Family News

December 30, 2006

Each year the Villa Musica has an end of the year concert and we have been to one several times now.  Last night was this year's concert and it was titled The Mozart Year Finale.  When we arrived they were serving wine but we decided to wait until later to start drinking.  The Trio Sveg was playing, three young Germans who formed a trio in 1999 in Sveg, Sweden. 

The first two pieces they played were Schostakowitsch's Piano Trio Opus 8 and Mozart's Piano Trio in E minor.  They play very well together but the pianist is the brilliant one of the three.  Her Mozart was so clear and lovely that in general it was the piano I found myself listening to most.  After the intermission, in which we were served Sekt, wine or juice they played Dvorak's Piano Concert in F major.  All in all a very enjoyable program even though it wasn't the students of the master courses who were playing.  We usually prefer the young students, but these were three former students and still quite young so they managed to meet our requirements.

After the concert there was a reception at which they served drinks and plates of finger food, half sushi and half more conventional fare.  I didn't care for the sushi I tried, but maybe I didn't pick out the best kind and sushi in a good restaurant is probably better.  The other things were good though, chicken on skewers, sausage in puff pastry, that sort of thing.  We enjoyed talking to the people who happened to be at our table.

Maybe the most amazing thing about the evening though was the temperature.  On our way home at around 10 pm the car thermometer showed 11°C or 52°F.  That's really weird and it's supposed to stay that warm for a while.  No wonder the Arctic ice bears are endangered.

December 27, 2006

Once we (finally!) finished eating (Why do adults have to spend so much time at the table, especially on Christmas Eve?), the exchange of presents could begin.  Max and Alex handed out the gifts one by one and everybody watched as each person opened his presents.

I think Max and Alex were pleased with what we gave them.  Not that it was our idea.  We're not savvy enough to know what boys really want for Christmas so Lee made the suggestion.  Judging from the amount of time they spent "fighting" and shooting their noisy guns, it was a good choice.

They got a lot of things to play with, primarily Legos, which they enjoy putting together.

Of course the adults got presents too.  (I wrote about my loot yesterday.)

                                                                                             
Frank seemed to like the pullover I gave him for our skiing vacation in January.  The label sets it off nicely, don't you agree?

                                                                                              
Because we really hadn't had enough to eat, Lee brought out the American cheese cake that she had baked and we all tortured ourselves and had a piece.

                                                                                             
Tony can relax now that dinner was a huge success and enjoy the festivities.

Ani and Kurt, Tony's parents (who live in southern Spain), also had a good time.  I think it's nice that Max and Alex still have all of their grandparents and that we can be together for Christmas.  As far as I know I don't think my mother's parents and my father's parents ever even met each other.  I never thought about it before but it seems strange to me now. 

To me Christmas is families being together - the more the merrier.

December 26, 2006

On the evening of the second day of Christmas we went out to eat dine with Jenny and Ulf.  Not that we hadn't had enough good food already, but when we made our Christmas plans it seemed like a good idea.  Even though Frank made several comments about canceling our reservation and watching a movie instead, the rest of us ignored him.  And a good thing too.  It was one of the best restaurant meals we've ever had.

Several years ago the state theater was renovated and on top of it they placed a huge round glass object that looks suspiciously like a UFO.  (You can get an idea of what it looks like if you look behind the carousel in this picture I took several years ago.)  When you are sitting in the restaurant that is now inside it looking out, you can understand the reasoning behind the  planning because you have a wonderful view of the city with the cathedral in the foreground.  I'm still not sure I would have built it, but no one asked me!

I had wanted to try it for a long time, but it seemed every time we wanted to go it was on a Tuesday or Wednesday and it was closed.  The chef had a column in the local paper for a while in which he talked about how to use the local produce that was available at the town market.  One of the things I like about him is that he places a lot of importance on using regional produce, including of course wines.  Finally, a month or two ago Frank and I went there one Sunday on the spur of the moment and were delighted by the quality and deliciousness of the food.  (There will be no talk here of monetary issues.  Some things are above financial considerations.)  So that was my first choice for our (second!) Christmas dinner.

I will tell you what we had and try to keep the adjectives to a minimum because, really, there aren't too many synonyms for delicious.  (22 to be exact if you search in Roget's Thesaurus, but I'm not so sure about aperitive, saporous or toothsome - they are new to me in this context.)

To begin with we all ordered a glass of the local champagne, which is called Sekt here because in Europe champagne has to come from the Champagne province in France.  Even Frank, who normally doesn't like Sekt, enjoyed his glass.

Then there were two amuse-gueule which is unusual but our waitress said it was because it was Christmas.  The first was a slice of a kohlrabi tureen (I don't think that's the right word, it was like a pate without any meat) that literally melted in your mouth, with two small thin slices of ham, dry-cured regionally and a bit of pesto sauce.  The second was sauerkraut, cooked in wine and cream with a tortellini (-o?) stuffed with blood sausage, not something I would ever have ordered but it was very good and I could ignore the fact that I was eating blood sausage.  (Yes, it's made with blood!)

