A Successful Thanksgiving Weekend (more pictures)

Here's to our first Norwegian Thanksgiving - it was quite a success.  We made everything listed on the previous post except for the boller :-/ I didn't know that the yeast we needed was not provided in the package we purchase, so we'll be making those later.  I also added some sage & onion stuffing to the menu; nothing fancy, but I saw it at the store and thought you can never go wrong with stuffing on Thanksgiving.  Tyler did an impeccable job with the deer tenderloin!  It was cooked to perfection and topped with a balsamic reduction that Rett made at his place beforehand.  I made my own version of French's onion rings (oh yea, so hard...all I did was grill some thin slices - nowhere near the same, but at least it added some flavor).  I also think I made my best sweet potato casserole ever by adding a whole Tahitian vanilla bean to the mix.  Ty agrees ;-)



Two chefs in the kitchen

Our kitchen table

The spread

yours truly

 Tyler and his masterpiece - definitely something to be proud of :-)

Later we met up at Icebar Oslo with Jean and Lucas and two of their friends, Katie and Scott, who were visiting for the weekend.  Very fun, though I had to wonder how silly we looked going into the Icebar when it was almost as cold standing outside...and it was snowing.  I was surprised how cheap it was to go in there (compared to just buying a drink at a normal bar here in Oslo).  It was 200kr, just over $30, to: go in for 45 minutes, get an ice glass, and two drinks.  Its about 100kr just to get a mixed drink at most places, so pretty cool to get the whole experience AND the two drinks for just 200kr.  The whole interior is ice - the walls, the bar, the tables, the seats, and the glasses!  There were lights behind the walls that slowly changed colors creating a really neat effect.  There are more pictures from the night on Jean and Lucas' camera - I'll post those when I get them.

  

So while we had no turkey or pumpkin pie, I'd still say our Thanksgiving celebration was a complete success :-)

Happy late/early Thanksgiving!

Jean freaking out over
the cost of the turkey

Late for you, early for us.  Obviously there's no Thanksgiving here in Norway, so Tyler and the guys at his office don't get a long weekend like back home.  So while y'all got to celebrate yesterday, we'll be having our own Norwegian version of Thanksgiving tomorrow.  But there will be no turkey on our table.  Why?  Well, first, I couldn't find any whole turkeys at the store.  But earlier this week my friend Jean and I went to a different supermarket for the first time that was supposed to have more American food, thinking this would be our best bet for locating any Thanksgiving staples.  While we found no cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie filling, we did find turkeys!  Whole turkeys.  20lb. whole turkeys.  $300 20lb. whole turkeys!  I kid you not - 1600 to 1800 NOK for turkeys just over 20lbs.  That's about $300.  We took pictures to prove it thinking no one would believe us.

The label from one of the turkeys.

Needless to say, while I love a good triptophan coma as much as the next American on Thanksgiving, I easily thought of much better things to do with that $300.  So as it stands our Thanksgiving menu tomorrow will be the following:

• Deer tenderloin (with a red wine reduction provided by Rett)
• Sweet potato casserole
• Green bean casserole (no French's fried onion rings though *sigh*)
• Asparagus (courtesy of Rett); and
• Home-made boller (Norwegian pastries that we're going to try making for the first time)

Plus some nice bottles of red wine.  After dinner we're meeting up with our friends Lucas and Jean and two of their friends from out of town and we're all heading to the IceBar here in Oslo!  Not that it will really be much colder in there than it is outside now, but it will be fun and neither Tyler or I have been in an ice bar before.  More on that later.

This Sunday is the lighting of the big Christmas trees here in Oslo; they always do this on the first Sunday of Advent.  There are two big tree lightings that we've heard about: at one they'll be handing out gingerbread and mulled wine; the other is closer to the palace, is sponsored by the Salvation Army (yes, they have that here) and they'll have a lot of carols for everyone to sing.  Very curious to hear what Norwegian carols sound like.  Here's a video I took of some of the decorations they've put up here in our area that they just lit up in the past few days:

They also opened the Oslo Christmas Market or "Julmarked" this week and today I went with Lauren to check it out.  She works for Exxon in St. John's and came out just for 3 days to train the guys on some new software.  We thought it would be a fun place to check out before she flies back home tomorrow, plus it is literally just around the corner from our place - very nice.  There was LOTS of fun stuff to check out and most of it is made by artisans or companies here in Norway :-) There was a cute train display in the largest tent - that's Lauren in the picture.  I'm not going to go into too much detail for fear of ruining some Christmas presents, but here is the link for the market if you want to learn more.

