Tag: food

  • Oktoberfest 2022

    Oktoberfest 2022

    When we got our apartment in Munich, one of the features we were most excited about was its proximity to the Theresienwiese. (We were literally a 5 minute walk to the Bavaria statue.) The Theresienwiese is the big showgrounds (historically it was a meadow) where Oktoberfest happens every year… except, of course, it didn’t happen in 2020 or 2021 because of Covid. This was a major blow to the city, both in terms of the economy and civic pride.

    People, there was no way I was leaving Munich without getting to experience Oktoberfest. After our small taste at Frühlingfest in April 2022, we were so excited for it to finally happen in September. Strap in – this is going to be a long post with a lot of photos and videos!

    One thing that surprised me was how early they started setting up. In May I was riding my bike across the Wiese and saw the new Pschorr Bräurosl starting to take shape. We found out later that this was because it was a new, larger design than it had been previously, and they needed to set up early so it could go through security tests and approvals.

    Pshorr Bräurosl

    It also doesn’t look like much of a tent, does it? They’re more like barns than tents.

    By the start of July, the rest of the tents were going up as well. The Pschorr Bräurosl now had a roof and the walls were going up. The Schützen Festzelt was also taking shape, as well as the famous Paulaner and Löwenbräu pillars.

    A month later in August, things were still further along. I was surprised by the Nymphenburg Sekt tent; I hadn’t realised there were tents for drinks other than beer. (“Sekt” is sparkling wine.)

    The last thing to go up were the fair rides in early September. By this point most of the Wiese had been fenced off as the final touches were put in place.

    Oktoberfest Rides

    And then I had to head off to Bangkok for a work trip… I landed back in Munich on the morning of Saturday, September 17 – the very first day of Oktoberfest. I caught the train home from the airport and was delighted to see loads of folks in Tracht on the train and in the stations. Many of them were carrying large boards, which I later found out were the trays serving staff use to carry food.

    Oktoberfest servers

    A few hours later I was at home when a large BOOM rattled the house. I realised it was the traditional 12 o’clock opening gun salute and ran to the window to get a video.

    We didn’t plan on going to Oktoberfest on the first day, instead frantically cleaning the house ahead of the arrival of our guests the next. Around 5pm I heard drumming and watched as a drum corps marched past behind the house in the pouring rain. In full lederhosen, no less! That’s dedication.

    The next afternoon we headed back to the airport to welcome my mom, step-dad, and brother. Eventually we managed to collect them and get them back onto the train home.

    The Garbericks

    The Garbericks were pretty jet-lagged, but we herded them out of the house and down to the nearby Wirtshaus am Bavariapark for dinner. That’s where Joe discovered a new affinity for Schnitzel. 😃

    Dinner at the Wirtshaus

    Me and my gorgeous Mom. ❤️

    Me and Mom

    We dedicated the next day to sightseeing. Our first stop was the Olympia-Schimmhalle so Joey (who swims competitively for Ball State) could get in his workout. Interestingly, they had up a sign that due to the war in Ukraine (and the need for Germany to conserve energy) the temperature in the pool would be cooler than normal. Joey didn’t mind.

    Joey at the Schwimmhalle

    We walked them all around the Olympiapark, including stopping by the 1972 Olympic Massacre Memorial. The 50th anniversary had recently been commemorated, so there were wreaths for each of the murdered athletes. It was very moving.

    Olympic Massacre Memorial

    We then went into the city to show them the highlights of the Altstadt. We finally went into the Frauenkirche, the symbol of Munich.

    Of course I had to take Mom to a local quilting shop! She bought a fabric panel covered in scenes from Munich.

    Mom at a local quilting shop

    We walked all over, trying to take advantage of the sunshine to help them get over the jetlag. In the afternoon we stopped for a little rest in the Residenz Hofgarten.

    Residenz Hofgarten

    The next day was Tuesday, and it was finally time to head to Oktoberfest! Rodd and I got dressed up in our Tracht, and Mom braided my hair for me. It was cold and rainy so I wore boots and a cardigan with my dirndl.

