Ahh, there is a tiny light at the end of the tunnel; can’t wait to finally have a few days off and enjoy the company of friends and family. With the Christmas season in full bloom, these days my tolerance gets every so often put to the test. The masses of tourists on Marienplatz, crazy reckless people in the shops and demanding clients. I’m so looking forward to some sweet down time…
Meanwhile our kitchen seems a bit deserted at times, the stove stays cold. Oliver claims, he’s already loosing weight. Speaking of priorities, despite all that’s going on I can’t deny my creative nature and had to design my own gift labels. Feel free to use them for your own gifts or simply as a tag to remind you which present belongs to whom…
Please note that these labels are for non-commercial use only. They’re best printed on thick paper, DIN A4 (or letter size), no scaling: 120gram/sq.meter, better yet 200gsm, which is comparable to the paper used for business cards (see this PDF for paper weight conversion). Also, keep in mind that not all printers can handle paper that thick and before you have to nicely ask Santa to bring you a new one, check with the manual :)
EDIT Nicky: We use our standard inkjet printer (hp officejet 6110 all-in-one), set to the highest possible quality (takes longer to print!), paper type and high resolution control turned to “Other inkjet papers” or “hp brochure and flyer, matte finish” for the colored prints to be crisp and clean (see example in the photography above). Finally, check the Adobe Acrobat Reader settings and make sure that under “Page Handling” scaling is set to none.
EDIT EDIT: The PDF file is not available anymore, perhaps we’ll come up with a new set next Christmas season.
Have fun!
First off, my grandma has nothing to do with this recipe :) The actual story behind this dish? A few weeks ago, a couple of friends and I decided to revive the memories of the soccer world cup feelings and got tickets for Sönke Wortmann’s much hyped -and deservedly so- film “Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen” (“Germany. A Summer’s Fairytale”; link points to website including trailer). The evening, naturally, had to be kicked off on a proper culinary note. We decided in favor of Anna Bar, opposite to the Mathäser cinema, a spot known for good pre-movie sushi. Not high end but pretty decent.
At first, we were a bit bummed since all except one of our men gave us a rain check. A lost mobile, illness and a babysitter who went into hiding, all lame excuses in my opinion. Men and soccer, what can I say!? So it was us, 6 girls and a guy! And another surprise: That evening, the sushi – while good – was clearly overtrumped by Anja’s dish: Ratatouille soup with mascarpone.
The first day of December isn’t only a precursor to a fast impending approaching holiday season but also a benchmark, a quite strong reminder about taking it easy and appropriate time management – in my non-business life. Due to my regular job schedule and freelance projects, making pre-Christmas-fun-time is becoming an ever so difficult task, in other words I’m running late: NO PRESENTS, NO COOKIES yet. How depressing is that?! Nevertheless, this year’s 1st of December was a truly worthy start into my personal Christmas season, for many unexpected and very different reasons. Well, and homemade cookies played a role, too!
Here we go, reason ONE:
Aside from reading blogs and design-related stuff, my daily early morning routine also includes a few online newspapers. After all the recent discussions (going back and forth, void of any real ambition & progress) about smoking in public, I joyfully noticed our coalition parties’ agreement to ban smoking from restaurants (among others). Could I trust my eyes? Was this for real?
Johanna over at The passionate cook hosts this month’s edition of the sweetest temptation in the world of foodblogs: It’s Sugar High Friday again! A welcome excuse and carte blanche for every sweet-tooth to indulge in chocolate, truffles this time around. I’ve been busy like a bee lately and wasn’t sure if my working schedule would allow an elaborate chocolate session, a little shifting here, a little there, I wasn’t really pondering it…
Over the last years the number of fancy sweets and chocolate shops in Munich has grown exponentially – it seems quite obvious that I’m not the only one with a distinctive demand for fine little treats. Each shop has its own style, some offer carefully selected, exquisite chocolate specialties, while others go for a broad overture of everything sweet. And then there are shops, that fit neither category. Sama-Sama, located a stone’s throw from Viktualienmarkt, is such a gem.
