Soundtrack of the last two days has been a mix of stuff like The Cure’s “A Night Like This” and The Jam’s “That’s Entertainment” – as well as a few songs from The Aislers Set and The Dø. There is a melancholy and nostalgia (I think nostalgia implies melancholy).
I am going to start baking and see where it takes me. I made a plan and made a list but these lists easily get well out of hand with more than 20 things on them. Is this excessiveness necessary?
My dreams last night were weird. I was living at least some of the time in France, but nothing seemed at all like the France of reality. I spent most of my time in a cafe (that was a lot more like cafes I frequented in Iceland) that served coffee in French presses (which of course is what Americans call coffee presses… and French people call them Italian – and they ARE an Italian invention. Aussies and Kiwis call it a “coffee plunger” and Icelanders call this a “pressukanna”…). In the dream people went to this place specifically for the coffee, and then one day a law passed that forced all places to serve coffee in the same way (not French press). Another law was introduced at the same time that required all EU countries to harmonize car license plates!? I don’t know where any of this came from.
The anxiety and annoyance of the US election will finally be over on Tuesday. Hearing Mitt Romney speak just makes me sick. The latest global prosperity index knocked the US out of the top ten countries for the first time. Not surprised to hear that. Norway is number one (not surprised to hear that either), with Denmark and Sweden right behind. (And lands of plunger coffee and Anzac biscuits, Australia and NZ, round out the top five.) Not surprising in the least. Confirmation that I made the right choices about where to live and work (not that I had any doubt).
oof, I missed your reply! Here's an answer to your question:A friend of mine recently finished his Norwegian classes and took the Bergenstest. To motivate himself to get that far he resolved to learn to bake when he passed the test, and he asked me (maybe the only foodie he knows here?) to join him.I have another friend who knows something about everything, and particularly likes baking, so I asked him to give us a primer. Armed with an Opera-branded Moleskine notebook we learned how to use a single basic recipe that can be varied a million different ways. I forget the name of the recipe, but it involves equal amounts of flour, sugar, butter and eggs, and we simply replace part of the wet and dry ingredients as we please.
Yes, I am familiar with the lineage of The Dø and love them. What prompted you to take a cake baking class? 🙂 That's exciting! Any baking plans in the offing?
The Dø are neither Norwegian nor deadly, but actually French, Finnish and pretty good.In other news, I took a cake-baking class on Saturday. I am now a kakebaker! At least potentially.
My weird dreams usually involve trains! 😆