Back in Canada, I kind of loved awards shows. I wasn’t one of those people who watched every single one, but I looked forward to the Grammys and the Oscars every year, and sometimes had friends over to watch. They were evenings that usually involved food, cocktails, fashion talk and general girliness. It’s stuff like that that kind of makes me homesick sometimes. Over here, Oscar parties aren’t really doable, because the awards are always hosted on Sunday, and the time difference means that the red carpet doesn’t start until about midnight, and the awards ceremony itself starts at around 2 am. Since it’s a workday on Monday, that doesn’t usually equal a lot of social possibility.
However, since I’ve been a student over the past couple of years, I have usually been able to watch the Academy Awards. I usually stay up as late as possible, and I’m sure to DVR it as I will inevitably fall asleep before the awards are over. I gossip about it over facebook and twitter, which sounds lame but I enjoy talking about it and usually only Canadian friends are actually awake. This year was no different, and I made some popcorn and sat down to watch the 84th annual Academy Awards.
Overall, it was a bit boring, but much better than last year. Billy Crystal was a safe choice as a host given the terrible choices last year, but I felt he was a bit stale. I would have liked to see Tina Fey (possibly even with Alec Baldwin) or Jason Segel host. I vote Jessica Chastain best dressed, with Octavia Spencer as a runner up. I was thrilled when Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actor, because I think he’s more than earned it, and his performance as Captain von Trapp in the Sound of Music always makes me cry, specifically when he sings Edelweiss at the end. I’m not even exaggerating; I actually tear up every time I watch the film. I only managed to stay awake until 4:30 am or so, and then I fell asleep. I watched the rest this afternoon when I finally got going, but my DVR cut off the award for Best Picture, so I had to Google it.
I’m still pretty tired. I’m not really big on staying up all night anymore. If possible, I’ll still do it again next year, and if not, I’ll probably DVR it and try to avoid seeing the results, as I enjoy the anticipation of not knowing who will win.

Sunday Morning

February 26, 2012

general

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I love Sunday mornings and early afternoons. I usually like to eat a nice breakfast (one that’s a bit more indulgent than normal), watch a film or some TV, or read. Later in the day I might go to Mauerpark or to the Lake (in the spring and summer) or cook or do some crafts (autumn and winter), or some other relaxing activity, but the mornings are nice. It’s good, solid personal time. In Germany most businesses are shut on Sundays (except cafes and restaurants). It was something that really annoyed me when I first moved here, because I was in the habit of doing grocery shopping and other errands on Sunday afternoons. How, it’s become something I actually admire about this country. A lot of countries have lifted the restriction and shops are open on Sundays, but Germany mostly sticks to it. It means that most people you know will have a day off, and if you really need something a select few places are still open. It kind of creates a day of relaxation, and once you get into that mindset, it’s really nice.

How I Stay Fit When I Have No Time

February 25, 2012

fitness

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Fitness posts don’t really dominate this blog, and I’m not a trainer or heavy into sports, but I do love to stay active and I find incorporating movement in my life to be very important. I love to do a number of sports, from skiing to cycling, but sometimes life gets in the way. To stay sane, I find it really important to make an effort to still stay active, despite time constraints. Here are a few tips as to how I do it:

1. I do exercises while I watch TV. During the down time I have in the morning and when I get home in the evening, I like to do a few crunches, leg lifts, squats, and things like that. If I’m feeling energetic I’ll even ride my stationary bike for a bit or lift weights. I get the reward of watching my favourite shows, but also I get a workout.

2. I take the stairs. This is a no-brainer when you think about it, but it’s easy not to do it. In some places these days, it’s hard to even find stairs! When I do, I take them. It’s little details like this that help stay in shape!

3. I cycle. This is a big one. I cycle most places, and I find that even with Berlin’s excellent public transport system, I can still cycle a lot of places faster than I can take the train. If the train involves a ride on one S-Bahn or U-Bahn line, it’s usually a bit faster, but if I need to change or I’d have to take a tram or bus, cycling is faster. The weather in Berlin isn’t always great, but I find the way around this is to dress appropriately. Cycling so much really makes me wish I’d done it more in Canada. Looking back, I haven’t lived anywhere where it wasn’t possible to cycle to school or work within a reasonable amount of time. In some cases it would have been faster to cycle, as it is here. There are a lot of benefits as well other than just the fitness factor. It’s cheap (nearly free), and it’s great for the environment!

