French Toast

I was first introduced to French toast by one of my boy friends. He was studying abroad and on one of his trips back home he requested "French toast". I personally had never heard of it until then! But he showed me how to make it and ever since then I've been making it. The smell of hot butter, cinnamon and melted sugar is comforting and Christmassy and puts everyone in a good mood.

Serve it as a side for your next Sunday brunch or try it out as a snack. If you are a light eater then just have a few slices for breakfast smothered in maple syrup.

Preparation time: 40 minutes; serves 3  (i.e. approx. 7 slices)

Ingredients:

5	Eggs, large
2 tbsp.	Milk
1/4 tsp.	Salt
7 slices	Sandwich bread (i.e. white, rectangular, spongy)
1/2 tsp.	Ground cinnamon
1 tbsp.	Sugar
50 g	Butter

Method:

These are super easy to make however please make sure you have a cast iron frying pan for the best results. You'll also need paper towels.

Basically all you do to begin with is to make a batter like for scrambled eggs or omelettes. So beat together the eggs, milk and salt. If you like you can add some freshly ground pepper and more salt if you like salty.

Cut your butter into cubes. This makes it easier to portion. It would have been great if I had 7 cubes but 8 was just so much easier! Note that you might not need all 8!

If you like you can cut off the crusts of your bread. I don't like to waste food and find that the crusts help make the soggy bread easier to handle so I always keep the crusts on. Cut your bread diagonally down the middle.

You can also use any kind of sugar, but I advise a smaller grain. The smaller grain will stick to the bread better and you'll have less sugar falling into the frying pan i.e. less clean up. Make sure you have proper cinnamon. The best, of course, is Sri Lankan cinnamon and freshly ground is so much more flavourful than the pre-ground stuff that you buy in the supermarket.

Heat your pan on medium-high and while it's heating start soaking your first slices of bread. My pan fits 3 pieces at a time. You should figure out how many you can fit in your pan so that you don't soak the bread for too long. We don't like our French toast to be soggy so I don't let the bread soak for too long. Just enough that all surfaces are coated. I achieve this by fully immersing the bread into the egg mixture. Leaving it in for about 10 seconds and then removing it. My bread is rather fluffy so also if I soak it for too long the bread falls to pieces.

Once the pan is hot enough add a cube of butter. Now we always have the problem of what is hot enough. In this case the butter should start melting as it hits the pan, but it shouldn't turn brown i.e. burn. If it does burn you should tip out the butter and wipe the pan out with a paper towel and after letting the pan cool a bit, try again. Once the butter has melted and covered the surface carefully place the egg soaked bread into the pan. Sprinkle a pinch (with 3 fingers) of sugar and a pinch (with 2 fingers) of cinnamon on to each slice. You can add more or less of sugar and cinnamon depending on your taste. Once the bottom is cooked, golden brown (lift up with a spatula to inspect the underneath surface) flip and cook the other side.

Here are some things to pay attention to:

• at some point your pan will be too hot and the butter will start burning. Reduce the heat, tip out any burnt butter and wipe out the pan. 
• the sugar may burn on your pan. This will cause subsequent toasts to turn black. Wipe out any residue sugar with a paper towel.
• add a cube of butter when ever the pan dries out, i.e. is not oily

Also note that you can use regular oil to make French toast, it just does not taste as good. 

Enjoy your toast by itself or with maple syrup or anything else that calls to you.

P.S. It's probably really good with bacon, but we are vegetarian and can't get vegetarian bacon in Germany :(

Vegetarian stuffed zucchini

I planted some seeds this year that were to yield some edible flowers. I was so looking forward to them but when it came round to it I just did not have the time or energy to use them. So I let them just grow. Turns out that one of the plants was a zucchini plant and it did really well. I have two plants and have not bought any zucchini all summer long. It's been a challenge to find different ways to cook them. But today I harvested two fruit and since it was such beautiful weather, probably the last of the season, I decided to stuff them and grill them on the BBQ. So in case you are looking for a different way to cook your zucchini, or are just looking for something fun and vegetarian to throw on the grill, this is for you.

