Brownie Cookies {Confessions and the normal stuff}

In all the mid-craziness around here I'm also trying to get rid of a couple of kilos I took with me from my time in Canada. Anyway. I'm not planning on loosing all what I've gained (There is nothing wrong with some curves, right? Right!...and I guess I'm also too lazy...) but I'm just used to a different body-feeling which I'm planning to get back.

So recently I've been trying to cut short on sweets and food in general. Not too much, but a bit. Also: Healthy! So a lot of vegetables, less to no meat, instead more tofu, yogurt etc. And sport (I've got rather creative since I've been used to bootcamp sessions by one of my friends but couldn't afford buying all the equipment. Maybe I'll post about it later).

So, thanks to our weather improvement (at least it got warmer. We don't want to talk about the heavy wind and rain) I was able to go for a first run in a long long time. Loved it.

But, let's face it: Everyone I need some sugar everyday if I could from time to time. And I love chocolate and peanut butter and cookies and cream (and probably everything your not supposed to have too often) but thanks to a certain approaching shitty week and my endless craving I decided I was in for a treat!

 Brownie cookies adapted from {never}homemaker
Her recipe is vegan (originally) and I also was too lazy to look for everything in my mums kitchen didn't have everything on hand she did...so I tweaked a bit...

Makes about 8 large cookies

• 1/4 cup (55gr) butter
• 1/4 cup (55gr) brown sugar
• a few drops vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon ground flax meal (That's what the original recipe said, I wasn't sure what it actually is so I used 1 teaspoon flax seeds...worked!)
• 1 shot milk (just a bit to for the consistency)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 (60gr) cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (the dark one)
• 2 teaspoons cocoa powder (the one you use for hot chocolates)
• a handful chopped pecan nuts
• 50gr roughly chopped white chocolate

I didn't really had a lot of icing sugar left (The best proof you can get that I wasn't around for quite a while. Normaly where I am there is somehow icing sugar ate the end)

Flax seeds....not sure if this was what was supposed to be in it but it worked anyway

1. Beat together butter, sugar and egg.
2. Add vanilla essence and salt.
3. Add flour, baking powder, flax seeds and cocoa powder alternating with the milk.
4. At the end fold in the nuts and chocolate.
5. Pile onto a sheet of baking paper and put them into the oven at 180°C/350°F for about 15 to 20 minutes. Be careful: Mine spread out quite a bit!

They are super soft and gooey on the inside and light and crisp on the outside. I just love them! Especially if you make some cream cheese frosting to sandwich two cookies together...so you don't feel guilty about actually eating two...because you're not! Right!? It's ONE sandwich cookie!!!!!

ps - for the icing I just combined my leftover icing sugar and cream cheese with a tiny bit of milk. Original recipe I normally use can be found here.

And please ignore my nails. They are about to be done right now ;)

Enjoy ;)

A sneak peek on reality {and some color}

One of my friends made a comment on how my blog doesn't reflect my real life right now. Apparently I'm 'ways' (sorry for little insider grammatical mistakes) more down than I pretend to be.

Ok. I'm probably quite a lousy person to be around right now. All whiny (I hate whiny people). So I guess pretending I'm not on my blog just helps me focus on what I should actually focus on (that means: I'm still looking into a lot of Visa stuff and possible solutions to work abroad, I'm taking a closer look into TESOL diplomas, at the same time I'm also looking for Universities in Germany (and possible cities I could also be happy with), I got my India Visa today (and I'm starting to seriously freak out about that! Seriously! One second I'm so excited and can't wait to go, the next I'm freaking out and asking myself why I actually ever signed up for this. Why did I? Ah right...all this self experience thing....)) And all in between I get weak seconds and just start crying. Let's put it all on those female hormones. Right.

So here you go with a more honest post on what my life actually looks like right now.

