Happy New Year

Now is the time to free the heart,

Let all intentions and worries stop,

Free the joy inside the self,

Awaken to the wonder of your life.

Open your eyes and see the friends

Whose hearts recognize your face as kin,

Those whose kindness watchful and near,

Encourages you to live everything here.

See the gifts the years have given,

Things your effort could never earn,

The health to enjoy who you want to be

And the mind to mirror- mystery.

A good beginning is half the work.

- Fr. John O'Donohue

Wishing you a blessed and joy filled New Year!

Leaving with Gratitude

Prague is a gorgeous city. That sentence does not adequately describe the beauty of the place. It is near picture perfect on every turn. I quickly ran out of words to describe its grandeur.

Lovely, stunning, magnificent, enchanting, charming, beautiful.....Next time I'm out for a walk I need to bring my thesaurus.

A candle light memorial to Vaclav Havel, the former President of the Czech Republic, who passed away our first evening in Prague

A view from St. Charles Bridge. Absolute charm.

The Astronomical Clock. An absolute must see. Sit in the cafe, drink a little gluhwien 

and watch the show.

St. Vitus Cathedral. I never grow tired of this cathedral and see new details with every visit.

And as beautiful as the city is, it is all the richer for the friends we shared the holiday with.

Tomorrow morning we leave Prague and will be meeting some friends in France. It has only been four months since we've seen them, but it feels much, much longer. We are just chomping at the bit to get there, squeeze them tight, and talk long into the night. I can't wait to hear our kids in the next room laughing and falling into the comfortable banter that comes when you are with people you love.

I would however be remiss in moving on without saying thank you to our Prague hosts. This may seem unusual to many of you, but we don't know them. We've never even met them. They are the neighbor of friends of ours who live here. Our friends asked if we could possibly stay in their apartment while were visiting and they were quite happy for us to do so. Their only request was that we water their plants. This is an act of hospitality that I do hope we can return, so BB, if you are reading this, I do hope that you and your husband will come to Tunisia so that we may repay the favor!

As we leave, amidst the cleaning and the packing, we made some muffins to leave in their freezer. We have other gifts too, none of it very extravagant, but things that are given with a lot of gratitude.

Oatmeal Muffins with Crystallized Ginger and Dried Cherries

makes 18 muffins

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup plain yogurt

¼ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 cups all purpose flour

½ cup desiccated coconut

¼ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

½ cup finely chopped dried cherries

coarse sugar or granola for topping

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl combine the oatmeal and yogurt and set aside for 30 minutes.

To the oatmeal mixture add the sugars, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.

Add the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and coconut and stir until just combined, there may be some lumps and streaks of flour still.  Gently fold in the ginger and cherries.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, top with a generous sprinkling of sugar or granola and bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned and they spring back when touched.

If you give a mousse a cookie

Your life will be forever changed.

On Christmas Day I was a little melancholy. I don't think that I am alone in that feeling. There was a wistful nostalgia for Christmas past, a feeling that I could never really get traction on the holiday spirit this year, and well, we are just exhausted from the past few months.

After trekking across Eastern Europe for the past week, yesterday we just stayed put. We relaxed, caught up on reading, napped, and watched a few Christmas movies. We checked in with family far away and snuggled up to the ones nearby. And then after dinner we laughed great rumbling belly laughs which is the best medicine!

We traveled to Prague with friends and Julie has been feeding us well this week. Yesterday she made a variation of some short ribs that she had made for her husbands birthday a while back. Instead of the ribs we picked out a pork shoulder and it was excellent. We also ate potatoes mashed with celery root and Emmenthaler, green beans and roasted radicchio. Those were separate dishes by the way, that would be some sort of funky mashed potatoes if you included the beans and the radicchio. It was as always a lovely meal. To finish, I made a chocolate mousse. I wanted something crunchy to offset the mousse and while Julie and I were closing out Marks and Spencer I found some Dark Chocolate and Ginger Florentines. They were perfect, the almonds paired well with the Amaretto liqueur in the mousse and I just think that ginger and chocolate play nicely together.

I followed the recipe from Jamie Oliver's website but didn't serve the mousse with the cherries and sesame cookies. Other than an unfortunate, but not disastrous, mishap with what I thought was whipping cream (It was half and half which does not whip, and the grocery was closed. In my defense I don't read Czech) the mousse came together easily and with out a lot of fuss.

Life changing? Well I think that may be asking a lot of the mousse, but it was really, really, very scrumptious. Now if you are game to make your own Florentines I'd give this recipe from The Curious Baker a whirl. In fact, I'm planning on it.

