Diane Denmark

Feel Good Friday - 10 February 2012

2012-02-10T13:15:00.001+01:00

Three things that I love this week:

* That it's now daylight when we do the school run in the morning. Woo hoo!

* That it's still light at 5 pm. Double woo!

* And - as white candles are just too boring after the cheery red Christmas ones (but it's a tad too early for happy, yellow Easter ones) - I'm cheering myself up with a nice mix of freesia coloured candles to keep me going until spring has really sprung...

Danish schools are closing today for a (well deserved...) 'Winter Week' holiday - so I'm dusting my blog desk (after I've set my timer and decluttered papers for seven minutes) and going off to enjoy some fun with my family.

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful week! :)

Menu plan - Thursday 9 February 2012

2012-02-09T18:15:00.000+01:00

The sea this morning...frozen!
No vinterbadning (winterbathing)
for us until the ice melts :(

We still have arctic temperatures here in Copenhagen, so this week's menu includes lots of comfort food :)

Me swimming at the same spot just 4 weeks ago...

In case you haven't heard it before, I do my shopping 'on-line' once a week and order everything we eat for breakfast and dinner, the kids packed lunches for school, and things like wine/washing up liquid/'bog roll'. This week's grocery bill came to kr. 895 (around £99 or $ 157) - still lower than my usual spend of around kr. 1.100 - because I'm still finding a few items in my freezer/pantry that I can 'get rid of'.

* Pork chops Yum-Yum from the food.com website served with roasted grean beans and steamed pearl barley made in my (beloved) ricecooker

* Crockpot chicken (chicken fillets, can of condensed mushroom soup, add frozen peas at the end), in tortilla wraps, served with spinach salad

* Greek (lamb) meatballs, with Greek salad (feta cheese, olives, red onion, cucumber, red pepper and tomato), steamed rice with raisins made in my (beloved) ricecooker

Greek salad...just need to add some olives :)

* Crockpot red lentil soup (leek, potato, red lentils, seasoning, water and chicken stock cubes) with hot homemade bread rolls

* Flæskesteg (traditional Danish roast pork with lots of yummy crackling), baby potatoes, carrots and lots of lovely, lovely sovs (creamy gravy) - yum!

* Leftover night = any leftover meat/veggies I can find in the fridge, jazzed up and served as a wholemeal pasta or fried rice dish

Fastelavnsris = Danish carnival decoration

And, remember, there'll be no menu plan next week as I'm taking the week off with the kids, who are on school winter break for Fastelavn (Danish carnival)... :D

Have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! :)

Udderly fantastic?

2012-02-08T17:50:00.001+01:00

[This post is also published over at www.blogs.denmark.dk - the official website of Denmark run by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

My sweetie friend H held a girly birthday dinner bash at her flat on Saturday night. After the main course, she got down to the serious business of unwrapping her gifts. One by one. Slowly. Giving everyone at the table the opportunity to observe and admire - as is the way in Denmark. Note to non-Danes: don't thrust your gift into the arms of the host when you arrive. Instead ask, "Hvor er gavebordet hen?" (Where's the gift table?) No matter where you are, be it a private home, church hall or posh hotel, there will always be an assigned tablewhere you can place your parcel.

Well, we oo-ed and aah-ed our way through the packages but this gift turned out to be the highlight of the evening...

A giant tube of kopattesalve. Or "cow tit ointment" ;) Not the most attractive name, I grant you. But it's a Wonder Product. The only cream which will protect your skin against the current arctic temperatures (which finally reached Denmark last week, along with a few snow flurries, after an amazingly mild winter).

Yes, this cream is used by Danish farmers to treat sore and infected udders. But also by breastfeeding mums, eczema sufferers and anyone who needs an extra rich moisturizing cream.

I'm choosing to believe the hype and am off to the chemist. Because I'll be skinny dipping (vinterbadning) in the (partially frozen) Danish sea tomorrow morning and - with a windchill on the beach of minus 20c (minus 4f) - I'm looking for all the help I can get...

Have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

Chocolate marmelade/jam cake

2012-02-07T14:55:00.002+01:00

I had to google my blog several times because I was sure I had posted this recipe before. I mean, really, it's a staple in our household. Fantastic warm from the oven. Cold with cream or ice-cream. Or reheated a week later - if there are leftovers - and eaten with custard. Yum! But apparently I never got round to sharing the recipe, so voilà!

A tiny last slice for little old moi! :)

It's another (fantastic) recipe from (fantastic) Nigella Lawson. From her Domestic Goddess book. Which is fantastic. (As are all of her cookery books...) You can use any type of marmelade or jam. I made the cake a couple of weeks ago when I was decluttering my cupboards as part of the Super Fling Boogie - because I discovered a glut of three jars of orange marmelade, just waiting to be used :)

Two's company, three means it's time to bake a cake! ;)

You'll need:

125g butter
100g dark chocolate
300g orange marmelade, apricot, plum or cherry jam
150g sugar
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
150g plain flour or self-raising flour
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder (if you aren't using self-raising flour)

Melt the butter and chocolate in a large pan over a very low heat. Remove the pan from the heat when the butter is melted - then keep stirring until the chocolate has melted.

Add the sugar and marmelade and mix well.

This will bring down the temperature of the mix and then you can add the eggs. Then the flour, baking powder and salt. Giving it a good mix til it's nice and smooth.

Pour into a tin lined with paper (for easy removal and clean-up). The original recipe calls for a 20cm tin (8") but I always use my Ikea one which is 22cm (9").

Pop into a preheated oven at 180c or 350f. You'll be baking it for about 45 minutes, but start checking the middle of the cake after about 35 mins with a knitting needle or skewer. You want it just set, not overcooked.

