Saturday, 21 December 2013

Roasted sugar coated almonds

Hello!

We are busy wandering from one open house to the next. These sugar-roasted almonds have proved to be the perfect pre-Christmas present for any host.
Plus, the guests enjoy the crunch.
I admit I was very relieved when I all the teeth are still were they belonged to at the end of a Christmas party where the guests enjoyed my sugar coated almonds.


RECIPE

Ingredients: 
200gr almonds
125gr sugar 
80ml water 
1 Tsp cinnamon 
a pinch of salt


Bring the water, sugar, salt and cinnamon to boil, then add the almonds and stir the boiling almonds.

Stir, stir, stir.

After some tome the liquid will transform to a dry brown sugar "meal". You might think it went wrong. Relax. It's alright. Continue stirring.

The dry sugar starts to melt. Stir.

As soon as all the almonds are glazed with the liqud sugar they are done.

Don't keep them in the pan for to long, they might burn.

Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and let them cool.

I am off the the next open house.
Ringading ...



Tuesday, 17 December 2013

Opposites Attract

Before:

After:
 So who is who? Is Mr Paula the rectangular guy or is it me?

Paula Abdul was probably right. Opposites attract. :-)

Saturday, 14 December 2013

5 past 6

 5 minutes past 6 o'clock pm. All shops close at 6pm. The workmen are getting ready ...
 ... while the consumers leave the stores

 Many people have been shopping for Christmas today.

 People everywhere
 That's why they block the road for cars and cyclists. The shopping crowd is the top priority during the weeks before Christmas at Mariahilferstraße.
Innovative light design is obviously not the top priority. The lights somehow speak "why invest in lights if the people come anyway?" For innovative designs see here: Une ville lumière
 People resting after shopping, enjoying hot wine and punch while I enjoy taking photos.
 People drink punch and glogg for good reasons. Here they support refugees who come to Austria.

 More workmen in pole position ...
 ... lining up
Finally the big shopping event is over and everything slowly gets back to normalcy. 
Or should I say normalcity?
 Until Monday , when people return for more, better and bigger bargains!





Saturated colours are always welcome, especially during the dark season.

While people where busy shopping, I was busy with THIS:

 HA! Now do you think this is scary? I do!
 I invited this fellow to the tub this afternoon.
A net ful of seaweed. The seaweed bath detoxes you and makes your skin smooth and soft.

The seaweed bath happend thanks to David Allen's "Getting things done". The box with the seaweed had been sitting in my closet for ages.

I created all kinds of to do lists. One for phone calls, one for the basement, one for stuff that needs to be brought somewhere by car and one important list is the "Heart" list. This list contains all actions that matter for my well-being. Now that the seaweed bath is off the liste, there rarely any "to do's" left on the "Heart" list. One tends to forget about oneself, while taking care of all other things such as broken fridge doors and insurances.
Walking down Mariahilferstraße past 6 o'clock and taking those photos was surely a "Heart"-task. I just stood there, with my camera in my hands. No duties, no stress, just looking around, taking close looks, taking photos.

Now that I sit here, drinking my second mug of homemade delicious orange punch (including rum and sugar) I am not so sure if I got the chronology right. No problem! There is still some seaweed left:
The packaging says this can be reused within 3 days. Hmmm. 

Do you feel like starting your "Heart" list today?