I knew it was going to be a good night at Cooking Club when my friend Darren brought me a steaming cup of Peppermint Hot Chocolate before dinner. What a scrumptious way to warm up before our feasting began!
I was too sick to make it to my British Night birthday dinner last week, but my lovely friends did a repeat for me and it was marvelous.
While the others cooked and bustled in the kitchen, I served up a few nibbles to tide us over: dilled green beans, Kalamata olives, and artichoke hearts.
Cameron unwrapped the cheesecloth-bound, salt-cured pork he made and sliced it into delectable little morsels of salty goodness. It went perfectly with Don’s mild Swiss cheese slices and glasses of red wine.
Soon the British portion of our feast was piping hot and ready to be eaten. We dug into Cameron’s herbed mashed potatoes…
…Robin’s peppery mashed turnips…
…Jen’s Toad-in-the-Hole, and drenched everything in beef gravy. Mmm, comfort food at its finest.
We ended the meal with a bowl of roasted chestnuts which we peeled and devoured as we visited happily around the dining table. It was a fabulous birthday dinner.
What is comfort food to you?
I’m delighted to have a new article up at The Travel Belles today! Click here to see pictures and read about a boat ride around a Croatian island. I’d love to hear what you think!
Jen’s Toad in the Hole – click here for the recipe.
Robin’s Mashed Turnips
Ingredients:
turnips, peeled and diced butter milk salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Place turnips in pot and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer until tender. Drain.
Add butter, milk, salt and lots of pepper. Mix until smooth.
Cameron’s Salt-Cured Pork Loin
Ingredients:
salt (several cups) water pork loin, cut into 2-3 inch strips Cognac salt cheesecloth
Directions:
Add salt to water and stir until dissolved. Keep adding until it won’t dissolve anymore.
Add meat to salt water and make sure it’s covered. Let sit 24 hours.
Remove meat from water and pat dry. Dip in cognac, salt, wrap tightly in cheesecloth, and hang in cool, dry place for 3-5 weeks. (Can also be smoked lightly before wrapping in cheesecloth)
Warning: These are my first attempts at video, so please bear with the occasional bobbles and shakes.
These videos were taken in Xcaret, an eco-park outside Cancun, Mexico. This beautiful place is dedicated to preserving and sharing Mexican history and culture through archaeological finds, lush gardens, and performances portraying Mayan dances and traditions.
My favorite event of the day was when five men in brilliantly colored traditional garb came bowing and dancing into the dusty arena.
Aren’t their headdresses fabulous?! As their dance came to an end, they took turns clambering up a towering pole with no ropes, harnesses or nets to keep them from plummeting to the ground.
If that wasn’t enough, one chap stood on top of the pole as it began to spin, playing an instrument as his companions did this:
Needless to say, I was agog. I am scared spitless of heights, and can imagine few more terrifying prospects than leaping headfirst from a lofty perch held only by a rope lashed around my waist. Yipes!
They went on to amaze us even further by their intricate dance steps and this little number:
Heavens!
Those fellows deserved every clap, whoop and holler they got. It was a jolly treat from my hosts at Royal Holiday and I loved every minute of it. If you’d like to see more video from my trip to Cancun and Xcaret, click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
So what scares you? Heights? Small spaces? Sharks?
Good morning! It’s been a cold but sunny weekend, and how I loved the light after so many dark days. Did you have a good break?
I had a jolly weekend celebrating an early Christmas with beloved rellies from Canada, Washington and Amsterdam. We piled on couches for much laughter and story-telling and clustered around the table for Mum’s divine Christmas feast. It was so great having everyone there, watching a movie with heaps of buttery popcorn, making plans for family adventures.
We got to see my brother’s pictures from his vacation to Israel and Lebanon a couple weeks ago and downed cup after cup of strong coffee accompanied by Butter Tarts, Nanaimo Bars and my Danish grandmother’s fabulous Krumkake. They are the prettiest little cookies, baked in a molded press on the stove top. While we Danes eat ours plain, the Norwegians are known to shape theirs into cones and fill them with whipped cream and fruit.
