Food blogger event and a brand new food market in Oslo

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Marte Marie

Saturday was a fun day and night out with fellow food lovers here in Norway, and I´m happy to be back here in the blog after weeks where work got the best of me…

By initiative of the founders of the Norwegian matbloggsentralen, a blog that has become a home for all the food blogs in Norway, we had our first national food blogger event last weekend.

(More images of the event will come over on matbloggsentralen soon)

Perhaps a bit different than the other food blogger events out there, as we all gathered in old buildings from the early 1900´s in the middle of Oslo where the new food hall will open in October, no workshops or business pitches, just pure love for food, eat, drink, socialize and learn more about food, real quality food, where it comes from and how delicious it tastes.


It was fantastic!

The opening of Mathallen in Oslo is, by the way, an event you do not want to miss.

Instead of having workshops etc, we were hosted by the Mathallen (Food hall) and the different specialty food shops that will move in as soon as the food market is renovated.

We socialized and ate our way through the around 30 specialty food shops that all had put out their delicious good for us.

Needless to say, I was in food heaven!

It was truly amazing to try beef tartar with quail egg, spanish ham, Norwegian nettle cheese and delicious white firm goat cheese, exotic fruit, sweet desserts with passion fruit and coconut, tasty bread and lots to drink, and fresh fish from the North of Norway, just to name a few things.

Everybody contributed and I rediscovered how down to earth and friendly Norwegians truly are.

Fishermen from Lofoten showed off their fresh fish, and olive oil lovers united around Norway´s only olive oil expert to learn about the different kinds.

We perused the beautiful grounds of Mathallen in Oslo and enjoyed each others company.

If you are a food lover and you´re thinking about heading to Oslo then add Mathallen to your future must experience list, to me, it might just become my second home.

And by all means, come as you are, this is a place for every one!

I truly admire the initiative makers behind Mathallen’s commitment to keeping the beautiful old brick building  by the Aker river, that they are renovating, in the same spirit it was built. Keeping the old paint, the old thick rock walls and allowing the buidling to breathe in and out with nature as it has done for over one hundred years.

Since it´s located on the river banks sometimes it floods in the basement…so they´ll let it flood and rather ask you to bring your hunter boots when reserving a table at the coolest restaurant/bar that is moving in down there…

Like I mentioned above, add this place to your must visit list, it’s becoming the coolest food place in town!

Posted in Food, Food event | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

A little breeze from Tuscany…

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Marte Marie

It seems like so long ago since I at the end of June wandered these Tuscan fields in the afternoon sun. The day ways about to say thank you and see you soon as I gazed at this beautiful place before heading back to our Tuscan “home” to change for the dinner that evening.

If only I had a scratch and sniff app to harness the perfume that nature produced that evening… the quiet sound of insects and birds hummed in the background and for one little moment I think heaven was a place on earth;)

It’s not difficult to fall in love with Tuscany, you know it in your heart as you “enter” thae region that you’ll never really look at the world quite the same way again, because now there is Tuscany…

That charming place in Italy will forever haunt you, begging you to return to it’s beautiful embrace and to eat in its company..oh, the food in Tuscany…

This area is where I return to in my minds eye when the summer up here north get a bit chilly and I long for warm summer afternoons wandering among olive trees…

In about one week I’m back in Italy again and even if I’m always a bit sad to leave my beautiful Norway, my feet are not too heavy as I hop and skip may way to Italy with a little grin of happiness on my face.

First stop Milano, then Rome where I’ll be shooting with this fun and talented lady, and then off to Sicily with a slow riding train that will weasel its way down the boot of Italy till it reaches the shores of Sicily.

This is where I’ll board a little sailboat and spend one week exploring islands around Sicily with a dear friend.

So today while the rain is yet again filling up the puddles outside, I think of Italy and how incredibly ready I am for a bit of sun, warmth, sailing and pasta!

But before that all begins…I’m heading out in the rain for an afternoon run along the beach!