    Me and Rodd in our Tracht

    We headed down early to the nearest entrance at the Bavaria statue. A kind person offered to take a group photo of the five of us! ❤️

    Group photo

    It was Joey’s 21st birthday, so we’d all chipped in the day before to gift him an outfit from Trachten Rausch. He got a belted lederhosen with a beautiful collarless shirt and knitted socks.

    Rodd and Joey

    Mom’s wearing my other dirndl. Don’t we look cute?

    Me and Mom

    Pretty quickly, Joe and Joey decided that they needed appropriately Bavarian hats. We stopped at a stall where a very nice guy helped sort them out.

    Hat stall

    The day was really cool and damp, and it was constantly threatening to rain. Little did we know it would be like this almost every day for the next two weeks.

    Me and Rodd

    We walked up and down the aisles checking out the tents. The Schottenhamel Festzelt is the one where – right as that gun salute had happened on Saturday – the first Oktoberfest keg was tapped by the lord mayor of Munich.

    Schottenhamel Festzelt

    Right after this it started to rain, so we decided to make the Armbrustschützenzelt (“Crossbowman’s tent”) our first stop of the day. It was very pretty with its green and white striped ceiling, and it wasn’t very full yet so we easily got a table. It apparently hosts the German crossbow championship (in a side tent) every year.

    Armbrustschützenzelt

    It had just gone noon, so it was definitely time to get on the beers. Here you can see Joe and Joey modeling their new hats.

    Joe and Joey

    The Garbericks were definitely feeling the Gemütlichkeit.

    Mom and Joe

    Never underestimate the ability of a 21-year-old to suck down beer. Joey finished his first liter in under 20 minutes!

    Joey's first legal beer

    We also introduced them to “Ein Prosit,” the short little drinking song you hear every 10-20 minutes at Oktoberfest. Here is me singing it very, very off-key. 😂

    I was very proud to have remembered to bring my Deckel, a lid for a beer stein. It’s much more useful in the summertime to keep wasps and bees out of your beer in the biergarten. We got a pair of them engraved a few months earlier.

    Me and my Deckel

    We were finally at Oktoberfest! It was really happening!!

    Me and Rodd

    The rain stopped so we headed back out for more exploration. We saw the Paulaner bierwagen and stopped for photos. The wagon is just for show though; pretty much all the beer at Oktoberfest is served from modern kegs. (The only brewery that still does the wooden ones is Augustiner.)

    Paulaner bierwagen

    We were getting a bit peckish so stopped off at Cafe Kaiserschmarrn for cake. This tent is run by Rischart, a famous bakery chain in Munich. It looked like a giant gingerbread house!

    Cafe Kaiserschmarrn

    The nearby Münchner Knödelei (“Munich Dumping House”) had a very cute photo stand-in that Rodd and I couldn’t resist…

    Me and Rodd

    We were getting a bit tired and the Americans all needed a nap, so we headed back to the house to recharge. Along the way we spotted the Löwenbrau bierwagen as well.

    Löwenbrau bierwagen

    After a nap, we headed back in the evening to explore the Oide Wiesn. This is a fenced off area that is meant to be more like the historical Oktoberfest, and you have to pay a couple euros to get in. We went first to the Museum tent, where a traditional band was playing.

    Oktoberfest Museumzelt

    I really loved the exhibit of all the old Oktoberfest posters. Those ones from the 60s and 70s were so cool! The 2022 design is also available on a commemorative beer mug, which I bought later that evening.

    Oktoberfest posters

    We also checked out the Historische Kegelbahn (“Historic bowling alley”) with wooden balls and pulley-system for restoring the pins.

    Historische Kegelbahn

    Time for another beer tent! We went to the Festzelt Tradition, a 5000-seater in the Oide Wiesn that features traditional brass music and dancing. We got a table and ordered some food for Brotzeit. (You’ll notice that we changed into warmer clothes, because the weather was so chilly and damp.)

    Festzelt Traditional

    In the Oide Wiesn tents, the beers are served out of ceramic beer steins rather than glass, and I believe it all comes from barrels as well.

    Me in the Festzelt

    We were absolutely delighted when a group of folk dancers took over the central stage! This was the highlight of the day, seeing them do the Schuhplattler dancing, stomping and slapping their knees and thighs.

    The men were later joined by women, who twirled twirled twirled in their beautiful dirndls.

