24 hours in Oslo, Norway

When I travel to a new city and am limited on time, I have to choose what kind of adventure I want to have.  I could go with the traditional tourist route and hit all of the museums and historical sites.  In Norway during the winter, that's not a bad option because the tourists are few and far between.  The other option is to just wander and absorb the atmosphere.  Oslo is very conducive to wandering, as most things are relatively walkable as long as you stay in the center of town, and if walking is not your thing, there is the subway or lightrail.  I'm a planner, though, and wandering for me is more directed than spontaneous -- I know the major points of interest I want to cover, and I get the surprise from everything in between my planned stops.  So, with just about a day's worth of time, after reserving some time for jet lag recovery, I put on my walking shoes and headed out to do a combo of a little bit tourist path and majority finding the real Oslo. 

First thing I must say about Oslo is how wonderful the people are there.  When they greet you, it's often with a smile and a "hihi," which made me think of the rhyme - Norwegians:  so nice they say "hi" twice!  Did I mention I did a lot of walking with lots of thinking time this weekend?  

As for lodging, I stayed in the Nationaltheatret district, which I found very convenient to everything I wanted to see.  Plus, the local train from the airport (90 NOK vs. 180 NOK on the express train that isn't that much faster) stops at Nationaltheatret right after the Central Oslo train station.  The train shares a station with a T-bane (metro) stop as well.  

My 24 hours officially started at the changing of the guards ceremony at the Royal Palace, every day at 1:30pm regardless of the weather.  For about 40 minutes, the royal guard performs the traditional routine of relieving the on-duty guards. 

My next stop was an interesting art installation that you will need to look down to find.  It's at Theatergata 9.  Several of the concrete tiles have been removed and replaced with 50,000 small bronze statues of people ranging from 3-10cm.  Some of the tiles have been placed back atop the people.  It is a really neat display that you should seek out.

Heading uphill, en route to the Old Aker Chuch, you will have the option to climb a set of stairs that end on Damestredet.  This is a perfect, picturesque place to get a feel for Oslo 150 years ago.  These wooden houses date back to 1810-1860 and are examples of how many homes were once constructed, most of which have since burned down in fires.  Oslo has one other street filled with historical homes, that happens to be Tethusbakken found just below the Old Aker Church.

Next, I headed downhill towards the Akers River to cross over into a great neighborhood for cafes and street art called Grünerløkka.  I did some research before on the popular street art to find some of the murals that appealed to me.  Behind the Mir Cafe at Toftes Gate 69, there are several pieces of wall art.  The rainbows, in particular, I really wanted to find.  I spent over an hour on Google Maps trying to locate the address.  I finally figured out that they are all in a courtyard out of view of the Google cameras.

Making the right turn on Norde Gate, I walked back towards the river to find a giant peacock mural spanning the entire front of a building (no. 25).  

The last stop of this walking tour was to Ingens Gate.  Not only are there tons of street art murals to admire, but often a small street market is set up with waffles and crafts to purchase.

After exploring the Grünerløkka neighborhood, I had a few boxes to check off of my list of tourist sites. I knew I wasn't going to go to the museums in Oslo because, if short on time, I always opt out of museums.  So that left the Opera House, Akershus Fortress, and Vigeland Statue Park within Frogner Park to finish up the next morning within my 24 hour period.  It was a pretty cold and dreary day, so the Opera House was not looking its best.  I didn't get near the fortress because the pathways were sheets of ice.  So, that left the park.  I took the T-bane to the Majorstuen stop.  It was just a short walk to the park entrance.  Vigeland Park was designed by Gustav Vigeland, and it is an 80 acre park within a park, filled with 212 sculptures created by Vigeland.  If I were to guess, Vigeland specialized in bronze nudes.  There are only so many nudes you can see before you feel like you've seen them all.  It was a nice walk though, albeit cold.  Here are some of my favorites, mostly because they made me laugh:

Everything is pretty expensive in Oslo, so be prepared for that.  Otherwise, have a great time exploring, and I hope you have as much fun finding hidden treasures like I did!

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Reducing the Reading Pile

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Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

I was a little worried about the book in the first half because the suspense build up was slow, but it definitely picked up.  The story is one of a small suburb in Sydney filled with meddling and gossiping parents who are too involved in their young childrens' lives.  The tension begins with an alleged bullying incident between two 5 year olds at kindergarten orientation, and it escalates within 6 months to the potential murder of a parent  at a school fundraiser.  The suspense is generated through quotes of biased parents being interviewed about their account of the night of the death, but you don't know who died or how it happened until you actually reach the chapter dedicated to that night.  And that chapter is a doozy!

