Quinoa salad

Sooooo much food left over from last night, enough to keep us going until we leave Friday morning... One of the things I made that I actually ate was this quinoa salad; pretty yummy if I can say so myself.

Just a mix of quinoa, orange, different kinds of lettuce, and some nuts, dried fruit and seeds (almonds, brazil and walnuts, apricot, dates and pumpkin seeds if I remember correctly). A squeeze of lemon, some good olive oil, salt and pepper and you´re good to go. A bit lighter than the typical christmas food!

Just got back from watching The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, good movie I have to say but what is UP with the fake swedish accent everybody but Daniel Craig has??? Is that really necessary? And Rooney Mara saying "hej hej" everytime she walks into a room.... I don´t know. It made me miss Sweden though, I´ll give you that. Maybe some "sillsalat" for dinner will help:)

Monsieur Marcel

Warning warning, don´t enter this gem of a store if you´re poor and hungry. French and spanish cheeses, olive oils, wine, super dark chocolate...

Found it at the farmers market in ... actually I don´t know what part of the city it is. Bev Hills? Hollywood? Bah. Somewhere in LA. Check it out here. Right now I´m mixing together my own little goodies, including meatballs from IKEA, smoked salmon rolls, a citrus quinoa salad and herring. Pabster is in charge of the spanish flavors; tortilla and wine. Time for a Norwegian/Spanish "christmas" dinner! Muak.

Oh my

Shopping for a bikini in a funky store by the beach made for fourteen year old SoCal girls with itsy bitsy boobs is a lot of fun. First they assaulted me and wanted to look in the other shopping bags I brought in with me containing books and a couple of t-shirts, and whined a bit over that for around five minutes. Then they wanted to know all about why I needed a bikini and where I was going. One of them then proceeded to hand me a dozen of pink, turquoise and leopard patterned tops, and send me into a fitting room. I managed to sneak in a couple of black ones without any glitter.

I got complemented on my ass (??!!) and they tried to sell me all kinds of slutty beach cover-ups. I managed to choose the most expensive bikini they had in there, and when I paid with my norwegian credit card showing a picture of my 16-year old self, the girl charging me started screaming at her colleagues (I swear, she was shouting all over the store) "You have to come look at this picture! It´s soooo cute! Did you ever, like, model or something like that?" Oh. Come ON. That´s the oldest flattering trick in the book, and I´m already paying for this right, so you don´t need to smother me in compliments. So this is the reason I normally shop at H&M. No customer service whatsoever. Me likes.

Ta-da! The briefs are from H&M actually. I couldn´t afford to buy new ones. But here´s a tip if you´re over 14 and over a B cup; Vix. Good support for aging women with fallen madonnas, if you know what I mean.



Semi-raw dinner

 

I can not believe how cold it is here right now... I´m sitting glued to the tiny little oven we have to heat us up. My feet are ice. But that´s not news I guess. Anyway, last night I made this SURPRISINGLY good dinner. Squash pasta with macadamia and tomato sauce. It took me two minutes to make. Just take a squash and a carrot and make "tagliatelle" with a potato peeler.

The macadamia sauce is just a handfull of macadamia nuts with lemon, sea salt, pepper and basil thrown into a blender. Since I wanted something warm, I heated up some tomato sauce and mixed it in there. Voila.

The warm tomato sauce kind of cooked the squash so it actually felt like I was eating real-life spaghetti. I am so amazed at this dish, really. You have to try it. Healthy, quick, GOOD. You´re welcome.

Go nuts!

Walnuts with sea salt, pepper and nutritional yeast (God, I hate that name, could someone come up with another please?). SO good!!!!! Bought them "ready-made" at Whole Foods, but it must be easy peasy to make at home. Tastes like a mix of salt pepper chips and... cheese doodles:) I am obsessed.



Santa baby

This is me looking festive:

Because we were going to a festive party. What´s more festive than a sequined vest I thought, and took an instagram of myself in a semi-public bathroom. Wearing salmon colored jeans because salmon is christmas food in Norway. Pablo wore christmas tree lights.

The price for cutest bottle of vodka went to this little man, who was wearing a tiny sweater his grandma had knitted for him. Seriously. How awesome. Don´t you just feel like giving him a hug?

Andrea was hiding behind the dessert, but there was really no need to do that as both she (her?)  and her apartment looked spectacular.

These berries made me very happy. Even though the berries here seem to be ten times the size of Scandinavian pick-in-the-forest-berries. No problem though. Everything´s bigger here. Including my ass.

Goodnight ladies and gentlemen!

The only way to start the day

... and please notice the best part; complete lack of people. Aaaah. Happiness.

Little Spain

Imagine how happy we were, walking around the farmers market and finding this!!!

Felt like an hour in la latina...

Don´t know if it was the olives, the jamón or the red wine (probably), but I started dreaming about finding that perfect house in Mallorca and opening my store... Just you wait and see!:)



Christmas Grove

Wanted to look at a real American christmas tree. So we went to the Grove. Yep, this was basically the only reason we went there. And I´d heard it was supposed to be "a European style outdoor mall". Everything European gets my attention.

Does this look European enough?

Maybe it sort of does. People were actually eating bread in the "parisian style" café down there to the left. Bread! With wheat! White poison! Refreshingly European.

