Gratinert løksuppe, Gratinée des Halles

I have a huge blue book about French cooking. Yesterday morning I started to look though it in search of recipes, or rather in search of inspiration, as I seldom follow the recipes when I cook. I am more a find the way as I walk person. I was going downtown later in the day and was making a grocery list. But the more I looked, the more tempted I was of French cooking, and almost booked a ticket to France :-)..... Well, in the end I decided to go for a very simple, very tasty gratinated onion soup, Gratinée des Halles.

Again and again I discover that the best food is often the simple food. With few but the best ingredients, where each item added shows off her best. Onion soup is a very good example. We had this soup as a starter last night, and it felt rich enough to be a full meal.

Løksuppe / Gratinée des Halles

one onion

5dl water

extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

toast

cheese

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slice the onion and fry it in the olive oil. Add the water and let it boil for 30 minutes

add salt and pepper

fill two soupbowls, top the soup with 4 pieces of small slices of toast and cheese

put in hot oven for about 10 minutes

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After the New Year's concert from Wien I discovered that I did not have any Johann Strauss in my music collection. With amazon it was easy to do something with that, and last week Die Fledermaus came in the mail.

The onion soup tasted even better with Gabril von Eisenstein, Rosalinde, Alfred, Adele and the others from Die Fledermaus singing in the background :-)

Breakfast with lemon and honey

Saturday morning, the rest of the house is quiet, the sky is pink with the promise of a bright new morning. I got a box in the mail yesterday. I had been away all day, five hours on the train, a long meeting, and was tired when I finally reach home, so I didn't even open the box, just went to bed. But this morning I woke up fresh, and the first thing meeting me was the box. I opened it, and found......a small jar of honey, fresh from Betsy's Fork Creek garden. I opened the box and smelled summer, I made breakfast and tasted summer :-)

Two pieces of homemade bread is my typical breakfast. Usually with black currant marmelade from The Blue Garden, or with brown cheese. Today was a special treat, two pieces of bread with Betsy's very special honey. The perfect darkness. The perfect sweetness. And a cup of tea with lemon.


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I had my ipod with me on the train yesterday, and enjoyed Urs Joseph Flury and Concertino Veneziano. Bought on a whim in Venezia a few years ago. played again and again.

When icy roads say no to grocery shopping

If you read Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods, you know about our challenging weather right now. With yesterday's drive home from work in mind, I put a cookbook in my backpack this morning, with the intention of reading recipes on my way home from work, and hopefully decide what to make for dinner. Plans changed though. My husband phoned me at work to tell me that because of the road situation in our city, he had to work some extra hours. I took the bus home, and a crowded bus filled with wet people is not a good place to read recipes. And as my dear neighbour and very good friend came onto the bus the stop after mine, I didn't miss the cookbook at all.

Ok, I said to myself. I will make a late dinner. I can make a grocery list when I am home and then go shopping. Anyway the grocery store is only a few minutes from our house.

Finally at home I knew that there would be NO grocery shopping. It was raining cats and dogs, it was blowing and the roads were too slippy. The only option was to make dinner from what I could find in the cupboards. Not an easy task, believe me, but after searching high and low, I ended up with some spaghetti, a lemon, half an onion, some leek and a few cherry tomatoes. After I took the photo I even found a few walnuts and I realized I had a bright green basil in the window sill. Women have made dinner on less.

25gr fresh yeast, salt, sugar, 3dl lukewarm water and some white flour even made the most wonderful foccaccia. Marta and I feasted, though she hardly had time to come in to eat, it is too much fun to play (read jump from the carport roof) out in the snow.

Marta was not too happy about the walnuts. I think they made the dish!

I cut all the vegetables and fried them in olive oil, added a little salt.

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Good food needs good music. While reading Vikram Seth's An Equal Music some time ago I discovered Bach's The Art of Fugue. Bach's music is among the best music ever written.

Spring colours in the snow

The snow keeps on falling. Day in and day out. I love to sit here in my studio where I have the window right in front of my face. I love to watch the beauiful snowcovered trees, the falling snow, the silence of a white world. I do not love to struggle with the snow to and from work. It drains my energy and my dreams seem to find a way to fly south to the summers of Italy. I am craving for spring colours, and a good way to make some colours with the taste of spring is to make a green salad. I even believe the greens give me some energy for my snow fights.

And if dinner is healthy enought, we can have a cup of coffee and a piece or two of some leftover cake in the afternoon.....

This pastasalad is very simple.

pasta

avocado

eggs

cucumber

iceberg salad

salt

extra virgin olive oil

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With Italy in my mind day and night (almost), it is easy to end up with Italien music when I look through my cd collection. Venezia and Vivaldi go perfectly together. Some time ago I discovered some Vivaldi music which was new to be (I am NO music expert), and it soon became among my favorite cds.

Concerti e Cantate

CONCERTO ITALIANO

Trettende dag jul, 13th Day of Christmas

It is the 13th day of Christmas and the holiday is officially over. I started last night to put away my creches, and have continued today with the angels, the snowmen, the cds, books, stockings and all my other collection. It feels sad and empty and at the same time it feels good. The house is back to normal and it is tidy. Instead of a basket filled with Christmas books I have now filled the same basket with garden books. It is still snowing, will it ever stop(?), but I have a dream of spring somewhere far ahead.

To celebrate "trettende dag jul" or epiphany, we have eaten the last lussekatter from the freezer. Warmed in the oven, and they are good as new.

You find the recipe for lussekatter through this link

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When I was pregnant with my second son, 25 years ago, I had to stay in bed for several weeks. During that time I discovered Misa Criolla, and since then it has been among my favorite music. I am playing it tonight while having coffee and lussekatter, and a very nice fire in the hearth.
And I am reading today's mail. Nice letters and cards from friends around the world.

Back to more greens.

After a long Christmas vacation with alot of food and alot of sweets and calories, it is time to go back to a more normal everyday life. Holidays and time off are blessings, but the older I get the more I appreciate the everyday routine with my job and my time off.

My first workday after almost two weeks off was today, and to kind of get into the healthy mood, I made myself a very simple green salad for lunch yesterday.

Green everyday salad

iceberg salad
leek
cucumber
cherry tomatos
olives
basil

sprinkeled with balsamic vinegar
followed by a long walk in the snow


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After all the recent Christmas music, it is nice to be back to "something else", like Beethoven and a few of his symphonies.

What about no 5 &6?

Feast means Marta's cupcakes

During the holidays we fill the house with family and friends again and again. After a busy autumn it has been a wonderful time to get back to being social, time for family, time for friends, and also time for solitude, which becomes more and more important for me. Today is Terje's birthday, and again there will be a full house.

A Party in The Blue Café often means cupcakes, Marta's cupcakes, as one of many cakes on the table. Marta loves decorating her cupcakes, she dreams of making her own cake company, inspired by Cakeadoodledo. During the past year she has tried different recipes, and has now found the perfect one for her use in a small book from Cacas, sjokolademuffins. They are sweet, soft and raise just perfect.

It is still Christmas time here in Norway. We celebrate untill the 13th day of Christmas, which is the day of eating the gingerbreadhouse, undecoration the tree and storing away all tracks of Christmas decorations. We still use our Spode Christmas Tree china and I still play my Christmas cds. But as we go back to work and school tomorrow, I am not sorry to have the 13th Day of Christmas here in Tuesday. It will be good to be back to a more regular scedule.

But so far Christmas is still among us, and when we had Terje's birthday breakfast this morning, we were accompanied by Bach and his Christmas Oratorio.

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