July trip to the States (plus a wedding!!)

For 3 weeks in July, Bobby and I got to visit my family in California and Pennsylvania. We started the trip in California, where Mom quickly whisked us away to the Central Coast for some wine tasting! We visited 3 different wineries in the Paso Robles area and we enjoyed them all.

A heat wave hit most of California, including LA and the Palm Desert area. My maternal grandparents, who live in Palm Desert, escaped the 115+ F/46+ C heat by renting a cabin in Big Bear. We escaped the 105F/40C weather in LA and visited them. It was so lovely to have time to catch up with Nana and Papa. It really is quite hard living so far away from family.

While in Big Bear, Papa took us fishing at Big Bear Lake. Bobby has a very unique way of casting off, and Papa was a bit fearful of losing his pole.

Bobby and Papa didn't have any luck fishing that day, but Mom caught a little catfish! She hasn't caught a fish in years! Even though the catfish was too small to keep, Mom was still quite excited and pleased with her catch.

Our time in Big Bear coincided with the American holiday Independence Day. Nana and Papa cooked us up a proper 4th of July BBQ: delicious spare ribs, baked beans, pasta salad, and potato salad. Thank you Nana and Papa for such a fun and tasty meal!

After a week in LA, Bobby and I boarded a plane to visit Dad and Gloria (and attend their wedding!!) in North East, Pennsylvania. We attended a picnic and concert at one of the local wineries in North East (fun fact: Welch, the company that makes grape juice and jam, has a huge factory in North East, so there are a ton of vineyards everywhere).

The picnic/concert area is surrounded on three sides by the vineyards, which due to heavy rain were already quite full of half-matured grapes.

Dad and Gloria live in North East for half the year. My older brother, Gregg, and his family also live in North East. We always have a blast hanging out with Gregg, Tracey, and their two awesome boys (my nephews) Mark and Brooks. Here is Brooks squeezed between Dad and Gloria. Brooks is a really good reader (he'll get through 500+ page books in a matter of days!) and has a really funny sense of humor. He is also a grand master at reading manual of all kinds.

Mark, who is 14 now and taller than Dad and Gregg (good thing, too, because we Townsends aren't know for our height), is also a great kid. He has been into trains his whole life and he volunteers at the local North East Train Museum. He gave us a long and detailed tour; I was amazed at how much he knew about all the different trains and their history. Mark is also a fine musician (a trumpet player like his Uncle Jordan), and was invited to play in the high school marching band when he was still in 8th grade!

One of the many nice things about Dad living so close to Gregg and his family is that Dad gets to do a lot of fun things with and for the boys. For instance, he and Mark built this huge mountain for Mark's train set! How cool is that? The boys go over to Dad's house a lot, and it was fun having them coming in and out during the time we were there.

As the wedding approached, more and more family members arrived from out of town. My Aunt Carolyn, Dad's older sister, arrived with her husband Uncle Ben. If you want to know where I get my crazy-loud sneezes and maniacal laugh from, look no further than Carolyn.

Dad had a whole week of events planned for all of the wedding guests. We spent one morning at Panama Rocks, a neat area with interesting rock formations, moss, and plenty of trees.

We also went kayaking at Presque Isle State Park. If you must know why Gloria is in the water and not in her kayak, long story short: Gloria tipped into the lagoon and I very bravely jumped into the shallow water to 'save' her. We are both still alive to exaggerate the story.

The whole group also went wine tasting at some of the local wineries, which mostly specialize in very sweet white wines (remember what I said about Welch's grape juice?). In this photo you can see some of Gloria's family members, including her daughter Stacy, plus Gloria's sister Sylvia and her two daughters Jackie and Elizabeth. It was fun getting to meet and hang out with Gloria's 'people.'

We also went to a minor league baseball game. Dad bought us tickets right behind home plate!

In the evenings, Dad and Gloria prepared big dinners at the house for everyone. They also set up a fire pit and a cornhole game! Here you can see Gregg throwing the corn-filled bags. Gloria, Stacy, and Carolyn were surprisingly good at the game! Not pictured are the ballet and brass band concerts we went to at the Chautauqua Institute in New York, a lot of breakfasts at various local joints, and many picnics that Dad and Gloria prepared for the whole gang. What a fun and busy week of activities!

Finally the wedding day came. The wedding itself was in the early evening, so we first got to enjoy the Cherry Festival. Mark marched in the Cherry Festival parade with his high school's marching band. I think he looks quite dapper in his marching outfit!

And then, the big moment. Gregg married Dad and Gloria in his church, the First Presbyterian Church of North East. The ceremony was very sweet and intimate, with only 22 people in attendance (including Dad and Gloria!). Congratulations to you both, Dad and Gloria!

After the ceremony we headed back to the house, where Dad surprised everyone with a catered event! With a flute and cello duo in the background, we sipped champagne and ate appetizers served to us by waiters in black ties. After the appetizers, we headed to the yard, where we enjoyed a catered dinner under the large tent Dad rented. We ended the wonderful night around the fire pit, watching Jordan, Mark, and Brooks set off fireworks. It was a lovely end to a romantic wedding day.

After our time in North East, Bobby and I parted ways: Bobby headed to San Jose to attend a conference, and I went back to LA to spend a few more days with my Mom before I headed back to CPH. Unfortunately, our camera battery had died and we only had a European charger, so I didn't get a chance to take any photos of my last few days. Mom and I took a girl's trip to the beach: we rented a hotel room for 2 nights and enjoyed beach and pool time, plus a lot of good eating, drinking, and shopping! The night before I left for CPH, Bobby arrived in LA and we all had a big BBQ with my Great Aunt Gwen, cousin Leslie and her partner Carol, and my good girlfriends Emily and Michelle. My flight to CPH was a red-eye, so Bobby, Emily, and I went surfing the morning before I left, followed by lunch at Wahoo's (there is something so wonderful about eating fish tacos after surfing). Mom, Bobby, and I had an early dinner at BCD Tofu House and then headed to the airport, where we all had a tearful goodbye. It was really hard to say goodbye to Mom and Bobby, and it was hard to see the end of such a wonderful trip home. Until next time!

Long weekend in London

For the month of June, Bobby is in London doing research at Queen Mary University. He was here last year for 2 1/2 months and I got to visit him many times. During those visits, I fell in love with London. It's a huge, vibrant, diverse city, and reminds me of all the things I love about Los Angeles. You can find really authentic ethnic foods, there's a fantastic music scene, the museums are plentiful (ok, this part doesn't remind me of LA so much), and the city has a long history with multiculturalism. Bobby is living on campus in faculty housing. In fact, he's in the same building he stayed in last year, except this year he has a great view of the Regent's Canal, which runs right behind the campus.

I flew out on a Wednesday night and went back to Copenhagen early Monday morning, so we had a nice long weekend together. On Thursday night, we went to the English National Opera to see a new opera by Philip Glass. The opera 'The Perfect American' is about Walt Disney's final months and explores the differences between the public's perception of Walt Disney (an image that was cleverly crafted by Disney himself) and something of a more truthful account (he's racist, sexist, and very anti-union). It was a pretty good opera and it was lovely to have the chance to see it.

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the London Natural History Museum. This museum is huge and has a giant collection of seemingly everything! Especially interesting is the collection of dinosaur fossils. We got to see fossils from numerous dinosaurs, including this T. Rex.

We of course had to pay tribute to our main man, Charles Darwin. Did you know Darwin is on the 10 pound banknote? In America, we can't even agree on teaching evolution in elementary schools!

Ok, enough politics, on to something we can all agree on... delicious food. On Friday night, Bobby and I went to a tapas restaurant recommended by one of Bobby's colleagues. Located in Soho, Fino is a great place. We ordered 5 or 6 different plates plus a really good bottle of white wine from the Spanish northwest region of Ribeiro. I really hope this bottle, The Flower and the Bee, is sold in Denmark! Aside from the wine, the food was also lovely. We had some fried artichokes, served with a saffron aioli.

We also had a great cuttlefish and squid dish, served in its own ink.

The duck was quite tasty as well. Bobby says it tasted like French toast, and he was absolutely right! It may sound weird, but it was actually a nice flavor: custardy, mapley, and rich.

We also ordered the pork belly, which was outstanding. For dessert, we order a cheese plate, which included 4 different English cheeses and a dried fig compote.

Our 8th wedding anniversary is coming up. Unfortunately, we won't be together on the 25th this year, so Bobby decided that for 2013, our anniversary fell on the 16th. And what do you know, we were together in London on the 16th! Bobby planned a really lovely day for us. We started with a visit to my favorite bakery/coffe shop, Violet Cakes. I ordered a chocolate cupcake with salted caramel icing (the icing was to die for) along with a pot of my favorite morning tea (Barry's Irish tea, which I fell in love with during our honeymoon in Ireland), and Bobby ordered a vanilla sponge cake with rhubarb along with a cup of coffee. After enjoying our desserts and caffeine, we headed to the movie theater to see the new Superman movie.

For dinner, we headed to the restaurant The Corner Room. This restaurant is located inside the Town Hall hotel, which is only about a mile away from Bobby's apartment. The hotel itself is pretty awesome: really funky interior and interesting art. The restaurant is quite small; it holds maybe 20 people. It doesn't accept reservations for dinner, but we were fortunate enough to go on a quiet night and got a table right away. We each ordered a starter, main, and dessert. This picture is of Bobby's starter: beef heart with buttermilk whey and celeriac. The beef heart was quite tasty: it was more like a steak than offal.

I ordered the purple sprouting broccoli and garlic tea with stracciatella. Yummy!

For the main, I ordered the aged beef with ash, egg, and radishes.

While Bobby ordered the Iberico pork with clams and yeast. Both dishes were really delicious, but I thought Bobby's was the better of the two.

For dessert, Bobby ordered a rhubarb dish (Bobby loves rhubarb, as you might tell from his choosing this dessert and the rhubarb treat he had earlier that day at the bakery). We can't quite remember what flavor the sorbet was, but it was good. Some of the rhubarb was smoked, which gave it a really interesting flavor. We both quite liked it.

I didn't want Bobby to feel left out ordering a dessert based around a vegetable (yep, rhubarb is a vegetable), so I ordered the squash and maple dessert. This was also quite tasty. I've never had squash as a dessert before, but now I can see how its natural sweetness really lends itself to a non-savory preparation.
All in all, it was a wonderful time. We got to do some of my favorite things: be in a foreign city, visit museums, attend a classical music performance, go to the movies, eat and drink well, and (most importantly) spend time with each other. Happy 8 years of wedded bliss, Bobby!

Catching up on our local vegetable bag

It's been a while since I've made an update on the bag of local organic vegetables I get. As you can see from this bag, which I received in early April, the winter growing season lasts pretty long in Denmark. Leeks, beets, carrots, parsnips, potatoes (always potatoes), red onions, and mushrooms were not exactly the most exciting things to have after months (7 of them!) of winter. But the spaghetti squash was fun (and honestly, Bobby and I never complain about beets). For the spaghetti squash, I made a gratin, which was quite tasty but ugly as sin!

This bag from late April was a bit more exciting, with some fresh endives and two cucumbers! It also included carrots, beets, celeriac/celery root, leeks, potatoes (always, always potatoes), and parsley. I made a version of this salad with the endives, except I replaced the blue cheese with soft goat cheese. It was quite yummy! The parsley is still on my window sill, enjoying the sun.

And now we have last week's stash! Finally, spring has arrived in Denmark, just in time to be replaced by summer. We have some potatoes (always, always, always potatoes), new spring leeks (which are closer in size to scallions/green onions than the larger winter leeks), a cucumber, asparagus (the first asparagus of the season!), mizuna salad, and rhubarb! Now things are starting to get interesting.

I found this brilliant recipe on Food52: pickled rhubarb, asparagus, and goat cheese salad! As you can see, I replaced the white asparagus called for in the recipe with the green asparagus I received in my bag, and I used half butter lettuce and half mizuna salad. This was a seriously good salad. And pickled rhubarb? Deliciously awesome.

I used the potatoes to make my first batch of roasted garlic and goat cheese mashed potatoes. I have fallen in love with these and can't believe that I've lived 29 years without having made these. All I did was roast a whole bulb of garlic in the oven, then added all the garlic along with some soft and mild goat cheese to boiled potatoes. A little milk, butter, and some salt, plus some mashing, and you've got deliciousness.

I used the spring leeks in this Singaporean slow cooker pork roast. This recipe is quite simple and very delicious, and we used the meat to feed us in a variety of ways and for several days. You can find the recipe here. Note that I didn't add the almonds, and next time I make this, I will add carrots and pearl onions to the slow cooker. I would also reduce the soy sauce to 1/2 cup and use 1/2 cup stock.

I didn't use all of the rhubarb for the pickled rhubarb salad. In fact, I had so much rhubarb that I was able to make two desserts! I made this rhubarb and strawberry pie for Bobby's return from Athens. Something about the way to a man's heart is through his stomach...   :)

This dessert was more for me than Bobby since it features lavender. Inspired by this recipe, I made lavender biscuits (I used half rye flour and half white flour), and made a vanilla, strawberry, and rhubarb compote with the remaining rhubarb. Accompanied by some crème fraîche, this was a lovely dessert. Even Bobby, who claims to not like eating lavender, enjoyed it!

I also used my birthday gift from Bobby for the first time this week! Bobby bought me a beautiful pressure cooker. I'll be honest: I was a bit afraid of using it at first. I read the owner's manual (yep, my pots and pans have owner's manuels) and learned about the many ways I could burn myself (and I burn myself fairly frequently). However, new pressure cookers are a distant relative of the old models, which could easy blow up from too much pressure. In fact, my new toy served me quite well. I cooked dried beans, which I hadn't pre-soaked. Instead of taking 3+ hours in a regular pot, the pressure cooked cooked the beans in 30 minutes! And at the lowest stove setting! Talk about saving time and energy. I am going to make another pressure cooker meal tonight: I'm going to try to steam artichokes in it, and then I will try to make risotto, a dish with which I've never had much success.

Bobby is home for a bit between his Athens trip and his upcoming London trip. Athens has made quite the impression on Bobby, with frappes making the biggest impact. So Bobby has learned how to make frappes at home, and we even have the proper glasses for them! All the more reason for you, our dear reader, to visit us.

A visit from a friend and a trip to a castle

When I returned from Athens, I was lucky enough to come home to a visit from a USC friend. Mary was finishing her bachelor in flute while I was doing my master's, and she has since gone on to complete her own master's and now a doctorate in flute performance! Mary was actually the first flutist I heard play at USC: during our first masterclass, she played a perfect version of the Firebird orchestral excerpt. I remember Bobby turning to me and saying, 'Wow, is she a doctoral student or something?' To which I replied with a horrified look on my face, 'Oh gods, no, she's an undergrad!' With that one minute of playing, I knew not only that Mary was an exceptionally talented musician, but that I was going to experience an amazing level of playing during my time at USC.

Mary and I had a lot of fun during her visit. We ate, drank, and caught up. We also did some sightseeing together! One of the best parts about having guests in town is that you get to be a tourist in your own city. On a beautiful Saturday, we took the train to Frederiksborg Slot, a really beautiful 16th century palace just 30 minutes outside of Copenhagen.

Built for King Frederik II in 1560, the palace you see now was actually completed in 1620 under Christian IV. It was lived in by only three kings: King Frederik II (king from 1559-1588), King Christian IV (king from 1588-1648), and King Frederik VII (king from 1848-1863). The palace was where kings were anointed in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

The palace is the largest Renaissance palace in Scandinavia, and is often referred to as the Versailles of Scandinavia. The palace is now a museum of national history.

The palace chapel is very ornate and is still used as a church. In fact, the day we visited, a wedding took place inside the chapel.

The palace chapel is also the home of the Knight's Chapel for the Order of the Elephant and the Order of the Dannebrog, an honor it has held since 1693. The walls of the chapel are covered in these various coats of arms. There are so many, in fact, that the older ones have been moved to the stairwells!

The two different orders: Order of the Elephant and Order of the Dannebrog. They have been awarded to many people, both noble and common, and both Danish and foreign. The Order of the Dannebrog is awarded for meritorious civil or military service, for a particular contribution to the arts, sciences or business life, or for those working for Danish interests. The Order of the Elephant is the highest orders in Denmark, and is headed by the Danish monarch (currently Queen Magrethe). Worn by the royal family, the order may also be bestowed on foreign heads of state. In very exceptional circumstances the order may also be bestowed on a commoner. The most recent holder of the order who was neither a current or former head of state nor royal was Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, a leading industrialist (he created the largest shipping company in the world) and philanthropist. As you can see in this photo, Dwight Eisenhower was awarded the Order of the Elephant.

The palace is surrounded by a lake, which acts as a natural moat. Just outside of the lake/moat are beautiful gardens. There were hundreds of these Kaiserkrone (Kaiser's crown) flowers.

The garden is a formal garden in the Baroque style. You can see a bit of the shaped hedges in the background of this photo.

There were also huge tulips all around. Mary and I really lucked out on the weather; ever since this day, it's been mostly cloudy, a bit chilly, and rainy! Good ol' Danish weather...