Two nice places to go in Bavaria

Last night Markus and I were over at our friend Christina and Rainer's house having a wonderful Spargel meal with some new friends Penny and Chris. The kids were there, too...Christina and Rainer have a cute little toddler, Oliver, and Penny and Chris have an adorable toddler, Nathan and a cheeky (meaning he's got wonderful cheeks!) baby, Luca.

We brought our Charlie down since Christina and Rainer also have a Charlie, albeit, a 25 kilo heavier Charlie, and so we had a little Charlie-fest. The dogs loved it. They were running around, playing with sticks, rolling in God knows what, jumping in the river..well, little Charlie was doing this while big Charlie was waiting at the bank for little Charlie to bring the stick over so he could steal it :). All-in-all, the Charlies had a blast! Little Charlie is still recovering from pancakes and loads of play-time yesterday...it's like he's hungover. Pretty funny since this is usually the dog with the most energy!

Ok, so back to my story...when we were on the walk with the dogs, I was telling Christina and Penny about these two wonderful places here in Bavaria. The first is the Fränkische Schweiz, or Franconian Switzerland. No, it's not in Switzerland...it is in Bavaria, I promise. We took our friends Sarah and Cliff hiking there last year. There were a couple of steep parts, but we all lived :). In the area close to where we were hiking, Pottenstein, there is a big Cavern that you can take tours of. I have no idea what it costs since the line is always so long.

Not only in Pottenstein is there plenty to do, but really the whole area. A couple of weeks ago, Markus and I took Charlie on a hike close to there in a town called Goessweinstein. Very dog friendly...plus it was gorgeous! Here's one of my favorite pics from there.

I highly recommend the Fraenkische Schweiz to anyone looking to get out of the city and go on a hike. I don't remember how stroller/buggy friendly the paths are (since I wasn't really paying attention at the time), but I do remember they are dog friendly :).

Next up is the Oberpfaelzer Freilandmuseum in Perschen. This place is SUPER kid friendly (they have special programs twice a month for children) and decently dog friendly...they do have geese and chickens running about, so Charlie went a bit nuts and we had to keep him on a really short leash. Here is their flier in ENGLISH and the website in GERMAN.

This place is pretty amazing. What they did is they disassembeled farmhouses, regular houses, mills, and other historic buildings that couldn't be kept at their location, brought them to this area in Perschen, and re-erected them into little cities. It is really cool, especially to see just how small the rooms were. Poor Markus always had to duck under the door frame...and I even had to too! What was also interesting to see is just how small the beds were. I would have to be in the fetal position just to fit in one...and no, it wasn't a kid's bed!

There is a restaurant on site, which is really good. They serve traditional farmer meals...so expect sausages, not schnizel! They also bake their bread on site with grain that is milled at the mill there. For it being this German dark bread that I normally don't like, it was pretty good. I forgot my camera the day that we went, so unfortunately I don't have any pics of the place, but on the website, there are loads of pics.

I would highly recommend this place for a family outing...even if you don't have kids! It was so interesting! I would recommend getting there kind of early, especially if there is going to be some sort of even on the day you want to visit. It can get pretty crowded. However, I WOULD recommend going on one of the event days becuase it makes the trip just that much more interesting! Oh, and if you have guests coming that aren't from around here, it is a really interesting place for them. Markus took my dad, brother, uncle and grandmother's boyfriend (yes, the boyfriend of my 83 year-old grandmother!). They had a blast. My dad, and suprisingly my brother, REALLY enjoyed it!

See...you don't need guns! Just potatoes!

This has got to be my favorite headline of the past few days... "Lady Sends Burglar Packing with Potato Bombardment".

Here's the full story: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090415-18655.html

It stopped the burglar! I need to stock up on potatoes!

"Jesus Shaves"

Gotta love David Sedaris! I can't give a description that would do this justice, so you just have to listen to it...all the way to the end. The last sentence is priceless!

At least...

...someone in NYC is calling for action to be taken against Betty Brown for her racist remarks! I'm still in shock that she actually made these remarks! Like Sarah said, they too are Americans!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6367390.html

I hope she does the right thing and apologize for her ignorant remarks!

Seriously? Are you kidding me?

I just read an article that seriously made my jaw drop. A Texas State Representative, Betty Brown (R) proposed legislation that would make Asian Americans CHANGE their name so that it would be easier for Americans to pronounce! Are you kidding me? What decade are we in? Hell, what century are we in? Seriously, I can handle Asian names. I may mess it up a couple of times, but I'll get it! Besides that, a lot of the time, they are either one or two syllables long. How can that be so hard?

Here's the full article: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/brown-asian-names/

I still can't believe that someone actually proposed this! I told Markus and he said that 100 or 200 years ago, Germans had to do that...yeah, that was 100 or 200 years ago when they went to the states, not in 2009!

It's a....

GIRL!!!

