Pistachio Cupcakes!

 My latest cupcake attempt included two things I have never used before in a cupcake: 1) Pistachios; 2) Pistachio butter.  First of all, not a super fan of pistachios--but my dear ol' husband picked the flavor of the day.  So after searching high and low for pistachios that were unsalted and didn't cost a fortune, I found myself at Trader Joe's (I should have known!).  Okay, key ingredient--check.

Now for the pistachio butter.  Pretty much all you gotta do is put the nuts in the food processor and blend away.  Ends up with the same coloring as peanut butter, weird since the pistachio is bright green.  Hmm.

This recipe was pistachio on top of pistachio.  The batter is your basic white cake batter (cream cheese adds some tangy flavoring) with the butter added in and then another handful of roughly chopped pistachio's gets folded in at the end.

On top sits a powdered sugar glaze with more pistachio slivers as garnish.  I think next time I make this recipe I will try a cream cheese frosting.  The overall taste is a cupcake that is not too sweet since the nutty flavoring is more predominant than the powdered sugar.

PS.  This 36 cupcake carrier is awesome! 3 trays stack nicely inside that keep the little cakes from toppling over.  Also, serves as a huge Tupperware to keep them fresh rather than stacking them on a tiny cake stand.  Thanks to my little sister for a super birthday gift!



THE best hot chocolate in all the land!

So while in France we hear from several sources that the best hot chocolate you have ever tasted is in Paris. Lucky us! As a chocolate fiend I had to seek out this elusive treat. So a few of us find our way to Angelina. Angelina is a cute cafe that serves fancy teas and treats. The walls are either decorated with huge mirrors, murals, or drapes.

There are Parisians with thier little doggies on thier laps while ordering meals and everyone is chatting away. Its an akward setting to walk into-I almost feel like we are interrupting a private party or something.

Nonetheless, we are greeted nicely by the hostess and she brings us to our tables where we peruse the menu for the dessert that will accompany our hot chocolate.

Inside we find delicious treats lined up in pretty cases. Everything looks sooooo delicious its hard to choose. My decision, we are having hot chocolate, so I need something to counter the sweetness--a yummy strawberry/pineapple shortcake.

So when we finally get our hot chocolate it turns out the consistency is more like melted pudding...its thick and not overly sweet ( I think it was like 70% coco or something).  It coated the inside of our cups and tasted so delicious! A full cup of fresh whip cream made it all the better.

I was in absolute heaven until about 7:00 pm when I suddenly felt really really REALLY tired...I think I may have just experienced a 6 hour sugar high (we got to the restaurant at 1:00 pm).

Wine Country

Location: France

We've made it to Beaune, France.  The little town of Beaune lives on wine.  There are caves, or wineries all over the place (think Starbucks).  There are such strict regulations on wine here that if you use an irrigation system-you no longer get a gold star next to your name because your grapes are supposed to "struggle" so you make better wine.  There is a wine quality control board here that you have to apply to be a member of.  If you don't follow thier rules, you get booted out of the club.

We got to do a wine tasting and were handed a wine tasting cup.  This special tool have concave circles on one half of the cup and concave slanted lines on the other half.  What are they for?  The circles are for checking the color of the red wines while the slants are for checking the color of white wines.  The lady holds her cup up to candle light and instructs us that reds should be the color of rubies, and whites should be the color of gold (not yellow).  Very serious.

She leads us through the wine cellar tasting various wines.  She goes on to insist you can taste licorice and honey...hmmm, guess my palate is not that sophisticated.

