I’m not sure what the Webster’s Dictionary distinction between muffins and cupcakes really is, but I’ve broken it down to this: muffins are the cake you are allowed to eat for breakfast (if you’re into that thing where you lie to yourself) because there’s always something healthy in them. They are also usually bigger than cupcakes, there’s topping or some icing rather than frosting on them, and they are somehow not as dainty and smooth as cupcakes are. They’re gritty and real. You can take them to picnics and on car-rides and munch away at them for a while. Cupcakes, on the other hand, are dessert. Decadent, fattening, and gone in two bites.

So, these here are definitely muffins since they’re basically fruit – I mean, there’s cherries and bananas in them! You could totally get away with eating them for breakfast. And you should.

Banana Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins with Brown Sugar Streusel

I’m including a couple of tips with this recipe, especially on minimizing your dirty dishes, in case you, like me, don’t currently own a dishwasher and h a t e doing the dishes.

I have got this particular process down to the following tools: 1 bowl, 1 fork, 1 spatula, 2 measuring cups (1/4 & 1/2 cup), 3 measuring spoons (1/4, 1/2 & 1 tsp).

Why yes, I believe I am a bit pedantic about dirty dishes. Thank you for asking.

For the muffins:

1 egg

1/2 cup canola oil

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I always just eyeball the vanilla extract. You can hardly have too much, after all. This way, I didn’t have to wash the measuring spoon before using it for the baking powder *mwaahahahahaaa*)

3 ripe bananas

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I used the 1/4 cup measure to measure this)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips (I used the 1/2 cup measure to measure this)

1/2 cup dried montmorency cherries (but I bet other cherries would work just as well)

For the streusel:

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter

Combine ingredients into delicious muffins:

Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C, place a baking tray in the middle of the oven.

I read somewhere that all goods baked in pans (or muffin tins) should be placed on a tray rather than a rack in the oven, to ensure more even baking and non-soggy bottoms. I have heeded this advice ever since and my bottoms are nicely bone-dry. (Aren’t you relieved to hear that?)

Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. That way chances are you won’t have to scrub the muffin tin afterwards.

To prepare muffin batter:

In a medium bowl, mix egg, oil, white sugar, and vanilla extract. Break bananas in 2-inch pieces, add to the mix and give them a good mash until they’re fully incorporated. Next, dump the flour, baking p0wder, baking soda, and salt right into that same bowl, carefully stir the dry ingredients around a bit before quickly folding them into the wet ingredients with a spatula. Don’t overmix.

I almost always mix batters this way, and I have never had a problem with the distribution of the leavening agents.

Fold in chocolate chips and cherries.

If you like smaller cherry pieces, you can chop the cherries before adding them. I didn’t because that would mean using a chopping board and knife.

Use one of your measuring cups (1/4 cup, e.g.) to distribute the batter evenly between the muffin cups.

To prepare streusel mix:

Blend together brown sugar and flour in the same bowl to minimize dirty dishes. Use your fingers to blend in the butter. Mine came right from the fridge and gave me no trouble whatsoever. When the mixture has a coarse, crumbly texture, heap a teaspoon or so in the middle of each muffin.

 I used my fingers for this, not an additional teaspoon. Dishes!

Bake for 21-23 minutes. These are almost impossible to test for doneness with a wooden skewer, because they’re so jam-packed with chocolate chips. Well, do your best and take them out when the tops look adequately brown and crunchy and heavenly.

Let muffins cool in the pan for about five minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

On second thought: Don’t let these cool completely. They’re divine still warm right out of the oven.

And because these are unadorned and real, as muffins are, you don’t need to put them on plates or eat them with forks. Your fingers are washed much more quickly than the dishes. Just sayin’.

I stored these in an airtight container overnight, but I think it’s better to let them get some air to retain more of their crunch. So go ahead and simply store them covered on the counter for up to two days.

