Delicious Danish Dinner

Last night I attended a Danish cooking class that I signed up for through DIS. It is actually a series of 5 classes, but I only signed up for one. Last night was so fun though that I wish I would have done more!

The class started at 6:30pm, and there were 13 of us students. The class was led by a Danish woman named Lene, who used to teach Home Economics to sixth graders, but then she went on a 3 month skiing vacation and realized that was a lot more fun then teaching. So she quit her job as a teacher… which is interesting I guess. Anyway, she was super nice, and she had this awesome menu planned for us!

We divided into 3 groups of 4 or 5 people, and each group had to cook every dish for themselves, except the meatballs which we all shared. Here was the menu:

Chicken meatballs with zucchini

Traditional Danish meatballs (aka Frikadeller)

Gravy (made with potato water!)

Potatoes and root vegetables cooked in the oven

White cabbage salad with ginger dressing

Strawberry Stew (aka the hardest Danish word to pronounce in the world… Rødgrød med fløde)

I helped make the Frikadeller, which tasted great when cooked, but was absolutely disgusting to prepare! I had to mix 300 grams minced pork, 1 cubed red onion, 1 egg, a splash of milk, flour, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper. I beat everything together, then we shaped them into little meatballs and fried them for about 20 minutes in smør (butter).

 

The meatballs weren’t in a sauce like we would normally think of in the US, instead we put a gravy over them. The gravy had 20 grams of butter, 2 Tbs flour, 3-4 deciliters of water from the boiled potatoes, salt, pepper, and this super weird thing called kulør (since there is no meat base in the gravy, this adds the brown color… kinda gross).

         

The veggies were actually my groups favorite part of the whole meal. It was just carrots, beet root, 2 cloves garlic, oil, and salt baked for 30 minutes in the oven. We put a yummy dressing on top of the veggies that was sour cream, parsley, and herb salt.

This is my group getting ready to eat! Dinner was good, but the strawberry dessert we made was the best!

It’s a popular Danish dessert, and it is super easy to make. We added strawberries to a pot with some water and boiled them for 4-5 minutes. Then we added sugar to taste. On the side, we mixed some water with potato flour and added it to the boiling strawberries. Right after adding the mixture, we removed the pot from the heat, put the strawberry stew in a bowl, sprinkled with sugar, and placed it in the fridge. It is traditionally served with cream on top, but my teacher says cream is too fattening so we used skim milk :)

YUM! It was such a fun way to spend a Monday night!

Tomorrow I have two study tours, one to a Muslim private school and one to Rosenborg Castle. I will be back with updates soon!

Bye for now,

Emily

One Month Down!

Once again… another busy week! Last Sunday, I met up with Gabi to explore  Christianshavn, which is an artificial island that was created by Christian IV as a fortification for Copenhagen. After it was built, no one wanted to live there because it was marshy and gross, so Christian IV made a deal that people who moved there wouldn’t have to pay taxes for 12 years. At first, it was it’s own merchant town, but now it is just another neighborhood that is part of the large city of Copenhagen. It is also one of the most affluent neighborhoods to live in.

The picture below is of the Royal Danish Playhouse, and you cannot really tell from the picture, but it is right on the water. I really want to go there once it is warmer out to hang out on the terrace! I really miss warm weather… it pretty much is always around 32 degrees here.

This is Amalienborg Palace where the Queen lives.

Below is the Opera House. I wish it was in English… I feel like a Danish opera may really bore me. It would probably be more about the experience than the actual storyline though. I’m hoping to get tickets to either the ballet or the opera while I am here!

Then we were cold, so of course we went for coffee and pastries :) I got one of the special pastries that they only sell in February for Fastelavn. I am actually going to a Fastelavn celebration that DIS is having next Sunday, and here is the description DIS gives:

“Fastelavn is the Danish name for the Lent Carnival, which falls on either the Sunday or Monday before Ash Wednesday. Fastelavn was originally a medieval celebration of the days before Lent, but today it has turned into the Danish Halloween, with children dressing up in costumes and collecting sweets and treats. The holiday is generally considered to be a time for fun and family games. In olden times, the traditional celebration consisted of a cat being put on a barrel and beaten to death as a symbol of man slaying the devil. But in modern times, Danes fill the barrel with candy. Much more humane!”

This is what the pastry looks like. Mine had pineapple in the middle, but they make them with lots of different fruit fillings.

Monday was Valentine’s Day, so Gabi and I decided to celebrate being single by getting some hot chocolate at a café in the city. We were surrounded by couples… awesome.

Then on Tuesday I finally broke down and bought a gym membership. I thought once my mom sent my running tights that I would be able to run outside all of the time like the Danes do, but I am a bigger wuss than I thought. Plus the locker room is like being in a spa, and the showers are amazing compared to the tiny closet/bathroom I have in my apartment… that was one of main selling points haha. Plus, I need to start working off those pastries!

Tuesday night we went to the city, and we were going to go dancing at this club that had free entrance and free beer from like 9pm-midnight, but when we got there the line was around the block! It was seriously ridiculous. We waited in line for like 20 minutes, then we realized it hadn’t moved an inch. We ended up going to another bar, Happy Pig, which ended up getting really crowded because people had the same idea we did. Thankfully we decided much sooner than everyone else and got great seats at the bar! A couple of our friends actually waited 1.5 hours in line to get into that one club, and they said it was way too crowded and it took forever to get the free beer. Yep, I could have told them that. We ended up having a lot of fun that night!

Wednesday I did some homework, went to the gym, and fell asleep really early because I had no class and no field studies. It was nice. I kept thinking it was Sunday!

On Thursday, Gabi’s friend from home, Abby, came to visit. We had plans to buy half price tickets to the ballet, but it was already sold out when we got to the box office. Instead we went to a restaurant for dinner, and once again, I went home and fell asleep super early.

Friday was super fun! Gabi’s host family is on vacation this week, so they said she could have some friends over if she wanted. Gabi, Abby, and I all went over to her house which is about an hour commute from the city to make dinner. But first, we made brownies from the mix my parents sent me! They don’t have American measuring cups here though, so I just had to estimate how much oil and water to put in. They ended up tasting good though!

Gabi’s family’s cat is so much cuter than mine, and it’s HUGE!

For our actual dinner, we made stir fry. YUM!

Then we went back to the same club we went to last Saturday night to DANCE! It was so fun. Oh, and on the bus on the way into the city, we saw this CRAZY carriage:

It was metallic gold, which went right along with the mom’s silver metallic boots. I could not believe I was seeing this in Denmark… land of boring black and earth tones.

After dancing, we stopped at a pølsevogn, which is the main street food in Denmark. Basically it’s a hot dog stand that has a ton of different hot dogs to choose from, and they have weird toppings. Also, a lot of times people get the without bread or bacon wrapped! They don’t serve them in the bun like we do… you get the sausage, the bun, and the ketchup and mustard on the side. Super weird!!! I assembled mine like an American though. Thanks to Gabi for capturing this beautiful picture.

These hot dog stands are literally everywhere.

On Saturday, we wanted to show Abby around Copenhagen. First, we went to the Botanical Gardens, which were amazing because it was sooooo warm in the green houses! We felt like we were in a rainforest! There are a bunch of trails and stuff around the green houses too, which I am sure is beautiful in spring and summer. We decided we are definitely coming back when it is nice out!

It was extremely humid in the green house, so my camera lens kept fogging up. That’s why the pictures are blurry.

There was a staircase inside, so you could climb up to a little terrace that circled around the top of the main green house.

Then we walked over to Nyhavn, which is the area everyone thinks of when they think of Copenhagen. If you Google image search Copenhagen, pretty much all of the pictures will be of the colorful houses in this area. I can’t wait to go here when it is warm out! Everyone sits outside on the water and just relaxes. Sounds amazing.

We were planning on going to the Carlsberg Brewery today, but we were all tired from last night, and most of the tour is outside apparently. Therefore, we all decided it would be best to go in April or May when it is warm out and we can actually enjoy being there. Now I have a bunch of homework that needs to be done, and I think the pancake mix my parents sent me is calling my name! Unfortunately, I have two big papers for two of my classes that are due right in a row, and the outlines for them are both due this week! YIKES! I need to get researching! I sometimes forget that I am in school and not on vacation. I also have a Danish Language quiz this week… uh oh. I probably should have been using Google Translate less and my brain more!

Off to study, study, study!

Hej Hej!

Emily

A Long Week

This week was long, fun, busy, but great! Unfortunately, I didn’t really take many pictures to document it, but I will recap the highlights.

Monday: I don’t remember. I went to class (Public Health and Danish Language), and that’s pretty much it. I also got my package from Grandma and Bobbi, so that was much more exciting than class anyway. I am honestly enjoying all of my classes. DIS warned us a million times that we shouldn’t expect the teaching to be like the teaching styles at our home universities, but I really haven’t been able to tell a difference from the (non-lecture) classes I take at Iowa. We all sit there while the professor talks, and we have discussions. Maybe DIS thinks that students never talk in classes in the US and that we are just lectured at by professors? That maybe true for some classes, but definitely not most.

DIS does have a lot of group work though, which is something I am not used to in college. For my Public Health class, we are in groups of 5 and paired up with a health institution in Denmark for a research project. My group is paired up with the Serum Institute, which is basically like the Center for Disease Control in America. We are working with a woman in the Epidemiology department, and she helped us come up with our topic of HPV Vaccinations. She is from the Netherlands and told us that the rate of vaccinations for girls in the Netherlands was only like 30%, but in Denmark, it was much, much higher. Therefore, we are going to look at why that is the case, and we are also going to research the United States as well. I’m pretty excited for the project!

My Danish language class is a blast. Our teacher is so nice and awesome. Tomorrow is one of the girl’s fødselsdag (birthday), so our teacher is bringing in pastries. YES! I am actually starting to pick up on some Danish, which I thought would never happen. The words do NOT look like they sound, at all. I sort of miss Spanish haha. At least I will be able to use it when I go to Spain in April!

Tuesday: I had my Health Economics and Policy class and Muslims in the West. In Health Economics we went over how to write an analytical research paper, and my teacher actually asked us before class, “Have you guys ever written a paper like this before?” Are you kidding me?!?! Yes, we write papers in America, that is not something special in Denmark. We are all in college. It is what we have been doing for the past 2 years.

Gabi and I booked our trip for our break in April in the afternoon on Tuesday. We are officially taking an overnight train to Amsterdam on Friday night, spending a few days there, taking another train to France for a few days, then flying to Barcelona (we got that flight for like $40!). After Barcelona, I will travel back to Copenhagen for Czech Trek and Prague!

Tuesday night we went to a Handball game (match?). It was super fun, even though the team we were rooting for lost. These are Gabi’s pictures because I didn’t have my camera.

I would say handball is a cross between basketball and soccer. The players are a lot more rough than in basketball though! I swear someone was getting hurt every 3 minutes… and the funniest/best thing was that every time someone was hurt on the ground, they would start playing dance music! Gabi and I got a kick out of it. In the US, everyone is like silent when someone is hurt, but in Denmark, they just dance.

Wednesday: I had a field study for my Economics class at Parliament. We got a tour of the building and talked to a guy about healthcare politics. It was alright. That night we had a “mandatory” seminar for my Economics class. Two professors from Copenhagen University came to talk about Health Economics, but I was super hungry/tired/bored for the whole thing and there were cheese, crackers, and fruit sitting in the back of the room that they wouldn’t let us eat until the presentation was done. Needless to say, I was really mad that they didn’t take attendance.

Thursday: I had class, and that’s all I remember. Nothing eventful.

Friday: I had class in the morning, then I came home and decided to go on a run because there was a break in the rain. Of course I run 1.5 miles away from home when it starts pelting little ice flurries from the sky. Ouch. I made it home in one piece though. Then I we went out to a bar that night, Gabi thought she lost her transportation pass (about a $350 piece of paper), so we were searching around for about an hour for that while Gabi was freaking out. We finally gave up and decided to go home, and after I walked in the door, Gabi called me, “I found my pass! It was in a weird pocket in my purse.” We are never going to let her live that one down!

Apparently I did take some pictures that night… not great ones, but it breaks up all of my writing. And I want to embarrass Gabi and Tim.

Saturday: I woke up WAY too early to go shopping with Gabi, and I was basically a zombie the entire time. Then I came home and slept for a couple hours, and Gabi came over to my apartment to make dinner. I meant to take pictures, but with all of the cooking, talking, laughing, (wine drinking…), I forgot. We made penne pasta with chicken, bell peppers and onion in a red sauce and had it with this delish tomato bread that we dipped in olive oil… my fave! We also made the Oreo Cheesecake my parents sent me!!! SO GOOD! Then we went to the city to DANCE! We went to a place called Kolør Bar, which was so sketchy outside that we almost didn’t go in, but it took us forever to walk there so we went in anyway. It ended up being so much fun, and we danced with Danish boys for hours! My feet are killing me this morning! I love dancing though, so it was definitely worth it.

Today I should do some homework, which is extremely hard to do when you’re in Copenhagen!

I’ll work on taking more pictures this week. My camera will be with me wherever I go, promise!

Adios,

Emily

Love from Home!

YAY! I got a care package from Grandma and Aunt Bobbi today! I was smiling the whole way from school back home while carrying this huge package. Danes don’t usually walking around with a grin on their face, so I probably looked pretty silly :)

I opened the second I got home, and was super happy to see that I can catch up on all of my celebrity gossip since I can’t watch The Soup every Saturday morning now.

I also got this pillow, which is perfect because I miss Timmy and Cody, my cute little puppies, so much! Every time I see people walking their dogs I stare longingly at them. They probably think I am going to try to steal their dogs or something haha. Instead of dogs, I live with these two cats…

Unfortunately, they just don’t cut it.

Moving on… I also got TONS OF FOOD! This is great because I pretty much eat the same thing everyday. At least now I am adding another food group… candy!

And these extremely delicious cookies!

I don’t think I waited more than 1 second to eat one after seeing them in the package.

Yes, I smile when I eat cookies.

Here is all of my loot! Granola bars (hardly anyone eats them here), coffee, mac ‘n’ cheese, bagels, and of course everything else I said earlier.

Thanks again Bobbi and Grandma! You are the best :)

Now I have to go to the Kommune to register with the city and get my CPR number. In Denmark, everyone has to have a CPR number, and it ties them to everything about their lives: bank accounts, books they’ve checked out, fines, tickets, taxes, healthcare… everything. They really trust their government here, something I don’t think would fly in the United States. Different cultures, different histories.

Goodbye,

Emily