The soup was made from a vegetable I have never heard of in English.  It's called a Schwarzwurzel in German - black root, which describes it very well.  Wikipedia informs me that in English it is known as black or Spanish salsify or Black oyster plant or viper's plant or a number of other strange sounding names.  I've had it before - I even cooked it once a long time ago - and it is very similar in taste to white asparagus.  The soup was frothy and very much like an excellent asparagus soup with a scallop in the middle, fried on the top side with a panada, probably more for color than for taste.  Definitely yummy!

The next course was the salad which consisted of a variety of greens and three huge shrimp which had been braised in Acacia honey.  It was all a tiny bit too sweet for me and I think it could have used a drop or two of lemon juice or vinegar, but the others didn't agree with me, so maybe it was perfect the way it was.

For the main course we had a choice and I chose zander (sander), a tasty fresh water fish, with a potato crust and tiny carrots braised in cinnamon and curry (very small amounts).

The dessert was to die for.  They called it a gingerbread composition but to me it tasted a lot like a brownie fresh from the oven - it was very hot, with several dabs of different creams and such to eat with it.  It was so good I don't think it could be improved on.

Of course, to accompany all this we had regional wines, Jenny and I sticking with my favorite, a dry Riesling, and Frank choosing a Spätburgunder or Pino Noir.  Ulf was our designated driver so he only got to taste our choices.

All in all a very memorable meal!   

December 25, 2006

For someone who thought she didn't really need anything for Christmas I received a whole array of gifts that I would not want to do without. 

                                                                                              
To begin with, my beautiful Christmas angel from Alex

                                                                                             
Books to shorten the long dark nights ahead of us

                                                                                              
A traveler's handbag from Lee and Tony so that I will never have my passport stolen again

                                                                                              
The new CD from a favorite singer of mine from Lee and Tony

                                                                                              
An adorable DVD about the penguins in South Africa from Jenny and Ulf - I think Jenny's main purpose in going there was to see the penguins

                                                                                                
A penguin cork from South Africa (This was almost impossible to photograph because it's so shiny.)

                                                                                                

A Harrods bag to replace the one I have that is falling apart, direct from Heathrow where Jenny and Ulf had a layover on their way home from South Africa (What?!?!? No penguins???)

                                                                                              

A HUGE box of English winegums (which I have to share with Frank) - These are the most dangerous winegums in existence.  If you eat one you HAVE TO have more.

I think Jenny enjoyed her stopover at Heathrow!

                                                                                              

A nice porcelan jar from Ani and Kurt

This is perfect for hiding my stash of winegums from Frank because the "Tea, Coffee, Chocolate" is the perfect camouflage!  (But on second thought maybe I should black out "Chocolate".)

                                                                                              
                                                                                              
And of course the most perfect gift of all - that we could all celebrate together, healthy and happy, and can now look forward to Christmas 2007 in Berlin. 

December 24, 2006

We left a little after 5 pm on Christmas Eve to drive to Lee and Tony's for our celebration.  We had said we would only spend the night if the weather was really bad and I was thinking snow or ice.  We had a beautiful sunny day, but once we got on the Autobahn the temperature dropped and it turned very foggy so that we didn't make it there as quickly as we had expected.  We listened to to news and the reporter said there was fog all over Hessen with visibility below 200 meters.  200 meters?!?!?  I can't see that far on a clear and sunny day.  I think someone goofed because at times we couldn't see much more than 20 meters.  Luckily the fog had lifted some by the time we drove home. 

                                                                                              
Laden with our three (!) boxes of presents, we finally made it and the party could begin.  Actually we weren't supposed to have so many presents because we had more or less agreed to limit them to one per person, but certain people with the first name of Frank are not very good about following this rule.   

                                                                                             
In his Christmas letter he likened himself to the ant who spends all year collecting food (in his case gifts) for the coming winter and the rest of us are the grasshoppers who played all summer and now have no stock of gifts to give.  I have to admit no one complained very loudly.  And there were ten of us because Tony's parents, who live in Spain, were also with us this year.

However, before any presents could be unwrapped there was a meal to eat, much to the annoyance of Max and Alex, who would gladly have skipped the food altogether.  They are at that stage all children seem to go through when they cannot have their picture taken without being silly, but as you see, some people never grow out of this stage.

                                                                                              
At each place there was a small gift from Alex and this is the angel that he made for me.  Isn't she lovely?

The meal was memorable.  It began with a pumpkin soup for which Tony used my recipe with one important change.  My recipe calls for a half teaspoon of chili powder and Tony substituted fresh diced chili pepper.  It was very spicy and absolutely addicting.

