Unexpected Pleasures

Black Forest Torte, originally uploaded by Tea Potty.

We had a relative fly over to see us this past weekend and now we're not sure when he's going to leave! As soon as he landed, European airlines started to cancel flights because of the Icelandic volcano. Looks like he'll be here for at least another week (if the air clears by then)! I really should say that it is nice to have him visit and we're glad to have him stay so long. It is just a bit disruptive to our plans though.

I do like having out of town company. Once I get past the stress of cleaning and cooking, I enjoy playing tour guide. Visitors give us a good excuse to forget daily, mundane responsibilities and to do all the fun things I haven't done in a while -- window shopping, playing tourist, and eating really indulgent cakes at lovely cafes while watching the world pass by. Strangely, I'm really good at doing those things.

The weather has cooperated nicely for our visitor, so we spent part of the weekend on the windsurf/kite surf beach at Pelzerhaken. As my other half is a windsurfer, this is our home away from home. Luckily there is a good cafe and a playground here to keep the rest of the family entertained.

Despite having company with us we're off to a wedding this weekend. I've never been to a German wedding, so it will be a bit confusing to follow the ceremony. This one should be doubly interesting as the wedding is in German and Turkish! I'm also looking forward to seeing some of our friends there that we haven't seen for a while. Have a good week!

Plum Crazy

I've been playing "Hostess with the Most-ess" lately with visits from my mother, my in-laws, and other friends. With a few weeks off before the next round of visitors descend on us, I'm trying to get a jump start on my Christmas goodies -- mincemeat, Christmas cakes and a Christmas pudding. Last year's turned out very well, but I did learn one lesson -- Christmas pudding doesn't need to be fed that much alcohol. It was just a wee bit boozy!

I did have some success this summer with my preserving. Thanks to a generous neighbour who, whilst on horseback, picked a very large bucket of beautifully sweet German plums, Zwetschgen. After making a batches of plum jam and spiced plum butter (which turned out more like a sweet and slightly spiced jam), I used up the last with apple and plum chutney. We really don't eat much chutney, so I'm looking for recipes that call for it.

My summer's strawberry jam is almost gone now and my lemon cordial disappeared ages ago. I'll make a couple bottles of that for next year. If I get the chance I'll be making chili oil to use up the last of our crop and a batch of lemon curd. Unfortunately I've lost our favourite curd recipe, so it's back to the drawing board there.

The weather has been very changeable here, so we haven't been very touristy lately. We did manage to visit Schwerin -- interesting city (as it's the only formerly East German city I've been to), beautiful castle (do get the audio tour), and v. expensive park.