Lazy Weekend

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Have you ever been in a relationship where all of a sudden you realize that everything is going wrong, and you don't know how you got there?  Landline follows the story of Georgie McCool who chooses to stay and work over the Christmas holidays rather than join her husband and kids on a trip to Nebraska, knowing it would exacerbate the other existing problems with her marriage.  With her family away and her marriage collapsing, she spends time at her mother's house in the evenings, where she discovers that her old bedroom landline phone allows her to talk to her husband, well mysteriously her husband when he was just her boyfriend years ago, with her present day perspective. Are these conversations enough to show Georgie her next steps?  The book was an easy, enjoyable read.

Just One Day/Year/Night Series by Gayle Forman

I absolutely loved Forman's two-book series chronicling the love story of Mia and Adam: If I Stay and Where She Went.  I had hoped to have the same experience with this follow-up trilogy.  The story was good, but not that stimulating, so I'm keeping it in the Lazy Weekend category.  The first book takes the viewpoint of an unhappy girl on a post-high school graduation organized tour of Europe.  She makes a connection with a guy who was acting in a street version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The next day, after coincidentally bumping into him on the train, he convinces her to spend her last day before going home with him in Paris.  The second book is from his perspective and tells the story of what happened the year after the day in Paris.  Finally, the trilogy concludes with a reunion.

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The Curiosity: A Novel - Stephen P. Kiernan

The premise of The Curiosity was intriguing.  Scientists are hunting in the arctic circle for a particular type of iceberg that is known to contain small organisms that were instantly frozen, ending their lives, thereby making them prime candidates for their reanimation experiment.  This trip, they find something bigger than a collection of frozen krill. This trip, they find a man.  The book explores the multi-faceted ethical dilemma of reanimating this man, who froze to death when he went overboard in 1906.  The book suffers from the author's choice to rotate narration between four of the main characters: the greedy head of the study, a irrationally over-sympathetic scientist, a suspicious reporter, and a reanimated man who has missed over 100 years of history.  Exposing all the flaws of these characters made me dislike them and dismiss their narration efforts.  I even got annoyed by the frozen man because he was just plain boring.  Would you be boring if you work up and so much to learn and see?  He missed two world wars, television, internet, globalization, etc. for gosh sakes!  There's only so long before a comparison of how manners and customs have changed becomes tedious and unoriginal.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Fudge

Valentine's Day is about love and couples, right?  Well there's no other coupling I love more than chocolate and peanut butter!  I finished my brief exploration of the world of fudge this week with a modified version of Sprinklebakes' Triple Decker Maple Peanut Butter Pretzel Fudge recipe, with mine removing the maple syrup from the list of ingredients.  I just have a thing about maple syrup combined with other flavors except breakfast foods.  Anyway, they get a bit messy during the cutting stage, but the flavors are worth the mess!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Fudge

Ingredients:

Crust -

• 1 cup finely ground pretzels
• 3 oz good semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 egg, beaten

Peanut Butter Fudge - 

• 2 - 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 - 10 oz bags of peanut butter chips (Reese's)

Chocolate Ganache Pretzel Topping - 

• 1 cup good semisweet chocolate
• 3 Tbsp heavy cream
• Pretzel sticks

1. Line a 9 x 9 inch baking dish with parchment paper, with extra paper overhanging the sides
2. Heat a saucepan filled 1/3 full with water to a simmer.
3. Put chocolate and butter in a medium heat-proof bowl (e.g. glass) and place on top of the pan of simmering water.
4. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter melts.
5. Add the sugar and egg, and cook the mixture until it is very hot and has thickened slightly.
6. Remove chocolate mixture from the simmering water pot and stir in pretzel crumbs.
7. Turn off heat to the water pot but leave on the burner.
8. Press the chocolate pretzel mixture into the parchment prepared pan with buttered hands.
9. Set aside and prepare the fudge.
10. Combine the condensed milk and peanut butter chips in a large microwavable bowl (e.g. glass).
11. Heat in the microwave at 100% power, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth, approximately 3-5 minutes.
12. Pour mixture over the crust and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
13. When the fudge is almost chilled start to make the ganache.
14. Add water to the saucepan to bring it bring it back to 1/3 full, if needed, and heat it to a simmer.
15. Combine chocolate and heavy cream in a heatproof bowl and set over the simmering water.
16. Stir until melted, smooth, and shiny - about 3 minutes.
17. Using an offset spatula, pour chocolate on the fudge and spread to even out the top.
18. Place pretzel sticks on the top in a straight line pattern.
19. Crush additional pretzels and sprinkle on top.
20. Refrigerate a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
21. Cut and share!

