While I was doing yet another load of laundry, I took a look at the German's shirt and thought, "Do I want my husband to walk around in a 10 year old, washed out, dingy shirt with a hole in it?". Into the trash it went.

My favorite German product

Even though I went to University in the Fingerlakes, the closest I could get to Federweiser at home was to buy carboys of unpasteurised grape juice and let it ferment in my basement: nowhere as convenient and quickly tasty as this. Running a few weeks behind schedule, but hopefully will be available a little bit longer.

(The brown sugar is for chocolate chip cookies, brought back from the US. Anyone know where I can buy the real moist and molassesy stuff here?)

What I've been doing for the last month: A-ha and Amsterdam

Actually, I've done a few other things in that time as well. I'll try to get those posted as well.

We went to Amsterdam for the weekend because, after I procrastinated for so long, the cost of driving to Amsterdam was cheaper than me buying a train ticket, even with a 50% discount on DB. Since we were driving, we brought the children along. Luckily, the German had some points that brought us into free nights at the Hotel Pulitzer in Amsterdam. This was just as charming and quirky as one might expect from the description: multiple 18th century townhouses merged into a charming hotel. We had a room looking into the garden (no canal view:() but directly facing on a play set. This was important because we later discovered that Amsterdam has a sad paucity of playgrounds: the major one in Vondel Park, the largest park in Amsterdam, couldn't hold a candle to any of my 5 local playgrounds here in Berlin. They still enjoyed playing there, though.
T1 kept asking to be in T2's stroller and we were a bit intolerant (she's heavy!) considering how much walking around we did and that she wound up being sick the following week, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We spent the whole weekend walking around enjoying the blue sky and the wonderful weather and looking at things (with an tram ride and 1 boat trip). I love Amsterdam and I love the architecture there.
We had rijstaafl one evening which was lost on the girls— we wound up buying them a bowl of rice each to make up for all the items they didn't like.

The actual reason for me going to Amsterdam was to meet up with a friend who was there after doing an Art residency so deep in Ireland that I couldn't meet her there: 12+ hours travel time to reach a village in Ireland just wasn't manageable (and that would be plane to train to bus to walking or taxi the last thirty miles!). I had the chance to grab some tickets to A-ha's final tour the weekend she would be in Amsterdam and I thought it would be amusing to do that.

As it turned out, J was ill the evening we were to go and the German and I wound up getting a babysitter through the hotel (he had expected to watch the kids that evening). The sitter was lovely, fully multilingual and the cost was the same as a babysitter in Berlin, so we were very happy.

The tickets were supposed to be special, and after a bit of confusion at the Heinekin Arena box-office, we discovered why: we were directed to the VIP entrance. There we were given colored arm bands, offered a free check for our packs and coats, and shown to box seats where there was a free bar. If we'd known that was what "special" meant, we would have shown up earlier!

The concert was fun, even though I really didn't remember very many A-ha songs beside the most famous iconic MTV videos. But there was a lot of energy and a lot of dancing and it was nice to be out with the spouse.

This was the encore and we really enjoyed it:
(it's not my video, our view would have been from the upper right when facing the stage)

What the well dressed Dwarf is wearing

Blueberry Picking

On a charming farm, not too far from the center of Berlin. (Where we had earlier picked strawberries.)
We looked at the deer in their enclosure, puzzled out the naturalist information, clambered through the wildschwein areas, were totally bummed that T2 was too small for the climbing park (not cheap, but takes up to 2.5 hours to go through), picked kilos of blueberries (even though it was a week later than the close of the season— which was extended because the previous weekend was rained out).

Then we looked at the Kurbisfest, did some bungee jumping, ate an ice (or, for the adults, had a coffee), bought some pumpkins (to eventually make into jack o'lanterns, and I hope a pie or two).
(Kurbisfest/Apple pressings)
We watched apple juice being pressed (and pasteurized) and discovered that, as I had thought, there is no non-alcoholic cider here. I would mke it myself, but the juice is pasteurized as soon as pressed: I need to call the firm to discover how to buy must unpasteurized.

A lovely day.

Ever wondered why

certain areas of Berlin are overwhelmingly Turkish and poor? I didn't know that "temporary workers had been required to settle only in certain areas.

