My Whatever Place

[Leila]

Okay, now that I wrote about it, I couldn't just ignore the fiasco that's my kitchen until tomorrow. And now, about two hours later, I've managed to scrub my oven reasonably clean.

Unfortunately, my extra sauce changed aggregate states, so I was totally wrong about the poor thing surviving unscathed. The clay pot is sitting in a water bath, fingers crossed it will look better after a couple of hours of soaking.

Oh, and surprise, surprise, my dish turned out alright. How is that for a silver lining

 

[Leila]

All right, apparently clay bakers have been designed with maniacs like me in mind. Because after a night of soaking in the sink, most of the crusty bits bitumen have come off. Okay, it has got a brand new colour scheme now but otherwise seems to have made it all right. I'm still fighting the acrid smell of smoke and putting pretty much every piece of clothing through the washer, but we are getting there!

PS: Any tips as to how to get rid off the most persistent bits and pieces still stuck to my baker?

 

[sakrt]

@Leila - Your posts are enjoyable to read. I imagine cleaning a clay baker would be similar to a pizza stone? Using a paste of baking soda, bristle brush and plastic spatula? Useful URL: https://www.tipsbulletin.com/how-to-clean-a-pizza-stone/

 

[Leila]

Hey @sakrt and thank you very much for pointing out the similarities between my clay baker and a pizza stone. It's something I should have thought of myself because I've read up on them a while ago when I considered getting one to expand on my bread making experiments.

I'll give it a go with some baking soda and hopefully the last bits of black will come off this way. It really only is the rim and a couple of hard to get to grooves that need some more scrubbing. I'm quite impressed with that because I was mentally prepared to just quietly bin the whole thing

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[Leila]

Not the nicest day for a walk but at least it wasn't raining Here a bunch of "Autumn Impressions" (maybe I should have photoshopped them a little but I just love working with natural light).

 

[UKBloke]

Not the nicest day for a walk but at least it wasn't raining Here a bunch of "Autumn Impressions" (maybe I should have photoshopped them a little but I just love working with natural light).

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Some lovely shots there, L.

 

[Leila]

Hello to you lovely Swedish people on Tinnitus Talk. I'm trying to teach myself some Swedish on Duolingo and would be forever grateful if somebody could explain the rule for plural forms plus to me.

I understand that in general plural forms are pretty much straight forward in Swedish: you simply add "-ar" or "-or". The rule I've made up for myself is: Add "-or" when the original noun has an "a" in it and "-ar" when there is an "o" somewhere. Is this correct so far?

However, and this is the confusing part, which ending do I have to pick when the original noun has vowels other than "a" or "o" in them? I've already figured that irregular nouns (the "ett" ones) are different but every once in a while I come across a word that doesn't seem to fit into my made up categories.

My question is: Is there a proper rule (and if so, could somebody please explain it to me) or do I simply have to practice until I've memorised the odd ones out?

Tack så mycket!!!

 

[Leila]

Got really lucky (despite getting drenched to my skin) during one of my afternoon walks last week...

 

[Stuart-T]

It's been a hard three weeks, with Ozzy's health turning for the worse so quick and Nellie being so unhappy on her own. I've thought long and hard about my / her situation and eventually had to admit that the best course of action would be finding her a new home (which isn't as easy as it sounds, when the budgie is very much a senior - a lot of them are quite overbred which has them tend to die really young). But I found a nice new place in a flight of 20 other birds, so that, hopefully, she'll find another bird that she likes.

I took her there yesterday afternoon and now, for the first time in 15 years, I'm "vogelfrei" which literally translates into free as a bird but has a double meaning in German because you can also read it as without birds. It feels really strange to me right now but it definitely was the right thing to do for her.

I bought a budgie earlier in the year. It looked a bit lonely so I bought it a friend. That's when the trouble started. Continual screeching and twittering - I found them a good home though. Now I am free as a bird too - or bird free.

 

[Leila]

That's when the trouble started. Continual screeching and twittering

Oh yes, I know all about screeching and twittering because I used to have eight of those little Schreihälse and when my pain hyperacusis started I also though about giving them away (by then there were only four of them left). But since I've had them for so lang (some of them close to 16 years) and since they were such a great source of comfort, too, I decided against it and invested in a garden chair, so I had a place to escape to.

It has gotten quiet now without them and I miss their playfulness and the happy energy they've always brought to my home. But I wanted a break to be a little more flexible in my everyday life / travelling, so I will have to stick it our now.