Leave it to cool then enjoy in small slices. It doesn't really need any embellishment or icing - but I sometimes dust it with a bit of icing sugar, edible silver or glitter, or drizzle on some ganache. Got visitors coming? Add a bowl of whipped cream/crème fraîche and some fresh fruit or fruit salad. Sorted! :)

Bon appétit!

Have a terrific Tuesday! :)

Seven Minute (Paper) Declutter Challenge

2012-02-06T14:42:00.003+01:00

The Flylady's latest Super Fling Boogie finished last week (see The Super Fling Boogie continues - again! Again, again!) and for the month of February we're working on decluttering on a daily basis. I have - hooray! - made great strides since I discovered the Flylady's system back in 2006. But my battle with paper - my achilles heel - continues. So although I'm usually on the winning team these days, I'm planning to use February to kick ass (if you pardon my French).

I'm pretty good at filing. And, when the post comes into the house, I've got into the (fantastic) habit of filing things straight away. Instead of leaving it to fester and multiply when my back is turned ;D So filing isn't the problem.

Just a small selection of files...I have around 40 of them - eeeeek!

No, my problem is simply hanging on to too many pieces of paper. Because (and fellow flybabies know what's coming next) I think I might 'need' them. Call me sentimental. Or call me a paper hoarder! ;D
So I'm turning the Flylady's February habit into my new Seven Minute Declutter Challenge. Decluttering paper for 7 minutes, Monday to Friday for the rest of the month. Weekends are free. I shall post my progress along the way - because otherwise I might be tempted to bail out halfway!

Come fling with me?

Hope you have a marvelous Monday! :)

Feel Good Friday - 3 February 2012

2012-02-03T14:28:00.004+01:00

Three things that I love this week:

The latest in my arsenal of nail varnish...

Animal print cardis...

Tickets to see Denmark's finest rockband, Magtens Korridorer. And - yippay-ay-aye - the concert is tonight!

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! :)
.

Menu plan - Thursday 2 February 2012

2012-02-02T16:30:00.001+01:00

The Flylady's Super Fling Boogie for January is now over and I've almost finished using the 'stuff' that was cluttering my freezer and storecupboards. Ready to start with a clean slate! :) I do my shopping 'on-line' once a week and buy everything we eat for breakfast and dinner, the kids packed lunches for school, and things like wine/washing up liquid/'bog roll'. This week's grocery bill came to kr. 925 (around £105 or $ 165). Which is still lower than my usual spend of around kr. 1.100. And this week's order even included a couple of expensive cuts of meat for special occasion dinners, so it's all good...

It's around -3c (27f) during the day and -12 (10f) here at the moment, so here's what we're warming up with at Casa Copenhagen this week:

* Chili in Breadbowls. Got the idea last year from the 5$ Dinners website and they were a huge hit with the whole family. I'll use the breadmachine Breadbowls recipe as they turned out so well last time (see the photo below). But I'll make my own shortcut Chili which is basically minced beef, a jar of spicy tomato sauce and kidney beans. A little tip: if your kids are like mine - and aren't mad about the beans - then mash or blend the beans before you add them to the minced beef. That way, you'll still get the authentic chili taste and nutrients... ;D

Yummy breadbowls!

The finished article - who's hungry? ;D

* Takeaway pizza and icecream on a night that the kids have a babysitter :)

* Chicken and vegetable stir fry (I have a readymade bag of it in the freezer) served on top of bulgur wheat/quinoa made in my beloved ricecooker :)

* Spaghetti carbonara and a fresh green salad on a night that DH is fending for himself and the kids and I'm out to a birthday party - yay! :D

* Oven egg and chips made by DS12 - cut potatoes into chips, boil them for about 10 minutes, leave to dry, toss in olive oil, rosemary and salt, roast in the oven. Five minutes before the end of cooking time, crack eggs into the same baking dish. And, hey presto, you have a one dish dinner! We'll be serving it with beetroot and veggie sticks.

* Pork sausages with baked potato wedges and warm red cabbage

* Beef pasta satay (we use wholemeal pasta and add red pepper or green beans) - now a firm family favourite - the recipe is from Leanne Ely a.k.a. The Dinner Diva's "Saving Dinner" book

Bon appétit!

Have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! :)

DIY Fastelavn - Danish Carnival

2012-02-01T21:23:00.001+01:00

[This post is also published over at www.blogs.denmark.dk - the official website of Denmark run by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

Last week in We heart Danish Drama, I gave you an idea for a Carnival costume. And, by jingo, if you’re planning to celebrate Fastelavn (as the Danes call it), you’d better get your skates on. Because this year the moveable feast falls early. Really early. Sunday 19 February. Which is the Sunday before the Danish schools’ winter holiday week – eek!

Fastelavnsboller = Danish carnival buns

The kids and I are busy getting into the swing of things. We’ve already eaten several huge, sticky fastelavnsboller (traditional Danish carnival buns). DD9 (Dear Daughter, 9) has her carnival costume ready and waiting on a coathanger – this year she’s Hermione from ‘Harry Potter’, selvfølgelig. And DS12 (Dear Son, 12) has politely informed me that he won’t be needing a costume this year because he’s “too old for that kind of thing, Mum!”

