Tillykke til Bobby!

Happy Birthday, Bobby!

Today is Bobby's 35th birthday! My Mom has flown into help us celebrate Bobby's special day. We are going to Malmö, Sweden for a fun day day of touring. Tonight we dine at Restaurant Klubben, a great restaurant in the Vesterbro neighborhood of Copenhagen that serves traditional Danish food. Frikadeller, here we come!

Tillykke til os!

This week has been very rewarding for both Bobby and me. I passed my big Danish test and will begin the next level on Tuesday. The test was split over two days. Wednesday was devoted to the writing, listening, and reading portion of the test. Today was the spoken portion. Bobby came home with this lovey winter plant to congratulate me. I am very happy I passed and look forward to learning more Danish.



Bobby finished a large revision of a submitted journal article and also wrote a third grant application. He's been working on the journal article for the entire month (and then some). I told him that this past month has been very similar to the last few months of his dissertation writing; in other words, Bobby has been a work zombie. This is a photo of our typical Saturday night during September. We'd eat dinner together, then Bobby would go right back to writing while I entertained myself with TV. The candles made it a romantic working evening!



We attended a Connecting Friends dinner on Tuesday. You may remember that Connecting Friends is a program hosted by the Copenhagen language school which brings foreigners together with some Danes. As luck would have it, the hosts of the dinner wanted to show the guests a traditional Danish birthday celebrating. Bobby was randomly chosen to be the birthday boy, which was perfectly timed since his birthday is coming up soon! He was sung to, toasted (repeatedly, and by complete strangers), and even got to blow out birthday candles on a cake. It was a really fun evening made all the more special by Bobby's 'birthday'.


Bobby is test-riding this bike, which was once ridden by Bjarne Riis, the Danish bicyclist who won the 1996 Tour de France (he admitted to using steroids so the winning title has been retracted, but we don't need to talk about that). The bike is very fast and light, but Bobby has to nearly bend all the way over when riding. He's yet to determine whether or not he'll purchase it.



Bobby came home one day with this giant squash in his bag. One of the houses on his bike ride home often has a table set up with squash for sale. For 5 kroner (about $1), we ate from this squash all week! I made zucchini bread, zucchini cookies, sauteed squash, and gnocchi and vegetable stir-fry (below photo). All this cooking talk bring me to the final accomplishment of the week...

Since moving to Denmark, Bobby and I have kept a pretty tight budget. At the end of each month, we total up all of our receipts for the entire month (every receipt, weather it's for food, a coffee, or train tickets) and monitor our spending. The month of August turned out to be a pricey month for groceries. We spent an average of $11.00 per person per day for food. Mind you, we eat all three meals at home, drink alcohol (no more than 2 bottle of wine a week), eat some meat (about 1 1/2 pounds of protein per week, total), and eat a lot of fresh produce. $11.00 isn't bad, but we were spending more than we needed to. So I set a goal for myself at the beginning of September. I wanted to spend no more that 2000 kroner ($365.00) total for the month for food. I did it! I spent 1941 kroner, which means we spent an average of $5.90 per person per day on food. We didn't go hungry, we still got to eat some meat, we ate plenty of fruit and vegetables, and we drank 1 bottle of wine per week. The quality and quantity of the wine decreased, but so did our bill.

Tilbage til skole

September has brought new things for Bobby and me. We are both back in school! And we both have new haircuts! Well, Bobby got a proper haircut for a barber shop. I, on the other hand, am a cheapskate and can't imagine paying to have my bangs trimmed. So I either do it myself or I make Bobby do it. This time I had Bobby do it. He took a bit too much off but it's starting to grow back. Oh well, it's only hair.

My Danish classes are resumed, though I now at a different language school than the one I was attending when we lived in downtown Copenhagen. My new school is a 15 minute bike ride from our new apartment. The school has very nice facilities and is set in a beautiful location in Hellerup. I have class three days a week from 9am until noon. I am also expected to spend an additional 5 hour each week studying at school. I really like my new classes. The two teachers are fantastic and I am learning a lot. I can already talk and read in the past, present perfect, present, and future tenses! My big test for passing out of lever 2 is already scheduled for the end of this month. It is exciting to be learning so much Danish.


Bobby's university has also resumed. He is teaching a class in addition to supervising students. This photo shows him on his first day of class. Doesn't he look sophisticated and professorly?

