One of the most fundamental traditions of the Norwegian Yule Tide celebration (the festive season still has the traditional name “Jul” rather than the christian “Christmas”) is the baking of pepperkaker or pepper cakes, arguably the best Christmas cookies around. So much so in fact that there is even a beloved children’s song based on the cookie recipe! This last weekend, Angela and I baked an insane pile of these delicious holiday treats and we figured it would be nice to share some holiday cheer with the world by offering up our fantastic recipe. I will not take credit for this particular recipe - I have no clue where I got it from - but it is exquisite in taste and fairly easy to make.

Pepperkaker or pepper cakes or cookies or crisps or snaps or whatever you want to call them are somewhat like a spicy and crispy version of ginger bread. They are very tasty and have a nice smell of Christmas.

Pepperkaker (Norwegian Christmas Cookies)

NB: This recipe is very large and is enough for a huge pile of cookies as well as a couple of houses so I suggest you reduce it to half the first time you try it.

Ingredients:

• 500 g (17.6 oz) butter
• 3 dl (1.26 cups) fancy molasses
• 6 dl (2.5 cups) white sugar
• 3 dl (1.26 cups) whipping cream
• 20 dl (8.45 cups) white / all purpose flour (you’ll probably need a lot more - see below)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 5 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsp baking powder (not baking soda)

Making the dough:

Mix butter, molasses and sugar in a heated pan until sugar is melted. Be careful because the mixture will be very hot and if you get it on your skin it will burn like nothing you have ever felt before! When everything is melted, mix in the whipping cream. The different ingredients do not mix well and will constantly separate. That’s normal.

While the mixture is still hot, take about 5 dl of the flour and mix in all the spices and the baking powder. This will ensure that the spices are evenly distributed throughout the dough. Mix in the flour bit by bit to ensure that the dough gets an even consistency. As you add in more flour it will get really tough so if you have one of those kitchen machines with a kneading arm I suggest you use it instead of wearing yourself out like I did.

The dough is finished when it has a light brown colour and a slightly sticky consistency. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough, cover it with a towel and put it in the fridge for a day or so.

Making the cookies:

When the dough is well rested, cut out a fist sized piece and place it on a sheet of unwaxed parchment paper or another non-stick surface like a Silpat. When you roll it out the dough will be too sticky to lift off the surface and place on a cooking sheet so I just roll it right onto the sheet and cut the cookies there. Roll the dough out till it is about 1 - 2 millimeters thick and cut out shapes with standard cookie cutters. Pepperkaker are actually better the thinner they are so try to avoid making them as thick as regular ginger bread. They also don’t rise in the oven which helps.

Place the tray in the middle of your oven and cook for 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the cookies come out of the oven they will still be a bit soft so take them off the tray and let them rest on a cooling rack for a while minutes before putting them away or eating them.

A note on flour

Over the years I have realized that flour is different depending on what continent you are on. In Norway this recipe works fine with 20 dl of white flour, but when I made the dough this year I used close to 30 dl of all purpose flour to get the same consistency. Unfortunately this means you have to experiment. I think you’ll be safe with about 25 dl but that might also be way off.

That’s it! Good luck and don’t eat too many cookies all at once!

During the US Presidential Election there was a lot of talk about so-called “clean coal technology” and organizations such as the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity have been blanketing news outlets, CNN in particular, with ads claiming that clean coal is “closer than you think” implying that the coal that produces 60% of America’s energy will soon be clean. The fact however is that this “clean coal technology” is years away, and many years at that. Apart from a pilot project in Germany run by Swedish hydropower company Vattenfall, there are no true clean coal power plants in operation. And the Vattenfall project which uses oxyfuel technology, is both expensive and inefficient because of the technique used to extract CO2 from the process.

The fact remains: According to everyone, even the US Department of Energy, burning coal is the dirtiest way we produce electricity and it is a leading source of global warming pollution.

Fortunately the people behind ThisIsReality.org have stepped up to remind us all that clean coal is nothing but hot air. Go to their site to learn more and remember that if you are in the USA, every time you turn on a light bulb you are burning a lump of coal.

It’s that time again fellas: Movember is upon us. And you know what that means. Moustaches for everyone - even if your main squeeze, girlfriend, wife, sister or daughter says you look like a 70s porn star. Why? Because Movember is prostate cancer awareness month, and by adorning your upper lip with some serious fur you are making your fellow men as well as their women aware of the fact that although less talked about, prostate cancer is actually more common than breast cancer!

Dabbler has been on hiatus for some time. Both Angela and myself have taken on some major projects that make it impossible to stay on top of this site as well. But since Movember is such a good cause we felt the least we could do was repost the video to get everyone in the mood for some mo-growin’.

For more information and to sign up go to Movember.com, then send your friends or loved ones who think you’ve gone insane here or to YouTube to watch the video. And while you’re at it you can read the original article after the jump.

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If you are a stuent yourself or know someone who is, listen up and listen good. Right now under the title The Ultimate Steal, Microsoft is offering Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for a rediculous $64 Canadian for all acredited students! That means a discount of about 91% off the regular price. The offer is also available in the USA and other countries and gives students an all important leg up when it comes to learning and using the ubiquitous office software package.

The Office Ultimate kit contains not only the staples such as Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint but also a series of tools that will greatly enhance learning and collaboration in the form of Groove, InfoPath and OneNote.

The name of this promotion couldn’t be more accurate; this truely is The Ultimate Steal. Makes me wish I was a student again just so I could get my hands on it. But be quick: Who knows how long this is going to last…

t’s back-to-school time and students the world over are being innundated with ads for the latest and greatest in PCs to help them through the coming year. Problem is with so many options it’s hard to figure out exactly what you need and what to get. Should I get a notebook or one of those new tiny netbooks? And what is a “desktop replacement”? Then there is the question of brand, processor, hard drive and other specs. I’m not surprised people are confused - people often turn to me as a tech expert and even I can’t come to a firm conclusion when it comes to buying a new notebook.

To help you get a better idea of what kind of computer you should get for school (whether you are a high-school student, at university or college or even a parent looking for something for your kid), here is Dabbler’s guide to buying a computer for school.

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Rather than provide our regular review of this steaming pile of putrid waste passed off as a movie, I’m kicking off this review with my own abbreviated version of the plotline for your amusement:

Spoiler Alert: By reading the following you are totally spoiling the movie. But seriously, you really shouldn’t watch this crap anyway.

Doomsday tells the story of an unfortunate British actor who mistakenly signs up as the lead character in what will become the worst massacre of an homage movie ever attempted. The beautiful and extremely fit ex-Lara Croft Rhona Mitra plays Major Eden Sinclair, orphaned when her native Scotland is ravaged by the horrendous and Ebola like Reaper virus. As the Scots perish the government decides the best solution to curb the pandemic is to build a wall that literally shuts the virus in. Rather than simply leaving the production at this point, Mitra stays on and her character Sinclair becomes a military specialist with inhuman fighting abilities and a remote controlled prosthetic camera eye. Which would be interesting if there was any point to it. But there is none. Sinclair is hired by the British Prime Minister (played by Dr. Julian Bashir who aparently found a time machine in Deep Space Nine) through acriminal political right-hand-man and her mentor Bob Hoskins. The task? It seems some Scots survived the isolation and are still roaming the desolate streets of Edinsburgh. Naturally Bashir wants to find them and an epidemiologist who were left behind so he can use them to find a cure for the Reaper virus that has mysteriously reappeared in the London slums.

Read on for the whole story and our thoughts…

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With the introduction of Windows Vista Home Premium with its built in PVR (Personal Video Recorder) capabilities, the PC has taken a giant step toward becoming a permanent fixture in your living room. But who wants a huge and ugly PC tower propped up next to their TV? Sure, there are custom Home Theatre PC cabinets for sale (at exorbitant prices) but they are designed with the HTPC enthusiast in mind and rarely find their way into the homes of normal people. But now all that is about to change.

Dell Studio Hybrid

This week Dell announced their newest offering: The Studio Hybrid. This computer marks a whole new chapter in the way PCs are designed and intended to be used. The Studio Hybrid is a tiny and sleek unit about the size of a regular external hard drive that has everything built in - massive hard drive space, DVD or Blu-Ray player, DVI and HDMI, digital audio and lots of other options. And not only is it small, it’s cheap and effective. The base model is selling for $499 (though if you want to use it as an HTPC you’ll end up spending over $800 for an upgraded model) and Dell claims it uses 70% less energy than a conventional PC.

But what makes this computer interesting is the incredibly small and stylish form factor. Its curved design is accentuated by the ability to choose between a multitude of colored shells including a real bamboo housing. It is also designed to be placed either horizontally or upright to accommodate any space. Finally it has a slot-in disc drive so there are no annoying disc trays that can pop out and break off.