However, he wouldn’t say ‘No’ to a fastelavnsris, so we’ll still be making those… Now we could, of course, buy them readymade from the local supermarket or sweetshop but a) ~~we can save a fortune~~ it’s fun to make our own and b) the kids can choose the sweets themselves. You don’t know what a Fastelavnsris is or how to make one? Never fear! Here’s my post from last year, complete with step-by-step instructions.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(First published 2011)

My DD8 (dear daughter, 8 years old) was looking forward to going to school this morning. Because in art class they’re decorating piñatas for fastelavn (carnival). Carnival in Copenhagen! Okay, so we’re not talking Carnival like the one in Rio. Honestly, would you want to dance around the cobbled streets, half-naked, peely-wally white, in sub-zero temperatures? I think not. If you want the whole historical background of the Danish festival, I suggest you go google or take a peek at Wikipedia. Here’s what I think you need to know:

it’s celebrated seven weeks before Easter Sunday (6 March 2011, 19 February 2012)
it’s the highlight of the kids’ year (aside from Christmas), it’s basically the Danish equivalent of Halloween
kids wear fancy dress (which, for the under 6s, is invariably a superhero or something pink and princessy)
the kids make (or buy or receive) a fastelavnsris [don't know what that is? Hey, you're in luck! Keep reading for instructions on making your own...]
you eat special fastelavnsboller [sticky buns, duh, of course there's food involved!]

There are tons of parties where the kids get a chance to slå katten af tønden (literally ‘hit the cat out of the barrel’). Schools and kindergartens devote a whole day to the celebrations. And if your child goes to scouts or football practice, there will also be a party organised there. Not to mention events organised by public libraries, museums, local businesses and supermarkets… A tønde (large barrel, similar to a piñata) is filled with sweets and fruit. Much more politically correct than filling it with live cats, as they used to do up until the early 1800s… The barrel is then strung up and the kids take it in turns to whack it with a bat.

The boy or girl who knocks out the bottom of the barrel is crowned as Kattedronningen (the Queen of the Cats). The person who smashes the very last piece of the barrel is crowned Kattekongen (the King of the Cats). A huge honour. You get to wear a little golden crown for your efforts. And be the envy of your friends for years afterwards.

Here’s how to make your very own Danish Carnival essential – a Fastelavnsris. Which is sure to make you the envy of your friends!

You’ll need:

a few bare branches (should be easy to find at this time of year…)
sellotape, thread, ribbon or wire
coloured carton or paper
bits n’ bobs
some small sweets (wrapped, if possible)

Take a small handful of branches and secure them at one end. You can tie a piece of ribbon around, if you want to pretty up the ‘handle’. Use wire, sellotape or thread to stick on the sweets.

Cut out a few shapes from coloured card and stick on. Traditional shapes are cats (remember those live cats that used to be put inside the barrels…), barrels and masks. Go mad with glue sticks and sequins… The branches should be looking quite colourful now. Add a few coloured feathers if you have them. And streamers. Stick on some Carlsberg or Tuborg bottle tops – a great way to recyle them?! Or whatever takes your fancy…

When you’re all done the fastelavnsris can either be hung up in a hallway or stuck in a vase until it’s ready to be eaten. Back in the ‘good old days’, it was used for flogging. Eek!

God fastelavn! Happy Carnival!

Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread

2012-01-31T11:32:00.000+01:00

I'm terribly behind with the recipes I've been 'decluttering' for my Little Red File blog. But I'm going to do as the Flylady says - and just jump in where I am. So be prepared for a deluge of cookery posts! :D

This recipe came via my sweetie online Flybaby friend Pam. She got the recipe from JoyofBaking.com but I've - of course - made my own shortcut version. Because I always 'springe over hvor gærdet er lavest' (jump over the fence where it's lowest) as they so neatly say in Danish! ;D

You'll need:

225g or 2 sticks butter
½ teaspoon of salt
135g or 2/3 cup granulated white sugar
300g or 2 1/3 cups plain flour
one teaspoon of vanilla extract (I used vanilla sugar)
130g or 1 cup unsalted pistachios, chopped
150g or 1 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Put the butter, salt and sugar in your kitchen mixer and let her rip. Stop the motor when it's combined, add the flour and let her rip again.

Once the flour is mixed in, add the pistachios and cranberries and let her rip. Again!

Roll the mixture into 'squarish' logs - I used greaseproof paper and made four logs.

I put one log in the fridge to harden and froze the others to use over Christmas. And lookie here, I even remembered to write on the date and baking instructions - woop, woop! :)

The really pretty part comes when you cut the logs into thin slices, ready for baking. Aren't these adorable?!

Bake at 160c or 325f for about 10-15mins. The original recipe said 15-20mins, but I find they cook pretty fast and you do NOT want these to be brown around the edges...just pale yellow and cooked through. Leave to cool and then...attack!

And the verdict? DH said, "Wow, these are really good." We're on to a winner, methinks. Thank you, Pam!

Bon appétit!

I'm off right now to get the very last log out of the freezer because my bff is coming over for coffee later. Have a terrific Tuesday! :)

The Super Fling Boogie continues! Again! (Again, again...)

2012-01-30T17:23:00.001+01:00

Four weeks into the Flylady's Super Fling Boogie, and the clutter continues to leave the house - yay! :D

In my last Super Fling Boogie post I was recycling, donating and giving things away - which is my usual way to get rid of clutter. But last week I decided to try something different as I had a few special items that I thought I just might be able to sell. (I'm a member of an international ladies club in Copenhagen, and get mails on a daily basis from people buying and selling kids toys etc.)

I prepared an e-mail with a list of what I was selling (electric coolbox, air purifier, box set of DVDs, books, etc) and grouped the items in a corner in the basement. I made a strict deal with myself. If they didn't sell within two weeks, off to the charity shop they would go! Cos the last thing I need to is have more junk hiding in a dark corner...