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Brown Butter Fudge

Do you like the taste of caramel?  Well, you are going to love these browned butter fudge pieces from IAmBaker!  I wanted to try a couple of homemade fudge recipes this Valentine's week, but I didn't want to go with ordinary and predictable chocolate fudge.  I was really happy with this sweet, yet nutty fudge morsel as an alternative way to make fudge.  The recipe is very simple to make, even if you make a small mistake like I did and burn some of the fudge in the saucepan (which I fixed with a fine mesh sieve).

Brown Butter Fudge

Ingredients

• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 7 oz. evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Place the butter in a medium-large saucepan over medium-high heat.  If possible, use a pan with a light bottom.
2. Melt the butter and continue to cook it until it is a rich golden brown. Watch carefully because it will turn to golden brown really quick once it reaches a certain temperature.  You want to avoid the butter scorching on the bottom.
3. Once the butter is browned, add the sugar, evaporated milk, and corn syrup.
4. Stir sugar until it is completely dissolved.
5. Insert candy thermometer on the side of the saucepan.
6. Cook slowly until the sugar mixture reaches 238 degrees F (or soft ball stage).
7. Once the temperature reaches soft ball stage, remove the candy from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. 
8. If you find that some of the mixture burned on the bottom of the pan, like I did, get another bowl and strain the mixture through a sieve into the new bowl to remove the burnt bits and to return the fudge to a clean, smooth texture.
9. Prepare an 8 x 8 inch pan by lining it with aluminum foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
10. Once the candy has cooled, pour into stand mixer.
11. Start the mixer on low and slowly add in powdered sugar.
12. Once the sugar is mostly incorporated, increase the mixer to high and beat the fudge until it loses its shine (approx. 5 minutes).
13. Pour the fudge into the prepared pan, and smooth it into an even layer.
14. Allow the fudge to set in the refrigerator at least 2 hours.
15. Cut and share!

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Heart Shaped Chocolate Box Cookies

"Life was like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump

I have had this cookie design on my to-do list for over a year.  I just had to wait for the right time of year, which is obviously now with Valentine's Day around the corner.  These cookies are inspired by Munchkin Munchies - who also has tons of other great ideas too.  Here is my inspiration photo:

The first step, before making the cookies, is making the candies.  This is the fun part because you get to design them however you want.  Just imagine that first moment when you open up a box of chocolates, that moment of excitement when you're faced with so many yummy things from which to choose.  The "chocolates" are simply royal icing, piped on a large sheet of parchment paper, and left to dry overnight.  Go wild with shapes and sizes.  Make some plain ones, make some with a piped design on top, and make some with decorations like heart sprinkles and chocolate jimmies.  You can make these ahead of time and store them in an air tight container for a few days.

Day of the cookie making, take some more royal icing, colored in your preferred hue, and flood the cookie. Drop the "chocolates" on carefully while the cookie is still wet, within 30 seconds.  I would suggest that you lay out your chocolate pattern before to save time.  If you wait too long, you run the risk that the smooth flooded icing top cracks when you're setting your chocolates.

The inspiration photo shows some brown squiggle piping around the chocolates to suggest a paper holder.  I tried that on some cookies, but since I had more chocolates in my "box" it got a little messy. I'm still happy with how they turned out.  In fact, I LOVE them.  Happy Valentine's Day!

