[Squinky]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Clearly. But I'm sure that you're a perfectly nice, upstanding pervert, who girls would describe as 'cute' and 'sweet' and so forth.

This made me roffle. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

Ah, young breasts on the wing in the springtime. *goes to happy place*

Hey now, did I say you could be British?

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

Thinking to myself that I'm far from the model of relationship stability, so I'm not sure I have any valid advice to offer.

Well, it couldn't be any worse than, say, asking me for relationship advice.

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Lee, have you gained weight lately?

Not sure. Haven't been weighed in a bit. The last couple of times I was weighed, my weight seemed to have stabilized at between 175 and 180 lbs. That's fairly big for my height and build. I'm rather portly these days, though it would be a gross exaggeration to say that I am obese.

My crack about getting fat is more a sign of my insecurity than anything else. I'm still not used to being this big, and I haven't made significant strides towards getting it under control yet. Problems with my back and knees (and a little to do with my mental state of late as well) have kept me from rigourous regular physical exercise. I manage long walks once or twice a week, but I only run sporadically, and I haven't been able to manage climbing the Wentworth stairs (@500 steps up the side of the Hamilton Escarpment) without hurting myself in several months. It's been hard for me to find the time (and patience) to work my way back up to some form of fitness regimen. And I'm religiously opposed to fitness clubs.

TMI.

Originally Posted by Squinky

Hey now, did I say you could be British?

No, and as far as I'm concerned, it's an egregious oversight. You never let me have any fun.

Originally Posted by Squinky

Well, it couldn't be any worse than, say, asking me for relationship advice.

Well, it might be different advice, but that doesn't mean it would be any more appropriate.

[Squinky]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

No, and as far as I'm concerned, it's an egregious oversight. You never let me have any fun.

*sigh* Okay, okay. But you have to promise you'll put on the accent.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

Not sure. Haven't been weighed in a bit. The last couple of times I was weighed, my weight seemed to have stabilized at between 175 and 180 lbs. That's fairly big for my height and build. I'm rather portly these days, though it would be a gross exaggeration to say that I am obese.

My crack about getting fat is more a sign of my insecurity than anything else. I'm still not used to being this big, and I haven't made significant strides towards getting it under control yet. Problems with my back and knees (and a little to do with my mental state of late as well) have kept me from rigourous regular physical exercise. I manage long walks once or twice a week, but I only run sporadically, and I haven't been able to manage climbing the Wentworth stairs (@500 steps up the side of the Hamilton Escarpment) without hurting myself in several months. It's been hard for me to find the time (and patience) to work my way back up to some form of fitness regimen. And I'm religiously opposed to fitness clubs.

TMI.

Just take a bit better care of yourself, my man. You may want cut down on those moose sausages and Angus burgers.

But I do like that smile in the av. Romantic.

[Merricat]

Don't laugh, Lee, but I suggest yoga. Yoga for beginners would be perfect for you--stretching with a minimum of stress. It would be great for your back, and you can work around the knee.

Well, it works for me, but I imagine it's not for everybody.

[tsa]

I do yoga too, every monday evening. It's very good for relaxing and relieving stress. There are many different kinds of yoga, and the group I'm in does only very easy exercises. At the end of every class we do a relaxation session. Every time I leave the yoga class I feel much better than before we started!

[Squinky]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

But I do like that smile in the av. Romantic.

Shush, you! Stop reminding me I can't have him!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Squinky

Shush, you! Stop reminding me I can't have him!

You can have him. He's not my type. You'd have to get past his lady first, though.

[Squinky]

Well, yeah, that's kind of what scares me most. I mean, I'd be perfectly okay with having to fight you off, but Dawn is just a far more formidable, powerful opponent. Or so I gather.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by tsa

I can't help it that the British choose such weird names for their birds

Well, it's not as if they're naming some of their food any better...ever heard of "Spotted Dick"?

Then again, we here in Germany have some nice food names too. I can't think anything suggestive right now (though I'm pretty sure there are some foods with suggestive names out there, in the wild German Prairie ), but we have things like "Leberkäse", which literally translates to "Liver Cheese" - which contains no cheese at all. And if it's "Bavarian Liver Cheese", no liver at all, either. And then there's "Leberwurst", which literally translates as "Liver Sausage", a soft type of sausage you can smear onto your bread, which only contains a minor quantity of liver (because really, liver isn't all that suited to make a sausage completely out of it.

