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Now, as I may have mentioned, I love Norway. I have two very close Norski friends but our love of the frozen North goes much further. You would think, as two gluttons, that we wouldn't especially love Norway as it doesn't really have a food culture. But you'd be wrong. People have so much of a different life and different values - being outdoors, taking time, equality of opportunity - these seem to be intrinsic to their way of life. We go at least once a year to spend time with friends who live in rural Norway, in a wooden Captain's house in village on the Oslofjord. There must be about 50 people who live there year round but in the summer it swells. Summer is a brilliant time - we sit on the veranda overlooking the fjord, having a barbeque, swimming in the coldest water ever, drinking homemade cherry vodka. It doesn't get dark.

And any country that has a special word for cosy, warm companiable time you spend with friends is fine by me. And that word is Hyggle (pronounced higg-el-le).

I'll write another time about Norwegian baking, but 17th May is Norway Day, quite a big deal, so that is what we celebrated.

Anyone who's been to a Scandi country (or Ikea) will have noticed their obsession with hotdogs - in Norway called a Polse. Which they serve everywhere and at any time of day (on the beach, at parties), in either bread (brod) or my favourite, lompe - a sort of potato wheat pancakey wrap.

Mustard (sennep) and ketchup obligatory. Potato salad (potet salat) and onions are also common.

We finished with waffles - another Norge tradition, in the heart shape. Traditionally served with sour cream and home made strawberry jam, we settled for bonne maman and squirty cream. We're nothing if not classy. And, for breakfast, a cinnamon bun, but that is another story.

Good day for a wedding

I love a wedding, but after several hours of the royal nuptials, I was ready for some reality. GB and I headed over to Borough in search of something for dinner. Now I've gone off Borough, mainly because it seems to have become less of a place for fantastic producers and more of a theme park but despite that it is still a brilliant place to source more unusual ingredients like clams, wild mushrooms or Seville oranges.
I'm sure I mentioned that we're trying to be less gluttony than usual, so it was slightly unfortunate that one of the first stalls we came across was the French dairy man. Last time I came across this stall I shoved a delicious creme caramel down my neck in about 3 seconds. He also sells the most delicious Echire butter, which comes in, and this is very exciting, a very salty variety. He has also started selling ice cream, in particular a salted caramel variety. Regular readers will know that caramel ice cream is my desert island food but GB and I, rather modestly, shared just one scoop. God it was good- creamy and slightly savoury, almost chewy as it was so thick.

With love from GluttonGirl

Lunch en famille

One if my absolute favourite things is having people round for food. Being the long weekend, we'd invited my sister in law, her husband and two lovely daughters, plus a mutual friend and her two lovely sons. As I have a table for four, I decided to do buffet-style and be informal. Every buffet needs potato salad, which Glutton Boy made. We had a small argument as to whether he'd made enough- can you ever have too much potato salad? GB also made a retro waldorf salad, which I love- crunchy and sweet and sharp. He garnished it in a way reminiscent of his days working in a regional hotel:






I also roasted a chicken and for the veggies, a sticky onion and cheddar quiche. The highlight was a beetroot salad from Ottolenghi's Plenty- one of my favourite books. To be totally honest, I'm not a huge fan of vegetables, not unless they're cooked Vichy or smothered in hollandaise. But this salad takes beetroot and mixes it with a tomato and roast pepper dressing, red onion, dill and Greek yoghurt. The colour of this beauty alone lifts my spirit but it is ridiculously delicious and also impressive:






Lastly, I made a peanut butter chocolate cheesecake;






I don't think I've ever cooked for such effusive and appreciative guests- it makes my heart sing to hear people making happy-eating noises! We're all gluttons at heart!


Well, the washing up awaits...


With love from GluttonGirl

In honour of times gone by

If serving waldorf salad wasn't retro enough, GluttonBoy served it like this:



Please note the apple garnish. Love it!

With love from GluttonGirl

Getting competitive!

In my other life as a PR supremo/dogsbody, I have the great fortune to work with some brilliant people. And we had the idea recently to hold a weekly bake-off. It was decided as a one on one knockout style competition and as am known to be handy with a whisk I was, unfairly to my competitors, viewed as the one to beat. So after much stress and a rehearsal, I chose a fab cake from
Bbcgoodfood which is always reliable. Was a peanut butter sponge sandwich cake, filled with dulce de leche and peanut butter and topped with


With love from GluttonGirl

The right time and place

So much of food pleasure is about location and timing. The most obvious example is fish and chips eaten outdoors at the seaside. While I like eating them with my feet in the briney deep, I also like eating them while sitting in a bus shelter trying to keep out if the wind.
And I could think of tons more- cold beer on a summer Friday evening, outdoors. Hot crumpets after a cold long walk. Egg and chips on a Saturday lunchtime with the merest suggestion of a hangover...
To that I will add the first mr whippy of the year, in an urban park, while it is still a bit on the chilly side. For the benefit of any overseas readers I should explain that mr whippy refers to an ice cream bought from a van that plays music, decorated with strawberry sauce and a flake. It's soft in texture and ice cream snobs will tell you that it is high in whale fat and low in proper dairy and real ingredients, and they are right. I am in fact also an ice cream snob but I do love a mr whippy. Regular readers will know my love of the cheap and the processed and it has to be said that mr whippy offers a muted kind of pleasure. Still, on a coldish day in a muddy park in deepest SE London, it tasted pretty good. GluttonBoy had an Oyster- which is a bit weird but at least it wasn't a screwball.







With love from GluttonGirl

It's getting personal...

We have an office bake-off weekly. This week was nutella cake vs giant chocolate cupcake. Both great, but the nutella cake stormed into the lead. I'm competing next week, my fight name is 'the cupcake killer'.
GG









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