Hail Seitan!

Hi, Y'all,

Due to a family emergency I had to rush to Germany lately, and therefore it's been a while since I last posted. But now I'm back, everybody is fine and it's going uphill again!

And therefore I'd like to show and tell about my latest kitchen concoction, because except from a baby blanket I had nothing to DIY or sew. 

In preparation of my trip to Germany hubby confirmed that he was willing and able to cater for him and Heinrich, but I thought, a few frozen pizzas wouldn't hurt... Thus I prepared my usual pizza crust in two round sheet pans and pre-baked them for 10 minutes. Then I topped them with tomato sauce, lots of veggies and some kind of cheese preparation made from sunflower seeds. 

For this cheese I soaked a cup of sunflower seeds over night, and the next day I mixed them with some water in my blender. I added nutritional yeast, some seasoning and corn starch and mixed again. In a pot I cooked that mixture until it thickened and then I placed it in an oiled mold and let it cool down. It goes very well on pizza, casseroles and on a slice of bread, and although it doesn't melt as well as real dairy cheese, it is very tasty. Looked like this:

Put that in the freezer, and the finished beauties can be gefrostet and finished in the oven like any normal frozen pizza. 

I don't want to start any discussions about the necessity of vegan copycats of meat, sausages or cheese. My very own opinion on that matter is: if anybody tries to avoid animal products to support animal welfare but still likes the taste of it, there is no harm in preparing plant-based burger patties or cream cheese. And like this I found a YT channel called "The pot thickens". A very nice guy who reminded me very much of the global CEO of my employer - in fact he could be his twin! But he has nothing to do with Carmine di Sibio, actually he is a self-taught chef who has been living plant-based for a while now. His calm and wonderfully unaggravated way of explaining things made me wanting to try a few recipes he presented on his channel.

First I tried some washed wheat flour seitan - although you can make it from different ingredients, I found this genius in its simplicity. The basic principle is this: You make a very simple dough consisting only of wheat flour and water, and then you wash out the starch to keep the gluten. So I made that dough, kneaded it thoroughly, covered it with water and let it sit in the fridge over night. The next day I got rid of the water and poured fresh water into the bowl. Then I massaged the dough in the water to get the starch out of the dough. This process made the water opaque and white. I did this six times and kept the starchy water from the first two washings - will come back to it later. The dough then showed some rubbery texture and rolled out it looked like that: 

I cut that into three partitions and braided them while pulling them at the same time to lengthen the fibres and to reach a chicken-like texture. I knotted the braid a few times and let it rest for half an hour or so. 

At that point the whole thing may taste as intensive as its color :-) and therefore, you have to boil it in a spicy broth for appr. 2 hours. I seasoned that broth with miso paste, veggie stock powder, lovage, smoked and sweet paprika and some more. After boiling I let the seitan cool down and put it with the liquid into the fridge over night. 

Now you can pull that seitan apart - either with two forks or your fingers, and it looks like shredded chicken. You could use it for a multitude of dishes, e.g. cut it into nuggets and fry them, add it to a fricassee or mix it into a poultry salad and many more, but I opted for the pulled BBQ chicken. 

Thus I pulled the seitan (see above), cooked some BBQ sauce and kneaded some tortilla flats which I then fried in a pan and finally it was time for assembly: mix seitan with the sauce and place it in the tortilla, afterwards add some lettuce and tomato, top it off with vegan mayo and dive right in! It was a bunch of work but it was so worth it!!! 

Tortillas and BBQ sauce:

Work in progress (sorry, no Insta-worthy picture of a finished wrap...)

And now let's get back to the starch - I made some bacon! Yes, you read correctly... After the washings I was left with two Tupperware containers full of that starchy liquid. Over night the starch went down to the bottom of the containers, thus I removed the water on top and with a lot of seasoning similar to the aforementioned broth I made two very runny batters - one very light and one with a darker reddish color to represent the signature coloring of bacon. 

In a non-stick pan switched to medium heat I made a few thin crepes (and also kept the weird first one). I cut the crepes into strips and fried them in oil with a higher heat to get them extra crunchy - and nobody said they would be fat-free; you wouldn't expect that from real bacon, neither. The first crepe I cut into tiny pieces and fried them, too - et voila: bacon bits which are awesome as a topping for e.g. cashew cream cheese! 

Of course, there are a ton of other possibilities to imitate bacon, but this alternative was easy for me to reproduce, and we really liked the taste and the crunch. And as it was a by-product of the seitan, I liked it even more - a win-win situation, so to speak. Side note: Unlike original bacon this version stays crunchy for days, if you put it into a container in the fridge. 

