Refrigerator Rolls (the Danish recipe)

Here is another easy bead recipe. They were served to me at a friend's house as part of lunch for sandwiches. She told me how easy the recipe was, so then I of course I had to have it.

I made it last weekend for our guests. Fresh baked bread for breakfast with Den Gamle Fabrik jam (this time rose hips flavor). Yummy...and so Danish. They (this being my MIL and her friend) said that the recipe sounded like what they'd call refrigerator rolls. Isn't it funny, everything I want to do - line dry cloths, have chickens in my backyard, bake my own bread - are the things my MIL used to do almost as necessity way back when.


Refrigerator Rolls

3 deciliter oats
7 deciliter warm water
5 grams yeast (just a tiny bit of the yeast cube)
650 grams flour (she likes to use half white and half grahamsmel)
2 teaspoons salt
2 dessert spoons unrefined sugar (or brown sugar)

Mix all the ingredients together and place bowl in fridge (or outside) overnight. In the morning mix again, and then let the dough warm up. Place blobs onto papered pan, sprinkle blobs with water and add desired topping (sesame is my favorite). Bake at 240 degrees for 18 minutes with the fan on.

Now that I've made these twice, I've learned that letting the dough warm a bit is important, and having the fan on is also important.

I got my grocery shopping done bright and early yesterday morning - I knew the holiday rush would be crazy later on in the day. The country will only be shut down for one day - but by the way people shop, you'd think it was shutting down for two weeks. The only thing I can compare it to is when a BIG BIG Minnesota snowstorm is anticipated - that kind of grocery store shopping. Like the snow will *actually* keep you stranded in the house for more than a day (or two).


I don't know why this makes me so happy, but it does. Maybe its just one less thing to worry about over the weekend.

Eggless Cupcakes

Last week's food had some good and bad points. The high point may have been the eggless cupcakes baked by a friend specifically for my son (including the as-requested green frosting). Have I said before that I don't bake? I had one (or two) of these, and they were goo-ood, so I'm going to share her recipe.


Easy Cinnamon Cake

120 g melted butter
400 g sugar
½ L kærnemælk (buttermilk)
400 g flour
2 tsp natron (baking soda)
4 tsp cinnamon, optional

Melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan. Pour them into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Mix. Bake ½ hr at 200 C.

Friend's Notes:

This is a handwritten recipe, which I was given from a Danish woman from my mother's group six years ago. I have made it with the cinnamon many years ago and it's delicious. Yesterday for the Easter party, I made it without the cinnamon, not knowing if Peter liked cinnamon or not. I also thought about adding a tsp of vanilla at the time but didn't. It would probably benefit from a bit of vanilla if you don't add the cinnamon or some other flavoring.

If you don't have kærnemælk on hand, it is very easy to make. Pour 1 tsp. vinegar in a 1 cup measuring cup. Fill with milk. Let stand 5 minutes.

This recipe calls for ½ L kærnemælk which is just a little over 2 cups, so I followed the directions above for making my own. And I just did it first in the mixing bowl, before I melted the butter and sugar. Then it was ready by the time the rest of the ingredients were ready to mix.

I have made it years ago as a cake in a spring form. Yesterday I made it as cupcakes - it yields 20-24. It took roughly 15 minutes for the cupcakes to bake in a preheated oven. It could certainly also be made as a cake which sculpts builds into some shape, the texture is fairly easy to cut through.

Then I got all sick, so sick I couldn't keep my eyelids open - even with my 5 yr old screaming into my face...so that took up rest of my week. Because of being ill, I had to miss a rare mommy lunch (no kids, no men). B-ummer. Last night, My husband ended up making the vegetarian egg rolls that I was planning on bringing to the lunch. They turned our very pretty this time around, and I'm sure they were fabulous, but my palate was just not responding.


So I've said I didn't bake. Well today I decided to. We are getting together with friends. Just a picnic at our favorite park to let the boys play together. I thought about buying something, but then we always have a problem finding cakes without eggs. So I broke out trusty old Betty Crocker and made her coffee cake recipe with flax in place of eggs. It looks nice, I hope it tastes nice too.


Why didn't I make the raved about recipe given above? I have NO idea. I sit her writing this post and wonder, where has my mind gone?

*Happy* Valentine's Day?

I was looking through my son's notebook the other day and came across this. I wonder what he was feeling - its possible he had a rough day at bornhaven (and that's why he doesn't go there anymore).


