Christmas fair at Trapholt Museum

I could have done with so more sleep this Saturday morning, but I wanted to present at the julemarked (Christmas fair) på Trapholt museum from the very beginning, before it became over crowed. So I was there at 9.50 o'clock ready to get in. And I spend 2 hours there only looking at the various arts and crafts boots. I started by taking a round to all the boots, when I made up my mind, what I could not live without and when I did the shopping part for both myself. I also brought two Christmas presents to my mother, who as usual wish nothing for Christmas !!!

Bird feeders

The entrance is free to both the fair as well as the museum, so you actually save 75 DKK, which is the normal entrance to the museum !!! The fair will also be open again tomorrow Sunday.
Would I return again ? YEEESSS This type of Christmas market is just the type of market I really adore.

At many boots the opening line was: please feel free to touch and feel :-) This makes you feel very welcome, if you like me are the type of person, who needs to both touch and see as part of the evaluation process.

Hand made garden table in ceramic tiles

I really adore this ceramic by Dorthe Hansen (dh-keramik). It is having a low weight compared to types of ceramic, which can be quiet heavy to lift up.

A box full of various tea/coffee mugs in with different handles (bullet form, horse head, dogs etc), shapes and final decoration. They are made in porcelain clay. I found a new tea cup with small green dots almost like touch typing. You can see more here: DorteKristoffersen.dk

Tea lights in form of sea urchins

My new breakfast set

My tea cup with touch typing

And the winners are ....

the two readers, who were so kind to leave a comment each on the birthday give away meaning I do not have to draw lots, as there is liquorice gift to each commentators.

Jeanett17 November 2013 13:43

Dear Kirsten, I enjoy your blog very much, because you combine personel experience of various recipies with your life. Thank you :-)

Erbse22 November 2013 21:04

Kære Kirsten, altid dejligt at se dine seneste køkken gadgets, indkøb fra din shopping i ind og udland, å inspriation til nye retter o.m.m Ser frem til mange flere input og oplevelser fra din side. Kærligst, Karin

So Jeanett, please share your address by mail: kitchenofkiki@email.dk, so I can send the liquorice gift to you.

Erbse: I would your location, so the liquorice gift will be hand delivered to you :-)

Christmas Fair at Gisselfeld

Again I have been visiting a Christmas market, this time at Gisselfeld together with my mother. As you can see for the photos we were very luckily with some sunny weather.

There was plenty of people every where, so it was sometimes quiet difficult to get around. And the amount of people was to overwhelming for my mother. Anyway she wanted a very specific flower from the stand in Paradehuset, so we had to take another tour in one long line of people taking us 20-25 minutes getting in and out again of Paradehuset with the "magic flower".

Along the paths around in the park area were standing metallic torch giving an extra touch of fairytale to the surroundings

The entrance fee is 60 DKK (approx 8 €) for adults, which only covers the entrance to the actual market. If you would like to see the inside of Gisselfeld, this will cost you another 110 DKK (approx 14.50 €) according to the homepage. The market is also be open next week-end.

I saw a hand full of more interesting boots at this market selling things with that extra touch appealing to me compared to the market at Gram Slot. You will still find the majority of stands selling mainstream things, which you can find everywhere at market and fairs.

Would I return again ? Good question. I will say yes, but it would be during Summer time, so I could see the entire of Paradehuset.

Fruit pie a la "Julebakst"

I am submitting this recipe on fruit pie into the amazing monthly blogging event called "Tea Time Treats" being managed  Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked. And for November Karen has selected dried fruit as the theme as a start up for the Christmas season.

During a recent business trip to Norway I brought a cooking book having focus on Christmas called "Allers Aller beste Julebakst", where I found this recipe on a fruit pie containing plenty of dried fruit with yet some more dried fruit, which are typical for the upcoming Christmas season in form of raisins, figs, dates, apricot and almonds.

I have made two changes. The first modification is addition of vanilla sugar into the pie dough as an extra Christmas touch. The second modification was, that I using mandarins instead of orange, as I only had organic mandarins coming in my weekly vegetable box.

Fruit pie a la "Julebakst":

Pie dough:

• 150 g butter
• 100 g sugar
• 170 g (cake) wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar

Fruit filling:

• 100 g date - diced
• 90 g dried figs - diced
• 90 g dried apricot - diced
• 70 g raisins
• 50 g dried cranberries
• 70 g almonds - diced
• 3 organic mandarins - zest and juice

1. Add all the dried fruit and almonds into a small mixing bowl. Add mandarin zest and juice up top of the dried fruit. 
2. Close the mixing bowl and store night over in the refrigerator.
3. Add the pie dough ingredients into a mixer and turn into a dough.
4. Store the pie dough cold night over in the refrigerator.
5. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
6. Use 3/4 part of the pie dough to cover a round pie form with a diameter of 24 cm.
7. Place the fruit filling into the pie dough.
8. Grate the remaining pie dough on top of the fruit filling.
9. Bake the fruit pie in the lower part of the oven at 200'C for 25-30 minutes.
10. Let the fruit pie cold down.
11. Sprinkle the fruit pie with icing sugar, before serving it.

