Episode 2: The 8 Month Danish Winter

Hygge, Candlelight, Comfort Food & Surviving the Darkness

Ever wondered what it’s like to survive a Danish winter?
In this episode of The Scandi Shift, Meg & Selena dive into the reality of Denmark’s darkest season—from 3:30pm sunsets to hygge, candles, comfort food, and learning to bloom in the cold as expat mums.

We chat about:

• Why Danish winter feels so long
• Hygge & candlelight culture
• Mormor mad + comfort food nostalgia
• Surviving winter with kids in Copenhagen
• Tips for building community in the darkness

Resources mentioned:

• Winter Survival Guide link- Available on our website!
• Kid-friendly museum ideas- Available on our website!
• Email us at TheScandiShift@gmail.com
  
  

Denmark winter tips, hygge lifestyle, Scandinavian culture, expat life Denmark, Copenhagen family activities.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to the Scandy Shift, the podcast where two expat moms talk honestly about surviving, thriving, and building a happy life in Denmark. I'm Selena and I'm Meg.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

And today we're going to talk about what we're sitting in right now: the eight-month Danish winter.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yes, coming off the lovely Christmas season. When Elle's sitting smack bang in the heart of darkness, so to speak. Yes. So let's talk about what makes that tough and what can actually make it pretty wonderful, actually, at times.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah, I I do find that we find a way to make it quite quite nice, right? Yeah. So just to be fun, I did pick a bit of like information about winter in Denmark. So here's some facts, right? For those who are not directly in it or will be in it soon. So number one, in December, Copenhagen gets as little as seven hours of daylight. Some days even feel shorter when it's cloudy. Like today, it's crazy cloudy. Is it even the daytime? I don't know.

unknown 1:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

So the sun rises after 8 30 a.m. and sets around 3 30 p.m. in the midwinter. So to put that into context, that means we wake up in the dead of night, right? Uh my son's like, but mama, it's still dark out. I'm like, no, honey, it is the morning. Dead of night, we wake up, we go to work, and we come back, and it is dark again. Like honestly dark. We are living in the dark all day. It is a little depressing. Right. And if you're in an office, you don't see the quote cloudy sun at all. But wait, how does this compare to San Francisco then? So coming from San Francisco, there's actually quite a bit of light. Like obviously, we have seasons in terms of the the winter going and it does get dark, but it probably doesn't get dark until about like 5 30, 6 o'clock. Oh wow. Yeah. That's long days. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty long days. And you know, I grew up on the East Coast. And so I think that's a little bit closer to the grayness factor and like a wintery weather factor, closer to this. And even in DC, you know, the winter time is gray and it is dark, but it's still getting dark around five, five fifteen, not 3:30 in the afternoon. So a few more, right? So Denmark can go weeks without direct sunshine. So our feeling that we don't see the sun isn't just a feeling, it is actually correct.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

That is literally what's happening right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

We're like, there's something called the sun that may or may not exist, but we may see it. So in January, in fact, winter skies are often described as 50 shades of gray. I know. Not the book, not the book. A little less spicy. But soft, muted, and low. Wait, maybe that is like the book.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

I don't think that's like the book.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

So Deans call the deep winter period the muktil. I think I said that right. The dark time. Though it's not as extreme as our friend Norway. Right? And then despite the darkness, Denmark ranks among the happiest countries, right? That's why we all moved here. Despite the darkness, we are one of the happiest countries. And it's really thanks in part to Hooga community and really becoming the masters of indoor oziness.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yeah. And actually, speaking of Hooga, let's talk about something now that Denmark truly does best.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Yeah, you're right. So Hooga is amazing. I love Hooga. I even bought that book, the one that with the New York Times bestseller, The Little Book of Hooga, which I think almost every American who's interested in anything Scandinavian owns. And they now have a second one. Oh, really? What's that about? Uh some offshoot of happiness. Oh clearly I didn't buy that one. But honestly, in all this darkness, hooga is what allows us to bear through it, right? The darkness is exactly what pushes us toward hoog. And it's like the Danish answer to this season.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah, right. Like the darkness sets the stage and hooger is the way you soften it. Oh, yes. All right. So let's get into it. So I think it's important that we put a little bit of a disclaimer on this because we are not saying that hoogh only exists when it's dark, cold, rainy. Yes. No. We're just saying, you know, that it kind of comes into its own and thrives at this time of year. But it is actually an all-year-round concept.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yeah. And this is the other thing, hoog, how we say it, even before we get in there, the word is so hard. We clearly are not Danish. The way the Danes say hooga, it just rolls off the top. Right?