My e-mail went out on Thursday afternoon and by Saturday afternoon I had sold everything off the list apart from a few books...which gave a grand total of kr. 500! (£56 or $88) :D

Would I do it again? Well, to be honest, it's not something I'd want to do on a regular basis. Because there is, of course, the hassle of answering all the e-mails and arranging for the items to be collected. Though I did send out a second e-mail with a few new 'treasures' that we're ready to part with - like boardgames that we've never played and a Playstation 2, complete with games and controllers. So, really, I'd only try and sell 'large' things. The ordinary clutter will just go to the charity shop as before.

And what's next for the proverbial chop, now that the major visible clutter in the house has been conquered? My achilles heel...paper clutter! Ha! Stay tuned!

Have a marvelous Monday! :)

Feel Good Friday

2012-01-27T16:15:00.004+01:00

Three things I loved this week:

That even when life puts little obstacles in your way - like no power in the winterbathing changing room meaning undressing by candlelight in minus 2 degrees - that it's not a roadblock but only a speedbump. And that afterwards you feel that you can survive anything! :)

Opening the post to find that I had won a prize...and it wasn't a scam! I had filled in an on-line questionnaire for Ford (after our car had been for a service) and - lo and behold - a couple of months later my name was one of the European winners. A voucher for £80 (yes, £80, I couldn't believe it either!) to use on Amazon.co.uk. They must have heard that I'm a regular customer... ;D Oh, and by the way - I've already started spending it...

Danish pastries. After I had been to the recycling depot and charity shop after another Super Fling Boogie decluttering session, I decided to reward myself with this lovely raspberry Fastelavns bolle (carnival bun) and a cuppa. Yummy!

Hope you have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! :)

Menu plan - Thursday 26 January 2012

2012-01-26T16:50:00.001+01:00

As you saw last week, I'm focusing 120% on the Flylady's Super Fling Boogie and am trying to use up all the items that are taking up space in my freezer and storecupboards. Saving myself money and space! :)

I do my shopping 'on-line' once a week and buy everything we eat for breakfast and dinner, the kids packed lunches for school, and things like wine/washing up liquid/'bog roll'... My grocery bill this week came to kr. 717 (about £80 or $125) - which is about 2/3 of my usual spend. Three cheers for that! :)

So here - in Super Fling Boogie style - is what's on the menu at Casa Copenhagen this week:

* Leftover roast chicken (we had roast chicken at the weekend) in wholemeal pita pockets, with fresh 'peapod top' salad (my current fave type of salad) and veggie sticks. DH's Danish Xmas donuts (there are a couple of bags left in the freezer) for dessert :)

* Pork Chops Yum-Yum - a very easy and tasty recipe I found on food.com, will serve with broccoli and baby potatoes

* Homemade (wholemeal) lasagne with a fresh, green salad (I'm making one lasagne to eat and one to put into the freezer for next month, how about that for being organised?!)

* Danish meatball, dumpling and carrot soup with homemade bread (made in my breadmachine) - poor DD9 is home sick and this is her favourite comfort food :)

* Homemade wholemeal pizza (will make the dough in my bread machine) with homemade raw carrot/red cabbage slaw

* Some kind of beef + vegetable curry in my crockpot and will make coconut rice (in my beloved ricecooker) to go with it

Did you know you can, amongst other things, make scrambled eggs and omelets
in your ricecooker? See our instructions here!

* And, as usual, one of the nights will be the (in)famous Leftover Night = will dive into the fridge and root out some veggies/leftover meat and make them into a pasta or fried rice dish ;D

Bon appétit!

Hope you have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! :)

We ♥ Danish Drama!

2012-01-25T23:30:00.000+01:00

[This post is also published over at www.blogs.denmark.dk - the official website of Denmark run by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

Whenever I phone my Mum in Dad in Edinburgh (Bonnie Scotland), the conversation invariably turns to the same subject. Danish drama. And I don't mean the group Denmark have drawn for Euro 2012 in Poland this summer... ;)

No, I'm talking about Danish Radio's hugely popular drama series "Forbrydelsen" which has taken the UK by storm. The Americans made their own (apparently very tame) remake of "The Killing", but the Brits are thoroughly lapping up the gloomy atmosphere of gritty Copenhagen. Fashionistas are desperate to get their hands on the Faroe-knit jumper worn by the female detective, Sarah Lund. The original jumper from Gudrun + Gudrun - which features in all episodes - will set you back Euro. 280. But even H+M are cashing in on the series' success - here's a copycat version I spotted this morning...

Want to dress up as Sarah Lund for Fastelavn/carnival? Kr. 100 or Euro 13.45

Yep, it's hip to be Danish. And even the Danish language has achieved cult status. In the Christmas TV special of Absolutely Fabulous, Sarah Lund (the actress Sofie Gråbøl) makes a cameo appearance - yes, in that jumper - and Edina attempts to talk to her. På dansk. :)

But back to my Mum and Dad. Who (given that their daughter is married to a Dane and permanently settled in Copenhagen) are naturally seen by their cronies as the Oracle on all matters Danish. At the church coffee morning last week there was a very lively discussion about the latest Danish drama series to hit the UK - a fictional drama about the first woman to become Prime Minister of Denmark. (With life reflecting art just months later, when Helle Thorning-Schmidt did it for real.) Mum and Dad's friends thought it was funny that Mikael Birkkjær a.k.a. 'the baddie' in "The Killing II" turns up as the Prime Minister's husband in the new drama series. Not, of course, that any of the women were complaining... [Swoons.]

