Creamy DUCK noodle soup

In the spirit of not letting good food go to waste, I usually cook a soup whenever I make a whole chicken. This past weekend we made a whole Duck - and figured that Duck noodle soup was in order. I've made it before, but this was the first time I made it creamy. And boy was it delish!

I covered the remaining Duck with water and let it simmer for several hours along with a few bay leaves, some thyme, and one onion cut into quarters. Along the way I skimmed the top for fat and other stuff.

After that you sift the 'buillion' and (this part isn't for the faint of heart) you make sure to pick any remaining meat of the bones and remove any small pieces of bone or skin. Preferably you then let it cool a bit so you can skim of any remaining fat from the top.

Strain it back into your bit ole pot and add 3 sliced carrots and 3 sliced onions (if you have things like cellery this is also good, but this was more of a leftover dish for us...).

Add pasta or noodles, a sprinkle of oregano, a sprinkle of thyme, and some 1 % milk.

Just before serving, stir in leftover Sour Cream (I had about 1/2 cup).

'Stop Spild af Mad'

Over the past year or so a campaign to 'stop wasting food' has taken hold of Denmark - and me! I guess I really caught onto the idea when I heard how much food we waste without even really knowing it. I mean, how often do you throw out a little leftover rice, a brown banana, or maybe some old milk? Even though I thought I was pretty good about it, once I started paying attention to how much food goes in the trash, I was a little shocked. And that's just from my own kitchen. When you hear about supermarkets and restaurants, my mind is completely blown....

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to write a little bit about it because it's something that's been on my mind lately. 'stop wasting food' is also a good way to save money on food - because you really try to use everything - thereby saving money. When you're on a fairly tight budget, you try to save any place you can. I know I do. 

One way I've been trying to stop wasting food is to make sure:

• I save leftovers and eat them for lunch or try to make a second dish out of the leftovers
• Make sure I use the entire bag/(whatever it is) of something. 

The last part is the biggest challenge. It sometiems requires a little bit of thought and planning to make sure you use the entire head of cabbage (for example) when you bought it to make coleslaw-.... you still have to find something to make with the other half of the cabbage. 

Anyway - this topic will come up again soon!

I was fortunate enough to get some different giftcards and money so that I could by some post-pregnancy clothing. I've been seriously lacking in the basics department so I got a few of these items

Wool tights for wintertime

A nice warm sweater

Sparkly short sweater

a black skirt

running/exercise tights

As usual though, I still need some jeans, which are virtually impossible to find. I need them in the right size, non-lowrise, and at a reasonable price.

More food

This is a good place to save recipes ;) And to share one of my 'empty the refrigerator' dishes

Thai ruskumsnusk

Thai chicken ala Christine

3 carrots (julienne)

3 red peppers (julienne)

2 onions (1/8s)

3 stalks celleri

One small chilli

1 lb Chicken cut into wok pieces

Marinade:

White wine

Red wine vinegar

Soy sauce

2 clove garlic

For the Sauce:

Sour Cream or Milk
Tomato paste one can

Coconut milk one can

Paprika

Ginger (fresh or ground)

Pepper and lemon pepper

Tabasco

Soya sauce

It makes me feel a little angry inside

Spent the morning on campus, turning in the introduction, thesis, and literature list for my final in Project Management. I then took advantage of being in the area to stop by Bilka (what I like to call the Danish Target equivalent) to pick up those essential items that you can only get at a place like Bilka or Target!

Whenever I go shopping, I can't help but stop by the baby departments. I'm really, really, really trying to limit my purchases and buy things on sale. - and to only buy things that I really like or are really necesary. It seems that I've perfected the practice of walking around, checking prices and clothes and yet only buying a few items. This is good. I like perusing the clothes and finding a good deal, and figuring out exactly what I still need in different sizes.

However - look at these pictures and tell me if you find anything just a little wrong:

Think this is bad? I also fell in love with these little bodystocking with Winnie the Pooh:

You can't really tell, but the body is a pale pink and comes in a set of two.
The other one is a darker shade of pink.

 

The only problem is: Pink is probably the only color Little Dude will not be wearing until the day he can pick out his own clothing and decides pink is the right fit for him. Not matter how enlightened I like to believe I am, I still have a mental block ainst the color pink on a boy- mostlyy because I'm afraid he will hate me when he gets older.

The boy choices just weren't as cute, and I'm really just not that big a fan of the velour:

I'm sorry for the quality of these photos.
They were taken with my cell phone.

This is my favorite part:

If you don't understand the Danish -I'd like to point out that 'pige' means girl and 'drenge' means boy. Yes, that's right, they've even labeled the clothe diapers/burpclothes and the towels by sex so that you remember to buy the correct color for your child!

WHY is it impossible to find non-gendered clothing - what's wrong with green, yellow, red?

Out of downright protest, I bought this:

Supposedly 'girly' clothe diapers for my little boy.

Even though it was labeled as being the color "girl". Haha! And besides, purple can also be super manly - it's the color of the Ravens!

