Tapas

On friday, I was invited to a tapas evening through some friends of mine. Everyone was supposed to make a little finger dish to share. I have always wanted to try out making little filled savory pasteries, because you always see them served as appetizers at fancy parties.

Indian Wedding

A few months ago, a friend of mine, Vineet, invited most of his friends to come to India with him this summer. His brother got married there this week, and it was an enormous celebration: a four day wedding, 400 guests, and I heard rumors about elephants being invited too. Three of my friends actually went with him to partake in the wedding, but most of us didn't have the time or money.

In honor of the wedding, though, the people remaining in Norway decided to go out to eat a nice Indian dinner.

Summer Dinner

This Friday, I invited a bunch of my friends over for a summer dinner. My friends were nice enough to indulge me by giving me the opportunity to try out a bunch of new recipes on them. I think in the end, though, they ended up letting me spoil them for a night.

New Easy Dinner Recipe!

I have a few staple easy dinner recipes that I make, they usually consist of me throwing things together in a pan and serving it over some kind of rice, potato, or pasta.

Yesterday I made a new one!

German bliss

I've been in Germany for the past few days for my couisn's son's baptism and have had quite a few amazing food experiences.

The first was the buffet on the ferry down to Germany from Norway, where I basically stuffed myself solid. They had so many different kinds of food, as buffets normally do, and I had to try as many as possible. That's my technique at buffets, quantity of items tasted is definitely what I go for, not to put together a cohesive meal, which I've actually met some people who do. I'll never have the self-discipline! I also try to not get completely and utterly stuffed, but then end up failing miserably. It's all worth it, though, isn't it!? I tried crawfish for the first time, and learned the technique for cracking one open. There were also about 10 different kinds of desserts, about half of them cakes and the other half puddings... My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Just some recipes I like

Guest blogger! The stage is yours:

I am going to skip the informative posting part, and get straight to the recipes, because these are a few favorites I need to share with the world, and most notably Sam and Natalyo.

First, as always, a cocktail. This one's called a Mango Sour. I found the recipe in a Gourmet magazine cookbook.

You need: Vodka, Mango Nectar, lemon juice, and ice. It's easy, basically just combine those four things however you like it. It's best if you shake the mixture then add it to a cup of ice. Drunkeness is directly related to the amount of Vodka you add. This was probably obvious but now you know for sure.

Potato Trick

So the other day, I was SUPER hungry and my mom was making dinner for the family since I'm home. I'm not proud of it, but it's a well-known fact that, even though I'm 22, I become slightly cranky when I reach a certain stage of hunger. My mother, who has known me all of my 22 years, realized that I was coming very close to this stage.

Long story short, she was going to make fried potatoes, which usually means you have to boil the potatoes first (which takes about 25 minutes) AND THEN cut them up and fry them, which takes another 5 minutes at least. But, smart as she is, she took out her trusty grater and grated the raw potatoes directly into a pan of olive oil, added some salt and basil, and the potatoes were done in 10 minutes! And they were super good too because they were thin and moist.

I'm by-passing boiling from now on.