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 4  (as a side)

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp. Garlic powder

2	Zucchini
1/4 cup	Shallot, finely chopped
1 clove	Garlic, finely chopped
1	Medium tomato
3 tbsp.	Olive oil
2 tbsp.	Bread crumbs
1/2 cup	Parmesan, finely grated
3 sprigs	Oregano
2 sprigs	Thyme
1/4 tsp.	Garlic powder
	Salt and pepper

Method:

Split your zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the inner flesh leaving a pretty thick shell. Remember that zucchini gets really soft when cooked and so if you want it to keep it's shape the shell has to be a bit thicker. I noticed on my zucchini that on the inside there were two different colours. It was very subtle but the inner part where the seeds were had just a slightly different colour. I scooped out along this line. Roughly chop the scooped out zucchini.

Finely chop the shallot and dice the tomato. My tomato has such a funny shape because it also came straight from my garden. Hence the beautiful red colour.

Heat 2 tbsp. of the oil in anything you like and saute the shallots until they become transparent and soft. Add the garlic and stir it in. Then add the zucchini and fry over high heat. I like zucchini when it's done over high heat because it turns golden and it has a much better taste. However, this means that you have to stir it all the time to prevent it from burning. Once the zucchini is cooked add the tomato and continue cooking until no large chunks of tomato are visible. Note that I try not to skin my tomatoes. Skinning them takes away so much nutrients and so much tomato goes to waste.

While this is cooking chop the herbs and grate the cheese.

Once the tomato is cooked remove the stuffing from the heat and add the breadcrumbs, herbs and half of the parmesan. Stir well until everything is combined. Your filling should be relatively dry. If it's not cook it a bit more to get rid of any excess fluids. However, you should do this after adding the breadcrumbs and before adding the herbs and cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like spicy foods consider adding some chilli pieces or sauce.

Now brush the zucchini shells with the rest of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Grill the shells with the cut side down for 3-5 minutes on a hot BBQ (or grill). Remove them and then stuff them with the filling. Topping with the left over cheese. Put them back on the grill for another 5 - 7 minutes or until the cheese is just melted. Note that you don't want to over cook the shell because then the whole thing will just fall to pieces. So keep an eye on your food!

Cauliflower cashew curry with coconut milk

Cauliflower is not a favourite in our household. So I have to keep cooking it in different ways so that at least it gets tried. While I love a cauliflower bake although everyone agrees it tastes good it's not eaten with much enthusiasm. After the usual turning up of noses this cauliflower curry was devoured and this is the 4th time I'm making it (which in this house says something!)

Garnished with coriander leaves and cashew

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 4 - 6 (with other curries) 

Ingredients:

400 - 500 g	Fresh cauliflower florets
2 tbsp.	Oil
1/2 tsp.	Brown mustard seeds
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric
1 tsp.	Curry powder
1/4 tsp.	Chili powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp.	Salt
500 ml	Thick coconut milk (read recipe for options)
65 g	Ground raw cashew nuts
	Rostzwiebel to garnish (for alternatives see below)

Method:

400 - 500 g of cauliflower florets is about one small head of cauliflower. Clean off the green parts and break the florets into bite sized pieces. We need our cauliflower florets to be rather small because we eat with our fingers and breaking cauliflower to pieces with your fingers is a bit cumbersome.

Prepare your spices and set them aside.

And then get your cashew ready. If you happen to have it you can use cashew butter. If you take this route make sure that there are no additives in the cashew butter, like sugar. Else prep your cashews in a mini-prep. Cashew gets very pasty so it may get stuck in the blades and heat your machine up. Thus pay attention to the heat of your machine. If you don't have a mini-prep, grinder or food processor you could try mixing the cashew with the coconut milk and then use a liquidizer or stick to process it. I have not tried this myself but I think that cashew are soft enough that any machine should be able to grind them (I may be wrong though so be careful).

