A perfect day to homebrew some medicine

Since it was cold and rainy here in Baltimore, I decided to make some chicken stock and to brew some medicine to counteract the kidney stone attacks I’ve been having lately.  Back in the olden days, when I was working in Munich, I first experienced the joy of kidney stones. I ended up having an operation at the Klinikum Rechts der Isar, because one stone had gotten so large and had lodged itself in a place where they couldn’t use shockwaves to break it apart. After the operation, my doctor (who was Czech), told me to drink at least one Weizen per day to prevent another one from getting that large.

Flash forward 27 years. I stopped drinking my weizen in a misguided attempt at getting healthy. Lo and behold, I start feeling the twinges in my kidney that tell me I have made a BIG mistake. So today being cold and rainy, I decided to brew a Weizen. I found a recipe from a brewery I like:

My anti-kidney stone recipe

Homebrewing works best if you clean and sanitize everything. Here you see my brew kettle making the wort, and my cleaning bucket and fermentation carbuoy.

Wort’s a-brewing, airlock, siphon hose are sitting in a sanitizing solution, and my fermentation carbuoy is drying out

A peak at the wort (mashed grains):

Wort in the kettle, keeping a constant temperature of 150 degrees Farenheit

After 30 minutes at 150 degrees Farenheit, Add water. Bring to a boil. Add the malt and the Bavarian hops. Boil for an hour.

Hopfen u. Malz, Gott erhalt’s.

Cool to 70 degrees, add more water to bring it to 5 gallons. Pitch your yeast, take your specific gravity reading and siphon into the primary fermentation carbuoy.  Next week I’ll transfer it to the secondary fermentation carbuoy.

What’s for dinner?

Say you have some leftover quinoa cakes from 2 days ago. And a head of cauliflower in the refrigerator, just sitting there, all lonely. Ah, you say, this equals dinner!  Slice and roast the cauliflower with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Reheat the quinoa cakes, top with a tomatilla salsa and dinner is on the table in less than an hour.

Essen – quinoa cakes u. cauliflower

A too short interlude – München

For me, a visit to Bayern isn’t complete without a trip to the city of my birth and where I had my first law job after law school. This time it would be a bit tricky, since the Deutsche Bahn was going on strike every other day, or so it seemed. Luckily, my cousin’s wife was heading into Munich* one of the days I wanted to visit, so she dropped me off at the Donnersbergerbrücke before heading off to the Kunsthalle. The S-/U-Bahn was running that day, so I took it to the Hauptbahnhof.

Fußgänger Zone

I then walked to the Hugendubel off of Marienplatz.

I love spending time and money here

As usual, I got a little overwhelmed by the selection, so I emailed a [virtual] friend, Katy Derbyshire for some recommendations. To my happy surprise, she replied almost immediately, and I picked up Im Kopf von Bruno Schulz and Johnny und Jean, as well as a book I’d been looking for for awhile, Sendlinger G’schichten by Sigi Sommer. Purchases safely in my backpack, I made my way over to the Jewish Museum for two exhibits recommended by the Sueddeutsche:

The Jewish Museum

1. War! Jews between the fronts, 1914-1918  and

2. Culture on the brink: Jewish life on the Tegernsee, 1900-1933

I was actually a little surprised I got to see the second one, since it wasn’t supposed to start until that evening. Both exhibits were pretty intense. Inside the museum, I saw someone who looked an aweful like Munich’s former mayor, Christian Ude.

An hour and a half later, it was time to meetup with Ken McBeth Knowles at the Ladencafé Marais.  I was a little apprehensive, since I had never met him in person before, only through twitter and google+. I needn’t have worried, as he and his friend Elaine were warm, interesting, and entertaining companions. I had a blast and learned a lot. After a leasurely cake and coffee,  I hurried over to the Lenbachhaus, my absolute favorite museum, in order to reacquaint myself with my favorite artist, August Macke. There is also a fun portrait of one of my favorite authors, Oskar Maria Graf by Georg Schrimpf that I wanted to see in person.

The Lenbachhause, which has a new entrance after a multiyear rennovation

This used to be the entrance, back when I lived in Munich

A couple of hours later, it was time for dinner. I headed off to the Weisses Brauhaus in Tal, although I did stop off first at the TSV 1860 fan shop to pick up a winter hat, especially since we are supposed to have a very cold winter here in Baltimore this year.