Immigration
Another wall has risen

Over 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, an invisible partition still divides the city, observes La Stampa: "South of the Bernauer Strasse begins the Mitte district with its health food shops and bobo cafés. To the north are Wedding and Brunnenviertel with their record unemployment levels and council housing inhabited by Turkish and Arab families.” So despite all the outraged reactions to Thilo Sarrazin’s incendiary remarks, the myth of multiculti Berlin is crumbling, revealing a reality of failed integration and ghettoisation. The authorities, who had hoped the “guest workers” would not remain for a long time in Germany, only allowed them to settle in certain neighbourhoods, such as Kreuzberg and Neukölln. "The result is that nowadays there are several areas where you can go shopping or go to the doctor’s without speaking a word of German.”

Unbelievably easy and moist Chocolate cake.

Recently this has been my go to cake.The original recipe is a little tetchy, but I don't go to that trouble (and my mixer is from heck, spraying me with ingredients when I don't hold a towel across the top of any bowl). I usually make a simple buttercream type frosting (shown below. The best tip I've had recently is that I can substitute some of the confectioner's sugar with flour, which gives me the volume of dry ingredients I need while cutting the sweetness which I have always found overpowering. I made this for the girls' birthday party and no one seemed to notice any difference in the frosting so I will continue to make this substitution going forward and be grateful. With thses changes, neither the cake nor the frosting are too sweet. If you prefer even less sweetness, sprinkle the top of the cake with confectioner's sugar, perhaps in a stencil, and hve a not too sweet, not too rich, easy to make in a few minutes chocolate cake: what could be better?

• 1 cup boiling water (really. Use your water cooker.)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used DP because I had it on hand and it was great)
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (I used 3+)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup/ 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 (175 grams)cups packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 (160 grams) cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F (175C). Butter 3 (8- by 2-inch) round cake pans and line bottoms of each with rounds of wax or parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess.I use a 13x9.

Whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder in a bowl until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl.(I never sift.)

Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy , then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour and cocoa mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture (batter may look curdled). (totally don't have the patience— I just start a bit,then add eggs to help bind, then start adding dry and liquid alternately and beat until it looks mixed.)

Pour in pan, put in oven. In mine at 175, takes between 25 and 30 minutes. Cupcakes (24) take 20-25 as well, when I tried them. Check early because this is a wonderfully moist cake. Bundt would take a little longer.
Simplified from the below recipe.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Devils-Food-Cake-with-Brown-Sugar-Buttercream-104574#ixzz1185YgXC8

Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1+ tablespoons milk

Makes: About about 1 1/2 cups of icing.
(Medium Consistency)

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using. Add more milk for liquid consistency.

altered from http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Buttercream-Icing

What I am reading: September 2010

1. At the Foot of the Rainbow by Gene Stratton-Porter:(M)
2. Her Father's Daughter by Gene Stratton-Porter:(M)
3. Laddie; a true blue story by Gene Stratton-Porter:(M)
4. A Daughter of the Land by Gene Stratton-Porter:(M) I really love Gene Stratton-Porter. I very much enjoyed reading these except for the tremendous shock I got when reading the second: it was full of a white supremacist and anti-Japanese "yellow peril" demagoguery that I have never seen before. Written in 1921 and the latest of her books that I have found to read, I had never seen such arrant racism and belief in "white supremacy" in her works before and wonder if it is evident in her later works. I hope not. I understand that this may be evident of the tension of the times and I now have a greater understanding of the environment that allowed the internment of Japanese-American citizens in California: I did not realize how intense and how long the incitement against the Japanese had existed.
   
5. Outta the Bag (a preview prequel) by Maryjanice Davidson:(M) Ah. It was free. I use to very much like Davidson, but now I feel, each time I buy a book (which I haven't recently), that it was just a puffed up chapter of what the novel really should be. Too much fluff, too little story, unmemorable. Even though I enjoy her characters, they dissolve in my head leaving a feeling of nothingness.
   
6. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris:(DT) Sookie Stackhouse book 10. I waited a very long time to read this because I wanted to buy it on Kindle and the brice was several dollars higher than buying it in dead tree form. that ticked me off. In fact, as you can see, I waited and purchase it in HC from the UK because that price was still cheaper than buying the Kindle edition. If I didn't like the series as well as I do, I wouldn't have bought it at all and I'm still resentful. In addition, although I am still enjoying the plot (very different from the HBO Series True Blood and I am truly angry that this HC has pictures of the cast on it), I am finding that there has been a definite veering to the overt sex and less plot development side. CH is not yet LKH (whose books I no longer buy), but her books have been better and I definitely miss her other series, with their more detailed character development and plots. This is a bridge book between the massacre of the last and a change in Sookie's loyalties , it has a lot of external development and goes more deeply into Eric's past.
   
