souvenirs

We didn't get too many things from our trip to Iceland and Denmark, but we did get these two posters in Copenhagen at a flea market. We had them framed, and there was a bunch of problems and we finally got them back, just a couple months longer than we hoped.

The top one is a poster by Bjørn Wiinblad, who was a famous Danish painter and designer. I love the graphic nature of his illustrations. They almost look like a woodcut or cut paper. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this one, we have too many windows and the glare was driving me crazy. I was lazy enough that I didn't take it off the wall, it's huge.


The second poster is a fun one that reminds me of Copenhagen. We were able to walk around the royal palaces/homes, you can actually walk real close to them, like in a cul-da-sac. But there were guards posted around the houses, and when we would walk by, they would march over to the side nearest us and stand at the ready. They had super tall hats just like the poster. 

Tyler picked up these peonies today. They are perfect in my recently-thrifted pyrex beaker. I can't wait until it's a bit warmer and they start blooming outside and I can steal them from my neighbors (college boys who couldn't care less). 


Have you gotten art from your travels?

trip recap 6: Frederiksborg Castle

We went to the Frederiksborg castle one day, it was nice to take a longer train ride. The castle was so beautiful, so historic. I've never seen so many portraits in my life! I enjoyed reading about the history of Denmark, it was our only museum experience while we were there.

The extravagance and decadence was truly something else. And it was huge. It was a funny feeling to imagine that someone actually lived there so so long ago. Here in America I think it's easy to think about our beginnings as being relatively recent. Homes from 1910 are something to be bragged about.

Time is really hard to imagine.

I took tons of photos here, just pop over to my flickr to see the rest. 

Happy Friday! I'm working on some projects and still organizing my life. I don't think I can move on until everything is in its place. I made these brownies twice this week (with dark chocolate cocoa) and they were the shiz. So easy and I always have everything on hand. Maybe I'll make them tonight.

taking it home: koldskål

top photo: the original in Denmark, and then my remake this morning.

In Denmark, especially in the warm months, they enjoy koldskål, or "cold bowl," which is a buttermilk soup. They have it for a light supper, or breakfast. They eat it with kammerjunker, a small crunchy vanilla cookie.

At first I thought it would taste weird, because have you ever drank buttermilk straight? One time I did, after Martha Stewart made some comment about drinking it, and yuck. So sour!

But it actually is light, creamy, tangy, but sweet, and really refreshing. Traditionally it is made with egg yolks and buttermilk, but modern recipes replace the eggs for yogurt, which is what I did.

There you can buy it in a carton, ready to serve, and so when I got back, I looked up recipes and made my own. I combined a couple to be like what was in the one I had in Denmark. It goes perfect with our amercian nilla wafers, which taste almost exactly the same as kammerjunker. This would be amazing with fresh fruit, so I'm not feeling guilty for always eating cookies for breakfast. (recipe below)

Also, Brittany uploaded her video of New Year's Eve in Copenhagen, which truly captures the excitement and terror, pipe bombs exploding and rockets shot right in front of our faces. B does a great job of narrating what is going on, like at :42 when a pipe bomb explodes. The beginning is just before midnight, so just wait until new year's hits, then it gets really crazy.

The pom pom makes quite a few appearances (!), and Paul's statement at the beginning is spot on.
Crotch Noodle! (our American version of Happy New Year! in Danish)



koldskål

makes a bit over a quart, I keep it in a pitcher ready to pour.

1 cup yogurt (I used low-fat, I don't think fat free is good in anything)
4 tablespoons sugar
3 cups buttermilk
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla (truly authentic would be half a vanilla bean)

Combine the yogurt, sugar and zest in a bowl (+ vanilla bean if using). Using a mixer or whisk, mix together until the sugar dissolves. Mix in the rest of the ingredients until blended. Store in a pitcher in the fridge.

You can adjust the flavor a bit by putting in less lemon juice and more vanilla, I love the lemon flavor, but if you don't as much I would maybe add less lemon juice or even none at all if you really don't like it.

Serve with any combo of crunchy cookie (Nilla wafers) and fresh fruit or even plain like a yogurt drink.

trip recap 5: Copenhagen

click on any photos for more info, and see the rest on my flickr.

We fly into Copenhagen, we walk through the airport and I see the smiling face of miss Brittany, our lovely host, to greet us. She is a friend of mine from college, and we reconnected when we were both in New York City for internships a couple years ago. Last spring I met her fiance, who is a dane, and they said to come visit them once they moved to Copenhagen. I tried to tell them I really would come, but I don't think they knew how serious I was.

They were so nice to let the four of us crash at their apartment, and take over their lives for a week. Paul was the best tour guide, taking us around and explaining all things Danish (in danish! He was so kind with our poor language skills). We arrived right before New Years, and made it to Tivoli the last day it was open.

They take their New Year's Eve festivities very seriously, everyone buys professional grade fireworks and were shooting them off night and day. We had a fun dinner, Paul made us traditional Danish pork roast and other yummy things, and we ventured off to the center of Copenhagen. People are shooting off rockets right in front of us, and pipe bombs are exploding everywhere. I've never seen something like that in my life. It sounded like a battlefield. (update: our video here!)

When it was midnight, it was total chaos, we were in a packed group with people wearing safety goggles. It was so fun, but it was nice to run away with all our limbs intact. It was the most memorable New Year's of my life. I don't think anything will top that ever!

Copenhagen is a great city, and we walked around and experienced some famous Danish pastry, their hot dogs (which has a "glove"), and all the bikes. So many bikes! It was nice to have a little city exploration after the adventuring of Iceland.