So today I'm starting English lessons with two thirteen year old girls who want to learn English so they can watch Desperate Housewives without subtitles. Besides that nothing else is new. I've had a pretty boring week so far. I'm going to Copenhagen tonight to check out a few student clubs I might join. A is in London this week so I wont see her in till Friday.


This is how my day went:

• I over slept until 9:00. I'm going to count this as a good thing.
• Because I overslept I took the dog for a walk while still in my PJams and a beanie. I looked like a hobo, no one let their dog play with us.
• I actually did my hair today instead of just putting it up. I'm not really sure what inspired this, except maybe the fact that no one would say 'hej'  to me in the forest today.
• I vacuumed the whole house.
• I watched one episode of a 90's after school special, Felicity (anyone else never heard of this before now??? oh man is it addicting) and one episode of Bones while I did the ironing.
• I made rice-crispy treats. Danish children don't know what they are. Because I was able to introduce them to something new and delicious and sugary as rice-crispy treats, I feel like I achieved something today.
• Now I'm going to go label in English all the things in Goose 2's room . I'm not sure if she'll be happy or annoyed at this....

Cinnamon Doughnut Bites

 Repeat after me. Nom nom nom nom nom.

But really. Nom nom nom.  My cousin A says that with all the amazing recipes I've been finding lately I'm going to give the kids diabetes.  This may actually be my evil plan, I'm not really sure; if it is I haven't thought it through.  But that's not really the point. The point is I've been staring at this  recipe I ran across, trying to find the best time to make it.  And that time ended up being today.

The plan actually was to make these Cinnamon rolls.  But  the problem is, the internet has been down.

When we realized the internet wasn't working, the world ended a  little bit, and 'mom' and I ran around like chickens with our heads cut off flipping switches on and off and trying to bring the outside world back. I'm actually writing this in OneNote because the internet is still down.  In another hour I think there's going to be a full blown panic.  So anyway, I didn't want to attempt the cinnamon rolls, which have yeast, without actually having a recipe and step by step pictures right in front of me. Instead, I thought I'd try my hand at some delish faux-doughnut holes. And oh my, did I make a good choice.

I didn't really have a recipe for these. Remember I've been stuck in the stone age? I did have a pretty good idea what they were all about. I mean, doughnuts are writen in my language.  I liked the idea they were baked, because that's way better for you than deep frying the crud out of something.  And also, Goose One told me how much he loves doughnuts, so it kind of seemed like a good idea to try these.

The original recipe called for shortening, which I'm not even sure how to find here. And on top of that I really dislike baking with shortening because its so bad for you. And it's gross. Its all like 'Hey I look like vanilla ice cream or maybe some yummy sour cream. Psyche. I'm lard'.  Long story short, there is no shortening in this. Which, honestly, after making them I can completely understand why the original recipe would call for it. Mine turned out a wee bit crumbly. Not in a bad way, mind you. I'm satisfied.  And you will be too.  Actually looking at the two recipes, they're very different. Mine uses a lot more butter. There is a lot of butter in mine. I'm not entirely sure if its actually better for you than it would be if you used some shortening. But whatever. Butter happens to be the foundation of the church I belong to. Yeah, and doughnuts sing in the choir.

All praise It.

Yeah I like butter.

Super Delicious Cinnamon Doughnut Hole Bites

1 1/2 cup rice cereal

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbs cinnamon

1/2 tbs vanilla (I used 1tbs a powered form of powered , extract would probs taste better)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

100grams butter (room temperature)

preheat over to 400 degrees F

There is something wrong with this picture. I did not use  milk for this. Yeah, I had definitely just done the shopping and left it out on the counter. My bad.

 

Crush your rice cereal into a semi coarse mixture. You can use a fork....but I found the mean tenderizer to be a lot quicker.  Then mix the flour, rice cereal, 1/2 tbs cinnamon, baking powder, and powdered vanilla (don't mix in if you're using extract).  In a separate bowl beat egg, room temperature butter, sugar, and the other 1/2 tbs cinnamon in a bowl in till creamy.  Slowly mix in dry indigence.

Roll dough into about 1 in balls.  Then dunk in a lovely bath of melted butter.  I didn't add the butter needed for this part to indigence list, because it can be done to taste or substituted for egg white depending on how strongly you feel about butter.  Then roll in sugar.  I used a sugar cinnamon mixture, which was part granulated white sugar, and part sugar in the raw, which is the closest I could find to brown sugar.  I suggest using a brown sugar granulated sugar mixture to roll in. Again this is not in the indigence list because it should be done to taste.  Goose One was really worried that these didn't look like doughnuts, and the idea of doughnut holes didn't really click at first.  I had him try the dough, he said they would be fine. I think that means I get a gold star.

When you've finished bathing your scrumptious dough balls in butter and sugar, flower the bottom of a casserole dish and place them in it a little bit apart. I could have fit more in this dish, but I wasn't sure how much they'd rise and expand in the oven.  Then place in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes.  After ten minutes take out and brush with egg white, then bake again until golden brown and glorious (or for about 3 more minutes).

When they finish baking and smell amazing, place in dish on a rack to cool.  When they cool enough to pull apart without crumbling, you can place on a rack and dust with powdered sugar (but only if you want).

Here are my lovely crumbly bites of deliciousness cooling with powdered sugar blessing them.

In case you were thinking about it, do NOT bake on a pan. This will  happen. This is sad face.

Kobayashi Maru, Mosquitoes, and Bicycle

So I've been snuggled up in my wee basement bedroom, drinking green tea and playing internet games (hello new favorite time waster ever.)  for the passed hour because I can't find anything to watch on TV. And also because I left my window open again and I've been swatting mosquitoes like a crazed warrior, battle cries and all.  But, after triumphantly destroying all of the bugs/ luring them into the basement by turning a light on, then shutting my door really fast, I was rewarded by turning back to the TV and seeing one of my FAVORITE movies starting. That's right. Captain Kirk. Spock. Lenard McCoy. All their glory. On. My. Television.

Which brings me to part of my musing tonight.

Things I Love About Denmark:

1.They play awesome movies on TV (case in point, Star Trek (okay, okay it is only the new one, but still!)). And they're not TBS playing the Mummy movies on repeat; or oh hey Pretty Woman is on O again. No good movies.  Yesterday Contact was on. With Jody Foster and her amazing 90's outfits! The day before, Bridget Jones Diary. And these amazing movies are often commercial free. Yeah it's a good life.

2. Nutella. Allllll day loooong.

3.Drinking in public.  Now, I understand, this is not a classy love. It's very trashy, to be clear. But lets just paint a picture with words here.  You're sitting in a bar, and you're bored of the people you're with, and you're ready to go home, but you have a perfectly good bottle of beer in front of you. What do you do? Get up, walk out (um, after paying of course) and walk home with your beer. Or say its a nice hot day out and you want to have a cool drink and go for a walk to the lake with some friends, who also want to do the same. So do it! Or perhaps you're walking around exploring the city, want to have a drink, but are enjoying the view of the harbor too much to go in doors and over pay for a pint; instead you stop at little store, pick up a bottle, and carry on. OR, and I promise this will be my last example: the world championship bike races are taking place in your neighborhood, so you're havin' a fun time with the neighbors, everyone is excited, and oh hey look someone is selling beer.....I feel like these examples are not terrible examples of why drinking in public (while not entirely classy) is awesome.

4.Bike riding is a sport. Ok, so most of Europe, South America, Asia, and probs Canada think this too. But the Danes love their bikes ( my bike has now been christened Tina!). And they ride them everywhere, all day, all night, in different states of intoxication and sobriety.  So it goes without saying that when the World Championship Bike Races come to town, like they did this weekend, it's kind of a big deal. Children here aspire to race bikes, much like our little tykes grow up wanting to be Tom Brady.  It's for realz. I don't get it, but they love it. And for that, I love them.  And Tina.




Anyway, I've got mosquitoes to slay. And you know, Star Trek is on so....i mean...we all know this wouldn't last long. Don't feel bad, not just any one can have Spock's pointy ears and lack of emotion. Theres just something about a man who doesn't cry.

Here's a little pic from the women's races yesterday.
As you can see part of team USA is in the middle there. This is not our best sport ever.
 I cheered really loud though, just to let them know I was totes there for them.