Simulacra

Just a Happy Post

2011-03-03T04:49:00.001+01:00

Flowers for me from J on Valentine's. He knows I don't really like roses, at least the long stem variety.

J and Ruby Begonia, my professor's dog, whom we took care of (and his amazing house) for the week.

Bountiful food for a party we had for J and our New Haven friends.
More on the chocolate cake and the panna cotta in the far back next post!

Happy Valentine's!

2011-02-14T18:03:00.000+01:00

Peanut butter and raspberry jam cookie - I made some for J's arrival. Today I plan on reading an ancient Greek romance novel by the fire, taking Ruby, the dog we're taking care of, for a walk, and going out to dinner for tapas. A good day.

Rainbow Stripes

2011-02-10T21:07:00.000+01:00

I had to do it: I had to knit the Noro Silk Garden Stripey Scarf. Of course, my photos are nowhere near as gorgeous as those on Jared's blog, but as long as the scarf is beautiful, I don't care!

I knit this in the last month as my break from work. Work has basically been writing the first chapter of my dissertation at break-neck speed in order to have it done by Feb. 1st for a fellowship application. I would either teach in the morning or start writing right away. After dinner, I burned through House M.D.'s past four seasons and knit this scarf - and other sundry items which I will post shortly.

It seemed to work: the deadline gave me fuel for writing all day, and knitting and TV gave me relief at night. But, I wouldn't want to keep this schedule up forever. Which is a bit problematic, since I need to cough up three more chapters, and an introduction and conclusion, sometime next year!

One thing that has also helped, for those of you who write and get writer's block, is a little web site called 750 Words. It's basically a private place where you can type up 750 words everyday (or more, up to you) and have it be about total hogwash - whatever you need to dump from your brain. It's private, protected, and you can unload your thoughts without thinking about how literate it sounds or how others may judge it. I've used it a couple times at sticky points in my chapter, just to blab about what I wanted to write but, for the life of me, couldn't put into what I thought were "acceptable" terms. Try it! The site counts your words for you, gives you "badges" for writing (although I don't care about those so much), runs stats on what you're writing (pie charts etc.), and - for some reason this is freeing for me - it isn't stored on your computer, in fact, you can just forget about it once you're done (although the site does save your writing for you on your account).

As of now, I'm on a break from work after finishing the chapter. J is coming for a visit next week and we are planning a dinner party, visit to NYC, and other fun items. Stay tuned!

Eating My Way through Taiwan: Breakfast

2011-01-16T14:53:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year! I had the chance to visit Taiwan again this winter break, and I come back, of course, laden with food pictures. It can't be helped. Taiwan is the land of promiscuous eating and inventive, crazy cuisine. But I thought we'd start with something traditional, soothing, and a little zen: rice porridge (or xi fan or congee or zho). It is, as you can see, simply rice cooked with an abundant amount of water. Here there is a little piece of yam added, which is cooked along with the rice. I ate this for breakfast almost everyday growing up. In our home we usually added pickled vegetables or dried shredded pork (ro song) to eat along with it. But, Taiwan being Taiwan, this particular bowl of rice porridge was accompanied by a no-holds-barred selection of xiao zhi or "little eats."

Clockwise from top: traditional egg and tomato, bamboo shoots, steamed ground pork with a steamed egg yolk on top, and garlicky green beans.

Clockwise from top: cured Chinese sausage, sauteed offal, crispy pickled cucumber, chopped mustard greens, wine soaked little clams, and wheat gluten.

But another very traditional breakfast is centered around soy bean milk - although rice porridge definitely can be included. This is probably my favorite type of Chinese breakfast, easily bought off the street in Taiwan:

Strips of dough are lined up to be deep fried into you tiao (literally "oil stick'). You can see fried flat breads on the counter

where the long line of breakfast patrons are waiting- those can be stuffed with, believe it or not, you tiao (carb loading!)

or roast beef and scallions or myriad other things.

You tiao sizzling in oil.

And all the trimmings: you tiao, steamed pork dumplings (xiao long bao), piping hot sweet soy milk - along with

one bowl of salty soy milk with you tiao and one bowl of sweet rice gruel with peanuts.

Jia Bong! That's Taiwanese for "let's eat!"

Macarons, Entrelac, and Sprinkles

2010-12-18T20:05:00.002+01:00

It's been a while, eh? I don't even know if anyone reads this anymore. But I've collected a few images I'd like to share from the past 2 months. I'm off again after this, first to North Carolina to see J's parents, then to Taiwan! With J! And family! It's going to be a blast, and I can't wait.

Macarons and cookie goodness from friends visiting from Chicago.

Noro Bonbori yarn, almost at the end of a center pull ball... Like a glowing cave.

What I knit with that yarn: my entrelac scarf. It was a joy to knit, really.

It reminds me of sea glass - brown, green, and blue.

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

My Life in Yarn

2010-10-21T06:26:00.001+02:00

I'm back. Rather than blog about Rhinebeck and show the pictures everyone else will show, let me catch you up on my life by showing you the yarn I bought at the festival. (For those who are non-yarny out there, Rhinebeck is the city where the New York Sheep and Wool Festival is held yearly - it's the biggest festival of its kind in the country. Every year, knitters, bloggers, vendors, sheep sellers, and quasi-knitting celebrities head there...)

Yarn details: darker brown skeins Shetland Silk Tweed "Dana" 2-ply laceweight from Swift River Farm, 95% organic Shetland wool, 5% bombyx silk;

lighter brown skein Shetland Supreme 2-ply lace from Jamieson & Smith, 100% undyed Shetland wool, colorway "Moorit."

First up: this is tweedy looking wool, eh? You know what's tweedy? University professors are generally tweedy. At least in New England. I am happy to announce that I have finally achieved the status of All But Dissertation. This means I have jumped through all the hoops they've set out for me - courses, exams, and a defense of my dissertation project - and all I've got left is the dissertation. Like my fellow PhD program friend says, the "new car smell" lasts only for a little bit, and then you're stuck with the enormous burden of having to churn out a couple hundred pages of what you hope will be brilliant stuff. But onwards and upwards!

Yarn details: "Nona" 2-ply laceweight from Spirit Trail Fiberworks, 50% merino, 25% cashmere, 25% bombyx silk, colowary "Adirondack."

I bought this silky skein thinking of the ocean. I had just crossed the Atlantic twice, once on my way to and from England to see J, who's just started his lectureship. His apartment is right on the English Channel, and we can see the moody waves from his windows! They are just "sea peeps," as the realtor had described them, but they are peeps of the sea nonetheless! It was a lovely week of knitting and . . .

Yarn details: "Atropos" 2-ply laceweight from Spirit Trail Fiberworks, 100% bombyx silk, colorway "Scarlett."

. . . love! This silk yarn is a blood-red color, and its twisted skein reminds me of the human heart. J and I got engaged this last week in England. It's all a bit crazy and yet very matter-of-fact at the same time. I knew this was coming, I had thought about it and felt good about it. But our story is a bit crazier than usual.

Indulge me in a bit of George Eliot. When I think of my life in the last five years, I think of this quote from the end of Middlemarch (you have been warned: if you do not want to know the ending, stop reading here). I am not a noble Dorothea, nor is D (or Molt, as he was fondly called in this blog many moons ago) Casaubon - no! not at all. J, however, is actually a bit like young Will Ladislaw. So I think of this quote:

"Sir James never ceased to regard Dorothea's second marriage as a mistake; and indeed this remained the tradition concerning it in Middlemarch, where she was spoken of to a younger generation as a fine girl who married a sickly clergyman, old enough to be her father, and in little more than a year after his death gave up her estate to marry his cousin - young enough to have been his son, with no property, and not well-born. Those who had not seen anything of Dorothea usually observed that she could not have been 'a nice woman', else she would not have married either the one or the other.

Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of a young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state, in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. For there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside of it. A new Theresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventual life, any more than a new Antigone will spend her heroic piety in daring all for the sake of a brother's burial: the medium in which their ardent deeds took shape is for ever gone. But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know."

Yarn details: oatmeal colored ball is worsted baby alpaca/silk 70/30 from Times Remembered, colorway "Suede";

blue skein is "Rio" fingering from Times Remembered, 100% prime alpaca, colorway "Wedgewood."

Finally, and, yes, this one's a bit of a stretch in terms of yarn metaphors, but there are some fuzzy details and cloudy skies right now. D and I are trying to sell our house. We are almost there...but it has been a very trying process. Difficult buyers and a prolonged negotiation process has really sapped the spirit out of me sometimes. But hopefully this will all be over soon.

So! That is why I have been silent for so long. In the weeks from Oct. 1 until now I have 1) had my birthday, 2) defended my dissertation project and become ABD, 3) flown to England, 4) gotten engaged, 5) gone to Rhinebeck, and 6) advanced toward closing on the house. Fingers crossed on that last item!

Now for more knitting, reading, writing, planning, and hoping.

Wandering: And Trying To Settle Down...

2010-09-09T05:04:00.000+02:00

A coastal cedar grove at Point Lobos, California.

I've neglected this blog woefully for the past few months... and I doubt the wisdom of continuing. But never mind. I just want to look at that cedar grove and imagine myself disappearing into it.

I'm in the process of selling a house (!), beginning to teach again at the university, unpacking from a big move, and getting used to living an ocean apart from J. All in all enough to make a girl very, very blue. I know that a routine will soon develop, and that structure will go a long ways to make things seem comfortable and home-like again. In the meantime, I'll just hang on, posting meditative pictures and looking forward.

Interruption: Fraud and Moving

2010-08-31T05:13:00.000+02:00

To all my Yale friends and to anyone living in CT and thinking of hiring movers: do NOT hire Connecticut Movers, run by Joshua Banks with the telephone 203.516.1010. They are a FRAUD.

I called to hire movers and was told, by Josh, that they would be available on-call for me when I was ready to unload my truck. The day of the move, with full truck on its way to the house I was unloading at, I called Josh. He told me that the movers were on their way and he would call to check their ETA.

That was the last I heard from him.

No movers EVER showed up.

Josh turned off his cell phone so that I went straight to voice mail.

This is the web site so you can identify them:

http://www.connecticutmovinghelp.com/home

I intend to contact the Better Business Bureau and the CT Department of Consumer Protection, but I'm posting this here in hopes that google searchers looking for a mover will see this and be warned.

Making: Greenleaf Baby Blanket

2010-08-21T02:55:00.001+02:00

This is the chalice lace pattern on the baby blanket I knit for J's sister, who's going to pop with her second boy any day now. To me the pattern doesn't so much look like chalices as much as leaves. I like the effect it has pinned against the white mattress, sort of like jacquard fabric:

Samples of jacquard from Fibre Designs

The blanket was my second lace pattern, a much easier experience than knitting the Forest Canopy Shawl. For one thing, there are no increases and, therefore, no infernal counting of stitches to make sure I hadn't screwed up.

This one took a bit longer to get finished, since I've been zipping from Germany to the SF Bay Area and North Carolina. I delivered the blanket yesterday - hopefully it'll be big enough! The baby is already 8 lbs and not due for another three weeks! Labor induction is in order, I think, if the baby doesn't come very soon. Maybe while we're here! Since I've never been around for all the hustle and bustle of a birth before that would be pretty exciting.

Raveled here.

Travel, Travel, Travel

2010-08-11T00:50:00.000+02:00

Habaneros and corn at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich.

So, blogging is a bit erratic at the moment - again. I think I'm overdoing the travel bit... but it has been oh so wonderful these last couple of weeks.

Carousing at the Englischer Garten in Munich.

Cream tea in Teignmouth, a coastal village in Devon, England.

Dipping my feet in the English Channel.

Lots of lovely train rides.

Next up: two lovely weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area with my family and North Carolina with John's. It's a very fond farewell I'm saying to Germany, but I'll be back. And I'm looking very much forward to the future.

Making: Birthday Present...

2010-08-02T23:24:00.000+02:00

So, I said that I was going to make a Kindle cover for my sister for her birthday. It sounded simple enough to design: two rectangles, sewn together, with some sort of flap. No problem. But... then there were problems. I was trying to use up some stash yarn that had been discontinued at the local yarn store: it was 50% merino wool and 50% acrylic. Well, no problem. I'd find something with a similar gauge and feel. But here are the lessons I've learned:

1) Use the same material throughout a project, with the same fiber content. I used a 100% merino yarn for the cover front (in white) and it just didn't have the same feel. It was a bit floppier than the grey backing.

