Only in Norway

You can imagine my delight when I was given a giant (seriously – its as big as my head) gingerbread heart today by a lovely and generous colleague, with God Jul written on it with icing. Fantastic, it was about time for afternoon tea and I admit I was feeling a little peckish. After all, what is gingerbread for if not to eat…?

Well, as I was modestly claiming “oh I couldn’t possibly eat all that” but secretly thinking “…but I’d give it a good nudge”, I was informed that no, it is not for eating, it is to hang as decoration during Christmas time (!!!!).

So I now have this lovely tantalising gingerbread heart dangling just out of biting range above my desk, where the delicious wafting smell is making my tummy rumble. And here it will remain for the next 3 weeks until it Christmas, when it will be so hard and covered in dust it will be inedible. Only in Norway!

Emma.

"Gløgg gløgg gløgg" ... the sound gløgg makes when you pour it down your throat!

Gday,

Regina and Ulf put on a lovely gløgg session yesterday. Gløgg sessions are scandinavian traditions in the weeks leading up to Christmas where they essentially serve gingerbread biscuits and gather around with friends drinking gløgg. Gløgg is a lovely form of mulled alcohol with lots of spices in it. It has cinamon, cardamon, cloves, ginger etc. It can be based on a non-alcoholic but quite sickly sweet Norwegian (bloody anti-alcoholic government) variety, or the more alcoholic varieties (usually from Sweden I am told) where they can be based on wine, cognac, rum etc etc.

What is gløgg? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulled_wine

Recipe for gløgg - make it back in oz: http://www.norway.org.uk/culture/food/gloeggoppskrift.htm

Anyway we walked over there Saturday arvo and had a lovely gathering of people. Here are some pics or the day.
















Here is a pic of the gløgg keeping hot on the stove. My favourite was the cognac based variety (nearest to camera).






















A pic of the lovely hosts Regina and Ulf. They had to fly out to New York for a week of fun and shopping Sunday morn.


















A pic of Elisabeth and her twin babies Julia og Helene. You would hardly guess she gave birth to twins 13 weeks ago.

















Simon (the other part of the twin borth operation - an aussie also - Elisabeth is a noggie), Kristian (who I went cycling with over Norway), Mari and Kev (who you should know by now if you read the blog) and Aud Trude (who you should also know by now).
















Aud Trude, Mari and Em.

















Kev, me (looking like I've had far too much Gløgg) and Kristian.

Anyway today is a relaxing day doing housework. Hope everyone is well back in oz.

God Jul.