An emotional cook is all astir and mixed up

We walked back from Faun Restaurant in the rain, wind and cold when I got an idea for the flan recipe, that is, an idea as to why it wasn’t working here in Germany. Alex has given me no complaints about me experimenting with this obsession on a regular basis. I made us some coffee to warm us up and got to work.

The egg yolks in Germany are much smaller than in the U.S. You get one type of egg, usually brown, at the local grocery stores. In the U.S. you can pick brown or white in medium, large, x-large, even jumbo, if I remember correctly. I may have used the x-large eggs for the flan recipe when I lived in the States. So I’ve doubled the amount of egg yolk. I got to the sugar caramelization part, spooned in sugar in the sauce pan, turned on the stove and walked into the living room to look up a measurement when I got distracted.

Alex was watching “The Pianist” and this movie always makes me emotional. I was in the living room only for a few minutes when I turned around and saw smoke coming from the kitchen. I ran toward the smoke Alex followed behind and closed the kitchen door behind me. carbon catastropheHoly Cow sugar smoke burns the back of your throat and makes your eyes water. I opened the kitchen window stuck the pot on the sill and got out of the kitchen and found more smoke throughout the entire apartment. A few more minutes on the burner, the sugar would have surly started a fire.

I felt so crummy that I allowed that to happen, but Alex stayed calm told me it was alright. We were definitely lucky. I got out a another pot and made a second attempt at the caramel, never leaving its side. Just from the baking results, I think this might be finally a good batch of flan (for my expectations). I’ll find out from Alex if the reviews will be a scorcher )

Household Hints: Cleaning Burnt Pans

Germany’s on fire and dusty. The grass is cookin’ and the leaves are browning. The little storm we had yesterday, evaporated on the pavement. The only relief is a jump in the ‘Ice Bach’ extension of the Isar River. I’ve managed my feet in the below 70°F water for longer than 30 secs. But the horse flies are honing in on my poor legs. Where’s my sacrificial anode, when I need her. Kidding, I don’t wish horse flies on anybody.

So we’re driving to Iserlohn but not to beat the heat. Monday we have an appointment to renew my residence permit, or Aufenthaltsgenehmigung, but this time not as a tourist studying the language, now a Student. I’ve got my criminal-looking biometric fotos in hand. My passport should be good for two years, if all goes well.

Tomorrow, we will also be visiting Bonn, which was the capital of former West Germany. There is supposedly art from the Guggenheim collections in New York, Venice, Bilbao and Berlin exhibited at the Bundeskunsthalle museum. Hopefully, we’ll have enough time to see it. From the pictures I’ve seen, the churches alone will be a beautiful sight.

But this afternoon, I’ve got to shop. When I know I have to shop, I procrastinate. I have to find a baby gift for the Alex’s nephew. Yeah, little Fritz is already about 4 months old so I figure let’s find one of these ‘make my baby a genius’ toys. I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to babies. I figure a pot and a spoon is what a baby really wants, i.e. havoc.

Alex’s parents are out of town, but we’ll spend some Q-time with Oma Gentemann, who isn’t doing so hot in this heat. AC is one of the advantages for older people in Florida. I’m hoping to find a pretty Fan or der Fächer on my Spree for her to keep cool.

Ich wünche Euch ein Schönes Wochenende!
(Have a good weekend all!)

Yesterday evening, as we walked home from the Greek biergarten on Josephsplatz,

Alex says: “Glad they didn’t tear down the wrong one.”
Yeah, me too. I like where I live.

I was wrong. I suppose the runt house wasn’t worthy of saving. It’s been only three guys doing the dirty work:
one with the backhoe and two guys to separate the wood and steel beams from the brick and then drive toward somewhere not too far away to deposit the goods. The remaining guy quitely sweeps the dust back into the confines of the fenced area. This happened around 8:30 A.M. today. Ah, peace. There is dust everywhere. Dark blue cars are now brown. Someone ought to vacuum and wash the floors again because my feet are getting icky from all the dreck floating around :hmm1: I feel sorry for the people who live directly next door. A woman from the second floor window poked her head out after I took this shot. She did not look happy.

I guess the blue men were there only to seal the water and sewer to the house and collect/separate the doors, plumbing fixtures, windows from the interior. They’ll return, maybe to put it all back into the new building, hehe. I wonder what the new house will look like.

See the what the house kinda looked like below.

There was a inconspicuous indication three weeks ago that life would be made a further ruckus for Kuehbachians with a small shield:
‘Ab 18.06.2006′ don’t park here. Eh?

The pigs sold out!! Two houses down from our white building, stands the last straw house.Then a fence was erected. Days later they gathered. Krafty and undoubtedly skilled men in blue overalls came and gathered. They smoked and waited. Finally the orders arrived: Gut the last remaining runt house on the block. No! Oh freakin’ yes! And they do it with such rumbling finesse promptly at 7 A.M or earlier.

There is a total disregard that we already have our windows open to allow our AC-less apartment breathe freely or our feeble attempts to defy the intense sunlight that pries our eyes open at the early hour of 5:30. Well. They have been standing around since the butt crack of dawn |-| waiting for the law to allow them to start at 7 A.M.

They removed the roof today, separating the frame wood from the shinglesThe rules here are so irritating at times. I’m supposedly not allowed to hammer, drill, pulverize anything between 12 p.m and 3 p.m. Why not? I’m not at home? I’m not sleeping? It’s not certain how long this renovation will last. The newly refurbished building around the other corner has yet to be completed since we moved in and that was over 6 months ago. Although the engineer in me is facinated to learn how the building process here occurs. Germans like to systematically separate everything and are often forced to leave the outer shell intact for historical purposes. I can’t imagine what that must cost. Still, the earplugs aren’t working and the earthshaking hasn’t let up, I’ve got to find another cool study haven.