2) BLOCK gauge swatches!!! Especially if you have to have both rectangle shapes line up exactly to be sewn! I can't emphasize this enough. I just wasn't thinking, knit my swatches, measured, calculated, and then went on to knit two fine rectangles. Then I wet blocked them. Lo and behold, the white merino grew waaay to much. I had to force it a bit back down to size.

3) Learn a proper seaming technique rather than just fudging it with crochet. Although, I think the crochet trim isn't too bad in this project, it could be better. And it sort of exacerbated the fact that the two rectangles weren't perfectly aligned in size.

You can really tell the difference in size between the white and the grey sides by looking at the frills formed by the crochet stitches on the bottom edging. I did manage to block that back down a bit - phew! Still, it's not perfect and that irks me.

Still, I like my overall design - especially the stitches I contrived for the two sides: seed (or moss) stitch for the grey side, to form a kind of egg-carton cushioning, and contrasting white garter stitch, which is also very cushy. And I like my colors and button.

Kindle Cover Pattern:
Kindle DX Dimensions: 10.4" x 7.2" x 0.38"
Yarn: 1 skein Millefine, Lana Grossa, 50g, 100m, 50% Merino 50% Acrylic – back and flap; 1.5 skeins Siena Big, Wolle Rödel, 50g, 80m, 100% Merino – front, with button
Needle: 3.0mm / 3 US
Gauge (blocked!) : 4.5 stitches / inch in seed stitch (Millefine); 5.25 stitches / inch in garter stitch (Siena Big)

Back of Cover and Flap:
Cast on 34 stitches of back and flap color yarn.
Work in seed stitch until 10.7 inches long.
Purl an entire row.
Knit the entire next row. This will form a stockinette stitch ridge which will form the fold for the envelope flap.
Work in seed stitch for next 10 rows.
Begin decrease to form triangle of the envelope flap:
ssk first two stitches, seed stitch (knit every purl stitch, purl every knit sticht), k2tog last two stitches until only 12 stitches left.
Bind off in pattern loosely.

Work on Cover Front:
Cast on 40 stitches in cover front color and work in garter stitch until 10.7" long, bind off loosely.

Wash and block both pieces to size.
Crochet sides closed using single crochet stitch and an alternate color of yarn (if desired). Crochet envelope flap edging also using single crotchet stitches.
Sew on button.
Crochet button loop on envelope flap.

Feasting: Last Meals in Heidelberg

2010-07-30T13:59:00.002+02:00

We've had some fantastic German food here in Heidelberg. Let's reminisce:

A traditional Bavarian Weisswurst breakfast. At Zum Franziskaner.

Traditional Palatinate blood sausage and liver Knödel, always with buttery potatoes. At Kulturbrauerei.

Lots of wonderful beers: zum Wohl!

One of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday: hike to the monastery and eat fresh cheese, bread, and olives there in the open air.

But I've got to say that my favorite German thing to eat here is Schweinshaxe: roast crackling pork knuckle -

the one above is at one of our favorite restaurants, Vetter, served with sauerkraut, Semmelknödel, and mustard.

As you can see, this ain't for the weak of heart - or the weak of stomach. I will miss all this hearty goodness. But we still have this weekend in Munich! Let's see what they have on offer there...

Wandering: The Road Goes Ever On And On

2010-07-28T20:03:00.000+02:00

Dusk at the Jesuitenkirche.

This is my last week in Heidelberg... I won't be flying back to the States for another week or so, but after this Friday I'll be traveling around, first to Munich and then to the UK, then back here to pack up and go. I can't tell you how sad this makes me! I never expected to live in Germany or to become so fond of it, but Heidelberg has really become home in the last year. I will miss:

the view from my apartment onto the rooftops of the Altstadt and the hills of the Philosophenweg,

peering into bakery windows to see what ridiculous pastries they're hawking,

meeting friends for lunch in plazas,

wandering around on little trails,

pausing on the Old Bridge to look at distant hills and to wonder what lies beyond...

But aside from these things, I will miss the home this place has given me. It really has been a haven after a very tough couple of years. It has been an ideal place to study, think, explore, recover, and take delight in life and the world.

Making: Designing!

2010-07-26T16:02:00.000+02:00

These are my Pilot Choose 0.7mm gel ink pens, which I purchased through Jet Pens, a fabulous online store stocking all sorts of wonderful writing, drawing, and drafting instruments. I was given a gift certificate last fall and these gel ink pens, along with a very chic fountain pen, were my happy little purchase.

The reason I pulled these out this last weekend is because I'm designing a little knit project - very simple, actually - that needs a bit of embroidery to give it that final flourish. If you're my sister: STOP READING NOW. If you're not, the gift is a Kindle cover, two very simple rectangles knit together, with a buttoned envelope flap. But I need something small in a corner to make it sweet. I couldn't settle on anything for the longest time. Should it be floral? A little bird? Birds are such the rage now: I see them on everything from tote bags to jewelry. An owl would be fitting with the book theme. What about a pattern from tiles I've seen in Istanbul? Or is a simple heart too twee?

There's also the question of color. The cover is a charcoal gray on the back and the flap and a creamy off-white on the front - where I'm imagining the embroidery to be. Red stood out to me at once as the color of choice for a little embellishment. So, a parade of red-colored possibilities began presenting themselves to me: a little apple? Too simple - and reminiscent of the brand. A strawberry? To difficult to capture with yarn embroidery, especially the little seeds. Okay, how about flowers? I wanted something streamlined, not too folksy or granny, not too mod. Simple. Pretty. Ugh. Let's play with the roving in that little paper bag instead!

Oooh! I didn't know there was that much roving in there! Come to think of it, I don't think I had taken the wool out of that bag since I bought it last fall at the Heidelberger Herbst festival. Hmmmm. Maybe I could felt something instead of embroider. But I've never felted. And I don't have any felting needles. Probably a bad idea to try something for the first time when a gift is involved.

But the roving presents such lovely color combinations. Whoever packed that little bag has a gift. Let's look at it again!

It looks like sorbet colors! How about something food related, then, for the embroidery? A cupcake? Soooo overdone. Cute but inelegant. Lollipops? Cute...but how to group them? How many?

This could go on forever. I think I've settled on a group of very simple star-shaped flowers in red. But maybe on the gray side of the cover, with a red blanket stitch around the perimeter of the cover to pull it all together. Or not? If you have any ideas, send them my way!

Feasting: Lunch in Sevilla's Barrio Santa Cruz

2010-07-23T16:29:00.001+02:00

Baked cod with muscat grapes

Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but I remember that it was right on the edge of the Santa Cruz neighborhood in Sevilla (maybe along La Avenida de Menéndez Pelayo, but I'm not sure anymore). Anyway, my sister and I stopped in this bright bistro-like restaurant for an amazing tapas lunch.

Spinach with chickpeas and garlic

Tomato and mozzarella "napoleon"

Fritto misto - including calalmari, sardines, and cod

And then we took a stroll before the day got too hot (we ducked indoors everyday in Seville at 2 or 3 in the afternoon). The residents of the Barrio Santa Cruz say it's always 10°F cooler there because of the whitewashed, thick walls and narrow streets. I wouldn't say it was cool, but the little streets were definitely a welcome relief from the sun-baked thoroughfares near the cathedral. And they make a lovely labyrinth to wander through...

with niches for mini-altars,

small plazas with citron trees and tinkling fountains,

past old doors, hiding cool, dark secrets.

Here's to a mellow, breezy summer weekend!

Wandering: Old Farmsteads in Bavaria

2010-07-21T16:06:00.001+02:00

Right on the southwest border of Germany, in Bavaria, there's an open-air museum or Freilichtmuseum that exhibits several old Bavarian farmsteads, some dating back as far as the 16th century. At the time I was visiting I had already spent two rain-drenched days with my friends touring around Salzburg and other sites nearby: we were cold, miserable, and water-logged. An "open air" museum was about the last thing I wanted to see in the misty drizzle. Thank goodness, then, that we were given free rein to explore inside all the quaint farmhouses and workshops.

We all squealed when we saw these feather beds upstairs in one old house. How sweet! How simple life was! How Little-House-on-the-Prairie and Anne-of-Green-Gables! But then one catches a glimpse of a chamber pot in the bedroom corner. Oh. Hmm.

I can't imagine working with this stove. I just don't have the strength to stoke

the fire and manage those heavy iron pots, day after day after day.

This seems a bit more manageable.

But the work is never done: these rags must be ripped into strips, sewn together, and wound.

Then they're woven on this enormous loom to become floor mats.

Wool must be carded and combed, then spun and knit!

Then there are plants to sow, weed, water, and harvest...

Fruit to be canned and pickled, wines to be fermented and stored.

I say I would love to do all these things... but only as hobbies. I don't think I could bear the physical weariness I would feel if I had to do them, day in, day out. And without central heating! No, I suppose I prefer the life I lead, in which I only dabble in these things, then return to my books and writing. But who know what may happen someday? Maybe I'll turn farmwife...

Making: Bits and Bobs, Odds and Ends

2010-07-19T12:07:00.001+02:00

I said I would post my Opal Hundertwasser Socks when I finished - well, here's one of them. The other is languishing, half-knit, in my knitting bag. It's a jolly looking sock, no? And, yes, that is a toy mouse in the picture. I can't always get Mr. Tubs to puts his toys away.

You'd think I'd have gotten more knitting done in the last month, what with all the planes and trains I've been on. But I just can't do certain things when traveling, i.e. I can't knit lace or follow a more complicated pattern unless I'm at home. And now that I'm home, and now that I'm supposed to be working 1) on a book review already a bit late and 2) gearing up for my dissertation proposal, I find myself caught up in all sorts of lace nonsense.

This chalice pattern isn't anything extremely lacy, but it requires some concentration and a lace-chart. I'm enjoying knitting it as a superb form of procrastination. It'll be a baby blanket, to be gifted next month, so I have a bit of time.

What I haven't enjoyed is wrangling this yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace. It actually isn't the fault of the yarn at all, which is lovely and soft. I just have woefully big, clumsy needles not at all suitable for laceweight yarn. I have already attempted two projects with this yarn and, trust me, you do not want to ssk or even k2tog with dull needles. I thought my head was going to explode. I will just have to put off knitting with laceweight until I get myself some proper needles.

Which means I can't fool around with this skein of Malabrigo Lace, either. Harumph. Well, it's probably just a sign that I should get back to work.

Wandering and Feasting: Churros con Chocolate!

2010-07-16T12:59:00.001+02:00

A paper cone full of freshly fried churros, in Sevilla, in the Santa Cruz barrio.

Before this trip to Spain, when I thought of churros I thought of the Mexican version, deep fried and rolled in cinnamon and sugar. While still quite, quite fond of that version, I have found a new love: churros con chocolate. We first tried them in Madrid: deep fried dough, dipped into a cup of hot chocolate so thick it was like a pudding. A traditional Spanish breakfast food. "A very powerful breakfast," as our waiter said.

This was in Granada, enjoyed in the lovely Plaza Bib-Rambla.

One side of the beautiful plaza.

One more look.

Happy Weekend and Happy Feasting!

Making: Mazapán in Toledo

2010-07-12T22:31:00.000+02:00

June has come and gone - an altogether crazy month for me. I managed to take (and pass!) my qualifying exam and stop over in five different countries in four weeks . . . something I probably won't do again. I'm not complaining - I know I've been thoroughly spoiled in having the opportunity to see and experience so many different places. The last two weeks of my travels I spent with my sister, wandering through Spain, one tiny, meandering, hot, and colorful street at a time. Don't you just love the hydrangeas and colored tiles of that balcony above? We found that on a little random street in Toledo. But I said this post was going to be about mazapán, and so it shall.

Mazapán is the Spanish version of marzipan, made of sugar and finely ground almonds. I'm holding a couple Toledan mazapán confections baked either plain (left) or with fruit perserves (right). Toledo's mazapán is famous, and it can be bought at virtually any street corner in that beautiful little city-on-a-hill.

Nuns are often the artisans behind the little confections, as this little diorama in a storefront shows. Actually, nun-made-sweets were a theme on our trip through Andalusia: there were many convents that offered sweets for sale.

This is a sign we found on the walls outside a Franciscan convent.