Everybody deserves a second chance - even eggplant :-) For years and years I wasn't impressed by eggplants, I thought they were boring with the consistency of cotton wool, although they look super pretty. But miracles do happen, and since last week I am an official eggplant fan! And here is the reason why: 

Take your eggplant and dice it into teeny tiny cubes and cook them for roughly five minutes in a pan with olive oil and half a teaspoon of salt. Then add oat flakes, roasted sesame seeds, spices and - extremely important - psyllium husk with water. The latter soaks up the water and produces a rubber-like texture which is perfect for thickening. Mix everything quite thoroughly and let it rest for a bit in order to let the oat flakes absorb any remaining water. 

With this dough form little "meatballs" and coat them with breadcrumbs. 

Fry them with some oil in a pan until golden brown and crunchy. Then add a tomato sauce with lots of onions and garlic and serve it with spaghetti - simply irresistible! 

Unfortunately they were gone so quickly that I hadn't had the chance to make some pictures of the finished work of art... again... 

But as we speak of works of art... every Sunday the "extended family" gathers at Joe's and Mary's to end the week together. I like that tradition very much and usually don't come empty handed. And as I like a good challenge, everybody in turns can make a wish of what I should prepare. Last week it was "red velvet" - and of course, I want the vegan option to be as delicious as the original, thus: challenge accepted. I did some research and tried a few things, and this is the result: beautiful AND yummy! 

Next week I am planning New York cheese cake with silken tofu - will keep you posted... 

With that said - stay safe and don't ever be afraid to try something new! 

If life gives you lemons...

Hi Y'all,

As you might know, I have a sweet spot named Carnival - as I am born in Cologne, the love of Carnival was given to me as a gift in my cradle. But as the saying goes "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" I decided to see what Maltese Carnival is like. Yes, there is such a thing! And in fact, there are a few things quite similar to Cologne Carnival. Surely the season doesn't start on November 11, and the clubs aren't organised by a board of eleven and they don't wear uniforms, but the Maltese celebrate from Thursday to Tuesday, school children have Monday and Tuesday off, and capable hands work the whole year round to create awesome floats which are even bigger than the carnival trucks in the Rhineland area.

Here is just a small one - and like in Germany closely related to current events :-)

For me the whole shebang felt like a mixture of venetian and Brazilian Carnival, as there was also a lot of dancing and incredibly elaborate costumes (although more modest than in Rio de Janeiro). 😏

But the greatest advantage of Maltese Carnival is definitely the weather! It's much more relaxing to celebrate with 17 degrees Celsius and sunshine and you only rarely have to worry, if rain will ruin the feather in your cap...

And like in Germany, all celebration ends with Ash Wednesday, and therefore I quit talking about Carnival and show you the latest concoctions of my witchy cauldron! Since I made some orange curd lately I have been thinking of a recipe for healthy lemon bars which I once saw on social media. I finally found it and veganised it (0 eggs instead of 4). Thus I shredded some oat flakes and mixed them with some homemade caramel syrup and coconut oil to form my no-bake pie crust. On top I spread some lemon curd made from lemon zest, lemon juice, homemade plant milk, sugar and cornstarch. Was an awesome mix of sweet and tangy! 

And because citrus is my sweet spot, I made an orange cake as well. At first sight nothing special, but I used a whole orange for it. Yes - with peel and all, just quartered and then blended. I sticked to the recipe but next time I would start with batting the eggs with sugar, then shredding the rest and finally and carefully fold in the flour. As you might see in the picture below, it could have been a bit more fluffy. But has potential for sure! 

Clue what that might be?

Hint: These are sweet potatoes and dates. Any ideas now? Sure, these are brownies! Ok, admittedly that wasn't obvious. But it was definitely the base for a brownie dough. Added some cocoa powder, ground almonds and flour and it was coated with a ganache of cocoa powder, coconut oil and caramel syrup. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the finished brownies because they were finished super fast!

