by Krista | Feb 28, 2011 | Bootstrap Monday
Good morning, luvs. 🙂 I woke this weekend to a winter wonderland! I’ve only seen snow a couple of times this season, so it made me smile. Then I hunkered down under the covers and spent a glorious morning reading and drinking tea.
I live in a teensy apartment in a rather scary part of town but I do so love the views from my windows. They make the occasional crazy neighbor and subsequent police investigations bearable. 🙂
How was your weekend? Mine was a mixture of bliss and ugh.
Bliss was celebrating my friend’s wedding Friday night with many dear friends. We cried along with the groom as he tried to get through his vows, laughed hard at the wedding speeches, and danced with joyous abandon. Bliss was also having a cozy Oscars-Homemade Soup, Cheese and Crackers-Really Good Wine evening with more dear friends.
Ugh because I was sick, so very sick on Saturday and Sunday. But even that was made tolerable by my lovely friends Nicole and Marie bringing me homemade cranberry bread and a stack of historical novels to cheer me up.
As I lay in bed, I thought about gratefulness, and how hard it is to think of good things when I’m in pain and feeling so sad and wretched. So I wrote a list of good things, lovely things that put the little trials of my life in perspective. It helped so much.
I started reading “Awareness” by Anthony de Mello again. It never fails to jolt me out of self-pity and help me to wake up and be grateful and brave.
I love these thoughts on gratefulness by Melodie Beattie:
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.
It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
So I woke this morning with a renewed hope. My pain is still here but my heart is lighter, and I feel blessed beyond measure.
What little things are you grateful for today?
by Krista | Feb 25, 2011 | Fabulous Friday
Hello dear ones. xo
When I was in the woods the other day I looked up into what I thought would be bare tree trunks and stark branches. Instead the sun was glowing through dozens of ferns growing up the mossy tree, rendering them a brilliant lime green against the bright blue sky. Aren’t they gorgeous? 🙂
I’ve been reading a lot of quotes by Teddy Roosevelt this week. I thought I’d share a few that are especially dear to me, and make me take a deep breath and press on with courage and a smile:
It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again;
because there is not effort without error and shortcomings;
but who does actually strive to do the deed;
who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion,
who spends himself in a worthy cause,
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
***
There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to:
first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live –
I have no use for the sour-faced man –
and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile,
that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.
***
I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life;
I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.
***
Wishing you a beautiful weekend of rest and happiness with people you love and who love you back.
What has given you courage this week?
xo
by Krista | Feb 24, 2011 | Plucky Thursday
As I write to you tonight the wind is howling. I can hear it shrieking around corners and sending leaves and branches skittering across my terrace. It sounds very cold and stormy and I’m so glad to be safe and warm indoors. It makes me think of a snippet of poetry I read earlier this evening:
Brew me a cup for a winter’s night.
For the wind howls loud and the furies fight
– M.T. Antrim –
On nights like this it’s lovely to remember other winter days when the sun shone brilliantly, the sky was clear, and I got to walk through the sun-drenched countryside.
My neighbor was pottering in his garden next to the barn, preparing the soil for spring days hopefully not too far away. It makes me smile when I walk past and his cat is sitting in the driveway, gazing magisterially over the fields as if he owns the place.
I left the main road and ambled into the woods, delighted when I looked up and saw this splendid red barn through the trees. It made me think of barn dances and tables laden with pies and cakes, friends and neighbors gossiping happily as children run about underfoot. I took a deep breath of cold air, smiling at hints of woodsmoke and cedar.
As I walked back home I began craving comfort food, something warm and cozy and naughty. What better than Belgian-style French Fries tossed with minced garlic and parsley? I set the oil on to heat while I cut the potatoes, soaked them in salt water, and patted them dry. After a 6 minute dunking in sizzling hot oil, I drained them, salted them well, and cooled them before putting them in the oil for two more minutes to crisp and brown. While they were still hot I added a couple spoonfuls of finely minced garlic, a sprinkling of parsley, a bit more salt and pepper, then sat down with a dollop of mayonnaise for dipping.