SPEAKER_01 5:15

It's very soft.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

It's very soft. And I don't quite say it correctly, like huge. And then there's every variation. So you guys, you will hear us say this probably five different ways throughout this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yes. I I think I've heard it all from us foreigners like hoogy. Let's get higgy with it. That it is as close as possible. Hoogge. Yes, exactly. Okay, well, on if we talk about my home, I think I have these three small kids, right? So one's the playground. That is my life. After school, after daycare, summer, spring, fall. We are hanging out on playgrounds. I know there's a lot of parents listening to us right now going, mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. So because that's really off the menu, we started doing simple things like Monday movie night. And yes, it is TV, but you know what? It's so cozy. They sit under a furry blanket, they're all bunched together on the sofa watching a different Disney classic every week. And it just takes the edge off the fact that we are not out, you know, running around, especially when it's raining. And it's something they look forward to. And it's pretty nostalgic for me because I remember a lot of these as a kid as well. Okay, so we'll be over next Monday. Because that sounds lovely. So that's obviously been a big hit. It's something they look forward to. But we also tend to do a lot of the creative stuff now during winter. Um, we also invite friends over, and we do uh pizza wine night. Yeah, also been a big hit, unsurprisingly, with the parents mainly. And so it's like a group play date, something for everyone. And then for me personally, as you know, like I love a cozy small wine bar, candlelights, buzzing atmosphere. Yeah, one of my longtime favorites is, and I don't even know if I'm saying this name correctly, so this is another word, but Bibendum. Bibendum could be bibendum down on Nansen's Gale, just off the lakes. Yeah, it's just a super cozy place. And in this time of the of year, it's just so lovely being in there, having a nice glass of red. And then another one I can recommend is Milo. That's also steamy windows, kind of, you know, candles burning in every window. Steamy windows. Is that going back to Fifty Shades of Grey? Yeah, there's a theme emerging here.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah. But I feel like January is the true kickoff to the hookah season, right? We're coming off this hooglet time of Christmas and parties and festivities, and the Danes do Christmas early, right? Like November 1st starts and bam, the Christmas lights are up, the Christmas decorations are out, they are not wasting any time. So it is coming because they're like, hey, the winter's coming, the darkness is coming. How much light can we finally get up here? And so once you are forced to bring your Christmas lights down, it's like, all right, what do you do about hookah post-Christmas? So we're in that period now where you do start to just bring in candlelight more. And it, you're right, it's a textures. We're talking about this really soft, cozy blanket. For us, you know, we're still learning the art. I shouldn't say we. I am. I'm sure my husband has it relatively downpacked, being Danish. He has like his entire history of his life has had a hooga theme going through it. But we are still kind of figuring out what it looks like in our house. And I started lightly, right? Even before the darkness fit, I started putting candles on our table. We'd have it at night. It's almost like family remote romantic dinner time at all times. But we're really hitting a stride. I've got the great candle here on the table. I have another side candle. But I will be honest, I don't have candles everywhere because I am terrified that between my dog and my child, we will burn the house down.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Yes. That is also a fear of mine. So yeah, we keep it probably safe. Yeah, I hate to say this blasphemy, but we probably use more LED candles than the average game, just from a safety perspective.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Watch out, you might be deported with LED.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

And I I never realized before actually that we have a real Game of Thrones tone to this episode of like winter is coming, darkness is here.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Put as much fur out as possible, light the torches. Maybe we didn't realize, but like the north is really in Denmark. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

I'm also from the north, so that's true. Yeah, it makes sense. Alright, so because uh Danes take couge and candlelight so seriously, we couldn't do this episode without including a little bit about candles. Yeah. So we're back to a few facts here because I think it's important that we set the stage just on how much Danes do love candles. Yeah. So Denmark is literally king of candle consumption. Wait, what? Yeah. So if you're talking wait, I need to just put this in context. Yes, obviously, Denmark is like six million people, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Everyone, if you don't realize quite how small Denmark is, it is a relatively tiny country, among the tiniest. Yeah, surrounded by generally much bigger countries.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah. So in terms of revenue, of course, the US, your homeland, that takes the trophy. So we just have so many people. Leagues ahead. Yeah, exactly. Leagues ahead.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

