by Krista | Dec 4, 2009 | Fabulous Friday
As a young woman my Grandma, Ruth Bjorn, boarded a ship in Copenhagen, Denmark to start a new life in Canada with her husband Alfred and four children. She left behind parents, 12 siblings and innumerable friends and relations and didn’t speak a lick of English.
Their Canadian life began in a tiny logging community in northern British Columbia, a place called Crescent Spur. They were befriended by a couple of Swedish families and others who worked at the lumber mill, strangers who became friends, helping the immigrant family learn English and the customs of their new homeland.
It was not an easy life with long, cold winters and a train the only way in and out of town. Grandpa worked long hours at the mill and out in the woods while Grandma ran the house, looked after six children and cooked for her family and the strays that always made their way into her kitchen.
When I was little my Dad, aunts and uncles would tell us stories of hockey games on the frozen river, the library that mailed them books to read, and the time my aunt requested a pound of Danish blue cheese for her birthday, took it to bed and had the entire thing eaten by morning.
My earliest memories of Grandma are in her warm kitchen. They had a huge dining room table with a low shelf suspended between the legs. I would sit on that shelf for hours, hidden by the table cloth, listening to Grandma and the aunts talking in the kitchen or the grownups chatting around the table with their mugs of coffee.
Grandma didn’t just cook good food, she made it beautiful! No dish ever reached the table without a garnish of some kind. Parsley sprinkled over boiled potatoes or mandarin orange segments artfully arranged atop a jello salad.
Grandma is in her 80’s now. We have lost part of her to dementia, but we still have HER, and for that we are immensely grateful. She still cooks nearly every day, and always, ALWAYS has homemade cookies ready for whoever might drop by. She makes them in batches and freezes them in empty plastic ice cream buckets, ready to be served with her ever-present, ever-hot pot of coffee.
Last weekend one of my brothers was home so we went up to Grandpa and Grandma’s house for a visit. They greeted us with hugs and beaming smiles of welcome then ushered us to the table, draped with Danish linens and set with small plates and coffee mugs ready for filling.
There in the middle was a plate of Danish Krum Kager, beautiful, delicate cookies made in a special press that imprints the dough with swirling, flowery patterns. Crisp, thin and delicious with a hint of spices and citrus, they are a wonderful accompaniment to strong coffee with cream.
I’ll share two different Krum Kager recipes with you today, both of them made with a Krumkake Iron.
The first one is made with sweet cream, lemon zest, cinnamon and cardamom. The second is a bit richer with whipping cream, buttermilk and nutmeg.
Both of them are delicious and freeze beautifully. If you like, while they’re still warm drape them over a dowel to form a cone or taco shape, then fill with sweetened whipped cream and dust with cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom.
Krum Kager II
(From Julia Peterson Tufford’s Original Scandinavian Recipes)
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
4 cups flour
1 cup sweet cream
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 tsp cinnamon
10 crushed cardamom seeds
Cream butter and sugar, add well-beaten eggs and then the rest of the ingredients. Bake in Krumkake iron until golden brown.
Krum Kaka III
(From Julia Peterson Tufford’s Original Scandinavian Recipes)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
1 cup melted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Beat eggs well. Add sugar and butter. Fold in whipped cream. Add buttermilk and flour alternately. Mix in soda, vanilla and nutmeg. Bake in Krumkake iron until golden brown.
by Krista | Nov 27, 2009 | Fabulous Friday
My younger brother Ryan is one of the best cooks I know. For years he has delighted us with such dishes as roasted rack of lamb with caramelized walnuts, chicken curry with lime and cilantro or dark chocolate filled croissants.
These days Ryan divides his time between Paris and Amsterdam, but this week we get him all to ourselves for days on end of old movies, games and LOTS of happy eating.
As much as we love his razzle-dazzle, knock-your-socks-off food, sometimes it’s the simple ones that are truly comforting.
My brother Ryan making breakfast for the family
Saturday morning he gathered all manner of lovely bits together for a fabulous frittata. He finely chopped onion, peppers and bacon, frying them up into caramelized goodness. Then added heavy cream, eggs and chopped fresh herbs.
He stirred and simmered the lot for a minute or two, then let it sit a bit until almost firm. Finally he topped the egg mixture with chopped cherry tomatoes and herbed feta cheese and slid the pan into the oven to finish cooking and brown the top.
Sweet tomatoes, fresh herbs and sharp cheese
Finally it was done, browned and beautiful, perfect with a slice of hot buttered raisin toast.
Ryan’s Herbed Frittata
Ingredients:
1/2 onion diced fine
1/2 red bell pepper diced fine
1/4 cup crumbled bacon bits
1/4 cup cream
8 large eggs
2 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs such as rosemary and parsley
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
4 ounces herbed feta cheese
Directions:
- Saute onion, bell pepper and bacon until vegetables are soft.
- Beat eggs, herbs and cream together and add to pan, stirring gently to heat through. Let sit in pan over low-medium heat until mostly solid.
- Top with cherry tomatoes and feta cheese and place under broiler for 3-5 minutes until golden brown and eggs are set.
- Serve hot with toast.
by Krista | Nov 20, 2009 | Fabulous Friday
Welcome to Fabulous Friday where I feature a beloved cook, be they friend, family member or stranger.
With the launch of www.ramblingtart.com I simply had to feature the woman who taught me how to cook: my Mums. I love this picture of her, so happy surrounded by her kids and hubby.
I have so many amazing food memories with Mums – chocolate porridge, Vietnamese noodle soup, and Hungry Man Casserole – but I think my favorite is Sunday dinner.
Mums is the queen of idyllic Sunday dinners, rising early in the morning to slather up chickens with olive oil, stuff them with whole heads of garlic or chunks of lemon and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.
She would never dream of roasting the birds without first browning them beautifully, letting the high heat melt away the fat and turn the skin crisp and salty.
While the chickens roast a while on their own, she busies herself washing and chopping veggies – fingerling potatoes, turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, great chunks of onion and more garlic. Tossing them together in a big metal bowl, she glugs olive oil over the lot, adds salt, pepper and fresh rosemary from her garden, then nestles them in around the roasting chickens, pops them in the oven and dashes off to church.
This week Mums coated the veggies with heavy whipping cream instead of olive oil and the results were divine! Even the potatoes were moist and tender, their skins a lovely golden brown from the cream.
All of us kids love visiting Mums and Dad on Sundays, my brothers oh-ho-ho-ing appreciatively as they come in out of the cold to a house filled with the scent of roasted chicken.
After hanging up coats and scarves we natter away while setting the table with Mums’ cobalt blue dishes, carrying platters of steaming food from the stove, settling in to our usual chairs and bowing our heads for prayer. A quick one, lest a skin form on the gravy. 🙂
We linger longest over Sunday dinners, everyone getting seconds, the occasional hand snaking out for just one more potato, one last slice of chicken as we visit.
Afterward we adjourn to the living room for British murder mysteries and hot cups of Earl Grey tea with cream and maple syrup.
Thanks for making Sundays so beautiful, Mums. I love you!
My beautiful Mums
When I was little my Dad, aunts and uncles would tell us stories of hockey games on the frozen river, the library that mailed them books to read, and the time my aunt requested a pound of Danish blue cheese for her birthday, took it to bed and had the entire thing eaten by morning.
