Location: Rudesheim, Germany
Weather: 55, sunny
The photo: from Amsterdam, actually. A frequent scene, as bicycles are a popular mode of transport for the locals. Parking places are strictly monitored there, and permits are very expensive.

The internet connectivity on the ship is sometimes marginal. They actually have a “ship computer,” a laptop, that passengers can check out, like a library book, for an hour at a time. I brought my own. Anyone wanting to use the internet must purchase a 10 euro ticket which gives one hour of internet time. When that’s used up, you buy another. It takes awhile to connect, to log in through the ship’s wlan, and each page takes a loooong time to load. What little I’ve done to date has taken 50 minutes of my hour. I compose my postings offline and quickly cut and paste it once I get connected. Photos take awhile to upload, and re-directing to other web pages are also time consuming. What we do, as with most cruises, is eat, walk around a little, read a little, eat again, and repeat, sleep and repeat. The food on board is fairly good. Not exceptional, but certainly better than some. The chef uses every morsel of food from each meal. Leftover green beans, you say? Ah, add them to some ground meat, roll them in some kind of flat bread (that isn’t a tortilla, but more like lebanese flatbread that’s been softened), cover in sauce and cheese, bake and call it Tex-Mex Roll-Ups. Some mixed vegetables? They become garnish for the lunch dish the next day. Two nights in a row I’ve had fish of varieties I don’t know. Last night was limande. Have no idea what it was, except thin white fish. Today we cruised the Rhine and looked at dozens of castles. Some in ruins, most restored and functioning as hotels. A few are privately owned. One we saw is owned by a company in Berlin and not open to the public. Now I ask you, what does a Berlin company want with a castle on the Rhine? A retreat? A place to take visitors?

We’ve watched dozens upon dozens of open and closed barges ply the waters. We speculate about what each barge contains. A few are identifiable as carrying oil. A few have carried gravel and coal. Others? We don’t know. Makes for interesting conversation. We also passed the notable spot, the Loreley. And several small islands in the middle of the river. The steep hills are covered in vineyards (all sweet white wines like Riesling), and the trees are still turning color here. Makes for lovely scenery.

My DH’s project this morning was to compute the speed of the ship by timing the distance between the kilometer markers. He’s good at that kind of thing and deduced that today, anyway, we traveled at about 10 km, or 6 miles, per hour.

Currently, we’re docked in Rudeshiem (roo-dess–hime) and will stay here until sometime during the night. DH and I decided not to walk into town today. He has a sore spot on his knee (as a double amputee, that’s a painful state to be in and prevents much, if any, walking). My foot is quite swollen, I guess from the lengthy walking I did yesterday. Swollen enough that I can hardly get my foot into the larger of the shoes (two) I brought on this trip. A month ago I had to buy new shoes because of swelling from my broken foot. If I wrap my foot then I can’t get the foot into a shoe at all. So, I’m resting the foot, consequently. But we’re fine. Enjoying the river-side scenery. Each afternoon they serve “afternoon tea.” It’s not a formal affair, it’s just different teas with some cookies or pastries. We haven’t attended that yet, so maybe today is the day.

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Location: Cologne (Koln), Germany
Weather: partly cloudy, about 50
Hate this jet lag. Have some trouble keeping my eyes open in the daytime, but then can’t sleep a wink at night. Only when I’m so exhausted close to dawn am I able to fall a sleep. DH is sleeping well, darn him! Last night I listened to several podcasts I’d downloaded at home onto my ipod. Music perks me up, but listening to a radio program about high tech innovations puts me to sleep, sort of.

Scenery: pleasant pastoral scenes on both sides of the Rhine. We passed Dusseldorf at 6 am (thankfully I was finally asleep) and docked here at Cologne about 30 minutes ago. It’s 1:30 pm. About to leave for a walking tour of Cologne, including the magnificent cathedral. Over the years of European travel I’ve been through the Cologne train station many times, but never had time to visit the cathedral. It’s very striking looking on the city skyline. The tour will also include a beer tasting. And I can visit a chocolate factory if I want to. There are about 125 people on this cruise. Everyone is English speaking (interesting). And the nicest thing, they have both 115 volt plugs in the staterooms, as well as the usual 220 that is standard here. I’m able to charge my laptop and ipod and camera battery without having to use the converter, just using the plug extension.

