Alone in Berlin

Not a single post in over a week. What's up with that? All I can say in my defense is that I have been busy. It's January and that means all the pennies I earned and spent for my doll business last year need to be counted so I can do taxes. This is not much fun at all, but it needs to be done. Those are the times I wish I could make dolls just for fun and give them away. I really don't like counting pennies. Who does?

Aside from that, there was this great 668 page book I got for Christmas. It totally drew me in.  I had to finish reading it. My husband gave me the 1946 novel Jeder stirbt fuer sich allein ( Every Man dies Alone) by Hans Fallada, a German writer. Apparently Fallada is a forgotten author who has been rediscovered recently in Germany and other parts of the world. The book I read hadn't even been translated into English until 2009 when it was published in the UK under the title "Alone in Berlin". 

I found this great summary that a reader from a US library wrote:

Written in 1946, but only recently translated into English, this novel tells the story of a Berlin couple who begin to leave handwritten postcards with subversive messages on them around the city after losing their only son, a reluctant soldier, in the invasion of France in 1940. Based on a true story, the book vividly conveys what it was like to live in a society where everyone was watching - and informing on - everyone else, where all your family and friends were tainted with suspicion if you stepped out of line, and the consequences included prison, concentration camps and the guillotine.

When you are a German national, a person with a German accent, living in the US or any other country, as a matter of fact, you are forever haunted by your history. I cannot tell you how many times the subject of Nazi Germany has come up over the years with various people of different ages and backgrounds. The ignorant things people will say at times still blow me away. I have had children in England, where I worked at a boarding school,  walk up to me with their hands raised Nazi greeting style, saying "Heil Hitler" to me. I had a roommate in North Carolina, mustache added with the other hand, do the same thing. Rather recently, a young boy age 15 or so,  asked me what I did during the war.  I am in my 40s, you know. Seems like there is something lacking when it comes to teaching history and perhaps good manners.

Will it ever stop? I think from now on I will point people in the direction of that book. It is the saddest yet at the same time most beautiful book written on the topic of what it was like to be a German during that time. This book will shake you to the core and leave you with the question: What would I have done if put in that situation? Would I have joined and become part of the system? Or would I have risked my life and stood up for what is right?  Hopefully none of us will ever be to put to the test.

With Love from GermanDolls

Finally I have been able to realize this new Dress Design. It has been on my mind for a very long time - ever since I bought this supercute fabric with loveletters on it. I wanted to create a pocket for my doll clothes that actually closes and opens and can hold a message or small item (piece of candy). I think it would be so much fun to exchange small love messages via this dress. Or maybe give a little gift. Maybe it could hold a tooth. I am sure the toothfairy would find it convenient...

So much fun!

As my daughter would say: "Isn't it totally adorbs!"

 

Pink Goodness

Since I shared the picture of this lovely pink drink yesterday I thought maybe somebody who is adventurous wants to try it. Just in case...

 here is the recipe for the Pink Cabbage Delight

1 1/2 cup water
a couple of slivers of red cabbage, less than a quarter of a head of cabbage
2 cups of frozen mixed berries (you can buy big bags at Sam's club)
1 banana
1 apple

Throw it in a highpower blender and blend until smooth.

Even my son had to it admit that this one wasn't too bad despite the fact that it had a veggie in it...

I know these photos have nothing to do with the smoothie. But they are sweet and lovable and good for the soul!

why wait?

I got an early start on my New Year's resolutions this year. What was my resolution? To eat healthier and cut down on meat and processed foods.

I checked out a number of books on nutrition back in November. I shared my thoughts on one of them, Mark Bittman's Food Matters, in a previous post. I thought why wait until the New Year when we really put on the pounds and eat gobs of unhealthy foods during the holidays?

I am so glad I did get an early start. It really paid off. Holding off on many of the sweets and adding lots of fruits and vegetables gave me tons more energy during this very busy season. It even aided me in shedding the pounds I had gained in June. One book in particular helped me to get on the right track. Green Smoothies Diet by Robyn Openshaw is a wonderful book I want to highly recommend to you. Not that I am an expert or anything. It just feels right...

Instead of buying each other Christmas presents my husband and I decided to buy a Vitamix blender. With this wonderful machine we have very much enjoyed blending everything from Kale to Goji berries into vitamin and nutrient packed smoothies. It's so easy and fun!

Selling this diet to the kids, however, has turned out a very tall order. How do you a convince a teen boy and tween girl to get over the green color and consistancy of a veggiesmoothie? Cats coughing up furballs make a more pleasant noise compared to a teenager asked to taste a veggie smoothie.  On the bright side: Fruit smoothies are not a problem... What kid doesn't like a sweet fruit drink?

Little mini-me loves this particular smoothie drink. It is made with veggies and not green but really yummy. It has red cabbage and frozen berries in it.

