Baking a Christmas Cake in Early Spring

One month ago I baked a Bouche de Noel. I promised Jen to post the Making-Of, hereit is. It was the last cake I baked with some inventive tools before the food processor moved in. Yay!Chestnuts, cream and butter ...

... turn into a puree:

Walnuts will be grated:

This little machine is fun to work with! Finding it was quite a project.

Egg yolks and whites seperated and beaten
Meanwhile I prepare the grill, bought during the Chrismas season, perfect for letting anything baked cool down.
This pan was bought shortly after I baked the first Bouche de Noel and I realised it would be much more convenient to have a pan in the exact size of the cake.

The cake before rolling it up

After baking the dough gets rolled up and sits until it cools down a bit.
While the cake cools down, I melt the chocolate
... and blend sugar and butter for the coating of the Bouche.

While the chocolate melts, I wander through the appartment.

Ah, the Muji hairbands, you should see them, too.
And my sea-mud-soap-pagoda. The only way to let it dry properly without turning the bathroom into a muddy mess.

The finished Bouche:
The cake is ready to be droven to its final destination at my sisters birthday party.

Glad I did not need more dishes:
Even though I took the right chocolate (70%) I would still say the coating is too thick and sweet. I might reduce it the next time. My relatives don't agree with me.

On my way home:
Due to transportation of the cake I did not go by bike but took the car.
A bit of nighttime in Vienna.
After all the sugar I felt like eating some veggies. Non sweet dish.
Like this:
Chicken soup getting ready for its 4 hours trip in the pot

Or this:
The brown stuff in the pot is meant to be brown and not burnt: caramelised onions.

... but veggies are another story, to be continues another time.

Now I have to get down on the floor, doing my abdomen-exercises because I am getting hungry and once I did the exercise after eating and that was not a good idea. I felt really nauseous afterwards. Apropos nauseous: I loved the episode of Arrested Development where Liza Minelli feels nauseous. Who ever felt nauseous can tell, she acted great!

Since this posting started with Jen I will close it with Jen. She inspired me to make these yesterday:

You have to believe me, we did NOT bite the chocolate in half:

It was a zig-zag-knife that caused the pattern of the theeth.

Right now a Gugelhupf is resting in the warm oven (50°C) and waits to be baked. I forgot one step, where you knead the dough after it rose the first time. I am quite curious how it will turn out. Have a fun sunday!

EDIT 2 hrs later:

excersise is done and the Chicken Soup is already served:

slurp slurp

dish: vintage Arabia

I Am Not Cute

It did not take me long to realize: I am not cute. I know cute women. I am not one of them. They come in smaller sizes than I do, have smaller faces and smaller teeth. Don't think I am totally out of proportion. I am just not cute. Dictionaries say, the opposite of cute would be ugly. That's too brutal. Lets say sloppy, ok? A cute woman can never be sloppy, she will always remain cute. But it does not take much to turn me into a sloppy person. On the other hand it does not take much and I can become a decent person, still ways from being finicky.

Having reflected on what it takes to be cute ore at least decent, I came up with following formular:

2 of 4 = nifty*

*nifty is the closest I can get to cute.

The calculation is simple: There are 4 ingredients I can chose from. Minimum is 2. Any 2 of the following ingredients lead to a decent appereance.

1. fresh hair

2. Make Up

3. Jewelry

4. Manicure

Ok, this photo includes pedicure, too. :-) It doesn't have to be aqua-blue.

What happens if I pick only 1 ingredient, lets say the manicure? I would leave the house with greasy hair, a blotchy face and a plain neck/nacked ears. Would I feel comfortable like that? No!

Now let me add the second ingredient, for example jewelry: a cocktailring and earrings. The jewelry and the nails would make me feel good. As a result there is the decent appearance.

manicure + jewelry = decent appereance

This calculation might sound very strict to you. The truth is, it makes me happy, because it is effortless. And: Having developed the formular, I can tell now, why I feel slightly comfortable with my appereance. Chances are, I forgot to pick a second ingredient.

Another combination:

fresh hair + Make Up= decent appereance

As long as the hair is fresh and the Make Up brightens up my face, I can easily leave the earrings in the drawer and forget about the nails and still feel great.

Here we have it: it is all about me feeling good or great. Other might feel great every day, no matter how greasy their hair is. I am not one of them. Looking good makes me feel good.

I would love to add impeccable shoes as the 5 ingredient to the list. Unfortunately this would go beyond my budget. Maybe later!

California? I like to move it!

Since I've noticed a mild depression, having watched those saddening news for days, I decided to give it a break and cheer myself up. Arrested Development it is:

I had watched the show two years earlier, back then I cancelled it only after a few episodes. Back then I did not think it was funny. That time was totally into 30ROCK-humour. Yesterday I gave it another try, felt as if it might work out now and it turns out I am loving it! No idea what has changed since then, but all of a sudden I find myself laughing out. What a relief! I have an antidote to bad moods in my pocket.

The script is witty, the cast is amazing, the character of the mum, the brothers, the mimic of the father in jail, the brother on the segway, chased by his brother, the colours, the light ... it all sums up in good entertainment made in California. Tell me, am I even right and does it play in California or is it just my projection?Maybe it was Brenda Lee Johnson in The Closer, that settled the path for California? I would say California is the perfect end-winter projection for me.

Meanwhile winter is still clinging to Austria – though there is less snow than before. Here you see some photos from last weekend, the skimountaineering course turned into an orientation-hike. We loved it! We had to find our way in the woods and mountain tops, using an altimeter and a map. Ridges and furrows where our guides. At the end we all were impressed what you can do. I have never done a thing like that before. Mr Paula and I usually stay on the marked paths.

It was the earliest hike Mr Paula and I ever made, 6 hours on March 13!

At the cross on the summit of the mountain, Paula in the middle.

Are crosses on summits of mountains something you find all over the world?


Mr Paula looking for the way

Can you see the way?

Guess who built this whole?! It has been a long, cold winter, animals do there best to survive.

After the last weekend, which exhausted me to no end, this one was fun. I like to move. Glad I signed us up for this course.

EDIT: the animal was a wood-pecker, searching for worms. During winter the worms are most likely to be found close to the ground - that's what our guide told me. Sounds reasonable.