Sarah Carlson on the Roof

At home. With Heston Blumenthal. Cooking shrimp cocktails.

2012-01-29T07:30:00.000-08:00

It snowed last night and although most of if was gone within a second, there was a little left on the rooftops when I looked out the window this morning. Snow makes me ridiculously happy, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we'll get more of it soon.

Also in weekend news: Johan (of London) gave me a gorgeous cookbook for Christmas. It's by Heston Blumenthal (of Fat Duck fame), and tonight we're cooking two of his lamb recipes. I've had a gigantic leg of lamb lying in the freezer for months now after buying half a lamb from a guy at work who raises them in his spare time - how's that for local? Speaking of which, have you seen the Portlandia "Is it local" skit? Funny stuff.

On a somewhat related note, I felt I had to show you an image of Heston Blumenthal's shrimp cocktail, prepared with the precision of a watchmaker, of course. Johan (of this house) found it kind of hilarious that it's the chef's secret, guilty pleasure. But it's often like that, isn't it? Fancy chefs digging simple things like duck liver on toast or something, and then they have the rest of us break our necks cooking consommés and rillettes and the like.

so, you think you know 'cute'?

2012-01-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

This just in from the woman of London Clay, whose beautiful tumblr you should definitely check out if you're into over-the-top veggie porn (now, who isn't?) and awesome combos like beans and cats.

archetype

2012-01-26T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've started taking yoga classes and making fruit smoothies in the morning with things like mint in them. I'll keep you posted on when my new found California lifestyle has fizzled out of my Copenhagen reality. I'm guessing March at the very latest.

my mom's house. in Sweden. before the extra 30 cm. of snow fell:O)

2012-01-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry if I creeped you out

2012-01-22T12:35:00.000-08:00

Just now I realize I posted the wrong video of the baby owl being petted. There was some kind of nasty voice over dude who sounded like the nastiest of pervy breathers. Anyway, I didn't mean to. Just wanted to show you the cute owl. All should be better now.

Could I have some more weekend, please?

2012-01-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

Those little pastries are called Napoleon's Hats and I really think you should give 'em a go. Here's a simple recipe in Danish and here's one in Anglais. Good luck:O)

I need a baby owl. pronto.

2012-01-22T05:16:00.001-08:00

Update: I put up a new video as I didn't realize the sound to the other one was so creepy! My apologies folks.

We're going to Tokyo for Easter! Johan will stand out for being tall, me for being a redhead with a funny voice! Perhaps we'll eat toxic fish and live squid! We'll get into Japanese bondage! It will be so much fun!

2012-01-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it?! We bought tickets while we were in NY (which felt very decadent somehow - you know, buying tickets while already on vacation), but we simply had to, because they were real cheap, for a direct flight and everything. I'm insanely excited and am planning on making a detailed day-to-day travel plan just because. So, dear readers, if you have some tips to share, it will be greatly appreciated by yours truly:O)

Guilty: We ate a mighty serving of arty junk food. And we kind of enjoyed it.

2012-01-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

Johan, Matteo and I went to see the Carsten Höller exhibition at The New Museum. It was aptly called Experience, and by George did we get up close and personal with the art work. Among other things we got to ride a mirror carrousel, slide down a three story slide (which looks quite amazing installed at the Tate), wear upside-down goggles, and - had we only been patient enough to wait in line - get stark naked and into a swimming pool.

It was good fun, but was it good art? I'm not quite sure, and at the same time I'm too lazy to find out what I really think. Instead I'll leave the thinking bit to Jerry Saltz who wrote a commentary on "Museums as Playgrounds" in New York Magazine, accusing a show like Höller's for serving up a non-nutritive dish of watered down Relational Aesthetics:

"J’accuse museums of bullshit! Of bogusly turning themselves into smash-hit consumer circuses, box-office sensations of voyeurism and hipster showbiz. This year, the institution-critiquing art known as Relational Aesthetics—essentially audience-participation art, often work that moves, lights up, or involves living nude beings—entered its decadent phase....Right now in New York, there’s the New Museum’s Carsten Höller fun-fair of rides, slides, and flotation tank, most of it restagings of past amusements. The show packs the house; viewers feel pleased with themselves for “getting it”; nothing provides much in terms of form, social commentary, or the willful transformation of materials. It’s arty junk food".

tv dinner

2012-01-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

I made Johan a cook book for Christmas and filled it with a bunch of yummy dishes I think he should cook me in 2012. (Each recipe was ruthlessly stolen from mouthwatering food blogs around the web, by the by, in case you feel like snitching my idea:O). Anyway, tonight he broke it in and cooked a basil tomato soup with grilled Gruyère sandwiches on the side.