Maybe later today I’ll have some photos to post. It was quite dark and dreary yesterday, and nothing at all worthy of photographing. I’m reading Portrait in Sepia, by Isabel Allende. Interesting story. The ship has a small library, which is good!

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Temperature: 50
Weather: overcast, no rain
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

We’ve boarded our ship (small ship) at the harbor in Amsterdam. Above is a photo I just snapped in our cabin. That’s DH, Dave, lounging on the ledge. We’re docked next to another such small ship, so there isn’t much of a view out of the window yet.

Our flights to get here were generally on time, and our luggage, luckily, followed us through London Heathrow (despite British Airways’ high incidence of losing luggage when terminal transfers are required, as in our case) and on to Amsterdam. We’d heard some significant horror stories about people having difficulty getting from one terminal to another, even. We didn’t have problems. It just took quite a long while. Lots of walking, a 10-minute bus ride, and more and more walking. But, we’re here, safe and sound.

We met up with our good friends, Wayne & Lucy, at the hotel, and enjoyed a delicious rijsttafel dinner at a restaurant called Sama Sebo. Having never had this Indonesian “Rice Table” meal, all four of us found the variety of items very generous. Since I understand it’ll take a long time to upload photos via the internet connection on the ship (dial-up) I may wait until our return home to load more photos onto the blog.

Jet lag? Well, yes, but let us not put a damper on this blog at this point. Let’s just say I think we will sleep well tonight. A half of an Ambien is in order I believe.

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That’s Amsterdam by night.

There has been precious little cooking going on in my kitchen. I’ve been trying to eat or discard every fresh thing in the refrigerator. We’re leaving today on a trip. Our son-in-law will still be here most of the time to watch over the house. Having helped us pack the cars getting ready to evacuate last Sunday, he knows what needs to be saved if, God forbid, there’s another fire. Good timing, Todd! Hope it won’t be necessary.

We’re flying through Heathrow (London) to Amsterdam and will board a Viking river boat that will ply us from Holland to Budapest (down the Rhine then east on the Danube). The boat stops some every day so passengers can explore the villages and small cities en route. We’re really looking forward to getting away – from the fires, the smoke, the ashes. The high temp in Amsterdam yesterday was 52°. Big, big change from our mid-80’s here in So. California. The river boat has internet, but it’s dial-up, so I don’t know if I’ll get in much blogging. I’m taking my laptop, though, so check back in now and then to see if I’ve managed to upload at least some pictures.

I made reservations in Amsterdam for a rijsttafel (rice-stoff-ull) dinner. That’s an Indonesian rice-based dinner with many dishes. We’ve been to Amsterdam several times, but never planned ahead to have a rijsttafel dinner. Love this internet – was able to find a place very near our hotel with good reviews. Rijsttafel is kind of like Indian curry with condiments. But different. Hope to tell you all about it. And I’m looking forward to the paprikash in Hungary our last night aboard the boat. Mustn’t forget my shopping list, either: buy paprika in many types at the spice market in Budapest before flying home. (photo from gate1travel.com)

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This is kind of what our skies looked like yesterday. We have some ashes (people further south have a lot more) but mostly we have this yellow-orange-filtered light that blankets the skies. The photo above (taken near Cooks Corner in Silverado Canyon, east of our home about 7-8 miles) shows the fires are still raging, just beyond the camera range. Our air is awful to breathe. You step outside and you know there’s still a lot of fire in the air.

Our daughter and her family are still evacuated in San Diego, although I read online this morning that they may be allowed back home today. They returned to work yesterday in Escondido, with their 2 children, 1 dog and 2 cats in tow (they own their own business, so they can do that). But the Witch Creek Fire that threatened their home, is still burning and only slightly contained. It’s just that it’s not close to their home any longer. It’s moved on.

Our fire is still raging, 30% contained, and is moving up Silverado Canyon (Modjeska is a side-shoot off Silverado). Many homes have been burned. Yesterday morning everyone was evacuated out of the canyon, and I believe they got most of the horses out. There is a line of foothills (well, one foothill) that separates us from that canyon, but it’s heading northwest, and southeast – not our direction. The firefighters have set back fires, so it is hoped they’ll get the fire stopped, or at least to change direction. The problem is it’s now into the Cleveland National Forest, a huge area of chaparral and scrub brush. But hundreds more firefighters have arrived in So California, so they’re trying the best they can. So far, our local fire has burned 23,000 acres. So sad. The fire sleuths are pouring over the 3 set-sites that the arsonist prepared, for clues. They say he was an expert – he knew a lot about fire and how to set one.

