It’s Not You, It’s Me March 9, 2012

My parents' backyard. See? It's so peaceful, one loses all interest in blogging.

Oh, blog. You’re like a poor, neglected toy that’s been shoved into the bottom of the toy box and forgotten all about. Actually, it’s not that I haven’t wanted to write on you, it’s just that I’ve been pretty busy these last couple of months, and, well, you know. You get a little behind and the next thing you know an entire month has gone by without posting. Or even longer. Excuses, excuses, right? I was never any good at keeping a diary, either, if it’s any consolation.

Anyway, what have I been up to that’s kept me so dreadfully busy that I didn’t post? Well, mostly it was a nice, looooong visit to the US. Like, for-a-month-kind-of-long. We had originally planned to fly back to Indiana for Christmas as it had been a few years since I had been home for that holiday, but in the end, we decided it made more sense if I were to just fly back on my own in January and celebrate a “late Christmas” with my immediate family. Although I’m sad I didn’t get to see more of the extended family that I would have seen had I made it our annual Christmas Eve celebration, I’m glad I decided to wait and go from mid-January to mid-February. It brightened up an otherwise depressing time of year for me, and meant that family and friends had more time to visit and were less stressed than around the holidays.

I ended up getting to celebrate two Christmases, of sorts. The first was planned and with my parents, my brother and his family. The second was totally unexpected. I got together with my best friends from high school and even though we were celebrating one of their birthdays, they surprised me with awesome Christmas gifts. I got a lot of awesome things because I have awesome friends and they have awesome taste, but the cream of the crop? Check these puppies out:

The most AWESOME mittens in the world.

My friend made these for me. Did you truly take in what I just wrote? She MADE them for me! We are all convinced she either uses magic or has superpowers, because otherwise workmanship of this level is inexplicable.

So apart from raking in goodies and visiting friends and family, my visit to Indiana also included a lot of television, playing Mexican train dominoes, baking, playing Scrabble, and watching movies. And while I’m sure I could have found things to write about regarding the above, I figured I had paid all that money to fly over and be with loved ones, so it made more sense to do that versus typing away on a computer.

My best Fasching look to date.

Back in Germany, we celebrated Fasching a few weeks ago. I wore a fantastic fascinator that was handmade by my artist friend Jennifer Herrold. (If you ever need a portrait, by the way, Jennifer is your gal; she does excellent work. Click here to check out her website.)

Fasching was good fun, just as it was last year, although we made a bit of a rookie mistake. We were feeling a bit lazy so we decided to go later in the afternoon and catch the tail end of the parade rather than start on the other side of town at the beginning. Well, the downside to this strategy is that you get waaaay less goodies, as most have already been given away. We still got some stuff, but not nearly the spread from the previous year. Ah well, you live and you learn!

Oh! And I almost forgot: I passed all of German exams! I passed the one for the language school in case I’d like to continue studying with them, the culture, history and politics test for the government as well as the language test for the government. We’ll now get a little less than half of the money back from the government that we paid for the entire course. I think at some point I’ll probably want to enroll in a class again, but at the moment I’m enjoying my free time and I would want to be really prepared to dive in aggressively if I were to study again as we’d now be paying full price.

Well, I think that’s about it for now. And now that I’m back in the swing of things, I promise I won’t shove you to the bottom of the toy box again. Although I have recently discovered Pinterest, another totally addictive and somewhat pointless waste of time, and it does have a mighty, mighty strong pull….

Recent sunset in Würzburg.

Think Globally, Eat Locally May 13, 2011

I thought I’d take a bit of a detour from telling you about our vacation in France & Spain to share what I’ve been up to since coming home.

Apart from a few days when we had friends visiting, the weather here in Würzburg has been absolutely lovely in the past few weeks. We’ve enjoyed warm, sunshine-filled days with trees, shrubs and flowers bursting into bloom and filling our lounge with the most heavenly summertime smells.

Although in the middle of reading a couple of other books (North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell through a free email subscription service called The Daily Lit and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie), I decided I wanted a third read that’s in tune with the season, so to speak. So I picked out Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life from my library. I have many good books that I bought before the move to Germany and I’ve been saving up.

Kingsolver is my favorite writer. I was introduced to her work on the Tibetan plateau in 1999.

