As American as Apple Pie

We had a Christmas office party on Wednesday to which everyone brought something they either bought or made. I figured I'd make something that was typically american. And apple pie was the frist thing I could think of. Although apple pies came from the English (and the Dutch had a version as well) it's as close as I could get without just bringing in corn. But the beautiful thing about America is that everything is easy. If you wish to make a pie you can simply go to your grocers (that is typically opened later than 8pm) freezer and get the frozen crust that come in a handy aluminum pie pan. (I originally wrote 'tin', but an aluminum pie tin doesn't make sense.) Thanks to Toytown the English speakers in Germany forum, I was aware of the difficulties I was about to face. There were a few forum discussions about pie crusts and other differences between baking ingredients here and the states. It's hard to ask Germans about these differences because at work yesterday we were talking about cooking and I said "There's no brown sugar in Germany" and I got the 'sure there is' response. I suppose they're right too, it may be brown sugar, but it's certainly not the same as the american stuff. But that's beside the point; there's no brown sugar in apple pie (however, there is in apple crisp). From Toytown I knew I would not find frozen pie crusts anywhere. I also knew that it would very difficult to find (or expensive to buy at KaDeWe) both a pie pan and crisco. I had found an recipie online that looked doable enough. I'd link it for you, but I don't remember which website I got it from. I needed one that didn't take ice water because we have no freezer so I had no way of getting ice. The one I found called for cool but not cold water, so I was good to go. I also needed Crisco, but I knew what to look for as a German equivalent (Biskin) and all-purpose flour (which I read is Mehl 405 in Germany).

I had stayed at work a little late and had to go pick up my bike from the shop. (My tire is fixed!) I stopped by Kaisers at first because it's pretty big and should have had Biskin according to Toytown. They didn't, of course but I still needed a pie pan, so I thought I was inevitably going to have to stop at KaDeWe, which according to the website closed at 8. It was 7. I didn't want to have to buy everything there because things would be cheaper elsewhere and I thought there was a possibilty that Woolworths would have pie pans. They have all sorts of different bunt cake and tart pans, but no pie pans. So I was hurrying to Gesundbrunnen because I was trying to get on the S-bahn before my two hours expired from coming home from work and the KaDeWe was closing soon, when I saw a sign from Kaufland. I had read about this place too. This is basically like a Giant or a Wegmanns or any other super food store. I knew I would be pushing it time-wise, and if I were smart I would have gone to KaDeWe and came back to this place since I think it was open later, but I didn't care, and I went investigating. After a long period of stupidly staring and wandering through the butter/margarine aisle, I finally found a small block of Biskin, and they also had pans that were generally pie shaped, so I figured they would do since I knew via Toytown that American pie pans were €22 at KaDeWe and that just wasn't worth it.

Victoriously, I returned home to make my pie. The directions in making a pie crust that I found had two places where they said something along the lines of 'DO NOT touch touch the shortening with your hands, make sure you touch it only with the flour because otherwise the heat from your hands will melt the shortening' and 'DO NOT exsessively knead the dough like you would bread'. I'm pretty sure I did both of these things. Not intentionally, I just wasn't sure how not to. I say this because it was supposed to 'look like peas' at one point and it never really did and it was supposed to actually hold together in a nice ball and it never really did that either. But, gosh darn it, it somehow worked. In the end, it rolled out rather successfully and turned into a delicious pie. I only wish I had a slice of American cheese to put ontop of it.

Impulse Buy

Imagine this, you're standing in line at the grocery store, getting ready to check out. The person in front of you has a cart overflowing with various goods, so, like most people, you scan the headlines of the magazines, wondering if there could be any truth to the claim that some lady in Tennessee birthed a half man half monkey. When suddenly, you realize 'Oh man, I almost forgot. I need a new toothbrush' or 'My flashlight could use new batteries.' It's a good thing we have crafty business men and women in our country that know the importance of product placement. The checkout line self is teeming with things the average american might realize they need upon a simple reminder. Yesterday I was in the grocery store buying mushrooms on my way home from work. The line was rather long, so I looked at the impulse buy shelf. It's a good thing I did, because it reminded me that I had forgotten to buy ... an individual serving of Jägermeister, or a small bottle of some sort of whiskey. Welcome to Germany, where Jägermeister is like tic tacs.

Sonntag 31.August

Fun Fact: You can't go grocery shopping on Sunday in Germany.

I'm stuck without food now until tomorrow or Tuesday depending on when I get home from work and when the draft is over. The stores all close at 8pm on weekdays and aren't open Sundays. It's like the olden days!

I spent the day with Bryan Auslander yesterday. We saw most of the classic monuments that are must see if you only have one day in Berlin. We spent an extended period of time at the Wall memorial, the Reichstag (we went up into the dom), and the Holocaust memorial (we went in the underground meuseum. Then we went to Pottsdomerplatz to see how much tickets for the Blue Man Group are, and there was a sweet deal for students. Probably because it was an hour before the show. But we got third row seats for 19,90 euro. The Blue Man Group is absolutely ridiculous. They don't talk, but they do have a stuff playing over the loadspeaker at some points. Of course it was in German. I understood almost all of it exactly, and I got the jist of the things I didn't get. The Blue Man Group is a show based on rythum. There's a lot of drumming...and paint. Sitting in the 3rd row, we were given raincoats to wear (because of the paint). Sadly, I didn't get any paint on me. It's got to be interesting to be one of the Blue Men. There's a lot of eating that goes on in the show. And the ending, was ridiculous. Not in a "wow, that's amazing!" sort of way, but in a, "this is really silly" way. It was funny and very entertaining. Good news: I am writing this online in my apartment. However, I'm sitting in the hall because the ethernet cable is really short. So, in theory, the internet is working. I might have to be plugged in all the time though. Either way, it'll work for the draft tomorrow.