Pardon my French, but...  Merde!  Our bloody roof is leaking.  Thankfully just the roof over the bathroom, but still...  *grumbles*  And of course, the downpour is continuing, which means the roof is more than slightly slippery and no fun to walk on.  Still, we managed to get a tarp to cover the most probable source for the leak.  Meh.

Just to let you know, the miracle worked again.  The moon has passed its full point a few hours ago, and my headache is now completely gone.  As is my queasiness.  Weeeeee!  Yes, I'm a happy bunny, even if my back still aches, but I'm working on that.  I've just had a long bath and are ready for a nice, long meditation and hopefully hours of restful sleep.  >happy sigh<

I'm feeling so positively rotten at the moment (but the moon is full in just two hours, so I hope the pressure will ease up then), I decided to dig out an old commercial to cheer me up. This was made ages ago (25 years?) and is just as funny today. The guy who made it, Trond Kirkvaag, sadly passed away last year, but classics like this will continue to shine.

That's a remarkably balanced title, considering the way I squeed and jumped with glee when I got the package.  It was a big package too, so I had to go to the post office to pick it up.  I had planned on being a good girl and wait until I got home with opening, but it smelled so good, so I ripped it open.  Right there, in the middle of the paking lot.  And whoopped and squeed and jumped around, behaving uncharacteristically silly. The kids were in the car, and were most curious, and they too oohed and aahed when they saw it.  It's a most gorgeous, splendiferous, breathtakingly beautiful embroidered linen pillow.  About 25x25 cm, filled with a mixture of lavender and buckwheat.  *happy sigh*  I going to sleep so well. with this next to me...
So I'm properly awed.  Not sure if she'll manage to see this before she leaves, but you may all leave glowing reviews for her to enjoy when she's back online.  They're well deserved.

Thank you dear Ros!  You are truly special.  *hugs*

I thought I'd posted this, but not so, it seems.  And now dogstar101 said I had, so I'd better do it.  Did that make sense?  Anyway, this recipe is incredibly simple and splendiferously good.  It's been my aunt's staple in all these years - the family demands it whenever they're hosting a party.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the incredible thing is that this ends up silky smooth even without an ice cream maker.  I have tweaked it a little bit, because I love chocolate.  So I use more chocolate than she does, and less sugar.  I use 335 ml cream, because that's what they sell here - 1/3 l.  The original amounts are in parenthesis, in case you feel like trying that one.  And I always add coffee and rum, I find the kids don't mind at all - they're used to chocolate ice cream tasting this way, and have never complained.  Rather, they complain about other chocolate ice creams not tasting enough...  *is proud momma*
And just pretend the chocolate truffles in my icon are ice cream, ok?  Thanks.

Inspired by Anya's comment that she'd never known what to do with the Aquavit in her bartending  days, I thought I'd share a Norwegian classic with you.  Absolutely delicious.  I first tasted it a few weeks before I got married.  My second cousin (and namesake) and I had planned a pub-to-pub tour, but ended up staying in the same place.  Comfortably seated on a Chesterfield sofa, next to a grand piano, drinking god knows how many mountain streams (and other drinks, but this is the one I remember), and having a very nice bartender who chased away sleazy guys, so we could enjoy ourselves.  I dare say that investment paid off, as we stayed the night instead of moving on after on drink, as the original plan was.  :-)

 
Mountain Stream (Fjellbekk)

Fill a tall glass with ice. Add everything except for Sprite, stir well.  Top up the glass with Sprite.

2 cl Vodka
2 cl Aquavit
1 cl freshly squeezed lime (juice of ½ lime)
2 cl Rose’s lime
Sprite

Cheers!  Now this is a treat.  Oh, how I'm looking forward to warm summer nights, sipping a drink and enjoying the light.  Aahhhh...