    We left the Oide Wiesn in the evening and headed back out to the midway, doing a final lap to buy souvenirs and check out the modern tents. The Löwenbräu tent looked to be pretty popular! My favourite part is the big animatronic lion over the entrance, who throws back a beer and periodically roars.

    Löwenbräu

    There are plenty of smaller tents too. We stopped to get some Käsespätzle at Feisingers Kas und Weinstubn (“Cheese and wine parlour”), which was  packed with happy Bavarians singing pop music.

    Feisingers Kas und Weinstubn

    Mom really liked her Käsespätzle!

    Mom eating Käsespätzle

    We couldn’t resist the opportunity to finally see inside the Pschorr Bräurosl, after seeing it being built over so many months.

    Pschorr Bräurosl

    It was PACKED! Definitely not getting a table in here. So many young people, standing room only, up on their seats dancing to rock music. We did a lap and then got the hell out.

    Pschorr Bräurosl

    And that was it for our first day at Oktoberfest! Time to go home and sleep it all off….

    Me and Rodd and the Ferris Wheel

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  • Photo Post

    “Ich habe für dich ein lustiges Oster Geschenk” 😍🐇

    “Ich habe für dich ein lustiges Oster Geschenk” 😍🐇

  • A personal tour of Nürnberg…

    A personal tour of Nürnberg…

    Last year I attended the AWS Nürnberg Meetup Group (via Zoom) and learned a couple things: 1) Nürnberg = Nuremberg, which I had previously naively thought was an entirely separate city 😂; 2) despite being technically located in Bavaria, Nürnbergers do NOT think of themselves as Bavarian but rather Franconian; and 3) the folks there are incredibly friendly. The organiser of the AWS group is Frank, and when I mentioned that I’d like to visit his city someday, he said to let him know and he’d give us a personal tour. But nobody actually means things like that when they say it, right?

    Train to Nürnberg

    At any rate, two weeks after we got home from Vienna we boarded a Friday evening train to Nürnberg. It’s a very fast trip from Munich (less than 90min) so we were there well before the sun set.

    Willkommen Familie Snook

    Um, how cute is that? We had booked a room at Hotel Elch (Elk), which looked to be pretty centrally located to everything we wanted to see. Our room was on the very top floor, right underneath the roof, and without an elevator it was a decent hike up maybe 4 flights of stairs. That’s what you get when you stay in a heritage building.

    Nürnberg

    Frank had given us a tip to make sure to come on a weekend with nice weather. We’d timed it well and the forecast was nothing but blue skies. We dropped our stuff and went for a wander. The center of Nürnberg feels very medieval with its cobbled streets, city walls, and castle looming up on the ridge. Our first destination was the Hausbrauerei Altstadthof, which is the starting point of the Historische Felsengänge tour.

    On the tour

    There were only a few of us on the tour. The guide was a friendly older local guy who spoke only German, so the Snook and I were offered electronic devices where we could punch in numbers at each stop and hear an explanation in English.

    Entry to the Felsengänge

    Felsengänge means “rock passages” and refers to the extensive system of tunnels and cellars carved into the rock beneath Nürnberg. While there are many access points around the city, the main tourist entrance is in Albrecht-Dürer-Platz, right next to the statue of the famous local artist and facing St. Sebaldus Church. We went down the stairs and our guide unlocked the heavy door and ushered us inside.

    Tunnels

    The tunnels were built from the 14th century onwards and were mainly used in the brewing of beer. At one point, Nürnberg had more than 40 breweries based in the city, and each had a rock cellar for fermenting and storing their beer. The tunnels were eventually joined up and they were used during World War 2 as bomb shelters for the locals and to store precious art as well. Some of the connecting tunnels are pretty small (I had to hunch not to hit my head) so definitely this isn’t a tour for someone with claustrophobia.

    Rock cellars

    There were various stops along the way as we learned about the city, its history of beer making, and how the tunnels were used. We also learned about the Reinheitsgebot, the famous German beer purity law that was adopted across Bavaria in 1516.

    Tunnels

    There were also some informational exhibits along the way. Many showed medieval manuscripts with illustrations of monks brewing beer, often with a six-pointed star dangling above the pot. Our guide explained that it had nothing to do with Judaism, but instead was known as the Brewer’s Star meant to ward off fires and bad spirits.

