Kulturnatten

Kulturnatten - Culture night - is a night in October where all sorts of cultural institutions : museums, library, churches, concert halls, government buildings etc... open their doors and hold special events for guests to come see an exhibition, a concert, or what their organization is all about. It really gives such a great atmosphere with people of all ages getting out an about on a Friday night, enjoying everything the city has to offer.

I started with my friend Alyssa by meeting at a cafe near our work to devise a game plan. What we came up with was brilliant and set us on a path for a perfect night ! We started outside of the center seeing a bunch of different things while we worked our way back into town. The things we saw were :

a beautiful sunset in Holmen.

a submarine that is turned into a museum.

the opera house

an exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center about livable cities and new urban developments in Copenhagen and the surround areas.

a traditional nordic concert in Our Savior's Church - note these drunk ravers in the church were not part of the traditional performance

favorite : an acapella concert in the black diamond. i loved the setting, the singers were on a walkway in the huge atrium while people could still be walking around or taking escalator ramps up and down. my favorite songs they sang were black bird from the beatles and black or white from michael jackson

then i met up with Palmar and we went to the official afterparty at the old Carlsberg factory.

it was sooo much fun. we had a great time :) especially dancing to this song :


a chilled out version of chris isaak's wicked game

so in love with CPH and life on this night

Pintrest Dinner Fail

So there is no denying my newfound obsession with Pintrest. Think: your favorite food, craft, design, travel, and lifestyle blogs combined with twitter. People post cute and cool ideas they find from all over the web, and if you are a memeber you have the ability to 'repin' the things you like to your own pin boards. The themes of my boards are fall, cute animals, things I like, healthy foods, sinfully sweet foods etc...

Well after pinning non stop for the past 72 hours I decided I should definitely make something for dinner with my new found inspiration. I was actually over ambitious and decided to make 3 things ! I was thinking pizza, granola bars, and raw date truffles so that I could have this stuff to bring to work for lunch and snacks.

Well after leaving the grocery store, I started to think about what I was going to make first and how.... and then I realized I FORGOT THE MAIN INGREDIENT FOR EVERY RECIPE :P yeast for the pizza crust, rolled oats for the granola bars, and dates for the DATE truffles ! (well actually I knew I skipped the dates because I couldn't find them)

Anyways, I still had plenty of new ingredients to make dinner with so I ended up making a salad with spinach, tomato, feta cheese, and figs and it was still great. Mark my words : I will make all of the things I originally planned, before the end of the weekend !

Welcome to Jamrock !

I can't stop listening to this !

Sunday Brunch

Last night I happened to meet an Icelandic - yogi - raver - chef. He is the chef at the Laundromat Café, and invited me there for brunch this morning. The cafe is really cozy and has such a good vibe. Its really cool because there is an actual laundromat in there ! Its a great idea because you can do your laundry while you eat breakfast !

We started with an orange juice slush which is pretty much elixir for any hangover. Then we got lattes. I was surprised when I saw the waiter who delivered them was Kenneth Nyguyen - a photographer and blogger, who is pretty famous here in CPH.

Then we moved onto the main attraction - the food ! We both ordered 'the clean' brunch (vegetarian option). Everything on it was fantastic. We had greek yogurt with honey and homemade museli, eggs, roasted potatoes, grilled tomato, salad with humus, a piece of cheese (I forget what type), pancakes with chocolate sauce and fresh fruit ! I ate so much, but whatever ! it was mid afternoon by the time we finally ate !

the whole spread

close up !

Shopping Saturday

girls dress for Fall in Amagertorv on Strøget - the pedestrian shopping street in downtown CPH

Such a lovely fall day ! I saw the movie Crazy Stupid Love last night with Olivia and Chalen and it was awesome ! Not a cheesy feel good movie because the main topic was all the horrible pain that comes as a product of being in love - young and seasoned love alike, but it was down to earth, funny, so cute. A great way to spend a Friday night, and even better because I felt so fresh this morning and ready to take full advantage of my Saturday.

I woke up early and cleaned my apartment - exciting I know :P but it really needed it. Then I met up with Chalen and Olivia at the Fredriksberg flea market. We had been one time before and found some great deals, and this time was no exception ! I bought a cool vintage blouse for only 15 DKK - $3. I'm going to wear it out tonight with the leather skirt I bought there a few weeks ago.

After shopping, we grabbed some coffee and sat outside at a near by cafe enjoying the sun and people watching.

I had plans to continue my shopping adventure with my friend Bryndis. We got brunch at a cafe, and the potato and leek omelet I ordered hit the spot.


When we moved onto shopping, I wanted to show her the Chelsea ankle boots I had found the day before and couldn't stop thinking about. She liked them as much as I did, and after trying on both boots, I knew that I had to have them. But because I am a smart shopper, I knew from doing some research that I could find them online for almost half the cost. Although it will be hard to wait the extra week or two for them to arrive, saving over 300 DKK ($60) is so worth it. They are so nice - black leather and very classic so I can wear them for years to come !

After walking and shopping around a bit more Bryndis had to go home to continue doing work for her own fashion brand Rosa Bryndis. I wanted to stop in H&M to find some earrings to wear out tonight and found these babies:

We shall see how the whole look comes together...

