Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Rothenburg ob der Tauber - A Medieval Christmas


Rothenburg ob der Tauber in the Bavarian region of
Germany was the jewel of our trip.  

The highlight of the stay here was a walking tour through
the old town with The Night Watchman.  As we walked
we were entertained with his humor and knowledge as
he shared with us the history of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

This medieval city was wealthy and industrious until
it was defeated during the 30 year war which went from 
1618 to 1648.  An army of 40,000 under Count Tilly 
was marching through the region and wanted to quarter
his troops there for the winter.  They refused and ended
up being defeated, being left poor and destitute.  Thus
poverty preserved this city as the people left it for
more prosperous areas.  


You can find the tour nightly at 8:00 pm in front of
the beautiful Town Hall.  Of course, as I have said, we
had lovely weather for an evening stroll.



We started our stay here with checking in at the
Mietermeier Hotel - a boutique hotel just outside
of the city wall, so it was only a 5 minute stroll to
get to where we wanted to be.



Each of the rooms were decorated differently, and they
were HUGE, even for American standards.  This was our 
lovely room.


This modern free standing tub was part of our 
open concept bathroom.  It also had a huge 6 foot shower
done in glass tiles.  


Here is a shot of our friends', the Harkness's, room with an additional
day bed in theirs for their daughter Hannah to sleep in.
It likewise was huge.  Their room had a closed off bathroom.
We all said we would have loved to have been able to take
a peek into every room.



Every part of the boutique hotel was wonderful.  This
was the breakfast spread.  There was a room right off this
with couch and fireplace where you could gather,
and there were several other gathering places.  We
all agreed that a full week here would have been
marvelous.  It was right around $200 a night.


The main street leading to the center of town is lined
with charmingly preserved homes, all unique and beautiful.


As you get further into the town center, the houses become
taller and more eleborate.




In all of the towns we went to, they decorated the inside
and outside of buildings with fresh trees, usually
with red bowls and lights.  The town squares and churches
had giant fresh trees placed in them.






These unique little tree holders up on the second floor
for short fresh trees were quite common here.



Windows were decorated with such charm and style.




While some were just charming unadorned.





This was definitely my favorite town, and although the
Christmas Marts were not as plentiful, the stores in themselves
were Christmas wonderlands.


The best store was the huge Kathe Wolfarht store, but alas,
they did not allow pictures inside.  This store had at least a 30 
foot tree that twirled, and a 20 foot wooden pyramid - the
famous German kind that spins by the light set off by candles.

It was amazing and you could spend a fortune in there.
(I got my cute German hat in Nuremberg.)


In Rothenburg we ate at the same restaurant both
nights (after we ate our way through
the Christmas Marts for lunch). 
 We loved it so much.  Again, it felt like we were
in someone's home for Christmas.


Not only can I not pronounce it, but I can't read it,
but it was up towards the castle on the hill.


We tried a tortellini soup - the tortellini was huge
and enough to share.


Sausages and potatoes are always on the menu, and
it was fun trying the different varieties.  I loved the
presentation in this restaurant.


This was our favorite, pork on spatzle in a cream mushroom sauce.
It was one of those sauces that make you swoon.


I highly recommend this place.  We asked a
shop lady for a recommendation, and we were
thrilled with it.

Each city is so different.  This was truly
a Christmas wonderland.  I would have
to say that Rothenburg ob der Tauber was
my favorite.  It charmed my heart!






Monday, December 28, 2015

French Macarons - Four Ways


It was Christmas Eve day and I decided to have
a little fun in the kitchen, trying to make 
French Macarons
for the first time since our class in Paris
over a year ago.


I am sure I was inspired by our trip to Paris and Germany
where we taste tested many of them.

I had the morning free, and I had purchased the
almond flour some time before from Costco,
where it is more reasonably priced than at
the grocery store, so I decided to give it a try.
(I admit I had been a bit of a chicken, even though
we had all successfully made them in class.)

step instructions.