Posted in Afternoon walks, Beautiful places, Italy, Travel, Tuscany | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Recipe: Ode to summer, a simple Blackberries dessert

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Marte Marie

The sun has done wonders with fruite and vegetables by this time of year in Norway, and ripe little berries are dangling in the garden bursting with flavor.

The winds are fast changing though, preparing far the fall ahead, a season I’m very much looking forward to.

The sun is hitting my kitchen later in the day that usual, the light is slowly retreating one minute at the time, and on a foggy afternoon, my kitchen is swimming in a sea of white much like the dessert I’m about to share with you.

Beautiful, pure and soft white, the color of my summer days here in Norway.

Our garden has a corner that is overgrown with huge blackberries which aroma and sweetness I adore over say, red currants that grow right beside it.

In Norway we often make delicious lemonade from these blackberries and a delicious hot drink for colder days, that I’ll make for you later in the fall.

This blackberry dessert is rich in color and flavor and is a bit of a comfort dessert, the kind you can curl up with while reading your favorite book alone, or treat a bunch of your friends to after a gorgeous meal and just keep serving up bowl after bowl.

One can eat this chilled, but I prefer it warm swimming in a sea of whipping cream.

Let’s get to it shall we?

Blackberry porridge with cream

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What you need

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1 liter Blackberries

1 liter Water

1/2 dl White sugar

1 dl Maizena/potato flour

Whipping cream, the good kind;)

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How to do it

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Put the blackberries rinsed or with the stems with the water in a large pot and bring to a boil.

Let it boil for about 5 min and pour it all through a sifter.

Pour the “lemonade” back in the pot and add 1/2 dl white sugar.

Lower the heat and let it simmer until the sugar had dissolved.

—–

In a bowl dissolve the maizena/potato flour in 1 dl water, and por it in the blackberry porridge slowly while constantly stirring to avoid lumps.

Let the mixture boil for a few minutes on higher heat.

Remove after a couple of minutes and serve with whipping cream,

If you like it chilled, sprinkle some sugar on top of the pot with the blackberry porridge to avoid for it to form a film on top, then put in the fridge covered.

Serve chilled with whipping cream.

This dessert is a simple basic and only creativity puts a stopper to how you can add delicious things to it to make it more decadent, but I love the simpleness of it and how beautiful it looks in the bowl, warm blackberry porridge dancing in a sea of cool white whipping cream.

PS: Exiting news on the making of #60daysoflunch cookbook coming soon!

Posted in Desserts, Food, Fruit Porridge | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Work, a book and a city guide!

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Marte Marie

My short time in Norway is going by way too fast!

Working, photo-shoots, seeing friends, family and working some more.

I’m just swining by to let you know what I’m up to these days.

So many of you here, via email, on instagram and facebook have asked me about places to eat, see and stay in Oslo, so I decided to make a little Oslo guide for you!

I’ve perused its streets to give you a little visual guide with info to my top places to eat in, sleep in a meander through.

I’m working on a bit too many food related projects right now so the blog has been a quiet place this last week, but I’m working on two delicious desserts for you that I think you’ll swoon over and I’m starting a new post series called ‘ Afternoon tea with…’ that gives you a behind the scene story of people I admire and their creative stories…

And it’s with mixed feelings I’m entering the last three days of #60daysoflunch!

I hope you’ve enjoyed, if you’ve followed my food work on instagram.

It’s been fun, a bit of a pain and very rewarding, and I just want to thank you all for your wonderful support!

Can I tell you a little secret? Now that the daily lunches are soon over, it’s not really over… its just the beginning actually.

The #60daysoflunch project was for me to push myself as a food photographer and food stylist, and it pushed alright.

I’ve been so sick of these lunches that I did not know what to do some days…

The lunches were just creative recipe developing, reaserching and styling experiment in the beginning and nothing more, but I can now tell you that it’s becoming a book!

