mat i norge.

(food in norway)

I spent a weekend in Oslo, Norway with Ariel. It was snowy and expensive. The design of everything was gorgeous.

Our flight was at 6am, so by the time we got to our hostel and threw our stuff down, it was 10am, maybe? We were also starving; I had bought a pack of cheese sticks at Tesco's, but obviously that was not enough. We took a stroll and ended up at a café with a cute waiter guy. I had a spinach and pepper calzone-ything. And Orangina!



Because of that large breakfasty-lunch, we really weren't that hungry for lunchlunch. So we found a cute little bakery and sat down. Here's my latte and phenomenal brownie.

That night, we decided to go out for a nice dinner (this was before we knew the REAL exchange rate...). It was a slow food restaurant that basically only served steak medallions and appetizers/side dishes. I was not aware of this until we sat down (I'm a pescatarian), because the menu was all in Norwegian. Well, the waitress was so sweet and she let me order an extra large appetizer instead. So here's our meal journey. It all started with a small salad.



Then came the main part. Here's Ariel's meat. She picked a rich red wine sauce to go with it. Her side dishes were...asaparagus (not sure what sauce) and then a mushroom-onion sautée in what I think was vinegar. My side dish of creamy potato slices are pictured too.



My main dish was a shrimp scampi, in tomato and what I thought was white wine sauce. green onions too. It was one of the best shrimp dishes of my life.




And then, because it was bone-numbingly freezing outside, we ended with a cup of coffee.
Despite the outrageous bill, Ariel and I decided that the meal was ABSOLUTELY worth it.

The next day we went back to our bakery and had the one legitimate meal of the day. They don't exaggerate when they say Norway is expensive. Whatever, it was the best cheese sandwich of my life.






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chocolate-filled cantucci.

I've been slacking on posts lately, but I'm just going to blame it on the time-consuming project I've been working on in school.

Haz and Toni had their birthdays on the same week, so I decided to make a special batch of cantucci for both of them. I just made normal amaretto cantucci...and before the second bake, I hollowed them out a little. After the second bake, I let them cool and then melted some delightful Cadbury's Bourneville dark chocolate and filled the little guys up. After they cooled again, the chocolate got semi-soft to hard...perfect for a crunchy cookie. They were kind of delicious.



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caramelized onion risotto.

I used to make risotto all the time when I lived in Italy - it's relatively easy and super filling. Today, I decided that caramelized onion would be fantastic in it.

I caramelized-ish the onion and then added the risotto, cooking it in my usual manner. In a separate pot I sauteed leeks, broccoli and mushrooms (I kind of like them now...). Once the risotto was done, I just put the veggies on top. It was really pretty simple to make, but it tasted pretty good. The risotto definitely tasted heartier. I wish I had caramelized the onions just a little more though, too add some more sweetness to the dish.



My friend Ariel totally appreciated the meal after her long day at the studio. x

lady grey cantucci.

BAKING EXPERIMENT TAKE 1:


So obviously I've been having a field day with this whole cantucci thing. I think I got really excited because they came out so well...and they're really fun to make/bake.

Today I attacked the "extract" concept. After copious amounts of googling, I came upon the conclusion that I would just have to wing it. Awesome!

I began with attempting to make a liquid extract. I took two lady gray tea bags and soaked them in 3ish teaspoons of hot water. I added this to a slightly modified version of the usual recipe (among other alternations, I halved the recipe in case I failed miserably). The batter didn't taste any different, really. So I continued adding dry to the wet as I thought about what to do next.

I ripped open a new bag of lady grey and sprinkled the actual tea all over the dough. It looked nice, so I just popped those kids in the oven.



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tagliatelle.

About a week ago my friends, James and Alec, and I decided that we needed to have a homemade pasta dinner. James has a pasta maker, so all we needed was some flour and good company (well, not really).

I'm glad I made pistachio cantucci (I was in such a rush that I didn't have time to photograph them) and brought a bottle of Chianti because I did absolutely nothing in the making of the dish. No, that's a lie. I emotionally supported.

Alec brought hearty Egyptian pasta flour, to which James added eggs and water. That thing was SO tough and had a lovely brown color. I wish I took more time to figure out how to use my camera to its fullest potential, because you can't really tell in the next picture. I promise I'm not this short.



There was a ridiculous amount of pasta made...which was good because there were plenty more hungry stomachs. As for the sauce, it was cheesy-vegetable medley. It was delicious.




There were some doughy mishaps...and from that, Pastasaurus Rex was born.



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