More Delicious Breakfast

Just a quick one. These days I am totally mad for food, and mad for cooking, and I just regaled Ben with another gorgeous breakfast (if I do say so myself. Not very Norwegian to brag, but then, I am only an ex-pat here).

Susie and Ben's Vaguely Cuban-Inspired Saturday Breakfast at Home

Polenta (see below)
about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Four eggs, preferably organic
One ripe avocado
2 cups fresh spinach, washed
1 can black beans (or 1-2 cups cooked beans, if you're industrious like that)

1. Make polenta how you like. I am a fan of a 1-3 ratio of grains to water, and I actually dilute the polenta with quinoa for added nutrition and texture (thanks to Didi Emmons and the cookbook Vegetarian Planet for this tip). So: boil about three cups generously salted water, then add 1/3 cup quinoa and, after a couple of minutes, 2/3 cup coarse cornmeal. Stir madly and let cook, being careful not to get splattered. Here in Norway I can only get "instant" polenta, the upside being it's ready in only 5-8 minutes or so (and that's why I stagger the quinoa...with real polenta you can throw it all in together). When your polenta has thickened deliciously, stir in 1/2 cup parmesan and let cool on your snowy balcony.

2. Slice avocado and arrange fetchingly on two plates.

3. Form polenta into patties and fry on each side until brown and crispy. They will most likely fall apart a little, but you can deal.

4.In a saucepan, heat black beans with a little seasoning. I added a few splashes of Tabasco.

5. Arrange fried polenta cakes on your plates.

6. Fry four eggs how you like them. At the last minute, or if there's space in your pan, throw your wet spinach in and let it steam in its own juice.

7. Place eggs on top of polenta cakes, arrange black beans and spinach on the plate. Serve with hot sauce.

NOTE: For added flavor, I bet this would be delicious if you took the time to make a little avocado salad with lime juice, a tiny bit of garlic, some cumin, tomato, and cilantro, seasoned with salt and pepper (and if it's too tart, with the tiniest splash of maple syrup).



Breakfast in the Making.



The video.



The Final Product.

Snow

Hello Comrades,

It was pointed out to me that I was waaaay premature in posting that gorgeous photo of the Oslo harbor in clear weather (which, by the way, was not some cheesy photo I snatched from the Web but one my brother took when he was visiting. Not bad for a hack). I felt like I needed to herald spring in some way, have something to look forward to. But now I have officially given up, and resorted to a picture that accurately depicts Oslo in February. Yes, we have daylight until 5 p.m. these days (hooray!) but spring is a long, long way away. In fact, in hasn't stopped snowing for weeks. We had about a foot on the ground in January, and then on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago the skies dumped a meter on us and Oslo, city that claims it never shuts down for snow, was plagued with T bane- and trikk-stoppages and delays and total chaos. They dealt with that, and since then it's just been dumping on us every few days. Yesterday the flakes were so close together it was hard to walk in them. Wasted time putting on eye makeup for my lunchdate with Stine, because it had all washed off by the time I got to my haunt Litteraturhuset. Here's the view from our balcony, yesterday:



Not sure it does the day justice, but trust me when I tell you it was a wall of snow. I took the camera to the Vigelands Park, where I captured a bunch of kids skiing:



...and the poor ducks...

and the Atlas-like guys holding up a big bowl of snow.




So I've had the week off from BVS, and during the week I was informed that Natasha, the teacher I'm covering for, is officially not coming back this year. So I am now more secure in my job, which probably means more responsibility but also more leeway. I'm pleased, of course, and maybe a little apprehensive. I like teaching there, and frankly, for a high school gig I don't think it's too taxing. Norway is sort of uber-civilized about work; a full-time work week is 35 hours, and in a book I'm reading about Norway right now called In Cod We Trust, the author relates a funny anecdote of speaking with a Norwegian about his work. The Norwegian says something to the effect of, "We used to have to work 40 hours a week, but then the government changed it. Thank God! I mean, you don't have any time to see your family when you work that much!" So, at 65% time, I am actually in the classroom only six hours a week, nine hours every fifth week or so. The planning time adds a fair amount to that, but it's doable, definitely doable. At the same time, the communication at the school is really shoddy. Stine keeps me aware of what's going on, but my supervisors never do. Important meeting Monday, apparently, and no one has told me whether or not to attend.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of my mother-in-law Ann Brode, who is worried both Ben and I are doing too much when I'm pregnant, I am actually taking another teaching job. My class at Folkeuniversitet fell through due to low enrollment (phew--I didn't feel like teaching it anyway), and as it happens a woman named Hilary who works for the State Department asked me to help her out with what I think is kind of a cool project. At the risk (lots of risks in this paragraph, hmm) of boring you to tears, here's the deal: Hilary was in conversation with the director of Youth for Understanding, a foreign exchange program. He mentioned that while lots of minority kids in Norway (typically minority kids means immigrant kids) are applying for YFU programs, most of them don't get accepted because their English isn't good enough. So Hilary wants someone to work with a small group of minority high schoolers twice a week, helping them to improve their language skills and indoctrinating them--er, teaching them--about American culture, etc., in hopes that they'll have a better acceptance rate to programs like YFU and AFS. Now, this work is close to my heart. One thing that has been fascinating and difficult about being at a Norwegian high school is looking at the phenomenon of racial mixing and how Norway is dealing with immigration. I don't kid myself that the U.S. is some bastion of racial equity, but Norway is still quite behind. My dark-skinned burka-wearing girls definitely want to work together in my class; my blonde Norwegians do too. I spend a lot of time putting them in groups together. And, as another Fulbrighter who travels around to different schools pointed out to me, she has yet to see a teacher of color in any of the Norwegian schools. The reality is that the face of Norway is really changing--Oslo is, I think, now 25% immigrant, while Norway on the whole is 10% up from 9% last year--and it will soon be the case that "Norwegians" are not all blonde tall Nordics. So. Looking forward to this work, and to developing excellent time management skills as I juggle 5 classes this spring.

