Dinner at Landgasthof Sternen in Grosshöchstetten

Bread and butter in front of simple, but beautiful Autumn decoration

During my recent extended week-end to Switzerland I had the pleasure to eat another inn (landgasthof) in the village of Grosshöchstetten. I have previous been eating lunch in this village at another inn called Landgasthof Löwen. However, this evening we went to Landgasthof Sternen for dinner.

Porcino soup with whipped cream

As starter my good girl friend and I both started with having a very creamy and tasteful porcino soup topped with whipped cream. Perfect starter for the following main course.

Saddle of hare waiting the "big" show

As we main course we shared saddle of hare being prepared by the land lord at our table involving flambeing in, frying and creation of the juniper sauce to follow the hare.

The saddle of hare in juniper sauce has served together with Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, apple with red currant gel and spätzli.

It was a fantastic meal, where we both were full after the first serving of the hare.

When the land lord noticed, that we could not a second portion, he called us weak eaters.

Saddle of hare in juniper sauce

However, we could off cause get the rest of the hare with us. The only problem, that it was not a usual request, so the inn had no single use containers for this purpose, so the leftovers was packed into tin foil a la bird look. Therefore my friend is considering to bring her own container for any leftovers next time she goes to this inn.

The final plate

"Birdie-bag" with hare leftovers

You still have time to participate in my blog birthday give away, which ends Sunday 25 November 2012 at 20.00 (CTE time zone).

Birthday cake in form of Danish "lagkage" for Tea Time Treat

Happy birthday to Tea Time Treat !!!! 

This month the blog event "Tea Time Treat" is celebrating it´s 1 year birthday - so a BIG "Happy Birthday" to Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked, which are hosting this very funny, great idea and from time to time challenging virtual tea table, where you can so more many fantastic ideas for your very own tea table in real life. It is Karen from Lavender and Lovage, who is the virtual hostess for November 2012 and she has off cause selected the theme of guess what ? yes it is CAKE :-)

Being quiet busy in my kitchen preparing for my own upcoming event on my blog in December, I decided to share my very own birthday cake from May this year for this tea table. This cake contain alcohol, so not a good choice for serving to children.

Birthday cake - lagkage: - 1 cake for 6-8 persons

• 3 sponge cake layers
• Blackcurrant rum 
• 1 bag of cream cake vanilla powder
• 400 g milk
• 250 g dairy whipping cream - 38% fat - whipped not to firm
• Fresh fruit  from the season
• 250 g dairy whipping cream - 38% fat - whipped more firm
• Icing sugar
• Blackcurrant rum 

1. Start by mixing the cream cake vanilla powder with the milk - stir very well - place in the refrigerator for minimum 30 minute.
2. Meanwhile clean the fresh fruit.
3. Brush the sponge cake layer with blackcurrant rum 
4. Whip the first part of the dairy whipping cream into foam, but a light foam.
5. Mix the whipped cream together with the cream cake, and stir into a homogeneous mass.
6. Place ½ of this cake cream on a bottom layer of sponge cake.
7. Place ½ of the fresh fruit on top of this cream cake layer.
8. Top with another layer of sponge cake.
9. Place the rest of this cake cream on this second sponge cake layer
10. Place the rest of the fresh fruit on top of this cream cake layer.
11. Finish of with the last of the sponge cake layer.
12. Mix icing sugar with blackcurrant rum and decorate with the top layer of sponge cake.
13. Whip the second of the dairy whipping cream into a firmer foam and decorate the side of the birthday cake with it.
14. Eat the cake or let it rest to the next day.

Fjord Breeze

Fjord Breeze awaiting me

It will be a longer winter before the rowing season starts again in end of March, and I am missing the day-light and the many wonderful rowing tours on the Fjord of Vejle, so I have been creating this drink as a tribute to my fjord taking inspiration from the cocktail called Sea Breeze.

So I have exchanged the grapefruit juice with orange juice in order to have much more sweetness as well as less bitterness.