Fruit Fast

I decided that after Mathew left, I should do a complete detox from all of the cake I had eaten the week before. I did a fruit fast - eating nothing but fruit for 3 days. Today was the last day of the fast. After eating nothing but figs, grapes, raspberries, and mostly bananas, apples, and pears for 2.75 days, I decided I had accomplished the goal I had set with the fast. My primary reason was to regain control over what I was eating - even if I was so bored of fruit or so hungry for something else I resisted. I can use my regained willpower, for times when I feel like I'm too hungry to cook anything and simply have to scarf down quick snacks, to check myself and then take time to prepare something nutritious and filling.

However, tonight when I got home - I didn't have any more fruit, and didn't even want to think about eating another apple or pear ! Although I felt so hungry and wanted bread, cereal, and yogurt, I kept my control and prepared myself a healthy, high protein, and rather light dinner to break the fast.

Quinoa with red beans and shaved carrots and it was delightful !

Love Today !

you know its going to be a good day if you listen to this song in the morning !

Raspberry Crumb Cake

You may remember a few months ago, I made dreamcake for my coworkers because I forgot to lock my computer when I was away from my desk. Well I recently was victim of another email hijacking and they wouldn't let it go until I brought in more cake !

I wanted to make something that I had all of the ingredients for because I'm trying to conserve cash (I've made a few purchases already this month: this, this and soon to be these !) I found a recipie for a raspberry crumb cake online that worked perfectly.

As I made it following the recipe, I combined all of the dry ingredients, and then it was time to combine the wet ingredients. I'm reading and thinking 'okay, whats next?' ... milk. whoops ! I forgot that I didn't have any milk. Then I checked in the fridge and saw that Mathew had bought some while he was here so I thought that would solve my problem. Nope - it had turned bad and was chunky ! Then I see in my fridge my plain yogurt and felt inspired. In Denmark, yogurt has a much runnier consistency than in the U.S. I used 20g less of the yogurt than the recipie called for milk, and added 20g of water and it came out great - maybe even better than the original !

this is the container yougurts come in, in Denmark

Once I combined all of the ingredients and poured them into the buttered pan, it was time to add the jam. I dolloped it all over the top and then made a pretty spiral design by dragging a spoon in a spiral and then in slices from the outside in.

Then it was time to make the topping. It was less crumby than I had expected and actually looked like poop before it was baked, but I knew it would taste good anyways :)


My coworkers loved it and the whole thing was gone by the end of the day. I didn't try any because I was on the last day of three day fruit fast - detoxing from an over the top week with Mathew.

can you tell this is in the IT office ? hehehe note the laminating machine in the back :P

Since the recipe I found didn't have a picture and I didn't know how it should turn out, I used yogurt instead of milk, I converted from cups to grams, I did the jam spiral on my own, and I used a round pan instead of the suggested square pan, I consider this my own creation and I am very proud of it. My coworkers loved it and said it was very moist and fluffy. :D

Office Meeting and Breakfast

Every week, the IT department has an office meeting where we catch each other up on the current projects we're working on and what our goals are for the next week. This week my lovely co workers Olivia and Chalen were kind enough to bring in breakfast for the meeting. Olivia brought pumpkin seed bread from St. Peter's Bakery and Chalen brough a homemade quiche ! It was sooo good ! The quiche had mushrooms, brocolli, and honey goat cheese ! Yummm ! It has been instated that there will be a rotating schedule for all future morning meetings of who will bring breakfast. I really like this idea :) When its my turn I'm thinking something with pumpkin ! I'll let you know what I decide on when the time comes :)

Mathew in CPH

For the past week my good friend Mathew has been visiting me in Copenhagen. It has been such amazing weather the whole time so we have done a lot of walking around the city and a lot of eating outside ! It's been a lot of fun showing my current home to him. Some highlights from his trip have been :

getting flødeboller and pizza on his first night

taking a canal tour - this picture is where the boat left from - Nyhavn - the most photographed place in CPH

oon the tour - the Royal Playhouse on the left and the Copenhagen Opera House on the right

enjoying the amazing Indian summer !

people watching in Amagertorv...

...and eating nachos !

shopping in the upscale department store Illum - we both really liked these huge oil candles

taking a lovely Saturday stroll through Christianshavn - note all the people chilling on the side !

taking a walk through Christiania - they had such great decorations up for its 40th birthday celebration.
we had planned to take a guided tour but it seems about par for the course that the tour guide didn't show up ;P

going to an Oktoberfest themed party at my old dorm

taking a walk to Nørrebro in search of the perfect hangover cure - fresh air, cake, and falafel

and last but not least - MORE CAKE ! from a fancy cake shop in CPH - La Glace. this one had :
A base of pumpkin meringue, mascarpone, caramelized and salted pumpkin seeds with a chocolate mousse made of 65% cocoa. The cake is filled with raspberries, enrobed with chocolate ganache and decorated with pumpkin seeds.

this one was their speciality and has been being made since 1870. it had :
crushed nougat, whipped cream, macaroon bottom and caramelized choux pastry.

At this point I pretty much feel the way the last photo looks :P I'm sad for Mathew to leave tomorrow but I am excited to get back to my regular schedule, a workout routine, and a 21 day sugar detox !