Eat with your heart

Graz is such a nice city, not too big and not too small. It's strange but every time I'm convinced to finally know all the most important places to go, the best restaurants, the coolest bars, the most charming cafés, I suddenly realize that there's something else. Something new - something I've never heard of and never been to before. A place, ready to experience. It was about a year ago that a friend of mine told me about a small restaurant called Ginko. And no, it's not the tree I'm talking about (even though I'm a real fan of its unique leaves). 

Since I'm a vegetarian I've always been looking for a restaurant that offers more than just side dishes. Of course there are some, especially the ones with a large variety of food on their menu, which offer more than just potatoes, rice or pasta. But imagine going to a restaurant without having to think about which of the offered dishes contain no meat. Wouldn't that be heaven on earth? 

And finally I found what I was looking for. It's not the only vegetarian restaurant in Graz but if you ask me by far the best. GINKO. 

It's different than all the other restaurants I've ever been to. The moment I openend the door and took a first deep breath I knew that this was the right place to be. There was a wonderful, delicious smell - a mixture of curry, turmeric and other spices I couldn't really identify. The muted light in combination with this smell made me feel like home. My eyes were wandering around and finally I saw the reason why I had actually gone there: the buffet. Mhh. 

This buffet offers nearly everything (mostly vegan and very important: organic): a wonderful variety of different salads (carrots, lentils, green salad, potatoes, Greek salad, beans, and many more), warm, delicious soups and the best part of the buffet: the main dishes. There's always at least one curry (with potatoes, pumpkin, lentils or something else), different kinds of vegetables, dishes out of polenta, millet or chick-peas, noodles and delicious stews. And then, at the end of the buffet when the plate's already overloaded and the mouth watering, Ginko offers the most delicious vegan cakes I've ever eaten. Many people (including me before I knew Ginko) believe that vegan cakes are generally dry and don't nearly taste as good as the original version. Please go there and try the vegan cherry-chocolate cake. I promise, all your doubts will immediately disappear and you'll wish for more, it's simply wonderful.

The motto at Ginko is "Eat with your heart" - I don't know what you think about it but the mostly vegan, 100%-vegetarian, organic, fair trade products make it easy for me to believe that they really live their motto. I'm sure you don't have to be vegetarian to love Ginko :-) Go there once and you definitely won't regret it!

source: restaurant-ginko.at

Why I love cooking

For me, cooking is not only a means to an end but a way of realizing creative ideas and creating something new. Once you reach a certain age and have gained all the basic knowledge you need to cook a proper meal, a wonderful new period of life starts. It is a time of trying out new recipes and unusual combinations in order to develop you own unique taste. The wonderful thing about cooking is that there is an infinite number of variations and yet every one of these meals is slightly different. There are no two meals that taste exactly the same due to the fact that by adding just a pinch of a certain spice or another ingredient you can change the taste of something completely. That is why preparing food never gets boring to me and the final outcome is always a surprise. As not only the process of cooking but also the tasting are special experiences, inviting friends to come and eat with you can be a wonderful opportunity to spend time together. In short, cooking is much more than just a tedious chore, provided you take your time to explore and create something that has the potential to make people happy. 

 

I just stumbled across these pictures on derStandard.at and thought they excelently fit the cooking-topic :-) A New York artist and a photographer created a food map of different countries and continents - if you ask me, they were more than successful!!

as far as you can, as much as you can.

source: visualstatements.net

Move. As far as you can, as much as you can. I will take this literally because that's what life is about. Not only this but well, there's much truth in this quotation. Seeing different parts of the world will help us grow, not in height (especially not me) but in an even more important way. We will learn for our lives, increase in challenges and in every new experience. Leaving the comfort of the lives we know and having the courage to go somewhere we've never been seems to frighten us at first, and maybe even after some time, but in the end we will hopefully realize that it was all worth the fear and uncertainties. 

Maybe it's the dark sky and the strong wind blowing outside making me think about all these things. It could also be the fact that I've applied for a semester abroad and will spend the next semester far, far away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. To be precise, there will be a distance of 7,640 km between Graz and the place I'll stay - the city of Minneapolis. I'm really looking forward to this new experience, there's no question about that, but sometimes it gets me. This feeling of not having enough time until August. This feeling of having so many things I want to do until then but no idea about how and when. Maybe it would be the best to set up a list with all these things and make sure not to forget anything. Five months. To be honest, there's still so much time to go crazy, so why should I start today? :)

International Day of Happiness

 

Today is the 20th of March 2014. International Day of Happiness. There's a day for nearly everything by now, so why not a day to celebrate and remind ourselves that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental goal (that was at least the intention of the UN General Assembly when they founded this special day in 2012). 

