Summer Strawberries, Two Ways

I am loving all the berries that are available this time of the year. We have been gobbling up as many blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries as we can. I have been making strawberry cake's, jordbær grød, and some delicious rice pudding with strawberry jam mixed in.

I wanted to try making jordbærgrød because Danes love making people say the phrase "rødgrød med fløde", because it is so difficult to say. The fiance has never actually had rødgrød before so I thought it would be fun to try it. Jordbærgrød is basically a runny strawberry jam that you eat hot or cold with cream poured on top. It was a nice afternoon snack and a different way to enjoy strawberries. I was a little weirded out by just pouring heavy cream over the grød but apparently that is what you do!

Jordbærgrød med Fløde (barely adapted from Din Baghave)
I halved the recipe to make 4 portions

500g strawberries
150g raw sugar
50ml water
1 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with a little cold water
heavy cream to serve

Pour the strawberries, sugar and water into a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. (I crushed my berries a little at this point bit but you don't have to.) Let the strawberry mixture simmer for 5 minutes.

Take the saucepan off of the heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture.

Serve the jordbærgrød slightly warm or cold. Pour some heavy cream on top of each portion to serve.

Here is another Jamie Oliver recipe for you! I am really enjoying his "Jamie at Home" cookbook because he divides the book into seasons and shares recipes based on what produce is available or best in those season. So of course, strawberries were in the summer section of his book! I love a good rice pudding and this is a great way to enjoy it in the summer. This recipe takes some time, but really, next to no effort. Just a bit of stirring! It's delicious and I'm trying really hard not to eat it all before the fiance comes home from work today!

Creamy Rice Pudding with Strawberry Jam (from Jamie Oliver)
makes 6 to 8 servings

For the jam:
2lbs strawberries, hulled, washed and drained
1/2 cup raw sugar

For the rice pudding:
5 cups whole milk
200g medium grain rice (I used grød ris, could also work with risotto rice)
2 tbsp vanilla sugar

Start with making the jam. Place the strawberries in a large bowl and sprinkle the sugar overtop. Squeeze the strawberries so that it starts to turn into pulp and starts looking like jam. Pour the crushed strawberries into a pot and bring it to a boil. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes on a medium heat and skim the foam off of the top of the jam every 5 minutes or so. Don't worry if the jam is still liquidy, it works well with the rice pudding and will thicken as it cools. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool.

While making the jam, you can also get started on the rice pudding. Place the milk, rice and vanilla sugar into a deep pot. Bring the mixture to a medium simmer on put on the lid. Cook the rice for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is creamy, oozy and moist. If it is too thick, you can thin it out again with a little bit of milk.

To serve, spoon some of the rice pudding into a bowl and then top it off with a dollop of strawberry jam and some fresh strawberries. And then eat!

If you have leftovers, store the jam and rice pudding separately in airtight containers. The rice pudding will keep for 2 or so days in the fridge and the jam a little bit longer.

If you have other strawberry recipes to share, please do! Happy Tuesday!

Ice Cream for Dinner at Ismageriet

The boyfriend and I drove to Amager last night to look for some things at Field's. I wanted some of these pillow covers from H&M Home but couldn't find them out there (they are also not available at the one in the city in case you like them too!). But all was well in the world again because we stopped by Ismageriet on our way home!

I'd heard about it awhile ago and I wanted to buy the boyfriend an ice cream cake from there for his birthday but that never happened. But since we were on Amager last night, we made a little stop after Field's to have a pre-dinner treat. We got there at 8 in the evening and there was a line up out of the store and onto the side walk on the main road. The line kept moving but kept growing at the same time. Don't let the lines deter you though! They move fast and it is totally worth it.

The shop itself is really cute. We think it is a old bakery turned into an ice cream shop because you can see the old signs from the bakery on the walls still. The staff were dressed in retro vests and had sweet little hats on. I absolutely love the logos, the fonts, and the colors that chose for the store. It's all really cute and vintage feeling.

And then there was the ice cream. There was a pretty long list to choose from. There was everything from espresso honey ice cream to seabuckthorn sorbet to blueberry yogurt ice cream. The boyfriend and I both chose to get two scoops in a cone, and the boyfriend went even further adding whipped cream and jam to the top of his. I had the peanut, chocolate and caramel ice cream as well as the nutella oreo one. Amazing! So creamy, really great and strong flavors (so nutty!) alongside a really tasty waffle cone. The boyfriend chose the seabuckthorn sorbet which was sour like the actual fruit and he topped that off with a scoop of pistachio ice cream. I have had a lot of ice cream in Copenhagen in Vancouver, gelato in Italy, etc. but this place has got the largest servings I've ever had anywhere. These scoops were huge and when I was close to eating half of the waffle cone, I said to the boyfriend that I had reached the point of what the size of a normal cone at other places would be. So what was supposed to be a pre-dinner treat turned into dinner itself. The best kind of dinner if you ask me!