I need this dog

2012-01-14T06:33:00.001-08:00

home cooked

2012-01-14T03:22:00.000-08:00

Except for new years eve, we didn't cook one single meal while we were in New York. It just felt silly to stock up on basics when we were only there for one and a half week, plus we had like a gazillion restaurants that we wanted to go to. (Good and affordable restaurants is really what I miss the most about living in NY, I think. Right after Matteo, of course.) Anyway, the point of this post was really to say that having home cooked meals every single night this week has been quite an appreciated and splendid affair.

pine cone up for adoption

2012-01-14T03:15:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one who fails to wash my cutting board properly after having chopped onions? I'm guessing not;O) By the way, see that pine cone in the last photo? My mom gave it to me ages ago, and the whole idea was that you keep it some place warm for a couple of weeks after which the pine nuts are supposedly going to start "popping". I had kind of given up on it after waiting for more than two months, but now, my mom says, hers have started popping big time. And apparently it's quite a boisterous affair, the nuts just cracklin', snapplin' and poppin' when you least expect it. I'm kind of hoping that I wont be home when the cone cracks open - I fear my poor old nerves wont be able to deal!

poached me own pears and all!

2012-01-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

I'm telling you it turned out scrumptious! I based it on this recipe, except rather than a tart crust, I made a simpler kind of short bread crust, and rather than putting ground almonds in the filling, I put in some marzipan (not to be a contrarian, or anything, but simply because I had no nuts).

David Bowie Doing Normal Stuff

2012-01-09T23:33:00.000-08:00

From here.

I won't be operating any heavy machinery today

2012-01-08T23:31:00.000-08:00

I came back on Saturday night and sweet lord am I tired! I thought I had kind of beat my jet lag by spending all day Saturday sleeping in airplanes and airports (my itinerary: NY > Paris > Frankfurt > Copenhagen = stupid). But whaddayaknow, when I went to bed last night at 10.30, I wound up sleeping for only one hour and then lying wide awake till 5 in the morning. In other words, I is tired.

Guess it's days like this that I should be happy that I work as a writer and not as a surgeon or pilot. Worse thing that can happen is that I make a bunch of spelling errors. I hope.

Yoda and the C-span junkie

2012-01-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

Johan is so into watching the primaries on C-Span, I'm beginning to fear I won't be able to lure him back to Copenhagen with me.

By the way, just to confirm (or mock?) gender stereotypes, we tend to joke around our house that Johan is the one who gets politics, while I'm the one who gets anything ~~pop~~ cultural. Also, because Johan is so tall, and I'm so short, we joke that whenever he tries to explain politics to me, I look like a confused (but friendly) Yoda, looking up at him from below.

Of course, whenever we discuss something cultural, my demeanor is completely different simply because I'm on home turf. For example I'll become greatly agitated when I set out to explain some joke about, say Bruce Willis being the dad of Ashton Kutcher, which Johan doesn't get because he knows nothing about celebrities.

spectacles

2012-01-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

The WTC memorial pools were so much more great and massive than I thought. They're a beautiful and impressive sight, yet at the same time I felt weird visiting them, not least because the unguided tour led you straight from the memorial site and into the gift shop.

Don't you know that feeling? When you find yourself participating in some kind of "collective human behavior" and suddenly feel really bad about it? I had a similar experience the other day when we ventured up to Harlem to have lunch at Marcus Samuelson's comfort food restaurant, The Red Rooster. The place was completely filled with white tourists enjoying "authentic southern food" and admiring all the "African-American paraphernalia" decorating the interior. And suddenly I felt like such an ass for buying into that Harlem-as-fun-park experience that was so far removed from "the real" Harlem outside, where few people are able to spend $15 on a lunch of biscuits and gravy or whatever. Anyway, I made myself (and Johan) feel so depressed about the place that I left again without lunching.

(I should be careful not to sound too self-righteous, though, because right afterwards I took the subway straight downtown to eat comfort food in some West Village joint decorated like a 19th century New England cottage (???!))

WTC

2012-01-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

blue sky but freezing

2012-01-04T19:04:00.000-08:00

All

2012-01-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

Johan, Matteo and I went to see the Maurizio Cattelan retrospective at The Guggenheim the other day. It was a pretty spectacular sight, and yet I couldn't help but feel that each piece was divested of its cleverness from being exhibited like that, hanging from the rotunda in a cluster of art works. From the little I know about Cattelan, his pieces are so site specific, each one telling its own story. And when shown together like that, it seemed to me they kind of just became visual gags.

