Chilli Chutney

As requested by Matt, here is the recipe for my Chilli Chutney

100g Chilli's (adjust for heat depending on what you have available), 4 large Peppers, 500g tomatoes, 500g onions, 500g cooking or dessert apples, 250g brown sugar, 500ml vinegar & 1 tsp black pepper. Chop it all up, throw into a pan and cook (simmer) for about an hour and a half to two hours. Then put into sealable jars for storage. Dead simple.

I tend to use 8 chilli's for a mild chutney, and 16+ for something a bit more wicked!
Feel free to experiment with the ammount of chilli's. The more the merrier I say!

The above picture shows the chutney in the early stages of cooking.

Technorati Tags: Chilli, Marburg, Chutney

Family & Football

My family have returned to the UK after having enjoyed their stay with us in Germany. It was good to see my brother and to chat to him. This doesn’t happen as often as what it should. He may be a married man with four children, but he’s still my kid brother to me.

Whilst they were here the weather was rather changeable but we still managed to get out and about. We visited a few local sites, ate lots of schnitzel, drank lots of beer, and generally chilled out. Good times. They even ate some of the mushrooms we foraged for in the woods. Everyone survived! On one wet day we visited Fort Fun which is a theme park located up in the Sauerland. It wasn't ideal weather and we got wet, but had a lot of fun.

Over a week ago Mrs H, the Juniorette, her Godparents and I went to see Germany beat Sweden 3-0 in a friendly football match. The atmosphere was fantastic and during the first half the German team played some fast attacking football which was superb to watch. We all really had a great night out.

Lots of veggies are ripening in the garden and next week I will be making some chilli chutney using this years horde of chilli’s – Arse Burner, Ring of fire and Early Jalapeno. All have been tried raw and seem to live up to their names and reputations.

Technorati Tags: Juniorette, Marburg, Football

Back to Blogging

My family return to the UK later today and I will then have time to resume a normal blogging routine.

But in the meantime checkout a recent blog entry from Nordbank on the Filipino 'dwarf' judge. It's worth the read! :)

45 and still alive!

We are back from our break in the Black Forest. We had a really good time; I became a year older and promptly became ill. A good start to being 45. I have Bronchitis, but after a visit to the docs I am on antibiotics and am starting to get better. Our base when in the Schwarzwald was in Baden Baden and from there we did various trips and activities which was a lot of fun.

We visited Holiday Park one day which the Juniorette really enjoyed. She proudly went on a few rides on her own, basically Mrs H & I didn’t have the nerve for a couple of rides, and she also rode her first looping rollercoaster. It isn’t the best park in Germany (Europa Park and Phantasialand are better) but it was still worth a visit.

On another day when the weather was quite bad we went to a children’s science museum. This was great fun for the Juniorette and she learned a lot. I also discovered that being in a place with lots of screaming kids when I feel like shit is not really my cup of tea. But I struggled on. During a spell of good weather we hired an electric motor boat on a lake which was relaxing and fun. This was followed by a trip to an adventure climbing attraction. Mrs H stayed on the ground whilst the Juniorette and I climbed around the courses laid out in the trees. I don’t like heights so it was a bit of a test for me. I was a bit wobbly at points but as expected it was a breeze for my daughter.

Our trip culminated with a visit to Hockenheim ring to see Robbie Williams. It was a great show with an estimated 90,000 fans in attendance, ranging from small children to quite old folks. He really is an entertainer and his show rocked. The Juniorette was dead impressed with the amount of ‘naughty words’ that he was using, as well as with the music and show. The only downer on the night was trying to leave the place as the parking was a nightmare. But it was all worth it in the end as it was a great concert.

Tomorrow my Brother, Sister-in-law, and 3 of their kids arrive form England for a week, so a lot of things need to be done today. But first we need to drive up to Gelsenkirchen later today to watch Germany play Sweden in an international soccer friendly. I will enjoy it, but I am sure it would be a lot more enjoyable if I felt better.

Technorati Tags: Juniorette, Marburg, Black Forest, Robbie Williams

Vote for Bob!

Bob Gentry, a gifted muscian & singer/song writer is curently taking part in an NBC show in the USA called 'Star Tomorrow' and he needs your votes. Bob is a fellow blogger and a regular visitor here at Greenhaddock.

