food fit for a king, or at least a prince

dragholm slot courtyard

 we went to dinner last evening at dragsholm slot, about an hour's drive from our house, to celebrate my birthday. i've been there 5-6 times for work-related workshops and have loved the place for a decade. the food was always great--the chef used to be french (i remember we once went for a tour de france themed dinner)--but i realized after last night's visit that now it's even better! they have definitely kicked things up a notch--embracing the nordic kitchen, using local ingredients and generally being inspired by the area.

we arrived just as it was getting dark, but i quickly snapped a picture of the courtyard area in the fading light. we went in and were welcomed and asked if we'd like to sit in the inviting leather chairs of the lobby and have a glass of champagne. we, of course, said yes. and they brought us not only champagne, but some fantastic little appetite wakers.

most interesting was the little baby carrot served in "dirt" which was made of finely chopped hazelnuts and almonds and really did look like rich potting soil. underneath was the most delectable veggie cream. the long stick is made of very danish rye bread (rugbrød) and was perfect for sweeping up all of the delicious vegetable cream, tho' i'll admit to a strong desire to actually lick the little flower pot clean. there were two other little bite-size yummies--a little round potato with more of the "dirt" on top and another which could make me revisit those ugly celery roots we get in our organic box from årstiderne--they brought out the best in the celery flavor and masked the most objectionable overpowering celeriness. most interesting of all was that the dish was inspired by the terarrium outside the main door (which i unfortunately failed to take a picture of). i love the notion of echoing one's surroundings in the kitchen.

then, we moved on to the restaurant, where we could settle in for our choice of 5 6 or 7 courses. we went for 5, since sabin had elected to hang out with our neighbors and we didn't want to have too late a night. before the first official course, they served a delicious foamed potato soup with a sprinkling of crispy chicken skin on top. there was also a basket of delicious muffin-sized breads--a dark one with malt and a light one. to go with those were a horseradish butter and a butter laced with more of the flavorful crispy chicken skin.

between the two of us, we tried all 7 of the available courses. we also ordered the suggested wine menu to go with. that consisted of wines carefully chosen to complement each course. since we were ordering different things, we decided that this was the best route to go. we were not disappointed. the courses were:

• salted scallops with peach pureé (from the castle's own peach tree), bread crumbs and forest herbs from the castle grounds. with this there was a 2006 riesling auslese trocken fass 12-08 from hof bechtermünz, in the rhine. (i'm not that keen on reisling, but this was a good one.)
• a summer salad (pearl-sized potatoes and radishes in a dressing) served with grilled mackerel. on the side were pickled pearl onions that complemented the fattiness of the mackerel perfectly. the wine with this course was a 2002 puligny-montrachet first cru la garenne from marques de mac mahon, burgundy. (a completely brilliant wine)
• "seabed" which consisted of king crab, crayfish, two kinds of fresh spring caviar, squid and pickled seaweed. on top was a seafoam that really tasted of the sea. served with this was another glass of the champagne--s.a. claude gazal's carte or grand cru blanc de blancs. this was beautifully served in a glass bowl with a glass bell over it, which was dramatically removed by the waiter.
• veal and sweetbreads with a "grandma dressing" consisting of creme fraiche, a bit of sugar, dill and horseradish and a few leaves of romaine. the veal had been slow-cooked at low temperature for 48 hours. the wine was a 2004 chateauneuf-du-pape la crau from domaine du vieux telegraphe in the rhone region. 
• local leeks with goat cheese, croutons and ramsløg, a wonderful wild mild garlic found this time of year. sprinkled over the top was a fanastic ash made of hay. the wine was a red from the rhine, a 2005 spätburgunder rubeus from j. koegler.
  

 there were two dessert choices:

• "moss"--a chocolate dessert with hawthorne, yogurt, lemon mint and another herb we weren't familiar with (havesyre). served with it was a  2007 neuburger/goldburger auslese from m. altenburger in burgenland.
• an apple dessert consisting of apple sorbet, some super light apple cake that was baked for "around" 45 seconds in the microwave and had a lovely sponge-like quality on a bed of honey and surrounded by various seeds. there was a  1999 pinot gris eiswein from andret josef to accompany this.

it was the kind of dinner that as a home cook who is interested in food and trying new things, you simply should have on a regular basis (i'm thinking quarterly). it was challenging to the palate, it was thought-provoking. there was an admirable focus on produce from the local area and with emphasis on the castle's own forests and fields where possible.  my favorites were the scallops (i adore raw scallops--they are my favorite sushi and these were raw) and the vegetarian main dish--the leeks. the ashes weren't overpowering while i ate the dish, but i could taste that smokiness in my mouth the whole way home.

