Harms' Norway/Denmark Vacation 2013 Part 1

And I'm back! Currently nursing my jet lag, and trying to motivate myself to work off all that wonderful food I've been eating for the last 10 days. The jet lag makes the motivation part somewhat more difficult...
For our family vacation this year, we decided to go to the Motherland: Norway. You may have gathered by now that I am part Norwegian, and that many of my family traditions are Norwegian traditions. Therefore, our family decided to visit the place of our ancestors by going on a Norwegian cruise.
The cruise started in Copenhagen, Denmark, and we decided to arrive a few days early to check out the city. The city is absolutely beautiful, especially Tivoli Gardens, where we went our first night after getting off the plane. 

Tivoli Gardens is the second oldest amusement park in the world, and was a lot of fun. My sister, Hillary, and I went on the ride below, which went up so high you could see the entire city from the top. It was awesome and terrifying at the same time. 

The city is also the hometown to Hans Christian Andersen, the author of the story I was obsessed with as a child (and may still be obsessed with), The Little Mermaid. One of the city's most famous landmarks is a statue of The Little Mermaid that I've always wanted to see, and finally got to. 

Some more more pictures from Copenhagen:

Having a Carlsberg in Copehagen

Two more observations about Copenhagen: (1) The fashion is what I would expect to see in Seattle (kind of mixture of grunge and hipster and lots of top knots); and (2) The Hop On, Hop Off buses (that are apparently in many European cities) are awesome. I would highly recommend them.
Our first stop on our Norwegian cruise was Oslo; the nation's Capitol and the site of the Nobel Peace Prize. I was most looking forward to seeing the Viking Ship Museum, which houses the largest complete Viking ships in the world. Being that my ancestors were Norwegian, I also like to think that they were Vikings, which made this museum even cooler. 
The Vikings had a tradition of burying their dead in their ships, and they found these ships in a large burial mound, which is why they are so well preserved.
 

We also managed to catch a hop on, hop off bus and were able to see more of this beautiful city. 

Almost every night on the cruise, my family would get together to do trivia. The first night, we won, which boosted our confidence to show up the rest of the week as returning champions. That first night ended up being our only victory. Oh well. We did get some Royal Caribbean key chains as a prize though.
 

 
Later this week I will be telling you all about the rest of the trip. Today, I will leave you with some cute pictures of my nieces :)

Grandpa Harms was sneaking Lily Oreos. I think she liked them.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know the last one doesn't have much to do with Valentine's Day, but it made me smile :) And hey, the Bachelor is all about love right? Totally appropriate for Valentine's Day.

Love, Ashley Marie :)

Aquavit and Limoncello

I remember the first time I had Aquavit, a Norwegian alcohol. It was at my cousins Anna and Craig's Christmas party. Anna's family had gone to Norway that year, and had brought back some Aquavit. They convinced me to try it. I took a shot, and thought I had just drank nail polish remover. It definitely hits you! However, despite the taste, I found myself drinking more of it. I admit, that's because it's a Norwegian drink, and I'm Norwegian. It only seemed right.

Years later, when I came across an Aquavit recipe, I felt the need to try and make it. I don't know why, but again, I'm Norwegian. It only seemed right.

This drink is traditionally enjoyed around the holidays. I had timed it so that it would be ready for Christmas, hoping to bring it up to Minnesota with me. This is mostly because I thought I would be hard pressed to find someone to share it with me amongst these non-Norwegians in Kansas City. Of course, about an hour after we left for the holiday, I realized I had forgotten it. Luckily, my cousin, Graham, came up to Kansas City a couple weeks later, and I talked him into trying it. I made sure to use the appropriate shot glass.

To my pleasant surprise, Graham actually enjoyed it! He compared it to the taste of Absinthe (The legal kind of course). I tried it just to make sure, and sure enough it was much better than I remembered! If you're going to try Aquavit, this is definitely the kind to try.

Because Joe is Irish/Italian, and to try and stay nationality neutral, I decided to also make Limoncello, an Italian liqueur. It kind of tastes like lemondrops, or at least this recipe does.

Aquavit
From Chow

2 tsp. caraway seeds
2 tsp. fennel seeds
2 cardamom pods, crushed
2 whole cloves
1 medium lemon
1 medium orange
1 750 ml bottle vodka
1 tsp. granulated sugar

Toast the caraway, fennel, cardamom, and cloves over medium heat for about 3 minutes, shaking occasionally.

Remove a quarter of the peel from the lemon and orange, avoiding the pith. Remove about 2 tablespoons from the vodka bottle and place the peels, sugar, and toasted spices in the bottle. Cover tightly.

Let stand for 2 weeks in room temperature, gently shaking the bottle once a day. After the 2 weeks, strain the aquavit through a fine mesh strainer. It is best to do so into a large measuring cup. Transfer the strained aquavit back into the bottle after the bottle has been cleaned. Store in the freezer.


Limoncello
From Diane, A Broad

4 cups vodka
10 lemons
3 cups sugar

Clean the lemons and, once dried, zest, avoiding the pith. This takes awhile, so I set up a zesting station in the living room and zested while watching "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and drinking a glass of wine. I highly recommend this method.

Mix the zest with the vodka in either a large bottle or two large mason jars. Leave in a cool, dark place for a week (not the refrigerator). Gently shake every few days.

After the week, combine the sugar with 3 cups of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until dissolved, and allow to cool to room temperature. Mix the sugar with the lemon vodka mixture and allow to rest for another week. Strain the limoncello in a fine mesh strainer, and then through a coffee filter. This part also takes awhile.

Return to the bottle, keep chilled and enjoy!

Minnesota Family Weekend

This weekend Joe and I made the trip up to my home state, Minnesota, for my dad's birthday. The above picture was taken through the windshield of our car as we passed through Minneapolis. I found out it is really hard to get a clear picture at night in the car without a flash. I couldn't keep the camera still enough. Kind of artsy?

We stayed at my sister's house in Lino Lakes. She had identical twin girls in July, Anna and Lily. I've been told when your sister has babies it is as close as you can get to having your own, which I'm finding to be true. I couldn't love those little girls any more than if they were my own. Which is part of the reason I got them little Mizzou onesies... trying to get that idea in their head at an early age.

One of the benefits of staying with my sister and her husband, besides getting to spend time with them and the girls, is that my sister cooks for us. Along with my mom, my sister, Hillary, is my cooking inspiration. Like me, she didn't start cooking until her mid-twenties, and now is an INCREDIBLE cook. However, she has gone alittle to the extreme. I mean, the woman has a chicken coop in her back yard to raise her own chickens. Not to eat them, just so they can have really fresh, organic eggs (seems like alot of work to me). She also does stuff like make her own chicken stock (again, not with the chickens she raises) and plans to make her own baby food when the girls are old enough. Also, if you ever have a question about grass fed beef or free range chickens or eating organic, she is the one to ask. Even if you don't have a question, she will tell you all about it. She buys her meat by the cow (literally, she recently bought a 1/4th a cow, meat already butchered) from local farmers who she knows raises them as grass fed cows. She almost convinced Joe and I to buy our meat the same way, but that idea went out the window when we realized we didn't have enough room in our freezer for a 1/4 of a cow.

Saturday night, we had dinner at Hillary's place for my dad's birthday. Dad grew up on a farm, and loves meals like ham and potatoes. Luckily for dad, Hillary had alot of ham in her freezer, since along with the cow she has also recently bough 1/2 a pig. Dinner was ham, cheesy potatoes, brussel sprouts, and green beans. I know the last two items don't sound very birthday dinnerish (who eats healthy for their birthday dinner, right?) but they were very good the way hillary made them. She cooked the green beans on the grill in tin foil with soy sauce, and the brussel sprouts were sauteed with olive oil and white wine. They were delicious.

The ham and the cheesy potatoes were also cooked on the grill in aluminum foil grill pans. This meal proved it doesn't need to be warm out to cook on the grill.

My mom made my dad's birthday cake, which was a coconut cake. The cake was made out of the box white cake mix, but instead of using water, my mom used pina colada mix. It was amazing.

The next morning, we did what we do every year for my dad's birthday. We went to my dad's favorite breakfast place, The Original Pancake House in Edina, Minnesota, and then we went to a Vikings game. I'm sure the team knew it was my dad's birthday, because it was a great game and the Vikings beat the Lions!

Being that Monday was Veteran's day, Joe and I were able to spend the entire Sunday in Minnesota instead of having to rush back down to Kansas City for work. All in all it was a great and relaxing weekend :)