17th of May And A King Of A Sandwich

Hipp Hipp Hurra today is Norway´s Birthday! In 1905 Norway gained independence from Swedish rule and every 17th of May they celebrate their birthday- 107 years and counting! Most of the celebration happens with the children´s parades where young children walk in procession through a village or town waving flags and wearing lovely national costumes. As your children get older, like mine, they don´t really want to walk in this parade and so it becomes less of a tradition as the children get older, until of course they enter the Russ Celebration, like Sarah is in this year and the Russ march in the parade as well. In an hour we´ll be heading to watch Sarah and the other Russ in her class. This will be the last day of the Russ celebration ending their 12 years of education. Should be quite a parade with that in mind! I´ll bring my camera! 


We´ll be making hamburgers and hot dogs today, a little blend of Norwegian and American. The hamburgers being the American contribution and the hot dogs the Norwegian. Hot dogs are the number one celebration food here in Norway so the day just wouldn´t be complete without hot dogs on the menu. However, for lunch I decided to make some focaccia bread. I have made it before using a different recipe but as I was looking through a magazine I found another recipe and decided to try it. It´s SUPER easy and I´ll be willing to bet everyone has the ingredients in their homes.

1 liter of warm water

50 grams of fresh yeast (or dry)

Blend these two ingredients together.

In a bowl blend 1 tbsp (SS) salt and 1kg flour

Add the yeast and water and mix until you get a workable dough- add more flour if necessary. Let this rest under plastic for 30 minutes. Find a baking dish in the meantime and spray with a good baking spray so the bread won´t stick. After 30 minutes take the dough and pour it into the baking dish...put a little oil on your hands and pat the dough down into the baking dish. Using your finger tips poke holes all through the dough- deep ones- and then drizzle over some more olive oil. I had some fresh rosemary but you can also use dry..sprinkle a few blades of rosemary over and some sea salt and I also used a little fresh chives. 

Bake at 225C (about 400F) for about 30 minutes...don´t worry if the oil looks like a lot on top. As the bread cooks the oil becomes absorbed into the dough...so what you end up with is this..

As I was cutting this to make a sandwich I faced a problem...the bread was quite thick and with all the goodies on my sandwich I wasn´t sure that I´d get my big mouth around this to take a bite...so what to do? After I cut a piece, I cut it in half. Then I took each half and cut it in half again, taking the middle part out and wondering what I should do with the extra bread? I decided to dry it out in my oven at a low temperature and make bread crumbs for salads and such ;-) Then I took the two halves left over and made a King of a sandwich which is only fitting when Norway is celebrating it´s birthday....don´t you think?

This is so simple and so good. You can use Focaccia bread not just for sandwiches but with a hearty soup, this would make a lovely garlic bread...you could spread garlic butter on these and stick them in the oven until they become the perfect garlic bread to serve with your favorite pasta dish! You could also use this bread to make bruschetta...that would be lovely! 

Have a wonderful day folks and if you´re in Norway, I wish you a wonderful celebration! Hipp Hipp Hurra for Norway!

Until next time my friends....