The colours of food

I like to use vegetables and food of the different seasons when possible, and another thing I love to do is to focus on the colours of the season. In the year of the church, the colour of advent is purple. Yesterday we lit the first purple candle in our advent wreath, I have a purple table runner on our table, and purple paper napkins. The lent period is best known for its fasting, but traditionally advent was also a period of simple food, to prepare for the coming festival.

Advent is a period of reflections and a slower life, a side of advent which is almost lost today in the pre Christmas rush. Traditions are important to me, and I try to "take back" the true meaning of advent. We don't fast these weeks, but focusing on advents true meaning can be done in so many different ways.

Our oldest son, Torgeir, came home on Saturday from three years of studies in Australia. Yesterday we had an active day with church, handball matches for the girls and an invitation in the afternoon. Torgeir has decided to learn more cooking now these weeks he is living at home before buying a place of his own, and his first "lesson" was to make Sunday dinner - fried chicken breasts with bernaise, and rice. Not to be totally left out from the kitchen, I said that I wanted to make the salad, and decided to do it the purple way.

advent salad

purple lettuce

red onion

cucumber

balsamic vinegar

a blue plate was covered with purple lettuce, cucumber and red onion were cut into small dices and mixed, then put on top of the lettuce bed, everything was sprinkeled in balsamic vinegar

Another purple food story can be read here.

And more about my advent here.

The Book Corner - Guestblogger Darla

There are so many wonderful cookbooks. As a Guest Blogger it was hard to choose just one. I decided to share the book Mexico the Beautiful with you. I've used a number of the recipes but the photographs in the book are so magnificent that sometimes I just leaf through it and I'm transported immediately. This is a cookbook and an art book in one.

Mexico is a big country and the cuisine is traditionally quite diverse and tied to what is available locally. We've visited many times and several places. Our favorite is a small village on the Pacific Coast in the state of Oaxaca. A little trivia question, did you know that the turkey is indigenous to Mexico?

Perhaps one of the most commonly known foods from Mexico is Salsa. There are many types of salsa, again recipes are regional.

Here are two salsa recipes with ingredients that are pretty much readily available, especially if the summer if you have a garden. Thank you Britt-Arnhild for inviting me to the Blue Cafe to blog. I enjoyed it although now I feel an urgent need for a tortilla.

Thank you Darla for being my first guest blogger here in The Blue Café's Bok Corner. The Book Corner is open for guests every Sunday. Let me know if you want to come over.

A warm sandwich

In connection with my work I had invited a group of people for lunch yesterday. We ate in a private home, the owner has a catering business and you can choose if you want the food brought to you or if you want to come to her home. I have been there several times and love the cosy atmosphere. Her dark homemade bread is the best bread I know, and when we had finished the lunch I was able to buy one to take home with me. Terje was having dinner with colleages last night, Marta had been to the lunch with me (school was off) and Ingrid was out with friends. So I decided since Marta and I already had eaten such a big lunch we didn't need any dinner. But I knew I wanted a piece of Unni's bread, and decided to make a kind of ratatoille for it. I braised squash, carrots and red onion in virgin olive oil for about 15 minutes, sprinkeled with some salt while braising. Instead of butter I covered the bread with a thin layer of blue cheese before adding the vegetables. A simple and healthy dish which I enjoyed while writing my advent party blog post.

Welcome to the advent party

Tomorrow is the first day of advent. I have been excited like a child for a long time now, and have day by day tried to set myself in an advent mood, slowing down my steps.Today has been a day off in schools, and Marta and her cousin came downtown to meet me after work. They wanted to visit clothes shops, and as a good mother I went with them of course, continuing to the Panduro craft shop where there are tons of crafty temptations. We bought a few, and when we came home the girls sat down at the dinigroom table to make beaded snowflakes and stamped Christmas cards, while I started to make the traditional slow down, party, comfort, love food of the Wigum (my birth name) family - vafler.

After a while Terje came home from work (he plays cage ball after work every Friday). He made a fire, and we all sat down to enjoy the crackling flames and the tasty and comforting vafler.

Tomorrow advent starts, and in celebration, there is a party going on over at The House in the Woods. Welcome over. I have enough vafler for everybody.

Slowing down

I am slowing down for the advent season. The four weeks before Christmas which we have almost lost because we are so busy with Christmas preparation. I want my advent to be different, and strive to slow down my steps through my days. Slowing down needs practice, and tonight we practiced with a fire in the hearth, warm sweet rolls and hot chocolate. My eyes seeked the dancing flames, though in between I buried them deep into my book.

The simple life

The simple life is an important philosophy in The Blue Café. Simple can still be creative and exotic, and I love to challenge my fantasy. The simple life in cooking is for me homemade food. Grocery shopping is an important task during the day, though I never like spending too much time in a shop. I love to wander through the fruit and vegetable section of the store while planning what to cook, or look through the cheese shelves to see if there is anythying new to try. At the same time I often feel at my best in the kitchen when I can compose a dish mostly from leftovers. Like today :-). I knew there were several cooked potatoes already in the fridge, laying side by side with a thick, juicy sausage. In the vegetable shelf in my fridge I have the half of a paprika, so all I had to buy today was some shell pasta (and a box of some old fashioned chocolate, "kremtopper", for the afternoon coffee).

While waiting for the pasta shells to get the right al dente feeling, I diced the sausage, the potatoes and the paprica and braised it all together in olive oil. When the pasta shells were finished I mixed all the ingredients, and in no time I had a cheap and tasty dish.

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Thanks for the responce to my Guest Blogger invitation. Darla will be the first one out on Sunday.

Not always that romantic.....

I confess that I have a romantic soul, but my style in decoration is usually much more rustic than what can be seen in these photos. But some days are meant for romance, and all you have to do is to follow the bliss.

I worked longer than my husband today. He phoned me when I was on the bus on my way home to let me know that dinner was on the table, and I decided to stop at the grocery store to buy a treat for afternoon coffee. I actually hadn't planned anything too sweet, but when I saw these pink and dark "punchkaker", I couldn't resist, and filled a small plastic bag.

Coming home I realised that my husband was in a pink mood as weel, for dinner he had fried salmon filets. Mmmm, I love fish, and even more when I can come home from work to a ready dinner table. My pink cakes made the dot over the i - a plain Monday was transformed to a feast.