Valentine's dinner was general northern European fare. Medister sausage in a brown gravy (Danish) served with knodel (German) and broccoli (is it *American* to always have some veggies on the side?). The reason behind this dinner was simply that my husband asked why I hadn't bought a medister in a while. So then feeling guilty that my old farm boy wasn't getting enough meat of late, I told him to go to the store and get himself a 2-foot long sausage, and I'd cook it for him.


After eating on it, it was déjà vu all over again...that medister tasted *ok* but what's that somewhat familiar yet still unidentifiable flavor that they put in there? And those knodel freak me out just a little every time I cook them. Plastic bags of freeze-dried ??, that become moist when boiled (in the bag). But, my husband loves the things so every once in a while...

Valentine gifts all around were plant related. I picked up some *mini greenhouses* for Rich. It just seeds in soil, in an itty bitty box, but that's all we have room for anyway. I got a daffodil bulb/plant (and some wine), and Peter got to pick out some cacti and make himself a desert. He wants a pet but we don't have room for that either.


I'm also starting my stockpile of carrot (and other) seeds. Every store has their own different selection, lots of different prices, so it will be interesting to see what produces and what doesn't.


Aren't those multi-colored carrots just beautiful? I'm a big fan of the long and skinny Danish radishes, and those really fresh, small white and red onions that come out in the springtime.

Spouts Day 4

Well, the sprouts sprouted.


Now we need to eat the rest up, and soon. I don't think that they stay good for very long. A bread with sprouts in it sounds good to me right now. Other than that, I think the husband put some on his sandwich this morning.

Is it spring yet?

Rich wanted to make tamales this weekend. It was a toss up between a pork verde or a red chicken sauce. I can get a decent whole chicken almost anywhere. I can only get the rolled pork loin at one place that I know of - Bilka. On a normal day I simply hate Bilka. Thinking of walking into Bilka on a Saturday makes my mind just shut down. So chicken it was.

After a day in the kitchen (mostly for Rich) we were about tamale-ied out. When you make tamales you don't just make a few. Which in the end is ok, since now we have a few bags in the freezer for sometime later.


Lots of cabin fever going on, and you can only knit or play Uno so much. Unfortunately, my selection of books lately sucks. I've had How To Be Good by Nick Hornby following me around for two weeks now. I finally super skimmed through it last night. (For me - super skimming is reading only a few paragraphs and the end page - as opposed to just skimming - which is reading a bit on every page.) Anyway - I'm glad I super skimmed. It got good reviews, and maybe if you like this author you'll like his books (he also wrote Shakespeare Wrote for Money...and lots others), but it just wasn't working for me.

Cloth Girl didn't even get a super skim through. It might have made a good week long English TV drama. But it was reading a bit too much like a soap opera. So I quit on that one too.

Tonight Fred & Edie is either going to draw me in, or its getting a super skim too.

I don't mind giving up on a book if it doesn't make me want to read it. There are so many out there, why put forth the effort. My husband is the opposite. If he starts reading something, and finds out that its written poorly or is just plain boring, he still won't stop. Doesn't want to have *wasted* that initial time he put into it I guess.

11 SuperFoods

LINK The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

I knew about the cabbage (and have been trying to get my 5 yr old eating it -unsuccessfully so far). We love it served raw on top of Mexican food, and I sometimes keep a bag of cut up cabbage in the fridge to put on sandwiches, eggs, whatever.

Netto had fresh blueberries out today - I scooped those babies up fast. Blueberries are only starting to become popular over here.

And I have turmeric in the cupboard, but rarely use it. I might have to start adding it to any vegetable stir-fry from now on.

One I didn't know about, and am a little afraid of, is sardines. I think I might try them out as a spread.

Sprouts?

Bean sprouts sold at regular groceries in the US generally consist of only the stem and leaf parts. But here in DK, you can get them with the soft bean hanging off the end. I know they are healthy-good-for-you, but I've never bought them. What can I say, I'm cheap. I'd rather not spend $5 (or 25 Kr) on a little pack of fresh garbanzo beans.

But now that I've seen this video, what the heck - I think I'll try my own. Plus they shouldn't need sunlight (totally void in DK) since a seed would normally germinate in the soil.

Stationary

As in stationary bicycle - not pretty paper.

We've pretty much stayed put this week. Peter is taking it easy (as much as a 5 year old can) so that his arm/shoulder can heal. Lots of TV, puzzles, and games. No drawing - he busted the arm he normally uses for that. Maybe today I'll try to get a shirt on him so that we can at least go out for a walk.

