dinner time

I've been away from this space for too long. Time to do something about it.

I'm cooking dinner and waiting for Sølve to come home from work. I'm making the same thing we had yesterday, which turned out to be super yummy. This is it:

- green asparagus
- snow peas
- fresh fillets of salmon with salt, pepper and olive oil
- spring onion
- little gem lettuce
- lemon juice
- feta cheese

The ingredients are listed in the same order as I put them in the frying pan. The asparagus needs more time to cook than the little gem lettuce. Keep the temperature on medium, and make sure you don't over cook the vegetables. I prefer vegetables to be "al dente". The heat will make the feta melt a little, and with the lemon juice (from half a lemon) it makes a nice kind of sauce. Quick and healthy dinner - which is now served!

I'm hungry!

Sølve is making pizza and it smells sooo good! I'm so hungry! Seems like today's Flickr favorites reflect that... Have a great weekend guys!

1. cover shot, 2. glasgow, i miss you, 3. lunch recently, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. cheeses!

Brontibay

Next to our hotel in Paris there was a lovely little shop selling beautiful bags, Brontibay. I think the two above here are my favorites, but there were really a lot of other beautiful stuff as well. I didn't buy anything, so I'm glad they have an online shop.

That is all I got today. Now I have to write an article about slow food, buy Christmas presents, and then on Thursday I start my Christmas holiday by driving home to Sandnes.

work and food

Hei!

I have a plan to post here every day, but sometimes life takes over, and there's less time for online fun. You know how it is, don't you?

I was quite absent from this space the last week, which was filled with lots of work and great food. For those of you interested in what was on the menu, take a look at my Flickr photostream. It seems like this week will be as busy as the last, so I'll probably not be around here much this week either. When life slows down I'll take some time to write about Scandinavian design, which I got a question about in a comment on one of my recent posts. I also have a couple of other things planned to share with you. In the mean time I'll probably find time to upload photos on Flickr daily, like I normally do.

Have a great week friends!

Sweet Paul

Paul Lowe has been one of my favorite stylists for a long time. He does a lot of fabulous work for some of my favorite Norwegian magazines, and he has done quite a few beautiful books as well. Remember this cookbook that I shared with you on Flickr a while ago? Well, that's an example of Paul's work. I just discovered, via Bloesem, that Paul has a blog - Sweet Paul. You can see more of his work over at Art Wing NY (that is were I got the photos above from).

Have a nice weekend guys. I guess a lot of you are enjoying a long Thanksgiving weekend with family and yummy food. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Norway, but I'll sure enjoy some good food this weekend though. I'm preparing for a special guest who arrives tomorrow... :-)

a long workday

You all know the feeling of a long working day, don't you? The first part of the day, when it's still daylight outside, your energy and spirits are high. At lunchtime it drops a little because you are hungry, but after a quick bite you are ready to go again. Then, at about 4-5 pm, it's time for another meal. At least for me it is. I eat small meals often. This last meal was an organic sunflower seeds whole grain roll from Godt Brød with a homemade spread of mayonnaise, eggs and scrimps bought at Kjøttbasaren. It was so, so good. But it did not lift my energy level at all. I'm so tired; all I want to do is sleep. Its dark outside, so why not?

What is your trick to keep going the second part of a long workday, when it's dark outside and all you want to do is go home?

The photo above was taken some weeks ago when I biked home from work. Close to my home there is a steep hill through a church yard. I never bike up the hill, it's too stressful. As I walked up the hill, I saw the moon shining through the tree branches. It was pretty nice, so I took this photo with my old analog slr. It's not the best moon shot in the world, but who cares?

That's all. Now I'm going to work.
Astrid out. 6 pm.

yes, I got comfortable

Yes, I got plenty comfortable on Thursday night.

As expected the ride home was wet. Raindrops dripping from my nose kind of wet. But I wore rubber boots and rain gear (I have been a girl scout for many years and I know how to dress in bad weather), so it wasn't too bad.

I came home to candles, roses, a lit fireplace, chilled Chablis and a super delicious salmon dinner. Sølve arranged a surprise date. How can I possibly ask for more?!

In other news:
Some of you have already seen this, and if you haven't, you should: Jen of Simply Photo has made a beautiful simply breakfast book.

My sister and I finally got a chance to work together again this weekend. I'm writing an article about bananas, and my sister took photos. Here is a couple of behind the scenes shots. At last I got to try mav's famous banana bread. Oh yum!

Sophie Conran

You all know Terence Conran, right? Designer, restaurateur, and founder of Habitat. His daughter, Sophie Conran, has also a lot going for her. Her beautiful home was recently featured in Norwegian Elle Deco, which is how I kind of "found" her. Her website is lovely, and there are some tempting recipes there.

Deborah Bowness

Lazy Sunday in front of the fireplace. Reading magazines, eating Grandiosa (we kind of forgot to buy "real" Sunday dinner) and drinking red wine.

I came across Deborah Bowness' great wallpapers while reading the newest issue of the Norwegian Elle Deco.

I hope you are having a great weekend too.

happy, rainy Wednesday

There are certain things that make this girl happy on a very rainy, very wet, very grey autumn day. Crisp bread with Philadelphia creme cheese, Provence ham and cucumber is one thing. I have already had 8 of them today (!). Buying tickets to Berlin to meet up with a certain German couple and a certain Canadian couple is another thing. Knowing that she is going to lounge on the sofa with her boyfriend tonight and watch more episodes of the West Wing on DVD, is even another thing that makes her happy.