Next prepare your coconut milk. This time I used 1.5 cups of warm water and mixed in 4 very heaped tablespoons of coconut milk powder, then made the liquid up to 2 cups (approx. 500 ml). Last time I used a whole can of coconut milk with water to make up the 2 cups. If you are in SL and use fresh coconut milk use the first thick milk (note that your curry will taste better than mine, be more healthy and have more oil!).

The cooking of this curry is very simple. Just heat the oil on medium-high heat until it sizzles when you drop in a mustard seed. Then add all your spices and stir them continuously so that they fry a bit. If you notice that they are burning remove the pot from the cooker very quickly. You don't want burnt spices. Once the spices start smelling or the mustard starts popping add the coconut milk and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Just as it begins to boil add your cashew paste and then reduce the heat to medium. Blend in the cashew paste. I do this with the back of a wooden spoon and it takes some time. An alternative would be to put the cashew paste in with the coconut milk and mix them in a blender. Once the cashew paste is blended add in the cauliflower florets. Bring to the boil, cover the pot and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender. Keep in mind two things 1. you are going to eat this with your fingers so you should be able to break it with your fingers, 2. overcooked cauliflower tastes horrible. The couple of times I made this and knew I would be reheating it the next day for lunch I under cooked the cauliflower a bit so that when re-heated it still tasted okay and didn't turn into mush. I prefer a bit of a struggle on the first day to over cooked cauliflower on the second!

Finally, garnish your dish. I did this with Rostzwiebeln which is a German thing. Instead of Rostzwiebeln you could fry some onions until they caramelize and use this (note add this time on to the preparation time given above).  I've also used cilantro and roasted cashew.

Enjoy!!

Simple version for cooking can be found here

Germany Road Trip

Long ago, before we had children, i.e. 2002, we went on a road trip through Germany. This was before we lived in Germany. At some point we realized that our kids had not seen all the nice places that we had seen although they had lived in Germany for 9 years. So this Easter (2019) we took off to repeat our trip. This time it was a bit shorter and we didn"t hit as many places, but of those we did see we saw them in more detail.

Armed with a Lonely Planet and plenty of maps making our way through Germany in 2002

And although I would love for you to visit the Lonely planets top ranking place for 2019 I do understand that you might find it a bit scary to visit Sri Lanka. (To me Sri Lanka is home and it's never been bad enough that I would not go home.) So do come and visit second in line, Germany. Buy yourself a lonely planet and head out on a road trip to remember.

No. of days: 9 

Starting point: 

Dusseldorf or Frankfurt or anywhere in the west of Germany

Budget: Approx. 1,500 EUR

This includes hotels, food, petrol and admissions. Add on extra for getting there and away and for getting around. We spent as little as possible. Lunch consisted of self-made sandwiches and some dinners were instant noodles made in our hotel room (I took a kettle with me). If you can't self cater, but want to cut down costs, pick up a belegtes Brötchen, kind of like a mini sub, from a local bakery. They are delicious. For dinner go to a local Turkish fast food eatery. If you are a meat eater there are an abundance of options. If not, there are almost always falafel sandwiches. Some  places also make pizza and pasta. We rarely visited cafe's for a tea or coffee break. This really cuts down the costs. Snacks and munchies we bought from discount supermarkets.

Here is the route we took on google maps. Marked are points of interest, parking lots and our hotels.

Day 1: 

We drove southwards to Loreley. A lovely spot on the river Rhein that is famous for the myth of the Loreley who sings on the rocks to distract sailors and bring them to their deaths. Also the valley, which you will drive along, is a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Rhein as seen from Loreley look out point; Loreley statue; Burg Maus

We rode the Sommerrodelbahn "Loreley Bob" here. You basically sit in a little cart and are pulled up to the top of the hill and then are let go to sail back down the hill at high speeds. It's a very German thing that I've always wanted to do but never got around to doing. Worth every penny!