And I've been sick the last few days; which has rapidly depleted my stash of NyQuil, and made me break out a box of Kleenex (Kleenex and paper towels are only used in the specialist of circumstances here). Yesterday I mustered up the energy to make myself some chicken and dumplings. This is something I make maybe once a year, and so each year I seem to repeat the same mistakes.

1) I didn't want to overdo the amount of broth, but in the end I would have liked to have more *soup*. The dumplings sucked up a pretty good amount of my liquid really.

2) And I always add the carrots and celery too soon, so they get pretty soft. I need to cook the chicken by itself for a bit before adding the veggies. But for some reason I always forget this.

Even so, it was pretty good, and it satisfied my sick frame of mind that tells me to eat chicken soup of some sort.




And I'm totally in LOVE with my MP3 player. While Peter watches a movie, I'll listen to a podcast and knit. Favorite shows lately are In The Loop and Yarncraft. The NPR Podcast Directory has ALL their shows just waiting for me to download them - its like I've discovered a whole new library.

This is my latest knit. It will also be given as a gift.

Scrambling

It's Pete's birthday today. Since I don't bake, my husband does the cakes around here, and he likes to get fancy. Conservatively he spent over 6 hours yesterday making Cake #1 which was brought to daycare today. Its R2D2.


He also cooked cake # 2 yesterday, which he will be frosting tonight for the playgroup party. I've been planning and gathering things for this party for a good three weeks now. Stuff is hard to find here, plus its harder for me to find things since this "isn't really my thing" (party planning). You know all those people who you see on TV, shopping for a new home, and they need a giant kitchen cause *they like to entertain*...that's not me. I like cook and share my food, but not under such make-or-break situations.

Anyway, I chose to make these two things for tomorrow which I've just started preparing (then I decided I needed a coffee break and here I am). For the Moms Only (kids get the standard...fruit, veggies, bread, butter...) I'm making:

1. Cilantro & lime pesto, which I'll serve along side some nice wheat øko french bread. I take a good bunch of cilantro, and about a half bunch of flat leaf parsley and food processor that with olive oil, garlic, and lime juice. I taste it all along the way because the lime can become overpowering quickly. This sauce is great on white fish too.

2. Bulgar salad with chickpeas, roasted peppers, and spiced cumin dressing (from A Year in a vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop). Why this recipe? I had everything I needed to make this salad except lemons and cayenne pepper - both of which were easy to get.

Soon to be pesto.


Roasting peppers.


Here is a pic of the Mexicansk chicken that I cooked up last weekend. I'd never tried one of the pre-seasoned birds before. It was fine, not really any flavors to really pull out other than maybe paprika and salt. It was very juicy, but I think that that's because it was brined or something. I put clementines under the skin - heard that one on the radio. Not bad, but overall not special enough to buy again.


The peppers seem cool enough to peel, so now its back to cooking. And after that, the night will be spent crafting party decorations. I am sick to death of Wally or pirates for boy party decorations, so I've opted to make my own. So far, they are not bad - not perfect - but hey. It seems like I've put more effort into this thing than my own wedding.

Oh yeah, one more thing.


Isn't it nice. I got it at the DanMission today for 3 kronner (60 cents)! I like the bog berry theme, and it will make a nice fruit dish.

Joanna's Red Lentil Soup

This is a recipe from a friend - Joanna. She has an old (possibly English) bean cookbook - a little treasure that you probably can't get anymore.

Here is the recipe in her words (email).

2 serving spoons butter
2 garlic cloves: crushed
1 large onion; chopped

Into a saucepan and fry x3 mins, add 1/2 tsp turmeris, 1 tsp garamasala, 1/4 tsp chilli pwd, 1 tsp cumin pwd, and fry x30 secs. Add 2 tins chopped tomato, 1 tin coconut milk, 1 cup red lentils, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 2 1/2 cup veg.boullion. Bring to the boil and simmer x30 mins. Blend.

Its just fabulous. Finally having remembered to buy garam masala, I made it last night and served batsmati rice and garlic shrimp on the side. Its just as filling served with a good bread.


And, I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to let any food go to waste here. In the states our garbage was always filled with old veggies and whatever else. My biggest problem when we left for Christmas vacation was that I had a whole zucchini in the fridge that I just couldn't bear to chuck.

So the other day having the limp center part of a bunch of celery, leek tops, and the butt ends of the carrots I was peeling, I decided to make some vegetable broth. After it cooled, I put it into the plastic ice cube baggies that they have here. Next time I hope to plan ahead and use some small tupperwares or something.