What they were really puzzled about was the title. Which is Danish. And which, for some strange reason, hasn't been given a catchy - or, at the least, explanatory - title in English. "Can't you phone your daughter in Copenhagen and ask her what "Borgen" actually means?" So that's exactly what Mum did... [She typed - in true cliffhanger style.]
Have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

Judging a book by its (swell, just swell) cover

2012-01-24T14:10:00.001+01:00

I was at our local Danish library on Sunday afternoon, browsing through the English crime novels (British English before American English, according to Danish cataloging systems...). I like to read before I go to bed and I love crime novels. But not ones filled with death and despair. A bit of death is fine - it's the bleak, cruel, sordid ones that I try to avoid. That's why I love the Montalbano series so much. Set in Sicily, the sexy swarthy detective swims daily in the nude (winterbathing anyone?!) and often escapes from work (or unplugs the phone at home) in order to enjoy his food. And there's lots of food. Plus he manages to [boom, boom!] devour a few signorinas along the way... ;D

Anyway, back to the library. I spotted this book - which stood out like a sore thumb (or 'exquisitely painted fingernail') amongst the dimly lit streets, pouring rain and hooded figures that have infiltrated the display shelf. Look at that hair and that dress! What a swell looking female detective - just like something out of Thoroughly Modern Millie... :D

Two pages in, and she's already mentioned gin, a country house, a stolen diamond necklace, a retired Indian Colonel, a Duke, a ballroom, a gardener's boy and a cricket ball. Raaaaaaspberries! I'm off for a cuppa and 15 minutes of my new book.

Hope you have a terrific Tuesday! :)

The Super Fling Boogie continues! Again! (Again!)

2012-01-23T15:58:00.005+01:00

What a fantastic week! Three cheers for the Flylady's "Super Fling Boogie"! Clutter is going out the door like there's no tomorrow! If you saw last Monday's declutter post, you'll see that I've been flinging like mad since the beginning of the year. Here are a few of this week's 'highlights'...

See these 8 garden chairs and table?

They were in the garden when we bought our house over 10 years ago. Since then we've bought our own wooden garden furniture. But we held on to this lot. Just in case... ;D Well, we never use them and no-one we know wanted them. And they were too bulky for the charity shop. So Thursday lunchtime I put them out on the pavement, ready for the recycling pickup early Friday morning. Lo and behold, two hours later they were gone. Hooray! Just goes to show that one person's junk is definitely somebody else's treasure! :)

The kids also went through their English and Danish books and managed to donate a huge Ikea bag full of them to the After School Club. And the family across the road who have small kids were very pleased to get this Ikea puppet theatre/shop/playhouse/let-your-imagination-run-riot thingymyjig :)

I've also been to the recycling centre. Again. Again. With papers, bottles, electrical cords and old paint/oil/chemicals from the workshop in our basement. Little by little, I can see that the laundry room and workshop (both former dungeons..) are beginning to look quite decent! Ha!

So, all in all, a very productive week. And I'm still ready for more... ;D

Hope you have a marvelous Monday - let's keep flinging out there! :)

Feel Good Friday - 20 January 2012

2012-01-20T10:38:00.001+01:00

Three things I love right here, right now:

1. Eggs. Fantastic! For such little fellas, they have to be one of the world's most versatile foodstuffs, non? My current addiction is omelet tortilla wraps for lunch...

2. That lovely cosy feeling that swallows me up when I start a fire in our woodburning oven in the living room, snuggle myself up on the sofa with a rug and a crime novel. Two pages later I'm relaaaaaaaaaxed :)

3. That music can change my mood from low to high in a nanosecond. Or give me a kick in the pants when I need it. I'm turning this one up to 11 and am off to declutter!

"Days of Thunder" by Spleen United

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! :)

Menu plan - Thursday 19 January 2012

2012-01-19T15:22:00.000+01:00

As you saw last week, I'm focusing 120% on the Flylady's Super Fling Boogie and am using up what's in my freezer/storecupboards :)

My grocery bill this week came to kr. 624 (about £70 or $108) - which is almost half of what is usually is - hooray! :) I do my shopping on-line once a week and that includes everything we eat for breakfast and dinner, the kids packed lunches for school, and things like wine/washing up liquid/'bog roll'...

So here - in Super Fling Boogie style - is what's on the menu at Casa Copenhagen this week:

* Blender Quiche - the recipe is here (I just mix by hand in a bowl) - served with salad and pickled beetroot (I always have to have beetroot when I eat quiche)

I love quiche...hot or cold! :)

* out to dinner at an Indian restaurant for DH's birthday (yay, no cooking!)

* 'Breakfast for Dinner' - always a huge hit with the kids - orange juice and hot tea, sausages, scrambled eggs and waffles or my Granny's frugal pancakes ;D

* Krebinetter (Danish pork patties) with baby potatoes and stuvede gulerødder (carrots cooked in a white sauce)

Krebinetter - a Danish classic!

* Roast chicken with raw broccoli/bacon/nut salad and crashed potatoes (using the leftover baby potatoes)

* Wholemeal pitabread pockets with the leftover chicken, salad and veggie sticks

* Leftover night = will dive into the fridge and root out some veggies/leftover meat and make them into a pasta or fried rice dish ;D

Bon appétit!

Hope you have a thoroughly thrilling Thursday! :)

Danish Libraries (Part Three) - You say tomato, I say tomahto...

2012-01-18T23:30:00.000+01:00

[This post is also published over at www.blogs.denmark.dk - the official website of Denmark run by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

It's no secret that I think Danish libraries are fab. I mean, really, what's not to love about our local library where children are allowed - nay, encouraged - to crawl along on top of the book shelves? ;D
('Where are we?' Wednesday? - Climbing the Walls) Or perhaps you'd prefer a free cuppa, in a setting that looks like your granny's front parlour? (Tea with your Tolstoy?)