Back in college, I did a three-month long study abroad program in India, Nepal and Tibet. During the course of our three-week camping trip through Tibet, I became ill and had to spend a couple of days in my tent waiting for whatever illness it was to pass. (You don’t exactly find a lot of medical clinics in the remote regions of Tibet.) A friend I made on the program gave me two books to read: The Notebook, by Nicolas Sparks (which I’ll admit to both really enjoying and crying like a baby at its conclusion) and Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. I had never heard of Barbara Kingsolver and had no idea what to expect, but what I discovered was my favorite author and to this day, still my favorite novel. When I learned that Kingsolver was a graduate of my alma mater, DePauw University, I felt an even deeper connection to her and her writing. DePauw is a small, private liberal arts college in a small town in the middle of Indiana. Not that many people have heard of it (no, you’re probably thinking of DePaul in Chicago), and even fewer have attended. So to me, it’s a special connection. From that point forward, I began devouring Kingsolver’s works. She recently wrote The Lacuna, which is also buried in my library waiting for the rainy day when I will pull it out and treat myself. Kingsolver is a brilliant but not terribly prolific writer; I’ve learned that I need to squirrel away her works to tide me over until the next fix.

Anyway, I pulled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life out of my library a couple of weeks ago and decided the time was right to start reading it. The book is, as Kingsolver puts it, “Part memoir, part journalistic investigation…The story of a year in which our family deliberately fed ourselves on products grown close to home, and what we learned from the experience.” I’ve come to this book already knowing in advance what its general themes would be, and embracing the ideology behind it: that the food we consume should primarily come from local sources and not moved long distances. Kingsolver is definitely a locavore, but she also believes in eating food that is produced as naturally and healthily as possible, too.

While the Mr. and I can’t grow all of our food for a year in our shared, small garden here in Germany, I can try to buy as much of my produce as possible from local farms at the farmer’s market. I can try to buy organic produce and humanely raised, organic meat.  And if I’m not shopping at the Farmer’s Market, I can try to be knowledgable about where the produce I’m buying is coming from: Italy, a train ride away, or Argentina, where I’m guessing that however they’re shipping it, it’s using a heck of a lot more fossil fuel to get it here. It’s a small thing, checking a label and choosing something more local, but if we all did it more we could strengthen our communities and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.

While the book is a compelling read all unto itself, I love the recipe sections at the end of each chapter. The book is written following the calendar year, progressing through each season, and the recipes correspond with what’s in season at that time of year. I’m reading slowly, so I’m still in the late spring/early summer season. Asparagus and strawberries are in season here in Germany at the moment, so we’ve been eating much of both. I decided I would like to try a dessert recipe with rhubarb as it’s also in season. I decided to make this strawberry rhubarb crisp from the book:

3 cups strawberries, halved

3 cups rhubarb, chopped

1/2 cup honey

Mix together thoroughly and place in an 8-by-8 inch ungreased pan

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar; or a bit more, to taste (which I now have, thanks to my wonderful friend Fenella!)

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice (which I didn’t have, so I threw in a pinch of nutmeg)

1/3 cup butter

Mix until crumbly, spread over fruit mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes until golden

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. It smells heavenly when it’s hot, a little like cotton candy. When we had it on the first night, I found it sometimes tasted a little bitter, depending on the bite. Rhubarb is a very bitter vegetable (it’s actually not a fruit at all), and strawberries can also be quite acidic sometimes, so given the qualities of these two I think it tasted much better on the second day after the honey had soaked in a bit more. When I make it next time, I think I might consider reducing the fruit a little and increasing the crumble bit. But even with the recipe as is, it didn’t last long!

Hello…is it me you’re looking for? May 5, 2011

Greetings, all! It’s been a while since my last post, but happily my absence has been due to good things like vacations and friends visiting (yay!), not illness or apathy (boo!)

Since I last wrote, LOTS of things have happened:

1. I began my two-month long break from language class (hurray!), during which time I had planned to spend several hours a day EVERY day memorizing past lessons so I’d be totally ready for when class resumes in a couple weeks’ time. Well, apart from me answering basic queries in Spanish or French with my basic German (go me, right?!), not so much German has been practiced (uh-oh…).  I keep telling myself I still have a couple weeks’ time so all is not lost, but yeah…still not so much studying German so far. One thing I am feeling good about (but that was totally useless on vacation) is that I realized I actually do know waaaaay more German than Spanish or French. Every time somebody asked me something, I pretty much wanted to blurt out the answer in German or tell them I didn’t understand in German. Not particularly useful in France or Spain, but made me feel good all the same. (What also made me feel good was the Mr. was totally rubbish, too; he often said ‘oui’ in Spain and ‘Si’ in France.)  I’m starting to think there really might just be too many languages in Europe.