When we arrived at Yellowstone Canyon in the dead of night we were driving very slowly, the various small critters eyeing us from the side of the road indicated only by our headlights being reflected in wide retinas close to the ground every now and then – the world around the beam from our headlights was pitch black. Suddenly, a huge dark mass became visible on the other side of the road; a lonesome bison bull was ambling down the street towards us. More than one of the four of us yelled a little with shock and giddy excitement, and we passed him much too quickly. So quickly, in fact, that we decided, after the initial shock had subsided a bit, to turn around and have another look. We did, and when the bull appeared again, now in front of us, he was still dark and huge, and still completely unfazed by our presence. Just takin’ a stroll down the Yellowstone highway, minding his own business.

Well, we thought that was a special encounter with a shy wild animal. However, during the three days we spent in the park, we happened upon at least a dozen bachelor bison bulls grazing by the side of busy parking areas, promenading over the Fishing Bridge among the tourists’ cars
or just enjoying the scenery.

Did you know that the bison (zool.: Bison bison bison) aren’t actually native to the area of Yellowstone NP? They were relocated here from their original homes on the plains when it became apparent that they weren’t going to make it on their own because… er… well, because they were being actively decimated for a number of reasons I won’t delve into now.

There are between 3.000 and 5.000 bison in the park at any given time, so it’s little surprise that you run into them every once in a while. But beware, they will run into you if provoked, even though they seem slow and docile most of the time. It’s easy to be fooled by their just chillin’-attitude but they have been known to charge at people and even cause deaths in the past.

We encountered a bison herd on our second day in the park.

There were at least a hundred animals (lots of mama bison with their calves) crossing the road or grazing beside it. Almost as many tourists were stopping their cars and whipping out cameras and tripods.

This, by the way, is a very common occurrence in Yellowstone NP. Here may be one of the few places in the world where you actually get excited about traffic jams, because it usually means that someone has seen something and you might too!

The bison were so close to the cars that you could almost just lean out the window and pet them. If they smelled any nicer, that is. And if it weren’t for the rangers trying their darndest to keep everyone from doing anything foolish like getting out of their cars and walking barefoot in the grass among the bison.

(dramatization with elk and shoes on)

I have to admit that we were a bit taken aback by the rangers’ strictness. They were almost uncourteous towards us tourists. But looking back, I think it really is a piece of work making sure that some bison mama doesn’t inadvertently kill an unsuspecting doofus who’s trying to have his picture taken hugging her calf. And no, I wouldn’t put that past some of the tourists. The bison really seem a lot like sweet-tempered cows. Which makes it imperative for the park rangers to try and keep the tourists away from them as strictly as they have to in order to prevent the animals from endangering people – and ultimately vice versa, I guess.

That goes for pretty much all of the animals in the park. People have been known to walk up to bear cubs and try to pet them, for crying out loud, never wasting any brain power on the possibility of the inevitable Mother Bear being around. Those situations don’t tend to end well.

And so the rangers try to keep tourists and animals separate in an effort to keep the animals as wild and as shy as possible. As the bison and the elk demonstrate, however, the animals have already gotten quite used to humans as a part of their natural habitat.

Maybe that will pose a real problem in the future, if the animals lose all their fear of humans and come into the campgrounds and other residential areas, just to have a look around – and maybe a bite.

For now, Yellowstone NP is a really good place to do some animal-watching, though. We met coyotes, grizzlies (very far away, but still), mule deer, a plethora of birds, and a truckload of elk while we were there.

This one (with a small harem) was smack-dab in the middle of the residential area near Mammoth Hot Springs

Only the moose eluded us. There are bulletin boards at all the visitor centers where you can post your animal-sightings, and it looks like it just wasn’t moose season in September 2011. Only two groups claimed to have encountered moose during their hikes in the very North of the park.

There’s an article on about.com by more versed Yellowstonians than myself, listing some of the best viewing spots. Check it out if you’re planning on visiting Yellowstone NP.

My top tip: Wherever there is a huddled bunch of tourists with tripods anywhere (I had never seen so many telescopes in one place before), make sure to stop and ask somebody what everyone’s watching. Don’t roll your eyes and be all independent backpacker; just seize every opportunity you get to meet the wildlife, even if it means that you have to endure the company of like-minded people.