Fjord Breeze: - 1 drink

• 4 cl vodka
• 12 cl cranberry juice
• 12 cl orange juice
• 1-2 slice of lemon

1. Fill a high ball glass with ice cubes
2. Pour the gin into the glass
3. Pour the cranberry as well as the orange juice on top of the vodka
4. Stir well with a straw
5. CHEERS :-)

Lunch as Postgasse Cafe in Bern

Macaroni with meat sauce

In Bern you can find a little cafe serving traditional Swiss food at a place called Cafe Postgasse
located in the street Postgasse. The interior looks like something from 1970´s with it´s wood panels and brown colour.

Macaroni with grated cheese and apple puree

It is one of my very good girl friend´s favourite lunch places in Bern, and it was great to some warm food to eat away from a very, very rainy Bern.

I went for the macaroni served together with meat sauce, freshly grated cheese and apple puree, which is adding an interesting sweetness to this savoury dish.

My friend got a typical Swiss dish in form of a käsesnitte, which is bread with ham laying in some wine and covered with plenty of cheese.

Käsesnitte - bread with ham and plenty of cheese

For dessert my friend had vermicelle, which is traditional seasonal dish as it is made from chestnut puree looking like spaghetti and served with whipping cream. Strange flavour combination for my mouth !!!

Stay away from my dessert - vermicelle - chestnut puree

Tapas lunch in Basel

 Gambas al ajillo

I have been visiting a very good girl friend of mine, who is living in Switzerland. I took the night train from Kolding and all the way to Basel, where I meet with my friend for a short sight-seeing tour in Basel incl the most important part: a visit to Läckerli Huus, a Swizz bakery producing the most fantastic tasting cookie, which is "worth killing for !".

During our walk around the older part of the city in Basel, it was time for a lunch, and here we decided to have lunch at a tapas place called: spalenburg.tapasdelmar.

And all the fingers and hands on the pictures is my friend trying to be a part of this blog posting in her very won way !!!!!

Pasta de berenjenas

We ordered a selection of four different tapas dishes. The first one was scrimps in garlic - great taste and texture.

The second was bruschetta with egg plant, walnuts and tomatoes, another perfect combination.

Tortilla española

The third dish was a bit more substantial, as we ordered an omelet containing potatoes and onion.

Champifions al aijllo

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And finally the forth dish mushrooms with garlic, as I was having a serious cold, which my good friend wanted to protect herself from. Also a great taste and texture combination.

Impressions from extended week-end to Switzerland

Christmas decoration

I have decided to share my impression from an extended week-end visiting a very good girl friend in Switzerland with you just in form of the various pictures, which I took in this connection.

Funny fountain in Basel

Enjoying Apfel Strudel outside in sunshine on a November day

Visiting Läckerli huus in Basel, where you can buy such a wonderful spice cake as well as a ginger bread house for assembling at home.

Old-fashion mail box

Kitchen lamp created from kitchen equipment

Have a look at these fantastic kitchen lamps created from kitchen equipment - I saw these lamps in a kitchen equipment shop located in Postgasse in Bern.

Spaghetti for the big family

Ready to bake mixed for sables, muffins or scones

Ready to bake ginger bread biscuits incl form and decoration - so you have no excuse this for not baking your own Christmas cakes

Wonderful sugar flower made from real flowers like violets and lavenders

Cake-style decoration for your Christmas tree

Blog birthday - Kitchen of Kiki turns 2 years :-)

Happy birthday to my little blog !!!! 

Hip - hip - hurrah - today my blog becomes 2 years.
It has been two good years of good relaxation for my mind and I sharing life from my kitchen as well as from my tiny garden park with you out here in cyber space.

Again I have decided to celebrate this second blog birthday with a give-away competition :-)
Your contribution is to leave a comment, what you really like about this blog and where you could see room for improvement/development. You should also state in your comment, if you have a preference for vanilla pods or Christmas tea, as I have two small gifts for you to choose from. I will at the end of this give-away competition draw two lucky winners among your comments.

