As we prepare to say goodbye to 2024, it’s time to take a look back and celebrate the successes we’ve enjoyed this year. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing four posts that highlight some of our proudest moments from 2024. First up, let’s look back at Q1, where we had the privilege of working on some truly incredible projects.
We hit the ground running organising various activities for our automotive clients, ranging from enthralling conferences, practical workshops, and even some large-scale marketing events. It was all hands-on deck, but all our work paid off handsomely. We assembled some fantastic interpreter teams to ensure every event went perfectly.
But it didn’t stop there. In Q1, we were also able to support many of our clients with translation services in a variety of areas. In handling promotional materials, medical reports, internal minutes, and legal documents, our team worked tirelessly to deliver translations that were culturally appropriate, as well as accurate and clear. One particular highlight was a major video translation project, where we localized content into numerous languages, helping our clients connect with global audiences.
It was a jam-packed start to the year, and we couldn’t be prouder of our accomplishments. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to reflect on a year of strong growth and success!
The holidays are now over. The final few hot summer days of the year are upon us. We are looking forward to the season of Autumn and the new school year, which is starting just today here in Bavaria, the last of the federal states where this occurs. And my granddaughter is beginning her first year at secondary school – a big new adventure for her.
But learning new skills is something we never stop doing either. We are rising to the challenges, especially the one presented by Artificial Intelligence, which will not only change our business, but actually expand it. Our aim? To always deliver the best-possible service in the best-possible time frame, and all precisely tailored to your needs.
We stand with the multitudes of people attending demonstrations against right-wing hate and fearmongering.
Our staff and our families have their roots in various countries of origin. Together, we support peaceful co-existence based on mutual respect, and we want to live in an open and diverse society.
Our world is becoming increasingly globalised, varied, and interlinked – despite all the issues that confront us daily.
And we are ready to play our part in all these changes – with an expanded range of linguistic services, not least for our conference interpreting clients.
NEW in our service portfolio: languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Hebrew, and Vietnamese
We’ve just demonstrated the effectiveness of our services at an outstanding dealer event for Skoda in Prague. We are delighted about the positive feedback for our on-site services and our international interpreting team comprising members from numerous countries. We are also grateful to them, of course.
You can count on our expertise for your language needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or queries regarding our language services.
We look forward to getting to know you – in person or online, the choice is yours.
We reckon that the incorporation of new technologies should be celebrated with a new design. If you share our opinion, why not browse through our website and tell us how we’ve done.
We are confident that the use of intelligent solutions, such as machine translation (MT) with post-editing performed by experienced editors and the implementation of interpreting platforms (RSI) for your international meetings, mean we can respond faster and more flexibly to your specific needs!
They save time and money. Of course, the security standards we employ here remain of the highest order. We will dedicate ourselves to the achievement of your projects – we’ve been doing for it for 40 years already – and we look forward to your feedback and inquiries. Thank you 👏
40 years of Allround Service – from a one-woman show to a professional agency – the journey and development is clear from looking at our business card. And here’s our newly designed website with helpful information about our innovative service options and our current standards.
Ricotta gnocchi is not a recipe special to my family. Although the dish is eaten in almost all parts of Italy, it is frequently unknown to some people. To me, it recalls sweet memories of my childhood. It takes me back to my summer holidays at my grandparents’ in the mountains of Trentino, a place where I was simply just happy. A bit like Marcel Proust and his beloved Madeleine. These ricotta gnocchi awaken my mémoire involontaire.
Unlike the big city where I was raised, in Trentino they still always use fresh products sourced from local suppliers.
As a child, I loved going shopping with my nonna to buy fresh ricotta in the dairy shop. And then I’d often eat it straight away for breakfast. I’d spread it on bread with a bit of sugar – a great way to start the day.
I rang my nonna a few days ago to ask for her ricotta gnocchi recipe.
A very simple, yet tasty dish. Here’s the ingredients you’ll need, and how to prepare it…
For 2-3 persons:
250 g firm ricotta (alternatively you can use ricotta bought from a supermarket, even if the quality is not quite the same)
100 g wheat flour, type 00 (the kind you use to make pizza). You might have to add a little more flour to produce a dough that is firm, but still elastic
2 tbsp. grana padano cheese
1 egg
A pinch of salt
Butter
Sage
Optional: grated truffle
Bring some water to the boil (salted to taste).
While the water heats, put the ricotta, egg, some of the flour, salt and grana padano into a bowl. Knead everything together with your hands to make a dough. If it’s not firm enough, add some more flour.
Once the dough is ready, put it out on a work surface dusted with flour, and roll into medium-sized balls (or any other preferred shape).
Sprinkle some flour on the shaped gnocchi, and immerse them in the water.
Add the butter and sage to a frying pan, and heat until the butter turns brown.
As soon as the gnocchi have risen to the surface of the water, remove them from the water using a skimmer spoon, add to the pan and fry in the sage butter.
Sprinkle with grated truffle or grana padano according to preference.
Our recipe for this Week comes from Austria, and it’s introduced to us here by Jessica May.
I can still clearly remember how my grandma often made apricot dumplings during the holidays. I always found this quite special, and it seemed like grandma’s very own indulgence routine.