Thank goodness for these guys, dropping fire retardant. And thankfully, the Santa Ana winds have dropped to zero. Our humidity is still at about 4%, though. (photos from the Orange County Register)

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Normally I wouldn’t bake cookies again for awhile, because I made cookies for Todd, our son-in-law, a few days ago. He likes soft cookies. Although the almond-cranberry cookies I made were nice enough, they don’t make my heart sing. They’re soft. He, however, loves them. AND, he told me last night that his cookies are all gone already.

I, on the other hand, prefer crisp and crunchy. So when I spied the photo of these Chocolate-Almond Biscotti over at Acme Instant Food, they called out to me. They’re low in fat (with only 6 tablespoons of butter in the full recipe) and rich in chocolate and almond flavor. These are really cinchy to make. I kid you not. Just have everything at room temp when you begin, and you’ll have these in the oven in about 10 minutes. They do bake for 35 minutes, cool for another 15 (then you slice them carefully), then bake again for another 10 minutes. That’s less than an hour.

These get their chocolate flavor from both cocoa powder and chocolate chunks or chips, so they’re truly chocolate-y. They also keep well, and would travel well too.

I certainly don’t know about the cooking experience level of my loyal readers, but if you’ve never made biscotti, there are just a couple of things you need to know. You make a dough-type cookie batter. Usually, the stickier the better since you don’t want the resulting cookies to be too heavy (read: hard) so you can’t even eat them unless you dunk them in coffee or tea. But, making them too wet and sticky is next to impossible to manipulate (roll) into logs. A happy medium is what you’re looking for. These were quite easy to mold, although I did have some difficulty with the crumble factor once they did their first baking, as Kevin mentions in the recipe.

Biscotti are drier to begin with – you bake them in logs (pictured right) until they’re more than “cooked,” then you allow them to cool some so you can handle the logs. Then you cut them into longer sticks. They must be thick enough to hold together, but this is always the tricky step for me.

One great helpful hint from Keven, though, that I’d never tried before, was to use a serrated knife only to cut through the crust, then use a flat bladed knife to finish the “cut.” That worked like a charm. Then you bake them a bit longer to completely dry them out. Cool, package and store in plastic bags for a few days (or a tin) or freeze. These cookies have a very nice deep chocolate flavor. Satisfies my chocolate cravings and my desire for crispy/crunch cookies.
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This is the same fire that was about 3/4 of a mile from our home on Sunday. It’s called the Santiago Fire, but our newscasters are now calling it the Modjeska Fire, since the wind shifted this morning and the fire has begun moving north into Modjeska Canyon, a very rural area directly east of our home by about 4-5 miles. It’s a 10+ mile long canyon and so far it’s burning at the further (southeasterly) end. It’s mostly vegetation with some small and large homes spotted throughout, but because of the steep terrain there and the heat of the fire, the firefighters have mostly pulled out and are having to let it burn. Hundreds of homes will be lost. And likely thousands of domestic animals. It’s a haven for horses.

The homes you see in the photo are a new group of subdivisions called Foothill Ranch. That’s not the Canyon – it goes off to the right. All the homes in Foothill Ranch have been evacuated.

Our daughter in San Diego (and her family) were evacuated yesterday very early morning. So far their home is okay, but they can’t return yet. San Diego has the worst of the fires, I think. Over 1400 homes have burned to date, and the fire is completely out of control. Southern California is known for its hills and small valleys and gullies. Usually homes aren’t built in the gullies, so if a fire gets started, the wind can carry the embers from one gully and valley to another in nothing flat.

This is an enhanced satellite view of Southern California coastline, showing the fires. The top one is Canyon Country, about 40 some miles north of Los Angeles. The one dot at the ocean is Malibu. The group inland from Malibu is Lake Arrowhead. Below that is our Santiago/Modjeska fire. The one below that is at Camp Pendleton in very north San Diego County. The bottom two groups are in the San Diego area. They’re by far the biggest fires and the most dangerous to human life. Our TV is saying there are still 10 major fires burning in So. California. You can see how the winds carry the smoke out to sea, but the fires also spread that way. The Santa Ana winds, that were gusting from 40-60 mph have reduced to probably less than 10 now, so that’s good. Fires won’t spread as rapidly, but the dry brush gives them lots of fuel to burn.

