Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

Leftovers from thanksgiving don't only make wonderful sandwiches, they also make great pancake ingredients. To be a little more specific I still had some pumpkin puree that I  had make for pumpkin pie. So this is an adapted recipe for buttermilk pancakes.

1 1/2 cups of flour (I mixed rye and white flour)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
with 1 teaspoon maple syrup
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups jogourt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
a piece of ground ginger
about 6 tablespoons of butter
all into a bowl and then into a hot pan with a little bit of melted butter. The result really was wonderful, so I just had to share because it is so easy!

Did You Open an Advent Calender Today?

Today is the first day of December which means it is time to open the first box of your advent calender AND the start of my blog advent calender. I am going to do my utmost to post every day so that from now until Christmas Eve there will be new content right here.

To kick start this: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Now the supermarkets have had Christmas spirit since October, but in the past week or so the rest of the city has been draped in lights and joined this Christmas vibe.

The pinnacle being the Dresden Striezelmarkt, a time honored tradition during the Christmas season. According to a speedy internet search this is the 580^th Striezelmarkt in Dresden. I loved this tradition whenever I was in the country during the holiday season, and apart from the crowds that make the historic marketplace impossible to navigate it is still lots of fun!

Fall Foods

I have shared my excitement for fall so many times now, but once more: I love fall! and I love fall food! These are all seasonal and mostly local foods. I think it is obvious that the pomegranate is the odd one out as they do not grow in Germany as our climate is not suited. But I bought one to treat myself the other day. And I checked; they are in season.
Apples and pears and winter squash are all seasonal local foods right now that have me very excited for Thanksgiving. This year we are once again planning a potluck style dinner in my friend group. We did this last year because why not? And it is a great excuse to get everyone together. So if you are away from home and want to celebrate Thanksgiving with people you love and who love you do it. Just gather up everyone else who doesn't have anything better to do.
Pomegranates, oranges, clementines and the like are also very present in grocery stores now, but they have a very wintry vibe. So as delicious as all of those are, I am far more excited about the local foods right now. Also because these are delicious foods that can be and are grown in my area! And that is something for me to get excited about. Also this kind of harvest festival reminds us to take a look at what we eat, and for some of us that also means where that food comes from.
Happy Thanksgiving eve!

As the Days Grow Shorter and Colder

All I want is soup! I love cold crisp weather when I can put on layers and layers of coziness to cuddle up in. But there is something incredibly soothing about warmth from within, specifically from a hot meal. And nothing warms quite like soup. My personal favorites being any kind of chunky stew or miso soup. I know they are very different, but both are delicious. I also find them fitting for very different situations, and staying with the chunky stew something filling, warming, comforting and delicious that has a magical way of also not breaking the bank and being a great way to use up little bits and bobs that need to be used up before they go bad. what more could you want? Oh did I mention that it is also really healthy with fiber, protein and fresh veggies. Before I start, this can be varied in so many ways that the options are endless and you rarely have to go get groceries before starting.
First a nice flavor base for the broth. I started with one finely chopped onion and some sun dried tomatoes in olive oil. once the onions start to go clear I added some bouillon cubes and let that simmer with the occasional stir.

Then I add everything that takes a while and plenty of water. Potatoes are a must, and butternut squash (or any other winter squash or pumpkin) and lentils or beans go really nicely too.





While that comes to a boil I chop like a champion. This here is tomato, zucchini, eggplant, carrot, and mushroom. Along with that some spices for example fresh ginger and turmeric along  with the classics: salt and pepper. I also added a can of chick peas. Any kind of bean or pea out of the can should go in close to the end, whereas dried beans that have been soaked need to be added earlier so that they can cook through.

I garnished my soup with some plain yogurt and smoked paprika which made for a lovely finishing touch. I was also able to eat from this big pot about four times and give my roomie some. Something this delicious and Nutritious always hits the spot! 

Hello there

My life really is a work in progress, but I find myself having to look more and more to the future and plan what I want to do and where I want to be. Because I grew up in Boston for the most part of my younger years, I do play with the idea of moving back to the United States or staying here. While that decision is still wide open I was really hoping to do an internship abroad in the United States and idealy in Boston so that I can see my family while I'm there. I did contact several hospitals expressing my interest in an observationship. Since I cannot work with patients directly I would of course only be able to observe, but that too is a wonderful learning opportunity.

So now it is really happening! I know it will work and even though the final week is not yet set in stone it certainly is taking shape in a very good way. I am so thrilled about this so I really wanted to share since this is a personal blog. I hope these kinds of posts are interesting to you as well. 

Thanks for reading, 

Eva Mathilde 

Veggie Burgers

Hey there. I know I disappeared for a week, but I was on break from school and internship shenanigans. I did actually put a lot of thought into weather I was going to take this completely off or continue blogging, and chose this first because I was working at my side job and doing lots of things so I took the time for me to recuperate and am coming back full force. So from here on out the goal is once again posts every Sunday with eventual bonus posts during the week. And I have lots of ideas!

I love me some veggie burgers. I was watching YouTube videos and saw several videos from Sorted food as part of their #BeatMyBurger line and remembered some wonderful black bean burgers I made a while back. I don't however remember the exact recipe so I winged it with this one which has more texture and a wonderful flavor. So firstly, I cooked some black beans the day before so they are not quite as soft as those from a can, but both work just fine.
First I took about 1 cup of green Spelt. (This is a common ingredient here, but far less popular in the United States. I recommend checking natural food stores) and about the same amount of hot broth, or just enough to cover the spelt well so it can soak up most of the liquid. This takes about 15 minuets. Once it is finished and the spelt is softened and the broth liquid is mostly absorbed about 1.5 cups of black beans with some of their cooking liquid and any spices go in. I have here from the top left some sun dried cherry tomatoes finely chopped, salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh herbs, coriander and cumin.


 At this point I used my hand to mix and mash everything really well, but with canned beans they might be easier to mash with a potato masher before adding. My mixture was a little too runny, so I added 2 Tbsp of fine oat flakes to thicken it up. If it is too thick , just add little bit of water 1 tbsp at a time.






then I just spooned the mixture into a hot pan and let both sides get nice and crispy. They do hold up really well and do not need any egg to bind everything making these delicious burgers vegan! So these are done now and I am just going to take the patties and some salad with lots of fresh veggies to work with me tonight. You could of course add a bun and the condiments for a more traditional burger if that suits you better.

Clean Cosmetics - a Closer Look at Parabens

I find the topic of safety of cosmetics fascinating and the more I look into this the more I realize that this is really controversial. The only thing everyone seems to agree on is that there is a lack of research. I found that it was easier to start some where and for some reason I had parabens on my mind, so why not start there?

Parabens are preservatives that are found in personal care products, make up, pharmaceuticals and even food. They are cheep to produce, effective bactericidal and fungicidal properties and have been used for years. Products need preservatives to keep from growing bacterial colonies or fungi, both of which are gross but also potentially dangerous. In more recent studies parabens have been found in breast cancer cells and have been found to mimic estrogen. The piece about parabens being found in breast cancer tissue doesn't however show that they case cancer, rather that the molecules are absorbed and stored by the tissue. The research that parabens are carcinogenic (cancer causing) is simply not there. The direct link has not been proven, but it has also not been disproven which makes all of this so controversial. Because not knowing means we can trust that its been like this for long enough or to avoid a potential risk to minimize any unwanted side effects. Parabens are also believed to mimic estrogen, which I personally find far more frightening. Any hormone or hormone mimicking substance can affect fertility and the general homeostasis and balance of your body this is particularly strong in children and children in puberty. When we are no longer developing the effects are not quite as severe, but also rather controversial and honestly a whole topic of its own. Studies also indicate that methylparaben in skin products reacts with UVB rays and increases skin aging and damages DNA.

 Essentially: knowledge is power and knowing what the deal is is crucial to deciding what products you want to use and buy. So I implore you to be informed, because this is an overview and I am not an expert and all the information I found is available on line. I take form this that I will from this day buy products that stay on my skin and are exposed to sun without parabens and minimize my exposure to them through “rinse off” products.