The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum Backup

Hey, can't reach the original Cauldron. What's going on? Bubbling too strongly?

*brings coffee and cake for the backup-party*

It works now. *puts the cake into the frigde for the next occassion.*

Some weird crawler went wild on Bob's server and overloaded it. Bob blacklisted it at the firewall and the server recovered.

Hmmhhmm, there is not a reason to put that cake away......  ;) :D

Um, it's several months old now...

I could make a new one. Do you guys like apple strudel (sp?)?


Tana, I was planning to finally answer to your PM, but then the board was gone.

real live apple strudel made by a real live German? Lordy, I am so there! My best friend is a Berliner and makes the most awesome pastry. I love how in Germany the birthday person is responsible for making cake for the party, and then waits for her friends to come over and lavish her with gifts (or anyway that's what Jana says...maybe she's just using her gullible American friends for gifting purposes... ;))

The only thing better would be a German Chocolate cake made by a real life German ;D

Then again, I would take chocolate over fruit any day.

Mmh, as far as I experienced german cakes are usually not sweet enough for american taste.
But I'd make my grandmas apple cake - that is really sweet with cinnamon and stuff - there is nothing healthy about it ;) so don't be afraid *grin*  ;D

I guess I should pm you my email, so we can stay in touch anyway.

You should try their rum cakes.  My MIL's just about gets you drunk by cutting it!  :o

The pastries are pretty sweet, and pretty darn good! When I travelled across southern Germany I was amazed by the amount of bakeries there were in the towns. And sandwich bars. Oh and those giant pretzels with melted cheese...mmmmm

*mops up the puddle of drool that description caused*

Lol. That place (it's called Yorma's) had the most amazing snacks. My husband liked the pretzel that had bacon underneath the cheese, but I don't eat meat so I missed out on that one.

Because of this, I just produced enough drool to fill a swimming pool.  Anyone up for a swim ;D

Oh yes, there is some fine stuff *grin*
And we have a lot of different kinds of bread, so I guess there is business for a few bakeries in every town.

In my hometown f.ex. there is one very old bakery, they have a specialty called Wiener Kranz.
It's a cake, that is (oh my, loss for words) - you kind of wind the dough together so it becomes a round wheel and it is filled with nut and fudge. (Passionfruit will know the word 'Wickelkranz' I guess).

http://www.baeckerhaus-ecker.de/produkte/produkt_wienerkranz.html

Bad picture, but I just read on the homepage they even export it to the US *grin*.

Mmm fudge... :)

First cookbook I ever had was a Hungarian one. The first dessert I ever did was a cherry strudel. I don't have any room here to stretch the dough or I'd make one.

I don't know how to make it the traditional way. I just buy raw puff pastry and fill it with apples and other stuff. (And puff pastry is French.)

That's how it's usually done in Germany with friends. In family the parents or the siblings sometimes bake the cake. How do you celebrate a birthday in the US?

BTW, I had two American flatmates who could bake very yummy cookies. American cookies are very different from German ones, they often contain much more butter/oil and egg.

That I can actually make without buying prepared pastries. I like them with nut powder, chocolate and rum, one can also combine that with some fruits like cherries. I've even tried it with whisky, which tastes also good.

I have an aunt in the black forest, who is very Catholic and very strict and mean, but she can bake the best black forest cake I've ever eaten.

Yes, cookies are very different in the US than they are in Europe. Less like tiny little cakes or crackers, more like...a cookie ;)

American birthday parties are a whole area of cultural anthropology that I am sure lots of people have written theses on. I only know that they vary a lot by region, religion, and time of year. There is nearly always cake, although not always ice cream. Children's birthdays have lately been getting way out of control, in our area, and costing a small fortune and take a production company to put together. I draw the line at slumber parties over 5 kids, nowadays, and don't do theme birthday parties at all. Like pretty much everything in the US, birthday stuff is a big business
here's a birthday site that shows this type of American goofiness pretty well
http://www.celebrateexpress.com/celebration/default.aspx?TabID=0

That's how all my childhood birthdays were.

How right you are.  Fortunately, there are some sane people here and there.  My nephew recently turned 5, and his mom just reserved his favorite park for the afternoon and invited his kindergarten friends.

One of the best birthdays I had as a kid was at my house.  We had a sandbox and swing-set, and mom hand-made an ewok costume for my brother to wear, which thrilled me to no end (although I seem to remember it scaring the **** out of a few of the kids).  Granted, not everyone could hand-make an ewok costume, but there are plenty of ways to make a party memorable and fun without shelling out enough money to make my rent for the month ;D

Ugh, yeah. One of my neighbors had a ball for their three year old. They made princess gowns handmade for the twenty or so girls and prince costumes for the boys. They rented a party hall, hired a band, and hand fancy finger food. For a *three year old*

How stupid.

what, no doves released as happy birthday was sung? Please. Some people are *so declasse'!

Now that is my kind of party, as a mom. One of the best birthdays I ever did for my dd (in my opinion, anyway) was a princess party where we had a blast making the invites, which were shaped like glass slippers...much glitter and 4 yr old mayhem, lots of fun. And my son had a super fun knights and castles party one year where the big activity was all 8 or so of the kids he invited making cardboard swords and having a big swordfight all over the playground where we had the party:)

Sounds a little like my Pirate party when I was 5. Treasure chest filled with chocolate gold coins, cardboard swords, tinfoil pirate hats, and we turned our plastic jungle-gym-thing into a pirate ship.

oh yeah, the pirate party! Very fun. We did that one when he was 6 :) Sadly, my kids are now too old for parties that involve costumes and cool props, and they just want to go to the movies and have sleepovers.

They'll grow out of it. ;D  I don't know why it is that teenagers get such large sticks up their arses when it comes to really letting loose and having fun...hell, I was that way, too when I was a teenager.  Now?  A pirate party is an excuse to have fun :D

Heh.  Yup.  I was at a pirate party myself earlier this year.  The birthday girl was turning 30, IIRC.  :)

my kids aren't even teenagers yet! (although my daughter is perilously close and is already a giant pita sometimes).

Yeah, that whole "trying to distance yourself and become your own person" thing is kind of a downer at times. lol. No one remembered to tell them (us? I don't even know if I'm still considered an adolescent... I guess the technical term is emerging adult now?) that acting like a child is entirely permissible when the occasion calls.

One of the things I read in an article about engaging high school seniors to continue learning despite senior-itis is to do child-minded activities like coloring or putting on skits. The thought is that they're apprehensive about leaving high school for college, so doing things like that helps them relive their younger (more simpler) days and can still tie in with curriculum. Sounds good to me!

Ya know...I could see that working for somewhere between 50-75% of the high school seniors I've known through my life, but I can also see the other 25% putting on their best "I'm too good for this" air and snubbing it entirely.  I was pretty anti-social, myself, and wouldn't have been caught dead putting on a skit or coloring in front of my peers, sadly.  Maybe teenagers need that stick up their arses so that their not so tight-arsed once it finally comes out ;D

True, but people can take themselves too seriously at any age; doesn't necessarily correlate to being a teenager. ? lol.

As someone who would age-wise be entering her Senior year of High School, but is instead going into her Sophmore year of college, that would have crashed with me. I wasn't apprehensive, I was jumping out of the nest!