Yesterday - random rl and recipe
Yesterday M (my eldest daughter) sent me a message just after work to say she was coming to town - she's spending this week at the architects Friis & Moltke (big Danish architectural firm) as a kind of trainee, which is standard practice in the ninth or tenth school year here (not the architecture part - the trainee one). Anyway, I met her at the bus and we took a walk in the center of town. She bought me some fantasy books, saying it's my turn to get gifts as I've been buying her and her sister so many things lately :"> - so sweet of her... I took her to the China Wok House for a bite to eat, and when we'd found a table she started nudging me and whispered: "There's Snape!". There was this guy at the next table with a long black coat, greasy black shoulder length hair, a beaked nose and sharp little black eyes! o__o - he was a total Snape look alike, and he kept staring at Maia making her feel quite nervous (I'm not sure he was actually staring at her, but she thought so) :D
In other news - the reason why I haven't been around much is that I'm having trouble balancing my work and the rest of life, and I've just been pretty exhausted for a while. I haven't gotten into the habit of posting much other than art here yet, and as I haven't had much/any finished art to post for a while my journal gets pretty quiet. I also haven't had much time and leisure to read my f-list or leave comments - sorry if I've missed important posts, but I don't think I'll be able to be around much just now. The Christmas horror is slowly invading everything already - shops are decorated, the mailbox is bursting with glossy advertisements, the kids school and sportsclub and music class are busily arranging Christmassy get togethers, as are friends, family and workplaces... I generally try to avoid as much as possible so as not to end up feeling nauseated by the beginning of December, but I still have to plan around it and do stuff for the kids - like baking cakes/cookies for them to take along etc., and I'd much rather be doing art and knitting socks or something like that...
Tomorrow night is "Mortens aften" (meaning "Martin's Night") here, and traditionally everyone eats duck (which should be goose, but there's tradition for you...). I don't care much for a big fat duck stuffed with apples and prunes so I'm making Persian faisinjan instead - have a recipe
Duck in pomegranate and walnut sauce
A duck or free range chicken (ca. 2 kg) cut into 10 parts
1 onion, thinly sliced
ca 250 g walnut meats, coarsly chopped
juice of 4 pomegranates (ca 3 dl)
juice of 2 lemons
about 1 ½ dl water
1 spoonful sugar
½ spoonful unrefined cane sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon allspice
oil for frying
Heat the oil in a large, thick bottomed saucepan. Brown the pieces of duck lightly on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Pour the fat from the saucepan, reserving 2 spoonfuls. Brown the onion slices gently in the remaining fat. Add the walnut meats and roast them for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour in the pomegranate and lemon juices, water, sugar and spices. Bring to the boil, put the pieces of duck in the pan, cover and allow to simmer gently for 1 to 1½ hours until very tender. Check a few times along the way and add a little water if it looks like boiling dry. The sauce should become a dark brown, almost black, and stain the meat.
Check the taste - it should be tart-sweet. Adjust if necessary adding extra lemon or sugar as required.
Serve the duck with fluffy white rice or bread and a mintflavoured salad of plain yoghurt with grated cucumber, a little onion or garlic and a few sprigs of chopped fresh mint.
Now I'm off into the beautiful sunny autumn day to post a package for Neb ;)