Meatless Monday #4: Cheese pizza

We have put a few hectic weeks behind us, so when my husband was away at the beginning of last week I took the chance to relax and not do much at all. Dinner was not on my list of things to put any thought in. But with my husband back and the weekend approaching, I decided on a Meatless Friday.

I love cheese so much. I have a theory that almost anything can be made better with adding some cheese (and some garlic). I was in a weight loss program a little while back and felt like the strangest person on the planet when all the people in the program were talking about the problems with resisting chocolate and potato chips, where as all I could think of was all the delicious cheese I had to stop eating. Given the choice between chocolate and cheese, I would always choose the cheese. But now I'm rambling. Back to the meatless dinner: 3 cheeses pizza.

I'm seriously challenged when it comes to baking, so I buy pizza dough at the store.

Typically I'm either too hungry or too tired to really think when I go to the store, so chances are I forget some vital ingredient to anything I make. I thought I had some tomato sauce at home, but I didn't. Improvising is something I often do in the kitchen. Mixing pesto rosso and ketchup worked wonderfully - it turned out to be better than most tomato sauces I've used before.

Mozarella, blue cheese, and standard yellow grated cheese. 

So pasta sauce, a good amount of chopped garlic and then the 3 cheeses evenly dispersed on my pizza.

Say "Cheeeeeeeeese!"

I guess a lot of you are skeptical when it comes to blue cheese, but seriously - give it a try! It is so good! If blue cheese is not your thing, try making cheese pizza with cheeses you don't usually use, like a sharp cheddar.

Yes, it was as good as it looks. 

I don't think this is a dinner that would go well with my weight loss class, but I believe in enjoying good food with people you love, and this was an excellent dinner I shared with the person I love the most.

How is my lemon tree doing?

I'm not good with flowers and plants. I've never managed to make anything grow or keep anything alive. But I really want to learn! The fall is a bad time of the year to make anything like that happen, especially in Norway where the winter is very very cold. The solution was to find something I could grow inside. A lemon tree. From seed.

I was more or less following this description on how to do it.

Potting soil, pot with drainage holes, bucket to mix soil and water, water and a glass with the seeds. 

I started with putting a layer of pebbles at the bottom of the pot. I don't know why, but I remember my mother used to do that with her plants when I was a child, so I guess it is something you should do. Maybe I should google it, but I'm too lazy right now. If anyone of you knows why, feel free to leave a comment to explain it to me!

Pebbles and some grass from the garden. 

I then mixed a good amount of water with some of the soil so that the soil got thoroughly moist. It is important that the seed doesn't dry out.

Some really wet dirt. 

And then I filled the pot with this thoroughly moist soil. I used my finger to make three small holes for the seeds. I decided on planting three seeds at once in case some of them wouldn't germinate.

Here are the seeds I dug out of an organic lemon. I picked the three I thought
looked the healthiest. Not that I have any idea what a healthy seed looks like.

I took the seeds out of the water, sucked on them in order to remove all the fruit flesh and then put them in the soil.

I hope the seeds will like their new home in this moist soil. 

I of course covered the seed with soil.

The next few days will be crucial. I have no idea what to expect, but I will make sure the seeds are warm and get all the sun I can give them. Right now they are standing outside sunbathing in the uncharacteristic warm September weather we have this year.

My hopefully growing lemon tree out in the sun. 

Come back next Sunday and I'll give you an update on how my lemon tree is doing! 

[R] was the letter of the week

[R]omance as we celebrated our anniversary

[R]ed is the first color of September

[R]ace with the best girlfriends!

A group of my girlfriends and me participated in 5/10 K race in Oslo today.
Wonderful weather and wonderful company made it a great way to
spend the day! 

Color my September #5

Wonderful, sweet, red apples. 

Color my September #1

Color my September #2

Color my September #3

Color my September #4

The privilege of democracy

Every two years I have the privilege of doing one of the things I appreciate the most with my country: I get to vote! I get to read through party statements and pamphlets, I get to visit the party websites where they present elaborate plans on what they want to do if voted in to government. I get to attend mass meetings if I want to, I can rally for one of the parties if I want to, I can even write angry letters in the newspaper about why I think the current government sucks and therefore everyone should vote for MY party (if I'd have my own party).

This would be my slogan. 

But here's the sad fact: Even though most countries in the world today are free or partly free (Freedom House and EIU have different ways of measuring it, but their conclusions are very similar), still 34% of the world's population do not have any democratic rights, and another 23% only have it to a certain degree.

Very green is very free, very red is very unfree.
The map is made by Futuretrillionare based on the findings of EIU's Democracy Index survey for 2012.

I live in the country in the world with the highest democracy rating (again according to the Democracy Index by EIU). But me being a woman with the right to vote is also here a relatively recent thing. This year we celebrate 100 years of women's right to vote here in Norway. This  means that my great grandmother was born in a time when women were considered less worth than their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons!

This is not my great grandmother. This is Fredrikke Marie Qvam,
one of women we can thank for our right to vote here in Norway. 

I guess there are many reasons why election participation is declining, but I just can't wrap my head around why people choose to stay home instead of voting. Here is a list of some of the reasons why I vote:

• Having the right to vote is a privilege. It is my duty to make use of that privilege. 
• I like to complain. If I'm going to complain about my government the next 4 years, I have to participate in the election. If I don't participate in the election, I have no right to complain. I really like to complain. 
• There are some things that are important to me. Voting is a way for me to show my government what those things are. 
• Even though the world has never been as democratic as it is now in the 21st century, we are still facing challenges. The world was actually more democratic in 2006-2007 than it is now (look at the previous links I've posted), and that is something I find frightening. Voting is one of the ways I can show the importance of democracy. 

Elections in Norway are always held on a Monday in September. This year's election is this coming Monday. I'm looking forward to it. Happy voting! 

Color my September #4

My favorite to-go coffee mug

Color my September #1

Color my September #2

Color my September #3

Potato and leek soup

One thing I really like about the days turning colder and darker, is that it also means it is soup and stew time. Both my husband and I love warm, thick, tasty comfort food. I like how the prep time most often is quick and easy (just chop veggies and maybe some meat) and then you let it cook for a long time. The smell of the soup or stew fill the house while we sit reading and waiting for it to be ready.

I think potato and leek soup might be the easiest and cheapest soup you can make.

Some bouillon, a leek and some potatoes. 

Right now the potatoes are very fresh and the skin is so thin that I don't peel them before throwing them in the soup. Most of the nutrition in them is in the skin or just beneath it, so you loose all the goodiness of the potatoes if you peel them. 

Just throw the potatoes and leek in a pan and pour in enough water to almost cover it.
Add also a fitting amount of bouillon. 

When the potatoes and the leek has boiled until soft, I mash the soup in a blender and serve it with a scoop of crème fraîche and some bacon. 

Let's eat! 

This soup can of course also be served as a vegetarian meal, or even vegan (just make sure your bouillon is a vegan one). I see it as a good alternative where the meat add some texture and taste to the meal, but isn't the main part of  it.

Color my September #3

Redcurrants from my Grandmother's garden

Color my September #1

Color my September #2

Passport to color

One thing I love about travelling, is to look at all make-up, perfumes and nail polish in the duty free store. I often fall in love with collections of miniature perfume bottles, or - as in this case, collection of small nail polish bottles from OPI.

It contained a collection of 6 different shades of reddish nail polish.

The Charged Up Cherry (hot pink) and Cajun Shrimp (almost neon coral) are not colors I would ever buy myself, which makes collections like this so awesome - it forces me to get something a little bit out of my comfort zone. 

So I took my new nail polishes and gave myself a polka dot manicure with Malaga Wine as the base color and polka dots in Charged Up Cherry and Lincoln Park After Dark. 

Next time I will not take a photo with all the bottles in my hand. 

Honestly, having polka dots on all my nails drives me crazy - it is far too busy. But I like them, so next time I will just do it on a couple of the nails.

What is your favorite red nail polish?

Color my September #2

Our sparrow key chains - the first thing my husband and I bought together

Color my September #1