Friday Favorites: Cute Kid Edition

I know I may be biased, but I have the cutest nieces. On both my husband's and my side of the family, we literally have no nephews, and a whole bunch of adorable nieces. Here are just a couple of examples of their adorableness from this past week/Thanksgiving:
My sister/brother-in-law's daughters, Sophie, Ellie, and Lucy, practicing their singing for the annual Thanksgiving sing-a-long.

My other sister/brother-in-law's daughter, Addison, singing at the sing-a-long. Not sure if she can read what the song book has written, but at least she is trying.

My sister's daughters have been trying to say our names. My husband made fun of me because Lily was much better at saying his name than mine, and will say it over and over again. In my defense... shut up Joe. I've literally watched the videos over and over again because they are so cute, but because I couldn't figure out how to upload the videos, here is another cute picture of the girls.

Not pictured: Madeline, Julianna, and Annabelle. All also super cute.
Have a great weekend!

Fall in Minnesota

This weekend Joe and I made the 6 hour trip up to Minnesota to celebrate both Joe and my mom's birthdays. In case you haven't noticed, I love my home state. Even if it was rainy the entire weekend.

Rainy Minneapolis

Saturday morning, I met some of my girlfriends for brunch at Urban Eatery in Minneapolis. Urban Eatery took the location of one of our regular places a few years ago, but habits die hard and we still end up going there quite often. Luckily, the food and atmosphere are very good. Joe asked me if it was going to be all girls, and when I told him that it probably was he decided to stay at home with my brother in law. Little did I know, my friend Ashley's boyfriend came because he thought Joe was coming. He had to sit through about 2 hours of girl talk. Poor guy. 

Ashley's boyfriend was taking the picture

Urban Eatery is right across the street from my favorite Minneapolis lake, Lake Calhoun. I used to live across the street from this lake, and I miss it terribly. Every time I come up to Minnesota I always plan on driving over and taking a run around it like I used to do almost daily, but it just never happens. After brunch, I felt the need to cross the street and pay it a visit. 

Later that night, we headed over to NorthEast Minneapolis to Gasthofs Zur Gemutlichkeit (or just Gashtofs), a German restaurant in town, for dinner and Oktoberfest. My sister let my borrow her dirndl that she got when she went to the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany a few years ago. Apparently, everyone at the Munich Oktoberfest is either wearing a dirndl or lederhosen. Here, it was about 1/4 of the people. 

Spaetzel and Wurstteller

Rouladen

Dad and the meter sausage

Before mom and dad went home with the girls (while the rest of us stayed for Oktoberfest) the babies had their first polka dance.

Along with enjoying strong German beers, we played hammerschlagen, a game where you stick a nail in a piece of wood, and, going one hit at a time, hit it with the narrow side of the hammer while holding the hammer with one hand. The first one to get the nail all the way into the wood wins. Harder than you think it is, and a game I have played at parties up north before (not to sound too lumberjacky). 

I also was lucky enough to run into my friend Adrianne. All in all, it made for a fun night. The next day, for my mother's birthday, we went apple picking at Emma Krumbee's in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. I went back to Kansas City with 1 bag of Haralson apples (baking apples) and 1 bag of Honeycrisp apples (the best apples ever, and (fun fact) ones that were developed at the University of Minnesota) Expect some recipes with apples in them coming up. 

Hope you all had a good weekend!  

Friday Favorite: Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is my husband's birthday. We celebrated with his family on Wednesday, and are going up to Minnesota to celebrate with my family this weekend. I am so lucky to have such an amazing man in my life forever, and am so excited to spend many more birthdays with him. 
What can be more of a favorite than that :)
Have a good weekend!

Norway/Denmark Vacation 2013- The Food

While on vacation last week I will admit, we did not enjoy the local food as much as I would have liked. Mostly because we were on a cruise, where there was amazing food available at all times (and for free). Dinner alone every night would be at least 4 courses, and often we would be be too busy to eat lunch. However, the few things we did eat when we hit land I thought were worth mentioning.
For one, the first place we ate after we checked in in Copenhagen was this Italian restaurant near the hotel. It was absolutely amazing, and the closest I've had to authentic Italian food since being in Italy. I had ordered an amazing pesto dish, which my niece Lily, who was sitting on my lap, ate the majority of. My hubby, however, hit the jackpot with the largest calzone I have ever seen. 

Every morning in Copenhagen we would have breakfast at the hotel. These breakfasts were very similar to breakfasts I've had in hotels in other countries, which were big on cheeses, breads, and pastries. They also had some amazing Swedish pancakes (kind of like crepes) that I intend to try and make very soon. There was a lack of nutella, which I had every day when I was in Italy and Germany, but I will forgive them because Denmark seriously has the best coffee I've ever had. I need to find some Danish coffee. If anyone knows where I can find that (preferably in k-cup form) please let me know.