I've filled the place with some nice plants and the orchid collection of an elderly neighbour I inherited when she was forced to move into a retirement home. Now I've got plenty of quiet company to talk to It's a nice change, especially since I haven't been able to have decorative plants at home while I had the budgies since many of our favourite indoor plants are poisonous to them.

 

[Leila]

It's bloody freezing again and, just as it has in every other winter, the battery of my car has died. What do people do in countries that are a lot colder than Germany to prevent this from happening? I'll probably be blacklisted by the automobil club soon if I have to call them another time to help me restart my car.

 

[Leila]

I had a great couple of days with my godchild but I never would have guessed that having a teenager staying with you could be so exhausting We made tons of Christmas cookies, talked a lot and I now know all the girlie in-places in the mall I never even noticed before. My ears aren't very happy with me but it was worth it because it really made her happy to get spent some time with me and stay at my place without her parents.

 

[Leila]

I know, I know I'm a little early but in Germany Christmas starts a day early, too. The 24th is called Heiligabend and it's the day people open their presents in Germany. When it's on a workday, it's business as usual for half a day and after that it turns into a public holiday for most of us.

I'm not much into Christmas nowadays, but when I was younger my dad and I would take the tree inside in the morning and decorate it while my mom would be busy with the preparations of the lunches served on 1. and 2. Weihnachten (that's the 25th and 26th). Heiligabend dinner would always be quick and easy, usually potato salad and sausages or fish. We'd have it before or after the obligatory church visit and after that the tree would be lit and everybody was allowed to open their presents.

I'm going to get started on my potato salad soon because it tastes best when it has the chance to sit for a while

Having said that: A Merry, Merry Christmas to all of you on Tinnitus Talk - enjoy your days off, whether that's with family and friends or just a quiet couple of days by yourself! It's been a bumpy year and I'm grateful for every single member of this community - your willingness to listen, your humor, your encouraging word, the pain we share, ... have made all the difference in the world, thank you very much for being here and being a friend!

 

[Leila]

PS: In case you want to try your hand on my version of a German potato salad...

- boil as many potatoes as you need
- skin and slice them
- prepare a strong broth with little water
- add your slices potatoes to the broth
- mix everything (carefully because you don't want to end up with mash) until the broth has been soaked up
- add some sliced and diced gherkins, onions, some canned corn and some red bell pepper
- I like to add some fresh radishes, too, but they tend to bleed colour so you better wait until your potato salad is no longer warm to add them or you'll end up with a lovely pink dish
- for the dressing, mix some mayonnaise with a couple of teaspoons of creamed horseradish* and a bit of the gherkin water for flavour
- season your potato salad with salt and black pepper (you probably won't need a lot because of the broth) and let your potato salad sit in the fridge or some other cold place for a couple of hours
- add some more salt / pepper if you feel that's what is needed before serving

* depending on the type of horseradish you get things can get (too) hot pretty fast, so I'd recommend you to add one teaspoon at a time

** as you can tell I'm not a very precise cook, I'll just add as much or as little as I like until I feel the consistency is right and it tastes nice

 

[Leila]

Isn't it great to have that one friend whose crazy matches yours? Instead of the Swedish dictionary, mozzie repellent or road map I was expecting I'm now in possession of a DVD that lets me know exactly what to watch out for in order to spot a Swedish cult

 

[Damocles]

Isn't it great to have that one friend whose crazy matches yours? Instead of the Swedish dictionary, mozzie repellent or road map I was expecting I'm now in possession of a DVD that lets me know exactly what to watch out for in order to spot a Swedish cult

lol! I love that film! (shared as much in the Favourite Horror Movies thread).

Also, wanted to mention how much I liked those mischievous Schreihälse in your profile picture! (They're so festive!)

Merry Christmas @Leila!

 

[Leila]

Also, wanted to mention how much I liked those mischievous Schreihälse in your profile picture!

Thanks for noticing I fell in love with the picture the moment I saw it. There are some amazingly talented people on the Internet. I''ll have to check again and see if there is a way to donate a little something to the artist.

As for your very birdie Christmas tree - you have a real knack for choosing images that match a situation or (the character of) a person to the t, thank you very much for taking the time to pick something especially for me. I love the image and really made my day!!!

lol! I love that film! (shared as much in the Favourite Horror Movies thread).

I'll to putting it on in a minute and while it is still light outside, well aware it's most likely going to affect me the same way it affected @ZFire by making me sleep seriously poorly tonight.

I hope it's not going to turn into another never-ending American Horror Stories story where I watched every episode about three times. One time on mute and with the subtitles on. Another time with the sound on but with my hand in front of my eyes for 95% of each episode. And last but not least as everybody who isn't a complete wimp when it comes to scary movies does, with sound and picture on at the same time.