I think I can handle staying on this diet for quite a while.


What is your New Year's resolution? I wish you all Health and Happiness and lots of Engergy!

Patience...

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. Only 3 days left in the year. All in all it's been a good year, despite some medical challenges and the "big Colorado flood" of 2013.

My little business is thriving. Maybe next year will be the year that I will actually earn enough money so my income will pay for more than the occasional family vacation to Germany...Our little old house is in desperate need of new windows and re stuccoing. When it's windy outside you can feel it through every crack. The woodwork is in need of a paint job, too. When you live in an old house like this you are always in fear of the plumbing...

I feel torn because I want to preserve the old wooden windows but I know they are not energy efficient, and we simply cannot afford to have them rebuild to preserve heat in the winter and cool air in the summers. Living in this house is like being in the elements pretty much. You don't need to look out the window to know what the weather is like outside. LOL.

Patience, Dear, I tell myself. It will all work out in time. Little by little we will save up the money and get things fixed. Like that puzzle that we did over Christmas. It took a lot of patience. It looked impossible to do when we first started.

It's been our 3rd year of doing a family puzzle on Christmas day. This year's was a pretty tough one.

 

Usually I am the one to get the puzzle started. I dump all the pieces on the dining room table and start picking out the straight edges. Then my husband will join in and help with the task. He does the sky, and I start putting together the bottom/ground part of this year's picture. We work together quietly and patiently.

Eventually our daughter walks by. She will help organize the puzzle pieces by color for a little while. Maybe she will find pieces of the castle and put parts of the building together outside the boarder. As the image slowly grows our boy will finally join the family. He has been texting his friends all morning, telling them how his parents are making him do this crazy puzzle every year on Christmas break. But after all his grumbling, he gets excited, too. Together we make great progress and the picture of a beautiful Castle in Scotland emerges.

I love puzzles. Even the hard ones. After all, life is the hardest puzzles given to us to solve. I hope that the picture I am creating during my lifetime will be mysterious and beautiful to look at - like the Scottish landscape and the deep blue sky over Elean Donan Castle.

Frohe Weihnachten - Merry Christmas

The cookies are baked.
The Christmas tree is decorated.
The presents are wrapped under the tree.


What else?

I must have forgotten something...

I wish you all a Merry Christmas - or Frohe Weihnachten - as we say in German!

 

German Gingerbread Recipe

Happy Fourth Advent! Slowly I have been catching up on my chores to get done before Christmas. Two sets of cookies are ready and stored away neatly in tins. Sadly I didn't get any Christstollen baked this year. Usually I give a loaf as a gift to friends and folks who have helped me a lot during the year. But there is is still time, right? Like 3 days...

German Tin that was sent to me by my mother many years ago

Here is , as promised the Lebkuchen recipe for the German Gingerbread cookies in case you want to give it a try. Even if you don't have the rice paper, I am sure they would work on a well-greased cookie sheet.

 You will need the following ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of shelled fresh hazelnuts, ground into fine flour
• 3/4 cup almonds, ground into fine flour
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 stick softened butter (preferably unsalted)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup candied lemon peel, chopped very small
• 1/4 cup candied orange peel, chopped very small
• zest of one lemon

For decorating the cookies:

chocolate for glazing and blanched almond halves

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare two cookie sheets. I lined mine with parchment paper and put two sheets of ricepaper on top side by side.

Beat honey, soft butter, brown sugar together in a mixing bowl. You will need a mixer with a strong motor for this. My little handmixer had trouble with the chore. So when I made this recipe a second time around I doubled everything and used the kitchen aid instead!

Mix the two types of ground nut flour with flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda.

Add the eggs one at a time to the sugar, honey, and butter mixture. Then slowly add the dry ingredients. Add about a half cup at a time. You will get a very heavy batter.

Last add the chopped fruits and lemon zest.

The recipe we had suggested cutting the rice paper in rounds of about 7 cm diameter and making little balls that were about 2 tablespoons each, then flatten those onto the wafer rounds. Since we didn't know how to cut the rice paper in circles we rolled out the dough between sheets of parchment paper and made cut-out cookies. We baked them for about 15 minutes (or until they are dry on top) on the big sheets of ricepaper. We cut the cookies out of the rice paper after they had cooled down.

It's always fun when you share the cookies with folks who have never had real German Lebkuchen. They don't know about edible ricepaper and try to peel the "paper" off the bottom of the cookies.

After the cookies have cooled down you can brush them with melted chocolate mixed with butter or glaze or just leave them plain. You can stick some blanched almond halves on top of the cookies while the chocolate is still wet. I baked the almonds into the cookie and ended up having to paint the chocolate around the almonds. Duh!

I hope you give these cookies a try. If not this year - safe the recipe for next year. I will definitely make them every year from now on.