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Valentines Hogs and Kisses Cookies

With just a week left before Valentine's Day, here are some hogs and kisses cookies!  I realized when I was making these cookies that they are low on the complexity, so great for beginners, yet high on the cuteness.  So why don't you try these at home?  First, the tools:

• Cookie Cutters - you should find both at Cheap Cookie Cutters website:
• Candy Kiss
• Circle (2-3 inches)
• Squeeze bottles, at least one with a removable tip option
• Wilton #1 round decorating tip
• Wilton #2 round decorating tip
• Americolor Gels in Super Black and Soft Pink
• Small Royal Icing Eyes 
• Optional: Mini Heart Sprinkle (this Wilton 6-pack has some in it)

Next: the recipes.  I posted the butter cookie recipe and royal icing recipe I use on one of my first cookie decorating posts.  Get them both here.  For amazing instructional videos, I always refer people to Sweet Sugarbelle's website -- navigate around her tutorials and tips, especially for icing consistencies.  Make sure that the cookie dough is chilled properly, per the recipe.  Second, if you have the time, after cutting the shapes you may want to consider putting them in an air tight container with parchment paper to separate the layers, then placing them in the fridge to re-cool.  Cooler dough retains the shape better.

Both cookies were flooded with pink (I used a little too much, hence the hot pink and not soft pink) and grey frosting (a very small amount of Super Black gel) using the standard squeeze bottle.  Both base colors dried overnight.  The kisses ribbon, pig heads/pig ear bases, and pig tails were piped on with a #2 tip on a squeeze bottle.  When still wet, maybe 30 seconds after you finish piping the head, carefully drop the eyeballs on the face.  Use a toothpick to carefully remove an eye that is misplaced or needs a slight adjustment.  Wet icing is your friend!  Allow the pig head to dry an hour or so, then pipe on the nose with the #2 tip.  Detail work on the nostril and floppy pig ear was done with the #1 tip.

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Lego Fun!

You may have guessed from previous posts that I'm a big fan of Legos.  Thankfully, from a clutter perspective, the majority of my Lego building occurs outside my house -- using the very large inventory of bricks my nephew has collected over the years.  I've limited the Legos in my house to the Mini Cooper, the VW bus, and a Lego version of my house that I designed myself.

Alas, when my mom showed me a website where you can buy instructions for Lego buildings not designed by Lego, I saw the cutest English Pub and had to build it.  It is now residing next door to my house replica, a very convenient place for Lego Me!

The website with the instructions is BrickBuildersPro.  To get all of the bricks you will need for their structures, you will need to find the parts list at the end of the instructions then find quality sellers on Bricklink to start putting together, likely several, orders for the individual bricks, tiles, plates, etc.  I think it took me ordering from five different sellers plus dipping into my nephew's stash to get the over 1800 pieces for the English Pub.

The difference between Lego structures from my youth and Lego structures today are the interiors. The sets you can buy in stores are getting more and more detailed architecturally on the outside and often have clever scenes portrayed in the interior rooms.  I wasn't a huge fan of the interior of this pub, so I modified it to have better tables, bar stools, bar glassware, and a band on stage.

And who better to have as my English Pub's house band but Mumford & Sons!  Like I said, this is my dream pub - next door with daily Mumford concerts.  And, yes, I would also like to have a patron dressed in a hot dog costume drinking at my pub.

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New York City Greenwich Village Food Tour

Always looking for new things to do and neighborhoods to explore when I head to New York City for a weekend, this round my friend and I devised a little food tour of some of the best bites in Greenwich Village.  This is the part of Manhattan that is bordered by Broadway on the east, Houston on the south, and 14th St. on the north.

OK, technically, we started the tour just outside of Greenwich Village on 23rd Street at Doughnut Plant (220 W. 23rd) because we still had not eaten breakfast and we had heard about these gourmet morning treats.

It's my understanding that Doughnut Plant is most known for their cream filled square doughnuts, but I actually preferred their vanilla bean yeast option.  We also had a Brooklyn Black Out cake doughnut that my friend enjoyed but was too much chocolate for me.  We hopped back in a cab and got off at 7th and Bleecker to start the actual Greenwich Village food tour at this point.

Having checked the breakfast box, we could move on to lunch food.  First stop was Bleecker Street Pizza (69 7th Ave.), often named NYC's best pizza.  I have to say that I don't disagree.  My friend and I were talking about how good the pizza was all day.  We shared a slice of the signature pie, the Nonna Maria, and it took me back to my trip to Italy a few years ago.  I love a well executed, simple pizza with tomato, cheese, and basil.

Just around the corner from Bleecker Street Pizza was our next stop, Bantam Bagels (283 Bleecker St.).  This take away eatery was one of Oprah's Favorite Things in 2014 and was featured on the T.V. show "Shark Tank." The only thing you can get here are stuffed bagel balls.  Trust me, you will not be disappointed.  We got a 6-pack of both sweet and savory flavors, and I highly recommend the Hot Pretzel with the mustard and cheddar cream cheese in the middle!