There are plenty of places for a picnic lunch plus a restaurant.

Driving further South along the Rhein we landed in Heidelberg and walked along the Philosophers Way, which is a good way to stretch your legs after a day in the car, and to get wonderful views of the Rhein and Heidelberg Castle. Head down the "Schlangenweg" (winding path) to the old Heidelberg bridge and walk back along the river.

Heidelberg Castle in the setting sun from the banks of the river Neckar 

Day 2: 

We spent the day in Heidelberg. Getting early to the castle to beat the crowds is a good idea! You can't buy tickets for the castle or the tour on line. Tickets for the castle grounds include the large beer barrel and the pharmacy museum. Both well worth the price, which also includes a ride up (and down if you want!) the hill on the Funicular train (which is really anticlimactic). Buy general tickets at the foot of the hill at the Funicular station "Kornmarkt". If you want to go on a tour of the castle (photography not allowed inside the buildings) tickets can be bought at the visitors center on the castle grounds. These two tickets are handled separately. You can enter the castle grounds for free if you are on a tight budget and just want to look around.

A gate to nowhere in particular other than a fantastic view point

Most of the castle is in ruin. It's kept this way to preserve the romanticism 

The view from the above mentioned view point

One of the buildings in the inner courtyard. Accessible only with a ticket.

Inside the pharmacy museum. I'd love to have a kitchen like this!

View of the town from the castle

 As for timing we got to the castle just before 10. Booked our tour, viewed the inner courtyard and pharmacy museum, took the tour, had a picnic lunch, went to see the beer barrel and further ogled at the ruins, walked through the gardens and headed down to the town at 3 pm.

The castle from below

The old town of Heidelberg has a lovely atmosphere! We walked past the Kornmarkt to the main square (Avoid the ice cream parlor on the main church square. The ice cream was not great and the portions were tiny) and then down to the old bridge, were we saw the famous Heidelberg Bridge Monkey. You don't need to cross the bridge to see the monkey. He's actually not even on the bridge. Before you go under the bridge tower look for him on the left hand side on the parapet. The bridge tower was covered in scaffolding so I don't have any photos.

Kornmarkt

A quaint street heading towards the main square. If you like your streets a bit quieter just try some parallel streets. The tourists drop off very quickly

Day 3: 

Drive down to Freiburg. We checked into our hotel first (B&b Frieburg Nord). Plenty of free parking however, the buses past there don't run on Sundays and holidays. We ended up having to drive into town. Here is a walking tour around the town. It takes 2.5 hours and takes you past all the interesting sites. If you have more time you could visit more of the museums, but don't miss the Augustiner Museum. It's small but well laid out and you can see the original stained glass, gargoyles and statues from the cathedral up close. A fantastic exhibit.
Look out for the "Bächle" that are all over the old town.

Inside the Freiburger Münster

Historisches Kaufhaus on the square

Gargoyles and statues in the Augustiner Museum

Germany's first inn

Schwabentor

The Gewerbe Canal

Martinstor (McDonalds Tor)

Old Synagogue Square - the pool is a memorial to the synagogue that once stood here

One of the town halls - Rathaus

Day 4: 

takes us into the Black Forest. No longer a dark forest as you might expect thanks to the many years of logging that kept the winter industries running.

A good place to stop is at Höllsteig 74, 79874 Breitnau. There are a variety of shops which showcase German products including cuckoo clocks, watches, blown glass (workshop on site) and some more modern products. There is a huge price range so there is something for everyone. They have good toilets and a cafeteria style restaurant. There is also a hotel at this location. If you are like us, and not into shopping and eating, take a hike passing underneath the Ravana Viaduct and along the Ravana Gorge. Take a moment to photograph the St Oswald chapel and visit the customs house (keys for both places can be picked up at the Hofgut Sternen). Finish up ogling at the crafts people blowing glass.

