Why the quick fix?

So here I am finally.
The days ar running from me. Each one much like the other, waiting to go to work and trying to figure out what to have for dinner. Today I decided to be a little step ahead of myself, not to forget fix the whole what's for dinner issue tomorrow! I'm having a sick-of-figuring-out-what's-for-dinner period. Having gone through a lot of easy fixes. Frozen pizza, frozen chicken (which my husban made...) and the likes. So yesterday I was down in my fridge and found a pig's knuckle. So I figured: let's make a good traditional norwegian dinner that will have plenty of leftovers!!
So that's what I did. So for at least one day I threw my quick fixes out the window and allowed myself to work and think. Last time I had this meal was when my mother-in-law made it.
Just for the might be interested person here is the recipe!!

You'll need:
Lots of potatoes
some flour (whole wheat will give you a bit healthier version, I like to mix the fine with the whole)
pig's knuckle or something similar (preferrebly pig)
carrots
kohlrabi (not the red one)
Sausage (thick one)
maybe some bacon

I started with the meat. Roasted is the best in flavor for this meal. Today I had both, plain and roasted.
I put the meat in a big casserole with water on full speed ahead... Just bring it to a boil as you start peeling those potatoes. So when you get all bored and lost in thought you can go an check the meat. As it has been cocking a little while you can skim off the fat foam. If you really want it I guess you can keep it, but honestly I think you might want to take it off. Being the fat and all other stuff boiling from the meat that you don't want...

As I peeled this morning, having my youngest daugther roaming through my kitchen drawers, I thought about the fast food of things. Water, potato and eventually dough on my hands I couldn't always do something about her. So she just did what she liked, pretty much. I found that she din't wreck aa much havoc as I thought she would. That's when I was done peeling ;)

The smart thing to do is to peel all the potatoes you want, or the very best thing is to be two. Then one can peel and the other one do the rest (we'll get to that). Anyway, once they've peeled you cut them in smaller pieces. If you don't have a machine to help you, don't cut them with a knife.

 Something kinda like this one, or will give you the same result. If not you can use a grater. It will take longer if you do it by hand. But still very doable.
As I now look at the more messy kitchen my thoughts are once again going to the easy fix. Yes it would have been cleaner, in this case saved me some time. But the result?? It would have been something that didn't taste half as good, and would be so much worse for my health. But why do we do it? Why do we go for the easy fix to save time. Save time for what? Sit in a chair and watch other people have a life on tv, 'cause mine is just boring???
Anyway, back to my cooking.
I use two bowls. One for the potato gush and one to make the dough in. In the potato you find starch, and when you crush the potato like this the starch mostly goes away in the liquid. So as good as I can press it out I do. There have to be smarter ways than mine, I just take a handfull off potatoe gush and press it out, then put the 'clean' potato gush in the new bowl.
Here is why the smart choice it to either peel all the potatoes before hand or do it with someone. If you do it as you go, the potato gush will turn a nasty brown/blackish color. This is not good. While you work it will become a little pinkish brown. No danger there.
So you keep at this untill there is no potatoes left. Then the fun begins!

Boiling with some fat foam...

It's weird how you tend to go the easy way, just 'casue it's less hassle. I've learned that in a lot of cases when you go the easy way, you bring more hassle. Like with my mum. I try to do everything as easy as I can for her, but it always seems to end up in the hardest way. But I am still learning.

 Back to cooking. At this point I take some flour and just sprinkle it over the potatoes. If you are two one can fix the meat as the other one can make the dough. As me being alone I sprinkle and fix the meat...
I take out some of the meat. Here I have the roasted knuckle  and the pale one is the plane one...
I take one out and add water if I don't have enough. As in this picture, you can see that there isn't enough. But don't go overboard with the water. To much will only make it spill over.

Some of my daugthers mess...

 The potatoes with flour on top. This to keep it from turning black.

 The cutted meat!
As I've passed this point I find myself feeling happy, glad to cook. And yet I don't do it often enought. Why? Because the sosiety has thaught us that we have to hurry, hurry for this and that. I teach the same to my kids. We're running late, hurry. Hurry we have to be there in 5 minutes. Be where? At piano, swimming, soccer whatever. Who chose that? We did. Will the end of the world come if we are late? No, obviously not since we tend to be late a lot. I get that you have to learn to not be late for work. But sometimes we have to teach them that there are more important things. Sometimes you have to be late, just so you can catch a real moment.

 Back to my potato dough. You put enough flour for it to become a paste between the potatoes. Add just a bit of salt and even less pepper. Specially if you use roasted or salted pig, and salt sausage. Sometimes I have to add a little water so it doesn't get dry. You should be able to press your hand in it and make you palmprint, like I have done here. Now it's very important that you check the water in the casserole. You don't have to cut a lot of meat. Just the skin or some of the fat. You know the 'good' stuff. The water with the rest of the meat should be boiling good at this point.

 If you are making a big portion, or don't have a big casserole you should take the meat out on a ålate, just to make sure there is enough place in the casserole. I've taken out this large piece, the rest is in the casserole.

 So as I make sure the water is boiling I dig in the dough. I take a handfull and then some and make a round potato ball. I make a little hole into the middle and put some off the fat/skin bites into it. And cover up. Then you put it in a spoon (maybe to little) or something and gently put them into the boiling water. Kinda the way you do with eggs.

