Cheese and Onion Soda Bread

Me choosing to make this bread coincided with the discovery of several bags of grated cheese in our fridge. Some people make sure they never run out of liquorice, lip balm or socks, in our household it's grated cheese. Even after I had made this bread - with its 75g of cheese - we still had four bags left...

Anyway, I decided to try out this recipe which is from a Paul Hollywood book enigmatically titled: 100 Breads.

Two lumps of dough criss crossed with a knife.

There's an appearance of bread here...

As I'd made such deep cuts with the knife at dough stage, it was very easy to break the bread into suitable pieces using our hands only. 

Considering how easy this bread was to make (just mix everything together, no proofing, no worries about making it look pretty), I didn't expect it to be as delicious as it was! And it was even great the following day. I'll definitely make this again - perhaps without the onion and cheese just to see if that works as well.

Smørbirkes / Special Danish Morning Rolls

These rolls were incredibly easy to make, once I got the hang of the 'folding'. They weren't as 'puffy' as the ones, you can by at the baker in Denmark, but I still thought they tasted really well. I froze some of them, and they were delicious warmed up.

I love it when I get to use my rolling pin.

As I didn't have any poppy seeds, I used caraway seeds, which worked well.

The finished product.

I really want to make these again soon.

I'm back...

Hi,

So, I didn't manage to stick to writing a post at least once a month in 2015. Neither did I keep up most of my other tasks on my list from January. But as we say in Danish: 'Pyt!' Which I guess could be translated into: 'Oh, well, the intention was there but I might have been slightly over-ambitious and under-realistic. Time to move on.'

My lack of sticking to certain projects hasn't hurt anyone and I'm still here, happy and hopefully back to blogging on a regular basis again.

What didn't I do:

• Weekly baking / bread making: I'll look into this again as we've moved since my last post and now have a bigger kitchen. And I have colleagues who like cakes. 

• Be more conscious of what I'm eating and drinking: I'm still conscious when I eat and drink, but that's about it. More work is needed here.

• Walk 10,000 steps a day: I did actually take this up again recently, but only recently.

• Find a yoga teacher: I have tried a few different ones and the best one is actually someone on YouTube. I did two weeks of regular yoga following her videos and then stopped. I need to go back and then not stop.

• Regular Zumba classes: Yeah, not really any excuse for this one. 'Karen, get back on the dance floor.'

• Avoid Starbucks: I tried and failed. I even have a gold card now. 

• Read German for at least 15 minutes a day: I'm not too worried about that, though, as I read, speak and occasionally write German at work (one of my Swiss-German colleagues always looks through any written text first in order to make sure I haven't inadvertently offended anyone before I send it out...).

• Write more reviews for TripAdvisor and become one of the 10% most popular reviewers in Zurich: Well, I haven't actually written many this year (if any), but I've still managed to move from being among the 20% most popular reviewers to the 15% most popular ones. I should get my act together, as we went to some fabulous places in Italy during our summer holidays.

• Use mindfulness and meditation daily. I really need to make this part of my routine again.

What did I do:

• Find out what to do professionally: Since July I've got a full-time job which I enjoy, so that's pretty good going. It's through a temp-agency and the contract runs out end of January - what happens then is still up in the air.

• Continue craft projects: I've finished the Cross Stitch Bitch and framed her, and started a new cross stitch project.

Here she is. I'm still not sure where to hang her.
According to my husband, it won't be in the living room.

I hope this will be finished before I turn 50.

• Furthermore, I've really got into colouring books (check out instagram @stefansmor)  as part of mindfulness and finding new ways of honing my focusing skills.

My first attempt.

This is a close up of a 'colour-in-yourself' postcard.

• Take a daily picture for Instagram: I don't take one every day, but I do post regularly. I've realised how much I like taking pictures of in particular buildings!!! My favourite subject is unsurprisingly Stefan and luckily he is very photogenic. (She writes humbly.)

I love how many vertical and horizontal stripes are present in this picture. Choosing the black and white setting helps display them beautifully. 

This is part of the Allianz Tower not far from where I currently work.  It is absolutely stunning and this is just a small part of a complex structure. I have taken quite a few pictures from various angles already...

Overall: I think what I have succeeded in and continue to do well without any effort is to prioritise spending time with Stefan and Paul and be happy and content with the here and now = life.

The Rosinger Family anno late summer 2015.

Thanks, if you're still out there and reading my blog. And welcome, if you stumbled across this in your search for something else.

Lots of love,

Karen x

Beautiful Italy, Beautiful Elba - a Family Affair

(This was written a couple of weeks ago. We're now back in Zurich.)

I'm currently sitting on our balcony with the most beautiful view towards a well-maintained garden, three pools and a little bit further out, the sea. After some discussion over a bottle of wine last night, I finally worked out which sea. Or did I? Maybe I just managed to boil it down to not being the Baltic Sea. Paul knows but he won't tell me and I don't trust the information on Wikipidia about Elba since it said that the population of the biggest town here is 500,000,000. Anyway, I can see a lot of water and a lot of sky. It sounds as if Paul has managed to get Stefan to sleep, so all I can hear are the birds doing their thing and a man carrying a ladder (yes, it's THAT quiet!).

We arrived on Saturday and will be leaving on Sunday. Driving. I love the fact that we can just get in our car and six-seven hours later (depending on traffic and strength / weakness of the passengers' bladders) we've exchanged a cloudy sky, sweaters and scarfs for sun, sandals and swimwear.

As a mother in possession of a mobile phone and no shame, I have minutely recorded Stefan's first proper meeting with the sea (last year, he had only learned to walk, so we were a bit worried about letting him too loose near the water), Stefan discovering sand, Stefan discovering sand in his shoes, socks, between his toes (his parents later discovering it in his hair, body, nappy...), Stefan eating ice cream, Stefan sitting on his dad's shoulders part 1, 2, 3, etc. Stefan playing in the sand with his dad part 1, 2, 3, etc. Basically a never ending series of pictures and videoes of Stefan and Stefan and his dad. I'd sent some of the pictures to some family and friends and one of my friends said, it would be nice to see some pictures of me as well. And I agree. Because I'm actually also here. But behind the camera. Which I think is quite often the case with mums.

Luckily, my sunny disposition and always positive attitude meant I found a solution to immortalise myself in pictures along with my son and husband:

Stefan and his stalker mum

A crazy big footprint in the middle of this picture

There's no stopping her

We might use this for our Christmas cards 2015

And the good old selfie 

Toddlers - the New Breed of Forensic Detectives?

After having spent yet another 45 minutes on a walk with Stefan which resulted in us exploring, minutely, an area the size of an A4 sheet of paper, I suddenly had a thought: Why don't the police train toddlers to become forensic detectives? They are naturals. Yes, there might be slight communication and behavioural problems and yes, it might not be entirely legal, but apart from that I really can't see why this isn't an amazing idea.

Here are some reasons why (based on my, yes, I will admit, perhaps rather limited experience, but still, I don't think Stefan is any different from other toddlers his age when it comes to the explorative nature of our walks).

• No stone, not even the smallest (including grains of sand), is left unturned, unstudied or in the cases of the younger toddlers, untasted. 
• Nothing escapes their gaze: Cigarette buds, rotten fruit, plastic lids, insects - so my argument would be that this were also to be the case with: Fingernails, minute body parts, hair, earrings, teeth, smaller bones.
• The same small area will be looked at from all angles more than once.
• Gloves are not necessary when it comes to examining any wet areas.
• When they're in the field, they're totally in the zone: They hear nothing and don't let anything stop them from for example digging into brown mud, not made out of soil, with a stick (if one is lucky!).
• Everything excites them.
• Confidentiality isn't a problem for them as they're unlikely to be able to talk. 

However, as in all employer-employee relationships, there are likely to be a few negatives and drawbacks when it comes to employing toddlers (in addition to the ones mentioned above):

• They might not understand the seriousness of the matter and laugh at inappropriate moments.
• They'll need longer and more breaks than older workers.
• They'll need help to go to the toilet and eat.
• They might ruin the evidence found and not want to hand it over.
• There is a chance that they'll suddenly get bored with the task at hand and nothing, no kind of bribe, that being monetary, extra annual leave, gym membership, monthly flowers, is going to make them change their minds.
• There might be more tears and hissyfits than with older colleagues.
• They will need a chaperone.

