Traditional Christmas Baking 2015

Always a tradition, remains a tradition.

Our Christmas baking day with the girls would remain a big part of the season.

 As always, it's a three-man deal. The girls and their Papa. Great teamwork there.

 Always a bit stressful, yet a complete success (well, almost always).

 Always a creative time.

Always a fun time.

The Third Sunday of Advent

Peace, unity and love to all!

IC's St. Nicholas Thoughts

So...

St. Nicholas Day was also the second Sunday of Advent.

The girls are now 11 and 13 years old.

I was teasing them the night before that they still need to prepare their boots for St. Nicholas, otherwise, he might miss our doorstep. They simply smirked.

Who would have thought? Before the night ended, I saw their boots lined up near the door :-)

They got their gifts, of course, but this year, I forgot about chocolates, ooops!

I thought they would not say anything. That's what I thought!

IC came to me a few hours ago and asked me why they didn't get any chocolates this year? She protested the lack of sweets!

I cannot tell her that I forgot. Instead I told her that I thought they would appreciate more gifts replacing the chocolates. But no, apparently, chocolates and St. Nicholas day belong together.

Okay, now I know.

The Second Sunday of Advent

More peace, unity and love to everyone!

The First Sunday of Advent

Praying for peace, unity and love!

My Girls First Pumpkin Muffins

Okay, I am proud to present to all of you...

My girls first attempt at baking muffins. What's incredible is that they also made icing! Colored icing, gulp! So proud because I didn't even think about making or even trying colored muffins myself :-) I guess they are more adventurous, am glad.

Here are the muffins:

Pumpkin Muffins

These are Pumpkin Muffins with colored icing. They even experimented with sprinkles.

Another wow factor is that their first attempt at baking these muffins was done when they were alone at home. Success! And very delicious, too.

First Garden Party in our New Home

Hey, we've moved!

And we even had our first garden party with our new landlords.

Will just show you the pictures for now as I am still busy with the boxes and yes, the cafe, too...

Our 14th Wedding Anniversary at Ratsstube in Sinsheim

So, as usual, it's only my husband who remembered that our wedding anniversary is fast approaching, Meaning, he told us over dinner the night before :-D To the great disappointment of the girls, who always planned a surprise and wanted to shower us with gifts during this special day.

But because of too much happening around us, aside from moving into a new home and the still new experience of owning a coffeeshop and bakeshop, the girls forgave us for not giving them enough time to prepare something. They were happy to know that their Papa already know where to go for the special day.

And after a long walk in which they complained a lot (and I was grateful that I decided to change my high-heels into flats); we discovered the Ratsstube. We hesitated to enter the premises first because there was a sign that says no dogs allowed inside (arrgh!).

But because Rikki is a good girl (and maybe there's no other dogs around); they gave us a place in the spacious garden area.

And here's our dinner in photos:

Ratsstube Hotel, Restaurant and Butchery

Ratsstube

Our Aperitif: Hugo and Non-alcoholic Hugo for the girls

My Starter: Scallops with Mango

New House, New Garden View

Moving is not easy! Yet slowly but surely...

Let me show you our new garden view...

Yep, Rikki's pool is an important part of the garden view :-)

There you go, green all over!

Will tell you more once all the boxes have been unpacked :-)

Rikki and her dogs

Too cute not to share :-)

Posing for the photographer with her baby doggie

Here comes Rikki's big doggie

A white baby doggie joins this time

There they are, all Rikki's doggies :-)

FOR SALE: Kitchen Set / KÜCHE KOMPLETT ZU VERKAUFEN

KÜCHE KOMPLETT ZU VERKAUFEN

Kitchen Set for Sale

800 Euro VB 

(Price is negotiatiable)

Wegen Umzug verkaufen wir unsere Küche.

We are moving and our kitchen set is for sale.

Sie beinhaltet: 

(The set includes)

-       - Alle Schränke die man auf dem Foto sieht (All the cabinets seen in the photos)

    - Ein Ceranfeld (A ceramic glass cooktop)

-       - Eine Spülmaschine (A dishwasher)

-       - Ein Kühlschrank (A refrigerator)

-       - Eine Dunstabzugshaube (An exhaust hood)

-       - Ein Backofen (An oven)

Maße der Küche: 
Länge der Küchenzeile: 213 cm 
Backofen- Kühlschrank 120 c m 

Kitchen Set Dimensions:

Length of the kitchenette: 213 cm

Oven/Ref Set: 129 cm

Living Room Choices

It's time for a new living room set.