Popular animal-watching spot Hayden Valley

You might not see the grizzly mama with her two cubs from the road or during a hike, but it’s really worth the while to stop at the popular viewing areas, whip out your binoculars, and watch the bears rip apart a deer carcass from a safe distance.

So these bears were really, really, r e a l l y  far away. But I actually feel like I met a grizzly mama and her cubs! And even though I tend to roll my eyes and pretend to be all independent backpacker, I didn’t mind it one bit that I had to share this experience with thirty other people who had called my attention to the bear family in the first place.

By the way, everyone watched very uneasily as the woman you see here walked a few steps off the turnout and towards the watering hole, even though the bears were still a kilometer or so away.

It seems like most of the visitors to Yellowstone NP do have the right attitude towards the animals after all. Their being some of the last actually wild animals is their main appeal and definitely worth preserving.

And if our egos are bruised by ferocious rangers in the process, that’s a dang low price to pay.

So I took to researching further, as I tend to do since, you know, I’m a researcher, and the next thing I know I was browsing craft shops on eBay and had four bags of facet beads in my shopping cart (they arrived the day before yesterday, and they are prrrrrrrrrrrretty!). My SIL gave me some good advice on where to buy what at a local garden center (they have an arts and crafts section there, don’t ask me why), and come Monday, I spent 20€ on rocailles, a needle, more facet pearls, and nylon string there. I guess you could say that one thing led to another. Hobby begat hobby.

Two projects had caught my eye during my initial online research. The first one was a necklace/bracelet from Alexis’ site, the second was an intricate tubed design/technique called the Cellini Spiral. And they are what I set out to produce.

Two or three days later, the first project was finished, and Hubby is already a little freaked out by the prospect of me sitting by the not-yet-existent fireplace every night, beading the crap out of all the lurvely projects to be found all over. I haven’t bought any books as of yet, but I’m presently feeling the amazon-itch creeping up on me.

Anyway, not to brag, but this is the first of the projects, and I think it turned out really quite alright:

There are a couple of flaws that are mainly due to my tightening the string too much, and there’s one outright mistake I made incorporating one of the facet pearls. But, all in all, I’m giving myself an A for effort, and I’ve already worn the necklace twice without blushing.

By the way, it’s a design Alexis calls Thetis after a mythological sea nymph. I felt immediately drawn to it because of its how-on-earth-did-she-do-that-quality. Also, I’m an Aquarius, I like water. And the sea. And nymphs… never mind.

In other, rather unrelated news, I was watching Moby Dick on DVD while making part of the bracelet. I will never look at either again without thinking about the respective other, because the sparkly blue waves and the boat-tipping whale went so well together somehow.

What is really satisfying about making these is the way the wave shapes come together. The dark blue beads are strung onto the thread and curl in on themselves when the facet bead is inserted. And when the row of light blue beads is added, the wave shapes magically form that lovely arch.

The instructions can be found here (in both English and German; scroll down or CTRL+F thetis), if you’re interested, and I followed them to a tee for the bracelet. With the necklace, I went for a little more sparkle by substituting the white rocailles with silver ones. I’m not sure which I like better, so I’m glad I did both.

I especially like the clasp beads that are made of the same seed-beads and facet beads used to produce the rest of the necklace. I think it’s neat not to have to go buy some pre-made clasp elements for the jewelry. This way, it’s really one hundred percent home-made.

…

Well, apart from the pearls themselves. And the nylon thread. And the big eye needle needed to thread the factory-spun thread through the factory-made beads. Okay, never mind the home-made part. I just like making stuff myself, so I’m all for the semi-homespun clasp beads.

One thing I’ve learned already is that nylon thread is a bit of a beach to work with if tightened and stretched too much. It tends to tangle. But if you leave it alone and let it slide freely through each bead instead of making it squeeze through your uncertainly clenched fingers it will act mature and cooperative. If you’re making this necklace, the whole trick to making the picots work is keeping the thread tight where it comes out of the previous bead, and holding it thus until it gets supported by the next bead in line. Other than that: if you love it, let it flow.

I untangled my fair share of nylon knots before I learned that lesson, so I thought I’d share.

I think it’s an interesting looking style, and it’s also fairly easy to do.