husband liked the mackerel dish and the leeks best. i wasn't so fond of the mackerel, mostly because the summer salad that accompanied it was warm and that tasted wrong to me. mackerel is a strong fish and needs a very strong complement to go with it. i didn't really think the summer salad cut through the oiliness and smokiness of the fish enough. however, the puligny-montrachet that went with it was the most brilliant wine of the evening.

the "seabed" was an inspired dish and although it had foam on top and it's my opinion that foam was over already 2005 when we first began to see it, it was a very interesting dish. the entire area where the castle is located was once under the sea, so it was a homage to that geographical fact. that was challenging and interesting in a culinary sense.

i had the apple dish for dessert and wished a bit that the intense appley-ness had been tempered with another flavor--it was apple, apple, apple, calvados (which is really just more apple). and although the individual ingredients were interesting in and of themselves, they would have been served well with another flavor--perhaps mint or cinnamon.

in all, tho', it was a brilliant meal. interesting, challenging, intellectual even. it aspired to greatness and in many ways it achieved it. i feel like the experience reawakened my own cooking inspiration, which had gone a bit dormant in the face of too many root vegetables over the winter. i'm looking forward to the greens that spring has to offer and i feel inspired to take a walk in the forest to find some of the first leaves and bring them to the table. i also feel inspired by the notion of looking to my own surroundings for presentation...the carrot in a pot was both whimsical and delicious.

the only complaint i have about the evening is that it wasn't possible to have a little stroll around castle, so i had no chance to feel the deliciousness of a hint of a ghost in the air. that's apparently only reserved for guests who are staying at the castle, which seems more than a bit unfair when you've just paid a small fortune for dinner. finding that out after the meal very nearly soured the experience for me, but i managed to talk myself out of it (mostly by remembering how brilliant that puligny-montrachet was). despite that disappointment, it was a lovely, romantic evening with husband and a great way to spend my birthday. dragsholm slot may be a bit off the beaten path, but it's definitely worth the journey.

on being thirty-twelve*

looking at the year ahead and the year behind. i always feel like doing that on my birthday. i made a list last year of the things i wanted to do. i didn't publish it here because it felt a bit like some of the items were too frivolous and some were too serious. but i've referred to it off and on, just for myself. in a way it's a bit like the new year's resolutions that i don't really make, it's just at the beginning of a new year of the calendar of ME. i did some of the things and others, i wonder why i even put them there. but as i wrote last year, it somehow seems like the act of putting things down on paper is what matters. it helps you to envision how you want things to be. and that's surely a healthy thing to do.

this year, in the face of daily news of global economic crisis (GEC), i feel much more ready to pare down and live more simply. we really have all that we need, so there are no big purchase needs on the horizon (let's face it, i don't really NEED an 8,000DKK espresso machine). i want to be better at using all of the veggies that come in my weekly organic box. i want to eat less meat. i want us to use the car less. i'm not really ready to say we shouldn't have one at all, but we should park it more and use our bikes and the trains. (it's a bit easier to say that as the weather gets warmer and more spring-like). i don't need any more additions to my stash. i could craft for an entire year without buying anything at all and still have something left over. so, these are the things i'm going to work on during the year ahead . using what we have and not acquiring anything new. i think i'm really ready to do that this time.

*i don't really mind turning 42, so the thirty-twelve reference is just to be funny.

insecurities and haunted castles

i packaged up and sent off the very first order from my long-procrastinated etsy shop this morning. if i had realized exactly how motivating that act would be, i would have done it a long time ago (oh please, who am i kidding, i probably wouldn't have, i would have procrastinated it exactly as i did). it is a bit with trepidation that i did it, as all sorts of "am i good enough" thoughts swirl in my head. why do we do that to ourselves? is it the small town girl in me? is it a woman thing? is it because i went to grad school at the university of chicago where self-doubt comes complimentary with every degree? why is my head filled with the idea that i might not be worthy of having someone buy what i have created? do i have to go all stuart smalley here and repeat an "i'm good enough, i'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me" mantra? so i'm trying to fight those thoughts and focus on the feelings of inspiration and motivation i also feel from packing the things up and getting them ready to send. and new ideas are already popping into my head, some of which actually do not include eyeballs, believe it or not. :-)

* * *

a lazy weekend stretches ahead. sabin's downstairs finding carrots to give to silver star after her riding lesson. we made red velvet cupcakes last night and we'll take a couple of those for her instructor and the sweet little girl who helps out with the lessons. i'm wondering if the woman who looks like sarah palin  will be there today. i have a hard time not staring at her.  i sneaked this picture of her last time. isn't it uncanny? that's her daughter in the light pink sweater on the left. couldn't she probably pass for piper palin? poor family, i wonder if they know...