 At this stage I've all the potato ball in the casserole and have put the meat back in. As you also can see I've cut the big piece into some smaller ones. I let it boil 'hard' for about 5 minutes, then I lower the heat. Now you can leave it there for hours if you like. So when I make this I usually start in the morning and then leave it pretty much on it's own untill dinner time. Half an hour before or so I put the vegetables and sausage in.

Carrots and kholrabis are in

it's not a small casserole. ..but then again I have dinner for tomorrow as well!!

After this last picture was taken I put the lid on top of the casserole. Then the vegetables don't have to boil.
So during my busy day dinner made itself... well after I did all the work. But my payment... A fantastic dinner. In our home, this is a BIG favorite!!
So why don't I make dinners more often? Because todays work sosicety means that you're pretty much dona at work the minute your body wants dinner. So why use all the energy you don't have for a meal you really need. So you end up with a quick fix... sadly...
I really try to stay away from quick fixes on all the other areas in my life. It's not easy, but it really do pay off.

Enjoy the meal, regardless if you made my dinner or not!! Feel free to ask if you didn't get my recipe and would like to try this.
And may God bless you

Why do we sometimes end up hurting for no reason? (long title... I know)

I woun't bore you with the details, you all probably know the baseline anyway.
In the end I ended up feeling a bit hurt. I realized that I should have no reason for it, yet here I was. Feeling very sorry for myself, and thinking that no one really want to be my friend. I am not good enough. If I don't go, no one will come to me. I should think that when I passed 30 I would be wiser. But obviously not.

So then I started thinking. Why do we sometimes end up hurting for no reason? Why does something that is just a commend can hurt more than a cruel word. Is it that we tend to think that in the heat of an argument we do say things to hurt, sometimes without meaning it. But in a comment we tend to think that it's what the person really means?

I called another friend and she is the best ever. We are just good friends, but someday I hope for more. To be able to share deeper thoughts. I do share, and I think that it is a somewhat problem for me. That I share just enough for them to think that everything is ok. I've been trying to 'fix' it, and sometimes I do share a little more personal things. It just doesn't last. Or 'new' people will show up. This time I have to say (before I keep getting to off track) I feel a lot better. I send Jesus a quick 'I'm hurting - help me' and I felt better. Then after the talk with my friend I really saw that it was nothing to take the wrong way :) Very happy about that.

Back to the sharing part. I started this other blogg (on my native language) so that I would be able to share. And you know what?? I didn't do so good. I kept thinking that maybe someone I know will read this. Then what??? They would read the things I don't share. So ofcourse I didn't write it. Simple.


I try to attend a group, or whatever you would call it, only for woman. And I have managed to share some stuff here. I just try to downplay it a lot, so they don't know how much I struggle with it, or how much it affects me. Like this one time almost two years ago a girl died, very very suddenly. She had a daugther the same age as my son, and she was the daugther of my cousin. I never called him a cousin or anything, but I've always called his daugthers my cousins - sinces that is what they felt like. The middle one was my classmate for nine years. So this girl (my cousin...) only got to be 25. She died december 25th. I had a daugther myself december 8th and lost a lot of blood. I was very tired, but felt almost like normal by the time of her funural. Sadly my husband couldn't come with me, so not fully recovered I had to bring three kids (he was going to work so I couldn't leave my youngest, and my oldes is a lot of help) for a long trip. Including a ferry you have to leave the car... The day before was a low day, so my mum said straight to me that I shouldn't go. So I stayed at home. I know today that it was the right decition, but I still regret not being able to attend her funeral. I can't believe that I just wrote this. Even with the possibility that someone I know might read it. Strange. Well maybe I'll chiken out when posting time comes around.
But it did feel good by the way. Sharing. I've always known that... It's just hard. Even now, sitting here on the computer, crying. Glad my husband is late, milking our cows. I can talk to him about everything, and then I mean everything. He knows that this was a very hard time for me. It's just that you can't bring it up over and over with the same person. Even I would have been bored with that.

So here I am, trying to be more me than I ever have been.... No that came out wrong.
Here I am, trying to wear some of my feelings on my sleeve...
I've always been me, just hiding....

This is the time that I'm overwhelmed by what Jesus really can do. A small thought and you almost feel him reasuring you, reading in the Bible (which I do to rare) and daily devotion helps me to see more of him.
He is my ligthtower and he loves me no matter what. Even when I fail, when I am weak, when I hurt someone else. He still loves me. More than I love my kids.
I thank Him for bearing with me, and for making me a better person.

God Bless

The Why

To anyone who stumble onto this page.
So this will hopefully just be a short blogg, at least for today. Having kids and all tend to make time fly.

Anyway I wanted to write something about the why. Why I chose it.
We all wonder on different things, why this and why that. I do not know everything, and I never will in this life.
Once I'm dead and burried I will hopefully know everything 'cause I'll be in Heaven. That was a sidetrack.
My thought behind this blogg is that I get to write in english and that I'll try to answer some of my own why's.

But gotta go grocery shopping. Why you ask.
So that I can make dinner later and have a piece of bread now. All out ;)