Love the IWC

May 31, Tuesday. I went to an International Women’s Club event at one of the member’s homes, a lovely big apartment in the University district quite close to the English Garden. Another member, Heidi, an Austrian, was demonstrating how to cook some classic Bavarian dishes. We made KaseSpaetzle; which I think is the basis for our mac & cheese; German potato salad; which bore little resemblance to what we get in the states called that; and then a pancake called Kaiserschmarm.

The Spaetzle is a basic flour/water/egg pasta, pretty loose like a very heavy batter. We mixed it up, and Heidi showed us how to use the Spaetzle maker. I thought it was a grater at first, it’s a metal blade with very round holes in it, about the diameter of your little finger. There’s a round plastic cylinder that rides on top of this. The blade fits over the pot, in which you have hot water (not boiling or, as Heidi says, you get soup!). Fill the cylinder (sitting on the blade) with the batter, put the blade over the pot and slowly run the cylinder back & forth over the holes. The batter drops through and the Spaetzle starts cooking. When they were done (they float & turn a darker yellow), we scooped them into a pot. Each batch got sprinkled with grated cheese. When we had cooked all the batter, the pot was put into a warm oven to further melt the cheese. Separately, we carmelized onions, they go on top as you wish when you’re serving yourself. This dish was really good, cheesy and with a great chewy texture due to the Spaetzle. It was a lot of fun, there were 10 of us alternately helping prep, cook and chat. One interesting thing, Heidi complemented me on a necklace I was wearing. I told her that my parents had given it to me as a present for going to Germany. She wondered why, I said they were impressed that I had moved here. She said “Because of the war?” “No, because they are still living in their first house after 46 years!” (My mother in particular is agog at the notion that we picked up and moved to another country.)Now I was thinking she meant WWII, but she may have meant the current war. Anyway, we have been on a couple museum tours and the tour guide prefaces discussion of the WWs with 'bad things, but part of our history.' I get the sense that most people here feel " wasn't even alive then, it was bad, we're embarrassed, let's move along, OK?" Not trying to deny it, not accepting any blame for it. It was bad, we’ll not repeat it.

The cooking and lunch event was held at Kate’s house. After lunch was over, Kate offered to show Barbara and I to the Hugendubel bookstore downtown. Specifically, the English branch. Barbara had tried to find it before, but had not succeeded. We walked from Kate’s place, and what a find! Hundreds of books. Again, they don’t take credit cards. But our EC cards are coming in the mail, they say. And my bank card works in several cash machines here.
Tuesday before supper Logan and I got out for a bike ride. It's light pretty late these evenings, til 9:30 or so. There are so many paved bike paths, some “off road” and some along the sidewalks, it’s so easy to get around here on bike. Mine needs some adjustment, I am putting too much weight on my arms so that between my shoulder blades and my wrists hurt. But Logan thinks he can turn the handlebars around to help with that.