Pizza in the wilderness

The last time I spend a night on a cars backseat must have been as a student, taking a rest somewhere around the Alps on a holiday trip to Italy. “Sleeping in my car…” – last weekend it came true for me again. The cause this time was an unbelievable snoring symphony I fled from.

This was the rather unpleasant part of an – apart from that – nice weekend in the beautiful landscape between Palatinate and Alsace: Vast vineyards and orchards, little hills, in between a few scattered villages with cute half-timbered houses; everything is laid back and a bit sleepy… And there are chestnut trees all around – sadly not yet ready for harvest! (Note to myself: Autumn project – try as many new chestnut recipes as possible, sweet and savory)

And there is the Palatine Forest, and in the middle of it the log huts of a summer youth camp. Friend of us are working there for a long time, and this weekend it was time for us to visit.

When we arrived, about 50 children were busy carving wood sticks. The great evening event was the dinner: pizza from a DIY pizza oven made out of an old oil barrel!  Accompanied by Adriano Celentanos “Azzurro” the children had as much fun as the adults… And then, well, then there came the night in the dorm respectively our car…

We also made a short side trip to the little town of Wissembourg in the Alsace, right at the German-French border, where I admired the Gugelhupfs and tartelettes displayed in the shop windows of some pâtisseries.

In the supermarket (where the price of your shopping is still noted in Euro and Franc!), we took the chance to buy a bottle of the great french aperitif Suze. It is popular in France and Swizerland, but in Germany it isn’t easy to get hold of a bottle of this bitter liquor, made out of gentian roots. I am fan of all kinds of bitter drinks, and Suze is one if my favourites. It has a light yellow colour and it is great simply with ice, with sparkling wine or as well in coktails.

I also made a new interesting discovery: violet syrup. It looks so beautiful! The colour  is truly … violet. The taste in contrast isn’t very intense, but I am sure it looks amazing in coktails or desserts. Everyone having some great ideas how to use this, is welcomed to comment.