A kitchen without an oven.

One of the disadvantages of choosing an apartment overseas is finding one with all the features you want. In Aarhus, as a foreigner, there is such a huge housing crunch that just finding an apartment at all can be a feat. We must have written to more than 20 landlords with vacancies in our desired region of the city and heard back from only 5 of them: all with "Sorry, it's already rented". We were lucky and a friend hooked us up with his landlord as soon as a vacant apartment became available in his building. So, we rented the apartment, site unseen, two weeks before we moved halfway across the world, going off of a couple pictures our friend took with his phone from the entryway as the floors were being refinished.

When we got here, we found a gorgeous apartment with 3 rooms, great molding details and a small but cozy kitchen. Everything looked perfect. Upon closer inspection, we realized that the apartment did not have an oven, only a glass cooktop, a toaster, and a microwave. Now, this wouldn't be an issue for the average Dane who apparently eats a lot of open faced sandwiches on rye bread (I know, I'm stereotyping), but not for someone like me who loves to bake and uses an oven for braising and roasting all the time. One of the drawers in the kitchen was even filled with all of the baking ingredients (baking soda and powder, deerhorn salt, potash, vanilla, etc) you need to make Danish cooking and treats. What a horrible way to pour salt on the wound!

Needless to say, one of the first things we had to do was find the largest, affordable toaster oven we could. The one we found is large enough to roast a chicken but not a turkey or a duck. There goes my visions of cooking an American Thanksgiving feast for my new Danish friends. But, I can still make all of my favorite baked dishes like potatoes gratin, lasagne, pulled pork, brownies and cake, the list goes on and on. Now I'm making myself hungry.

Here is our kitchen now, with two toaster ovens (a little one for toast, a big one for baking), a glass cooktop, and our awesome retro bread box. The sink is to the side with separate faucets for hot and cold water. Luckily the hot water is the perfect temperature for washing dishes and the cold water is perfect for drinking. Our kitchen may look like it needs some updating, but the food coming out of it is delicious as is.

So tonight, for my first inaugural recipe, I am braising brisket for 6 hours in my little oven.