And there's the door you'd knock on to purchase some sweets! We found this to be the case also in Madrid, Granada, Córdoba, and Sevilla. Sometimes you had to ring a buzzer and give the password, dulces, to be let in for a purchase. Other times you could just buy nun-made-sweets pre-packaged at a confection shop.

This, my friends, is a detail on a mini-cathedral made entirely of mazapán. The cathedral was on display at a Santo Tomé shop - one of a couple in Toledo. If you're ever in Toledo, I'd recommend buying a box from Santo Tomé. Their mazapán is excellent and always beautifully boxed for travel.

A dragon crafted of mazapán in a handy tin in a Santo Tomé shop. Of course I packed a few sweets to take home myself!

Haiatus

2010-05-17T13:28:00.000+02:00

Soon I will be one of these picnickers, lounging on the banks of the Neckar and enjoying some sunshine. The next three weeks, however, are crunch time for me. I have my general comprehensive exam coming up - first a 6-hour written exam followed up by an oral defense of that in front of my faculty. I'm facing this exam with a bit more equanimity than my Greek exam, which I took this last January. After all, this will be in English, and there's much more leeway to argue about what I've said than when translating passages.

Still, it's tough going at times, and my thinking sometimes feels like that canoe: not quite going with the current and feeling the drag of sluggishness and confusion. Still! Three more weeks and I'll be off! Never mind the next hoop, waiting for me in the Fall. I'll have several weeks of glorious nothing. Actually, a lot more than nothing. Travel, family, sunshine, knitting, sniffing, tasting. Given, of course, that I pass! But I'm vowing to stay confident and cheerful to the bitter end.

And then it will be smooth sailing. Till then, I must say ta-ta-for-now.

Making: Forest Canopy Shawl for Mother's Day

2010-05-10T12:54:00.001+02:00

I've been waiting to blog about this one - I finished this weeks ago, but since it was for my mother, and she reads this blog, I had to wait. I must say, this has been the most challenging and gratifying project I've knitted. Being new to lace knitting, I had no idea what to expect. But the pattern for the Forest Canopy Shawl is perfect for first time lace knitters. Here the link for the pattern.

This is what it looked like while still on the needles... pretty darn unimpressive. And all those red threads? Those are life lines that I kept putting in to hold my place in case I had to rip back due to some horrible mistake. And, believe me, I had to rip back. Luckily, I got better as I went along, and ripped back less and less. In the beginning I was so discouraged, and knitting seemed like it had become an exercise in futility and frustration. I almost decided that I was simply not a lace knitter. Sweaters and mittens I could do. Lace? Why do something that makes you curse and throw things?

But something magical happened when I finally slipped it off the needles, washed, and then blocked it (on a hideous old mattress, I must say). The lace opened up. The pattern came out. And I thought: I made that? As an academician, these moments are hard to come by. Rarely do I write something or argue something and think: There, that's settled. That's correct. In fact, the whole enterprise of research and theory requires that we keep questioning our work. It can be rewarding, no doubt, but there's a certain oomph of finality that's lacking. This is why I gravitate towards knitting and baking: these are crafts where the question (can I do this?) gets firmly answered (yes! no!) at least to a more certain degree. Of course, I'm sure the deeper I go into either of these crafts the more I will find that is theoretical and debatable, especially as craft moves towards art. But, for the time being, it is very, very satisfying to say: I made this!

We took these on the Philosophenweg, in the forest, in honor of its name. I call my individual shawl, however, the Sea Canopy, given its wonderful shades of blue.

Raveled here.

Making, Wandering, and Feasting: May Festival at the Neuberg Abbey

2010-05-05T19:53:00.000+02:00

This last Saturday we celebrated May Day at an abbey nestled in the grassy hills of Neuberg. It all seemed so magical: here I was, in Germany, going to a Maifest with monks! Beer! A spitted ox! It was so Christian and pagan all at once - we were inviting the new spring to come in but doing it all in a sanctioned cloister of godly men. (I was less interested in attending the festivities for Walpurgis the night before - it basically involves tramping up the Philosophenweg at the dead of night, which would be great fun except that in this instance you'd be surrounded by drunken university students carrying fake torches. If it were more pagan, and less drunken-college-party, I would go.) Anyway! The abbey grounds were indeed lovely.

It was a pearly, gray day, and the walk there was nice and refreshing.

The monks run a shop full of local products, many of them made at the abbey.

Fresh eggs! The eggs in Heidelberg, in general, seem fresher: the yolks are a brighter color, the shells often have a bit of down stuck on them. It may not mean anything, but it seems a bit closer to the earth to me.

I am a weak-kneed fool when it comes to bottles and jars of handmade goodies. Witness that I have 1) my own homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam at home as well as 2) unfinished jars of quince and plum preserves from a local restaurant. So what did I do? Promptly bought a jar of apple-ginger jelly. Good thing I am not a drinker or I would have made off with a few bottles of monk-brewed apple brandy and what-not.

We were promised a whole spitted ox (it said so in the adverts) but we apparently arrived too late: the earlier May Day revelers had gnawed that thing to the bone! Though I must say, this is a small ox. "Must have been a baby ox," I remarked, to which my friend said, "Please don't say that again!"

Never mind, we had excellent roast trout and potatoes,

we watched the monks imbibe,

and did some imbibing ourselves (along with some Feuerwurst and pretzels).

And the walk home in the twilight, along the river, was lovely.

Daring Bakers: Traditional British Pudding!

2010-04-27T12:19:00.001+02:00

I happen to be a big, big fan of British cookery, so when this month's Daring Bakers challenge was announced I was ecstatic! I'd made a traditional Christmas pudding before, as well as Spotted Dick, so I thought this time I'd go for a good ol' steak and kidney pudding. Except without the kidney. They hadn't any where I shop and my two flatmates (yes, Britishisms all around today) aren't super keen on them.

Anyway, on to the deets: The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Also could not find suet (my translation into German was Talg or Rindertalg) but I could find lots of lard!

In a land filled with 1,000,000 varieties of pork of course there would be lard! or Schmalz, as they say. Ever wonder where we get "schmaltzy"? Here you are. Of course, in the Yiddish sense, we would be referring to chicken fat or lard.

This is grated lard. The lard, as you can imagine, has to be quite chilled to do this or you will come to a greasy, sad end. Even chilled, I was covered in lard. My camera puts up with a lot of foodstuffs.

Unfilled puddings. The dough is quite soft and very fatty. The entire time I was rolling out these mini-pies I thought, "It smells like fried chicken!" Just that perfect fatty, crispy, flaky smell. These are filled with floured cubes of chuck-steak (Rinderbraten - okay, why I am translating everything into German for you is strange, since you are probably not German - maybe it is to show you how hard I have to work! poor, poor me) and onions - see first pic.

Then a mixture of oyster sauce, water, and port (or red wine) is poured into the shells up until they almost cover the meat and onion filling.

The dough "cap" is moistened all around the edges and pinched in. I love this process. This is why I love baking pies. Because I like tucking things into dough. Strange, I know, but I find this so, so gratifying.

Now this is where I failed to photo-document my process, probably because I was making three mini pies instead of one big one and feeling quite harumph-y about it by now. But this is when one must wrap the tops of the puddings with buttered foil (or dish cloth) and tie with twine right under the lip of the bowl. Then one must make a handle with twine so that one can lower it and lift it out of the steaming water and stay un-scalded. I steamed mine (in boiling water just above the half-way point of the bowls) for four hours. Clitter-clatter, clitter-clatter. For four hours.

Oh, but so worth it. Suet (or, in my case, lard) pastry can be so light and flaky, even steamed and boiled!

I poured in some gravy made from port, beef drippings, onions, and oyster sauce.

Recipe - I borrowed this from Audax Artifex, champion Daring Baker.
The following makes a 1 litre pudding, I made about 1 1/2 times the recipe for 3 little puddings.

Ingredients
For the suet crust pastry
225g/8 oz self-raising flour
salt and freshly milled black pepper
115 g/4 oz shredded beef suet
cold water, to mix

For the filling
380g/13 ½ ozs chuck steak
115g/4oz ox kidney after trimming (so buy extra about 15%)
3 tablespoon of oyster sauce and enough red dry wine to make a little over ½ cup
4 teaspoon plain flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the gravy
meat trimmings from the steak and kidney
1 onion, halved
570ml/1 pint red wine
1 tsp beef dripping
2 tbsp flour
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

You will also need a well-buttered, 1 litre/1 US quart capacity pudding basin and a steamer.

Method
For the pastry, first sift the flour and the salt into a large mixing bowl. Add some freshly ground black pepper, then add the suet and mix it into the flour using the blade of a knife. When it's evenly blended, add a few drops of cold water and start to mix with the knife, using curving movements and turning the mixture around. The aim is to bring it together as a dough, so keep adding drops of water until it begins to get really claggy and sticky. Now abandon the knife, go in with your hands and bring it all together until you have a nice smooth elastic dough, which leaves the bowl clean. It's worth noting that suet pastry always needs more water than other types, so if it is still a bit dry just go on adding a few drops at a time.

After that, take a quarter of the dough for the lid, then roll the rest out fairly thickly. What you need is a circle, about 21.5 cm/8½ in in diameter. Now line the bowl with the pastry, pressing it well all around. Next chop the steak and kidney into fairly small cubes (reserving the trimmings for the gravy), toss them in the seasoned flour, then add them to the pastry-lined basin with the slices of onion. Add enough oyster sauce/red wine/water to reach almost the top of the meat and sprinkle in a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and another seasoning of salt and pepper.

Roll out the pastry lid, dampen its edges and put it in position on the pudding. Seal well and cover with a double sheet of foil, pleated in the centre to allow room for expansion while cooking. Now secure it with string, making a little handle so that you can lift it out of the hot steamer. Then place it in a steamer over boiling water. Steam for five hours, topping up the boiling water halfway through. (See more detailed instructions below.)

For the gravy, simply place the meat trimmings in a saucepan with the half onion, cover with one pint of red wine and 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, simmer for approximately one hour. Then strain the stock, and in the same pan, fry the remaining onion, chopped small, in the beef dripping until soft and blackened at the edges. Then stir in the flour, gradually add the meat trimmings/red wine/oyster sauce stock little by little to make a smooth gravy, adding a spot of gravy browning if it's needed. Taste to check the seasoning.

When the pudding is ready place a small hole in the top of the pudding and pour in as much of the gravy as you can.

To serve, either serve the pudding by spooning portions straight out of the bowl, or slide a palette knife round the edge and turn the whole thing out on to a serving plate (which is more fun!).

Instructions for Prepping for Steaming

The easiest way to steam a pudding is in a dedicated steamer as the water is kept away from the pudding so it can’t boil over. If, however, you don’t have a steamer use a pan large enough to easily fit the bowl you are cooking. Don’t fill the water more than about a third of the way up the bowl or it may boil over and into the bowl. Keep an eye and top up as needed with boiling water.

You need to lift the bowl off the bottom of the pan. This can be done with a steamer stand, an upturned plate or even crumpled up kitchen foil — anything that can stand being in boiling water and lifts the bowl off the bottom of the pan will work.

Make sure you have a well-fitted lid on the pan as you want the steam to cook the pudding not to boil off.
Make sure you put a pleat in the foil or paper you cover the bowl with to allow for expansion and then tie down tightly with string. Make a handle made from the string that lies over the top of the pudding, as this makes it very much easier to lift out when hot and is well worth doing.

Making: Newly Arrived Luscious Yarn

2010-04-26T16:53:00.001+02:00

Last spring, my friends E and D came down to New Haven and we all went to NYC together to go yarn and fabric shopping. It was a fateful day. Ever since then I have not stopped knitting, and the lust for yarn - soft, fuzzy, sleek, rough, hand-dyed, hand spun, tweed, all natural, what have you - has become a bit of a problem!

This is Madelinetosh tosh sock yarn in Black Currant. Just look at all the colors! But instead of making for ghastly and dizzying combination, the colors chosen give off exactly the shades one sees in nature: variegated but complementing each other just so.

So, I have four skeins from the Loopy Ewe (an incredible shop with incredibly snobby yarns) freshly delivered to me here in Heidelberg. I have big plans for it, so stay tuned!

________
Third picture down is The Black Currants Are Ripening by LongInt57 at flickr; some rights reserved.

Feasting: Prize Winning Noodles!