One person could buy one candle per year, and we'd still be yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Exactly. So this is actually quite impressive for Denmark. So in terms of per capita, so per person spend on these candles, seven dollars twelve cents per person. And they're quite far ahead. Oh, whoa. Yeah. So Danes sure love their candles. So that's just setting the scene a little bit. Okay, so we thought what could be fun for you guys this time is we talk a little bit around uh the candle culture, where you tend to find candles, some of the events actually that are candle specific. Yeah. So okay, if we talk candle culture, I kind of like that candle culture versus counterculture. It is the secret ingredient to achieving couge. And I'm not even sure it's a secret ingredient, to be honest. I think if you think couge, you will probably naturally go to candle burning. Yeah. And especially in winter. But it is a great ambiance creator, warm light, etc. So that's really, I would say, the candle culture here in Denmark. Let's not forget about the Advent candles. So for anyone who's recently moved here and is not familiar with this, and it is especially a big thing with kids, I have to say, here are two ways you can do this. You can burn a candle each Sunday, so the Advent Sundays on the build up to Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Right, four the four Sundays before Christmas, regardless of calendar December or not. It's the four Sundays.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, it's usually last Sunday in November, and then it builds up to Christmas. And they burn a whole candle on that Sunday. So this varies in like size, in whether they're centered or not, but the main thing is you burn it all the way down, and that's a tradition.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Okay, so I have a confession. I think we did it wrong. And we we bought the four different sizes from IKEA, of course. The four different sizes, and so we burned them where like the tallest went to meet the second tallest, and then the two go to meet the third, and then the fourth.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

That's what you'd and this is kind of what we're talking about a little bit today. It's like we all come from a different place. We're giving some information what we think is actually important as us foreigners know. Yeah, but you can do with that whatever you will. I mean, we don't have to assimilate. We talked about this in the last episode. We absolutely can make this your own. So that's that's your way, Meg. Yes. And the other way on advent candles, and I think this is the popular one with kids because they tend to make them in schools or burner hair or whatever in the daycares, is you can get really silly-looking candles. So the gnomes, the Nissa. This time my elders had a snowman with like a the hat was the bit that you burn, so it was like really, really tall black hat on the snowman, and then they count from one to 24, and every day you burn them. So that you gotta remember, I think there's been some years that we've just completely forgotten, and we still shamefully had that candle in our house in like March. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

And we still hadn't burnt it down. Okay, so we had we've tried this. We tried this before we moved here. We got a Christmas candle, right? So the advent candle, and we obviously they're not easy to get in the United States. So I bought it on Amazon. No plug, I'm just saying where we got it. And uh, unfortunately, we got like whatever we could get, and even then it was rather expensive, but it came and it was like kind of a cheap candle. So the thing like burnt, like it burned unevenly. It was dripping wax everywhere, and it was taking quite a long time to get to the next day. So we were like, all right, we'll just keep burning. We went off to go get some things done. We both forgot the candle was burning. We left the house. We left the house, we came back, the candle had gone down 10 days. Oh my and I was like, oh my god, this is how houses set a light.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

And yeah, it was in a real candle like fireproof thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

So yeah, I uh yeah, I am a little bit traumatized by the Avent candle, but uh, I think it is a necessity here.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

But it's yeah, it is. And it's so I think I I was never aware of it until I moved here, but we have it as a tradition in my husband's family. We get together and we make these, and that's why you will see so many stores, like especially more of the creative stores, where they sell all of the equipment that you need to make your own advent candles. So I think that is a big, big tradition around the Christmas period. So it's definitely deserved a mention in here. The other thing around candles, and some of this is specific to Denmark, and some of it is more general, some of the events that feature candlelight. So across winter, and I think this is a fantastic thing. We we went to one, we took my mom to one. Yeah. Um, a Phil Collins special. That was super lovely. Instrumental.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Phil Collins was not there. I just have to. Yeah, Phil Collins did not make an appearance, but we definitely hummed along and got a little bit of an angry eye for it.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Yeah, that's true. It was it was an amazing venue. Yeah, they sold wine, so obviously we were extremely happy when we arrived that we could drink wine. And it yeah, it was instrumental, and they were on a stage of a four uh four, I'm not one string ornament.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

