Month: December 2010

Pecan Pie

PC291395Pecans are not the easiest thing to find here. Most of the ones you find are smoked or salted or candied or something and not suitable for pie-making. Sarah did find them once at Aldi, but we’ve been prepared this time, somewhat, by importing a few pounds thanks to our Costco-membership-having friends and family on our last U.S. visit.

So, armed with those, we tried out a pecan pie. We took this recipe from epicurious.com used it mostly as-is, with the exception of the orange peel. It seemed dumb to me to only use one half-teaspoon of zest, so we put in the zest of a whole orange. That tasted great. Also, we backed off on the corn syrup somewhat (versus the original recipe), and I think we could have backed off even more.

Here’s what you need:

3/4 stick (75g) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (262g) packed light brown sugar
2/3 cup (150ml) light corn syrup
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest from one orange
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 cups pecan halves (1/2 pound or 227g)

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) with a baking sheet on middle rack.

Get yer pie crust into a 10-inch pie plate. Lightly prick bottom all over with a fork. Chill until firm, at least 30 minutes (or freeze 10 minutes). Our all-natural walk-in fridge (the little room between the hallway and our apartment) is ideal for this, but only some months of the year.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in the corn syrup, vanilla, zest, and salt. Lightly beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk the corn syrup mixture into that.

PC291394Dump the pecans into the pie shell and pour the corn syrup mixture evenly over them. Our pie plate was pretty deep, so we didn’t need to worry about syrupy eggy spill-over, but the original suggests baking on a hot baking sheet until filling is set, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool completely (go with the walk-in fridge again) — overnight is probably best.

Pummelvision

If you’ve got about 4 and a half minutes and have seen any pictures of ours since about September 2007, take a look at this. You might catch a fleeting glimpse of yourself or someone you know.

My Pummelvision from Cliff 1976 on Vimeo.

Pummelvision made this video for me at Vimeo based on images from my flickr photostream. I think it’s pretty neat. Just three steps:

1. I created a free account at Vimeo, and gave Pummelvision permission to use it.

2. I told Pummelvision to go check out my flickr photostream and make the Vimeo video.

3. Then I waited about a day for an email to arrive notifying me that the video is complete.

Details on the entire process are at pummelvision.com, but there’s really nothing more to it than that. In future versions you might be able to customize the music or select sets or collections for pummeling, but at the moment it’s one-size-fits-all.

Five Wintry Scenes

It’s been really pretty around here lately.

I snapped this on the way to work one morning a couple of weeks ago from the bridge from our island, over the Jahninsel, and across to the Unterer Wöhrd.

Barny - PC181333We found this guy waiting for us out in the cold at the Adventsmarkt im Katarinenspital. His name is Barny and he’s a Romanian Dwarf Donkey. As we were leaving to warm up back in our apartment, he let out a wail that made everyone stop in their tracks. That was the most sorrowful thing I’ve ever heard at a Christmas market.

Santa on Stilts - PC181348This guy might have been drunk — he was interrupting his own shtick to bark out commands at passersby snapping his picture (but not me).

Ornament - PC191368Sort of a self-portrait, snapped on the edge of the Lucreziamarkt on Haidplatz. I would have missed the shot but for our guests for the weekend, who pointed it out.

Altes Rathaus Christbaum - PC181349Merry Christmas everyone!

Getting a burrito in Munich

Two choices here, both courtesy of Emily over at Servus München (thanks!). Sarah noticed her nod to Wahaka, and later she clued us in to Milagros.

Wahaka

Not far from the Munich Hauptbahnhof, we ducked in there on a chilly Saturday afternoon. We both had chicken burritos and they came with the stuff you’d want: a nice limey salsa, guacamole, black or pink beans, seasoned rice, sour cream, shredded cheese. Sarah had a beef burrito once there, and the beef was Typical German Weirdbeef™ — but the chicken ones when I was in attendance were great. And about 5 lousy German corn chips.