This is inspired by my recent visit to dogstar101, whom I gifted with the Norwegians' favourite version of potato:  Aquavit.   Linie Aquavit, tp be precise, the kind that's spent months lying on a ship, in old sherry caskets, working its way around the globe, crossing equator twice.  Something that does wonders to the stuff, even though noone is quite sre why.  Quite alchemical.  Anyway, apart from being the perfect companion to a fatty meal like pork ribs (together with some proper beer), it can also be used as an ingredient.  And today I got this recipe in an email from a good friend, who claims she almost fainted from pleasure the first time she had a taste.  They were going to have a late meeting at work, and one of her colleagues had made this - which probably made the meeting way funnier than normal...

This is enough for four, and is something the recipe designer suggested was a nice reward to guests who brave the winter storms to come visiting, hence the name.  Don't feel that's a restriction, though.  I'm sure this'll be delightful any time of year.  Actually, I'm going to test this recipe later today - when hubby brings home some proper espresso.  The last he bought was too coarse...

Cheers!

Reward for four

120 g semi-sweet chocolate
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1,2 dl cream
9 dl hot, strong coffee
½ - 1 dl aquavit

Whipped cream
Finely grated orange peel

Melt the chocolate in a heavy saucepan with the cream, stir in the sugar.  Using a whisk, beat in the coffee ½ cup at a time.  Beat in the aquavit, and continue beating until the blend is smooth and creamy.  Serve in mugs or glasses with a dollop of whipped cream and grated orange peel.

In a few weeks godlet will turn seven (my, how time flies), and we'll of course have a big birthday party - probably with all the boys from class.  This is nothing new, we've had big parties before, but this time there'll be a wheelchair thrown into the mix.  One of his classmates has CP, so he's not very mobile.  The boys are not big enough to carry him around (which I guess they'll end up doing in another seven years or so), and I don't want to have to rely on his parents being here (even though that'd be nice, of course, as I really like them), but I do want him to feel included.  I don't want to just let them out to roam the garden, because he won't be able to do that.  So we're figuring a pizza party (where they make their own pizzas), maybe put on a puppet show (I have a bear, a fox and a wolf that mum made when I was little) and fishing sweets.  What else?  I want to have enough going on that they'll stay on the same floor as the wheelchair-bound, as he won't be able to run up and down the stairs.

Any suggestions?

And to prepare for the party, I've just made 4 litres of The Best Chocolate Ice Cream Ever.  Yummm.  Now I need to buy more eggs and cream, to make other kinds of ice cream.  For some odd reason, not everybody likes chocolate ice cream.  How weird is that?

- but I hope it won't be a war.  Total surrender of the enemy would be preferrable, though I doubt they'll cooperate.  The enemy?  Lily beetles (who're illegal aliens, they don't belong here).  Oh, so beautiful, but they're the worst pest in the garden.  And they don't have any natural enemies either.  Dang it all.  Thankfully, they're still hibernating, the one I squeezed today plopped out of the ground as I was weeding the peonies.  Finding it there gave me a scare, though.  Itsn't it bad enough that they gorge on lilies, do they have to add peonies to the diet as well?  >Sigh< 

"Dear God, would you please send a predator that will kill the lily beetles without harming my garden?  Thank you."

On a happier note - the liverleaf (Anemone hepatica, aka Hepatica nobilis) *points to icon* is blooming, as are the crocus and snowdrops.  :)

We're listening to Lucia di Lammermoor, on live broadcast from the Met.  In the last break there was a quiz that started with the most incredible joke:

What's the difference between a soprano and a piranha?

