Brats anyone?

Welcome to Bavaria, home of the blue and white checked flag, Germans, and hops fields. We saw the Glockenspiel in Munich (Purists, please forgive my lack of accents) and went to Dachau. It was the first concentration camp in Germany and considered heaven compared to others, as it was not ever an execution camp. Don't let that fool you, because 25% of the prisoners that came there died there. But that's a lot 'better' than the 95% in Auschwitz. And what is the Glockenspiel? It's a clock tower with giant dancing and celebrating figures that was created to commemorate the marriage of a Duke in 1600 something and the cooper dancers that entertained during the Plague in 1517 (?). (Coopers are barrel makers.)

We have visited a castle and a cathedral. We ate lots and lots of brats and wurst and potatoes. We have also slept a bit. Which is a nice change after staying awake for over 30 hours on our flight over.

At church we met lots of people and I tried my hardest to understand German. I thought I could, I thought I could, but it was one of the longest church meetings I ever attended. It's not that the speakers or lessons were sub par, but German is not Dutch.

Oh, we ate applestrudel too. And kabobs. And ice cream. I like ice cream. And German food. Maybe that's all the weight I'm gaining...

Hold the raisins

Good Morning! You open the cupboard and pull out a box of bran flake and sugar-crusted raisin mixture, claiming to have two full scoops of raisins in every box. For a college assignment, a group of students and I analyzed this product to establish the meaning of this claim. We discovered that, in fact, based on percent of raisin volume and weight per box, the amount of raisin varied greatly enough, even of the same package size, that there was no consistency at all. No two scoop sizes were alike. 

That aside, have you ever checked out the ingredient list on the various flakes of branny goodness? Ever notice that even the most basic version have fun chemicals like BHT and caramel coloring. Sounds delicious! Time to eat!

Unless, of course, you want to keep it natural. How? Make some of your own! Is it simple? Yes! Does it take some time? Also, yes. Is it worth it? Right now, for me, yes. I found a recipe here at 48 Homemade Breakfast Cereals > Willow Bird Baking.

She writes for a while about all kinds of cereals and has lovely pictures and when you get to the very bottom, you find this recipe (that I have taken the liberty to shorten and modify):

Bran Flakes

Recipe by: Adapted from Mr. Breakfast and now from Willow Bird Baking
Yields: about 3-4 servings (But doubling or quadrupling is a good idea,)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup almond flour (or other finely ground nuts or ground flax)
Some honey (a Tablespoon is noticeably sweet, 3 T is really! sweet)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (though I'm not convinced it lightens it at all)
1/4 teaspoon salt, if you want
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup water

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients well. then add the wet. Cut 2 sheets to fit a baking tray or cookie sheet and place half the mixture on each sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and roll until thin and evenish.

Remove the plastic and transfer paper to the baking sheet. Heat oven to 350 F. Cook for 5-10 minutes, checking for a flexible, lightly browned leather like flake, slightly browned on the edges. It can burn quickly, so pay attention. Allow it to cool and repeat until dough is used.

Reduce the heat to 275 and break each flake into smaller flakes, like bran flake size. Spread them out on a sheet and cook for about 20 mins, stirring occasionally. Cool and eat up, because they only last for 2 weeks, according to the original site. Chances are, you won't need to worry about them lasting that long.


She gives the nutrition info as follows:

Nutritional Info: Serving size: about 1/4 of total yield Calories: 146.3, Fat: 5g, Sodium: 185mg, Carbs: 24.5g, Fiber: 6g, Sugars: 8g, Protein: 5.5g

Fun variations: Add cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, try different nuts, use juice in place of the milk and/or water. If your sweet tooth demands try it with chocolate chips (mix in the cereal bowl, probably not while cooking.) Also, combine with other cereals or add fruit to serve. It's tasty!

Am I extreme? Probably. Does my family like them? Yes.

Who can read what's in your wallet?

Since the mister and I are headed off to scary foreign places soon, we each invested in brand new passports, complete with RFID reading capacity, in order to prove our identity to those who may question it. RFID, or radio frequency identification, chips sends out a radio frequency, go figure, with information about the object or person with the chip. RFIDs are used all over to keep track of things, for example, in industry to track orders and shipments, in medicine to track samples, medications, and lost patients, and in agriculture to track live stock. Now they are also used in credit cards to offer a swipeless option. Some parents may want, or probably already have, to inject one into their kids. Great technology, right?

From my vast 10 minute search about these chips, I learned that card readers for such things range from a piddly $10 on up. What's the big deal? It means that Joe Nobody can buy a reader and, if your card has the chip, he can get close enough to you (as in 20 feet) and 'skim' your information. And you won't feel a thing. What a cozy world we live in! While not many cards use this technology just yet, some do and US passports do as well. How do you protect yourself? Don't carry one of those cards, or ask the bank to replace it with straight plastic, or buy an anti-RFID wallet. For passports, the US government was kind enough to slide and extra layer of metal into the book itself that is supposed to hinder, not prevent, would be thefts. How nice.

So, what type of shield works best? According to Consumer Reports, of the 10 products available on the market when the article was written, the homemade aluminum foil and duct tape sleeve worked better than 8 of them. Maybe I will make an aluminum foil helmet next to prevent someone reading my brain...though they may not find much useful information...

Any security people care to comment?

Button on the belly

Lately, my husband has discovered a disturbing problem. He has found it increasingly difficult to locate my bellybutton when he feels it needs a poke. Now bellybuttons have been a favorite landing spot for pokes since my early childhood, to the point where my brother and I contemplated manufacturing bellybutton protectors. (And as an older sister and aunt, I strive diligently to keep this noble tradition alive, sans protector.) But not only has my husband found it difficult to correctly locate said bellybutton, I have found that the general shape and placement of the little button seems to be changing along with the marked changes in my waistline. We have made great strides in overcoming the need for prefab, zero nutrition foods in our house, which has contributed somewhat to our overall health and well-being, yet still, my waistline seems to be changing shape at an alarming rate. Am I ill? Have I contracted some incurable disease that damages the general structure and shape of the innocuous button? Do I have a parasite? If so, it is a very large parasite. Imagine how Grover will feel if I try to use his bellybutton resting place. Whew!

Not my actual bellybutton

Upon seeking medical advice from a competent and well-informed friend, she suggested that I might have "the infamous Little-Puking-Ball-of-Flesh parasite!!!! I had two of those once. They're not bad once you get used to them. Especially because you can get big tax breaks if you get one removed." One can only hope that those tax breaks still apply upon its removal. Tomorrow we set an appointment to find out of the Ball-of-flesh parasite is of the male or female type.


Any prognostication? Prediction? Unwanted advice?

The wobble in the gobble

Imagine walking into the kitchen just as the most succulent looking turkey comes out of the oven. It's brown and crispy skin glistens as steam rises from the warm meat. Take a sniff. Ah, delightful! Too bad you still have to wait another 20 minutes before digging in.

That is what happened in our house this weekend. My resident-chef husband cooked a delicious bird for our April Fools dinner. No joke. He followed a recipe by Gordon Ramsey, plus or minus a few things. It was wonderful. Sorry no picture. It would only make you hungry.

Some changes he made, were to cover from the beginning with foil and bake on 350. Somehow he didn't mind that we did have bacon either. The last 30 mins, he basted and left the cover off for the rest of the time. We didn't let it rest for 2.5 hrs, nor did we follow the gravy recipe. The turkey was good enough.

Sugar + Water + 6-year-old = ?

Thirsty? Try a nice cool refresher. Um yum! Want a sip? What?! Your straw is broken?

April fools!

This year, my sister and I made a ’secret drink’ for dinner, made of ‘sugar and water‘ she explained, as she tried so hard to keep it secret. I even considered making blue or clear jigglers for ice cubes, but decided it wasn't worth the effort this time around.

Want the recipe?  Check the back of the gelatin box. Then add straw. Or dress it up with a strawberry on the rim.

(Helpful hint: Try not to shake the tray too much as you serve. It kind of gives it away.)