2. We went on vacation. Hurray! It was lovely. I think I shall write (a) separate post(s) as there is so much to say.

3. We celebrated Easter with the family. Hurray! I felt it went better this year as I did understand a bit more, at least when the conversation was nice and basic. I started drifting off and staring at ceiling cracks, however, when the conversation strayed into politics and I couldn’t follow. No bother; it was better, and that’s what counts.

4. We had good friends from Edinburgh visit us for a few days. Double hurray! A few days spent with friends and showing them the sights does wonders to help with homesickness, or in my case, more of a “friendsickness.” (I actually really enjoy living in Germany; I just wish my family & friends did, too.) Well, to be honest, I’m discovering that it somehow helps AND makes it worse all at the same time…because I’m reminded of just how much I miss having friends around.

5. I’m baking again. Hurray! (for my tummy, anyway, not so much for my waistline.) I baked American chocolate chip cookies again, and this time the Mr. helped as we only have a hand mixer and I find that once it gets to the “adding flour bit” my poor right hand (damaged from years of waitressing) can’t really cope. He kept asking me “when do we add the milk and water,” or something like that. To which I replied, of course, that you don’t add milk or water to chocolate chip cookies.  Now you need to imagine his snobby German accent: “What?!” he gasps. “You mean there’s only sugar, flour and fat in these things?! They’re like heart-clogging artery bombs! No wonder America is fat!!” Yeah, whatever. See if you get any of MY cookies, Mr. Poo-Poo Head. I seem to remember you scarfing down quite a bit of the last batch….That being said, this batch actually came out pretty flat and pancake-like, which really annoys me, especially as these are actually for guests. I’m hosting a sort of afternoon tea tomorrow and have baked the cookies and will shortly head to the kitchen to bake some cupcakes. The cupcakes should prove interesting. I bought a German cake mix in a box, so I’m going try and convert that to cupcake form.  Not sure how they’ll turn out, but at least I have the flat cookies as a back-up plan

So yeah…that’s pretty much the update. What’s new with you?

A Taste of Honey March 26, 2011

Now that we finally have a fully operational kitchen complete with a working oven, the Mr. and I have been bitten by the baking bug lately. The first baked masterpiece that graced our oven was a homemade streusel the Mr. decided to make last weekend. For those of you who don’t know what a streusel is, it’s basically a sweet bread on the bottom covered with a sugar/butter crumbled topping. It’s baked and the bottom is soft and chewy (as you would expect of bread), and the topping is also soft and chewy in the larger chunks or a bit crunchier in the smaller bits. You can even cover it in another sugar glaze once it’s out of the oven (which I did for my section because I quite like it), or leave it plain as the Mr. prefers.

A few nights later, the Mr. decided to make basically the same bread but minus the less healthy streusel topping. He even cut some of the butter and sugar, making small rolls that were slightly sweet as well as a braided hefezopf. We didn’t snap a photo of his, but it was similar to the one in the photo only with sliced almonds on top. The hefezopf was exactly the same as the smaller rolls, only braided. You can add all sorts of things, obviously, from raisins to nuts, but we both prefer a more simple hefezopf.

Now, with the Mr. having become such a baking fanatic in the last week, I figured it was my time to step up to plate and create something fantastic. Only I figured why make something German when I can buy all sorts of delicious breads and cakes from bakeries all over town? No, better to make something American or British that I really enjoy but can’t find here. My first thought was to make cupcakes slathered in thick buttercream frosting, but I’ve actually been craving chocolate chip cookies something fierce.

First step? Gathering the ingredients, of course. I begin going over our inventory of what we have. Flour? Check. White granulated sugar? Check. Salt? Check. Eggs? Check. Vanilla? Check. Butter/shortening? Check. Chocolate chips? No, but that shouldn’t be difficult – Germans love chocolate! Baking soda? Ummmm….nope. And brown sugar? Nope.  I ask the Mr. if he thinks the store will have brown sugar. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: “I need brown sugar for the cookies.”