They were everything I hoped for. Alas, I was so ravenous that I forgot to take a picture, and “had” to make them again the next day to rectify my mistake. Poor me. I highly recommend making this mistake. 😉
What’s your favorite thing to eat after a winter walk?
Belgian French Fries with Garlic
Ingredients:
3-4 potatoes
vegetable oil
salt
pepper
dried parsley
minced garlic to taste
mayonnaise
Directions:
- Heat oil in deep saucepan over medium-high heat about 5-7 minutes.
- Slice potatoes into finger-lengths, let soak in salt water a few minutes.
- Remove from salt water and pat dry.
- Place dry potatoes in oil and let cook for 5-6 minutes.
- Remove with slotted spoon and let drain and cool on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt right away.
- When cool, return potatoes to hot oil and cook for 1-2 minutes more until they are golden brown.
- Remove with slotted spoon and let drain on paper towels. Salt and pepper to taste.
- In bowl toss with minced garlic and parsley.
- Serve hot with mayonnaise.
by Krista | Feb 23, 2011 | Compatriot Wednesday
The air was frosty and heavy with the sense of impending snow as I drove to cooking club Monday night. How lovely it was to walk in the door and have a piping hot cup of Darren’s Imperial Dragon Well tea to warm me up.
We were a small group this week, many of the others out of town for work or getting ready for a wedding, and we sat companionably in the kitchen visiting away as all sorts of scrumptious smells wafted out of pots simmering on the stove.
At last it was time to eat, one course at a time.
We started with Toby’s Chinese Tea Eggs, beautifully crackled and browned from the marinade. Alas, soy sauce was forgotten in all bustle, so they weren’t quite as dark as they should’ve been, but they were still delicious. Especially with a light dusting of salt.
Jon went rogue with a savory Thai soup instead of a Chinese dish, but after one spoonful not one of us complained. Rich with coconut milk, fish sauce and cilantro, this soup was the perfect warming dish for a snowy night.
Kat and I closed the meal with our own version of Cherries in the Snow. Squares of silky, foam-topped almond gelatin were layered in a bowl and smothered with a decadent Dried Cherry Port Wine sauce steeped with black peppercorns and star anise. Oooeee! At once comforting and exotic, the dish was a light and soothing end to our month of Chinese feasting.
All too soon it was time to bundle up and skid carefully across icy streets to our snow-capped cars and drive home.
What is your favorite cold weather soup?
Jon’s Thai Soup
Ingredients:
4 cans coconut milk
3 Tbs fish sauce
2 cups vegetable broth
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1/4 of a large green chile
1 cup kale
2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced into medallions
3 Tbs red curry paste
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 onion
1 cup cilantro
Directions:
- Sautee all the vegetables in a dash of olive oil until soft.
- In another pan, add all the coconut milk, broth, fish sauce, and curry. Stir and bring to boil.
- Add the cilantro and the chicken. Boil for a couple minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the vegetables, return to boil, remove from heat and serve.
Toby’s Tea Eggs
Click here to view the recipe at Steamy Kitchen
Kat and Krista’s Cherries in the Snow
Click here to view the recipe at Epicurious
Notes: we added black peppercorns and star anise to the cherry sauce, and used almond milk in the gelatin.
by Krista | Feb 22, 2011 | Gulliver Tuesday
It was a bitterly cold December day in Germany as my family and I bundled up in scarves and woolens, and drove to the historic city of Ulm.
Home to a magnificent cathedral and a fabulous Medieval Christmas Market (I wrote about it here), it also boasts the World’s Largest bread museum: Museum of Bread Culture (Museum Der Brotkultur).
Now I must take this moment to give kudos to my family for actually following me when I excitedly beckoned them down a narrow alley with the words, “Hey guys, look! It’s a Bread Museum!”