Danish libraries are overflowing with things you can borrow. For free, selvfølgelig. DVDs, Blu-Ray, CDs, Wii games, wooden jigsaws, kids' boardgames, books on tape, international magazines. And even books (and e-books). And not just Danish books! German, Arabic, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Norwegian, French, Turkish. Even in the children's section.

But if, dear reader, you're looking for a novel in English, prepare yourself for an extra hunt. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you're looking for Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code". You'd walk past 82.7 (Spanish Literature), 82.8 (Portuguese Literature) and expect to find it here in section 83 (English Literature). Right?

Wrong! You need to pass ten to fifteen bookshelves, filled with authors from A to Z. And go round the corner... To section 83.8. "American Literature".

Yep, those crazy Danish librarians split English books into British English and American English. So you need to know in advance if the book you're interested in is written in American or British English. Isn't that overcomplicating things? Can't they just put them all together?

"Aha!", I said, to the librarian, sensing a tiny chink in the armour of the Danish cataloging system. "What if the author is Canadian. Is that classed as British or American English? Surely that's a grey (or should that be gray...) area? Books by Indian authors? South Africa? New Zealand? Or books translated from Japanese into English?"

"Well," said the librarian - playing the proverbial trumph card - "if you can't find what you're looking for on the shelves, we can always look it up on the computer." ;)

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

If the (winterbathing) shoe fits...

2012-01-17T16:02:00.001+01:00

What gear do you need to go winter bathing?

Me in the water last Monday morning :)

Hmm, very little. A nice, long, warm bathrobe. And shoes. Flipflops, of course, are great. Easy to kick on and off. Until, that is, the air temperature drops to around 4 degrees and the sand starts 'crunching' underfoot! ;D So I've been using these surf shoes for a while. Not because you can wear them in the sea - which of course is great on the days when there are sharp stones around - but because they keep my feet warm while I'm crossing the beach (attired only in my birthday suit and aforementioned bathrobe). Not exactly elegant footwear, but they do the job.

Well, the only problem with these shoes is that they have started to pong. I've tried everything. Hand washing them with soap, given them a run for their money in the washing machine, tried bicarb of soda, sewed some tiny lavender scent bags to put inside them... And still they pong! So much so, that it's now become a running joke with my winterbathing friend V. "Who brought the roquefort with them?!"

This morning I decided that Enough was Enough. So I've just ordered a new pair. Though I've decided to try a new type. Just as ugly. Not neoprene but plastic/rubber. And with holes all over for good [ahem] 'ventilation'. I await with baited breath (and close-pegged nose) to see if they fair any better...

Have a terrific Tuesday and don't forget to smell the flowers! :)

The Super Fling Boogie continues! Again!

2012-01-16T15:03:00.000+01:00

Decluttering is a work in progress. I used to tend to do it in fits and starts. But, with the help of the Flylady, I've learned to keep at it. Fling, fling, flung. And if not every day, then at least every week. But when there's a Super Fling Boogie (a sort of 'get-rid-of-your-clutter-and-your-cares' jamboree for flybabies around the world), I get into competitive mode, and fling like crazy! ;D

If you saw my very first post of 2012, you'll know that I kick-started the new year with some purges in the basement. Decluttering works best if you take one little area at a time, in order not to get overwhelmed. So on Saturday morning I set my timer for 15 minutes and decided to concentrate on the toy shelves in the basement.

And after 20 minutes, plus another 5 mins checking with the kids, I had filled two large Ikea bags with jigsaw, games and toys (plus other bric-a-brac). Here they are, ready for the charity shop! :)

And - well, you all know what's coming here, don't you? - we spent the rest of the weekend playing some of the games that we had forgotten all about... ;D

This morning, Monday, I drove straight to the charity shop to drop off the bags. Plus two bags of junk to the recycling centre. One of the hardest parts of decluttering for me is actually to get things out of the door. I have to do it immediately. If I don't get it into the car, it will sit in the basement for weeks, eek! Anyway, my heart always beats a little faster when I drive to this particular charity shop - because the area is also home to Denmark's (officially) sexiest man, the (international) actor Mads Mikkelsen. And, as I've been lucky enough to see him - in the flesh - not once but twice (be still, my beating heart!), there's always that chance that it might happen again! :D For those poor souls not lucky enough to live near Mads Mikkelsen, here's a nice little advert he made for a holiday company. Sales went up by 30% the week that this advert was shown. Ha! (Link to the video here, if you're reading this post as an e-mail.)

[Swoon] Enough daydreaming :) I have to finish this post because there's a courier coming to pick up an old (and very large) painting that we're ~~finally getting rid of~~ giving to a friend. Hooray! More junk heading out of the door!

Oh, and last, but not least! Don't forget to post those purged pounds (1 kilo = 2.2 lbs) on the Flylady's clutter meter which you can find right here.

Happy flinging and have a marvelous Monday! :)

Feel Good Friday

2012-01-13T19:05:00.001+01:00

I decided today that, as there are so many things that I love (love, love!), it might be a good idea to write them down on paper once a week. Kind of like a happiness journal. But, hey, that's what I use this whole blog for anyway... ;D

So here's the 'menu of the day'!

For starters:

Reading the Danish word for 'motion' or 'speed'...never fails to make me giggle!