Section off the hair in the top middle of your head. This is the part you’re going to Dutch braid. So the section should be v-shaped, with the tip at the crown, where you want your high pony tail to start. Now Dutch braid up to the crown of your head, then finish the braid normally (English) and tie it off with a small hair elastic. I used one of those silicone deals because they come out without pulling your hair.

Now make a very high pony tail at the crown/end of the dutch braid, including the english braid. I’m not very good at this, as you can see. The pony should sit much higher on the head than it does in my picture.

Now for the bubbling. I have included a picture of the length of the pony tail here on the left, so you can follow the instructions along as we bubble up the pony tail.

The first step towards the bubbling is to untie the English braid, making sure it doesn’t unravel too much, and positioning the braid on top of the pony tail, so it can be seen from the back. Now tie off the English braid, tying it together with the rest of the hair at the point where the English braid ends. For me, this is about half way down the pony tail (Step 1). Your pony tail should now have one bubble with the braid lying on top of it, and the rest of the hair flowing freely underneath. Depending on how far down your braid goes, you can tie the pony tail off with another hair elastic in the middle of the braid, thus creating another bubble (Step 2).

Beneath the end of the braid, I still had half of the length of the pony tail left. I tied it off with another hair elastic half way down, thus creating another bubbly with no braid on top (Step 3). And then, just for laughs, I English braided the bottom part of the pony (Step 4).

Also, if your hair doesn’t form bubbly enough bubbles by itself, you can fluff each tied-off part of the pony tail by gently pulling hair half-way out of the respective lower hair elastic.

Now, I realize this picture doesn’t show a very attractive pony tail, what with all the ends sticking out on all sides, and it’s crooked and unbalanced to boot.

This is because I washed my hair yesterday and didn’t put in any oils or leave-ins. And there are still some layers that haven’t yet grown out and like to stick out of braids and such. And I didn’t pay any attention to balancing the size of the bubbles, because… well, I didn’t think about the picture for this blog post when I did my hair today.

So please may I ask you to use your imagination to photoshop out all of the crookedness and weird stick-outs. Thank you for your cooperation.

Have fun!

You guessed it – I tested homemade honey egg shampoo for the second time.

Here’s the thing: I really hated the smell of scrambled eggs the shampoo left me with last time. So much so that I was willing to take drastic measures against it. I had read about people using coffee grounds in their shampoo, for a better smell, a nice peeling effect, and degreasing. I didn’t have any coffee grounds, but I had instant espresso…

*dunnDunDuunnn*

So this is what I brewed up–and I would strongly advise against using the recipe I concocted:

1 egg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp instant espresso (did I hear you say “yikes” just then? Yeah…)

1 tsp honey

> scrambled with a fork, then mixed with

4 tsp lemon juice

This time, I left the mix in for ca. 23 min, then rinsed it out with rather cold to lukewarm water for at least four minutes. And, lo and behold! No smell whatsoever. Not that I could tell, anyway. No hostile looks from strangers on the train either, so I’m fairly confident that the smell was actually no issue this time.

Neither was the shine and hair feel, by the way. My hair has a really nice sheen to it and looks a bit darker than usual, which I like. Also, I performed a wet assessment, which I had just learned about, and that went well, too.

But: my scalp was on fire after I’d applied the mix. I should probably have listened to the scalp of reason and washed it out right away. But, alas, the cauterizing feeling subsided after a couple of minutes. So I left it in. Now, three days later, my scalp feels a bit like an open wound. It seems very irritated, almost huffy. I think I should leave out the instant espresso next time.

The good news is, I improved my technique considerably, by moving the process of wetting my hair, wringing out the excess water, and applying the shampoo from the sink to the tub. Same mess, less trouble to clean up.

…

Duh!

I know.

I conclude: I’ll have to repeat the experiment without the coffee once more.

Fingers crossed I don’t hurt myself any more than I have to.

When my best friend asked me what I wanted for my 30th birthday, I told her that I always prefer “events” to “things”. Lore has it that she presently googled Munich + event, and one of the first hits was this Dinner in the Dark.

