Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

 

Think Pink!

Hi, Y'all!

Long time no see, no blogpost, no third candle - what's up?  Well, guys, get yourselves comfortable, enjoy some nice booze...

In this case liqueur - you can't go wrong with that! Hubby and I are living in hectic times right now - organizing our Magdeburg move, remotely ordering a custom kitchen, selling redundant garden furniture on craigslist - all that keeps us pretty busy. Thus my heart wasn't in for a blogpost. And then I couldn't post about this year's Christmas presents because people on the receiving end do read this here... But I will write about it - pinky promise!

In case you're wondering what that scarlet liquid is - hot love liqueur! No worries, although it's for adults only, it's no aphrodisiac, just yummy. In Germany we have a fancy red tea aromatized with vanilla and raspberries and it's called "Heiße Liebe" - hot love, and that's what it's all about. You prepare the tea strongly with boiling water and rock candy and let that sit over night. Then add some secret ingredients and lots of brown rum and your done - nice instaworth picture included!

And while we're at it - here is another picture in matching color: 

10 years ago, hubby and I made a mini-break - destination south. Originally we wanted to visit my parents in the west, but they had so much snow (even in the plain Rhineland area) that it didn't make sense to drive there. Thus we jumped in the Alfa Romeo and showed him his origin :-) We went to Verona, Milan and Genoa and topped all this with two days in Venice. It was awesome, and for the first night we had dinner in our hotel in Verona, and we had a superbdelicious risotto with red wine. It was so awesome that I never thought I could repeat it and never dared to cook it myself. 

But somehow it came into my mind a few days ago, and I just tried it. I admit I have some experience in risotto making, because leek risotto is one of my standard dishes, and I even tested risotto with coconut milk, curry and shrimps. And as the risotto hat a nice pinkish color, I prepared the salad dressing with my homemade crema di balsamico and yoghurt - pretty in pink, I'd say. And guess what? Red wine risotto will appear definitely more frequently on our menu! 

And now, I'll shut down my computer - vacation will start on Monday and will last until the first week of January.

Enjoy yourselves, enjoy your holidays with all your loved ones - merry Christmas!!!

'Tis the season...

Hi, Y'all!

Yesterday the Germans celebrated the first advent (I talked about that tradition and the four candles last year), and our garden was coated with a bit of frost - beautiful and the perfect setting for mulled wine :-)

Although I have a candle basket which I reuse every year for our advent wreath, I wanted to have something different this year. Therefore, I took four of these little mason jars, filled them with salt (which I can still use for salt dough afterwards), cut little labels from vegan leather and hammered some grommets in and took a chalk pen to write the numbers. Together with some greenery from our garden, four candles and some red and white twine the cute and simple arrangement was complete. 

Here you can see the complete tray:

Well, this year I wasn't in the mood to crawl into our sub-basement to dig out all of the Christmas decoration, therefore no Christmas tree in 2020 - will do that again in all its' glory in 2021 in our new home. But of course, I can't do completely without decorations, thus a few impressions: 

You see, it varies from minimal to cute, and prior years' all white is accompanied by some red accents now. Before moving, I decided to use all the candles I stashed in my cupboards, which led me to the next decoration. Please note: The bottles are more than 100 years old! A distillery near my in-laws bought all the glassware of an old pharmacy, and are now selling their schnapps in it. Therefore, I'd never ever throw them in the bottle bank but reuse them over and over again. 

In case you're wondering: There are rosemary sprigs inside the bottles, because yesterday, I clipped all my remaining herbs and put them in our basement to dry. Then I emptied all the planters to clean them to have them ready for moving. Well, it starts to sink in that we will actually move - and I do hope we will be in our new home around February first. 

Pretty astonishing, how many candles I collected but never lit...

To close this post, please find below a nice still life with our alternative Christmas tree, some mulled wine and genuine Dresdner Stollen (famous fruit cake from the Dresden area). Thanks to my in-laws we get a care package every year with that precious and delicious original Stollen for me and poppy seed Stollen for hubby. Again a big thank you to my in-laws, we are delighted each and every year! And yes, I actually like candied orange and lemon peel...

My lovelies, enjoy the Holidays despite the turbulent times and have fun!!!

Masquerade

Hi, Y'all!

Originally I planned a blog post covering the usual suspects for this time of the year: advent wreath, Christmas decoration, gift ideas. And although I was torn between having a decorational ball for the last holiday season in our current house or keeping it minimal, I got in the mood last weekend. But I'll save that for my next post - perfectly timed with the first advent.  