Over the next couple of months, I will do some more research. I have already started writing a questionnaire about Exploration Habits Among Toddlers When Going for Walks and in General (title to be shortened), which I 'm planning on handing out to the parents in Stefan's nursery to start with. Once a result has come back, I will make a pretty powerpoint presentation including loads of impressive slides and try to get a meeting in place with Herr Top-Police-Detective-Guy here in Zurich and see what he says. I think this could lead to something big. 

Actually, I have so much faith in this idea, I'm going to start designing appropriate forensic detective outfits for toddlers.

Chocolate Cookies with Chilli

Since I saw the recipe for these cookies a while back, I've wanted to try them out. But due to a disaster with some store-bought, ready-made cookie dough a couple of years back, I've been shying away from throwing myself into the art of making cookies, as I was convinced this was something I would never master.

Stage one: Getting the ingredients ready (which includes my mixer wearing a collar).

Stage two: The dough is being mixed using the correct tools and expert folding technique.

Stage three: Yumminess on a plate (with the mandatory glass of milk).

I decided to subject one of my therapy groups to my first batch of homemade cookies, and their comments were very encouraging. I didn't necessarily understand everything they said, but I returned home more or less empty-handed which in this case is a positive. And one of them asked for the recipe! Personally, I must admit I was a bit disappointed. I'd been looking forward to the chocolate / chilli combination but didn't think it worked that well. However, I am so excited that I managed to make cookies which didn't need to go directly from the oven into the bin...

Sports Update and Garlic Bread

Stefan is sitting in the sofa doing hand movements to 'Wheels on the Bus'. He's actually pretty good and I'm almost jealous of the fact that he knows the order of them already (he's also able to copy all the gestures Pharrell Williams does in the beginning of his video to 'Happy'! We might look into entering him to some highbrow show for intelligent people thought up by Simon Cowell in a year or two). I'm still struggling with the moves and routines in my Zumba class. Admittedly, I haven't actually been going to my class regularly, but that's all about to change! 

BECAUSE:

My yearly subscription to the fitness center two minutes' walk from here (three, if the wind is in my face (headwind?)) ran out last month and having no income, I felt rather reluctant to fork out quite a lot of non-existing money on something which might end up just being another card in my collection. So I was toying with the idea of saying: Been there, didn't really do much of that, did buy some sports t-shirts.

UNTIL: 

(Does this capitalising work? I'm trying to create a somewhat dramatic atmosphere.)

Da-da-da-daaaah: Paul made a suggestion: He'd pay for a new subscription under the condition that I go at least 52 times. If not, I'd have to pay him back. Theoretically, I thought this was an amazing offer and theoretically, I could definitely see this as the incentive I need in order to start going more regularly. Not having the best track record when it comes to turning theory into practise, I still decided that with a 'can-do' and 'I'm going to show myself (and a little bit the world)' attitude, this project should be feasible. Hence, I accepted the offer. It's now been a month or so and I've been to Zumba once (Easter got in the way last week) and I'm planning on going tomorrow morning, so I'm on track - also because the subscription runs for 13 months...

The search for a yoga teacher / class is still ongoing. I did a couple of sessions from YouTube which were actually quite good, but I would like to be in a studio surrounded by mirrors, as I need to make sure I do the movements correctly. (Not to admire myself as most of the poses are rather unflattering unless you're very lean and fit and don't wear socks with rubber underneath them.) And it would be good to have a teacher there as well who can guide and instruct in person. 

Reaching 10,000 steps a day is actually a bit more tricky than I first thought. However, with the warmer weather coming our way and the increase of number of hours of daylight, I should be able to improve this. So I keep monitoring my steps and my weight. Which goes up and down, but if nothing else, it shows that the pedometer works and it creates a more interesting graph than one that just goes down, stays still, or moves up...

What I have done / added to my fitness routine is cycling into Zurich city centre and back from here when the weather's good and I have morning therapy. It's about 7 km and takes 20-25 minutes. 

I feel that I've made some progress but know that I could do better. 

On a final note, I would like to show a couple of pictures of the making of what I personally think is the best garlic bread I have EVER tasted. 

The dough has been stretched and shaped into a rectangle.

Cutting and slicing job done and on with the garlic and herb butter.

Bird's view of the buttered slices having been placed in the tin.

Post-bake in tin.

Final result.