Month: November 2012

Danish mathematic symbols – go figure(s)!

DIANE IN DENMARK

Have you ever done maths with your kids?   Well, I’m pretty good at maths –
even though I say it myself ;) 
So when DS12 (dear son, aged 12) started kindergarten class at school (at the
age of 6, as you do in Denmark), I thought it was going to be easy peasy lemon
squeezy.   Ha!  No!  Not only do the Danes have three extra letters in the
alphabet.   (Which, by the way, are a constant source of amusement to us non-Danes…)   But they also
use different mathematic symbols.

Plus and minus are straightforward.   Just the usual +
and –

But how do you write 4 times 5?   I would write it 4 x 5

Wrong! In Danish it’s 4.5  Yep, a little dot.

Multiplying Danish style

How about dividing?   Like 20 divided by 5?   Well, I would write 20
÷ 5

Wrong again! In Danish you write 20:5   Yep, a colon.

Dividing – Danish style

But, hang on a minute, Iknow
that I’ve seen the divide sign ÷ on bits of paper around the
school. Doesn’t it mean divide?   Nope.   The Danes use it to mean ‘minus. So ‘÷
madpakke‘ means that the kids don’t need to take a packed lunch to
school that day.   If there’s a list on the door of the classroom with a party
invitation and a list of the kids’ names, you either make a tick ✓to say you are
going or write ÷ to say that you can’t.

Go figure(s)!

Diane :)

Menu plan – Thursday 8 November 2012

DIANE IN DENMARK

We’re all really busy this week and, with the Danish weather being really dreary and wet (not to mention that it’s dark by 4.30 in the afternoon), we just want easy, warm, comforting food.  Here’s this week’s menu at Casa Copenhagen!

Here we are, after our daily skinny dip in the Danish sea – the water temperature is falling by about one degree per week…cold but refreshing = the only way to start a dull, rainy day!

*  straight-from-the-freezer ‘chicken parcels’ (chicken fillets in puff pastry) with beetroot and salad on the side

* glazed chops (now a regular in our house, thanks to my blogfriend Krista!), basmati rice (made in my beloved rice cooker) and steamed broccoli (steamed over the rice in my beloved rice cooker!)

I bought a new (larger) ricecooker in August – the old one has been retired to our Swedish summerhouse by the sea :o)

* out to dinner with the family – yay, no washing up for Mum!

* homemade lasagne (alternating layers of meat sauce and béchamel sauce/leftover broccoli)

* Pytt i panna – which is the Swedish version of Biksemad – which is the Danish version of a meat hash (cubes of meat, potato and onion fried, topped with a fried egg and served with ketchup and plenty of ketchup)

*  leftover lasagne and salad

DS12 (when he was just 8) tucking into confit de canard in the south of France

*  confit de canard (French confit of duck) – we’ll be celebrating St. Mortens evening on Saturday – a night when the Danes traditionally eat duck or goose

Bon appétit!

Diane :o)

 

I heart Danish comfort food! (Part Eight – Suppe)

DIANE IN DENMARK

Whenever the temperature
drops (which is every single day at this time of the year…), my kids are under
the weather or we need cheering up, I always make this Danish
classic…suppe!

Suppe!

Another easy peasy thing to make. Just like the Danish fishcakesI showed you last time, Danish meatball and
dumpling soup is as close as you are going to get in Denmark to a ‘ready meal’.
All you need is a couple of carrots, some water, a stock cube and a bag of
these kød og melboller from the freezer section at the supermarket…

Kød og melboller – readymade meatballs and
dumplings

Chop up a couple of carrots and fry in a little oil or butter. Add about
one litre of water and a stock cube (I always use chicken). Let it boil and
bubble for a couple of minutes.

Carrots and water bubbling away. Now for the stock
cube…

Now listen up, because the next part is very important! Turn down the heat!
Turn down the heat! You want a very gentle simmer. Add the packet of kød
og melboller.

Kød og melboller – frozen meatballs and
dumplings

Keep it on a very gentle simmer for about 5 minutes. The soup will be ready
to eat when the frozen dumplings rise to the surface. If you let the soup boil,
the dumplings will begin to puff up like giant cotton balls. And then
disintegrate. Leaving you with – yikes! – a very sorry mess instead of a yummy,
warming soup. Not what we want at all.

Just add plenty of salt and pepper, some hot crusty bread (or maybe some
toasted rugbrød ‘ryebread’) and a cold Danish beer. Guaranteed
hygge!

Velbekomme!