(But hey, for chrissakes, go if you can. It's not every day you get to see hundreds of art works suspended in the air:O)

Photo by David Heald via New York Magazine.

neon

2012-01-03T18:56:00.001-08:00

wedding bow

2012-01-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

That crêpe, whipped cream and crème brûlée cake

2012-01-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

I figure it should be relatively manageable to recreate, no? Perhaps with a little lemon or Grand Marnier in the whipped cream?

reruns

2012-01-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

It's difficult to shake the habit of living here, and so we wing up pretending that we do just that and spend our days doing a bunch of everyday things.

good stuff

2012-01-03T17:13:00.000-08:00

This photo, from The Selby, puts me in a genuinely good mood:O)

storefronts

2012-01-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

January 1st 2012

2012-01-01T20:21:00.001-08:00

new years eve with 7 adults and a blow-kissin toddler

2012-01-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

We had dinner at home, followed by champagne and a crêpe-and-creme-brulé layered cake for dessert (yum!). At midnight we watched the ball drop on TV, and then we went out for drinks at a bar down the block. Perfect:O)

winter plants

2011-12-30T04:02:00.000-08:00

They look so perfectly edible, don't they?

Holiday Dreams Begin With Barbie

2011-12-30T03:59:00.000-08:00

donuts

2011-12-30T03:57:00.000-08:00

I'm in New York!

2011-12-30T03:55:00.000-08:00

And so far, we've been eating (I think it's the thing we've been looking most forward to), cleaning (why do subletters never clean?), hanging with Matteo (always a treat!) and stocking up on new books, like this, this and this one.

Baby Polar Bear (Except it's really a dog!)

2011-12-26T04:52:00.000-08:00

My sis has been dog-sitting this Christmas:O)

vintage letter sets

2011-12-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

I was searching for an image of Mickey Mouse and came across this one, which I remember having as a letter set when I was a kid. I had a whole bunch of different letter sets (some of them scented!), which I used to trade with the other kids at school. And I remember the Disney one being one of my most treasured sets and one that I was particularly reluctant to trade.

I got so nostalgic from seeing the image, I wound up searching incessantly for "vintage mickey mouse letter sets". Didn't find anything, so let me know if you have it and you're willing to sell;O)

I WANT TURKEY!

2011-12-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

From me to you: A couple of furry behinds

2011-12-20T22:34:00.001-08:00

Where did the last week and half go?! I feel like one sorry-ass blogger, I have to say, and in order to make it up to you, I figured I'd show you some blue-tinted reindeer - to get you into the Christmas spirit and all:O)

To tell you the truth, I've felt so uninspired lately when it comes to blogging. And at the risk of sounding like a 19th century painter, I have to say it's the light, or rather, the lack thereof, that is to blame. These days it's dark out when I go to work, and by the time I return home, it's even darker. And this dilettante photographer has just never been a big fan of the "night mode" on her camera.

Of course I've pondered to do as bloggers do, when they have little or nothing to say, such as:
1) Doing gift guides (except, I still haven't bought my own Christmas presents, and so it seems a bit cocky to advise others on what to get)
2) Blogging the same stuff that I blogged precisely one year ago (except, every time I look back, I rarely find interesting blogging material, let alone re-blogging material)
3) Doing a recap of the outfits I wore in 2011 (except, it seems I forgot to document it)

Anyway, with those poor excuses and these furry asses as my witnesses I vow to become a more reliable blogger for the rest of 2011. I'm off from work after Friday, so I'm hoping to catch some daylight.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

2011-12-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

Exsqueeze me, but how mouthwatering is this?!! And dead simple to make too, right?
(Images from Joy The Baker.)

Spotted!

2011-12-10T03:01:00.001-08:00

Johan imagines it strained something and is pulling a move in agony. To me it looks like it's getting down to Kool and the Gang's Jungle Boogie.

The Tivoli Gardens

2011-12-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

I went with my dad and my sis this evening and it was beautiful!

roughing it

2011-12-07T08:33:00.001-08:00

Todd Selby went to visit Noma - you know, the world's best restaurant, which happens to be a two-minute walk from our house, and yet a place where I'll most likely never get a table. Anyway, the pictures and the food is gorgeous, obviously, and at the same time I can't help but find it a tad amusing that these big, tattooed and rock star looking chefs actually go out themselves to gather miniscule flowers and sprigs. I mean, could they possibly choose to cook from more delicate ingredients?

