Sad news

I learned about Dutch author Harry Mulisch’s death today from this article posted on the Onze Taal feed. It states that Mulisch had been the last living of “De Grote Drie” (the big three in Dutch literature), and that made me feel pretty sad. I had never heard this term used before. I’ve read Gerard Reve’s De Avonden, but I have yet to read something by the third author, Willem Frederik Hermans. I really enjoyed Mulisch’s De Aanslag (The Assault) and can highly recommend the movie version of it. A friend lent me a German translation of Mulisch’s magnum opus De Ontdekking van de Hemel (The Discovery of Heaven), but I could never get into it before. Maybe now is the time to try again.

Otherwise, I’ve been spending the weekend reading this book:

This isn’t one of my real textbooks, but rather a book to help me catch up on all the things that weren’t taught in high school chemistry. Luckily, catching up on the basics hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. Now they can bring on the hard stuff!

Märkische Kiste

Every Friday morning, a box of fresh, regional produce is delivered right to our door. This amazing CSA service is called the Märkische Kiste, and I can highly recommend it to anyone living in the area. You can subscribe to a weekly box, but also supplement it with extra orders, which I plan to do in the future for things like apples and onions. This week, we received carrots, lettuce, fennel, cauliflower, pears, and quinces. I’ve already picked out all the recipes I want to make based on the produce we received, so I’m eager to hit the town on this gorgeous fall day to buy all of the additional ingredients I’ll need. As part of my new time management plan, I only go shopping once a week, and that is on Saturday since everything here is closed on Sunday. This means that the pantry can be pretty empty come the end of the week, but I am so happy with the time I save as a result. I’ll share any recipes that turn out especially well. What do you plan to cook this weekend?

New semester

The new semester began on Monday! Starting at 8 a.m. every day, I have courses in math, physics and chemistry to fill the morning hours. Every afternoon starting next week will be spent “cooking” in the laboratory. I was reading some of the documents about lab safety and came across these delightful images:

Picture found here.

These are not just cute drawings; the chemicals marked with these symbols are very dangerous. It will be a big responsibility to handle and dispose of them properly. Luckily, my university takes safety very seriously, and we will be learning all about laboratory protocol in the coming weeks.

I’ve been thinking about my blog and have decided that I would like to post more frequently, but keep the posts focused on one topic. What do you think?

Reunited

The most important update is that Ken is finally back! He arrived late on Friday night, and I still can’t over it. I picked him up at the airport and we had a midnight meal of Sri Lankan beef curry dinner that I had made earlier that evening.

This has been such a wonderful weekend. On Saturday, we were forced to get up for the dentist, but it was a great way to get an early start to such a beautiful day. We took advantage of it by visiting the market, making sure to stop for a snack at Raclette Jan’s stand. Later, we prepared dinner and had our neighbors over. They have two adorable sons, Phillip (almost 4) and Felix (1 and a half). I had a great time making tandoori chicken since it calls for so many spices.

My spice collection (on the left) is probably one of my greatest indulgences and evokes intense envy from every visitor. On the right, you can see why I love the tandoori chicken recipe so much. The dinner was a lot of fun, and the food tasted great. We drank wine and talked until around 1 a.m.

Today’s weather was even more splendid than Saturday’s if that is even possible, and I have photos to prove it. They were taken at the Botanical Garden, which is a part of my university and apparently one of the world’s most important gardens. It is one of my favorite places to visit in Berlin when the weather is so incredible. Here are a few highlights:

Also, I can’t neglect to mention that my friends’ second daughter, Corinna, was born very early on Saturday morning, and I just can’t wait until we have the chance to visit them on Wednesday evening! Hope all of you had a wonderful weekend as well.

P.S. Check out the blog’s new header – it’s one of Ken’s spectacular panorama shots from Corsica.

Sunday cooking

I spent a lot of the day in the kitchen yesterday. I think future Sundays will be spent in a similar way: making lots of food in preparation for the week ahead. I had a friend over for dinner yesterday, but I probably would have made the same amount of food even if he hadn’t come. I was sure grateful for all of those wonderful leftovers today!

I made a very nice banana bread recipe I found here. For dessert, I paired it with Plums in Red Wine, which is a favorite recipe of my parents, and ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds (1 kilo) plums
• 2 cups red wine
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cloves

Directions:

1. Cut plums in half or quarters into saucepan.
2. Add rest of the ingredients and cook until plums are cooked.
3. Let cool.  Can be eaten warm or refrigerate and put on top of yogurt or ice cream.