There are more than seven million people living on our planet and every one of them has their own unique definition of what happiness means to him or her. There are many, many people who believe that having a lot of money, being successful in their job or constantly climbing the ladder of success are pre-conditions to lead a happy and contended life. Another part of the world's population considers a family or at least a partner the most important things in life. For these people it is important to know that there is someone who will always be there and stand by them no matter what happens. Then there are of course other definitions of happiness related to specific living-conditions for example in the developing world or in war zones. Having something to eat and drink and living a peaceful life without war are definitely the biggest wishes for these people to lead a happy life. 

As you can see every person has his or her own definition of happiness. So do I, even though it's not that easy to describe. Having a lot of money and being rich, a state so many people long for, isn't something that truly matters to me. Of course it is easier to live a life without having to worry about how to buy food and clothes and so on, but in the end it doesn't really matter. When I went to Cuba and visited a remote village in the eastern part of the island, I saw families who were really poor compared to our standards of living. What really fascinated and touched me was the fact that these people looked so much happier than some Austrians or Europeans generally do. They were content and seemed to rejoice in the little they had. 

 

source: alifetimeofwisdom.com

I think sometimes you need a little reminder to remember that your life isn't that bad and that it could definitely be worse. I don't know why it is that way but sometimes you need to see real poverty or experience a case of illness in your near surrounding in order to be thankful for what you have. It may sound strange but when you realize that life could be worse or even over soon, you start to appreciate the smaller things. You realize that sunshine is a wonderful thing and that good friends and a family are the best part in life. I believe that happiness isn't a state of having a lot of money but a general attitude towards life.

I wish you a wonderful day! Enjoy it!

Mhhh, apple pie!

Have you got a favourite kind of bakery? Is it something with chocolate? There are so many people who would die for a piece of chocolate (so do I) and love brownies or every other kind of chocolate cake and there's no question about that, I am the first one who can understand a passion for chocolate pie. But have you ever tried a delicious, still a bit warm piece of home-made apple pie? There's a cookbook in our kitchen shelf at home that contains the best recipe for apple pie I've ever found and I guess I may find other recipes but they will never ever reach this one.

Sarah Wiener. Her name is identical with the city this successful woman was born in - Vienna! I have to admit that the recipe for apple pie was the first and only one I tried from her book but it convinced me completely. Every time I look for something to bake and stumble over her cookbook there's no other way, I have to make an apple pie and all the other recipes again have to wait for some day in the future.

The wonderful thing about this recipe is that you don't need many different ingredients, just butter, flour, an egg, sugar, apples and so on - ingredients you either have at home or quickly buy at the supermarket round the corner.  I'm always amazed how these simple ingredients mixed in the right way can create such a delicious pie.

The preparation will need some time but mainly because the shortcrust pastry needs to refrigerate for about half an hour or a bit longer. The rest isn't complicated at all and at the moment you first smell the sweet taste of this apple pie you will know that it was absolutely worth waiting - I  promise you.

So you're getting excited and curious about the recipe? Here it is! :))

Ingredients: 

for the shortcrust pastry:

250 g flour (I always mix whole-wheat flour and plain flour)
125 g cold butter
100 g sugar
1 egg

for the filling: 

800-900 g apples (they can or should be a bit sour)
2 tsp lemon juice 

1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
optional: a handful of raisins

Preparation: 

Sieve the flour onto the worksurface, chop the butter and add them on top of the flour. Add the egg and the sugar and knead the dough until it's smooth. This can take a little time but be careful not to over-work the dough as it will make the pastry tough. When you're finished put the covered dough into the refrigerator. 

For the filling chop the peeled apples into small pieces and immediately sprinkle them with lemon juice and finally add the cinnamon and sugar. While chopping the apples you can already preheat the oven to 180°C because normally it takes some time until they reach the desired heat.

When the 30 minutes are over, take the dough out of the refrigerater and separate it into two parts (about one third and two thirds). Take the bigger part and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough so that it is big enough to cover a pie pan or a normal pan with a removable bottom (if you use such a removable-bottomed pan it will be useful to cover the bottom with parchment paper so that it doesn't stick to the pan later on). You can use a knife to trim the edges of the pastry so that it fits into the pan. 

Cover the pastry with the apples and in case you're a fan of raisins you can add a handful of them to the apples. Finally roll out the second part of the pastry and place it on top of the apples. Press down on the pastry edges and make sure they are properly sealed. If there is any excess pastry you can trim it off with a knife. 

Now it's your turn to realize your creativity. There's always some dough that remains at the end and with this dough you can show how creative you are. You can roll it out and cut out anything you want. As you can see on the photos I cut out some hearts but it's also possible to write something with the dough. There are thousands of possibilities :-) 

Finally prick the surface of the pastry lightly with a gable before placing the pie in the oven and then cook for about 40 minutes.

Well that's it! Before serving you can dust the pie with caster sugar or enjoy it with some vanilla ice cream - it will taste delicious either way!

The world outside our comfort zones...

