Chocolate- Raspberry Cupcakes

These are the super yummy cupcakes Sarah and I made. The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's cookbook - How to be a domestic goddess. They were so easy!

For the cupcakes:

125g (1/2 cup) soft unsalted butter

100g (1/2 cup) dark chocolate, broken into pieces (we used semi-sweet chocolate chips)

300g jam (1-1/4 cup) (we used raspberry, but any kind would work. Reduce the sugar if the jam is super sweet)

150g (2/3 cup) white sugar (reduce if the chocolate you use has sugar)

pinch of salt

2 large eggs, beaten

150g (2/3 cup) self-raising flour (if you don't have self-raising, use all-purpose and add 1 teaspoon baking powder and another pinch of salt)

For the icing:

100g (1/2 cup) dark chocolate

100ml (almost 1/2 cup) double cream (we used whipping cream)

whatever fruit to top it

Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F

Put the butter in a pot and melt on the stove, when nearly melted stir in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to begin softening, then take the pan off the heat and stir until it is smooth and melted. Now add the jam, sugar, salt and eggs. Stir together well and then add flour. Spoon the mixture into a lined cupcake pan (about 2/3 full). Bake for 25 minutes.

When the cupcakes are cool, break the chocolate for the icing into little pieces and add them to the cream in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and then whisk by hand or electronically till thick and smooth. Ice the cupcakes and top with a berry.

Delicious!

Down to the Wire

Well, less than 4 weeks to go... I'm feeling pretty excited considering. Still have to sell the car, find someone to take over our cell phone plan, finish getting rid of stuff and figure out the financial crap. Money. Ugh. Don't you just love the recession? It seems every little thing that I do to prepare for this move costs something. Went to change my address to have our mail forwarded to a friend here in Canada (same town)... $40. In the US this service is free. Not sure why it costs money here since the mail system is subsidised...

Anyway, on a very happy note, I got to see my sister this last week! She flew out during her spring break and stayed for 4 days. It was SO nice to see her and get to spend tons of time talking and catching up (she lives in Illinois finishing law school). Stupid me didn't get any pictures except of cupcakes we made (I'll post the recipe later). I'm hoping to get some sent from our friend so I can post. Sunday was a beautiful spring day and we actually made it to the park for some Frisbee which reminded me alot of summer. The days are growing longer and I love it! I think that I better suck up as much as possible because Norway still has snow on the ground.

Ahhh! Pictures :)

I'm a Mrs.!

Our weekend wedding on the island was PERFECT!! I'm still smiling from ear to ear, and have to pinch myself every once and awhile and tell myself I'm not dreaming. Dom and I caught the ferry Friday morning and went out for yummy breakfast at the Treehouse (those of you Salt Spring visitors know how good that is!). We bought an umbrella in town because it was raining all morning. Seriously though, no stress whatsoever the entire day! The sun made an appearance later in the day, and at our ceremony on the dock of a beautiful lake... it held out just in time for us to finish. When we got back to our cabin, it started pouring. That's a good sign right? Even though I missed my family and friends, I'm really happy with how we did it. During the ceremony, it really felt like just the two of us there, and I remember things we said, how we couldn't take our eyes off each other, and the incredible special feeling. I think that if we had a bunch of people, I wouldn't have felt so calm and my brain would be running around with stress about everyone else. First day of spring, first day of marriage. We toured a horse farm, stopped at the winery, had the best food ever at a fancy little restaurant for dinner, took the canoe out on the lake, but mostly just camped out in front of the wood burning fireplace in our awesome cabin. More pictures to come soon!

I love my neighbours!

We have fantastic neighbours, and especially next-door. They are a wonderful couple that lived in Sweden for 5 years and came back to Canada and bought the place next door to us. Needless to say, we have picked their brains on numerous dinner parties, nights out, and walks on moving to Scandinavia. I really hope they move back to Sweden (they are contemplating it) so they can be our next door country neighbours.

They just brought over a beautiful basket full of delicious treat for our cottage wedding getaway this weekend. It has crackers and cheese, chips, fruit, olives, champagne, candles... wow! It is so great, and I'm getting so excited!!

These wonderful people are also letting us host our reception/going away party in their back-yard. No hesitation or questions asked, just extremely giving, kind and sincere.

