Food & Thoughts

Scheduled for the 21st. of November, and I'm totally into this months edition of IMBB? - a cookie swap! YAY! Hosted by the sweetest of the sweet tooths among us, Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess - everything you'll need to know about this round of IMBB ? is on her site (no need for me to type it all up again, is there? Me and my lazy butt...)

I need to bring lunch to school almost on an everyday basis. While I'm a big fan of a nice salad, I'm very much a bread person as well - no Atkins for me here! I just cannot fathom that anyone would like to live without a daily dose of wheat! Anyways - I figured out that one of the breads that could be somewhat easily made, and not go too stale on me - and a type of bread I really like as well - drumroll please: a bagel! So I'm trying out a couple of different recipes at the moment - will hopefully get the ring-making technique down during the quest - no comments on the half split bagel there!;-)

I had to go ahead and try one of the recipes in my newly acquired books - why else buy them?? This one I had my eye on already when ordering the book - it was mentioned in one of the reviews at Amazon and I couldn't stop thinking about what it might be like. I am a big fan of anchovies - that is, I do NOT like eating them on their own, but I really enjoy them in a home made Caesar salad dressing and the likes. For a while I've been trying to convince myself that there's no reason I don't like tarts. Hence, the purchase of The Art of The Tart by Tamasin Day-Lewis. The book is small, but BURSTING with recipes - both savory and sweet - and I really think it's gonna get me places in the tart-enjoying department. This had exactly that salty-savory taste that I love in the anchovies, but without the fishy-fishy bad part. It was even nice the next day! And here you go: Spinach and Anchovy Tart Shortcrust pastry: 120 g. white flour 60 g. cold, unsalted butter...

I swear, someone stole my credit card and went on a SEROIUS shopping spree on amazon. Luckily, everything was sent to me. Because it really couldn't have been me. No. NO! It couldn't! Aren't you listening?!? I'm way more sensible than that. I would never, ever spend that much money on cookbooks. Well, definetly not more than twice a year. Okay, maybe three times then. But... MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I got 6 - SIX - new cookbooks waiting for me to get around to them! How's about it?!? MUAHAHAHA! They are: Jamie's Dinners Nigella Lawson's Feast American Boulangerie Art of the Tart by Tamasin Day-Lewis Charlie Trotter's Seafood Chocolate American Style by Lora Brody Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

There's something I have to admit. There's one thing other than biochemistry drawing my attention away from my blog at the moment. It's these guys: They are soo cute, my little guinea pigs!!:-) They're actually my younger sister's, but she doesn't give a royal f*** about them, so I've borrowed them for a couple of weeks. They're named Tim & Bum, from the Danish translation of Cinderella - the mice that makes her dress, remember? I've never actually had a pet before, so that probably accounts for me being so overly excited - I have to admit I kinda am! Even though my boyfriend find them a bit boring: "but they don't do anything but hang around in their cage Honey!?" I don't care. They're cute and they're cuddly - all you could want - but of course, so is he!

Time is a no-go area for me at the moment. It's just not available somehow. Don't know why, but it's a fact. Still, I can't bear the idea of not being in on this IMBB?, as already mentioned, hosted by Derrick of An Obsession with Food . Afterall, IMBB? was one of the main reasons I joined in on the blogging thing. So I'm doing a cheats version this time round - I actually made this dish about a year ago for a dinner I did for my Dad and stepmom's bridge club and on looking through my folder of digital photos, this sprang out - and you know, it may not be a layered terrine, but it's a terrine and I layered it Big Mac stylie, so I thought I could convince myself that it fit the theme of Terrine: Layers and Layers ! in a decent way! The components are actually very classic, I just put them together in a not so classical manner. The foie gras terrine I got from a Danish cookbook called Svinkløv Badehotel. The bread part is a brioche from a Danish food mag...

My sister turned 33 - well, actually, she did in August, she just haven't had the time to gather up the entire family and share her birthday until now! Seeing that I LOVE to bake (you'd never have guessed, would you?) I offered to do her a birthday cake. Actually, that's a lie - she already decided she wanted a carrot cake, I just offered to bake it! I'm a big fan of carrot cake - even more, I'm a big fan of the cream cheese topping! Naturally, there has to be lots and lots of it, and preferably all over! With the birthday and everything, what would be more appropriate than doing it layer-cake style? The recipe I use is from The Little Red Barn Baking Book . I bought this book when I lived in London and practically baked my way through it - not quite, but I sure have tried a lot of the recipes and they have never failed. It makes a very light and lovely cake, despite the cream cheese... For the cake: 250 g. plain flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1½ tsp. b...

This has become a noticeboard I think... Eventually, I'll have to post the things that I'm making for the events I'm announcing, don't I? This time around, for Friday the 12th. of November, gorge yourself on apples all around the world! Check out Jennifer's page for further info...

I know, I'm sorry - I'm the most boring blogger of them all right know... School is all over me, but I promise, I promise I'll try and do some REAL posting soon... Uh, that would imply cooking - or baking.... Yumm...

Things are moving fast in the blooging community - at least fast for me, but I guess my school has started taking up more time! Seattle Bon Vivant is the host this time - check out the terms and conditions and do join!

On to yet another endeavor in the world wide events - drinks some wine and drink it well! Lenn of Lenndevours spun the IMBB? and invented World Wide Wine Blogging Wednesday - he himself held first edition, and this, the second edition, is held by Alder at Vinography with a theme of Spanish Reds! I'm usually a white wine drinker - I think I started out drinking red wine, then turned to white - and never really got back- I know it's usually the other way around, but this is how it went for me. Maybe I've just been spoiled with the really nice whites we have at work ? But you have to grab the bull by it's horns... Boyfriend recently closed down his restaurant, bringing home about 70 bottles of wine (where DO you put that in a three room apartment??!! Oh yeah, down your throat!) so we went hunting in the bottle forrest on our living room floor. There was a couple of bottles of Spanish descendants, and we settled for this one: Casa de la Ermita 2000 from Jumilla ...

The word is out - the next IMBB? -event, this time hosted by Derrick at An Obsession with Food will have Layers and layers - or just plain terrine - as the theme, and will be held on October 24th. Come join the fun! If you're stuck for ideas, Derrick posted a small teaser - I'm thinking: Sweet? Savoury? Sweet?... -Ooh the possibilities! No matter what, I'm definetly there!

The natural progression of the IMBB?-events for those among us with a sweet tooth had to come - Sugar High Fridays ! I mean, how could we not? Cleverly thought by Jennifer , who also judged that white chocolate had to be our starting off point. I'm a big fan of these events. It makes me look at my cookbooks - and food and cooking in general - with all new eyes, simply because I have something in mind, an ingredient or a subject, to which I have to succumb. I don't think that's a bad idea - it is somewhat of a restriction, but not necessarily one that's bad. It's a challenge, and boy, do I like a challenge, especially when it's in the kitchen! The one thing that troubles me about IMBB/SHF/WWWBW and the likes is the demand on being creative - which I guess is not actually true, 'cause noone demands you to go out of your way to satisfy them - you only have to satisfy yourself. But I, for one, would really like what I come up with to be groundbreaking...