The Mr.: “Didn’t I see brown sugar in the pantry?”

Me: “No, that’s sugar that is brown. That’s not brown sugar.”

The Mr.: What do you mean, ‘sugar that is brown but not brown sugar?’ It’s sugar and it’s brown.”

Me: “Yes, but American brown sugar is different…it’s soft and clumps together.” [I show him a photo online of American brown sugar.]

The Mr.: “Yeah, they don’t sell anything like that here. I’ve never seen sugar like that before.”

Me: “Oh. Great.”

So I google “can you make chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar?” and got all sorts of interesting results from “no, don’t do it! They won’t taste right!!” to “yes, we only make ours with white sugar.” What I discovered is that brown sugar is actually white sugar (gasp!) but with molasses added. That rocked my world, let me tell you. The irony to this story is that we actually had molasses up until recently. Back in Scotland, the Mr. had bought a tin of it for some strange reason, opened it, realized it wasn’t something he wanted to eat so it sat on a shelf for a long time and was even packed up and moved over to Germany. As I was going through boxes I discovered the sticky tin and puzzled over what to do with it before finally tossing it. I have no idea if it would still be good right now having been open for so long and unrefrigerated, etc. but I was sort of cursing the fact that I had had some up until recently, and able to see absolutely no purpose for it I threw it out suddenly needing it now. It figures. Anyway, I get to store and I begin searching for the three things I need: chocolate chips, molasses, and baking soda.

I get to the baking section and call the Mr. For some reason, no one here in Germany has labeled the baking soda as “baking soda” in English. The nerve….

Me: “What do they call baking soda here?”

The Mr.: “Uh, ‘backpulver.’ Look for ‘backpulver.’”

Me: “Are you sure? You’re definitely sure that’s baking soda and not baking powder, right?”

The Mr.: “Don’t we have baking soda in the cabinet? I thought I saw some.”

Me: “No, that’s not baking soda. That’s baking powder.”

The Mr.: “Isn’t that also the same thing?”

Me: “No. I don’t know why, but I know that it isn’t.” [This time the Mr. googles it and discovers that baking soda is in baking powder, but no – they are not exactly the same. He then tells me the possible names it might be labeled under: “Speisesoda,” ‘Backsoda” or “Speisenatron.” But he warns me that Germans don’t really bake with it, so I shouldn’t necessarily expect to find it. Luckily, I do spot it. One brand and one size, but hey – they have it!

Moving on…molasses, molasses, molasses. No, nowhere can I find it. I search the baking section, and then the section with honeys and jams but no luck. Apparently most Germans don’t require molasses for anything. Come to think of it, I had never required molasses for anything until this very moment. I had noticed when I was googling it earlier that you could substitute honey for molasses, thereby making your own “brown sugar,” so the “honey” version it is, I guess….

And finally the chocolate chips. This surprised me the most. Granted, I wasn’t in a huge grocery store, but still – no chocolate chips! Chocolate bars? Yes. Chocolate chips – or even small chunks – nope. Undeterred, I bought several bars of dark chocolate and decided to make my own chips.

Once the ingredients were in hand, everything went pretty smoothly.  It only took me maybe ten minutes to break up the two chocolate bars, and although the chunks weren’t exactly uniform they certainly didn’t taste any different. My other substitution was that I decided to do half butter, half shortening. No, Germans don’t sell or use Crisco here as far as I can tell, but I had brought some over from the US to Scotland a few years ago with the intention of making a pie but had never got around to it. Technically it was “best before” Oct. 2008, but I learned once on 20/20 or some show like that, that “best before” is really code for “this crap is so artificial it won’t ever really go bad.” Works for me. So yeah, what I like about doing 50/50 with the fat is that the butter adds flavor but the shortening helps insure the cookies aren’t as flat as pancakes, which is a pet peeve of mine.

All in all, I was very pleased with how they turned out. I told the Mr. that I thought they were probably a bit “drier” tasting than cookies made with brown sugar, but apart from that I couldn’t tell any real difference. I took a few to our upstairs elderly neighbors and advised them “eat them warm, and with a glass of milk.” The Mr. isn’t a huge fan of American baking and tends to prefer the German stuff, so who knows whether they will like them or not. Still, the Mr. has certainly been scarfing down a fair number of them with no complaints….