Sabine’s Blog

My pelvis pains continue and I have trouble walking more than 10 min. I go very slowly.
This benign condition called “bekkenløsning” in Norwegian and “syndrome de Lacomme” in French (which sounds less inviting really!) usually disappears after giving birth.

I often wake up at 5 am and cannot go back to sleep until around 8, then wake up again around 10.30 tired. My midwife says the body is getting ready for the arrival of the baby!

I am getting and feeling heavier. The belly is tense and it presses all my inner organs. After I have eaten I feel like I am out of breath because the stomach presses against the diaphragm.

My last urine test showed a high level of sugar in my body (shortly before, I had indulged myself with a 200gr Swiss chocolate bunny). Since diabetes is common with pregnant women, and unhealthy for babies, I went to the hospital today to test my body’s reaction to glucose. I had to arrive fasting, they took a blood sample then made me drink two cups of sweet water. Then I had to wait for two hours and come back for another blood sample. The result was ok, I am within the tolerated limits of sugar in the blood.

I took a Toxoplasmose test in February. I never got the result for that test. It appears to have been lost within the hospital between the midwife and the lab… bizarre.
So I had to take another one today.

It seems that the very useful kitchen utensil called “salad spinner” has not made it up north!

Possible reasons:
1. Lettuce in Norway is not commonly washed and thus does not need to be spinned.
2. Lettuce cannot be washed: it is grown in artificial environment in greenhouses and falls apart if you just try to touch it.
3. Norwegians are nature lovers: they want nature in their salads, including snails and sand. Yum makes it more crunchy!

Although we have had very little snow in Norway this winter, the first heavy snowfall happened early in January. We attempted to go cross-country skying that Sunday (only a brief attempt because, remember, I’m pregnant!!). The families were out with their little ones cosily muffled in wool and down in the typical “pulks” a sledge pulled by a skier.

It snowed a lot at Easter this year in Norway. On a trip to Lillehammer, from the train, I saw a elder man on a “spark” carrying his groceries. In front of the Lillehammer high school, I saw another one parked next to bikes attached with a chain. In English they are called “kicksleds.”

I make my own jam. Growing up in France, I still need to eat jam for breakfast. In addition, where I grew up we were lucky to have local fruits for each season.
Early summer, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, gooseberries, red currants, black currents plus peaches and apricots from France.
Late summer, blackberries, mirabelles, quetsches, rosehips…
Early winter, quinces!
What is jam? In English it is called “preserves” because it is a way to preserve fruit with… SUGAR!
But today, in a world so full of sugar many are afraid to eat jam, even though it can be one of the foods with the simplest list of ingredients: fruit and sugar! And you really don’t eat a ton of it like some would eat candy!
Jam “can” or should be simple but when I came to Norway I was quite shocked to see that jams here contained not just two but four, five ingredients! Here you go with kalium sorbate and acidifier and other “Es”….
Why? Because they reduce the sugar so much that it does not serve its purpose to preserve the fruit anymore so they have to add a long list of preservatives! Then they barely cook it and it ends up all runny and not sticky (maybe that is also a question of taste… and remind them of what they call “rørte bær” or stirred berries that are not cooked but mixed with a little sugar and put on bread)
The grand mothers’ recipes are clear: use one kilo of sugar to one kilo of fruit!
I agree that this can be too sweet but it also depends on the fruit!
So is there a compromise between the artificially packed runny jam and the sugar bomb?
I think it is wise to reduce according to your own taste, but also to the fruit: use your judgement!
I like to stay around 700 grams to 800 grams to the kilo of fruit because I have a sweet tooth!
I also like to add several lemon seeds wrapped in a small piece of cheese cloth tied together while cooking the jam. Those seeds contain a lot of pectin and help the jam thicken: no need to get the white chemical powder from the store! This a natural and cheap solution. You can also use brown sugar instead of white but that is more expensive!
Good luck making your own yummy jams! Be natural and creative!