4. I take short walks. Even if it’s just to get up and walk around the house or office for a bit, I get up and walk around. I think it’s really important to take breaks from sitting.

5. I make time. Sometimes, it’s just necessary to make the effort to carve out time to get some exercise. When you think about it, 30 minutes isn’t that much out of a day, even when you’re busy. I hate the gym so I don’t go, but I make an effort to do some stretching, light weights, run, walk, cycle…whatever I can manage to do in that amount of time.

6. I’ve found a number of activities I enjoy doing. It’s really important to actually enjoy some form of physical activity. That way, it doesn’t feel like a chore. When you’re busy, doing something you don’t really enjoy feels like extra work. So, try to find something you like. Try different things out…there are so many workouts and sports out there that there has to be something enjoyable to do.

I Love Dolly Parton

February 21, 2012

music

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No disrespect to Whitney Houston…she was an outstanding singer and may she rest in peace. Her cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” is passionate and her vocals are exceptional. HOWEVER, it does not hold a candle to the original. There is a lot of beauty in Dolly’s original version, and the first time I heard it, I cried.

I admit that I used to be a bit of a snob about country music. As a teen, it was something I just didn’t want to consider. Dolly Parton singlehandedly changed that. I guess you could say her music opened a door that will never, ever close.

And wow….she had some big hair!

Recipe: Flavoured Liqueurs

February 19, 2012

food, recipes

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Flavoured liqueurs are getting pretty popular lately, and though it seems you can get every flavour of vodka, brandy, etc under the sun, and though alcohol is relatively cheap in Germany, I like to make my own. It’s a great way to use fruit that’s slightly overripe, or peels, and other such things that would normally get thrown out (and as I’ve said before, I have a hate-on for waste). It’s really easy, and not as time consuming as it looks.

In this example, I’ve made lemon brandy. I also take the brandy-steeped lemon peel and make candied lemon peel, which I’ll either use in a recipe or eat on its own (it’s delicious!)….not sure which yet!

Ingredients:
Lemon peel
Brandy
sugar
water

First I peeled my lemon. I just used one lemon for this recipe, but I only made a small amount:

The lemon peel went in a jar, which was topped up with brandy until the peels are covered. If you want to make a large amount, you might want to use a carafe or jug. Just make sure you cover it (plastic wrap with an elastic band will do). Just keep in mind that whatever bottle you want to keep your finished product in, you also want to leave room for the simple syrup (this keeps your finished liqueur from tasting like medicine).

Next, I left the brandy and lemon peel to steep. Usually it’s about 3+ weeks. I left it for a month.

Then I removed the lemon peel and poured the brandy into a bottle (I save bottles for such uses). I then made a simple syrup (just boil sugar and water until you get a syrup consistency) and added it. The mixture was about 3/4 brandy, 1/4 syrup. I tried it without the syrup but it tasted like medicine.

I candied the lemon peel as well. As it had been steeped in brandy, it made a really great candied peel. I chopped the peel, boiled it in sugar and water until sticky, then let it dry slightly, separated it, and the let it dry completely on some parchment paper.

(excuse the blurriness of the last photo…I had forgotten to take one of the finished peel and by this time it was late at night).

The peel can be saved in a small jar and used for baking, or eaten as a tasty candy! The brandy can be enjoyed on its own or used in cocktails

Enjoy!

