International Cafe

Well folks, I’ve finally gotten around to copying pictures off my trusty camera, 2.6 gigs’ worth. It was nice to have a look through the pictorial record of the last 11 months on my computer screen, instead of a little camera viewscreen, I must say. But even more importantly than my trip down memory lane; I can start posting the backlog of posts for which I’ve been taking pictures!

Eh…well, it could be that my husband gets the honors for taking the pictures for my first post in FOREVER, because he was the one who remembered to bring the camera in the first place AND was the one who stalked the tables, trying to shoot pictures before the food was all gone.

Ah yes, first some explaining is in order: as you may have guessed from the title of this posting, we were not at a food fair or an all-you-can-eat contest, but the annual International Café that our barnehage (well, the one that Nikolas goes to) holds in the Fall. Each year, for about a month, the children learn about a different country, which usually the home country of one of the surprisingly many non-Norwegian parents associated with the barnehage. (Yes, one year they learned all about cowboys and Indians, pizza and hamburgers–can you guess which country that’d be? Jeeeez.) At the end of that month, there is a POTLUCK! It is, of course, not called a potluck, but the International Café, to which everyone brings a dish for the others to sample. This dish is ideally supposed to be a common one made in or associated with one’s home country. In past years, I have made Sloppy Joes and Chili. This year I made Chocolate Chili (from Melissa Joulwan of The Clothes Make The Girl) and Chocolate Chip Cookies. (Both were fantastic, if I may be so bold!) These sat nicely among the other food items from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iran, Chile, Thailand, and others I’ve forgotten in the two weeks since. Look!

My chili has the stylish black arrow (thank you, Paint!) pointing down at it.

The dessert table was hoppin’!

Nik looooooves chocolate chip cookies…

It’s a little bittersweet that it’s the last year we’ll be able to attend the International Café, but perhaps there will be similar events in Nikolas’s grade school. And plenty of opportunities to make chocolate chip cookies until then!