Family Traditions and S-tog Scuffles

It's a relatively new family tradition in our house to make the christmas cake in the autumn half-term holidays because a) it's a good afternoons work with two helpers and b) because my mum always makes hers in October and as some of my readers (not yet followers!!) will testify, she makes the best Christmas cake ever. I am not expecting to match her beautiful fruit laden cakes, but this is another family tradition passed on from her. I had been hoping that my mum would pass on her "secret" recipe to me, but I have a feeling it's a Delia Smith recipe from the 70's anyway, so I found a Delia Christmas Cake recipe a few years ago and it turns out well (especially if you "feed" it with brandy every couple of weeks in the run up to Christmas before you ice it). I pre-prepared all the ingredients before calling the apron-clad helpers in to help (as it tends to minimise stress), I had even prepared the tin, tying the extra protective layer of paper around the outside before the chaos began. My five year old began by sifting the flour - it looked quite christmassy in the kitchen after this(!), while the three year old started to crack the eggs!!! All came together eventually though and as soon the mixture was ready to go in the tin, which I was quite grateful for as an electric whisk wielding boy was distrating me somewhat. So into the oven it went (for four hours) and we sat down to relax. Whereupon my five year old said "mummy, weren't we meant to put these in as well".... Luckily it was only the orange & lemon zest and Lys Syrup (substitute for black treacle) but annoying nontheless! I will just give it an extra drink of brandy before the marzipan and icing. Anyway, here are some before and after pics. I didn't take any of the kitchen, you can just imagine the state of that once we had finished

For the past couple of days I have put my three year old into nursery so I could spend some exclusive time with his sister on her half term break. Yesterday I took her to the Glyptotek as she had wanted to see the Little Dancer by Degas. My funny little girl is full of surprises, the amount of Danish she was speaking to the other children here was really interesting (if not a little worrying the more she learns, as I can't understand a word of it!). She also decided to take a sketch book and pencil with her to the museum and spent ages sitting on the floor and drawing various sculptures and pieces of art while I hovered about, looking at art (and trying not to look like some sort of obnoxious pushy parent - luckily it was quite quiet as I don't know how to say "it was her idea" in Danish...!), it was really nice to see her enjoying something I love and it even raised a smile from Mrs Grumpy in the Greek section! I especially loved R's interpretation of the Little Dancer!

The only downer of the day was on the trip home. A homeless guy was wandering up and down the train asking people for change, nothing unusual there you might think, until he entered the carriage next to ours and spotted another beggar obviously on his turf. He immediately jumped upon him and had him in a headlock and they started fighting. It was over in seconds and the surrounding passengers did the usual slow and silent retreat, as I saw on many occasions during my commuting years in London when something similar broke out. The poor guy seemed to be OK and his aggressor got off at the next stop. My little girl seemed rather oblivious to it all and thankfully wasn't really watching, but just in case I said "that wasn't very nice was it", and she replied "but they were only dancing mummy"...if only!

Guests arriving tonight, we will be investigating Halloween Tivoli tomorrow and then probably hibernating over the weekend if the weather forecast is anything to go by.

Will update when I can...

Emma

Celeriac Bread and Less Savoury Items...

Well as predicted, it's been a weekend of not so cheerful weather! Saturday meant homemade soup for lunch with celeriac bread to use up the sorry looking vegetable in the darkest corner of the fridge. It's based on a Delia recipe, except I use a cheddar type cheese, and I would highly recommend it fresh from the oven, or toasted with butter...



175g celeriac, peeled
110g hard cheese such as cheddar
175g self raising flour
1 large egg
4 spring onions finely chopped
2 tablespoons of milk.
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of salt & pepper

Heat oven to 190. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the celeriac, cheese and spring onions together with the cayenne, salt and pepper. Beat the egg with the milk and add to the flour mixture, using your hands to combine. Place dough a bread tin and bake for 45-50 minutes. Incidentally for those of us that live in Denmark where self-raising flour is not widely available, you can buy it in the big Thai Supermarkets in Copenhagen for some reason, either that or make your own from one of the many "recipes" on the Internet.

Talking of central Copenhagen, we attempted to go to a Loppemarked (flea market) this morning and found one not far from Central Station. It wasn't a highly successful trip as we didn't research it properly, and it turned out to be mostly clothes. We didn't know beforehand that it was in a slightly "interesting" area, so I had to carry my little girl as there were a few syringes lying about. I did point them out to her however and hopefully she will now know not to ever pick one up should she or her brother come across one (hopefully not but you never know!)!! I don't know why I was a bit shocked really, I worked in an area of London that had a bad heroin problem for a couple of years, so was used to my daily precarious trip into work stepping over used needles, but here in Denmark, where everything seems so safe, it just didn't feel right! At least they had put the caps back on I noted, very considerate, shame they didn't dispose of them altogether though! This area is notorious for it apparently, we know that now! You do indeed live and learn!

Planning on making hot cross buns tomorrow, will let you know how we get on!