Let me eat cake

When we lived in Germany, one of my favorite places to go was the Hotel Morgenstern in the Odenwald. They had a cafe there that made the most amazing cakes. One that I remember with particular fondness was called a Käsesahnetorte (literally, cheese-cream cake--flavored like cheesecake but a totally different texture). When Annabelle and I went to visit her friend Katherine last month, Katherine's mom Elke taught me how to make a very similar cake using Greek yogurt. We translated the recipe's ingredients to English and the measurements to American measurements. It goes something like this:

For the bottom, cake layer:

• 1 stick plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 and 1/8 cup sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon (slightly less) baking powder

Beat butter until fluffy. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, one by one. Stir in the flour. Line a springform pan with parchment paper and brush with butter. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 340 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool. Remove parchment paper, and return cake to springform.

For the top, cream layer:

• 1 and 3/4 cup cream
• 450 grams Greek yogurt (Sorry, not sure what this equates to in American measurements. This is a large yogurt container. If you don't have Greek yogurt, strain the yogurt through cheesecloth for several hours to drain out excess liquid.)
• 1 packet of gelatin
• large can of mandarin oranges, drained
• 3/4 cup sugar (maybe a little less.)

Dissolve gelatin in slightly less than one cup boiling water and set it aside to cool. Mix the yogurt and the sugar together. In a separate bowl, whip cream with a little sugar and add to the yogurt mixture. Stir in the gelatin. Add orange pieces. Pour on cake. Chill 3 hours.

Here is Katherine's little sister Annika with our cake:



When I made the cake at home on my own, I chilled it overnight to make sure it was good and firm. I also reserved a couple cups of the cream mixture before adding the orange sections. First I poured the part of the mixture with the oranges on top of the cake layer. Then I topped it off with the plain cream mixture so that the top would be smooth.

I wish I had some cake right now. It would be the perfect way to celebrate the successful end of NaBloPoMo!

Germany in my rear-view mirror

Well, our last couple of days in Germany have been really nice. I've had a little wine and a lot of Italian ice cream (twice today!). We haven't done anything wildly exciting, but I've had lots of time to visit with my friends, which was great. On Monday, Amy and I met Doris and Sibylle for lunch (Thai food--sorry, Gretchyn, forgot to take a picture). Yesterday, we took Phil's Thunderbird over to Heidelberg and met our friend Jane for a 4-hour lunch.

Today the bags are packed, and we're ready for our flight back to the States. I'm sad to go but excited about the Florida portion of our summer vacation. I'm especially excited about seeing Fred again. Not having him here has been the one defect in an otherwise perfect holiday.

See you all on the other side of the Great Pond!

The days, they are a-flyin'

Thursday, 7/6th: Annabelle and I walked into Käfertal in the morning to find a yarn needle so I can graft the toe to my newest knitted sock. Along the way, we found this quaint little house:

We wound up at the Mini Mal, so we went ahead and got the fixings for a great picnic lunch. Annabelle also got this cool World Cup hat for 5 euros (I saw it in downtown Heidelberg later in the week for 15!):

We took our picnic lunch and headed over to Miramar to meet my friends Jutta and Iris and their kids. The pictures on my camera of the 3 of us girls didn't come out very good, so I'm waiting to see if Iris had any better luck with hers. I'm kicking myself for not having grabbed all the kids together for a group photo, but here's a picture of Mike and Annabelle with Iris's kids:

And here's one of Mike, sporting some seriously crazy hair:

Friday, 7/7th: Annabelle and I rode the streetcar:



over to Heidelberg to meet my friend Jennifer for sushi:



After lunch, we walked all the way down the main street of town to catch a glimpse of the castle ruins:



and then we shopped our way back up the street:



By the time we got back to the streetcar stop to head home, our arms were aching from carrying all our bags. The biggest score of the day was a pair of Josef Seibel shoes for Annabelle for 20 euros (about $25 bucks). Seibel shoes sell for $100+ back in the States. (Yes, Fred, even in Europe, I am saving you billions of dollars . . . by buying stuff!)

Saturday, 7/8th: I took Annabelle up to Hanau on the train to drop her off for a sleepover with her friend Autumn, who used to live across the street from us here in Mannheim. It was a quick and easy trip, but it reminded me of how much I love riding the trains over here and how much I wish that we had more time so as to squeeze in more traveling. Annabelle and Autumn were very happy to see each other:



Sunday, 7/9th: Not much to report. I spent a lot of the day starting to sort our stuff for the trip back to the States on Wednesday.

Last night we watched the final game of the World Cup. I was cheering for France, and you see how well that turned out for the French. I think I could have a lucrative career. Say you're a fan of Team X--you could pay me to root for Team Y. If I'm going to be cursed, I think I should at least be able to profit from it.

"We're number three! We're number three!"

The rodents really got into World Cup fever. They made a couple friends and drank way too much beer:

Duck . . . duck . . . goose?

We've seen a pair of rather odd-looking birds recently. They are Egyptian geese, and they seem to have taken up residence here in Grant Circle. Apparently "ducks" are to "Tony Soprano" as "Egyptian geese" are to "me," because I can't stop taking their picture!

