolen mountain cabin

Preikestolen, or the Pulpit, has long been on The Chef’s wish list of places to visit. Now, with the opening of the Norwegian Trekking Association‘s blond-wooded, airy new mountain cabin 2 hours’ walk away, Preikestolhytta, there’s more reason than ever before to go.

We’ve even extracted a promise from Inspector Gadget to take us this year. It’s his childhood stomping ground after all. Here’s a closer look at Helen & Hard‘s creation. Want to join us?

fa fa fa

We’ve been so slow on the pick-up, even after Inspector Gadget gave us the album as part of his iTunes donation to enrich our cultural life. But now we’re confirmed superfans of Bergen band Datarock, and spent most of Christmas spreading the good tunes.

Best of all was an impromptu boogie to the irresistible disco beat of Fa Fa Fa with the family Snow, in the midst of our game of car key hide-and-seek. Next stop, matching his-and-hers Datarock sweatsuits!

hurtigruten

This shot was taken in between Christmas and New Year from Ma and Pa Snow’s Trondheim fjordside flat, which I always love visiting. As you can see, precious little snow then, though in the meantime it has arrived with a vengeance. I also really love watching the Coastal Express, or Hurtigruten, sailing past, though yesterday morning in high winds it actually ran aground in Trondheim harbour. No one was hurt, but all very dramatic!

månefisken

Ever since we moved to Norway, there doesn’t seem as much point in organizing our annual Scandi Christmas party for friends, which involved patiently explaining to poor Dutch butchers with the aid of photos and diagrams exactly how the pork belly needs to be scored and prepared for our purposes, imbibing of much akvavit, smashing of Christmas baubles and tying of little green felt reindeer around the neighbour’s cat’s neck to get her into the mood (you all know who you are, I certainly remember what I am guilty of).

Norway seems intent on making up for the absence of this party with a vengeance. There has been a flurry of Christmas parties with every possible combination of friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Company and food at all have been excellent, music varying from get-everyone-on-the-dancefloor disco to Norwegian country (the less said about the latter the better). The best location of all had to be Månefisken, a former weaving factory along Akerselva. I love the exposed brick walls of places like these (above).

But even though here I get the real deal, and many times over, I can’t help but miss our export version.

hitra scallops

Christmas party season has started in earnest here in Norway, and Team GB wasn’t about to be left out, neither on the cooking nor the eating side of things.

But top marks surely had to go to the starter you see above: pan-fried scallops drizzled with soya sauce on a salad bed. Here’s the Norway-only twist: every single one of the little creatures were hand-picked by team member Ray, off the coast of Hitra, about 10 m deep, on a sheltered sandy bottom. Not a taste experience I’ll forget in a hurry!

rødungen

It was enough to make Mr. Snow quite ill with envy. ‘But I’m Mr. Snow!’, he cried jealously, when he realized that I would go on the first cross-country ski trip this season – without him.

The exciting thing about going into the Norwegian mountains is that you never know if you’ll make it up, or even down again safely, certainly with the ice we encountered in combination with countless sharp bends. But our super-cautious driver got us up and down all in one piece, while our organizer made sure we had not just a cosy bed each, and not just food, but plenty of goodies and wine with which to replenish tired skiing bods.

This picture is of the lake our cabin was adjacent to, taken just before we turned again back home. I love how the red roof edge contrasts with the blue grey of the sky, snow and water. The upturned boat also made me wonder when it will be used next on the water. Not until next spring?