From All Of Us To All Of You

2011-12-05T14:57:00.001-08:00

I went on a mini trip yesterday with Johan and his mother to visit his nan, who lives a couple of hours' drive from Copenhagen. As I had already guessed from hearing Johan's stories about her, she's the cutest little lady, living in the most neat of houses. In fact, I wanted to take pictures of everything, especially her meticulously kept plants and her beautiful desk with a huge magnifying lamp of sorts. Then again that might have come across a bit rude considering it was my very first visit;O) Anyway, Johan's nan used to live in a big old farmhouse, which Johan's uncle took over some ten years ago. So after lunch, we got to go up into his woods and cut down or own Christmas tree. How's that for idyllic? I just decorated it this evening, and I think it's just the cutest little tree ever, perfectly imperfect and adorned with last year's Christmas ornaments - including King Kong balancing at the very top.

SHOPGIRL

2011-12-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

SHOPGIRL from SRSLY. on Vimeo.

You know what makes this skit even more spot-on? The fact that the shop they recorded it in is just down the street from my apartment in New York, and the one single time I dared go in there (I rarely venture into fancy shops, you see), this was exactly the way the salesgirl behaved! Needless to say, she didn't let me buy any of their stuff.

Asian Improv

2011-12-01T14:04:00.001-08:00

For the past week I've been craving Thai food - or anything "Asian", really (...just love to sum up the cuisine of an entire continent like that. Imagine how I'd laugh if someone said "darling, let's have European tonight!"). Anyway, the other night I finally came around to stocking to up on some of the basics, and here's what I cooked up this evening: Shrimp drenched in a lime-soy marinade with loads of mint, cilantro, shallots, lemon grass, chili, radishes and pomegranate seeds. Pretty, right? Do you feel inspired? Yes?

lemon chocolate truffles

2011-12-01T13:57:00.001-08:00

I made some lemon chocolate truffles last night that turned out really delish! Here's how I made them: I baked a pound cake, crumbled it up and soaked it in rum, lemon juice, sugar and lemon curd. Then I rolled the batter-like substance into little balls, dipped them in chocolate and sprinkled chopped pistachios and sea salt on top. Yum yum.

Camera resuscitated! Albeit briefly.

2011-11-28T23:26:00.001-08:00

I gave it a night's rest, is all;O)

Weekend trip (with poorly choosen analogy)

2011-11-28T23:12:00.001-08:00

Johan and I went on a weekend trip down to his dad's cute little summer house by the coast. Everything was horribly cute, and I was positively buzzing around the house planning on all the little things I wanted to shoot. But you know what? Then my camera died. And as I'm sure many a blogger will attest to, that's the equivalent of going to a the Caribbeans without your swimsuit...and finding out that the Caribbeans are all out of swimsuits...And you're not allowed to skinny dip either.

plane tickets and search engines

2011-11-23T12:36:00.001-08:00

Lately, Johan and I have been debating whether or not we should go to NY for new years. Of course we want to and we'd totally jump on a plane if it weren't for the fact that the tickets are insanely expensive. The funny thing is though that every time we reach the sensible conclusion that we should just let it go and wait till Spring, I wind up convincing myself that it's pure lunacy to deprive myself of the simple pleasure of being in the city for a while, even if it's just for a week. And that's when I'm off again to search for plane tickets for the trillionth time, hoping the price of a decent flight has dropped some $500 since last time I checked, roughly 20 minutes earlier.

It's funny with search engines, because I know they're supposed to make my life easier, and to a certain extent they do. And yet I find that I have never in my life spent so much time trying to decide on a plane ticket, or a book, or a sweater or whatever thing I'm trying to buy on the internet. Back in the day it wasn't like that at all, was it?

Pencil Shavings.

2011-11-23T12:31:00.001-08:00

Movie Poster Clichés

2011-11-21T23:19:00.001-08:00

By Cristophe Courtois via Flavorwire.

I need this cat

2011-11-20T12:03:00.001-08:00

A Re-fashioned LBD

2011-11-20T02:25:00.001-08:00

Is it called a Peter Pan collar when the collar is embroidered? I wouldn't know, so let's just call it an embroidered collar even though it sounds less sassy. Anyway, that is what I sewed on to a really bland little black dress of mine, and I think it turned out quite pretty!

it's dusty around here

2011-11-19T04:00:00.001-08:00

Look mom, I made a hipster!

2011-11-16T22:49:00.001-08:00

I name her Austin, and you can make and name your own hipster girl here! Go on, spend your entire day at work playing dress up! I won't tell.

a steal

2011-11-13T22:51:00.001-08:00

I got a gorgeous brand new pair of Acne flats for close to nothing. Bought them from a lady on the internet, which left me thinking that perhaps that is where to go for decent-priced 2nd hand shopping around these parts. Or perhaps it was a single stroke of luck? We'll see.

autumnal

2011-11-13T22:36:00.001-08:00

breakfast croque monsieur

2011-11-12T05:04:00.001-08:00

young spielberg

2011-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

The first time I heard that Steven Spielberg was counted among the top directors of all time, I kind of remember thinking: Really? Somehow it didn't at all make sense to me that someone who made lighthearted, action-packed blockbusters could be considered a genius on par with gloomy auteurs like Bergman and Kurosawa.