A poster that came with DD9's magazine "Phineas og Ferb" :D

For main course:

I love the Danish band "Whomadewho". And today I got tickets for their concert in the spring. Woop woop! :D

For dessert:

Myseost - a very strange Scandinavian cheese that is dark brown in colour, cloying in your mouth and tastes of cooked caramel... The first time I tasted it, I hated it. And then the very next week, when I spotted it in the supermarket, I just had to buy it, take it home and eat it as soon as I got in the door. And I've been addicted to it ever since. I can't get enough of it, and the rest of the family leave it well alone :)

Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! :)

40 things you've always wanted to know about the Danish Queen (but were afraid to ask)

2012-01-12T17:07:00.000+01:00

You might want to nip down to your

local supermarket and get stocked up!

[This post is also published over at www.blogs.denmark.dk - the official website of Denmark run by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

The Danish Queen is about to celebrate her 40th Jubilee and the Danes are excited. Not to mention the Danish media who are having an absolute field day... We're in for a weekend of wall-to-wall coverage. Live action from the palace, non-stop commentary from the 'experts', historial documentaries, the opinions of Hr. and Fr. Danmark and more fascinating facts about the Danish royal family than you can wave a Danish flag at... (And, selvfølgelig, Danish buses will be patriotically decked out in flags over the weekend too.)

But how much have I actually learned about the Danish Queen in my 12 years here? Well, just to test myself, I thought I'd write a list of 40 facts for the Queen's 40th Jubilee. Off the top of my head. Written down as they popped up in my head. And - cross my heart - I haven't cross-checked them on 'google'. After all, where would be the fun in that?

(Glaring) errors (that make me look like a right fool) and omissions are excepted... ;D

40 THINGS YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DANISH QUEEN (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK)

Her name is Magrethe. Or is it Margrethe? Can never remember the exact spelling, but in Danish it's pronounced 'Ma-gray-te'
Her nickname is Daisy (apparently from the French word Marguerite = Daisy = which is also the Danish name for the flower Daisy = coincidentally the national flower of Denmark)
She smokes like a chimney
Her French husband's name is Henri (de Montpessat?) but the Danes renamed him 'Henrik' and make fun of the way he speaks Danish
The Queen lives at Amalienborg Palace in the centre of Copenhagen, and can moor a boat right outside. Her summer residence is in Gråsten, the south of Jutland.
In the summer she goes off on her boat and makes official visit to towns around Denmark
Henri(k)'s family are from Caïx (south of France or perhaps mid?) and Daisy and Henrik spend their private summer holidays there
Just remembered the name of the royal yacht - it's "Dannebrog" (which is the name of the Danish flag)
She refuses to have her front teeth cleaned up
She's very artistic and designs ballet costumes (I also seem to remember something about wall hangings in churches), does découpage and paints pictures
She thinks being Queen is a 'job for life', meaning she wants to reign until she dies
The names of her sons are Frederik and Joachim
Frederik (the crown prince) is married to Mary (né Donaldson) who's from Oz/Tasmania but has Scottish heritage [said the fellow Scot ;D]
Frederik, nickname 'Frede', and Mary have 4 kids: Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine
Joachim was married to Alexandra (né Manley) from Hong Kong, got divorced and is now married to Marie (can't remember her maiden name) who is French. But I can tell you that Marie has a little dog who is the type that can fit into a handbag (don't quote me on the name of the breed...bichon frisée?)
Joachim and Alex had 2 kids together: Felix and Nicolaj
Joachim and Marie have 1 child, Henrik, and another one about to pop out at any moment
The Queen starts off her Christmas Dinner with a plate of ricepudding (don't know why that fact suddenly popped in to my head) accompanied, as far as I recall, by beer
The Queen's husband, Henri(k) has his own vinyard at Château de Caïx and the Danes affectionately call his wine Château de 'Rævepis' (which translates as 'fox piss'). I've seen it for sale in the department store Magasin
When the Queen and Prince Henrik are on summer holiday at Caïx, she wanders around the local market buying produce, basket in hand, lady-in-waiting in tow (and, of course, the paparazzi)
She's very tall
She has long hair, which is always worn up
Though there is one very famous photo of her, leaning out of a castle window, no make-up, flowing locks, on the occasion of her (I think) Silver Wedding, when it's tradition for family and friends to surprise the 'bride and groom' by waking them up at an ungodly hour by singing and playing horn music (gotta love those Crazy Danes and their crazy Danish traditions)
The Queen likes to dress in strong colours and wears a lot of shawls and hats
She was partly educated in England - might have been Oxford or Cambridge
She has a really good British accent when she speaks English, and is also fluent in French
She has two sisters: Benedikte and (it's on the tip of my tongue...) Marie ??
Benedikte is (methinks) married to a German and lives there, Marie (??) is married to the exiled Greek king and they live in the UK
The Queen likes to ski but I think the recent problems with her knees have put a stop to that
Prince Henrik has pet dogs but I don't think the Queen has her own special dog - or, at least, I haven't heard one mentioned in the gossip magazines
There's a magician/comedian she likes called Rune Klan, whose trick at a gala dinner involved the Queen choosing a piece of sliced ham (as opposed to a playing card)
She also loves the entertainer Søren Østergaard, especially when he plays the baker who has 'dancing' Danish pastries
I can't remember the Queen's exact age, but it's around 73. (I'm pretty sure of this because I let the kids skive off school a couple of years back, so we could go to Amalienborg, wave Danish flags, and see her wave from the balcony on her 70th birthday)
She spends Christmas with her family
New Year's Eve is spent with old friends and they have a masked ball and fireworks
On New Year's Day she invites the 'high heid yins' (as we say in Scotland) like cabinet ministers, diplomats, etc for a gala dinner at Amalienborg Palace. And the diplomats are expected to turn up in their national costume (which, naturally, provides plenty of cheap entertainment for the media)
The Queen makes a televised speech on 31 December at 6pm - which is the official kickoff for Danish New Year celebrations. So if you're going out for dinner/to a party that evening, you mustn't arrive later than 5.50pm - you have been warned!
Okay, so I'm beginning to run out of ideas now... Um, it's also tradition at New Year parties to stand up during the Queen's speech, glass of champagne in hand
And the Danes get their cue that the speech is nearing its end when the Queen gives a special mention to the Danish armed forces and the Greenlanders
This New Year past (31 December 2011) was the 40th time the Queen has made the speech. And - true to form - she ended it as she always ends it with "Gud Bevare Danmark!" ('God Save Denmark!)