And while we're talking sweets, I just stick to it and show you another two things I tried today. In my last post I told you about my chocolate spread with chickpeas. Now I wanted to test a similar thing but with hazelnuts instead. I very carefully roasted the hazelnuts - you guys might remember my desaster with the last batch of nuts when I completely underestimated my oven. But everything went well and then I peeled the nuts and blended them with cocoa powder, caramel syrup, water and a teaspoon of coconut oil. Next time I will start with blending the nuts only to get some kind of nut butter and then add the other ingredients to get it super creamy. Til then I'll have Nutella al dente! 😆

I'm already looking forward to spreading it onto my Sunday morning breakfast rolls! And last but not least another citrus treat: coconut bliss balls! They basically consist of shredded coconuts, lemon zest and juice (or orange juice), coconut oil and maple syrup or caramel syrup. Blend that into a tough mix and roll into balls. Then hide a whole peeled almond in every ball. Finally roll them in coconut shreds and chill them in the fridge. Look a bit like Raffaello but taste more citrusy and thus are the perfect summer treat! 

On that note: If life gives you lemons, make bliss balls! 

Everyday life - but make it culinary

Hi, Y'all!

Wie did our first steps in direction coffee shop, and in preparation I am busy experimenting with all different kinds of goodies... I don't wan't to spill all my beans, but if we manage to produce a barista quality plant-based milk, our café will be vegan. And my first attempts with oats, almonds and cashews were promising. I used the milk for our morning smoothies, but in the process of shredding, hydrating and filtering the nuts and oats, you get some pulp which is way too good to throw away or compost. Therefore, I put it into a simple bundt cake. It didn't rise as much as I hoped for, but the taste was very good and went very well with my tea. 

But then IG made me do this: Bliss Balls! 

The ones on top contain oatmilk pulp, oatmeal, shredded coconuts, ground almonds, dates, caramel syrup and tahini (that sesame paste you also need for hummus). Basically you mix everything together until you have the desired consistency, then form into balls and roll them in coconut flakes for example. Cool them and you're done! But be careful, they are rich in taste and energy - handle with care...

The ones below consist mainly of almond pulp, ground almonds, cocoa powder and dates - ground hazelnuts would go well, too, I guess. Instead I tried to roast whole hazelnuts, but underestimated my oven... But I could salvage some nuts and placed them in the center of each bliss ball. Offered them yesterday at our weekly extended family meeting and went home with empty plates. That says something, right? 

Youtube lately came up with a funny idea - coffee bread! First one I made had room for improvement, but the second turned out pretty good: 

But man does not live by bread alone, therefore I tested two spreads. Here comes number one: 

You might guess, what was the inspiration... But the ingredients may surprise you because it wasn't based on hazelnuts but chickpeas! I roasted them and then blended them with cocoa powder and maple syrup. Texture is smooth, the spread is not overly sweet and most interestingly the taste of roasted chickpeas reminds slightly of coffee - like very much and will do again... 

My neighbor Vicky inspired me to make the second spread, because she gifted my a glass of homemade lemon curd which was awfully delicious. So, the day before yesterday I tried some with oranges instead of lemons and cornstarch instead of eggs. Hubs was delighted! He put it on freshly baked bread, but you could easily spread it on pancakes, sponge cake or use as yogurt flavoring. Neverending options..

Definitely will test with other citrus fruits and let you know :-) 

Hubby requested some burgers the other night, and thus I pulled out my burger bun recipe, substituted the butter with our self-made vegan butter and as an egg-alternative I mixed one tablespoon of chickpea flour with two tablespoons of water (psyllium husk works, too). Turned out wonderfully fluffy just as I wanted them to be. 

I made the patties from chickpeas, tahini and loads of cumin - very yummy! A classic guacamole made from avocado, garlic, pepper and freshly squeezed lemon juice was the perfect match. Potato wedges as side dish, and the hubs went straight to burger heaven :-)

If you do not insist on vegan, you could also place some tuna patties on your burgers buns. Tried that lately, and they were awesome. 

And if you are in the mood for Sunday breakfast rolls the lazy kind, I highly recommend these ones (according to the Brotsommelier on YT). You quickly mix the dough of flour, yeast, water, salt and sugar on Saturday night (without much kneading), and place that into a plastic container with lid and put that into your fridge over night. On Sunday morning (after a proofing period of 12 to 20 hours) you simply fold them nicely and bake them for 20 minutes at 250 - 260 degrees Celsius. At the beginning splash a cup of water into the oven to produce some steam wich helps to build a crunchy crust. And just like this you'll get the perfect Sunday breakfast rolls!

And that's about it

- enjoy life and good food!

Glance into my Saucepan

Hi, Y'all!

At the moment, the Weather in Germany resembles 50 shades of grey, but take comfort in the fact that there's also winter in Malta. Temperatures are somewhere between 10 and 16 degrees Celsius, it is often very windy and therefore it feels rather chilly. But as soon as the sun comes out, everything is just perfect.  