    Brewer’s star

    The cellars were dug very deep, up to 4 stories in places. However over the years some of them were altered or destroyed, and so changes have been made to conserve them. Our guide told us how in this vault, there are columns, beams, and support rods holding the walls and ceiling to ensure they don’t collapse.

    Deep cellars

    We also learned how ice was cut from lakes and transported to the cellars in the winter, where it would slowly melt over the summer and keep the tunnels cool enough for the beer fermentation. The sandstone also filtered groundwater, and we saw examples of primitive “pipes” made from bored-out logs that were used to transport the water.

    Towards the end of the tour I jokingly asked the guide if there were any “Geister” (ghosts) down there. “Oh yes!” he answered. 😳

    Tunnel

    The tour ends back up at ground level where you are offered a sample of the famous local Rotbier (red beer) from the Altstadthof brewery.

    Rotbier

    There’s also a distillery associated with the brewery, so we heard a bit about the process of making whisky and got to step inside one of the storerooms full of barrels. It smelled amazing. Needless to say, the Snook was in heaven.

    After the tour, I had taken Frank’s advice and booked us in for dinner at the Brewery. We enjoyed some fine Franconian fare and sampled more of the beer…

    Dinner at Altstadthof Brauerei

    …and even a bit of their Bierbrand, which is distilled from beer itself. It’s similar to whisky but not exactly the same.

    Bierbrand

    We decided to burn off some of those calories with a nighttime stroll around the city. We headed first to the castle with its dramatically lit walls and battlements.

    From the castle we walked south down Burgstraße towards the Altes Rathaus (old city hall).

    Altes Rathaus

    It stands directly behind St. Sebaldus Church.

    St. Sebaldus Church

    We continued on to the Hauptmarkt, the big public square where the world famous Christkindlesmarkt (Christmas market) is held each year. One of the attractions in the square is the Schöner Brunnen (beautiful fountain).

    Schöner Brunnen

    Nearby is the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), which we would discover the next day has a very famous clock.

    Frauenkirche

    The river that flows through Nürnberg is the Pegnitz, and we crossed over the Museumsbrücke on our walk. From one side we could see the Fleischbrücke, a late Renaissance bridge that has stood for more than 400 years. On the other side we had a view of the Heilig-Geist-Spital built over the river. It was originally a hospital and now it’s an old folks’ home.

    We headed back towards our hotel. Along the way we passed by St. Sebaldus Church again, this time from the front. St. Sebaldus is the patron saint of Nürnberg.

    St. Sebaldus Church

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  • Photo Post

    Still a bit nippy out of the sun, but Spring has sprung 🌱 and the flowers are blooming 🌸 and the beer is pouring. 🍻 2022 Biergarten count: 1!

    Still a bit nippy out of the sun, but Spring has sprung 🌱 and the flowers are blooming 🌸 and the beer is pouring. 🍻 2022 Biergarten count: 1!

  • Photo Post

    No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake, made by the Snook. 😍

    No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake, made by the Snook. 😍

  • Photo Post

    It feels like Spring! We took the bikes out for a ride to Schloss Nymphenburg and a lovely brunch at Alleecafé7. 🚴‍♀️🏰🥪

    It feels like Spring! We took the bikes out for a ride to Schloss Nymphenburg and a lovely brunch at Alleecafé7. 🚴‍♀️🏰🥪

    It feels like Spring! We took the bikes out for a ride to Schloss Nymphenburg and a lovely brunch at Alleecafé7. 🚴‍♀️🏰🥪

  • Photo Post

    The Snook made me a beautiful homemade birthday dinner – pan pizza and a pomegranate cake. He’s the best. ❤️🍕🍰

    The Snook made me a beautiful homemade birthday dinner - pan pizza and a pomegranate cake. He’s the best. ❤️🍕🍰

    The Snook made me a beautiful homemade birthday dinner - pan pizza and a pomegranate cake. He’s the best. ❤️🍕🍰

    The Snook made me a beautiful homemade birthday dinner - pan pizza and a pomegranate cake. He’s the best. ❤️🍕🍰

    The Snook made me a beautiful homemade birthday dinner - pan pizza and a pomegranate cake. He’s the best. ❤️🍕🍰

    The Snook made me a beautiful homemade birthday dinner - pan pizza and a pomegranate cake. He’s the best. ❤️🍕🍰

  • Vienna waits for you… 🎵

    Vienna waits for you… 🎵

    As soon as we got back from Madrid, we dumped the suitcases, did a couple quick loads of laundry, and repacked everything again. 24 hours later we were on the train to Vienna. Time to continue our Habsburg week!

