Testing Testing

I found out what the Marshall Islands are famous for---nuclear testing. After WW2, the US government decided that these islands were the most godforsaken place on earth and therefore perfect for testing nuclear bombs.

This is a picture of Enewetak Atoll.  According to the book The Atomic Times,  by Michael Harris, US soldiers with visions of tropical jungles and exotic women were dropped off here for a 12 month tour of duty. The military had already evacuated all the residents, stripped off the jungle and covered the island with concrete.  The island is about 1 mile square. The first time Michael went swimming he saw a fish with three eyes. That was the last time he went swimming.  You won't learn much about the Marshall Islands from this book, but it's an interesting record of military shortsightedness.

The Marshall Islands

These islands are really out there. A whole group of little islands, called atolls, near Micronesia with a total population of only about 68,000.

I wonder if the people who live there love the serenity and beauty, or if they're about insane with boredom? Things got lively during WWII when some major nuclear testing was done in the area. Also, careful when you swim, the area is a shark sanctuary.

Appropriate to such a beautiful place, they have one of the prettiest country flags that I've seen.

Norwegian dinner

We had our good friend, Carol Vandenakker, over for our Norwegian dinner.  I know, her name's from the wrong country, but we let that slide. We cranked up the German ooompah music---again, best we could do, and I served up the appetizers which consisted of a cucumber salad, brown bread with butter and mustard and this:

It's called a ooodenorkveynterlatzenoqueterdort, or something like that. Those are walnuts spread with a blue cheese with a grape between them. They are stuck into the apple for purely decorative purposes.

The main dish was pure scandinavian high-fat yumminess. Meat patties made with pork and hamburger, dumplings made from shredded potato (I learned that potato oxidizes very quickly) and stuffed with bacon, and a delicious vegetable dish made with rutabaga, leeks and carrots (simmer in chicken bouillion).  The dumplings were something else. Once eaten, they resume their original shape in the stomach where they sit and sit and sit and sit. I have a theory that if I ate four or five dumplings every morning, I wouldn't want to eat for the rest of the day and I'd lose a ton of weight. Of course, that would be horribly unhealthy, but I would lose a lot of weight--even if I fried them up in bacon fat first.

The grand dessert was, of course, the kranselkake.

Sadly, our printer ran out of color ink just then so I couldn't decorate it properly with little Norwegian flags. But considering that I didn't have the proper molds, I think it was a darn fine effort.  I wonder if the real thing tastes anything like mine? It's a shame that Catherine wasn't here for this cake. She loves meringue and royal icing and that's really all this is.  The cakes--which are really more like cookies, are just ground almonds, powdered sugar and water. The molds are supposed to have butter solidified on the bottom, so I just coated the cookie sheets with a thick layer of butter and called it good.  The cookies spread out more than the real thing would have, but we still enjoyed them. 

Stave Churches

I don't know why Norway is the only country with these gorgeous wooden "stave" churches from the middle ages, but it is.

This is the largest, the Heddal Stave church in Telemark.  The "staves" are the big corner posts. Then a framework is built of timber resting on sills, these are called stave walls.  Most Norwegians are Evangelical-Lutheran.

I did a quick search for the inside of a stave church.  Look how beautiful this is! A wood-lovers paradise.

Finnskogen

I've mentioned before that the hiking in Norway is fantastic. It can be as rugged as you like and some of those mountain hikes by the fjords look amazing.  For myself--who am getting more rickety by the minute, I think I'll mess around in the Finnskogen that has beautiful and gentle forest trails.

I think I may never come home.

Edvard Grieg

This is Edvard Grieg, Norway's most famous composer. He's the one who wrote the gorgeous Peer Gynt Suite, but he also wrote the concerto in A minor, which is important because I learned to play the famous grand introduction to the piece.

Kranselkake

This is kranselkake--the traditional Norwegian cake.  It sounds like it will take a couple of days to make and be very difficult--so, naturally I'm going to try it.  I've been looking at other Norwegian dishes and once again, I am confirmed in my belief that I am living the wrong life. Everything has a million calories and is loaded with nuts and cream and bacon grease --just like Omi used to make.  The difference, is that Omi got up early and worked very hard on the farm, whereas I get up a whole lot later and sit in an office. I don't know that I'd really enjoy farm work, but if after working for three hours I could sit down to a breakfast of waffles with cream and lingonberry sauce, and dumplings sliced and fried in bacon grease. My grandparents lived into their 90's--something to be learned here I think.