Nutella-filled Waffles

I was curious to see if we could make waffles stuffed with Nutella, so we tried it for an Easter brunch. Special occasion, special breakfast, right?

All you need is Nutella, waffle mix (any kind will do), and a waffle maker.

Step 1: Mix up your waffle batter. We used the "just add water and shake" kind available in German supermarkets, but you can make your own or use other mixes.

Step 1a: Warm the Nutella slightly so that it flows a bit better. Not too much, or the chocolate breaks down. But there's a reason the crepe makers keep Nutella in a warm water bath.

Step 2:  Spray the waffle plates with PAM or oil.

Trust me, this one is important! Because you're pouring the waffle in two layers, it will be much more likely to separate when you open the waffle maker if you haven't greased the plates.

Step 3: Pour on a layer of waffle batter, slightly less than you'd use for a regular waffle.

Step 4: Quickly drizzle Nutella (or drop bits, as we did here) over the bottom layer of batter. Be fast so that it doesn't cook yet.

Step 5: Pour more batter over to cover the Nutella bits

Step 6: Remove per your waffle maker's instructions.

Enjoy your hot waffles filled with Nutella!

There aren't many pictures of the results....we were too excited to eat them and forgot about the taking pictures part of it.  They were so good! With this sweeter waffle mix, they were like crepes in a different form.  

We tried a few different ways - the small drops of Nutella, the big clump, and drizzling it in a spiral (not shown here). I'd recommend either the drizzle (you'll have small threads of Nutella througout each bite) or the smaller drops (you'll have yummy pockets of hot Nutella in most bites).  The one big clump concentrated the Nutella too much and also didn't cook as well. You want to have both waffle and Nutella in each bite!

Enjoy!

Munich Day Trip - hiking in Kufstein (Austria)

We've previously blogged about our winter sledding day-trip to Kufstein in Austria.  It's close to Munich, has beautiful mountain views, and of course hiking up and sledding down.  Perfect for a Saturday or Sunday.

I will be taking Frau A back this summer too, because it only gets better.  Snow is nice, but now we'll get the classic fir trees and meadow flowers in the Tirolean Alps.  Pictured below, I'm looking back north onto the mountains of the Wilder Kaiser which are actually located in Germany.  The trail has a lot of nice viewpoints like this, looking down into the valley and small village below.  Shorts are fine for hiking here when the weather is good; I take a fleece for when the sun hides or wind comes up at altitude, and water in the backpack until we reach the hut.

Further along the path you get a more extended view of the valley, again the Wilder Kaiser in the distance, and a small river running through the town now.  I think this water eventually connects with the Isar on it's way to Munich.  As the sun burns off the morning haze the peaks get a little sharper in the distance.  Nice view. 

 

This time, before reaching a hut, we go up to a peak called the Pendling Gipfelkreuz (gipfel = peak and kreuz = cross).  Not a really high destination relative to most in the Alps, but feels great to be on top.  The fleece is off at this point - worked up a sweat on the last incline.  Even changed baseball hats!

Not far from the summit is the Pendlinghaus (also known as Kufsteiner Haus, see the yellow sign above the door), another typical hut that offers food and drink to hikers.  The sign in the foreground says "wilkommen" -- welcome.  Now if you look closely at the antenna on the house, you'll see a glider behind it!  The pilot was circling around for over a half-hour and would zoom past the house, so I was able to snap the photo just as he passed my field of view.  On the right, you can see the same valley as the previous photogtraph.  That's the view when you have lunch here.  And you can rent a room for overnight too!  But I didn't eat here, because I wanted to get back to the hut from our winter hike, the Kala Alm.

So I headed back toward the Kala Alm, where we rented the sleds in winter.  It was in the Spring, and some peaks still had their snowcap.  In this direction we are seeing the Tirolean Alps vs. the Wilder Kaiser range in the previous photos.  They are a little larger and more dramatic.

When you arrive at the Kala Alm, it looks basically the same this time, just no snow.  People outside having food and drink, enjoying the weather... but then you notice something.  They can't rent sleds without snow, but they can rent Mountaincarts!  There's a whole row of them on the right below.  (Actually, you can still see some residual snow too, the last remnants of winter up here.)

A mountain cart is like a Big Wheel for grown-ups.  German (Austrian?) engineered, they are not powered (gravity is all you need, and more) but the do have two hand brakes like on a bicycle.  The right brake works the right rear wheel, the left brake the left rear wheel.  Therefore, they're not just for reducing speed, but to help navigate the winding corners of the path down.  When you slightly brake a wheel, it rotates more slowly than the other wheel does, therefore your cart will turn in that direction.  Brake a little with the right, you will will get a little help turning right.  The best riders use this to literally "skid" through the corners.  It is so much fun.

The two photos above are taken from (and link to) a site with more Mountaincart information.  I was too busy having fun to take photos of my own.  However, Frau A and I will be back and try to take some video too! 

German Ads (Part 3)

We kept looking after our first posts on German ads, and there is yet more interesting German media and copy out there.  There were photos flying around the Web of the German trucks with almost trompe l'oeil-like paintings on them... it turns out that these were not real.  They were, however, real advertising concepts submitted to a competition.