And because the weather (with all this gray) doesn't help to improve things, I made myself some edible drinkable color ;)

Energizing color smoothie

Blend together in a mixer:

• 1/2 pear
• 1 handful fresh pineapple
• 1 cup mixed frozen fruits
• 1/3 cup orange/mandarine juice (mine was freshly pressed. Normal one works as well)

Soak up some vitamines and color and keep your head up! ;)

My Monday {baking with the girls}

It's getting warmer here, so while I took a 2 hours night walk yesterday (accompanied with ice rain) everything was slowly starting to defrost today. (Yay for the chance to get outside for runs again!)

So much for a random start. Anyway, we had scheduled a girls baking afternoon today.
There is nothing more fun and relaxing than friends in a kitchen, some tea and time to talk and gossip about everything that's going on in life (and stuff that's supposed to go on. Maybe more on that later).

Two teas and one coffee. Girls stuff to talk about. One recipe and heaps (tons :P) of chocolate

Beloved people starting to get organized for some serious sweet stuff (No joke here. The recipe turned out as sweet as probably nothing I had made before!!)

A lot of white chocolate was involved...that's just part of it...

Haha me studying the recipe (Am I the only one or do those angles make you feel weird about yourself..guess it's because I don't get to see myself from this perspective that often...)

More talking. More chocolate.

Oh excuse me. Butter, honey and chocolate it was.

And because we're an impatient bunch....the cake was sentenced to an outside stay to cool down faster. Quite mean I know. (There was still enough snow for that as you can see.)

I guess we could/should have waited longer...but oh well ;)

Our result: Chocolate with chocolate and chocolate on top (and some minor quantities of oats, honey and cream)

 I wish you all a beautiful Monday and an awesome start into your week!!

Frage Freitag {the end of January}

Five questions for each Friday...

1.) Dein liebstes Ritual Zuhause? My favorite ritual...making my breakfast each morning

  2.) Dein Lieblingsplatz? My favorite place...probably my bed with something good to read (hence: It's so cold outside, nothing else is possible...maybe the kitchen for baking though....)

 3.) Was soll eigentlich keiner sehen? Something no one should see...well that's certainly self explanatory....

4.) Freust du dich immer wieder drüber? Happy about? My view right now with all the white fairy dust ;)

 
5.) Deine liebste Lampe? And my favorite lights are probably my fairy lights...quite magical around here, oh well!

All the others Here! ;)

New winter sweater {sneak peaks}

I went to buy some winter sweaters with my dad since I was left with one warm one for the cold time here in Germany. Not enough I can tell you!
We also made it to the Sushi shop (yum!) and I applied for my India Visa. If everything works out the way it is supposed to, I'll be able to pick it up next week Tuesday. So now I'm left to get some good ideas on how to actually teach English...
And figure out if I'm going to study in Germany or go back to Canada. Quite a mess, that is left in your head with all these things to think about ;)

It's all freezing cold and snowy white

But we do have warm and cozy (and favorite) coffee shops to warm up

We had to do some shopping...(how I love this place! Back when we were kids, all our favorite stores used to know us and we would get small samples of food everywhere)

New and cozy winter jumpers (ha! I can call it a jumper or a sweater :P)

I had to make some quite difficult decisions on what to get for lunch....

And I couldn't stop taking pictures of random things...but oh well

Do you have things too, messing up with your mind right now? And I totally forgot: This list of things I should pack for India starts messing up with my thoughts too...

Comfort when it's ugly outside {Blueberry Breakfast Cake}

Because I hugely believe in comfort food (My life consists of comfort food...never mind) and the weather definitely requests comfy, cozy breakfasts!
Here we go!

Blueberry Breakfast Cake (with Blueberries from here!!)
(Recipe adapted from here)

• 1/2 cup (115gr) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (170gr) + 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups (240gr) flour (set aside 1/4 cup to toss with the berries)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries (mine were actually frozen and it worked just as well) (serving: about two servings that fill your hands if you form a cup with them)
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk or milk mixed with either white vinegar or lemon juice

I also found that the cake didn't turn out as sweet as I had it expected to be so for a second round I would add 1/3 cup (80 ml) syrup but that's optional.

