Difficult times to be living in Germany as a non-German

18/12/2023 Helle Møller

I have always refused to take sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict (not least because I don’t know enough about it – does anyone?), and I have found both sides equally intransigent, vengeful, and unwilling to resolve it.

As someone who does not understand religion myself, and finds that it, paired with nationalism, is the root cause of most problems in the world, I never have and never will pick my friends (nor my enemies, for that matter :-)) according to their religion.

Currently, it seems to me that the Israelis are using Hamas as an excuse and what they really want is to eliminate all non-Jews from Gaza. That is called ethnic cleansing.

But in Germany, any attempt at impartiality brands you as anti-semitic, and expressing one little pip-squeak critical of the Israeli government is perceived as support to Hamas.

I actually find that offensive and, quite frankly, absurd. Most people should know me better than that.

2023: Bring it on

Historical Stendal and its Christmas Market 17 December

17/12/2023 Helle Møller

Another interesting walk led by Eckehard Heiber, Empor Berlin.

I had somehow managed to never hear of Stendal (and I have done quite a bit of travelling within Germany since I moved to Berlin) so I was astonished to see the size of the station, with ICE trains stopping there to and from places like Berlin, Düsseldorf, …., and later to see the size of the centre of Stendal with shopping streets, large churches, and no less than two Christmas markets (or perhaps it is technically one Christmas market but in two different places).

An overload of impressions from Stendal below. Photos from the Christmas market(s?) are in this post.

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White bean chili

12/12/2023 Helle Møller

20 g dried white “jumbo” beans, soaked and cooked as per usual
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil or ghee or ghee
4 red onions, sliced
6 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons roasted, ground cumin
1-2 jalapeno peppers, finely sliced
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons dried oregano
100 g corn kernels (frozen or fresh)
2 medium potatoes (finely diced)
2 teaspoons adobo seasoning (optional)
2,5 dl water or vegetable broth
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
40 g cashew nuts or pumpkin seeds (optional)
5 g cilantro (finely minced)

Blend the cashews or pumpkin seeds with 50 ml water until very smooth. Set aside.
Add oil to a large saucepan or over medium heat. Add the garlic, saute for a few seconds, then add the onions. Add salt and ground black pepper and mix.
Add the rosemary, oregano, cumin and jalapeno peppers. Saute for a couple of minutes.
Add the corn kernels, mix them in, then add the potatoes. Mix thoroughly.
Add the beans and adobo seasoning, if using.
Add water and give it all a good stir. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer ten minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Use the back of the ladle to mash some of the potatoes and beans. This will help thicken the chili.
Stir in the cashew cream id using. It makes the chili creamier, but can be omitted.
Garnish with fresh, chopped cilantro and serve hot. You can also squeeze on some lemon juice or lime juice for a bright flavor.

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Daytrip to Warnemünde 11 December

12/12/2023 Helle Møller

Following an urge to see the sea – such as it is – the Baltic Sea is an inner water, if you ask me, but the North Sea is a little bit too far away for a daytrip.

Warnemünde is very easy to reach, via Rostock and several direct trains daily, and a nice, cozy town to visit and walk around in, and the beach is kind of OK too :-). But the North Sea it ain’t.

There was occasional drizzly rain on this day, which also became increasingly foggy.

Favourite recipes, Miscellaneous

Glögg

10/12/2023 Helle Møller

First published here 1 December 2012.

For 8-10 persons:

2 bottles of redwine
1 bottle of port
¼ bottle brandy or rum
250 g dried currants (normally raisins but I prefer (Danish): korender, (German): Korinthen (MUST be organic, otherwise they are waxed and the wax melts when heated and it is disgusting)
1 vanilla pod
2 cinnamon sticks (Sri Lanka or Ceylon – NOT Kassia)
10 cloves
8 cardamom pods, slightly crushed
If you like your glögg extra spicy, add 10 black peppercorns
If you like a slight licorice note, add 4 star anise as well
1 knob of fresh ginger, sliced
The peel of 1 lemon
The peel of two oranges
150 g chopped almonds
Sugar to taste, but remember that the port and the raisins/currants are sweet

Please note that at least all fruit must be organic. Otherwise it is treated with some kind of wax (among many other toxins) which really does not work when heated, or at all.

Mix some of the port with vanilla, peels and spices, bring to just under boiling point, remove from heat and leave to infuse for at least 24 hours. Will keep longer in a well-sealed container in the fridge. For convenience, place the peels and spices (which need to be discarded before serving) in a gauze bag or a tea filter bag, or just pour it through a fine-meshed sieve before heating and serving.