Delicious Chocolate Mousse

From Jamie Oliver

300g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces

Sea salt

8 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic

100g caster sugar (4½ heaped tablespoons)

300ml double cream

Amaretto

2 tablespoons good-quality cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting

2 packs of sesame snaps

400 grams of dried sour cherries

1. Place the dark chocolate and a tiny pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl and sit it over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Leave to slowly melt, stirring occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, separate your eggs so you have the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Add the sugar to the bowl of yolks and beat until the sugar has dissolved and its silky and smooth. Whisk the whites with a tiny pinch of salt until they form soft peaks – you should be able to hold the bowl upside down over your head without them falling out! In a third bowl, beat the cream until slightly thick and just whipped.

3. Once the chocolate has melted, carefully lift the bowl out of the pan. Add 75ml (3 shots) of amaretto and the cocoa powder to your bowl of yolks and mix well. (I did not have cocoa powder, I used an additional 200 grams of dark chocolate melted to the egg yolks) Tip in the cream and mix again, then fold through the melted chocolate until it’s well combined and a gorgeous colour. Finish by tipping in the egg whites, and then keep folding, from the outside in in a figure-of-eight until the mix is smooth and evenly coloured. It will look a bit dodgy at first, but trust me it will come together. Spoon or ladle the mousse into a big serving bowl or divide between little glasses or cappuccino cups and pop in the fridge for an hour or two until set.

4. Just before you’re ready to serve, give the mousse a lovely dusting of cocoa. Pop your dried cherries in a small pan, add a wineglass of amaretto then top with enough water to cover. Put on the heat and bring to the boil, then turn the heat off and leave to stand for a bit. This will bring the cherries back to life. Leaving them in the packet, bash up your sesame snaps in a pestle and mortar. Tip them out, and break up any larger bits that are left so its nutty with a caramelly kick and a bit of a crunch. Serve this in the mortar next to your chocolate mousse with a bowl of those beautiful cherries on the side so everyone can dig in and help themselves. It may look a bit rustic, but honestly, it’s the best chocolate mousse I’ve ever tasted!

Cooks note: The only changes I made were as follows. I did not have cocoa powder, I used an extra 200grams of dark chocolate (70% Lindt) and I did not serve this with cherries and the sesame snaps. I garnished the mousse with Dark Chocolate and Ginger Florentines from Marks and Spencer, but make your own, you'll be glad you did.

For Ever Let This Place Be

We went to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the infamous Nazi concentration/extermination camps. I have been before but still find myself caught off guard and startled by the barbarity and anguish of the place.

We were the first visitors of the day. Snow had fallen the night before. It was cold, a cold that takes your breath away and moves quickly to your bones. Polish winters are unforgiving. The morning's fog had not lifted making the camp feel ghostlike and invisible. The atmosphere was eerie, frightening, despairing.  In the distance we could hear dogs barking and gun shots from hunters.

I asked my friend how a place like this could ever be redeemed. It can't she said. It is to be forever a place of wailing and lament.

Christmas Spirit

I found my Christmas Spirit. It was hiding in Eastern Europe. Who knew.

Christmas while living overseas is always a little bit complicated. It is nearly impossible to conjure up the sentiment and traditions of your past, try as you may. When we lived in Singapore there was no change of seasons to set the mood. There were still decorations around the city and Christmas carols playing at the malls, but there weren't any cedar boughs, fires giving off their warmth, or the scent of mulling spices filling the house with their friendly inviting scent. You learned to trade in the pine trees and snow for palm trees and surfing. You learned to find some new traditions to incorporate with the old. Now we live in a country that does not celebrate Christmas, and the lack of acknowledgment of the holiday has left me feeling a little disjointed.

All the more reason to get back to the real meaning of Christmas. Christmas is not found in the cedar boughs, the carols, or the external trappings of the holiday that we surround ourselves with. It is the culmination of Advent, the celebration that God did indeed come near.

"God came to us because he wanted to join us on the road, to listen to our story, and to help us realize that we are not walking in circles but moving towards the house of peace and joy.  This is the great mystery of Christmas that continues to give us comfort and consolation: we are not alone on our journey.  The God of love who gave us life sent his only Son to be with us at all times and in all places, so that we never have to feel lost but always can trust that he walks with us.