I'm still stuck in season 2, in case you're wondering

 

[Leila]

Okay, not really scary but incredibly weird. I loved the unusual camera angles and slow story telling. The contrast between this Amish-like community, the beautiful and tranquil landscape an the grotesque and brutal rituals practiced by the members of said community made everything extra creepy because it messes with our perception.

It also explains, to a point, at least, why none of the outsiders seriously tried to get away. And I'm not counting the British couple because, really, how stupid do you have to be to ask / expect the members of a psychopathic cult whose ritualistic crimes you've just witnessed to take you back to the train station?

What I didn't like was the predictability of the proceedings. The viewer (the characters, too) got all the information they needed in order to peace together what was going to happen pretty early on, so I was simply ticking off my mental list. But maybe that's the disadvantage of being an avid reader / movie lover, since there are only so many new and unexpected plot twists an author or movie maker can come up with.

What I also didn't like and really don't understand, whether that's in a movie or in real life, why people refuse to listen to their gut feeling. If a situation feels strange 9.99 out of 10 times, that's because it is. The same goes for people.

Instead of teaching our kids to be polite and to always believe in the good of the other person we should teach them body language and situational awareness. You can always apologise at a later time if you seriously misread a person or situation but you will never get your innocence or mental health back if you are too polite to tell somebody off, or find a different place to sit or stand, or pepper spray the person who "sorry, my bad" had their hands in places they don't belong.

Okay, I seem to be going slightly off topic here but it's stuff like that that really upsets me (and probably make me miss the actual point of the movie). Nevertheless, I love my Christmas present because it's been exactly the right kind of weird

 

[Leila]

And we are in the sub zeroes again. Let's see how long it will take the car battery to notice

 

[Leila]

I tried my hand at a potato-joghurt-crust today - well, it wasn't quite the clay pot fiasco but "gut ist was anderes"!

First, when I started the dough last night, I must have used too much liquid. But since many of my recipes produce doughs of similar consistency I didn't notice back then.

Second, I wanted my bread to have a different shape for a change, so instead of using my trusty old cast iron pot I used a rectangular ceramic cake mold.

Hm, thinking about it, maybe there is a pattern to my kitchen failures - clay, ceramic, ceramic, clay?

Anyway, I did everything as usual and my bread actually looked really nice when I removed it from the oven. Unfortunately, it seemed to have merged with the mold while it was baking (points to the clay pot here because no matter how hard I tried and how much I messed it up on the outside none of the ingredients stuck to it on the inside) and it took about 20 minutes of wrapping the stupid thing in wet tea towels for my bread to come loose.

When I cut off the first slice it seemed undercooked, so I baked it for another 15 minutes without the mold.

Cutting off slice number two brought out the same result, so back in the oven it went.

Again.

And again.

And again.

And while the crust got really crisp, the inside of my bread continued to have brownie consistency. Since it still tasted alright, I decided this is going to be as baked through as it is going to get. I'll try again in a little while but use my cast iron pot once again. Hopefully the result will be different!

Until then, I'll just have to pop this one in the toaster, slice by slice <gah!!!>

 

[Leila]

I found this pic on wetteronline.de (a German weather site) and agree that it is pretty spectacular - however, halo aside, can somebody explain to me why the sun seems to have the shape of a diamond?

 

[Leila]

Can't go wrong with those two!

Alan Shore: Mindful that abroad, people expect shock and awe when Yankees arrive on the scene, we shall leave you with two small but lasting words...

Denny Crane: Denny Crane, eh.

 

[Leila]

I've got myself a new little something to challenge my brain: Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock. I've only made it to page 74 so far but I've already downloaded 620 pages of apocryphal scriptures and tons of material on the Younger Dryas, Göbekli Tepe, Gunung Padang, Channeled Scrablands, ...

I love it when one text encourages me to look into so many new and exciting topics, well, new and exciting for me. Unfortunately, just as with most of my other interests, too, most likely there won't to be anybody around who's read the same text(s), so sharing and arguing my theories is going to be a challenge. Not that that's ever stopped me

Want to hear what I came up with when I learned about the point in time Atlantis disappeared?*

*My theory probably won't hold up because I don't know enough about the climate and the change that occurred during this particular time period but my little theory is something that popped up while reading and taking notes when a number of facts that had been insular knowledge to me so far were mentioned in the first three chapters of Magicians.

 

[Leila]

Here a little something to whet your appetite:

Göbekli Tepe - look at the size of it!

