The Norwegian mountain town of Røros (established in 1646) was burned to the ground between 1678-1679 by the Swedish Army who were, at the time, participating in the Scianian War (1674-1679), part of the Northern Wars between the Swedish Empire, Tsardom of Russia, Poland-Lithuania and Denmark-Norway (1554-1721). Fifty years later, during the Great Northern War (1700-1721), the Swedish Army found their way to Røros once again after General Reinhold Johan De La Barre took the town at gunpoint.

Røros had been well established as a copper mining town, and those valuable copper deposits were now as good as Swedish under De La Barre. The cruel General and his troops would leave town, however, in 1718 to rejoin others further north upon hearing of the death of Swedish King Carl XII, a move that would be the demise of 3,000 soldiers. While attempting to cross the mountains just northwest of the small mining town, the ill-prepared infantry fell victim to a severe snow storm. It was there, along the barren mountain slopes, that men froze to death in various positions, some walking, some crawling and others lying down.

The harsh Norwegian winter had exacted a frigid revenge on the army that had set many of its beautiful towns ablaze merely a half-century prior.

That’s pretty metal.

Relying heavily on its natural resources, Røros rebuilt, yet again, and to this day boasts about 80 historic wooden houses that survived the flames, prompting UNESCO to name it a World Heritage Site. It’s the location of the famous Røros Church, is one of Norway’s leading regions for locally produced food and is the natural home to a great population of reindeer.

It’s also, after traveling some 164 miles, my latest destination on the Oppdrag: Norge program! That means we have to celebrate with mat (food), so let’s do it!

Menu:

Cocktail: The Viking Mule

I was excited to make this one. We brought back the Stockholms Akvavit and combined it with lime juice, ginger beer and a new special ingredient: homemade pine simple syrup! Very easy, but impressive, I made a run-of-the-mill simple syrup, then snipped off a sprig of pine needles from a tree in our backyard. After cutting the needles in half, I let them steep in the simple syrup for about three hours, strained and refrigerated overnight. While I was initially a little afraid it would taste like Pine-Sol, my worries were unfounded.

I know Katie loves a good Mule and I was excited to finally get to use our copper mugs. Katie usually makes our cocktails so this is all new to me! The fresh lime and rosemary garnish made this drink beautiful and the flavor was every bit the same. The sweet earthiness from the syrup with the floral notes in the Akvavit went very well with the lime and the fizz from the ginger beer. This may have been my favorite cocktail from the whole project so far.

I maybe had three last night.

Hovedrrett (Main Course): Hjortekjott (Venison Tenderloin) med Marinerte Søtpoteter (Marinated Sweet Potatoes), Kremet Fennikel (Creamed Fennel) og Soppsaus (Mushroom Sauce)

If you go to the link for this recipe, you may quickly notice that much of this is not at all the recipe. For starters, the creamed fennel was supposed to be creamed celeriac but I couldn’t find any. I did a quick Google search while standing in the middle of my local produce section to see what would be comparable and came across fennel, of which there was plenty. The recipe called for a single celeriac, so I just guessed with three heads of fennel. It boils until tender, drained, then creamed with milk, cream and butter with an immersion blender. The flavor was wonderful — REALLY good, actually — but I think I may have added a bit too much liquid. The outcome was a bit soupy for my liking, so I just used it more like a garnish.

My next edit was switching out the marinated beets with sweet potatoes. It goes without saying, Katie and I are not picky eaters and there isn’t much we won’t eat (or at least try). But one thing neither of us can stand is beets. We’ve tried, tried again, experimented with different versions … it’s just a no. With this recipe, I did everything the exact same only with red sweet potatoes and they were magnificent! I baked until tender, then marinated for about six hours in a combination of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, raspberry balsamic vinegar and fresh thyme. I can’t tell from the recipe, but it never mentions reheating them, leading me to believe they’re served either chilled or at room temperature. That didn’t sound good to me, so just before serving everything else, I tossed them in a skillet with a tiny bit of butter to reheat. The combination of balsamic vinegars gave this potatoes a beautiful tang and I loved every bite of them! I kind of want to make this on the regular now.