Nowadays, apricot dumplings are usually eaten as a dessert. They used to be thought of as a main course, as indeed were the majority of Austria’s other pastry dishes.
Did you know that this one-time luxury dish, which then became part of the menu of ordinary households everywhere, is now protected as part of the nation’s culinary heritage? Unbelievable, but true!
It is one of the traditional dishes to have its recipe kept in a safe in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, so as to preserve it for posterity.
So, here is grandma’s very own indulgence routine:
Preparation time: approx. 30 minutes
Resting time: approx. 1 hour
Cooking/baking time: approx. 30 minutes
Total time: approx. 2 hours
Ingredients for making 5 portions:
500g quark (curds)
100 g butter
2 eggs
250 g flour
1 pinch of salt
some wheat semolina, to bind the dough
10 apricots
bread crumbs
sugar
butter
optional: cinnamon
This is enough dough to make 10 dumplings.
Knead the curd, eggs, butter and salt into a smooth dough, add approximately 1 – 2 tbsp. semolina, and knead again thoroughly. Chill for about 1 hour to allow the semolina to swell.
Pit the apricots You could use plums instead of apricots, if you prefer.
Shape the dough into a roll, and divide it into 10 equally-sized pieces. The dough can be a little sticky, so always dust your hands with some flour when encasing the fruit in the dough. The dough casing should be about 1 – 2 cm thick depending on the size of the fruit
Steep in slightly salted, gently simmering water for about 20 – 30 minutes (depending on whether you are using fresh or frozen fruit). The dough should rise nicely, and the fruit be soft on the inside.
At the same time, melt some butter in a pan, add the bread crumbs and sugar, and brown slowly over a gentle heat. You can decide how much butter, bread crumbs and sugar to add. It’s all down to your individual taste. Once cooked, drain the dumplings, add to the browned bread crumbs in the pan, coat all over and serve hot. If you like, you can sprinkle them with some icing sugar and cinnamon.
The New Year is just around the corner, so what better time for a very traditional Jiaozi recipe from our Austrian sisters, Qionglin and Yuru WU.
Jiaozi is a well-known dish throughout China. The recipe varies from one region to the next. There are also different folding techniques, and the filling can be prepared according to varying tastes … using vegetables or seafood, for example. The Jiaozi we are showing you here, are made using mixed minced meat, carrots and oxheart cabbage.
Hendian (Yuru WU)
Jiaozi is a dish traditionally prepared and eaten together by the whole family at New Year – and that’s how we do it in the WU home, too. Our grandparents and parents, and we the children, all gather round the dining table, and everyone has a part to play:
Papa, head chef of the WU family, prepares the filling, while Mama gets the dough ready. Then, once it’s all ready, Grandma rolls out the dough in the traditional manner, while we siblings fold the Jiaozi into their dumpling shape.
As a family, we all really enjoy it, and it’s a great way to start the New Year together.
Ingredients
for 4 – 6 people
Dough
750 g flour (type 450)
2.5 tbsp. salt
400 ml lukewarm water
Filling
500 g mixed minced meat
250 g chopped carrots
250 g chopped oxheart cabbage
3 tbsp. soya sauce
1 tbsp. dark soya sauce
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tbsp. salt
2 pinches of pepper
3 pieces of scallions
30 ml of oil
20 g ginger
4 garlic cloves
Preparation
For the dough, simply mix the flour, salt and water. When you see lumps beginning to form, knead the dough well with your hands. To test if the dough is soft enough, press it with your finger. If it regains its shape without any indent forming, then it is ready. If this is not the case, simply moisten your hands with some water, and continue kneading the dough. Once it has been kneaded, allow the dough to rest for a while. Do this by spreading a cloth or some cling film over the dough to prevent it drying out.
NOTE: The longer the dough remains wrapped in the cling film, the softer it will become, BUT don’t let it get too soft, so keep a close eye on it!
Now, let’s turn to the filling.
Add the carrots and oxheart cabbage to the minced meat, and season everything with the soya sauce, oyster sauce, salt and pepper. Mix the filling well. Now, heat the oil and add the finely chopped garlic and ginger. After 30 seconds, or once you can smell the aromas, mix the garlic and ginger, together with the oil, into the filling.
The filling can be varied according to your own particular preferences. For vegetarians and vegans, we recommend substituting the meat for vegetables with low water content.
Now it’s time to shape our dumplings. Sprinkle some flour onto your work surface, and put about a third of the dough onto the surface. If your work surface is large enough, you can put all of the dough out in one go. Cover the rest of the dough. You need small round discs of dough to make the dumplings. There are two ways of doing this:
The quick method: roll out the dough until it is about 2 mm thick, and cut out the discs using a large circular cookie cutter (approx. 10 cm in diameter).
Traditional method: shape the dough into a roll, and using a knife, cut it into equally-sized pieces about 4 cm long. Using your hand, press down the small lump of dough until it is flat, and roll out into medium-thick discs (approx. 2 mm). The discs should be about 10 cm in diameter. Make sure that the edge is a little thinner than the centre, so that after shaping the dumplings, they have the same thickness all over.
Now for the filling.
Place about 1-2 teaspoons of filling into the centre of the disc of dough, and seal. Take a look at the video to see how to fold the dumplings properly. You’ll soon get the hang of it with a little practice.
