Food & Thoughts

So I know the theme this Wednesday was Tarts & Pies - sweet and savory. And I had everything all planned out, I had found the tart I wanted to do (seeing Cathy had, on proposing the theme, called dibs on Barrett's Mexican Black Bean Tart ) My tart of choice was the fabulous Alsatian Onion Tart from the equally fabulous Molly at Orangette . I love Molly's writing (so poetic and image-conjuring!), and almost each and everyone of her recipes send me drooling. Which was exactly what happened this time. My attention got diverted away from the tart, and on to this: Shortbread Waffles . I mean, come on! You know I'm on a waffle frenzy , that iron has to be put to good use - and this was sugar, butter, sugar, flour, sugar, eggs (almost quoting Barrett there!) - and a generous drizzle of syrup on top. They were terrific. They have that snap and a little bit of crunch, just like - well, shortbread! They're sweeeeet, no doubt, but they truly work. Molly's suggestion of...

You'd think these were your regular old bread crumbs - okay, regular old Japanese bread crumbs anyways. Think again. Flip the bag over... You don't see it? Here, take a closer look: They're the CRUMBS OF DREAD !!! OH NO!!!! RUN! HIDE!!;-)

You're probably not going to believe this, but I've never had a real cupcake. Not one that I knew was a cupcake, anyways. I've had plenty of muffins, ranging from the saw-dusty store-bought type, to the beautifully, light-crumbed, stuffed with goodness homemade kind. I prefer the latter! So naturally, my joy was genuine when I heard that Maki was hosting this round of IMBB? and had chosen the magnificent theme of My Little Cupcake - or Muffin! I had to make myself my first ever cupcake... So I went through ALL of my books, searching high and low for the one, the only, the CLASSIC cupcake. I searched the net, I asked around. Finally, I decided what to me would be the cupcake - the one to end my ignorance. I think the reason why I never tried them was that they just seemed too simple. It's butter. Sugar. Flour. Eggs. That's about it. And then a wicked layer of more butter and sugar on top, of course. Wouldn't that all just be, dare I say it? - too much?? The Ma...

I can't begin to fathom the amount of new food blogs popping up here and there and everywhere! It really is amazing and I'm very impressed with the love and care put into each and every one of them. Cheers to you and keep up the good work! The Sugar High Friday this time around was hosted by Debbie and introduced me to an INSANE amount of food blogs I've never visited before. Not all of them entirely new, I know, I know - I'm just sooo slow! Anyways, one of the several that caught my eye was Lex Culinaria , written by a female lawyer "deported" from Melbourne to Edmonton. She makes fantastic food I tell ya, and has a handy index that I immediately ran through. (Sorry, but I couldn't find her name on the site - I'll just call her Lex - I hope that's okay?!) As if that isn't enough, she's got another blog too - and she's funny! Take a look at this one for instance! And I found this wonderful sounding thingy, fitting perfectly with thi...

I was reading this post over at Julie's on the exact same night I had had this for dinner: grilled aubergine/eggplant in thick slices, drizzled with a little yoghurt and date-syrup. Up until recently - in fact, I guess still now - I didn't like the idea of sweet and savory together. Well, you live to learn I suppose! Cut aubergine in thick slices . I like using a grill pan for the right criss-cross pattern to show on the grilled slices, but you could also bake the slices in a, say 170 C hot oven for 15-20 minutes. Either way, I wouldn't bother with oiling them. Leave to cool just a bit, then drizzle with yoghurt (I used a Greek kind which was sorta thick, so I stirred it with a splash of milk) and date-syrup . You could substitute the syrup with maple syrup or honey - I tried it with maple and the slight smokiness goes really well with the charred aubergines. A good grind of pepper , sprinkle of Maldon salt , and a generous handful of chopped parsley . That's it - ...

It just wont go away, that Sugar High Friday - and it most certainly wont this Friday, 'cause the theme is Stuck on You - it's caramel! Ingeniously thought up by Debbie at Words to Eat by , this months installation's got you whipping out those pans, burning those fingers and ruining those rubber spatulas! Except for me. Hold on, hold on - you really didn't think I'd stay away from a Sugar High Friday, did you? Well, think again - if you thought I stayed away, 'cause OF COURSE I didn't. Au contraire, I've been known to do a double take ! And I like caramel. I do. But I LOVE it's cousin, dulce de leche. So I asked Debbie if she would allow using this sweetened, milky, caramel-cousin - and she said YES! We-hey! Then I knew exactly what to make! A couple of years ago, living in London, having not as much money as we could've wished to spoil ourselves with, the Boyfriend and I took to buying each other little gifts instead of just buying oneself pre...