Please go register at Star Tomorrow, catch his performance, and cast your vote. For non US residents just use any zip code when registering (I used 34746 which is in Florida).

Logging on and voting is easy:

Just goto http://www.startomorrow.com and click on REGISTER. It’s really simple stuff …and they don’t Spam you when you give them an email address. Once you’re logged in, Click on VOTE and then a list of performers should pop up. Click on "1" or "2" to see each performer and right under that box is the place where you can give a "thumbs up" to which person you like (you should see a red box that confirms your vote)

Bob's performance (and very good it is too!) is shown under week two. Go on sign up, enjoy the music, and help out a fellow blogger on his way to stardom!

Technorati Tags: Bob Gentry, Star Tomorrow, Music

2nd Annual Whiney Expat Meet Up

Later today the Haddock family are off to Baden Baden again for a mini break. This is effectively our summer holiday this year, but we don’t mind as we have just booked to spend the New Year in Florida doing the Disney Park thing again. The Juniorette is very excited about the prospect of countless rollercoaster rides, and she is hoping she is now big enough to go on some of the crazier rides. This is bad news for Mrs H & I who prefer our thrills to be somewhat gentler.

But before our USA trip there will be the 2nd Annual Whiney Expat Meet Up in Bonn in November. Last years event was held in Marburg and was a lot of fun. This year’s event promises to be even better. If you’re interested take a look at J’s Blog Germany Doesn’t Suck for further details.

Technorati Tags: Florida, Marburg, Expat, Disney

Lederhosen aus

Zieht den Bayern die Lederhosen aus, Lederhosen aus, Lederhosen aus!

Yesterday Werder Bremen beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final of the Ligapokal (League Cup). This is the first time that Werder have won this cup, and both goals were scored by Ivan Klasnic (shown above wearing Green/White). The Haddock household are very happy about this result as we are all Bremen fans. It is of course all the sweeter that the victory was against Scheiß Bayern!

Zieht den Bayern die Lederhosen aus, Lederhosen aus, Lederhosen aus!

Technorati Tags: Ligapokal, Werder Bremen, Football

Sloworms, Frogs & Cats

On a walk through the woods last week the Juniorette spotted a Sloworm. I had walked past it, but the Juniorette’s eagle eyes didn’t fail her. It was the first one I have seen for a few years. As a kid I used to catch them and then release them into a sand pile we had in the back garden. The photo (click to enlarge) shows the Sloworm in the Juniorette’s hands.

Our Tomcat not content with bringing home birds and butterflies now has a new prey on his list – Frogs. He brought home a fully grown one the other day. The Juniorette and I released it into a neighbour’s pond. The neighbour reported that he thought our cat a bit unusual as he has seen him jumping into the pond on numerous occasions. He is right! Our tomcat goes on walks with us and isn’t scared of dogs. The surprising thing is that when dogs realise he is not scared of him, they leave him alone.

On a funny note, Freenet wrote me an email last week saying that unfortunately they are unable to process my application for DSL as it is not available in my area. This is of course very nice of them to inform me, apart from the little fact that I applied for their service in August of last year. Who says there is no customer service in Germany!

Technorati Tags: Juniorette, Marburg, Sloworm, DSL

The Painted Lady

A few weeks ago on the Juniorette’s last school day of the summer term she proudly presented me with her school report for her first year. It was a very good report, infact far better than any I ever received. She was a little disappointed that there are no grades for the first year (starts in the second year), and the only blemish on the report was about her temper, but it was mentioned that she is controlling it a lot better. Personally I didn’t see it as a problem. Her temper is slight compared to mine at her age.

She asked me about my reports when I was at school, so we dug through some files containing my old stuff, found them and had a read. It was quite entertaining. Apparently the main themes were lack of concentration, fooling around, not taking anything seriously and only doing enough to get by. Of course I had to inform the Juniorette that I was by far NOT a model student and I shouldn’t be used as a role model. But to balance the picture I told her she should always question authority (teachers), because they are not always right. I think this may be against the German way of things!

This summer has been fantastic with respect to the amount of butterflies visiting the garden. Identification has proved tricky at times, with photographic verification proving to be best. So above is a picture of the latest verification – The Painted Lady

Technorati Tags: Juniorette, Marburg, School Report, Butterfly