The World's Best...

Dish of the week:  Kvæfjordkake- The World's Best

We had a ten year anniversary celebration for the CEO of my company today, and staff were asked to bring in a traditional dish from their home country to celebrate this special occasion. I decided to bring a cake that my grandmother used to bake for every big occasion when I was younger. Kvæfjordkake stems from the far north of Norway in Troms county, and was recently crowned the national cake of Norway. Until last year I didn't know this cake by any other name than 'The World's Best', and although it may look a bit dull on the photos don't let the looks fool you as it tastes great!

Fiery Dan Dan Noodles

Dish of the Week: Szechuan Style Noodles with Minced Beef

My friend Lee got Jamie Oliver's cookbook 'Jamie's America' for Christmas last year and he made some amazing dishes from the cookbook. He was so kind to share one of the recipes with me, and it has become an all time favorite of mine. As Jamie Oliver explains in his book the recipe originates from the Szechuan province of China, and he got the recipe from a restaurant in New York during his stay in America. The name originates from how the dish is traditionally made in Szechuan province, which is in big buckets that they carry over their shoulder. The word dan translates in to poles in Chinese hence the name can be directly translated to "pole pole noodles", whereas I think Fiery Dan Dan Noodles sounds much better. 

Dish of the Week- CupCakes Two Ways- White and Dark Chocolate

This week one of my friends at work had his birthday, and since he is always so generous to me and other colleagues, I wanted to make him a special treat! I like my sweet treats, as most of us do, but I think he is in a league of his own. He is the only one I know who had packets of 'Starburst Snakes' (Australian candy) as his main food group whilst training for his first full marathon, and I have utmost respect for him finishing it in less than 5 hours!!

Since Mr.T is a special person to me I decided to make two different types of cupcakes courtesy of Norwegian Chef Lise Finckenhagen (who does cooking shows on NRK- the Norwegian equivalent of ABC and BBC), and it was made easier when almost all the ingredients for the two cupcake batches were identical (apart for the white and dark chocolate frosting of course). That way it was cheaper and more convenient than making two completely different types of cupcake recipes. Needless to say that this is not a necessity, and if you are tight for time than I would recommend just making one of them, and judging on the feedback from my colleagues the raspberry cupcakes were clear winners.

An Italian Food Fair

Dish of the Week: Three Courses of Italian Food

As you have probably noticed from my food blogs so far- I am a massive fan of the Italian cuisine!!! This weekend I had some girlfriends over for lunch, and being my usual self I spent quite a lot of time deciding on the menu. I did my usual trick of looking through my favourite magazine 'Gourmet Traveller" and searched the internet for inspiration and new recipes to try out. Since I love cooking and I love my friends I wanted the lunch to be a real treat! Hence I decided to go for an Italian Food Theme paired with matching wines. 

I think the combination of the three courses I cooked went really well together, and it was pretty easy to make. My preference is to do as much of the preparations needed before the guests arrive, so that I can spend valuable time sitting around the dining table enjoying the food and chatting about the latest tricks, and these three courses allowed me to do just that!

I Love Pizza

Dish of The Week: Pizza

My husband simply loves pizza and I mean love to the extent that I can ask him literally any day of the week if he wants pizza and the answer will be yes. Needless to say I have had to work on my pizza making skills, and I have spent quite some time perfecting recipes to please my man.