Where I go whenever I’m in Munich

It was still relatively warm in Munich, so I sat outside. I couldn’t decide what kind of meat to eat, so I ordered a 3-fer: 2 cuts of pork and a cut of beef. It went well with the Aventinus and the Sendlinger Stories of Sigi Sommer.

Etwas vom Schwein, a Semmelknöd’l and an Aventinus

After dinner, I caught the 20:35  train from Munich. According to my fitbit, I walked 13 miles that day.

* She was helping to set up the Munich Rococo from Asam to Günther exhibit.

A too short interlude… Part One

Back in mid-October, I visited my relatives in Oberammergau, Bad Kohlgrub, and Oberflossing. The occasion for my visit was to see my aunt (my mom’s sister), who isn’t getting any younger. And while talking to her on the phone is nice, talking to her over coffee and one of her homemade cakes is even better.

I got in to Munich at 7 am and by 10 am, my cousin Klaus had me hiking in the fields near Mittenwald:

Mittenwald – Lower Kranzberg

Afterwards, we went to Oberammergau for lunch and to drop off my luggage at his house.

Where I spent most of my time – Oberammergau

I stayed in the house just to the left of the sign. It’s a bit hidden by the tree.

The next day, I went to see my aunt in Bad Kohlgrub. I brought along a beer I had brought with me from my homebrew cellar for her to try. From the look on her face, I’m not sure she liked it.

My godmother and me.

Recent reads for my St. John’s College Executive Seminar class

Phaedra, by Racine: A woman’s lustful thoughts results in the death of an innocent youth.

Taming of the Shrew, by You-Know-Who: Misogynist bullies woman smarter than he.

Information on the St. John’s College Executive Seminars

Sketchbooked Talk

Talk by Randy Barnett at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Dinner

After walking a couple of miles today, I decided to spend the rest of the day in the kitchen. In addition to starting a batch of homemade sauerkraut, I also made a couple of quarts of chicken stock, AKA, liquid gold. That done, I fired up the grill.

As you can see, there was still snow on the ground even though it was 61 degrees (Farenheit) outside.

I chopped up some red cabbage and apples for a rot kraut and made a molasses and bourbon sauce …

.. to go with the Ozzy-brined bacon-wrapped pork chops.

It went really well with the Aventinus.

More February books

I finished two more books last week. The first was, Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, by Paul Hendrickson. I picked this up last May at the Ivy Bookshop and took it with me when my wife and I went on a short staycation to Annapolis and Frederick. I’m not sure why it took me nearly nine whole months to finish it. It’s well written and is chock full of interesting stories of Hemingway and the people whose lives he touched – not only his wifes and sons (especially Gigi), but others whom you may never have heard of, like Walter Houk. It’s a fascinating book, full of stuff I didn’t already know. If you are in any way interested in Hemingway, I recommend that you grab yourself a copy.

The other book I finished  was, Deceived, a mystery by Randy Wayne White.  White’s been in somewhat of a slump the past couple of books (since Deep Shadow), so much so that I’d never gotten more than 50 pages into them before putting them aside. This one held my interest from page one and I didn’t put it aside until reading the last page, finishing it in a day. Having a foot of snow outside and temperatures well below freezing was good for something, I guess.

After a hard day of moving snow

… a man needs something filling. So I made a butternut squash and chicken tagine over quinoa, with a fried egg on top. And an Aventinus.

Recently read

I don’t know what is up with my attention span, but I haven’t been able to finish many books lately. In fact, I’ve only read 3 books since New Years:
1. Spenser and Travis McGee: The Trafalgar Square Bomber by Bill Rayburn. This is a self-published fanfic tale starring two of my favorite private eyes. It’s an okay effort, as far as these thing go. The writing and plot is better than the official holiday novel, Silent Night: A Spenser Holiday Novel that came out last fall. But it is nowhere near as good as any of the original Spenser novels nor the ones done by Ace Atkins, Lullaby and Wonderland. Mr. Atkins has done a masterful job at capturing the tone and the style of the Spenser universe.

2. Brown Dog, by Jim Harrison. This is a collection of novellas featuring Harrison’s beloved character, Brown Dog. All but the last story have appeared in other novella collections.  I’m a big Jim Harrison fan, so I got the book even though I have read the other novellas.

3. Great Plains, by Ian Frazier. What a marvelous book. If Nelse, a character in Jim Harrison’s, The Road Home, had written a book about his travels, this is the book he would have written. Reading it, I wanted to pack up my car and drive out to see the places Frazier was describing. Add an interesting mix of plains Indian history and you have yourself a potent book.