The Independent Spirit

     Lately, I've really started to miss the good old days of last summer, when this blog was my life. Picking a new recipe every day was like a full-time job, but it gave me an amazing sense of accomplishment and a comforting routine. Sometimes I wonder if it would be possible to start doing daily or near-daily posts from here in Germany, whether they be about cooking or travel. Unfortunately, I still think that daily blogging would be almost impossible with this crazy travel schedule, but I do want to try posting more informally a little more often. So today, since I feel inspired, I'm just going to write about my day. Because it was perfect.
     For a long time now, probably a couple of weeks, I've been in a pretty crummy mood. I don't think it was homesickness per se, but I think it was just my initial honeymoon period with the study abroad life coming to its natural end. Plus, aside from the culture change, this lifestyle is a huge adjustment for me. It's pretty much all fun all the time, which is great, except it's not the type of fun I'm used to. Instead of my usual relaxing type of fun, It's the "acting my age" type of fun, which no matter how old I was, I've never been very good at. So I'm used to acting like I'm about 65, but for the last 8 weeks, I've been trying really hard to act like I'm 20. Most of the time, I still don't think I'm fooling anyone, but I'm going to keep trying. Even though I'm starting to get used to that kind of fun a little more, I think my generally sour mood meant that I missed my own kind of fun. I needed to take a day to reconnect with myself and simply do the things I wanted to do.
     But here's the thing: I never go anywhere alone, ever, at least not in America. Seriously, I don't even walk around my block by myself. Last week, my German teacher told us about an immigrant housewife she knew, who told her that she'd never gone into town by herself in all the time that she'd lived there. My teacher went on and on about how sad that was, and I realized that I hadn't ventured off on my own yet either. I decided to change that. So I planned to spend the day in Stuttgart, specifically to go to Desigual, my favorite store ever. However, at the last minute, (and by that I mean just as the train doors were about to close) something told me to stay put and really explore the city I'm living in. So I hopped off the train and spent the next 5 hours memorizing every corner of downtown Reutlingen.
     The one vague plan I had for the afternoon was to do some clothes shopping, mainly because I think the other reason for my crummy mood was that I was tired of looking like a slob. Sure, it's freeing to not have that many material things to travel with, but I was really sick of wearing the same 6 t-shirts over and over. I thought I gave up on Desigual when I jumped off the train to Stuttgart, but I walked into a department store, and low and behold, there was a whole corner devoted to my favorite brand! So I grabbed pretty much one of everything and headed for the dressing rooms. I had all afternoon and no one to answer to, so I might as well. And then I found this dress….

     It's beautiful, bright and flowing to the floor (okay about 6 inches past the floor, but that can be fixed.) It was so expensive, but it was the first thing that made me feel stylish in a long time, so I found myself saying my new favorite phrase once again: Man lebt nur einmal. So now I can't wait for it to be spring so I can wear this. Plus, now I'll look cute when I go to Spain or the south of France. Now that I have the dress, I have to go there!

     Once I was all shopped out, I realized that there was still a lot of daylight left and more places left to explore. Since I can't wear the maxi dress yet, I needed something else for some immediate gratification. I was in luck, across the street was a nail salon. So I treated myself to my first gel manicure in almost a year. And I was quite proud that me and my asian nail tech managed to understand each other's broken German. After that, I was already feeling pretty good, but if I know one thing for sure, it's that no great day in Germany is complete without ice cream…and Döner…in that order. After my extra dark chocolate gelato and oh-so-nutritious pita pocket of goodness, I headed home. Truly, purely, overwhelmingly happy. Having found all I was looking for, both materially and non materially.

Olive and Prosciutto Spaghetti

     The day I got back from my last 10-day trip, I couldn't wait to cook myself a proper meal. The travel diet is less than ideal, so the whole train ride home, I was planning my dinner. Remembering the beef bourguignon I had recently made, I realized that I still had half a bottle of red wine in the fridge. Since you couldn't pay me enough to drink the stuff, I needed to find another recipe to use it up. As I walked up to my apartment, I had my heart set on making coq au vin. Until I opened the fridge and saw that someone had stolen my leftover wine!

Dear beverage thief,
     I understand that my open bottle of wine had been in the fridge for over a week. I can see how it would seem that it had been forgotten. Still, I assure you that the pleasure I would have gotten out of my delicious dinner would have been much greater than that that you got from drinking it. If the highlight of your day is scoring half a bottle of $3 wine, then I urge you to take a step back and look at your life.
                                                                                                  Sincerely,
                                                                                                  The mad chef.
     So I had to think of a plan b. And what do you think I did instead of slaving for hours over an elaborate French meal? That's right, I made spaghetti! Now, it wasn't just any spaghetti. It was inspired by Pinterest, but simply because this is Germany, it ended up being a new creation. Also because this is Germany, you'll notice a complete lack of attention given to presentation. I really should go buy some bigger pans. Anyway, this recipe has many of my favorite things in it. It takes one of the easiest foods on Earth to cook and classes it up just a notch.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2lb dried spaghetti
2 minced shallots
3 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup black olives
3 diced tomatoes
3/4 cup white wine
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons tomato paste
about 8 slices of prosciutto
1 teaspoon flour
grated parmesan
fresh basil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cook and drain the spaghetti. Prepare all the veggies.

2. In the pot you used to cook the pasta, heat some olive oil, and cook the shallots for 2 minutes. Add the olives, tomatoes, prosciutto, and garlic, and continue to cook for 2 minutes.

3. Now build the sauce by adding the wine and letting it cook for 2-3 minutes. Then, stir in the butter and tomato paste. When you're almost done, thicken it as much as you need to by adding a little bit of flour.

4. Toss the pasta with the sauce, and serve garnished with parmesan and fresh basil. Unfortunately, parmesan only comes in slices here. It's bizarre. 

Enjoy, and stay tuned for when I finally get around to making that coq au vin. I'm thinking next week!

Six Cities in Nine Days

     In the Reutlingen study abroad program, one of the courses is all about Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach. It's an interesting mix of history and theology, and as part of it, we all take a five day tour of Luther and Bach Land. That's Leipzig, Wittenberg, Eisenach, and Erfurt. Following that, we have five days for free travel, just like after the Berlin trip. This time around, we chose to go to Munich and Salzburg. So many cities, so little time! We did so much this week, it's impossible to talk about it all, so I'll pick one or two highlights per day.

Saturday:
     We actually arrived in Leipzig late on Friday, but Saturday was our first real opportunity to explore the city. While both Luther and Bach spent significant time in Leipzig, the guided portion of our day was more about Bach, who's still clearly a local celebrity:

For a different kind of musical experience, that night, I found myself somewhere I never thought I would be: An opera house. By some miracle, we were able to buy very cheap, good seats for that night's performance of Der Rosenkavalier. I wish I could be one of those truly sophisticated people who knows how to appreciate opera, but I'm still working on it. However, even though I didn't know what was going on most of the time, the music was really beautiful, and I do recommend that everyone go to the opera at least once, at least just to say you did it.

Sunday:
     On Sunday, we took a day trip to Wittenberg. Here, Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis on the door of the Castle Church almost 500 years ago. Unfortunately, the church is currently undergoing a major renovation in preparation for the anniversary. I do think that the Lutherans in our group got more out of the day, but it was still very interesting to see where such pivotal events took place.

Monday:
    On Monday, we moved on to Eisenach, the birthplace of Bach and the location of the Wartburg castle, where Luther translated the Bible into German. For the history, as well as the wonderful views, the castle was my highlight.

That evening, we continued to Erfurt. Okay, my other, smaller highlights of the day were the charmingly eccentric Opera Hostel we stayed in in Erfurt and the surprisingly good steakhouse named "Texas" next door. I didn't realize how much I missed American food.

Tuesday:
     After a tour of Luther's cloister, we had the rest of the day free to explore this city that pleasantly surprised me. At the beginning of the week, I really didn't know what to expect of the former East Germany, but I was pleasantly surprised by all four cities, especially Erfurt. Because it's a well-preserved, medieval town, it reminded me of why I fell in love with Germany. After exploring and enjoying the views from the Petersburg Citadel for a few hours, I spent the next two just sitting in an Eiscafé talking to a friend. It was the first real break I had all week, and while it may sound less than thrilling, it was probably my favorite day of the trip.

Wednesday:
     To my surprise, I found out that the 10-day rail pass provided by the program is also valid on trains to Salzburg, Austria. Even though I've already been to Austria, I had to jump at the first chance I had to go to another country. Most of the day was spent on the train, but once we got to our hostel in Salzburg, one of our roommates invited us out with some of the other people staying there. Now, I'm not sure yet, what I think of the hostel experience. One the one hand, I had a fabulous, authentic Austrian meal at a table of people from 8 different countries, and that's an amazing experience. On the other hand, I don't know how comfortable I am wandering around at night in a foreign county with a bunch of strangers. Plus, it's really hard to sleep in a room of 8 people snoring, coughing, and sniffling. So the jury's still out on that one…

Thursday:
     On Thursday, we saw the whole city, but the clear highlight was taking a cable car up to the top of the world. Yes, little old me, who's afraid of heights , stood on top of a mountain. Like a real one... with snow and everything!