Breakfast. The most important meal of the day - or so they tell you, even in medical school. I know this. I know this. Still, I find it VERY hard to eat anything before 8 o'clock in the morning - actually I find it very hard to eat anything before I've been awake for about an hour and a half. So you just go figure out how much breakfast I actually eat. On the week-ends, no problemo - maybe that's because breakfast turns into brunch, and then there are so many things to do! Like this - or this - or maybe even this ?? Brunch for me has got to involve eggs, one way or the other. So I figured - where better to find something I could do for this weeks Dining with the Bloggers than clicking each and every entry entered for the fast-growing - dare I call it food-blogging event? - or should it be anti-event?;-)- that is EoMEoTE! - End-of-Month Eggs on Toast Extravaganza! Invented by Jeanne and Anthony , it is now on to it's fifth installment . I've never actually joine...

quote: Donkey in the animated movie Shrek . Making waffles was what I did - not tomorrow, but Sunday morning for breakfast. You see, my sweety-pie of a Boyfriend, found this: on sale a couple of months ago, and I thought it about time that I inaugurated it. That, and okay, there was no more bread to eat for breakfast! I used a recipe found at the King Arthur Flour site - I was introduced to this site by Fae of TinyFork (where are you Fae? Are you still there? I miss you!) and they have all sorts of cool recipes ! In Denmark we don't have King Arthur Flour, but hey, my guess is I wouldn't run out to the store to get some even if we did! I just used my regular ole organic flour. They have a TON of different recipes for waffles, but the one I liked the sound of was the Classic Buttermilk Waffle . I had buttermilk in the fridge, just waiting to be used, and I liked the fact that the recipe didn't overdose on eggs. I wanted a plain, no frills waffle for my first batch. As it w...

What's in a cookie? A cookie by any other name would be just as - good! In this little household, there's is only one, only this one - THE Chocolate Chip Cookie. The recipe is from Bill Granger - hey!, you say - I thought chocolate chip cookies was the epitome of American baking and Bill Granger is GASP! Australian! Well, I'm sorry -but this man makes the best chocolate chip cookie I know, and the only chocolate chip cookie to pass the lips of my man. Maybe that's a lie - but it is the one he likes the best! I do think we are somewhat weird in the cookie-preference region though. I like my cookies soft, almost melting and on the brink of not baked in the middle. Yes, I do eat the cookie dough too - how could I not!? Bad habit, bad habit - but I wouldn't want to waste the batter left in the bowl and okay, I'll sacrifice myself and my stomach. You have to build a resistance to those darn salmonella bacterias, don't ya? Here it is: Chocolate Chip Cookies - Fr...

I bet Cathy never saw this coming, but in proposing the theme of Muffins and/or Cupcakes, I had already secretly decided what I wanted to do - and I really didn't know we had an IMBB coming up with the exact same theme! Anyway - Cathy and My Little Kitchen's contribution to SHF # 3 , the spice edition was what I liked. Ever since I read her entry on " Auntie Bee's Cardamom Apricot Muffins " I wanted to make them - I'm not particularly fond of dried apricots, but this just had that ring to it that I thought might convince me of the joys of apricots. I generally find them way to sweet, and in a very perfume-y way - you can't escape the taste, it overpowers everything - well, sometimes, to me at least. The recipe is great in that it only makes 6 medium-sized muffins - while I love sweets and cakes as much as the next woman, it just sometimes annoy me having dozens of cakes lying around - we all know who ends up eating those, eih? On to it - I guess what ap...

... not on my behalf hopefully, but Diane just pointed me to the Amateur Gourmet's clips of - well, he's done a lot of FUNNY stuff and I've been rolling on the floor laughing for the past half hour. I know, I know, Adam's not exactly new around the food-blogging scene (In fact he won the 2004 Food Blog Award in the Humor category and just had his 1.000.000th visitor!), but I (ignorant me) never saw these before - so if you haven't either, go check the link and all of the clips he's hiding in the left hand bar... Now, go LAUGH!!

(For an updated version - with better pictures! - please check this post .) So you're probably going: why on EARTH would I want to slave over my own chilisauce, when there are so many nice brands out there, that are even cheap? Well, I for one do, simply because this is the best one I've ever had. The taste may not be as the commercial kind, here you can taste every single ingredient - maybe I'm not able to taste the galangal from the ginger, but I know it's there! And there's just something weirdly satisfying about reading a recipe that says "2 tablespoons of chilisauce", then taking that little, dark, sweet-spicy smelling, sticky jar of your own homemade sauce out of the fridge, instead of a large bottle. I'm weird like that, but I do like that feeling... Sweet Chili Sauce Makes three small jars (250 ml each) You need: 10 cloves of garlic, peeled 4 large red chilies, stems removed 3 thumbs of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped 1 th...

It started snowing here - again - so when Cathy spelled out soup for this weeks dinner, I was indeed pleased. I decided to try my hand on something simple and easy: miso soup . I've loved miso ever since I worked at a sublime sushi restaurant here in Copenhagen - I love the feeling of the warm wooden bowl in your hand as you sip the hot soup, and digging out the slightly chewy sea weed with my chopsticks and trying to scoop up the soft tofu without it breaking - mmmm. Don't bother with salmon or mushrooms - I like it plain, thankyouverymuch. As I've mentioned before, my experience in the Asian genre isn't very up-to-date, so when I found this recipe at the YAY! revived " I was just really very hungry " I was thrilled! I sometimes find it so hard to find recipes on things that are "just basics". How to do a stock (I have found that one now, thanks to Thomas Keller!), how would I get my spring roll paper to stick together, how do I __________ - fill i...