Along the Ravana Gorge

St Oswalds Chapel

Continue on to Triberg (very touristy) where you can visit Germany's highest waterfall. It would have been a wonderful atmosphere if not for all the annoying people trying to take their perfect Instagram photos. Block out the photographing maniacs and enjoy the falls and the nature.

Part of the waterfall

We next went to see the worlds largest cuckoo clock. It was also anti climatic, but it's so close to the town that it's not worth missing! A bit annoying that they charge 50 cents for the toilets and that they didn't have a nice cafe. The shop was really well stocked and I didn't get the feeling that I was in a tourist trap.

The world's largest cuckoo clock!

We drove on to our next place of rest Tuttlingen. Now there may not be much in Tuttlingen, but there is a fantastic hotel called Charlys Place. They have fantastically priced rooms that sleep 4 people. In very comfortable bunk beds, not your hostel type bunks but proper bunks. Plus wonderful hang out areas one which included a billiards table, board games and a kicker (fußball) table for free! Try Diyar Kebap for a quick and delicious meal. The best falafel sandwhich I've had in Germany yet!

Day 5: 

Although we thought that it might be worth spending the day in Tuttlingen we voted to travel to Konstanz instead. Other options were to go hiking, visit a spa, or go and visit the famous Tittisee. This and many more day trip options can be found on my google map.

We first drove to Reichenau island and walked around half of the island. At the campsite on the far end of the island you can rent bikes and bike around, or rent a row boat and row around, but we were too cheap and just walked. Stop off first at the tourist information to get the lay of the land. Then drop into the fantastic churches and take in the scenery. Drop into the little bakery behind the tourist information (Inselbäckerei Peter) to pick up some cheap goodies for lunch.

St. Maria and St. Markus - just north of the tourist information center

There are pretty fields everywhere!

Yachthafen Herrenbrücke - North of the St. Maria and St Markus church

St. Peter and Paul - north-west corner

St. Peter and Paul - interior

After spending half a day there we drove of to Konstanz proper. I personally didn't see much because I was not feeling well. But here are some pictures of the things that the rest of the bunch saw.

Interior of the church in Constance. Absolutely beautiful. Too many pictures to post!

The alps across lake Constance

Day 6: 

Neuschwanstein from a different perspective

This was the big day. We went to visit Neuschwanstein! I seriously advise you to book your tour well in advance and find a place close to the castle to spend the night at. Tuttlingen is about 3 hours drive away and since our friends had to leave at 12 noon we booked one of the earlier tours. Booking here is a bit old fashioned. You have to go to their website and then send them a request for which tour you want. They will then hold your ticket which you have to pick up at the ticket counter one and a half hours before the tour starts. If you book a combination ticket they will schedule Neuschwanstein first and Hohenschwangau second. We requested that they give us tours the other way around and they did this without any problem. Although there are certain disadvantages to doing it "backwards" (the tours are set up assuming the other way around although they are independent and you don't need to have done one to get the other), the advantages outweigh them by far.

From the inner courtyard

When we got to the ticket counter at around 8 am it was full and the lines were long (although they moved pretty quickly) and this is just to pick up the reserved tickets. On the sales person's advice we walked up to Neuschwanstein. There were other people on the road but it was quite quiet. My daughter, who hates crowds, complained that it was way to crowded! However, we were able to get plenty of pictures without other people being in them :)

I had read that the tour of Neuschwanstein was horrible and it lived up to its expectation. The guide refused to answer any questions until the very end and then when asked at the end could not give any useful answers. But the inside of the castle was well worth seeing and the tour is the only way to get in AND it's not horribly expensive.

View from the balcony at Neuschwanstein

When we came out of the castle the place was packed. I don't know where the people materialized from but within an hour or so everything had become busy. It was not much fun navigating around people to go and see the Marienbrücke. In fact we just put our feet on it, peeked at the castle and then fled. There were way too many people on the tiny bridge all trying to take their perfect Instagram pictures.