With amused shakes of their heads and shrugs of “why not” we all trooped in out of the cold, thoroughly delighting the concierge who grinned happily at our arrival.
For a mere 3.50 Euro we were given headphones for an audio tour of the huge 5-story historic former storehouse.
In all honesty we did not expect much from a bread museum, but it turned out to be quite fascinating and well worth the modest admission fee.
The first floor featured miniature kitchens and bakeries as they would’ve looked down through the centuries. I loved the large, open ones with gleaming copper pots hanging from the walls and shelves lined with pewter plates. The audio guide brought the place to life, enriching each scene with great stories and informative history.
Other floors featured historic displays explaining the importance of bread in society and culture. I was intrigued and horrified to learn how politicians such as Adolf Hitler and Stalin used bread as an effective yet devastating tool of manipulation with the people they ruled. I was staggered by the pamphlets actually distributed by the Nazi government with recipes for how to make bread out of WOOD! I can scarcely imagine the desperation that would lead people to chop, soak, shred and pulverize wood into “flour” just to have something to feed their family for dinner.
I loved seeing the paintings depicting warm family scenes, children clustered around the kitchen table while their beaming mother slathered thick butter onto their slices of bread. I was charmed by the exquisite old art work, gorgeous silver platters and wonderful wooden bread bowls. They made me want to roll up my sleeves then and there to start kneading and shaping yeasty loaves of bread.
I also enjoyed the dioramas that showed bakeries as they looked in medieval Europe, ancient Egypt and bustling Rome.
I have often wondered what it would be like to grind grain by hand, and at the Museum of Bread Culture I got my chance. Gripping a heavy stone with both hands, I twisted and pounded it against the grains skidding across the surface. After only a short time my hands and arms were wearing out and I was filled with gratitude for folks like King Arthur who package flour for me without any of the stones and grit previous generations had to deal with.
There is one thing we did not find at the Museum Der Brotkultur: bread. It was the belief of the founders of the museum, father and son Willy and Hermann Eiselen, that bread is not a museum artifact, but a food that ought to be freshly baked and enjoyed each day.
If you have a hankering to peruse a German bread museum one day, here are a few tips to make it worth your while.
- Eat before you go. Trust me, before you’re even half way through this place you’re going to be craving bread something fierce! Don’t worry, there are plenty of cafes just down the street.
- Take your time. There is much to see and learn. Find new types of bread you’d like to try or learn stories you can share the next time you bring a fresh-baked loaf to a friend.
- Get the audio guide in your language. This was an invaluable asset to my jaunt through the museum and you can skip ahead easily if the topic being discussed is of little interest to you.
- Wear comfy shoes. It’s a long trek through five floors of displays and you don’t want to miss out because your feet are sore.
- Visit a local bakery after you’re done. The bread will taste even more delicious after learning the history that precedes it.
I left the museum that day with renewed thankfulness for the prosperity and security of my country that not only allows me to eat bread each day, but lavishes me with fruits, vegetables, quality meat and all sorts of delicacies previous generations and current nations could only dream of. We are truly blessed.
Museum Der Brotkultur Information:
LOCATION:
Salzstadelgasse 10
89073 Ulm (Germany)
Phone: +49 731 69955, Fax: +49 731 6021161
E-Mail: info@museum-brotkultur.de
The museum is centrally and conveniently located in the Salzstadel, a historic storehouse (dated from 1592) on the northern edge of the Old City.
Parking in “Salzstadel” underground car park, entrance via Olgastrasse.
Parking for coaches next to the museum.
10 minutes walk from the main railway station or 5 minutes from Ulm Minster.
OPENING TIMES:
Open daily 10 – 17
ADMISSION PRICES:
Adults 3.50 €
Children 2.50€
Senior Citizens / Students / Visitors with Disabilities 2.50 €
Guided tours in English by prior arrangement 45,-€.
info[at]museum-brotkultur.de
