Sweet Treats

9 May 13, 2017 Food Styling & Photography

Pile High Apple Pie + Teaming up!

It’s been exactly one year since my Norwegian food stylist colleague Marianne picked me up in her car and we drove out to my summer-house for 1,5 day of intense pie baking, styling and shooting. Marianne had contacted me via instagram a month or so earlier, asking if I wanted to team up with her and create a recipe series for Norwegian food magazines. She was sitting in her apartment in Oslo, brainstorming ideas and looking for opportunities to collaborate in this otherwise rather solitary profession. And I was working part-time with Cashew Kitchen, looking to extend my network and explore all the different ways one can work with food styling and food photography. So in a way we caught each other just at the right time!

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18 May 10, 2017 Sweet Treats

No-Churn Cardamom Nice Cream with Almond Butter Caramel Ripple | v + gf

One dark winter evening about three months ago, I got an intense craving for a very particular raw cinnamon & cardamom nice cream that can only be found in certain hip supermarkets in town. Back then I was still living in the house out in the archipelago, and even if our local supermarket would have this nice cream, I had no way of getting there without a car. Yet, I badly needed that almost burning intensity of cinnamon and the crunchy warmth of freshly crushed cardamom seeds in my mouth, right now.

The other qualities of this much desired nice cream was less significant. After a quick pantry (and freezer) inventory, I found that I had all key ingredients at home to satisfy my obsession. I don’t even remember how the almond butter ripple idea was born, but who doesn’t like to eat caramel sauce by the spoonful? I knew this nice cream experiment needed a lot of caramel.

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18 March 18, 2017 Sweet Treats

Veronica’s Chocolate Cake – Step by Step!

One rainy afternoon in a seemingly commonplace Tuscan villa near the small village of Impruneta, Veronica made us chocolate cake. The real kind, with melted high quality chocolate and Bialetti brewed espresso. A month earlier I would never expect to find myself in this particular kitchen on a plain February Monday afternoon. Possibly drinking coffee and perhaps eating pieces of store bought dark chocolate while drudging over my endless to do-list – sure! Sounds like my average Monday. But having heartfelt meetings with likeminded creatives during hours of cooking classes (in Italy!) while obsessively capturing every single moment because of its pure beauty – definitely not.

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16 February 18, 2017 Sweet Treats

Parsnip & Lingonberry Muffins with Cardamom | df + gf

One thing that I value a lot when it comes to my high sensitivity is my ability to suddenly swoon over the smallest of things, even when I’m having a rough time. Like the sounds of melting snow, dripping from the branches. Or the complete stillness of the sea while the sun is warming my pale cheeks. Like finalizing this recipe for gluten free muffins already by 9am in the morning, and hence enjoying a warm and perfectly moist vs. crumbly parsnip & lingonberry muffin with my mid morning coffee.

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2 December 21, 2016 Holiday

Chewy Caramel & Ginger Cookies | gf

The cheek numbing cold out here has turned into stormy and mild, almost spring, weather. The steel grey ocean is powerful and the strong winds are an effective cure for a busy mind.

I thought that it would be hard – not to say impossible – to wind down and find the mindspace to actually take some time off this year.

But as the days grow closer to Christmas, I find myself involuntarily snoozing until mid-morning, absentmindedly wandering around the house picking dead leaves from our sad plants and worrying more about whether or not Lady Mary will marry Lord Gilliamham, than what Christmas gifts I should get for my family.

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