Little Things that Make You Happy

[leighlam]

You are welcome Lanti

[Jim M.]

When Santa brings me good presents.
Last year, I got a package of dead batteries and a card that said TOYS NOT INCLUDED.

[Emer Dreamer]

  10  day  vacations .....   

[Jim M.]

Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

[Emer Dreamer]

  Winning   the  championship  game  of  one  of  my  fantasy  leagues.   

[Kevin R.I.]

getting Christmas goodies from Germany....marzepan is awesome!  and doing CHRISTNEKKAH with Amy and Sasha.

[Lanti SF]

Meeting up with old friends that I haven't seen in ages

[Emer Dreamer]

 Still having  a  bit  of  vacation  left.   

[Lanti SF]

Prof just emailed the syllabus. I don't need to drop $300 on a new biochem textbook.

[ShiningBright]

getting Christmas goodies from Germany....marzepan is awesome!  and doing CHRISTNEKKAH with Amy and Sasha.

Lübecker or Königsberger?

Lübecker Marzipan is raw and either pure, or with chocolate (sometimes with rum or coffee in it) or in lots of cute shapes like pigs or apples or carrots. It's certainly the most popular kind of Marzipan here and it's really incredibly diverse - it ranges from super cute to really sophisticated.

Königsberger Marzipan is mixed with rose oil, alcohol and powdered sugar and then flamed, often with icing or jam added and it heart or round shapes. It's rather rare nowadays... you can sometimes (rarely!) find it in shop or really good confectionaries. I've made some for Christmas... but I guess most people don't even know what that is.


May I ask, is American marzipan different in a way? I've seen it on a list of least popular foods in the USA, and in Gilmore Girls the girls hated it. Interestingly, the marzipan they got was Swiss. I have never heard of a famous or extremely expensive brand of Swiss marzipan. Anyways, they spit it out. It was pig shaped, so I am sure it was German. Anyways, I often read that US-Americans hate marzipan and I wonder why? Then again, I read the same about black liquorice.

[Kevin R.I.]

getting Christmas goodies from Germany....marzepan is awesome!  and doing CHRISTNEKKAH with Amy and Sasha.

Lübecker or Königsberger?

Lübecker Marzipan is raw and either pure, or with chocolate (sometimes with rum or coffee in it) or in lots of cute shapes like pigs or apples or carrots. It's certainly the most popular kind of Marzipan here and it's really incredibly diverse - it ranges from super cute to really sophisticated.

Königsberger Marzipan is mixed with rose oil, alcohol and powdered sugar and then flamed, often with icing or jam added and it heart or round shapes. It's rather rare nowadays... you can sometimes (rarely!) find it in shop or really good confectionaries. I've made some for Christmas... but I guess most people don't even know what that is.


May I ask, is American marzipan different in a way? I've seen it on a list of least popular foods in the USA, and in Gilmore Girls the girls hated it. Interestingly, the marzipan they got was Swiss. I have never heard of a famous or extremely expensive brand of Swiss marzipan. Anyways, they spit it out. It was pig shaped, so I am sure it was German. Anyways, I often read that US-Americans hate marzipan and I wonder why? Then again, I read the same about black liquorice.

Apparently my Marzipan was Konigsberger ...it had icing, raisins inside and a center of jam....tasted like apple. It was wrapped in cellophane with the label in German and came from friends in Krefeld. It was REALLY YUMMY...went great with coffee.

[ShiningBright]

Wow, this is great! Because Königsberger Marzipan is way less-known (because there has never been a famous big factory and because Königsberg is now part of Russia) but - in my opinion - far better. When I first tried it when I was small, I thought it was more like a tiny cake than marzipan,, because it's either baked in the highest place of the oven (that's what i do - amateur, you know) or with such a fire-thingy people use to make crème brûlée. I love it! It's not difficult to make, but in a way exhausting because you can only make small amounts at once and when you cut it with a cookie cutter (like I do) it takes a lot of time. But it's really easy. In case you care:

You need raw marzipan (the simple kind - almonds, water, sugar) you can get at baking supplies, confectionary sugar (like the one used for icing), rose oil and - unless you prefer to leave it without alcohol - high quality vodka. I never made it without alcohol, but I assume it does work out anyways. You put the marzipan in a bowl and knit small amounts of vodka and rose oil (small swallow of vodka, tiny swallow of rose oil) and as much powder sugar you need to knead it to a dough-like mass. Then you need to put powder sugar on a board like flour for cookies and make flat pieces of the marzipan on it and cut it with a cookie cutter (you might need lots of sugar, because it's very sticky!) and then once you have enough you can make slight cuts into it on the top and put it in an oven, at the very top with very high heat and keep it in for a short time until it gets brown on top. Then you have to take it out but it's very soft and sticky 'till it cooled down. When it's cold and hard you can decorate it with icing, jam, nuts, etc. You can also cut out hearts and then smaller hearts out of the hearts to then glue on (with icing) the heart-ring on the full heart, so you can put some jam inside of the frame. But cutting out heart shaped rings might drive one crazy ^^"

[Kevin R.I.]

I`ve always heard of Marzipan but had no idea what it was. I was happy to receive this as a gift  from "mein madchen" . I don`t think it contained any alcohol, but it was somewhat round, with icing, raisens inside....no nuts, which is good since I don`t like nuts...that`s squirrel  food and a center of what I think was jam...it tasted apple. It was wrapped in clear cellophane with German writing. All I know is that it was AUSGEIZEITNET.Having been to Germany, I know the food is great and mein Deutche fruendin bist anbetungswurdig.

[Jim M.]

Lindt/Lindor chocolates

[Kevin R.I.]

Lindt/Lindor chocolates

you need to try GERMAN MARZIPAN...KEONINGSBURG version...right Chiara??   AUSGEIZEITNET!