The Potato soup

This "simple" potato soup is so easy to make and it just taste great. And it is always a big success with my guests.

UPDATE November 2014:
This simple, yet very tasteful potato soup is shared with the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats have the theme of flower. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers. The theme for June 2014 has been selected by Jane to be bonefire night

Ingredients for 1 l:

• 250 g potato
• 1 onion (100 g)
• 1 clove of garlic
• Powder for 1 l of broth
• 9 dl water
• 1 dl full-fat cream (38% fat)
• salt & pepper

1. Peel the potatoes, onion and garlic. Cut those into smaller pieces.
2. Boil the vegetables in 2 dl water with the broth powder, until the potatoes is soft (15-20 minutes)
3. Blend everything to a homogeneous mass without vegetable lumps
4. Add the rest of the water (8 dl) and the cream (1 dl). Cook up to the boiling point
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Serve with bread

Ready, eat and enjoy :-))

And any left overs can be enjoyed by Hannibal the cat

The annual Christmas Candy Creation afternoon for friends

For the last 4 years I have been inviting friends to come together Sunday in week 47. Here we spend the afternoon together making different types of Christmas Candy, while we talk, taste and look at each other creations to get new inspiration.

This event is combined with a Tupperware demonstration, so we can use all the many different of plastic things for our individual candy work. However, this year was unusual, as the two Tupperware ladies were snowed in at their homes. So this year the focus was on team work, using the available plastic equipment. I noticed three different ways of melting chocolate, which all seemed to worked perfect.





Our hard work making Christmas Candy always end with eating potato soup, uhm. As bread for this soup I had yet another go on Frederiksgård Frokost testing two different bread forms. NO luck again in getting the bread out of the form without destroying the sharp !!!!! However, two of my friends suggested me to use plain baking paper in the bread form, before filling the dough into the form. A simple solution I never ever had thought about. Thank you girls, I will try again using your tip :-))

The potato soup recipe will be posted later, so you try it your selves.

Enjoying Christmas tea and lebkuchen

Today the first snow arrived, lets see how long it will last ?One day or perhaps even more ? Decided to celebrate the snow with making the very first pot of Christmas tea (black version) from Kusmi together with my own import of lebkuchen from Germany.

First "Hjemmebagt" recipe accomplished - Frederiksgårds Frokostbrød

Hjemmebagt" - 73 recipes - 1 accomplished = 72 recipes to bake

Great, I have managed to bake my first recipe from "Hjemmebagt" instead of my usual walnut buns. Frederiksgård Frokost is a bread containing spelt flour, yogurt, milk, salt, yeast and loads of kernels (sunflower, pumpkin and pine). It is so very easy to make the dough, mixing everything together in a mixing bowl using a spoon, and afterwards to raised for one hours in a bread form followed by baking.

Looking through the very tempting baking book yesterday late afternoon, I decided to make the bread due to the nice looking picture. And I was very surprised to see, that no kneading was acquired and no long resting time before baking the bread. NO planning ½-1 day in advanced, that you would like to bake a bread !!!!

The down side was, it was so difficult for me to get the bread OUT OFF of the baking form. So I am wondering, if I have used the right baking form or not. So I am planning to make a baking test, testing  two different baking forms next Sunday.
Next Sunday I am hosting the annual Tupperware Christmas candy party for various friends, where we end the afternoon eating The Potato Soup with bread. So it should be possible for me to try one of the Tupperware silicone baking forms for such a test

The last Danish blackberries in 2010 - baking appel-blackberry muffins

I have a nice colleague at work, who keeps me supplied with various thing from his garden like squash, "funny" vegetable (I have no idea about their names) AND blackberries :-)))) These blackberries are just wonderful. I am using these blackberries in blackberry cake sweetened with marcipan and oat flakes crumble lid or in muffins or for my favourite Christmas jam with vanilla and cognac, uuuuhmmmm !!!

Today I made a small modification to my favorite apple muffin recipe:

• 300 g cake flour
• 1 tabelspoon baking powder
• 1 tabelspoon cinnamon - yes, 1 tabelspoon !!!
• 115 g sugar
• 2,5 dl buttermilk or thick milk
• 1 egg
• ½ dl oil
• 200 g apple - peel and put into small square
• the very last portion of fresh blackberries - unknown amount between 200-250 g

1. Mix cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar together in a mixing bowl with a cooking spoon
2. Add buttermilk, oil and egg into a shaker, and shake it together
3. Add the liquid to the mixing bowl, and mix everything together
4. Add apple squares and blackberries into the dough
5. Fill into 14 muffin forms
6. Bake at 200' C for 20 minutes

These muffins are perfect for freezing (right after baking), drinking with tea or coffee or sharing with my neighbours or colleagues. As a small thank you-gift, my colleague will receive some home-made muffins tomorrow at work.

"Killing" my first pumpkin - cooking pumpkin soup

From time to time I get pumpkins in my weekly vegetable box, but so fare I have avoided using those, not really knowing their taste or rather lack of taste. And again yet another Hokkaido pumpkin found it's way into my vegetable box. But this time the Hokkaido pumpkin got it's timing right, as a friend at the same time showed me a recipe with a nice looking picture. So I decided to take the challenge and cook my very first pumpkin soup.

• 1 Hokkaido pumpkin
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 shallots
• 30 g butter
• 4 dl white wine
• Coriander
• 1 red chili
• 6 dl vegetable broth
• 250 g mascarpone cheese

1. Peel the pumpkin, cut the pumpkin into half and remove the seeds. Cut the pumpkin into small squares.
2. Cut garlic and shallots very fine
3. Melt the butter in a large cooking pot
4. Add pumpkin square and onions and fry softly in the butter
5. Pour the white wine in the pot, let it boil into half the amount of wine
6. Cut the chili into small pieces and remove the seeds
7. Add the coriander, chili and vegetable broth into the pot.
8. Put the lid on the cooking pot and let the soup boil softly for 20 minutes
9. Add mascarpone cheese
10. Blend everything together in the cooking pot using a blender
11. Seasoning with salt and pepper
12. Cook the soup to the boiling point and serve it

The wine gave a wonderful smell in my kitchen during the cooking process, really tempting my taste buds. This pumpkin soup really taste wonderful, but butter and mascarpone cheese play an important role in the taste. Any way it was a success, so I feel more confident about pumpkin for the future in my kitchen. And even Hannibal the cat had a good time this afternoon licking both soup bowl and cooking pot :-)

Aiming at expanding my baking capabilities

"Hjemmebagt" - 73 recipes - 0 accomplished = 73 recipes to bake

Taking inspiration from the film "Julie & Julia" my objective is to work my way through the baking book "Hjemmebagt - Korn, mel og bagværk fra Skærtoft Mølle" by Hanne Risgaard. Since participating in a baking course at Skærtoft Mølle back in February 2009 I have using the same recipe on walnut buns again, again and yet one more time again. It is a very good recipe, but I believe it is time for me to broaden my baking world. This baking book only contains 73 recipes, so it should be a feasible task to accomplish.

However, I have start my task with this recipe on apple buns from the canteen at work:

• 5 dl water
• 10 g yeast
• 1 tabelspoon honey
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 200 g apple - minced
• 200 g rough splet flour
• approx. 600 g wheat flour
• 1 egg for brushing and sesam

Due to all the moisture is was tricky to get an even weight for very single bun as well getting them baked enough at the bottonn So I believe, I need to practice some more on this apple bun recipe. The taste is good