Christmas coffee 2017 for local friends

It this time of the year, when it is time again to invite some fantastic women for my annual Christmas coffee. As usual we had an evening, where my kitchen living area was full of good talks and great laugther, while my guests did their best to eat me of my kitchen !!!!

Hannibal the Cat was doing his best to eat my of the kitchen, as he decided to lick the cream topping of the Mont Blanc tarts, as he manged to enjoy 6 out of 9 tarts, while I lighting some tea light lamps out at the entrace as welcome to my guests.

The liquid part of the "menu" this time not the usual warm glögg, but instead a non-alcoholic drink in form of mulled cranberry and raspberry punch, as a lot my guest were driving. Besides from this punch coffee and my various Christmas teas were refreshing the "helping mouths" in enjoying the following "creations" from the Christmas Calendar 2017:

Ris a la mande cheesecake

Chocolate cherry muffins

Madeleines with almonds

Cookies with pickled ginger

Peppermint sweets

Bastogne biscuits

"Pepper nuts" a la Urtekram

Oat flakes pellets with fromage frais

Besides from helping me with eating plenty of Christmas calories, I also got some lovely hostess gifts incl amaryllis flowers, thank you so much for these great gifts :-) My guests know me to well, the colour of my new tea towels were fitting perfect with the colour of kitchen tiles.

And yes, ladies of Vejle you will be invited again for gløgg evening in 2018 :-)

Food shopping on Samsø

Saturday my mother and I made a one-day trip to the island of Samsø using the factor, that the ferry tickets to and from  the Danish islands have been reduced since mid August. My mother has never been to Samsø, she has only been passing by the habour of Kolby Kås as a child sailing from Jutland to Sealand during the second world war. So now she has seen the island of Samsø from the inside as well.

Besides from spending money on eating we did also bring back from local food of Samsø sush as apple cider, raspberry salad syrup, pickled red beet, picked pumpkin, pickled cucumber and pickled gherkin.

At a local artist (Gurli Hansen) I found this watercolour of a ginger cat, which has the same good look as Hannibal the Cat :-)

Barbecue evening of 2016

Yesterday evening a group of great friends as usual meet in my little garden for the yearly barbecue event, where all participants bring their part of the food. I take care of the firing up the grill, the liquid part of the menu and the sweet dessert part.

Plaids and cushions make a fairytale bed for the cat

Hannibal the Cat thought, that the box with plaids and cushions for later use was his very own fairytale bed without the pea as bottom layer.

I was debating with myself the entire day, whether we could sit outside or not due to rain showers coming and going. However, as the guests arrived, so did the evening sunshine, so we could sit outside in the barbecue and bun fire smoke.

We started the evening with blackberry drink with gin inside. It really tastes like cordial with sparkles :-) I could easily become addicted to this drink.

The starter was rice paper rolls filled with celery, avocado, slices of beef served together with rye bread crisps and skyr-tomato dressing. Uuhmm great starter :-)

The main course was lemon marinated chicken, which barbecued in alu folio for 20 minutes.

As company to the chicken the guests from Horsens was bringing a selection of home grown different garden greens such as:

• freshly dug up potatoes
• sticks containing squash, tomatoes, green pepper fruit and onion also being grilled
• salad made from tomatoes and feta cheese
• feta cheese grilled as well in alu folio on the grill
• tzatziki

The finishing part of the barbecue evening was the classic bonfire on the patio, which is used for both heating and baking of twist bread with butter and marple syrup. The grill charcoal was used for making baked figs from my big fig tree standing on the patio.

"Group photo" of the twist breads

Birthday lunch together with the girl friends

I was celebrating my birthday last Sunday with a lunch for my good girl friends.

As table decoration I used a selection of my many green vases incl my latest addition from the Whit market at Trapholt.The flower input for the vases forget-me-not going at the boarders of one neighbour´s garden, while the lilac has picked in another neighbour's garden, while she was not at home !

As usual the the local garden lion needed to rest on the dining table just before, I laid the table :-) I did not serve the cat for the guests !

I will be sharing the various recipe from this birthday lunch in the very near future.

As starters we had first some small puff pastry pies with goat cheese, honey, rosemary and chopped pecan nuts.

