Comments on: Dear Clusterflock

By: Cindy Scroggins

Cindy Scroggins — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:13:07 +0000

Risengrød. Wow, that sounds wonderful.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:12:04 +0000

Sød!

(ø made with option/o on US keyboard)

By: Rick Neece

Rick Neece — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:04:51 +0000

Oh, Lucy, call me Nick, it’s no biggie in my book.
Yes, I’ve had glogg (Pardon, I don’t know how to do “special” characters.)
Yes, I’ve had (and watched them prepared) ableskiver.
I’ve done “shooters” of akavit with the family.

Alas, the cherry sauce was not part of Danny’s family’s tradition, I’m bereft. It sounds delicious!

I’ve danced and sang around many a Christmas tree on these occasions, hardly able to wrap my mouth around “Nu har vi Jul igen” (Now, it is Christmas time!), being the one non-Dane, of questionable background, at all these celebrations. Still they love me!

Sweet!

By: Lucy

Lucy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:26:01 +0000

Piss. Rick, not Nick. Ew.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:24:12 +0000

Risengrød! Hurrah! The dish with the nut is called Ris a l’amande in Denmark, perhaps because they think they have to make something French sounding in order for it to be Really Good. It’s basically risengrød, but with the almond buried in it at Christmas, and as you say, it’s traditionally a fix on who gets the almond. And yeah, it can take bloody days to make properly. Oh and traditionally it’s served with a heated kirsebær (cherry) sauce. Deeply yum.

Have you been made gløgg and æbleskiver yet, Nick? They are also bigtime Danish Christmas treats. Gløgg is mulled wine with almonds and raisins in the bottom of the glass that you spoon out and eat. The raisins have been left to stew in akvavit for a few days, to soak up all the booze. The æbleskiver are a kind of doughnut (though Danes would hotly dispute the use of the word doughnut, or even donut, I am sure) that is served with hot jam and lots and lots of icing sugar. If you’ve ever had beignets at the Cafe du monde in NOLA, then it’s basically that with jam on the side. They eat that stuff for the whole month of December.

Oh and they dance around the Christmas tree, singing and holding hands. And Christmas day for the Danes is the 24th, the 25th is kind of an afterthought.

By: Rick Neece

Rick Neece — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:10:52 +0000

Cindy
Since you mention Christmas, we’ve spent many Christmases in Des Moines with Danny’s family. Tradition was for Christmas morning breakfast, Risengrod. A rice porridge made by boiling rice in milk for, oh, I don’t know, say, for 16 or 17 hours. The rice grains plump up to the size of ping-pong balls. A ladle of this is served in a bowl and you top it with what you want of the very things you list above for topping your oatmeal. It’s good eatin’. (Always, in one bowl, a nut is deftly placed, whomever gets the nut, gets an extra present. Traditionally, the nut gets found by one of the youngest at the table.)

Danny’s Mom and Dad are gone now, if we visit Dan’s sister in Rockford, where the family gathering now takes place, it’s still tradition there. If we’re home in KC, it’s tradition here, too, even if Christmas morning is just the two of us.

By: Phil Bebbington

Phil Bebbington — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:08:27 +0000

I always eat breakfast, always! I wake sick with hunger and the more I have eaten the night before the hungrier I am…wondering if I have worms? Generally it would be toast and coffee but if I have been drinking the night before…..Gin or Champagne then I will eat anything. I always find what I have eaten the previous evening strangely attractive.

But always breakfast…God, always.

It’s 10pm Pete and Dud time here and am beginning to feel hungry already damn you! Can I eat breakfast now?

By: India

India — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:21:57 +0000

Cindy, I think panettone is bread when you make French toast out of it; it’s cake when you have a slice, lightly toasted, with tea. It’s versatile like that. I use it in all the situations in which I might use pound cake, including making more structured desserts.

Party trick for the lazy: Slice a panettone crosswise into four or five round layers. Spread vanilla ice cream or gelato between the layers, reassemble, wrap in plastic, and freeze. Serve sliced vertically into wedges. People who don’t cook (which is most people, apparently) will think you are genius.

By: Cindy Scroggins

Cindy Scroggins — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:21:35 +0000

Lucy, panettone with mascarpone is the most wonderful thing in the world. We discovered it by accident. A dear friend of ours (who now lives in Oregon) used to bring us a home-baked panettone every Christmas morning. She’d deliver it on a pillow! She also made her own mascarpone for tiramisu, and she’d give us a jar of that as well during the Holidays. One year, we decided to put the two treats together and, oh my god, it’s wonderful. It’s become a Christmastime tradition for us.

India, I’ve always thought of panettone as bread rather than cake. But, as I happily to defer to you on all things cake, I will henceforth categorize it as such.

By: Amanda Mae Meyncke

Amanda Mae Meyncke — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:08:06 +0000

I made buttermilk pancakes today with fresh handwhipped cream adn brown cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. Best pancakes I’ve had all day.