Friday:
     I've been to Munich before, but I really did enjoy going again. We started the day with a free walking tour, which I highly recommend. It's a great way to see the highlights if you don't have a ton of time or money, and I know that many cities offer them. That night, I did the one thing I regretted not doing the last time I was in town. I went to the famous/infamous Hofbräuhaus. Honestly, I didn't have terribly high expectations of the place because it is a known tourist trap, but still, it's one of those things you just have to do at least once…like the opera. Anyway, the food was just okay, the beer was beer, and the Apfelstrudel was incredible. (Of course the dessert would be the highlight for me.) But the real reason why you go to the Hofbräuhaus is for the atmosphere. Surprisingly, there were actual Germans there, and we did share a table with them, and we did sing silly German songs. It was delightfully stereotypical!
     It was a long week, and I'm glad to be home, but so grateful to have had all of these experiences. Sure, it's hard sometimes, but this whole study abroad thing, this is the life!

Tuesdays With Julia: Beef Bourguignon

     This is something I've been wanting to make for months, but until now, I haven't had the time. I must be crazy for attempting such a complicated recipe while I'm abroad, with limited ingredients and unfamiliar kitchen equipment, but I'm sure glad I did it. After returning from a week of travel, I wanted to take a day to unwind, and the best place for me to be on a day like that is in the kitchen. Plus, everyone else here was exhausted too. In all the craziness of my study abroad schedule, I haven't had much time to enjoy my hobbies lately, and after a while, that starts to get to me. So on that lazy Saturday morning, I got this romantic idea in my head, of how I could have the most perfect day all by myself, exploring a new culinary adventure.
     The biggest challenge came before the actual cooking part. I spent all morning going to three different grocery stores to find all the ingredients. Shopping here in Germany was an interesting experience to say the least, but after successfully ordering from the butcher in German and buying wine without getting carded, I felt very accomplished. I didn't even find everything on the list, but despite my omissions and substitutions (and my $3.00 bottle of wine) it still turned out perfect. In fact, it was more than perfect. It was on a whole new level. But I can't take all the credit. I know I never could have done it without Julia.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 6 servings)
3lbs beef stew meat
6oz chopped raw bacon
1 chopped onion, plus 20 baby onions
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups red wine
3 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cloves chopped garlic
1lb mushrooms, quartered
1/2 stick butter
small potatoes to serve with
salt, pepper, olive oil

and Julia's herb bouquet that I couldn't find or afford her in Germany: 4 parsley sprigs, one-half bay leaf, one-quarter teaspoon thyme, tied in cheesecloth

DIRECTIONS:
1. Let's start with the bacon. American bacon is basically unheard of in Germany, but I did manage t find this package of raw-looking bacon-like bits:

Sauté the pieces in olive oil for a few minutes to brown, then remove them from the pan.

2. Chop the large onion and the mushrooms and preheat the oven to 450.

3. Heat the butter in the pan. First, brown the vegetables for a few minutes, then stick them in the fridge. You won't need to add them until the beef is done simmering. Next, brown the meat on all sides.

4. Transfer the beef to a shallow, oven-safe dish. Season it with salt and pepper, and toss it with the flour. Let it brown in the 450 degree oven for 4 minutes, then stir/flip and brown for another 4 minutes.

5. Put the meat into a big pot and add in the bacon, garlic, broth, and wine. Here's where I can't follow Julia exactly. She says to bring it all to a simmer on the stove, then cover it and let it simmer in a 325 degree oven for 3-4 hours. Since my study abroad program generously provided me with some pretty good pots and pans but not an ovenproof casserole, I had to do the whole thing on the stove instead, which also worked out fine.

6. While the beef is simmering, prepare the small onions. In a saucepan, sauté them in olive oil for 10 minutes. Then add another 1/2 cup of broth and the herb bouquet, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

7. If you wish to serve this over potatoes, boil them while you're waiting for the onions.

8. After the meat has simmered to the desired tenderness, add the mushrooms and onions to the big pot, briefly bring it all back up to a boil, then serve.

     For dessert, I also threw together a loose interpretation of Julia's tart aux pommes with some leftover apples I had. I took way too many liberties with this to make a separate post for it, namely, that it's more of a galette than a tarte because I also don't have a tarte pan. Still, it turned out pretty good.