2010-04-23T13:37:00.000+02:00

There is nothing like a steaming bowl of beef noodle soup, the slightly spicy, flavorful, and rich broth, the tender chunks of meat, the hearty noodles. The competition for the title of best beef noodle soup in Taiwan is intense, and the winner of the official 2006 island-wide competition for beef noodle soup was Lao Zhang. It is well deserved.

The trophy is up for display outside of the restaurant, No. 19, Lane 19, Jin Shan Road, Taipei.

But noodles aren't all they do well at Lao Zhang. This is their sticky steamed rice with lots of goodies embedded in its glorious golden-brown depths. Chinese fatty sausage, soft stewed beef, and tripe. Oh the goodness!

There are also many wonderfully prepared sides to choose from - here, from left to right, pickled turnip, crisp baby cucumbers in sweet rice vinegar, and (my favorite) roasted and fried eggplant.

I've yet to have a bowl of beef noodle soup this perfect in the States - maybe I'm not looking hard enough. But, if you find yourself in Taiwan, this is the place to go.

Wandering: Der Philosophenweg im Frühling (The Philosophers' Way in Spring)

2010-04-21T13:00:00.003+02:00

Across the river and up, up, up the Schlangenweg (Snake Path) is the Philosophenweg. I've wandered upon it many times these past few weeks. Somehow I find myself chancing upon epiphanies and new ideas when I hike this path, even though I've taken to it to "get away" and clear my head. I suppose it is aptly named and it works a type of enchantment with its meandering curves.

Now, in the early spring, the path seems especially enchanted. Yesterday afternoon, with the sun reaching in through the bright green canopy, whispers seemed to swirl around me, and little movements in the undergrowth quickened as I approached and then grew silent.

Across the valley, most trees are still quiet and sleeping, but a battalion of pines marches down the slope.

Once I see these pleading branches above me, I know that my walk is almost over. Then I take the sloping path down to Haarlass, then back along the Neckar River, across the Old Bridge, and back into my study. But I'm not quite sure that the enchantment doesn't last for a few hours more, ebbing away slowly while I go about the rest of my day.

Making: Monsters!

2010-04-19T13:19:00.000+02:00

This picture is from Danger Crafts' shop at Etsy, where you can buy patterns for these monsters so you can knit and stuff them yourself. Aren't they menacingly adorable?

I thought of making something for my godson, since I've been so immersed in knitting and yarn of late. Rebecca Danger, who runs this Etsy shop, has a blog that offers a free monster pattern. I thought I'd give it a go.

Here he is! A little awkward and shy (and lumpy) looking, but a bonafide Monster Chunk. He'll go in the post tomorrow (shhh, don't tell, Marian, in case you're reading this!). Not only is he fun to make, but he's also very, very helpful at getting rid of this:

Bits and pieces of yarn leftover from other projects. The possibilities for toys is endless. And I bought my stuffing at a department store of all places! Apparently, they stock all sorts of sewing notions and yarn. If only it were so in the States! Raveled here.

Feasting: Of Pâté and Quail Eggs

2010-04-16T13:47:00.004+02:00

We were supposed to show up at the professor's apartment after the lecture for cocktails before going out for dinner. Unfortunately, the lecture ran long, so cocktail hour was skipped. After dinner, the professor slipped this bag into my hand: "I really can't be eating this rich food - so here's a doggy bag for you." "Doggy bag" is probably the most inappropriate term for the contents of that parcel: three enormous slices of pâté and a tiny carton of hard-boiled quail eggs. These were to have been eaten with the drinks before dinner.

Now I know that pâté is not the most photogenic thing - and I am definitely not a food stylist - but I had to show you the three different kinds of pâté I was given. Two with morsels of meat en gelée and one of pure pâté goodness.

Quail eggs just taste richer, creamier, and denser than chicken eggs. And the fact that they are so dainty and their shells so beautiful - just look at the pale mint green on the inside of speckled brown! - that they are a delight to eat.

And, really, I have a thing for eggs, overall. This was gastronomic kindness at its greatest.

Wandering: A Walk to the Castle

2010-04-14T11:29:00.000+02:00

You can either take the tram or hike up the hillside to ramble around the ruins of the Heidelberg Castle (blown up by the French in 1689). It's easier to take the tram - but then you would miss sights like the one above . . .

. . . and a miniature landscape of moss on the steps up.

The old clock tower at the gates of the castle.

Here's a larger view of our beloved town, looking down from the castle walls.

Our apartment is about a couple buildings to the left of those twin spires in front of the bridge.

There's a large expanse of park grounds on the plateau of land next to the castle. I am waiting for warmer weather to come up here with my knitting and a book or two. Or three or four, depending on how far I am studying for exams! Speaking of which, I must now be off to study.

Making: The Francis Revisited Sweater

2010-04-12T22:53:00.000+02:00

This is what you end up with when you're trying to get a shot in the sunlight of your knitted thingy... and you're all by yourself at home. Yes, that is the shower curtain behind me. At least it gives you an idea of the stitches up close: mostly stockinette, with a hem of seed stitching on the cowl, sleeves, and bottom hem.

This was the first garment I ever knitted - finished about a month ago. It's based on the original Francis Revisited (Ravelry link) created by Beth Silverstein and blogged about here. It really is a simple, lovely pattern: top down, raglan, knit in the round with no seaming - yay! I couldn't have asked for a better first sweater pattern.

I knit this with a bulkier yarn than called for - more of an aran weight. It made for a bulkier and stiffer fabric, but I like that it keeps me quite warm. Of course, the short sleeves are at cross-purposes with warmth . . . but I like the way it looks with a white long-sleeved tee underneath. Raveled here.

I'm off to buy more yarn. I'm thinking: how about this in a dark blue merino, this time with long, slightly flared sleeves?

Feasting: Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

2010-04-09T12:58:00.001+02:00

I made some impromptu jam after seeing rhubarb at the market. Yum: sweet strawberries and tart rhubarb - and I think rhubarb always adds such a home-made-goodness taste. The following recipe is rather approximate - but jam is one of those nice, imprecise things to make in the kitchen on a lark.

Take about two pints of these and hull them, then mash them slightly.

Chop about 5-7 stalks of these into 1 inch pieces, simmer with a little water - just covering - until slightly mushy. Drain. Add strawberries and about 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar or lemon juice. I added sugar with pectin (perhaps a German peculiarity?), about a cup and a half, but if you want a more congealed texture, add more pectin - and you may want more sugar. I'm trying to cut down a bit! Bring to hard boil for 3-4 minutes. Take off heat to cool. Pour into two prepared jam jars.

Enjoy!

Wandering: An Unharried Day in Istanbul

2010-04-07T15:42:00.001+02:00

Start by sipping Turkish coffee in the Arasta Bazaar - behind the Blue Mosque. This picture is inspiring me to get the percolator going right now. Ahhhh. Coffeeeeeee. Arasta, though still a tourist trap (but who are we kidding? we're tourists!), is much quieter, smaller, and less frenzied than the Grand Bazaar, especially off season.

Wander around the smaller streets by the bazaar and you'll happen upon some bizarre display like this at Cocoon. What in the...? These are felted hats! In fact, the store is full of felted lovelies, along with some beautiful textiles and handcrafts.

The Istanbul Handicrafts Market (Kabasakal Caddesi 23) showcases their artists' work in glass, pottery, silk painting, and weaving. The different crafts are housed in small studios/shops surrounding a sunny, central courtyard. Artists sometimes are at work in their studios.

If you're feeling peckish, try Çiğdem Pastanesi at Divan Yolu Caddesi 62A. It serves delectable baklava, pastries, and cappuccinos worthy of Rome.

Or, if you're hungry enough for lunch, go to the Sultanahmet Fish House for super-fresh fish at very, very reasonable prices. Their three course meals are fantastic. Sit at a window and watch people and cats go by.

Here's Sappho: she's expecting your visit at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum - and behind her is the discus thrower, on loan from the British Museum (not sure how long that will last). The museum really does have an impressive collection of ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman art and artifacts, along with Ottoman tiles and art. Beware, however: the museum guards will kick you out at 4PM! So make sure you arrive with plenty of time. Closed Mondays.

Walk across the Galata Bridge at sunset, then make your way to drinks and dinner on the modern strip of shops and restaurants on Istiklal Caddesi in Beyoğlu. Rest your feet and relax!

Whimsical felted rabbits, with each their own felt tote bag, at Cocoon.

Making: Opal Hundertwasser Socks

2010-04-05T14:49:00.000+02:00

I never really understood the urge to knit socks. Socks seem to be rather ho-hum articles of clothing, mostly obscured by shoes and pant legs. Why devote so much time to knitting one? Even as I knit one right now, I don't plan on becoming an avid sock knitter. BUT one thing I will say: sock yarns can be fantastic flights of colorful fancy. And I would only dream of wearing such crazy fabric on my feet!

This sock I'm working on (oh, I guess I'll do a pair, but do I have to?) is made out of Opal sock yarn, from their Hundertwasser series. Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) was an Austrian painter and architect, all about color and drawing outside the lines. The painting my sock yarn is based on (yes, crazy notion) is Winterbild:

I think Opal has done a heck of a job getting color combinations in the sock yarn to echo the painting. What Hundertwasser would think about these colors being worn on people's feet is another matter.

I just love the colors in this particular row of stitches - looks like candy, doesn't it? But, egads, can you imagine wearing this as a sweater? But they will do as socks. I will post when done!

Feasting: Easter Weekend

2010-04-02T18:26:00.001+02:00

It feels strange to me to post on gorgeous food when it's Good Friday. But I do feel fine showing you these Kiebitzeier, peewit eggs. But these are not eggs I harvested from a nest in the wild. No, this being Germany, these eggs are made of marzipan, with a hard candy shell. We bought them at a convenience store, and I expected them to be quite mundane. But, upon closer inspection, they were beautiful.

Happy Easter!

Wandering: Taiwan, Jade and Flower Markets

2010-03-31T17:58:00.002+02:00

"Ping Pong" flowers at the flower market.

We spent one Saturday morning in Taipei at the Jade and Flower Markets, located on Jianguo South Road. I was in heaven: the flower market offered the fragrant, the unusual, the edible, and the beautiful. If only I lived near a market like this! In a metropolitan Taipei, residents create virtual jungles and gardens on their high-rise balconies. And with this market, any garden is possible.

Grow your own pine bonsai.

Enormous dahlias, miniature lemon (?) trees.

Ceramic flower frogs and bowls for flower arranging.

Potted bushes and artful trees - some of them enormous!

The jade market adjoins the flower market so that you can walk from a lush garden into a tinkling cave of gems and crystals. Not only can you buy jade at the market, but also jewels and pearls, strings of beads and antique carvings. It is a fabulous place.

Carved pendants, bowls, even whole tea sets of jade
- hey, I spot jade mooncakes on the plate by the teapot on the tray!

A beautiful and delicate antique jade bowl.

Crystals pendants and bobbles.

Turquoise bracelets and beads, polished to a high shine.

A curious antique jade carving.

Making: Stella Slouchy Beret

2010-03-29T11:30:00.000+02:00

Winter's over, but spring is chilly. I don't want to look like too bundled up or ready to ski, so I knit Madelinetosh's Stella Hat, a slouchy beret. It's a free pattern, knits up quickly, and very, very pleasing!

I did, however, use bigger needles than recommended (I used an 8 and 9 instead of a 6 and 8) to get gauge and because I have a big head. I did 3 repeats but ended up with an enormous slouchy hat. Like this:

'Ey mon, give me some kibble!

I was either going to become Rastafarian or rip the thing back. I finally did the hard thing and ripped it back to 2 repeats, finished it again, and was quite happy with it!

An easy pattern, keeps me warm, and stylish! Raveled here.

Feasting: Taiwan Street Food

2010-03-26T12:30:00.001+01:00

I know I've blogged an awful lot about food in Taiwan before (here, here, here, and here!), but I really think enough good things cannot be said it! And really, who doesn't enjoy some tasty street food?

What could be better than a place that serves up fresh cooked noodles to your specification? Do you want pickled vegetables? Tea boiled eggs? Tender beef? More hot sauce? Hoisin sauce? Bean sprouts? Or do you want that with rice instead of noodles? This was in Taichung, on the west coast of the island. Mmmmm mmm.

