Kitchen Life

Hello!

My last week has not been the most pleasant one, a nasty stomach flu hit me and for 3 days in a row I could not keep a sip of water, tea or anything that entered my mouth.

Groceries! Food! Apples! Bananas! Not for me.

My culinary highlight looked like this, oatmeal:

By the time my stomach decided to keep food I was not in the position to make any demands, so "Hello gruel!" 

 Now, that my stomach is almost back to normal, I compensated the last week like this:

Some of the gingerbread and cookies will make it to my parent's house. It is always nice to find some vegan sweets in your parent's kitchen. :-)

Herbal teas and ginger bread. A lot of herbal tea. Mostly calming and relaxing. And comforting.
You know why: Tomorrow we are going to light the first candle of the Advent wreath. Wait, only 25 days left? But it's 4 weeks, 4 candles ...?! How can that be ... 4 times 7 ...

Vienna benefits from a late autumn season, temperatures above zero, sunny afternoons, no winter around here so far. But the wreath will add some Christmas-mood, no doubt!

Plus, I've already brought home the first Christmas gifts. They will go to ... me :-) hehehe

It has been a long time since I mentioned the public library on the blog. Some of you might remember that I am a regular visitor at the public library. Last week, just in time before the flu had confined me to bed, I discovered this book:

The photos reminds me of us, the bloggers, who portray their kitchens, working in the kitchen. Over tha past years, I have seen a lot of worktops on blogspot. It seems as if kitchen portrais have a history:

She looks so much like my grandmother. :-)

Lothar Binger and Susann Hellemann collected and curated the "trivial"-photos for the book "KÜCHENLEBEN", published by Culturcon medien, "Archiv historische Alltagsfotografie". 

The authors comment every photo in a very "warm" way. They explain what we can see, make the reader see more, because they look thoroughly. A great piece of work. I will show it to my father. I wonder if he will feel as sentimental as I do, looking at the photos.

He is like a spitting image of my grandfather.

My grandparents always had a cold dinner. Bread and cheese and ham and sausages. AND: Tea!
Just like the couple in the photo. I don't drink tea for dinner but after dinner. Every evening. Now you probably understand, why I've pampered myself with such a large selection of herbal teas. The last week has been a rough one. After water running through a tube into my vein, I am sooo happy I can drink again. And the large amounts of my beloved Berry's Irish Tea aren't too kind to my stomach.

Recently a woman on the radio explained how nurses can make people who suffer from dementia feel more comfortable. If the person used to drink tea at night, it helps to treat the ill person in a nursery home with a cup of tea before bed time, he/she will probably feel better, safer, more at home, less anxious. Good to know.

xo Paula  

EDIT: right after saving and publishing this posting I looked outside and ... see for yourself: