Hometown Happiness in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

I thought I'd share a few snaps from my hometown with you.  It's a bustling metropolis by the name of Eutin, and can be found in the very north of Germany.  To be honest, after how hectic our travels had been for a while, Chewy and I were both looking forward to staying in one place for more than 3 nights (and being spoilt rotten by my grandparents). 

Above you can see the beautiful garden, full of veggies and flowers.  My favourite.  As for below, what better way to spend a morning than making jam?

So maybe I was lying about the whole 'bustling metropolis' part.  Eutin is just a small town, and this is the main market square where you can find farmers markets every Wednesday and Saturday.  It's been that way since I can remember, so for at least 20something years.  I think it's a beautiful, historic market square, and thankfully when I showed Chewy around here the sun was shining!

Don't even need to go to Copenhagen to see the little mermaid when we had one right on our doorstep!

After being away from Perth for about 5 months already, the thing I most missed was a home-cooked meal (preferably one that I didn't have to cook myself).  So i thought that my first home-cooked meal deserved a photo, and boy was it a good one.  All veggies fresh from the garden, yum!  The potatoes were dug up just that morning, as were the carrots, and ok ok, the peas had been picked the day before, and I quickly went and picked the parsley myself from the garden just 30 minutes before lunch.  There is nothing like grandma's home-cooking.

Short Skirts, Hieroglyphs & Tassles

Finally a new outfit post! Always exciting because it means I got me some new clothing = happy Milena.  

Thanks to Berlin I have a new skirt from Urban Outfitters (surprise surprise), top is also from Urban Outfitters, and vest is from Bershka.  Chose not to go for shoes as I'd been outside in the garden all day barefoot anyway, and I prefer it that way!

Oopsie, I must have spotted something in the distance in this next one.

Deliciously Naughty Ice Cream Cake

So my grandma makes a mean ice cream cake, and in true grandma fashion, it is about as unhealthy as can be.  Full of ice cream, cream, meringue, chocolate and raspberry sauce, I'm about to share the recipe for this beauty with you. 

Oh yes!

This recipe is incredibly simple, and all you'll need is:

A decent sized tub of vanilla ice cream

4 cups of whipped cream, and whip it well

100g of chocolate sprinkles or shavings

Approximately 200g of meringue

50g sugar

50g almond meal

2 - 3 tablespoons of cherry or raspberry liqueur

Aprroxmiately 300ml raspberry sauce 

A decent amount of ice cream magic/magic shell chocolate sauce

At this stage I have to point out that quantities do not need to be exact.  My grandma, being a grandma, doubles the amount of chocolate and sugar in this easily.  It is completely up to you how you want to tweak it, this is just the basic recipe which we use. Now the next bit is the really challenging part - mix all your ingredients (except for the rasberry sauce) together and pop it in a springform cake tin (grease that up a bit beforehand to make your life easier later) and voila!

Crush up the meringue before you mix it all together.  I just mashed them up in their little bags.

 

Found this guy in the kitchen, ready to whip some cream!

This is the mixture of meringue, chocolate, almond meal and sugar, with the ice cream just going in.

This is what the mixture should look like once you've mixed everything together well.

Now for the last part - drizzle the entire cake with raspberry sauce.  It doesn't really matter how you do this, so don't worry about being careful.

Once you've done all this, pop it in the freezer overnight, or at least for quite a few hours.

For the finishing touch, just add some of that chocolate sauce that freezes when it goes on ice cream in any pattern you wish.  And then it's done done done and you're ready to tuck in! 

Best enjoyed outside in the sunshine and with friends and family!  Oh who are we kidding, also enjoyed inside and with anyone you trust not to eat too much of it.

Samadhi Vegetarian Restaurant, Berlin

"We cook with fresh vegetables, love, and without stress" professes the menu of Samadhi, and it does not lie.

Amongst the many vegetarian restaurants that can be found in Berlin, Samadhi is one that has great recommendations online.  So guess where we headed to dinner? Oh yes.

 

We had dinner here with Chewy's parents, so I can show you all 4 delicious dishes! Actually make that 5 because we all shared a starter too, the remnants of which can be seen below.  There were 2 rice paper rolls filled with fresh salad, herbs, tofu, rice noodles and bean sprouts, with a hoisin dipping sauce.  In the background you can see the remains of a spring roll with chilli sauce, filled with tofu and vegetables.  I can whole heartedly recommend these starters!

 

So lets move on to mains.  Main number 1 was this beauty below - stewed tofu with ginger in caramel sauce with fresh pineapple, chinese bean sauce, vegetables, onion, pepper, mushrooms and morels.  Even though it may not look like much, it was delicious I am told!

Main numero 2 - gado gado.  I'm sure many of you have had this indonesian speciality before, it is such a simple yet beautiful dish simply consisting of blanched vegetables with peanut sauce.

I decided to have the pad thai, which they were happy to make vegan by taking out the egg.  Pad thai is one of my favourite meals, and this version with fried rice noodles and tofu, salted raddish, tamarind extract, chilli powder, bean sprouts, peanuts and fresh vegetables was one of my favourites ever.  I had it medium spicy, which was just right for me, but you can also ask it to be 'extra hot'.  Go on, I dare you.

Now Chewy's meal may just look like a right old mess, but this fried eggplant in satay sauce with tofu, carrots, chillies, onions and roasted mushrooms was a winner.  It was quite spicy, but really yummy, and the addition of the pineapple was just perfect.

The decoration on the wall I thought was just beautiful.

 For dessert we were all a bit naughty, and headed around the corner for some apple strudel.  Naughty.

 

Unfortunately this is the last of my restaurant recommendations for Berlin, but hopefully I've given you all a few ideas of where to go for some delicious vegetarian and vegan food.  Samadhi, Viasko, Amici Amici, Mustafa's vegetarian kebabs and Grandmeister Burger all provided us with incredible food in Berlin, and it was so refreshing to have so much choice.  Now tuck in and let me know if you enjoyed the food as much as I did!  

Heading off to my hometown in Germany next, so see you in Eutin.