I’ll drink a Tuborg to the (Dutch) Queen later today!

Sunday 08:30, doorbell

Stumble out of bed, walk to the door phone

Pick it up, and ask, “Who is it?”

“Avisen!” (and I know that means ‘newspaper’)

“No thanks!”

Stumble back in bed

An hour later I realize the guy just wanted to get in the shared staircase to drop a newspaper in front of everybody’s door. And I guess he managed to get in anyway because there was one at my door. I must’ve confused the poor fellow though

Denmark is the happiest country in the world according to research I guess I made the right choice!

1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Austria
15. The Netherlands
23. USA
35. Germany
41. UK
62. France
176. Democratic Republic of the Congo
177. Zimbabwe
178. Burundi

Today I visited the tax office to get my skattekort (tax card). This piece of paper will tell your employer how much tax they have to withdraw from your income.

Damage: 47% (39% + 8%) :/

That’s a lot of baby food!

Good thing I’m a true socialist (communist really.. sssh don’t tell ‘em).

Unlike the horror stories some of my friends had, I got a social security number and a bankaccount in a period of 30 minutes (including biking) today

Now I only need a skattekort and then I’m set to pay the baby food for this new Tazmanian devil.

I seriously miss my espresso machine. It would be the first thing I’d move now.

Other things would be my cast iron wok (mmmm food), my tv and dvd player (watching movies on my laptop works.. but.. you know?), my xbox (to play Worms!), and my wireless access point (the neighbor keeps kicking me off ).

Luckily I found something from back home here in the supermarket. Yay stroopwafels!

We
had an awesome cooking event yesterday with Hello. With 19 people we
went to this cooking school in Nørrebro. After a welcome drink and a
short introduction, we were divided into 4 groups who all got appointed
various tasks.

Within our group we divided those tasks, and I was made responsible
for the cheese dessert together with my charming colleague Amalie. I
must say, it’s quite hard to cook if the recipes are in a language you
don’t understand Good thing I had help. Let’s see if I can remember the recipe..

Ingredients (I’m really not sure about the amounts):
- A thick slice (3cm) of Fourme D’Ambert cut in wedges (use one wedge per person)
- A scraped vanilla bean
- A cup hazelnuts
- A cup walnuts
- A cup almonds
- Maple syrup
- 1 dl dark rum
- 1 dl orange juice
- Tablespoon of Szechuan pepper, crushed in a mortar
- 2 types of bitter lettuce (could’ve been radicchio, but I’m not sure) sliced in small pieces
- 1 dl Balsamico
- Black pepper

Prepare the nuts:
Heat the maple syrup in a skillet until it’s caramelized.
Add the vanilla bean scrape.
Add the rum, and light it (watch your fingers) and wait till the flames are gone.
Stir in the nuts and keep stirring while the syrup thickens.
Add the orange juice and the Szechuan pepper.
Keep stirring while it reduces and thinkens.
Set aside.

Prepare the salad dressing:
Put the balsamico in a saucepan.
Add freshly ground black pepper to it.
Heat and reduce to half.
Set aside and let it cool down.
Mix the salad with the balsamico dressing when it’s cooled down.

Preheat the oven to 250C.
Put each cheese wedge in an oven-proof little bowl.
Heat the bowls in the oven for about 3 minutes (until the cheese is molten).

Our special touch:
Pour some Calvados over each bowl. Add some red peppercorns to garnish.

While the cheese is still hot, add the caramelized nuts to each bowl.
Add a bit of the salad to each bow and serve.

Enjoy this with a glass of fine Riesling, possibly even a Gewürztraminer or Canadian icewine if you can get it

The Danes have a very sophisticated way of parking their bikes. To save space, they just pile them up.

Like a proper Dane, I threw my bike on top when I got home.

Of course the first day I bike to work it starts raining…. it had been sunny for three weeks

Mmmmm, it’s so nice to have a bike again! I felt handicapped