Apparently, about six years ago, someone decided it would be nice to have people sitting in a completely dark hall and enjoying a gourmet meal. The storyteller guiding us through the evening wasn’t sure but thought the idea had been born and raised in Switzerland before migrating and settling over here. Anyway, now

this is the story

all about how

our meal got flipped, turned upside down.

I’d like to take a minute,

just sit right there,

I’ll tell you how we ate our food in an all blacked-out lair.

Sorry.

We arrived at the Alter Hof in central Munich about twenty minutes before the event was scheduled to start and had our aperitif in the quaint atrium with its very interesting light installations. And by light installations, I mean light bulbs hanging from branches high up in the trees on looooooooooooooong cables or ropes.

Right on time, the aforementioned storyteller, a very unhurried guy in Bavarian garb and a well-groomed black-and-grey beard, who calls himself the Mundwerker (literally “mouth worker”, “Mundwerk” means gab), joined the waiting group of about 30 people in the atrium and prepared us for what was to come.

He assured us, for example, that the dining hall would be very dark indeed, pitch black really, and that our eyes would not get used to the dark after a couple of minutes, as some visitors seem to expect.

Also, he announced that our waiter (with night vision goggles on) would serve wine with every course and pour it for us, but if we wanted water we would have to find the water bottle on our table and pour it ourselves. He strongly suggested that we should drink responsibly, however. You know how, when (and by when I mean if) you’re drunk enough, the room starts spinning a little and you have to concentrate on visual clues of verticality and horizontality in order to not fall over? And when you decide to lie down and close your eyes, the spinning gets worse because you can’t see what’s what anymore? Yeah. He warned us that, in the dark, the spinning is serious even if your eyes are open, because, guess what – no visual clues!

Lastly, he predicted that we would feel the need to speak up in the dark because we wouldn’t be able to see whether our respective interlocutors were listening. And since everyone would try to drown each other out, the volume might soon rise to uncomfortable levels. He asked us to keep this in mind and keep it down.

Well, we tried our best to heed his advice. I did manage to drink more water than wine, because the pouring of the water was manageable, even if it took a little bit of getting used to. Also, we wanted to concentrate on the experience rather than the free alcohol, in any case. Unfortunately, the cave people seated next to us didn’t see it that way. They had just a teeny bit more than their fair share of wine and treated the whole experience like a blind date in a beer hall rather than the special occasion that it was, completely ignoring the constant “Shush!” from all over the dining hall.

So that put a little bit of a damper on our otherwise absolutely enjoyable evening.

We were led into the dark dining hall in small groups of about six in conga lines headed by our night vision goggled waiter, Thilo. Our group was first, probably because they wanted to keep track of the vegetarian present (me). We left the light behind and entered the pitch dark cavern. Thilo assured us that there were no stairs or pitfalls of any kind past the point where we entered absolute darkness, and so it was.

Everybody slowed down automatically once we had passed the last of the three courtains blocking out any light, and I was oddly thankful for being able to grip my best friend’s shoulders and feeling Hubby’s hands on my own shoulders. After a few meters, Thilo stopped the conga line and seated us one by one. He gently separated my hands from my friend’s shoulders and led her to her seat.

That was the strangest moment of the whole evening for me. I felt like the world ended in front of me and was almost certain that I would fall off the edge if I moved. I could hear my friend arranging her chair and stuff, but my brain wasn’t willing to believe, on sound alone, that the world still existed.

Once Thilo had placed my hands on the back of my own chair, I groped my way onto the seat and even mastered the hurdle of positioning myself perpendicular to the table. And yes, that was a bit of a hurdle for me. Which it normally isn’t, I swear.

Next, I found my cutlery, wine glass, and water glass. I took my napkin, placed it in my lap, and proceeded to fumble for the water bottle, which I presently opened. I filled my water glass just enough to wet the tip of my index finger I had expertly stuck inside the glass (there was some spillage, though, because I couldn’t properly align the bottle neck with the rim of the glass).

…and then I noticed that I hadn’t memorized the whereabouts of the bottle cap!

After a short moment of panic I found it by retracing my steps and remembering where I usually place bottle caps when pouring me something to drink. That made me feel proud.