Looking down from the Marienbrücke

The castle as seen from the Marienbrücke

My daughter was in shock until we got down the hill. Just way too many people for her. It also totally spoiled the atmosphere. One should definitely get up there early.

Hohenschwangau was not as busy owing to the fact that it is not as famous. But my the tour was excellent. The tour guide was a riot (although my husband knew all the answers to his questions since they were the same ones asked 17 years ago!) and we had enormous fun. We took the English tour and because some of the kids didn't understand English he even translated things that children would find interesting into German. Lovely castle with wonderful history.

View from a window in Hohenschwangau. Notice the alps in the background.

Keep in mind that everything around here is over priced although not exorbitant. We had a picnic out of the back of our car in the parking lot!

We drove on to Augsburg from here. Although Augsburg is beautiful, I suggest that you go to Munich instead. We've been to Munich and my sister-in-law lives in Augsburg so we went to visit her (free board and lodging!).

In Munich spend the afternoon at the English Garden and visiting the Chinese Tower. Watch out for the river surfers at Eisbachwelle (southern tip of the park).

Day 7: 

Take in the old town and visit some of the museums. The Glockenspiel on the Mareienplatz is a must see. It goes off at 11 am and noon. We saw it from up the tower of St. Peters! If you have time visit Nymphenburg Palace (Schloss Nymphenburg). We really enjoyed our visit here. There is a large garden, the palace is not too large, the palm house is cool. We did it in half a day with little kids. Leave in the late afternoon for Weimar (4 hour drive).

Day 8: 

There is so much to see in Weimar because it's the home to Goethe, Schiller and Bauhaus. Buy a Weimar card to make your life easy ;). Our morning was filled with visiting Goethe's house and museum. We heard that it was very popular and one could only get timed tickets so we went there first. We were early enough that we could get in straight away. Almost all the places in Weimar have timed tickets and audio guides so if you want to see a particular place you have to get there early and book your tour. It's a bit of a pain in the you know what, but that is life. The visit was well worth it. After having lunch on the square outside Goethe's house we moseyed on off to the Park on the Ilm and visited the Römisches Haus and Goethes Gartenhaus. Then we headed to Schiller's house. It's much smaller and less tasteful than Goethe's house (and at times the audio is a bit boring) but an extremely interesting contrast given that they lived at the same time. And that was all that we had time for on one day. Don't forget that the town is very cute and just walking from one place to another there are plenty of other buildings, fountains, churches and squares to see.

Inside Goethe's house

Plaster of paris... Goethe had lots of these!

Goethe's garden house. His first home.

Goethe's garden house

Schiller's kitchen

Schiller's house

Day 9: 

We got up early to get in the line for the newly opened Bauhaus Museum. Bauhaus celebrates their 100th anniversary this year. There were no tickets on-line and the only option was to stand in line and get a timed ticket. We were able to get in after a one hour wait. I'm thinking that this line will get shorter as time goes on. The museum had not been open for more than a month when we went.

We were disappointed by the museum. We left still not knowing what exactly Bauhaus was. The audio tour was the only way to get any information. For that you HAD to have a cell phone. We were four and the kids had left theirs in the car so we had to share. It was a disaster. And what do you do if you don't have a phone? Just wander around?? Also the only reason we knew there was an app to download is because we was asked one of the security guys how we could get information about the exhibits! He had to help us figure it all out. There was way too much information in the audio tour and it was not clear which exhibit they were talking about. You'll not need more than 2 hours for this museum.
Across the road there are a couple of museums that are included in your Weimar Card. If you still have any energy you can pop in to see them or go for a walk in the park behind the Bauhaus Museum.

Staircase - A highlight for me in the Bauhaus Museum!

Across the road from the Bauhaus Museum

One of the other museums that I had no energy to see!!

Here our road trip came to an end and we headed home. However, if you are here from abroad tag on a few days in Berlin at the end and fly back home from there. It's a 3-4 hour drive from Weimar.