( The answer )

laksjdhflajkdflakhsdf!  I haven't laughed so much since the last time DH and I decended into sillyness, which must be at lest two hours ago.  Yeah, some of them really are like that, but their voices are divine, so I'll excuse them.  *grins*

In a few hours we're heading to the airport, going to Reykjavik, Iceland. I'm looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time, as the weather forecast is typical February (not nice) and I have a nasty habit of reacting to that kind of weather. Which is why I tried to tell my mum that going to Iceland in February was a bad idea, but her mind was set. After all - it's her 70th birthday, and she pays for the fun, so she gets to decide where we go. OK. Now, she's getting second thoughts and wonders if this is such a good idea, after all, since her dear daughter is one of the most barometric persons in this family filled with barometrics. Sheesh. Then why didn't she listen to my objections? Oh, well - I'll be residing in the hot springs and saunas... And when our five days are over, I guess I'll wonder where they went, just like I'm wondering where these last two weeks happened to go. >Poof!<

The Valentine's weekend was over before I even got started. There's a ton of entries on my flist I should've commented on, posts I've barely had time to read. I haven't even done much else. I've knitted a bit, but not that much - my shawl (which will be rectangular) is now a good 50 cm long. I've been searching for rose appliqué designs that actually look like roses without being overly complicated, and found none - so I'm desiging my own (I've got an idea for what I want to make for my sistercousin). Inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow rose. It actually looks quite good. When I get as far as doing the actual appliqué, I'll post some pics.

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody! See you next week. ♥

This is oh-so-not a lenten recipe, but it is definitely a cake fitting for a Valentine's day surprise.  Soo moist and yummy.  My nephew who's quite the chocolate cake connoiseur (rather picky) devoured it.  It's quite filling, so I'd say this is enough for ten, especially if you serve it with a dollop of whipped cream with a hint of vanilla.  A cup of espresso (or whichever coffee you prefer) or a good tea just makes it divine.  Metric measures, but if you copy and paste this into Word, the program will do the conversions for you.

I called my sistercousin (I lived with them when I went to hight school in '84, so she's the closest thing to a sister I've got) last night, as it was her birthday.  Both to congratulate, but also to ask her a bit about the quilt I'm making for her. 

I've got a soft spot for pipes and drums (ever since Dad brought home an LP with pipes and drums some thirty-odd years ago), and then I stumbled across this on YouTube.  >sigh<  The video quality does not bare bragging, but the music does.  Man, these guys would've been fun to experience live.  Not that I'd mind if there were ten times as many of them either...

ETA:  Found'em!  They're Saor Patrol, and I'm totally lost...  It seems this clip was recorded during the Fringe in Edinburgh.  Lucky Nundu...  And then I found Albannach - and they even have 24/7 broadcast of their music on web via Albannach Radio.  >happy sigh<  This is bliss...

Inspired by Hazel's (her lttdcn persona, the life journal) post about the Chinese new year, I googled chinese astrology sign, and found this at astrology.chinese.com:

Thank you to all who joined me in playing over at moonette's journal.  I've anjoyed it immensely, but I'm not quite done yet.  I've had a fabulous birthday weekend.  Celebrating three days 'to the end' is the way to do it, and I don't complain.  Tomorrow I'll try to wrap up my part of the shopping trip.  I've never been so touched.  It doesn't mattr that the gifts are virtual, the thoughts and intentions are real and they warm me more than I can say.  It's also been incredibly fun to fly around on angel wings - I'm so keeping those!

At the moment I'm high on music.  one of my RL gifts was an invitation to a concert with a friend of mine (I got to choose one of two - so I took both!  And pay for one myself of course, one shouldn't have to choose between two experiences like that), so it's not too long ago that I got back home after two fantastic hours with Basix, a Danish a capella band.  Six guys.  Great songs.  Great rhythm.  Wonderful flirts.  I'm delighted I'm happily married, or I would've been lost.  Six pairs of sparkling smiles, twinkling eyes and musicality to boot...  Dangerous, very dangerous.    *happy sigh*  (They even thanked my friend and me afterwards for being such a great audience, as it's nice to have people playing back.  Yay!).

A big thank you to all birthday wishes - eventually I'll get around to write you all, but I'm not quite there yet.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be a productive day, so I'm jumping to bed, so that I'm all rested and ready to start the moment the kids leave for school (instead of falling asleep, as I did today).

Gacked from Grandma Kate, while I try to think about what happens next at my bash over at Moonette's.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Countess-Palatine Berte the Mystical of Divine Intervention Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Not bad, huh?