Food-on-a-stick is always popular. Convenient, mess free, and fun. Here you can get boiled or fried mushrooms, squid, fish ball, and chicken, I believe, all on a stick. This is in Tainan, also on the west coast.

Or maybe you just want to start your day right, with a typical Taiwanese breakfast o' champions. This is it. Hot soy milk, fried pork dumplings, and fried dough sticks (yeo tiau - literally "oil stick," not a pretty name but oh so good). Add a sesame pocket bread (zhi ma shao bing) with lean slices of spiced beef and you are more than set. In fact, you probably won't need to eat anything else for the rest of the day! My sister and I ate this on the side of a road one morning in Gaohsiung (southwestern end of the island).

Fresh cut fruit - in this case, crisp green guava - is always available. Don't worry, Taiwan is very, very careful about cleanliness and the washing of fruits. Obsessively so. I've always said, Taiwan is the best of both worlds: Japanese attention to detail and order together with Chinese lust and appetite.

What in the . . . ? Oh, it's mochi! Sweet rice dumplings, filled with sweet red-bean paste or lotus or fruit or anything else sweet and delectable, about to be dusted with ground peanuts. To the right are two more coating options: black sesame seeds or white. This was a Sun Moon Lake, which I must tell you more about . . . Happy weekend, happy feasting!

Wandering: Taiwan, Tea at Maokong

2010-03-24T21:43:00.003+01:00

It was on a rainy day this January that my sister and I wandered about in Maokong, a small town in the mountains south of Taipei. Tea is grown on the slopes and, during the spring and summer, tea houses open up their balconies for visitors to gather and talk, sipping fragrant tea for long, long hours in the afternoon.

Tea plants in the drizzle. The tea variety here is probably Gaoshan Cha,

"High Mountain Tea," a type of Taiwanese oolong that is grown at high elevation.

Tea leaves drying under the eaves of a shop.

Tea pots are at the ready on the terrace of a tea house, overlooking the valley.

I did mention it was January, right? We were the only people at Maokong, looking to sit out and drink tea. It was cold! This is my sister, trying to keep her fingers and face warm with her tea cup. The sieve-tray is used to catch all the hot water that is first poured over and into the tea pot to clean it. Hot water is also discarded into the tray from the first brewing of the tea, which is considered inferior and "dirty" compared to the second brewing, which is drunk.

Kettles all in a row.

Next time in Taiwan, if it's less chilly, I'll be sure to make another trip. For those thinking of visiting (and you should!), the gondola is shut down at the moment, but bus 15 from the Taipei Zoo is quite direct (take the MRT to the Taipei Zoo station).

Making: Apple Tawashi

2010-03-22T18:58:00.000+01:00

I stumbled upon a wonderful knit and crochet blog - it's now on my links list on the right of this page - Salihan Crafts. On it there are some adorable amigurumi toys that I would love to try my hand at sometime in the future.

For the moment, since I am without immediate access to toy stuffing and the like, I decided to make the apple tawashi (dishcloth) instead. It is a free pattern and you can find it here. It really was an easy pattern, but clever and cute! I'm not usually a crocheter, but I just looked up stitches and instructions at Lion Brand Yarn (great tutorial videos) and off I went.

The leaf I "designed" myself - that is to say, fooled around with the crochet hook until I was satisfied. It went something like this:

ch12
sc2 dc3 tc2 dc3 sc2 on one side of the chain (the chain is the middle vein running through the leaf)
turn work
sc2 dc3 tc2 dc3 sc2 on the other side of the chain, so you have a symmetrical shape. Ta-da!

Sew with tails onto both stem and apple body to make secure.

In the end, the tawashi was too big for a tawashi - I used an H hook and cotton yarn that was a bit thick. I think it will exist instead as a pot holder for my sister. Now to put it in the post to California...

Byzantium I Come Not From

2010-03-17T11:47:00.000+01:00

No, I am quite happy to visit the magical place for only a short while - too long there and the whole fantastical world might lose its luster, or disappear like a mirage.

And here is Ray Bradbury's evocative poem, which has both magic and the sweet smells of home:

Byzantium, I come not from,
But from another time and place
Whose race was simple, tried and true;

As boy
I dropped me forth in Illinois.
A name with neither love nor grace
Was Waukegan, there I came from
And not, good friends, Byzantium.

And yet in looking back I see
From topmost part of farthest tree
A land as bright, beloved and blue
As any Yeats found to be true.

So we grew up with mythic dead
To spoon upon midwestern bread
And spread old gods' bright marmalade
To slake in peanut-butter shade,
Pretending there beneath our sky
That it was Aphrodite's thigh...
While by the porch-rail calm and bold
His words pure wisdom, stare pure gold
My grandfather, a myth indeed,
Did all of Plato supersede
While Grandmama in rockingchair
Sewed up the raveled sleeve of care
Crocheted cool snowflakes rare and bright
To winter us on summer night.
And uncles, gathered with their smokes
Emitted wisdoms masked as jokes,
And aunts as wise as Delphic maids
Dispensed prophetic lemonades
To boys knelt there as acolytes
To Grecian porch on summer nights;
Then went to bed, there to repent
The evils of the innocent;
The gnat-sins sizzling in their ears
Said, through the nights and through the years
Not Illinois nor Waukegan
But blither sky and blither sun.

Though mediocre all our Fates
And Mayor not as bright as Yeats
Yet still we knew ourselves. The sum?
Byzantium.
Byzantium.

New Year's Cake, Ranunculuses, and Wine-Dyeing

2010-03-06T18:36:00.000+01:00

Well, this may seem like a random post, but I've decided that the unifying element is the color purple . . . that and these are all things that make me happy.

Chinese New Year's Cake (nian gao, 年糕) can be steamed, baked, or fried and include a variety of ingredients - and eaten whenever, even if it's a month past New Year's! While I love steamed nian gao, I don't have a steamer. But my mom has an excellent and simple recipe for baked nian gao, which also includes red bean paste and walnuts. Yum! Recipe at the end of this post.

Red bean paste is dolloped into the batter - see the deep purple goodness oozing out?

I love these Ranunculuses I picked up at the market.

Finally, we had a friend over for dinner the other night. In the middle of our lovely evening, he overturned a full glass of red wine on our roommates white tablecloth. Whoops. It's already been stained to bits by wine, however, and I thought: why not just dye the whole damned thing? I tried with leftover wine and some cheap cooking wine, with some vinegar added to make it set more. After drying the wine-saturated cloth, I then rinsed it thoroughly in scalding hot water. Don't know how permanent the results are, but I do like them!

A pale lavender cotton.

My Mom's Baked New Year's Cake Recipe:

1 pack of sweet rice flour (1 lb) I only trust Mochiko brand
1 cup sugar (I usually use 3/4 cup)
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cup cooking oil
3 eggs
1 or 1/2 can of red bean paste
1/2 cup crushed walnuts, cashews, or pine nuts, or mixed (we prefer walnuts)
A little cooking oil or butter, some flour

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Oil and flour a 9x13x3 baking pan.
Mix 1 through 6 well, pour mixture into baking pan.
Use a spoon to scoop red bean paste and drop it onto the batter so that, when done, each piece will have some paste. The paste will sink to the bottom of baking mixture. DO NOT MIX.
Sprinkle nuts on the baking mixture.
Bake at 350 for one hour. A toothpick should come out clean.
Cut when cool. A buttered knife will cut better.

Daring Bakers: Tiramisu

2010-02-27T16:40:00.001+01:00

This was lovely. Not only was the finished product delicious but I got to learn how to make savoiardi biscuits (ladyfingers) and mascarpone cheese. Those two elements, along with the zabaglione and whipped cream, made for a luscious treat.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

I wanted to make a molded tiramisu but, alas, my freezer is the size of, well, two ice-cube trays and a bag of frozen peas. So, instead, we ate goblets of the heavenly stuff instead.

Marmalade & Hyacinths

2010-02-24T10:34:00.000+01:00

Marmalade in German means "jam," but I still get so confused because I just think "marmalade." We recently ate at a lovely restaurant that was so cozy it was like eating in a farmwife's kitchen - wood burning furnace, dark wood beams, lots of nooks and crannies.

After dinner we purchased some homemade marmalade that was for sale on a counter. All proceeds went to the children's hospital. And the jars were so cheery and cute. The one above is a quince jelly.

These are my Valentine's day flowers. They've been perfuming the entire place for the last week! Just another sign that Spring is coming - today it was a balmy 50°F. Warm enough for me and my two apartment-mates to walk around with ice-cream cones after dinner. Life is good.

新年快樂! Happy Valentine's!

2010-02-14T12:34:00.000+01:00

I wish I could celebrate the new year with my family, but I'll have to make do with eating at a Chinese restaurant here in Heidelberg!

It's the year of the tiger, my sister's zodiac animal.
This is from a frieze at Long Shan Temple in Taipei. He looks crafty, eh?

And here's some crafty lovin'. Crocheted hearts, tutorial to be found here.

A Rooftop through the Seasons

2010-02-10T16:26:00.000+01:00

From the living room window in Heidelberg:

Summer storms.

Autumn leaves.

Winter snows.

When spring comes, I'll post that too. It seems a long way off, but it's nice to be cozy inside, too.

February

2010-02-01T21:21:00.000+01:00

It's snowing almost everyday here in Heidelberg. Shouldn't the month that contains Valentine's Day be full of sunshine and happiness?? Well, here are a few photos from our trip to Versailles to conjure up those warm feelings. These are of Le Hameau, Marie Antoinette's make-believe farming village.

An idyllic little farmhouse in the afternoon sun.

Cheery gardens of vegetables and flowers.

Chard and salad greens!

Bright geraniums line the steps up to a side door.

Spring is coming, right?

To A Beautiful New Year

2010-01-27T11:58:00.000+01:00

I'm back! It's been quite a month and a half - 5 flights, 3 continents, 2 exams, and lots and lots of beautiful things. Here's a little peek for now.

Sun Moon Lake, in central Taiwan. A serene place.

Zen tableaux at the Lalu, our hotel at the lake.

Persimmon Pudding with Toffee Sauce

2009-12-29T07:39:00.000+01:00

At this time of year persimmons are dangling on bare tree branches, like lanterns or brilliant pendant earrings. I've had the pleasure of eating two types of persimmons, the squatter, crispy type ("Fuyu") and the heart-shaped, soft-fleshed type ("Hachiya").

A Hachiya persimmon. My parents ripen them on the windowsill, bottoms up.

The sweet bounty of persimmons in winter sometimes poses a conundrum - what to do with all these orange beauties ripening into softness at the same time? Since only my dad and I eat the Hachiya persimmon (my mom ONLY eats crisp fruit, so no papayas, bananas, or Hachiyas for her), something had to be done about all our extra ripe persimmons. Hence this recipe, which I baked for our family Christmas Eve dinner. Persimmons really do not have a strong flavor (except for their tannins, and that is only when they're not fully ripe) so this recipe yields a very English plummy-pudding cake. With toffee sauce drizzled on top, it's a sweet, festive end to a holiday meal.

For the Pudding

2 Cups Persimmon Pulp

1 3/4 Cups Sugar

2 Egg

4 Tbs. Melted Butter

2 Cup Milk

2 Cup Flour

3 Tsp. Baking Soda

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

1 Tsp. Salt

1 Cup Golden Raisins
3/4 Cup Chopped Pitted Dates

1 Cup Nuts

Preheat oven to 325 degees. Grease a bundt pan.
Mix sugar, pulp, egg, melted butter and milk.
In separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add pulp mixture, mixing well.
Dust raisins, dates, and nuts with flour to keep them from sinking to bottom; add them to mixture.
Pour into bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

For the Sauce

2 Cups Brown Sugar
1 Cup Heavy Cream
1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)
1/4 Tsp. Salt

Combine ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until mixture is beginning to caramelize. Remove from heat and cool. Drizzle lavishly over pudding.

This would be lovely served with vanilla ice-cream!

Daring Bakers: Castle von Gummi

2009-12-24T19:51:00.000+01:00

Castle von Gummi is situated on a plateau atop a high mountain. Its walls, though roughly hewn, have never given way to enemy attack. An impregnable stronghold, it has served as a seat of power for time out of mind.

The crest of the von Gummi royal family decorates the castle walls. The current king, Friedrich von Gummi, has lately been troubled by a rebellious faction, the Trolli. Longtime separatists, they see Friedrich's reluctance for war as an opportunity for attack.