We ended up with two choices, after looking seriously between five and six for hours. Yep, we need to decide as soon as possible because delivery dates vary from one week to six weeks, gasp!

Not to mention, one shop is offering free delivery so why not take advantage, right?

Okay, here's what's we are looking into now:

This in dark gray.

Yes, this in black.

Our consideration in these choices would be:

- Easy to clean (and maybe wash when necessary)
- Not easy to see dirt (something to hide, huh?)
- Stable and comfortable (why not?)
- Dog-friendly, of course :-D

I'll let you know our decision later this week.

P.S. I also received a handmade living room set from the 1950s as a gift, I will combine those with what we ended up with. Soon, photos will come up!

Look Who Turned 4

Yey, Rikki is now 4-years-old!

A day my girls cannot forget. Because it is also the same day every year that Nickolodeon Germany has declared a playtime date. What's that? It means there's no television program running between 1 to 5 p.m. If you turn to the Nickolodeon Channel, you'll find the words 'Go and Play Outside' on the TV screen.

Anyway, back to the birthday girl... here she is with her special cake made of chicken broth and spices from our garden.

Happy 4th Birthday, dear Rikki!

Patiently waiting to blow the candle :-)

Sunday's Dinner: Cherries and Asparagus

It's the season for asparagus and cherries... so, we enjoyed them for our early Sunday dinner!

First my husband and IC drove to the next city to buy fresh asparagus tips and strawberries; then they raided our garden for the red, red, cherries!

freshly picked cherries from the garden

asparagus tips from the street stalls with sauce hollandaise and pancakes

Black Forest Summer High

We've got a short break before the school starts, and here we are enjoying the sun and the water in our Black Forest camping ground.

Our dog and the girls decided to explore the river beside our pitch as soon as we arrived...

As soon as we arrived, Rikki jumped into the river to cool-off.

Yup, the silence and the coolness of the water, it's that inviting!

And then the girls joined in...

Not Yet Red is our Garden

So IC needs to finish her class' Tree Journal Project and we finally went down to check our garden. I think this is our first time to go down and really look around the backyard this year.

We know that it's a bit of a jungle, but we didn't realize that there's color coming out already! Look at the cherry tree!

And the strawberries are coming, too. In fact, IC and our dog, Rikki, already shared a few, freshly-picked pieces. I didn't go to the yellow plum area, I am sure there are fruits there, too.

Lucky to Have These Aromatic Bread Choices

These bread choices I would never have tasted, but because of our coffee and bake shop; I am enjoying their freshly-baked smell and savoring their taste.

No wonder my rice cooker has been taking a break :-)

SB-BackCafe's NEW bread choices: Crusty Bread, Traditional Rye Crusty Bread, Bear's Leek Scroll Bread, Bear's Leek (Bear Garlic) Scroll Bread, Bear's Leek (Bear Garlic) Baguette, and Ciabatta Baguette.

Ever tasted Holzofenbrot?

If you are anywhere near SB-BackCafe' in Sinsheim this Tuesday, 2 June and you want to taste an original Holzofenbrot, come and visit!

We're having a bread tasting day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The image is from the Bäckerei Emert.

What's a Holzofenbrot? It's a crusty blackened bread with rye and wheat. We are proud to let you know that Holzofenbäckerei Emert is our partner for this  bread tasting day.

How our dinner table looks like now...

Yup, that's how our normal meal table looks like at present.

Loads and loads of rolls and croissants and pretzels, plus a little bit of rice and a big bowl of green salad with the secret salad sauce that is popular in our coffee shop.

I am not complaining, not yet anyway :-) I guess I am still enjoying the aromatic flavor and differing tastes that we offer in our coffee shop. Once I have tried everything plus the new products that we wanted to introduce, maybe I would binge on rice dishes.

Pros and Cons of Owning a Cafe

Just a short post sharing some interesting things I learned for the last past two weeks since we took-over the SB-BackCafe'...

Pro: There's enough food, except..

Con:... I'll miss rice during meal time :-)

Pro: There's enough place to relax and surf and (maybe blog), except...

Got a short break to post in FB :-D

Con: I relegated myself to baking, cleaning and bussing... my choice, right?

Happy Mother's Day

The same procedure every Mother's Day.

IC stood guarding the bedroom early morning, 'Mama, you are not allowed to go down,' she emphasized.

Who's complaining? I stayed in bed, reading. But eventually, I had to move my sleepy body because IC refused to walk with the dog :-)

I got ready, still with IC tailing me; making sure I won't stray into territories where I am not allowed. No peeking!

Continued with the normal morning ritual: jogged with the dog running excitedly beside me, stretched and did some exercises inside the sleepy woods while the dog did it's business, played fetch and finally, gave the dog sometime to play with its friends around the neighborhood.

Yup, I forgot about the time!!! When the dog and I finally arrived home, my family was impatiently waiting for me! The breakfast table for Mother's Day is done and waiting for the most important guest, oopps!

Of course, our bread basket is filled with assorted croissants and bread rolls from our very own cafe, SB-BackCafe'. There's even slices of our homemade Quiche Lorraine!

After reading the card proclaiming me 'best mama in the whole world' (ehem) and opening my gifts, we enjoyed our breakfast while planning our day -- just a quiet day at home as we were up at dawn yesterday when the whole family stayed almost the whole day working at the cafe.

I hope everyone enjoyed Mother's Day!

A special shout-out to Nanay.

Dear Nanay,
You're the best.
More than enough patience. More than enough grace.
Then there's your cooking. Your sewing. Your singing.
Not to mention your faith.
You have the best love!!
We love you, Nanay!

P.S. Special greets to my sister, sister-in-law and my niece. You know who you are!

A day before we welcomed our guests at our bake shop...

I was loving the vaccum cleaner a day (or to be more precise, 10 hours before :-D) we finally opened SB-Backcafe'. 

Yup, finally, it's time to call SB-Backcafe 'ours'!

It happened on May 1, Labor Day. The name of the day fits what we had in mind, inventory and cleaning up. My husband took over the kitchen and the toilets; while I gamely handled the guest areas that means most of the shop including the check-out counter.

I can't complain, I have a bigger area to cover but my husband had the hardest job (duh, kitchen and toilets, hello!) The hardest thing is that I don't know how to operate the radio so there's no music while we were doing our hardwork, yay. Note to self: ask the staff how to turn-on the radio asap.

After hours of back-breaking work, we went home tired and excited. No time to celebrate as we have to be up at 4 a.m. the next day. The last time I had to wake up at that hour, it was just a short bathroom break! I guess that's it, a new day is coming, a little earlier this time.

We welcomed our guests last May 2, the first couple arrived 20 minutes before opening hours and the post about it would come soon!

The Reason Why I Haven't Updated my Blog...

Here's the main reason why I haven't updated my blog for a long time...
yes, a new business adventure!This is the SB-Backcafe' in Sinsheim, Germany. 
It's a coffee shop, a bistro and a bakery in one!Official opening under our ownership is this Saturday, May 2.

What we offer: pretzels, danish pastries, sandwiches, bread, rolls,
muffins, donuts, salad, quiche lorraine, croissants, etc.



SB-Backcafe' Opening Hours starting this May:
Friday to Friday: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sunday: On special occasions

Happy 11th Birthday, IC!

IC turned 11 today.
She still loves Smurfs, still plays with them, creating mini rooms and accessories.
But no more Playmobile, no more dolls, no more Lego Friends.
She's becoming a trueblue bookworm, reading until late at night.
But she's also obssessed with getting her very own tablet.
By earning points thru her good grades, we decided to give a tablet, but it means she's receiving that gift for both her birthday and Easter, (maybe for Christmas, too)! She's happy, despite that.
As usual, she's still our fashionista.

Happy Birthday, dear IC!

Easter Egg Coloring While Camping

Nobody can stop them!
Despite having very little space to move around, the girls wanted to
 do the traditional Easter egg coloring. They already colored more
than a dozen at home with their Papa, but they wanted more... so, more!

There you have them, the girls enjoying this Easter tradition on a sunny Sunday
in a camping ground in Schwarzwald.

Okay, IC was not so busy compared to her sister, but that's because she's still waiting for the boiling eggs.
It's not so easy cooking while using the camping equipment but they waited patiently, just like our dog, Rikki!