Valentines Day 2012

February 14, 2012

food, musings

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It’s that day again. To be honest, I love Valentines Day. I’m single, and to be honest, I’m not totally happy with that. But that doesn’t mean that I hate Valentines Day, or feel lonely and needy because I’m not in a relationship at this moment. Love doesn’t have to mean ‘relationship’, and it’s important to appreciate yourself as well. I have been a cynic in the past, but I’ve re-embraced that part of me that’s a hopeless romantic. I still dislike a lot of the commercialism that goes into the day, but the idea of on day all to itself to celebrate love is inspiring. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a relationship or not; there are all kinds of love in the world. You can celebrate with a significant other, your close friends, family, or even show a bit of love to yourself. I hate a lot of the negativity about Valentines Day. If you hate commercialism, fine, but don’t hate the idea of a day to celebrate love. If you hate relationships, why not celebrate the bonds you have with your best friends? I’m on my own today, but I’ve had such an amazing evening. I cooked myself a prime cut of steak, made sweet potato mash, and bought a tiny bottle of champagne and some truffle cheese and chocolate truffles. I also did an at-home manicure and facial while watching movies I love. I push myself pretty hard between working, studying and doing artsy stuff, so I thought it was a great opportunity to show a little love towards myself!

(My dinner, via dodgy phone pic)

Anyway, to all you cynics, I think you should consider a change of heart. To all the lovers and optimists, happy Valentines Day! Love you all!

Thai Chicken Pie

February 13, 2012

food, recipes

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I made this a few weeks ago, but forgot to post about it, but since I’m a bit short on material, I’ll post about it now!

This might look like any other pie, but don’t be fooled. This is no ordinary pie! First off, it’s a meat pie. I first started making meat pies before Christmas using this excellent page on Medieval cookery as a guide. After a while, however, I thought that there must be more that could be done with a meat pie than the traditional ingredients and spices. I’d heard of curried pies, so I tried my hand at making a Thai Curry pie with some leftover red curry chicken I had in the fridge. I still used the instructions in the page I provided above as my guideline, but I threw in lemongrass, red chili peppers, grated ginger, coconut milk, some of the red curry sauce left over from the chicken recipe (available here for reference) and rice. I served it with leftover red curry sauce, and when that ran out it was pretty tasty with some Thai sweet and sour sauce I had in the fridge.

If anyone is curious, I also boiled the bones and the very last hints of meat to make this Thai chicken soup recipe. I got a lot out of that chicken!

*Note* I just use a basic pastry recipe for my pie crust. I usually use that crisco provides, but I use lard instead of shortening (I can’t find shortening that doesn’t have palm oil in it). If you’re gluten intolerant, there are also a number of great gluten free pastry recipes on the net. I recommend the one that Gluten Free Girl has on her site.

Link Sauce #2

February 9, 2012

general

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As I’ve been knocked out with the flu all week, I haven’t really done much interesting that I can share with you. I didn’t leave my house on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and only did so today for a bit and it totally exhausted me. I’ve lived off a steady diet of water, healing tea, ramen and oranges. I did manage to write a bit (not a lot) though, and I can recommend that you watch Lost Girl (which I was really proud to discover is Canadian…yay!). I also read a lot of stuff, so I thought I’d share another round of links!

1. A very inspiring editorial on mental illness via Huffington Post Canada

2. Literary criticism in the 21st Century via Time

3. 5 Real life places straight out of fairy tales via Cracked. I really want to visit some of these places. I’ve already been to Neuschwanstein. The hoards of tourists somehow made it much less impressive.

4. Latest Game of Thrones Season 2 character photos via HBO. If you’re a fan, you’ve probably already seen them on Facebook, Twitter or everywhere else on the net, but since they’re awesome, I thought I’d share them again. Plus, here, they’re bigger. I love to see how the books come alive in the series. April 1 can’t come fast enough!

And, that’s all folks. I’m hoping for a speedy recovery!

Recipe: Healing Tea

February 8, 2012

food, recipes

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It’s that time of year again. Temperatures have dropped (albeit a bit late) and it seems half the city of Berlin is infected with some ailment or another, including me. I’ve been knocked out with the flu all week. Usually, I get better pretty fast, and barring that I go for a combination of NeoCitran and a lot of sleep, but I am out of NeoCitran and they do not sell it here. So, I’ve decided to revisit an old herbal remedy I found helped in the past. It wont cure you really, but it will help sooth your symptoms until your immune system does the trick!

