Ginger-Lime-Rhubarb Compote {an after pie date}

Do you have certain routines you tend to stick to?

I was thinking about that recently while I was reading through old blog entrees I had posted back in Vancouver (Well it was this certain one). I think I do have a coffee routine for example (two coffees each day (don't judge me!) one after breakfast and one after lunch). Or a bath routine. But what are routines exactly? I sort of think, they are probably nothing more than rather specific habits.

Anyway. Back to what I actually wanted to talk about. Pie. As in the pie I made this weekend and I was posting about yesterday.
I told you that I somehow was sort of a bit unsure (haha that does sound quite uncertain!!) about the whole tofu thing. So, yesterday I took that pie to another level. And after that I felt more than a 100% sure about the recipe!!

I love the colors of rhubarb

And the smell of ginger

Rhubarb-Ginger-Lime Compote
You'll need:
(My pre-skype cooking because I woke up too early am apparently bad at math)

• 1 package rhubarb (I think that meant about 8-10 rhubarb "rods")
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 piece fresh ginger (thumb-size)
• a bit lime juice (I used my leftovers from making the pie...so probably 1 Tablespoon)

1. Wash and cut your rhubarb into small pieces.
2. Fill into a large sauce pan and cover with the sugar and the lime juice.
3. Let it sit for at least one hour (Until the rhubarb released some liquid).
4. Bring to a boil until the rhubarb has softened and the whole thing has a compote-consistency.
5. Turn off the heat and add your pealed piece of ginger.
6. Let it simmer for another few minutes. Remove the ginger afterwards.

Either leave it in the sauce pan and eat it immediately plain, with yogurt or with vanilla ice cream, or keep it for the next day. Or fill it into a jar. If you want to keep it longer, flush the jar with boiling water and fill the rhubarb compote in while it's boiling. This way the jar will "seal" itself and you'll be able to keep it longer. We however, didn't keep it longer.
Because: If you take a piece of that awesome pie, add some vanilla ice cream and left over crust crumbs AND pour some rhubarb-ginger compote about the whole thing...

...it's going to be heaven!!!! Trust me!

Otherwise today is the start of my work week (I got Monday off but I'll have to work Saturday so that's kind of fair). Happy work to you all! (I'm trying to convince myself with my own enthusiasm...does this count as cheating?)

My first skype-bake-date {A chocolate lime pie story}

So you had already gotten a hint this Friday about today's post, but you really couldn't guess how awesome it would get. Well, I couldn't either for that fact. Because just last Monday I received this message: "I think we should both making this in real time together over skype. Wouldn't that be fun?". Can you follow? No? I couldn't either.

- What in real time together? I'm confused^^
- like we both do it together...not take pictures of it that we both did it (not at same time)
- But do what? haha
- MAKE the pie!! (Oh ok...so we were talking about a pie!! We're getting closer...)
- I think I'm missing out on important information ^^
- OH crap I never copied the link hahaha

Ha. I knew there was one important point missing. And because I don't want to be mean, that was the link that got forgotten about the excitement of actually making it: neverhomemaker's Chocolate Lime Pie.

OMG! That pie looked delicious!

Here's the point. The person I was writing with didn't live in Germany. She doesn't even live in Europe come to say so. She lives in North America. Canada that is. Nine hours time difference to be absolutely accurate. But because we were both crazy enough (and we both love pie. Vegan chocolate lime pie! (I had to say that again!!)) We set up a Skype date for 10pm Saturday her time and 7am Sunday my time.

Somehow this 7am didn't really make it into my mind I'm simply horrible in math though and until the very moment I was looking at my computer watch (It's still running on Canadian time) I didn't realize it would be 7am for me. At that point I was already dressed in my kitchen at 6(!)am. So I woke up a bit earlier than necessary but oh well.

Back to talking pie. I have do admit I was in love with that pie the moment I saw the picture. That was, until I read the ingredient list. Because this one said: Tofu. Like in...well...tofu.

Tofu

Somehow I'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to "hearty" ingredients in sweet things. They just don't belong there for me. I need eggs and sugar and butter. (And it might also have to do with the fact that the only time I ever used something not-supposed-to-be-in-a-dessert item, sort of stuck with me...my friends love to remind me of my pea-cupcakes haha). So I wasn't too sure on how I felt about it but I would give it a try anyway. 7am on a Sunday morning.

If you want to follow me you'll need:
(Recipe from neverhomemaker)

For the crust

• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup walnuts (though I didn't have walnuts and just used 2 cups of almonds)
• 1 cup pretzels
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (I used a bit more because my crust just stayed really dry. Though my friends crust was rather too moist with the 1/4 cup. So you might have to see)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 Tablsp. butter (the original recipe asked for Earth Balance)
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder

It's actually pretty easy. Just put all the ingredients into your food processor and mix. I started with my almonds since they were going to be the "hardest" part. Oh, and my food processor is to small. Duh.