Christmas market at Gram Slot

This afternoon my local good girl friend and I went on a tour together to the very first Christmas market of 2013, which was the Gram Slot Julemarked 2013. The last of this market is tomorrow Sunday 17 November. Entrance fee is 75 DKK (approx 10 €) for adults.

It was a very big Christmas market with many smaller boots selling all different things such as food and beverages, home-made accessories and Christmas decorations. However, my friend and I both agreed, that the food part was the best, while the other boots were to mainstream without that extra touch, which are attractive for our personal preference. Sometimes you are left with the impression, that these boot people are using the same design template and material, as they are not standing out from each other. So we will probably find another Christmas market to visit next year.

We could also get inside Gram Slot (castle), where I noticed the following interesting decoration ideas for the upcoming Christmas. Some of them seems to be simple enough  for even me to try them out at home !!

It is possible to enjoy Sønderjysk kaffebord (which is a big cake table with 7 soft, 7 dry and 7 hard cakes) the first Sunday of every month at a very reasonable price. I would like to return to test this big cake table :-)

Sleeping cats in the stable

Three wheat buns

Why do I call these buns "Three wheat buns " ? Well I am using the different types of wheat for the creation of these buns: cracked wheat grains + whole grain wheat flour + grounded Øland wheat flour. And all the various wheats are produced in Denmark.

The dough is to the softer side, sticking to your hands during handling, so you can always consider to add more flour or reduce the water content, if you prefer a less moist dough.

As usual after baking I am freezing the majority of the buns, so I have a stock of buns, which easily can be de-frosted in the micro-wave oven and turned into a "look-a-like" warm bun directly out of the oven after baking.

Three wheat buns: - 22-24 buns

• 150 cracked wheat grains
• 200 g cold water
• 30 g salt
• 300 whole grain wheat flour
• 700 g stone grounded Ølands wheat flour
• 20 g yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
• 700 g water

1. Start by mixing the cracked wheat grains, salt and water together in a mixing bowl, let it rest cold for minimum 8 hours or night over.
2. First add the yeast and the flour into the mixing bowl of the mixer.
3. Start to whip on low speed, slowly add in the water and honey. Knead the dough on the mixer for 2 minutes.
4. Add in the soaked cracked wheat grains and knead for another 2 minutes on the mixer. People with more routine using their mixer for bread kneading would let the dough knead for 10-15 minutes on their mixer.
5. After the kneading process, let the dough raise warm for 1½-2 hour.
6. Divide the dough into equal size buns, I always a kitchen scale for this purpose in order to ensure equal baking of the buns, I target a dough amount of 80-90 g per bun.
7. Place the buns a baking tray covered with baking paper, and let the buns raise for another 30-45 minutes.
8. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
9. Bake the buns at 200'C for 30 minutes in the middle part of then oven.

Happy birthday to Kitchen of Kiki

Birthday cake in form of Danish lagkage

Happy birthday to my little blog !!!! 

Today my blog about activities in my little kitchen, life in my "park" and with guest appearance of the local star Hannibal the Cat becomes 3 years old :-)

It is incretiable how fast time is running ! When I wrote my very first blog post, I was having no idea, where it would take me and perhaps you readers on the other side of the screen. The main driver for me is to relax my mind (so no mindfulness here !!!) as well as having fun being busy in my kitchen creating. Sometimes even being slight maniac baking away for an afternoon tea for my good friends.

Within the last two months I have started implementing two new ideas, which I am planning to make a regular part of the virtual life of my blog.
The first thing is a welcome greeting to the "new" calendar month with focus on interesting food of that particular month.
The second thing is, that a real ice cream machine was found a place in my little kitchen, so I am planning to make ice cream every month, a process which will involve you upfront in the selection process in form of an ice cream election. In September you selected vanilla ice cream, so in October I made two different vanilla ice cream in form of home-made vanilla ice cream a la "Country Cook´s Kitchen" and ultra indulgent vanilla ice cream "artisan style". However, here in November I have already decided, which type of ice cream I would like to create, so here you have no saying at all.