Yeah! Markus and I found out yesterday that we are going to be having a little girl. And let me tell you, there is no room for doubt that it is a little girl! As soon as the doctor put the ultrasound thingee on my stomach, she flashed us the goods. It was REALLY clear!

So, now I'm off to Regensburg for the English speakers' Brunch and Books...or is it Books and Brunch? Whichever. All I know is afterward I'm off to buy a cute little girl outfit! Yay!!!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie...finished

I just took it out of the oven and oh my goodness...does it look (and smell) amazing! I can't wait for this 15 minute wait time to be over. On a side note: As I said, it runs over, and boy did it. I tried some of the run over, and man, it is so freaking good.

So, without further ado, the finished pie...yum...


And a picture of the runoff...just so you know I'm not lying :)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie...continuted

Alrighty, so the pie is in the oven. I shall continue where we left off...First though, preheat your oven to 425 F or for us on the metric system, 220-ish C.

Take the crust out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface. With the recipe that I gave in the last post, it makes 2-nine inch pie crusts...or in my case, a top and a bottom crust (with some left over).

You've got the pie crust all rolled out, so place it nicely in the pan...What I do is I fold it in half then place the fold in roughly the middle of the pan and then fold it out. I just find it easier, but be careful, because the crust has a tendency to tear...I just put a bit of crust over the tear, especially since it's the bottom layer, and no one will see it. :)

I cut off the excess crust, you know, the stuff hanging over the sides...but that's just me, you can do your crust how you please.
Spoon the filling into the crust. At this point, you can do one of two things. You can either roll out the top crust and place it over, making a few slits for steam to escape, or you can make a lattice top. I'm quite partial to the lattice top myself, so that is what I do. It's a bit more work, but I've got time on my hands :).


After you cover the pie with whatever crust topping method you choose, brush an egg wash over it. It makes the crust pretty. What I also do is sprinkle some sugar on top since I always liked having that extra crunchy sugary goodness.


So, now you're ready to go. Be sure that you have a cookie tray in the oven because this sucker like to run over sometimes.

Put your pie in the preheated 425 F (220-ish C) oven. You'll want to bake it at this heat for 15 minutes, then turn it down to 375 F (190-ish C) and bake for another 50-60 minutes. Seriously, it takes this long! If the crust starts to burn, just cover those parts with foil.

Let it stand for about 15 - 20 minutes before devouring it! Trust me...you'll burn your tongue if you don't. Enjoy it with whipped cream or ice cream or both. Personally, I like it plain. It is just so good.

Spring is in the air!

WOOHOO!! Finally! Spring is here! We had a lovely weekend of being in the sun! Charlie enjoyed it too, meaning he jumped into every body of water, no matter the size. He was one happy pup!

Another way to tell that Spring is here, strawberries are on sale! Yes! And, what's more, the store had some very good looking rhubarb too. You know what that means! Yup, the first strawberry rhubarb pie of the season is currently being made in my kitchen. I know, I should be in there right now, but I have to let things sit a bit before I can put the pieces together. Basically, that means, I have to let the crust cool enough before I can roll it out. This will be a two part, maybe even a three part post, simply because I'm so excited about this pie! It is my absolute favorite pie! Oh, and it is Markus' favorite too :).

For the crust:

(notice the Jif dad!)

Since I can't just run out to the store and buy a ready made pie crust, I must make them myself. However, luckily, I have the pie crust making gene. My mother always told me that it takes a certain gene to be able to make a pie crust. Either you can make one, or you can't. Trust me, I can. Before I got my lovely food processor, I sat here cutting the damn butter into the flour, then the shortening into the butter...such a hassle, but it always came out lovely. Now that I have the food processor, it cuts the time tremendously.

I use a recipe out of Joy of Cooking, "Delux Butter Flaky Crust" or something like that. It's pretty easy.

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of sugar

into that cut 1/2 pound (2 sticks) of butter until it has pea size looking things. Very exact, I know :).

Then cut in 1/4 cup shortening.

Lastly, mix in 1/3 cup plus a couple of teaspoons of ice-cold water until smooth-ish. IT MUST BE REALLY COLD WATER! However, on a side note, I don't usually use all the water. I just eyeball it.

Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour or so.



Obviously, this isn't the exact recipe from Joy of Cooking, but I've made it so many times, that this is what I use and these are my directions :).

Now, on to the filling....my favorite.


This is everything you'll need:
3 cups of rhubarb
3 cups of strawberries
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tbs vanilla bean paste (optional, but it makes it REALLY good)
1 tea cinnamon


So cut up the strawberries and rhubarb (I also like to peel my rhubarb, but I don't think you have to. Oh, and NEVER eat the leaves or the roots of rhubarb as they are poisonous. There, that's my public service announcement.). Put them in a large bowl and then add everything else for the filling and mix it all together.


Alrighty, so now I must get back into the kitchen since I believe my crust is ready to be rolled out. I'll get the rest of the recipe to you in the next post...ha...what a cliffhanger!