Beautiful beach scene

Ahhh!  Summer... wish you were still here.  Come back!  :)

Lego Land

Dear Heather,
You mentioned that you are planning a trip to Lego Land in Billund, Denmark and I blithely thought: I'll just send you a link to my blog post on our trip to Lego Land.  Huh?  What? Where is it?  How could I have been so lame as to not post about one of the most fun family trips that we took while living in Sweden?!  So a "little" late (um, sorry) here are some pics from our most excellent trip to Lego Land, Denmark in April, 2012. Sorry for the delay to all my super readers from around the globe and safe travels if you go!  Heather, we hope you and your family have as much fun there as we did. 
Best,
Tina
p.s. there's a new house that's been built all out of legos, and it's opening this week, check it out! 

"Can I offer you a suggestion?"

Lego Town

Lego Skyscraper and "giant" girl

Star Wars lego was so cool!

She beat her brother (crazy lady driver). Ha, ha!

See life in the shark?

One of the few rides that we went on.

We loved Lego Land!

Firing water at the boats was so fun.

Watch out!!

Again with the water, this time in service as firemen. ;) 

p.s.s who wouldn't get a kick out of the video remake of Ed Sheeran's "Lego House" featuring Rupert Grint and his lego counterpart :-) Hope you do!

Beautiful view - Helsingborg

A lovely view from the inside if not the outside of this amazing apartment in Helsingborg that we were lucky enough to borrow from friends. Constant rain this summer in Sweden is the big bummer but at least we can curl up here with a book and a nice cup of coffee, or like the kids just stayin bed! The colorful decor and the large windows which let in lots of light remind me of summery days and with any luck the rain will stop and we will enjoy walking the boardwalk again tonight. :)  Helsingborg is beautiful.

Nordic detox diet

I've finally found a diet for me --- the Nordic detox diet lets you eat two grams of carbs for every gram of protein! This balance of carbs and protein is called the "golden ratio" and allows the system to stay lean according to Dr. Astrup of University of Copenhagen.  OK, sounds good to me!  But here's the scoop, buy one of those nutrient-rich, dense blocks of bread that you normally skip called "Dark European Rye" and sugar-free muesli, cereal, barley, peas, corn and potatoes.  That's carbs folks, not two doughnuts for every slice of bacon. ;) I love to eat this way and luckily for me I'm headed to the land of Nordic eating soon!  I just have to stay away "fika" or choose fruit with my coffee or this cake which is reputed to be "The world's healthiest cake". I haven't tried it yet but it looks good.  If you make it please leave a comment. Off the the gym, enjoy!

Whole Orange & Almond Yogurt Cake

2 small oranges, peeled and whole

vegetable oil or spray for the pan

2/3 cup low fat ricotta cheese

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar or maple sugar*

2 large eggs

1-1/2 c almond flour or almond meal

1/2 cup self rising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 cups fat-free Greek yoghurt

confectioners sugar for serving

2 small oranges, peeled and segmented

In pan cover 2 whole oranges with water, boil, drain, and add more water to cover then boil again. Simmer on low for one hour adding more water if necessary. Drain, cool completely. 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly grease 9" round cake pan and line with parchment paper. 

Quarter cooled oranges, discard seeds. Beat cooked oranges and ricotta until smooth. In bowl, beat sugar and eggs until thick, about 3 minutes. Fold in orange mixture. Stir in flours, bakin powder and 1/2 cup yoghurt until well combined.

Pour batter into pan, bake 70 minutes. If browning too fast cover with foil.  Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes, then invert onto a plate and flip back onto wire rack to cool completely.  Garnish with sugar, orange segments and remaining yoghurt. Serves 12

Per serving: 200 calories, 17 g. carbs and 10 g. protein
* from what I can tell you can easily substitute regular sugar, but it would add calories

Spider-Man Grabs Coffee

I'm in a "green-coffee machine" AKA Starbies enjoying a cascara coffee, which tastes just like a regular espresso to my philistine tastebuds, and the AC!  This movie is pretty fun.  Maybe time for fika?

Semester!

I am vacation enjoying this view. Vacation is so good for you, mentally and physically but sometimes, lets face it, it can be stressful too. My stress comes from trying to make this trip "a once in a lifetime experience!" for my family (whatever that means) and coordinating with other people's schedules while doing work on the side.  What's your hidden holiday stressors?  Whatever they are I hope that you can forget them and just breathe. We all need a break.  Enjoy! :)

Frames & Paint & ART

Good morning all! Today I'm finally thinking ART!  It's been a super busy year (not very lagom at all) so what is a tired teacher to do? Wait until the summer, natch, to break out those paintbrushes and get to work. On today's agenda is buy some big *** canvases. Yes, I'm going to break out the big guns because I have a show next May in a large venue, see above.  Last year's art show was in my house so my existing work worked nicely. Here are some landscapes and a portrait that I painted in typical smaller sizes (most are for sale by the way).

Next year I'm showing in that huge space with three other artists and I want to go big or go home. :) So, I'm popping a link into here on how to make large frames inexpensively because the size I'll be using is 36 x 48 or 36 x 36. The motif is horses.  Do you like these studies? I'll be working more on other studies next week.  Should be interesting. That's it for now! Ha det så gott.