Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas....

to everybody!
I wish you a wonderful time with your loved ones, shared moments of love and serenity!
 This post is about smiling faces I encountered while traveling through India, smiles that conveyed that pure
innocent energy that only a smile of a child can carry...may that energy be transfered to you and may you all
cherish the time with family and friends....















Wednesday, December 21, 2011

To see how our clothes are made....

...filled me with humility and respect for all the employees in similar weaving factories all over India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and so forth...I usually check my clothes for their origin, however, it only used to bring up some vague picture of women working in dark and dusty factory halls for a few pennies. Having been there, breathing the dusty air, blinking in the dark, looking at the huge stacks of yarn, witnessing the process of separating the yarn piles, coiling the yarn according to color, rolling it on mandrels and, eventually, weaving a shirt fabric with it was mind-opening. As this weaving factory was open to foreigners and the owner happily explained the whole production process to us and was proud to present his business, I don´t want to know how the big commercial weaving factories for all our bargain clothing look like...it is an impressive and laborious process...and once more, as so often while traveling, I learned to appreciate something I used to consider as banal...







 



Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Divine


The Divine - so pure, so natural, so ubiquitous. Wandering through the alleys of a temple, surrounded by thousands of Hindus, you get soaked up in the flow of spirituality, looking in awe at the fantasyland-like decor of the place, the majestic archictecture and the bright colors. Beautiful paintings of mythology scenes, women in brightly colored saris, sandelwood powder and spice powder for blessings and offerings, the temple elephant, pilgrims in their black mundus and wooden chains around their necks, families, old people, young people, children, Hindus, Christians and Muslims, everyone coming together in those dark stone alleys, occasionally enlighted by some candles.
The incense fills your head, you feel weary, bemused by all the different scents, all the colors, all that spirituality and you feel like you just peeked into a totally different world that is still a stranger to you.
India - the divine....





Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Tea County

A winding bus ride took me up to the tea plantations of Kerala. Steep hills and endless slopes glowing in a shiny green, with dots of color where women were picking the fresh green tea leaves. What a laborious job this must be....on the steep hills, feet covered in mud and threatended by leeches, women bend over the tea plants all day, harvesting separately the fine lush green tea leaves on top of the plant, slowly loading their bag on the back with today´s crop. In Kerala, in line with the communist leadership, tea pickers are paid in rice to a certain amount, only if they exceed a certain daily crop, they are paid this difference in actual money. Additionally, they are guaranteed free medical services and health insurance, as well their children have free access to public schools.
Tea plays a preponderant role in this region as it is almost the only income source in the area.

Having seen the the laborious process of harvesting and processing the tea we are used to drink so readily, I came to learn to appreciate every single cup of it....











Sunday, December 11, 2011

Green, greener, Kerala !

Kerala - God´s own country, Coconut garden and Garden Eden, as it is often and adequately called, wins one over with its tropical lushness.
Green is the defining color of Kerala - either in the backwaters lined with palm trees, the rice paddies, the slopes covered in thick tropical cloud forest calles shola, the dark green tea plantations or the beautiful flower garden of Kerala´s wealthy citizens.
Kerala at the Malabar coast of Southern India is the richest state in India, still profiting from the wealth the Portuguese and Dutch spice traders once brought to this place. In the cities of Kochi and Trivandrum, one still finds proof of the once flourishing spice trade the Europeans established after Vasco da Gamas landing in 1498. Thanks to enthusiastic missionary work of the Catholic church and almost constant Communist leadership of the state, Kerala enjoys the highest literacy rates and lowest poverty index of any Indian region.
Cardamon and pepper plantations are still covering the slopes of the Western Ghats, along with various other spices such as kurkuma and ginger. Those spices are also widely used in Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient tradition that survived time here and has its revival as an alternative medical treatment.

While travelling through Kerala, one indulges in the million shades of green, every once in a while topped with spots of color.














Sunday, November 13, 2011

Sunday afternoon hike

Once more we enjoyed the warm autumnal sunshine, this time on a sunday afternoon walk up on the Kohlhof. Due to some windy days this week, the trees have lost almost all their leaves, so colors weren´t as spectacular as on our last walk, but this time we had more leaves on the ground to walk through - something I ve enjoyed since I am a little child!So far, this has been a very sunny and warm november and fall time, and since Im leaving for India next sunday, I hope to escape all the rainy and misty november days that are so typical for Heidelberg...








Friday, November 4, 2011

The perfect treat for a friday afternoon...

...after a long week of work?
If that is what your looking for, I have crossed a delicious snack over at foodcomablog.com...
Have a look and then have a go as I just did...


Here´s the recipe http://foodcomablog.com/2011/11/dark-chocolate-cranberry-oatmeal-cookies/

Enjoy!




The pumpkin series - once more

As there is still not a lot of cold and dizzy weather outside, I decided to get some autumnal feeling to my place by cooking a lot of traditional autumn recipes with seasonal vegetables. Last week I tried a pumpkin-lentils-curry (which had a rather brownish color, so no good for pics, but still very tasty :-)) and this week I made a butternut-dried tomatoe-quiche whis is a winner, especially the dough was great.
Here´s the recipe

for the dough: 200g flour, 7 spoons of olive oil, one egg, 1/2 cup of warm water, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, salt

for the topping: 350 g butternut pumpkin, 30 g dried tomatoes, half an onion, 2 eggs, 3 spoons of crème fraiche, 50 g black or read olives, 1 spoon of mixed herbes, garlic and pepper

Mix all the ingredients for the dough in a bowl and stir. Form a homogenous dough and put in the freezer for approximately 10 min. Roll out.

For the topping, peel the butternut pumpkin, take the seeds out and cut into pieces. Stew in a pan with the chopped onion and garlic and the dried tomatoes and olives for a few minutes. In a separate bowl mix the eggs with crème fraiche, herbes and pepper.

Put the pumpkin and tomatoes etc on the quiche and pour the egg-crème fraiche-mix over it.

In the oven for 30 min at 180°C.

Enjoy with a glass of red wine and maybe a good book....




















Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Autumn colors

We are spoiled with a very sunny and warm autumn this year - and with a holiday today, we are even given the time to enjoy the beautiful colors in which autumn bathed the city. So, there we go, a little promenade along the Neckar, in warm sunlight, admiring all shades of red, orange and yellow, shining in warm autumnal sunlight...