Fortunately, I've grown wiser with age, and while I have yet to work my "cinematically wiser self" systematically through Spielberg's complete oeuvre, I have to say that it's been immensely thrilling to re-watch some of those films I grew up with and watched again and again until the video tape was halfway worn out.

Because, here's what's really lovely: While I do sit there and admire his toying with genre and pat myself on the shoulder for picking up on a reference to some Golden Age classic, I realize I appreciate his movies for much the same reasons I did when I was a kid: I appreciate them because they're movies, capital M movies, the very quintessence of movies (not, by the by, to be confused with film). Movies that strive to put you on the edge of your seat, make your heart beat faster, laugh out loud, go whoa! and yikes! and put a lump in your throat. Movies that ask you to do nothing else but enjoy the moment. No reflection is really needed, because it's all there on the screen, and best of all, it doesn't pretend to be hiding away its meaning anywhere else.

Whichis not to say that he's my favorite director of all time, or that I think his movies are the best ones ever made. I'm kind of just fascinated with his genius, is all. His young genius, in particular :O)

my kind of physical setting

2011-11-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

I snatched these pictures off of someone's blog the other day, and now I can't remember whose?

Anyway, I found the color, furniture and plant situation most intriguing, thinking to myself that if I were soon to redecorate my domestic surroundings, I'd most certainly let myself inspire by this.

As for the lack of proper crediting, my sincere apologies to whoever shot these pictures as well as the person actually living in this place. As for the latter, I imagine you're a Brazilian architect, mid 70s and perhaps of German descent, living the good life on the affluent outskirts of Sao Paulo.

Or else, you're from L.A? In fact, that might very well be the case too. In either event, let it be known that I dig your style.

scones and ravioli. and store-bought bread.

2011-11-07T13:05:00.000-08:00

I baked scones and made homemade ravioli on the weekend. The scones turned out nice and buttery, perhaps thanks to the additional half stick of butter that I added to the recipe (when fearing a mediocre result, add more butter - that's my advice). The raviolis on the other hand, turned out so-so. The ricotta-arugula filling was delish, but the doughy part was, well, much too doughy.

The good thing about having tried once to make from scratch some of those traditionally store-bought foods is that you figure out which things you should definitely just buy and not waste your time fantasizing about making yourself, and which ones you might as well give another go. Personally, I had totally romanticized cooking my own ravioli, in fact I had kind of imagined stocking up the freezer with all kinds of different homemade pastas with genuinely exciting fillings.

But you know what, it just wasn't worth it. I think I just have to accept that I prefer my ravioli brought home from the store, just like I prefer my bread.

Monday night dinner with cheap spumante

2011-11-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

Johan cooked a true feast for dinner, more fit for an over-indulgent Sunday evening than a godforsaken Monday night. Here's what he made: Oven-roasted Guinea fowl with fennel and onions, pan-roasted potatoes to soak up a sauce of white wine, green lentils and beets baked with garlic and balsamic vinegar, and finally, a side of fresh salad, which we were too full to finish.

We tend to joke around this house that we spend some 90% of our disposable income on food. Truth be told, I think it's more like 95%.

Money well spent, I say;O)

Mike the Headless Chicken

2011-11-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

Some ten years ago, I saw a TV program about poultry that told the story of an American chicken that had rather miraculously survived its own decapitation. For several years it had been feeling fine and dandy, being fed somehow directly through its esophagus.

I've retold that story many a time since, and every single time, it's been met with a scowl or a laugh, eventually leaving me to wonder, if it was all something that I dreamed. But lo and behold, I was just flipping through New York Magazine, and what did I see but a picture of a new Maurizio Cattelan sculpture composed of a taxidermied beheaded chicken, referencing the TRUE story of no-one less than Miracle Mike!