7. Interstellar Patrol by Christopher Anvil:(MB) and
   
8. Pandora's Legions by Christopher Anvil:(MB) I'm shocked to realize that somehow I completely missed Christopher Anvils works, both when I was reading through my library's collection of books with atoms on their spines and as an adult while Baen was re-issuing his work. I expect to remedy this situation over the next year and take advantage of Baen's wonderful DRM-free and well priced e-book collections.Very EF Russel-like, very 1950's can-do, space-opera. In other words, I loved these collections of short stories.
   
9. All Cats are Grey (novella) by Andre Norton: Charming pulp short story with a woman and a cat as heroine. I think I read it originally thirty years ago and wandered across it as a free download on line.(M)
10. The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I was charmed to read this most especially because of this:

    "No one could have suspected them of carrying a strange and vital secret with them as they strolled along together. They seemed only two ordinary boys who looked in at shop windows and talked over their contents and who loitered with upturned faces in the Marien-Platz before the ornate Gothic Rathaus to hear the eleven o'clock chimes play and see the painted figures of the King and Queen watch from their balcony the passing before them of the automatic tournament procession with its trumpeters and tilting knights. When the show was over and the automatic cock broke forth into his lusty farewell crow they laughed..."

    This was delicious because I actually did exactly this last weekend in the Marienplatz. Perhaps I would have had more of a sense of wonder if I had read this first, from the perspective of a century ago. But one of the reasons I love to read stories with travel is to see places that I have been as they were and think of places I may one day be.(M)
    
11. Pollyana and Pollyanna Grows Up by Eleanor Hodgman Porter: The late 1800's and early 1900's are a period I grew up reading about. I find the books charming and generally unexceptionable, with morals that are not cloying and still true. THe Glad game is one that I could stand to play a bit more of.(M)
12. Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan:(M) I haven't read this in years, but when I recenetly had the chance to download it, I enjoyed it. It was interesting how thoroughly I had forgotten it and how the sexist tropes had gone fwoosh straight over my head when I first read it. I had been interested in picking up some more of Hogan's works as I had vagely fond memories of his books, but I was distressed when reading his wikipedia entry (after hearing of his death, to read that he had been a Holocaust denier. I have too many books waiting to be read to deal with those two issues, I think.
    
13. Divorced, Desperate and Dating by Christie Craig:(M) Another free download. Fluffy romance with a writer as the protagonist (I always enjoy books with writers as characters:)). Her life is being threatened in a way that's been lifted from not only the pages of her published work, but also unpublished. The police detective who is afraid of committment is the one that believes that she is in danger.
    
14. The Goddess of Fried Okra by Jean Brashear: (M) Although I would never have picked this up if it hadn't been a free offer, I really liked this story.The protagonist is trying to deal with the loss of her sister by seeking her reincarnation through the dusty highways of Texas, picking up other strays as she keeps moving, when a car failure makes her stop moving long enough to in teract with others. Charming story.
    

The (M) stands for Mobipocket (the generic form of the file that Kindle Reads) as well as AZW and PRC, the other forms readable by Kindle. Let's leave DT as Dead Tree books. I think it's clear what percentage of my reading is becoming e-format. The vast majority are also free, either as public domain or as promotional offers through Amazon and the other online sources I frequent. B stands for Baen, the best of the on-line stores by so many orders of magnitude there is no comparison.

From many to few.

These are the bags of shredded documents that are the result of finally putting together our '09 taxes: that extension deadline is coming right up (US, that is. Germany is not due on regular filing until the end of the year).
It's amazing how many documents can be shredded into two bags. I took the opportunity to discard as many other documents as possible while I was looing through the pertinent folders.
Another expat assures me that this can go in the paper recycling (after being dumped out of the plastic, of course) but I'm afraid that the neighbors will not appreciate it: it seems that the only recycling that goes in those bins is newspaper.
Do other people need to deal with this stuff? It seems that my in-laws have no paperwork issues at all. As I finish up going through the medical claims alone(which I know that my in-laws don't need to deal with), I have 218 lines in a spreadsheet with back up documentation, about 20% of which is resubmissions because the company in question likes to deem the paperwork "illegible".

One of the benefits of living in a city

We decided that there was no place in the apartment for this rather attractive clothes hamper, but I hate to discard something that still serves its purpose,a lthough no longer my own. So we put a note on it saying that we would discard it on Monday if no one wanted it and put it outside our building under the roof overhang (it's Berlin, it's raining).

It was gone within the hour. Win/win: someone has something to use and I don't need to add to the waste stream (although recycling of metal in Berlin is pretty easy)