|
Post by rikita on Sept 2, 2018 9:29:18 GMT
forecast was nice for today, but so far it looks dark and cloudy and windy and cold.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Sept 2, 2018 1:10:20 GMT
was mr. r's birthday today (yesterday, it's after midnight), and he wanted to go to a nearby italian place he likes. turns out the place has closed down, there's a vietnamese place now, so we decided to stay there. had "vietnamese pizza" for a starter which was quite nice, and then he had something with duck that he liked a lot, and i had a soup with beef and noodles and vegetables that wasn't bad either ... the waiter and owner came by quite often to see if we were happy with the food and to recommend things and to ask if we will be coming back, quite friendly but it was getting a bit much - i suppose they are still quite excited as the place just opened ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Sept 1, 2018 0:26:15 GMT
meatballs, some of them stuffed into a hollowed out cucumber that together with some kohlrabi and carrot was decorated to look like a cannon. the meatballs were the cannon balls. also, fried potatoes.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 30, 2018 12:00:43 GMT
in the end, it stayed dry, if a bit cold during our picknick. and in general, it is a lot colder now than it was up until last week, but still much too dry. except earlier today it looked like it rained a bit.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 30, 2018 0:09:16 GMT
thanks for the links! will have to try to remember the complete names of people together with mr. r. tomorrow, i am noticing i only remember the first names of everyone, and maybe the "title" ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 29, 2018 8:19:54 GMT
a bit late for this thread, but i noticed there isn't one ... it is sad to see the pictures of so many places flooded - and according to wikipedia 445 people have died. i don't have contact with anyone in "my" village anymore (no one of the people we were close to was much into using email or internet), so no idea how effected they are. the village is up in the hills, but i suppose could still be effected by land slides. i read about nearby towns like pala being flooded ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 28, 2018 8:33:15 GMT
30 years today since the airshow disaster at Ramstein, killing 70 people and injuring up to 1000 (depending on source). there are lots of photos etc. on the news here right now ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 24, 2018 13:54:39 GMT
sorry, i don't really know much about hostel chains - haven't stayed in any hostel in quite a while, and back when i did it wasn't in germany, and i preferred small hostels over chains. the only reason i know a&o a little bit is because i worked for them for a few months during university ... in berlin, i think you could find nice non-chain hostels or hotels, i could look into it, though i couldn't go by my own experience of staying there ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 24, 2018 12:07:55 GMT
afaik there is an a&o near the main train station, never stayed there, though (haven't been to dresden in about 15 years) - in general, i'd say a&o hostels are big and impersonal, but clean enough (it kind of depends what type of hostels you like) ... so not recommending it in the proper sense, just mentioning it is there.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 24, 2018 9:01:44 GMT
i was supposed to take care of this small and somewhat difficult child, went into my mom's shed to get his clothes, while he went to the front gate. first i thought that's okay, the gate is always closed, but then i decided to look and saw it is open and saw him giving me a cheeky grin and then running outside. felt a mixture of not wanting to run after a kid that isn't even mine and guilt because i didn't check before and worry that he might not stay on the side walk, as i slowly started running. alarm rang just then.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 22, 2018 23:52:43 GMT
not a proper nice restaurant, more a kind of cafeteria style place for lunch with some colleagues - we decided to go to a nearby burrito place ... my burrito was with chicken and quinoa and of course beans and other thigns ... was quite nice and very filling ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 21, 2018 7:57:20 GMT
just checked - and it is supposed to be cold and rainy on sunday! that's so mean - last time i had checked, they still announced warm weather and no rain ... i hope it changes again - i don't think i can reorganize the picknick for another day ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 21, 2018 7:53:52 GMT
what are tournedos?
for the salad, you boil a few potatoes (boil them unpeeled), let them cool, then peel them, cut them into cubes and put them in a bowl. you cut an onion into small pieces and some sundried tomatoes into strips, fry both in some oil, then add zucchini (about the same amount as the potatoes) cut into small pieces. fry everything well - so the zucchini is still a bit al dente but also takes on a well fried taste. spice with caraway (that's what the dictionary says, not sure if that is the right word?), salt, pepper, chili, whatever else you like. add some hot vegetable broth to the potatoes (recipe said 250 ml for two portions, but that ended up being a lot, i think less would be better), and add the fried zucchini. add some white balsamico (or other vinegar), spice some more, ready.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 21, 2018 7:47:23 GMT
temperatures continue being alright here, but still no rain ... of course, for me personally it is nice without rain, but for the plants and everything, rain would be better ...
eta: but please no rain on sunday, during our party.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 20, 2018 23:31:17 GMT
warm potato-zucchini salad with sundried tomatoes, and a fried egg for each. dessert was an avocado-banana-cocoa cream which i liked, mr. r. thought it tasted too healthy ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 20, 2018 23:30:26 GMT
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 20, 2018 11:52:47 GMT
since seeing (and eating from) a cheese platter on the buffet at a friend's party in march, agnes has talked about how she wants us to do a "cheese party". so, we've finally set the date for next sunday. basically, we are just doing an informal picknick in the park, invited lots of people and told them to each bring something cheese related. hopefully some will bring actual blocks of cheese ... i plan to bake a chocolate cheese cake, buy a block of cheese or some cheese cream, and buy some drinks ... if anyone here happens to be in berlin, you can join us!