What yeah, four string instrumental musicians.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Anyway, they were extremely talented, and they did all of the classics, and the stage that they were on was just completely covered in I have to say, LED candles because it was they were in Oddfellow. This if you haven't been there, by the way, get yourselves down to Oddfellow and take a look. It's a lovely, beautiful old building.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

I didn't know it until we went, and it was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Really, really nice. So definitely worth a visit down there. But if they've got any events on, sign up just for that because it's a really good place. And I I guess one of the things that before moving here that you you can come into contact with this candle culture overall is the Danish design.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

So they have really cracked the code on stylish candle holders. And it sort of makes sense because Danes really invest in their homes, in furniture, in their kitchens. So it makes sense that they would also, if they're big on candles and they're burning more candles than any anybody else per person in the world, you need to put that into something nice.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah, and I mean, I think that before you know anything about Denmark, you know Danish design. You know Danish furniture design.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Everybody knows Georgiansen.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows that. Uh oh my gosh. And then I'm completely blanking on the names of it. But there is a long history of Danish furniture design, Danish like cultural design, the idea, like even architecture. There's huge, very, very, very famous architects around the world that have made an impression. And it was always about how do you address your everyday life with functionality. So it makes sense that you're gonna say the functionality of candle holders aren't just going to be utilitarian, they're gonna be a piece of art into themselves.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, exactly. But I think that's pretty much what I wanted to say on the candle stuff.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

So I mean unless you want to add anything else. No, I mean, other than the fact that interestingly enough, they don't do a lot of scented candles here. That is not a huge thing. There are some, right? And there's a few brands that I I particularly really like, but it is about just the light and the ambience and not so much the scent. It's not quite as big here as, say, candles in the US are very scented, a lot of scenting there.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

And I think, and maybe we will touch on this in another episode. Yeah, um, I don't know quite how it would fit in, but there is a outright anti-perfume culture. Yes. And it it should they have they have this whole line called neutral, and every supermarket has their own line of zero percent perfume. And of course, it's not the most healthy anyway, and neither are candles. So you put those two together. It's maybe they were like, we're not gonna give up candles, but we'll give up on perfume.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Yeah, we'll get rid of the perfume. And I will say I do love that because coming usually people find it odd that I'm American and I really don't like scent. So we don't use perfumed things at all. I do use a perfume because why not? But no, we don't do it. So I was actually really happy when I got here and I found it easy to get things. But now that we've actually set the mood with candles, let's dish out some cozy comfort food. And it's time to savor the spirit of more more mel. What is it? Selena, you told me about this the other day, and I was like, what is this fantastic thing you're talking about?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

I know. And I was thinking, what would be my definition of Mormon Mel? So before I go into that, more more mel, of course, directly translates to grandma's food.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah, like, but not just grandma, right? It's the mother of your mother. Gaines have a word for grandparents that directly tell you whose parent it is. So the mother's mother. Mother's mother's food.

unknown 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

I think MoMormel, for me at least, feels like a warm hug from your favorite grandmother. And even though it's a traditional old school way of cooking from way back when, it's still kind of strutting its stuff in Copenhagen and across Denmark, and it has definitely made some serious comebacks over the past years. And I feel like it's nostalgia on a plate.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

That's maybe the best way. I love that. Like with every bite, you're transported back to some favorite memory.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

