Newspaper Story from Kairos Garden

Norway´s biggest newspaper, VG, visited us in May and made a nice story from Kairos Garden. Now online - read it here.
...and if you don´t know Norwegian you can always enjoy the photos, including of Greek food. You can get the recipes in English on My Greek Recipes.

Christmas at the Beach

I guess I should apologize for posting these pictures to anyone in Scandinavia, where temperatures hardly has got above zero for the past months...
On Christmas morning we took a stroll on the beach. I do believe our local beach, Ammolofos, is qualified as one of the best beaches in the world!

The temperature was almost 20 (68 Fahrenheit).
And we had all of the long beach all to ourselves.
Nina was getting MAD with joy - she loves all that space and to roll in the sand and to play with the waves.

It´s so incredibly beautiful it makes your heart burst!
And forget about the Greek crisis, which is the black cloud hanging over everyone...

A Peaceful and Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas.
The house is cleaned and smell the way it should: From a mixture of soap, incense and Christmas food.  And let´s just pretend that outside it looks like this:

And that the picture of Alexandros drinking frappe, ice coffee, on the terrace was NOT taken yesterday..:)
Oh, never mind. It´s definitely holidays! We always open the gifts and have a big dinner Christmas eve, as is the Norwegian tradition. With lot of the traditional Norwegian foods, like sylte, salted pork roll (homemade, of course!) and braised red cabbage.

Today I am off for Eleftheroupolis for a stroll at the market, a coffee with a friend and to pick up the post. The town will be packed with people getting ready for the holiday - and all the screaming, shouting and crowd pushing sort of add to my own holiday moods - and makes me even more grateful of the peace of my home and village when I get back!
Tomorrow is the main celebration in Greece, though the Greeks really do not have a lot of traditions connected to Christmas - probably because Easter is the major religious celebration of the year. Tomorrow is also the nameday of Christos  (and Christina) - my husband grew up getting gifts because of his yiorti, feast. He still believes that we celebrate Christmas because of him!
I look forward to long walks on the beach, where I know we will be more or less alone. And to bury my head in a book - to take time out reading, which I basically only do this time of the year.:)
I wish you all a wonderful holidays, may Santa and everyone you love be happy and good with you and each other.

Christmas Blind & Deaf

I went to Kavala this morning and it struck me now that I came back, that there was NO Christmas feeling in town. Absolutely nothing that made me think of Jesus or Santa or being kind and caring and wanting to share love. Absolutely nothing that made me long for long walks on the beach, wrapped in warm winter clothes, and long evenings in front of the fireplace with a good book (a gift from Santa) and some hot chocolate and marzipan.
And it´s not because of the lack of Christmas decorations. Because I am pretty sure that the town, like every year, is more or less drowning in glitter. I just didn´t SEE it. Like I didn´t HEAR Jingle Bells in Greek, English, Russian, Swahili and Norwegian from every shop loud speaker and on every street corner.
When my boys were small, one of their favorite books was about a young boy from a farm who went into town on the day before Christmas, to watch the small train with julenisser, small Christmas gnomes, that was display in a shop window. And then the julenisser became alive, and was cheering and waving to him.
Pure magic.
Just like Jesus being born from a Virgin mother.
Or night turning to day again.
So where do I find that magic feeling again?

Amazing Crispbread

If there´s one thing I have really, really missed living in Greece it must be Norwegian style crispbread, knekkebrød. Greek bread is very nice, but you can only buy bread with wheat, and mainly white wheat flour. Lovely, but fattening and extremely unhealthy. And it has my blood sugar dropping that low that I fall asleep at my desk!
Lately, we have been able to get knekkebrød at Ikea, but it is a two hour drive...
So guess if I was thrilled when a friend sent me a recipe, that I have been able to adapt to the ingredients I can find here.
Finding any kind of wholemeal flour has been another challenge, but recently a health store opened in Kavala, and cross fingers that it´ll stay open!
The original recipe is called Mimmi´s knekkebrød and you can find it in Norwegian here. And here follows my adapted version:

You need:

350 ml/14 fl oz wholemeal rye flour
500 ml/20 fl oz oat flakes
200 ml/8 fl walnuts
100 ml/4 fl oz sesame seeds
100 ml/4fl oz flax seeds
150 ml/6 fl oz pumpkin seeds
One tea spoon salt
Approx. 700 ml/one and a half pint water
One tea spoon honey

Preheat the oven to 180°C /350°F. Blend all the dry ingredients, execpt the flour. Mix the blended nuts and oat flakes with the flour and salt. Dissolve the honey in lukewarm water. Add approximately half the water and stir. Add more water untill a firm, but not hard dough (it´s looser than bread dough). Add non stick paper to two baking trays. Smear half the dough on each tray using a silicone spatula.

If you wet the tray first, the baking sheet will stick more easily. Also, rinse the spatula in cold water.
If you use a hot air oven you can bake both trays at the same time.
Leave in the oven for ten min utes first, take out and cut to desired crispbread size with a pizzawheel or a knife. Back in the oven and let bake for half an hour - I use to switch place of the trays after 15 minutes, but I am not sure if that is necessary. Finally, remove from oven, break into pieces and put on the wire baking rack. Put back in the oven and leave with the door open for at least 15 minutes, even more, to get hard and crispy!
The cripsbread should be stored in a metal box or paper bag - avoid plastic, as they will soften.

Snow in Eleftheres

Woke up this morning to everything covered in white!
We do have snow almost every year, but very often it´s nothing more than a coat of powder in the hills around the village.