                                                                                              
"Okay, I ate three spoonfuls of soup.  Is the meal finally over?"

                                                                                             
No, the best is yet to come.  I'm not usually a big fan of duck and would never order it in a restaurant, but Tony's duck was unlike any I have ever had, absolutely delicious.  And he did something I have never heard of - he stuffed the ducks with yeast bread dough and to everyone's surprise it was perfect.  A crispy mixed salad, a gravy to die for and fresh (!) cranberry sauce completed our feast.  What a delightful meal!

                                                                                              
Jenny was happy.  Her only complaint was that she ate so much of the pumpkin soup that she couldn't eat as much of the duck as she would have liked. 

                                                                                              
I think Chef Tony was pleased with the results.

                                                                                             

To be continued............

December 23,2006

I don't think I'll have time the next few days to post an entry, but I'll be back after Christmas, hopefully with some good pictures of our celebration.  In the meantime you can stare at the picture I've left for you.  I apologize for my angel.  She is having a bad hair day!

December 22, 2006

Since today was the first day of winter I thought I would write about our summer and remind myself that cold is not so bad sometimes.  When I think back to the summer of 2006 two words come to mind: hot and travel.  It  seemed that no matter where we were it was HOT and we were in a lot of different places. 

In June we flew to San Francisco and then drove to Lodi, which was our base for the next three weeks.  The weather had been beautiful right up to the time when we arrived, but it turned very hot about the day before we got there.  We're talking here about temperatures above 105°F.  I have to say though that there are three things that make the heat bearable in Lodi.  The first is of course air conditioning.  As long as we stayed in the house or car or somewhere indoors it was not a problem.  Even better, it really cooled off at night so that we could sleep without air conditioning and the mornings were cool enough to walk along the lake or go exploring.  And thirdly, there are areas not so far away where the temperatures are much lower.  I nearly froze in Carmel and had to buy a jacket because I hadn't taken anything warm along for the trip. 

We returned to Germany in July, happy to leave the high temperatures behind us.  Well, it wasn't quite so hot here in July, but it broke all existing records for the month.  What makes the heat here much worse is that there is no air conditioning except in our car.  Even the stores and movie theaters very seldom have it and where we live it doesn't cool off at night.  The heat finally broke at the beginning of August, almost as if it could read the calendar, when it was time for us to fly to Tbilisi, Georgia, to attend a wedding.  We spent a full week there and except for one day Tbilisi was the hottest city in the WORLD on the 24-hour news weather chart.  Of course, I'm sure there were hotter places that weren't mentioned, maybe in the Sahara or in Lodi, but the temperature went over 100°F every day.  And the air conditioning was iffy at best.

So where did we go next?  Why Istanbul is a lovely city to visit in August if you are looking for warmth.  We had to change planes in Istanbul anyway and the winter before when we planned our trip it seemed like a good idea to spend a few days there.  Actually it was a good idea because it's one of the loveliest cities I've ever been to and it wasn't quite so hot.  It was in the 90s but by then that didn't phase us.  We will go back to Istanbul, just not in August.

Keeping all of that in mind when I go outside now I find the 30s and 40s quite pleasant.  As long as the sun is shining.

December 21, 2006

It's time to take stock and see if I'm on track for Christmas 2006.  We aren't celebrating here so I don't have to worry about a lot of things that would otherwise be stressing me out.  We'll be at Lee and Tony's and his parents, who live in Spain, will also be there.  And Jenny and Ulf, of course.  And at the center of it all, full of expectation, Max and Alex.  Of course, it was even more exciting when they still believed in Santa but once children start school it's hard for them to continue believing.

There are really three days of Christmas here.  Christmas Eve is the main celebration when gifts are exchanged and Santa comes.  The meal is often simple because there is so much else going on, but since it's the only day all of us will be together Tony is cooking a big meal.  And anyway he has to show off their brand new kitchen.  On the 25th, known here as the first day of Christmas, Jenny and Ulf will be with his mother and family, although they will be sleeping here.  So I only have to plan a meal for Frank and me.  Frank is so easy to cook for that it will be no problem. Then we are taking Jenny and Ulf out to eat on the 26th, the second day of Christmas, also a holiday.  So all in all I don't have a lot to do to prepare for Christmas, but it's enough.

Check list:

1.  Christmas cards

Frank writes a Christmas letter every year which I have to add the pictures to, print out, write in everyone's name at the beginning and add a sentence or two at the end, put in envelops and seal, address, stick on return address labels, stamp and take to the post office.  48 times.  So far.  I only have two or three that I have to take care of tomorrow if I can find out where these people have moved to.

2.  Christmas e-mails

I have about ten people that I want to send Christmas greetings to per e-mail.  I'll have to get this done tomorrow and Saturday.