Do Tha Moves

This is a commercial that had me entranced (not many do, I'm a hard sell). I could only find the UK version on You Tube. I think it works better for me in Danish, since I don't understand what they are saying, and I could just bop happily along to the music.



Those green people make me think of the people that Crake (of Oryx & Crake) invented before destroying the world (well, except that these guys are green and the Crake people were blue).

What can I say. Its been a long day, and yesterday was worse (an allergy provocation for Peter). Today was playgroup and swimming. I was supposed to make a *mommy salad* which is good with me, except that the recipe I chose required cooked potatoes, which I though I would do this morning, which of course put me behind schedule, because I just can't get out of bed in this darkness.

The recipe was:
Warm, sauteed, cubed potatoes mixed with un-cooked red & yellow peppers, green olives, capers, parsley, and vinaigrette dressing and served on top of a bed of spinach. Generally it was well liked - except for those moms that dislike green olives.

Playgroup:
We lost one kid (temporarily) during outdoor time at the playground. I can see how it happened. He isn't a regular, and so far prefers bornhaven to us, and then at some point he just decided to walk home to mom (only one block away, and she was home cleaning up dishes, and luckily this is DK). But still, not a great thing to have happen.

Random Danish Stuff

While out and about on Monday I noticed that one of our tires was really really low. And the last thing I want is to break down somewhere - I have no idea who to call, what to do.

I pulled into the nearest gas station and they had this nifty little air pump that filled your tire until it was full, and then beeped. We don't have these in the US - but we definitely should. And, unbelievably, it was free.


German style pretzels were baked by the guys this weekend (I don't bake). They got really nice and fluffy using the active yeast that they sell here - which is another thing they should sell in the US but don't, probably because not enough people bake bread often enough.

Blah + Soooo Good = Nummy

Last night I combined the so-so leftovers of my tamale pie experiment, with the really yummy leftovers of my red braised pork, to make an overall good dinner.

The Tamale Pie
It was beans with pepper, onions, spices, and a masa corn topping. Both the bean part and the topping were on the dry side. I would add more diced tomatoes (or tomato sauce) and cheese if I were to make it again.


The Braised Pork in Red Sauce.
I had made this before for Danish dinner guests and at that time I held back on the spices. This time added hefty lumps of chipotle, cumin, paprika, and clove. The clove is the kicker for this dish. Its a surprise flavor, and it works wonderfully.



So for the leftovers I scraped of the cornmeal topping and chucked it. Then added the bean pie part to remaining red sauce. Ate it like tacos. Nummy, nummy.

I finished up with The Time traveler's Wife last night. Really, I just skimmed through the last 200 pages. I kinda wanted to know the basic what-happened, but I did not want the details. I am trying to think of the main thing that turned me off, and its probably that I don't know why they were so into each other in the first place.

Its kind of like being trapped on a deserted island, with a guy that is 40 years older than you, and, having nothing better around, you fall madly in love with him. But then luckily, you meet him again a few years later, you're off the island, and he's younger so the sex isn't so icky.

My 1st duck breast

Duck is a popular holiday dish here in DK. I'd seen lots of whole duck in the freezer cases, and I know that any game (duck, pheasant, venison) can taste wonderful if cooked properly. But I had zippo experience with duck. And at around $40 per bird,I just wasn't willing to try out my luck.

But then around Thanksgiving I think, I picked up two frozen duck breasts for about $7. And then they sat in my freezer until yesterday.

I used these instructions for pan cooking the breasts.


Cooking them fatty side down first.


The fat does just melt off, see how much smaller it is. And the kitchen smelled wonderfully like turkey - roasting turkey.


After a quick cook on the no-skin side, I popped them into the oven to cook them through. I took them out when the *looked* done, and just to see I checked their internal temp which was 156. I'd read 125 degrees was done, and I'd read 160 was done. These were cooked, but still tender and juicy. Really yummy, I wish I had bought more.


I served them up along side zucchini & mushrooms, and sauteed potatoes, onions, carrot, and celery.


I think duck is considered healthy when the skin is taken off. But is was golden and crisp, so I left it on.

Back in Dk, and already a bit disgruntled. First thing on my list for the day was renewing my bus pass. I arrived at the mall info booth at about 9:55. One other lady was already sitting and waiting on a bench *near* the booth. So I sat down too at the bench next to hers. Another lady came by and stood again *near* the booth, but not so close as to cause the other woman and I concern. (You see, we were eyeing each other up, me...and two old ladies.)