Due to the current situation, I changed the topic for a masquerade. Might be interesting for those of you who don't necessarily need a medical mask. And you know me: As self-confessed Rhinelander and carnival-fan I know my share of masquerade! And assuming the topic will stay on our agenda for quite a while, we make the best out of the situation - especially in light of the design potential :-)

To start with a disclaimer: I don't wear make-up right now, my photographing skills are limited and the frown lines are a heritage of my family - thanks, mum! You'll get my naked self without filter! But after weighing all options I came to the conclusion that you're able to deal with it, and you simply can evaluate the  masks better when worn.

I start with the first examples I made for hubby, my family and the neighbors: The classic model according to the pattern of the university clinic Essen with straps and nose wire. Btw: the inner wire of an electric cable is perfect for the nose bridge, far better than the metal part of a filing strip, because it is insulated and there's nothing which can poke through the fabric:

It's a one size fits all model, with the nose wire it's adaptable to any face, and the straps are tied at the back of your head and thus don't make you look like Dumbo the elephant. But I worked my butt off ironing kilometers of bias tape which was needed for the straps.  

Shortly after, the older daughter sent me two masks which fit pretty well; I only cleaned the edges and replaced the straps by elastic: 

That worked pretty good for a while, but then I wanted to add a few more to my collection, and therefore, I made these two examples with box pleats: 

I wore them all the time although they do not work very good with glasses. They fog up, but as I need my glasses mostly for driving or watching TV, it worked for me.

But besides, I wanted some variations which a) don't fog up and b) are a bit more intriguing design-wise, thus I tried some different patterns. This one was designed for hubby: 

There is a chin coverage in the same pattern as for the nose. It fits hubby quite well, especially with his beard. As I don't have that much facial hair, the mask is too large for me, obviously :-) The fabric is reused material from the pockets of an old pair of jeans, in case you're wondering. 

Next variation is a 2 in 1 mask, which means you can wear it as is, or inside out. My model in baby blue and with a rose print on the other side: 

Hubby's version in cream and black: 

Here's a close-up, but to be honest, he needs to size up for a perfect fit: 

My current favorite is this one: also a reversible mask, and on the one side I combined two matching fabrics. That's the side I usually wear, although the other side with the little fisher huts is also very cute. Apart from the checkered mask and the one with the red ties, none of them has a nose wire, but this one here fits extremely well, and when you put the glasses over the mask, they don't fog up. 

Let's hope that some time in the future we'll be all able to go unmasked in public again. But just in case I might need a more dressier mask to wear at a special occasion, I treated myself with this draped black satin number - isn't it gorgeous? 

Please stay safe and healthy, Y'all!!!

Instagram vs. Reality

Hi, Y'all!

Looking out of my window, it's grey, wet and uncosy - baby, it's cold outside! Well, it's November, and therefore suitable, I guess. But I'm constantly wondering where these instagrammer, youtuber and influencer live who always make these pretty projects from fall leaves. Any time I think, a pretty foliage wreath might be nice, it's dark outside, it's drizzling or the leaves are still wet by a previous rain shower. On the rare occasion it's actually nice weather, the leaves I find are way too small, broken or my dogs don't understand at all, why I have to stop all the time and collect funny things that don't belong in small black bags.

And that's another thing: dogs in social media are always clean and cute. Mine bathe in puddles of mud, magically make the air smell funny, produce litres of drool, eat grass like sheep and throw up afterwards. Well, life's not always a bed of roses...

So, no foliage decoration for me, only a few concrete pumpkins and chestnuts. And I suppose, the Christmas decoration won't get much attention either and will stay in its boxes instead. Moving re-entered our agenda, and I don't want to drag stuff out of cartons which is perfectly boxed for moving.

Besides this, my foodblog is far from instagram worthy - my pictures are semi good, and regarding the looks of the food there is always room for improvement. Nevertheless, I'll show you what I did last weekend: pumpkin-filled ravioli!

Before our move to the west of Germany, we lived in an area specially known for its soft pretzels served with butter and for the special hand-made pasta topped with cheese (swabian mac'n'cheese so to say). There you could buy a special flour which was perfect for pasta-making, but here you can't find it in the shops. But I found a recipe where you mix the all-purpose wheat flour with semolina, and moreover it doesn't need any eggs. And as Barilla and co. can do pretty well without them, I thought, I'd give it a go. 