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

I'm passing the time until Dawn gets home, listening to Marillion, doing the dishes sporadically, and doing some internet research on a Maggi soup product that I haven't been able to track down here. A handful of years ago, I somehow came into possession of a couple of soup packets with a lot of German labelling, and being completely ignorant of the German language (sorry), I've kind of taken to staring at this mysterious package I kept after having consumed what memory tells me was a very tasty soup.

Truth to tell, I'm not entirely sure how I managed to prepare it, given that the instructions are also in German, which leads me to believe I must have faked it, and probably did something wrong. Still, I seem to remember having quite enjoyed it, so I've occasionally taken to visiting the local Denninger's 'Foods of the World', hoping to come across another packet of the stuff.

For anyone out there wondering what the hell I'm going on about, the product is called Suppengart'l (made by Maggi), and the flavour is Erdäpfel-Gemüse mit Bärlauch. As I have come to understand it, this is basically a sweet potato (more specifically, a tuber called a yacon, from the Andes) vegetable soup with bear's garlic. I hope to some day come across a store or outlet that I can order some from, just so I can subject Dawn to it and see if it was just my addled brain that thought this was a tasty soup. Mind you, Dawn's not a big soup person, so I may still be on my own with this one, even if I do find it and manage to prepare it properly.

Back before I started taking risperidone and eating my wife's delicious, rich cooking, I used to be a skinny little soup eating type. I may never get my waistline back to where it was a handful of years ago, but I can at least look forward to tracking down strange comestibles I used to enjoy before I settled down and got fat.

Hmmm...I think the soup you had was this one? It's not a potato soup ("Potato" is "Kartoffel" in German, by the way, though "Erdapfel" is a synonym. But "Kartoffel" is the name you'll most commonly hear, even if no one will be confused if you use "Erdapfel". I always found "Erdapfel" could be considered the poetic synonym of "Kartoffel", if Potatos were a common subject for poetry, that is. ), but rather a Bear/Wild Garlic - Creme soup (Or "Ramson creme", because it just sounds better in combination with "Creme" ), with potato pieces. Maybe you'll have more luck looking for that, rather than a potato soup.

The only potato soup available by Maggi is Potator Cream soup with Chives.

Maybe you'll have more luck looking for it with that information.

It seems it's not in Maggi's product selection in the US, though - in fact, I find the overall selection of Maggi products available over there rather lacking.

Maybe, if all else fails I could buy some for you and send them over to you if you want. I could even provide a translation of the instructions, with them.


Also, it seems Maggi Products, especially those not available across the big pond seem to be rather popular over there anyway (so it's a surprise they're not offered there). I recall that when my father was in Canada on a business trip, he accidentally took the wrong bag at the airport in Montreal, and only when he had arrived at his destination (a ski location quite a long car journey from Montreal), he realised it wasn't his. What was in it? Lots of Maggi soups. But don't worry, he did get his luggage back the next day, and the other guy got his beloved soups back too.


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[tsa]

I remember Maggi also made (makes?) a powerful mixture of herbs and salt that you could use to improve the taste of your meals. In the 1970s we used that a lot to spice the soups my mother made. She also used it in other foods. It was in a small square bottle with a long neck and a narrow yellow thingy on top that made sure you could get only one drop at the time out of it.

Edit:
They still have it; it's this stuff. And as usual I remembered the colours wrong.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Nanay uses that brand in most of her cooking.

[SSH]

Originally Posted by tsa

I can't help it that the British choose such weird names for their birds

Great tits cope well with warming

[tsa]

Originally Posted by SSH

Great tits cope well with warming

Cool, I found that too on Boingboing but I was too lazy to post it here

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by Jazhara7

Hmmm...I think the soup you had was this one?

Here's a scan of the package. From the lack of information online, I presume that either it's no longer in the Nestle/Maggi production line, or is being distributed minimally through other avenues. It's definitely a potato-vegetable soup, as it has carrots (Karotten) and peas (Erbsen) in it, and lists Kartoffeln (15%) in the contents as well. Not sure if it could be called a cream soup, as no milk was used. Instructions are 'Inhalt des Beutels mit dem Schneebesen in 3/4 Liter heißes Wasser einrühren, 10 Minuten kochen. Öfters umbrühren.'