(photos from the Orange County Register)

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One of the things that deters me from buying whole butternut squash is the difficulty of cutting it (first), the yukkiness of scooping out and discarding the seeds and strings (second), scraping that stringy stuff away from the inner hollow (third) and lastly, the slicing or dicing of the hard squash itself (fourth). So when I spotted fresh pre-cut butternut squash at Costco last week, I bought two 2-pound bags. Some of it went into a soup I made last week, and the balance was made into butternut fries.

Normally, “fries” ought to be long wedges, but I had cubes. That didn’t deter me one bit. I snooped around the internet a little bit and found a few recipes (I just did a google search for butternut squash fries). I kind of used my own imagination. Rachael Ray’s online magazine had a recipe that used maple syrup and creme fraiche, plus lime juice plus some seasonings. I took ideas from the few recipes I did find, and here’s what I did: I tossed the cubes with olive oil, and sprinkled them all over with a mixture of ground cumin, garlic salt and some mild chile powder (I used Chimayo). The squash went into a relatively hot oven (425) and baked for about 45-60 minutes. I thought they’d be done in about 40, so tasted it. Disappointment at that point. I’m SO glad I left them to bake another 10-15 minutes because they became succulent, a bit crispy on the outside edges, and those said edges had begun to caramelize with their own natural sugars. In that short time they became magic. Amazing how baking chemistry works. These are remarkably easy. If you prefer more sweetness to them, by all means sprinkle them with some brown sugar, or try maple syrup. But it’s not needed, I assure you.
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Depending on your leftovers, here was my solution last night, before we knew what our night would be like:

• Open refrigerator and scope out everything that is still usable (dispose of slimy, moldy, smelly and questionable items)

• Line everything up and do an overview of the situation

• In my case, this meant look, smell and taste the following: chicken and onions topping from the pizza last week, the twice-baked cauliflower take 2 from a couple of nights ago, the raw carrots languishing in the produce drawer, the lemon crusted chicken from another dinner and the butternut fries.

• To the pot add a quart of boxed chicken broth, and add raw carrots. Cook for awhile, then add any cooked vegetables and a few cups of water. Use an immersion blender once the soup has reached simmering.

• Add 1 cup or so of milk, taste for seasonings, add the meat (chicken) and heat through. Scoop into bowls and serve.

The next order of business was to turn on the television and watch approaching wildfires in our area of Southern California. At about 6:30 pm last night my DH spotted a huge, black smoke cloud as it spread east and south of us. He’d been watching football games, so we switched to news, only to find the only fire they were reporting was the very serious one in Malibu (which is still raging out of control as of this morning). It was at least an hour or more before they began reporting our fire, by then raging out of control, virtually no firefighters on tap because they were mostly sent to Malibu.

We’ve known that our area is a potential tinderbox after the very dry spring. Throw in a relatively hot summer, and only one day of showers a week or so ago, and you have a potential for disaster.

After dinner, we lost power. Quick hunt for candles and candle lighters. Knowing the fire was within about a mile of our home, we began packing up our most precious belongings (using flashlights), evacuated our station wagon full of valuables, mostly paintings and artwork. We took turns driving to a ridge near us (along with dozens of other lookie-lous) to watch the fires as they whipped more our direction from the further ridge. Scary. Very, very scary. Our firefighters are taxed beyond comprehension with fires that are blazing all over Southern California. As I write this, there are 10 fires, major fires, here and the winds have already picked up now that it’s dawn. Today we’re expected to have continued very high winds and temperatures in the high 90’s. Bless the firefighters for holding the fire line beyond our homes.

Spent a very wearying night, listening to these Santa Ana winds just whip around our home, toppling potted plants and trees, leaves everywhere, the pool a mess of dirt and leaves. We lost power for about 11 hours, so only had battery operated radios. Power was restored at about 5:45 this morning, so we now have TV reception again. It’s going to be a long day. The fire is far from contained (5% contained at 6 am this morning), but at least it’s not burning our direction. Thank you, Lord, for sparing our home.

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