So, all I'm saying is it's true after all. There was indeed a real life chicken who, back in 1945, had his head chopped off and survived for another 18 months, touring the U.S. of A, making a ton of money in the process. Apparently he eventually died in a Phoenix motel because his owner had forgot his cleaning and feeding syringes at the carnival sideshow they had visited the day before.

bite size

2011-11-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

"Ingrid Fetell, a design writer, focuses on “the aesthetics of joy,” studying why certain things (like small things and sweet things) evoke near-universal delight. “An extreme scale shift, making things very big or very small, forces us to reconsider our own scale,” she said. “That’s the Alice in Wonderland effect.” She cited the giant outdoor ice cream cone and chocolate “Floor Cake” created by the Pop Art sculptor Claes Oldenburg in the 1960s as examples at the other end of the size spectrum. Universally, small things evoke childhood and imply abundance: the sight of six tiny chocolate bars makes us happier than one giant chocolate bar, she said, simply because there are more of them".
- from Small Wonders in the New York Times

monday night

2011-11-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

My mamma was here on Monday night, on a quick meeting-at-the-bank-and-catching-up-with-my-kids visit from Stockholm. We had cheese and potato-parsnip soup for dinner and far too much dessert.

winter morning. or late fall, at least.

2011-11-03T23:29:00.000-07:00

It's nothing less than insane how dark is it in the morning these days. When I get up a bit past 7, it's pitch dark in the apartment. Insane, I tell you. Just plain insane;O)

art claws

2011-10-30T23:25:00.000-07:00

Jordan Wolfson via Contemporary Art Daily. It took a while before I realized the 2nd one was a bit dirty, but by then I had already uploaded it and figured what the heck.

our tiny lodger

2011-10-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

This is Billie, whom I brought home from work on Friday - on loan for the weekend. She's just about as tiny as a peppercorn, and you can't walk her more than half a block before someone stops you in the street wanting to squat down and say hello. Because she's so used to that, she seems to greet everyone, drug addicts, teenage girls and old folks alike, with the same amount of joy usually reserved for really dear, long lost friends.

"what kind of weird burger is that?!"

2011-10-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

I can't remember whom, but someone said that when I showed them the photo above. Which was kind of funny, because it isn't a burger at all but rather a fancy, $14* artichaut gratiné that I had this summer at Orsay in New York. It wasn't exceptionally filling I have to admit, but tasty it was, and for that reason I've held on to the photo with the intention of reminding myself to someday cook it myself.

....Which, seeing that it's artichoke season, may very well be this weekend. I'll report back if the result is successful. If I fail, I'll keep it my dirty secret.

*When I saw it on the menu, I remember thinking that 14 bucks was a bit steep for a lunchtime appetizer. And now, sitting in Copenhagen, where dining out is so much more costly, I'm thinking: "Pennies! Just pennies!" As my friend reminded me over dinner: "The sad thing about Copenhagen is that everything is 25 % more expensive". That cracked me up. She sounded kind of like my dad, ha!

Does posting a picture from a New York Times article count as "reblogging"?

2011-10-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

I guess so, but who cares;O) It's all about sharing anyway, so let me share this positively dreamy 1981 coat and outfit, which I totally covet, despite the fact that I can't help but think you could never get away with wearing a color palette such as this during the Scandinavian winter season.

But Milan and Paris? Yes! Definitely yes!

Photo by Giampaolo Sgura for Max Mara via The New York Times.

This made me laugh

2011-10-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

The fact that I couldn't figure where it originally came from made it even better! I saw it on House of Milk, where is was reblogged from Skull Swap, where it was reblogged from Giggling Bean, where it was reblogged from Loogie/Dork, from where it's been reblogged a gazillion times.

♥

2011-10-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

Look how goofy and romantic we are around this house! Johan found a heart-shaped potato and carved our initials into it. Then we baked it and smothered it in sour cream and fed it to each other with a spoon....Kidding!!! Well, the first part is actually true.

weekend eats

2011-10-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

I spoke to my mom last night, who asked me what I've been up to this weekend. "Eating!", I said, which I think sums up the past three days pretty well:O)

By the way, how do you like the little knitted coat that my French press is wearing? I found it in the back of granny's dresser one day that I was pulling out the drawers to oil it all up a bit. Speaking of which, have you knitted a sweater for the fairy penguins yet? Seeing I'm not much of a knitter, I fear that the penguins will dismiss my contribution if I were to make one on the account of it just being too out of vogue.

Indignati Americani

2011-10-23T05:41:00.000-07:00

Matteo sent me a link to his first credited documentary!

Having gone uncredited for a whole lot of work that I've done, by jolly do I understand that finally getting credited for something you've, made must be so satisfying! Not least because it's such a great piece of work that he's carried out, drawing a really charming and optimistic portrait of the people affected by or involved in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

Only bummer is that it's in eye-talian, and while it sounds as gorgeous and yummy as the name of a delicious Italian dish said over and over again, I have to admit I don't understand much....In the light of which, it's a good thing that Matteo shoots such pretty footage, edits it so perfectly and pairs it with such heartwarming sound tracks. So do watch a bit of it even if you don't speak Italian, if nothing else for the communal marriage proposal towards the very end. Ooo!