On Sunday when my friend Sibylle was over and we were sitting outside enjoying the beautiful day, I was concerned to see that there was only one goose, and I wondered what had happened to the other. Well, I guess she must have been otherwise occupied, because as of Tuesday, there were 2 new geese:



I saw a hawk take a pass at one of the babies, but Daddy Goose chased him off. I really hope I don't have to witness any "circle of life" moments.

Check out this brief video clip of the geese. Make sure you have your speakers on, because these birds are NOISY!

Day to day stuff

Monday, 7/3d: The kids and I went downtown to do a little shopping. Mike wanted a World Cup jersey, and Annabelle wants anything related to Diddl Maus. It was hot though and downtown Mannheim is apparently under construction, so we didn't stay for long.

We did stay long enough though for me to lose the kids in Kaufhof! I stopped to pay and they said they were going to go look at something, and the next thing I knew they were gone. I knew they were fine, but after a few minutes I started to feel panicky. After all, none of us were carrying cellphones. They had no money. And they have only limited German skills, so even if I had them paged, were they going to understand the announcement? Finally I did have the cashier put in a call for them: "Zwei kinder, Michael und Annabelle blah blah blah . . . " It worked though, and the next thing I knew, 2 very indignant kids were coming down the escalator demanding to know WHY ON EARTH I hadn't thought to look for them upstairs in the toy department.

That evening, I got a tremendous craving for icecream, so Annabelle and I set off on a little walking tour of Käfertal. Lots of places were closed since it was Monday, but we finally found a little pizzeria, where I was able to get my Spaghetti Eis. Here is the waitress pushing the icecream through the pasta press:

On our way home, we found Eddie's German twin:


Tuesday, 7/4th: I went out for Indian food (yum!) with my friend Sibylle, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. The kids and I walked back into Käfertal to the pizzeria Annabelle and I had found the night before and grabbed a (relatively) quick bite to eat.

We made it home just in time for the beginning of the Germany-Italy World Cup game. I mostly hunkered in the kitchen and called out occasionally for Annabelle to give me an update. By 10:30 nobody had scored, so I felt it was safe to leave and go see the 4th of July fireworks. We returned just in time to see Germany defeated, which was just crushing. If you had told me a month ago that I would be this depressed over a soccer game, I would have asked you to please share some of whatever wacky drugs you were smoking.

Wednesday, 7/5th: Hot, hot, and hot! Too hot, in fact, to do much of anything other than turn on the portable A/C and sit in front of it all afternoon, knitting and watching the first season of the BBC version of "The Office." Nothing worth taking a picture of.

Catching up

Wednesday, 6/28th: We made a quick trip to the local mall in the morning to pick up a few things. I was amazed to see that my beloved mall now has a Starbucks. And is this a giant foosball table, or what?

After the mall, Amy and I picked up the kids, and we all headed over to Heidelberg with them to meet Phil at an office hail and farewell. Some really good friends of mine are leaving Germany for the States and the Army for retirement, and it was lots of fun to be there to wish them well. I also got to meet some of the summer interns, which was lots of fun.

That evening we went to the German-American fest that happens each summer here on post in Mannheim. We pigged out on fest foods like potato pancakes and chocolate crepes.

Thursday, 6/29th: Amy and I walked across the field to Gartenstadt to enjoy a nice, leisurely breakfast of Broetchen with butter and jam. After breakfast, we encountered the sweetest little squirrel on our walk home. Shield your eyes from the brilliant cuteness:



My friend (and loyal reader) Robin is getting ready to move back to the States, so I rode with her and her kids out to Heppenheim so that she could pay her electric bill. Heppenheim is a cute little town, and we had a lot of fun wandering around. I had the most amazing pork cutlet with mushroom gravy and potato croquettes for lunch and Spaghetti Eis for dessert.

One neat thing about Heppenheim is the series of street lights that depict scenes from German folk tales, such as "The Lawyer and the Devil":

 

Friday, 6/30th: Amy and I spent the better part of the at the mall on Friday. I got some new CDs (like the soundtrack to "Mama Mia" in German), and we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant we used to go to all the time.

The main event of the day, however, was the soccer game between Germany and Argentina. I am quite possibly the least-interested-in-any-and-all-sports person on this entire planet, but the excitement surrounding the World Cup is positively contagious.

After the game, we all walked into Käfertal for a celebratory dinner. Here's Annabelle demonstrating her team spirit:

The streets were full of people joyriding around, shouting and waving their German flags:

Mike's new favorite German drink is cola-beer. It's really not as disgusting as it sounds. I asked the waitress to make it more cola than beer, but then Mike got all offended, and she was winking at him and promising to take care of him. So this could be anything from mostly cola with a little alcohol-free beer for flavor to mostly real beer with a little cola for color:



Saturday and Sunday, 7/1st and 7/2d: We had a nice, lazy weekend. Saturday night the kids and I went over to Mike's friend Will's house for supper. Phil and Amy and Rebecca left for their Norwegian fjord cruise (yes, I'm insanely jealous) late Saturday night. And yesterday my friend Sibylle came over with her son and brought a huge German breakfast. Nothing major to report for the weekend--just a lot of eating and talking, 2 of my very favorite things.