    Train to Vienna

    We caught the RJX 261 from Munich to Vienna, which takes about 4 hours. Since it was dinnertime, we used the train app to order food from the dining car and it was delivered to our seats. I couldn’t resist tweeting it to @_DiningCar.

    Once we arrived at Vienna, we caught a cab to our hotel and then crashed for the night. The next morning, we wandered around the corner to phil (a bookstore and cafe) for breakfast.

    phil in Vienna

    My friend Eileen calls Vienna “the Melbourne of Europe,” and yeah, I can see it. I went for the brekkie option that came with a glass of Prosecco.

    Breakfast at phil

    We were staying in the Museum Quarter of Vienna, and I spotted this graffiti nearby: “Man tötet nicht aus Liebe.” (One does not kill for love.) This saying has been used a lot in conjunction with an Austrian campaign against domestic violence.

    Man tötet nicht aus Liebe

    I also really liked this nearby intersection, with its rainbow pedestrian crossing and LGBTQI street signals. 🏳️‍🌈❤️

    Street crossing

    Our goal for the morning was to see some art, so we headed to the nearby Maria-Theresien-Platz. This public square sits between the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum). In the center there is a memorial statue of Empress Maria Theresa herself. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day in Wien!

    Maria-Theresien-Platz

    We bought our tickets and headed into the Art History Museum. It turns out that Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary commissioned these two museums to house the Habsburgs’ formidable art collection.

    Kunsthistorisches Museum

    The entry to the Museum leads you into the ground floor of the Rotunda with its fantastically decorated ceiling. From there you can branch off into several different galleries.

    Rotunda

    We headed to the right into the Egyptian Collection. It was pretty much exactly what you envision as a kid – hieroglyphics on the walls, huge carved sarcophagi, and mummies in their painted coffins.

    Sarcophagus

    “Do you want to get cursed?” the Snook asked as I posed for a selfie with some burial idols. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s how you get an ancient Egyptian curse.”

    Cat idols and sculptures

    I especially liked this statuette of a hippopotamus from Thebes. They’ve dated it to around 2000BC, so this little guy is like 4000 years old.

    Hippo

    Next we headed to the Greek and Roman antiquities. Hello, butts. 🍑 This is the rear view of the Torso des Speerträgers (torso of the spear-carrier).

    Bum

    The building itself is a work of art, extravagantly decorated and carved.

    Amazonian Sarcophagus

    I especially liked this Amazonian Sarcophagus showing the famous female warriors fighting against the Greeks.

    Amazonian Sarcophagus

    The collection also includes a Roman mosaic depicting the story of Theseus. His battle with the Minotaur is in the center of the labyrinth, and around the sides are scenes with Ariadne. (The museum has spotlights that periodically turn on to highlight parts of the mosaic, which is why the scenes are lit up.)

    Labyrinth Mosaic

    A statuesque Mr. Snook, posing in a room full of Roman sculpted heads.

    Roman busts and heads

    I love the stylised decoration on these Greek amphorae. This one depicts Silenus and the maenads, as well as more Amazons.

    Amphora

    Another part of the museum is the “Kunstkammer” which houses its most fabulous treasures. This is the famous gold Cellini Salt Cellar from 1543, which was stolen in a daring heist in 2003 and not recovered until three years later. It’s insured now for like $60M.

    Cellini Salt Cellar

    Time to look at paintings! We headed up the staircase, which is ridiculously over-the-top and features paintings from famous artists like Gustav Klimt.

    Staircase

    We’d been going for over three hours at this point, so I was feeling a little tired and had a rest on a bench.