And we all love reminiscing. Yeah. You know, it's like flipping through a scrapbook or a photo album of family memories, you know. Yeah, really like comforting traditional home cooked food. And I know if every one of us comes from having some of those. We all have our own personal favorites. It's just that they had coined a term normal male. Yeah. And it's very clever. And just to give some examples, it's things like fricadella. Um, bolla ikai. So wait, we just sign for fricadella Danish meatballs.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Yeah, but not the Ikea Swedish meatballs. We'll get into this another time, but it is a much larger meatball and it's not round, it's actually flattened a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah. They are very good. Yeah, really good. Um, and bolla ikai, so meatballs and curry sauce. You put me right the other day and I was literally drooling. I really want to. My favorite. Actually, it's incredibly kid friendly as well. So there you go. Top tip for anyone looking to make Danish food at home. They'll be eating it in the daycares and at school, guaranteed. Guaranteed. And that's another place actually where Mormon Mel features quite a lot. Is it gonna hang out? Yeah, yeah, for sure. They obviously are very healthy. I just have to put a disclaimer out on this. We are talking kindly and warmly about Mormormel. It's not necessarily that we're saying eat this stuff every day. Oh no. It is certainly not the most healthy. You can definitely make healthier versions.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Especially not if you're doing a reset January where you're probably adding calories during dry January. This is not a diet-friendly cleanse meal. This is good for the soul. This is good for the soul. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

And another fun fact: so during uh the pandemic, this just had like the country here, and I think actually across the world, but specifically in Denmark, they just had this comfort food glow-up. So Mormon Mel made a huge comeback. And people were turning uh kitchens into like cozy cafes, and you would invite your one or two people on the list that you were allowed to fraternize with during the pandemic on lockdown within your bubble. That's what you cut a feed. I forgot that's what it, yeah, bubble. So whatever your bubble was, they would get an invite and they'd come over, and then you just be sharing this like delicious food. And the reason it made a comeback is I know here, and we live in Copenhagen, right? And especially in cities, yeah, people will always lean more towards healthy. Yes. So a healthier lifestyle, healthier food, working out more, generally, as generalizing, of course.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Not everybody, but we also do a lot less labor, right? Like we're tight on computers, we're in offices more often when you're in big cities.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

We're not really getting in the steps in, so we have to do something to make up.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

We get some pedals in, which we'll talk about, like biking, but we do not get a lot of steps.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, and so I think we exhausted recipes. Yeah. So you start with all, you know, you go-to healthy stuff, and then you just we just got sick of it, you know, like you got so bored of eating the same thing. We never got a chance to go out to a restaurant. We could order takeaway, of course, but I mean, not everybody wants to live on takeaway. And it's certainly most people probably can't afford to either, yeah, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Very expensive. Eating out and takeaway here is incredibly expensive. And that's me coming from San Francisco and having lived in New York for years, what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah, I same. Yeah, lived in London, ate out all the time, came here and was like, oh, I realize now why no one eats out.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Although we say that, and yet every restaurant is filled with people.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

You're all internationals. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're the stupid foreigners like us that are like frivolous and for some reason just like, oh, it's worth it. It's worth it. That's probably because we're all trying to meet people.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

We need to get out, but I mean, it's like people started channeling their inner Mormore because you wanted to get creative and then you go back to these old classics. So they it actually really did start to make a comeback. And then, of course, you can go out past the pandemic. Yeah, some of the restaurants that opened specialize that you can go to Mormore's Cafe and enjoy More Mormel there.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

So Mormor's Cafe is gonna have to live up to something because you've taken a coined name, you've named yourself after the restaurant. You better be serving the best Mormore food ever.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah, it's true. And and actually, I still need to go there. It's on my list, so maybe you and I should do that. That's our to-do after my after my January cleanse, you know. I have to reset. Yeah. But you can also, I mean, some of like there's keddo and then there's Noma. So you go you can also go upscale. They've taken well, Noma is the best restaurant in the world. So you say like a jump upscale, not just a sidestep. That's that's yeah, kado is probably a jump up, and then NOMA is like a leap, a leap. Yeah, it's quite budget busting. But if you're really into food, then go. Yeah, and obviously go experience it.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

And it's worth it, right? Like I think that at some point everybody should have that quintessential, this is the best restaurant in the world experience. Just save up for it, do it, and why not do it? Spend it on more milk.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yeah, I agree. And I think it goes hand in hand with hooge, hand in hand with candlelight. Yeah. So you can see there's like a theme.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Theme warming your you're warming the ambience, you're warming your soul, and you're warming your tummy.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Yep. And now I'm really hungry because we keep talking about this. Oh my gosh. But what I will just say, just to wrap this up, because I also have a question for you, Meg, is we we talked about it in the last episode, and I think this will be a fairly continuous theme because we get asked all the time, you know, how did you meet friends, make connections? More mommel and the hoogie concept, combining those things together is a great way to make new connections. So if you're new in town or you're just looking for some different ways to connect with colleagues, friends, whatever it is. Top tip host a small dinner party, keep it small, and serve some of the classics. I think your guests will love it. And honestly, in the winter months, dinner parties are all the rage here because it's too expensive to eat out all the time, takeaway, yeah. It's just a different type of food. You don't get much of the more classics through Walt and those places, right? Yeah. But that is my recommendation.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

