Kaleb had a good day at school but got harassed a bit at soccer practice again. I talked with his coach and he talked with Kaleb and will make some announcements to the boys and see if it gets any better. Kaleb’s nearly ready to quit at this point. If he wouldn’t have made a goal today in a practice game, this might have been his last day, but he got a bit energized by the whole thing so he wants to keep going for now. It’s tough to get socialized in a socialist country.
Kory had a good day relaxing at home. He was out in the garage for most of the day piddling. Oh how thankful I am for that garage! Even though the ground is about a foot lower than the floor of the garage in some places and we can’t put our vehicle in there, it really does serve as Kory’s “shelter from the storm” as it were – and he takes great refuge in being out there when things get a bit too noisy in the house (Sabina comes over a lot). Every man needs his cave.
We were informed in class today that it’s the National “Får i Kål” Day today. Får i kål is considered the number one “national dish” of Norway – the most popular, the most common, the longest history, the most readily available… I’m not sure what all – food (certainly not the most attractive looking dish, that’s for sure – see photo). It’s not like it’s Thanksgiving or anything today, but apparently a lot of people will be eating får i kål tonight, and always on Sunday, and maybe every time they have company. The Norskies like that stuff. It’s as Norsk as Norsk gets, so the Norwegian government felt like they needed to set aside a special day every year to acknowledge this incredibly popular dish. All the stores have the two ingredients used to make it on sale, and if you already didn’t own a big enough pot to cook it in, they are on sale now, too. The newspapers wrote stories about it, reminding people of this day, and included a recipe just in case you’d lost yours. I’m so thankful I had a recipe for it because if someone would have just TOLD me how to make it, I’m not sure I could have remembered (just kidding).
I caved under the pressure of the day, and made it for dinner tonight and Kory said it was almost as good as his Mama used to make (how could it taste any different with only two ingredients?). It's just cabbage and the meat of a dead baby lamb – hence the name “får i kål” (“lamb in cabbage”). To make it, you put water in the bottom of the pot, layering cabbage leaves with chunks of the poor little creature (…that gave it’s very life for sustaining the people of Norway and their traditional dish), and you keep layering more cabbage leaves and more lamb until you have run out. Then you pour in enough water to cover the ingredients, add some salt and pepper, put a lid on the pot and bring it to a boil. When it boils, you simmer it for a few hours and you’re done. It’s served with potatoes and carrots on the side (and a little rutabaga if you have them on hand). Kory and Kaleb loved it (they are WAY more Norwegian than I am). I felt like I had done my part in making it, so I opted out of eating it. (My legal/birth name is “Mary” so it is just too heartbreaking for me to actually eat “a little lamb”.) Instead I ate what is now considered to be the latest “National Dish of Norway” (voted #1 recently by call-in voters to a radio station) – frozen PIZZA! They had the little single serving sizes on sale for $2 today, so I couldn’t resist trying Norway’s version of America’s version of an Italian favorite. (But I’m still mystified by the list of ingredients as one of them just said “pizza meat”.) The only problem during dinner was that I still had to smell what Kory and Kaleb were eating. My teacher recommended I set a bowl of vinegar next to the pan of får i kål while it was cooking so it wouldn’t stink up the house so much – but I dumped it out when the cooking was over, not thinking I’d need it to get through the meal, too. Uff da. The things I do for love.
We were informed in class today that it’s the National “Får i Kål” Day today. Får i kål is considered the number one “national dish” of Norway – the most popular, the most common, the longest history, the most readily available… I’m not sure what all – food (certainly not the most attractive looking dish, that’s for sure – see photo). It’s not like it’s Thanksgiving or anything today, but apparently a lot of people will be eating får i kål tonight, and always on Sunday, and maybe every time they have company. The Norskies like that stuff. It’s as Norsk as Norsk gets, so the Norwegian government felt like they needed to set aside a special day every year to acknowledge this incredibly popular dish. All the stores have the two ingredients used to make it on sale, and if you already didn’t own a big enough pot to cook it in, they are on sale now, too. The newspapers wrote stories about it, reminding people of this day, and included a recipe just in case you’d lost yours. I’m so thankful I had a recipe for it because if someone would have just TOLD me how to make it, I’m not sure I could have remembered (just kidding).
I caved under the pressure of the day, and made it for dinner tonight and Kory said it was almost as good as his Mama used to make (how could it taste any different with only two ingredients?). It's just cabbage and the meat of a dead baby lamb – hence the name “får i kål” (“lamb in cabbage”). To make it, you put water in the bottom of the pot, layering cabbage leaves with chunks of the poor little creature (…that gave it’s very life for sustaining the people of Norway and their traditional dish), and you keep layering more cabbage leaves and more lamb until you have run out. Then you pour in enough water to cover the ingredients, add some salt and pepper, put a lid on the pot and bring it to a boil. When it boils, you simmer it for a few hours and you’re done. It’s served with potatoes and carrots on the side (and a little rutabaga if you have them on hand). Kory and Kaleb loved it (they are WAY more Norwegian than I am). I felt like I had done my part in making it, so I opted out of eating it. (My legal/birth name is “Mary” so it is just too heartbreaking for me to actually eat “a little lamb”.) Instead I ate what is now considered to be the latest “National Dish of Norway” (voted #1 recently by call-in voters to a radio station) – frozen PIZZA! They had the little single serving sizes on sale for $2 today, so I couldn’t resist trying Norway’s version of America’s version of an Italian favorite. (But I’m still mystified by the list of ingredients as one of them just said “pizza meat”.) The only problem during dinner was that I still had to smell what Kory and Kaleb were eating. My teacher recommended I set a bowl of vinegar next to the pan of får i kål while it was cooking so it wouldn’t stink up the house so much – but I dumped it out when the cooking was over, not thinking I’d need it to get through the meal, too. Uff da. The things I do for love.