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

Last year I received one comment, so if this trend continues, you have can a very good chance of actually winning somethings based on leaving a comment to this post :-)

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 24 November 2013 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 2013 - 3 year birthday
Start day - first posting: 13 November 2010
Development on "Hjemmebagt": 73 recipes - 32 accomplished = 41 recipes to bake
Amount of cooking books in my kitchen: 58 books
Page views: 94847
Publish posts: 711 incl. this
Followers: 15
Blogs followed: 15
Top blog posts during these three years:

1. TUC cake
2. Dinner at"Mad hos Mads, Horsens
3. Tea shopping at Kusmi in Paris
4. Christmas Calendar Door 9/2011 - Christmas Aquavita
5. Meeting some Danish food bloggers in REAL life
6. Christmas Calendar Door 7/2011 - Baked marzipan confect
7. Dinner at Belle Epoque, Nykøbing Mors
8. Paleo (stone-age diet) chocolade cake
9. The ultimate strawberry cake - Strawberry cake version 5.0
10. Lønnestræde Kir Royal

So there has been some movements, but two out the top 3 blog posts seems to be impossible to change, as they remain the same posts for the last 2 years (the TUC cake and shopping for Kusmi Tea in Paris). However, three blog posts from 2013 have been popular enough among your readers to make into the overall Top 10 list in form of "Paleo (Stone-age diet) chocolate", which made into the overall Top 10 (being a number 8) within a time frame of 1 week, eating at Belle Epoque and off casue the ultimate "The ultimate strawberry cake - Strawberry cake version 5.0", a cake which took me two years to fine-tune to perfection.

So if I should have a description of you as blog reader of "Kitchen of Kiki" based on the overall top 10 list  I would say that:

• you like me has a "sweet tooth" towards cakes (3 posts are cake recipes)
• you like to drink tea and you are a keen fan of Kusmi tea (like I am)
• you like to make home-made things for Christmas (2 posts)
• you like to eat at restaurants (2 posts)
• you are champagne lady (like I am)
• and finally you like to meet new people with similar interest (1 post)

Among the top 10 post written within the last year, since the blog turned 2 years old you will find:

1. Dinner at Belle Epoque, Nykøbing Mors
2. Paleo (stone-age diet) chocolade cake
3. The ultimate strawberry cake - Strawberry cake version 5.0 - Tea Time Treat
4. Stone age (Paleo) bread 
5. Bergamot-orange jam for Tea Time Treat 
6. Rugkiks - rye bisquits with cumin (from Hjemmebagt) 
7. Rhubarb cordial -easy to make
8. Skovtursmuffin - picnic muffin for Tea Time Treat 
9. Curry with chicken, edam beans and carrots
10. Tartes aux pommes for Tea Time Treat  & Eating yogurt in New York  

So describing your interest during the last year as blog reader, I would say:

• you have maintained your "sweet tooth" towards cakes (3 posts are cake recipes)
• you are quiet fond off the virtual monthly Tea Time Treat (4 posts have been a part of this specific blogging event)
• you like to eat "Stone-age" food (2 posts), which I find interesting to try out, even though I do not follow this diet regime
• you maintained your desire for dinning at restaurants (2 posts)
• you like home-made jam, home-made biscuits and a good home-made curry (1 post each)

Is it quiet interesting to see, how the majority of the most popular blog posts are related to cake baking/creation. Also my participation in the amazing blog event Tea Time Treats has a huge influence 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 this specific virtual event.

Page view per country:

• Australia: 1%
• Canada: 1%
• France: 1%
• Norway: 1%
• Portugal: 2%
• Germany: 4%
• UK: 4%
• Russia: 6%
• USA: 19%
• Other countries: 27%
• Denmark: 34%

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 Russia, Germany and UK. I find it amazing, that I have readers around the world, which perhaps are grabbing some inspiration from my little kitchen. You are more than welcome inside for a virtual cup of tea :-) 

Walking tour on Gendarmstien between Gråsten Slot and Cathrinesminde Teglværk

In November I have been walking again, this time the third part of the Gendarmstien (The Gendarme Path), which is a walking path of 74 km between Padborg and Høruphav. Gendarmstien is located on the boarder between Denmark and Germany, and is where the boarder control force (Gendarmes) walk on foot between 1920 and 1958, after the relocation of the boarder between Denmark and Germany took place in 1920 based on the results of the boarder vote.

On the second part of the tour we walked between  us to Kollund to Egernsund along the Northern side of the Fjord of Flensborg. The North side of the fjord is Danish, while the South part of the side is German.

One of the oldest Gravenstein apple trees

This time we started at Gråsten Slot, which serves as a link between the royal Danish family and Sønderjylland since 1930´s. We had a guided tour in the park surrounding the white castle of Gråsten, where we heard about the history of the castle and it´s connection to the royal Danish family. We also two of the oldest Gravenstein apple tree, which is connected to Gråsten Slot.
The guided tour ended at the memorial for Paludan-Müller, who as colonel of Gendarmes resisted the German attempt to arrest him in 1944.