My very first cookbook!

It will be filled with quick, fun and homemade lunches for you, many based on some of what I’ve shown through instagram, but many that have not been presented yet, with photos taken mostly in mon petite island studio so you’ll feel right at home;)

The hard work on the book now really begins as the instagram version of it ends, and I’m so excited to share updates with you as I go along.

To all of you that have asked me about how to get your hands on the recipes, well, this is where, in my first, brand spanking fresh out of the oven cookbook.

The book is in its wee beginning, and I’ll tell you more about how and when as we go along, but I just had to share it with you, as I’m a bit giddy about the whole thing;)

I will need your continuous cheering on spirit as this is going to be long days and lots of work but with your sweet support I think we can do it, non!?

Next up, some sweet desserts…

PS: It was so much fun seeing one of my instagram images being featured over on the great Visual Supply site as one of their weekly selects.

Head on over here to have a peak!

Posted in 60 days of lunch, City guide, Food, Insiders guide, Lunch | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Recipe: Homemade pasta and thoughts on eggs

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Marte Marie

For those of you who’ve followed this blog for a while know that I spent one month in Rome this June, and it was such a food mecca!

With specialty shops and wonderful food markets all close by I did my grocery shopping from local farmers who were offering their fresh produce right next door.

Having grown up with fresh eggs from our own chickens I was thrilled to always have fresh eggs from local farmers with happy chickens that wandered in the sun on green grass.

So one day when it was too hot outside I headed home after an great little shopping spree at the local market and began making pasta.

Of course being in Rome I could have bought the most delicious pasta, but there simply is something so satisfying by making it yourself by hand.

And let’s face it, even if there is definitely a certain skill to making delicious and “perfect” Italian pasta, there is not much difficulty in making a pasta that will taste great without knowing much about baking or even cooking.

Pasta is the type of food that I so often crave. There are luckily so many variations that it never gets old.

But no matter how many delicious dishes one can make of pasta, when it rains outside and I’m in need of some warm comfort food, I simply make some tagliatelle with pesto Genovese, the simplest and best there is;)

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What you need

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Serves 3-4 people

4eggs (preferably farm fresh)

400g White flour, type oo or in italy I use Farina di grano duro

 

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How to make it

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Toss flour and crack the eggs in a food processor, or just make a volcano of the flour on the table creating a crater in the middle where you crack the eggs into.

In food processor mix till the pasts resembles bread crumbs then empty unto a clean surface on the table and knead into a proper dough.

By hands use your finger/spatula to carefully mix the flour and the eggs until it become a dough and then knead it to a ball.

Now, if you have a pasta machine that will at this poit really make it a whole lot easier for you and within minutes from this point you can have a finished pasta product.

If not, flour a surface and use a floured rolling-pin to roll out a really think and even surface.

If you want lasagna plates just cut squares, or fold the big “blanket” of pasta you have now rolled out with a bit of flour between the folds and cut tagliatelle with a knife.

Easy, non?

Boiling time for your tagliatelle should be about 3 min.

Fresh pasta cooks quickly so make sure you pay attention and get the perfect al dente, pasta with a little resistance and don’t overcook it.

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How to use it

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For a really simple dish from your freshly made and cooked tagliatelle, dish up sprinkle some olive oil over and a dash of ocean salt and you have a meal!

Buon Appetito!

A little rambling on eggs…

Like I mentioned above I grew up with chickens in our back yard and loved going out barefoot each mroning to “hunt” for eggs.

I used to love the ones that had a feather or two stuck on them.

I loved the shape, the way they felt in my hand when they were warm and right out of the chicken. I loved the different shapes and colors and I loved when I found a really small one with spots!

I still love eggs and eat one almost every day…

(favorite egg dish…scrambled eggs with smoked salmon)

There is a bit of a difference between farm fresh eggs and the ones we buy in the store, even if they state organic and or free range chicken.

