Diesen Kuchen hat die Mama von einer Freundin gebacken. Er war gut und man hat garnicht gemerkt, dass er glutenfrei ist. Selbst nachgebacken habe ich ihn noch nicht.
Bei 160°C Umluft 1Stunde backen. Ofen vorheizen versteht sich von selbst.
All posts by Friederike Wunschik
Kuchen ohne Backen
Von den Kirschen im Glas war nur noch der Saft übrig… und ein paar wenige Kirschen… blöd.
Also, Rezept gesucht, gefunden und modifiziert. Meine Springform ist 18cm im Durchmesser.
50g Butter abwiegen und bei Zimmertemperatur weich werden lassen. Während man wartet einfach schonmal weitermachen.
125ml vom Kirschsaft mit entsprechender Menge Götterspeisenpulver (Himbeergeschmack) anrühren (meine Packerl sind für 1/2L, also hab ich 1/4 davon gebraucht) und nach Anleitung erhitzen. Abkühlen lassen.
Während die Götterspeise abkühlt 125g Löffelbiscuit in Gefrierbeutel umfüllen, Beutel zumachen, Löffelbiscuit mit Flasche oder Nudelholz zerbröseln. Danach die Brösel in einer Schüssel mit der Butter verkneten (am besten mit der Hand). Diese Masse dann als Boden in der Springform verteilen und andrücken.
150g Sahne steif schlagen.
200g Frischkäse (ich mag den Doppelrahmstufe) mit 50g Puderzucker verrühren.
Abgekühlte Götterspeise (abgekühlt aber noch flüssig) in den Frischkäse rühren.
Die Sahne in den jetzt pinken Frischkäse unterheben. Die dabei entstandene Masse über den Kuchenboden verteilen.
Kuchen in Form mind. 2 Stunden in den Kühlschrank stellen.
Mjam.
New Year, New Device, New Habits
So, for Christmas, I received a tablet. It is lovely and fits my limited needs (surfing the web, a quick email or two). But I still use the laptop for some things (typing longer texts, the Garden Planner at kgi.org).
Now, that the New Year is 3 weeks old, I felt the need to get a little more organized and thought of installing a to-do app. As I understand it, To-Do apps are the “Hello World” of apps; meaning that every tutorial and book on how to program an app uses them as their example. Consequently, there are a LOT of these apps around. I chose HabitRPG without testing any others.
I had read about HabitRPG on the interwebs (definitely on Soup.io and maybe BoingBoing.net) and I felt it was worth a try because
a) it’s free
b) it caters to my delight in checking off lists and having proof that I’m doing stuff
c) the rewards are listed too, making it much easier to say “Oh, I was such a good Fritzi today! I definitely deserve an hour of mindless internet / a new skein of wool / a frivolity of my choosing.”
I like the fact that I can differentiate between New Habits I’d like to form, daily tasks (there is an option to specify which days of the week the task needs to be done), and a to-do list with one-off or rarely reoccurring tasks (deadline optional). A task can even be comprised of several sub-tasks (for example: I can break “clean kitchen” down into “do dishes”, “wipe surfaces”, “clean stove”, and “clean floor”, checking off each sub-task as I complete it). I can determine a task’s or habit’s difficulty and am rewarded or “punished” accordingly. I can make up my own rewards and specify how many of my earned points they will cost me.
There is a social aspect to HabitRPG as well: just as many bigger MMORPGs there are guilds and groups, quests and bosses, and an inn where players come to chat and hang out. So far the only social aspect I’ve tried are the “challenges”. Anybody can make up a challenge. I’ve joined one which puts all the tasks necessary for looking after my plants on my lists. My progress is shared with all those who have also joined this challenge and, I’m guessing, there is the possibility of sharing one’s experience via chat.
I’ve installed the mobile app on my tablet and occasionally use the website (just because I like it better for editing and adding tasks).
After two days of using HabitRPG I can not say much, but I can say that it has made me more focused on working down my to-do lists and even makes me look forward to doing certain things, just because I want to feel like I’ve really earned that second cup of coffee or evening of scrolling through soup.io.
