Welcome to my kitchen and my blog!

Hello, my name is Ida Skivenes, and I started to make food art on Instagram under the username idafrosk in June 2012. The response has been incredible, and I really appreciate and enjoy communicating with my followers. I've just crossed the 10 000 followers mark, and this blog is my way of giving back a little bit. Below are some samples of my food art work, with pieces directed both at children and adults.

My purpose for starting this blog is to provide a bit more background for the food I make, so it will not feature instructions for every single Instagram food art piece but mostly more general posts. I plan to show you some ’behind-the-scenes’ photos, post recipes, make a few tutorials, feature inspirational photos made by others and things along that line. I hope this will be of interest to you! For the full range of food art pieces, it’s best to head over to my Instagram account, instagram.com/idafrosk. I’ve also added a selection of my favorite photos under ”Food art gallery” by the header. 

I start off by showing you where the ’magic’ happens, my tiny kitchen! It’s situated in a rented apartment in Oslo, Norway and is an authentic 50s mint colored dishwasher-less setup. Quite cute, quite small but a surprisingly workable space once you get used to it (dishwashing by hand will probably never really be a pleasure though). 

I focus on trying to keep the essential tools for cooking (any kind, not just breakfast) available quite freely so I don’t have to dig into the large cupboards and drawers all the time. Fruits that don’t require refrigeration are usually kept on a tiered glass plate just as you enter the room. Tomatoes, garlic and onion are in a bowl on top of the fridge.

Otherwise the fridge top holds a milk steamer and various bowls, among them this funny frog one. Idafrosk means ’the ida frog’, so it’s quite appropriate for me.  

A work table was added when we moved in because of the limited surface area. I do most food preparations here. 

The top of the table houses various vitamins, teas, oils and of course my Moomin tray. 

I usually keep a box of homemade granola available at all times, pictured here is a variation with walnuts and figs. My absolute favorite is roasted banana nut granola, perhaps I’ll post the recipe later on.

The table also has shelves where I keep my collection of grains, legumes and beans in addition to various nuts, seeds and dried fruit. The latter come in quite handy when I make food art.

 

A small collection of cookbooks rest on the lower shelf, however they are rarely used, as I find most recipes online nowadays. For food art cook books are pretty useless, I haven’t come across any really. I love cooking, and do quite a lot of it. I became a vegetarian 2 years ago, and focus on preparing healthy and delicious meals with seasonal ingredients when possible. This applies to both my breakfasts and the other meals.

The kitchen leads onto a sizable balcony and I simply love how the French doors allow so much light to stream in. When it’s possible (i.e. not in Winter when it’s dark until 10 am), I take most of my photos in front of the doors. Some of you will probably recognize the white floor.

 

Both the morning and afternoon sun visit my kitchen, and provide beautiful shadow play. I keep fairy lights up all year round, it adds such a homely glow to the room.

That was a quick tour of the premises, I hope you enjoyed it. A note at the end: this is my kitchen in its "ideal" state, most times it's a complete mess, haha. Next time I’m planning to show you what is useful to have in a basic food art pantry.

Love, Ida