A Little More Cheese, Please

From a knitting project that needed three attempts to a family lasagne with its own rules, there is always something happening at home.

By Babette, Germany.

My husband and the children have a week of autumn holidays. I have to work.

That is how our week started. They have some time off, and I still have my normal working days. But there is plenty happening at home, especially with Christmas getting closer. I have knitting projects to finish, presents to make and a family visit to prepare for.

And before all that, there was the flea market.

Not Everything Sells.

I had hoped the flea market would be better this time, but it was only okay. I did not make as much money as I had at earlier markets, and the last two have not been particularly successful.

There were quite a lot of sellers, and it was a rainy day. I think the weather was part of the problem. People came and looked at the things on sale, but they did not seem very interested in buying.

I had brought clothes, toys, books and shoes. There were also larger clothes that I wanted to sell, but I did not find buyers for them.

Now I still have many things at home, and I have to find somewhere to store everything until the next market.

The next one will be in spring. I hope the weather will be better, more people will want to buy something, and I will finally sell more of the things I have collected.

Until then, the boxes have to stay somewhere.

Three Attempts and a Knitting Machine.

There has been better progress with my knitting machine.

I finally tried it, and I have already made my first project. The machine itself is quite easy to use, but finishing the knitting was not as simple as I expected.

I started with the yarn, and the machine knitted 250 rows. After that, I had to take the knitting off the machine and put it together.

That was where the trouble started.

I looked at what I had done and realised it was not right. I had to take it apart and try again. Then I tried another time.

Altogether, it took three attempts before I was happy with the result. I also had to watch videos to understand how to finish it properly.

The yarn was interesting because it changed colour by itself. It started blue, then changed to green and finally yellow. I did not have to use three different balls of wool. All those colours were already in one.

Now I want to make a hat as my next project.

But the knitting machine is only one part of my Christmas preparations.

I am also making presents for teachers, and those are much bigger projects. For one of them, I am using a large knitting loom and working by hand.

I have already used two balls of wool, and I think I will need about twelve altogether. I ordered two extra, just in case.

The work takes a long time. Sometimes I need an hour to complete only two rows. I also have a problem with my fingernails, which makes it more difficult to move the yarn over the pins.

I have seen people using special tools in videos, and I am trying to find a method that will make the work easier.

For another present, I want to use a round loom because I think it will be faster.

My husband asked me when I was going to finish everything.

I told him I did not know.

I still have some time before Christmas, but I have to finish the presents by 22 December. And the teacher presents are not the only things on my list.

A Handmade Christmas.

I also want to make Christmas presents for my sister, my nieces and my nephews.

For my sister, I have found an idea that I really like.

One morning, I saw a picture of a decoration made with stars inside a wooden frame. There were small fairy lights behind the stars, making the whole decoration light up.

I sent Janita a picture because it was easier to show her than to explain it.

To make the decoration, I need different silicone moulds, wooden blocks and fairy lights. I already have the moulds and some wooden blocks, but I am not sure whether I have enough wood. I might have to make a smaller version.

I also need to find the right lights.

My sister loves decorations, especially when they are handmade, so I think this could be a good present for her.

There are still other presents to think about, and I have not decided what to make for everyone.

We are going to spend Christmas with my oldest sister this year. She lives more than 500 kilometres away, so it is quite a long journey.

We will stay overnight, and the family will get together on the second day of Christmas.

I come from a big family. I have two sisters and two brothers, and there are many children in the extended family. When everyone gets together, there are quite a lot of us.

For the journey, I hope we can leave around lunchtime and arrive about six hours later.

I prefer to drive without too many stops. We take snacks, food and drinks in the car, so we do not have to stop every time somebody is hungry.

Sometimes, however, we have barely started the journey when we stop again.

We might drive only ten kilometres before stopping at McDonald’s. Then everyone can get something to eat and use the toilet before we continue.

After that, I would rather keep driving.

The Rules of Our Kitchen.

Talking about McDonald’s reminded me of something else.

Recently, we went there because we wanted to order the McRib before it disappeared from the menu in Germany.

It is a pork sandwich with barbecue sauce and onions. It is not my favourite, but we wanted to have it while it was still available.

At home, we also enjoy pork ribs, especially when my husband prepares them.

He makes his own marinade and smokes the ribs for four to six hours. The preparation takes even longer.

Then we sit down to eat, and everything is finished in about ten minutes.

It takes hours to prepare and only minutes to eat, but it is delicious.

He usually makes those ribs only once or twice a year.

This week, however, we have something different planned.

Friends are coming to visit, and my husband suggested making pizza because he has a new pizza oven. We will use homemade sourdough and try the oven together.

That sounds good to me.

We do not always have dinner together as a family. Often, I eat my main meal at lunchtime, and everyone else eats when they are hungry.

Sometimes we decide together what to cook, but there are certain dishes that always create a discussion.

Lasagne is one of them.

I made lasagne recently, and something surprising happened. One of the children finally tried it.

Before that, the answer had always been that she did not like it.

I could not understand why, especially because I had heard that she had eaten lasagne at her grandmother’s house.

Why would she eat Grandma’s lasagne but not mine?

When I asked, there was no real explanation.

Eventually, she tried my lasagne too.

The funny thing is that she does not like the meat sauce on spaghetti. She prefers spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce. But lasagne, which contains similar ingredients, is different.

Perhaps it is because lasagne has more cheese and a different texture.

My lasagne certainly has plenty of cheese.

I use about 400 to 500 grams, and I put cheese between the layers. The best part, for my husband and me, is the top, where the cheese melts and becomes golden.

But the children do not agree.

For them, there can be too much cheese, especially on top.

For me, that is very difficult to understand.

My husband and I think the cheesy top is the best part of the whole dish.

It is the same with pasta. I like it when the melted cheese stretches as you lift your fork. That is what makes it delicious.

Apparently, not everybody in our house thinks so.

Pizza, Cocktails and Cold Weather.

For our evening with friends, we are planning pizza, and I have also been thinking about drinks.

I want to find something without alcohol for a friend. We have many non-alcoholic drinks in German shops, although I do not always have them at home.

I like the idea of a Piña Colada without alcohol, sometimes called a Virgin Colada or Coconut Kiss.

Janita and I looked at different recipes. One used pineapple juice, coconut milk, coconut cream and crushed ice. We talked about whether coconut milk and coconut cream were the same thing, and how the cream would make the drink thicker.

There was also the question of decoration.

Some cocktails have a very sweet cherry on top. I do not like those cherries. They are firm and much too sweet for me.

I have seen the same cherries on Toast Hawaii, where they are placed in the middle of the pineapple.

I would rather leave the cherry out.

The cocktail sounds nice, though, especially with pizza.

The only problem is the weather.

A tropical drink would be lovely on a warm evening, perhaps when it is 25 degrees outside. But that is not what we are expecting.

The forecast for our evening with friends is only about seven degrees, so we will not be sitting outside.

The following week looks even colder, with temperatures around eight or nine degrees during the day and possibly below zero at night.

I do not like the cold. I prefer summer.

Janita told me that it was 28 degrees where she was, and that the previous day had reached 33 degrees.

That sounds much better to me.

For now, though, we have autumn in Germany, a new pizza oven to try and friends coming for dinner.

There is still shopping to do, wool to knit, Christmas presents to make and a lot of things waiting for the next flea market.

I have not worked out exactly when I will finish everything.

But at least I have started.

And if we have lasagne again soon, I know which part I want.

The top, with all the cheese.