Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Break for Berlin

This is just a quick post today, to share some pictures from my recent trip to Berlin. After an excellent two weeks in the US (stay tuned for a future post!), I had a weekend trip to Berlin to see my brother, who was there for a conference.

On Saturday, we went to Sanssouci, one of E and my favorite spots in the world. Here's my brother (let's call him A) in front of the big fountain.


We also walked up to the Orangerie at Sanssouci. There was a small chamber ensemble playing classical music here, which definitely added to the overall highly classy feel.

We spent Sunday morning walking through the Tiergarten and through downtown Berlin. At one point, we happened across this very interesting scene. I posted a picture of the Berliner Dom with the Fernsehturm together last year, but I really think it makes for cool pictures and deserves another angle. Thanks to A for encouraging me to pull my camera out for this one!



That's it for now - just a few of my favorite pictures. The Scandinavegan asks me to assure you that she will be back soon with her regularly scheduled food updates, and we'll also get some stuff about our recent trips to Portland and the Bay Area up soon!




Monday, September 3, 2012

Scandinavegan Summer: Rhubarb Runs Riot!

I know that it's September now, and it's getting late for rhubarb--though if you're in the Midwest or Pacific Northwest, maybe you can still have it.  But I can't leave rhubarb out of the picture this summer.  It's so Danish to me!  See, before moving to Denmark I had actually never eaten rhubarb in any form at all.  Here, of course, it's at the farmers' market all spring and summer, and maybe your friends even give you big bunches of it because it's taking over their yards.  So I had to try it.  And since my first try was such a huge win, we've been eating it ever since in ever-evolving forms.



(I'm not putting up the original recipe.  My first rhubarb vehicle was a strawberry-rhubarb crisp, and it's true that it's delicious and tastes like the essence of summer.  But come on, it's a crisp!  You put the fruit in the pan with some sugar, and then crumble stuff on top!  Who needs a recipe for that?  Also, I'm vain and don't have a photo of it).

We have now had rhubarb crisp, rhubarb coffee cake, rhubarb bar cookies, and rhubarb muffins.  Here's one of the muffin recipes--the very one, in fact, I chose for my probably-the-last-of-the-season bunch of rhubarb.

Raspberry Rhubarb Corn Muffins

1 1/2 cups cornmeal/polenta
1 1/2 cups flour (I like whole grain spelt, but whole wheat or white flour work too!)
dash salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup soymilk
1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar
3/4 cup applesauce
about 1 cup rhubarb
about 1 cup raspberries (frozen is just fine)

Preheat the oven to 400 F and prepare a 12 cup muffin tin.

Wash the rhubarb really well.  If it's anything like mine, there's a bug in it.  Chop it into half inch long pieces and put it in a bowl.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar and let sit.

Combine the lemon juice and soymilk.  Whisk briefly and let sit.  It will curdle; that's the goal here.

In a big bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, the rest of the sugar, the baking soda, and the salt.  Stir.

Add the applesauce, oil, and vanilla to the soymilk.  Stir well, then fold into the dry ingredients.  Fold in the rhubarb chunks.  Very gently add the raspberries.

Fill the muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes.