Sat, Sept 27

9.30am - baguette w/ butter, jam, chocolate spread and fresh raspberries, at home2.04pm - my first attempt at a recipe from the Bouchon cookbook: this is the smoked trout salad, with fingerling potatoes boiled w/ garlic, thyme, bay leaf and black pepper, and a lemon vinaigrette made with the yolk of a boiled egg, two kinds of mustard and salted w/ minced cornichons and capers. The original recipe used endives rather than romaine lettuce which was all we had at home, but still - nothing I'd ever have come up with on my own. At home, with Ritesh.

2.26pm - still plugging away at that cherry-lychee-vodka sorbet, at home, with Ritesh.

8.05pm - Nadya, David and Mingus were planning to come over for dinner, but had to cancel as Nady got a sinus infection. So we postponed plans for a buffalo meatloaf and made stuffed peppers and garlic bread instead:

9.07pm - This is a Turkish recipe, which has the peppers stuffed w/ rice made w/ raisins, pine nuts and cinnamon. Bit heavy on the carbs as those peppers were huge, and needed some good spicy sauce, but overall very tasty.

Sat, Aug 30 - Germany - spaghetti ice cream, grapefruit beer

10.38am - half a bread roll w/ a different kind of peppered salami (w/ green pepper on the inside, rather than black pepper on the outside), and half a bread roll w/ quark and jam, plus OJ and tea ( didn't have the kiwi), at Mom & Dad's, with Laurence and Jacob13.09pm - dessert before lunch - a spaghetti ice cream at Gelateria Venezia, with Laurence and Jacob, after a bit of a walking tour through Limburg's old town. This is vanilla ice cream squeezed through a pasta maker, with raspberry sauce and grated white chocolate that's supposed to look like parmeggiano. What a classic - love it!

13.09pm - Laurence had a German/Italian iced coffee, which comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the bottom, and whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top.

On the left, Jacob is trying his first Radler (beer mixed w/ lemonade), and rather enjoying it.14.44pm - a Turkish soft drink, at Yufi Doner by Limburg train station, with Laurence and Jacob

14.47pm - a wrapped-up Turkish doner kebab (veal), at Yufi Doner, with Laurence and Jacob. Here, Jacob is trying his first beer mixed with Coke, another German classic. He seemed a little perturbed by the idea at first, but then gave it a good try. Don't think it's his new favorite though...

15.25pm - for dessert, we shared some coconut chocolate that Laurence had picked up from the new chocolate store (Schokoladenhaus) in the old town

7.05pm - a very pretty, fuzzy peach from the wine estate in Baden, at home, with Kay, Anja and Jacob, while Laurence was having a nap

7.15pm - and some more of the same white peaches, they're perfect right now!

7.46m - Anja's fabulous home made veggie pizza!!

9.19pm - 'healthy' German soft drinks

9.40pm - and another German classic, if more contemporary than beer-and-lemonade or beer-and-coke: this is Hefeweizen mixed w/ grapefruit juice! Very tasty, and a hit particularly with the ladies. My dad, who's a Master Brewer by trade, is appalled...