Some normal, some bizarre marvelings of a little Icelandic girl

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Snowy day calls for laziness and a muffin recipe!


Yep, I'm definitely back in my home country. . . .It has been snowing non-stop today (how convenient since today is December 1st).

Yeah I know it's a shitty picture taken with a shitty camera. I apologize for not owning a really expensive one (I might borrow my dad's camera once my finals are over) to take all those glorious photos of food or environment that I have been seeing on various blogs out there. . . . .

Anyway, for a person who doesn't particularly like the snow and all its wonders (I hate being cold! Really, sometimes I wonder if I had been adopted from some heat-loving country like Spain or something!), I didn't really shout profanities and verbal abuse at the snow once I noticed it snowing today. It just reminded me that I really was home.

A year ago I was in Japan for an exchange program and I was probably the only person at the university that I was attending, that jumped with joy when I was told that it rarely snowed in Tokyo. Of course I got weird and shocked looks, with people saying "but it's so beautiful and fluffy and stuff!". Seriously?

Seriously?

When you come from a country that practically snows for 4 months almost non-stop, you embrace the idea of no snow! No really, my husband and I were both so relieved that we never had to go out dead early in the morning and have to scrape the snow off the car windows.Nor did we have to get particularly worried that our shoes and sock might get drenched.

Okay so we did get that one day in the Tokyo area where it snowed a lot and that was the time when I went partying with my friends, so dressing according to the weather did not apply with me at that time. SO of course I cursed BLOODY FUCKING MURDER as I had to walk in ankle-deep wet snow, praying that I would NOT be clumsy enough to trip and get myself entirely drenched.

So there you have it, I'm not a fan of snow, its coldness and whatever that comes along with it. But like I said, it DOES have a special meaning to it as it reminds me of home. Just sitting on your couch, wearing semi-woolen sweater that your mom bought in H&M in London and relax the whole day.

That's exactly what I did today. I could have been productive (well, I was a little bit productive = washed our clothes, took them out of the dryer, folded them and swept the floor) and I could have gone to the gym for my 1-hour sweat-induced workout but I decided that today was going to be a day where I did nothing at all. And you know what, it felt pretty good. You need at least one day where you can just let go , relax and do nothing (I call browsing various sites on the internet as "nothing" here). Some people do that on weekends but I like being active on weekends where I go to the gym, bake goodies and try to find my motivation to draw.

I find it more important to do so in December where everyone is getting stressed for the holidays. So despite getting drowned in preparing for finals, projects, cleaning the whole house and other stress-related stuff, I suggest that you take one day to just let go. It's worth it, I tell you.

I'm both looking forward to the weekend and dreading it a little. The last day in my pole fitness class is on Saturday and I'm sad that it's ending. But at least I told the trainer that I would come back after New Years. The second thing dreading me concerning the weekend, is that I have to spend it reading a whole book that might have valuable information for my B.A. graduate thesis. My topic is interesting. The book is not. Why the hell do scholars have to write in such a boring manner??
So the only thing cheering me up for the weekend is that I'm going to bake my favorite muffin recipe. I've done it twice now and the husband and I really like it. You can view the recipe HERE in English (I wish it was my creation, but sadly it's not). It's from Janetha's blog which is one of my favorite blogs to read.

Since it's in English, I'm going to go ahead and translate it in Icelandic so that my Icelandic readers can understand and so that my foreign friends can laugh at how stupid it looks in Icelandic.

Banana Muffins

Einn bolli af hveiti
Einn bolli af heilhveiti
Ein matskeið af lyftidufti
1/2 teskeið af salti
1/4 teskeið af kanil (þar sem ég elska kanil, þá set ég vanalega 1-2 teskeiðar)
1/2 bolli af hrásykri
1/2 bolli af púðursykri
1/3 bolli af repjuolíu (canola oil)
4 stappaðir bananar (skiptir engu máli hvort þeir séu ofþroskaðir eða ekki)
1 teskeið vanilla (ég notaði vanilludropa)
1/4 bolli af vatni
Fylling af þínu vali (ég hef notað súkkulaðibita og rúsinur)
Má bæta við hnetum

Aðferð:

1. Blandið saman hveiti, lyftidufti, salti og kanil saman í skál og setjið til hliðar.
2. Blandið saman sykur, bönunum, olíu, vatni og vanilludropum í skál þangað til að blandan verði mjúk (ég notaði KitchenAid hrærivél en þið getið hrært þetta með því að nota gömlu góðu hendurnar)
3. Hellið þurrefnunum varlega saman við blautu blönduna og hrærið vel.
4. Hrærið fyllinguna saman við
5. Setjið deigið í muffin form og hafið það þannig að deigið nái að miðju í forminu
6. Látið múffurnar bakast við 175-180 gráður Celsius í ofni í 25 mínútur eða þangað til brúnirnar verði gullnar á lit.

Gott er að stinga tannstöngli í miðju múffuna til að tjékka hvort að þær séu ekki bakaðar í gegn.

Kælið, berið fram og njótið :)


Until next time

Catch ya laters!


Question of the day:

~If it snows in your country, do you feel lazy or active when it snows?



2 comments:

  1. My kingdom for a garage! I HATE ice and snow on my car.

    Snow's nice to look at and play in (in a warm car)...that's about it.

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  2. I actually love the snow!
    It makes everything so bright and beutiful. The kids love it, you just have to dress accordingly to it.
    I dont like it when it rains, its windy and everything looks gray and dull.
    Actually it starts snowing much later now then it did no so many years ago and it doesnt stay as long either... so I guess thats something for you to be happy about?

    Looking forward to reading more of your blog,
    Jenny Lind

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