This was the christmas tree. It was too tall to take a picture of, so Pablo had to lie down on the ground to capture its entire glory. As you can see, it was definitely worth it. What was even better:

Santa´s house! We didn´t go there because we weren´t invited. I paid a visit to one of my best friends Zara instead. Hadn´t seen her in a long time. Tried on approximately 30 tops but didn´t buy any. I don´t know what is happening to me, but I didn´t want to buy something just for the sake of buying (!?) I know, it doesn´t make sense to me either. As we were leaving, there was a crowd gathering around a stage.

I could be bluffing, but that´s Katy Perry. See if you can find her! Because I can´t. I do however remember her being up there when I took the pic. Wearing a very pink, very tight dress. American christmas tree/Santa/superstar day complete! Now some Modern Family.

Librarian

Decided to take half the library with me.

Now I just have to choose which ones I will be playing with in the sand...

Aín´t no need to go outside

Here´s what I woke up to:

And we were gonna go sightseeing today! For real. I read Lonely Planet in bed last night. Was all jazzed up to look at bikinis made out of hair at Ripley´s believe it or not, Chinatown, Hollywood boulevard, jewelry district. The Grove! All gone. Not walking around in this rain. Don´t even have a raincoat. Or an umbrella, for that matter.

I´ll just stay in and listen to this.



It´s beginning to look a lot like.... ¿christmas?

Yesterday I got this feeling of winter and festivities. Which I guess you do if you start your day in a pub called Underground watching a soccer game and sipping beer. Right? And it was SNOWING in Hermosa! Look!

See, there in the background. Snowfest they called it. Snowboarders jumping around and kids marvelling at melting spots of gray snow. I´ve seen a lot of snow before, so we went to the pier and spexed around in the cold sun instead. 

I was pretending to be in a movie. It would have been called "Love boat: Don´t let the sun go down on me". Or in Spanish: "El barco de amor: La puesta del sol". Or something like that.

Then we looked at Santa and Santa´s little hooker, sorry, helper.

Nobody wanted to sit in Santa´s lap, besides me, but Pabs wouldn´t let me. Went to get another beer instead.

Don´t be fooled by the palmtrees and the sunset, it was getting very chilly. So we went home, had some more beer, and played Spotify-Scrabble. Christmas can come now, I´m ready. Oh, have I mentioned that we´re going to Mexico for christmas? I have? Ok.

Shopping around the christmas tree

Oh blimey. I just realised that I´m going to be soooo tempted to buy a bunch of STUFF in Mexico (yes, Mexico is all I think about lately). First of all, they have the most amazing silver jewelry, which I am addicted to. I´m actually starting a course in silversmithing in January, that´s how addicted I am. Can´t wait. And look at these.... vases!

I WANT THEM. Wouldn´t say no to a rug or two either.

What else, what else.... Oh. Clothes, of course. Something like this maybe?

Or maybe not. How about the traditional white blouse with flowers? You know what I mean. But wait. Look at this BAG!!

Swooon. Do you know what? You don´t have to go to Oaxaca to get one, you can just buy it here.

Don´t tell anyone.

Hammocks!

And this belt is already mine, so I won´t have to worry about that. My grandmother made it! So ahead of her time. Imagine if she knew I´d be wearing it in Mexico! Life is weird, guys. 

Brrrrrr

California dreamin´ on such a winters day... Yeah right. Because here it´s all hunky dory, rolling on the beach, surfing in the waves. Not so. It´s COLD. Under 40 Fahrenheit! I still don´t know what that means, but it does mean wrapping up in a huge scarf, a hoodie, etc etc to go for that horrible morning beach walk (sorry, I grew up in the 90s and am a victim of irony).

My nostrils don´t seem to like it either, since they´re out of sync. How FUN taking instagrams of yourself and discovering new flaws every day. Who needs a job.

Update: 40 fahrenheit is 4 degrees?!!!??? I´m moving to Mexico.



Go get it!

.... because how can you resist buying this, right?

SuperCocoChoco

When I want something sweet, this is what I stir together:

Palmsugar, coconut flour, cocoa powder and/or carob, a dash of virgin coconut oil and a pinch of sea salt. A little cinnamon doesn´t hurt either. Then I add some coco water or just plain water until it´s mushy. It´s extreeeemely good. I know I´m weird, but seriously, it´s like chocolate mousse or something. Not saying it´s healthy, just healthiER. But listen to what my beloved virgin coco oil can do to you:

-Control blood pressure and cholesterol

-Strenghten immune system

-Help stabilize weight

-Reduce work load of liver and kidneys

-Improve digestion

You can also use it as a moisturiser or conditioner...

And it tastes so goooood!

(No one paid me to post this. I wish someone would)

LA babes

So, after almost half a year in LA, I decided it was time to get lip surgery:

No I didn´t. I might have grown an adams apple though. So. Dear diary. Today it´s the 5th of December, and Mexico is only 19 days away, yay! I´ve realised we´ll probably have to sleep under the stars since we haven´t booked a hotel, but that´s a risk you have to take. We do have a room for the first two nights, here:

 With crazy Americano Daniel and his parrot. If it hasn´t died yet (the parrot, that is). I do not remember it looking like this at all, but things change in seven years I guess. I for one am a lot blonder, wiser and marrieder.

Happy advent:)

... and all of a sudden it´s December. Can´t really tell living here in California though. Which is why we´ll be celebrating christmas in Mexicoooooo, can´t wait. Sand beats snow any time. Pictured: This years calendar. I´m a real geek slash housewife and make one for Pablito every year. He needs some candy every day, studying so hard poor boy. I totally blinged out the birdcage, so it also acts as our christmas tree. Will try to check in here a bit more often, my computer ís not very cooperative at the moment though. Anyway. Hepp!