 

I know it may sound ridiculous or even arrogant, but have you ever thought about the problems we - people living in Austria - consider as real "problems"? This video is not exactly what I'm going to talk about but to me it is one of the best videos to remind ourselves how happy and glad we can, or even must be, to live in this beautiful country. Austria always seems to be an island to me. An island where (fortunately) nothing "really bad" has happened over the last few years. Of course we have our own little tragedies like crimes, financial difficulties that could be avoided (just thinking about the "Hypo-disaster") or accidents and violent crimes. Despite all these things I still believe that we can consider ourselves as really lucky to live here. Austria has a social system that other countries can only dream of, natural resources and land to cultivate. We don't really know what water scarcity or famine really means. Compared to other countries our unemployment rate is actually at a very low rate and people grow older and older because we have an excellent health system and medical treatment. I could go on and add numerous points to this list but I think what I want to say doesn't need any further explanation.

source: wallpapergang.com

When I open the newspaper every morning I keep asking myself whether we are fully aware of the fact that Austria is such an "island". Do we really appreciate this? I'm not sure about that. When I watched the video for the first time I caught myself having complained about some of the very same things - and to be honest, it seems absolutely ridiculous when I think about it now. What is a phone charger that doesn't reach my bed compared to the Crimean crisis, a plane that suddenly disappeared or even got hijacked, civil war-like conditions in more than one African country, millions of refugees looking for a safe place to stay, water scarcity, a famine, natural disasters ...? Yes, exactly. I shouldn't even ask this question. But that's the way people are, we lead our lives and consider the problems we have as tragedies, because - as I already said - fortunately, we aren't used to tragedies of these extents.

Please don't get me wrong, it's not my intention to convict anybody of anything. I'm glad to live here in Austria and feeling guilty for the injustice that exists won't make it any better. I just think that it's important to get aware of the fact that there is a world beside Europe, beside Austria where people haven't got the same opportunities that we have. Just think about it for a moment :-)

b - l - o - g - g - i - n - g

 

When I started to blog I didn't really spend much time on thinking about what it would mean to me. I actually have to admit that I started blogging not because I saw much sense in it but because it was for our English course. Yes, I know, this may be the wrong reason to start doing it BUT the positive thing is that I immediately took to it and now I'm nearly passionate about it. 

Maybe it's because I love to write as a way of expressing myself or because it's a different way of telling the world outside about life, political topics, movies or bands I'm passionate about. Or another reason, and that is my favorite one: it's the special mixture of all of these reasons. In the end it doesn't matter why I do it, the only thing that's important is that, well, I really like it and therefore I don't see blogging as a kind of task I have to do for university but as a nice way of spending some of my time. 

Source: publicize.com

Yesterday was a strange day. It was one of those special days when I can't just switch my thoughts off and keep thinking and thinking about all and nothing and everything in between. During this strange process of thinking and not being able to stop for a moment I also came across blogging and started reflecting on what makes a good blog. Is it the layout that catches one's attention or is it the number how often somebody smiled when reading a blog that counts? Is it the fact that the reader wants to know more about the topic after reading a post or the feeling of being able to identify with the blogger because one has already experienced a similar situation or has felt the same way? I am not sure. Sometimes I come across a blog and am captivated by it from the very first words I read although I cannot explain this feeling logically.

And maybe that's it. Not everything has to be explained logically. There are no guidelines, no guarantee that if you stick to a few rules, your blog will be a good one. It's especially difficult because there isn't just one definition of "good". I think it can be compared to the quotation "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" - what's good for one person may not be for another one.

If you want to know what I consider a great blog I can tell you. Even though the layout doesn't really have to do a lot with the rest of the blog because it's the content that counts, you can't deny that the background, a nice font, pictures etc. are all ways of making a blog look nicer. And who doesn't want a blog with a beautiful layout? But now let's talk about the really essential part of a blog: The content. When I looked through several blogs from other English students I stumbled across a few that really fascinated me.
There was for instance this blog called Forty Million Minutes that caught my attention. I read the very first post "Can you spare five minutes?" and everything I can say is that I was impressed. The topic, the way it is written, I simply liked everything about it. This is the kind of post that grabs your attention from the beginning and doesn't let you go. You have to go on reading and ask yourself why you haven't thought about this topic for such a long time. After reading you immediately visit the pages that are given for further information and about organizations mentioned in the post because you want to know more about it. While reading the post you further realize that the person who wrote it must be really passionate about this topic because otherwise they wouldn't get you do all this. In my opinion this is the best thing that can happen.

Source: smartrecruiters.com

What I realized after having looked through a number of blogs is that it doesn't really matter what the posts are about (of course up to a certain degree - I wouldn't be interested in the newest results of the Champions League, but who knows.. :-)) as long as the one who writes is passionate about it. For my blogging-future I therefore hope to be able to convey all my passion for a certain topic when writing a post. I want to be able to write something that captivates you, makes you want to know more about it or makes you get this feeling of having gone through exactly the same thing some time ago. I know this seems to be a great challenge to me but I am motivated and with thousands of ideas in my head - so I think these are not the worst conditions to start a new semester :-)