New York Times All Purpose Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 scant tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, preferably European style

1 cup whole milk.

1. Preheat oven to 425. Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Transfer to a food processor. Cut butter into pats and add to flour, then pulse 5 or 6 times until the mixture resembles rough crumbs. (Alternatively, cut butter into flour in the mixing bowl using a fork or a pastry cutter.) Return dough to bowl, add milk and stir with a fork until it forms a rough ball.

2. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and pat it down into a rough rectangle, about an inch thick. Fold it over and gently pat it down again. Repeat. Cover the dough loosely with a kitchen towel and allow it to rest for 30 minutes.

3. Gently pat out the dough some more, so that the rectangle is roughly 10 inches by 6 inches. Cut dough into biscuits using a floured glass or biscuit cutter. Do not twist cutter when cutting; this crimps the edges of the biscuit and impedes its rise.

4. Place biscuits on a cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Serves 6 to 8.

Floating money frames

One of the random things I collect is currency from the countries that I visit. I currently have six countries (I've been to more than that, but I didn't start this until I was an adult, so I don't have some of them like Hong Kong or Malaysia). The biggest problem I had was that I didn't have a way to display them. People frame money all the time, but sometimes the notes are beautiful front and back, and I wanted to be able to display both sides. I finally came up with the idea of getting floating frames, sandwiching the money between them, and hanging them on a wall with the ability to get them down. I ordered a bunch of floating frames off of Amazon in a large and a small size. I intended to use the large for paper currency and the small for coins. 

After cleaning the glass on the frames, I measured and spaced the bills where I wanted them (I had so much Vietnamese dong, I had to use two large frames, and with no space between the bills), and then taped them with masking tape on one side.

Using the tape as a hinge, I flipped it over. I then put a small amount of double sided archive tape. 

 Peeling off the back of the tape was a pain. Flipping the currency back over, I pressed the bill to the glass. After doing all them, I laid the other piece of glass over the first and fit them into the frame. Here's the back:

And the front. Voila.I know the "front" of the dong is the one with Ho Chi Minh, but I thought the other side was prettier. 

The coins were a little bit harder. I first marked out a piece of paper with the centers crossing. I then arranged the coins to where I wanted them to be, and traced the outlines. This is the example with the British coins, which form the royal crest on the back of them:

After that, lay the paper under one of the pieces of glass, centering it. (I neglected to get a picture of this.) The adhesive that I used was called E6000. It dries completely clear, and you only need a small amount (emphasis on small). I put a dab, here on the 1p.

And laid it on its place on the template (again, forgot to get a picture of this). After doing all the coins, carefully place the second pane of glass on the coins, Leave for a day to cure.

 The width of some of the coins did leave the glass too thick for the frame. Justin ended up having to build a new support out of balsa wood for some of them. I don't have a tutorial for that though. Measure, cut, miter, glue, and spray paint.

I did all of them in less than a hour, They are currently sitting in my closet waiting for Justin to hang them. Sadly, the only wall I have blank and wide enough is in my bedroom, but maybe some day I'll have a long hallway where I can hang them to be a conversation piece.

Germany- Oberammergau

The second to last day I was there, we headed off to Oberammergau. It was the home of Schloss Linderhof and a beautiful town.

Kofel in the background. I'm a lousy photographer.

The town is famous for its wall murals.

Schloss Linderhof

Diana statue

The ceiling of Linderhof that I got before we were told not to take pictures.

Statue of King Ludwig II

Austria- Kufstein

I landed at 8:30 in the morning. This was my second time to Germany, so why not go to Austria? We hopped on a train and took the hour and a half train to Kufstein.

Festung Kufstein

The fortress. This is where we spent the majority of our time.

The view from the top.

Germany- Munich

In a unexpected twist, I ended up going to Germany last minute. No seriously, I booked the tickets on a Sunday, and on Friday I was on an airplane. Have some pictures:

Apfeltaschen, basically apple turnover. I ate about a dozen of them.

Karlsplatz

Karlstor

Schloss Nymphenburg

Galleries of beauties

Chapel

Asian pagoda

Um, what the hell?

Pagoda

Bathhouse ceiling

Amalienburg

Entrance into the hall of mirrors. I couldn't get a good picture inside of there.

Rathaus Glockenspiel at Marienplatz.

Marienplatz

These were my friends, Risa and Mike, who put me up.

We passed a cathedral where an organ recital was going on.

Frauenkirsche

Korean face masks!

Walking Man statue

Chinesischer Turm in the English Garden.

English Gardens