One last time turning this beloved kitchen into a mess ;)

And it was a sunny day!!

Blue Blueberryness ♥

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Beat butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt and add, alternating with your buttermilk. Add syrup if you want.
Toss remaining flour and berries together and add it to your dough.
Fill into an oven proof dish and bake for about 35-50 minutes (the original time said 35 minutes but mine definitely needed a bit more time. Just check with a wooden tooth pick)

Serve with cream, more berries and syrup ♥

Getting adjusted to old things {And including new things}

So I'm finally back in Germany. It took me quite a few days (I left on Sunday and arrived Monday morning (last week)) and I still feel a bit...out of place. I hope this will get better with time. Otherwise...four more weeks and I'm gone again anyway (see: My India trip for two and a half month it coming up now!! So excited!...well actually I still didn't get it. I mean: India!!!)

So. First thing I did was getting rid of stuff. And I mean it. I got rid of four huge bags filled with stuff, a ginormous pile of clothes (about 2/3 of all my stuff), about 7-8 pairs of shoes(!!) and more smaller stuff e.g. books, nail polish(!), creative stuff etc.
Living half a year at another place really helped me reflect on what I actually need and what I'm just accumulating.
And, quite ironically, half a year also shows you things you definitely can't live without anymore. Quite frankly, the second day in, my craving for peanut butter got so big I headed out, bought peanut butter (which took me super long because I couldn't find it first!) and made peanut butter chocolate chip bars. Warmed up in the microwave with vanilla ice cream. Oh Yumminess!
And I'm so did not use our electric mixer, because: Believe it or not, I sort of grew to love baking without all those electric devices (well I thought so...doing it again and actually breaking our whisk might have changed my mind again, but hello more defined arms muscles :D)
(I'll post the recipe and pictures later...but believe it or not: It already has been three times this year I made the recipe but they never lasted long enough for a picture...though a fourth time will be there soon!)

Everything outside is covered in snow now and it's freezing cold. My friend went to watch her little brother play hockey (can you believe I didn't know we had hockey in Germany before I went to Canada. I had to GO to CANADA to find this out!!anyway...randomness...)

And since it's not a nice post without some nice pictures....here we go:

I went to see one of my best friends on Friday...and we had to make apple crumble (after it became sort of a family story how I couldn't stop eating it the first time we made it. Quite embarrassing....though hot apple crumble with ice cream does that to me :P)

Saturday I went to see another really really good friend and we attempted our first homemade lasagna ever! It turned out pretty good! (when I think about it, I pretty much just cooked and baked and met friends the last couple of days...figure)

Kinda gross! What we found in our frozen spinach....

Where I am right now...it's snowing (and freezing)

But it depends all on how you look at things...and coffee sort of does improve pretty much everything

On other terms: I miss Canada badly! The city, the atmosphere, people...pretty much everything. I'm really looking forward to what this year might still bring. You never know...

Otherwise: Applying for my India Visa right now and trying to find a job for the remaining four weeks. Wish me luck!

Frage Freitag {In between}

1. Auf deinem Couchtisch? Um genau zu sein der Couchtisch meiner Ma, Salzstein und Blumen

2. An deiner Wand? Chicken wire, pictures a mirror, memories....

3. In deinem Bad? Blickwinkel ;)

4. Auf deiner Fensterbank? Succulents, a piece of wood from our last summer in France and a candle from the Anthropologie shop in Seattle...

5. In der Küche? Tools....

Last time I did this I was in Vancouver. Sorry for now blog posts right now, I'm still adjusting. More later ;)
Und alle anderen Hier!

Back with the cat

Just a short update: I arrived home safely...now trying to adjust...

12 from 12 {January 2013}

12 photos during the 12th of each month...today without words.

Reality: Probably the hardest day in my life by trying not to break into tears every single hour (so much to no weeping)...I gave my best.
All the others as always: Here