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I wish you  all a Happy New Year. This picture is from the monastery of Montserrat, which we visited in 2008. Danish

I have blogged about  Goodreads  before. To day I received a newsletter, and the smart thing  is that they choose books by authors I have previously read, and which has recently been published or will  be available in January. I think that is really cool.  Now I know I can get the third book in a series by Jojo Moyes. I have previously read "Me Before You"and "After You," but now the third  novel is available:  Still me,  and I can order it from the library. If they don't have it I can mark it in  Goodreads  as Want to Read. This way I wont forget it. It will be published in Danish 23-01-18 and is called Stadig mig. Other books I was reminded of was  The Grave's a Fine and Private Place  by Alan Bradley. It is number 9 in the series about Flavia de Luce. It is a somewhat different kind of crime novel. The main character  Flavia is (in the beginning of the series) an 11-year old motherless girl with a strong interest in poisons and chemistry. The in

Phaedra Patrick : Rise & Shine, Benedict Stone (in the USA) and Wishes Under the Willow Tree (in the UK) Benedict Stones life is not going that well.  His wife, Estelle has left him, and his jewelry store does not have many customers. One night, Benedict's niece pops up. She is called Gemma and is 16 years old. She has traveled from the United States, but she is not very open about her life. After she turned up things begin to change in Benedict's life, as Gemma and Benedict are launching a plan to get Estelle back. Gemstones or semi-precious stones run as a continuous theme in the book. All chapters have a gemstone and some of its attributes as headlines. It is a feel-good novel about family ties, love and fellowship by the author of: The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, which I have previously read and blogged about. Danish

There  are five books in the series about the Hathaway family. Each volume has one of the siblings as the main character. I have now finished  the fifth novel. The Hathaways 1 - Mine Till Midnight The Hathaways 2 - Seduce Me at Sunrise The Hathaways 3 - Tempt Me at Twilight The Hathaways 4 - Married By Morning The Hathaways 5 - Love in the Afternoon The  5 siblings have had a somewhat unconventional upbringing in  18th. century England. When both parents die they have to fend for themselves. Later the son Leo inherits a title and the Ramsey estate.  They all have to learn to move in higher circles. The structure of each book is very alike. Woman meets man and great passion arises  - Sometimes  after  great hardship. All the men are  very masculine, virile, a bit frightening, fabulous lovers and completely besotted by their woman. The women are lovable, caring, beautiful, passionate and independent. The lovemaking perfect. The plots were rather predictable. Anyway I was wel

One of our traditions for Boxing Day dinner is a spaghetti / curry salad. It's a recipe that originates from my childhood home. This year it looked like this: This year, it was not Matjes (young herring) fillets, but spicy  pickled herrings I used as decoration. Now the recipe: Curry Salad with Matjes fillets 1 dl mayonnaise Make the mayonnaise smooth with the cream.  Season with curry to your taste. Break the spaghetti in small pieces and boil according to the package. When cooked  pour  it in a sieve and cool under running water. Drain and put it in the  curry-mayonnaise. Put it  in a dish and garnish with eggs, tomatoes and herring fillets. Serve with rye bread. 1 tbsp whipping cream  1-2 tsp curry spaghetti egg tomato matjes fillets Danish

This meatloaf is called Forloren Hare in Danish and kind of means it is a sham hare. Ingredienser: 500 g ground beef 500 g ground pork 2 eggs 1 dL breadcrumbs 1 tsp coarse salt 1 tsp pepper ½ dL whipping cream Mix well and make into a meatloaf: 50 g bacon or yowl bacon  cut in sticks. Stick them in the meatloaf. Fry the "hare" on all sides in 75 g butter until brown.  I use my cast iron pot. Remove the hare and put it in the slow cooker. Add 3 tbsp flour to the butter and  add milk a little at a time to make a sauce. (roux). Let boil every time you have added milk or the sauce will be lumpy. When the consistence is fine you add 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly.  Pour the sauce over the hare, and set the Slow Cooker on LOW for 6 hours. Serve with potatoes and redcurrant jelly. Redcurrant jelly redcurrants Strip the berries from their stalks and boil at low temperature. Use a lid and make sure the water only covers a little less than   2/3  of the

The main character, Alice hits her head while exercising is  the gym. This results in memory loss, and despite the fact that she approaches her 40th birthday, she believes she is 29 and pregnant with her first child. She can't remember anything from the last 10 years, and doesn't understand what has happened with her relations to her husband and sister. She has changed from  a loving, relaxed messy person into a supermom. The story about her memory loss is well told, but I was struggling to be convinced that her personality could have changed so much in 10 years time. In addition to Alice, we also hear about Elisabeth, (her sister) and her struggle to become mom. Even though the book has been on the New York Times bestseller list, I didn't find it  completely convincing. By Liane Moriarty I have also read: The Husband's Secret - I think it was better. Danish

With this picture from Pringé in France (vacation 2004) I wish you all a Merry Christmas. Danish