But inside, von Gummi's warriors are ready. Catapults and ammunition are ready.

Lookouts are posted in every watchtower.

Outside the protection of the castle walls, El Capitán Haribo waits for the Trolli's onslaught. Once a marauder, he threw his lot in with the von Gummi family for reasons known only to himself. His fearlessness inspires unwavering loyalty and bravery amongst the von Gummi soldiers.

The alarm is sounded! There is a rush inside the walls for final preparations.

The Trolli forces have brought a battering ram! Their hugest warriors bear it upon their shoulders, shouting, "Death to the Gummi! Death to Haribo!"

El Capitán Haribo stands his ground, unblanching.

The Gummi forces wait their Captain's signal.

Trolli troops have set their catapults.

But the Gummis strike first!

Wounded Trollis litter the field.

The battering ram warriors face this formidable sight through the portcullis.

Who will win this battle? Will Friedrich keep his crown? Will El Capitán Haribo prevail?

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I used Y's Scandanavian recipe, with strange results... I think later there was an amendment to the recipe, using less flour. As it is, my castle walls are lighter in color than normal gingerbread and more bread-like in texture. Warping was also a problem. Ah well, I just say that bears aren't the best architects and, well, their castle IS made out of mountain stone.

Der Weihnachtsmarkt : The Christmas Market

2009-12-14T18:15:00.000+01:00

With the beginning of Advent, Christmas markets all over Germany open. In plazas and squares, bakers and crafters and artists set up shop. Heidelberg hosts several markets in four separate squares in the old city, and it is really lovely and picturesque.

This stand is selling traditional Nutcrackers and wooden ornaments.

Of course there are Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and candy sellers everywhere.

Besides from Christmas fare, there are also beautiful crafts for sale, like this lovely pottery.

This brilliantly lit shop is selling Glühwein, a spiced mulled-wine that's only drunk at this time of year.
It is powerful stuff! I like the taste, but, really, I should stay far away from it!

This man is carving a wooden bowl. His shop sells all sorts of wooden

serving platters as well as stools and tables - all hand carved by him!

This is the bowl and ladle I bought from him. I love it that I know

who made this and that I can see his knife patterns all over the bowl.

I wish that the States had more of a market culture. Sure, there are farmers markets and craft markets, especially in large cities, like New York, but we're still much more dependent on Target and supermarkets. Not that I don't love Target! But, there is lots to be said about buying direct from a grower or crafter or artist and enjoying the walk around a city square.

What Does She Do All Day?

2009-12-01T16:11:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd dedicate a post to describing my daily life here, in case you're curious. Other than baking and knitting and sniffing perfumes and daydreaming about travel, I lead the life of a monk! I spend my days shut up in my fourth story apartment in Germany, straining my eyes and brain to read ancient texts. Fits the bill, right? Here's a passage I love that I read recently, from Plato's dialogue Crito. Socrates is in jail and has been condemned to death, and his friend, Crito, has been urging him to escape by night. After a lengthy debate, Socrates ends his argument against fleeing from death by saying this:

ταῦτα, ὦ φίλε ἑταῖρε Κρίτων, εὖ ἴσθι ὅτι ἐγὼ δοκῶ ἀκούειν, ὥσπερ οἱ κορυβαντιῶντες τῶν αὐλῶν δοκοῦσιν ἀκούειν, καὶ ἐν ἐμοὶ αὕτη ἡ ἠχὴ τούτων τῶν λόγων βομβεῖ καὶ ποιεῖ μὴ δύνασθαι τῶν ἄλλων ἀκούειν· ἀλλὰ ἴσθι, ὅσα γε τὰ νῦν ἐμοὶ δοκοῦντα, ἐὰν λέγῃς παρὰ ταῦτα, μάτην ἐρεῖς.

Know well, dear friend Crito, that I seem to hear these arguments, just as the frenzied worshipers of Cybele seem to hear the flutes, and the sound of these words resounds and makes me unable to hear any other. So know that so far do they seem right to me that if you should say anything besides them, you will speak in vain.

My monk's cell. It is a lovely view, though.

It was cold and foggy today - I love to watch the clouds
roll down the hills of the Philosophenweg.

Surrounding myself with things I like to look at and touch helps the tedium!
As you can see, I have a ring obsession.

Not much on the calendar. Oddly enough, that hourglass only
runs for about 45 minutes. Hmm. And more rings. From Israel!

One of my favoritest things in my study - I bought this in Japantown, SF.
Leave it to the Japanese to create the worlds smallest colored-pencil box.
I use it to sketch out knitting projects, so I can visualize color combinations.

Daring Bakers: Cannoli!

2009-11-27T14:04:00.000+01:00

This month, the Daring Bakers decided not to bake - instead, we would deep fry! I must say, I prefer baking. I wasn't ever crazy about cannoli, and I don't think I ever will be, but I'm still game to try anything.

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I decided to make a plain cannoli dough and, after frying, to dip them in chocolate and garnish with orange zest. The ricotta filling was a bit too dense, but it made for a nice taste combination.

I made stacked, flat cannoli, since I am in Germany and couldn't get my hands on cannoli forms even if I wanted to. Okay, now you can tell I am a grouchy baker. Working with a million conversions (oz to grams, F to C to gas oven numbers, etc. etc.) and two not-so-successful Daring Baker challenges (and recipes, in my opinion) have made me a bit grumpy. But hopefully December will be a different story!

Der Philosophenweg

2009-11-22T23:18:00.000+01:00

There's a hiking path across the river from the Old City called "The Philosopher's Way." Part of it weaves through gardens and orchards and gives great views of the castle and the city. Part of it dives into the forest, with tall, tall trees and little undergrowth . . .

It starts out on a winding alley, called the Snake Path, going up, up, up the side of the hill.

Mounds of moss are magical woodland worlds in miniature.

At the tail end of autumn, the path is littered with leaves. Night falls quickly, and within just a few minutes we were plunged into darkness amidst the trees. Suddenly it felt as if we could be in any century - there were no lights, no sound. It was easy then to understand why people once venerated and feared the forest, why they told stories of beasts and horrors creeping out from it, why the glow of a village could be so comforting. This was the first time I felt that the "Old World" felt really, really old. This hadn't happened while looking at ruins or old city walls. Instead, I felt it in the forest, in something that has evoked fear, awe, and worship for time out of mind.

Thankfully, there was some respite from the darkness - there's a small vineyard at the end of one path. Here, in the clearing, we could see the old city in the valley below.

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 4

2009-11-08T22:48:00.002+01:00

Well, after reviewing macarons from three patisseries and trying my own hand at making them, I finish this macaron series with Monsieur Macaron Himself, Pierre Hermé . We visited his shop (one of two in Paris) located on a quiet corner in Saint Germain des Prés. I was allowed to take precisely and only two photos inside of the store. Here they are:

Lovely, perfect pastries on display.

The famous macarons themselves! I had a hard time getting all the flavors straight -
my French is really abysmal, and I am too proud (sometimes) to speak in English!

After haphazardly choosing a variety of mini-macarons, we headed out to the fountain and park area next to St-Sulpice to enjoy ourselves.

As far as I can remember, the flavors are (clockwise from top right):
mint, cocoa, raspberry and something-or-other, and olive oil-vanilla.

We couldn't miss the famous Ispahan concoction - a giant macaron filled
with raspberries, lychees, and rosewater-flavored cream.
This is Hermé's signature pastry.

Crunch!

The flavors of rosewater, raspberries, and lychees melded together elegantly - and I am always gratified when lychees are used. I feel that they are such an under-appreciated - or, rather, unknown - fruit. But, really, they are so sweet, light, and lovely.

But . . . as amazing as Pierre Hermé and his store are, I must announce the winner of the macaron taste-off to be Fauchon. For us, Fauchon's macarons had not only perfect texture but also the most delicious flavorings, and the best balance of sweet, salty, fragrant, and rich. This is not to say that ANY of the patisseries we tried were lacking (although one of the Hermé maracons was slightly too chewy, almost - gasp! - stale). Fauchon was just more perfect. But, of course, I'm always willing to go back to Paris and try everything again!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Macarons and the Case of the Missing Feet!

2009-10-27T15:28:00.001+01:00

I couldn't have been more excited about a Daring Baker's challenge - imagine having just come back from Paris and sampling the world's finest macarons, only to find out that you yourself are being challenged to produce the same pastry!

Alas, the macarons were not to be. I tried to follow all the advice out there: I aged the egg whites 24 hours, I tapped the baking sheets, I let the unbaked cookies dry out. But the end result was simply not a macaron. A fine almond cookie, sure, but there were no feet! If you scroll down to the other posts below on macarons, the feet are the ruffly edge on the bottom of the macaron cookie. At any rate, at least I tried (and will try again!) and got a good caramel sauce recipe out of the deal.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This batter looked promising: smooth, shiny. What could go wrong? HA!

Alas: these are just glorified almond cookies. Light and airy - but no feet! Arggghhhh.
Still, the caramel was delectable. Not a total loss.

For all things macaron, including recipes, I suggest going to Tartlette's blog. I used her Salty Caramel Sauce, which is the filling for her Pecan Pie Macaron. My shells were unflavored. I think I overfolded my batter. And I will have to experiment more with my oven, which uses gas mark numbers rather than actual temperatures. Live and learn!

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 3

2009-10-25T17:06:00.000+01:00

This is the entrance of Ladurée on the Champs-Élysées, a patisserie with a very different modus operandi than Fauchon. Fauchon is modern and chic. Ladurée is aiming for baroque opulence, with velvet walls and chandeliers. It certainly works!

Here's the line on a Saturday night.

There are attendants in white gloves, ready to wrap up whatever delicacy you like.

And the wrapping is absolutely fabulous, as you can see here. This is a little Ladurée tableaux
I set up in our lodgings that night - before we promptly gobbled it down.

Aren't they lovely? Clockwise from the top: bergamot (yes, the spice
that flavors Earl Grey!), pistachio, chocolate, citron, and raspberry.

These were pretty good - I think the pistachio was especially yummy. The bergamot flavored macaron was interesting - it captured the taste of a mildly sweet and creamy cup of tea without being too weird.

Okay, this is not a macaron, but it is, in my opinion, Ladurée's pièce de résistance: a rosewater-raspberry concoction with oh-so-subtly flavored cream and tiny bonbons embedded in the sides. The bottom is a pâte à choux, filled with more cream.

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 2

2009-10-12T11:59:00.000+02:00

Fauchon is located by the L'Église de la Madeleine, along with Hédiard, another gourmet food store - which makes for a very tasty corner of Paris, all around.

This is at Fauchon - amazing store, with all sorts of goodies: foie gras,
terrines, pâte de fruits, etc. But look at these pastries! Those are raspberries,
painted a pearly white! I really cant' say enough good things about Fauchon.

Eclairs at Fauchon - not sure what I think of decorating
an eclair like a hot dog, but I'm sure they taste good.

A citron macaron from Fauchon. Perfect macaron shell - you can see the
crunchy exterior, followed by the almondy chewyness, followed by
perfectly flavored filling.

The macarons we ordered at Fauchon were full size - about 2-3 inches in diameter, as you can see above. I must say that they were fantastic. Maybe taste and texture are affected by the size of the macaron - maybe the bigger the better? Anyway, these were a welcome treat after a very wonderful but exhausting day at the Louvre.

Eating My Way through Paris: Macarons part 1

2009-10-06T21:19:00.000+02:00

Since relocating to Heidelberg, Germany, I've been astounded by how easy it is to get to other European locales. Last weekend we headed to Paris - only 3 1/2 hours by train! As my mom said, "That's like driving to Tahoe!" (from the SF Bay Area, that is). One of my main incentives for going to Paris was sampling all the macarons I've been obsessing about for the last year or so. It seems that this meringue sandwich cookie has taken the foodie-world by storm. So here goes for our Paris macaron taste-off:

This is the display in the Lenôtre, in Bastille, 11th arrondissement.
We stopped there our first morning, for our first macaron tasting.

These were light and satisfyingly crunchy-chewy, with lovely fillings.

I was impressed by the chocolate ganache filling - very rich. The others we tried were pistachio, frambois (raspberry), and caramel, with sea salt. I think my favorite was the caramel (it usually is!), but one complaint is that the sea salt hits you first when you bite into the macaron, and it's a bit strong. The burnt-sugar taste of caramel comes almost at the end, which is too long to wait, in my mind. All in all, though, a great sweet treat - light but very satisfying.