And then there is the one thing that makes this very magazine addicted girl super happy - 25 % off all foreign magazines at Narvesen for three weeks. Knowing that most foreign magazines usually cost around $22/£9/€13, you might understand why this gets me so worked up. I'm ready for magazine galore!

rainy sunday

The dinner party on Friday was a success, and meeting up with a group of girls last night was a blast. Today it's Sunday and time to relax. It's real autumn weather outside, with wind and rain hammering on the windows. I want to light the fireplace, but I don't want to go outside in this weather to get the firewood... Sølve is i Cannes, France with his job, so I have to do it myself. Big challenge today ;-)

Since I'm home alone, I'm making something Sølve isn't a big fan of; rice pudding. Yum! More photos here.

Hope you have a good Sunday.

festivity and balloons

I'm in a festive mood today. We are having a dinner party tonight.

My day started at about 8 am with the apartment being filled with the lovely smell of rosemary, garlic and mustard. Sølve was preparing two legs of lam for the dinner tonight. Yesterday he prepared the base for the fish soup that we are having as a starter. It will be so perfect with the Alsace he bought. After a slow breakfast and some tidying and cleaning, I made chocolate mousse for dessert. Recipe here. It's going to be a great start of the weekend :-)

Autumn is lam season, which reminds me of this that I found over at simply photo earlier today. Seasonal eating is a good thing.


Today's Friday Flickr Favorites are all about festivity - I love balloons!

party time - untitled - 4th Birthday - goodnight - cheo's party - trapped - balloon - the wedding party - balloons - party trace

food + magazines

A new Norwegian food magazine hit the newsstands today: Smart Mat. I flipped trough it and it looks promising. Nice articles and photos. What I didn't like, and especially not for the first issue of a new magazine, is the price - 79 kroner, which is about $14/£7/€10...

Harald tipped me about GOOD magazine. I'm curious about it, so I'm going to check out the website when I have finished all my upcoming deadlines. Do you know this magazine?

The photo above was taken a while ago. It's king oyster mushrooms from Den blinde ku (the blind cow). Here is a similar photo.

even more travel thoughts

Even more travel related thoughts today. Bits and pieces on my mind, things that make me happy.

- I just noticed I have a tan line from the earrings I wore the whole holiday.

- I'm still waiting to pick up the films I shot while in Croatia. I like this kind of waiting and not knowing what to expect from the photos.

- Thursday evening we had a Croatia inspired dinner: fried white fish (should have been grilled, but we passed because of the pouring rain), and a mix of boiled potatoes, spinach, garlic and herbs. Simple and so good.

- I'm glad we brought home a couple of the great Croatian wines we enjoyed there; the white Posip Cara from the island Korcula and the two reds Zlatan Plavac and Plavac, both from the island Hvar.

- I actually didn't shop anything else than food and wine. Not sure what it means. Maybe it simply means that it was a totally relaxing holiday filled with great food, wine, sun (oh how I miss the feeling of the warm (not burning) sun on my skin!), friends, and my love, Sølve.

This Friday's Flickr Favorites are inspired by traveling:

chairs by Frosk - makes me want to read my book on the deck of a ship when it's a little cold, so I have to wear a blanket
where the happy music came from by h2okatcher - makes me want to go back to this truly wonderful Italian village
Dawn at Concordia by Kelly Cheng - makes me want to go hiking in mountains higher than the Norwegian mountains (2469 m)
Cinghiale by rdesai - makes me want to go food shopping at market and in small shops in Italy, France or Croatia
Chairs at Salotto 42 by Hypnotic Aubergine - makes me want to have cappuccino and watch people go by at an outdoor cafe in a country where the temperature is so comfortable that you can actually sit outside all year

I'm off for a couple of days, for fun and work. I'll write again next week. Till then, happy times!

breakfast and faces

The weekend is here. I hope the week treated you well, and that you will enjoy some lazy breakfasts during the weekend (you know I love breakfasts). Some rise and shine inspiration from Red magazine might give you some ideas (photo above, click the photos to view them larger). Even though my week has been busy with work, I'm slowly getting into the holiday mood. So, I had a look in my archives and found this holiday breakfast photo from the island of Hvar, Croatia (top photo).

Friday Flickr Favorites. I think photographing people - and their faces - is hard. It depends so much on the person you photograph. Here are some great people photos I have faved:
Afternoon
singing and playing guitar
31c
snowfall
Analivia en la cocina

summerparty

On my mind today is food, dinner with friends and long summer nights.

Yesterday the office had a summer party/surprise hen party for the hostess (hence the mini bottles of sparkling wine with straws). We sat outside all night eating and drinking all kinds of yummy things. Fresh shrimps, sparkling wine, strawberries, cheese... Oh joy! I'll do more of this during the weekend. Fellow foodie friends from Sandnes are coming in the afternoon and their visit will for sure include great food and drinks. On Sunday I'm picking up Matt and Jördis at the airport. Maybe they will bring cupcakes?

While I'll entertain my guests this weekend (and not spend time in front of the pc), you can explore new Scandinavian cooking. I hope you find something you like. I'll be back on Monday.

Here's my Friday Flickr favorites:

(i got new shoes) - I think this is the first feet shot I faved. I adore this kind of shots. I even have a whole set of them on Flickr.
lounging with a pot of espresso - miss Veronika Lake has such great interior style! She's also a great photographer.
untitled - this makes me long for cold, silent, white winter days in the mountains.
Dripping icing - white on white beauty
new york - I want to go to New York.

Hei

I'm Astrid.

Like breakfast is the first (and most important) meal of the day, this is the first post in my blog. A few people have encouraged me to start this blogging journey. So, here I am, with my own blog, named "Hei Astrid".

It's personal and it's simple. I will share with you the things I love in life - food, flowers, photography and other fabulous things, like design, art and fashion.

You are very welcome to join me on this journey. I appreciate the company.

So long!

Ciao