Since our arrival we have been working out a routine for our life here. In Germany I was used to buy a whole week's worth of groceries every Friday. But here things are swinging differently. I buy my fruit and veggies at Charlie's who parks his produce truck directly below our balcony every Tuesday and Friday. The quality is awesome and the prices unbeatable. For instance: Today I bought 2 kilos of potatoes, one cauliflower, a kilo of marrows, four bananas and 15 free range eggs for 12 euros! That's pretty affordable, I must say. And because they harvest everything exactly when it's ripe and won't last that long, it makes sense to buy everything fresh twice a week instead of only once. 

At Tony's bakery I buy a typical Maltese wheat bread, that is freshly sliced as delish as toasted - one loaf has about 500 to 750 grams and costs 1.10 euros, and small soft rolls are available for 15 euro cents. Some of the larger supermarkets offer online orders and free delivery when you order at least for 75 euros. If I need that much (especially heavier things like juice cartons or flour) then I have them deliver my stuff. Depending on the time of ordering they even do same-day delivery. But if I only need a few bits and bobs that I don't get at the veggie stand or the bakery, I could go to the various small corner shops.

There are even a few Lidl shops on the island, and the next two are in easy reach if I take the bus. Lidl offers good prices for gouda, parmesan and soft cheese, it has an awesome chocolate muesli, fruit infusion tea and dog treats which Heini likes very much. And he can chew them with the few teeth he is left with :-)))

Oh, and every two weeks there is a truck with cleaning and hygiene stuff - a drugstore on wheels so to speak. I didn't buy there, yet, but my neighbours love to buy their laundry detergents from them. And lately there is a fishmonger who visits our church square every Thursday. Thus everything within two minutes walking distance, and therefore I don't mind to spread my shopping over the whole week.    

And the laundry situation is similar. In Germany I did the laundry once a week, and with a washer and dryer combo that was easy peasy. Here we don't have a dryer, but with 300 sunny days and a constant seabreeze that is no problem at all. Okay, when it's very humid a dryer might come handy, but without it, at least we save some energy. And that's a plus. Anyway, we have two (or better 1.5) drying racks which can bear not more than two wash loads. Therefore I daily check the weather, and when it's fine, I do the washing. It's simple as that and works just fine!

And here are a few examples of what's been cooking lately:

This is fennel au gratin. In former days I didn't like fennel at all, but here I tried it a few times and always liked it very much. Once I sauteed it with lots of garlic and lemon over spaghetti, some other time with carrots and arborio rice as risotto and on the picture above simply scalloped with almond cream and parmesan.

By the way, here they have very young garlic which looks almost exactly like spring onions. At first I didn't realize it was garlic, but my landlady told me it's perfect for artichoke stuffing. Because the Maltese don't just boil their artichokes and serve them simply with butter or mayonnaise. No, they stuff the artichokes with tuna, said garlic and parsley and of course I had to test that. I made way too much stuffing, so I mixed it with cream cheese and had a wonderful spread for my home baked bread. 

The marrows I mentioned earlier come in two versions: long like normal zucchini and round - and the latter are ideal for filling. Like here with soy chunks, tomato paste, garlic, almond flour and shredded cheese: 

Side dish was polenta with lots of rosemary and sea salt - highly recommend that! 

Last Sunday we were invited by our landlords. Side note: Every Sunday the family gathers, that is Mary and Joe, their two children with their respective spouses and three children all in all. They sit together on the kitchen bench in front of the fireplace, chat and munch on sandwiches and finger food very similar to Spanish tapas, e.g. bigilla (a spicy dip made from beans) with crackers, sheep cheese from Gozo Island, seafood, olives, pistacchios, potato crisps - no formal dinner but very casual and chilled. And because I didn't want to come empty handed, I made some monkey bread. You can pull it apart easily and just eat it as is; no spread needed. Basically it's a yeast dough formed into lots of small balls which you place in a round baking pan. Between the two layers of dough balls there comes a hearty dose of pesto and shredded cheese. If you want, you could brush the balls with melted butter, but I thought that was a bit too much. They liked it very much that way!