The winner will be selected at random from all comments received full-filling the above mentioned requirements. The winners will be notified within 1 week after the closing date. The price is as stated, so no cash alternatives are available. This give-away is open to EU + Nordic countries entrants only.

The closing of this blog birthday give-away is Sunday 25 November 2012 at 20.00 (CTE time zone).

Hannibal the Cat laying on the kitchen floor

And as usual yet another update on my KPIs for the blog, which look like this (In my professional life colleagues and managers are discussing Key Performance Indicators on a regular basis):

Review day: 13 November 2011 - 2 year birthday
Start day - first posting: 13 November 2010
Development on "Hjemmebagt": 73 recipes - 19 accomplished = 54 recipes to bake
Amount of cooking books in my kitchen: 53 books
Page views: 43436
Publish posts: 500 incl. this
Followers: 12
Blogs followed: 18
Top 5 of published posts:

1. TUC cake
2. Meeting some Danish food bloggers in REAL LIFE over a great meal
3. Tea shopping at Kusmi in Paris
4. "Apple fish" a la La Tascha
5. New mile stone 200 blog postings
6. Strawberry cake version 3.0
7. Kitchen equipment 13 - Electrical kettle
8. Mini quiche lorraine
9. Baked marzipan confect
10. Round lemon cake from "Te og kager året rundt"

Is it quiet interesting to see, how the majority of the most popular blog posts are related to cake baking/creation.
Also it is very interesting to see, how big an influence my participation in various blog event like Tea Time Treats and  Matbloggsentralen´s utfordringer can have on the viewing of various blog posts, which suddenly turns into be extremely popular, as four of the top 10 posts have been a part of those virtual events.

However, a look into the recipe overview for this blog also indicated, that the important thing in my kitchen is related to the sweet side of life in form of dessert, fruit alcohols, cocktails and drinks, baking various things, jam and Christmas celebration. You could easily end up with the image, that I can not cooking anything at all,   but this is not the case, but I think the above mentioned thing are more interesting to both make and share.

Since last year I have actually meet some Danish food bloggers in real life at an amazing dinner, doing that gave me so much energy, that I feel much better about participating in such an event again. Doing it really got me of my comfort zone, which I "survived" in grant style ready for an new challenge.

Page view per country:

• Australia: 1%
• Canada: 1%
• France: 1%
• Norway: 1%
• UK: 4%
• Germany: 4%
• Russia: 4%
• Portugal: 5%
• US: 17%
• Denmark: 62%

I have also noticed, that I have more and more readers coming from out-side Denmark, where USA accounts for this growth in non-Danish readers together with Portugal, Russia, Germany and UK. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all my visitors outside Denmark. Thank you for dropping by in my little kitchen. And I hope to see you soon here in my kitchen.

Kitchen equipement 16 - Stollen form

During my extended week-end to Germany I also found a new cake form, which was shooting "BUY ME - BYE ME - BYE ME", when I passed by it in kitchen department in a department store.

Stollen (Germany Christmas cake) has always been a part of my Christmas memories, as I grew up, that my family brought this cake during Autumn vacations in Germany. Last Christmas I baked my very own version of quark stollen using the family recipe of a good German colleague.

The box for the cake form contains a it´s recipe on stollen, which I am looking forward to bake in this new form of mine. I will share this recipe with you sometime during the month of December, where I am planning a new Christmas Calendar for you :-)

Kitchen equipment 15 - pastry press

Besides from shopping in supermarkets, when I am travelling outside Denmark, I also like browse around in shops or department stores, where you can buy kitchen equipments.
I find it very fascinating to look and touch all the funny kitchen things, which you had no idea about, that you could live without in your own "little" kitchen.

This time I found a butter cookie press with 10 different disc and 6 different nozzles for decorating creams.