As far as I can tell, the Studio Hybrid’s small design is achieved by using laptop parts. This would also explain the low power consumption and cost. Of course it also means that you are severely limited in upgrades and expansions: For one you cannot install a TV tuner card in the computer so if you want to use it as an HTPC you have to get a USB tuner card for it (can be added to the order during purchase from Dell.com) and you can expect the computer to become sluggish and hard to use after a couple of years.

Is the Studio Hybrid for me?

What are you looking for in a computer? If you want a basic computer to do web surfing and word processing that also looks nice, this is definitely a good and cheap option. In addition it also looks great on any desk or table and ups the coolness factor of your house. If you want a basic HTPC running Windows Vista Home Premium one with a few upgrades like a better processor, more ram, a bigger hard drive and the USB TV tuner will work splendidly. If you are doing hard core video editing however, you should look elsewhere.

Let me put it this way: If I didn’t already have several defunct computers lying around my house I would probably buy one of these and use it in my living room. Though I’d wait until around or right after Christmas to buy it to let the prices come down a bit. That way Dell will also have time to smooth out whatever kinks are present in the early models.

The rumors of our demise are slightly exaggerated!

You may have noticed the number of postings on Dabbler.ca has trickled down to almost zero over the last two months. We’ve gotten many queries about why that is and some even think Dabbler is now defunct. Things could not be farther from the truth. But in response to our virtual absence I think a short explanation is in order:

We’ve Been Working!

Over the last two months both Angela and myself have taken on huge projects through the Dabbler mothership Pink & Yellow Media. These projects have been extremely time consuming and have forced us to move this site down on the priority list leading to a sharp decrease in postings. Although Dabbler has become quite successful we still are not at a point where we can drop everything and focus entirely on the blog. Like Angela says:

We got to eat!

So what have we been working on you ask? I’m not going to tell you just yet but here’s a hint: You’ll most likely catch Angela’s work on American network television some time in the fall and Morten’s project will be in book stores world wide in mid October this year. Stay tuned for further updates.

YouTube Loves Dabbler Loves YouTube

In conjunction with the one year anniversary of Dabbler.ca our YouTube viewership hit the 2,000,000 mark (yes, that’s two million!) and we are now racking up about 200,000 new views per month. We were fortunate enough to be invited as one of the first Canadian publishers to be enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program and it has definitely paid off in both viewership and $$$. As a result of the sudden popularity of Dabbler videos on YouTube we are now planning to ramp up our video production.

To watch our videos and interact with other Dabbler fans on YouTube, visit the Dabbler.ca Channel.

Now that our time consuming outside projects are wrapping up we will be getting back to business and posting tons of new and exciting content for you to digest. Stay tuned!

When I saw an ad for Groomer Has It - that reality television show where pet groomers compete for start-up capital to get their business started - I scoffed. The contestants didn’t seem all too much brighter than their clients and bathing and combing pets looked more like fun than a talent or something to warrant their air of snootiness. Today I got to comb Muneca, an older Siberian Husky Cross, and it took forever and a half! I have just a little more respect for their profession now.

Muneca has a thick coat of black and cream hair that sheds like crazy when summer rolls around. I’m sure I had to clean out the brush well over 20 times before you could tell she even came close to a comb. She seemed to enjoy this long process though, as she first lay on her belly and then on her back and began to let out little snores.

This Siberian Husky Cross takes her time on walks and requires an occasional rest as she is still struggling to lose some extra weight. Muneca is a smart cookie whose listening skills are past ESL level and will wait for your approval before crossing a street. She is sometimes hesitant when meeting new people but warms up quickly if you show her a bit of love (and by that I mean pampering). Muneca would be a perfect companion for a retired senior who enjoys daily strolls, relaxing park bench views and doesn’t mind combing her coat while watching a bit of reality television.

For details on Muneca (Animal ID: 132535), click here.
BC SPCA Vancouver Shelter: 604 879 7721 or vancouver@spca.bc.ca

To read the profile of another dog, click here.

If there’s one person who knows a great swimsuit when she sees one, it’s 36 year old ex-supermodel and former Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition glamour girl Monika Schnarre. Coming out of her 15 year retirement from modeling, she is now the new spokesperson for Sea Queen. Never heard of the brand? Neither had I. That’s because the swimwear maker has just returned from a 10 year hiatus from the market. And why should we care? Because this is a brand specifically designed to fit and flatter women 35 and up and has figured out what makes the perfect swimsuit. Check out the video or click on to find out what the secret is! Get the whole story