If I don't post again before we leave, have a great weekend! We are getting married on Friday which is the Spring Equinox (the day when night is equal to day... poetic for a marriage). I will definitely have pictures when we are back!

Love to you all.

Sorry Maya...

Sorry puppy, your mom screwed up. Please forgive me. Last year when we were planning all this moving stuff I looked into importing our dog, and of course it said all this great stuff that I new I wouldn't have to worry about until later, and I called the vet who said she was due for her rabies vaccine around the beginning of the year. So... I somehow just put it off in my head and thought, "I don't have to worry about that that yet". Well, the vet never called to remind me and I was so busy with other things, that I forgot. I looked up the requirements again last week and long story short... she has to stay for another 3 months after we leave until she has a blood test. I told Dom that he better start checking all these things that I have looked into, because who knows what else I have screwed up. Maya will be shipped to my parents in Idaho (I told you I have the best parents right?) and stay with them and their awesome dog. Maya will most likely never want to leave, and in the long run I think it might work out better for us not having to worry about her in the initial settling in. My mom was so quick to say yes (love her!), but said "I'm not doing any of that raw diet crap." Hahaa, no problem.

It is getting serious.

This morning I cancelled all my holds at the library and returned all my books yesterday. I've made a decision that in order to get everything done (yes there is alot!) I need to stop reading... the next six weeks should be interesting. I'm sure I will exhibit all the usual addict signs, and hopefully will by pass the heroin-like shakes. Right now I feel hopeful and confident, and have a new home-ade calender on the wall showing the six weeks left!

Working in Norway

I got a response from Norway Immigration about my working there situation. I can't work until my family re-unification visa is approved which I apply for when Dom finds a job, and the average processing time according to their website is up to 5 months. SOooo.... I wonder what the possibility of under-the-table jobs are there? Babysitting? Walking dogs? Or, start work on a book or something...

Comments!

OMG! I think I might have fixed the comments!! Please try to leave me one here and we'll see if it works :)

Sick & Cranky

I've had a nasty cold for the last 3 days now, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere even with all the garlic, lemon, tea and water I'm consuming. I'm sure it was probably brought on by stress with all the stuff going on right now. Even the dog can feel it and spends the better part of her day moping around whining at me. My energy is so low, and all I want to do it sleep... but then I feel incredibly guilty that I haven't gotten anything done. Yesterday I thought, yeah! I'm feeling a bit better, and proceeded to do everything as if I wasn't sick and by last night it was back full force. I'm cranky and totally over-reacted at silly things Dom would say, and feel like crap for it. Ahhh... go away cold crankiness!

Hope you are all well. I am starting to get really pissed off about the comment thing here, I don't want to have to start all over. I also don't want to feel like this is just my weird journal where I talk to myself though.

ENGAGED!!

I haven't posted this exciting news yet, because I wanted to talk to my parents first and didn't want them to find out while reading my blog. Although...my phone card was up so I did write a quick email to my mom saying "I'm running away to get married, call me."

Dom asked me on Saturday morning!! I couldn't be more happier, and have been grining ear to ear like a lunatic. I feel so lucky to be with such an amazing man, and I'm really excited about spending my life with him.

We are running away to one of the islands in the next few weeks to elope. There is just no time to plan a wedding and all that crazy stuff - we are leaving in less than 8 weeks! So, we are going to rent a cabin or sweet hotel or something for the weekend, and throw a big party when we are back before we go.

On the moving front, I've been emailing the Director of Immigration department for Norway with questions. They are really good at responding, and I'm feeling much less stressed. I read somewhere that someone (I can't remember which blog) had to show financial info to prove they had enough money to support themselves while there. So I thought I better clear that up before we show up and say "But we are from (North) America, isn't a credit card just fine?" (Mom, don't panic when you read this, we have saved some money). Luckily they emailed back saying this is not a requirement for an EU/EEA citizen (which Dom is, and soon I'll be family). Yeah!

Also, sorry about the crazy blog madness... I can't seem to have anything pretty whatsoever if I want comments. It is really irritating me, and I have searched for help and emailed blogger with no response. Now, I can't even revert back to a standard format. If anyone knows how to help, please email me (under my profile).