Baking with Juli - Double Chocolate Caramel Cheese Cake

Today, I have a not so healthy treat for you :) My friend Alex turned 39 this week, so I decided to make her something special that she could indulge in.

The cake was not the prettiest of them all, but I've never eaten cheesecake, as good as this one! Here's the recipe:

You need:

7inch Springform Cakepan
1 larger cake pan
Water
1 Baking sheet
Aluminium Foil

Case:
4oz Peanut Cookies
1 half stick Butter

Caramel:
1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Whipping Cream
1 tbsp Butter

Batter:
1.2 lbs Cream Cheese
0.8 lbs Cocoa
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Whipping Cream

Chocolate:
2.5 lbs Chocolate
1/3 cup Whipping Cream

1. Case: Shred your cookies until floury. Melt your butter and mix together. Cover the bottom of your springform cake pan with the baking sheet, grease the sides and pour the mix into the pan. Tighten with your hands and let cool for 15 minutes in your freezer.

2. Preheat your oven to 350.

3. Caramel: Pour in pot and heat until brown, mix in your butter and cream. Pour onto your cake case. Let cool again.

4. Cake: Whip your cream and set aside. Mix together cream cheese, eggs and sugar. Separate 1/3 of the batter. Pour cocoa into the 1/3 and mix together. Divide whipped cream equally in both batters.
Pour dark mixture in first, then light mixture on top and smoothen it out.

5. Make your springform waterproof with aluminum foil. Cover all the sides and the bottom, pour water into your larger cake pan (until half of your smaller cake pan is covered if set into water) and put springform in water. Put in the oven for about 50-60 minutes.

(AFTER your cake is done, do NOT take it out of the oven. Let it sit in there for 30 more minutes without any heat)

6. Let cool over night (put in fridge).

7. Chocolate: Let chocolate melt in whip cream on your stove. Pour over your cake and voilá :)
Serve after cooling!

xx Juli

How do I know he (or she) is the right one?

I've been talking to Max about this quite a lot lately. Mostly, because we consider ourselves so lucky to have fond each other! I will try to summarize some of the things we talked about below, just keep in mind that those are our opinions - not laws that we intend to push on you -  if you feel different about it in any way you can comment and share your opinion or just think 'weirdos' to yourself.

1. You are purely and utterly in love
You might be losing your appetite, not being able to sleep, you might wanna run down the street and shout out that you're in love, or hide in your bedroom and stare at the phone for hours until HE/SHE finally texts you back. Those are good signs that you miiiight be in love. What's important is, don't lie to yourself. Don't force feelings on yourself that are just not there. It takes some people a while to fall for someone, while some people fall right away (I'm looking at you Max :D). I remember myself wanting to scream out that I loved Max before we ever 'officially' said it to each other. I think that's the feeling your supposed to have :)

2. You're in love with yourself more than with the other person 
I know it sounds weird, but you have to protect yourself! If you're in love but your partner is hurting you - physically and/or emotionally - you have to get out of that situation. That is NOT the right person for you, nor will they ever be. Who hurt you once destroyed not only trust but also proved that they don't care for you as much as they should!
If you need help getting out of an abusive relationship visit loveisrespect.org. You can also message us, but we are no professionals and can only be there as friends. You are not alone! We've been there too! 

3. You don't have secret doubts 
Max and I have both been in relationships in which we knew something wasn't quite right and it turned out it wasn't. I've actually been in a situation before where I got together with someone and even remember thinking 'I don't really want this, it doesn't feel right' - but I just lied to myself and tried to ignore those feelings throughout the whole relationship. Mostly, those doubts come from insecurities about whether you are, in fact, compatible or not. If you have to tell yourself that all those flaws that your partner has will probably go away and he/she will change soon - you should probably move on.

Max and I both realized how we were lying to ourselves when it came to our ex partners. How they would (in the future) treat us better, love us more, make more time, make it official, stop hurting us etc. I think deep down inside you you know if you can see a future that makes you happy with your partner. If there's things you want to change about the other person you probably haven't found the right one yet.

For me, there is and was not one single thing about Max I would want to change. Even the things that might be annoying I really love, I just start grinning and thin 'yup, this is my Max' ;)

4. You learn from mistakes
I'm not a big believer in changing people - but I do believe that you can learn from your mistakes and change SOME of your behavior. For instance, I'm very good at becoming creative when it comes to imagining why Max did something the way he did. Instead of asking, I used to just assume - and that was simply WRONG. It was very annoying for Max, but after a fight (I'm talking healthy fighting here - no yelling, no throwing things, a simple discussion with maaaaybe a hint of blame here and there) I just kept asking him about every single thing he said just to make sure I understood where he was coming from. That way I tried to make sure I would be able to recognize and deal with a situation like that better next time.

5. You trust each other
I get a lot of people asking me if I'm afraid that Max is cheating on me or doing naughty things back home and the answer is NOOOO. Never. I trust my husband a million percent. I know him. And to be honest, I worry far more about if his planes are gonna make it back home without shattering on the earth, whether the roads are to icy for him to drive on, or armageddon (I seriously worry about all those things though). If I had to worry about Max wanting other women I don't think we would be right for each other - especially considering the long distance thing right now. It would also be the cause of a lot of trouble and doubts and that is not healthy in any relationship. You have to be trusting enough that your partner can hang out with their group of friends or go to the bar without you having to call every two minutes. Way too much stress on yourself and your partner!

6. You don't get sick of each other and still can do stuff apart
What I really like about our relationship is that we can be in the same room and do different things. We're not attached at each others hips all the time - and to be honest - I like way cooler tv shows than Max does and enjoy sitting in my chair, watching my show and have my husband play xbox in the same room. It gives me the weird feeling of how comfortable we are with each other. We don't have to pretend to like something we don't and at the same time are still willing to sacrifice ourselves and maybe watch something we wouldn't reeeeaaaallyyyy wanna watch by ourselves. Of course, this should not be the standard time spent together, but every once in a while - do something for yourself, go out with your friends, start learning an instrument, or put your headphones in and watch a show :)

6. You just know...
It is the weirdest thing but it is true for Max and I. For some reason, we just knew we're meant to be together. However cheesy that sounds but we never really had to talk about it - it was always a given that we would be and stay together, even after I went back to Germany. I remember Max telling me once that he was gonna be loyal to me while I'm gone. I'm pretty sure I said 'ok' and that was it. We never had doubts about our future or even had to say that we would wanna be together forever (although we did, trust me). I can see our future bright ahead and we're both on the same page about it.

If all of the above are true - congratulations - you got yourself a potential husband/wife/partner in crime - whatever you want to do. Haha, just kidding, I just like sharing our experience with things - but everyone's different and of course - opinions are different too! I hope you enjoyed this anyway :)

xx Juli

On The Healthy Side Of Yummy - Red Beets Pasta

I know, I know - it sounds weird. But I promise this meal is delicious and packed with nutrition!

So yummy!

What you need:
7 ts   Low Fat Crème Fraîche (You could probably substitute with sour cream)
1 lb  Pasta
1      Scallion
1 lb  Red beets
1 ts  Olive Oil
3 1/2 oz Vegetable Broth
1 splash of Apple Vinegar

To your liking:
Salt & Pepper 
Parmesan
Pine Nuts


How to:
Peel the beets and shred them. Cut the scallion into little dices and glaze them in the oil, add beets and sauté. Pour in vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Season with vinegar, salt and pepper. Covere over low heat for about 25 minutes until al dente. Meanwhile cook the pasta in salted water. Mix the veggies with your crème fraîche and roast those pine nuts (careful here - they burn really fast - no additional oil needed!). Top pasta with beets mix, pine nuts, and parmesan. Voilá :)

This should feed about 4 people. Hope your tastebuds enjoy!

xx Juli

On the healthy side of yummy

Max has been gone for over a week now. That leaves me plenty of time to be bored around the day. I only have one week of school left, then I'll be done with the semester and can completely focus on getting everything ready for immigration. We haven't heard back from NVC yet, but I'm hopeful it won't be taking too long until I can finally go to the visa interview in Frankfurt.

Well, since I have plenty of time right now, I decided it would be perfect to get into a healthier mode and focus on cooking from scratch (well, for the most part). I have come to find that I don't have to go to bed hungry if I just cook food that focuses on "natural" ingredients. Meaning - I want to eat food that is not produced with a bunch of chemical substances that I can't even pronounce. So far, I've been eating that way for a week and I have to say it works! I don't really like weighing myself, I try to avoid it as much as possible since I don't think that numbers should have any influence about how I feel about myself. What I do is so simple. I check the mirror - and lately - I've been feeling pretty damn good about myself.

And isn't that what it's all about? You feeling good about yourself? I'm still curvy and I want to stay that way. I like my curves and would not trade them for anything. At the same time though - I noticed eating the way I am lately makes me feel better. It's weird but I used to have nightmares every night and they seem to be gone! I wake up every morning and am not exhausted but looking forward to the day ahead. I've been only doing this for a week, but the results speak for themselves.

I got a couple of recipes that I really enjoy cooking and I want to share them with you! I will start posting them under the topic - on the healthy side of yummy - from now on. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Juli xx

He's (been) here (for 15 days now)!

YAY!

