Hot cross buns, hot cross buns...

 Easter is right around the corner, and I've been craving some hot cross buns. All week I've been looking forward to baking today. My mom used to get them every year for Good Friday. I remember as a kid licking the icing off and not always wanting to finish the bread. :) I've been seeing some kind of "Osterbrot" [Easter bread] for sale in the German bakeries, a white bread with bits of fruit inside. It seems like a similar dough, but not the right shape, and no icing! I did a little internet research on German Easter breads, and it seems like light, fluffy yeast doughs are the thing for Easter, preferably formed into lambs, bunnies, or braided into wreaths. Yum! Aparently also baking "Easter lambs" is a thing...you can buy a special baking form for it. There are over 122,000 hits for this recipe for the form. Funny, and freaky (see photo below).

The photo left is my first success at homemade hot-cross buns!  (Admittedly: the first batch was rock-hard and had to be thrown out...so it's my second try and they are soooo good...light and fluffy and with the perfect spices! mmm!)

Good Friday (Karfreitag) is an official national holiday in Germany...so the libraries, archives, stores, grocery stores, post office, bank...everything is closed. When I went to the grocery store yesterday the egg department was looking pretty sad and empty. :) Everyone getting their Easter eggs!

http://www.lecker.de/bildergalerie/2286592/Hefegebaeck-zu-Ostern-suesse-Kraenze-Zoepfe-und-Hasen.html

Rosenmontag - Karneval

Today is "Rosenmontag" in Germany, the day of the big Karneval parades. The biggest and most famous are in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz, mostly in the Rhineland and also in the southwest. Not so much in Berlin. (Below is a map where they have parades, and what they are called - Fasching, Karneval, Fastnacht, usw.) I went in 2007, to Mainz, (post here) but that experience was enough for me. Germans are usually divided along a North/South divide about how they feel about Karneval. Some love it, the others can't understand it. (It's maybe comparable to how adults feel about Halloween. Some love the chance to go out, dress in costume and go crazy, others not so much.)  My favorite part about German Karneval: the political satire.

Facebook spinning its web around its victim, plus: did I ever mention German opinion of Obama?!

I just read an article about one of the artists who design the papier-maché floats. They are often very political and topical, and super-current (I'm sure people were working very hard in the last few days since the President resigned to make floats about this! See the Wulff floats below). I love this tradition, and I think it marks a big difference to our political culture. (But maybe I'm wrong? We have an awesome tradition of political satire, with The Daily Show etc, but it's not as mainstream.) The Karneval floats are crazy and vulgar, but in the context of Karneval it's all in good fun.  This one guy, Jacques Tilly, is famous for his floats. They are really critical, and he has been attacked by various politicians for his work. Notice how a big theme is always the US/Germany relation.

Merkel + Sarkozy = Markozy

2012, Merkel and the FDP, and leading the train with the European economy

2003, Merkel and Uncle Sam
 

http://www.zeit.de/2012/08/Deutschlandkarte-Rosenmontag

German New Years Traditions

 As Jessica noted the other day, as we were wandering around Karstadt, Germans seem to place a lot more emphasis on luck for New Year's than we do in the states. (photo left) Everywhere you can buy little trinkets with symbols of luck: a pig, a mushroom, a chimney-sweep, or a four-leaf clover. Yes, those things are all lucky. You can call someone a Glückspilz or a Glücksschwein, a "lucky mushroom" or a "lucky pig," like in English, "you lucky dog" or "lucky duck."

Some other New Year's traditions include Bleigießen, or "lead pouring" and watching the show "Dinner for One" on TV, fireworks, and eating Berliner donuts (called "Pfannkuchen" here in Berlin).  Bleigießen is apparently like reading tea leaves, except you pour melted lead into cold water. Then read the shape for its future prediction. The show Dinner for One is apparently the most-played segment on TV. They have it every year. It's 11 minutes long, and you can watch the clip below. Germans think it's hilarious.  More on the show Dinner for One from an article on Slate.com.They think it's partially so funny because you get drunk every year and watch it.

from our kitchen to yours...

...Happy St. Lucia Day!

I wish we could send the scents of freshly baked Lussekatter your way...cardamom and warm yeast bread...nothing better! Our family used to celebrate our Swedish heritage this day with our mormor and morfar, bringing them rolls and coffee, and pepparkakor early in the morning, before the sun rose. It's the darkest day of the winter in the old Swedish calendar. And it's pretty dark and rainy in Berlin these days...



Mormor and mom, this is for you!  Lots of love!

Weihnachtsbäckerei

Okay, I will admit I was a bit disappointed about the Christmas baking class. I had very high expectations. Also, I realized earlier today that the instructor is the same Bäckermeister who I took a few baking classes with two summers ago. So I was really excited. But when we got there, he had a pile of ingredients, and a bunch of recipes out on the table, and was basically like, "Have at it. Pick a recipe and make it." Which we could do at home, in our own kitchen. While drinking wine, and reading a book while the cookies bake. So, not so cool. 

Zimtsterne, not ours.