Beautiful Lasagna

Location: Rome, Italy

Rome feels like its from a story book. There are ruins and sights to see literally everywhere. It is so random to get off the metro and walk out of the station to see the Colleseum just across the street. It stands there, as if it were a bank or something. Like its just some other building on the block. The feeling is probably contributed to by the fact that this is how Rome is throughout the city. You will have a building that is 1000's of years old right next to something that was built a couple hundred years ago, and next to that will be something that was built within the last decade. Fascinating how it all seems to fit together like a well thought out puzzle. Our historical tour guide described Rome like a lasagna. There are layers upon layers of the city. 80% of Rome is underground in fact. That is why there are no subways other than the two lines, and there is no underground parking or basements. Everything time they start digging, they find another ruin. Bananas. And that’s the way Rome built and grew. When mud slides came in or if there was a battle and a part of the city was in ruins, they started from scratch on top of it rather than rebuilding in the same spot.

Now, this being a phenomenal city with amazing sites to see, I will have to post the cliff notes version of how we spent our two days in Rome. Of course we did not get to see it all, but we knew going into this trip that we would "see it all" in any of the countries we were going to. That's just not realistic. But what we are getting, is our appetites wet for what we want to come back for seconds on. We are getting inspired for future expeditions. SO bear with me as I just put a few of the photos and blurbs about this amazing place here on this entry--

This is it...?

Location: Venice, Italy

The first thing I have to say about Venice is: a day and half is more than enough for me (don't tell Mike, he could spend another week there, blah!). Venice is a decaying city falling into the sea. Lots of old buildings, graffiti, dirty. I dare to say its only worth viewing at nighttime, when the city is lit up with street lights and the canal is reflecting the pretty yellow glow. Otherwise, I could take it or leave, when it comes to Venice.

Yes, it’s a historically and culturally rich city--but it just didn't do it for me. And on that note, I do have to say "damn the Vegas!" The Venetian tainted my perspective of Venice (just another reason why I didn't fall in love with the city, not the sole reason). We are walking along the canal front, and the sun is setting--beautiful sunset, turning the sky light purple and pink. What thought comes into my mind? "Oh, that's pretty...it looks just like the painted ceiling in Vegas". Boo.

With that said, I did have fun while we were in Venice. Our hotel room reminded me of a doll house, very small space, light blue furniture, basic. The entire city is cobble stone-no cars, no bikes. We perused the city and shops. Hit an open air market and bought some produce to supplement breakfast. Me, Mike, and one other group member took a water bus around the island which gave us some great views and we got to see the "residential" area of Venice.

What was really fun was taking a night tour on the gondolas. Very romantic, just like the movies but not cheesy.

Also, because Venice is an island, it is at the mercy of the tides and the moon cycle. Very often the entire city floods (not due to the amount of rain fall, although sometimes the events do coincide). A few days ago there was a full moon-so according to our city guide, there has been daily flooding for the past 3 days. Not just the regular flooding, but aqua alta (extra high tide). So much so, the water floods the town square in front of the Church because that is the lowest part of the city. Now that was entertaining to see!

The canals basically disappear and you can't tell where they used to be. The city efficiently pulls out its raised walkways and creates mini runway ramps for people to get around on while in the town square and some additional side streets. We were mean and took pictures of other tourists dragging their suitcases through the water (that's why you bring backpacks in Europe!). San Marco square flooded is truly a site to see, especially when you know what it looks like bone dry. This daily flooding only occurs during high tide, so after a few hours, water recedes and life goes on.

I did not love the city, but I do LOVE spaghetti al carbonara! OMG! We ate at a super cute Osteria far far away from the tourist sites and got some delicious dinner for an amazing price. Love love spaghetti al carbonara (raw blended eggs, cheese, mixed with hot pasta), pasta heaven. Will definitely have to find a delicious recipe to make at home. I have succumbed to the fact that I will in fact gain weight on this trip, but I will be in complete bliss while I do so!

Home of Arnold!

Location: Pinswang, Austria

We stayed at really cute Farm House that was nestled in a valley. We were surrounded by mountains, very reminiscent of what you'd see in the sound of music. The Farm House used veggies from their garden to build the dinner salad, they have home grown eggs, a pygmy ponies in the yard. Down the country road you see an old man walking his bicycle with 4 dairy cows. It’s a very peaceful setting, you see few cars and the houses have a traditional German design.

This was a cute lady bug chocolate that was left on our beds when we arrived. I like how our pillows have been shaped like the Pope's hat in our hotel rooms! The staff at this hotel was so nice and accommodating. Even though we were getting up really early for breakfast (7:15) they still greeted us with a smile all the way through dinner.

Our event for the day consisted of visiting the two castles of King Ludwig (Oktoberfest honoree). His first castle was a modest one as far as castles go. Castle Hohenschwangau sits atop a cliff where he can overlook his town. Built in the 12th century Ludwig's dad rebuilt it in 1830 after Napoleon destroyed it.

This castle was by far the most ornate and luxurious one we've seen thus far. There is a wooden bridge that you hike up to above the castle were you get amazing views of the castle with the farmland and village in the background. Simply Beautiful.

Unsatisfied with his first castle, it became the summer home, and he started construction on another castle called Neuschwanstein, also known as the "Disneyland Castle". This is the castle that inspire Walt Disney's Cinderella's castle, awesome! This castle took 17 years to build and was Ludwig's dream castle. He used a medieval style even though its only 150 years old. Interestingly, only 1/3 of the castle's interior was finished, 17 of the 50 rooms completed. The tour we took in the castle led us through 15 of them. Ludwig died before he could see his dream castle completed, and only stayed in the inhabitable part of the castle for a year. All construction stopped after his death. I was super curious to see what the rest of the "unfinished" castle looked like. The same family lineage still owns the property and oversees the business.

A Day of Contrast

Location: Dachau, Germany

So today our guide warned us that today would be a day of contrast in Germany's history.  We had two stops today before heading out to Austria.  Stop 1: Dachau.  A concentration camp that was a self-claimed "work camp" rather than an "extinction camp".  Although they sure resembled each other...

So this was the entrance where trains would drop off Jews and later in the war, homosexuals, immigrants, and anyone who wasn't supporting the Nazi regime.  There is a skeleton of what the barracks used to look like.  Bunk beds are stacked three high and go the width of the room.  The beds had checkered patterned bedding and if any of the patterns were misalinged, it meant severe punishment.  At the height of the war, the barracks that were built to hold 200 now held 2,000 men.

Needless to say the conditions were deplorable and the torture techniques used were even worse.

Many of the men who entered these gates did not leave, many died from work exhaustion, starvation, suicide, torture, or disease.  Another startling reminder of what can happen when there are no checks and balances when it comes to government power.  We visited the main square where roll call took place, the creamatorium that was built on site so the community wouldn't know how many people were dying inside to avoid suspicion, and the row where the living quarters used to be. 

We spent a good three hours here and could have spent a few more.  It wasn't the most positive site we've visited thus far, but it was an important one.

Now remember, we were warned about today being a day of stark contrast.  Our second stop was not originally on the itinerary.  But the guide heard our pleas and made room in the schedule to stop by Munich on our way to Austria.  We got to spend a copule of hours at Oktoberfest, the 200th Anniversary mind you.  We did get some history, for instance, Oktoberfest is not actually associated with the fall harvest.  It actually came about from the wedding celebration of Prince Ludwig to his princess.  The villagers loved it so much that they made it a yearly event.  So basically, Oktoberfest is a annual wedding reception!  This experience was nothing like the Oktoberfest in Washington.  There are 14 "tents" for each type of beer.  They are served in liter cups only.  There are ferris wheels, carnival games, pony rides, and tons and tons of food.

Just to give you some perspective of the celebration: 6 million attend Oktoberfest in Germany, 6.5 million liters of beer is sold and 27,000 liters of wine is sold.  Not to mention the amount of food that is consumed by everyone.  This place was bananas!  Just about everyone is dressed up on traditional German garb, and there are tons of people singing and toasting.

 

 

 

 

Each of the tents is like an individual frat house.  Your colors, flags, and logos are posted on the outside and interior of your "tent" (they are actually huge framed structures).  With our time limit, we were able to visit two tents.  We went to the Lowenbrau and Ochsenbrateri tents.