Doggy-sitting and Allmende Kontor

I am Babysitting Phillip this week.

He is the Family Dog of the Toddler I babysit

So for our morning walk we went out to Tempelhof, the Retired Airport that was the location of the Berlin Airlift. It has been open to the public a little over a year now to be used as a park and location for events.

All over Berlin people walk with their dogs off leash, well most do. Though techniqually it is not allowed. 

List of Notices (aka rules): Mandatory Lead Policy, bummer!

There are a few nice sized dog runs fenced off around the grounds. We only made it to one, the rectangle shaped one, this time. But we still had plenty of fun!!

 FUN in action!

Sniffing out the vermin. . .

that is one big rabbit hole!!

Then we investigated what was going on in the area next to the BBQ grounds.

It was a little makeshift village of container gardens.  

Turns out this area has been designated for a community garden. It is named 'Allmende Kontor,' the medieval term for community garden. It's really cool! Here is an article about it from the Huffington Post.

Compost Bin, nice . . .

Anti Nuclear Energy Flag

Though the area is a little dodgy looking, don't let it get to you because the plants are growing very well in their containers. There was really full heads of lettuce and greens, way better then what my Balcony Garden has been looking like.  Jealous much? Totally! I would add more pictures but blogger is being difficult and not loading them. poo. . anyway . .

Maybe this is something I can do next year. It is so close to my apartment and it would definitely beat my balcony garden!

German Language Websites of organizers: 

Rübezahl Gemeinschaftsgarten

Allmende Kontor

The Ständige Vertretung

Most people know about the Berlin Wall and that from 1961 to 1989 it separated the West from the East. 

(source) Berlin Wall and Brandenburg Gate

During this time the two Governments; the West, Federal Republic of Germany and the East, the communist German Democratic Republic, had no official Embassies in Berlin for one another. To compensate the Ständige Vertretung was created. It basically is a Restaurant/Bar that was a hot spot for politics and culture. 

Ständige Vertretung, Schiffbauerdamm 8, 10117 Berlin-Mitte

When the Wall came down, and the new united Germany took up Berlin once again as the capitol. Thousands of people moved from Bonn to Berlin. The StäV, (Ständige Vertretung) became a little piece of home for the relocated Politician. Here one can have a glass of Bonn's local bier Gaffel Kölsch and dine on specialties out of the region. 

Menu with their cute owl logo

It is a nice interactive piece of Berlin's History to visit. Stay and have a bier at the bar and check out all the nostalgia and nicknacks mounted on the walls. The bathrooms are surprising very nice too!

Inside view of the Bar

If the weather is nice, sit outside next to the Spree, the river that runs through Berlin. There is a nice view. You can see all the different advertized riverboat cruises as they go by. You can choose the one you prefer to maybe do later.

View of the River and the Tour Boats from the terraced sidewalk.

I really like to take people here when they are visiting. My mom and I enjoyed a nice mid-sightseeing snack on her last visit! It is in a good location in the middle of the city, to relax and regroup and choose your next course of action.

Outside next to the StäV's riverside terrace

Salad Pizazzl

Salads; your either love them or hate them. I love them though I often find myself getting board with them. I just am not the greatest at Salad Pizazz! Though I have been working on that and have learned a few things since I reintroduced salads back into my diet. I hope to come up with some more delicious salad bling!

I like to go ahead and wash all the lettuce and greens the first time I open them. It saves you time and from a hassle later. Besides I am more likely and willing to make a salad if the lettuce is already cleaned and prepped.

Have you ever added Pickles to your salad?

Or maybe Jalapenos?

I had never added pickles to my salads until I read that Skinny Runner adds pickles to her's. Wow, it really livens up a salad, and Jalapenos were just a natural progression for me. I love me some Jalapenos!! Ay Picante! I add them to my salad thinly sliced, not whole. I also avoid the seeds, a few are ok but too many and my mouth is on fire! When done right, and by 'right' I mean ' to your personal preference', it really gives your taste bugs something to work with.

I always try to add a protein to my salads, It just makes it yummier and more satisfying. To date I have added Pistachios, cashews (not salted), pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds, and even sesame seeds. I have a whole bag of walnuts still to open and try on a salad. I am hesitant because I think I may have a settle allergy to them. I like them and can eat them, but after a few my mouth gets dry, an artificial dry. Nothing worse happens, but I just don't enjoy the cotton mouth effect. So far I have plenty other bags o' nuts to use. No rush on the walnuts.

Often in place of or heck even with nuts already in my salad I like to add beans. Before I would just pop open a can and have at them. I have since learned from The Daily Green food news blog, about the hazards of canned goods, and so have started to prep beans on my own. It is quite simple and not really that time consuming at all.

