Freshly picked blackcurrants from some friend's kitchen garden

Some friends of mine living in a neighbour city have a relative big kitchen garden. And in this kitchen garden they grow blackcurrants, not just common blackcurrant, but mega, mega BIG blackcurrants. I do not know, if my friends are talking or singing to their blackcurrants or if they are doping them !!!!! These blackcurrants are bigger than the "normal" blackcurrants, which you can buy in shops.

And yesterday afternoon on my way home from work I visited my friends and their kitchen garden in order to pick blackcurrants to coming activities in my kitchen. And besides from picking blackcurrant with the help of a friend, I was also served afternoon tea with freshly baked scones and home-made jam. Perfect afternoon for a very rainy summer day :-) Thank you for blackcurrants, afternoon tea and good company :-))

I arrived home with approx 2 kg blackcurrants, which now either are sleeping in the freezer or preparing them selves for these coming activities:

• Blackcurrant rum a la "La Tascha"
• Blackccurrant muffins
• Blackcurrant jam

I will share these recipes with you later on.

Do you have some interesting suggestions for how, I can use the rest of these big blackcurrants ?

Freshly picked raspberries for breakfast

Finally the raspberries in my little garden are starting to ripe in different tempos. I have been eating a small hand full the last two evenings, while I have been watering all the different plant pots in the garden.

However, this morning I decided to eat my breakfast cereals together with freshly picked raspberries on top.

It feels great just to open the door to the garden, take the breakfast bowl in the hand and go picking raspberries direct from the bush. Perfect breakfast concept and excellent taste.

Almanak - new cooking book 4

As a birthday gift I got the cooking book "Almanak" written by Claus Meyer. This cooking book is divided into weekly recipes with focus on seasonal Nordic food. I am really looking forward to try as well as taste my way through this new cooking book in my collection.

Cooking book with focus on brain health - new cooking book 3

Some time ago I won a cooking book as a give away on the blog called Anne´s Food
http://annesfood.blogspot.com/2011/05/and-cookbook-winner-is.html

The focus of this cooking book called "Thinkfood" is recipes for brain fitness. The cooking book contains fifty brain-healthy recipes from food bloggers in collaboration with Posit Science. I have found some quiet interesting recipes, which I am looking forward to test in my kitchen.

Week-end stay at Ballen Badehotel, Samsø

During the extended week-end to Samsø we had book a week-end package at Ballen Badehotel, so they took care of breakfast as well as the evening meal, so we only had to focus on cycling around on the island.

The service at the hotel was very personal, dedicated and just excellent.

So all in all an perfect week-end at Ballen Badehotel.

For the first evening meal we had home-smoked salmon served together with saffron mayonnaise and fresh spring salad. Great taste and combination.

As main course we were served red wine marinated lamb shank together with fennel, pasternak and sauce. The green asparagus and potatoes were from Samsø.

For the second evening meal we were eating lumpfisk roe, sour cream dressing with various herbs and herb salt. Uuuuhmmmm :-)

As main course calve culotte served together with celery pure, various green from Samsø including potatoes and white asparagus.

As dessert we had white chocolate mousse, strawberries from Samsø and orange sauce. I will not describe the mousse as mousse, but more as white chocolate panna cotta. It still tasted great :-)

Dinner at Strandlyst, Samsø

During the week-end stay at Samsø we found a restaurant in Ballen called Strandlyst - Strandvejen 12, where we enjoyed a very nice evening meal. Nice food and very good service.

As a starter I had froi gras served together a fresh salad with apple and potato cripes made of potato peels. Great combination.

As main course I had (unknown) fish cooked in a sauce served in jam style glass. As vegetable there was served spring vegetable in form potatoes, asparagus and carrot pie. Uuuuhmmmm it tasted excellent :-))

Lunch from Røgeriet, Ballen

Instead of buying a boring sandwich on the ferry on our return travel from Samsø to Jutland, we decided to bring our own lunch from the smoke house in Ballen harbour. You can either eat at the smoke house located in the harbour of Ballen, buy the food as take-a-way or actual buy fresh fish for very your own cooking.

We both decided to buy fish cake served together with new potatoes from Samsø, remoulade, onion compote and red currant jam.

This meal tasted so much better than the pre-packed sandwiches on the ferry boat. And it also served as a solid bottom for the rest of the day.