Here's a picture of the Julmarked in front of Oslo City Hall and you can see our local tram going by (I did not take this picture, its from their website, but SO pretty)

And last but not least, below are a few other "American" things I've found at some of the stores over here.  I got a kick out of them and thought y'all would too ;-)

Our dryer has a diaper

Ok, I'll try to explain.  We'd run our towels through the wash the other night and threw them in the dryer.  After a while the dryer chimed as if it were done, but it was way too soon for the cycle to be over.  Confused, we restarted the dryer.  Again, it chimed after a short period.  And it kept chiming.  Normally it stops after about 3 times when the cycle is done, but this time it was like a crying baby that just would not stop.  We opened the door to the dryer, it kept chiming; we closed it and tried again, it kept going; Ty was ready to unplug it from the wall!  Our instruction manual only came in Norwegian and we'd only just finished our first language class so that wasn't much help.  Finally I noticed one of the indicator lights was on next to a symbol that looked like a tub of water tipping over.  Ok, maybe the sound has to do with the drain.  I looked around the back thinking maybe there's a kink in the hose...there's no hose.  There is nothing remotely like a hose or output of any sort where this supposed tub of water would be draining.  Ok, now what.

Oddly enough I'd noticed the day before that there appeared to be a little door on the front of the dryer just under the main door where you put the clothes.  It turned out that when you open the main door there is a little button that, when pushed, opens this little door.  Behind the little door were a few brightly colored tabs - like the green ones in a large office printer that basically say, "Over here dummy!"  Not knowing what they were for I just shut the little door and thought nothing of it.

Fast forward, the dryer is still "crying," it says something about draining water, and there's no hose or tube draining water out of the back.  I pop open the little door and take another look at what's behind the colored tabs.  One of the tabs is holding in what looks a little like the reservoir tank on my steamvac.  Lift the tab.  Yank a little.  Sure enough this large, flat plastic tub comes out and its full of water.  Pull back the flap.  Dump the water down the sink.  Pop it back in the dryer.  Well lo and behold, the dryer stopped "crying!"  Started the cycle again.  No problems this time.  The dryer finally finished the entire cycle and the towels came out nice and dry.

I have never seen a dryer that had to be manually drained before.

Just another day in Norway ;-)

Our dryer

Check out the indicator light
just above the Start/Pause button

...and there's the hidden button...

...push the button, the little door opens...

...lift the yellow lever and...

...out comes the tank...

...and you drain the water in the sink.

Farmers Market

Saturday we went to a local farmers market that takes place every other weekend.  It's just one metro stop away from the closest stop to our house.  It was a slightly longer walk than anticipated - not unbearable, we were just afraid we'd missed it somehow.  What a cute place!  First thing that surprised me - no flower stands, but given the time of year and the weather over here I guess that's to be expected.  They had meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, soaps, honey, pelts, and the coolest thing - a pancake booth!  They made hot, fresh, thick pancakes and then you got to choose from a variety of jellies and preserves to top it off with.  Kids were walking around with them folded like little sandwiches.  We didn't try any (the line was SO long), but they looked quite tasty.

               

  

We did buy cured trout, fresh camembert, whipped honey, red potatoes, and our entree for our Norwegian Thanksgiving - deer tenderloin!  The vendor explained that its not elk, but one of three local deer that roam the surrounding area.  Turkey is not readily available here.  In fact, Ty discovered that there is only one farm that breeds turkeys here in Norway.  They only breed about 20,000 a year and you have to preorder them.  Needless to say that is not an option.  Not like it was really an option in the first place since I don't see how a turkey could possibly fit in our oven over here; it's just about half the size of our oven back home. Ty also looked into getting a whole chicken instead, knowing that would definitely fit in the oven.  Would you believe a 5lb. chicken costs about $50?!?  So we decided to go for something unique and when we came across the deer it seemed like a fun idea :-) It'll be interesting to see how Thanksgiving turns out for us this year.  For example, where does one find french-fried onion rings for green bean casserole in Norway?  Will keep you posted!

More snow!!!

Playing in the snow

It's been so long since we've been somewhere cold that I feel like a little kid again every time it snows :-) I've stood out on our balcony catching snowflakes on my tongue and love sitting by our fireplace when its cold at night.  Last night was the first time the snow really started to stick around here and Tyler says it should probably snow the next 4 days or so.  We're hoping to go skiing really soon!

Where we live on the coast they have little canals that run through different areas - allowing for more slips for the residents with boats.  The other day it got so cold that the surface of one of the canals had actually frozen into big sheets of ice, cracked apart by the waves of the local ferry that passes nearby.  I tried to take a picture, but the details really didn't show up very well.

