Star Wars Crawl

Star Wars, "Return of the Jedi" was on Danish television the other day.  The beauty of most Danish television (for non Danish speaking people) is that it is broadcast in English, with Danish subtitles.  Easy to watch, and it helps you learn the Danish written language.

Anyone who has watched a Star Wars movie (is there someone out there that hasn't?) knows that each movie begins with a synopsis of what has gone on before the story starts.  Words floating in space receding away from you.  A "Crawl".

As the movie started, this is what I saw.

It's good to know that Star Wars is appreciated world wide!  I hope you like this one Lukas and Lars!

Fishing Trip

On Friday, Gaston Lamontagne, Gary Latimer and I went fishing.  Gaston is a member of a private fishing club just outside of Odense in Tarup and invited us for fishing and a Shore Lunch, a tradition in Canada, where Gaston is from. Combination Danish and Canadian traditions, with two Americans thrown in for good measure!

Gaston's wife Pernille dropped us off, coming back later with Mary and the rest of the Lamontagne clan, Emil and Anna.  Anna brought a friend from school, Laura.

The fishing club is located on a series of small lakes that were once sand quarries.   It is called the "Klub LB30" or the 30 pound club, founded in 1983.  Not sure why 30 pounds, optimism perhaps!   The club has these lakes stocked with rainbow trout.  Our job was to catch enough fish for lunch!  Anyone who knows me knows I am not a fisherman. But when in Rome (or Denmark!)

The Fishing Lodge

When we got there, it was overcast and cold, but by lunch, it was glorious!  The perfect day!  The area is beautiful, like a park.  There were three lakes we fished.  Gaston had extra gear for the amateur, so I was set.

Gary was the first to catch a fish.  The colors of the fish are incredible!

As I watched Gary catch his fish, all I hoped for was not to be skunked!  Just one fish, that's all I wanted.  I had no sooner thought that when I caught one!!  

What a thrill.  I was surprised had much fun it was.

Then Gaston caught one!

We each caught 2, but kept 4 beauties for lunch.

Pernille, Mary and the gang arrived shortly after this.  Gary started a fire and Gaston started filleting the catch.  

He cut the fillets into chunks.

 Battered the chunks, and fried them in oil on the fire.

Some of the best fish I have ever eaten!

That with bread, potatoes and onions, baked beans, lemon cake for dessert and good friends, a great day out.

After lunch, Anna and Laura wanted to try fishing.

,

Laura was one happy little girl!

Two final photos.  My Danish fishing license for the day.

I just hope I did not break any of these rules.  I would love to go back!

Our New Apartment

When Mary and I moved to Odense, we moved into a wonderful apartment in the center of town, close to everything.  Shopping, restaurants, train station, and my work.  The apartment had two problems though.

Number one.  38 steps.  We lived on the third floor.  As I described in a past blog entry, that meant a lot of climbing up and down stairs.  And with Mary's knee acting up, not a good thing.

Number two.  No oven.  Our apartment had a stove top, and a microwave, but no oven.

So before we went home for Lars and Elizabeth's wedding, we worked out an arrangement with City Hotel Odense to move.

The apartment building we live in is managed by City Hotel.  If you ever come to Odense, I recommend it.  The staff has been very nice and extremely helpful to Mary and I.

City Hotel

When we got back from the wedding, we moved one floor down!  Slightly different layout, larger, and:

21 steps!  Less climbing, easier on the knees.

And.......

An oven!!!

And now a little tour.

Same building, new floor

 Breakfast Nook

 Kitchen

Bedroom

Living Room and Dining room

We are very happy we our new "digs".  If you are ever in Odense, give us a call for the "grand tour"!

One more thing for this week's entry.  I bought a new "toy" to help us with laundry trips and grocery shopping.

A bicycle trailer!

Works like a champ.  All loaded, I really don't feel it behind me.  I installed a trailer hitch on my bicycle luggage rack.  Smallest I have ever seen!

PASTA IN DENMARK

I'm back!!!  After a month off from writing my blog (our son's wedding, a trip back to the states, moving to a new apartment in Denmark among other things) I am ready to start writing again!!

Mary and I invited friends over for dinner on Saturday night.  Gaston Lamontagne is the Canadian Navy representative for the program I work on.  He and his wife Pernille, and  two kids Anna and Emil, and Gary Latimer, Irving Shipyard Program Manager all joined us.

We decided to do a Spaghetti dinner, with me making the pasta.

My sister Debbie got me started making pasta a few years back.  She got a pasta machine as a gift and while visiting once, we made pasta together. I was hooked.  So Debbie, the world has you to thank (or blame) for me forcing my pasta on the general public!

Pasta begins with dough.  My recipe for pasta dough is:

2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup of water
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Dump the flour in a bowl and make a "volcano" in the middle.  At home, I do this on a board, but I don't have one here (yet) so I used a bowl.

Whisk the eggs, water, oil, and salt together and pour it into the volcano.

Mix and stir, then need the dough until you get a nice ball.

Wrap it in plastic and let it sit for 1 hour.

I made three batches.  The color of the pasta was beautiful.  I think it was the eggs.  The yolks of Danish eggs are very orange!

I have a basic pasta machine, hand cranked with rollers that can be adjusted to make the dough thinner and thinner.  Mary went to the local hardware store and bought a wooden broom handle.  I hung it from the ceiling and presto, one pasta drying rack!

When the dough is ready, I cut each ball into eight pieces and start cranking them thru the machine to kneed the dough.

Once kneeded, I run the piece of dough thru the machine five times, each time moving the rollers closer together.  This makes the dough thinner and stretches it out.

After it is thin enough, I then run it through the spaghetti cutters.

And sixteen pieces of dough later, you get this.

Mary made the sauce.

And we all had a wonderful time!

It's nice to be back writing my blog again.  I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do!

(And I didn't forget about the third dough ball.  I am making that today for us to eat later in the week!)