Do you have any traditional cookies that you can’t imagine your holiday without?
1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup white sugar 3 eggs 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp. vanilla 1/2 tsp. freshly ground cardamom 6 Tbsp water
Directions:
Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in cardamom and flour, mixing well.
Add water until batter is the consistency of pancake batter.
Lightly grease both sides of krumkake iron with cooking spray or melted butter.
Heat iron over medium to medium-high burner. (Any hotter and iron will scorch)
Ladle generous tablespoon of batter onto center of the iron. Close iron, squeezing handles together gently to spread batter, but not so tightly that batter leaks out.
Cook for 30 seconds, flip iron over, and cook an additional 30 seconds.
Flip iron back to initial position, open, and remove and transfer cookie to cooling rack.
You can also immediately roll cookie around a krumkake cone or the handle of a wood spoon. Cool slightly then slip off and allow to cool on rack.
Store in tightly sealed container in order to retain crispness.
Serve alone or filled with whipped cream and fruit.
Good morning, luvs. It’s been a long and difficult week and I’m glad to see the last of it. I want to slip away to a gloriously restful spot like this one in Xcaret, Mexico, slump down into a chair and not budge until all the cares and stresses of the week have slipped away.
On days like this it does me much good to take a deep breath or two and focus on a few good things in my life.
This weekend I get to see two brothers, a sis-in-law, my parents and grandies for an early Danish Christmas. I’m so excited to see them all, hug them tight, and spend a beautiful weekend playing Settlers of Catan, watching movies, going for long walks, and visiting for hours.
Birthday roses to remind me I am loved.
New books from the library set in Old Vienna and 1940’s Paris.
Royal blue tights that make me grin.
Skype that lets me see beloved faces on the other side of the world.
Free Old Time Radio shows from iTunes.
Enough money to cover all my bills this month.
Really lovely people to work with.
One last tea bag of Apple Cinnamon tea.
Ginger Spice cookies that make my house smell so good.
I love this poem my friend Corrie sent me this week, and thought it might cheer your heart too:
Refuse to fall down If you cannot refuse to fall down, refuse to stay down. If you cannot refuse to stay down, lift your heart toward heaven, and like a hungry beggar, ask that it be filled. You may be pushed down. You may be kept from rising. But no one can keep you from lifting your heart toward heaven only you. It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear. The one who says nothing good came of this, is not yet listening. (By Clarissa Pinkola Estés)
How was your week? Are you doing OK today? What are three good things in your life?
Sending you a big hug and hopes for a beautiful weekend. 🙂
One of the best things about exploring the eco-park Xcaret near Cancun, Mexico is the lack of boundaries between you and what you’re experiencing.
You will not find roped off areas or keep out signs. No one will shout at you for venturing off the beaten path. For the most part I loved this, but I admit I was a little startled to be walking along a stream only to look down and see a shark and a stingray swimming along only inches from my bare feet with nothing between us but air and a bit of water. Yipes!
I loved being able to not only look at these Mayan dwellings, altars and who knows what, but also touch them, ascend the steps, and duck my head to enter the tiny doorways.
In reading about the Mayans, I find them an interesting contrast of gentle nomadic hunter-gatherers and vicious warriors who stole their neighbors for human sacrifices. In spite of their brutality, their skills are undeniable and impressive. They created lavish temples and palaces without metal tools, developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing, and excelled as farmers, potters and weavers.
I was intrigued to learn that they cleared routes through dense jungles and festering swamps to build extensive trade networks with distant peoples. As prolific writers, they were distinctive in that they were the only ones in America capable of expressing all types of thought. They also chronicled detailed histories of their culture and lifestyle. Unfortunately all but three of their books were destroyed when Fray Diego de Landa, second bishop of the Yucat n, ordered a mass destruction of Mayan literature in 1562. I do wonder what stories those destroyed pages held.
What group of people in history are you most intrigued by?
_logo.svg){kind=logo}