When we were poured the first glass of wine, we mastered the task of clinking glasses by arranging a meeting over the bread basket in the middle of the table.

And then: the real challenge. The food. Or, more precisely, eating the food. Finding the food! Thilo served us the first course without telling us what it was or on what kind of plate it came. My best friend’s husband later told us that he felt around for the plate, lifted it to his face and tried to determine what was on it by lightly licking everything. My approach was more hands on. And Hubby ate everything using fork and knife, right from the start.

It was fun to try and find out what we were eating (or drinking, for that matter. There were debates going on about whether the wine we had was white or red), and we were able to determine some of it, but not nearly everything!

Even though we couldn’t see it, the food was carefully plated. We were asked to keep our cell phones off, but I couldn’t resist snapping a quick picture:

After we had finished this course and Thilo had cleared the plates, the storyteller came into the room (or maybe he’d been there the whole time, who knows), asked us what we thought we had just eaten, and revealed the right answers. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything gross like octopus tentacles in chlorella jus dusted with unicorn powder, but a salad with a sherry dressing, pumpkin quiche, and ricotta. I got the salad part right. And “some sort of cream cheese”. Nobody guessed the pumpkin, though.

We all liked the dish, but the morons at the next table thought it would be funny to tell the waiter (and everybody else within earshot… which, in their case, was everybody else) that it felt and tasted like paper maché. Thilo took everything in stride, and was so subtle in his replies that they probably never knew how rude they were being or why he stopped serving them wine at some point.

Also, the wine was neither red nor white, but both. A Rotling, which is a rose-colored wine made from red and white grapes (not already fermented red and white wines). This was such a whimsical choice, I just loved it. And I liked the wine as well, even though, as I have previously pointed out, I don’t really care for wine all that much.

In between courses, the Mundwerker told fairy tale-like stories and played weird and entertaining instruments (a Vietnamese jaw harp, the Dan Moi, and a saw). This fit perfectly with the overall vibe and was a truly amazing experience in itself. Because I couldn’t see, my mind was open to suggestions, and I felt almost transported to a different time and place where folk would sit around a burnt out fireplace in the black of night, telling each other stories to fend off the darkness. I thought it was the perfect archaic add-on to the evening.

We were informed that our next course was going to be a soup served in a champagne flute to be drunk with a straw. The Mundwerker advised us to take a sip from the bottom of the glass first, and then lift the straw a little bit to drink from the top. We did this, and immediately got the beets at the bottom (it was a cold beet gazpacho), but the warm, creamy foam on top remained rather mysterious. Some of us got the whiff of horseradish that was in it (I didn’t), but none of us guessed the base ingredient, which was simply potato.

There was a break after the next course, which the baboons at the next table decided to spend outside, and which left the dining hall most enjoyably quiet. We stayed in the room, so as not to interrupt the experience.

The main course was corn-fed chicken (which almost everyone guessed) with green cabbage (which nobody guessed. We don’t eat green cabbage in Bavaria!) and potato dumplings. I got ravioli with cheese. I think. They didn’t tell me, and I forgot to ask.

One of the more challenging feats was determining whether you managed to actually clean your plate. There was some tapping and licking and groping that evening. And it all happened on plates.

The dessert was fantastic! We immediately guessed the strawberry ice cream and delicious brownie. And then there was the orange panna cotta (I got the orange! Yay me!) with chocolate-covered pop rocks! The perfect surprise effect to finish the meal!

When Thilo came in with a tablet full of burning candles afterwards, the glaring light almost burned my eyes out when he was still at the other end of the room!

We had been playing a guessing game about what color the floor and tables would be, and it was interesting to see the hall for the first time. The tables had felt smaller than they looked, and the room had felt much larger. Funny how that goes.

While we sipped our espressi by candlelight, Thilo arranged the different courses in the anteroom for us to have a look at. It was fun to compare our previous guesswork with reality. Here’s what the food actually looked like:

Well, in reality, the food was much less blurry and more appetizing in color. Sorry about the hideous pictures–I blame the iPhone!