Aside from school, we haven't done much that's worth writing about. I continue to cook and learn new recipes and techniques with all my fun kitchen gadgets. We had a nice American man over for dinner this past Saturday. He is a climate researcher and has just moved to Copenhagen. His grandparents are neighbors with Bobby's Aunt and Uncle back in the States, so our contacts were exchanged by said relations. He is a very nice guy and we look forward to sharing more meals together. For the dinner I prepared (fresh garlic bread, Provençal tomato spread, Wowatouille with pasta, salad with a spicy creamy cilantro dressing, and chocolate cake with whipped cream), I got to use every paddle attachment on Anchor Baby, my cherished stand mixer. Flat paddle for the cake, whisk for the whipped cream, and dough hook for the garlic bread. You know it's a good day when you use all of the attachments!

Aalborg and Research Meringues

Last week I spent in Aalborg, where I participated in the 2010 European Signal Processing Conference. I got to present two of my papers as posters (one seen above, written with my colleauge Guillaume Defrance). I would like to say people were trampling over each other to get a look, but I take crowd safety very seriously. So I perimeterized the entire zone and allowed one person at a time. I also got to attend some excellent talks by leaders in my field, which I summarize here at my research blog.

While I was gone for the week, Carla had a great time working with her new KitchenAid stand mixer, named "Anchor Baby." Above you can see some apples she made. Carla also claims she made those meringues, but they are far too perfect for this terrestrial realm.

We also received another relief package from Carla's mom! Cold medicine, chapstick, hot sauce, and some Japanese curry cubes. There are also anchovies, taco seasoning, and a cookbook for Vietnamese food! Here we come pho! Thanks yous Sharon!

With Carla's new mixer, she was able to whip up some Hollandaise sauce in a matter of seconds! Faster than I could poach the eggs. Placed on top of the some ham and homemade bread warmed in the over, we had an excellent Saturday breakfast.

After that, I went out on the local street corner and played my accordion to much fanfare. There was no actualized fanfare, but one man stopped by and gave me his card. He is the "formand" of the Gladsaxe Accordion club and invited me to join. He said that they need youth because nearly everyone there is 60 years old. I don't know if I will bring youth, but we shall see! He also said, "We play at the old mans home every Wednesday." Now that sounds like fun.

New Toys and Happy Memories

Santa came a little early this year for Bobby and me. We've been keeping our eye out for used goods on dba.dk, the Danish equivalent of CraigsList. It was through this website we found the used TV we mentioned in the previous post. Aside from household needs, we also look for new toys: accordions for Bobby and kitchen gadgets for myself. Bobby lucked out this week with this great German-made Weltmeister piano accordion, which was purchased for the unbelievable price of $50! Now Bobby just has to relearn how to play a non-button accordion.


I also got a new toy this week. We have been searching for a slightly used KitchenAid stand mixer on dba.dk. We thought we lucked out last week but it turned out to be a scam. The guy wanted us to wire him money before he would send the mixer. Seriously, who runs a scam with kitchen appliances?!? Anyways, I was a bit disappointed and had resigned myself to hoping for a mixer for a Christmas gift. On Saturday, Bobby went to a local store to buy a DVD player. He game home with a brand new stand mixer instead!!





I was so excited and put my new toy to use right away. A stand mixer is one of those appliances that lasts forever and can be used to make so many different things. My Mom has had the same KitchenAid stand mixer since I was born. I remember helping her make chocolate chip cookies when I was little, so I decided to break in my own mixer by making these cookies. You may notice that some of the cookies look like they don't have chocolate chips in them. That's because they don't. I love chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips. If I weren't making cookies for other people to eat, I would leave out the chocolate completely. But, since I am kind-hearted and wanted to share the cookies, I made a separate batch for me sans chocolate chips.












I also made carrot cake earlier in the week using Grandma Townsend's recipe. My paternal Grandmother was an excellent baker. Whenever I had dinner with her and Grandpa (which was pretty often, since we only lived 5 miles apart), she always had a dessert prepared. At her funeral, my second cousin told this lovely story about Grandma:
"When I was a little kid, I ofter went over to Uncle Don's and Aunt Frieda's home for dinner. One day, I came home from such a dinner and asked my Mother why she doesn't make desserts for us like Aunt Frieda does. She responded, 'Oh, that Frieda, she spoils Don.'"
I love this story. My Grandma baked with love and happiness, which is the best way to bake. This cake, which was my Grandpa's and Dad's favorite cake, is very moist and bursting with flavor. I miss both of my grandparents, but some of the heartache is mollified by cooking Grandma's recipes while recalling the wonderful moments we shared.

Nothing to Report but Food

You might have noticed that Bob and I don't write as many blog posts as we used to. The reason why is there isn't much to report. We did buy this used TV! The woman we bought it from told me over the phone that the TV was light enough for a woman to carry. Well, she must have some pretty strong muscles, because it took two people to walk it to our apartment. But we finally have a TV!


Bobby's work is going well. Here he is pictured eating dinner after a long day of work. He wears a helmet to dinner because his brain pays the rent. I still don't have work, though not from a lack of trying on my part. In fact, it has been a bit frustrating receiving so many rejection e-mails. Oh well, I will keep trying.







I have licked my jobless wounds by cooking. And drinking wine. Don't judge me. After one particularly painful rejection letter, I decided nothing would heal my deflated ego better than salsa, guacamole, and Reisling.







Some cooking experiments have gone better than others. One kitchen catastrophe was these cinnamon rolls. My ultra cool retro baking dishes are a bit too small, so the dough baked over onto the oven floor. A lot of smoked followed, which gave the rolls an ... interesting ... smokey flavor. Smokey cinnamon rolls. Not the best thing to come out of my kitchen.




Other experiments have ended in success, like this Coq au Vin. Though it took two days to cook, the results were worth it.











This chocolate mousse dessert didn't taste of smoke, thank goodness. However, the spiced shortbread cookie didn't turn out quite as I had hoped it would. I was planning on having the cookies sticking out of mousse, but my ultra cool retro baking dishes aren't very thick so the cookies cooked unevenly. Perhaps my ultra-cool retro baking dishes aren't so ultra-cool... Anyways, I was able to salvage the unburned parts of the shortbread, crumble it, and add it to the mousse. Top if off with some vanilla whipped cream and you've got dessert!


We had company over for dinner last Friday. Two of Bob's work colleagues, along with their 20-month old daughter. Bob and I never remember to take photos of our guests, but we did catch this photo of on of the guests passed out on our couch. I guess we are just too much fun for some toddlers!

Rainy Days = Baking Days

Our July family guests left at the right time, because it has rained every day since they've left. In my opinion, there are two good ways to spend a rainy day: 1) baking, and 2) going to the movies. Lucky me, I got to do both this weekend! On Saturday, I spend the better part of the afternoon baking. Along with the usual batch to zucchini bread, I also made these Snickerdoodle cookies (shown here, with Bobby's yearning hand). When we lived in Santa Barbara, Bobby and I would go to Borders on the weekend. We'd order a chai latte and a snickerdoodle cookie, which made us feel a little bit less guilty about reading books we had no intention of buying. The Snickerdoodle cookies at the Borders' coffee shops are really awesome, so I decided to make some. They turned out quite nicely, if I may say so myself.

On Sunday, Bobby and I biked into Copenhagen and saw the movie Inception. We both really liked the film and it was a nice treat for us. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, the S-Tog (commuter trains) was free, so we took that home (it's a mostly downhill ride into Copenhagen, which makes biking back to Dyssegård a bit unpleasant).

Today turned out to be a baking day as well. A fellow baking friend sent me a recipe for a no-knead garlic cheese flat bread. Since I have some awesome retro baking dishes that Bobby found on the street (the blue one is pictured here, behind the bread), I decided to try out the new recipe. The bread turned out great!

The bread accompanied Provençal tomato spread. Our new house troll kept the evil spirits (aka gnats and flies) away from the food. Thanks, troll.











I also tried another new recipe tonight. Bobby and I both have an unhealthy and childish fondness for Mac n' Cheese. I hate to admit it, but while in college, we'd make the Kraft version pretty often (though we'd dress it up with peas and broccoli, which Bobby called O n' G, short for Orange and Green... the added vegetable make it healthy, right?). However, we're all grown up now... ok, truth be told, I haven't found Kraft Mac n' Cheese in Denmark. But, even if I did, I would rather eat this Spicy Man n' Cheese (though I don't think my colon agrees with me). This dish is livened up with some chipotle chilies. Next time I make this (don't worry, it'll be about 6 months. Michael Pollan was right... when you know what goes into your meal, you make healthier choices... but that's a whole different post), I'll add a bit less chilies. Bobby and I no longer have our California-trained spice resistance!