These are my usual Dressing Ingredients. I mix some mustard with the mayo if I want a thicker dressing, or with milk if I want it thinner. I always drizzle a little olive oil over my greens. The capers and the lemon juice are back ups if I don't have anything else to provide a punch. This all said I have discovered that a dressing is not always necessary. WHAT? yep! It's not so necessary when the plate is loaded with so much flavor already.

This salad was delish' and no dressing. Grilled chicken and mushrooms from the night before, hummus, alvocado, and feta. It was a little over loaded ( a lot overloaded!) but I didn't want it to go to waste. Leftovers can be a surprised salad topping! Who'd thunk!

This salad I just had for lunch the other day. A plate full of lettuce, with Feta cheese, pickle slices, jalapenos slices, pistachios and get this, Hummus!  (FYI: Hummus is a Middle Eastern puree of chickpeas and sesame seeds. You can read my post about how to make it, here.) I drizzled a little olive oil on the exterior ring of lettuce and then when to town. This was so yummy. I added my home made Hummus to a salad for the first time ever and I will be doing it again! So crazy good and good for you.

Homemade Hummus

Hummus! Oh Hummus! This is a middle eastern spread made from predominately chickpeas and sesame seeds. I have enjoyed this dish since I was a kid, but I never tried to make it myself until this year. The main change was that I got a food processor for my birthday from a good friend of mine. That helps!

I eat hummus most often as a veggie dip. It is great in sandwiches and as an additional side dish to dinner. I also just recently discover it is quite good in a salad.

To make Hummus, you first soak some chickpeas over night, it is the same processes as I wrote in the Beans post. Then the next day you boil the bloated beans until they are nice and soft.

Once cooked I pour them into the food processor with some of the water from the pot.

I blend them a bit to get them started before I add the other ingredients.

The most important thing is the Tahini, aka Sesame puree. This really helps to smooth out the chickpeas mixture and adds to the flavor.

Tahini is a lot like a natural peanut butter. The sesame oil collects at the top and needs to be mixed back in before it is used.

I have never fallowed a recipe for Hummus word for word. With Hummus I find it is best when I just go by my own taste buds.  But here is a link to a recipe.

Along with the Tahini you also need olive oil and lemon juice for a good Hummus.

I also like to add finely chopped garlic, though this isn't mandatory, but without it the Hummus is pretty bland.

Throw all this in and blend. I usually need to add a little more Tahini or olive oil a few times until I get the right mix. Take your time and don't worry about making mistakes. It is very hard to miss it up, but it might take you a few attempts until you figure out the right mixture.

Though once you do, wallah! Delicious Homemade Hummus!

Easter Eggs

Happy Easter, I was late this year with my Easter Egg decorating. I babysit a toddler a couple times a week and we had a egg decorating day. In this setting, I mostly just controlled the mess instead of decorated any eggs myself. It was still fun to watch him decorate eggs for the first time.

I boiled these eggs the other day with the intention of decorating them then, but they had to wait till today.

I used this egg dye kit, which is totally different from any egg dying kit I ever used. There is no colored water to dip them in. There is only a gooey colored liquid that you pour on your gloved hand and then swirl the egg around in the palm of your hand. This is the same style dye kit, that I used with the toddler, it is much more hands on and I think there is less chance of making a water mess.

That is at least how it was suppose to work, but since it took so long to get around to using it, the kit had solidified. Instead of a gooey liquid there was a pretty solid jelly in each little color packet.

I ended up using Q-tips, to apply the dye. It worked fine but you didn't get the oil slick effect that you were suppose to achieve with the gooey liquid.

Along with the dye from the kit I also used markers and some tape.

The Egg dying begins. . .

Here and below you can see the tap on the eggs. I cut it from a tape roll. It was very time consuming but still fun.

 

I had two eggs left and I decided to make little rabbits out of them. This was inspired by a post from the Craft Dept. from Martha Stewart. The original post is for decorating candy bars, but all I remembered were the bunny faces not the actual medium that was being used. ( It took me forever to find this post because I was searching for eggs the whole time and not chocolate, oops)

Easter 'Bunny' Eggs

 The brown one reminds me of a cartoon or something, I can't figure out what it reminds me of and it is driving me crazy. But anyway, this is how I made them.

I used the Q-tips and the dye to make the dots, it was messier and less precise since the dye was gelatinized. The ears I cut out of construction paper and I used crayons to make the inner ear detail.

I used a sharpie to draw the face details. I couldn't remember if in the original post the pink dot was used for the tongue or the nose, so I tried it both ways

The end results, I enjoyed making these, but next year I am going to choose one style and stick with it. These are so random I don't like the group effect.