Crunchy Christmasy oatmeal cookies

As I am now completely into baking cookies (having to make 10 bags of homemade cookies 2 weeks ago for sale by the kindergarten at our bank), I experimented with another type of oatmeal cookies that turned Christmasy. It's more crunchy than than my previous recipe!

Ingredients: chunky and broken down oats 70g each, regular flour 60g, sugar 30g (can be doubled), pinch of salt, vegetable oil 4 Table spoon, water or milk 4 Table spoon, cardamum 20g (can also add ginger and cinnamon), white chocolate 30g, handful of dry cranberries, handful of walnuts.

Instruction: Mix the dry ingredients and add oil and water with a wooden spoon. Add the cardamum, white chocolate, dry cranberries, and walnuts and mix further. On a baking sheet, place the balls of dough and press down with hand to flatten out. Bake in 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Albrecht Dürer was from Nuremberg

While the museum cautioned there were very few paintings remaining by him in Nuremberg, it was still very nice to see the major pieces he painted here at his house, including his own portrait. The intricacy of his brush work reminded me of the Girl with Pearl Earrings a bit, maybe influenced by the shelf and imagining how these artists all created the colors themselves (like in the Vermeer novel).

My first ever real Christmas tree

While apparently it is most traditional to put up Christmas trees at home on Christmas Eve here in Germany, we went ahead and put up the Christmas tree more than a week ago as we will be in Sweden over Christmas. It is the first time for me to buy a real tree and decorate it all by ourselves, so it feels extra special in addition to the lovely ornaments we picked from stall to stall in Nuremberg.

Nuremberg Christmas market

Nuremberg was honestly a very exciting Christmas shopping place indeed, albeit the minus 5-degree weather! The stores are filled with German made candies and decorations (hopefully all or most of what we got!), which are hanging very nicely from our Christmas tree right now. I especially loved the cookie decoration which apparently you cannot eat, and will last for 3 to 4 years.

Okinawa beach life

Upside down dolphin

The great Churasan Aquarium

After all the praise we heard about the Okinawan aquarium with 2 whale sharks, it was still very wonderful to sit in front of the large tank for 1 hour.

Old Okinawan soba house

This was a very nice standalone Okinawa soba place near the peace museum. They had this black garlic paste you could add to the soba, which was delicious. This soba cafe was housed in a traditional Okinawa house with a beautiful patio.

 

屋宜家
Address: 〒901-0502 Okinawa-ken, Shimajiri-gun, Yaese-chō, Ōton, 1172

Phone: +81 98-998-2774

Okinawa peace museum

It was particularly hard to read the very short memories of all the surviving Okinawan civilians, which was recorded in this room. Most of these were from civilians going from bunker to bunker to seek protection, while the Japanese soldiers told them to go elsewhere. Many have lost their parents and brothers-sisters so easily, they were ready to kill themselves and explained how they tried so many ways but could not, because they did not have any hand grenades and cutting their tongue or wrist or other sensitive parts of the body did not work. Some encountered American soldiers, which almost sounded safer than being protected by Japanese soldiers, but many resisted leaving the bunker and as they did not leave, were buried alive by tankers.

The peace museum park

Kurt's 753

Japan celebrates boys who turn 3 or 5 years old and girls who turn 5 or 7 years old during this autumn time. We happened to stay next to Hiei Shrine the day before, so we decided to dress up in kimono and join this festivity. Biggest thanks to mom for dressing both of us. It is so much work, but really worth the effort, especially that I could wear her kimono from when she was just married.

Dancing with dandelions

I have never seen such a thick carpet of dandelions, which were individually measuring 5 to 10 cm.