Heidelberger Herbst

2009-09-30T15:52:00.000+02:00

That means "Heidelberg Autumn" - a festival that celebrated its 60th anniversary this last weekend. It was an interesting, and fun, mixture of Oktoberfest, Renaissance fairs, and flea markets.

That's the Oktoberfest part - or so I imagine. Guys dressed up
in traditional German dress and drinking at 10 in the morning!

There were also gingerbread houses (sort of) selling big gingerbread hearts
with cutsie sayings in frosting on them, e.g. "Du bist mein Stern" ("You are my star").

Ah yes, the Ren Fair folks.

Beautiful (and expensive!) armor for sale.

The best part of any festival, though, is the food!
I am all for roasting suckling pig!!

Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus (potato pancakes with applesauce).
Yummmmmmm.

And lots and lots of beer. Drunk from terra cotta cups.

Marketing in Heidelberg

2009-09-28T09:54:00.000+02:00

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon out in the Marktplatz...

These are artichoke blooms - I'd never seen before what would happen
if the choke wasn't eaten and allowed to blossom.

My bounty from the market: greens from nearby Handschuheim (literally "Glove Home"),
some Poire William pears, blackberries, and a squash of some sort,
which turned out quite dense and yam-like.

Knitting around the World!

2009-09-19T11:04:00.000+02:00

These are the flights I've taken over the last 3 months:

1) NYC to Frankfurt
2) Frankfurt to Tel Aviv
3) Tel Aviv to Frankfurt
4) Frankfurt to NYC
5) NYC to SF
6) SF to NYC
7) NYC to Frankfurt

Needless to say, I am sick of flying now and am happy to stay in one place for a few months. The upside of all this flying is that I had lots and lots of free hours to knit! Here are a few things I've worked on up in the sky (and on the ground):

The mittens I knitted in Israel, during my 5-week intensive biblical Hebrew course. It was a nice, meditative ritual during that time. And they were my first mittens! Knitted on double pointed needles! The hat I made in Germany, after I got back from Israel. It's all knit out of delicious Malabrigo Yarn - merino wool that's beautifully textured and hand-dyed. I loved working with it.

This is a head kerchief I started in the Bay and then finished in Germany. I especially liked learning how to make the more complicated leaf ties - which are, unfortunately, hidden when you wear the thing!

Next on my list? I'm hoping to make a kid mohair cowl scarf and a beret...maybe. And I would love to try my hand at socks and cables. To be continued.

Back in Heidelberg

2009-09-04T16:54:00.001+02:00

Finally done with travels this summer, almost ready to hunker down and get some serious research and Greek reading done! But, a little pause before the plunge might be nice! How about some flowers for the apartment? Or a picnic?

Flower are so cheap here! Today I bought a bunch of roses for the equivalent of $6 US!

Our picnic site. This is on the banks of the River Neckar
across from where we live in the Altstadt.

Our picnic! Complete with a sharp Alpine cheese and Landjäger sausage - a hard salami.

Jerusalem Souks: The Old City

2009-08-17T20:24:00.000+02:00

I don't know why I'm running out of steam in terms of blogging...especially when I saw such beautiful things in Israel. Well, here are some of my favorite images from the souks in the Old City, on King David Street, the Christian Quarter Road, and in the Muristan.

Beautiful beads and brass lamps - I always think: well, I'll never wear it,
but could I justify buying a bunch just to look at?

Amazing antique and "junk" shops everywhere.

I was tempted to lie down here. Especially after a hot, sunny walk on the city walls.

Hebron glass! I would've bought out the shop, except how in the world to transport things?!

Sometimes I think, I want to fill my place will lamps and rugs... but then, is it weird? Will I be living in some sort of themed place that's not really me? I think this everytime I go somewhere with beautiful things. So, does one have an eclectic collection from around the world or go whole hog with one culture? I guess what one really needs is 10 homes scattered about the world.

And how much stuff is really too much? After moving and putting stuff in storage this last week the cenobitic life seems pretty good to me! Maybe it's enough just to see beautiful artifacts in context rather than continue to collect and consume.

This lamp looks pretty good in context. No need to take it back to Heidelberg!

Jerusalem Souks: Mahane Yehuda

2009-08-01T21:00:00.000+02:00

As usual, I made sure to get to all the markets I could to look, smell, and taste! The biggest fresh produce market in Jerusalem is Mahane Yehuda, which is especially bustling on Friday before Shabbat begins at sundown.

Security is always on alert, of course.

Isn't this particular selection of kippas (yarmulkes) great? I think I'd want a Babar kippa, personally.

A crispy, syrupy fried sweet. Mmmmm.

Even your dog has a variety of snacks to choose from!

Dinner at La Guta

2009-07-20T21:09:00.000+02:00

La Guta is a French Moroccan restaurant in Jerusalem, on a quiet street in the German Colony. My roommate, Susan, and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice night out last week - after all, our dorm rooms look like hospital rooms!

It was an amazing place. See below!

Goose liver with chocolate sauce on Belgian waffle. I know, sounds weird, but divine!

Compliments of the chef: red bell pepper canapé.

The climax of the meal: duck confit. You can't go wrong with duck confit.

We shared a dessert - chocolate volcano with vanilla ice-cream and strawberry confit. I think I was too excited to take a picture! The strawberry confit was my favorite thing the whole evening - it tasted of caramelized strawberries. So luscious.

Stay tuned :)

Shalom from Jerusalem!

2009-07-13T09:11:00.000+02:00

I had planned on blogging very regularly in Israel, but that was until El Al Airlines foiled my plans by confiscating my computer cord/charger! Apparently it's a dangerous object. But not too dangerous for the post - so I finally received it in the mail yesterday. Here are just some random pics to summarize my experience so far.

View of the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives.

Lamps inside the Holy Sepulcher.

Ultra-Orthodox Russian Jew at the Kotel (Western Wall). I can't believe the hat in this heat!

Hall of Names at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. Each of those volumes in those
shelves contains names and biographical information on Holocaust victims.

A peaceful image in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

More to come!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Bakewell Puddings!

2009-06-21T19:53:00.000+02:00

[Shalom from Jerusalem! I saved this post earlier so I could put it up the day of the Daring Baker's challenge. So, although it seems like I'm in Germany here, I'm in Israel! Pictures coming as soon as El Al airlines returns my computer cord to me!!!]

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

I have no qualms calling this a pudding, since I am a devoted Anglophile, and any sweet at the end of a meal can be called a pudding! This was a fun challenge, with three elements to work on: the shortcrust, the jam, and the frangipane.

From the Daring Bakers forum: "Flan-like desserts that combine either sweet egg custard over candied fruit or feature spiced ground almonds in a pastry shell have Mediaeval roots. The term 'Bakewell pudding' was first penned in 1826 by Meg Dods; 20 years later Eliza Acton published a recipe that featured a baked rich egg custard overtop 2cm of jam and noted,

'This pudding is famous not only in Derbyshire, but in several of our northern counties where it is usually served on all holiday occasions.'

By the latter half of the 1800s, the egg custard evolved into a frangipane-like filling; since then the quantity of jam decreased while the almond filling increased."

I decided to make currant jam from scratch: how could I resist these beauties at the market?

I think I go by this market every 3 days, just to look at the produce. I can't tear myself away.

After plucking the fruit off their stems, the currants look even more like jewels!

The Redcurrant Jam Recipe:
I found this recipe online, from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). I didn't really follow it to the T, just plunked the fruit and some pectin sugar into a pot and let it boil merrily away for about an hour.

To every 450g (1lb) of Fruit allow:
340g (12oz) Sugar

Let the fruit be gathered on a fine day.
Weigh the redcurrants and remove the stalks.
Put into a preserving pan with sugar in the above ratio.
Stir and boil for about 45 minutes.
Carefully remove the scum as it rises.
Put the jam sterilised jars and when cold, cover with airtight lids.

Time: 30 to 45 minutes, reckoning from the time the jam boils all over.
Sufficient: Allow from 6 to 7 quarts of currants to make 12 1-lb, pots of jam.
Seasonable: Make this in July.

Here all the components can be seen: shortcrust,
topped with currant jam, topped with frangipane.

The Bakewell Pudding Recipe:
Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:
• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.
Annemarie’s notes:
• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).
Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Jasmine’s notes:
• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract
Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:
• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

A little plate of goodies, cooling at the window.
It was a great way to spend a Saturday, whipping these up.

Goodbye to Germany for Now

2009-06-21T19:18:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I take off for Jerusalem, for about a month's intensive biblical Hebrew at Hebrew University. I can't wait to see and taste and smell and touch everything there - and to put pictures of it all on the blog. But here's a fond goodbye-for-now to Heidelberg (I'll be here for the next school year starting September).

I just love this garden above a pub. Someone really loves plants!

Cherry tomatoes on the vine at a market.

These are gooseberries, I believe (the German is Stachelbeeren which means "prickle berries").

I noticed these window shutter holders on the street - little knights' heads.

One of my favorite restaurants here: Die Kulturebrauerei. Always good food, always good beer.

This was last night's dinner at Kulturbrauerei: it's called Pfälzer Lieblingsgericht, or "the Palatinate's (an old name for the region) favorite dish." It consists of, in clockwise order starting with the mustard: mustard, boiled potatoes, blood sausage (Blutwurst), caramelized onions on sauerkraut, ground and fried liver (Leberknödel), liver sausage (Leberwurst), and some kind of ham charcuterie. It was delicious. The blood sausage was super rich, with actual bits of fat still solid inside. Decadent innards!

Die Kulturbrauerei's specialty, in terms of beer, is Kellerbier - brewed at a colder temperature, traditionally in the cellar, hence the name. It is rich and malty. Mmmmm.

Here is a view of the castle, which sits above the old city. This was taken, believe it or not, at around 9PM! It is still so light in the sky! I've never lived so far north - I love that in summer there is still light in the sky at 10:30PM.

At Home in Heidelberg, Germany

2009-06-12T18:47:00.000+02:00

Just a few pictures from the apartment and near it. It's nice to stop being in packing and traveling mode and get settled in. Then again, I have to get myself organized for Israel in 2 weeks! Never mind. That's still plenty of time to rest and relax.

The view from the living room window, looking over Untere Strasse
(our street) and the hills beyond the River Neckar.

Every morning this little sugar pot is set outside Tee oder Kaffee, a cafe on our block.

Juicy currants (Johannisbeeren) for sale at a nearby bakery/market.

A light meal outdoors at a cafe on the next block -
that's a nice dark wheat beer (dunkles Weissbier) in the background.

The view from the back bedroom of the apartment.
We think some Americans live in that tower.

Eating My Way through Germany: You Don't Know What A Sweet Tooth Is Until You Come Here

2009-05-24T17:52:00.000+02:00

The streets of Heidelberg's old city (Altstadt) are all cobblestone and pedestrians only (Fußgängerzone), full of little shops that are teeming with goodies.

That's the cathedral in the background, standing in the middle of a square that also has markets on weekends.

It's absolutely lovely. And, for part of the summer and the whole next academic year, I get to live in an apartment right at the heart of all this loveliness! It's one of those apartments with dormer windows and sloping ceilings, above restaurants and stores.

The problem will be keeping from eating at the luscious bakeries and chocolateries that line the blocks every day! In the space of 2 blocks I counted 1 bakery, 2 chocolateries, and 2 gummy bear stores. Stores that are devoted only to selling gummy bears! I'll let the pictures do the talking. All I'm saying is, you only have to walk 2 blocks to see everything I've posted below. You might need to get a glass of milk to cut the sweetness.

In the window of our favorite bakery. Those cube things are called
Pflasterstein, meaning "cobblestone." They're filled with cake and marzipan.
Those globes in dark and white chocolate - scroll down for further detail.
The first resolution I made upon seeing this is: I have to try
every one of these outrageous looking sweets.

Remember Augustus Gloop from the new "Charlies and the Chocolate Factory"?

I think the caricature of him as a German chocolate eating machine
is not too far from the truth...

Okay, this was photographed with a hand to give a sense of size. It is enormous.

It's filled with cake and cream and more chocolate. It's decadence, in ball form.

Getting Crafty

2009-05-14T22:49:00.000+02:00

Ever since getting together with my friends, E and D, to visit yarn and fabric stores in NYC, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time knitting and sewing. It's fast becoming an obsession!

At Purl in Soho, petting the pretty, pretty skeins of yarn.

At Purl Fabric. I love their Japanese prints!

Last weekend, D came down from Boston to have a sewing weekend with me. It was a chapter of accidents: elastic thread didn't work, not enough fabric (due to errata in a book), not enough tracing paper, etc. etc. But, we still got to play with pretty fabric!

And I've been knitting like crazy - too bad I can't knit during lecture! I guess that would 1) be disrespectful and 2) reinforce stereotypes - do I want to be the female academician who knits during meetings? Anyway, I finished my first hat:

It's knit of the softest baby alpaca wool - but in a sedate color, since it's a guy's hat. As my friend E likes to say, guy's knits are all boring. They all have to be in "manly" colors of blue, gray, or black. Ah well!

And here is Marlowe, modeling a scarf I knit and gave to a friend. I fell in love with the hand dyed yarn - but when it's knit up it is too funky for my style, I think.

Marlowe says, "Somebody help me!!! She's a crazy knitting freak!"

Amouage Perfumes

2009-05-03T07:14:00.001+02:00

nce upon a time there lived a sultan. He was very sad because his land was once renowned for its riches and especially for its heady perfumes. But now the bazaars were empty, and the perfumers, one by one, had packed their chests and departed to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

But one day he had an idea. He would hire the most famous French perfumer and bring him to his palace. He would ask him to bring the art of perfumery back to his land. He would ask him to concoct something absolutely breathtaking, full of spices, incense, and attars so rich that whole fields of roses would be used for one precious vial.

The French perfumer came. He admired the palace. He listened to the sultan's sad tale. He stepped into the laboratory set up for him and went to work.

Three weeks later, he asked for an audience with the sultan. He brought forth a small crystal bottle. When he unstopped it and held it under the sultan's nose, the sultan almost fainted with joy. From the bottle flowed the scent first of roses, then of Provence herbs--all classic scents in the French tradition--but then it changed its tune ever so slightly. Suddenly, the sultan could smell the desert night, the cool breeze under a hundred flying carpets. He could smell the musky scent of Scheherezade as she lay in her silken bed, frankincense rising from a censer behind her. It was the answer to his dreams.

The perfume markets began their trade again. Artists and craftsmen competed to mix the sweetest fragrances, the richest oils. The French perfumer went back to his land, with a thousand camels, five hundred chests of jewels, and one hundred golden lamps, full of perfumed oil. The sultan rejoiced and breathed in the fragrance rising from beyond the ivory walls of his palace.

******
Okay, maybe there weren't a thousand camels, but this story, in its bare bones, is all true. In 1983, the Sultan of Oman asked Guy Robert to revive the Arabian art of perfumery, no expense spared. Guy Robert is the "nez" of French perfumery. He concocted Amouage Gold for the Sultan, what he called "the crowning glory of my career."

And I own it! I bought a bottle of it off ebay when I discovered that its 24% lead crystal bottle and 24K gold top (for Gold for women) was being discontinued. It is truly a thing of beauty--both bottle and scent.

Amouage Gold for men (left) and women (right)

I must admit that my favorite Amouage scent is Jubilation XXV and not Gold. XXV is just about the most perfect thing I have ever smelled. It is an incense scent but full of the heady smell of a fruity wine as well. It's a man's scent, but I long ago decided that gender does not play a role with regards to the nose. At least not for me. When I wear it, I swear I'm at the market place in Oman at dusk, surrounded by candied dates and scented resin. I only have a sample vial for now...Amouage is a pricey brand, and for good reason! You can smell the amazing quality of their ingredients. But this makes them prohibitively expensive. My Gold bottle was a steal. Someday, though, Jubilation XXV will be mine.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Lycheesecake!

2009-04-28T04:00:00.000+02:00

So, it was a rather plain challenge, I thought, to make cheesecake. On the other hand, I don't think I've ever actually made cheesecake! I had a little fun with it and put lychee syrup in the graham cracker crust and in the filling, along with chunks of lychee. It was faintly fragrant, but mostly just like regular cheesecake. Still, I tried! I think lychee probably needs to be used in something more subtle.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Spring Day

2009-04-18T22:27:00.000+02:00

It is a happy, sunny day here - 75 degrees! Finally! Just thought I'd blog my joy.

Yay! Sunshine!

Eating My Way through Rome: Frascati

2009-04-13T05:30:00.000+02:00

I should be grading compositions, but who wants to read woefully bad papers when blogging is an option?

I'd like to share a great night of fun and eating we had on our last night in Rome. Two friends, both Italians--and one a native Roman!--took us by car to Frascati, a town about 20km south-east of Rome. It, I've been told, is the site of Cicero's favorite villa. Ah, to have enough villas in order to have a favorite. We were joined by two other Italian friends and sat down to a joyful meal. (Strangely, the language we all spoke together was German, since that was the one most people felt more comfortable with, as opposed to Italian or English.)

It was a rustic little restaurant, with a family running the show.

We began with a serious platter of meat. Look at all that pork! It was beautiful.
Prosciutto, salami, various sausages, cooked pork, walnuts, hard pungent cheeses,
and buffalo mozzarella. I am drooling right now as I blog.

This was accompanied by a variety of olives, artichokes, grilled eggplant,
tomatoes, and peppers, all seasoned with delicious olive oil.

Then some hard cured meats.

Finally, sweet biscuits, called ciambelline with Roman wine. Ciambelline al vino romane.
You dip the hard biscuit in the wine, which is lovely and slightly sweet, and eat.

We had some fun with the Italians' demonstration for us of how to eat this.

It was a great night. Always let your Italian friends order for you in Italy.

Eating My Way through Rome: Gelato!

2009-03-29T22:42:00.001+02:00

Apologies for not participating in the Daring Baker's challenge this month (lasagne verdi al forno with homemade pasta!). But, I hope to make up for it in pictures from Rome!

I first read about Il Gelato di San Crispino in Eat, Pray, Love and was intrigued. Then a friend of mine told me that eating at that gelateria was "one of the top five sensual experiences of my life." This I had to try. It is located about a block away from the Trevi Fountain.

Trevi Fountain at twilight. If you throw a coin in,
it means you'll be coming back to Rome. I gladly threw one in.

Il Gelato di San Crispino is a very spare space, all glass counters and chrome pots.
The servers behind the counter almost look like lab workers.

This one is half pistachio and half zabaglione. Delizioso! San Crispino's has a very purist
approach to gelato - only fresh, natural flavors, reducing things to their essences.

This one was truly amazing: chocolate chip, except the most chocolate-y ice-cream I've tasted.
I wouldn't say that this was one of the most sensual experiences of my life,
but it was certainly beautiful gelato.

This was closer to the Termini Station, the Palazzo del Freddo, established in 1880,
by Giovanni Fassi. It offers a myriad choices, all very creamy and lovely.

These are sweets offered alongside the gelato - the little pink and green
confections are made to look like the stones lining ancient streets.

Eating My Way through Rome: Market Day

2009-03-21T22:06:00.000+01:00

The morning we went to see the Vatican Museum was cool and gray. We took the subway from Termini to Cipro, then wandered a bit to find the Trionfale market. It's a big covered market full of good things, such as...

Fresh produce. A Roman specialty is fried zucchini flowers, stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy paste - you can see the blooms in this picture. There were also gorgeous blood oranges - so juicy and sweet! - and crisp apples to be had.

Farm fresh eggs! Along with honey and preserves, relishes and other yummy things.

Super fresh meat. I don't know how one can be Jewish and live in Rome - the place is full of all kinds of pork. Thousands of varieties of sausages, cuts, flavorings, smokings, etc.

We picked up some prosciutto - I'd never seen it cut fresh from the pig like this! Our butcher was good humored and posed - albeit goofily - for a picture.

Vats of wine - I wish I were a drinker, but I can't handle alcohol at all, especially wine.

After an exhausting trek through the Museum - it is vast and amazing and overwhelming - we sat down in St. Peter's square for our picnic lunch. It was fresh bread with prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and apples. Perfetto!

Back from the Eternal City

2009-03-15T18:30:00.000+01:00

This is my favorite photo from my trip to Rome - just outside the Pantheon's porch, at twilight. The pedestrian walkways are beautifully lit, and everything seems enchanted. I have food photos to share, of course, in upcoming posts. For now, here are some highlights from the trip.

Laocoon at the Vatican Museum.

Bernini's fountain at Piazza Navona.

The Diocletian Baths were huge!

Although the Belvedere torso and Laocoon were impressive, my favorite sculpture at the Vatican
was this little guy in the Egyptian section. He's saying, "Okay, okay, I've dropped my weapon!"

One of the many macabre shrines we saw in churches. This is in Santa Prassede.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Chocolate Valentino Cake!

2009-02-27T06:31:00.000+01:00

This was a lovely challenge: simple but rich and lovely. I'm not a true chocoholic, and I usually find a whole slice of chocolate cake cloying, so I was wary of this chocolate heavy cake. I was very pleasantly surprised!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The Recipes:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Dharm's Ice Cream Recipe
Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

Ingredients
1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)
{you can easily increase your cream's fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted - cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse
Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time
4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.
5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)
By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T18:58:00.000+01:00

I may be sappy & dopey, but I love this holiday. Maybe because I love red and pink and hearts. And doilies and glue and paper cut-outs. I haven't made a valentine in years, but I remember loving to make them in grade school.

I had some extra pink tuile dough leftover, so I made a valentine of them.

Happy Love Day, everyone!

Daring Bakers Challenge: Tuiles!

2009-01-30T07:14:00.000+01:00

I've finally gotten my act together enough to do another Daring Bakers challenge. This month, it's tuiles, French for "tiles," since the feather-weight cookies are curved to look like roof tiles.

I dyed mine pink and used a heart stencil (see below).

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Recipe:
Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch.

¼ cup softened butter (not melted but soft)
½ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
½ cup sifted all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over-mix.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

That's my heart stencil, which I cut out of the plastic lid of a coffee can.
You paint the batter on very thinly with a metal, off-sided spatula.

I did have mine on some coconut sorbet, but, in the end,
the sorbet looked a bit off. . . like a lump of lard!
So, here they are, not as a garnish but as the main feature.
The squiggle I made with a sandwich bag, cut at a corner, for a piping bag.

Copenhagen Bakery, Burlingame, CA

2009-01-25T08:32:00.000+01:00

My sister is obsessed with the Princess Cake (image and description below), and last year she and her friends had a Princess Cake taste-off, when they sampled Princess Cakes from fine bakeries from around the California Bay Area. The winner? The Copenhagen Bakery Princess Cake. I got to partake of this marvelous cake over the holidays. My dad was so enthusiastic about it, he bought an entire cake to take home (after we had already had a slice at the bakery)!

So pretty!

Here are the layers of the Princess Cake, revealed: (from top) marzipan, whipped cream, raspberry filling, sponge cake, custard, raspberry filling, and sponge cake. It's best to eat all the layers together - the marzipan should be smooth and light. Heavenly! Decadent!

Various goodies.

More goodies.

Never one for restraint, this is the box of pastries my dad bought in addition to the entire Princess Cake. My mom is also a lover of pastries. And my sister. With genes like these, I'm doomed.

Breakfast of Champions

2009-01-22T02:54:00.000+01:00

Poaching eggs has been my new thing, lately. I like the nice, soft texture of the egg whites and the runny egg yolk - especially on toasted bread and salad greens, with some balsamic vinaigrette.

Those Naughty Greeks!

2009-01-18T04:07:00.000+01:00

Beware! The following content may be offensive to those sensitive to graphic material . . . even if it is over two thousand years old.

I found these images at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I find them pretty funny and evidence to prove that humans are not that much more sex-obsessed now than they were then. We might have more access to sexual material, but it seems that it has always been on our minds. Since I do study gender and biblical material, I always find this stuff fascinating. And titillating.

Ancient Greek servingware...for that special occasion, maybe?
In tiny letters, the Greek translates to something like, "Hold on!"

A satyr - those satyrs are always having a good time with their gigantic phalluses!

Another interesting piece of, ahem, dinnerware.

This is my favorite - you'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it to get a better look. It's a signet ring - for sealing what kind of letters, I don't know. Love letters? A bit too obvious, I should think. The description reads, "Erotic Scene, Sappharine Chalcedony, Greek, 4th Century B. C."