I recently gave some of our eggs to a neighbor and next time I visited they could not stop talking about how fluffy and beautiful colored their omelet was and how delicious it tasted.

I’ll admit that I have never really though about it since I grew up with chickens and have eaten farm fresh eggs most my life.

In adition to not only tasking better, when you buy from local farmers you support the continuous life of happy chickens that roam free on grass outside in the sun;)

You also eat better and more healthy…can I go on?

Farm fresh eggs contain much more Omega 3,  beta carotene, much less cholesterol and saturated fat than your normal egg from a big chicken cage farm.

Sometimes I guess we don’t even think about it, and egg is and egg you know, but the things is…it isn’t.

Now, having said all that, by all means, sometimes we live in areas that it’s hard to get fresh produce and eggs, and the above recipe works fine with store bought eggs as well;)

Posted in Food, Homemade, Pasta | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Recipe: Olive foccacia with ChiaX (Norwegian)

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Marte Marie

There are so many fun and challenging jobs I encounter as a visual story maker focusing on food styling and photography.

I love working with food and when NatureGreens, a Norwegian health food company, asked if I wanted to contribute with recipes on their recipe site using their highly nutritional ChiaX seed, I was thrilled.

Every now and then I’ll create recipes for them and if you reed Norwegian, and are interested in the recipe that follows this image, then head on over to their recipe site if you want.

The blog life over on my site, Le voyage creatif, will continue the same way it has before, only with a little nudge to the my Norwegian followers of where to find fun recipes with ChiaX in them every now and then.

If you want to follow NatureGreens recipes, nutritional, health and ChiaX info like them on their Facebook site over here, and if you want the olive foccacia with ChiaX recipe head on over here to their site.

I only share things that I think you readers might enjoy, and all content on this blog is produced by me, if not stated otherwise.

This blog, Le voyage creatif, is a peak into my life and work as a visual story maker, but like I mentioned above, every blue moon if I create something I think you might enjoy I’ll guide you in that direction with a friendly nudge… sound ok?

Wishing you all a lovely day!

Next up here on the blog is homemade pasta!

Posted in Food, NatureGreens | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Travel: Evening road trip in Tuscany

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Marte Marie

On my last trip to this (above) wonderful place in Tuscany, my italian gentleman whisked me off for a twilight road trip to our dinner place one evening.

The scenery took my breath away.

I daydreamed and snapped like a mad cow out of the car window with my iPhone.

The crickets were singing and the sun calmly rested its tired face on the horizon for a beautiful moment before waking up someone else up on the other side of the planet with a bit of its golden rays.

This is my world out the window that evening…

Oh, Tuscany, how I love you…

Posted in Afternoon walks, Beautiful places, Italy, Travel, Tuscany | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Recipe: Basic lemonade and a dip in the pool

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Marte Marie

Lemons sing summer at the top of their lungs!

Their warm yellow coat of citrus, their fresh perfume that infuses everything it comes in contact with and its juicy and sour flesh that is perfect for any summer drink, lemons creates the most perfect summer treats.

When I took a road trip from Milano to Amalfi with a friend this April, I loved that so much of the southern Italian cuisine involves delicious lemons.

The beautiful while villa we stayed at in Sorrento had gorgeous lemons and orange trees around the azure blue pool and I loved going for a morning swim underneath their citrus fruits.

It was so, so nice to wake up to the smell of lemons from our rooftop terrace.

At night I would walk barefoot out unto our private little terrace and close my eyes and just inhale. The citrus mixed with the Jasmin, the orange and the roses from the garden underneath.

It’s the kind of perfume dreams are made of…

So one day last month, as the sun was heating up Rome to the point of boiling, I bought me a paper bag full of lemons from a wonderful food market next to my apartment there.

I opened up all the windows and balcony doors, and made some lemonade to cool off this little Norwegian body.

There are so many wonderful easy ways of making this but here is my simple and basic lemonade recipe.

