Food & Thoughts

We're cookie O.D.ing here, I know, but I promise, this is the last one this year. These are Applebutter-filled Gingerbread Cookies. I found the recipe back when Luisa made applebutter last year, and she mentioned it could be used in cookies as well, providing a link to the LA Times and a recipe . Unusual for me, I didn't bookmark the recipe, only printed it, and it had been languishing in my notebook ever since. That is, until I made applebutter a couple of months ago and tried finding something to use all those jars for, besides licking it off a spoon. Which is good, but these - are absolutely divine. I made the dough a couple days in advance so I needed only to roll, fill and assemble, then bake on the day. That whole thing is a bit time consuming, but I really like the look of these, so I think it's worth it. I cut the "windows" at an angle, as you can see from the picture below, just to play around a little. They're gently spiced, and with the applebutt...

The last of the Gourmet cookies I tried this year. Chocolate Sambuca Crinkle Cookies . Admittedly, I made these because I have not one, but two half bottles of Sambuca lingering on top of the wine glass cabinet where we keep or liqour. We don't drink Sambuca. In fact, we rarely drink hard alcohol at all, but if or when we do, it's usually gin or vodka tonics, or the occasional mojito. I think maybe the bottles are leftovers from my younger days - I seem to remember a pretty hardcore shot of vodka, with orange slices dipped in sugar, resting on the edge of the glass, with a bit of sambuca poured over it, and then lit with a match. But truth be told, if that's what I drank, how on earth do I still remember? Sounds like it could make anyone forget! The cookies also have chocolate and walnuts in them, which are big ringers in the taste department, and Sambuca definitly needs something to pair up with. Personally, I like the anise-taste, but M despises it. I can't even get ...

I told you before that I am a hoarder . But I'm not only a hoarder of dried goods. I'm also doing very well in the kitchen utensils/machines/gadgets department. Like cookie cutters. I have a big jar full of them, and they look mighty pretty on my shelf, in my office - they're not even in the kitchen any longer. But truth be told, I've hardly ever used them.Yet, when I'm abroad (they're expensive around here, so I seem to be able to control myself) one or two always seem to sneak themselves into my suitcase. I have no idea how this happens. The truth is, I don't really care for cut-out cookies. They're often bland, buttery, boring affairs with their biggest asset being their shape (and perhaps their frosting). I know, you shouldn't judge a cookie - or anything else, except maybe a new haircut - by it's shape alone, but I do. I like the rugged, crumbly, fat discs of joy - not the controlled, straight-lined kind. Still, those cutters needed some e...

I have been sorely absent form this blog - again. I will try and make it up to you with a spurt of a Christmas Countdown - I know I have only five days to go (we celebrate Christmas Eve here in Denmark, so I'm counting down to the 24th., in case you thought I got the days mixed up), but at least it's something. Next year, I'll be better. Early with the New Year's resolutions, aren't I? As we have done the past three years, this Sunday, the third Sunday in advent, was Julestue chez nous. Cookies were baked, both the traditional vaniliekranse and klejner, but for once I managed to make some of the ones I'd bookmarked during December as well. I always make many plans to try something new, only I never succeed - the days just seem so short in December, don't they? I bookmarked these Brown-Sugar Brown-Butter Shorties from both Smitten Kitchen and Gourmet - did you by the way have a look at their extravagant spread of cookies from the decades ? You must! The co...

It's been snowing here, for the last four days. Snow, people. It's winter. The parsley in my window sill planter is covered in snow, and the pineapple sage is freezing it's leaves off. I think I may have managed to save the lemon verbena, but you can never be quite sure. So what am I up to with the tomatoes? Nothing but bragging, really. These are from my tomato plant, from this summer. I just had a couple today, for lunch. I have no idea how this is possible, but the green ones are slowly riping in the paper bag I've put them in, on the counter, and every once in a while, there's enough for a nice sandwich. If it wasn't because I'd grown them myself, I'd be sure they were full of pesticides and other nasty-ness - how else could they keep for so long? - but they're not. I grew them on the balcony. They're all natural (apart from being city-tomatoes, that is) And they're really tasty, too. What do you grow?

