Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Woo hoo... the first snow has finally fallen last night. Kongsberg looks beautiful and white today. I LOVE winter!!. Hubby thinks i am crazy, he said wait until i have been living here for ten years then i will change my mind. Wanna bet ? ;-)   

Homesick

You must learn to adjust to many things when you live thousands of miles away from home. One of the things is how you cope with homesickness. These are the things that i normally do when it strikes me:

• Cook and eat Indonesian food. Doing the cooking yourself makes you busy and helps to forget about your homesick feeling. While eating indonesian food makes me feel as if i was home.
• Disturb hubby. When i am sad hubby would do anything, i mean ANYTHING just to make me laugh :D. Even tough it will make him look silly. Thats why i love him and of course i would do the same for him :D.
• Go out and meet friends.
• Calling my family back home and talking to my parents, sisters and especially my little brother sometimes helps, but most of the time it makes me miss them more and then i want to go home :-(.  So i dont do this often.

At the end of the day, it was my decision to move to Norway and now its my new home. I think that the longer i live here the more i will accept this and feel i belong here.

Quasi mai

During our stay in Italy, we hired a car so that we could drive from one city to another. Although we didnt drive much, we did listen to the radio whenever we drove (Italian radio). There were 2 songs in particular that continued to play over and over. One was Paradise by Coldplay (i love very much), and an irritating Italian song that we didnt know  who sang it. All we could remember were the words "Quasi mai quasi mai", so hubby kept singing "Quasi mai quasi mai" just to irritate me. 


Even though i hated it, hubby sang along to it so many times that it was fixed in my mind. Every morning i woke up with a tune in my head, you guessed it "Quasi mai quasi mai" and it drove me mad :D.


All this talk about "Quasi mai quasi mai" was because i started to sing it again today! It has been a few weeks after the trip and i was curious so i searched on the internet. I eventually found it thinking the title was "Quasi mai" but its not! It is Mai per amore by Gianna Nannini.

Now when i hear this song, it reminds me of nice memories from our trip to Italy. So this song is not so bad :-).     

The Art of Toy Story: 100 Collectible Postcards

I bought this one to complete my Pixar postcards collection. The Art of Toy Story: 100 Collectible Postcards, they also came in the cute little box. It consists of concept arts, storyboards and sketches etc from the series of Toy Story. The reverse side of each postcard informs about the artist and the year the art was created.

The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards

I adore Pixar movies and i finally got these postcards yay!!. There are 100 high quality postcards and came in a cute little box. Each postcards is different and consist of concept arts, storyboards and film images from Pixar movies. I LOVE them all!! :-)

Postmark Paris: A Little Album of Memories

I have just finished reading a children book recently. Postmark Paris: A Little Album of Memories, written by Leslie Jonath. This book tells stories about the author´s experiences when she moved to Paris at the age of 10 and how she started to collect stamps. The most interesting thing about this book is that half of the book contains pictures of beautiful stamps. The author used the matching stamps to illustrate her stories.


The book not only tells about stamps but also tells about her adventures during her stay in a new country for one year, places she visited, how she adjusted the language, school and making friends. It such a wonderful book and i hope that i can find the same stamps that are shown in the book :-). 

Postcard from Vatican

The Vatican City (Holy See) is the smallest independent state in the world that have their own post office and postmark. So while i was there, i took the opportunity to send postcards to my parents in Indonesia and of course to myself :-). Since i also collect stamps, i bought myself some Vatican Stamps. 

The Vatican Post Offices

Hey, I got the postcard a few days ago and it was postmarked 11-11-11 :-).

11-11-11 postmark

The Vatican City Stamps

Italy: A treat from hubby (Part 2)

Day 3

From the moment i woke up i was so excited to finally be going to Pompeii. For many years i knew about this place and always tried to imagine what it would be like to see it with my own eyes, now i was on the way there!.

Mount Vesuvius as background

It took us 3 hours to get to Pompeii from Rome. We arrived at the hotel just before lunch time. Without us knowing the hotel was just only less than 10 minutes walking to the Pompeii ruins :D. We paid €11 each for the ticket and it was worth it. Prepare for a long walk so better use a good shoes and bring extra water :-). There is big a café inside the grounds.

Porta Marina and the city walls

Pompeii is a city near Naples. according to Wikipedia, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. The eruption buried Pompeii under ash and rock. It was rediscovered in the 16th century, but the exploration did not begin until 1748.

