Marry goes shopping – Milano:
We are heading through the snow-covered Alps to Varese + Milano for Marry´s Birthday Party. Probably no Red Wings are on the shoe shopping list, something more high heeled and likely black.
A Snowday walk:
Sunday afternoon me and Tillman had a walk in the park at the lake. What a great scenery. Fresh snow, windy and cold not a day for a picknick or a swim but – ok.
Bread and Pizza Evening!
Nothing better to start the weekend with a great night cooking/baking and celebrating it with friends. So we did this friday. I explained the basics of how to make a good loaf of bread while and we also had pizza made of the same recipe (only that the dough did not ferment for about 24 hours). See one of a image where the crispy pizza slice 1/16 did not collapse.
Here are the basics for a good pizza:
– Do not try to buy cheap ingredients its ruins everything from the beginning.
– Take your time if you are not a pro. At the beginning all are hungry but they will slow down tray after tray
– use lots of olive oil on the tray so the pizza does not stick and gets more crispy
– 320 C would be perfect but most ovens only make it to 270 C which is ok.
– put the baking tray on the lowest level of your oven and do not use “hotair” mode take “ober- and unterhitze” (heat from top and bottom). You need the extra heat mostly from below so the pizza gets extra crispy.
– Use lots of olive oil to sprinkle the pizza before you put it in the oven, it keeps the pizza moist and just tastes better.
– Do not overload the pizza, less is better.
Thats it I would say. Baking a loaf of bread just seems logic after the oven is already hot. Also a great gift for your friends to take home. Probably ensures they will come back for more.
Homemade Gnocchi with spinach and gorgonzola:
It always sounded too much hassle to make gnocchi by myself – but Maria finally challenged me yesterday.
Here the recipe:
1000g of potatoes
200g of flour
2 egg yolk
bit of salt
Boil the potatoes until they crack, peel them and mash them. Knead them with the four, eggs and salt while they are still warm. Make about 4 rolls and cut them into even “slices”. Press them with a fork a bit. Put them for about 3 minutes in boiling water and keep the ready ones warm in the oven until you made them all. Thats it! The recipe above has to be fine tuned a bit, be-cause they turn out a bit too soft – just a bit. 1/2 semiola and 1/2 flour might be the solution.
To check the sharpness of your straight razor simply grab the hair with the hair root facing the palm/floor and the thinner end towards the sky. If you have no decent long hair for this test – have a look at the other half of your bed you should be able to find some from a/your lady. Gently move down the hair to the razor blade and you should hear the “pling”. If not grap the hair either a bit more to the end and give it more weight for the blade or turn it around. If still not successful give it to an expert for a resharpening and let him teach you of how to keep it sharp with the leather stromp. I read the blade should last for about 1000 shaves before a resharpening is needed again. So give it a try for the full joy of a clean shave rather than a “ripping of the hair feeling”.
Unsmartphoning for dummies:
The actual plan was to test this Samsung Nexus and try for a while and then sell it. But just after some weeks it felt down on the wrong spot and the display cracked. So I kept it for longer and it´s a fine phone I have to say.
BUT it comes with all the faults the smartphone devices have.
Which are:
– Battery life panik, you can not stay overnight without a charger with you.
– Displays are way to fragile. You might argue that a Notebook display will also crack when you drop but. But a mobile phone is designed to be carried around all day. So from my point of view it has to be constructed that it can handle some bumps. But it´s a smartphone seen also from the point of the producer. Short lifespan and high addiction to upgrade!
And the worst of all, the addiction to constantly feeding this Tamagotchi with your attention. Which means you fall into the habit of permanently checking the status of your mails, facebook, blogstats, sms, whatsapp …
You hardly see anyone not fumbling around with his smartphone nowadays. Even with friends and family around. When I recognized the same pattern of behavior on me I know I had to change something.
So I went back to the well engineered Sony Ericsson 108i Cedar (used for about 25 Euros). Around 3 days of battery life. On purpose to display how tough it is, I drop it without any fear floors to challenge IPhone users if they can do the same with theirs. The phone has got an email client so not a too hard step back from technology – and a bit of a cheat. I´m happy now and not a a bit less smarter I would say. Time is rare and the monkey brain is busy enough.
Feuerhand – Baby No. 275 :
A all time classic for more than 100 years and performing so well. The Baby No. 275 I restored is according to some information produced since 1934. A complete history of the Feuerhand you can find here.
Welcome to the shave club – Whiskey shave soapIt´s no secret I like knifes and blades and I get the pest when some marketing freak tells me I need a safety razor with 5 blades for a shave.
So Eric from Life Time Gear hit the spot when he gave me this Whiskey shave soap from Portland General Store as a present on our Frankurt trip 2 weeks ago. Meanwhile, I gave it a try and it performed very well, the lather was very dense, only comparable to the good stuff used by millions of turkish men The Arko shave soap I use normally. The decent smell of whiskey and the packaging will make it my first choice for the next +100 straight razor shaves. Thanks Eric!
Mercedes-Benz 300 b W186 III Adenauer for sale:
What a beauty! For sale at Altagsklassiker now. A Mercedes-Benz 300 b W186 III Adenauer from 1955.
Sunday walk with the dogs – Schleiensee:
We did a walk with the dogs in the area around the Schleiensee. Just be-cause the cake afterwards tastes even better.
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