Happy New Year! And Happy The-Morning-After

Time just flies when you are having fun. Here we are again, ready for the New Year celebration and arrival of 2014, and it seems like just a few days ago we were wishing everyone a Happy 2013.

Our traditional New Year kransekage by the recipe of Claus Meyer baked and decorated, champagne chilled, fireworks bought, the outfit is ready, so now we have a bit of time to reflect over the past 12 months and be grateful for all the wonderful things, new opportunities and challenging experiences this year has brought us. 

Happy New Year to you all and a great, fun celebration tonight! And to ensure you meet the morning-after in your best shape, here're a few tips and recipes on how to deal with over-indulging on a new year night. HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Baking Spree

There is no better time to over-indulge in all our favourite foods (and drinks) than Christmas. We went on a true baking spree this holiday season, starting with oatmeal-chocolate Christmas cookies, moving on to an insanely delicious, rich and decadent chocolate cake with a funny name of Kladdkaka (aka chokoladekage med fudge-frosting): we found this amazing recipe on our favourite Danish baking blog Cute Carbs. And once you had enough of all things chocolate, you may want to try our old times favourite, albeit in a new shape: this mouth-watering Ukrainian cheese-cake, aka Syrnyk, is a real treat (forever thank you Nata:)
Happy Holidays !

All I Want for Christmas

It seems just yesterday we were celebrating Easter, and voila, it's less than 4 days left till Christmas. This year it hasn't really been all traditional Christmassy, and were running a risk of doing any Christmas shopping at the airports duty-free. With so many days and nights spent away from home on business in the past few months, this Christmas is especially sweet and cozy, and we are so looking forward to family hygge: just staying in, enjoying our gorgeous little Christmas tree, unwrapping all the presents, over-indulging in Christmas food, sipping delicious cocktails, laughing, stopping to smell the roses, and just being grateful for this wonderful year. Merry Christmas !

Have a wonderful week

What is your definition of a perfect weekend? 
Here in Copenhagen, a few things that made just such a weekend, include the following - in no particular order: a rich, spicy, delicious Bloody Mary, first snow caught on Christmas decorated Stroeget, Game of Thrones marathon on HBO, home-made Apple Crumble with nougat ice-cream, a walk in a beautiful Frederiksberg Have (Gardens) and of course tonnes of sunshine this morning. Now, just one more episode of Thrones, and we are fully recharged and ready for the week ahead. Have a good one!

Staying in

Sometimes, if we are lucky, there are these jewels of a weekend: sleeping in, for many-many hours, uninterrupted, no plans, no trips, no pressure of waking up at 4am next day to fly on business somewhere… Just staying in. Enjoying the view from the terrace. Catching up on reading, with some really good books. TV-drama-marathon with the best new tv-series. Indulging in some home spa treatments. And of course eating lots of yummies, with fresh coffee and hot chocolate throughout the day. Bliss.
Have a wonderful, cozy weekend.

Living it up in Berlin

Planning a trip to Berlin soon? Here's a fun and elaborate definite guide to Living it Up in Berlin from Refinery29. Tell us of your favourite hot spots in cool and cozy Berlin!

Beware of burnout

Have you been working (too) hard lately? To prevent and proactively mitigate any signs of serious stress, check out this article in the Huffington post: 4 Red Flags That You're Headed for Burnout. Our own health is in our own hands, and it's important to watch out for the loved ones, too. Now if you see any of these signs in yourself or those close to you, you know what to do, asap.

Fall hues

What are your favourite colours this autumn? Ever since the trees turned golden and red here in Northern Europe, and the temperature dropped to +10C, we started craving richer, warmer, deeper hues, when it came to the choice of a nail polish, eye shadow or lipstick. On a recent business trip to Paris, we could not get enough of Tom Ford amazing beauty collection at Gallerie Lafayette (thank you Blandine :), that includes fantastic eyeshadows in Silvered Topaz offset by our new favourite lipstick in Bare. 