... out of the NaBlop-loop! Too much work, yesterday and today, and too much wanting to sleep. And dog-sitting, too! And no cooking. Argh. I wish and hope and pray that I will have a proper post for you tomorrow. Who knows, maybe the brownie-experiment will be worth writing about?

We had this tonight - or, half of it - roasted in a pan, with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Then we put it in a wonderful risotto with bacon, peas and spinach. A little mascarpone and a lotta parmesan. 'twas very nice. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the other half.

I have walked around a lot like this lately... Is it just me or is it getting REALLY cold and dark and wool-sock worthy or what? Hah! I've been tagged! And I forgot all about it! But as the cooking is still slow, and I was just reminded by another meme today, here we go: I was tagged by Gemma from Dressing for Dinner . Gemma left out the people from her list that had already done the meme, but I haven't, just because I didn't want to. And as always, if you feel like playing along, do, if you don't, I'm not gonna come after you! The rules: 1. List the last ten people who have commented on your blog 2. If you’re on my list then you should do the meme on your blog too 1. Jeanne from CookSister ! 2. Gemma from Dressing for Dinner 3. Gabriel from iRECEPTY 4. Lily Penelope from FREEFORM and ARTemology 5. Gemma from ProBonoBaker 6. Bridget from Cabbage Tree Farm 7. Angela from A Spoonful of Sugar 8. Heather from Grow it. Eat it. 9. Eva from Sweet Sins 10. Jennie from Co...

One more time, for the crowd! ;) Vanilla Raspberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting from Cupcake Bakeshop I made these cupcakes for one of my Sister's friends, back in May. Vanilla cupcakes with a couple raspberries thrown in, and a pink cream cheese frosting. Yes, it was an All Girl Birthday, how did you know? You probably won't be surprised that the recipe was an adaptation of one from the now sadly 'closed' Cupcake Bakeshop , namely this one , and inspired by this one. Basically, I made the batter, then layered it in the cupcake liners with some frozen raspberries. I liked how the raspberries cut the sweetness a little, because you know, those cupcakes are sweet! Savoy Cabbage Gratin from Orangette Now you've had your sweets, I'm sorry, but you gotta eat your greens, too. Molly posted about this Savoy Cabbage Gratin a couple days ago and lo and behold if there wasn't a Savoy cabbage sale at the local supermarket shortly after. I grabbed one, rem...

But reality is, I haven't cooked a single thing this weekend. Not one. Work, you see. The closest I got was poaching an egg for eating with my leftovers from Thursday night. I didn't think I knew how to poach an egg, but apparantly, I did. It was perfect - whites solid, yolk runny and lovely. Mmm. Imagine what you can learn from reading food blogs. Hope you had a nice weekend!

It's been a while since we've had cake, has it not? Maybe not so, I guess the whole dulce de leche affair the other day counts as cake. But it's been a while since DANSK has been showing it's pretty face, so why not combine the two and bring you this - Den Der Du Ved Nok-Kagen . Didn't get a word of that? That's fair. It translates into That-Cake,-You-Know. How did it get that name? I don't know. But what's in a name? A rose by any- you know! What it is, is a cocoa version of Drømmekage . Just like Drømmekage, this is tender sponge cake with lots of coconut and butter on top, and it is awesome, both in the eating and in the making. It is one of those cakes where you need exactly three bowls and a cake pan and nothing more strenous work than a few stirs with a whisk and a spoon. And maybe a bowl for melting the butter, and a coffee pot for making some coffee, but honestly, it's dead easy. When I was a kid, I used to make it a lot after school, invit...

From the batch of elderflower and strawberry jam I tried making this summer. It came out horrendously runny, so I'm not going to share the recipe. The scent of it, as well as this picture reminds me a lot of summer, though, and that was just what I needed on this dull, grey, work-loaded day. Mmm, summer and warmth, and elderflowers and strawberries.