    Tired Kris

    The collection includes quite a few works by Peter Paul Rubens. This one is “Haupt der Medusa” (Head of Medusa) showing the severed head of Medusa with drops of her blood turning into snakes. 😳

    The Head of Medusa

    The museum also houses a large number of works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the most significant artist of the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance. Here the Snook views “The Tower of Babel.”

    The Tower of Babel

    We spent nearly five hours in the art museum, so it was definitely time to get outside and see more of Vienna. We walked along the Heldenplatz past the Hofburg Palace (where Marie Antoinette was born!), and through the archway next to the Spanish Riding School.

    Hofburg

    Our destination was St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the most important religious building in Vienna. It’s nearly 900 years old! I was not expecting the beautiful geometric designs made from glazed tiles on the roof. I’ve never seen anything like that on a church before.

    St. Stephen's Cathedral

    The interior is also stunning, with paintings, sculptures, altars, and tombs wherever you look. We walked up and down the aisles. The cathedral was nearly destroyed in 1945 by retreating German forces, but the Captain saved it by disobeying orders to reduce it to rubble.

    Inside St. Stephen's

    We walked all around the exterior of the cathedral too. The towers have many bells, and it’s said that Beethoven discovered he was deaf when he saw birds flying out of the towers but couldn’t hear the tolling.

    St. Stephen's Cathedral

    Digression: The real reason for going to Vienna was to celebrate my 45th birthday. I had been thinking for a while about getting myself a nice wristwatch. (Not a smartwatch; a real mechanical watch.) I’d bought myself a beautiful Longines watch for my 40th, but a year later I accidentally left it in a hotel room in Singapore and I never got it back. I was heartbroken at the time and, though the Snook suggested repeatedly that we could replace it, I told him that I didn’t deserve nice things if I couldn’t care for them properly. Finally, several years later, I felt like it might be time.

    As we walked through Vienna, we looked into several watch shops but I couldn’t find anything that met my requirements. I didn’t want anything too tiny or delicate, or with silly bits of diamonds stuck all over it. I wanted something simple and classic, and ideally I wanted it to be self-winding. What I really wanted was my old watch again, but even though we saw many Longines, I couldn’t find any just like it. The Snook convinced me to check out one more shop, Juweliere Ellert, a jeweler near the cathedral. The saleslady was very nice and showed me many different watches, but none of them were right. She asked me to describe my old watch, and when I did, she suddenly reached back into a cabinet and said, “Is it this one?” IT WAS. It turns out that the particular model had been retired in 2020 but they had one left, and she recognised it from my description. So I got my watch back! She even gave us a nice discount. It was the best, best birthday surprise, and I couldn’t be happier with it.

    Anyway, after that excitement we were starving so we headed to 1516 Brewing Company for dinner and craft beer.

    Dinner at 1515 Brewing Co.

    After dinner we walked back to our hotel, past the illuminated Vienna State Opera. I’d love to see a performance there someday.

    Vienna State Opera

    Back at our hotel, it was finally time to relax. We were staying at Das Tyrol, which I picked mainly because it advertised having a private spa. (We’ve gotten a bit addicted to saunas!) We’d reserved a time slot so we put on our robes and slippies and headed down to the hotel basement. And, WOW.

    Hotel spa

    It had a Finnish dry sauna, a steam bath, a big rain shower, and some couches to relax on. There was even an aquarium built into the wall! We spent an hour down there, and it was heaven. I highly recommend.

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  • Photo Post

    It’s been a terrible, stressful week, but I’m trying to find joy in little things. The first crocuses of spring. Breakfast with The Snook. The biergarten is putting out its benches and tables. And freshly made Krapfen (jelly doughnuts) for Fasching. Sending love and strength to all the kind people we met in Kyiv two years ago… ❤️🇺🇦

    It’s been a terrible, stressful week, but I’m trying to find joy in little things. The first crocuses of spring. Breakfast with The Snook. The biergarten is putting out its benches and tables. And freshly made Krapfen (jelly doughnuts) for Fasching. Sending love and strength to all the kind people we met in Kyiv two years ago… ❤️🇺🇦

  • Photo Post

    Arrived home to find the Snook baking biscotti to accompany his homemade chocolate pudding! 😍

    Arrived home to find the Snook baking biscotti to accompany his homemade chocolate pudding! 😍