Fake wedding cake

Our office secretary Diana got married last week and our team wanted to surprise her at the registry office. So lovely Angie, our new colleague, came up with a creative idea to present our wedding gift: She bought scented toilet paper in three different colours, white, yellow and purple. With purple ribbon she tied the paper rolls together, 7 rolls for the first "cake layer", 5 for the second layer, 3 for the third layer and one roll for the top part. She piled them and placed a purple napkin with a white candle on top, added some transparent beads and little artificial flowers too. Then each of us wrote a mini greeting card. The cards were fixed to the ribbon as well as the banknotes which were folded into little bows/ butterflies. Our wedding "cake" was done!
I loved the creativity and Angie's great idea. And Diana and her husband were really surprised to see the whole gang in the registry office with a purple something. So our surprise worked!

Colourfully lighted bar

Remember the post about the wintergarden cafe? I suggested this cafe to a good friend of mine to meet and chat. Her text message reply was that she found that place too posh and she didn't feel like dressing up. Actually in my opinion it is not nifty and I would have worn my blue jeans anyway.
So she suggested another place. I assumed less fancy. Then when I arrived I thought I had mistaken the place. It was really chic! When you entered the bar there were a couple of tables layed with white tablecloth, waiters in black uniform and a fantastically colourfully lighted bar. I liked to sit just opposite the bar at high tables watching this surreal light. This place also had a nice lounge area but I forgot to take pictures of it. So thanks to my friend I got to know another interesting place very close to our home.

Wintergarden Café

The other weekend Peter and I took a stroll in the town. It was nice and sunny outside and lots of people were having the same idea as we had: Just to sit outside and have a coffee (for me a hot chocolate). So most places were totally crowded and no vacant seats available. We decided to return home and have a quiet coffee on our window sill. But on our way back we passed a place were we could sit and have drink. It was the courtyard of a complex of buildings with a glass ceiling. So it was almost as sitting outside.

 They had olive trees and a huge palm tree, a sort of Mediterranean atmosphere.

 

Very relaxing: Just a few people around and sitting outside and inside at the same time. And of course we had our hot chocolates. Happy, happy :-)

Actually this place is also a bar with sports TV facilities inside the building. There are a couple of offices around and some shops. One of the shops is a kitchen supplier with very fancy stuff. Amazing what you can supply your kitchen with!
Anyhow, our afternoon stroll ended  in (re-)discovering a nice wintergarden type of cafe we will surely visit again.

Chestnut bounty

One of my favourite winter snacks are roasted chestnuts. I usually buy them from a little stall at the Christmas market where they are roasted on a charcoal grill. They come in a brown paper bag and keep your hands nice and warm. But that's still one month to go.
Last week I got a huge bag of chestnuts from my mother collected in the forest. They are much smaller than the one you can buy in the supermarket and smaller than the non-edible type of chestnut.
In the picture below you see the so called horse chestnut (left) and the edible sweet chestnut (right). I like the pointy end with the taft at its tip. It looks like a little pouch or teepee or fig.

To roast them without grill I just used a frying pan. I cut some of them crosswise with a knife. But it was difficult as these chestnuts are so small and the outer skin hard. So most of them went into the pan as they were. On full power heat without anything added, just turned around with a wooden spoon.

When the outer skin, the brown husk breaks open (the ones cut crosswise) the chestnuts are "done". With a sharp knife it is easy to get rid of the husk and the inner skin. Then you get to the sweet tasting creamy white fruit. The texture of the fruit reminds me of a potato, maybe because the chestnut contains a lot of starch. A great snack for the evening!

Minion - WIP

What happened to the minion, my new amigurumi crochet work in progress, I started two weeks ago? I finished the body part, stuffed it and added some hair. In order to keep the black strands of yarn from unravelling I used some glue and trimmed it. Then I started the overall which consists of little pieces of crocheted details. The main part of the overall though is crocheted like the body part, in rounds. Now I have to assemble the overall parts and continue with the arms, shoes and face.
The pattern for this amigurumi can be found on "All about Ami"

Autumn delights

Last week I have been in the Country of Berg (Bergisches Land), in the western part of Germany. I was born here and once in a while I come to visit my aunt. Actually she is not my real aunt but she used to look after me when I was little and I am still very fond of her.
She has a big garden with lots of beautiful flowers, lots of trees, a cat and some chicken and one lonely duck.

I admire her garden. There are still lots of blooming flowers and even tomatoes! Outside! And of course lots and lots of fallen leafs.

And lots of other autumnal delights: There is a huge walnut tree, where a swing is still dangling from one of the big branches. I remember the swing very well. And four big apple trees loaden with apples. So many this year that the branches have to be supported by sticks to prevent them from beeing pulled down by the apple's weight.

I love to wander around to discover little garden creatures. Unfortunately the cat was not willing to have a picture taken. She was observing me very closely but whenever I raised my camera she was turning or running away. Very clever.



We had a lovely afternoon drinking tea and devouring cake (of course with apples :-) and (Christmas)cookies. Christmas cookies are already available in the supermarkets. Unbelievable that in two months already it is Christmas again! In the below picture, top left corner, you may spot a transparent bag with something yellowish. This are dried apples my aunt gave to me. They were dried in a drying machine and have great apple taste, fruity and sweet. A snack I cannot stop eating!
What a relaxing and pleasant trip. Makes me smile thinking of it, love the beautiful and cozy place my aunt has created.



Apple and pears

We have a small apple tree on the office grounds full of golden-red apples. The apples are smaller than the one in the supermarket although with great flavour. I picked some of them to make apple-pear puree (Unfortunatelay I cannot eat them raw due to an allergie. I always have to cook or bake them first.) You simply peel and cut the apples and pears and cook them in a pot with a little bit of water and lemon juice to prevent the apples to get a brownish colour. I also added some peeled and cut pears and some sugar. If you like add 3 -4 cloves and cinnamon. Cook until tender and make a puree using a blender. If you used cloves take them out before using the blender!!! (I usually wrap them into filter paper which makes it easier to get them out).
My favourite dish with apple-pear puree is potato pancake.
For the potato pancake grate potatoes, add some onions and flour and 1 - 2 eggs. Fry in a pan with oil until golden brown and crispy. Eat while still hot with apple-pear puree on top. Delicious!