Dough making was easy as well as rolling it out - thanks to my fancy kitchen aide, and the filling was not that complicated:

The thing I assumed to work more elegantly was that fold-over forming thingy by the famous American plastic manufacturer. Around each mold there were little teeth which would enclose the filling safely in the pasta and should cut off the excess dough at the same time. It worked more or less: the ravioli were sealed, but the cutting and separating I had to do with a knife. Well, maybe I should have placed one layer of dough on my counter, scoop some filling on and place another layer of dough on top, then cut it into squares with a pizza roller. But I have that device, thus it will be used! 

The result: 

As you can see, a genuine foodblogger would have done that far more picturesque, but (my friends all drive porsches and) I must make amends :-) Originally the recipe calls for sage butter, but thanks to my brown thumb I have no sage in my garden and my food dealers of choice didn't have either. Therefore, I prepared a good old tomato sauce. 

Fresh out of the boiling water, my ravioli looked like this: 

Please pay attention to the serving dish - a nice souvenir from our Tunisia vacation before times began...

Looking back, I must say a bit butter and parmesan cheese would have fit better to the pumpkin filling than the tomato sauce, but it was delicious nevertheless, and if you ask me, that picture below is almost foodblog-worthy: 

Have a very nice weekend and

enjoy your time!

Body and Soul

  Do something good to your body

so that your soul will dwell inside.

Hi, y'all,

I can't say for sure whether this is by Teresa of Avila or Winston Churchill (most likely he quoted her), but there is definitely some truth in it. And last week I honestly took good care of both, my body and soul. First I had a video call with two friends I have the pleasure knowing since our apprenticeship decades ago. Although it was not quite the same as a physical meeting, it was nevertheless awesome to have a good lengthy chat about anything and everything. Will do that again, shortly!

To be able to work at my sewing machine is definitely good for my wellbeing, and I already told you about my rainbow of fabric scraps sitting in little glasses on my window sill. I wasn't sure what to do with them, because I had options galore, but recently I filled up my stash with interlining, so I could play around a bit. To be precise, I took a rectangle of interlining with the glue side facing up and arranged my fabric scraps in an eye-pleasing pattern. I ironed that onto the interlining and then folded every line where the fabric squares met (right sides facing) and sewed them. That resulted in a grid of horizontal and vertical seams and confusion of my non-sewing readers, I suppose. Well, here's a picture to make it clearer: 

The first two attempts didn't work, because the colors weren't matching correctly and my seams weren't exactly enough, thus the hearts were slightly deformed. Meanwhile I know how to do it right, but still have no clue what to do with them. But I'm slightly optimistic, I will find out.

But for proper post composition, I should finally draw a correct conclusion to my opening quote, and therefore, I'll show you my newest kitchen creations. Variation in the menu and reduced and/or conscious consumption of meat are always on top of my agenda, and therefore, we had leek spirals with tomato salad for Saturday's supper. It's simple as that: prepare a yeast dough (like a pizza crust) and form it into a rectangle. Cover it with cream cheese and herbs, leek and cherry tomatoes as well as grated cheese (there is never too much cheese, right). Then roll it up, and with a sharp knife cut the roll into thick slices. Bake them in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes, and there you go. The leftover tomatoes I served with some homemade balsamico cream, which means I cooked balsamic vinegar together with homemade grapejuice until it thickened. 

Sunday was a day for something crazy - coffee goulash. Basically it was a mushroom dish with coffee as ingredient for the sauce. Well, since "Chocolat" with Johnny Depp no one bats an eye when the salty recipe calls for chocolate. But coffee? But as it was balanced out by two cups of red wine, I decided to take the risk :-) And it was delish!!! 

Man does not live by bread (or goulash) alone, and mum-in-law's birthday was approaching. Thus I produced another gift in my witch cauldron: apple limes or winter magic (whatever your literary taste prefers). Main ingredient: Vodka :-) And apple juice, apple sauce and a pinch of cinnamon. Due to the apple sauce the consistency is creamy like strawberry limes, and the combination of apple and cinnamon is unbeatable. If you like cinnamon, that is. So, nothing for my mum, I'd say. But it's quickly prepared and a nice gift together with a pretty birthday card. 

Unfortunately, it's still on its way, but upon arrival we will do another video call. And as I prepared another bottle for us, we can somehow have a little drink together! And I'm pretty sure, that will built up our resistance in some way or other :-)

This being said - do yourself good and stay healthy!!!