And I thank you very much for your sweet offer to send me soup. It won't be necessary, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate the gesture. I'll probably just break down the rest of the ingredients and see if I can't figure out how to make a suitable imitation, even if I can't find ramsons and whatever other herbs are used in it. We have a girlfriend over here who grows her own herbs and probably has a few of the things I'd need even if I can't find them at the grocery store. I know she used to grow lovage, which is probably in there. I read that Maggi made a name for themselves using lovage.

[Jazhara7]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

Here's a scan of the package. From the lack of information online, I presume that either it's no longer in the Nestle/Maggi production line, or is being distributed minimally through other avenues. It's definitely a potato-vegetable soup, as it has carrots (Karotten) and peas (Erbsen) in it, and lists Kartoffeln (15%) in the contents as well. Not sure if it could be called a cream soup, as no milk was used. Instructions are 'Inhalt des Beutels mit dem Schneebesen in 3/4 Liter heißes Wasser einrühren, 10 Minuten kochen. Öfters umbrühren.'

And I thank you very much for your sweet offer to send me soup. It won't be necessary, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate the gesture. I'll probably just break down the rest of the ingredients and see if I can't figure out how to make a suitable imitation, even if I can't find ramsons and whatever other herbs are used in it. We have a girlfriend over here who grows her own herbs and probably has a few of the things I'd need even if I can't find them at the grocery store. I know she used to grow lovage, which is probably in there. I read that Maggi made a name for themselves using lovage.

Hmm, that's from 2002. It seems the "Suppengart'l" line is no longer available, and there's no other soup resembling it in the current product lines, as far as I can tell. So yeah, I'm afraid it's no longer available.

Sorry, I thought you had somehow translated the title, though I of course should have realised that it would have been the title on the bag, if the instructions were in German. It was the "Erdäpfel" that confused me, as, like I said, it's quite unusual to use that term instead of "Kartoffel". I guess they wanted to give it a rustic touch, since the product line was called "Suppengart'l", too.


I guess it's not a cream soup then, though the texture of it on the package looks creamy. But that doesn't mean it has to contain any kind of milk or cream, as that might be achieved some other way, too.


In English, the instructions would be: "Using a whiks, stir contents of bag into 3/4 litres of hot water and cook for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally."

And you're welcome. I would have been glad to help, but I guess there's nothing I can do, considering the soup is no longer available. But I wish you success with recreating it yourself. I know how annoying it can be when a certain food product like a soup (though in my case it was a certain mashed potato snack with Backerbsen [apparently they are called Soup Pearls in English. They have nothing to do with actual peas. They're named "Backerbsen" because they resemble dried peas. Also, that site seems to have German Maggi Soups available for order too. But they don't have the one you're looking for either, I'm afraid, though that's no surprise if the line has been discontinued.] and Roasted Onions that was discontinued. I really should try and reproduce it, because I really loved it. But I'm still angry they stopped selling it. And what's worse, they replaced it with a version where the Backerbsen were replaced with croutons and Cheese. *CROUTONS*! Cheese is alright, but who in their right mind would want croutons in their mashed potatos?! I dislike croutons even in most salads - the only real place they belong is inside Klöße [I guess you could call them potato dumplings. They have roast, unspiced croutons inside them.], and not in mashed potatos. >_< ).

Actually, I think I could try reproducing that myself, too. It can't be *that* difficult, really.


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[tsa]

Dear bloggie,

Yesterday I gave a talk about the work my colleague and I have done for the past five years. It went very well: people listened carefully and asked interesting questions that showed their sincere interest in the work. I was very pleased to be asked to give the talk at another conference afterwards. At the end of the seminar one of the organizers told the audience that he found our work 'really on top of the world'. We're good, and it feels very good to be recognized!

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by tsa

Dear bloggie,

Yesterday I gave a talk about the work my colleague and I have done for the past five years. It went very well: people listened carefully and asked interesting questions that showed their sincere interest in the work. I was very pleased to be asked to give the talk at another conference afterwards. At the end of the seminar one of the organizers told the audience that he found our work 'really on top of the world'. We're good, and it feels very good to be recognized!

I'm happy for you!

[Merricat]

Good for you, Tsa.

[tsa]

I'm a bit worried about Jatsie. His last post in the 'In the moment: where are you this very minute?' thread was not a happy one. I sent him a PM but he hasn't answered yet. Does anyone know how he is?