Here is 'Daisy' in action on New Year's Eve 2009
I was, of course, standing up when I took this photo! ;D

Whew - there you have it, folks...

Gud Bevare Danmark! (God Save Denmark!) Længe leve Dronningen! (Long live the Queen!)

:)

Menu plan - Wednesday 11 January 2012

2012-01-11T20:32:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned on Monday, I'm really trying to get on board with the Flylady's Super Fling Boogie, so for the next few weeks I'll be using up what's in my freezer/storecupboards. My grocery bill this week came to kr. 870.15 (about £97 or $149) - which is slightly less than usual. I shop once a week (online) and the groceries include everything we eat for breakfast and dinner, the kids packed lunches for school, and things like wine, washing up liquid and 'bog roll'... ;D

Without further ado, here's what's on the menu at Casa Copenhagen this week:

* Enchiladas (I have a gigantic stock of tortillas in the pantry and lots of minced beef in the freezer) with spinach salad and veggie sticks

* Breaded pork chops (I do them in beaten egg and seasoned breadcrumbs) with raw red cabbage/carrot/coriander salad

Breaded chops with raw red cabbage/carrot/coriander salad :)

* Pasta med kødsovs/spaghetti bolognese/pasta with meatsauce - because poor DS12 is having several teeth removed at the dentist (to make space for a brace), so he'll probably want something soft to eat... ;D
* Chicken Paprikash made in the crockpot, served with tagliatelle

Chicken Paprikash going in the crock (chicken/pearl onions/red pepper/tomato sauce)
will add soured cream at the end :)

* Leftover chicken made into Chicken and Sweetcorn soup with homemade wholewheat rolls

* Big chunky sausages with tomato/chili sauce, broccoli and mashed potato

* Leftover night - which is basically any leftover meat and veggies from the fridge, with pasta or fried rice

Bon appétit!

Have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

Banana Oat Muffins

2012-01-10T18:02:00.001+01:00

My sweetie friend V were down at the beach for our daily skinny dip in the Danish sea this morning and I brought these banana muffins for us to munch on. 'Cos it's nice to have a shivery bite and a cup of hot tea after splashing around in water which is 3c/37f... ;D V asked me if the muffin recipe was going to appear on the blog... Well, værsgo', here you go, V!

You'll need:

3 very ripe bananas (bananer)
1 egg (æg)
a third of a cup of oil or butter (flydende fedtstof)
a quarter cup of sugar (sukker)
half a cup of flour (mel)
1 teaspoon of baking powder (bagepulver)
1 teaspoon of baking soda (natron)
about 1 cup of porridge oats (havregryn)
about ½ a teaspoon of salt (salt)

Put the bananas, egg, oil and sugar in a bowl. Mash the bananas into the other ingredients and give it a good mix.

Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Then start to mix in the porridge oats. I worked out that it's roughly 1 cupful, but just keep adding them til the mixture starts to come together. Make sure it doesn't get too 'dry' and don't overmix.

Spoon into your muffin pan (I like to put papercases in the pan). I also use an icecream scoop, as it makes it much easier to get equal amounts and avoid spillage. You should get around 12 muffins. Bake at 175c (or 350f) for about 15 minutes.

I decided to do 9 large ones and 12 teeny tiny ones using the mixture. The wee ones only took about 10 minutes to bake.

Velbekomme!

Hope you have a terrific Tuesday! :)

Happy New 2012!

2012-01-09T14:42:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year, dear readers! I'm back from Edinburgh (where we spent Christmas with my Scottish family) and the kids are back in school (where they're hopefully learning something). Which means that I'm ready for some ~~love~~blog action!

First signs of spring life...snowdrops are coming through! :)

And doesn't the New Year herald a new start? A fresh start. So - bien sûr - on the second day of January, I went into my usual mode of 'have-to-rearrange-all-the-furniture' and 'toss-toss-toss-my-cares-and-clutter-away'! In my pre-Flylady days, I would have gone completely gung ho and ended up in tears by the end of the day. (Not to mention having competely forgotten to run a load of washing or even thinking that, yes, we might actually need some food in our bellies by teatime.) But - ha - thanks to ~~brain~~FLYwashing I have learned to do it 'slow and steady', focus on small areas and, of course, hold on to my Flylady Morning and Evening Routines as if my very life depended upon it! ;D

So, by the end of last week, I had filled the car three times with junk for the recycling centre. And filled it up again twice with items to pass on to friends, school and the charity shop. Plus I've been using up all the extra foodstuffs from the freezer/cupboards that we're bought in the run-up to Christmas. And, woo hoo, I'm still finding clutter to toss...

Car boot containing secondhand furniture which I bought for
ca. £5 in Luxembourg in 1990...time to finally let it go! ;D

Which, all in all, has put me in a rather excellent mood to start off 2012! And what's in store here on the blog? Much more decluttering, recipes, Scaredy Cat Challenges, winterbathing and basically anything and everything that gets me excited and puts a smile on my face :)

To paraphrase Robert Burns: Here's to us. Who's like us? Damn few and they're all dead!

Happy New 2012!

Love
Diane