It’s that simple (and so delicious)!

I also made this quinoa salad, which is kind of like a variation on the tabbouleh I posted about the other day.

Ingredients:

• l cup quinoa
• 4 tsp. olive oil
• l can chick peas, drained and rinsed
• l chopped medium tomato
• 3 Tbsp. fresh lime or lemon juice
• cilantro
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• l clove garlic minced

Directions:

1. Place quinoa and 2 cups water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until all water is absorbed (10-15 minutes).
3. Add other ingredients and stir.

Also incredibly simple!

I served oven roasted potatoes with rosemary and this fabulous pepper stuffed with feta recipe from Saveur. Definitely check out their latest issue: it featured amazing Greek food! My dad made the most incredible stuffed eggplants using another one of the featured recipes. It’s amazing how many great recipes you can find online these days. Some of my favorite websites for this purpose besides Saveur are Epicurious, Foodgawker, and Cooking Light.

Despite all of the great food at home, I couldn’t resist grabbing a slice at a pizza when I was out and about. I want to put in a good word for Pizza Zia Maria. They put together my slice fresh to order, using great ingredients, including buffalo mozzarella. I’ll definitely be back! Another place that I love for a slice on the go is Pizza a Pezzi.

A quick word about textbooks: I love the German system. I searched the library database today and was able to find every single book I wanted. Professors publish a list of books that they recommend, but you are in no way obligated to buy any one of them. Older edition? No problem, they don’t assign problems from the book anyway. I was able to find the best resources known to print in the city library, and I was also allowed to check them out! I’ve had my math textbook for two months now, and I just keep renewing it.

Ken sent me some great pictures of Corsica today, so I’ll have to post those in one of the next posts. I’m waiting to write about Paris until he’s back because he has some great pictures on his camera.

Fall flora

Today I received a wonderful surprise in the mail: a beautiful bouquet of flowers! Thank you so much, Christine! Christine is Ken’s cousin’s wife, whom I helped out with a translation for her doctoral thesis. What a delightful way to say thank you.

Our balcony is undergoing a makeover. The herb garden has migrated to the kitchen sill, and in its place are some new flowers that will be able to weather the colder temperatures. Amazingly, I discovered a few treasures on our strawberry plant when I was out there. They are the tiny fraise des boises kind, and boy are they flavorful! We bought the plant on a whim, and it’s been so much fun to watch the berries grow and ripen. It makes me long for a real garden some day.

(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

I had a busy day shopping. My first stop was the Boxhagener Market, which is one of my favorites along with the Winterfeld Market. I loaded up on wonderful produce, such as some of the last great tomatoes of 2010, stunning peppers, and a Hokkaido pumpkin. I bought a few things at IKEA, including some additional containers for my ample spice collection and glass containers to hold things like flour and sugar – I’m sick of white powder escaping from the corners of the paper packages. I also paid my first visit to Kaufland. It certainly fulfilled its reputation for great products at incredible prices. My refined shopping routine during the semester will definitely include weekly trips to the Boxhagener Market and Kaufland. I’ll try to buy everything I need for the week on Saturdays because I don’t think I’ll have time on school days.

Now it’s evening, and I’m relaxing in the finished kitchen with a cup of tea. I finally caved in and turned on the heat for the first time this year. Hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful, cozy weekend!

Tabbouleh

When I cook, I tend to gravitate to dishes that use particular ingredients: lemon and lime; herbs such as cilantro, parsley, thyme, basil, and rosemary; avocado; heirloom tomatoes; cheeses like feta and parmesan (can you tell I love Mediterranean cuisine?). Most of all, I like to cook fresh and light (vegetarian) food that is simple to prepare.

One of my favorite recipes is my mother’s version of tabbouleh. I am writing about it instead of Paris because we both made it by coincidence for dinner this evening! I love it when she makes this recipe because she leaves out all the onions and makes up for the loss in flavor with lots of lemon and lime and by adding mint in addition to the parsley.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup bulgur
• 1 pint tomatoes
• 1 bundle of flat-leafed parsley
• mint to taste
• olive oil
• 1-2 lemons and/or limes
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

1. Boil 2 cups water.
2. Add 1 cup of bulgur to a large bowl. Pour boiling water over bulgur and let stand for an hour (this will cook the grain and all the water will be absorbed).
3. Add diced tomatoes, parsley, and mint to bulgur.
4. Pour enough olive oil into the bowl to coat the bulgur and vegetables.
5. Add the juice of 1-2 lemons or limes (today I used 1 lime and half a lemon).
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Enjoy!