We also took a quick peek through the night vision goggles (strange! Everything seems bigger and much closer), and very contentedly walked out into a very late, v e r y  brightly lit night.

Thank You Guys

for an amazing event!!

You guessed it – I tested homemade honey egg shampoo for the first time today. I thought it might be worth a try since my scalp has been acting up a little lately, even though I’ve already switched from high-SLS-shampoos to very mild ones. I’ve never before washed my hair without any form of soap or tenside, so I’m really curious about the results. The internet assures me that this all-natural, right-out-of-the-fridge-and-pantry-concoction actually cleans and nourishes hair. So let’s see.

1:15 pm

I have just stepped out of the shower. I applied the shampoo around noon and left it in for 45 minutes (it just happened that way. I think 15 minutes would have sufficed) before thoroughly washing it out in the shower.

It felt nice rubbing it into the scalp, but I made one hell of a mess. I wet my hair and applied the shampoo standing over the washbasin. When I was done, the basin was speckled with yellow-ish globs of shampoo, so was the floor around me. If it turns out to be good for my hair, I’ll definitely have to work on my technique. I applied it to the scalp only and massaged it in. When I was done, I wrapped my hair in a towel and went about my day.

Washing it out was easy. I also followed the advice from the LHW (German LonghairWiki) and rinsed for a minute more than I thought was necessary. My hair felt literally squeaky clean afterwards. At the moment, it still smells of eggs and lemon, but I’m hoping that’ll stop once it’s dry.

I’ll update when it’s completely dry, in the meantime here’s the recipe I used. The original recipe calls for 1 egg, 1 yolk, the honey, and lemon juice only. But I can never leave well enough alone and just start my first trial with the basic recipe. I never do. So I added a couple of things I read about in the LHN (German LongHairCommunity), and this is the result. I’m calling it CHEMS, just for laughs (that’s Cinnamon Honey Egg and Mustard Shampoo).

2 eggs

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp yellow mustard

good pinch of cinnamon

lemon juice (ca. 2 tsp)

Apparently, it’s important to mix eggs and honey before adding the rest of the ingredients, since the honey stops the eggs from being cooked by the acids in the lemon juice.

Btw, I whisked all this with a milk frother. It was a leeeetle bit of a pain to clean afterwards, but anything for my hair, right? Our coffee will taste funny the next couple of days, but oh, well.

I used about two thirds of this amount, so maybe next time I’ll try it with just one egg.

3:26 pm Update

My hair is almost dry, just a little damp. It smells like eggy pancakes. And not in a good, yay-breakfast way. Looks and feels alright, though. I haven’t combed it through, yet, but I expect it to be shiny.

3:52 pm Update

I’ve carefully brushed my hair now, and it looks stunning! It was easy to comb through and feels smooth and strong. It’s also shiny, as expected.

I’m amazed that this egg-mixture actually cleaned my hair. It had been almost four days since I’d last washed it, and it was just a tad (a teensy tad) greasy. That’s all gone. My scalp is also happy so far. I’m curious to see how the next couple days will turn out.

1:11 am Update (next day)

Well, it still stinks. I braided my hair once it had dried completely, and doused it in hairspray just to cover the smell, but to almost no avail. I think I’m going to be an egghead until I wash my hair again. Maybe tomorrow. I’ll have to tweak the CHEMS recipe a bit, because I won’t give up that hair-feel without a fight!

10:22 am Update (next day)

Personally, I don’t smell the egg anymore (Hubby says he does, though). But I’ve also lost some of that special hair-feel already. Just got used to it too quickly Nevertheless, I will try the following things in the future:

• Use only the one egg, maybe even just the yolk (some say it’s the whites that stink)
• Add more cinnamon
• Add coffee grounds (for a supposedly nice peeling effect and better smell)
• Use orange juice instead of lemon

And I’ll let you know how it goes.

3:05 pm Update (next day)

I don’t think my hair smells any more. Maybe drowning it in hairspray and combing the spray through the hair the next day does the trick. Will have to investigate further.

Noon, two days later

The thrill is gone

The thrill is gone away

So is the smell.

