One a Penny, Two a Penny.....

Hot Cross Buns... Ta dah....



My mother and grandmother will be very proud of me! They have always made their own hot cross buns, and I don't think I will ever beat their attempts, but we had fun making them even if they did take FOREVER to make. Good things come to those that wait however, and even if they were all strange and wonderful sizes (thanks to the modelling expertise of my two children), they went down a treat in this hot cross bun deprived house! I might also take my son's advice, if you haven't any daughters that might want hot cross buns, he suggests that you give them to yourself - sounds good to me! Next time, I might also use my mum's tip and put a marzipan cross on top as that would be easier than piping the cross, and it would be sweeter too. We still have some Cadbury's creme eggs left over from my trip to the UK, it feels like Easter in our house!

I had a really lovely dream last night! Years ago, I would dream about travelling through exotic countries and the like, my dream last night was about... Waitrose - how sad is that? In it, I was wandering up and down its huge, lovely, wide and empty (ok, it was a dream!) aisles, looking at the vast selection of produce, and all the things I miss, then I woke up with the horrible thought that I would have to attempt to do a big shop today before all the shops close tomorrow for Easter! It was as hideous as I expected, it was like the big Christmas food shop all over again! I really don't like the supermarkets here, don't get me wrong, I think the quality of the food here is mostly good, and it's really refreshing to get quite a bit of local produce and good fruit and veg available seasonally, but if they could just change the layout a bit, and put in some bigger aisles, so you don't have to wait for half an hour while someone picks out which rugbrød they are having? It would make the whole experience a lot more pleasant, honestly!

Dear me, is that really my first moan? Well my close friends and family will be surprised - it's only taken me six and a bit months!

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!