Chaya Christmas tea for my tea pot 28

Christmas is starting today, as it is the first Sunday in advent, so I find it appropriate to start using Christmas tea for my tea pot.

This Chaya Jule Te is describes as a mild tea with plenty of spices. Outside the month of December this tea is sold under another in form of Spiced Tea, and in December is changed it´s name to Christmas Tea. The tea is composed of black Chinese tea with addition of cinnamon, cloves, orange peel, vanilla and rose hips.

Today is also the final day for you to participate in the annual blog birthday, where you can win a marzipan cook book. You can participate by leaving a comment to this birthday blog post. 

Christmas fair at Trapholt 2014

After last years excellent impression of the Christmas fair at Trapholt, I knew that I needed to return to this Christmas fair again this year.

And like last year I was where from the very beginning, meaning I could a parking spot more or less next door to the museum. Besides from getting a good parking spot, you can also get a good look around the various arts and craft booths, before the fair area becomes over-crowed.

I start by having a good look into all booths, making up my mind, what I "could live without", and I did the second tour to the selected booths.

Arne Jacobsen´s summer house

In between I also went to guided tour into the Arne Jacobsen´s summerhouse, which it the one and only house designed by Arne Jacobsen. The summer house is filled only with all the design created by Arne Jacobsen during his entire life in form of furniture, lamps, textile and cutlery.

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.
I will be back again next year :-)

Perhaps a lamp for my new kitchen ?

Perhaps a coming kitchen lamp ?

I did some shopping at these two booths, which were selling various ceramics.

At the booth in the picture to the left Ranum Design was selling various jugs and pitchers. Here I found a small jug, which I will use for milk, when I milk-demanding guests coming around for tea/coffee at my place.

At the booth in the photo below Rikke Elgaard was selling both cups, vases and small Christmas threes.

Milk jug and Christmas three

And a third booth with yet some ceramic by Cirkulaer Design I found another tea cup for my ceramic tea set incl a small bowl, which could be used as breakfast bowl, sugar bowl or bowl for cookies ?

Tea cup and sugar bowl

My ceramic tea set

A full kitchen

It is approx one week ago that I could move into a new kitchen, and all the many empty drawers and shelves are now full up to the very top !

I am very happy about my new kitchen:-) It is so MUCH BETTER than expected based on my imagination from all the various photoes, drawings, test samples of grip, tile and table surfaces. The kitchen now looks so much bigger than it´s actual size of 7 m2 due to the fact, that the top cabinets and refrigerator unit continues all the way up to the ceiling combined with all the white goods are built-in units, so the kitchen looks like one big surface.

At the same time all light spots in wall cabinets and in the new hood brings an amazing light for working in the kitchen during the dark autumn evenings. It is just fantastic. Now I "just" need a "surplus" on the bank account again or a work bonus, so I can replace the ceiling lamp with two new lamps.

All  my many glass things and ceramics are now on display in this glass cabinet with glass shelves and built-in light.



Various kitchen utensils have now found a place in a new wall shelf, so they do not take up work space on my kitchen table.

Unfortunately, there is no space to exhibit all my many metallic tins, so here I must make rotation plan, so they in turn can decorate the kitchen design

The majority of all my cookbooks have also found a place. However, I need to use a stool or stepladder to get hold of them.

The "correct" granite table top has been treated with anti-stain liquid, so the surface is sealed off against liquids. Anti-stain liquid is something of a toxic cocktail that neither should be consumed or inhaled or come in contact with the water environment or on the skin. However, the liquid is OK for food contact !!!

The following things remain on the to-do-list:

• Replacing the black granite counter top with a "real" light granite countertop including the kitchen sink. The original tabletop snapped namely under the neckline.
• Set up the glass half wall at the hob.
• Set up the ceramic tiles on the wall below the wall cupboards. So here I am living with a "cool industrial look".

Køkkenet er fyldt op

Det er nu en uge siden, at jeg kunne flytte ind i mit nye køkken, og alle de mange tomme skuffer og hylder er nu fuldt op til bristepunktet !

Hold da op, hvor er jeg glad for mit nye køkken :-) Det er blevet MEGA MEGET BEDRE end jeg havde forestillet mig ud fra diverse billeder, tegninger, prøve af greb, fliser og bordflader. Det er virkeligt blevet en kæmpe helhed, hvor de 7 m2 køkken virker større, dels forbi overskabene og køle-fryseskabet går helt til loft, og dels forbi alle hvidevarerne er blevet indbygget, så der er kommet helhed i selve køkkenet.

Samtidig betyder alle lysspotene i overskabene samt i den nye emhætte at der kommet en fantastisk arbejdsslys selv på en mørk efterårsaften. Det er bare så godt :-) Jeg mangler at få "overskud" på bankkontoen eller bonus på arbejde inden, at loftslampen bliver udskiftet med to nye lamper.

Alle mine mange glasting og keramik bliver nu udstillet i dette glasskab med glashylder og indbygget lys.

Diverse køkkenredskaber har nu fundet en plads i en ny vægreol, så de ikke optager arbejdsplads på mit køkkenbord.

Desværre er der ikke plads til at udstille alle mine mange metal dåser, så her må jeg udarbejde en turnus ordning, så de på skift kan pynte op i køkkenet.

Flertallet af alle mine kogebøger har ligeledes fundet en plads. Jeg har dog brug for at bruge en skammel eller trappestige, få at kunne få fat i dem.

Den blivende granitbordplade er ligeledes blevet behandlet med anti-plet, så overfladen er lukket af for væsker. Anti-plet-væsken er dodt nok en giftig cocktail, der hverken må indtages eller indåndes eller komme i kontakt med vandmiljø eller hud. Til gengæld er væsken OK til kontakt med fødevarer !!! Det går godt nok henover mit fattevene !!!