2x2

Hi, y'all!

All quiet on the Western front - which means, our moving project is still work in progress, but we stay positive - there's nothing else we can do anyway. But as a compensation, I'll shower you with pictures of two different variations of two different things - stay tuned...

Let's start with two variations of squash - for once not vegetarian, but I'm sure creative chefs can turn them into veggie dishes without minced meat or bacon. First I cut a butternut in two, hollowed it out a bit and sprinkled the pieces with olive oil. Seasoned them with fresh garlic, loads of rosmary and thyme (again, no parsley, no sage...). 

While they roasted in the oven, I stir-fried ground beef with onions and chopped squash which I then filled in the butternut halves. Combined it with feta cheese, and it turned out delicious: 

Btw: Yesterday I tested "The Wonder Hack" (also exists in patties called "The Wonder Burger") which is a vegan alternative for ground beef (Hack or Hackfleisch means minced meat in German). I fried it in a pan with some canned tomatoes and beans to fill taco shells. Highly recommend! In the beginning, I was slightly irritated that the stuff didn't turn brown, but stayed reddish instead. But the taste was awesome, and I am sure it would go perfectly with this recipe here. 

For the second dish I chose Hokkaido, because you don't have to peel it - can't beat that, right? I chopped it into half-moon slices and mixed them with olive oil and some s+p. Topped it off with some bacon and feta cheese, and then it went right into the oven. Easy peasy, and with some fresh bread totally sufficient for the two of us. 

Those were the first two, now let's jump to the next - some projects for my sewing machine, after all. You might remember, that I had an UFO (unfinished object) waiting in my stash to be completed. It took quite some time, but I finally found a fleece blanket in the perfect shade of pink as backing for my quilt.

Working under difficult conditions:

As the top denim layer was larger than the fleece blanket, I had to cut it, and thus I gained some material for another sewing project. But I will explain later. 

So I sewed the fleece and the denim together, but I didn't quilt it in detail, I only connected it in the center of the crochet polka dots. Then I made some binding with some matching polka dot fabric. For the first seam I used my sewing machine, but the finish I always do manually. Time consuming, but with both the quilt and Heinrich on my lap also quite meditative...

And this is the result - not that I was in dire need of yet another blanket, but it's simply beautiful. And sometimes that's all you need - something beautiful :-)

A co-worker's little girl was expected any day last week, and although I already sewed a crackling sun plushie I was lacking an idea for something a bit larger. Because of the quilt I had some left-over denim fabric, and just at that time I stumbled over a floor pillow looking like a bunny. That calls for a robust fabric, and my leftover denim was just perfect. The picture and the pattern construction looked pretty simple, but the devil's in the details, which I had to learn during the sewing process...

I started with the body by ironing on some interlining and adding piping in a rusty colored lightweight corduroy. For the piping you place some cord in the center of a long strip of fabric which then has to be sandwiched between the two fabric pieces you wanted to join in the first place. After turning to the right side, the piping becomes visible. To get as close as possible to the piping, I sewed with my zipper foot, and my good old machine did it's best to sew through all those different layers of fabric.

 

To keep the bunny ears standing upright, I had to get creative - feeding bunny Viagra wasn't an option... Therefore, I made two tunnels into each ear and filled it with large zipties (like corset boning). Also, the zipties had to be longer than the ears itself to prevent them from kinking at the seam. At this point, my sewing machine went into strike; after almost breaking a needle, I sewed the ears to the front piece by hand. 

Then I managed to sew it together, and for the bottom I used some leftover vegan cardboard-based leatherlike fabric. Very sturdy and durable - exactly what I needed. 

Sewing the sandwich of denim with lots of seams, interlining, piping and vegan leather was no walk in the park, I can tell you! But, miraculously everything worked out, and I could tackle the task of stuffing the bunny. 

And that was the exhausting part of this journey - making tiny little scraps out of larger scraps to stuff into the bunny belly. I totally underestimated, how many scraps fit into that bunny...

Soooo many scraps:

And more:

And even more: 

In the end I finished with a spare pillow I had on hand. Otherwise, bunny would have gotten slighty obese and heavy:-) But pretty cute, I think... (Please excuse my very bad lighting in that picture!) 

With 8 days delay the little girl was welcomed into this world, and bunny will start hopping into her nursery very soon :-) 

Stay safe and stay home!