What else...well, this week "off" has been packed of course, but it's been a nice week. My dear and insightful friend Katie Williams read my memoir, which is still in the draft stage, and sent it back to me with really helpful comments and suggestions. The best one of all being that she doesn't think it's too far from ready to send to an agent. So I've spent much of this week revising, reshuffling, and preparing the book to go to another reader, Simone, my friend who's living in Mexico these days. I think Simone will be a great second reader. For one thing, she travels a lot. AND she speaks Spanish. So she can correct my mistakes. And third of all she's a great writer.

This vacation week was kicked off by an excellent ski weekend up near Lillehammer. Fulbright paid for everyone and their families to go to a place called Skeikampen for a weekend of skiing, hanging out, and eating too much Norwegian buffet food (all manner of fish, as well as lots of cheese, fruit, salad, and things like ox meatballs). It was wonderful to get away, and I had two of the best cross-country ski days of my life. I am definitely improving. I'm still not very efficient or very graceful or even very fast, but for the first time in my life I can effectively snow plow down a hill without wiping out, and attack a lesser hill with gusto. This may sound like a small victory to you seasoned skiers, but trust me--to me, it's a big deal. Besides, the trails near Skeikampen were just lovely. Here are some pics.





The woman in red is LaReesa, another Fulbrighter who's great, and the woman in the foreground is the aforementioned Hilary from the State Department. Yep, skiing with the boss before she's your boss.

I assume you're all dying to know how pregnancy is going. It's going well. The morning sickness is really and truly over, and my only complaints now are bad digestion and this quasi-painful stretching sensation in the lower abdomen that comes and goes. It feels to me like some days the kid is just hanging out--and then all of a sudden he/she starts to grow like mad for a day or two. When this happens, my appetite is pretty out of control. I feel like I need to pack myself with calories, protein; yesterday I ate two eggs for breakfast with gluten-free toast and a banana and then before I went to meet Stine I had two more pieces of toast and some juice and then I ate a big plate of salmon and sour cream and pickled beets (v. Norwegian) with a big salad and then I came home and, well, this is embarrassing--I drank a big glass of coconut milk. Then I ate some chocolate. We had sushi at Thor's last night, and I must have had at least three rolls' worth, and then when we got home I decided I needed a bowl of rice and vegetables and some tahini and then before bed I had four more pieces of toast. Ben really got a kick out of this "monologue" I shared with him last night circa 11:00: "Benj, he's like really stretching in there. Stretching and demanding more toast!" Then: "But if I eat this toast I won't have anything left for breakfast!" (Last slices in the pack. I ate the toast. The kid was sated until this morning, when I made us an epic breakfast.)

I will end with the recipe for said breakfast; I love blogs that have recipes in them!

Susie and Ben's High-Cholesterol But Delicious Last-Day of Vacation Breakfast
2 cups spinach
Leftover mashed potatoes, preferably well-seasoned ones with green onions in them
Four eggs (preferably organic)
Hollandaise sauce (from a package if you have it on hand, from scratch if you're fancy)
generous oil

Make hollandaise.
Rinse spinach and steam it in its water for a couple of minutes until wilted. Set aside.
Form potatoes into four patties, season as needed, and fry them on both sides until golden-brown and crispy and perfect. Put two on each plate.
Quickly fry the eggs how you like them.
Layer steamed spinach on top of potato patties, lay a fried egg on each, and top with hollandaise. Serve with tabasco, tea, juice, and, if you want to add insult to injury, slices of avocado.