Af uklarede ting står der stadig følgende punkter tilbage på listen:

• Udskiftning af den sorte granitbordplade med en "rigtige" lyse granitbordplade inkl køkkenvask. Den oprindelige bordplade knækkede nemlig under udskæringen.
• Opsætning af glas på halvvæggen ved kogepladerne.
• Opsætning af keramikfliser på væggen omkring overskabene. Så her lever jeg med et "råt look".

PINK afternoon tea 2014

Hostess's gifts

MEGA - MEGA MANY THANKs to all of my amazing girls friends, who took part this afternoon in my third pink fund-raising afternoon tea for their support, generosity and positive response to my invitation.

Together we have donated an amazing 500 DKK, which has been transferred to www.araceagainstbreastcancer.dk, as this charity is accepting any amount of money without demands to specific value compared to other charities here in Denmark, which "demand" certain specific amount of money.




The afternoon started in my new kitchen, where very single drawer was carefully examined by my good girl friends. Afterwards we moved into the dining table, which was filled with all plenty of baked goods.

It turned out to be something of afternoon tea, as two of my girls friends were telling they were moving on with new job opportunities !!! I am so excited on their behave, I wish both of you all the best with these new job positions :-)

It had been something of a challenge to bake in my new oven for the very first time !!! The baking time is quiet longer in the new oven compared to my old oven, so I have to learn to increase the oven temperature with approx 10'C or increase the baking time with 10-20 minutes.

The first eatable stuff on the menu was a Christmas flavoured scones with plenty of butter, various spices, orange peel and sucat. Wonder taste & texture :-)

The cake of the afternoon tea menu was a mixture between a brownie and a muffin in form of brownie-muffin, which has an excellent chocolate taste.

The other cake part was a Christmas cheese cake, where I had just added cherry sauce as topping on a classic cheese cake recipe.

The third cake was a tea bread with more than a touch of Christmas.

For the small sweet tooth I have made caramels with cashew nuts and sea salt and German version of "brunkager" (brown Christmas cookies).

All the many recipes will be a part of the coming Christmas Calender 2014, so this PINK afternoon tea has giving me a good boost of blog posts.

Even though I have asked my good girls friends NOT to bring any hostess gifts with them for this PINK afternoon tea, some of them came along with some home-made Christmas cookies, quince candy, crisp bread and some lovely liquorice tea - I will enjoy all these wonderful gifts :-)

Apple juice of home-grown Philippa apples

This is another recipe, which I have located in the IRMA magazine called "Krydderiet", issue 3 August 2014. I am living the part of Denmark, where we have no access to IRMA, which is primarily located in the area of Copenhagen, as it is more price expensive Danish supermarket chain like M&S in UK.

Anyway, my mother lives in the Copenhagen area, so she picks up the IRMA magazine for me, as she knows I am keening on trying out new food recipes.

As I noticed, that the harvested Philippa apples were getting wrinkled skin, I decided to turn them into apple juice, as a way of preserving their wonderful taste for some more time instead of panic eating my way through these apples or feeding them to the blackbirds living around my garden.

There is no need to throw out the boiled apple pieces, as they can be used as mashed apple (æblemos), either eaten with milk, yogurt or turned in the classic Danish apple cake. You can adjust the sweetness in this apple mash by stirring in sugar, before storing it cold/frozen.

Apple juice a la IRMA: - approx 1 liter

• 1 l water
• 200 g sugar
• 2 organic lemons - zest and juice
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 1000 g apple - peeled, cored and cut into boat shape

1. Put water, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar into a large cooking pot.
2. Add in cinnamon stick and apple pieces into the water.
3. Cook up this "apple soup", and let it boil gently for 15 minutes with the lid on the cooking pot.
4. Remove the cooking pot from the heat, and let the content inside the cooking pot cool down,
5. Pour everything through a sieve into a large bowl.
6. Remove the cinnamon sticks and save the mashed apples for later use as apple compote. Adjust the sweetness level by adding in extra sugar in this apple mash.
7. If you want a more clear apple juice, sieve the juice one more time, perhaps through a coffee filter.
8. Prepare the storage bottles by filling them with boiling water. Another thing you can do to increase shelf-life of the apple juice is to store the juice cold in the refrigerator or place them in the freezer.

Sydney Breakfast tea for my tea pot 27

I have received this tea a gift from an Australian work colleague, as she knows I am a keen tea enjoyer. And the flavour profile fits perfect into my taste preference for Earl Grey style teas, as it is black tea with a hint of bergamot.

I enjoy this tea sending warm thoughts down under :-)

Hook for tea towel - kitchen equipment 25

It is not only the kitchen fitter, which has been using the power drill in my kitchen during the last couple of days.

This morning I was also practising my none existing handy-woman skills with a power drill putting up this Kähler hook for tea towels.

Both power drill, kitchen wall, hook and myself are all safe and sound !!!

The kitchen is ready for moving in

Today is the big moving day for my new kitchen:-) And it is "almost" done !

The following things is still missing:

• The carpenter still needs to put up the baseboards along the kitchen floor, which will be done next week.
• Replacing the black granite counter top with a "real" light granite counter top including the kitchen sink. The original tabletop broke under the fitting process at stone shop.
• Treatment of granite worktops with anti-stain so that the surface be closed off  for liquid.
• Setting up the glass on half-wall next to the hob.
• Setting up the ceramic tiles on the wall below the cabinets. So here I am living with a "rough cool look".

I will let the pictures speak for themselves, while I begin to fill all the many cupboards and drawers with all my kitchen stuff.

I wish you a nice week-end out where on the other side of the screen.