So don’t go there if you’re expecting Dolores (like in Berlin). Given the reported Weirdbeef™ and chips, I’ll be cautious about trying other stuff. But the chicken burrito worked and I’d do that again. Just not on a Sunday, because they’re closed then. Also, there appeared to be a downstairs Party Room, possibly decorated with Piñatas in staircase. ¡Fiesta!

Milagros

But Milagros at the Viktualienmarkt is open Sundays. We stopped in there a couple Sundays ago for an early lunch. Viktualienmarkt, when everything is closed and slushy, is really depressing. Good thing the restaurant was open, warm, and inviting. We were the only guests in there the whole time, so I think they’re either still getting the word out, or Viktualienmarkt is just like that Sundays around noon.

I had a burrito and Sarah had a chicken enchilada verde. They brought over a little pico de gallo and some outstanding corn chips. And the pico was wonderful — heavy on the lime and cilantro. The menu got me looking forward to cilantro soup, but sadly, it was unavailable. The burrito I got was kind of a letdown, flavor-wise. It might have been too much Mex and not enough Tex. But Sarah’s enchilada was excellent. As much as I liked the pico de gallo, chips, and the salsa verde on her enchilada, I think my favorite part of the meal was the stroll downstairs to see a man about a horse. The facilities were beautiful talavera tile and sinks, spotless, and generous. And playing on the Muzak de baño was a cute little vocabulary lesson intended for the German traveler making friends and visiting an internet cafe in a Spanish-speaking country.

Both places are worthy of another visit under the right conditions. Maybe I’ll call ahead next time to make sure that cilantro soup is really an option.

Sanford & Son Airways

If you’re LUCKY, you get what you pay for. With some airlines, I guess you can expect even less.

[audio:streetbeater_in_flight.mp3]

We flew easyJet from Munich to London Gatwick for the most recent trip of ours here. Right from the start and along the way, the pilot earned from us the nickname “Capt. Overshare” — he apologized for the delay in getting us onto the plane from the bus on the tarmac and blamed the tardiness on the fact that they apparently missed the runway on their first approach and had to go around for another go. That, and that there are so many computers in modern flight control systems that “it’s ridiculous” and that they sometimes have to be rebooted, just like your computer at home, and that took some extra time that morning. Thanks, Cap. Very reassuring.

Then he told us about 4 times how the weather in Munich and London was and promised to give us more updates later.

Then we landed, and that appeared to go smoothly. Exiting the plane, however, did not. All the passengers were getting ready to go, standing in the cramped aisleways, struggling to get their carry-on luggage out of the overhead compartments without ceding any personal space in the queue towards the front exit doors, and no one was moving forwards. For several minutes. Capt. Overshare dutifully informed us that there was a technical problem with the jetway. A couple minutes later, he informed us that it was due to some genius (on the easyJet ground crew? Working for LGW? He didn’t specify, oddly…) pulling the emergency stop level on the jetway controls. Restarting the jetway to maneuver it into position for our plane could only happen after an engineer got on the scene to get it going again. The ground crew informed the captain that locating and dispatching the appropriate engineer would be more timely than bringing a set of stairs over to exit out the aft doors of the plane (indeed, this is how about half of the passengers boarded the plane in Munich). So we waited. And waited. And waited a little more.

Then Capt. Overshare got back on the PA to tell us that this was quite silly and he had insisted on the rolling staircase to get us off his plane. We all began to deplane out the back. Sarah and I were almost out the doors when he got on again to inform the few remaining passengers that they could finally exit out the main doors into the once-again-operable jetway, if they preferred. Thanks.

Then the next Monday, after flying back from Berlin on GermanWings out of Schönefeld airport the previous day, I saw a news article via Twitter about three planes’ drinking water contaminated with kerosene. They were GermanWings planes. Leaving Berlin. From Schönefeld.

I wish I could say I only run into these sorts of shenanigans on low-cost carriers, but I fear that’s not the case.