So the moral of the story here is to never be afraid of recipes that sound fancy and French. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward!

One Month of Yummy German Food

     This post is not exactly a recipe. Okay, it's not a recipe at all, but rather a collection of the best things I've eaten throughout my first month in Germany. German cuisine isn't exactly world-renowned, but I've always had a special place in my heart for it. After all, I named my blog after it. Besides the fact that it's delicious, I love it because it's associated with some of the best memories I have of travel, new friends, and a general adventurous spirit. It's the discovery of all these yummy things that I never knew existed before, yet now can't stand to live without. What was my life before I discovered German cheesecake and Milka chocolate and Käsespätzle? I don't even know anymore. And that's why I feel so compelled to share all my international favorites with you. Because you deserve to get to know and love these things too.

Let's start with Maultaschen:
Maultaschen are a Swabian (regional) specialty. They're like giant ravioli filled with all kings of goodness. I actually don't know what all is in the filling, but I know part of it is meat because Maultaschen were originally invented as a way for Catholics to conceal the fact that they were eating meat during Lent. This was my first real meal in Reutlingen. Served with salad and potatoes, with a glass of Apfelschorle, it was a perfect, authentic welcome.

And now the Berlin mega-platter :
When we were in Berlin for a class trip, our professor took us all out to dinner at a restaurant known for Berlin specialties. There, you can order the same sampler platter for however many people in your party. We had 10 people, so we got 2 of these massive plates. Once again, I don't even know what all of it was. I just know that it was terrific. The pièce de résistance was that beautiful pork shoulder in the middle. We ate probably six times the amount that we should have that night, but hey, no regrets. Man lebt nur einmal.

Now, the best Jägerschnitzel I've ever had in my life and probably ever will:

Jägerschnitzel, or Hunter's Schnitzel in English is like Wiener Schnitzel, but with with a rich mushroom and wine sauce on top. The sauce really takes it to the next level, and I don't just say that because of my unconditional love for wine sauces. There was just something about this particular one at this off-the-beaten-path restaurant in Cologne that set it apart from the rest.

And now for some sweet treats:

Milka is my favorite chocolate on the planet. Sure, Ritter Sport is more famous globally, and Swiss and Belgian chocolates are generally considered the top tier, but Milka is the chocolate of the people here. It's cheap, unpretentious, and still a thousand times better than a Hershey bar. I haven't eaten a Hershey bar in the three years since I converted to Milka and I never will again. Luckily for me, Milka is getting easier to find in the US. You can usually find it at Target if you look really hard. This butter cookie kind is my favorite so far:

And surprisingly, they have an oreo version even though oreos aren't popular here. It's almost as good as a Hershey's cookies & creme. Okay I lied before, I do still love Hershey's cookies & creme only.

 And the best for last, my beloved German cheesecake:
One day in Stuttgart we had lunch at the greatest place on Earth, Vapiano, and I could barely contain my excitement when I saw this cheesecake in the dessert case. So there I was, eating my favorite food in the world in my favorite place in the world (all on my university's dime, by the way) and thinking this is the life.

I was so excited, I couldn't wait to take the picture before digging in. Later that week, I get inspired to make my version of this, and even with limited ingredients, iffy metric conversions, and only a pyrex casserole dish instead of a springform, the result tasted just how it should.

    Those are my favorite meals and snacks so far. Maybe I'll make this a monthly series, because I'll always be that tourist who inappropriately pulls out a camera in a restaurant. But I feel compelled to do it because there's just so much left to discover and share.

Reutlinger Mutschel

     I've decided that it's finally time for the Mutschel post. What's that you ask? It's a bread, a game, and a whole holiday specific to the city of Reutlingen. On this holiday, everyone gets together to play various simple dice games, in hopes of winning a Mutschel or two. This may sound silly to some, but when I first heard that there was an entire holiday devoted to delicious German bread, I knew it would be right up my ally. Surprisingly, I actually had some luck that day and won 2 Mutschel, one for dinner, and one for breakfast the next day. A standard Mutschel looks like this, an 8-pointed star with a braid around the center.

But if you're a big winner, this is the grand prize:

     These are all professionally made Mutschel from a local bakery. However, they're actually not to hard to make yourself. A few days after our introduction to Mutscheltag, my German professor kindly invited us to her house to learn to bake them. To save time, she had already prepared the dough before our class arrived, but later, we each got to put on our baker hats. As it turned out, my handmade Mutschel was even better than the bakery version. For this recipe, I'm doing my best to translate and convert the measurements from metric, but essentially, it's pretty similar to any bread dough. These quantities make a lot of dough, but you can make the individual Mutschel any size you want.

