Friday, April 19, 2013

(Anything 'but') Natural Beauty

Today I documented the transformation from bare-faced to made-up.

In my case there's no such thing as natural beauty: there's semi-decent makeup skills.



 This is what Vidar wakes up to every morning

After the first layer of war paint

I use concealer like 
most people wear foundation


Having set the background, 
wiping out my natural features, 
it's time to paint some new ones on








  
Most importantly, contour the hell outta your face!
Create the illusion of cheekbones, narrow
the forehead and nose, 
sharpen the jawline
 



 Illuminating highlighter
on the cheek- and brow-bones,
a little in the middle of the forehead, 
down the nose, chin and 
Cupid's bow 

 Finishing off with some white eyeliner on
the waterline to get as bug-eyed as
possible


Badabing, badabang - natural beauty! 

A little reminder:

 


Have a nice weekend!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

How to Make Tom Yum Goong Like a Thai-Norwegian

  
 Til Eva.



I want to show you how I make Tom Yum Goong, a sour and spicy Thai soup with prawns.

Naturally, there's several variations - most importantly, you make it by taste: how you like it.

And I like it with insane amounts of fresh lime juice and chili.



My favorite Asian market in Oslo

 


Oh, by the way: a small update on our chili- and tomato project:

 It's growing!





Some of the core essentials when making Tom Yum soup:

Lemon grass
Galangal (looks like ginger, but it's not the same!)
Kaffir lime leaves

Please notice! You can't actually chew and swallow the lemon grass, galangal or kaffir lime leaves: they're just adding flavor! Leave them in your soup bowl!
 
Chili paste with soya bean oil (see photo below)
Fish sauce

Without these key ingredients, don't even bother.

(Easily available in any well-stocked Asian market, though!)


I like adding rice noodles, 
making it a 'noodle' soup

For garnish: chopped cilantro and bean sprouts!



It's common to add some kind of mushroom; like sliced champignon.

I like to use enoki mushrooms, mostly because I think they look funny and I like the texture.


Besides, they always remind me of:

 
Hattifnatter!!

 
 (Thanks, Google. I owe ya)


I get a bag of big frozen ready-peeled shrimps.

I take the frozen shrimps and lay them out on paper towels, and then I peel of the layer of ice when they've started melting. Put them in a bowl and set aside!

Most importantly, 
you need to get the most endangered ones, 
preferably contributing to sponsoring
slave labor. 

Get a large cooking pan
- for this I bring out my
'fårikål' pan! 


(Serves around 6 people - anyway, you need to adjust to what feels right for you! )

Ingredients:

20 large prawns

2 liters of chicken broth
10 kaffir lime leaves (ripped in half by hand, don't cut with a knife)
3 stalks of lemon grass (bash it lightly with the handle of your cutting knife, then cut into large chunks. If you bash it too hard, the lemon grass will fall apart, and it'll be pretty annoying when you eat)
A decent chunk of Galangal (sliced)

The following you need to adjust after your own liking, but this is to get you started:

4 big table spoons of chili paste with soya bean oil
4 table spoons of fish sauce

Mushroom
Tomatoes (diced)
Fresh red chili (chopped)
Fresh lime juice (I used five large limes)

Cilantro
Bean sprouts

Rice noodles



1. Add the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and galangal into the boiling chicken broth. Let it boil for a few minutes.

2. Add the chili paste and fish sauce. Taste for fun.

3. Add mushroom and tomatoes. Boil for a couple of minutes.

4. Add fresh chili and fresh lime juice.

Taste, taste, taste along the way!

Needs more salt? Add fish sauce! More zest? Add lime juice! Not spicy enough? Add chili! 


 Vidar doing a man's job:
squeezing the lime


When you think the soup is tasting how you want it to, bring it to a boil, add the prawns and turn off the heat! The prawns should be cooked pretty immediately.

 
 I soak the rice noodles in lukewarm water 
for them to start to get soft
- when the soup is ready I boil an
additional pan of water, turn off the heat
and then put the noodles in and
let it soak under a lid for 3-5 minutes
until they are soft, but firm


Put some noodles into the bowl and add soup!


Garnish with chopped cilantro and bean sprouts!



Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Three Years of Love


On Monday April 1th, Vidar and I celebrated our third anniversary.

In case you haven't paid attention the past three years, here's a short photo-recap:





 























Summary: Long hair, short hair, bangs, no bangs, facial hair, no facial hair.




But what did we do this past Monday in order to celebrate our day?


 

We went somewhere really cool.

Vidar was super excited.


No, he really was.

 
Plantasjen!!


We went to Plantasjen to by some plants. Since it's too early to have kids, I need something else to nurture.


 





I got an ice cream



Vidar just got a little taste


 














 
(We don't own a watering can)


Kjære Vidar. Kan du ikke fri snart? Jeg blir gal av å vente!!