Isn't it marvelous? I wonder if it's the same here as with the Easter Island Heads and that these guys actually come with bodies?

And, of course, the famous handbags of the Gods. Can't have an excavation site without them

The Channeled Scablands:

And, last but not least, Dry Falls. Apparently three times the size of Niagra Falls!

PS: I haven't forgotten about Atlantis, just busy refining and translating it all in my head

 

[sakrt]

I tried my hand at a potato-joghurt-crust today - well, it wasn't quite the clay pot fiasco but "gut ist was anderes"!...

Hm, thinking about it, maybe there is a pattern to my kitchen failures - clay, ceramic, ceramic, clay?...

...I'll try again in a little while but use my cast iron pot once again. Hopefully the result will be different!
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Pretty funny Recipe sounds delicious! I too, learned the hard way, that glass and ceramic dishes heat up much faster and stay (too) hot, longer than metal. Had this same issue with dense casserole and dessert recipes. Sometimes it's the oven.

Have you tried again? Curious how it comes out with cast iron, its texture and if it required a longer baking time? I'm sure you already know, that bread recipes supposedly turn out best from shineless metal pans (like a loaf pan). Interesting, how the same recipe can turn out so different (or ruined!) by just the pan itself.

 

[Leila]

Have you tried again?

Hello and good morning, @sakrt!

No, I haven't gotten around to the potato-joghurt-crust another so far because I was in the mood for something a little more hearty, so I made a beetroot and a rye bread in the meantime. But since I'm now down to my last couple slices of frozen bread, I'll definitely have to do some baking come Saturday or Sunday.

I've already gotten some carrot juice and malt beer when I did the shopping, so apparently my subconsciousness has been set on either a carrot or malt beer loaf. Or maybe eben both - a "proper one" for breakfast and dinner and a sweeter version like "Einback" for afternoon tea. I'm pretty sure I've seen / saved a recipe of an Einback-version that uses mashed pumpkin for colour and taste, so it should be interesting to see how carrots / carrot juice work for a substitute.

I've also decided to go back to my cast iron pot because it has produced the best results. Or maybe I'll give one of my mom's old metal cake molds a try. I suspect it's the material of the molds / the way it stores heat that makes the results so very different.

Do you have a favourite recipe to share? I'm always open to trying something new

Tiger-Brötchen is something that I like very much. They taste great and their look really is something else.

This is a picture I found on the Internet but mine came pretty close in looks.

 

[Leila]

Before I forget...

Is there anybody on Tinnitus Talk who is using an electric tap / instant heating faucet? I've been thinking about getting one for a room that only has cold water but the reviews I've found so far weren't very helpful, rating the quality of the box the faucet was shipped in or the time it took for said box to arrive instead of how easy / hard it was to install the silly thing and how well it is doing its job.

So, anybody who owns or has ever used a faucet like this - I would love to hear your advice!

 

[Leila]

The carrot juice and seeds loaf turned out the way it was supposed to

Anybody want to give it a try?

• 150 g white flour
• 100g rye flour
• 150g spelt flour
• 200-230 ml carrot juice
• 1-2 tbs chia seeds
• 1-2 tbs sunflower seeds
• a handful of walnut
• 1 tsp sugar / honey / agave syrup (whatever you prefer)
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp salt
• ~ 5g of fresh yeast (~ 1-2 tsp of dry yeast if that's what you prefer)

Dissolve the yeast in warm sugary water (about 10 ml) and wait for it to activate (bubbles to rise).

Meanwhile combine all your dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the carrot juice (start with 200 ml and add more as needed) and start mixing it (I use an old fashioned pasty cutter to get started and a hand mixer once the mixture actually resembles a dough). Add the yeast and knead your dough until it doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl anymore. Cover your bowl with cling wrap or a tea towel and put in a warm spot for two hours, so the yeast will get kickstarted. Fold your dough a 2-3 times during that time. After that place your dough in the fridge or an unheated room and let it sit about 10-12 hours / overnight.

On the next day fold it again carefully and allow for it to rise again for as long as it takes your oven (along with your cast iron pot) to heat to 250°. Once the temperature has been reached, take out your pot and sprinkle some sesame seeds and semolina on the bottom of it before you add your dough. Put the lid on, lower the temperature to 200° and bake for 45 minutes. Take the lid off after that time and leave in the cooling oven for about 10 minutes.

After that: Guten Appetit!

 

[Leila]

And just like that spring has gone into hiding. Again.

I proudly present: "The Winter Blues Series" or should that be "Spring Blues"?

 

[Leila]

Ahhh, childhood memories...