After getting stuffed with stuffed bagels, we moved on to pick up some recommended rice balls from Faicco's Italian Deli (260 Bleecker St.).  When we walked in the door, we were a little confused because it was primarily a butcher shop, but at the back counter they had some prepared Sicilian treats, including the breaded and fried rice balls.  They were warmed up for us, and they were melty, cheesy, fried deliciousness!  I'm not convinced I would go out of my way to get some more on a future trip, but definitely think they are worth a taste if you're in the neighborhood.

Just across the street from Faicco's, we switched from savory back to sweet and stopped in Sugar and Plumm (257 Bleecker St.) for one of their hand-crafted macarons.  I love the look of macarons, but I don't know what it is about them that I find off-putting when it comes to taste, regardless of how good they may be to some.  I had my first taste of a macaron at Ladurée, which is supposed to be some of the best, but I felt like I was eating soap from Bath and Body Works.  My point is that, though they are not a preferred sweet treat for me, the macaron we had at Sugar and Plumm was just as good as the supposed french macaron masterpieces you can buy on the upper east side.

Sugar and Plumm marked the end of our food exploration on Bleecker Street, and we proceeded to walk over to MacDougal Street for some more tickling of our tastebuds.  Our first stop was at the famous Mamoun's Falafel Restaurant (119 MacDougal St.).  For only $2, you can get three delicious falafel balls with yogurt sauce.  Perfection! (Yes, I know there are 4 balls in the photo)

Just down the street from Mamoun's is the third location of a popular NYC pizzeria, Artichoke Basille's Pizza (111 MacDougal St.).  This pizza is on many lists of suggested eateries in Greenwich Village, so I was a little disappointed that the popular artichoke pizza was super salty to the point of being a bit unappetizing.  The crust was nice, though - thick and crispy.

At this point, my friend and I were petering out with full stomachs.  We made our stop at the Creperie  NYC (112 MacDougal St.) across the street our last.  Finishing with a sweet crepe was the perfect way to end our time in Greenwich Village.

Of course, it's not a trip to NYC without a little theater going.  This trip, I saw Emma Stone as she interpreted the iconic Sally Bowles with Alan Cumming in Cabaret.  Then I was absolutely blown away by Bradley Cooper's portrayal of John Merrick in The Elephant Man.  Sadly, both actors will end their Broadway runs in February, so there's limited chance to see them.

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Superbowl Surprise Inside Cupcakes

It's Wednesday, and you have three more days to figure out what you're going to feast on with family and friends this Superbowl Sunday!  Not surprisingly, I planned my dessert options out first.  This year's cupcake is a pretty simple design, but there is a special treat for the feaster on the inside.  Much like the currently popular baby gender revealing cake, I have prepared these cupcakes so that they are filled with sprinkles inside of either the colors of the New England Patriots or the Seattle Seahawks!

Let's take a step back and talk about the cupcakes first.  I'm a big fan of boxed cake mix, which allows me to focus my time on the design.  These cupcakes were prepared using chocolate cake mix.  The frosting, I could have made my own buttercream, but I went for purchased vanilla frosting then colored it with Americolor "Leaf Green" gel.  

Before the green tinted frosting was spread on the cooled cupcake, I took a small non-serrated knife and cut out a 1" deep hole in the top of the cupcake.  Gently taking out the cake from the hole and setting it aside, I then filled the empty space with sprinkles.  Going back to the cake I just pulled out, I cut off the bottom 2/3 of the cake cylinder and replaced the top 1/3 back over the sprinkle-filled hole so that the cupcake dome looked complete once more.  Now, I spread the frosting over the top.  In a bowl, I poured a generous amount of green decorating sugar, then took the cupcake, turned it upside down, and gently pressed and rolled the top of the frosted cupcake into the sugar ensuring the dome was covered.  Don't push too hard, or you will push the frosting around and make a mess of the top.  The final step was to pipe on the field lines and yard numbers with untinted frosting that had been slightly thinned out (#3 tip)!

Hmm...based on my test cupcake that I cut to show the surprise inside (below), it looks like it may be the Patriots this year.  Though, after "deflategate," I'm not sure how I feel about this cupcake prediction.  Regardless, try these for your Superbowl buffet and be prepared for a mess when people figure out what's going on after biting into them!

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