There´s such a feeling of excitement when we have this much snow.
First of all: Will the school bus run or not run?
Well, today one could be pretty sure it would not.
But still the kids are too excited to go back to bed. They have to call all their friends to make sure, and to see if anyone will go to the bus stop to wait for the bus, just in case, or if anyone by any chance has called the central bus station, and will know definitely.
And between every phone call there is:  "In Folia they can´t even get out of the door!"
"In Paliochori there´s almost a meter snow on the road!"
"The road from Kavala to Eleftheroupolis has not been cleaned yet!"

Christos couldn´t wait to get the chains onto the car wheels. Not because we have to go anywhere. When anything sensational happens (and the level for what can be described as sensational is pretty low in Eleftheres) he´s aching to go to the coffee shop, kafeneion, to discuss it with everyone else.
Nina, experiencing snow for the first time in her life, was equally thrilled!
And I took it as a chance to mostly stay at home and bake more cakes for Christmas.

Baking for Christmas

I guess I should stop complaining about the cold and instead be happy for the cold, as the low temperatures and the penetrating icing wind absolutely is more Christmassy than 18 degrees and sun. Besides, it´s the perfect weather for baking for Christmas!
Today: Norwegian Christmas doughnuts - smultringer.

I have spent every Christmas in Greece since 1993, celebrating Norwegian style. That means having our main Christmas dinner at the evening of the 24th. With loads of traditional Norwegian foods, sweets and cakes.
If normally prefer Norwegian cakes and sweets, as they are not dripping with sugar as the Greek. My grandma always made smultringer, but I never got around to get her recipe before she died. The recipe I have used here is adapted from the book Norsk Jul (Norwegian Christmas) by Birger Sivertsen.

You need:
125 gram/4.4 oz sugar
150 ml/5 fl oz Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
Half a tea spoon salt
One teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
Approx. 300 gram/11 oz self raising flour
Sunflower oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients, except the oil, as they are listed. Add enough flour to make a firm dough. Take a small piece of the dough, use your hands to roll it on the table top to a long, thin (as thick as a very thin index finger) sausage. Make a circle and firmly press the ends together. the circle should be approximately 6-7 cm/2,5 inches in outer diameter.
Add oil to a pot. It should reach approximately 5 cm/2 inches high. Wait for 5-10 minutes for the oil to heat. Add a few of the doughnuts and fry until light brown - it goes quickly, so watch carefully! You might need to flip the doughnuts over to get fried on both sides. Remove from the pot and leave on kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil.
Put in a box and hide in a smart place so family members won´t eat them all before The Big Day!:)

From Winter to Winter

Back in Greece - and to more snow and winter.

While it is raining on this side of the mountain, it snows heavily behind.
The school bus got stuck this morning and had to wait for road to be cleaned and salted before it could continue.
And then the school closed. None of the pupils from the mountain villages had been able to make it.
Well, my kids came safe back home.
A great day to enjoy the fireplace. And to be grateful that I have a warm home!
So many people don´t.
You can help by clicking on the link under (it´s free). Buying your Xmas gifts from The Hunger Site is another way to support children and families in need.

Cooking Couscous for Mum

I  am on a mission here in Norway: Fatten up my Mum with healthy and nutritious food - that also tastes good and make her get an appetite! I use a lot of legumes as a protein source instead of meat.
This couscous dish with chickpeas and vegetables went down easily and happily.
Years ago, I visited Morocco. I was lucky enough to catch up with this young man, a friend of a friend, who guided me to a few places I wanted to visit to make some articles.
He also took me home to visit his family in a small village north of Casablanca. Dinner was served at a low round table, and we (me, my friend and his father - the mother and his young brothers had to wait until we had finished) were sitting on the floor.
We had a fabulous couscous. At that time, I wasn´t much into cooking - the whole atmosphere around the meal was more important to me that what we actually ate. In my memory, the couscous we had was something like this dish (minus the meat, as nowadays I am not much into meat). In reality, it probably had nothing to do with it!
I guess I could call this dish Memories of Morocco:

 

You need:

One cup couscous (wholewheat organic, preferably)
One zucchini
One bellpepper
One can chickpeas
Two carrots
Flat leafed parsley
Water
One cube vegetable or chicken stock
Olive oil
Juice from one lemon
Salt, pepper

Pour the couscous into a large bowl. Boil two cups of water with the stock and lemon juice. When boiling, pour over the couscous. Rake with a fork and cover with a towel. meanwhile, boil sliced carrots until tender. Fry sliced zucchini and bell pepper, a little at the time, in olive oil. Drain chickpeas well and fry for a few minutes in olive oil.
Now the couscous should be done. Fluff it lightly with a fork and add the carrots, the zucchini and bell pepper, the chickpeas, salt and pepper.  Mix. Add a dash of olive oil (optional) and plenty of fresh flat leafed parsley.
Serve with for instance a green salad.

Am I World Famous in Norway Now?

Norway´s biggest newspaper, VG, visited us in May.
Yesterday the story was printed over four pages, with plenty of photos from Kairos garden and food recipes from my book My Greek Taverna.
 

(Photo: Morten Stokkan)

For those of you who haven´t visited us yet:
Yes, the place is just as nice as it looks!
And the food even better...

Ginger Bread House

A typical Norwegian Christmas tradition is baking ginger bread cookies and a ginger bread house. I have been doing this every year since I moved to Greece with my kids - though the last few years they feel too old to participate. (But not to old to break and eat the house at Christmas day!).

This year, I have been lucky enough to borrow my niece Ella and my nephew Magnus to help me baking!

Very dedicated and enthusiastic bakers, indeed!

Arendal...

Arendal, the town where my mum lives in Norway is situated on the Norwegian Riviera. It is actually a very popular travel destination, especially among Norwegians.
During summer.

Here´s it´s minus 12. I didn´t feel like spending much time taking pictures - that´s for sure!
Two quick shots from the town center - just to show you how pretty it is!