Summer Get Away to the Countryside, sort of...

One of the tasks that someone needs to take up when Morten's parents are out of town is feeding their none-too-friendly cat. Fortunately, they live less than an hour from the city and there are two brothers to split the responsibility. On our turn to serve the cat creme fraiche and ham, this cat is a king I tell you, we took the opportunity before Morten started his job to just relax a few days away from the city. One of the nice things about time at casa di Stummann is the garden and eating al fresco, outside. Here is a nice pic of his mom's garden, inviting don't you think?














Another fun thing about the garden in the summer is all the ripe fruit we can snag, some of which I don't even know what to do with. In addition to cherries and strawberries are ribs, solbær and stikkelsbær. So, what are those? Well to be honest I didn't know, since I had never eaten any of them, so had to look up their names.

This one is ribs, know what it is? They are rather sour if eaten alone, but I made a nice ribs and appelsin (orange flavor) kage (cake) with them...
















So these are red currents. What about the pic below? They look a bit like blue berries and the Danes make jam out of these...


















They are black currants (solbær). Then there were these things (below), bigger than grapes and a similar color but they weren't ready yet...but they begin turning a little pinkish when they are ready. Any ideas?














These are stikkelsbær or gooseberries. Interestingly my dad told me it is illegal to grow these in Maine (maybe in many other places in the US too) due to some virus they have that affects other plants. Hmmm. Still have to find a recipe for these since we will probably bring home a bunch on our next visit to casa di Stummann. Any tips?

As much as I adore Copenhagen sometimes it IS nice to relax and have the convenience of getting around by car for a few days and taking day trips to the forest or the beach. Here is a pic of me as we rested for a bit at a lake in GribSkov (Grib Forest) after a nice walk...ahh what a nice day!