3.  Presents

I did ALL my shopping on line this year and the last package arrived today so I'm all set.  Except that I have a mountain of presents to wrap.  I started this evening.  One down and many more to go.

4.  Plan meals

I need to decide what we are going to eat on Christmas Day and the 26th for lunch and make a shopping list.  Plus Jenny and Ulf will be here at least for breakfast each day.  I just made reservations for the evening of the 26th for the four of us at a very good restaurant, so I only have to plan for a light lunch.

That's doable, isn't it? 

And now a picture from the days when Santa was still a figure of authority (2004).

   

December 20, 2006

Frank and I have been talking about going to the movies for weeks now but just haven't found the time.  I think the last film I saw was The Devil Wears Prada on the plane to the U.S. in October.  (It was good plane fare.)  My friend Magdalena and I had talked about going to see Little Miss Sunshine, which opened here recently.  We were hoping there would be a showing in English but we got tired of waiting when we saw no sign of it happening.  Frank was interested in seeing it too so the three of us met last night at the movie theater.  I had been hearing only positive critiques since the movie came out in the U.S. this past summer and was looking forward to finally seeing it.

Somehow I feel an apology is in order to all those who loved this film, because I didn't.  I'm sorry because I would have preferred to enjoy it.  I can't understand that on the IMDb board and in the discussion on the Usual Suspects forum there is not one single negative statement about the movie.  Everyone adored it.  Maybe it's a character flaw or a personality deficit on my part, although I have to admit that Frank and Magdalena didn't like it either.  First of all, I have had a problem with Greg Kinnear since the days when he had a late night comedy show right after Jay Leno.  However, he didn't bother me too much in You've Got Mail or Sabrina, or wait a minute... I didn't like him in Sabrina either.  Still, it wasn't entirely his fault because I thought the plot was very thin and utterly predictable.  There were so many issues that were brought up in this dysfunctional family - drug use, suicide, homosexuality, to name a few - but it seemed to me they were glossed over and not dealt with.  The main issue, the small girls' beauty pageants, didn't really need the grotesqueness added to it because to me they are grostesque to begin with. This is not to say that there was nothing good about the film.  The little girl who played Olive did a fine job and I liked the way Toni Collette played the mother, ineffective though she was.  I guess when it comes down to it I'm just not a fan of the grotesque so it just wasn't my kind of film.  Next week we're going to give Woody Allen another chance.  I didn't like Match Point because it was so un-Woodylike but maybe Scoop will be better.

(I sound so negative here.  Maybe I'll do a post about the movies I liked this year.)

December 19, 2006

Santa Claus came early to our house this year.  He arrived carrying a scanner for me, which I have been hinting that I need/want since I returned from my trip home to Savannah in October with several hundred old photographs and a promise to my brother that I would somehow make copies for him.  He has almost no photos at all of our childhood, but he will when I finish!  My father is no longer interested in old pictures (if he ever was) and they don't mean anything to my step-mother, who was glad to give them to us.  It sure freed up some room in one of their closets. 

Unfortunately I don't have any time right now to play with my new toy, which I would dearly love to do, but Santa stuck around long enough to install it and show me the basics of how to use it.  We chose a couple of old photos at random from the collection and scanned them.
                                                                                                                     

This one is of my Grandmother.  I'm not sure when it was taken, but evidently it was before my Grandfather died because she was still in Ohio.  (The other woman in the picture, whom I have cropped out here, is her sister and I don't think she ever visited her in Savannah.)  Anyway, we also made a copy of the whole picture on photo paper, enlarging it somewhat, and it turned out even better than the original!
                                                                                                         

This is an old black and white photo of my friend Nina, who lived next door, and myself (on the right) when we were living in Pensacola.  That means I was somewhere between the middle of the first grade and the end of the third.  For some reason we have quite a lot of pictures from our years in Pensacola.  I don't even remember who took most of them, although I would guess my father.

This is Daddy with my brother.  The reason we were in Pensacola was that my father was called back into the Navy during the Korean War and we had to move from Ohio to Florida.  I had just started the first grade, so my parents left me with my grandparents for a while until they found a house to buy.  My brother wasn't in school yet so he went with them.  I think this photo was from that time.  I enjoyed living with my grandparents but I didn't like going to a new school there.  I was a little overwhelmed since I knew absolutely no one.  But they did sell pop corn now and then on Fridays.  That was cool.
                                                                                                         

One last picture, which was actually one of the first ones we tried.  We wanted to see how a color picture would scan, but this photo of my girls from about thirty years ago didn't turn out so well.  Evidently the make up of the paper interfered with the scanning process and no amount of touching up could make it as good as the original.  Oh well, I don't really need a copy of this one anyway and I'm super pleased with the way the others turned out.  And I will have lots of play time after Christmas.

THANK YOU, SANTA!!!