Bread books. I have, oh plenty. There's the old time favorite, Bread Book , by Linda Collister. She's also done one called Flavored Breads that I own. There are the Danish ones I adore - 'Nannas Brød og Kager' by Nanna Simonsen, and Camilla Plum's 'Brød'. Also, there's a Danish one by THE flour man, Jørn Ussing, Aurions Bagebog. Very back to the roots, that one. Then there's The Bread Bible , by Beth Hensperger and another Bread Bible , by Rose Levy Berenbaum (is that blasphemia? TWO bibles?) The tome, HomeBaking , by (some of my all time favorite cookbook authors) Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. Baking with Passion , by Dan Lepard also snuck itself in there. Not to mention all of the recipes for breads that are hiding in the back of "regular" cookbooks, and in magazines and on del.icio.us. So enough of the buying - even though I have both this , and this , and oh, don't forget this and this - and okay, there's this one and th...

Hello. My name is Zarah. I hoard food. I'm not shy of stocking up the fridge, or freezer. But mostly, I hoard pantry items. Rice, flours, lentils, beans, grains, chocolate, dried fruits and nuts. Vinegars, oils, obscure sauces. Any cupboard or drawer, the smallest crevice in our build-in bookcase thingy, fabric bags on the hooks on the rail in kitchen - they're all filled with stuff. Flours, I usually manage to use before they go past their due-date. Mostly, it's because I've gotten better at ignoring that a certain type of flour has to be used for a certain type of bread. Yes, if it's a specific type of bread, or texture, or a new recipe, I may insist on using what the recipe states, but if it's a version of the everyday bread , who gives whether I use rye or whole wheat? I make that bread often enough for it to be nice to have a slight change of taste every now and again. There was a reason I brought home 5 pounds of Rancho Gordo Beans from my trip to San Fra...

I have no idea how this happened. Well, I do, sometimes, when I have my camera on certain settings, the shutter gets stuck, and this is the result. It's happened quite a number of times. I'm slightly intrigued. Maybe I should read that manual...

Do you remember my list of Foodie Dares ? from (ahem) 2007? I did do a follow-up post on my progress, and the note is also still on the fridge - the actual crossing off items on the list is the hard part. Allow me to refresh, briefly, that one of the things I wanted to do, was to try making Indian food. Specifically, I wanted to make samosas and Dal Makhani, and on the list I have on my fridge, I also wrote Butter Chicken (also known as murgh mahkani, I later learned. Mahkani means butter. Obviously, I'm all about butter) I scoured the internet for recipes, bookmarked half a dozen, thumbed through a couple of cookbooks. With the host of Indian food bloggers out there, I suppose it would have been easy as pie to find a recipe there, but for some reason, the one that intrigued me the most was from a Danish chef, a big, red-haired dude that's as Danish as they get, that I found in a Danish cookbook. Don't ask, the point is, you have to start somewhere and I finally got start...

I missed yesterdays NaBloPoMo. Actually, I missed Friday, but the post I put up Saturday morning I'd started Friday, so I figured eh. Tsk tsk. But you know what? I'll make up for it with brownies and cupcakes! The brownies are crazy rich. Crazy. I guess that's what you get when you put chocolate, peanutbutter and dulce de leche in the same baking pan, but don't say I didn't warn you. They're the kind of confection that could almost substitute expensive filled chocolates. In my case, anyways, seeing I'm not big on filled chocolates - in fact, I'd rather eat brownies than filled chocolate any day. I should note that I'm definitely a lover of a fudgy brownie (as this one is - look at this ) - no cake-crumbly style for me here. Rich and decadent, these are, and cut into tiny squares, put on a pretty platter and served with coffee or tea - or a tall glass of milk, they'll be fit for royalty. Or people who dig heavy brownies, at least. The idea c...