Diane :)

Christmas Planning – Monday 5 November 2012

DIANE IN DENMARK

Are you a flybaby?  Someone whose house and – more importantly – head has been saved by the Flylady?  I am!  And I love, love, love her Cruising through the Holidays system!  Basically she helps us to get all the prep done now – in October and November – so that by the 1st of December we are ready and relaxed to actually enjoy Christmas.  Not be stressed out by it….

I’ve posted my Christmas planning here on the blog for the last two years.  Here we go for Christmas 2013!

Last weekend I baked the Christmas cake (recipe and ideas here) and will be feeding it on Monday mornings as part of Weekly Home Blessing.

Crimbo cake in the oven…smells great!

The Danish Post Office has just delivered the stamps I ordered online.  And I’ve been through my Christmas card list and made a few changes for this year (going to hand deliver more cards because postage costs an arm and a leg here!).

Love the Winterbathing Viking stamps!

I’ve also checked my Christmas gift list.  Lots of people (again, again…), but I already have a good idea of what needs bought or made.  I’ve placed a few orders online (including pressies for myself from the kids, ha ha!) and what I’ve already bought is wrapped and ready to go!

What to buy for toddlers?  Anything that comes in a huge box! :o)

On the social side of things, I’ve planned a Christmas lunch with mywinterbathing buddies, am looking into tickets for a Christmas jazz concert and have booked an appointment at the hairdressers for a trim in the month of December.

On the food and drink side of things, I’ve started buying a few extra items when I do my weekly shop.  And have already planned our meals for the week when my family from Scotland will be here with us (7 mouths to feed instead of 4).

So that’s the story so far.  Have a marvelous Monday and don’t forget to check back next week!

Diane :o)

 

Feel Good Friday – 2 November 2012

DIANE IN DENMARK

Three things that have put a smile on my face this week:

Getting ready – the Flylady way, 15 minutes at a time – for visitors.  A dear friend (and former colleague from the EC Court of Justice in Luxembourg) from the Basque country and his wife.  Can’t wait to see them!  Table is almost set for dinner…

Receiving lovely messages from the parents at school.  I’m giving the Danish kids in 6th grade a course of extra English classes – and they’re loving it!   I always throw myself heart and soul into my teaching…and getting positive feedback from the kids makes it all worthwhile!

Our mascot, Morag

The smell of cake baking in the oven, mmmm!  This is the coconut meringue base of my DDDMIL’s (dearly-departed-Danish-mother-in-law) Kokosdessert or “Choco Coco Dessert”, ready for the oven.  When it’s cooled, I’ll add a ganache chocolate topping and whipped cream.  Yum!  You can see the full recipehere.

Have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend! :o)

Diane

 

Happy 1st November – I’m baaaaack!

DIANE IN DENMARK2 Comments

Dear Readers

Happy 1st November – I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween last night?

DD10’s bounty from last night

I’m back after a   v-e-r-y   l-o-n-g   summer break from the blog.  I could give you all sorts of (fairly good) reasons for my absence.  But there is one thing which has stopped me dead in my tracks and I feel I have to confess.  I HAVEN’T BEEN MENU PLANNING!  Yep, me, the Queen of Menu Planning.  (Just how many weeks of menus are there on this blog?  Um, 107!)

I refuse to feel overwhelmed.  I have the Flylady’s voice in my head.  I am going to jump in where I am – with a menu plan.  And tomorrow I will be back with lots of tales of winterbathing, our Swedish summerhouse by the sea, English teaching and oodles and oodles of Flylady decluttering/routines/’Cruising through the Holidays’!

One of the guest cabins at our Swedish summerhouse by the sea 🙂

But for today, here’s this week’s menu at Casa Copenhagen!

*  Spaghetti bolognese/pasta med kødsovs/ pasta with meatsauce – DD10 has just had ‘train tracks’ (a brace) put on her teeth

*  Roast chicken with roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots

*  Leftover chicken made into chicken noodle soup

*  Biksemad (Danish ‘hash’: cubed potato and meat, onions – fried and topped with a fried egg, pickled beetroot and ketchup)

*  A special treat of takeaway Sushi for me – I’m dining alone as both the kids (DS12 and DD10) are out to dinner at friends, and DH is working late

*  Stir fry of leek/red onion/white cabbage/mushroom with chicken cutlets and rice (made in my beloved rice cooker)

*  Bacon and leek quiche with baby potatoes and salad

Bon appétit! 🙂

My sweetie friend H and myself out for a skinny dip this morning – water temperature 8c (46f), air temperature 7c (44f).  Don’t know what the windchill was but we had to tie our bathrobes on to the bridge so that they weren’t swept away in the gale! 😉 

See you all tomorrow! :o)

Diane