Orchards have this incredible presence and sense of wonderment that draws you in and envelops you as you gaze among its rows and rows of spectacular fruit-laden branches. An unkept orchard can become a magical arena for the imagnination and the senses to come alive.
All across Norway, regions are brimming with apples from August to November, depending upon the apple variety and climate. The village we live in is just one example of how apples have overtaken many yards. A quick drive through and your eyesight will be drawn to craggy apple trees dotted with bright reds, pinks, and subtle greens. Even the ground below is strewn with fallen fruit. (more…)
The slender tree branches, laden with luscious, dark sour cherries, seemed in dire need of relieving their seasonal burden. As always, it’s on a first come first serve basis: us or the birds.
Sponge cake baked with meringue and almonds becomes the centerpiece of this delightful layer cake filled with custard and whipped cream. It began its inception in the north of Norway and has earned it’s nickname as verdens beste, “the world’s best”. 
Winter came with a fierceness this year, unlike last year’s somewhat bleak and disappointing season where pockets of snow and slush lay strewn about fields of brown. This winter had other ideas. Grandeur ideas. A plush blanket of white snow, covered with another blanket, and another, and yet another. In some places, the snow towers so high that when I peer out my window I can only see the skyline. 
One of the great things about holiday baking is that everyone has their own traditions and favorites. Recipes which span for generations, recipes that cross continents, recipes that adapt and evolve in one’s own kitchen. Each recipe with a history and a story.
Smultringer is considered one of the seven Norwegian Christmas cookies (syv slag), with very interesting origins. Before smultringer, Norwegians were making similar-looking fried cakes called hjortetakk out of horn salt (ammonium bicarbonate) or what was earlier referred to as hjortetakksalt. It’s suspected that hjortetakk came to Norway from Germany, as there are German recipes for them tracing back to the 1700s.