I know, I know. I'm all talk. I said I was back in the blogosphere and then I up and disappeared for another month. I hate to blame the kid, but he is mostly to blame. First strept throat, then his giant diaper butt sitting on and breaking the internet modem, thus not having the net for over a week. Talk about drama. But I've forgiven him and we're back now. Read on...
The theme of my November was rain. Well, rain and seasonal depression, really. Thank God November is over and advent in Scandinvia has begun. Thank God for the light therapy lamp that Santa has promised to bring. And thank God for butter.
Dark as it may be, the entire month of December in Norway is dedicated to all things cozy. Candles, gløgg, slippers, warm blankets, a crackling fire, advent calendars for the kids, and lots of lots of baking. Baking of cookies. Baking of cakes. Baking of bread. Baking with butter.
That is....until there becomes a butter shortage!!!
A combination of a poor summer for the dairy farms and the (scary!) rise in populartity of the low-carb diet has created a massive shortage of butter throughout much of the country. The local bakery might have to stop their usual production, since they only have 3- 1/2 kilo packages of butter left in their industrial fridges. There's even talk of importing butter from some of the EU countries (gasp! unheard of! will it have the same, sweet, sweet taste of butter from our beloved Norwegian dairy cows?) What kind of a Christmas will this be?!
Enter, my husband.
A man who is weak when it comes to remembering to buy flowers for the mother of his child, but who makes up for the fact with a gift of butter. Several kilos of pure and perfect butter. The gift of butter for a girl who lives on butter. What more could one want in the weeks leading up to Christmas?
What shall I make with all this butter, you ask?
Lots, really. But sadly, not a whole lot of new recipes. Christmas is NOT the time to start breaking into the unknown. It is a time for the familiar and good. The cookies of childhood and breads of the season. For kakemenn and peparkaker. For boller and kringler and julekake and perhaps some rice pudding (must. share.recipe!)
I promised Lasse some kakemenn this weekend, so that's where we started. It put a little dent in my butter supply. Let's hope we won't have to look to Germany or Denmark before Christmas is over.