Last week I told the boyfriend that my favorite ice cream place was Frederiksberg Chokolades Isbuttiken but it has quickly been overtaken by Imsageriet! They may be a little out of the way, but it is so worth it!

Ismageriet
Kongelundsvej 116
2300 Copenhagen S
(open from 12 to 10 pm)

It's Always Sunny in Vancouver

Well, it's not always sunny. Actually it rains a lot. But during our time there (a little over two weeks), we had nothing but sunshine and warm weather! That's pretty rare for Vancouver and it was absolutely wonderful! The two weeks was spent hanging out with my family, eating out everyday, and enjoying all the best things in Vancouver.

We did the Grouse Grind, the boyfriend had his first poutine, and we managed to sneak in a short trip to Seattle. Some days were spent at the beach with friends, others were spent criss-crossing the city with my family, and there was a lot of scheduling dinners and meet ups with family and friends.

Although we thought we would do a lot of shopping, we actually didn't really buy anything. Instead, we tried new things like stand up paddle boarding, watched my youngest sister perform in her improv show, and took a kundalini yoga class.

My parents took us out to a ton of Chinese restaurants for everything from dim sum to peking duck, we had a variety of Japanese food from ramen to hotdogs with teriyaki mayo and seaweed on top of them, and I got myself some doughnuts after being deprived of them over here in Scandinavia for three years.

Vancouver is such a gorgeous city. The view from Jericho beach of the city with the mountains in the background is amazing. When I'm in Copenhagen, I forget how much of the landscape and nature is visible all the time in Vancouver so when I am in the city again, I'm just totally blown away by the beauty of it all. I don't compare Vancouver to Copenhagen and vice versa much, they're both different but they're both great.

It is nice to have two places to call home.

Be Right Back

I haven't been blogging very much this past week because the boyfriend and I flew to Vancouver on Tuesday! We're here to visit my family and friends for a little while so my blogging has been almost non-existent. I hope you're having the most wonderful summer! Be back real soon!

Strawberry Summer Cake

Summer and strawberries go hand in hand! My sister made this cake for Father's Day a few weeks back and it has been on the back of my mind ever since. I picked up two boxes of Danish strawberries at the grocery store yesterday and although the boyfriend and I like strawberries, it would take us a few days to finish all of them. So, why not bake a cake with them! I just made this cake this morning and I've already had two slices! The cake is buttery and moist and the strawberries turn all gooey and taste like an amazing jam. It's so good! This really is summer in the form of a cake.

Strawberry Summer Cake (slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Makes 1 9-inch cake

6 tbsp or 85g unsalted butter, softened
11/2 cups all purpose flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
just under 1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound or 450g strawberries hulled and halved
2 tbsp vanilla sugar (or white sugar)

Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C and butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg, milk and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add dry mixture gradually and mix until smooth.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of the batter and as close together as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar over the strawberries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 325F or 160C. Continue to bake until the cake is a golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, this can take anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes. Check the cake at 40 minutes to decide whether or not it needs more time in the oven. Let cool on a rack before serving.

Weekend in the Swedish Countryside

We spent the weekend in the Swedish countryside celebrating the marriage of two of our good friends. It was almost a six hour drive to where the wedding was held from Copenhagen so it was quite deep in Sweden, but it was more than worth it. The weather was amazing, the surroundings were beautiful, and the wedding was so special. It was the most wonderful weekend.

Summer in Copenhagen

It has been warm, sunny, and over 20 degrees since the first of this month and Copenhagen is absolutely wonderful this time of the year!

Some things I love about the summers here:

- sunshine until late in the evening (sometimes it's still light outside when I go to sleep, ah!)
- there are parks, lakes, beaches, and harbors where you can sit out and soak in some sun all around the city
- ice cream all the time!!!
- the relaxed mood in the city
- sitting on friends' patios and in courtyards having dinner outside
- going for a dip at Amager Strand or at Islands Brygge
- holidays! Danes get 5 weeks of holidays so there's lots of time to travel or hang out at the summerhouse
- there are events happening every week in the city
- being able to spend more time with friends and family

What are your favorite things about the summer?