Cooking Goddess!

Ok, I (Carla) might be exaggerating a bit, but this last week has been filled with lots of cooking! It's pretty cold in Copenhagen; since we've moved here, the temperature hasn't gone above 30 F/-1 C, and it snows fairly often. Today's snowfall was accompanied by a strong wind that made outside life look like a snow blender. I have no desire to explore the city by foot in such weather, so instead I stay indoors and cook.

Cooking is made even more fun for me because I finally have a proper kitchen to cook in! Aside from the beloved oven, I also have counter space, supplies, and storage facilities in which to create, make, and bake our meals. In this photo, you can see the window setting on our living room. My two Le Creuset pots are accompanied by my French cookbook "I Know How To Cook" (Je Sais Cuisiner in French) and the cookbook "Best-Ever Curry Cookbook". As list of some of the things I've made this week: mayonnaise (it only takes 45 minutes of hand whisking), the chocolate mint chip chocolate cookies I mentioned in the previous post, spiced zucchini bread, chicken noodle soup made with home-made stock, eggplant and zucchini sauce with pasta, and spiced salmon with Indian pulao rice.

Here I am preparing our dinner plates with the French recipe for Tarragon Chicken. From the chicken carcass I made stock in my crock-pot.












I made a marble cake loaf. The two flavors are vanilla and orange chocolate. Bobby gets upset that I don't give him larger portions when I pack his lunch.


When I made mayonnaise, I had egg whites leftover, so I made lavender-flavored meringues. I love lavender anything, so these are especially delicious for me. A word of advice, though: making meringues by hand, which requires a lot of whisking, is not recommended after making mayonnaise by hand, which also requires a lot of whisking. My right arm felt like it was going to fall off the next morning!



Another meal I made was Ratatouille. I'm starting to notice a French trend... Anyways, I chopped up all of these vegetables and stewed them (which some oil, water, and spices) for over 2 hours. The result was a flavor-full vegetable medley that was perfect over spaghetti.














Today I cooked my first loaf of bread. Since we've moved from Paris, we've had trouble finding a good loaf of bread as a reasonable price. I decided to take matters into my own hands. The loaf came out looking and tasting great! It had a nice, crisp crust but stayed moist inside. Finally, we have some decent bread!