Of course, I have to end that blog with something sweet. Since two weeks we have a new kitchen gadget. We weren't in dire need of it but once it's there, I kind of like it. The device looks like a modern coffee machine with water tank, ingredients container and outlet in the front. But in fact it's for making plant milk. You simply put some almonds, rolled oats or nuts of your liking into the container, fill the water tank and push a button, and in less than three minutes you have a bottle filled with delicious plant milk. We take it for our breakfast smoothies, pour it over cereals and are even working on a barista version with oats and cashews. Surely it produces some pulp in the process which is far too good to simply compost. Therefore I added some wheat flour, sugar and baking powder and made some kind of pound cake with it. It's barely risen but nevertheless was very yummy. I might test some bliss balls or energy balls for example with some dates, dried fruit, shredded coconut or cocoa - possibilities galore. And the cake definitely was a good start... 

With that said: Stay safe and sane and never stop trying something new!  

Finger Food

Hi Y'all!

After we got almost used to living in Malta and already know some people, we wanted to do a little get together for them. A new year's reception so to say, because around the holidays everybody was so busy that we didn't want to add more stress to the mix with our invite. Thus we had them here last Saturday for some drinks and snacks, and I wanted to share with you guys what we had. 

Btw we were ten adults and three children, and because some of them - like us - like to eat vegetarian and are open to vegan alternatives, I made vegetarian food only. As one person is lactose intolerant I should have prepared more vegan stuff, but for next time I know better. 

Surely I know that finger food might cause more work than a three course meal, but I didn't want to be glued to the stove that night, and the advantage of cold snacks is, that you can prepare them beforehand and sometimes even freeze them. Besides, the atmosphere is more casual and you need less space for plates :-) 

Please find below the actors in order of appearance: 

I started on Tuesday with preparing a carrot orange soup - unfortunately there is no picture. Basically I diced carrots, potatoes and onions and sauteed them in olive oil. Added orange juice and vegetable stock and let that simmer for 30 minutes. Also I added a piece of ginger roughly the size of my thumb, but removed that before blending the whole thing. I seasoned the pureed soup with an oriental spice mixture called "Ras el Hanout" which went perfectly with it. After cooling I put the soup in bags and placed it in the freezer. 

On Wednesday I baked two kinds of vegan muffins. One was with cocoa and Coca Cola to make it extra fluffy, and one - a classic - with apples and cinnamon. After cooling down they went into the freezer as well - and luckily there is a picture: 

Furthermore, I soaked some cashew nuts over night in order to turn them into vegan cream cheese and vegan feta cubes on Thursday. I served the cream cheese together with olives, crackers and edam (not vegan) on a grazing board, and the feta cubes made it on some little skewers together with cherry tomatoes. 

Any party needs meat balls, right? For my vegetarian version I mixed and then pan-fried oat flakes, eggs, onions and shredded cheese. They are delish either warm or cold, and the size is variable also. For the party I made them roughly the size of table tennis balls. 

In parallel I made a Zucchini cake in the oven, which is also yummy either warm or cold. Insanely easy: Grate 500 g of zucchini, add one diced onion, 5 eggs, 200 g flour and 150 g shredded cheese. Mix and season everything, spread on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. 

Afterwards I mixed a yoghurt dip which I served with veggie sticks on Saturday. The children devoured them, although I expected them to stick to the candy I had for them. Pleasantly surprised! 

Then I prepared tortilla roll-ups. Basically I took tortilla wraps, brushed them with herbal cream cheese and topped that with sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Rolled that up and let cool in the fridge. The next day, I only had to cut that into slices and put on toothpicks. But to be honest, they were nice, but I prefer the version with cream cheese and smoked salmon...

The last thing I did on Friday night was hard boiling some eggs and starting a yeast dough to have that rise in the fridge over night. 

Besides laying the table and arranging the food, all I had to do on Saturday were things which were best fresh out of the oven. Thus I combined the yeast dough with a healthy amount of olive oil, sea salt and rosemary and made some focaccia bread - went very well with the soup. 

I removed the yolks from the hard-boiled eggs and mixed them to a paste with mayonnaise, mustard and spices. That went into a dressing bag and from there back into the whites - deviled eggs = classic 70s party snack... 

That was followed by some puff pastry action. On one of them I spread green pesto and red on the other one. The red one was cut into strips and twisted, and the green one was rolled up and cut into slices. Both of them received a generous sprinkling of shredded cheese and went onto their merry ways into the oven. Quick and easy! 

Please excuse the cling wrap on some of the fotos. Actually I don't like it, but the prior tenants left it here and thus I used it. And I didn't have time to make proper pictures when everything was ready and uncovered. But this is what it looked like:

Was a very nice evening!