It's been four years since I started blogging. Mind you, the last two years has had it's share of unusually quiet months. It's not how I want it to be. I admire the people that manage to put up post everyday, all year - heck, I admire the people that gets up posts a few times a week, or just once a week. I can't explain what has happened. Life, the ever present excuse, yes. Not trying so many new things, or them not working out well, or forgetting to take the photos to prove I actually made something. There are only so many times you can post a recipe on brownies. Actually, on the subject of brownies, there might be arguments you can do a bunch of posts. I seem to have been in this dump for a while now, and I want it to stop. I guess it's mostly a matter of DOING it. That's probably why I'm trying this NaBloPoMo-thing - so that I HAVE to post. I'm not happy with everything I put up, but at least my mind starts working differently, and with what it is...

Go get your own! At Johnny Cupcakes - and don't forget to have a look at the blog. And his story. And then, buy some t-shirts. You know you want to! :)

Do you make your own mayo? Really, you should. I mean it. It's easy. I'm not holy or nothing, I do keep jars of mayo in the fridge at home - in fact, I keep several different kinds: one kind for smørrebrød, another for french fries, a third for sandwiches - but I like making my own every now and again. Sure, I'm afraid it'll split every time I make it, but so what if it does? There's always a new yolk to the rescue. I start with two egg yolks (I use pasturized, and I know some people would then think it it wasn't worth the trouble, but I like to be sure that I, or worse, potential dinner guests, won't catch anything) a nice teaspoonful of Dijon mustard and a good pinch of salt. Whisk it together, then add, drop by drop, an oil of your choice. We use grapeseed oil, but any neutral tasting oil will do. Some people like to use a light olive oil for half or one third of the oil, or a dribble of some kind of nut oil, depending on what you'll use the mayo for...

Short and sweet today, I'm on the couch watching series with M :) What would a post-athon be without my trusted Dining with the Bloggers, or as in this case, Dining with Three Bloggers? Nothing, I say, so here you go: Whole Wheat Apple Muffins from Smitten Kitchen Deb's Whole Wheat Apple Muffins were a big hit at the ICU I spend a couple of days in (as a medical student, not a patient!) back in spring. Especially after I convinced the nurses they were practically healthy, what with the apples and whole wheat and oats on top (and addition I made) and what have you. They disappeared fast, even though someone else had brought in candy on the same day as well. That's one of Deb's recipes down - now I only have 81 bookmarked to go! Soba with Peanut Citrus Dressing from Orangette I think I have yet to do a Dinning with Three Bloggers that doesn't involve one of Molly's recipes - this one shall be no exception. Her soba noodles with peanut citrus sauce (actually, a...

As if it's not enough that we're notoriously bad at eating our vegetables in our household, we're also ridiculously negligent in the breakfast department. No vegetables, no breakfast, no cooking (obviously, since there's been no blogging, there couldn't have been cooking, could there?) - how we even manage to stay alive is anyones guess! I always make sure I get my (very large) glass of Earl Grey tea in the morning, M always gets his coffee, but the solids? Just. Not. Happening. There are tons and tons of excuses, but really, it's no use. Breakfast is good for you and you should eat it. And noone says it has to be the minute you get up, but sometime during the first 2 to three hours after you've risen I guess is appropriate. Often, M will get something from a bakery on his driving abouts at work (he's a realtor) and he's usually good at getting something healthy. But lordy, is it expensive! Especially if you want something that's edible and does...

Listen, I know, I know, that picture up there practically SCREAMS out of season. Not very comme il faut, I know, but if I tell you I made this back in July, will you forgive me? I did tell you I had a lot of photos lying about with stuff I never blogged about and I might as well start now. I - come to think of it we, as in both of the people in this household - eat too little vegetables. One of the things I have resorted to doing is to make salads to eat either before or after the "main dish" if you will, just to make sure we actually get some greens. This was one of those, heavily inspired by Shauna's Zucchini Carpaccio (from October. 2005. Yowser, time moves fast!) that I bookmarked some time ago (obviously). It's easy to do, and if you have a garden with zucchinis growing in it (I envy you - but that's not really the message I'm trying to get across right now), a bag of almonds and a block of crumbly cheese in the fridge, you're all set. Finely slice ...

Cupcakes for a friend of mine's wedding, back in August. The living room served as assembly station - there was A LOT of cupcakes, I'm telling ya! I used a recipe from my trusted source, Chockylit - the one here . I'm joining NaBloPoMo . Why? Because there are too many photos lying about, too many words unwritten, too many post-it's in the cookbooks, too little focus and too little time. And because I miss doing this, and it seems I can only either do it all day, every day, or not at all. No promises as to the content, but (hopefully) I'll have a post for you, every day of the month this November. Heck, I may even keep it up for December, like last year . You joining the madness too? (And I know, this is already a cheat's post, 'cause I'm backdating, but I didn't realize NaBloPoMo was yesterday until today. So excuses already ;))

I grew up in a small suburban town, in a red brick house build by my Grandad. The house was surrounded on all sides by a big, lush garden. It was a great garden, with hiding places under the bushes, a swing and a small corner with lots and lots of rhubarb in summer. Mom used to make a mean rødgrød - a Danish fruit soup/jelly thing, served with cream and sugar (for the crunch) - out of those rhubarbs. I wish I could have said it had had an apple tree, but it didn’t. It would have been perfect in it, though. It should have been one of those huge, old ones with big, gnarly branches, in the spring adorned with delicate white blossoms and come fall, full of red and yellow orbs, like mini chinese lanterns, swinging about in the rough winds. Maybe, if you were lucky, there’d still be a couple left for the first couple weeks of winter, too. Alas. No such tree. Now, I live in the city, in an apartment, and I stil have no apple tree. But in my uncle’s little house, a mere 30 minute bike ride fr...

... to make anymore elderflower cordial. At least around here. A mere glimpse is the period when the elderflowers are in bloom. That's how it seems, at least. (okay, so you get peas, and cucumbers and tomatoes, but they don't make elderflower cordial, now do they?) I only got to make one batch. My first batch, ever, even. It is so, so good. So if there are still flowers on the trees around where you are, I urge you to make some. I don't care how you get to them - but do get them. Personally, I was found on quiet neighbourhood streets, smuggling a pair of scissors and a large plastic bag around - very discret, as always. And if you didn't make it in time either REMEMBER it next year. Put it in your calender already. Make the largest batch you can imagine. Then double it. You know you want to. And I'm telling you, you'll regret it if you don't. Here's the recipe I used, again from Camilla Plum: -makes about 3 liters which is entirely too little... 40 elder...

...and if I havent' got you humming Beastie Boys now, I don't know how to get you to do it ;) Just wanted to make sure I didn't have a no-post month and to let you all know that yes, I am alive and cooking, to boot. The cooking part of me has been in a bit of a stand-still, lately though. But, I just taught myself how to do those long, swirly cucumber thingies (hence the "don't stop" in the title) and I hope I'll have a proper post up soon. Maybe in the next couple of days. Be well so long.

This is a post that has been crazy long time underways. I think the pictures have been hiding here in my drafted posts for about two months, and I just haven't been able to get them posted. Why, I don't know. It's not like more well-mannered people didn't get their post up faster than I did, it's just. I think maybe I'm lost for words. So again, I give you photos+just a couple words. People, this place is nothing short of amazing. Æbleskiver filled with pulled pork, dusted with vinegar powder. A nice start to the afternoon. Yes, I'm talking about noma . The restaurant that is the 15th. best in the world and which is located in our tiny town. The restaurant that has a dogmatic approach to the food it makes, and that has a well-educated and completely lovable staff and kitchen. This is a restaurant that is just a thrill to be in. Which is probably why we stayed for six hours, even though it was just lunch! Beet raisins, horseradish snow and vinegary "sag...