Tierpark Berlin

My dad is a big fan of amusements parks. He likes to regularly visit one, but doesn’t care too much about variety. When we lived in Zeeland (Province in the South West of the Netherlands) we always visited Diergaarde Blijdorp near Rotterdam. When we lived in Naarden we exchanged the animals for the fairytales of the Efteling. Since we live in Berlin we have been to the Berlin Zoo three times last year. Because I do like some change myself, my dad was eager to go to the Zoo again and Berlin has got no less than 2 zoos, I laboriously persuaded him to pay a visit to the Tierpark in the Eastern part of Berlin this time.

The reason Berlin has got two Zoos is that the original Zoo was situated in the West part of Berlin and impossible to reach for the people living in the old East-Berlin. So in 1955 the Tierpark was founded. This Zoo is beautifully located on an old estate in Lichtenberg. The animal enclosures are very spacious and widely spread through the area, which mainly consist of trees as if you’re walking in a forest, interspersed with flower beds. What also differentiates this Zoo from any other I’ve visited is the fact you’re allowed to take your dog with you. We didn’t today, but definitely will in the future once do so.

The space in the Tierpark and therewith the space the animals have, make this to be a very pleasant Zoo. Our favorites were, of course, the elephants, crocodiles and the ancient turtles in their little house in a corner of the premises. I’m curious which of the two Zoos my dad chooses next time he visits.

Easy Does it

Wednesday evening is German language course evening, which means I do not have a lot of time to cook. Mostly on Wednesdays we eat something I can prepare in advance, like this quiche we are eating tonight. I got the recipe from the Season to Season cookbook by Sophie Dahl and, as I always do when I'm trying a recipe for the first time, I followed the recipe to the letter.

The thing I normally love about quiches is that you can put in heaps of vegetables for the kids without having to pay special attention to them eating it. Unfortunately for me this quiche is all about bacon, eggs and a bit of onion. We cover the veg part by eating a green salad with oven baked tomatoes. 

The reason I nonetheless wanted to share this recipe is that it one of the best flan bases I have ever made before. And as long as the base is perfect, the rest will work out just fine and you can throw in as much veg as you’d like. 

For Sophie is sharing the full recipe on her own website, I won’t bother you be writing is down again myself. You can find it right HERE

Savoy

Kale is a cabbage that is very easily obtained fresh in the Netherlands. In Germany however it is available, but it needs a bit of luck finding it fresh instead of canned or frozen. Sometimes it’s there, mostly not. So when I asked the husband to bring me some kale from the market it wasn’t really a big surprise he brought back a huge savoy.

I do like savoy, used it quite often back in Amsterdam. It was a vegetable my organic box contained every now and then in winter. The problem for me with the savoy is the size, if you purchase a savoy you’ll most likely be eating it for three to four nights in a row. So that is what we’ll be doing this week: A week of savoy

First night: Green Kitchen Table 

Savoy leafs filled with a mixture of mango, canelli beans, avocado, and corn, seasoned with coriander, cumin, cayenne and paprika powder. I blanched the leaves a little bit, not enough though: they stayed a bit too crisp for my liking. It felt a bit rabbity to be honest. My four year old ate the whole thing, the twins didn’t like it. At all.  I could only get them to eat their avocado and some of the beetroot and goats cheese salad I made. Too bad. Maybe giving this one another go when summer is here again and mangos are a bit riper

Second Night: Jamie Oliver

Savoy as a side dish. Stir fried savoy with accompanying one of the best Chickens I ever made. The trick here is to add another kind of cabbage, in our case Brussels sprouts, bacon for the salt and green peas to sweeten it a bit. At the end adding a bit of butter makes it an easy to eat dish, also for the girls, but nothing innovatory here. 

The chicken we had, however, was one to remember. The new thing for me in this recipe was adding fresh herbs by stuffing them between the breast and the skin. Difficulty is carefully tearing the skin loose without damaging it, but once you succeed it really is delicious. I for one will always use this technique roasting chicken from now on.

Third Night: Yvette van Boven

With the leftovers of the savoy we made a colcannon from the Home Made Winter cookbook by Yvette van Boven. Like any other hotchpotch it’s potato mash mixed with 10 minutes cooked, sliced cabbage. What makes this one particularly tasty is adding sliced leek that has been boiled in milk fot a couple of minutes. It’s an easy but tasteful recipe and we accompany it tonight by vegetarian sausages, which actually are not tasty at all. If somebody knows where to get tasty, non-dry veg sausages, please let me know. I have not been successful finding those yet.

 

Carousel

There are playgrounds everywhere in our neighborhood – Swings, Sandpits, Slides, Climbing Frames, Seesaws – Everything – And then there is this small muddy playground around the corner – We pass it a few times per week on our way to school – Just a carousel with some big ropes – Some really big branches on the ground – And a whole lot of mud – But the girls – The girls love it there – Hanging in the ropes – They can easily hang in there for an hour or so – And having fun! – Laughs all around – More than in any other playground anywhere 

Teufelssee

We went for a visit to Ökowerk Berlin again . It was a beautiful sunshine day, sunglasses all around, winter suits as well. Sunny but cold

The middle of the forest is the perfect place to tell you have to pee. For our oldest at least, who somehow likes to pee outdoors. One more reason we hope for summer to start asap

First we took a walk around the lake, Teufelsberg in the background. There still is some ice on and around the lake. Afterwards of course a walk around the premises of the Ökowerk, concluding with some elderberry lemonade and seabuckthorn cheesecake