Max has been here since December 20th. I kinda logged out of the blogging world for a while and just concentrated on being with him. We're so happy we're together right now. It finally feels like 'real' life again. And not just time I have to pass in order to be with him. This man is so unbelievably perfect for me - it's scary ;) He's the best!

In my family, christmas is rather crazy. My parents are divorced and my mom split with her boyfriend that we lived together with for more than 12 years, so he's my unofficial second dad. Needless to say, I wanna see them all for christmas and that means taking a 6 hour trip to Western Germany the day after christmas. Every year. Haha, those trips are really exhausting, but it's totally worth spending that time with my family - especially now that we're 'complete'.

ALSO. We received our NOA2. For everyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about: That is a huge milestone in our visa journey. We originally thought it is a matter of weeks since I'm getting the visa now, but it turns out that this is unfortunately not the case. Our lawyer even said it might take up unto 6 months until I'll be able to fly over there. To be honest, I don't really buy it though. Or maybe my brain doesn't want to buy it. So I'll just pretend I'll be home in the middle of February. For now.

We've used the time we had to just relax and spend time with family and friends. We're also working on renovating my mom's new house. I'm so happy she got the opportunity to finally call a house her 'almost' own. Well, it is rented, but the landlords are our friends, so it almost feels like it's hers.

Things are rather crazy right now. We want to get everything in and make every single one of our close ones happy, but that sometimes becomes a little tricky. You want to help everyone, see everyone, please everyone and along the way you use precious time that you could have spend enjoying each others company - so we took today off and just laid in bed all day. After all, I might be home with Max soon, so this might be the last time we will have to concentrate on us  - without having to think about our jobs, schedules, etc.

I'll be updating again soon.

xx Juli

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve with my mom and brother

'Rummelpott' for NYE 2013/14

'Rummelpott' for NYE 2013/14

Marry someone, who...

Found this quote today. It makes me feel so thankful for what Max and I have, so I thought I'd share. Hope you're all having a good start to your week!

x Juli

“Marry someone who lets you have a bite of their brownie, even when you said you weren’t hungry. Marry someone who laughs at the same things you do. Marry someone who kisses your nose on a cold day. Marry someone who you can watch Disney movies with. Marry someone who is proud of you whether you earn £5 a week or £5,000 a week. Marry someone who you can tell everything to. Marry someone who isn’t afraid or embarrassed to hold your hand in public. Marry someone who lets you take over when decorating a cake. Marry someone who you can spend the day in Ikea with without feeling stressed. Marry someone who wraps you up inside their coat in the winter. Marry someone who accepts your fears and phobias. Marry someone who gives you butterflies every time you hear their key in the door. Marry someone who you don’t always have to shave your legs for. Marry someone who accepts you all day every day, even when you don’t look or feel your best. Marry someone who puts three sugars in your tea, despite telling them “just the two”. Marry someone who doesn’t judge you when you eat your body weight in cookies. Marry someone who doesn’t make you want to check your phone, because you know they will reply. Marry someone who waits with you to get on the train. Marry someone who understands that you need to be alone sometimes. Marry someone who gets on well with your parents and isn’t uptight about family events. Marry someone who calms you down when you get mad about stupid stuff, and never tells you it’s “only stupid stuff”. Marry someone who makes you want to be a better person. Marry someone who makes you laugh. Marry someone who you love. Marry your soulmate, your lover, your best friend."

Home

You know, being in limbo, apart from missing your lover and best friend, sometimes also means missing your home. Obviously, the worst part about that is missing my man, because he is part of what makes home home. But there's also those little things you miss about your routines or little things that really bugged you about something - which you've now come to appreciate.

Sometimes it's funny thinking about what I consider my home, just because there's plenty of places that could - in theory - be labeled "Juli's home". In theory, I got 4 houses (in Germany) that I know every aspect of. Every hidden detail, every leaking water tap. I can tell you where the tupperware is hidden in each of those households in a second. Right now, I live in my mom's living room. You might think this is what I should call my home (at least for now) - but when I think about home, I think about Max. How he asked me about everything he bought for the apartment (even before we were engaged), how we built our tv-stand together, or how I thought it was really important to have the living room wall covered in pictures of our family.

When I think of home, I think of getting up early. Each of us hiding in the bedroom when the other one would do those embarrassing moves to our workout-dvd. When I think of home I think of walking to the dollar store and spending way too much money on decoration that we didn't need. Max picking me up from a cooking class not even half a mile away. I think of stains in our carpet, washing the dishes, rearranging our furniture and lying on our rug together.

Those places that I know by heart, are all in my heart. They're filled with loved ones and lovely memories. But what you call your home is something that is not only in your heart. It's much more, it fills your whole body, there's smells, feelings, memories that give you goosebumps. It's another thing that when you found it you'll know (you just know).

I miss home!