Nut & honey cake

This weekend I finally had some time again to try out a new recipe. Two years ago I bought the Viking Cookbook (isbn 82-04-06495-0) at the Ribe Viking Museum and we've tried several recipes since then, all of which turned out to be fabulous.

This is a very simple cake with only 4 ingredients, so easy enough to make in camp if you have a stone oven. Of course I don't have a stone oven at home, so I used a modern oven but the end result should be the same of course!

Ingredients: 100 gr hazelnuts; 50 gr dried apples; 150 ml honey; 4 eggs

Finely chop the hazelnuts and apples. Mix the nuts, apple and honey in a bowl. Whisk in the eggs.

the batter before it goes into the oven

Spread the mixture into a greased baking tray. Bake in the middle of the oven for approx. 15 minutes.

The final result!

We decided to add some blueberry jam to make it a bit more festive! Trust me, we ENJOYED this!!
greetings, Arda

Vambraces

Einarr made a pair of new leather vambraces a few days ago and thought they were a bit boring...
So he got his carving kit and carved two fabulous dogs on the leather. After the carving the coloured the drawings with wax!
Aren't they fabulous?

Spear

Einarr has had this spear for a while and only uses it in battle practise. Recently, he secured a new spear tip at the end and made a protective leather 'sleeve' on the spear as well.

First, he carved the design and then darkened it with a bit of brown shoe polish. Great, huh?!

New socks!

I've started on two pairs of new socks during the Nord Setur weekend and I would like to show them to you here, eventhough they are not finished yet.

The first pair you see on the left is for our nephew Lars. I don't have to tell you how fast kids grow and the naalbound socks he bought at the Pentecoste Market last year are becoming too small, so I've started on a new pair for him. I'm using two strands of wool, cream and dark green. It makes the socks thick and warm. I'm making these a bit too big so that he can grow into them. I bought this wool in the shop, so the dye and such is 'modern'; but I love the authentic look of the mix of two colours!

The pink pair of socks is for me, aren't they perfectly girlie? :D
I ordered the wool last week from Liesbeth Slegh in Sweden who makes fabulous home spun and home dyed wool [see also their link on the right]. The pink you see is what she made from Värmland sheep wool dyed in Cochenill! The colour is wonderfully bright.
The blue is a bit of wool I bought from Marlies the Weaver in Archeon and is dyed with woad. The yellow is dyed with onion.

Fried parsnips

Thanks to Annemiek S. for this great photo

One of the easiest ways to prepare parsnips in camp is simply to fry them! Chop them into cubes, put butter or oil in the skillet and fry until the parsnips are golden brown.

You need about one big parsnip per person.

Of course you can do this at home as well, you'll love the taste because they taste like fried potatoes or french fries but are HEALTHIER!!

Enjoy!

Nord Setur

The weekend of 12 and 13 April we went to the north of our country to have the first Vikingweekend of 2008 and it was FABULOUS! The weather was great, and although it was cold at night, the accomodation was authentic Bronze Age so not really Viking but really very cozy.


I did a lot of naalbinding and Einarr and Lars played a lot of Kubb.
Saturday evening there was a bit of rain, but that was it. The food was great as usual!

Here the two guys are waiting for dinner to be ready!

We also had a guest, Thorfinn's girlfriend, and as you can see cooking on open fire was not really a problem for her. We don't have a Viking name for her yet! Hopefully she will come up with something soon.
greetz, Arda

Archeon Easter Photo

Thanks to Hans S. for taking this great photo at Archeon!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/archeon

Pouch

Einarr spends a lot of time abroad for his job and so for the last few months you've seen most my crafts and finished items... and that is becoming a tad bit boring I know... ;)

He has experimented with leather carving, as you might remember, and last weekend he finished this lovely pouch with the famous Tjursläkter bull.