I wanted to make more than one color,
and more than one flavor, so I deviated
from the above tutorial slightly, in 
that I folded the egg white meringue in
before adding any coloring, then I divided
the batter into three bowls.  Color was added
to the bowls, and the final 50 stirs were done
after coloring was added.  For the pink I used
a powdered food coloring that I had purchased
in Paris at our class, for the green I used gel
food coloring (Americolor in a squeeze bottle - my
personal preference as it doesn't dry out), and
for the white, I left it uncolored.  I felt the gel
food coloring worked just as well as the powdered,
and it is more readily available.


Then I made one batch of buttercream frosting
and divided it into four bowls, one vanilla,
using clear vanilla flavoring, one peppermint, using
creme de menthe flavoring, one key lime, and one almond.

The macarons were decorated prior to baking.  I only had
one failure, and that was that I sprinkled some crushed
peppermint candy on top of the unbaked macarons,
and there was a chemical reaction while baking that 
caused the area where I sprinkled the candy on to
rise up and create an ugly mound - (think surface of
the moon!) so those were taste
testers for hubby!



The almond was generally everyone's favorite,
but I loved all four flavors. 

Refrigerate them and they are even better the next day.


They were a lovely addition to our Christmas Eve
meal and we had some left for the next day.  
The recipe made around 40 - 45.
And yes, I did measure everything out on my 
kitchen scale in grams, and that was easy.

I had also purchased a special silpat baking liner
in Paris that had macaron circles on it, but I
felt they were a little close and some ended up
touching as they baked.  I also had some new
silpat type liners that I had purchased from
Costco.  My old worn, original Silpat brand
worked the best, as they all stuck a little to the
new sheets, but on my old Silpat they came right
off.  I don't know if that was because that was
more seasoned (if that happens with a Silpat,)
or if it was because it was a true Silpat liner,
but it definitely was the best.

So glad I gave them a try.  We will be making a lot
more of these, now that I feel confident to do them,
and I already have people asking me to teach them.
We will have to do a ladies' lunch and teach
French Macarons.






Saturday, December 26, 2015

For Unto Us A Child Is Born


Luke 2:19
"But Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart."

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, filled with the
joy and love the Savior brought and still brings to the
world!!

This is a moment captured from our family
nativity, that just touched my heart.  

I know Jesus lives, and I love him.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Quick and Easy Butter Pecan Fudge


Craving some fudge this season?
This is the easiest fudge!
My sister Jean sent me this recipe a few years
ago and we always whip up a batch for Christmas.

We have been fudge fans since we were little when
we would go to the Wisconsin Dells, and see them
stirring huge batches of fudge in the copper kettles
and then cooling and working the fudge on marble slabs.


Fudge can be tricky though, so it is nice to find an easy
recipe that tastes great.

Butter Pecan Fudge Recipe

1/2 C. real butter (no substitutes)
1/2 C. white sugar
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp. salt
2 C. powdered sugar
3/4 to 1 C. toasted and chopped pecans

In a medium sized saucepan, bring to boil the first five ingredients.
Wash down the sides with water, using a pastry brush to
dissolve any sugar that is clinging to the sides of the pan.  This
prevents the candy from turning to sugar.

Cook for 4 minutes.  

Take off the heat and pour over 2 C. powdered sugar in 
a medium sized bowl.  Mix with a spoon until creamy,
then stir in the pecans.

Pour into an 8x8 inch pan lined with parchment paper.
If you want thicker fudge, you can pour it into a loaf pan.

Let set up and cut.  Fudge improves with age, but it is
great right away too.

Leave out the pecans and you can have penuche.

We have substituted the brown sugar for more white
sugar and made peppermint fudge.  You could try just
about any flavor.


We made it home safely from Europe and are now 
spending time with our children in Salt Lake for two
nights.  I will finish showing the Christmas Marts to
you.  It was a marvelous adventure and we were blessed
to have weather in the high 40's and 50's each day.  We 
came home to days of snow, and I realized how lucky
we were to have such great weather.


Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Nuremberg - The Nurnberger Christkindlesmarkt



The Christmas Marts at Nuremberg were just listed by
CNN as one of the top 15 places to go to celebrate Christmas,
and we are here!  This city pulls in over 2 million visitors for
this event each year.  

One of the celebrated centerpieces is their two story old
fashioned carousel in the children's section.


Nuremberg is a very old city, first being mentioned in records
in 1050 AD, and it was the center of the German Renaissance,
so there are beautiful old buildings, churches and a castle to visit here.



Much of Nuremberg was bombed during WWII, so much of it
has been rebuilt, and it is a quaint and varied cobblestoned city.




Nuremberg has a Christmas Market Council, that 
according to CNN, makes sure that "only traditional handmade
toys and holiday goods are sold." in their red stripe canopied
stalls.  We had just experienced a few blocks of stalls in
Paris on Champs Elysees, and although they were charming
and varied stalls, many looking like Swiss Chalets, the goods
they had to offer seemed pretty cheap.

Here, there are so may stalls and we have had two days
of sampling our way through them - the food ones,
that is!


These are chocolates - coated with cocoa powder to look
like rusty tools.  Hubby wouldn't believe us that these were actually 
chocolates!

We were super healthy today - we ate
11 mini meals - or let's just say we grazed all day long!!

The top left photo is the famous Nuremberger Bratwurst
with three little tiny sausages put in a hard bun.  They
have mustard available if you like.  It is hot and delicious
on a cold day.

We visited churches, saw ornaments galore, rode in what
was like a royal carriage around town - they blew the trumpet
every so often and people waved at us as we drove by.

We shopped and shopped and took pictures, and ate some more.



The St. Lawrence church was rebuilt after WWII bombings and
is just stunning.  We spent a long time in there, enjoying the beauty
and handiwork of those who have gone before.



I could just fill my suitcase with so many tempting things.


I loved the way they hung ornaments to show them off.


The architecture is so quaint and varied.  It makes for
a very charming city.




They decorate with fresh trees everywhere, inside and
outside.  There are fresh trees along sidewalks.  It is just
so charming.

We also enjoyed incredible meals.  We asked the staff at
the hotel for a recommendation.  We did this everywhere,
asking locals for a recommendation and felt we had a
huge treat every time.


This was the Heilig Crist Spital Restaurant, located here - 


just above the water - how charming.





 It was up a grand stone staircase, and
inside it looked like a royal hunting lodge all decked
out for Christmas.  Truly charming.  I went back
the next day to get some photos as it was dark
and packed with people at night.


They had some Christmas features, so we tried some.  This
was a fried Camembert cheese with cranberry whipped cream.
I would never have thought of pairing the two, but it was amazing.



 This is a cheesy spaetzle dish is also off the
Christmas menu. It was
like a macaroni and cheese dish but with spaetzle.  We also enjoyed
a tomato orange soup that was marvelous.  It had some Christmas
spices in it, like clove and cinnamon.  We had beef in a gingerbread
sauce and a pork roast with a huge dumpling. 


This was a gingerbread souffle with walnut ice cream that
we had at another restaurant.  The food here has been
amazing.


 Although this may look like more food, this is actually
a miniature that I had to purchase from a charming
shop owner.  The stores in Nuremberg are as amazing
as the Christmas Mart, and we have had a lot of fun
in the stores too.  

I have always wanted to go to Germany.  My  great grandfather
was from this Bavarian region of Germany, and I can see
why they moved to Wisconsin, as driving along the highway
it looked very much like driving along the highways in 
Wisconsin, except for the red tiled roof villages everywhere.


Der Beck was our favorite bakery. This chocolate covered
croissant was also filled with loads of chocolate.

We tried all kinds of treats, every day, but split them five
ways, which made us able to really taste our way through
the marts.


Another favorite -Kusses - huge creamy marshmallow
kisses with a cookie bottom.


What a treat Nuremberg has been, and the weather
has been in the high 40's and low 50's with just
a little drizzle today.  I couldn't ask for nicer
weather, as everyone is getting dumped on
with snow at home.


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