Mix the brandy/rum with the raisins/currants and leave for at least 24 hours.

To serve:

Heat all ingredients gently in a heavy-bottomed pot, making sure it does not boil. Serve piping hot in mugs or glasses, with a spoon for the raisins and almonds.

Favourite recipes

Lentil/quinoa pancakes with apple/onion chutney

08/12/2023 Helle Møller

NOTE: Lentils and quinoa has to soak in water for 12 hours

Vegan if you use oil instead of ghee, but I find that the slightly nutty flavour of ghee goes particularly well here. Make your own, nothing is easier, there are hundreds of tutorials on youtube, and it tastes better and is much cheaper than the store-bought ghee.

The pancakes:

125 g quinoa

125 g red split lentils

125 g chickpea (aka gram or besan) flour

1 tsp baking powder

Salt and a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper

Half tsp turmeric

2 tsp kalonji (aka onion seeds)

2 tsp brown mustard seeds

I also threw in a heaped tsp fermented black garlic, but that’s just me.

4 Tblsp oil or ghee

Soak lentils and quinoa in water overnight. Drain in a sieve, rinse with cold running water, and let drain.

Blend with 150 ml water (obviously, the thinner you want your pancakes – the thinner the dough) and all other ingredients except oil/ghee.

Use one to two tblsp dough to bake small, thick pancakes with the oil.

The Chutney:

1 tblsp oil or ghree

20 g fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 red onion, thinly wedged

1 small red chili, finely chopped, or powder to taste (I used a half tsp chili flakes here)

6 medjoul dates, chopped

3 apples, not too sweet, cored and cut in wedges

100 ml pure apple juice (I actually just used water since I never have any kind of fruit juice in the house)

2-3 tblsp lemon juice

3 tblsp sugar (is what the recipe says but I obviously try to avoid added sugar, and the apples I had were quite sweet, so I threw in a couple of extra dates instead),

2 bayleaves

1 cinnamon (NOT cassia) stick, or a tsp ground

4 cloves or a pinch ground

Sautee ginger and onion in the oil/ghee. Add all other ingredients and simmer, stirring regularly, for five minutes or until the apples are mushy.

Uncategorized

Apple/banana muffins with chickpea flour

08/12/2023 Helle Møller

IN PROGRESS

100 g chickpea flour
80 g oat flour
80 g almond flour
50 g coconut sugar
1 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 small bananas You’ll need 2 small ripe bananas (approx. 160 g). It’s important to mash bananas well before adding it to the batter. You can use a fork to mash it.
150 g coconut cream Always use full-fat canned coconut milk. Chill it in the refrigerator overnight so that you can easily separate cream from the liquid. The cream should be firm enough so that you can scoop it out with a spoon.
1 medium Granny Smith apple cut into mini cubes

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 180° C. Grease muffin tins with coconut oil.
In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: chickpea flour, oat flour, almond flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, and spices.
Add mashed bananas and coconut cream, and mix everything together with a hand mixer until well combined. Adjust sweetness if needed.
Gently fold the diced apples into the batter, making sure the apples are evenly distributed.
Spread the batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for approx. 23-25 minutes.
Make sure you let your muffins cool for at least 20 minutes and then gently loosen the edges of the muffins before removing them from the tins.

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Homework for my current photography course (monochrome) – last class

06/12/2023 Helle Møller

Format should be one by three, or something like that. I can’t deal with numbers (a brain defect – a bit like being dyslexic but with numbers, I think is the best way to describe it) – numbers mean nothing to me and I hate to even look at them.

I have gotten through a fourty-year working life doing office jobs without it being too much of a handicap, except there were jobs I could not apply for. Now I am retired, and I prefer to ignore this disability, and most things to do with numbers, not let any of all that frustrate me any more, and refuse to let it ruin my day :-).

By the way, when I went to school in the 1950s and -60s, being completely useless at subjects such as arithmetic and maths (including a complete inability to memorise one’s own house number, let alone phone number) was quickly dismissed as stupidity – by teachers as well as parents. I was quite good at languages, grammar and spelling, but that did not count. It is only in very recent years that I have begun thinking that perhaps I am not quite as stupid as everybody thought back then that I was.

But I was not alone. Back then, they had not quite discovered dyslexia as a thing, so those with that learning disability were also considered dimwitted, perhaps much more so than I was.

Where was I – yes, so I just crop more intuitively and pretend that I am looking for formats suitable as Facebook cover photos :-).

However, this time I shall have no trouble weeding photos out. On the contrary, I doubt I will be able to submit more than six or seven.

I am not able to achieve the “panoramic” look, but I doubt that has anything to do with my inability to understand numbers.