It's been a lovely couple of weeks in good ol' Tuebingen, and the summer weather is rearing it's beautiful head like there's no tomorrow! Every day I check they weather, the weatherfolks predict rain, and then we get heaps and heaps of sunshine...no complaints, except that it would be nice to have accurate predictions for making nice outdoor plans!
My evening English class is over now, and I'm left with a part-time tutoring gig and some babysitting. This means I have many free evenings to work on my language stuff and do some cooking! In need of something exciting last week, I finally tried making risotto for the first time. During our stay in Ireland, Sinead's dad made a delicious one for us, and I had a chance to observe the process itself while in Sweden. I was a little nervous to give it a go myself, but since I as just cooking alone, the worst that could happen is I would eat some kind of rice dish alone with some tasty wine...pretty good alternative to perfect risotto, I think. Oddly enough, risotto was something I always passed up on restaurant menus. It just didn't feel that 'exciting' to me, and when I go out, I like to go the interesting route (or, you know, the delicious burger route). Some rice dish? Wow, sounds thrilling. Except it really is thrilling, easy and very filling. Plus there are so many possibilities...this is going to be a go-to for me for a long time to come.
Here is a brief step-by-step for those who haven't made this delicious beauty before and want to give it a go!
I chose to do a mushroom leek risotto because those were the best looking veggies on sale at Kaufland. I started by sauteeing the mushrooms and leeks, separately of course so as not to crowd the mushrooms (thank you, Mrs. Child), and set them aside.
Who doesn't love leeks? When sauteed, they give off a deliciously creamy texture and flavor without any dairy or fat in there (well, except some of the good stuff in the olive oil)
Mushrooms, uncrowded and happy
Then I toasted my rice in the bottom of my pot with a little bit of olive oil...
There's about 250g of arborio rice in there, which allegedly calls for about 500ml of liquid over the course of the cooking. I figured I'd taste as I went and just use my judgment, and my liquid of choice was white wine. This was a very good choice.
Here's the rice absorbing it's first bit of liquid. When it started to get through the stuff, I dumped in some more, always trying to keep it with just enough liquid to cover everything.
If you can detect any visual difference whatsoever, here we are nearing the end of the process.
Then I folded in lots of parm. This is about half a block of freshly grated cheese....I know that's a vague quantity, but it was a standard, ~1" thick triangular block...use your judgment here
Voila! The final product! It's not too inspiring on the white plate, but that's all I have. It was very, very delicious, and when my friends walked in to the apartment for our wine/movie night, they announced that it smelled like I had cooked something, "very boozy." This was, of course, true, and they got to try some risotto as well.
Anya's friend, Amanda, has been visiting, and last week the two of them went out in a rented rowboat with Sinead and me. I had been dying to get onto a body of water and do something mildly active, so this was lots of fun! You can rent them for an hour at a time and it's 3 Euro/person, so very affordable. I rowed most of the way up and back because I was having way too much fun, but then we swapped out and everyone took a turn toward the end. I did get to dock a boat that wasn't a racing single for the very first time (not quite the same as docking an 8, but close), but I felt pretty okay backing the thing in after having watched so many coxswains do it over the years. Turns out being able to row on one side of a boat is a pretty transferable skill, and diddling around with complete control of a boat's steering was a good brain exercise. Also, sidenote: Tuebingans can, according to my friends who swim, not swim in a straight line down a lane to save their lives. We noted that the same is true of Tuebingans in boats. Even paddle boats that involve facing forward and using a steering wheel; I was proud to say I did better backward with two oars than several of the crazies out on the river with us.
Sinead gives rowing a go, and apparently fares decidedly better than her first attempt. I thought she was excellent, personally.
The main bridge in the city and the old houses from the river.
Down toward the boathouse...I wish we could row on this part of the river, but there's some kind of dam thing in the way? I'm a little unclear on that bit
Over the weekend I went to Mannheim to visit with my original German host family from high school. Their daughter stayed with us 6 years ago on a short school exchange, and then I went and stayed with them for a week or so the following spring. It was really nice to see them again and to get some always-appreciated family time. I arrived on Friday evening and we had a small barbecue at my older host sister's house, down the street from the family's home. We ate lots of delicious meat and salads, and wound up having quite a few drinks and playing the German version of Taboo. Turns out I'm not just good at games like that in English.
On Saturday, Sandra (my host sister) and I went a few towns over to ride the Sesselbahn--basically a chairlift that takes you up and down a mountain so you can get a gorgeous view of the valley, feed some deer in their deer sanctuary enclosure, and eat tasty food. The view from the top was absolutely beautiful and full of small villages and vineyards. We paid a visit to the deer (lots of babies!), and then had some Apfelschorle with Leberknoedel and Sauerkraut. These are dumplings made with liver and some kind, I think, of meat. Sounds odd, but is extremely good, and very traditional for the region (Rheinland-Pfalz). Here's a panoramic view, cut into several shots, of the valley taken from the cafe where we had lunch. Note: All of those fields are vineyards:
Here are some deer, just chillin. Not in the photo are the children feeding them dried corn...
That evening, we went to the Mannheimer Stadtfest. This is basically an enormous festival with music and lots of food and alcohol. We went with my host sisters and some of their local friends. I didn't know many of them and it's a bit tough for me to understand speedy German conversation in a noisy environment, but I still had a great time. Amusingly, I got to see two of the friends I had met 6 years ago at the Championship hockey game for the Adler Mannheim (Mannheim Eagles).
View towards the famous Water Tower
The view back over the crowd
More people
In other news, I babysat for Florian yesterday morning and finally met some other parents in the park. One of them mistook him to be my child, found out I was actually the American babysitter, had a long chat with me (he's also a foreigner), and then offered me a possible babysitting job for his daughter. Good times!
Florian pushes his own stroller
And then throws rocks in the stream...yes, I was mistaken for this child's mother.
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