* * *

we're going to dinner this evening at my favorite little castle. it's called dragsholm slot. it's haunted and is totally one of my favorite places. it's been a couple of years since i was there and the last time, we kept the ghosts at bay by singing around a piano, or did we try to coax them out, i don't really remember anymore:

through the years, i've used it as a venue for workshops whenever i could. the food is great (the chef is french), the wine list top notch (which is why can't really recall if we were trying to attract or repel the ghosts above) and while it's a bit worn and slightly shabby, it's super charming and inviting, despite, or maybe because of, the ghosts. i hope we might run into them this evening. i'd love my last experience at 41 to be an other-worldly encounter.  i'll definitely be back with more stories and photos from there tomorrow.

i did it!

i'm on etsy! as a seller, not just a buyer. go and check it out!

i just listed my first five items, including the famous eyeball pillows.

no place like home

waiting for me when i got home yesterday were my beautiful wobblies from atelierBB. i was ordering a wedding present for my sister-in-law and couldn't resist a little something for us as well. i ordered these sweet little orange, yellow and red dessert plates.

and the green was a little surprise that brigitte included. how awesome is that? thank you brigitte!! and if you haven't yet checked out her work, do it here.

also waiting for me were the latest additions to my fast-growing collection of resurrection fern crocheted stones and merfish. the teal merfish was so lovely "swimming" in its packaging that i hated to take it out:

but take it out i did and it posed for several pictures with its old friends:

and how exquisite is the "missing pieces" covered stone? it's even prettier in person than i had imagined.

i you haven't visited margie's blog to see what she's working on next, you really must. it's a most inspiring place.  here's my entire collection of her beautiful stones:

and just now, the mailman brought me this beautiful little felted bowl that i ordered from artemis artemis in new zealand (on etsy of course). it's my very favorite colors and the perfect size to keep my rings in (even the big one):

also waiting for me was a wonderful REAL letter from my aunt mary. she wrote four pages, sending birthday greetings and telling me how she's getting along after my uncle jim died last fall. she's surrounded by her children, grandchildren and soon to be 18 great-grandchildren, all of whom live in south dakota except one of the grandchildren and his two(?) kids, so although it's hard to lose her best friend of nearly 70 years, she's getting along well. she sent along a really neat picture from 1946 of my dad and his brothers and the first of many nieces that they eventually had (i have 29 cousins!). that's dad on the left (he was the youngest of 9):

i love so much about this picture. the car behind them. the fact that they're all dressed up. that the baby is crying and clearly wanting to be handed back to her mama. such a lovely thing to get in the mail.

and speaking of  mailboxes, i'd better go work on those 50-follower prezzies i've promised and do a bit of work work since i'm now gainfully employed. happy weekend everyone.

an alternative sleeping beauty

do you remember the story of sleeping beauty? i thought i did, but i didn't remember that it contained a whole lot of whispers from backstage and impatient toes peeking under the curtain:

and i don't really remember an abraham lincoln character.

but it did begin to vaguely ring a bell when they brought out a king and a queen who desperately wanted a baby.

it got a bit hazy again when a frog came out and promised them a little princess. i don't really remember a frog.

but then some good fairies came and made lovely promises of a happy life for the baby princess.

but, of course, there had to be an evil fairy too and she said the princess would die, which didn't really seem so bad because it all rhymed.

luckily, the blue fairy hadn't yet made her promise to the little princess and she said she wouldn't die she would just sleep for 100 years. and so she grew up and did exactly that.

and tall vines (which spoke in rhyme) grew up around her.

and they were quite hilarious when the prince came and chopped them down.

and despite looking positively american gothic, the prince and princess lived happily ever after.

and wild fun was had by all...

and now it's time for some beauty sleep around here.

ships aren't just for boys

i can't stop with the mirror self-portraits. i think it's really about photographing the camera. and maybe a little about my obama won ring. it just looks so cool with the lens. also could be a little bit the long-hair mirrors. because i don't really have long hair, but i kinda always wished i did.

* * *

i am loving my new job. it's a company that doesn't just say that they're interested in being environmentally conscious. they put their money where their mouth is, as you can see from these electric cars out front. it says, in norwegian, "i'm working for the environment." how totally cool is that? and i LOVE that paint job! 

i spent my day looking into what the first issue of "my" magazine will contain. and there's so much innovation and environmentally cool stuff going on, even in and perhaps even because of economic downturn, that my mind is totally swirling with the possibilities. it seems that treating the environment well is economically sound business. even more exciting that some of the innovations are about LNG (liquid natural gas). you wouldn't necessarily know it to look at me, but i totally have a thing for LNG.  probably because i did my familiarization sailing trip here:

and because the inside of the cryogenic membrane tanks for storing the LNG while you sail around with it looks like this:

like a magical, mysterious cathedral. i sneaked this picture at the shipyard in korea. we stepped into the tank from a big hole in the hull. i wouldn't want to go down once it's all sealed up and in use, but it's amazing while they're still working on it. probably because it's all sparkly and i do love the sparkly things. and you thought ships were just for boys.