Stay save and sane and celebrate and parties as they come!!!

Happy New Year!

Hi, Y'all! 

From the bottom of my heart I wish you a happy new year filled with peace, joy, health and also success in any form. Spend time with your loved ones, don't put off anything you want to do and enjoy life to the fullest - nobody knows how long it will last.  

Our New Year's eve was pretty lazy at first, and then we had a nice dinner. Not the usual suspects like raclette or fondue, no - this year we had vegetarian cabbage rolls with dumpling filling and mulled wine sauce. It was quite elaborate thus we won't have that every week. But absolutely delicious!  

Why elaborate? Well, you start with the dumpling filling, that means, you fry garlic and onions in a pan with herbs de Provence and add some plant based milk to heat it slightly. Add all these ingredients to some diced stale bread. Mix in an egg and some grated carrot and let that rest for half an hour. Season thoroughly because the filling soaks up spices like a sponge.  

Fry some mushrooms, season them as well and set them aside. In case you still have some leftover bread, dice it and fry it, too, and sprinkle it with some sea salt. Set aside too, will be needed for serving later. 

Remove the stalk of the cabbage and carefully separate the single leaves - they should stay more or less intact. That might get more difficult the closer you get to the center of the cabbage, because the leaves are more folded then. But with some patience one can manage that. Then I blanched the leaves in boiling water and cut the middle ribs of the leaves which were too thick. You could have done that before, but I didn't want them to fall apart in the water. After that you layer two or three leaves and brush the inner leaf with mustard. Place roughly a tablespoon of dumpling filling in the middle and add some of the fried mushrooms. With all your light-fingeredness you can muster fold it into a roll and fix it with some kitchen yarn or toothpicks. I then put all my rolls into a large dutch oven, added some vegetable stock and let that simmer for 45 minutes with a closed lid.  

In parallel, I fried some diced mushrooms, onions and carrots, deglaced them with mulled wine (normal red or even beer would work as well) and filled up with veggie stock. That simmered also for 40 minutes with a closed lid. The recipe called for sieving the sauce and thicken it with flour afterwards, but I couldn't stand to throw away the perfectly fine veggies. Thus I blended them in the sauce and saved me the thickening. 

For serving I first poured some sauce onto the plate, then placed the rolls on top and garnished them with the croutons and some roasted sunflower seeds. You could offer mashed potatoes as a side dish, but the dumpling as filling worked fine for us.

For Christmas we had our traditional potato salad and wieners on Dec 24, and on Christmas day we were invited by neighbours/friends. Thus on boxing day I had enough leisure time at hand to prepare a vegetarian "meatloaf" - which also couldn't be done in a haste... 

Not sure, if I mentioned it before, but basically you have to fry some onions and garlic together with some diced mushrooms until they are soft. Mix them with grated cheese (the more mature, the better), cooked wild rice, cottage cheese and chopped nuts. Season with thyme, sage, salt and pepper and stir in four eggs. In theory you could substitute the eggs with chickpea flour and water, but I haven't tested it, yet. Fill the dough into a loaf pan and bake it in the oven for an hour. Serve it hot with a roux or cold with a mayonnaise or tartar sauce. Equally yummy!

A few days before Christmas we went to Msida to get our Maltese IDs. They informed us we could collect them and we agreed on 23 Dec. What they didn't tell us was that the three remaining admin clerks had a Christmas party, thus no IDs for us, but a nice bus trip through Maltese pre-Christmas chaos instead. Well, we will do that again on 2 Jan and let's hope the New Year's party of the admin staff is over by then... Oh, and by the way: According to the bus schedule, Msida is only one stop after Paris. Everything is smaller here - even the distance to France! :-)

And what I also wanted to mention: Unlike in Germany, there are only orchestrated fireworks here in Malta. Organised by highly skilled specialists with a licence and with fireworks which weren't thrown together in some eastern European backyard with highly dubious ingredients. Usually it takes place in the capital, Valletta, but this year they made an exception and transferred it to Mellieha. That came in very handy, because after our dinner it took us only five minutes of walking to get to the spectacle. And it really was spectacular! Although not very long (appr. 20 minutes or so), but there was some music, some drinks, nice temperature outside, no-one got hurt by fireworks, the crowd was manageable and everybody was in a good mood. Community service took care of the cleaning up, and neither days before nor after people were disturbed by stray fireworks. Children with a light sleep and frightful animals definitely appreciated that. I like! 

With that said - all the best for 2023 

- it will be exciting for sure!