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 20, 2018 8:26:31 GMT
I was reading a pretty horrifying French article about vegan dog food and cat food since of course most vegans apparently feel that their pets should adopt their lifestyle. The article says that cats are 100% carnivores and cannot remain healthy on a vegan diet. Dogs are a bit luckier because they have started to become omnivores after 15,000 years of domestication. They have learned to digest starches but still require a very high protein level in their diets. Wolves, for example, would die very quickly on a vegan diet. Yet in Thailand and Vietnam, I have seen the local residents putting out plates of rice for their pets. I assume that these at least have meat or fish broth on them to make the experience less horrible. PETA naturally claims that there is no problem at all: The Vegan Dog-Food Guide: Tips for Feeding Your Canine FriendsAnyway, the French article goes on to say that it is not at all difficult to have a vegan pet -- just choose a rabbit or a turtle instead. actually, when i was a kid, our cats often got left overs - often potatoes mashed up with a raw egg. not because of any ideology, but because it was just uncommon to buy cat food. they also got proper raw meat at times, though, and of course mice and unfortunately also birds from the garden ... what kind of surprises me though, with someone who is such a strict vegan they'd only feed vegan food to their cats and dogs, how do they justify keeping pets at all? especially, if they live in a small apartment in the middle of a city ... shouldn't they be more aiming to that we stop breeding animals for "entertainment" purposes at all?
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 20, 2018 8:20:52 GMT
most vegans i know are neither crabby nor preachy. several of my colleagues are vegans, and with some of them, i only realized after several lunch times together, that they even are vegan. one former colleague only ate raw things in summer (and only vegan), in winter she also ate bread and other things ... anyway, none of them ever had a problem that i ate meat in their presence, when one of them got pregnant she started eating dairy and even occasionally meat again (not sure if she still does now) ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 19, 2018 23:45:21 GMT
went to the sandwich shop, as i didn't want to cook after the theatre. i had a sandwich with fried vegetables and feta fried in tempura dough, mr. r. had the cheese steak sandwich as usual, the kids (we had my niece here) had mainly fries.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 18, 2018 7:14:40 GMT
a mixture of things that seemed really important at the time, but now i have forgotten them, except for a lingering feeling of urgency ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 17, 2018 23:42:42 GMT
i made vegetable muffins for dinner. they contained some quark and i misread the instructions and added too much, so they ended up too soft and difficult to get out of the muffin form ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 17, 2018 23:41:57 GMT
yeah, for cake it is kuchen or torte - a kuchen would be more the dry variety, a torte would be with cream or similar, and fancier ... sometimes the distinction is not quite clear ... keks is cookies or bisquit, so a smaller thing you'll eat with one or two bites, and usually dry and crunchy.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 17, 2018 11:47:51 GMT
patrick - ah, but "keks" in german is with a long e ... though i suppose people might still be confused if they heard the word ...
mick - the word only entered the german language in the 19th century though, afaik ... but i'd think it's more like german and english have a common ancestor, rather than one being derived from the other ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 17, 2018 7:53:57 GMT
going up to 31°C today, but for now it is 20°C ... will take the train out to my mom's in the afternoon, so hope it is bearable in there. then again, compared to the heat wave a few weeks ago, all seems bearable right now ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 17, 2018 7:51:30 GMT
imho it is normal that the grammatical forms change when a word gets adopted into another language though. i think there is nothing wrong about that (and i prefer it over the hypercorrection some people use when they want to seem cultured). in german, it is "eine zucchini", but yeah, the common plural is also "zucchini", though some people might say "zucchinis". it's a bit more difficult with words that are seldom used in singular, like "spaghetti" or "gnocchi" - there is no common signular form in german, but actually even there, saying "eine spaghetti" or "ein gnocchi" (not sure why i prefer masculine there) sounds most correct to me. it is german and not italian, after all, just that the words are borrowed ...
actually, the german word "keks" (cookie) comes frome the english "cakes" - people don't know this, as it has been borrowed into german a long time ago. so now, "keks" is a singular word, the plural is "kekse" ... it'd sound quite silly trying to be "correct" and speaking of "ein kek" in singular and "keks" in plural ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 16, 2018 23:38:27 GMT
a colleague told me that she had zucchini spaghetti today, so i suppose that was quite similar to your zucchini tagliatelle.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 16, 2018 15:02:58 GMT
funny how people always say the word they are using is the "right" one ...
yesterday, mr. r. had a chicken-halloumi sandwich from the place across the street, and i (wanting to eat healther/with less calories) had some peanut soup with a slice of bread, and a fig for dessert.
today, mr. r. is making oven baked salmon with tomatoes and the above mentioned vegetable (actually, i like the word "zucchini" better than "courgette").
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 15, 2018 23:58:05 GMT
i suppose different people like different things - though i must admit i find the complaint that the costumes are boring and the women aren't pretty enough a bit strange ... it'd be kind of weird if they all looked like models out of a magazine ...
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 15, 2018 0:06:56 GMT
actually surprisingly quiet just now - just the occasional voice or sound of a beer bottles or cars ... no loud singing, no drunken rants ... almost as if it was winter ...
|
|