Book Report: Mudhouse Sabbath

Blog Sponsor: Sabbath Boredom 

Today is my sabbath. Paul had the morning off, we got massages, we lunched at our new favorite Pakistani restaurant, and we'll sneak off tonight to try a dessert at the new chocolate place across the street. I don't know any non-clergy members who take a day off in the middle of the week. It is all very indulgent isn't it? Only non-important people can take a day off. That's the cultural message. But, lucky for me,  I am used to challenging commonly held beliefs. 

That being said, I will admit that there is a point in every Sabbath where there is a pull to do something "useful". But, then I remember a quote from Lauren Winner's book Mudhouse Sabbath which I read on my Kur three years ago:

The funny thing is I don't really remember the context or what the lesson is, but she says that everyone on the Sabbath gets to the point of "toe-tapping boredom". While my ADHD brain doesn't like boredom, my rational self knows boredom is healthy for adults and kids. For starters, it boosts creativity. Thus, I present belatedly to you my most impressive culinary triumph of 2024:

Zwischen Den Jahren Muffins (based on these Pumpkin Spice Muffins by Sally's Baking Addition)

Zwischen den Jahren is the German Term for the days between Christmas and New Years. It's when you have a lot of half-eaten chocolate Santas, gingerbread house remnants, and unstructured hours with kids at home. This recipe takes all of these ingredients and makes them into something delicious. First a few notes:

My American readers might be kind of impressed that I do so much "scratch baking". Well, it's not because I'm a purist. It's because there isn't Trader Joes and thus no solid baking mixes. I have yet to even find canned pumpkin here. Thus, the first step is roasting a Hokkaido. Scooping out pumpkin gunk and separating seeds is a great task for little hands. 

The original recipe called for a total of 420 grams of flour and sugar mix. I only had 335 grams of cookies so I just added 85 grams of flour to make the right dry ingredients. Thus, I added the chocolate on-top to make sure they were sweet enough. The chocolate frosting could likely be omitted with more blended cookies.

The double boiler should be the last step, but the Santas were first used for chocolate covered strawberries. Without further ado, the receipe:

Ingredients:

• 420 grams of Gingerbread remnants 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
• 1 and 1/2 cups (340g) pumpkin puree 
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (60ml) milk (dairy or nondairy)

1. Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). 
2. Scoop out pumpkin gunk and cut in .5 in/1 cm slices to roast for 30 minutes until soft. 
3. Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners.
4. Grind gingerbread in food processor. Once finely ground, mix in salt and baking soda.  
5. Real cooks would use two bowels but I just add the cooled pumpkin (skin on) to the food processor. After it's puréed add oil, eggs, and milk together until combined. 
6. Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top.
7. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 16–17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 21–22 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan before enjoying. 
8. Once muffins cool, drizzle santa chocolate over the top. 
9. Cover tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
10. Tell me how they turned out.

Keep this recipe in your back pocket if you have cookies, chocolate, and hours to kill at Easter. 

Book Report: Dopamine Nation

Last week was one of those weeks. Hugo started feeling warm on last Saturday and produced this on Monday night:

US friends you're allowed to be jealous that these tests cost $3.

So I did what I too often do when the going gets tough. Tune out. Kids played in the background while I did housework listening to this:

The Idea of You was a true escape until it consumed my thoughts about how horribly the book ended. I would instead recommend spending your listening hours, not while kids are around, on this much more edifying book: 

Dr. Anna Lembke, writes from a background as a psychiatrist and personal experience of addiction to...romance novels. Spoiler, the author got a handle on her addiction by leaning in to her work. Although, I would say the author could have just as easily ended her romance novel addiction by reading The Idea of You. That book single handedly ended my interest in the genre. 

In any case, there are so many helpful vignettes in Dopamine Nation and the message is timely. We're all trying to escape right now, are't we? We can talk a big game about there being many time periods of horrible leaders, but actually having to live through "the new age of infamy" is exhausting. 

Also, personally my ADHD brain is especially seeking dopamine. Part of the reason I'm so 'scattered' is because I'm looking for the next dopamine "hit". The place where I get it? Radical honesty. Partly it's my enneagram eight. Give me truth over comfort, every time. I'm bringing this truth into lent this year.  We are making space for joy, but to get there, there will be discomfort. 

Police Officer Please Let me Explain...

You pulled me over because this looks unsafe to you?

Urban bodyboarding - a kissing cousin of 

urban bike tubing

Let me assure you, there was a lot of thought that went into this process. First, can we admit that adults in their 40s should not use bean bag furniture, much less secondhand fatboys? Can we also agree that a closed Kita and a public transportation strike shouldn't deter from this noble quest to find "real" furniture?

I should point out that the first stop was actually to get a bike safety check. IE my husband got a flat tire on the way taking the boys to school so we took the bike to the best bike shop in Berlin this morning. While the bike was in the shop, most of the snow-turned-ice melted. I even planned to avoid the iciest stretch of the route to Ikea by running an errand to pick-up my daughter's new German ID. 

At the risk of seeming ungrateful for our residency status, is this update really necessary? An ID that matches her current passport photo seems pretty unreasonable because when you look at her old passport photo below, it's clear that Carmen has not changed a bit.

But as I was saying, with a safe bike and clear roads we made our way to Ikea. Here I will admit a small error in my planning. I double checked the couch dimensions would fit in the bike. However, I did not confirm enough space for a child to be in the box. Also, we had a lot of swim gear with us. I couldn't let our expedition for furniture interfere with our weekly swimming lesson. #swimsafetyfirst Additionally, the swim bags doubled as cushions on the way to Ikea as the bench was out to fit the couch. In any case, one kid and swim bags worked for the ride to school to pick-up Hugo. 

It worked so well, in fact, that the ride put this unicorn to sleep:

When I arrived at Hugo's school, he jumped up on the couch box and said, "I can ride on top. And, do you have a snack?" Yes, meatball leftovers eaten in ready position.

Boxbike content includes: One cardboard box containing a small Ikea couch, one bag of wetsuits (blast you Putin for freezing Berlin public pools), one generic swim bag, one bag of Ikea odds-and-ends, one Ikea cool bag with three kilos/6 pounds of meatballs, one adult backpack, one kid backpack, one slumbering unicorn, one responsible adult peddling (with motor assist), and one urban boogie (card)boarder.

We did, in-fact, ride a couple blocks with Hugo on top with lots of disapproving looks, one admonishment from a concerned driver, and mercifully no traffic citations. Hugo said, "We'll be fine. Everyone knows you shouldn't wake up a sleeping kid." Then Carmen started to stir so we could do this cozy arrangement. 

The littles and I assembled the couch during one of the sick days last week. I think we can all agree the risk of bodily harm was worth it.

#adulting

Building Ikea furniture is currently Hugo's greatest love. He is available for hire and can be paid in meatballs.