Salma colada

I made this the other day using some of the salmalaks we hoarded; it was a very random experiment. I'll formalize the recipe some day, but in case you're good in dealing with haphazard recipes you can try it yourself...

Start cooking the sauce:
- 200 ml coconut milk
- juice from 1 can pineapple chunks (from those 3-pack things you get in Norway, can edit with more info later) - ca. 100 ml. Be sure to save the pineapple for later.
- 2 shots rum
- 2 tsp soy sauce

Bring to a boil, reduce to about 2/3 of the original amount. Add pineapple chunks.

Dust four pieces of Salmalaks (salmon) @ ca. 125 grams each with flour and fry in butter (not oil, not margarine... butter!), medium heat, to get the sides brown. Add sauce to fish and let simmer until sauce is thick. Serve with rice and black beans.

Next time I'll double the sauce.

annoying...

There was this dude at the gym who was lifting up his shirt to check out his "abs" in the mirror. All he had to offer was a round belly, even when sucking it in...

Now why couldn't this have happened when I was 30-something weeks pregnant, so that I could carry out my evil plan? The one where I whip out my pregnant belly and admire it in front of the mirror each time I see some dude lifting up his shirt to check out his abs... *sigh*

salmon and vegetables in spicy Thai-style blood orange sauce

One of the grocery stores here had this really fancy salmon (Salmalaks) on special and I bought a few pieces. We usually use it for sashimi but it's nice for other dishes as well...

Tonight I made a sort of Thai-like curry with the salmon. And some blood oranges I had to get rid of. Here's what I did:

- Squeezed out the juice of three blood oranges. Put the juice in a saucepan, boiled, and allowed to reduce to about half the original amount.

- In another saucepan I fried a shitload of garlic (5 cloves finely chopped), a shitload of ginger (about 2 tbsp finely chopped), and 2 finely chopped red chiles in some coconut oil. Medium heat, for about 5 minutes. I added some keffir lime leaves and stirred this mixture for about a minute.

- Then I added the blood orange juice and a can of coconut milk. Added a splash of soy sauce, a splash of fish sauce, mixed, brought to a boil, and then reduced heat and allowed to simmer.

- Once the sauce was simmering I fried some bean sprouts and julienned red pepper and carrots in some coconut oil, until the carrots started getting soft. I strained the sauce into the vegetable mixture. (You don't have to strain the sauce; I just didn't want to deal with bits today.)

- After a few minutes I added the salmon (I think it was around 450 g), chopped into cubes. I mixed the salmon carefully into the vegetable and sauce mixture, and then turned off the heat and allowed things to take care of itself (salmon doesn't need much cooking time).

- Cooked up some rice noodles to go with the "curry". Dinner served!

*burp*

Maybe some day I'll formalize this recipe a little bit more. Not today :-)

100 days

Pingu has now been the Emperor of our household for 100 days now. His first 100 days speech started with some cooing and gooing and aahing, ending with some shrill screeching. A revolution in the midst? Hmm...

getting there...

I had a really good workout this morning. I seem to be getting somewhere with the squats now, and managed 3 sets of 8 reps at 60 kg. Again, it seems like a weak core is my nemesis. It's the showstopper. And admittedly, I have been bad about training my abs since having the baby. I'm bad about training abs in general; it's so boring. But if I want to get back to the truly heavy squats, I really need to do something about my core strength. My back seems to be OK; did 70 kg deadlifts. Upper back could be better, but I'll get it back. Power (or was it not-so-power?) cleans haven't been so great so far, not that I've been doing them the few times I get to the gym either. But I'll get that back too...

I was also amused by the high number of gym freaks considering there were so few people there...

Freak #1: this guy was doing what he probably thought were squats, but it was the typical "lots of weight on the bar but barely bending his knees" scenario. I gave a really dirty look as he did a set, and he asked me what my problem was. So... I told him!

He then told me I had no idea what I was talking about. To which one of the gym regulars intervened and said "um, she does know what she's talking about. And if you had to squat properly, she'd be able to do more than you." HAH!

Freak #2: "skinny fat" guy who was doing... *drumroll* ... WRIST CURLS... THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' TIME I was doing squats, deadlifts, and (not so) power cleans. WTF?!

"vaccine thighs"

Vaksinelår in Norwegian. Pingu had his three month control today and, among other things, got some vaccines. His nurse said he had "vaccine thighs" - nice plump thighs that were perfect for sticking a needle into :-D

I'm so proud of him too with regard to the vaccines... he got two shots, the first one while he was asleep (rude awakening, the poor thing), and after some screaming and squealing, he went into happy-go-lucky state :-)

Pingu is doing great. He weighed in at 6690 grams, is now 61 cm long and measures 40.5 cm around his head. We have to be better about his "tummy time" training, but other than that everything is great. He's growing and developing quite nicely...

sharp dressed baby

It was nice and warm and sunny out yesterday, so we all had lunch at a local pub. Unlike his Mamma, who is looking tired and flabby due to lack of sleep and exercise, our little Pingu is looking rather spiffy at the tender age of three months...



Of course, it was Mini Wolfgang who taught him how to dress...



... and how to hang out at pubs hehe... which only results in Mini Wolfgang's favorite activity. Passing out at the table. Although Pingu had a bit too much milk rather than beer...

three months

Pingu turned three months yesterday. I was going to post this yesterday too, but I couldn't log in... boo!

Anyway, I took him to the clinic to get weighed and he was 6550 grams, meaning he weighs a little over twice his birth weight. Damn he's gotten big :-)

He's also changed quite a lot over these past weeks too. He's more curious about the world around him. Some of his signals - cries, facial expressions, hand movements etc - are becoming more clear and we're starting to understand what he wants (and doesn't want). He smiles a lot and makes a lot of cute heart-melting noises. But when he gets cranky... look out world!

The thing that's most "fun" now is how he reacts to his toys. He first started "playing" with plush penguins at around 10 weeks, but now he's even more curious and playful with them, plus he enjoys his other toys - rattling toys that are colorful and make noise. Good fun for him! We have also re-mounted a mechanical mobile to his crib and he loves watching it rotate around while music is playing. His expression while watching the shapes move around is just priceless :-D

The weather has been quite nice here the past few days and is expected to continue to be nice for a little while, so we're going to go out to do a photo session tomorrow. Stay tuned :-)

stupid calves...

Don't you hate it when a pulled muscle ruins your workout? And the rest of your day? Grrrrrmf!

I did manage to do a set of Tabatas though. I tried to do back and abs exercises after I limped off the treadmill, but my mood was already killed... bah...

I haz shiny new passport!!1!!1!

Wow, the new passports are really nice. I really like all the different pictures and quotes on the pages as opposed to that old boring design.

What's also great is that I could order a 52-page version right away, so that I won't have to deal with getting extra pages well before my passport expires...