Delicious Food and Fire - Tongs - Punch

We thought it was time to celebrate, even though we did not have the final results yet. But we were sure that we had all made it!

Front row: Katrin (my flatmate) - Katrin - Angelika
Back row: Nadja (also called "The B" - sorry!) and ME (just called Nadja)

So we gathered at our flat and had a "party" ;-) First of all we had delicious food - a Swiss Raclette.
Those of you who don't know what a Raclette is - well, it is a kind of grill and you have little pans to put under the grill and of course you can put everything you like on top!
We had prawns, fresh mushrooms, Indian chicken, curgettes to grill on top and of course all kinds of things to put in our little pans and cover them with Swiss Raclette cheese - mmmmmhhhhhhhh!

But of course our evening did not stop there. After we all felt like a stuffed Christmas Goose, we decided it was time for a little drink - a Fire tongs punch. It's a kind of traditional thing in Germany, especially around Christmas - it tastes a lot better, when it's cold outside!

We have a movie called "Die Feuerzangenbowle"(Fire-Tongs-Punch) from 1944. The movie is an adaption of a novel by Heinrich Spoehrl and it is perhaps the best comedy which was ever made in Germany: Hans Pfeiffer and some of his friends are drinking "Feuerzangenbowle". Talking about their school-time they discover that Hans never was at a regular school and so, as they think, missed an important part of his youth. They decide to send him back to school to do all the things he never could do before.

So what is a "Feuerzangenbowle"? First of all, you heat 2 liters of a dry red wine in a big pot, put a cinnemon stick, 2 cloves and the juice of 2 freshly squeezed oranges in it and wait (never let it boil!). Then you take the fire tongs and place it on the pot. Last but not least place a sugar loaf on the tongs, soak it with Rum (at least 54% alcohol!) and then light it!
It tastes absolutely delicious! And you won't have a hangover the next day. If you followed the recipe, your "Feuerzangenbowle" will look like this!


I just want to say thank you to all the people who supported me over the last tiring months and endured my strange moods which changed every 10 minutes. Thank you Katrin, Katrin, Angelika and Nadja for beeing such good friends and "sisters-in-arms" ;-)