The second starter was patty shells with a filling of carrots, asparagus and scrimps.

As the more filling part of the lunch I served pirog with vegetable filling, tortillas with chicken, rhubarb compote, boiled potatoes, steamed asparagus, fresh cucumber and radish and cream-lemon dressing. The bread part was the great tasting Manitoba bread with maple syrup.

The sweet for the afternoon coffee was a cheese cake with white chocolate and rhubarb fitting perfect in the theme of May.

May equals green everywhere

May equals green everywhere

May is a busy birthday month in the family. First my mother celebrates her birthday and 3 weeks later on it is time for my own birthday.

Therefore plenty of guests find their way to my home either for dinner or coffee. And this year I have selected a theme for my birthday coffee, as the rhubarbs more or less have concurred my tiny kitchen garden area in my little park. 

So all the thing, which I will for the upcoming birthday coffee with contain rhubarb, so I hope my guests are rhubarb fans like me !!!

Meanwhile the garden lion has found a new spot for taking a nap in the garden :-)

Garden in Spring dress

The garden is bursting of Spring here in May. My two apple trees are in full blossom, I really like this sight of apple trees in fully covered by light red floweres :-)

Both the raspberry and rhubarbs have turned their spot in my garden into a green jungle. So I can again start using my own rhubarbs for new creations in my kitchen.

While I was busy yesterday in my garden using the sunny weather to full extent (before the rain of today arrived), Hannibal the Cat as usually has making himself useful in a warm sunny spot.

The potatoes have also made their presence noticeable by putting the first small green tops above ground.

The kitchen garden is getting ready for a new season

My "kitchen garden " basic consist of a selection of various pot, a capillary box, two apple trees, one raspberry bush and 4 rhubarb plant in planted in small corner of the garden.

I have received a small collection of seed potatoes from a good working colleague, as I am planting potatoes in 8 plastic potatoes pots. So if I had to buy my own seed potatoes, when I would not plant potatoes, as I only have a need for 8 seed potatoes.

This year I receive 2 Sava, 2 Linzer, 2 Erica and 4 Ariella potatoes.




When I planting potatoes I also planted a new lemon thyme and a new oregano in my green ceramic pots, so the overwinterting herbs (mint, lemon balm and rosemary) could get some new company.

While I busy outside in the garden Hannibal the Cat was taking an afternoon nap inside.

I am keeping an open eye with my garden everyday, so I see, if the apple tress have started to bloom. And the tulips I am keeping an open eye with.

New mile stone - 200.000 page views

Where is my cheese ?

Another amazing mile stone for my blog has now been passed in form of 200.000 page views into to my "life" in the new kitchen with plenty of baking activities, small garden with a kitchen garden located mostly in various ceramic pots. And from time to time you can also see photos of my garden lion Hannibal the Cat, when he enjoys a relaxed cat life full of sleeping and eating :-)

As I have mentioned on several occasions, blogging is for me a way of relaxing my mind from work related things, while it at the same time also means, that I keep on trying out new things in the kitchen, so I have something new to share with you.

And somehow I spend my time:

• baking cakes and cookies
• becoming better at baking bread
• making my own ice cream
• drinking cocktails
• creating jams - this apricot jam with lavender was awarded as one of the five best home-made Danish jams of 2014 :-) I am quiet proved of this achievement
• enjoying my own home-made juices from both fruit and vegetables
• gathering friends and family for various brunch or afternoon tea session 

If you have suggestions to new things, which I could try out in my kitchen, please feel free to leave a comment to this blog post.

The overall Top 10 for the 1.000 blog post look like this:

1. Plums in port a la Dansukker - 30 August 2012
2. TUC cake - 20 February 2011
3. Dinner at"Mad hos Mads, Horsens - 30 November 2012
4. Tea shopping at Kusmi in Paris - 30 September 2011
5. Wheat buns (varme hveder) for Great Prayer Day - 20 May 2011
6. Help in the kitchen - kitchen equipment 23 - 6 November 2013
7. Meeting some Danish food bloggers in REAL life - 21 September 2012
8. Pomegranate marzipan cake - 7 January 2012
9. Baked Christmas confect - 7 December 2011
10. Paleo (stone age diet) chocolade cake - 16 June 2013

As usual I am ending the mile stone review with an update on my KPIs for the blog looks like this (in my professional life colleagues and managers are discussing Key Performance Indicators on a regular basis):

Review day: 18/19 March 2015
Start day - first posting: 13 November 2010
Development on "Hjemmebagt": 73 recipes - 34 accomplished = 39 recipes to bake
Amount of cooking books in my kitchen: 77 books
Page views: 200.000
Publish posts: 1.032 incl. this
Followers: 16
Blogs followed: 17

The ratio between the countries, where you as a reader are coming, seems to have found it´s own stability.