Next on my app wish-list is the Unfuck your Habitat app… simply because their website and twitter are helpful and wonderful. Maybe I can find a way to combine UFYH with HabitRPG? Will see.
Confession at the end: I love to-do lists and will sometimes put “have shower” on one just for the joy of having something to cross off. And then there are the days where having had a shower is one of my small victories of the day.
The Great Project of 2013
Later this year we will move into a different apartment. A bigger one. One with a garden. I am looking forward to this garden for a host of reasons. One of them is the price of berries at the grocer’s. Another is the time I can spend outside without having to pack all kinds of stuff before heading outside. On the other hand I am worried that the garden will be too big and take up too much time. I worry that we’ll spend lots of money and time on it, only to have things turn to mush, shrivel, or turn out to be too difficult for us.
My plant list inlcudes:
- strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants
- a chamomile lawn
- lavender, thyme, rosemary
- some fruit trees (cherries, pears, plums, apples — preference in that order)
- maybe a hardy kiwi
- different kinds of mint
- beans and peas
- zucchini and eggplant
- dahlia yams, now that I know they are edible
I’ve borrowed several books from the local library. We’ll see how it goes.
Sozialer Wohnungsbau
In der Stadt in der ich lebe, werden zur Zeit ganz viele neue Eigentumswohnungen gebaut. Hauptsächlich sehr schicke und natürlich dementsprechend teure Wohnungen.Das ist ja OK, find ich. Ich finde auch OK, dass die Wohnbaugesellschaft, die das vorantreibt, zum Teil der Stadt gehört.
Was ich ein bisschen schade finde ist, dass kein sozialer Wohnungsbau stattfindet. Mit anderen Worten es werden keine Wohnungen gebaut in denen weniger wohlhabende Menschen leben sollen. Sogar die Altbauwohnungen in den Gegenden, die in meiner Kindheit (aus vielen Gründen) als wenig attraktiv galten werden jetzt nicht nur von aussen saniert und renoviert, sondern auch viel kernsaniert. Das heisst: Mieter raus, Gebäude neu, Mieten hoch, neue Mieter rein.
Als ich das meiner Mutter erzählte, die in ihrer Tätigkeit als Ärztin schon in den damals als unschön geltenden Wohngegenden häufiger Menschen besucht hat (und Horrorstories erzählt), fragte sie mich wohin dann die ärmeren Menschen ziehen. Ich finde das ist eine gute Frage. In die Nachbarstadt? Aufs Land? Ich befürchte fast, der Stadt (Bürgermeister, Stadtrat, Planungsämter) ist das egal. Oder sogar recht. Weil: wer will denn schon arme Menschen in seiner Stadt?
Ein Bekannter argumentierte, dass ungebildete und arme Menschen ihre Umgebung nicht pflegen. Er sagte, dass der Müll nicht getrennt wird oder gleich auf die Straße geschmissen wird, die Wände besprüht werden und Grünanlagen zerstört werden. Ich sage: wir sollten uns auch keine Banlieus bauen, sondern lebenswerte Städte für Alle. Das heisst für mich: dass man zum Bäcker, Gemüsehändler und Metzger nicht mit dem Auto fahren muss; dass die Kinder nicht zur (Grund-) Schule gefahren werden müssen; dass kleine Läden den Stadtteil bereichern; und am allerwichtigsten finde ich, dass verschiedene Menschengruppen in einer Nachbarschaft leben. Vielleicht plant man ja zukünftige Häuser mal so, dass unten ein Laden oder Kiosk ist und oben drüber verschiedene Wohnungen für verschiedene Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Bedürfnissen und Geldbeuteln.
Illegal Immigration
So, the Associated Press drops ‘illegal’ from immigrant. Of course I post about it on FB. And someone links to this response and argues “If you steal something, you are labeled a thief — it doesn’t mean that’s all you are, but in relation to your action, you are a thief.” I like the analysis in the linked blogpost… but probably not for the reasons intended by its author.