This one woman, obviously upset, said first quietly, then louder, "Wait, we aren't making Stollen? Because I could bake Christmas cookies at home..." (Reading our minds...) So the baker decided to change plans and add Stollen to the list. This woman ran to the supermarket across the street to get some yeast. Elisabeth and I were also excited to make Lebkuchen, but I guess the dough needs to refrigerate overnight, so that wasn't an option either. Sad. So I chose Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) from the recipes on the table, another German classic, picture to the left (how they are supposed to look).


Turns out Zimtsterne are really hard. First we beat 5 egg whites and added 450 g powdered sugar (a lot). It makes a cement-like paste, then we added 500 g ground almonds, 2 T spices, and 2 T kirsch. It makes a sticky mess, which you refrigerate until you can roll it out. It was ooey and gooey and some of the nicer, humorous people were laughing at our ugly cookies. But they were mostly sympathetic, saying that they had tried them before at home and they're really difficult. And afterwards, they said they were the best tasting, even though they weren't the prettiest. Elisabeth learned to say hässlich aber lecker, ugly but delicious.

In Elisabeth's words, the baking class was like a cookie exchange except you have to wait for all the other (11 total) people to bake their cookies in two ovens, instead of just gathering at a party and trading. But, if you had a cookie exchange with your friends, would you get to spend four hours with older German ladies named Helga, Irmtraud and Dagmar? Or watch a master baker rolling out Marzipan? 

Eisenbahnschienen, from lecker.de

Best moment of the night: one woman comes over to Elisabeth and says a mouthful of something Elisabeth doesn't understand. Elisabeth says, "Sorry, ich kann kein Deutsch."  And the woman looks at her and gestures as if pressing down on a hand mixer and says "BZZZZZZZ!" Elisabeth pointed her towards the cupboard containing the mixers. haha! Communication success!


And we did come home with quite a few cookies, a bit of Stollen, gingerbread cake, and some brownie-like thing (pictured above). Elisabeth's favorite was Eisenbahnschienen (railroad tracks), a sugar cookie with marzipan and jam cut like railroad ties. I liked the Bobbes, a sugar cookie with marzipan and apricot jam inside, with a pressed almond on top. The white cookies with powdered sugar are called Schneeflöckchen, snow flakes, and then you have our little Zimtsterne. 


So we will have to make Lebkuchen at home. 

Some more pictures of classic German cookies, from lecker.de, which has really pretty cookies!

making Christmas...

I may have already mentioned that my sister has more Christmas spirit than Santa's elves...She got busy today "making Christmas" in the apartment. We strung Christmas lights, bought pine boughs, made cranberry ginger scones...perfect for a rainy Berlin day. And for dinner we made a big pot of borscht. Enough to feed a peasant village. Today was both a recovery from yesterday, and a warm-up for tomorrow's Christmas intensity: a four-hour baking class with Stollen, Lebkuchen, and Plätzchen on the program. Yes!

der erste Glühwein...und vieles mehr!

The last few days we have spent mostly in our neighborhood, Kreuzberg, so today I wanted to take Elisabeth into Mitte to see some of the sights. And hit up a few Christmas markets along the way. It's fun to have visitors because you get to do the touristy things you never do when you live in a place.  :)

First we went to Alexanderplatz, the main hub of East Berlin. We saw the Fernsehturm (the TV tower: you can't miss it...), the Rotes Rathaus (city hall), Weltzeituhr (world-time-clock). Then we walked through the Christmas market on Alex. Berlin has quite a few markets, and although they are all a bit carnivalesque, they are varying degrees of full-on fair. This one had an ice rink and a ferris wheel, and some kind of little train ride for children. They sell Wurst, crepes, sugared almonds, Belgian waffles, roasted chesnuts...and you can buy mulled wine, cider, eggnog...Also Christmas decorations, warm hats/socks/scarves.

From here we walked down past Marx and Engels (below left), past the Berliner Dom (below center), to the Nostalgischer Weihnachtsmarkt on Unter den Linden, Opernpalais.

Here we had our first Glühwein of the season! A little sweet, but warm and cozy. (Helped that they had heat lamps...) Elisabeth is so much fun to hang out with during the Christmas season, because she loves it. Decorations? Tree? Stars? She eats that up. Loves it. Can't get enough. Not even the cold gets to her--she loves this season. :)

From there we walked down to Gendarmenmarkt, which has a super classy Weihnachtsmarkt, that even charges admission. We are saving that one for another day. We just peeked inside and saw the pretty tree. From there we walked down Friedrichsstrasse to Unter den Linden, to Brandenburger Tor.

So here is proof we are in Berlin:

Then we walked by Potsdamer Platz, took the train to Wittenbergplatz, walked past the KaDeWe down to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, through yet another Christmas market...where we had Wurst for dinner: a Berliner Currywurst, and a Knacker with Grünkohl. The night ended with us trying to see Swan Lake but it was sold out. But maybe that's for the best...

And now we're tired.
And really, it's only Day 3. It's like the 12 days of Christmas, except it's before Christmas, and it started with our birthday, and it's 17 days long. So it's actually better. But sorry dad, no partridges.

einen schönen Nikolaustag!

