Now is the Winter of Our Discontent (February)

It didn’t stop. February, it snowed. And snowed. And snowed some more.

Then we went on vacation and it snowed there too. (And boy was it cold.)

February, we built fires, we baked cookies and brownies and other things to get you through the latest snow storm. (We drank beer.) It was miserable.

Miserable.

To that end, a few books that were just miserable, each paired with a cookie recipe I do like.

The Book Thief - Chunky Lola Cookies from Flour

One Day - Fudgy Brownies - King Arthur Flour

Loving Frank - Oatmeal Cookies

(I'm not linking to these books. If you feel like you need to find them, you've been warned.)

Heart of Darkness (January)

Oh January! How naïve we were, bundled up as winter did it’s thing, dreaming of spring not so far off, getting excited about a few inches of weekend snow.

January is as good a time as ever for comfort food. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s hard to imagine that we’ll ever get out of winter and into spring and warmth, but it’s probably going to happen. January was when I had to plan runs around time of day, making sure I could sneak something in before work or maybe in the afternoon before it got dark.

But what did we know… What lay around that curve of the river… Winter. True, deep, dark winter was waiting for us, baiting us, about to spring out and attack us. Two and a half feet of snow. OH. The horror, the horror. Two and a half feet of snow melts eventually, right? We warm up with mac and cheese, or roasted veggies, or soups, and then before we know it, the snow has gone, dirty piles of it sit on the corners, but those melt too, and we emerge, out of the darkness, into spring.

RIGHT??? What the hell, winter?

Just another storm, another snow day, another work out shoveling, another day on the treadmill because you cant go outside.  But this will go away eventually. We’ll get back out of the jungle.

Eventually.

A few ways we coped with the storm:

Whole Grain Macaroni & Cheese

Potato Gratin with Goat Cheese

Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower

We just put cheese on everything...

Recommended Reading:

Joseph Conrad Heart ofDarkness

Failure, Relaunch, Resolution

Failure
Well guys, I failed, miserably, at keeping up the blog last year. Outside of one month of productive posting, which, WTH?, didn't include any picture or mention of our adventures in Scandinavia and dinner at NoMa (yea we did!) it was a slow year on the blog.

Resolution

This year I also intend it to be a slow year on the blog, but I intend to post once a month. That shouldn't be that hard, but look what happened last year... That said, it's a manageable goal that wont overwhelm, so I think there are some real possibilities here.

Relaunch

That being said, this blog has been inspired by books from day 1, hence the name, "In the Night Kitchen." This year, with purpose, my resolution-ed monthly posts will be inspired by books too. They will still be about food, and most of the time baking, but I read SO MUCH and I might as well start weaving that in too. That said, the rest of this blog post will have nothing to do with books (or only a little).

Vacationing
Without putting enough thought into it, our yearly February trip was to Scandinavia last year. We spent most of our time in Stockholm, with an overnight in Copenhagen and a stopover in Iceland.

A few things to try in Stockholm. First, this is a Semla. It is all the rage, you must have one. It took us several days to finally sit down and order one. Other pastries, especially those with cardamom are delicious.

Second, fish in tubes. I think Sweden is the biggest consumer of fish in tubes. All kinds of fish, all sizes of tubes. Also, smoked, pickled or dilled fish. If you've been eating pickled herring since childhood, breakfast in Stockholm is fun. If you haven't, there's a first time for everything.

We went to Nybrogatan 38. We kind of stumbled upon it looking for a dinner near our hotel on one of our last evening's in the city. We sat at the bar as the place was super crowded and were started off with this delicious bread basket. The remaining food was also really good - and the drinks were fun - note you can order the Pensatucky.  

This is just a picture of a latte.

And finally, we went to lunch with my friend Alex. Sweden is a very family-centric place, and there were lots of families lunching in this little restaurant. Strollers are left outside, and apparently sad pugs too. This may be my favorite photo from the whole trip.

From Stockholm, we went south to Copenhagen, primarily because we managed to get a reservation at NoMa, but also because flights were cheap and it was easy to get to. Copenhagen was a short trip, but here are some NoMa dinner photos: 

 

    

 

This is a cappuccino. I was confused - is everyone really drinking iced coffee, outside bundled up at cafes and smoking their cigarettes? No. That is a cappuccino in a glass. Aha. Isn't it beautiful though? This was at The Coffee Collective in Torvehallerne - a food market with lots of interesting treats.

Finally, we went through Iceland, and did a short trip, also with good food and interesting sightseeing.  For instance, there are all these boats: 

If you go to Iceland, you should definitely check out Lebowski Bar. The dude abides here. You should also have brunch at The Laundromat, which we did maybe every morning we were there.