Shopping in Malmö

 

Last week I went to Malmö for the Nordic Dairy Congress. I managed for do some shopping during some of the programme breaks. I went to some supermarkets, where I stocked on both saffron and vanilla powder. The saffron I will use to bake saffron buns for my upcoming birthday. I use the vanilla powder instead of vanilla pods.

I also managed to located two shops selling hand-dyed yarns produced by local yarn dyers. I found two merino yarns in green made by Joladesign.se, and in the shop Garderobendesign I also found some merino and mohair as well hand-dyed in some other green colours by Garnlycka.se.

Four of the merino yarns fits perfect together in  a knitting project of some kind. And one of the merino yarn and mohair I intend to use to knit West Side by Susie Haumann.

Ærø shopping

Friday last week my mother and I went away on another day-trip, this time to the island of Ærø. As we did the trip before 1st October we got the return trip on the ferry incl. the car of 10 DKK in total, the sailing time is between 60-75 minutes each way. Now the price is 350 DKK, so it was something of discount :-)

In the town of Ærøskøbing I located this community driven shop called Den Gamle Købmandsgård,  where you can buy a selection of products made on the island of Ærø.

So I brought this little collection of some small soaps from with flavour of  lavender and mint from Sæberiet, liquorice candy made by Hattesen konfektfabrik, gooseberry jam by Annas Gourmet, salt from Salteriet and finally two green ceramic bowl made by Skåb Keramik.

Lunch at Hjerl Hede

Last week-end I visit Hjerl Hede, which is open air museum with old building from the Danish country side together with friend back from high school. 

Besides from visiting the various old farm building we also had a great lunch at Restaurant  Skyttegaard, where I enjoyed a lunch plate with four smaller serving of pickled herrings, fish cake, open sandwich with potato and scrimps and finally a tartelet with asparagus & chicken. 

The most important building for me to visit was the old dairy from the island of Mandø to see the old eqiupment.

Besides from the old dairy you could also visit old trade shop, such as the bakery or the grocery shop. Both these shops were selling freshly baked bread and various types of candy.

Trip to the area of Limfjorden

Last week-end my mother and I went on trip with a stay at Hvalpsund Færgekro, so it gave us the opportunities to visit towns in the area of Limfjorden. The first day we went to Viborg, where we enjoyed lunch, visit Skovgaard Museet with a fantastic ceramic exhibition and did a little shopping. I found a white port wine (Granham's Blend No 5), which can mixed with tonic and served like  gin tonic.

After spending the night at Hvalpsund Færgekro my mother and I went to Nykøbing Mors, where I also did some shopping in form of both plant, ceramic flower pot and a flower bouquet called "Jante buket" at the flower shop Madame Tusindfryd.

I also found this basket in green, which I planning to use for storing my latest yarn shopping at Horsens knit festival. Finally I brought a dessert wine made on quince  produced by Sindbjerg Vingaard

Shopping in Flensburg

Two days my mother and I went on a day trip to Flensburg, where I found various great food items and teas. As usual, when I am in Flensburg I always do some shopping in the German supermarket REWE, as they have some great food specialties.

So here brought various ready-to-eat dessert, cheeses, goat cheesed wrapped in bacon as an appetizer, pasta, dough for flammkuchen and some flavoured chai mixtures, which could be used for making chai ice cream.

I also found a goodie bag full of Italian food stuff.

I also brought some tea from a small tea shop located in Rote Strasse. Two of these teas as teas fitting for the upcoming Christmas time, as one tea is a Flensburger Christmas Tea, the second tea is Wintermärchen and final and third tea is one of my favourite tea type Earl Grey in form of Princess Grey.




Finally I brought two small portions of fruit liqueurs, one with pomegranate and the other with apple & cinnamon. And again a German version of German mulled wine (Punch).

Shopping in Carstensens Tehandel

Today my mother and I went on a tour to Aabenraa to look at the city center as well as have some lunch on this dark, rainy and very gray day.

A must do thing, when you are in Aabenraa, you really have to visit Carstensens Tehandel, which is an excellent tea shop.

Here I brought two teas for my tea cup. The first was off cause a Christmas tea based on black tea. The second tea is another black tea called "Miss Marples tea pie" for perhaps, when I enjoy the nice crime novel.

I also located some candies pomerans and sukat, which I plan to use for some upcoming Christmas baking, which could be something like these spicy scones with dried fruits or these kløben buns. Also a small glass of cherry jam found it's way to my kitchen.