Movie Review "Superclasico"

On friday night we finally made our way to the movie theater to see the Danish movie "Superclasico." I am a member of Biografklub Danmark (a 'club' where you pay a small membership fee and then get half price tickets for a selection of movies), and boy had a voucher for a free movie that he recieved for taking a survey at the mall a few weeks ago (a market study survey that included him tasting and evaluating samples of Somersby Alcoholic Apple cider... ).

At the end of the day, we spent 40 dkk for a night out at the movies. Considering the amount of money, it was totally worth it... if I had spent more money I may not have been as happy when I left the theater.

courtesy of  www.kino.dk/Film/S/SU/SuperClasico.aspx

The movie plot was somewhat predictable, and it was set up to be somewhat humoristic/sarcastic/dark humor, but it was at the same time very sad. Christian (Anders Bertelsen) has been left by his wife, Anna (Paprika Steen). He is now along with his 15 year old son and a wine shop that is going out of business. Anna has run off to Buenos Aires and is having a very open affair with a famous Soccer player. She wants a divorce, he is still in love with her, so he packs up his kid and travels to Buenos Aires to win back his wife....

..... hilarity, awkwardness, sex, soccer, and too much wine drinking ensues....

The entire movie was narrated (Mikael Bertelsen), which was odd but I personally thought it worked well to decribe some details of the movie, and at the same time worked well with the tone of the movie (very dry, Danish humor). The film was shot almost (or entirely?) entirely in Argentina, with some really beautiful shots of Buenos Aires. There were some amusing side characters and several small stories and details that really completed the movie. At the same time, here were also some details and characters that were just downright wierd.

Still, in my opinion,  many of the characters were not very well developed over the movie, and the movie seemed to be confused as to whether it was comedy, a drama, a romantic dramedy... or something entirely different.

I would recommend that you see this movie, because it entertained me for 2 hours.... but I would also recommend that you wait until it's out on DVD (or until it premiers on television).

Spring finally sprang in our little kingdom this past weekend, as temperatures soared into the high 60's - and may or may not have hit 70 F!

This means that I took my first outing in little ballerina flats.

My old, ancient, leopard print ballerina flats, but still.... flats and leggings, this means spring has officially arrived.

Notice also that I am sporting my new spring/fall/between seasons coat. Courtesy of H&M mama collection, but since it has a waist belt I'm thinking I can sport it even when non-preggo. Either way, it should work all spring/summer and well into fall. Totally worth the dkk 175-


P.S. I can't see my feet

Baking - and not babies

Baking breads has become one of my weekly activities lately. I find it cozy and fun, 'hyggeligt.' Plus, there is the added bonus that baking your own bread saves alot of money while at the same time just tasting sooooo much better.

Normally I bake normal "grovboller" - whole wheat rolls and sandwich/sub rolls. I then felt inspired to try out a recipe that stands for 24 hours in the fridge. The upside to this recipe is that it doesn't require any kneading. Sometimes I find kneading thereapeutic - you know, really giving the dough a hard time, tossing it and hitting and so on. Other times - not so much. It just leaves a messy counter, messy hands, stickiness everywhere. And no one, no one, likes being sticky



I don't remember where I found this specific recipe, but alot of similar recipes exist on different sites and blogs around the internets.

1.5 l lukewarm/cold water
50 g yeast/gær
a large pinch of salt
appr. 2 tbs oil
appr. 2 tbs honey
ALOT of flour (about 2000 gram). I used a blend of (apr.) half normal, a bunch of oats, 1/4 whole wheat (rugmel), 1/4 (groft speltmel). You can really use any blend or combination.
Optional: 1 cup of seeds/nuts (I used a 5-corn blend, or you can use sesame, sunflower, etc.)

this was the second bowl....

Mix everything together with a wooden spoon in a LARGE bowl. The dough is wet and still mixable when you put it in the fridge.

Cover, and leave in fridge for 8-24 hours.

(After 2 hours in the fridge my 5L bowl was overflowing, so either use a REALLY big bowl, or split it into 2 bowls. OR, alternatively, make a smaller portion)

Place Wax paper on a baking sheet, and use two spoons to shape out rolls on the baking sheet. It takes a little practice to get them nice and round, but try dipping the spoons into a glass of water between each roll.

Let stand while oven preheats. Bake at 200c about 20 minutes (depending on size of rolls and quality of oven)

As you can see, the last ones ended up prettier than the first few.

I decided to make the second bowl into a loaf of bread in our new pan.
The loaf needed about 45 minutes in the oven.

After baking

We eat alot of this type of bread, either as a supplement to lunch, as a snack, or for breakfast. So I like to bake really big portions and stock the freezer. The nice thing about this recipe though, is that you could potentially mix the dough at night, place in fridge at night, and bake fresh in the morning. I haven't tried it yet personally, but I've been told that the dough can last several days in the fridge. So, if you are really energetic, you could make a big portion of dough and bake new bread every morning, just for what you need that specific day.

The boy commented "It looks like real bread!"
Thanks honey.

P.S. As with all bread, it freezes well if frozen soon after baking. Defrost in oven or on counter.