Whenever I see or hear about some of Matteo's work, I really do envy him of all the great stuff he gets to witness while on duty. I mean, wherever history happens, he goes! How awesome is that? Except for the time he went to report on the swine flu in Mexico, of course.

By the way, should you be needing any of Matteo's production, shooting and editing services, I'll totally hook you up. You may remember that he's also done this little video Marni - Fashion Night Out and this gorgeous behind-the-scenes photo shoot video. In other words, creatively and content wise, he's a versatile fella.

monday walk

2011-10-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

gifts from Sweden and France

2011-10-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

It seems I've entered yet another erratic blogging phase, which I believe is mainly due to the fact that I'm not all that excited about taking photos these days. I just spent the past couple of days in Stockholm on the occasion of my mom's 60th birthday, and while there was plenty of pleasant things for me to shoot, I didn't take one single photograph. Go figure.

But here's some beautiful things I took pictures of yesterday, which I'd like to show you.

A pair of gorgeous woolen mittens that my grandmother got me, right out of the blue, for no reason at all - ain't she sweet:O) To top it all off, I've secretly been coveting these for ages. Lovikka mittens they're called.
A beautiful, glazed ceramic bowl from France that Johan's mother got us from her top-secret internet portal to an antique kitchenware dealer. It's so heavy that only a busty country girl from Normandy can carry it with ease, whereas I break a sweat from just looking at it, albeit partly because it's so gorgeous.

And if that weren't beyond more than enough, we also got this matching dish, which we've already put to good use. I'm telling you, my oven roasted vegetables looked so good on it, they almost made me blush.

Happy Birthday To My Mom Who Turns 60 Today!

2011-10-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

lately. in no particular order

2011-10-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

New Nippon

2011-10-11T23:30:00.001-07:00

Last week Johan was gifted this beautiful old Centurion racing bike by one of his mom's friends.

It spent the weekend in our living room, hanging from the ceiling, while Johan nursed it back to it's original 80s splendor!

Per Se

2011-10-11T23:14:00.001-07:00

After seeing this photo of the dessert table at Per Se, all I want to do is stay home from work and spend my day making perfectly spherical donuts. Not that I would know how to, but still.

Photo by Daniel Kriegler for The New York Times.

Danish Rye

2011-10-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend I bought Danish rye, which I really don't eat all that often. Just thought you should know.

flowers from Johan's mum's garden

2011-10-08T05:40:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous, no?

lemon pasta

2011-10-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

Simple yet yummy - lemon juice mixed with olive oil and grated parmesan and a dash of chopped basil. Johan used Jamie Oliver's recipe, which you can find here.

weirdly, she somehow managed to slip below my radar

2011-10-08T01:09:00.000-07:00

I read the recent profile of Daphne Guinness in The New Yorker the other day, and what an extravagant character! Of course I've come across her name now and then in fashion mags, but I've never quite put a face or an outfit to it.

So I sat down this morning to google images of her, and by golly, is it just me, or does she kind of out stage Lady Gaga? From a sartorial point of view, I mean?

Anyway, above she's hanging with designer Gareth Pugh, who also seems to be a flamboyant one.

Cheesus!

2011-10-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

For some bizarre reason, I never heard about Murray's Cheese in NY until quite recently, and even when I first heard about it, I kind of just dismissed it as just another cheese shop. In fact, it wasn't until I read this article in the New York times that I realized they have a proper cheese cave below their West Village shop. Where the cheeses get to ripen and mature.

I don't know why, but this excites me tremendously! If I ever open my own cheese shop, I'll be getting myself an underground cave too.

By the by, photos are by Tony Cenicola and Trevor Tondro for The New York Times.

day trip

2011-10-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

Summer hit Copenhagen

2011-10-02T13:29:00.000-07:00

And quite unexpectedly, I might add. I put away my summer clothes weeks ago, cos little did I know that come October, I'd be spending a sunny day outside along with a toddler dressed in nothing but white pantyhose and a floral miniskirt!

night walk

2011-09-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

boys with snot are not OK

2011-09-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Isn't she awesome? She's all like: "This is not OK...is it? It shouldn't be OK".

I thought I'd show you some more souvenirs from my archives

2011-09-25T03:37:00.000-07:00

Like, this pretty Disney Dollar. I don't know if you can tell, but it's really well-made.

A one Dollar bill that I saved from my first trip to Los Angeles (I think I was 9-years old) along with the key card to our hotel in Marina Beach.