From Gråsten Slot we started our 14 km long walk. And yet again we were extremely luckily with the weather, as the tour again started in brilliant sunshine, as you see from my pictures. Towards the end of the tour the sky was becomes more grey, but we did not get any rain at all, which is very lucky, when you have to spend an entire day outside in November here in Denmark.

However, the hurricane of 4 November 2013 was from time to time giving us some extra exercise, as we had to either climb over or crawl under large trees, which were blocking the path. I counted 16 threes, which were doing their best to block our walking tour !!! But we found our way around these obstacles.

After our passage of Egernsund Bridge we had a small break at outdoor showroom of various bricks. This area is the heartland of brick production in Denmark due it´s special clay without any sand in it.

Viewing the small selection of bricks

Outdoor brick showroom

Egernsund Marina

After a lunch break at the marina of Egernsund we walked towards Broager, where we again made a smaller detour to the church of Broager.

This church is build on a hill top, so it´s two church spires can be seen over a long distance. Here we also had a guided tour viewing the inside of the church with some beautiful frescoes.
Outside in church yard we saw a memorial over the 170 men from the county of Broager, which died during the Great War in France fighting on the German side. Each grave stone was bearing the name or names of a family, which had lost fathers or sons during the battle at Verdun. On some of the stone you can the names of both father and son or the names of four brothers. The Great War is so far away from our daily life, but this memorial was bringing it right up to our time with the names on the dead solider, sons, brothers and fathers.

From Broager Church we returned to Gendarmstien and walked towards Cathrinesminde Teglværk (old brickwork's turned into a museum) , where this third tour ended.

The forth tour will take part in March 2014, where we will start with a guided tour at Cathrinesminde Teglværk. And I hope, we will be blessed with some good walking weather.

Flensborg Fjord at Cathrinesminde

Help in the kitchen - Kitchen equipment 23

Can you guess from the title on this blog post, what I have got ???  And it is not black in anyway, as I did pay tax for it !!!

Well, if you have no clue at all, take a look at the picture below.

Yes, KitchenAid has moved into my little kitchen in a wonderful red colour (the favourite colour of my cousin), as I not a big fan of these minimalistic colour of white or black.

At a brunch last Saturday a friend of mine was telling, that she had been shopping Christmas gift in a local hardware store, which was having 25% discount on everything in the shop. So Sunday morning I was situated outside this hardware store, when it was opening it´s door at 10.00, so I could my kitchen helper with 25% discount. And I was luckily, as I got the last KitchenAid in red.

I have already been kneading my first bread dough on my KitchenAid. And some of the recipes in the bread book "Hjemmebagt" actually requires kneading or even whipping on a mixer. According to various of my work colleagues, I could easily let the machine knead the dough for 10-15 minutes instead of the 2 minutes mentioned in the instruction book. 

Yes, I actually read the entire instruction book, before I started the KitchenAid !!! Perhaps I am suffering from a work injury - Safety First ? So now I know it is dangerous piece of equipment, where I could always take out the power plug, before I change the whipping dasher or place the mixing bowl. I am recognising,  that KitchenAid is an US based company from the instruction book text.

And I would also like to make macaroons, which according to a specific macaroon recipe book required whipping for 15 minutes, imaging standing with a hand mixer for 15 minutes to do that !!!

And to those of you thinking/asking, why did you not buy a Kenwood or Teddy mixer instead of, as they are much better, I have one comment only !!! I really like the organic design of KitchenAid compared to the square format of these two other brands.

Welcome to November - the third month of Autumn

Welcome to November 

The darkness of November is creeping in on us here in Denmark with it´s short amount of day light, grey sky and plenty of rain showers. So all in all November very easy can end up in being one looong month of dullness, before December comes alive with all it´s candlelight inside and various electric light decoration outside bringing joy and light into a very dark month.

So what will I be up to here in November, which so very easily can become a month of 30 days full of darkness ?

• Well my blog will be celebrating it´s 3 years birthday November 13 with a small giveaway, so you should look by on this day on how to participate.

• Otherwise I will be busy myself creating 24 blog post for my own version of a Christmas Calendar, which means I will making candy and baking Christmas cakes and cookies here during November, so all the blog post more or less are ready to be published beginning from December 1. This means, that November will be a "silent" month with less published blog posts for you to read and enjoy.

In October I had focus on working with the "black gold" in form of blackberry & elderberry, which only resulted in one new recipe on blackberry jam. It turned out, that the major blogging activities in my kitchen were making three PINK fund-raising activities, where I baked away and the participating "eaters" donated money. Together we collected an amazing 1300 DKK, which was donated to "A race against breast cancer", so a huge thank you to all you out there in real-life donating money during my PINK fund-raising activities :-)


So in order to bring you a little comfort to a cold and dark November I will be sharing these two recipes on some warming meals with you:

THE potato soup

Pork tenderloin stew