Ich Backe Gerne

Since I realized how many baking supplies I have, I've been baking up a storm in an effort to get rid of them. (Okay, I baked a lot before too, but now I'm doing it mainly based on already-bought ingredients.)

• I made raisin coconut cookies and gave them to my friend's law firm.
• I made raisin coconut cake and gave it to my friends Sylvia, Dietmar, and Kristin.
• I made pizza dough.
• I made coconut cream cake that was just as bad as the first attempt two years ago except that I spooned out as much liquid as I could (I must have written the recipe down wrong. Sister Weber?)
• I made cream puff cake and lemon cake for Liv's baptism (the lemon cake was so weird--next time I'll use less flour and eggs and more baking powder).
• I learned how to make eclairs (but I haven't tried it myself yet).
• I gave Mike corn bread.
• I made kipferl cookies.
• I made a chocolate mud cake and topped it with whipped cream and one cherry.
• I threw together some fabulous chocolate chip cookies.
• My poor roommates. They smell all the baking but haven't been able to enjoy many of the benefits. I did make some cookies which I shared with them.

For Elisa and Sammy's Jugendweihe (something a little like a coming out party), I made:

• corn bread
• orange rolls
• apple pie
• rhubarb strawberry pie
• rainbow jello
• plum cake
  

Baking isn't the only thing I've been playing around with. I made my very first lentil soup (and actually liked it) and I made some delicious hummus and Indian flat bread.

But what I'm most proud of so far is my very first attempts at rhubarb strawberry pie. Rhubarb gets eaten a lot more in Germany, and when a friend offered me some, I jumped at the opportunity. It. was. luscious. See the proof:



I made my own pie crusts and then found and adjusted a recipe online for the filling:

• 3 cups rhubarb stalks cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Trim outside stringy layer of large rhubarb stalks; make sure to trim away any and discard of the leaves which are poisonous; trim ends.
• 1 cup strawberries, stemmed and sliced (I used a lot more than that because one cup wasn't enough to fill the pie.)
  
• 1 cup sugar (I used a bit less.)
  
• 3 Tablespoons of quick cooking tapioca (I used cornstarch.)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of grated orange peel (I have no idea how much ended up in the pie, but probably more than that.)