Cooking in Denmark!

So on Thursday I accidentally overslept by an hour (I did actually wake up, there's evidence in a illegible text to Frankie, but I must have fallen back asleep) and would have been unacceptably late to my first class. My second class had been cancelled and with my third class of the day not being until 3, I decided to sleep in till 10. When I woke up at 10, I had an email that my third class had been cancelled! Great day. So I got inspired to bake/cook dinner. I chose to make a very American dish, and a personal favorite- macaroni and cheese. I went with a Martha Stewart recipe (also very American), but choosing a recipe was just the start. I also made the New York Times recipe for the best chocolate chip cookie.
First I had to halve the recipe. Then, I had to convert everything to the metric measurements... which was just a hassle. And then I had to translate everything into Danish. And then I had to check for the ingredients. At least two hours had passed until I was ready to go to the grocery store!
I biked to the grocery store, which is right down the main road, which I was pretty proud of. I'm also very proud of myself for finding all of my ingredients and only needing to ask for help once! I discovered chocolate chips are apparently not a thing here and so I ended up buying lots of bars of chocolate. I also solved the mystery of the existence of baking soda in Denmark. Then, I biked to a cheese shop right next to the train station (because I couldn't find parmesan or gruyere cheese at the grocery store). And I'm very proud to say I managed to buy those cheese in the (relatively) right amount from the nice old man who didn't speak any English!
I spent the rest of the afternoon asking my host sister Cecilie where various things were in the kitchen and made my cookie dough. Then it chilled for 24 hours. Next I baked the macaroni and cheese (half on the stove, half in the oven) and despite how nervous I was about it.. it was a success! Very cheesy and fattening and American. Not Kraft or Annie's but pretty good. I don't think my host family was very familiar with mac and cheese but they seemed to like it! As a side dish I wanted to do a parmesan roasted asparagus or green beans.. neither of which I could find at the grocery store. So I grabbed some zucchini instead... only to realize I actually grabbed cucumbers (they look very similar!). But no worries, they tasted good as well.
On Friday I baked the NY Times cookies and they were also a moderate success. They came out thinner than i would have liked, but I'm chalking that up to the difference in ingredients and probably some math errors on my part. What matters is that everyone likes them!

In other news, lately I:
- Went to see the Dans2Go ballet program at the Royal Danish Theater (and am seeing it again with a different class this week!)
- Got a lovely package from my family containing the essentials... tissues, contacts, peanut butter, and Reeses
- Managed to survive a week by myself while my host family skiied in Austria
- Skyped the Villanova career center in an attempt to start looking at internships for next fall
- Emailed/Skyped potential new Tyler Place employees to answer their questions
- Successfully (I think) taught Charlie, the 7th grade boy I'm tutoring, how to solve for a variable
- Went dumpster diving and worked with an asylum seeker from Afghanistan on a photo essay to be published in a magazine in Copenhagen
- Made friends with Bertram, that cat who never likes foreigners (I was the only one feeding him so I'm not sure he had a choice)
- Booked my flights to London, Milan (almost), and Scotland
- Most exciting...
FRANKIE BOOKED HIS FLIGHT TO COME VISIT :D

Here are some baking pictures, and more new ones will be on Facebook soon!

Love,
Colleen