After you're done mixing, fill it in your pie pan. We both had a bit too much of our crust but we just kept it. (That stuff is seriously good!!)

Happy skypers

Pretzel, butter, almond goodness

 For the filling

•  1 block (extra firm) tofu (our store just had one kind of tofu so I went with it. I just made sure to squeeze as much liquid as possible out, before I used it)
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (I used more, again)
• 1/4 cup lime juice (we both used a bit more)

Too small. Haha. This is the tofu by the way. Looks like chocolate truffles....

 I also added 2 Tablespoons cream cheese at the end since my filling wasn't as light in color as it looked on her pictures. And I also needed something to balance the "tofu taste" (which shoecked me a bit at first). This however, is optional (and sort of takes the vegan part...but I had already used utter so I didn't mind anymore. I'm not vegan).
Put all the ingredients into your food processor and process until creamy. Fill into your pie pan and cover with a few crushed pretzel pieces. You're done!!!

TWO pies made together in "real" time ;)

I kept telling my friend that my kitchen was a total mess. Here's the proof that it was a total mess! I cleaned it up though ;)

Soooo...I had made a pie with tofu. And it looked amazing. I have to admit the first piece was rather... interesting. It's not what you're expecting if you're not used to it. The tofu "taste" is still quite dominant. But, however, by the end of the day 1/4 of the pie was gone just on my account! So I guess I liked it. And it's super filling. AND it's healthy. So you don't feel bad about wanting to have a second piece.
AND....I'll show you tomorrow on how to take this pie to a whole new level which makes it like I-want-to-sit-in-this awesome!! (By now there are about two small pieces left. And it was just my mum and me. Ops)
But if you're open minded (and especially after tomorrow) you should definitely make this pie (also because it's super quick...if your food processor is big enough that is!)

Ok. It IS quite awesome!!

My first taste test piece

I wish you all a good start into your new week!!

FrageFotoFreitag {der letzte im April}

Ich achffe es nicht immer aber wenn ich es schaffe, dann macht der FrageFotoFreitag von Steffi immer einen wahnsinnigen Spaß!! Und jetzt während die Sonne schon durch mein dringend zu waschendes Fenster scheint und ich mich gleich aufmachen zu meinem letzten Tag im Praktikum (oh je, was werde ich da einiges vermissen), lasse ich euch meine fünf Antworten da ;)

1. Woran hattest du diese Woche Spaß?

An ganz viel qualitativer kleine-Menschen-Zeit (und dem tollen Wetter, das man so schön draußen auf den ganzen Spielplätzen genießen konnte)

2. Was geht am Wochenende?

Das da. Ha! Und es wird klasse!!! (Mehr am Montag ;) )

 

3. Der Hit?

Das Geburtstagsgeschenk von meinem Bruder "Was Frauen schauen" haha...aber recht haben sie ja schon ;) (Und ein bisschen schmachten darf jeder mal oder?!)

4. In Planung?

Freundinnen-mäßige-tolle-wahnsinnige-Koch-Abend-Abenteuer (Ja das ist ein langes Bindestrich Wort!!)

5. Und sonst so?

Werde ich noch die Sonne und das schöne Wetter genießen (so lange eben Jenes eben mitspielt).

Ich wünsche allen ein wunderbares und hoffentlich entspanntes Wochenende :)

Feet related things {a glue and fabric heaven}

So I actually got sick. But I hope it's done with "one day in bed and a lot of sleep" (Fingers crossed!!)

Anyway, if you read Outofpeonies you may have noticed over time, that I love to re-do my shoes in any kind of way. But mainly, I love to get fabric involved. So right now, having my rather tight budget in mind, it was time to turn one of my old and boring pairs of shoes into something "new".  No money(?!) but new shoes?! Perfect!
And the only things you'll need are: some fabric, some glue and an (old) pair of shoes (oh it rhymes). Sounds easy, right?!

Old... and new!

1. Cut out pieces of your chosen fabric which are about the size of the area you want to cover. (Make them a bit bigger. You'll be using the scissors later). They also don't have to fit in shape. Just make a rectangle...or circle.
2. Start covering the area, you want to apply your fabric on, with glue.
3. Apply your fabric. (Help: I start with a larger "flat" area and cover areas close to the shoes soles or the simply smaller ones later.
4. Cut close to the border and "close" with more glue.

It is a bit tricky sometimes and definitely sticky but you'll get it pretty quick. I took step by step pictures when I did those shoes here.
I also changed my shoe laces since I thought white just looks better for contrast-matters....duh. 