Road in Pompeii

Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus

One of the beds in the brothel

Garden of the Fugitive

Temple of Apollo

Day 4

Today is Sunday. We hit the road as soon as we finished breakfast and were again lucky with the weather. From Pompeii to Pisa took around 6 hours driving and it was a nice drive through the country side with views of many vineyards along the way. We arrived at the hotel early evening. After freshening up we decided to have a look around. It took us 25 minutes walking to Pisa tower.  

Day 5

Ready to climb the Pisa tower!. We bought the tickets online for €17 each from this website in advance. Actually it is cheaper to buy the ticket on site €15, but we prepaid to guarantee a time slot otherwise it could be a long wait. The visit lasts about 30 minutes.

The spiral staircase to the tower has about 300 steps and it includes narrow and exposes passageways. It was a very strange experience to climb. Even though you are physically climbing upwards it appears that your going downwards, whilst on the other side the steps are actually pointing downwards slightly and that makes it very heavy climbing (this is only adjacent to the lean). On the other two parts of the steps it appears normal except you are leaning to the right or left. Overall its a great experience and worth a visit.

Slippery Steps

On the top of the Pisa Tower

Narrow passageway

We continued driving to Rome at lunch time. This time we took a route via Florence so we could visit and at least see Ponte Vecchico or the old bridge. Unlike all other bridges in Florence, Ponte Vecchico is the only bridge that survived World war II. It was hard to find parking there, so hubby had to park illegally so i could run and took a picture of the bridge from a distance.

Ponte Vecchico

We arrived in Rome in the evening and back to Norway early in the morning. 

     

Italy: A treat from hubby (Part 1)

A trip to Italy 2 weeks ago was a treated from hubby after left me home alone for almost 3 weeks, i would love to go back again. It is such a beautiful country with so many places and things to see. 5 days just wasn't enough!. 

The Piazza di San Pietro

Day 1 

We spent walking around Rome and The Vatican City. It has always been a dream of mine to visit the Vatican and attend a sunday mass with the Pope standing in front of me :p. Half of my dream has now come true, i did visit the Vatican but did not attend the mass. Maybe next time :-).

We stayed in the hotel just a few minutes away by bus from The Vatican City, after we checked in we went there straight away. It was 4 PM when we got there and we were too late to get tickets to the museum. Instead we went inside St. Peter´s Basilica, luckily the queue was not so big at that time. To get inside you had to pass a security check and you have to be dressed properly, ie no short skirt or tank tops and men are required to wear long trouser. From the moment i stepped inside i was never failed to be amazed, everything was SO beautiful!!.

Inside St. Peter´s Basilica

Michelangelo's Pietà

Day 2

Our first target for the day was to visit the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We were lucky again for not having to wait so long to get in. We paid €12 each for the ticket and it was totally worth it. The ticket is valid for both Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Everything in the museum is AMAZING, the art work, the sculptures, the architecture, the paintings, EVERYTHING!. Amongst everything that i saw, the ceiling was my favorite.

The ceiling inside the museum

The spiral exit

And its not yet finished. I got a shiver down to my spine as soon as i entered the Sistine Chapel. Words can not describe the feeling when i saw Michelangelo´s masterpiece: The Creation of Adam and The Last Judgment for the first time. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed to be taken there but you can see the virtual tour of Sistine Chapel here. I could just stay there for hours if we didn't have any other places to visit.

Afterwards we took a bus from Vatican City to Rome. Even though we had limited time and my feet were aching, we managed to see few other attractions in Rome. 

Arch of Constantine

Inside the Colosseum

Colosseum in the evening

Trevi Fountain

The Spanish Steps

National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II

Pantheon

Postage Stamp: how i heart them now

I didn´t really start collecting postage stamps until recently. When i was a kid i´d like to tear the envelopes every time my parents got a letter. Unfortunately i never put all the stamps i got in the same place so i think they are all gone now :-(. Anyway, few months ago i was at flea market in Drammen and spotted a stamp album. I was SO excited when i looked at it, it´s a 16 page album and full, i mean FULL with old stamps :D. I feel like i found treasure hehe especially when its only 50 kroner. Since then i started to collect them.


Of course if anybody has any stamps they were thinking of throwing away, or just not saving any longer. Please think about me as i would be very grateful to receive them ;-).

Why i love to collect postcards?

I have been collecting things for many years now. I collect books, bookmarks, postcards and stamps. For me it´s a fun hobby and inexpensive :-D.  For now i just want to share why i love to collect postcards :-).


I started to collect postcards when i was in high school. I collect few different type of postcards but i am more interested in postcards of tourist attractions (landscape or historical building) that have a name of a place or country on it. I never thought that i would have the possibility to travel to other countries, so i always asked people i knew that were traveling to bring me postcards back so i could see what the places looked like and imagined i was there.