The analysis in the article is accurate. And I think that is precisely the point. It is not an epistemological or ontological position. It is a stance based on the semiotics of the term. Calling someone illegal implies that their entire existence is and should be an affront to all decent human beings. I think that is exactly the mindset of those who defend the term tooth and nail. It is dehumanizing. The word ‘thief’ does not have that kind of negative association. Maybe we should start calling them ‘illegal obtainers’ instead.
As a side-note: I don’t think “politically correct” is a bad word. In my experience it is used as a negative by the same people who use “liberal” and “intellectual” as a derogatory term. Or whose regular vocabulary includes “feminazi”.
The Crazy Makes my Head Hurt — Updated
I picked up a pamphlet outside a hairdresser’s the other day. Finally got around to reading it and it is full of batshit-crazy conspiracy theories. Did you know, e.g. that Planned Parenthood is part of a eugenics conspiracy? That advocates of sex-ed programmes want to hypersexualize your kids so as to groom them for abuse? So much crazy in 6 very short articles made me write to the hairdresser’s to ask them why they had a holocaust-denier’s pamphlet next to their own brochures. No answer so far.
Note: I am not going to link or name the batshit-crazy publisher of the pamphlet, nor the hairdresser. Simply because I don’t think it’s a good idea.
UPDATE: the hairdresser answered saying that she always finds the articles in this publication interesting and that she thinks the publisher is being maligned because he dares to speak truths that the media ignores or hides. This answer is, of course, not what I was hoping for. I can understand her reasons but I don’t agree with them. She could be handing out pamphlets from Amnesty International or Reporters without Borders that also contain information that is relegated to the less prominent slots in traditional media… instead she chooses to hand out hateful propaganda by an unsavory character.
Morning Routines
There was a time when I would get up and, after washing my hands and face etc., make a cup of tea and check mail, read articles, check my Twitter timeline and plan my day. No more. Now I get up and attend to someone else’s needs, then I go to the bathroom, sometimes A plays with M and me in the bed before we all get up and make breakfast and tea and then I play with M until it’s time for a mid-morning nap that gives me enough time to empty the dishwasher and put a load of laundry to wash. Email, Twitter, the Guardian, the NYTimes, XKCD: all of that has to wait until I am nursing or M is distracted by a new toy (the lid of a jar, say).
Sometimes I miss being able to read 10 articles in one morning. Sometimes I end up nursing somewhere far away from the computer and the bookshelves. Sometimes M just won’t settle down for relaxed nursing or a mid-morning nap. That leads to me missing a lot of the Cyprus coverage. And the North Korea thing. Lots of news basically. Which is OK, I guess… but I feel kinda bad that I am really bad at having conversations about those things or anything grown-up and instead am good at having conversations about baby-related things. The unread and barely-read issues of Der Freitag piling up next to my bed are a constant reminder that I am not reading enough.
In conclusion: my belated New Year’s resolution is to read more non-baby things. Wish me luck.
What I read today
Because I barely have my arms to myself and am busy amusing a very small person I am not baking, cooking, writing or doing anything much that would interest anybody. But I can link to what I’ve been reading today… because I rather liked it.
- an article in the NYTimes about teaching literature
- an article in Forbes on why young women don’t run for office (which is interesting for me because I am running for office here in Central Franconia)
Also: in my head I’ve been working on a pattern… and because I haven’t really written many patterns it is a mess. So it’s a good thing it’s only in my head.
The fricking thing crashed and has been offline for several months
This is what happens because I am not tech-literate enough and because life-things happen and suddenly I don’t have time like I used to.
But now the blog is back up and I can ramble and post pictures of knitting and food. Hurrah!
Anyway. What was I up to: I was pregnant and gave birth, I knit two ZZZ-jumpsuits, I tweeted, I went to Berlin twice, I went and visited my 90-year-old grandmother for the first time in several years and showed her the new baby, and I bought books that I haven’t had the time to read yet. Also I spent lots of time doing the wonderful, repetitive, exhausting and exhilarating things that you do when you’re a new parent.
I also got to contribute a post on the always wonderful Bitch Flicks website.
That said: it is way past my new bed-time and so I will post this now and go and crash.