It's also a good way to have a good night where you don't have to feel rushed, right? Because if you've got the kids, maybe everyone brings the kids over, you set up little beds, everyone can like the kids can go down, they can hang out, they can go down to sleep, you can continue having a hooklet evening, and then yeah, you can just have fun and then you know, wake them up or pile them into the cargo bike or the car and then go home. But it's a good way to be able to actually enjoy your night out, not feel rushed, and just host people.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Yeah, exactly. And I talked at the beginning about my personal favorite, bala ekai. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

What's your go-to dish? Okay, so we're still learning this, and you know, I I I try and eat healthfully as much as possible, but I I sometimes fail. So I will say my favorite dish comes from when my husband was sort of like courting me, so to speak. And I can't remember how what it's called in Danish, but it is translates to burning love. And it is pretty much, I think, a good quintessential mormo mel meal. So, which I guess is dungeon because mel and meal do me the same thing. I honestly love the name. You were dating? Yes, he served you burning love. Yes, and he served it to me on Valentine's Day. Yes. So it is really, really delicious mashed potatoes as a base. So he is a master at the potato, the mashed potatoes in particular. He basically makes it almost like mousseline style, very fluffy and smooth, like delicious, gourmet style mashed potatoes. And then you top it with sauteed onions and bacon. Now, not the tiny little bacon, it's like larger, big sort of chunks of bacon. Yeah, okay. Yeah, like uh like pork, uh, I don't know, the pork, not pork fat, but like, you know, the thicker bacon. I don't know what it is. Pork butt, pork fat? I don't know. Anyway, get your thickest slab of bacon you can get, and then you mix it with the onions and you put it on top, and it is pure heaven. Every bite is spectacular. It's now delicious. Oh yeah, it is probably 5,000 cal calories in one plate. So maybe he was wooing me and also making sure that I got chubby enough that nobody else would eat. But it landed. And he did use his cooking skills quite a bit to woo me in our early days. Like the very first thing he made for me was uh a dance panke. So basically crushed crepes, but done a little bit differently and just very, very perfect. So again, something that just makes you think of like cozy breakfast mornings. Like pancakes are my favorite things in the morning, but I won't eat them that often. And uh yeah, he he won me over between the dance capankea and the burning love. He he had my heart. He he grabbed me, threw my thummy.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Honestly, that sounds straight up delicious. So I think that would have that would have wooed me as well. So another top tip, listeners, if you're looking to woo someone with more male, burning love. It's a burning love. All right, but I am, and I think you are as well, curious to know what our listeners' favorite mom dishes. Yes. And maybe you're just new to this and you know you just heard it for the first time. But if you're not and you've actually taken a classic dish, maybe you've made it your own, we'd love to hear from you. So just write to us. We'll share our email again at the end of the episode.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah, absolutely. And once you settle into maybe you've created your first Mormon Mel, you've kind of gotten your candles, like you're settling into those winter rhythms. The next big question becomes what do you do with yourself and honestly, the kids for the next few months? I'm deferring to you on this because I have not mastered it. We arrived January of last year. We kind of got to skip through this a little bit. I had one place I went to, but I'm still a very big novice when it comes to entertaining my son in the winter months.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

It is a challenge, and I think this continues to be an ongoing challenge in our house as well. As I said before, I'm primary carer, right? So I pick the kids up, and then I have these three small kids full of energy. We go to some of the great playgrounds, and I think Copenhagen does playgrounds incredibly well.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

I mean every kid's paradise, you're in something, another new imaginative playground environment. And it's not even just playgrounds, right? Like you can walk downtown and there are little trampolines on the sidewalks. Everything is a little bit playful, both adults, but more importantly, like engaging your inner child and engaging your actual physical child.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