The hotel also had this really cool orange juice machine. You just drop an entire orange in there and out comes fresh squeezed juice. Another thing I'm looking for if anyone knows where to find one. 

For lunch, we stopped in the Nyhavn area of Copenhagen. It did make for a beautiful lunch view. 

I tried the lobster bisque. Same as in America.

At dinner that night, we stopped at Cafe Emma, a restaurant my sister had heard about and one that did not disappoint. I ordered a chorizo and brie sandwich, which came open faced in true European form. I do plan on recreating this recipe sometime soon. Delicious.

As I mentioned in my last post, while on the Stavanger, Norway fjord boat trip we stopped for some Norwegian waffles. Norwegian waffles consist of soft waffles topped with a tart yogurt and jam. Another thing I plan on recreating sometime soon. 

While we were in Grainger, Norway, while my husband, brother in law, and I took the bike trip down the fjord, my sister, mom and dad, and the girls went to a local farm. They picked up Geitost cheese; brown goat cheese so popular in Norway that apparently you aren't a true Norwegian until you've tried it. I of course tried it, and had my husband try it also so he would be an honorary Norwegian as well, making our future children even more Norwegian. Trust me, it makes sense... trust me...

It kind of tastes like a combination of cheese and caramel. Low and behold, they also make caramels out of this cheese.

On our last day in Norway, we visited the Bergen fish market. If you are ever in Bergen, you need to stop here. The best seafood you will ever have. I already wrote about most of what we ate in my last post (including the whale), but I thought I would point out the way the people at the fish market cooked their crab. When my family has crab, we generally boil it. However, at the fish market, the people at the stands would cut up the crab into slices, cut the slices in half, and would grill them. It was really, really good, and definitely another option when cooking crab.

Last, but not least, my sister and I did get shot of Aquavit while in Bergen. We felt like we had to. I have to say, it did taste a lot like the kind I made back in December. 
I hope you enjoyed hearing about my trip! Again, I will leave you with a couple more cute pictures of my nieces:

Harms' Norway/Denmark Vacation 2013 Part 2

The next Norwegian city that we visited was Stavanger, but instead of going into the city (which is known as the oil capitol of Norway, and who's Petroleum museum is considered a must see) we instead did an excursion on a boat to see the beautiful fjords that are nearby. 

The boat trip ended with a stop to get some Norwegian waffles. Random and yummy.

Our next city was Alesund, Norway, which is known for its beautiful Art Nouveau architecture. At one point, a fire had destroyed the entire city, and it was being rebuilt during the time that style of architecture was popular. The city has since been dubbed the most beautiful city in Norway.

While my mom and dad decided to go to the aquarium and the art nouveau museum, my husband, my sister, her husband, and I all decided it would be a great idea to climb to the top of a hill which is said to be the best view of the city. It was 400 very steep steps. Ugh. I guess my sister and I had it easier than the boys though. They were also carrying the girls on their backs.

Despite the painful hike to the top (and the horrible realization that there are plenty of buses that also take you to the top), the views really were breathtaking.

The next day took us to Grainger, a city with a population of about 240 people that gets about 5,000 tourists a day from cruises. The fjords are huge, and the area is gorgeous. My husband, brother in law, and I took an excursion where we were going to be bused to the top of one of the tallest fjords, and then we would bike down. The fjord was so tall, in fact, that even though it was August there was still snow at the top.

I'll admit, I almost had a panic attack on the way up. The roads were narrow and the drops were very steep. There was also the fact that I hadn't ridden a bike in about a decade, and that they kept mentioning how we would have to look out for cars and buses. Once we started, however, the trip got a lot less scary (the roads look a little bigger when you're on a bike vs. a huge bus) and was actually very fun. I would have to say it was the highlight of the trip. The views were amazing too.

My brother in law kept making fun of me for worrying about the welfare of my husband. I admit, every time we stopped I couldn't relax until I saw him (he often stopped to take pictures). However, you would be worried too if your husband kept disappearing and then would all of a sudden zoom past you at what I could only assume was 100 miles per hour (that may be an exaggeration, but it felt like it was that fast). Goodness gracious.

Our last stop in Norway was Bergen, which I had heard many good things about. After taking a hop on, hop off bus around the city, we all stopped at the Bergen fish market, where we had lunch.

Largest crabs I've ever seen

We all shared a feast of fish soup, seafood rolls, crab, and whale (yes, whale. In case you are wondering, it tastes like steak).

My sister and I also did some oyster shooters. Because they were huge. And why not.

We also tried some reindeer jerky, moose jerky, and whale jerky. A little bit more gamey than beef jerky, but not too different.

The next day we were at sea all day, and then back in Copenhagen to head home. While it is nice to be home, I am so happy that I finally got to see Norway. It really is a gorgeous country, and, of course, the motherland.

Now, again, I'll leave you with some cute pictures of my nieces: