Celebratiing Midwinter

La Chandeleur, Candlemass, or as we say in Denmark Kyndelmisse or Kjørmes. One of my Facebook friends posted about the French tradition of eating crêpes on La Chandeleur, and I was planning to whip up some batter and bake some for dessert - but then I somehow came across an article about the tradition here on Funen - Eating heavy pancakes with æbleflæsk ('applebacon' is the best word I can think of).

A sucker for history and old traditions, of course I had to find a recipe and serve this dish for my family!

Thus, today's menu was pumpkin soup with creme fraiche, and kjørmespandekager med æbleflæsk.

Anna took over baking the pancakes, so I had plenty time to take a couple of photos, and see to the 'applebacon'.

I really like this dish - the pancake batter contains cinnamon, which complements the apples, and the acid and lard of the 'applebacon' balance each other nicely.

It is a heavy dish, though, better not served on a hot day - but on a winter's evening like today: Great!

If I had had a nice cold dark beer, it would have topped up the experience, but I shall just have to remember that for the next time!

Celebrating a Catholic Saint.

In Denmark, it is tradition to celebrate 'Mortensaften' (Eve of Saint Martin of Tours) on November 10th (we always celebrate on the evening before the actual day here, like Christmas Eve, Saint John's Eve (Midsummer), New Year's Eve, etc.) with a feast of bird.

Originally, the bird was a goose, as Martin of Tours is said to have hid in a goose pen to avoid being appointed Bishop of Tours, but the geese, startled by the monk coming into the pen, cackled and thus gave him away.

With households having shrunk to a mere 2-5 persons, though, most people these days feast on a roast duck instead, as it is a more manageable meal.

Here in Denmark, much winter's food (like pork roast, roast poultry, 'medister' sausage, etc.) is served with 'browned potatoes' which is small cooked and peeled potatoes covered in caramelized sugar on a hot pan, so, naturally, I have prepared some 'tatoes for todays supper, too.

Now I shall go for an eight kilometer walk with the dog to get my appetite up for tonight, before I put prepare the duck for the oven.

Then it is time for doing some tidying up in the house (we had a delayed Halloween party in the attic Saturday, and I had to remove some of my boxes from up there to make space for the kids - so now I have to make space for the boxes in the conservatory, which means sorting out the contents of some of the boxes already there, and see what I can ditch, and what I need to find storage room for)...

So, probably not much hobby time today, but I hope to be able to report some progress tomorrow!