Berlin

Berlin in January is gloomy.  The spirit's great but the skies are such a downer.  So how am I coping with the move so far?  By dipping into my recipe archives for the brightest and peppiest dishes I can find.  In Ghana, any meal would shine in the golden light of sunset - always between 6 and 6:30 PM, year-round.  Up here, farther away from the equator, it's pitch-black by 5 PM, and everything I cook needs an extra punch in the bleak light.

Now, our shipment from Ghana came in exactly two weeks ago.  But we're both working full-time and haven't found the time to unpack more than a few pots and pans, plus a couple of extra sweaters!  Not to mention, our kitchen, while darling and still pretty big, is about a third the size of the massive kitchen we had in Accra.

Learning to cook in a new kitchen is like listening to another accent.  Until you get used to the ups and downs you're a bit hesitant to dive right in.  We've found space for all the essentials, and have banished everything else to our space in the building's Keller (basement).  Bye-bye, toaster oven, BBQ tools, and stick blender.  But there is still more to unpack, and I haven't even found my aprons yet!

THEN THE OTHER SADDEST EXCUSE.  While we were on a trip in December, my camera fell all of three inches directly onto a sharp table corner.  The display broke.  I have to send it in to get it fixed.

Luckily, Hungry Fiance has an older-cousin version of my camera, which I will use while mine's out getting surgery.
Luckily too, we are finding our feet and getting back a schedule, which means more cooking at home.

More posts coming up.  Black bean and chipotle soup, vegetarian Geschnetzeltes, and pistachio-chocolate chunk cookies are warming up in the wings.  Stay tuned.