No drunk blogging

"No drunk blogging." That's my new (and possibly temporary) motto. So I think I'll just go to bed now. But first let me say . . .

WOO HOO, Germany won tonight!!! I would like all of Germany to please take a moment to acknowledge my role in this accomplishment, as nothing good was happening the whole time I was in the same room as the TV. But then I went to tend to my laundry, and things started rocking and rolling.

We went out to dinner tonight with the Mitchells and one of Mike and Rebecca's friends, and it was just glorious, seeing people driving around waving flags and listening to the fireworks and the honking of car horns. I hope Germany wins the Cup, and I plan on doing laundry for as long as necessary just to ensure their continued success.

Good night!!

Monday and Tuesday (June 26th and 27th)

Monday: Just another gorgeous day in Germany. I took a nice walk out across the fields behind my old neighborhood to go to the German grocery store for pineapple yogurt for the kids and took lots of pictures while I was out. Then we all went out for schnitzel (yum!). 

Tuesday: Went down to Heidelberg today to hang out with my friend Jennifer. We took the streetcar downtown to do some shopping (that's where I got my World Cup shoes) and ordered sushi for supper. 

Do you have your World Cup shoes on?

I do:

Lazy Sunday

We spent today watching Becca's dog Pickles at puppy school and then hanging out with his big buddy Gus:



In the afternoon I went with the Mitchells and some of their friends to visit the castle ruins in Weinheim:



We rewarded ourselves after the invigorating climb with some ice cream in the town square:

Seen in Walmart this afternoon

Amy and I went to Walmart to pick up the fixings for fondue, and we saw a group of men gathered near the deli department to watch the beginning of the Germany-Sweden game:

Wilkommen!

I'll be typing and uploading from someplace else, probably at my friend Amy's, but as I write this, I'm sitting on a train bound for Mannheim. We're cruising through the Rhine River valley, with the river to our left and low mountains rolling along to our right. Periodically we spot a castle ruin high atop a hill:



and a hang-glider just sailed across the river and landed on the opposite shore.

Annabelle is engrossed in her book, and Mike is plugged into his iPod. I have a magazine on my lap, but I can't get into it for fear I'll miss out on the fabulous scenery as I learn "10 Ways to Banish Belly Bulge." I'm sure my flab will still be with me on the return flight to the States, so I think I'll save the reading for then.

I know I said I probably wouldn't be blogging much while on vacation, but I just can't stay away. We have no big, amazing travel plans for this trip, and I want to dedicate myself to committing the tiny, every-day details to memory.

We arrived in Frankfurt on Thursday afternoon and took a train north to visit my friend Irena and her family. Visiting Irena is always a treat. Her house buzzes with activity as her 4 daughters scurry about, playing in the backyard and then racing off to tennis or music lessons. When we're with them, Mike and Annabelle get to experience some of the pleasures of German childhood, such as riding bikes to the icecream shop for Spaghetti Eis. It was at Irena's, in fact, where they were bitten by the unicycle bug almost 2 years ago.

The food at Irena's is always amazing. We linger over a breakfast of boiled eggs and Brötchen topped with slices of meat and cheese or nice, thick layers of butter and homemade strawberry jam. For the chocolate-minded among us, there are always croissants and a jar of Nutella.

It's Spargelzeit (asparagus time) in Germany, and I have eaten as much as I can hold 2 nights in a row. Irena took us shopping for Spargel yesterday, and I was awestruck by an amazing machine that takes each stalk and passes it through a lineup of blades and jets of water, shooting it out the other end ready to be cooked. It takes me 30 minutes to peel the number of stalks this machine can dispense with in 60 seconds.

Our favorite thing to eat at Irena's though is her chicken satay. Irena comes from Indonesia and makes the best satay I've ever eaten. Mike tried to break the satay-eating record of 22 skewers, which is currently held by an Australian tennis player. He gave up after 18 skewers though, the better to save room for Spaghetti Eis. Annabelle was surprisingly close on his heels, polishing off 12 skewers on her own.

Our visit to Irena's also gave me a chance to pour a little oil on my rusty German skills. I always feel so stupid and vulnerable when I travel to France, where my knowledge of the native language is limited to a few obscene phrases my cousin Julie taught me. Here in Germany, I get frustrated with myself when I screw up adjectival endings, but when it comes down to it, I know enough to order a drink, book a ticket, and point out to the German man sitting in my reserved place on the train that while he is indeed in the proper seat number, he is in the WRONG wagon.

When we got on this train, we were seated near 4 young men who were in the World Cup spirit, with German flags painted on their faces and flags draped around their shoulders like capes. I planned on taking their picture, but they got off the train in Cologne while I was in the dining car picking up snacks. The whole country is consumed with World Cup fever, however, and I promise I will do my best to get some good shots of it. In the meantime, let me offer a picture of Max, one of our fellow passengers, who got very anxious each time his master left him to go to the smoking car for a breath of not-so-fresh air:



We have less than an hour left on this journey, so I'm going to put my notebook away and focus on the vineyards outside my window:



Nächste Halt Mannheim!