More stuff we've learned from Norway:

• They play Real Housewives of NJ and Dynasty on TV.  If that's their idea of Americans, we're screwed...
• There are very few commericals on TV.  Generally one very short break in the middle of the program, then a longer one at the end.
• Beer prices are advertised by the bottle at the store and Budweiser costs $4 a bottle!
• There is no Wal-Mart around the corner, no Best Buy, no Target.  There is Ikea, but there are only two - one on each side of the city - and it takes just over 30 minutes and two buses and the subway to get there from here.  With those restrictions you can only buy so much at a time.  Oh, and here its pronounced "ick-eeya."
• Our neighborhood has its own mall, but its basically all clothing stores, except for one interior decorating store, one florist, and a small kitchenwares store.
• I had to go to 4 different stores just to find pillows for our bed (that didn't cost $100 each) - thank you Ikea!  There were only 8 different color pillowcases to choose from.
• There's another mall nearby called House of Oslo - it has a beer/wine/liquor store that is almost twice the size of our apartment in Texas!  A bottle of Captain Morgan's costs just over $50, but vodka is about half that price.
•  Grocery stores are about the size of a drugstore.  It's still a little difficult pricing things because meats and such are priced in Kroner per kilo, so I have to convert kilos to pounds then factor in the exchange rate.  Fortunately most of the grocers have been very nice when I ask them to give me an idea of exactly how many, say, salmon steaks are in a kilo so I can figure out how good of a deal I'm getting.
• There is a lane on the highway just for buses and cabs.  Makes it VERY nice when you're traveling during rush hour, since you can bypass all the traffic.

We start our Norwegian classes on Monday - we're shooting for two hours a day, three days a week.  More on that later.  I finished unpacking the last box today (yay!) and finally almost have everything arranged the way we want it.  We've officially adopted Rett into our family :-)  The three of us had our first Tex-Mex night this evening; I made hard and soft shell beef tacos plus some Norwegian beer.  Tomorrow we're off to check out a local farmers market that takes place twice a month.  Curious to see just what we'll find there and how much things cost.  Below are a couple videos of the snow, enjoy!

Hadeland Glassverk (updated! new videos)

First, Happy Veterans Day!  Thank you to all the men and women who are serving, have served, or gave the ultimate sacrifice for our great country, especially the ones in my family.

Hadeland Glassverk is just what it sounds like - glasswork.  It's the oldest glassblowing factory in Norway and it is gorgeous!  It's an hour northwest of the city and takes two buses to get there, but it is well worth it.  The drive alone is breath-taking, providing an amazing tour of the local fjords and still blue lakes.  I posted some photos and video from the drive up and the end of this entry.  Located just outside Jevnaker, they have made this into a mini-village complete with cafe, bakery, honey house, and Christmas shop.  It is set across the street from another amazing lake with the most phenomenal vista.  My iPhone picture does not do it justice, but Rett got some better ones on his camera and I'll upload that when I get them from him.

There's a neat glass museum when you first walk into the information center, showcasing various samples of the pieces created by different artisans over the years.  It's very diverse - my favorite was a set of vases that looked like melting candles!  See below:

Some of the different pieces - my favorite ones are on the far left

Checking out the museum

For about $16, you can go into the glassblowing factory, watch the artisans work, and then MAKE YOUR OWN piece of glass.  Ok, so there is an artisan there helping you and by helping you I mean he's doing most of the work, but you're the one who actually does the blowing of the glass.  He just heats its, spins it, molds it, and twists it all while you stand on a fixed spot and blow into the end of the tube...ok, so your only job is pretty much to remember not to inhale ;-) But seriously, it was fun and we all got a cool memento.  Tyler and I made glasses and Rett made a honey pot (but he plans to use it for drinking whiskey!)  Check out the videos of each of us blowing glass:

Rett went first...

...then me...

...then Ty.

The glass is still very hot when you're done and takes at least 30 minutes to cool all the way, so we walked over to the bakery, which looks like a cute little chalet inside.  They served huge cups of hot chocolate and a variety of baked goods.  We each had a large boller - a local pastry flavored with cardamom and nutmeg, SO good.  There was frost all over the ground and everything outside, our first time seeing this since we've been here.  We made our way over to the honey house where Ty and I got a bottle of honey and a jar of whipped honey, both from the local area.  We'd never had whipped honey before, but oh my gosh is it good!  Great to spread on toast in the morning as part of breakfast or for a little snack in the afternoon :-)

They had a variety of different little shops - pewter, candles, a Christmas shop, and of course, glass.  In the pewter shop they sold some yarn and I got a couple colorful skeins of alpaca wool.  The pewter was really pretty, but we think we'll go back and get some later.  Unfortunately, we discovered that not all the glass they sell is made there - they outsource some of it and we only realized it when Tyler saw one of the boxes said "Made in China."  Kind of a buzzkill.  They do have some pieces that are in fact made on site, but we decided not to buy anything after that and that our own pieces would make the best souvenirs :-) Here are our finished glasses:

As promised, some pictures from the drive up: