Speedy Chocolate Sauce

I'm somewhat in a rut pudding-wise for the Kindling - lots of fromage frais, Kinder Pingui, sponge and custard.... (preferably chocolate sponge with peppermint custard as requested by #1 son 8) so today we tried something new.

Now, my criteria for a weekday pudding at 'children's tea' is that it shouldn't be tooooooo bad for you and should preferably contain milk in someway to aid good sleep.  My three are not good fruit eaters so suggesting they help themselves from the fruit bowl isn't greeted particularly positively.

So today, I had some waffles left over from the post-school-in-the-car-snack, only #1 son had partaken, #2 son said he "only eats waffles with icing sugar on" and the wee girlie was just grumpy!  Well, left over waffles, yes I know it's probably quite a difficult concept to get one's head around - I was certainly surprised as it is a highly unusual occurrence here too.

Anyhoo - the leftover waffles formed the basis for tonight's pud.  Waffles with warm chocolate sauce.

Did I say earlier on that another vital criteria for weekday puddings is that they should take no time at all to make/assemble/put before the gannets.....

So I google 'quick chocolate sauce' and there's chat about cocoa, butter, sugar, vanilla - well not really the sort of thing I had in mind - so I persevered down the first couple of pages and came across an Australian site and they had just the thing I was after.  Two ingredients, two minutes in the microwave - you can't go wrong with that - so here it is:

100g dark chocolate (I used milk as that's what I had to hand)
1/4cup thickened cream (I used a generous slug from the bottle of 'schlagsahne')

Now they suggest adding Kahlua too - and I'm sure it would make for a fab pudding - but probably not best at nursery tea!!

Method:

Break the chocolate into squares, add to cream in a microwave proof jug, and blitz on full power for 2 mins - stirring after each minute. 

Done and dusted - a smooth and creamy super-quick sauce..... and it went down a treat with my not-easily-pleased tasting panel!

I saw a mouse....Where?

There - on the stair, where on the stair, right there - a little mouse with clogs on......

Well at least that's what I've had going round my head for days, ever since H has been practising for the Blotschentanz - his Kindergarten were performing a clog dance at out village fest this weekend.

The third weekend in September - always good weather thankfully - is the Isenbuegel Blotschenball.  This is our village fest which starts on a Friday night with music and dancing in a marquee on the village car park - complete with beer wagon and sausage stall and culminates on Sunday morning with the 'Blotschenball' a traditional clog dance.

I could go into the history of it - this year was the 208th - but I'm not really sure of how and why it started, only that it has evolved over the last few years so that there is now no proper 'Ball' (oh yes, it was all black-tie and long-frocks once upon a time - how the clogs get in there I've no idea!) but the Kindergarten and village primary school perform a couple of dances instead and then there is a general 'tea-dance' type of affair with a local couple murdering the music - still we all go, every year!

This year, we started on the Friday evening with friends for a quick dinner then off to the Festzelt to see a Bon Jovi tribute band called Bounce - and though we missed the start - thinking foolishly that the headliners wouldn't be on at the beginning - we had a thoroughly good time - bouncing up and down to some classic numbers and shouting till we were hoarse.  Possibly a little exuberantly for the German crowd (but us Expat's now how to boogie.......!!)

The Saturday sees a children's sponsored run - we tend to give that a miss....

But the grand finale, Sunday's Blotschenball we had to attend this year.  H (no.2 son) was performing - and they've been practising for ages at Kindergarten - with the clogs too!





There are food and drink stalls, games for the children to play - and even a climbing wall (think of the health and safety hoops you'd have to jump through in the UK for that at a village fair....)  All in all, it's a lovely family afternoon, made all the more special watching your own little ones perform!  Oh and the fun of everyone else having a go in the clogs as the afternoon wears on - the climax of 'New York, New York' whilst dancing in clogs is quite something to behold - I tell you!  Roll on 2013!

In the Kurhaus

Yesterday A had a day off, so once the Kinder were all safely in school and kindergarten we had a very precious three hours to ourselves - so it was off to the local Kurhaus for a mornings rest and relaxation.

The concept of a Kurhaus is not something we really have in England - you can loosely translate the term as 'Health Resort' or spa, but that doesn't really work.  Yes, you can have a 'Kur' hotel - and even be prescribed a residential Kur by your doctor (I'm working on that one as a week's stay at a Spa type place would be just what the doctor ordered.....but I'm sure some of the treatments required might be a bit more hardcore than I'd want).

You could also think of a Kurhaus in terms of a thermal baths - and that's almost what we went to yesterday.  However, there was just the one salt pool - lovely and warm and outside in the grey - but we did have the benefit of a 'Saunalandschaft' a Sauna Landscape.  Yup - three hours at the sauna it was utter bliss (apart from the tutting because we were talking too much and ruining the calming atmosphere.....).

In Essen, at the Gruga Park, there is a Kurhaus which has a series of increasingly hot saunas - each with a different purpose - light therapy, special 'aufguss' which are aromatherapy based, salt crystals - for you to enjoy at your leisure.  This is combined with an outdoor saltwater pool and indoor swimming pool and various indoor and outdoor resting areas - all very civilised.

Now of course, this being a German sauna you are required to leave your clothes at the door - that's right - completely naked in the sauna itself, but of course with a giant towel to sit and lie on (heaven forbid you should let the wood get sweaty...).  Out in the other areas, you do of course need footwear at the very least and that's as far as most of the visitors went yesterday.  There's something quite liberating about everyone bimbling about in their birthday suits - but I know it's not something for everyone.

We're (the Boden Breakfast Club) trying to arrange a girls' spa day  but it's proving quite tricky to find the right establishment to fit all out foibles - I don't think yesterdays venue would suit us - for the primary reason that you can't gossip and giggle all day which would be our main purpose - and I don't think we're all ready to share our bumps and lumps just yet.  Nudity in front of total strangers is actually quite easy - with all your girlfriends - another matter entirely!!

Sorry if your smalls are sandy

It's not my fault - honest!  I know I should have checked H's pockets before I put his shorts in the washing, but I didn't expect them to be full of sand and therefore I didn't expect them to empty themselves of sand all over the clean washing as I folded them. 

So if your pants are a bit itchy, I do apologise.

Now perhaps I ought to have expected it - as he'd been playing outside at kindergarten as the weather has been nice.  The playground at kindergarten is full of sand, as indeed are all playgrounds here.  It is the ground covering of choice for all children's playgrounds - from the small swings and slide get-up that you find outside apartment blocks to the full-on adventure playgrounds found in larger parks (such as the wonderful Gruga Park near here in Essen).  I'm sure it has been evaluated to be the safest type of playground surface - given the German propensity for that type of thing - and to be fair it is a good covering as it's soft and malleable when you fall on to it - and of course all you need is a bucket and spade for hours of fun.....

I don't recall there being much sand in the playgrounds back in the UK - when I think about where we take the Kindling when we're back visiting it seems to be either bark chippings or that bouncy covering - but I can't off hand think of any sand at all. 

But - I HATE sand....  It gets everywhere.  Given that we don't live near a beach, or have a sandpit of our own, the amount of sand in my house on any given day - and in the Kindling's shoes when they come home from kindergarten - is astounding.  Perhaps I should start to collect it all up and create my own play-area - I'd certainly have enough for a substantial sandpit without having to buy any.....

So back to the laundry - well my laundry room floor is now somewhat crunchy underfoot, and I find no amount of brushing or vacuuming gets it all up, so there's always sand underfoot, and just when I think I'm winning the battle against the encroaching dunes, another pocketful deposits itself on the floor.... or as in yesterday's case, in the basket and over the clean laundry. I suppose at least it was dry and so brushed off easily....