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What you need

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3 lemons

3 lime

1 lite water

1 1/2 dl sugar (or honey)

5-6 leafs of mint or rosemary (optional)

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How to

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Juice lemons and limes leaving one whole lemon.

Mix the juice, water and sugar to the sugar dissolves.

Cut the last lemon into think slices.

Beat the lemon slices, mint (or rosemary but not both) and some ice cubes in a mortar.

Sift and mix it all together.

Serve on the rocks with a mint leaf and or some honey to taste for those who like it sweater.

Bottoms up!

PS: Tomorrow I’m firing up #60daysoflunch again over on my instagram account marte_marie_forsberg

I’m so excited to share the last part of these lunches with you, and I’m looking forward to getting feedback from you!

Let’s put on the apron and fire up the stove;)

Posted in Drink, Food, lemonade | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Rainy days, and planning adventures ahead.

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Marte Marie

It’s absolutely perfect weather here on my little island in Norway these days.

Warm, with a little hint of chill in the air, fog, a bit of rain and then the sun almost peaks out every now and then.

I simply love it!

(not sure many around me agree though…)

Coming back from a month in Rome was a bit of a culture shock. It was like going from a great outdoors concert to a yoga retreat with not a sound in the forest.

Whoa!

I love being back on my beautiful island, but lets face it, I miss Rome a bit much these days, and luckily since projects bring me back there soon, I can comfort my Rome infected heart that it will soon see its love again;)

I’ve been catching up with friends and family and spent wonderful time wandering my island in the fog.

I’ve sat at my island studio desk and filled up my planner with work related projects that makes my toes tingle with adventurous delight!

This August will be a bit packed, but I promise you some good travel and food as I’m off to Sicily and will be sailing in the Mediterranean for a week, and slow train riding along the toes of Italy all the way up to Rome among other things.

But I have a favour to ask of you…

I’ll be spending some time in Pakistan, Islamabad around Christmas and New Years and I’d love to hear from you in regards to what to do, see, eat and explore. I’m absolutely green on the matter and have no clue what’s see, eat and explore worthy.

Oh, and if you have some great suggestions for food and or art, or charming must sees in Sicily I’m up for that too;)

But before all that I have a month of marathon work ahead of me and I’m so excited to be working on some fun food stories for food magazines here in Norway.

And come Wednesday this upcoming week, I fire up again my  60 days of lunch project!

I loved hearing from you that you missed the lunches, and ever if I will admit it was a whole load of work, I miss it too and since we have about 18 days left, off we go on Wednesday.

Hope you’re enjoying your summer!

Posted in Afternoon walks, Moss, Norway, Travel | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Travel: Baldersnes estate in Sweden

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Marte Marie

On midsummer, the lightest day of the year here north, my beloved mother surprised me with a little weekend in Sweden at a great estate near a lake.

We danced in the sun around the traditional Swedish green “pole” with flowers in our hair and ate, a lot of great food.

Here’s a little peak into on of the days when we found a beautiful little nook to have a traditional herring and delicious spring potato lunch in.

It rained every now and then, we talked about life, food and future plans.

Then we sat in silence and daydreamed a bit.

It was a perfect little getaway the day after I came home from Rome.

How does she know exactly what her daughter needs?

Mother’s have this gift I think, where they can read our hearts even if we’re miles away, and especially when I as a young girl had been mischievous…mother’s just know;)

What did you do for midsummer’s day?

In Norway we celebrate too, quite different than in Sweden, with huge, and I mean huge, tall as houses, bonfires that are lit around the coast and next to lakes all around the contry. Then the local communities gathers, eat, sing, play instruments and dance together till the wee morning hours.

Must admit though, it’s a bit sad that the lightest day is now behind me and every day minutes of light is omitted.

It means that fall is next, and I’m not really done with summer just yet…

PS: Feel like traveling?

Head on over to this great blog for my boarding pass feature today!

Posted in Beautiful places, Sweden, Sweden, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments