Good times at Godt Brød

I was lucky enough to get a job at an organic bakery while in Stavanger this summer. Although I definitely would not say the weather was very summery. I never even got the chance to wear shorts or go to the beach! But that didn't matter because I had a grand ole time icing cinnamon buns and buttering organic foccacia rolls. Every morning at 8.55 I would roll down the hill on my aunts bike, and arrive at bakery full of freshly baked boller and cute staff dressed as Norwegian milk maids. It was such a cozy way to spend the day, good food, super funny staff and a chance to improve the standard Norwegian coffee. There were a lot of cute customers (only a few grumpy bums); I loved all the older ladies who came in for morning tea, ordered black filter coffee and boller and would had a serious chat about the weather. Meeting Australians was also hilarious. They never asked me if I was Australian from my accent!? Being in the city centre Australian tourists often came in looking for an egg and bacon breakfast. I told them eggs and bacon didn't exist in Norway but I could make them a bloody good Norwegian breakfast sandwich. I won them over every time. I noticed when making sandwiches that women always knew exactly what they wanted while men where much less picky about what they wanted on their sandwich. Women were also much more likely to complain if they weren't totally satisfied. Norwegain men need to man up! The most popular sandwich for both men and women a like was prawns, mayo and lemon. I totally agree, it's delicious. At the end of the day I would ride my aunts bike back up the hill with a couple of baguettes sticking out the front basket. 

First impressions of Perth

I arrived back in Perth 5am this mid winter morning to a comfortable 10 degrees. You call this winter Perth?! Where are the icy roads and woollen underwear? Then I saw that the number plates have started to start with the letter "D", finally moved past the letter "C", where they have been stuck for several years. The skyline has a new building which adds/ blocks the view, not sure if I like it yet. The local supermarket has a new deli section that sells espresso coffee? Interesting. I am sceptical and intrigued to taste it. Australians talk a load of rubbish. We use the words "like", "kind of", "honestly" and "literally" WAY too much, they make us sound stupid. Curtin University has new "filtered" water fountains, especially so we can save the environment; exciting stuff. There were a lot of old vegetables in the fridge. I threw them away. Nothing has really changed. 

Happy 21st Alex

21 things I love about Alex

1. she makes an amazing roasted vege cous cous salad
2. she can run faster than I can ride a bike
3. she is a master at abusing Chilean taxi drivers when they try to scam her
4. she introduced me to the Cambodian seafood hotpot and Vietnamese poh
5. she tried to make me run away from school when I was 8 to go her house and see a cat
6. she converted me to a be a lover of the marmalade and vegemite on toast combination for breakfast
7. she loves an adventure
8. she works hard
9. she is good at putting out fires made by 21 year old stoves
10. her family is super cool and sweet
11. she is an experts on worms
12. she writes long awesome letters on colourful paper with glitter
13. she likes manzanas jugosas
14. she loves red lipstick
15. she appreciates good coffee and good foam
16. she disapproves of drug dealers in Bolivian prisons
17. she wears havianas in the middle of European winters
18. she did an amazing project on Haile Gebrselassie in year 5
19. she can made uber delicious homemade chai
20. she smells of Miss Dior Cherie
21. we'll always be friends, even after arguing about water and washing

22. 
    

Midnight trampoline sunset

Saturday night after work Eirin and I took the ferry over to Tau. It's such a luxury to be able to finish work and still have several hours of sunlight left. In fact it never gets totally dark here in summer. Love it! Mallin and Eirin are experts at bringing back childhood fun, so we made chicken tacos, jumped on the trampoline, got cramps from laughing so hard and talked about all the excitement of our plans for next year. The photos are not edited. The colours of Saturday nights sunset were frick'n insane dude. Right out the window from Mallin's kitchen! 

Carrot cupcakes unintentionally flooded with maple cream cheese deliciousness (intentionally delicious)

I was at a café today and they had the most amazing looking carrot cupcakes. I wanted one.

But I am a cheap ass. I was not willing to spend half an hours wage on a little cupcake. So I rode my aunts bike through the rain home, with my second hand jacket and my bag which I have had since I was 15 (I'm totally a cheap ass) and made my own kick ass carrot cupcakes.

I searched my favourite recipe sites for a recipe and found this one from Smitten Kitchen. I added and subtracted a little. I used left over carrots which I bought from my favourite little farmer man, who has a stall on Stavanger's main square. He has the best, cheap, fresh, quality vegetables, never smiles but is still totally adorable. The cupcakes were really really good. The icing was too runny, I added too much maple syrup and didn't have enough icing sugar left. I bad. Slightly more tricky to devour, but totally worth devouring. And much more satisfying than those expensive café cupcakes.

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 24 cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated peeled carrots
1 cups coarsely chopped hazelnuts
24 squares of quality dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, hazelnuts. Put a dark chocolate square in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Divide batter among cupcake moulds, filling 3/4 of each.

Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

2 packages cream cheese, softened
120 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
A small handful of grated carrot

In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.

Preikestolen, the pulpit rock

Above lysefjorden outside of Stavanger lies an insane rock formation known as preikestolen. It's a rock plattform that juts out from the side of the fjord and drops straight down 604 metres. It attracts thousands of tourists each year, and last week Mallin, Eirin and I were some of them.

Eirin and I met up in Stavanger and picked up some hiking essentails such as chocolate and a shrek pez dispenser. We then took a 40 minute ferry over to Tau, where Mallin picked us up and we drove up the the preikestolen hytte. In the car I received a present from Mallin's Mum, a tshirt which says " You can not get to the pulpit rock without visiting us" referring to the district they live in. Sweetest lady!

The weather was not totally ideal, quite foggy and a bit of rain. Then my thermos of hot chocolate leaked through my bag, and my tuna sandwhich was soggy. But no amount of soggy sandwich could take away from the fact that was totally amazing, an idyllic two hour walk through forrest, over rocks and mud with Eirin and Mallin cracking hilarious jokes and telling funny stories the whole way up. Mallin even convinced Eirin that there was a swimming pool at the top which sold icecream and hot dogs. Lol Eirin! When we got to the top we dangled our legs over the edge, pretended to base jump, and ate pez from Eirin's shrek dispenser. Afterwards we went back to Mallin's house and ate the most delicious homemade pizza. Awesome day.

The left side of B310

This is were I have lived the past year. Along with Andrea, my awesome room mate, who happened to come from the same town as my great grandfather (Asker) and have an insanely cool collection of amazing shoes.

B310 is where I learnt to knit, woke up to an amazing view every morning, ate Tim Tams that Alex T sent me, stored my secret stash of chai, did my norwegian homework and put into use the pink donna cover my grandma gave me.

I had to try not to wake Andrea up, as I almost always went to bed earlier and got up earlier, store the bottle of Poslish vodka Alex gave to me inside a dress and cope with a shelf which kept falling down.

B310 was also home to:
1) our pet plant Alberto, who managed to stay alive despite our neglect and many holidays from school, 2) my sheep jaw which I kept from my aunty Åse's sheep head party and 3) a a small bag of Guatemalan worry people which my mum sent me for my 21st birthday.

I miss B310.