And and I mean, we're still a little hardcore because kids still need the fresh air and have run around. But I think during the week, especially when they're a little tired and it's dark, it's practically impossible to go onto the playgrounds. And they get a bit less fun. If any of you have ever been to these playgrounds, you know, there are a number of them dotted around the city that are staffed. Yes. They're staffed seven or six out of seven days when it's warmer, and then they slowly start switching down. They turn off the weekend day, then they lessen the hours and they close out the bike, so there's no bikes around the kids.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Anyway, the Oh, and so put the context of that so that people understand, because in the States this doesn't exist. So you have a playground, it's just whatever sitting built items to play on. But in Copenhagen, and I think Denmark as a whole has a lot of extra things in the playground. So they'll have tricycles and bicycles and go-karti-like things and toys that are out and little like indoor reading nooks and everything that a child can imagine that they want to play with in a playground or in their life that day. Like sometimes there's like gardens that they explore. It's in these playgrounds, right? So when we're saying like, oh, we're they're shutting it down a little bit, it's because it's these extras. They kind of get put away so that they're not, they don't become frozen and solid pieces of ice in the winter months.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

But yeah, it's true. They're fantastic, but they're not really a viable option once too really in January and it's cold and it's wet and it's dark. That makes it tricky. Yeah. So we have to get a little bit more creative with where we take our kids. Outside of the obvious contenders, such as Copenhagen Zoo, Tivoli, when it's open, you know, December and summer of November, and the big museums, there are actually some really cozy venues that often that offer the hoogie winter vibes. Yeah. And they still actually manage to keep the kids entertained for quite a long time. So a local favorite of mine is the Bernie Museum, so the the kids' museum in Flight Spare. Which I still haven't gone to yet, and it's on my to-do list this month. You should go. I mean, they do a bunch of free workshops for kids pretty much of all ages. And then one of them, for example, that we went to the other week, make your own cupcakes and then you eat them there. So, of course, it's extremely popular with kids.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

You have to sign up for that pretty early today. It's not like kind of uh books up.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Yes, and they don't charge, but you can just you just need to sign up. And then they even have their own currency in this museum. So of course, the small ones, they just love it and they talk about this after. Um, some of the others that we have on our family wish list is like Astronomisk Selfscape, so the observatory essentially in central Copenhagen, the Kunstal, Charlottenborg, and the Workers' Museum.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

Yeah. I've heard great things about the Workers' Me and Soon. And also, of all the things you listed, it's the one that's the easiest for us non-Danish speakers to understand. So don't worry, we're gonna put all of these in our show notes so that you haven't.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Yeah, I mean, what else can we say? It's a challenge. We felt like we couldn't talk about the eight-month winter without including something about how to entertain kids because it's questions that I get from friends that are more new here. Is what do you do? I mean, it rains all the time, it's really dark, it gets pretty cold. What do you do with your three kids, you know? So I'm quite used to answering these questions.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

But we put together a really helpful winter survival guide. So in addition to some of the list of the places that you mentioned on the show notes, we'll add, but um, the survival guide, it covers hookah ideas, like how to dress for winter, a shopping guide for adults and kids, importantly, especially because they're out and playing, our favorite indoor spaces, a build-off of what you just mentioned, and then you know, all the little things you need to know for your first winter here and beyond, like multiple winters here, because we all need a little bit of reminders of the good things to do here, especially if you start getting the like winter sadness, right? But the basic version of this uh survival guide is free on our site, and there's an expanded version for paid subscribers on our setup.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

And again, all information about this is pretty easy to find. Yeah. If you go into the website or you go through our Instagram, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

All pretty obvious how we're gonna. Yeah, we'll we make it as easy as as we possibly can, short of personally delivering it to your house.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

We would also really love to hear about your winter rituals, favorite adoptions of Hoogie. Yeah. Uh what are you doing at home, maybe even at work? Like that could be really fun as well. How's work making life bugger? Exactly. See, it's not an easy word. No. So write to us at thescandyshift at gmail.com and then join us next time when we cover bikes and bike culture.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Ooh, bikes and bike culture. Yeah, that's a that's a huge, huge part of what happens here in Copenhagen.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

Definitely Danish life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Definitely Danish. So thanks for spending part of your winter with us here on the Scandy Shift. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. It really helps others find us.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

And until then, stay warm, light a candle, and lean into Hoogis. Takfoy Day.