Things I didn't do this weekend...

• The Karneval des Kulturen ( and it looks like it was fabulous: check out Braving it in Berlin and Snooker in Berlin to see what I missed)


• the make up meeting for the Berlin Booker book club
  

We had planned on it, we kept saying that we would, but instead we wound up

• Having some of the German's friends over, first for a long pleasant walk at the Zoo, and then for our first on-terasse grill session. We had putenwurst and we also brought in some felafel take-out from Habibi. It was a surprise (three day's notice) visit of the German's best man with his girlfriend and another couple. It was very nice.


• Taking the girls out to practice bike riding. Thing1 is pedalling now and Thing2 is resisting moving from the trike to the laufrad.


• Hitting a week market again and loading up on more tomatoes, green beans and spargel (and this time I was able to find green). I also got a bunch of flowers for 50% of the price at the shop by us, which I am still enjoying. We had the tomato and green bean salad again today and I need to find a good spargel recipe for tomorrow.


• I made banana bread again. This time I added raspberries and I am interested to see how it turns out. I never put in the 1/2 cup of nuts the recipe calls for (because I really don't like nuts in food), so I think that I'll start trying different additions every time that I make it. It smells delicious and I'll add a photo later.--- Here it is. It was delicious: the raspberries really lightened up the density of the bread.

And here is the James Beard recipe my mother has passed on to me:

Banana Bread:
2 Cups sifted flour (I don't have a sifter here, so I don't sift);1 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup granulated sugar,2 eggs; 1 cup mashed, very ripe bananas (about 2, I have used up to three);1/3 cup milk (I use fat-free because I save the whole organic for the girls);1 tsp lemon juice; 1/2 cup chopped nuts (which I never use and here replaced with raspberries)

Sift flour with soda and salt (I throw them all min together). Cream butter and gradually add sugar. Mix well. Add eggs and bananas and blend thoroughly (I have done this all by hand, in which case I soften the butter by leaving it on the counter and add the milk when I am creaming the butter and sugar). Combine milk and lemon juice, which will curdle a little when placed together (I just pour them in together). Slowly and alternately fold in the flour mixture and the milk mixture beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (I always just pour the liquid into the dry). Blend well after each addition. Stir in the nuts (or not, or raspberries...), then pur the batter into a lavishly (love his use of the word) buttered (I use Pam spray) 9x5x3 pan (here I am using a bread loaf tin) and bake in pre-heated 350F (180C, 170 convection) oven for 1 hour or until bread springs back when lightly touched in the center.