We had our furnace installed and working by about 5pm last night, and when we left for my Oakland East Bay Symphony concert at 7:20, it was still cranking away on full blast. (This fancy-schmancy furnace has a big burner and a little one, and two fan speeds, so that it can do little fires […]
For those who missed earlier episodes of “Fun with V and E: The Great Indoor Winter of 2007,” our furnace started gasping its last breaths late last week, just in time for a week of record low temperatures. (You’ve probably heard that the California citrus and avocado industry is expecting a $1B loss, and the […]
Last week our furnace began to bite the dust. By the time we got back from a weekend away, it had bitten the dust. So it’s 48 in our house today and 41 in our driveway. I’m frozen despite being dressed in winter fleece pants over long johns, ragg wool socks, winter boots, a turtleneck, […]
Our furnace is kaputt. We can either spend a few hundred on a quick fix or else several to many thousand on a replacement that’s probably long overdue. Since it’s 40 degrees indoors, both of them seem appealing. Fortunately it’s supposed to warm up to 60 outside by Sunday, so we can probably tough it […]
We’ll be serving that roasted goose on a bed of Rotkohl, which is the red, sweet, spicy version of Sauerkraut that many people have never had the pleasure of tasting–yet. Rotkohl is fabulous stuff. We’re making a double version of Frl. Nadia’s recipe: 1 red cabbage. cored and shredded fine 1 T honey 1 C […]
Gløgg is a Norwegian mulled wine. We make a gigantic 5 gallon cauldron of it, and we invite people to bring cheap red wine to dump into the cauldron. No, really–cheap. Two Buck Chuck is too good. You want the box of Franzia or Almaden. This is your opportunity to get rid of the weird […]
On Wednesday we baked pretzels. I’ve made homemade pretzels before, so you wouldn’t think this would be particularly challenging, but I managed to make it really complicated somehow. First, a disclaimer. In the real world, you should make pretzels approximately 20 seconds before you plan to serve them. Within a few days, they’re excellent, but […]
The baking began at Jane’s place in Sausalito. On Monday night Jane preparedthe pepparkakor dough, recipe courtesy of our friend Nilos: GAMMALDAGS PEPPARKAKOR sifted flour 3 1/2 c.ginger 1 1/2 t.cinnamon 1 1/2 t.cloves 1 t.cardamom* 1/4 t.butter 1/2 c.sugar 3/4 c.egg 1molasses 3/4 c.orange zest 2 t. Sift together flour and spices and set […]
Graved laks (aka gravlaks) is ridiculously easy, but few people seem to realize this, so it always gets big oohs and ahhs at the smørgåsbord. The keys are to buy really good salmon (wild, of course) and start at least 5 days in advance. We make a two-fillet batch for the smørgåsbord. Fresh salmon (like […]
Next we drove back to Oakland and visited Nordic House, where we picked up a frozen lutefisk, several kinds of gjetost, our house cheese and cat’s namesake, some rullepolse, several varieties of syld (herring), and whatnot. Gjetost is a sweet brown cheese made from cow and/or goat milk and whey that is simmered for hours […]