Pretty, old hair curlers. I must have gone through a phase where I collected oddities like this.

A thank you card from the baptism of my younger cousin Carl and the confirmation of my older cousin Gabriella. It must be from 1986.

I totally dig my mother's 'fro and my older cousin's very church-appropriate turquoise sweat suit. As you my also notice, my sis and I (on the right) were always the pale kids in the bunch, while my other cousins where deliciously tan.

Best. Lunch. Ever.

2011-09-25T03:15:00.000-07:00

When my mom visited last weekend, she brought loads of chanterelles for my sister and I, freshly picked from the Swedish woodlands;O) Yesterday Johan and I fried them up in butter and garlic and topped them with parmesan and parsley.

A Photographic Collection Of The Most Beautiful Women Of The World

2011-09-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

I was sorting through a bunch of my knicknacks today - as I'm wont to do - and found some raunchy trading cards with some titillating pictures of some of most beautiful women of the world.

Look here! Nothing quite as sexy as a (Bolivian?) woman squatting over a tiger! Meow, is all I can say!

Or an American who, to me, kinda looks like she's taking a dump. A sexy dump?

Or a Korean (shemale?) in sexy white pantyhose and sexy hot pants by Guess. With her Nation's flag on her tush and all.

Der Kleine Schwede

2011-09-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

How's this for cute? My friend Laura gave it to me, and if I'm not mistaken, she brought it all the way back from Berlin.

breakfast

2011-09-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

This is what I had for breakfast this morning, and what I plan on having tomorrow morning as well: Pancakes with figs and pancetta - and a dollop of lemon curd to make it all go down.

Such a satisfying combination folks, should you feel inclined to try it out:O)

Turkish craft

2011-09-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

It's cold in Copenhagen nowadays and so I've started wearing my little woolen sock-slipper-thingies that I got when Johan and I went to Istanbul in the spring. I bought them from an old toothless lady sitting in the street, who charged the equivalent of ten bucks for them.

I thought they were so nice and definitely worth that price, so I decided not to haggle with her and just hand her the dough. Which I did, much to the amusement of another street vendor, who cracked up when he saw how much she succeeded in charging me.

Tunes from Annie get your gun and outdated celebrity gossip

2011-09-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

All day yesterday I was whistling this fragment of "Anything You Can Do" (presumably because it's the only part I know), while doing this little dance from an old Gap ad.

Just so we're clear, it was all in my head.

On a side note, I'd like you to know that I think Patrick Wilson is just wonderful, especially when clad in Mormon undergarments, but that I feel so-so about Claire Danes. After that whole Billy Crudup affair*, I've said to myself that if Claire Danes ever tries to become friends with me, I'll just be like, "no girlfriend. 'Cos before I know it, I bet you'll be after my man."

*I am here referring to the incident some 7 or 8 eight years ago when a seven months pregnant Marie-Louise Parker was left by the father of her baby, Billy Crudup, because the sucker preferred to play kissing games with Claire Danes. What morons. I mean, who does that? I'm sure Marie-Louise Parker has got over it, but I for sure haven't.

a slice of nice

2011-09-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

A piece of pancetta can do magic things for a slice of pizza bianca con patate. I looked on a bit suspicious when I saw Johan slap it on there, but it turned out nothing less than dee-lish.

slouches

2011-09-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that the apartment is equipped with a large and lovely dining table, Johan and I usually wind up having every single evening meal while sitting on the couch ~~in front of the TV~~. Some may find that a horrendous habit, and to a certain extent, I do too. It's not that we necessarily gawk at the TV and drop things from our mouths as we absentmindedly sit and chew, but I do see that it make us more slouchy and that it requires less of us conversation wise - as opposed to when we sit right across from one another, I mean.

Anyway, if now you think less of me, I can inform you that every time we have people over for dinner, we do manage to sit upright by the dining table for hours on end and have lively conversations too. Oh, and sometimes, on weekends, we have breakfast at the dining table while conversing and reading intellectual magazines - now how's that for civilized?!

Louisiana

2011-09-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Marie and I went to Louisiana, the museum of modern art up north of Copenhagen.

If you're a Dane and used to going, I really recommend that you bring a foreigner along, because once you're there with someone who's there for the first time, you really realize how gorgeous and unusual that museum is.

greenery

2011-09-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

on my fall wish list

2011-09-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I'd like this fall, it's this reddish-brown and semi-blind seal pup found in Russia, expelled, excluded and abandoned by its narrow-minded black-furred family.

I think it will go well with my wardrobe for fall and winter, and in the evening, I'm thinking we can lounge together on the couch and watch cartoons while I spray it with a vaporizer and slap it an occasional high five.