I am planning to use this pastry press for my upcoming Christmas baking, so I will let you know, how easy/difficult it is to use this press.

New round of food shopping in Germany October 2012

Ready-to-use sugar icing

As mentioned many times before, I really like to go "food shopping", when I am travelling outside Denmark, as you can find so many more interesting food stuff else where than in Danish supermarkets. In October I was on an extended week-end in Germany, where shopping in supermarkets is an important point on my "To-do-list".

This time I found ready-to-use icing sugar, and as it has had the colour of purple, it found it´s way into my shopping basket. And this is not a big surprise for any of my friends, which are fully aware of my fascination of purple.

As we are getting closer and closer to Christmas, I was stocking up on sucat, orange peel and cocktail cherries, which I will be needing in my upcoming Christmas baking.

I also found these two glasses of mustard sauce, the glass to the left is orange mustard sauce targeted  for use with softer and mould cheeses. The glass for the right is fig and mustard sauce targeted towards hard cheese types.

The box for making ice tea with lemon and mint flavour also look quiet interesting to me, so now it has moved into my kitchen cupboards.

The box contains different coloured decorations sugars, which you can use for decorating of cookies and glass rimes.

In Germany there is tradition of making mohn cakes. Mohn is poppy seeds, and I found two different poppy seeds for use in cakes, which I am looking forward to turn into cake in my own little kitchen. I will keep you posted on my progress on baking mohn cakes.

Also a few bags of almond flour found their ways into my shopping basket, as I also have am ambition of making my own macaroons, where almond flour is a key ingredients.

Burger lunch at Saltings, Kerteminde

Burger of Saltings

Sunday we were a group of rowers, who drove to Fyns Hoved to have a closer look at this beautiful area from land side. This Summer we passed Fyns Hoved on our rowing trip around the island of Funen, but some of us were more busy navigating our rowing boats safely through the waves, than looking at the cliffs of Fyns Hoved. Sunday we enjoyed some excellent weather with some wind and plenty of sunshine, while we were discussing the different sight of land, which you can see from Fyns Hoved in clear weather.

After an excellent walking tour we drove to Kerteminde to eat lunch at cafe. We found a cafe called Saltings, where I decided to have a burger of beef. The burger consisted of 200 g beef meat, which was fried perfect after my opinion without too much red meat in-side. The burger was served together with pickled cucumbers, bacon, tomatoes and dressing. The only thing, which I was missing, was some potatoes as company to this burger. The burger was good, but not out-standing in any way, the price for this burger was 110 DKK.

If you are looking for a special place to eat in Kerteminde, I would recommend you to eat at Rudolf Matis, however here you will pay plenty more money.

Kitchen equipment 14 - ice cube maker

My "new" best friend supplying me with ice cubes

I have got a new BEST friend in my little kitchen !!!! My new best friend actually fills quiet a lot on my work top in my "little" kitchen, but it filling less than an American refrigerator with an ice cubes machine inside. And I have no room in the kitchen for American refrigerator !!!!

I really like to drink ice cold water and I like to fill soft drinks with plenty of ice cubes and ice cubes are an essential part of cocktail and drinks. And I kept forgetting making ice cubes in the freezer for these purposes.

So my "new" best friend is one busy machine in my kitchen supplying me with ice cubes on any time of the day or night.

Tea and cake at Historisches Cafè Am Markt, Goslar

Lübeck cream cake

During an extended week-end to Goslar, Harz, Germany my mother and I found a favourite cake called Historisches Cafè Am Markt, where we every day passed by to either drink a glass of wine or enjoy a wonderful piece of cake together with a cup of tea or coffee.

This cafe is having the usual "normal" tables and chairs with some funny addition of old style sofas and armchairs, where you sometime almost felt, that you sitting 30 cm over the floor.

So if you pass by Goslar, go and have a cup of coffee/tea together a wonderful piece of cake, like this Lübeck cream cake covered in Lübecker Marzipan, two different cake layer (white and chocolate) and two cream layers.