Little House in The Big Danish City

Saturday’s weather looked rather bleak. So, faced with the terror of two active kiddos stuck inside a small apartment all long day, Ryan and I packed the girls up and headed out to the library. There in the small section of English children’s books I found a copy of Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

All sorts of memories flooded back. Laura getting her first doll, making candy in the snow, making maple syrup, churning butter, making straw hats.  

We all cuddled up as Ryan read aloud and Ella LOVED it. We read 100 pages the first day and she was still asking for more. Now, she isn’t Ella anymore; she is Laura. Livi is baby Carrie. I’m Ma. Ryan is Pa. Maple syrup and honey are suddenly VERY exciting. Her imagination is pretty amazing. 

I realized as we read how much this simple story colored my own childhood. The love of  the wild places, the joy in working together in the kitchen and garden, and the cozy safeness of family are all things our family growing up shared with the Ingalls family. As we explore the outdoors together or I include Ella in the daily chores and welcome her into the kitchen with me or Ryan plays Bear and dances with the girls, I’m happy to know that we can continue that special way of being as a family.

Ps. When asked about the book Ella said, “It’s about Laura and Mary. They pretend Pa is a wild Dog. Roaaaar.” Proceeds to bite me.

All the Pretty Tortillas

In the two months we’ve been here in Denmark I’ve managed to perfect my big pot of beans and homemade flour tortilla making skills. Not the culinary turn you would expect when in the land of pickled everything and amazing rye bread, but Denmark is EXPENSIVE. And, when food budgets get tight you have to get a little creative. A little inspiration was provided by Ryan’s reading list. Ryan has been on a Cormac McCarthy kick lately. While most of McCarthy’s novels are a little on the dark and violent side for my taste, Ryan claimed the McCarthy got “a bit soft” when he wrote All The Pretty Horses which allowed me to indulge in one of my favorite guilty pleasures: monopolizing other people’s library books. 

All The Pretty Horses was fantastic. The prose is poetic. The characters are the kind of people you wish you could meet. And all throughout the book are wonderful descriptions of food. I became obsessed with the never-ending supply of beans and tortillas enjoyed my the main characters and they journeyed across the border and into Mexico.

So inspired, I dove into the task of making huge pots of pinto beans on a weekly basis. This proved to be both very cost effective and successful in rounding out my little bean-loving Ella’s diet. Then came the homemade tortillas. I used butter instead of lard or Crisco, since my Israeli conditioning makes me cringe at lard and my small knowledge of nutrition has forced me to ban Crisco from our diets completely. I found the tortilla dough-making process to be very similar to biscuits and pie dough. I worked the fat into the flour/salt/baking powder mixture and then added some warm water to turn it into dough. I let the dough rest, form it into balls, roll them out into admittedly misshapen tortillas, and then sort of toast them in a hot skillet (letting the first side cook until it bubbles in the most magnificent way).

The big pile of tortillas disappears quickly filled with beans, sautéed onions and bell peppers (What isn’t improved by deliciously caramelized onions?), avocado, and sharp white cheddar cheese. The last couple of tortillas we hold in reserve to be buttered and honeyed for dessert. Not a bad way to stick to a budget. 

Ps. I would have included pictures... but hot tortillas disappear too quickly.