INGREDIENTS:
8 cups all purpose flour
2 cups milk
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2.5oz yeast
2 egg yolks

DIRECTIONS:
1. Gently warm the milk in a saucepan, just to the same temperature you would want water for a yeast dough. (Nowhere near boiling) Then, stir in the yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Gradually mix in half of the flour, either by hand or with a dough hook of a mixer. Then, add the soft butter, sugar, salt, and one egg yolk. (The other one is for egg wash later.) Finally, gradually add the rest of the flour and knead well until everything is combined.
3. Transfer the dough ball to a greased bowl, cover it with a cloth, and let it rise for about an hour. While you wait, preheat the oven to 400 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Now it's assembly time. Working on a floured surface, take a handful of dough (or as much as you want per Mutschel) and gently press it into a circle. Also, grab a smaller bit of dough to make the braid and the decorations later.

5. Now, pinch part of the dough in the center and separate the points of the star. It takes some work to get it to look pretty. The goal is 8 points, but I was happy with the 6 I got. It should look something like this:

6. Traditional Mutschel have a braid of dough around the center and a different ornament on each point. Be creative and make these out of the other little piece of dough.

7. To get the ornaments to stick and to give the whole thing a nice shine, make an egg wash out of the other yolk and a splash of water, and brush it over the Mutschel.

8. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, depending on the size. When they're done, they'll look absolutely irresistible!

I know I've been slacking in the recipe department lately, and honestly, it's just because this whole study abroad thing keeps me busy all the time. But rest assured, I haven't stopped cooking and plan to post more in the coming days. Look for a new edition of Tuesdays with Julia this week!

Venturing Out: Berlin and Cologne

     After a long, exciting, challenging, wonderful week of travel around Germany, I'm finally back "home" in Reutlingen. It's funny, being away this week made me actually start referring to Reutlingen as my home, and while I had a blast exploring other cities, it is good to be back. In total, we had 10 travel days for this trip. For the first five, the whole group got to see just about everything there is to see in Berlin with our professor as tour guide. After that, we got to split up into smaller groups to travel wherever we wanted, which for me, meant Cologne. I'm pretty sure it would be impossible to include everything we did into one post, but I'll try my best to summarize the highlights.
     Since we arrived in Berlin relatively late on Friday night, I think of Saturday as our first official day there. That day, we started off on a rather somber note with a tour of Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp. I had never been to a concentration camp before, but I had heard that it was an intense experience. It was actually very different from what I was expecting. I had thought that most of the camp would be left in its original state, but to my surprise, much of it had been renovated to make it feel more like a museum. Still, I found that the as-is parts of it had the greatest emotional impact on me. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when you're standing on the same ground where thousands of people suffered so greatly, not all that long ago.

     Sunday was our first real chance to explore the city. Since I've been to Berlin once before, our city tour was an opportunity for me to get reacquainted with the place I had come to love. I tried to contain my excitement as we passed all my favorite landmarks, but throughout the week, I made it my mission to go to several places I visited on my first trip and take similar photos of them, sort of like a then-and-now comparison. Of course, the logical place to start was the Brandenburg Gate.

     Included in our trip, we each received a three-day museum pass that was valid at 50 museums throughout the city. After a few group tours of the big ones, we had 2 days to split pup and go to the ones of our choice. After we were all museumed out, there was one thing I had left to do. Last time I was in Berlin, I went to a specie section of the Berlin Wall that was still up and had murals painted on different sections, many of which are wildly colorful. I had no idea where this place was anymore or what it was called, but I had to find it again. After over an hour of leading 2 friends to the forgotten corners of East Berlin, I found it and once again, took a picture of my favorite mural.

    After Berlin, we were on our own. It was a little intimidating to go traveling for the first time without the whole group, but as it turned out, our 2 free days in Berlin served as great practice in how to navigate a foreign city by ourselves. In fact, we never really got lost, and being smaller, Cologne is a little easier to handle than Berlin. We saw all the big attractions there, the cathedral, the Rhine, and a few museums. We found some good restaurants, lived the hostel life, which actually isn't as terrifying as I expected, and made it back safe and sound.

     Now we have one more week of classes, before we're off to Lutherland and beyond on Friday. Because that's a long way away, I'll try to have a new post in the meantime, so be on the lookout for that soon!