And with nail polishes, there is even a better choice, and our most coveted colours this autumn are teal and emerald (Sally Hansen Jungle Jem and Essie Vested Interest respectively), rich plum, burgundy and hot chocolate (Sally Hansen Plum Luck and Dior Purple Revolution. Vaidochka and Natalka, you rock), and finally the perfect grey (Essie's Cocktail Bling 203a). What are your autumn colour recommendations?

Autumn yummies: pumpkin pie cupcakes

This super yummy, gorgeous little pumpkin pie cupcake is our new favourite go-to dessert this fall. It takes max 30 min to whip them up, and then you are rewarded with an amazingly moist and delicious cupcake that tastes like real autumn. Enjoy!

Succeeding in business as a woman

What are your thoughts and personal experiences in getting to the top in business - THE corner office - whether it's a large corporation, academia, politics, or building your own business from scratch? You may want to read this article from The New York Times, an honest take by four women, on what it means to succeed in business as a woman. Let us know what you think!
P.S. And thank you Cami :)

Pumpkin season

Are you ready yet for Halloween? We are just back from the US where absolutely everything is decorated in a true Halloween style: restaurants, street lights, shopping malls, with tons of candy corn everywhere and pumpkin-rich desserts, lattes, sauces, you name it. Inspired by the abundance of pumpkins this season, we have carved our very own little Halloween Pumpkin family, and are now planning to bake with pumpkin for the rest of the month. Our favourite recipes include this decadent pumpkin chocolate cheesecake, light and delicious pumpkin apple bake, and some new ones we recently came across at the Cup of Jo. What are your favourite pumpkin recipes this season? 

Good TV: look who is back

(Photo: Kent Smith, Showtime)

Did you have a chance to indulge in a Homeland marathon on DR3 last weekend? We caught just a few episodes from season 2, and they reminded us just how cool and thrilling the whole Homeland thing is. We therefore can't wait to see the first episode of season 3 on Wednesday october 2 on DR1: it is expected to get even darker and more dramatic.

And what about the Breaking Bad? How do you think that saga would end? American viewers will have the pleasure of the series finale already tonight, and we are hoping to catch the re-run's while travelling to the US next week!

Fresh Apple Yogurt Coffee Cake

This super easy, incredibly moist apple yogurt cake can either be served warm, fresh from the oven - with a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream or creme fraiche, or cooled down the day after - ideal companion to your fresh morning coffee. Delicious either way.

Brunching in Frederiksberg: Ipsen & Co

Looking for a hyggeligt brunch place in Copenhagen? Cafe Ipsen & Co on Gammel Kongevej in the heart of Frederiksberg is just what the doctor ordered: it looks and feels super cozy, stylish, warm, delicious. We love their cappuccino, carrot cake and fudge brownies with coffee frosting, and you can also find more serious food in case you get hungry. Have a fantastic weekend!

Don't Worry Be Happy

Photo: courtesy of United Nations

The latest UN World Happiness report is out, and guess who's #1 in the Ranking of Happiness in 2010-2012? Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands and Sweden are leading the pack. Want to know why? Check out the report, which provides an interesting insight into evaluation criteria (that includes GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, perception of corruption, social support, generosity), as well as the trends, changes in results in the latest report vs the data captured in earlier research, and much more. Food for thought!

New favourite cupcakes

If you've never lived in Scandinavia, the whole fascination with 'lakrids' (liquorice) might be foreign to you. It is an acquired taste, yet once you are in, you'd never leave the Danish shores without a pack of Heksehylle, Tyrkisk Peber or Choco-lakrids almonds. So imagine our delight when we came across this recipe by the Cute Carbs: liquorice cupcakes with red currant AND a liquorice frosting. Heaven. And very easy to make. These are our absolute favourite cupcakes this season. Thank you CuteCarbs!

Art Copenhagen

If you are quick, you will still catch the last day of the Art Copenhagen in Forum running between 11am-5pm today. It is an international Art Fair for contemporary art with lots of beautiful, different, thought provoking pieces. There is a lovely atmosphere there, too, for enjoying art while drinking your latte or a glass of wine. Totally worth a visit. P.S. Thank you Natalia and Carsten!