Now i have traveled to a few different places and collect my own postcards and have the fortune to see many places for real. The majority and earlier part of my collection are back in indonesia but i will continue to collect many more. Since i have been traveling i also collect fridge magnets and beer coasters (sometimes i took beer coaster from cafe or pub without permission :D)

Postcards

Beer Coasters

One of my fav. fridge magnets

Even though hubby thinks it´s junk he always brings me a postcard or fridge magnet every time he travels to new country with work :p.  

Bolu Kukus

This is one of my favorite cakes :-). Bolu kukus is an Indonesian steam sponge cake. To make this cake you need a special mold which i bought in Indonesia. It´s basically the same like single muffin mold but with holes. 


You can say you have succeeded when the cake "blooms" :-). 

Bolu Kukus Mold

Bolu Kukus (Indonesian steam sponge cake) 


Ingredients:
250 gr Sugar
250 gr Flour
2 Eggs
1 tsp Cake emulsifier 
200 ml Soda water or Sprite
1-2 tsp Cocoa powder or mocha paste    


Method:
1. Place baking paper/muffin paper form into bolu kukus mold
2. Pre heat the steamer
3. Mix all the ingredients using freestanding mixer until creamy, around 10 minutes.
4. Take a 1/3 of the batter and place it into another bowl and put cocoa powder or mocha paste. Mix it well.
5. Pour the white batter into the mold until a little over half way.
6. Swirl a little chocolate or mocha batter on top.
7. Steam it with a high heat for 15 to 20 minutes.


Important notes:
- Wrap the steamer lid with towel or cloth
- DO NOT open the lid during steaming or the cake wont "bloom" and look like a regular muffin.


When i made this cake, i tried to use also the regular single muffin mold just to compare the result. You can see the pictures below for the result. 

Using Bolu Kukus Mold

Using Single Muffin Mold

Beef Stifado

Beef Stifado is a Greek classic dish made from braised beef with pearl onions and tomatoes. Stifado can also be made with various other meat, not only with beef,  ie. rabbit, lamb or chicken. It is easy to make but it takes a long time to cook :D but the reward is  a nice, juicy melt in your mouth beef. For me it taste better when you cook it one day before you serve it.


In Greece, beef stifado was served with french fries but i believe it will do fine with roast potatoes, mashed potatoes or even rice :-).  

Beef Stifado 
Adapted from Greek Cooking book


Ingredients:
1 Kg Veal
1 Kg Pearl Onions (Rie- i used 500 gr), peel
3 Tbsp Butter
4 Tbsp Vinegar
4 Tomatoes, chopped
4 Cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Bay leaves
1 Spring rosemary or 1 tsp dried rosemary
1 teacup oil
1 Stick cinnamon
1 Glass dry red wine
Salt & Pepper


Methods:
1. Cut the meat into 5 servings, place in pan with butter and saute. 
2. Add wine.
3. Add Salt, pepper, tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves, rosemary & cinnamon.
4. Place onions in frying pan with oil, saute and then add to the meat.
5. Add the vinegar and as much water as necessary for the meat to cook over low heat for minimum about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
  

Paella ala Luisa

Having friends from different countries gives me the opportunity to make the food according to their traditional methods. Luisa one of my good friends from Spain thought me how to make Paella. Thank you Luisa for giving me this recipe xxx.

I made a few changes in the recipe to suit our taste :D. Me and hubby love spicy food so i added chili pepper. 

Seafood & Chicken Paella 

Source: Luisa with a few changes from me

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

1 Red bell pepper, chopped

1 Onion, finely chopped

2 Chili pepper, finely chopped

3 Cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 Tsp Salt & paper or to taste

3 Bay leaves

Pinch of saffron strands

4 Plum tomatoes, chopped

2 Chicken breast cut into dices

75 ml White wine

180 gr Arborio rice

500 gr Fresh prawns (Use the shell & heads to make broth)

4 Calamari, sliced

100 gr Frozen peas

* For decoration
Few cooked shrimps 

Lemon 

Fresh parsley

Methods:

1. Cook shell and heads of prawns with 300 - 400 ml water, bring it to boil and set aside.

2. In a pan place oil, bell pepper, onion, chili pepper, garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, salt, paper and saffron. Cook until they are soft.

3. Add the chicken, stir and cover for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add the rice to the dish and stir for another minute.

5. Add the wine and stir until absorbed.

6. Add the boiling broth gradually and stir continuously

7. 10 minutes before its done, add the prawn, calamari and peas. Stir and then cover the pan with aluminum foil with low heat.

8. When its done, you can decorate as you wish and then serve.

Hubby said it tasted better than the one he had before in Spain ^_^.