This morning, with Luisa at “school”, I decided to head into the German History Museum to check out current “Fashioning Fashion” exhibition. It’s a collection of garments dating from 1700 to 1915 on loan from LACMA.
There are some really pretty things there. The textiles were beautiful. The details were incredible.
GPOYW — My part in history edition.
A while ago, October, 2009, to be more exact, the newscast I worked on asked me to do some video work. The story was an artist originally from Quebec who was returning to repaint his part of the Eastside Gallery as part of the events that marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. They also asked me to interview any other people who might be there that day, repainting their segments. As chance had it, this artist, Christine Kühn, was there. She spoke great English and hails from Cologne.
After the interview, I packed up my camera and she offered me a rubber glove.
“Would you put your hand on the wall as part of my piece?”
Obviously, I jumped at the chance and to this day, I can take people there and show them “my” part of the Berlin wall.
Photo by Donna.
Dating advice from the 1930s.
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This banana muffin recipe is not just any banana muffin recipe. It’s the recipe that started me baking.
Christmas of 1988, I got a cookbook. I was almost six. It was a gift from our family friends Mike and Trixie. They’re from South Africa and Mike was really Dr. Mike. Many of rural Saskatchewan’s doctors came from South Africa. I remember three who came through Indian Head in the years that I lived there. Anyway, they brought back for me The Great Cooking Adventure: South Africa’s very own children’s recipe book by Sue Long and Heidi Campbell. Yeah, that’s right. A cooking book from South Africa pre-abolition-of-apartheid. A little piece of history.
It features stories of four South African kids (two black, two white) and recipes. I don’t think any of them are particularly South African, featuring things like Picnic Meat Loaf and cheesy baked potatoes, but when I was almost-six, it didn’t matter. I made a beeline for the banana recipes. I don’t remember if it was the banana cake or the banana muffins that I made first, but its these two recipes that got me baking.
Today, the page that features the recipes for banana muffins and banana cake is crusted with splats of batter and there are crumbs permanently embedded in the crease. It’s still my go-to recipe for banana-flavoured baked goods.
Banana Muffins (from the above book)
2 cups cake flour (500 ml)
1 tsp baking powder (5 ml)
1 tsp salt (5 ml)
1 good shake ground nutmeg (1 ml)
1 good shake cinnamon (1 ml)
1/2 cup sugar (125 ml)
1 egg
1/3 cup butter milk (80 ml)
1/3 cup cooking oil (80 ml) — I use vegetable or canola, really, whatever is around
2 mashed bananas — very ripeWhile the recipe tells you to mix the dry ingredients, then beat the wet ones then mix them together and then mix them together and then add the banana mush.
I usually just toss it all in a bowl and take a mixer to it. It’s never gone wrong.
Scoop into lined or greased muffin tin and bake at 350 F (180 C) for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Sometimes I toss in some chocolate. Sometimes some nuts. Sometimes both. As I intended to let Luisa rip into these ones (I cut the sugar in half for this batch), I put neither and gave them walnut hats instead.
Makes 12.
Shots of an abandoned military complex outside Berlin (Krampnitzee) by Olof Grind.
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The first air show at the Grand Palais in Paris, France. September 30th, 1909. Photographed in Autochrome Lumière by Léon Gimpel.
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A man who goes from presidential saviour to involuntary gay icon to addiction-addled historical footnote.
Cologne after the Second World War. The cathedral’s survival is often referred to as “proof that God exists” by some locals. It’s a very different city centre today.
More images on Germany’s post-war reconstruction and details at Spiegel Online International.
