The tomatos are finally ripe

I have several tomato plants, planted together in a huge pot. They are filled with tomatos in all sizes, and every day I lift the branches and leaves to check for ripe red ones. A few weeks ago I moved the pot indoor to give the plants a better temperature, but still I had to wait and wait for the ripening. Untill now. The first red tomato was found a week ago, now there are several every day.

Finally, tonight I had enough to make bruschettas, some old, almost dry bread painted in rich extra virgin olive oil, fried in the iron pan, then topped with diced sweet tomatos with the taste of olive oil and sunshine from a Nordic summer.

Califlower Soup

Autumn is the perfect time of the year to colour the food. My garden is filled with colours right now, late roses, sweet peas, calendulas, sunflowers, blue borago and alot more. Many of the flowers blooming right now can be used in the food, to be eaten, or to decorate. A white rose is beautiful in a white califlower soup. Sweet peas are beautiful everywhere.
A califlower soup is easy to make, staring with melted butter and flour, adding milk or water, salt, a little white pepper, and some creme fraice. But be careful with the cream, it might be too heavy for your gall bladder.

I seldom plan our menus far in advance. I love to shop on a whim.

Chicken salad and colours from the garden

Our autumn days have so far been filled with sunshine, and everything is growing like mad before the dark and cold season. Chicken salad and pita bread was on the menu for our dinner today, and while grocery shopping, I knew that there would be reds and blues in the carden to colour the salad.
Colours means alot to me, and especially now when the days are getting shorter and I know that alot of gray weeks and months are ahead of me. I am a colour collector, and love to blend different colours, to increase my food palette with new colours, to play.


In the kitchen salad I used what I had, mixed with a few buys from the grocery store - chicken, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, leek, red salad and blue flowers from the garden, and a dressing of vinegar balsamic, the best olive oil I have, drops of fresh lemon and maldon salt.

Honey Plums and back to Food Blogging

It is such a long time since I blogged about food and cooking, my mind feels blank. I have forgotten how to do this........

When I started this food blog a long time ago, my goal was to blog about food every day. I make food every day, the food I make is homemade and most of it is my own recipes, so why not blog about it here to make it into my very own kitchen diary?
Well, I did for a long, long time. It was alot of fun, and a wonderful bonus was the friends from all around the world the food blog gave me. People who commented, people who sent emails and letter, yes, even people who came visiting for a snack or a meal in The Blue Café.

Then, some months ago I was so busy I had to limit my blogging time. I had to concentrate on my main blog, Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods, and my other blogs were given a break.

Nights are longer now when autumn is here, and though my travels keep on (I will try to update them in My Year in the World, and they will always be part of the tales in The House in the Woods) I know it is full time for some food blogging again. Give me some time, be patient when I practice my food writing, and I will be back.

Meanwhile you can enjoy the dessert we had at the cabin yesterday. Plums soaked in honeywater and white wine, eaten with vanilla souce. A pure treat.

Kålrabistappe

I need your help to find the English name for this side dish. It is old, traditional doos here, often to go with salt meat, as we had some days ago. It is made of swede, boiled till it is soft, then mashed with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Simple and very tasty.

I like to cook traditional, and am afraid that the young people of today totally forget, or never learn how to make the food which was essential for previous generations.

Our oldest son bought his own flat a couple of months ago, and he is already realising that pizza and pasta every day can be quite boring. Now he calls me from time to time to get ideas for simple and tasty meals to cook.

I am playing with the idea of making a cookbook for my two sons. I probably have all the recipes I need alreday here at The Blue Café.

Tomorrow I will start preparing food for my Big Party.

A salad a day!

It's Pizza Time.....again

If you read my main blog over in The House in the Woods you know that I have been busy, busy travelling for some time. Here and there, home just long enough to unpack and pack again. Born a traveller I love to travel, but for the moment even I can feel that I am on my way to a limit. I miss my family, I miss my home, I miss my garden and I miss my kitchen.

When I came home last night my husband had made lasagne and one of our grown up boys was here to eat with us. After the meal it felt as a kind of fulfilment to do the dishes, to make the kitchen mine again.

The day before I laft for Copenhagen our fridge broke, and so my husband had to go without me to buy another one. The new fridge arrived only hours before my next travel and there was never any time for me even to open it so see waht it looked like. So when we were driving home today from a handball tournament where Marta played I started to plan what to have for dinner. There is some mincedmeat in the fridge,my husband said, and I decided to do it the easy way - go for pizza.

Dinner is finished, Marta and Terje have gone to watch soccer (Rosenborg, the team of Trondheim against Viking, the team of Stavanger near where my husband was born), Ingrid and her boyfriend will go up to his place to make their own dinner, I have done the dishes and I have made myself at home in the new fridge.

It is time for a quiet night with a book and a mug of tea.