Christmas is the renewed invitation not to be afraid and to let him-whose love is greater than our own hearts and minds can comprehend-be our companion"

- Henri Nouwen, Gracias

And so, in the Christmas Markets of Europe, strolling arm and arm with my husband, breaking bread and sharing a glass of wine with friends I found my Christmas Spirit. I have friends for the journey, a family that fills my heart with immense comfort and affection, and a God who is audacious in His love for me. 

Merry Christmas!

Time for a little travel......

I'm heading out with my family in the morning. We are in search of a white Christmas! After lots of Christmases spent in the tropics, on beaches, and swatting mosquitoes, we are headed north to colder weather and with our fingers (and toes) crossed that we'll see a little snow.

We are flying in to Vienna tomorrow morning then we are planning to catch up with friends in Prague and Strasbourg. We will see the sights and of course sample some great food. We will be searching out the best pierogis, sausages, hot chocolate and mulled wine that can be found. To round it all out of course will be some pastries, those multi layered, sinfully creamy confections that you mean to share with someone, but really you end up eating the whole thing yourself.

Thank goodness there will be lots of walking involved.

This morning I made some muffins for the girls and their friends. I planned to snap a few photos but they were all eaten before I could get my camera. I believe that to be a resounding endorsement! The LA Times posted their best recipes from the past 26 years, this little gem was among them.

Winery's Oatmeal-Coconut Muffins

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 egg

¾ cup shredded coconut, toasted, see note*

Raspberry preserves

In a medium mixing bowl combine the oats and buttermilk. Let them soak for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile toast the coconut, see note*. Into another medium mixing bowl place the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Whisk together well and set aside. Into the oatmeal mixture add the vegetable oil, brown sugar, egg and coconut, and stir well to combine. Blend in the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to moisten. Spoon the batter into a muffin tin that has been lined with papers. Using small teaspoon, place preserves in center of each muffin and cover with a bit of the batter.  Bake at 350 degrees 20 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.

*Toasting coconut: Place the coconut in a dry sauté pan over medium high heat and stir constantly. As the coconut begins to brown continue cooking until it reaches the desired color. I like mine pretty dark, I toasted my coconut for about 8 minutes.

You Know You Got to Have Friends

Sing along with me......

You know you got to have friends

The feelings oh so strong

You got to have friends

To make that day last long

I had some friends, but they're gone

Something' came and took them away

And from the dusk 'til the dawn

Here is where I'll stay

Standing at the end of the road boys,

Waitin' for my new friends to come

I don't care if I'm hungry or cold

I got to get me some of them

When we made the decision to leave Singapore and move to Tunisia we left a lot of friends behind. I'm so grateful that we live in the day and age of Skype, and email. I'm also grateful that my friends are adventurous and like to travel. That means, I could leave with the assurance that there will be visitors.

We also left Singapore knowing that friends would be headed to Tunisia with us, and that we had dear friends waiting for us there. You feel much more confident having someones hand to hold whether that is a husband, a parent or a friend. The world isn't quite so big and scary with a friend by your side.

Tonight we are gathering with friends to celebrate a birthday, to congratulate each other on a job well done, to mark the beginning of a Merry and Bright Holiday. There will be new friends, old friends, friends who fit your hand like a worn glove, friends who we are just beginning to fold into our lives.

Like the song says.....You know you got to have friends.

For Lauren, Happy Birthday Friend!

Mexican Chocolate Cake

Gourmet | April 2004

For cake 2 sticks unsalted butter ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder ¾ cup water 2 cups granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk 2 tablespoons vanilla 1 teaspoon coffee extract ½ teaspoon almond extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon salt 4 ounces chopped dark chocolate with chilies such as Lindt Au Piment Rouge For glaze ½ stick unsalted butter ½ cup half-and-half ¾ cup confectioners sugar 5 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped 1/4 teaspoon salt Make cake: Preheat oven to 350°F and place oven rack in middle of oven. Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium low heat. Once melted whisk in cocoa and then add the water and whisk until smooth. Remove from the heat and whisk in the sugar, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, coffee and almond extracts. In a medium size bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, then add to the cocoa mixture and whisk until just combined (there may be a few lumps). Stir in the chopped chocolate. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake until a wooden pick or skewer comes out with a few crumbs clinging to the skewer, 35-45 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 20 minutes, then loosen edges with a thin knife and invert onto a plate. Make glaze: Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, stir in half-and-half and confectioners sugar. Add chocolate and cook, stirring constantly, until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in salt. Cool glaze until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Spoon glaze over top and sides of cooled cake and spread with a small offset spatula or knife to cover completely.