Falling In Love

There isn't a lot of baking happening with me these days. Instead, I am still in Germany, traveling, visiting friends and family all over the place, and getting to explore some new places. 

And I have a confession to make: I am in love. And this time around we are not talking about Florin or Vancouver (we know about all that already), but rather about Munich. During my stay the city was bathed in bright sunshine and the sky was clear and blue. Perfect conditions to enjoy the beautiful English Garden with the Eisbach, a fast creek that flows through the park, and invites you to jump in to refresh yourself and drift downstream, and then walk back and do it all over again. And when you've had enough of that, you can just take a moment and watch the surfers on their boards, riding the Eisbach's man-made wave. Pretty cool!

Traditional food in Bavaria: lot's of meat, but apparently as a vegetarian you can't go wrong with Obatzter, brezen, and maybe a beer or two. Obatzter is a delicious cheese dish, made with camembert and lots of different spices, such as onions, paprika, caraway, etc. Mmmm. And brezen, of course, are pretzel, and often they are quite humongous, at least 15 inches wide. I would love to get into pretzel baking, just because they are so beautiful and so special. Maybe I'll give it a shot when things are slowing down, and I finally get to spend some time baking again.

Obatzter

Ripe camembert

Fluffy beaten butter

Finely chopped onions

Lots of paprika

Caraway

Some salt and some pepper

Beer

Turn all your ingredients into a spread, or firm dip. Season to taste.  Ideally, you should have it outside in the sun, with some Bavarian lager and freshly baked, oven-warm pretzel.