Today we  opened the Adventskalender and got a little marzipan Nikolaus man! By the way, this is the best Advent calendar in the world. Marzipan every day from Niederegger Marzipan in Lübeck. lecker...


Below: adorable German children dancing/singing to the classic Rolf Zuckowski "Guten Tag ich bin der Nikolaus" (maybe the German equivalent of Raffi...)

Guten Tag, ich bin der Nikolaus. (Guten Tag, guten Tag.)
Mit dem Sack geh ich von Haus zu Haus. (Guten Tag, guten Tag.)
Es gibt viel zu tun, es gibt viel zu tun,
ich hab keine Zeit, mich auszuruhn.
Guten Tag, ich bin der Nikolaus. (Guten Tag, guten Tag.)


my sister with her little Nikolausmann (although I'll admit I had to go to four bakeries to find him...so maybe not such a traditional thing as in Switzerland!). I didn't tape the dancing, but I can ensure you Elisabeth danced around just like those little boys... :)

(below) German Wurst shop: "Our gift idea for Nikolaus: Salami in a Christmas coat/casing"

it's starting to look a lot like Christmas...

In Germany the Advent/Christmas stuff has been coming out into the stores for weeks now. The cute bakery I walk by every day put out its decorative Christmas window display last Sunday night. The grocery stores are putting out their Adventskalender and chocolate Weihnachtsmänner (santas) and the florists are selling wreaths and advent wreaths. Because they don't have Thanksgiving, the Christmas stuff comes earlier. Or, at least, that's my theory. When did it start in the US? Before Thanksgiving? Or just now that Thanksgiving is over?

I like how Germans celebrate all of December, the whole advent season. Everything just gets beautiful.This picture is taken on Ku'damm, the shopping mile in former West Berlin. They already have Christmas markets up. Berlin has tons of Christmas markets. So excited!!

This past week I had my first Stollen of the year, and gebrannte Mandeln. No Glühwein yet. I feel like it needs to be at least December for that...

Apologies for sporadic posting. We've been really busy lately, and taking off to Switzerland on Tuesday, and then my Zwillingsschwester arrives! Lots to do!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cranberries: "Die Power-Beeren aus den USA"

How you can tell a holiday is truly special...
...it hasn't been commercially exported from the US to everywhere. (Halloween, Valentine's Day...NO. Thanksgiving...YES. Truly special.)

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! I was sorry I couldn't be with my family, but we had a wonderful time with new friends here in Berlin. Who all cook amazing food. It was a tasty, tasty feast. There were 4 Americans and 4 non-Americans in attendance, so explained things like "Oh, Americans don't eat big meals in courses...they have firsts/seconds/thirds of everything." and "Yes, they watch football on the holiday. You all eat, and then you lay around groaning and watch TV. It's a family day!" And "...and then people go out shopping. Some of them. And stand in line at 5:00 am to get a deal..." Oh, our country. :)

I like how inclusive Thanksgiving is. It's not like you can't believe in it. Who doesn't believe in being thankful? Although it may have dubious origins in whatever kind of origins myth with pilgrims and natives...it's a pretty good thing as a thankfulness-feast. In Germany, where patriotism is problematic, and there are no legit stories of national origins, all of their national holidays are religious (specifically Christian)...except New Years. It's nice that the US has these holidays that also support the national narrative of inclusivity and togetherness, and "melting pot" or "stew" or whatever. Germany (and Europe in general) is still trying to work out a narrative of "Multi-Kulti" that works for their increasingly diverse 21st century population.

süßes oder saures?

Happy Halloween!

this is Michael's piece of art on the left, Brandenburger Tor

and some fall pictures from Kreuzberg

Tag der Deutschen Einheit - Day of German Unity

 Today is perhaps the least celebrated of German holidays...but people do have the day off. It's the Tag der Deutschen Einheit, or Day of German Unity, commemorating the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Reunification. 21 years since Germany was divided.

Interestingly, the most dramatic, emotional day was 9. November 1989, when the wall was opened...but this day has a long and complicated history in German history...the anniversary of Hitler's attempted coup in 1923, and then the date chosen for pogroms against Jews (Kristallnacht) in 1938. So they chose the "official" date of reunification, Oct. 3, for the holiday.

In the US, most of our holidays have national symbolic value (Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, President's Day, Memorial Day, Columbus Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, etc.), and in Germany most national holidays (where everyone has the day off, all stores are closed) are religious holidays. This also means that it depends on which state you live in, a Catholic or Protestant state. Bavaria has the most holidays, and Berlin actually has the fewest. So their schoolkids also have fewer days off than in Bavaria.

In the U.S., there is hardly ever a day when you can't go grocery shopping (at least for part of the day!), or go shopping shopping, but in Germany things really shut down for holidays (and mostly on Sundays, too). People go for walks, enjoy their day off and their time with the family. The pace and noise-level of the city changes dramatically. No last-minute Christmas shopping or Sunday trips to the grocery store to stock up for the week.