The urban legend was debunked, as always, by Snopes.

The competition is called the Rhino Awards, and the results were from 2005.   There are other submissions to be seen on their web site, and later competitions from 2007 as well.  But these are still the best. 

Hanging Pepsi...

Double sided / wrong way truck...  ("On the wrong track/path?")

Canvas bag... 

Germans use the word for bread ("brot") to denote fresh bakery loaves, often oval in shape.  For the mass-produced, square-ish, white-bread loaves they use the word "toast", probably because they would never eat this without toasting it first (and it fits perfectly in the toaster).  This is the msot common brand of "toast" in Bavaria, possibly all of Germany.

And an acquarium...

 

Again, check out the web site of the Rhino Awards for more. 

Photoblog - Munich through a zoom lens

We blogged earlier about trying to look at your home city from a new, fresh perspective.  In that case, it was actually paying attention to the detailed figures on some of Munich's fountains and buildings rather than take the typical touristy wide-angle skyline photo.

With a nice zoom lens (in this case, the simple 10x on my now deceased Canon SX200IS) we can also look up, to find more detail in places where the eyes don't travel as often.

The first pic is the front-top of the Justizpalast (justice building), home of the Landgericht (judiciary system).  It's located at the popular Karlsplatz where people like to sit by the fountain and enjoy nice weather like the blue sky we see here.  As in the prior post, I rarely know the meaning behind the statues or relief, but we can make out a figure with the scales of justice, and another with a caduceus representing commerce and trade (probably the desire for fair dealings).

Now that I have my Olympus micro-four-thirds camera, I will definitely be back for more of this building. 

The next building is a poor thing -- the Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus) on Marienplatz.  Because the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus) is so famous with its glockenspiel the Altes Rathaus almost never gets any attention!  The sun reflecting off the clock caught my attention, and it turned out to be a nice subject.  Many town halls in Germany have a clock with astronomical symbols (signs of the zodiac) and I think that's what we see here as well.

Staying at Marienplatz, I then tackled the column that is "in the way" of tourists getting an unobstructed photo of the Neues Rathaus -- the Mariensaeule (Marian column), right in the middle of the square.  As Wikipedia explains: the column is topped by a golden statue of the Virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon as the Queen of Heaven.  I'm guessing it's her royal sceptre that she's holding in the hand opposite the baby Jesus?  And that's quite a crown too...

Finally, I went after another gold & gleaming piece, this time atop the Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Ghost).  Of course there is the mandatory depiction of Mary again (bottom, with a similar crown and sceptre).  But at the top, I believe this is the Eye of Providence, which represents God watching over humankind.  Remind you of something?  A version is also on the Great Seal of the United States and also on the U.S. One Dollar Bill.

It's funny... you see something new, and then realize it's been around you in other forms all the time.

Funny Austria

On our weekend getaway in Vienna, we photographed some beautiful places in the city and at Schoenbrunn.  The items below definitely are not so nice.  Here are some of the funny and strange things we saw instead...

We went past the Prater Amusement Park (one of the oldest in the world) and noticed this bank machine ("geldautomat" in German).  Is somebody trying to tell us something, perhaps a scathing message about gross consumption?  What exactly is in the pig's right, um, hoof?  And why is he winking at us???  I have absolutely no explanation as to why the bank, neighborhood, or city would erect and keep this thing, but there it is!

OK, so these chips (sorry, crisps) are not Austrian, but they decided to stock them so they're fair game.  The brand is called Real Crisps and they certainly know how to get attention.  They offer flavors (sorry, flavours) like Roast Ox and Ham & English Mustard (seen below).  It's a little hidden, but the black bag with the picture of a rugby player is a flavor called Real Strong Cheese & Onion.  Probably want to brush the teeth after those.  By the way, they deliver worldwide!

We're still on food and drink, but this time it's not the item itself, but the presentation.  We were at Wine & Co looking for some Austrian wine to take back with us.  (Gruner Veltliner is a favorite of ours because it tastes great and is such a bargain.)  Frau A noticed that the "international" section had the wines from Germany!  OK, technically that's correct, but we think it's just a jab at their larger neighbors.

 

We had already tried "Pope Beer" (Papst Bier) but since Benedict XVI hails from Germany, the Austrians had to do something.  So they have the Twelve Apostles Wine.  The label also says "Papst Besuch Wien 2007" so perhaps it was vinted for the Pope's visit to Vienna that year?  It's a "special edition" per the label, and at six euros for the bottle you at least know God isn't trying to rip you off.

Finally, we have a little something from the Technical Museum.  We saw their awesome exhibit of musical instruments, but they also had extended section on music in general.  In this case, one room focused on music and pop culture, and it had "artifacts" from various pop stars or concerts.  The most interesting was this:  the McDonalds garbage that 50 Cent threw out after eating his meal on tour in 2004.  What can you say to this?  A museum immortalizing trash from 50 Cent?

 

Spring Skiing in Stubai (Austria)

Here in Germany, Easter is a prime time for vacation because everyone gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off (four day weekend!).  And it's not just a long weekend -- schools are out for 2-3 weeks so many of my colleagues are taking a holiday for the entire time.  Munich really empties out as families leave for Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey.

Things are a bit different this year because Easter arrived so "late", on the 24th of April.  For those heading south, it doesn't matter, but many Bavarians like to use this time for one last ski trip.  Frau A and I decided to do this too (although only for a couple of days).  Since we're in late April, there is one place guaranteed to have decent slopes: the Stubai Glacier.

The snow is truly guaranteed -- you can buy a lift ticket online and they will refund your money if there is not enough snow to ski through Easter.  They offer the same guarantee in October too!  Here is a snippet of their website recently:

In the valley there is no snow left, but on the glacier at 3000+ meters they have 200cm of snow.

As you seen on the map above, the Stubai Alps are in the south of Austria, near Innsbruck, on the border with Italy.  The range has at least 9 peaks over 3000m, and the glacier is accessible via the Stubaital (Stubai Valley).  The valley stretches 40km with a single main road going through it, with a half-dozen "large" towns along the way catering to tourists year round (hiking and similar activities in the Summer).

There are many other ski areas in the Stubai region, but the glacier is the only one with the altitude and depth to support skiing so late into warm weather.  In fact, the season there usually starts in the middle of September and ends in early June!  (Of course, the snow quality starting in May is relatively low, with mostly slushy conditions... but addicts can get their fix.)

Here is a map of the pistes:

The glacier area has 110km of slopes, most of them (85km) are easy-to-medium difficulty.  There is a mix of gondolas (5 of them), chair lifts (7), and t-bars (9).  They also have a "fun park" like Defereggental.  What's really nice is that you can drop you equipment off in the "comfort center" at the base of the pistes and leave your skiis & boots overnight -- no lugging equipment back & forth from the hotel!

At the top of the highest lift, they have a great lookout platform - gorgeous place for photos.  Here is Frau A walking up to the top:

This is the view from down on the slopes, looking over the Fun Park...

 

... and the same view from the viewing platform -- you're standing on a small peak (snow in the foreground) looking over the same range in the background:

 

The pistes at the highest altitude had great snow, but with such blue skies and intense sun the runs near the bottom were getting a bit wet.  The scenery was beautiful and it was not too crowded as you can see in the photo below (taken from an open window in a gondola):

We would stop frequently to take more photos, because the weather was incredible.  This is one of the upper slopes, winding through the mountains:

They also had a short Super-G run, complete with a starting gate and appropriately spaced flags to weave through.  The timer was not working that day (sometimes they will even have a clock that shows you how fast you made it) but you still got a feel.  Here is Frau A ready to go:

It was simply a great, and unusual, Easter weekend.  We've already circled September dates on the calendar to get our first skiing next season in Stubai.

Easter Bunnies

In Germany, the secular side of Easter revolves around rabbits and eggs. I'm still a little unclear on the whole rabbits hatching from eggs part of Easter, but that's not something unique to Germany.

The chocolate bunnies here come in every shape and size and flavor, from white to dark chocolate, and from chocolate for kids with extra calcium to chocolate for adults with liqueur.

 

By far the most well-known are Lindt's Gold Hase, which have been made for more than 50 years. According to Lindt's site, 

One fine spring morning in March when the ground was still covered with a white blanket of snow, a master chocolatier from LINDT observed little rabbit in his garden.  His little son was completely fascinated when he saw the hare, but began to cry when the rabbit disappeared into the bushes.
Struck by the his son's sadness, the father suddenly had a great idea:

"I should make a rabbit like that of chocolate ..."

He made a rabbit out of finest Lindt milk chocolate, wrapped it in gold paper and hung him a golden bell on a red ribbon around his neck so he would not be lost.

"When the bell rings, you can find it easily," the choclatier said to his young son. And so the first GOLDHASE had come into this world.

However the tradition began, the Goldhasen are now one of the best known international Easter sweets.  They emerge from eggs and come in sizes from baby up to 1 kg giants.

 

This year, Lindt introduced the dark chocolate (brown ribbon) and white chocolate (white ribbon) varieties to go with the traditional red-ribboned milk chocolate Goldhase.

Though chocolate is the main event, everyone else gets in on Easter bunny mania, too....we find rabbit shaped cookies and breads and rabbit-shaped versions of most candy bars.

Chocolate-dipped shortbread sandwich and rabbit bread

And it wouldn't be Easter in Germany without an elaborately creative themed educational display. In PEP (the closest thing in Munich to an American-style mall), they have displays throughout the mall using the fictional Rabbit Co. ("Hasen AG") to teach children how chocolate is made - from harvest to chocolate egg.

 Growing and Harvesting the cacao Beans 

Drying and Fermenting 

Shipping the beans

  Pulverizing and Processing the Beans                                     

Making Chocolate and Molding Chocolate Eggs

Painting, Wrapping, and Shipping Chocolate Eggs

The detail in these displays was amazing, down to planting flowers and aging the printing on the cacao bean bags. Of course there were signs at each display explaining the steps of the chocolate making process. And at the end, a cage full of adorable real rabbits to see. Unfortunately not a petting zoo, but still adorable!