Fallin' for fall

Hi, Y'all!

Else is back amongst us - we had her cremated, and now her urn has found its place in my office. Which is very fitting because she always was in the office with me. Also very fitting is the form of her urn - a big, big heart, and it feels right.  

Today when we made our daily walk with Heinrich, it was pretty windy, yet sunny and that was exactly how you imagine fall to be. And to stick with that theme, I present some autumnal things from my kitchen and some decor stuff fitting for fall. 

Let's start with a streusel cake. Boring at first, but I still have some leftover grape jelly from our former garden, which I wanted to use up (well, now I still have three large jars, but anyway). And another great thing about these cakes is that you can use the same dough for the base and the crumbles which is veeeery convenient. Thus I made a large sheet and gifted some of the cake to our neighbors - that means a win-win-win situation, right? 

And as the fall weather in Germany sometimes can be cold, wet and windy in combination, you need some food that warms heart, soul and belly. Especially stews or hotpots are perfect, and these were the ones we enjoyed lately:

Chickpea hotpot with greek pasta (aka kirithraki) - and to make it insta-worthy I should have cleaned the rim of the pot, but hey, that's real life, deal with it :-))) BTW the recipe is vegan such as the next one, which was very yummy, too: Sweet potato curry with garlic and ginger and coconut milk - basically everything you need for a classic curry dish: 

Isn't it simply beautiful especially with the gorgeous fall colors? And if you use the coconut drink from the tetrapak instead of the coconut milk from the cans it tastes the same but you can save a lot of calories.  

And since you know me you should also know that I am a big fan of meals which don't require a ton of different ingredients or a ton of dishes. Therefore please find below a non-vegetarian example for a one sheet oven meal: put diced potatoes, carrots, onions and chicken drumsticks into a bowl and mix it with oil and spices according to your liking (parsley, sage, rosmary and thyme... kudos to Simon & Garfunkel). Put a lid on the bowl and shake it, baby! Afterwards put it on the sheet pan and in the oven for around 40 minutes. In the meantime you could chill, refresh your make-up or aim for world peace, as you like.

And as I already mentioned last year, pumpkins of any kind are a requisite for fall. Here I grated a butternut and processed it like potato fritters. Awesome with a yoghurt dip but evenly delicious with a side salad of apples and carrots topped with some walnuts for the extra crunch.

You could take butternut to extremes by not only using it as ingredient but in addition making the dish looking like pumpkins. Which I did in my last baking session: pumpkin rolls! 

Another pro-tipp: Use light cotton yarn instead of black :-))))

The rolls are light and fluffy and due to the different spices (cinnamon, turmeric and gingerbread mix) they were lightly sweet. Fresh from the oven with some butter they were absolutely delicious! 

During this baking session I also tested a bread without resting time. It was a usual yeast dough and called for 150 g grains. I only had sunflower seeds on hand, so I used them instead, and although it looks nice I'm sure that it would have gained more volume with some resting time. 

Right now it's in the freezer for the weekend breakfast, and I will let you know if it's worth copying. 

Last but not least another first for me: a bread baked in a pot (or a dutch oven) in the oven. At the beginning with a closed lid and afterwards without the lid (as you can see in the pictures). The dough is made with spelt flour and yoghurt, and I really, really like the result: 

That's it for the kitchen part, please find below some fall decoration which I basically took from our nearby park and the huge old chestnut tree right in front of our house: 

The last picture shows a funny little poem by a German comedian from the sixties or seventies. I tried to translate it, so please be gentle with me:

In fall when it get's cold

a tree its leaves can't hold

Which is bold.

But in spring

they're back in.

That's a thing!

Let's fall for fall and enjoy it!!!

When life happens...

Hi, Y'all!

Long time, no see - guilty as charged. But sometimes life just happens, it is as it is. First, my Mama had to go to hospital all of a sudden. No simple thing, heart attack, and it was serious. She was thoroughly examined, got a stent and has to undergo bypass surgery in about three month. You can easily imagine that it kept and keeps my mind racing.

Well and then something happened which we expected for some time, but then it hit us like a hammer anyway. We are very sad that our beloved Else girl crossed the rainbow bridge just a month before her 13th birthday. Our dogs are family members for us, and although we knew that day would come, we nevertheless are devastated. 

She died how we imagined it for her: peacefully, at home and in our arms, just so. First she came to us for some cuddling, and then she went to her favorite spot in my office. She lied down, we cuddled her some more, and after a while she sighed heavily and her heart stopped beating. 

We expected it, because she was as old as the Queen of England, and due to her various medical conditions we anticipated it being rather sooner than later, and for sure we know that she isn't in pain now, but it hurts anyway, it really does. It's just so quiet now - no more slowly tapping paws when changing from one dog bed to the other, no excited panting when visitors come, no loud lapping when drinking out of her bowl, no deeply satisfied grunting when receiving belly rubs, no tail-wagging when I come downstairs in the morning or when I take harness and leash to go for a walk, no nosy check of my grocery shopping if there are any treats in the bag, no race around the table with a grin on her face when I want to give her medication or wipe her ears... 

Slowly Heinrich realizes that his companion is gone and won't come back. I truly believe, he missed and mourned her. But he will definitely enjoy being the only child again, I'm sure...

And what we always have to keep in mind: She had the best life a dog could want, we loved her and cared for her, and in return she made our lives richer, she spent so much happiness and we had a marvelous time, an abundance of joy and wonderful moments and made memories together. We are blessed. All that will stay in our hearts forever. 

Happy days! Don't cry that they're over,
but be glad they happened.