The lady behind the booth began to raise the screen, and along comes a couple...and they just saunter up to the counter like everyone else is invisible. No eye contact, no nothing. So passive aggressively Danish.

However, I won't rant any more on what I expect Danes to do. Instead I'll note that I'm pleasantly surprised by the fact that the second Danish woman, the one that arrived after me, asked me if I'd like to go ahead of her. I said "Nej, Tak* of course. Courtesy like that should be rewarded.

How about food? I managed to fit four cans of tomatillos in our baggage. Last night I decided to make Sopes with a verde sauce. The sopes are basically very thick masa pancakes. The sauce was ground beef, tomatillos, onion, carrots, yellow and green peppers, and garlic along with *salsa* seasoning. We topped them with cheddar cheese, slightly marinated yet still crunchy cabbage (olive oil, salt, and crushed pepper), and taco sauce.



The night before I was able to use one of my Christmas presents - a veggie steamer. (This is better because even though the food from the bamboo one tastes ok, the house got an odd smell from the steaming of the bamboo itself.)


With the cauliflower I decided to try out a recipe that a friend of mine uses on her kids. I steamed the cauliflower, and then mashed it with my food masher, and then mixed that with cheese, butter, and noodles - to make a sort of fake mac-n-cheese. It wasn't Peter's favorite, but he ate it.

The one thing I really want to continue when we move back to the US is our healthy diet. Lots of fruit and veggies, smaller portion sizes, eating non-processed foods, and easy on the junk...No more regular purchases of pop, pop tarts, Cheetos, or *fruit* snacks.

And although I still crave some conveniences from the US (like canned soup), the easy to make meals at the grocery didn't entice me this trip, and I was very aware of where the food was coming from. Like, did you know lots of regular apple juice comes from China??? No thanks, I'll pass on that.

Soup?

There are very few options for pre-made soup in DK. They have a nice selection of frozen soups, but they are sold in family size bags. What I miss are the one-to-two size servings of canned soups. Especially when you're feeling a little under the weather, and just need a little bowl of chicken noodle to make you feel better.


This was my evening snack the other night. One of my favorite extremely easy appetizer-like recipes. Dark pumpernickel bread, topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion, and capers.


Christmas Eve day, Rich and I stopped at Chipotle and shared a carnitas burrito. So good.


And Christmas Eve dinner was prime rib, crab legs, cheesy potatoes, and salad. My mom and dad did a little recipe research and settled on the coarse-salt crusted way to cook the prime rib. The salt basically stops the juices from leaking out while its cooking. And that makes sense to me, knowing how the salt molecule hydrates. The end result was a very tender and juicy piece of meat, with a nice salt flavor on the edge.

They should have sent a poet...

Its only the produce area at Cub Foods, but to my dull grocery eyes it was a sparkly solar system.



Earlier that day we had gone out to a nature learning center to visit Santa (who incidentally knew all about the pig riding Julemand and Nisse). After which Rich and I went to a ... restaurant. We had an assortment of chicken wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. I also had a lovely looking bloody Mary.

I don't quite know what the server girl thought of me when I had trouble responding to her "would you like BBQ, Ranch, or blue cheese dressing with that" question. Oh yeah - salad dressing, I'm starting to remember now...but to her, I just barely managed to mumble out "b-b-blue cheese please".

We were at the grocery gathering stuff for Rich's turkey brine and bake. Although we cooked that big-ol turkey for the Expat Thanksgiving, we restrained ourselves at home and didn't nibble on it. We also didn't get to keep any leftovers. So we still hadn't totally had our turkey fix for the season.




I've finished up a few presents that I had hanging out there. I picked up a six pack of beer to go with the cozies I knit in Gopher colors for a brother in law.



And I "finished up" some fabric fridge frames that I'm also giving out as gifts. From Denmark I brought the cut-out cardboard *frames* and online ordered the photo prints. And here I picked up the fabric, felt, glue, magnets, and photos...and assembled it all. I think they turned out pretty good, considering I rarely do crafts. But I Took the Handmade Pledge and there was no turning back.



From my earlier wish list:
I haven't taken a hot bath yet, but we went swimming yesterday and I spent some nice time in the bubbling hot tub.
I still need to (and definitely will) hit Chipotle. With the below zero weather (in F), the salad bar at Byerly's isn't calling me so much anymore.
And we've had a good snow storm along with daily doses of sun.