SMASH!

Smash! Delicious but I've sadly given it up in my quest to regain my previous body (thank you,
it is not going well). The Norwegians have a thing for salty/sweet mixes and this is one of them - corn chips coated in chocolate. Yum! No really, it works. However I agree with those of you at home who have tried my samples sent back and said that the chocolate is a bit overpowering. Emily have you tried this at home yet? Would be interested to see how it works.

Also comes in a bar variety, which is not as good.

Hooray for salty and sweet.

Swamp Peas

Tonight I cooked Swamp Peas (or Erstetuing) with tofu sausages, miscellaneous frozen vegetables and some cherry tomatos.

Roxane discovered this culinary delight, although she ate it on its own which I think a tad strange. ;-)

This is a simple just-add-water dehydrated pea dish but it also has a sort of dehydrated potato sauce to it, hard to describe really. Anyway it's quite good, lovely with tofu sausages although for some reason Helios has stopped stocking the kind that I like and these were a bit different. Oh well, no pigs' scrotums so can't complain.

Kremet Spinatsuppe

I have a cold. :-( Yes that's right. After spending a lovley Christmas day and Boxing day in a town whose name I don't know how to spell somewhere toward Sweden, I returned home suddenly without someone to cook for me which is a bit sad.

Fortunately though as the Last Aussie Standing I inherited all sorts of things, including a toaster( thanks Ewan!), LOTS of tea (thanks everyone!) and various other things including this packet of cream of spinach soup, which I treated myself to on this occassion. It was a 'just add water and milk' deal but I also sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it which was enjoyable.

Highly recommended.

Clementiner

They're not called mandarines here, they're Clementines! Just thought I'd share.

Moroccan-style veggie stew - my Best Meal Ever

No really I'm not exaggerating. I'm so proud of this meal that I created entirely without a recipe. It's really healthy, really easy. Only problem is it like sweet potato and I keep having trouble finding it here - it doesn't help that I buy my veggies from street stalls in Grunnerlokka in the dark and keep coming home with yaro (?) But anyway.

Method
- Fry garlic and onion, and maybe a bit of chilli
- Add a tin of tomatos - or you can add a bit of a tin of pasta sauce; and some veggie stock
- Add chopped veggies - I suggest sweet potato and carrot at this point
- When the hard veggies are cooked add any other veggies you fancy (spinach, obviously, probably some egg plant, zuccini etc); and some chopped dates
- Season with garam masala, salt, pepper, whatever you feel like
- MASH - not to death, but just enough to get a good consistency going.
- Serve on a bed of cous cous (cook it in stock, then add some butter)

Yum!

Kaffebrenneriet

A chain of cafes around Oslo - one of which is next to Bjorknes where our classes were - ah such fond memories of the mid-class dash for a $7 coffee. *sigh*

To the right is my cappuccino and blueberry muffin (with lots of cinnamon, yum!) and Sara's cookie and Americana (sans milk, ew) coffee from our coffee t'other day at the Aker Brygge Kaffebrenneriet.

With thanks to caffeine and guarana

Well the semester is over and I celebrated by returning 30 or so bottles and cans of caffeine/guarana products that helped me through to the supermarket - they have a refund system here but unlike in Adelaide it's not just homeless people who get involved.

So thank you caffeine, it was a great semester.