The mushroom sauce was done exactly as written. I did expect it to be a little thicker, but the flavor was A+. For serving, I poured a bit over the creamed fennel and created a little “bed” on which to rest the venison. I had thought about topping the venison with it, but it came out way too pretty to cover up with gravy.

Finally, the venison was supposed to be reindeer (technically still venison, I guess), but good luck getting reindeer in East Tennessee! I had banked on going down to my deep freeze to pull out a couple of venison backstraps but, to my horror, we didn’t have a single one. My venison hookup is my parents’ basement freezer, but at this point, I didn’t have the time to drive to Kingsport. I also couldn’t justify the trip for two pieces of meat. I called every butcher shop in Knoxville and, interestingly enough, most don’t offer any venison, and the ones that do, only offer ground.

Fortunately, I work with a guy who owns and operates a barbecue food truck, so I asked him if he knew where I could get wild game and he informed me I wouldn’t find it locally. However, he did point me to Nashville-based business Wild Fork who sells — and ships — anything from beef and poultry to elk, bison, alligator and, yes, venison tenderloin. It was a little pricy, but I was able to find the tenderloin and it was shipped to my house in two days. Worth it.

The tenderloins were beautiful and about a pound each. They were packaged very well and were perfectly still frozen when they arrived on my front porch on Friday. I veered from the recipe a bit here, too, as I did a reverse sear, choosing to bake in the oven on a low temperature until they were about 10 degrees below rare, then finished on the stovetop in a cast-iron skillet. The sear process involved sunflower oil (my first time using) and a combo butter that included whole garlic cloves and fresh thyme that I used for basting during the sear. This process maybe took three minutes before the tenderloin landed on a cutting board and was cut into beautiful medallions. If you’ve never treated yourself to a perfectly cooked venison tenderloin, do yourself a favor.

Dessert: Eple “Julekake” (Apple “Christmas Cake”)

Wow. What a beautiful cake!

This recipe combines a classic “Christmas Cake” with an Apple Cake and I loved the marriage. The main part of the cake recipe is pretty classic: eggs, sugar, butter, flour, etc. but it got exciting from there! The batter included the zest of a large orange, bringing in that citrus aspect of the classic Christmas cake. In the batter and arranged on the top were four granny smith apples that I sliced thinly and a good amount of raisins that I marinated in Akvavit for about half an hour.

Another beautiful dessert that was also another “I’ve never had anything like this” experience. The cake was perfectly moist and I loved how PACKED with apples this was! The little bit of citrus came through and those boozy raisins put it over the top. As I finished my slice, I was already looking forward to having some with my morning coffee, which I’ll be doing after I publish this.

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This leg included the final half-marathon training runs, the half-marathon itself, several roadblocks and delays, and a return to running post-race for your humble narrator. It was the longest leg of the entire trip, which is astonishing but also kind of a relief to get through. The next destination is Trondheim, about 96 miles northwest of Røros. I’ll be getting there through my weekly runs and walks (about 12 miles per week) and twice-weekly cycling (six miles per week), so I don’t think it will take too long before we’re doing this again!

As with the update from Oslo to Lillehammer, the mileage wasn’t precise within the week, so I’m going to carry over the excess mileage (a little more than 12 miles) into the next leg. Anyway, here’s the final tracker for the Rørors leg!

Road Trip Tracker
Road Trip Mileage	Total Mileage	Percentage Complete
1,284.37	301.198	23.45%
Miles to Roros	Leg Mileage	Percentage Complete
164.042	164.042	100%
Date	Type	Distance (Miles)
4/9/2025	Post-Race Walk	3.1
4/11/2025	Post-Race Walk	3.1
4/15/2025	Strength Day Cycle	3
4/15/2025	Weekday Run	3.1
4/17/2025	Weekday Run	3.1
4/18/2025	Strength Day Cycle	3
4/19/2025	Weekend Long Run	6.2
4/22/2025	Strength Day Cycle	3
4/22/2025	Weekday Run	3.28
4/24/2025	Weekday Run	3.1
4/25/2025	Strength Day Cycle	3
4/26/2025	Weekend Run	3.1
4/27/2025	Weekend Walk	3.1

95.6912 Miles to Trondheim!

Alltid Videre!

-JTF