Yummy Christmas.

Christmas is just around the corner, and here, in Norway, part of the tradition is to bake cookies. It is common to count 7 different kinds, but most have more than that at home. They don’t necessarily bake them all (the store has a lot of delicious options) but most have cookies and cakes in cookie jars and tins, ready to be served if someone should drop by during the holidays. And people drop by all the time at Christmas. I love it! (And as soon as we think we hear someone coming we rush to open the caketins and jars and freezer and get the coffee started (yeah, we Norwegians drink coffee, not that often tea).

The discussion on which kinds of cookies we should count as the real deal is an ongoing issue through out the country. There is no key or set rule to which ones to bake (or buy), but most families have their own traditional cookies they would like to include. On the net I found  the most common ones are:

«Smultringer», «sandkaker», «sirupssnipper», «berlinerkranser», «goro», «krumkaker» and «fattigmann».

Thought I would tell about the most common ones in my house....

Smultring (plural: smultringer; English: lard ring) and hjortetakk (sometimes spelled hjortebakkels) are Norwegian doughnuts. They are smallish and usually prepared without glazing or filling, and are often flavoured with cardamom.

Smultrings are torus shaped and sold from trucks and, at Christmas time, from stalls. They are described as being "thick heavy dough fried in lard – best eaten while hot and with the grease still dripping!"
^{(source wikipedia.com)}

Goro were traditionally the "rich man's" cookies in Norway – they are prepared from what used to be really expensive ingredients like butter and cream and they are baked on specially smithed irons that very often are family heirlooms. The cookies have a texture that's a cross between a cookie, a cracker, and a waffle, lightly flavored with cardamom. I just love the pattern these cookies get in the iron when baked. I don’t make them very often, though. My grandmother had an old fashioned iron, which had to be flipped, as it was heated by the fire or cooker, but my iron is a modern, electrical one and the cookies are just too thick to become as delicate and crispy as I like them.

Another cookie, which is made from almost the same ingredients as Goro is Fattigman, or "Poor Man Cookies" which are twisted into pretty knots, quickly fried in oil or lard, and sprinkled with vanilla sugar or confectioner's sugar. They're a favorite in Norway and Sweden, and easy to prepare either with a special fattigman cutter or with a pastry cutter.

I don’t really make these either. I have tried, but... I just never got the hang of it. They just turned fatty and not that tasty at all... maybe I have the wrong recipe. My family never really had a tradition for baking these.

I truly love our delicate Norwegian krumkake cookies. They are baked on a circular cookie iron, then rolled into cones or cigars. They're guaranteed to crumble when eaten, in such a delicious way! There is no way you can eat these in an elegant manner, but I love them! I do not bake them in a large scale... I make them when I plan on serving them or when someone asks for them, as they are the best when just made. Or at least I think so.  I serve them alone, but most times I serve them filled with whipped cream mixed with fruit or berries (cloudberries is very popular around Christmas time) or with ice cream.

Serina Cookies are the ultimate Norwegian butter cookie, with a light texture that comes from using hartshorn (a.k.a. baker's ammonia or hornsalt) rather than American baking powder. Sprinkle them with pearl sugar and watch them disappear! Lovely to dip them in hot coffee and add some mocca taste to them  (I know, not very proper, but I do that to chocolate as well...)

"Sandkaker" (sand cakes) are formed in pretty fluted tins (I was fortunate enough to get my mother's as they cost a fortune!!!!!!), quickly baked in the oven, and then served either inverted to highlight their beautiful shapes or else used as tart shells for both sweet and savory fillings. I usually fill them with vanilla custard and berries... or diced fruit. Any kind I have at hand makes these cookies a real treat.

A cookie I do bake a lot of and put in the freezer is Sarah Bernhard. An almond base with chocolate butter cream and chocolate icing.

When I am to serve them I take them out of the freezer, put the coffee on and they are thawned just right for serving by the time coffee is done. They are delicious and just melt in your mouth with an explosion of jammy taste of chocolate.  They are ok for Christmas, but I would turn big as a house if I made them all year round.

We also design and build a gingerbread house for each of the kids to decorate with sweets and confectioner's sugar. They get to crack it and eat it New Year’s Eve.

We also bake big hearts and tie a bright red bow in them and hang them, i.e. the windows, for decorations... and then some figure shaped smaller ones for eating.

There is a vast number of other cookies which people here in Norway bake for Christmas, and they are all Scrumptious!

getting away and unwind: quality time with family

Most people, who are parents, would recognize and identify the feeling of anticipating what life will be like when your child is born.

Then, one day, you wake up from the trance everyday domesticity cast upon you, you watch your child and wonder “Just how did he/she grow up to be so big, already? What happened to everything I planned on doing with my child? What about the treasured moments I held out expectations of?”

“How could I miss out on making that newborn baby plaster cast of my baby’s hand and foot? How could I miss out on collecting ANY of those mementos I looked forward to sigh for and display.?”

Moments passed and lost forever. You realize you can’t turn back the clock and live those hours, days, weeks, months, years over again.

When I look back, what I regret the most is the hurry. During those flustered musts and doings we lived through, in order to let the kids participate in as much as possible, I feel like we just briefly took a glance, rather than experience. We didn’t calm down to enjoy life... we just lived it.

But when on vacation, after that first week when I learned how to lower my shoulders and put timeschedules aside, I am grateful to say we unwind. We took the time to relax and just inhale the spirit of just being at ease.

Or, did we? I can’t say I remember much from our vacations. Not when I really think back. I remember what I see when looking through our photo albums. Albums where I have glued in programs, tickets, tiny objects picked up here and there, along with the pictures, where careful notes are written down... at least on those first four pages.

The panic when packing and you have to explain your kid he can’t bring an entire suitcase stuffed with toys, and definitely not the teddybear the size of himself (never plays with it, either, but found it when packing and just felt he needed it for the trip).

The passports just disappear 10 minutes before you HAVE TO rush out the doors, and just in time you find them in that small pocket in your bag, where you always keep them when travelling.

I have a special bag when travelling; it has room for everything, and then some, and is very convenient.

Being a mum means that you end up being a beast of burden. Even though all the kids have their own rucksack, I end up with all the waterbottles and small matters they collect and buy.

It stresses me to always carry a heavy bag, when what I really want to do is to just carry my camera, and keep cash and credit card in a pocket. Especially when I am always trying to keep track of where my lovely ones are at all times. (I am not a tall person so after three days my neck feels four inches longer than it does the rest of the year.) And my eyes get that wandering, searching gaze you recognize all parents on holidays by.

The feeling of being disoriented is intensifies by the numerous free, and bought, maps which you get hold on to get where you want and do and see what you want at site. They are very seldom updated, and toilets nearby are forgotten about. Everybody with kids knows how important it is to know where those facilities are at... they are needed NOW, preferably ten minutes ago.

Those things have completely slipped my mind... also the fact that I never look sharp when travelling with my family: sticky sunscreen, melting ice cream and sand everywhere are never becoming.

Just struck me now: the things I have no pictures of, but which characterize our holidays the best, are bags, maps and wet wipes...