Voila! What can I say, I'm expected to gain four pounds a month in this second trimester. I'd hate to disappoint.

Love to you all, and thanks for hanging through what is kind of a long blog entry,

Susie

Sidewalks

Hey friends,

I've been dragging my feet about writing here for some reason. Life has gotten pretty busy for Ben and me in the past few weeks. My new job at Berg Vidergaende Skole (henceforth BVS) has been consuming a fair amount of my time and energy, despite the fact that I only teach two days a week. Factor in class planning, weekly meetings, subbing (the school is totally desperate for subs; there seems to be no system in place, when a teacher is sick, besides casting about madly for someone to fill in a class at last minute), parent-teacher nights (that was interesting. I just prayed I remembered all my students' names, and luckily, did), grading, etc., and I was there four days out of five last week and nearly went back yesterday before I came to my senses.

Ben's been busy, too. Classes started again and he's taking five at last count (but maybe dropping one), plus of course beginning to work on his thesis. Then you add in the time he spends playing Ultimate frisbee (two nights a week, plus a tournament this weekend), plus school trips (he went to the Hague last week), and we have been like those proverbial ships passing in the night, me off to yoga and chorus and school, him rushing to Norwegian class. We did get to spend one morning last week cross-country skiing with Ben's friend Juliana, who's Brazilian. It was a beautiful, clear morning.

But explain to me how someone who'd never seen snow before she came to Norway could be a better skier than I am? It's pathetic. And actually, I have improved a little. I seemed to get the concept of snowplowing down better, thanks in part to a Norwegian woman who watched me pause at the top of a big hill and said, you can do this. Make a really pronounced V with your feet, bend your knees, and dig in the edges of your skis. I think before I'd never really understood how much you have to wedge your skis in order to get control on the slope. I wedged until I felt like my hips were separating. And it worked. So I did a pretty good job of getting down a bunch of big hills at a snail's pace, which cracked up the Norwegians around me, and I only fell when, later in the morning, when the slopes were more crowded, I approached a giant hill and decided to step out of the tracks in order to snow plow. The whole change-over was a disaster, and I crashed out, taking Juliana with me, causing an old man to stop and worry about us, and then the rest of the morning was just a little ruined because after I fall, I get fearful. By the way, calling the cross country ski trails here "slopes" isn't too lofty--sure, compared to alpine slopes they're nothing, but this is pretty rolling terrain. None of those New England ski-flat-by-the-railroad-tracks days here in Norway.

I'm ready for spring. It's pathetic. I wish someone had taken me out on skis before I was 21. When Ben and I have a kid, I want to make sure we take him or her out skiing early and often, because I really do think everyone should have the feel for walking in snow and not be fearful of getting hurt.

Speaking of which...I'm pregnant. Fourteen weeks pregnant. PREGNANT! It has been an interesting road so far, and both of us are terribly excited about it. I felt like crap, I mean really crappy, for all of December and about half of January. I think I will remember Christmas this year as the year I struggled not to puke when the feast of pork came out. Morning sickness for me was all day sickness, and though I never actually threw up (a blessing; I hate throwing up), I was nauseated kind of all the time. I felt generally like I had a low-grade flu with all the accompanying symptoms of exhaustion, malaise, fragility, dizziness. About a week ago I stopped feeling so sick, and the timing is good, because I don't have a lot of time for it right now. Who knows, maybe that's part of why I feel better--because I have to feel better. I had an ultrasound a couple weeks ago. It is so bizarre that there's a tiny little human-shaped fish inside me, waving his/her arms around, kicking his/her legs. It was so magical.

I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything else to report, and no photos to post. Life in Oslo has been characterized by a lot of subtlety lately, as I come to the point in our year when I start to really--how to put this--well, when I start to really feel like a part of this place, or at least, to feel like more than just an observer. Teaching in a public high school has been enlightening in that regard; yes, Norwegian kids seem to be just like other kids, which is to say, hormonal, bored, tired, and full of attitude--but really wonderful, some of them, too. But also I just start to confirm some of my initial perceptions about Norway. For example: Norwegians do not know how to negotiate the sidewalk. They just don't. I have discussed this with other Americans. Whereas when we encounter someone on the sidewalk headed in the opposite direction and it seems really clear which way to go (to the right, usually), the Norwegians don't even consider moving. They just come rushing at you blindly. It's totally bizarre. You end up in a ditch or, if you've been living here for five months, you just plow right back into them. Totally strange.

It's Sunday; I got kind of sick last night and have been feeling woozy today. Still I managed to clean my apartment and now I'm going to do a spot of yoga before I meet Stine to exchange some student papers. Then it's Sunday dinner at Petter and Eldri's, and hopefully to bed early.

Hope you're all well. Pictures next time, jeg lover.

Din,

Susie