I’m sorry I couldn’t wait.  This cake was so yummy I had to take a bite (or a couple) before I could take a photo.  We had Sunday dinner at Tante and Onkels place.  Dinner was inspired by the season’s best.  Fårikål was the main course with Autumn lamb and new potatoes made by none other than the family chef – Onkel.  Dessert was a new take on the Apple Tea Cake, with fresh hand picked blueberries from the morning’s trip up the mountain, beautifully made by Kusine.  The family always makes the best cakes for get-togethers and so I had been saving myself all week in anticipation – keeping my blood sugar low just for this one indulgence.  It was very hard to have just one piece.  But below is the recipe for this Blueberry Tea Cake and so you can make and eat as much as you want – you lucky ducks!

Blueberry Tea Cake

125 g butter
125 g sugar
125 g flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
125 g fresh blueberries plus extra for the side
2 tablespoons sugar for top of cake
½ teaspoon cinnamon for top of cake
Vanilla ice cream for the side

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Crumble together butter, sugar, flour and baking powder. Beat eggs and stir into mixture. Grease a round cake tin and sprinkle the blueberries in.  Spread the cake mix over the blueberries. Sprinkle the extra sugar and cinnamon on top.  Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

Serve the cake hot, warm or cold with ice cream and extra blueberries.  You can also use whipped cream, sour cream or a light custard.

Enjoy!

My Little Norway – Flower Show Series
Arctic Botanical Garden Selection – Tromsø

Our backyard is filled with yummy blue, black and red berries but our sky is a delicious orange and purple candy floss.

My Little Norway – Flower Show Series
Arctic Botanical Garden Selection – Tromsø

The last month we have had to use the lights in our house at night.  This might seem quite normal for most people but since we have been living with the sun constantly through out Summer there has been no need to switch on any light in the house.

But now in Northern Norway the night is slowly creeping in.  I am a little disappointed.  The lights in the house certainly do not make up for the loss of sunlight.  When I look outside after dinner I can now see shadows and silhouettes… the colours outside turn dull and grey.

I don’t think I’m ready for the dark season yet – it’s a race against time to make the most out of the sun.  Autumn days are perhaps the most precious here in Norway.  Every day I make sure the family goes outside to fill up their bodies with natural sunshine.  It is a well known fact here that the sun makes you happy so I’m very keen for us to store up all the happiness we need to last us over the festive season.

January is always the hardest to pass through.  It is the time where I feel closed in – almost suffocated.  I’m well aware of the effects of the Norwegian darkness, especially on outlanders.  Norwegians have learnt to adapted to the changing seasons and I have been watching them carefully to see how they survive.  This year I plan to live the Norwegian Winter lifestyle.  I had been just living normally as I would in the sun, but that doesn’t work well in Northern Norway.  I’ve observed the Norwegian very closely during the dark season and have realised that you can’t ignore the darkness.   In order to survive you need to embrace it.  This will require me to change my perception of ‘darkness’.  Being brought up with an Australian perception has certainly stunted the process but what I need to do is learn how to be at peace with it.  Just as the sun gives me energy I need to allow the darkness to give me stillness.

But the changing light sure does make for a spectacular sunset.

My Little Norway – Flower Show Series
Arctic Botanical Garden Selection – Tromsø

The Nid river flows through the heart of Trondheim.  It bends round the famous Nidaros Cathedral and forms a natural moat around the city.  The river has kept its name since the Viking Age and is mentioned in prominant sagas such as Snorre Sturlason’s Heimskringla or The Lives of the Norse Kings where St Olav built houses on its banks.

My Little Norway – Flower Show Series
Arctic Botanical Garden Selection – Tromsø

Autumn is Fårikål season in Norway.  The sheep have just come off the mountains and are fat from all the good Summer grazing before they are made into chops perfect for Fårikål.  The grass must be very tasty up there in the mountains because I find that Norwegian mutton has a stronger, kind of ‘gamey’, flavour than that of the grain fed sheep in Australia.

This year, (since I know how much Fårikål Norwegians eat – a lot), I thought I’d experiment with some new flavours to keep up my Fårikål enthusiasm over the next couple of months.  That way Moose and Lilu get their favourite Autumn dish every week and I won’t get bored making the same meal 12 times in the season.

Fårikål has always reminded me of pot roast, so this week I thought I’d make a ‘lamb roast with rosemary and garlic’ style Fårikål.  It turned out perfect.  In fact, Moose said it was the best Fårikål he had ever had – *blush*.  I kept to the traditional recipe but just added a few extra ingredients to jazz things up a bit.  My new recipe is below – I hope you enjoy this new take on a traditional favourite.  Why not try this new version to celebrate national Fårikål day on the last Thursday of September.

Fårikål with Rosemary and Garlic
Serves 2

500 grams of lamb chunks on the bone
1/4 medium cabbage
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
2 medium carrots
2 medium new potatoes
whole peppercorns – to taste
dried rosemary
1 beef stock cube
2 dollops of butter
water

Method
Preparation: Chop the onions, carrots and cabbage into bite size pieces.  Chop the potatoes into large pieces. (The potatoes will dissolve into bite-size pieces and enhance the broth.)  Grate or mince the garlic.

In a large pot fry the onions and 1 dollop of butter.  When the onions become see through add in the garlic and lamb chunks.  Sear the lamb on the outside.  Add in the peppercorns and rosemary and stir.  Add in the carrots, cabbage and potatoes and stir.  Fill the pot with enough water to cover 2/3 of the ingredients.  Add in 1 dollop of butter and crumbled stock cube and stir.  Bring to boil and then simmer for two hours with a lid on.  Stir occasionally.  Serve warm in a pasta bowl with crusty bread on the side.

There are certain places around the island that I am always drawn to.  I’ve stood on this jetty many times before looking out to the sailing boats.  Sometimes I am there at dawn during the midnight sun.  The sun never goes down during this season but the mountains to the East are so high that the sun still has to rise above them in the morning hours and an artificial dawn-effect wakes the city.  This is the time I took the picture above.

Sometimes I am standing on the jetty during the dark season.  The sun never makes it over the horizon and at noon only a dusk-light reaches the city.  This is the time I took the picture Boats at Noon.

One time I was standing on the jetty and I could see nothing at all except its rock boarder.  Autumn had brought in a beautiful thick mist that made me see my view in a different light.