Fall Baking Fun - Streussel Fruit Sheet Cake

Fall is upon us, and with it tons of local fruit is ready to be harvested and turned into yummie baked goods.  A couple of weeks ago, I found locally-grown plums in the store and picked them up, along with a cube of fresh yeast to make a delicious streussel sheet cake.  Since Lizzi (aka the Considerer) asked for the recipe, here it comes!

Ingredients:
Tons of fresh fruit (plums, apples, berries, cherries, mix and match, or stay with one type of fruit), if necessary cut in halves, slices, etc.

Dough:
1 lb. flour
1/3 Red Star® cake yeast
3 oz. sugar
3 oz. butter
a pinch of salt
1 egg
1/4 - !/2 cup of milk (luke warm)

Streussel (optional):
3 oz. flour
2 oz. butter
1 oz. sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

Mix about 1 tablespoon of sugar with half of the milk. Crumble the yeast into the milk and dissolve. Let sit in a warm place for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile mix sugar, salt and flour in a large bowl and make a dent in the middle. Cut butter on the edges. Pour the yeast-milk mixture in the middle and add the egg. Mix and knead the dough, add more milk if necessary. Let the dough rise at a warm place until doubled. Knead dough again on a floured surface and roll to the size of a baking sheet with a rolling pin.

Spread fruit on top.

If desired top with streussel.

Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Of Concerts And Fan Girls

It's Friday, weekend, finally! Somehow,. the second half of the week dragged along, still covering for two of my co-workers at work. But come Monday, at least one of them will be back, and I hope she doesn't sign off right back into vacation once she sees her email inbox.

But back to today, Friday, which means I get to Finish a really fun Sentence Janine and her friends came uo with:

I went to a concert once...

... with a friend. It was spontaneous, and unplanned, and crazy (for someone like me), and somehow an event I remember with a grin on my face.

I think my friend came up to me in between classes one day, asking me how about to go and see this lad in concert that night. In Karlsruhe, a town about 150 miles from where we lived, which, for Germans, is half a world away.



We jumped in my car right after class and were pretty lucky that we didn't hit any major traffic. We actually found the concert hall, without a navigation system or anything, which was quite an achievement for two chaos-girls like us, and we managed to be there in time for the concert. It was awesome, and the minute he entered the stage I forgot my pledge not to be a screaming fan girl and screamed my poor lungs out.

We arrived back home late that night - or early the next, to be exact, not talking much on our way back for a lack of voice, but having huge grins on until our faces hurt.

We were friggin tired during class the next day, but it was definitely worth it for both the experience and the memories over a decade later.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (38)

I received a completely unexpected phone call today. I'm not ready yet to share any details yet, but hopefully soon. Besides that, this first half of my weekend was pretty uneventful, as planned after this week. I got to sleep plenty, and this annoying pony tail is finally off. Not quite as short as I had planned, but definitely better than before.

Ten more things to be thankful this week:

1. An unexpected and spontaneous couch date with the hubby on Thursday. As usual, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I saw hubby watching me instead of Myth Busters, mentioning that he had already seen that episode, but it was always funny again to watch me fight sleep and losing.

2. Doing well answering to Lily's question: "Mami, there is no hole in the belly, how does the baby come out??"  At least, she's not freaked out about my response..

3. Carneval being over. I hate this so-called 5th season, and coem Ash Wednesday every year, I feel relieved that it's going to be almost another year until I'm tortured with horrible music and loads of drunk people again.

4. Hearing the hubby giggle from our bedroom. Tonight is game night for him, and two more of our friends in the U.S. have joined in. I'm so glad he still can play with this group of wonderful people, and that we do have the technological means nowadays.

5. Surviving the office move, and having a hubby and daughters considerate enough to let me collapse on the couch and nap for an hour right after getting home from work.

6. A lovely colleague who acts as my external hard-drive at the moment and calls me after I had completely forgotten an important appointment with HR and went shopping during my lunchbreak.

7. Another great colleague saving me from moving chaos and convincing me that an early lunch break in town is absolutely necessary.

8. Great cuddles with both Lily and Violet this evening. I had one little girl in each arm, while watching The Simpsons with them and letting them rubbing my tummy.

9. The beautiful weather during the last few days. The girls got to play at the playground in Erlangen today, after everyone got a hair cut and Lily's glasses were fixed.  Can't believe it's only early March and already so beautiful outside! On Friday, I even saw the first bushes starting to blossom. Hoping for an easter egg hunt outside this year!!

10. Lily being able to communicate her feelings better these days. She's been dealing with quite some mood-swings in the past weeks, and instead of letting us know what was going on she withdrew and moped quietly, which was stressful for her and us. This morning, when she was in one of her moods again, she walked up to me, saying that she was not feeling well and would rather be left alone and sleep a little more. And off she went, just to emerge as her usual happy self an hour later.



Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

The Best Medicine

We had an appointment at the building site today, figuring out how (and if) we'd get out water connected (seems to be not too much longer, keep your fingers crossed for us!!). I was not looking forward to this appointment. Actually, I was quite dreading it (yes, it has come down to that...), I'd rather have stayed at work without a break and with overtime. Thus was my mood when I got out and hubby picked me up. The girls were excited (which lifted the mood), Lily told me all about doing her duties hunting for electricity eaters (lamps that have been left on if no-one's in the room, appliances that are running for no reason, kindergarten is teaching her well!  ), and Violet complained about the usual kid at her class acting out (yes, yes, we all know Jacob!).

Hubby ended his report of the day so far mentioning that he had this one Weeble song stuck in his head:



Yes, I know, hubby sometimes listens to weird stuff, so I suggested that this was still better than having "Dancing Queen" stuck in your head!



He looked at me. "Thank YOU!!"  Oh my goodness did we laugh at the situation. It was absurd, not even really funny, but we both cracked up so badly over it. And the girls chimed in, not even sure why we laughed, but it HAD to be something funny, so just participate. It lifted my spirits beyond anything I can say. Laughing is indeed the best medicine ever. My day was saved, and hubby has "Dancing Queen" stuck in his head now. Mission accomplished  :-)

Holiday Recap

I know, I'm late. And I have to admit, I haven't even made a camera dump yet, so sorry, pictures still to come. But after all, I guess it's time to recap this wonderful last week (and yes, I totally took a complete computer break over the holidays).

Tuesday, 24th
We slept in, had a quiet breakfast, and an overall quiet day. In the afternoon, our neighbors came over and we had the first gift-giving. The girls loved their games and we played until dinner time. After dinner, the girls noticed that when Santa picked up their wish lists on Sunday, he had left something in their stockings that were hanging near the window: My Little Pony activity / sticker books!! They were happily playing until it was time for a bath and bed-time. Afterward, Richard and I exchanged our first gifts. I got a book of short stories collected by Neil Gaiman, one of our favorite authors, and Richard the new bassoon neck strap he asked for. Afterward we piled up the gifts under the tree and spent the evening watching the Nutcracker and going to bed early.

Wednesday, 25th
The rule was mandatory cuddling until the first light, and as soon there was just the tiniest hint of dawn (about 7ish) we got up. I couldn't get the camera out fast enough as the girls were already tearing through their boxes, gift wrapping was flying through the air, and there was lots of gasps and cheering. After the girls had opened all their gifts, Richard and I opened ours. He was truly surprised by the guitar I got him to play with Lily, who had also gotten her very own Lily-sized guitar. I got another Neil Gaiman book (seriously working on re-building our library!!) and a beautiful pair of diamond earrings; I obviously was a nice girl! After breakfast, Lily and I spent 3 hours setting up her Lego Friends pony ranch while hubby set up the Disney Princess castle for Violet and patiently helped her dress and re-dress her princesses. We watched Animaniacs, made bracelets, ate cookies, and had a great vegetarian risotto for dinner. After the girls had gone to bed that night, hubby and I spent some quality time together reading and had an early bed-time ourselves.

Thursday, 26th
My parents came for a visit and I made a traditional German holiday dinner of roast goose, bread and potato dumplings, pickled red cabbage and gravies. It was delicious. The girls got jammies and our parents announced that they had transferred some money to our account to buy bedroom sets for the girls and probably pay for our patio or some other project on the house. We were overwhelmed. Later, after we were stuffed from dinner we took a walk to the house to show my parents the latest progress. After the walk we enjoyed coffee, fruit punch, and holiday cookies. We really had a great day together! At night, the girls had their bath and went to bed while Richard and I enjoyed a movie and reading time.


We really had wonderful holidays with lots of quiet family time, good food, happy children, and lots of sleep.  Pictures will follow, soon, I promise!!

Weekend In Review - More Things Of Thankful

Sunday night, the weekend is almost over, and what a fun weekend it was. The weather left to be desired, but that did not spoil our fun. In the past two days, there were so much more things to be thankful of:

- understanding smiles or some kind words instead of annoyed stares when the girls decide it's time for a tantrum in public.

-  a house warmed by the oven.

- raising bread and hot chocolate for breakfast.

- getting to sleep in until I can't possibly sleep any longer.

- watching a fairy tale movie with Lily.

- watching the girls playing all afternoon at the indoor playground.

- quality time with the hubby while the girls are having fun.

- pumpkin lasagna for dinner.

- sharing a good-night story with Lily.

- watching two exhausted girls sleeping peacefully after an exciting day.

- being surrounded by love, always.


I hope you all have a great new week!

Paper Clip Fun

Do you like experiments? We did a fun one at work today with a totally work-relevant experiment. All you need is one of those magnetic paper clip dispensers you probably find in most offices (or a very small cup), water, and some metal paper clips.

paper clip dispenser (Source)

Empty the dispenser and fill with as much water until it almost overflows. Then slowly start to drop in the metal paper clips.

How many do you think you can fit?  (Solution tomorrow)

Have fun wit the experiment!