Shopping of cake ingredients for Christmas baking in Germany

Saturday last week-end I was on a day trip to Germany together with mother to Neumünster. Besides from the tour to the shopping outlet in Neumünster we also went to the town center to have something to eat as well as doing some grocery shopping. For my part the shopping in the supermarket (Rewe) was to fill up on some spices for my upcoming Christmas baking.

So now I am ready to bake both Speculoos like these speculoos cookies as well as my favourite German Christmas cake Stollen such as these stollen bites,  stollen with fromage frais, stollen with marzipan and cranberries and Christstollen.

Before I get baking I can meanwhile enjoy these all ready prepared stollens, which I also found in the supermarket.

Gin & magazine shopping in England

I have recently been in UK on a business trip. I had a two night stay at a hotel in Manchester Airport, so in theory I could have travelling with a small suitcase, but as usually I went travelling with my large suitcase, so I could bring back several big bags of 1.4 kg of with my favourite müsli in form of Alpen No Sugar Added Müsli (the Alpen in the blue bags).

I also found several magazines in form of Country Living, Good Housekeeping with focus on Autumn and a magazine only with Christmas food recipes from BBC. And these types of magazine actually have a heavy weight.

And yes, I did find two new gins, one in Manchester Airport and the other one in Billund Airport. The gin selection in Billund Airport is quiet extensive.

The first gin is Chase oak ages sloe & mulberry gin (brought in Billund Airport). I am familiar with sloe gin, but the use of mulberry was new to me. And mulberries is a favourite fruit of mine.

The second gin is 9 Lives blackberry gin liqueur from Silent Pool Distillers (brought in Manchester Airport). The wording 9 lives and small figures of cats on the label was very appealing to me as the "land lady" of a ginger cat.

Food shopping in Greece

I have just returned from another rowing holiday in Greece, where the suitcase again had room for some little food shoppping. As usual I brought back olive oil, olives and various herbs mixes with me. So now I have make Greek salad, tzatziki and spaghetti (perhaps not typical Greek-style food !).

Also, some candy in form French style nougat with fruit and nuts as well as Lokum found a space in my suitcase.

Salt shopping in Lund, Sweden

Mid in July I went to Lund, Sweden in connection with a business trip. I did not get much time on my own during this trip away from the customer activity, but I did managed to spend 1½ hours looking around the town center of Lund including some shopping expeditions into various shops. I found a great shop for cloth shopping as well as delicatessen selling salads/sandwiches for my evening meal.

In this delicatessen I found these two salts from Iceland from Nordur Salt, one plain version and the other salt with rhubarb flavour. It is the first time, I have seen salt with rhubarb flavour, so therefore I needed to buy this specific salt.

Shopping in Alsace

Home again after another great vacation in Alsace with a car full of shopping of food, tea and wine. A Peugeot 208 can contain minimum 60 bottles of wine AND a cooling box for transport of yogurt & wine in the trunk  !!! The rest of the luggage can be on the back seat of the car :-) And yes, also this year I had brought some flowers for my terrace.

The wine shelf in a French supermarket is divided into the various wine regions of France. And a supermarket in Alsace will on top divide the Alsace part of the wine shelves into the individual wine grapes (riesling, pinot blanc, pinot gris, muscat etc).



Besides from filling up the trunk with bottles of Alsace brought directly at various wine makers in Alsace I was buying different types of black tea at three different tea shops. I found tea from Dammann as loose tea leaves (Jardin Blue, Gout Russe Douchka & Etoile du Desert). I also located the tea shop of Le Théier Collection, which I have been buying before (Grande Catherine, Rose de Perse (my favourite rose flavoured tea) & Pomme de Pré) incl. a stainless drinking container, which can keep water cold for up to 24 hours and hot for up to 12 hours (and it works perfect). And finally I found a new French tea brand (well at least for me) in form of Compagnie Coloniale, where I will try out Jardin Gourmand & Cerise.

I was filling up my cooling box with some of my favourite French cheese such as Comte cheese, small goat cheese appetizer and a fresh cheese with a tomato filling (I will soon host the last of my birthday celebration with a lunch "in the green" = outdoor lunch, if the weather plays along my plans !!!), cream cheese with a nut mixture of walnuts and almonds. Also fruit yogurt made it´s way back to my refrigerator.

