Keri Goes Abroad: November 2011

I have long been contemplating the addition of food and recipes to my blog. Often as I explore the inner workings of the internet, hopping from webpage to webpage, my attention lingers on blogs such as Smitten Kitchen or 101 Cookbooks. Thus, I have decided to include a recipe here and there.

I know, I know, the world has enough food blogs. But how many of those have 'oops, I'm a foreigner living in a strange place' mistakes included in them? Not many, I'd bet. These mistakes, along with the (hopefully more abundant) positives, will be included - for better or worse. And plus, sometimes I make delicious things that I'd like to share with the world.

To kick everything off, I've got a summer strawberry cake that i made last May when strawberries were in season. Maija was actually the one who prompted me to make this, and as strawberries are my favorite food and cake is almost always a good idea, I happily obliged. Alas, my attempts at documenting the baking process were thwarted by the baking itself. Or rather, by the eating. But really, can you blame me??

The original recipe can be found on Smitten Kitchen.

Strawberries that went into the cake. I may have eaten a few as I was baking and taking pictures...

Recipe:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour (can swap 3/4 cup or 94 grams all-purpose flour with 3/4 cup or 75 grams of barley flour, see Note)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (200 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup (118 ml) milk
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1 pound (450 grams) strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter the pan.

Whisk flour or flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes.

The unfinished cake looked like this. The finished cake didn't look that different, except I ate some before I remembered that I wanted to take pictures of it. I have no regrets.

May provided many memorable moments besides cake-baking. Each of these is captured and captioned below.

One day, I walked into one of my classes of 14 year old boys and this is what I found. When Claudia (their teacher) asked them why they'd covered their chair in women's' sanitary pads, they responded, "Because they're soft and smell nice."

Poppies on my way to work

Outside of Salzburg there is a lake in the forest surrounded by wooden decks. It's stunning, but I felt too awkward to take any really good photos of it because I was surrounded by half-naked men and women. Austrians (of a certain age at least) seem to wear one bathing suit for swimming in and a different bathing suit for lying around. And if they're women, they'll often leave their tops of to get a perfect tan. Not very American, but not that awkward...until you take into account that there's a zipline that runs over the lake, where teenage boys can gawk at naked ladies and get a thrill for a small fee.

At one point during the last few months I managed to see Andy McKee in concert. He is one of my favorite guitarists and I urge everyone to check out his music.