Cast on 60 stitches and knit 4 rows Then pattern, but remember to start and end each row with 2 k. Pattern: 1.row: knit 2.row: purl 3.row: 3 k, 2 p, 1 k, 2 p 4.row: 1 k, 1 p, 1 k, 1 p, 1 k, 3 p 5.row: as row 3 6.row: as row 4 7.row: knit 8.row: purl 9.row: 1 p, 1 k, 2 p, 3 k, 1 p 10.row: 1 k, 3 p, 1 k, 1 p, 1 k, 1 p 11.row: as row 9 12.row: as row 10 Continue till the desired size and then knit 4 rows. Bind off. X X X 12 X X X X 11 X X X 10 X X X X 9 8 7 X X X 6 X X X X 5 X X X 4 X X X X 3 2 1 There are a lot of patterns on Pinterest. I made some mistakes in the beginning when reading the patterns.  You have to remember that all uneven rows start in the right side of the diagram and X=purl and ▢= knit. All equal rows start in the left side of the diagram and X=knit and ▢=purl. Danish

My library sell old  books a couple of times a year. I sometimes buy some the last day of the sale, because you can fill a plastic bag with novels for about 1½ Euro. There is sometimes a lot of novels in English  left. One of the books I bought was: Bats Fly Up for Inspector Ghote by H.R.F. Keating .  It is from 1974, It takes place in India where Ghote is relegated to catching pickpockets. Then he gets transferred to the BATS, a unit investigating black money. Informations are leaking In the squad  and it is Ghote's task to try and find out who the informant is. It is a crime novel, and number 9 in The Inspector Ghote series.  Keating  has won the Crime Writer Association Gold Dagger and the Edgar Alan Poe Award, but  I guess I should have read the first novel first, because I was not really into it. Danish

Brown cookies is an absolute must at Christmas and in December at our house. Brown cookies are said to have roots back in the Middelage - I have "only" baked them a little more than 50 years 😃 . I make  a portion dough and when it has cooled  and is solid, I part it in 4 pieces and make them into rolls and put each in a plastic bag and put them in the freezer. Then I can bake them once in a while, and they will stay crisp. It is also a great advantage they are frozen, because that makes it much easier to cut very thin slices. If you cut too thick slices the cookies will not be crisp. Danish Brown Cookies 250 g butter Heat butter, sugar and syrup till boiling point  Dissolve potash in the water and add.  Peel and chop the almonds  Blend the orange peel with a bit of the flour. Stir all the ingredients together and let cool  When the dough is cooled and solid , separate in 4 pieces and make 4 rolls and put them in the freezer. Cut i thin slices and bake 6-8 minu

Cast on  60 stitches. Knit 6 rows and then pattern. Remember to start and end all rows with 3 k. Continue till desired length and  knit  6 rows. Bind off. 1.row: 1 k, 1 p, 4 k 2.row: 3 p, 2 k, 1 p 3.row: 1 k, 3 p, 2 k 4.row: 1 p, 4 k, 1 p 5.row: 1 k, 5 p 6.row: as row 4 7.row: as row 3 8.row: as row 2 9.row: as row 1 10.row: 1 p, 1 k, 4 p 11.row: 3 k, 2 p, 1 k 12.row: 2 p, 2 k, 2 p 13.row: 1 k, 2 p, 3 k 14.row: 4 p, 2 k 15.row: as row  13 16.row: as row 12 17.row: as row 11 18.row: as row 10 X 18 X X 17 X X 16 X X 15 X X 14 X X 13 X X 12 X X 11 X 10 X 9 X X 8 X X X 7 X X X X 6 X X X X X 5 X X X X 4 X X X 3 X X 2 X 1 There are a lot of patterns on Pinterest. I made some mistakes in the beginning when reading the patterns.  You have to remember that all uneven rows start in the right side of the diagram and X=p

Even though I already made Christmas sweets, I fancied making oatmeal balls as well. The amount in the glass equals half the amount in the recipe. Oatmeal Balls 250 g butter  Dissolve the instant coffee in 2 tbsp boiling water. Mix everything and knead it together. Form little balls and roll them in desiccated coconut. Store cold 8 dl oatmeal 1½ dL sugar 2 tbsp vanilla sugar 2 tsp instant coffee 4 tbsp cocoa desiccated  coconut Danish

We make our own sweets for Christmas. We usually make 4 different types. Ingredients: 900 g marzipan, 150 g soft chocolate nougat almonds, walnuts, raisins 3/4 dl cognac 200 g cooking chocolate (sometimes a bit more) Type 1 is with marzipan and  soft chocolate nougat - made like a sandwich with nougat in the middle and cut in diamond-shape. Type 2  You roll a little ball of marzipan, put an almond or ½ walnut on top, and dip the bottom in melted chocolate  Type 3 Before I begin making the sweets, I soak 1 dl raisins in cognac for a couple of hours. Then I use the cognac and mix it into one fifth of the marzipan. Roll it in little balls, cover in melted chocolate and put an almond on top. Type 4 Mix chopped almonds, chopped walnuts, the soaked raisins, the leftovers when you cut the diamond shaped sweets and what is left of the nougat. Pour it all into melted chocolate. Use two teaspoons and form little pieces and put it on a tray covered with a baking sheet. Leave it all