This small selection of Bonne Mamam jam was also brought by me in form jam made from Reine Claude plums, peach jam, apricot jam and rhubarb jam. If you want to make your own home-made versions of these jam, when have a look here: rhubarb jam with vanilla, apricot jam with lavender & plum jam with star anise & vanilla. I was also filling up my stock of caramel sauce and mustard (classic Maille mustard & mustard with sauvignon grapes). Also Speculoos cookies (home-made speculoos) and paste ended up in my shopping backet.   

One of the dishes of Alsace is tarte flambee, so as usual I brought some dough plates for tarte flambee. Two box of fast risotto also ended up in my shopping basket, one with cheese flavour and the other with mushrooms. A suggestion for home-made risotto with portobello mushrooms. 

Finally two Patesserie magazines together with a new doormate with poppy decoration made their way back with me to Vejle :-)

Pecan nuts and baking magazines from US

Back again in my own little kitchen after a busy week in the US attending an internal company conference. We had a busy schedule from 7 AM to 8 PM all days, however some of us still managed to find both a supermarket in form of Whole Food (nick named whole pay check by our American colleagues) and a shopping mall, where we found some great stuff in Macy's, which was having a sale :-)

As the space in my suitcase was limited due to the shopping for cloth and boots in Macy´s, I only had room for some bags of pecan nuts, a small bag of gourmet gummies with champagne flavour and three baking magazines with focus on baking for the Autumn season and cookies.

My plan so fare is to bake a pecan pie and perhaps scones with pecan nuts. The pecan nuts could also be used for Mont Blanc tarts.

Shopping of Thya products

 Last week I was yet another rowing trip together with a small group of rowers. This time we were enjoying the Western part of the big Danish fjord system called Limfjorden. In order to get the count of rowers to fit with the number of seats in the rowing boat, one rower had to spend either ½ or a whole day on land.

Being "the shopper" of the group I spend a couple of hours in both Lemvig and Nykøbing Mors, where I trawled the local shops. Besides from buying various cloths in form of rain cloth, training cloth, three new dresses and a long kimono I also found a shop with various special food items (wine, alcohol, tea, confectionery, cheese and jam).

In this shop I found different boxes of confectionery candy at only 20% of the original price due to end of shelf-life day and some local Thya products in form of apple juice and gin. The Thya gin contains local herbs/berries from the local area f Thy such as juniper, buckthorn, blueberry, pine spruce and angelica root. I am looking to taste both the apple juice as well as the gin.

Shopping from Den Gamle By

Together with a good rowing friend I recently visited the exhibition of some of the the Danish Queen's dresses at the musuem "Den Gamle By" in Aarhus.

At this outdoor museum you can see various types of town houses from different locations in Denmark, which has been re-build at this museums. In some of the houses they have created different shops, where you can buy souvenirs with relation to the museum.

In some of these shops I found two post cards with old Danish classic commercials, one for oat flakes and the second for vanilla pods. I also brought a glass vase for force growing hyacinth during Winter time in the living room.

And finally some tea from Perchs in form of a special version created specific for the museum in form of both a special decoration of the museum on the tin and off cause the tea. The tea is a mixture of black & green tea with addition of rose petals, jasmin flowers and flower flavouring.

Shopping in Flensburg & Sønderborg

I have been on night over stay at Benniksgaard Hotel with my mother celebrating her birthday. We combined with shopping exhibitions both Flensburg and Sønderborg, so I could fill up my stocks of things for baking, gin for gin tonics, new teas for my tea pot (Kusmi apple tea & David Rio chai powder), spice mixes, nut spreads and two glaases for cehrry jam).

I also found some green glass bowls, which I can use for decoration in my garden. In Flensburg my mother and I as usual found some interesting new flowers for the garden at Bloom 2000.

Besides for the various food shopping I also managed to buy some new cloths for Autumn.

Both at Benniksgaard and at Carstensens Teshop in Sønderborg I managed to find various new teas for my tea pot. I am BIG drinker of tea, and the good specialty tea shop in Vejle (Luka) closed 1-1½ year, so it is difficult for me to find some teas in Vejle. Luckily I am always on the look out for new teas, when I am travelling, so I am not in need of a good specialty tea shop in Vejle.

 At Benniksgaard I found the following rose lemonade for gin cocktail (I will later share the recipe with you), Sønderjysk tea (Carstensens Tehandel) and Pomegranate & Cranberry tea by VildMedTe.dk.

In Sønderborg I located the actual tea shop of Carstensens Tehandel, where I brought a box of 15 different tea bags (gift potential), Esters Lakridste and two bags of pasta dishes.