Page view per country:

• Canada: 1%
• Norway: 1%
• Ukraine: 1%
• Portugal: 1%
• Germany: 3%
• UK: 4%
• France: 4%
• Russia: 7%
• Other countries: 23%
• Denmark: 24%
• USA: 31%

"Gold ore" brunch for fellow rowers 2015

As a "thank you very much for your time" to my fellow rowers for rowing together with me during the season of 2014, so I once again managed to cross the magic figure of 1500 km required for a "Gold Ore" (actual I rowed 1607 km in 2014), I as usual decided to invite the rowers, who have spend the most time together with me in the rowing boat, for brunch today.

Actually if you estimate, that you row 6 km per hour - 1607 km equals 268 hours of rowing last season or 11 days and 4 hours spend in a rowing boat in rain, wind or sunshine.

Hannibal as usual decided to take a nap on the dining table among plates, glass, cups and the foods. He can actually sleep, even though that I kept putting more and more things on the table !!

The brunch menu was:

• Egg en cocotte
• Brunch sausages
• Almost home-made cream yogurt with raspberry
• Honey roasted muesli
• Vanilla Waffles with marple syrup and blueberry
• Salami and various cheeses
• Various jams
• Juice Red Power
• Juice Carrot Lift
• Sødmælksfranskbrød
• The World´s Best Bread with Apple Twist
• Plenty of coffe and tea
• Fresh fruit

And for our "sweet tooth" I had baked cookies with raspberry and white chocolate.

I got some wonderful hostess gifts, which is bringing inspiration to my kitchen as well goes perfect with a cup of tea.

Now I am so ready for the a new rowing season, which starts the last Saturday in March :-)

Converting the guest room into a library

After being busy in my kitchen, I decided to continue my "decoration work", while I still are waiting for the kitchen wall tiles to arrive as finishing touch in my kitchen.

So fare a spare bedroom in the house has been used as guest bedroom, which very easily is turned into a storage room, when there is no guests !!! So more a room, where you close the door firmly !!!

In connection with usual sale around New Year, I saw that the price on Mistral shelving system was reduced with 35%. So quickly I got the guest room measured up, calculated that I could fit in 15 bookcases !!!!

Painting the room

After the shopping at the furniture store I went shopping for some white paint, so I could paint the entire room - walls, ceiling and panels. All the details, where you put up the painting tape and cover the floor with cardboard paper always feel like taking for ever, before you can get on with the actually paint work. When you are using a paint roller, painting the big surface basically takes no time to turn into a refreshing new look.

All the book boxes ready for unpacking

A week after the shopping all the many book shelves arrived, so yet again the floor in my living room was full with cardboard boxes. So I spend a Friday evening releasing the many book boxes and caring them upstairs.

After placing the 15 book boxes around the wall of the former guest room, the room was for sure turned into a library - yet empty- but a library full of opportunities :-)

Empty room ready to receive book boxes

The day after I could continue by filling up the entire floor with all my many books, grouping them in theme or by author in alphabetical order. I ended up with the themes like crimes, cooking books, travelling guides, children book from my childhood, biography, specific themes of Jane Austen and Harry Potter (in original language !).

I still have a bed in my library, so guests staying over still has a bed to sleep in :-) Both Hannibal the Car and I are now enjoying to spend time in the fantastic room, I am reading on one end of the bed, while the garden lion is taking a nap in the other end.

The next plan for the room is to change the colour from purple/red into mainly green, so I am looking for some new sofa cushion and a new bed blanket in various shops. This part of the process can easy ends up costing a fortune, so lets see, if I can find a less expensive solutions such as knitting a sofa cushion myself or ???