And they are used non stop. However, this sadly does include quite a lot of sandpit visits right now. And those are not really good for keeping ones shoes nice, clean and shiny (especially when the kids decide that it would be the best to put them into the "oven" to "bake" them. Aka: bury your shoes ankle deep into sand. *sight*). Oh well. They were made for those things, right? Right! Shoes in action ;)

Blurry feet but a clear, tiny kid hand. Somehow I really love this picture.

Oh and the second thing I wanted to mention: Our magnolia and cherry trees are blooming. And of course, did I take pictures. But because one can only stand that many flower pictures I'll spare you the cherry ones and leave you with the magnolia ones. Have an awesome Wednesday!

Mango Banana Smoothie {As in this stuff is as good as coffee...or caffeine in case you don't drink coffee}

To give you a little boost for the right start into a new week, I'll hand you a cool tall glass filled with a delicious smooth smoothie ;) Enjoy!
(And I'm feeling a little sick, so every booster is welcome. Knock on the wood it's nothing serious!).

Mango Banana Smoothie
You'll need:

• 1 small frozen banana
• 1/3 mango
• 4 ice cubes
• water
• ~75gr (half of those small yogurt cups) plain yogurt

Put all the ingredients into a blender. Mix. Serve. Easy peasy!

Week things in the middle of April

The week flew by in a whirlwind of activities and right now I feel like resurfacing from a deep deep dive. Phew. But fun it was for sure!!

I'm the second week in at my internship and I love it. It is super exhausting for sure, especially with work after that but I still love it (And we do have coffee for all the other problems, right? Right!!).
Oh, and apparently it is not a common fact for kids that even I have parents. They were rather shocked to find out haha.

She didn't get all the attention she needed this week. Therefore I'm having a super cuddly/attached/sleepy/grumpy/moody cat right now. She's still cute though.

People visiting keep on asking me: "Who is the guy in the picture?" I'm assuming that this means they think I am the girl in the picture? This is not me and neither do I have an idea who the guy is. Though I probably wouldn't mind knowing. (Who would!?)

Jep. Every girl needs this sometimes.

At the end of the week my room was a mess. As in: A huge and big and dirty mess. So, before work on Saturday, I transformed myself into super woman. I cleaned my room, the house, ran errands, did some shopping and cooked (And that after two 10-hours work days)! Tschaka for woman-super-powers!

Before and after...and I do have to admit that the light in the first picture lets it look less horrible *sight* (I'm silently asking myself were on earth I was sleeping the last days...I mean, look at my bed!  Double sight)

There is still one application waiting....oh and my bike needs to be fixed...and I need to order my pictures, and make my schedule for next week....). Buuuuut I'm going to be a 100% lazy today. I hope you can enjoy your weekend as well ;) (and don't let the to-be-done-lists get you down!!)

Listening to:
 Can't Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton) - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
 Happy (feat. Derek Martin) - C2C
 Something That I Want - Grace Potter
 It's Time - Imagine Dragons
 Meine Soldaten - Maxim
 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love - The Blues Brothers   

The Tuesday Blues {This certain week}

While munching on on my peanut butter jelly toast, I was continuously staring at my CELTA application page looking at the questions...

"In your opinion, which of the following jobs would best prepare a person for language teaching (choose one only):
sports coach                 tour group leader                    social worker                 lecturer

sales person                 driving instructor                       actor/actress                nurse

Why?"

It was one of those days were I had spent the morning with the kids, had returned home with a long to-be-done list and everything I had managed was to realize that I was a) still hungry after our, rather stressed out, kindergarden lunch (it had included cleaning the toilets mid-lunch and trying to keep the rice and the sauce on the plate of every kid) and b) super tired. And after sleeping and eating I didn't really resurface from my afternoon drowsiness. So instead I had an early dinner and walked a round through the fields. 

But, things needed to be done. So I switched on my PC and after half an hour of refreshing every single blog site I knew (hoping something would change the exact second I did so) I noticed: I was still hungry. (I did tell you it was one of those days!).

So here I was, munching on my toast (the warm crispiness from the toast combined with the crunch of the peanuts and the sweet and saltiness of the jam and the butter. O.M.G....does anyone understand me or is this weird?) I realized: Writing is for me what taking photos is for a photographer (at least, I assume that it sort of correlates).

It helps me to focus. For example on how delicious such a simple toast could be. Or that I felt pretty comfortable because I could hear the birds chirping in our garden and my mum's boyfriend silently cursing on and on about how he was always hitting the wrong button on his phone but also about how he was just too lazy right now to get on his PC and safe some time (all this while he was sitting on our staircases. He had to move since I just had been making p&j toast in our kitchen! ups). How this felt like home. And like family.

By now, my toast is eaten (sadly), my cat moved from my bed to my window and I'm finally going to answer the question which of the jobs, mentioned above, would be best to prepare a person for language teaching.

What would you say?!...oh: And why?! ;)

No socks and my white chucks are still white!!! (Someone was having some doubts about it last year. Ha!)