When I washed my hair earlier (with my usual shampoo, since I didn’t have any eggs handy), there was a distinct wet dog-smell in the air again, but I think I’m a-ok now… if I disregard the fact that my hair feels dry and imperfect, compared to the silky smooth softness after the egg-wash (*giggle*).

Btw, my scalp decided to start itching again yesterday, so it seems that I’m still a ways away from the perfect solution for my head. Fair enough, though; the itching started a whole day later than usual, so I won’t complain.

So here are two different Chinese Buns with two different types of accent braids:

Chinese Bun wrapped over, tiny English accent braid.

I looped the braid around the finished bun and wrapped the rest of the braid around the base of the bun, but because it’s such a teeny braid it kind of just tucked itself under. I like to imagine people wondering where the braid went, so I kinda prefer it that way. To finish, I secured the whole thing with one bobby pin (yes, just the one pin is plenty).

Chinese Bun wrapped under, medium thick Dutch accent braid.

I started the ‘do by dutch braiding the hair on the wider side of a medium low side part (hair parted at the middle of my left eyebrow, braid starts somewhere above my right eyebrow). I’m sure anyone more experienced in dutch braiding would have managed to keep the part neat and straight, but I kind of like the messy dipsy-doodle, zig-zag look as well. Anyway, I dutch braided up to the cowlick in the middle-back-top of my head (where you would tie a very high pony tail), then finished the braid normally and tied it off with an elastic.

Next, I wrapped the bun, just letting the braid dangle off to the side, and then looped the braid around the bun and its base before securing the whole thing with three bobby pins. For some reason, the under wrapped Chinese Bun needs more securing for me. Also, my hands and brain don’t really communicate well with one another when wrapping the Chinese Bun under, so it always ends up crooked and weirdly sticking out to one side (here: the left, in case you hadn’t noticed).  The over wrapped bun looks more interesting anyway, I think, so I won’t spend too much time on teaching my hands and brain the under one.

By the way, since I couldn’t find an online tutorial for the under wrapped Chinese Bun (which probably means that it’s not an actual hairstyle at all, at least not a Chinese Bun):

I wrap it pretty much exactly the same way I do the over one.

Pony tail –> hairstick through the base of the pony tail, between elastic and head –> part hair into two equal strands –> bring each strand up between hairstick and head, cross them over above the hair elastic, then bring them down over the hairstick, crosswise… then lose track of what you’re doing and keep wrapping some way or the other until all your hair is used up. Secure with bobby pins.

Sorry, I’m not very good at this.

(click on image for source)

We didn’t buy any bananas, so there probably won’t be any cake next week (re-insert devastated beaver-pic here).

I am only telling this little tale because the cake I made from week-before-last’s blackish-brown bananas ended up on Hubby’s Top 5 Cakes list. I thought it best to jot it down quickly, so I can treat us to a Top 5 Cake whenever we’ve earned it. Or when I feel like it. Or when it’s Tuesday and the sun is shining. Or when it’s cake o’clock somewhere.

So here it is:

Hubby’s Top 5 Cake List

1. Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake / Mud Cake from my 27. birthday (lost the recipe *facepalm*; re-insert devastated beaver-pic here)

3. Banana Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Crunch Cake from last week

4. Irish Coffee Cake (from Piece of Cake) with fabulous icing I brought to work for my 30th birthday

5. … that one cake with that special twist… nope, sorry, forever lost in time, and lost in space… and meaning (name that picture show). Neither of us can remember. Which, I’m sure, is why it’s only no.5.

By the by, these following cakes were very good as well, and are among

My personal favorites

(in no particular order because I just can’t bring myself to play favorites with cake)

Banana Cake with Vanilla Icing

Banana Berry Muffins (yes, muffins are cake)

Lemon Raspberry Bars (what is the specific definition of cake again?)

There are no cinnamon chips to be found anywhere in Germany, so I substituted them with chocolate chips. Also, I ran out of white sugar half way through the recipe, so I replaced most of it with brown sugar, which, I think, made the whole thing even more yummy and slightly gritty. And I mean gritty in the best possible way. This is especially scrumptious warm, right from the pan.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Crunch Cake