Recipe:
1 chunk of ginger about the size of the top of your thumb, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped in half
1-2 cinnamon sticks
a few whole cloves
a few whole cardamon seeds

Mix ingredients in a small pot of water and bring to a boil. Let simmer for a few minutes. Drink with honey and lemon juice, to taste.

I know the garlic sounds weird, but with the other strong spices you can’t really taste it. The ginger will sooth your stomach (if you’re nauseous) and throat, and help clear your sinuses. Honey will also help out with the throat thing. Garlic and lemon juice are full of nifty vitamins, which help you fight infection. The other stuff helps it taste really good.

I usually make a large pot of it instead and double the recipe, and heat it up and drink it throughout the day. Enjoy!

*Note* I am not a doctor. I am recommending this if you are minorly ill with something like a cold or mild flu. If you’re seriously ill, have bad symptoms or have symptoms that persist for more than a week, please go see a doctor.

Cross-Country Skiing in Berlin

February 7, 2012

fitness

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I was walking through Wannsee in the summer, and I was thinking about how lovely the woods that surround Berlin are. I got quite into outdoor sports last summer, and I thought to myself “I should find a good way to enjoy the outdoors in winter too.” I’ve always been a skier, and I feel that skiing is the only reason for winter existing. I hate winter and think it’s just overall too cold and dark, but skiing made up for it a bit. However, Berlin is lacking one key element to downhill skiing- mountains. Back home, we have lots of mountains and skiing and snowboarding are popular sports, but here, one needs to have the time and money to go elsewhere, and when you grow up being able to drive to a ski hill in less than an hour, it feels really inconvenient and unnecessarily expensive. My summer walk inspired me, however, and I decided to take up cross-country skiing, aka “langlaufski fahren” in German. It’s a ski sport that doesn’t involve hills, so it seemed perfect for Berlin!

I managed to find some used skis from the DDR on ebay. I also got some poles and boots. All together, the lot cost me about 40 Euro. I’d say that if you’re interested in buying cross-country skis in Germany, ebay is a good bet, and it’s cheaper to get everything separately. Also, items in your city for pick-up only are a lot cheaper, as they wont get bids from people out of town. I found that the only problem was that it was a bit tricky to get poles. Most poles that came up on a search were for the nordic walking poles, even when I specifically searched under ski equipment. Also, you have to mind the bindings. Older skis have bindings called NN75 (the ones with the three prongs that the boots clip into), and you have to get boots that match. Newer ones have clip-in bindings.

If you don’t want to buy skis, there are a number of places in Berlin that rent them. A google.de search will get you lots of results, but if you’re lazy, these are the top results I found when I was looking for a friend:

Cheapest, but in Schoeneberg…maybe not so convenient if you’re in Mitte/P-berg/X-berg.
Pricey, but conveniently located in Prenzlauer Berg
Mid-price, and convenient in Tiergarten

Of course, what’s “convenient” depends on where you live. Perhaps you live in the West and Schoeneberg is easier for you. I’m just going by where I am.

There are a lot of great places to cross-country ski in Berlin. Pretty much any park with good pathways will do, and the outer edges of the city contain a lot of park lands. I was considering going to Mueggelsee, but I opted for Wannsee as I was going alone and felt it would be best to go where there would be a few more people. Also, it was a walk through Wannsee that inspired my decision to cross-country ski. I had a fun time. It’s tough if you’re used to downhill skiing, and it’s a definite workout even if you’re fit. The snow was a bit thin (as you’ll see in the photos) but it was ok to learn. I got some strange looks on the S-Bahn on the way there, but I ran into several people on the pathways who thought it was really cool. Apparently many residents of Zehlendorf cross-country ski.

Anyway, now for photos!

(The snow was particularly thin here, but it was good to get them on).

(Snowy forest!)

(Me in the snow)

(I actually had to take my skis off here, as it was a hill and the snow was too worn down, and there were too many tree roots to get in the way).

(The lake was frozen. People were skating on it, and I was told I would be able to ski on it, but I opted not to, because I figured that if something happened, I was alone and no one would be there to help).