Culinary Travel Part IV: Austria

Last night was Christian’s choice for what country we would “visit” for dinner, and he chose Austria. His choice meant that he would make the entree and I would make the appetizer and dessert. Now, I don’t know that much about Austria other than the Von Trapp Family and that the country is known for it’s amazing tortes and coffee. And the fact that Christian’s home town is only about an hour away from the border of Austria made me feel he really had an unfair advantage
As an appetizer, I made what I seem to be best at lately: a soup. Paprika soup to be exact:

Austrian Paprika soup
3 Slices Bacon — diced
1 Large Onion — chopped
2 Large Green Pepper — chopped
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 Tablespoon Paprika
6 Cups Beef Broth
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
4 Large Potato — diced
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
Directions Saute bacon, onion and peppers for 10 minutes. drain grease. add flour and paprika and cook for 2 minutes. add broth, salt and potatoes. simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are done. pour into soup bowls and top with sour cream.
Serves 4

I pretty much followed the above directions except for the fact that I added WAY more paprika than recommended AND I added some of the liquids and fat left over from cooking a pork shoulder in my Crock Pot to the veggies before adding the beef broth. Christian’s verdict? “A KEEPER.” He loved it, but I felt like I cheated because it was so easy. Wow. I have a calling, and it’s stews and soups.

Christian’s entree? He made Krautfleckerln, a pasta dish of sorts, with white cabbage and bacon. Deliciousness! And really so simple. I could have possibly even been successful at it:

Zutaten für 3 Portion:
Kopf Weißkraut
1 TL Zucker
1 Schuss Fett oder Öl
1 Zwiebel gewürfelt
500 g Fleckerl
1 Prise Salz
1 Prise Pfeffer

Die Nudeln im Salzwasser bissfest kochen, abseiehen und mit kaltem Wasser abschrecken. Die Zwiebel im Fett anrösten, Zucker dazugeben, Kraut in feine Streifen schneiden und dazugeben.

Alles zugedeckt dünsten lassen und mit Salz und Pfeffer abschmecken. Bei Bedarf etwas Wasser nachleeren. Zum Schluss die Fleckerlnudeln zugeben und mit Blattsalat servieren.

Wenn man mag, kann man auch Schinken oder Speck dazugeben (am Anfang im Öl anbraten).

Desserts always, always trip me up. And, after my last dessert attempt of dumplings, you’d think I would have had the common sense to stay away from dumplings. But noooooo, I had to fall in love with the very thought of potato-plum dumplings (god knows I wouldn’t ever consider making a torte!). Now, while the dumplings were a hit, we both agreed that dispensing of the potatoes and just using regular dough would have certainly made it a runaway winner. But it certainly was eaten, and that is what counts!

INGREDIENTS:
4 large russet potatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup farina
1 cup all-purpose flour, or as needed

12 Italian prune plums
12 cubes white sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup dry bread crumbs

additional melted butter and sugar for
garnish (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Scrub potatoes, and place them into a large pot with enough water to cover. bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 40 minutes. Drain, and cool. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel, and press through a ricer into a large bowl. Set aside to cool. This part of the process can be done as much as one day in advance.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the prepared potatoes, salt, egg, and 1 tablespoon of butter until well blended. Gradually stir in the farina, and then the flour. If dough is still wet, more flour can be mixed in. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth, about 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Split open each plum where it cracks, and remove the pit. Replace each pit with a sugar cube, and close.
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into twelve 3 inch squares. Place one plum into each square, and bring the corners around to the top. Pinch together all of the seams to seal.
5. Bring a large pot of water to a slow boil. Place about 4 dumplings into the water at a time. Once they float to the surface, continue to cook them for about 5 more minutes. Transfer cooked dumplings to a covered bowl, and keep warm.
6. Melt the remaining 1/2 cup of butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir in bread crumbs, and 1/4 cup of sugar. Continue to cook and stir until browned. Remove the bread crumbs to a plate, and roll warm dumplings in the mixture until entirely coated. To serve, place a dumpling or two on a plate, sprinkle with a little sugar and a little extra melted butter, if desired.

We enjoyed our Austrian meal with a background of Mozart and afterwards watched (or Christian watched…I inevitably fell asleep not out of boredom but out of pregnancy) “The Counterfeiters,” a movie not based in Austria but staring an Austrian actor (Blockbuster isn’t the best place to look for an Austrian film). I HAD suggested “The Sound of Music,” lol.

•••

Christian leaves Thursday, but in terms of edible food (i.e. me not living on PBJ sandwiches or Lean Cuisine) I’m covered. In fact, TOO covered. We have frozen meals packed to the ceiling and I almost feel I’ll need to have a party to get rid of all the meals we’ve stockpiled. I’ll be a well-fed mamma while he’s gone. Christian made some incredible meals the last few days. I will not, will not, will not step on that scale until my next doctor’s appointment! Here’s some of his cooking efforts (successes):

Cleaning? Check. Now, cooking…

Hannah’s nursery corner is done! I’ve got all her things put away, her bassinet all set up, my diaper bag AND hospital bag both packed and good to go, and my mom’s drawing of me that was given to me at my shower last week hung on the wall… I can take a breath now. Or can I?

I’ve got my nesting down, that’s for sure. Give me a sponge, mop, Mr. Clean, a vacuum and some towels, and I’m a very happy camper. Give me a life’s worth of photographs stuffed into a picnic basket and ask me to date and organize them? No prob. Give me my entire existence in financial records and tell me I must get them in perfect order and shred the rest? Gotcha. Heck, give me a toothbrush and tell me to clean the bathroom ceiling to cracks between tiles and I’ll oblige. But that kitchen thing….
I always wanted to be a mom who was known for her cooking (in a very good way, of course). The one that cooked so well that my kid’s friends would beg to stay over for dinner. The one who had the “perfect” meal every night at precisely 6:30 p.m. Okay, there’s one good thing about having a baby at (ALMOST) 40 years old. I’ve relaxed my standards a little. But I still don’t want to be known as the mom who makes funky, mismatched and horrible meals, and I want my daughter to be healthy and happy to sit down at the dinner table each night. Thank god Christian is a master cook and rarely protests TOO much about my juvenile efforts at the stove.
I’m also going to try to make most of my daughter’s first foods. I’ve bought books on the subject of making homemade baby food and it doesn’t seem TOO difficult. Plus, I’ll be able to avoid all the additives, salt and sugar that is found in most commercial products. My first food was peas… Hannah can do better than that! I want her first food to be a “Pureed melange of rutabaga, heirloom sugar snap peas and baby spinach with a fine dusting of South China Sea rice cereal, sprinkled with lait au Mami.” Or something along those lines No, in actuality, I DO want to make as much of her first food be as natural and basic as possible, with the understanding that Gerber jars WILL be on hand for emergencies. I also want to start her on veggies as opposed to fruits. Some say that will get her to appreciate the less sweet foods before taking for granted that all food must be sweet to be good. I have no experience on the subject, but it sounds reasonable to me.
Now, in terms of MY food. Well, I’ve been eating like a champ the last few days. A sumo wrestler champ, that is. It’s like the baby shower just took all inhibitions and sense of control and said, “See ya!” I managed yesterday to eat three… yes, three… slices of pumpkin cake AFTER lunch. And that didn’t stop me from eating dinner, either. I’m hoping that’s an exception, not the rule, but I must admit. It felt good, tasted good, and gosh darn it, I deserved it!
Here’s yesterday’s breakfast, an alpine muesli I made up of oatmeal, wheat berries, diced pear, plain Greek yogurt, honey oat cereal and mixed nuts with a dash of cinnamon. Here’s yesterday’s dinner, made by moi. Organic refried black beans with cumin and onion powder, cheese and onion quesadillas and confetti salad. No dessert (didn’t have any left in the fridge! Otherwise, I might have…)

Culinary Travel Part III … and travel “on a dime.”

Last night was the third installment of Christian’s and my “Culinary Travel Adventures” that we have every Sunday evening. It was Christian’s turn to choose the “destination,” and he chose Lithuania. We had a heck of a time finding ANY books on Lithuanian literature at the library, so we resorted to a child’s book on Lithuania to read during dinner. And Lithuania’s culinary repertoire is not so vast. Basically it’s all about meat (pork), potatoes, cabbage, carrots and onions, so we had to dig deep to make sure we didn’t overlap on our respective dishes, lol. Christian picked out the music (very good, folksy music, by the way), and we just bombed on finding a Lithuanian movie to watch after dinner. SO, instead, we watched Lithuanian short documentaries on YouTube
As an appetizer, I made Lithuanian Cabbage:

LITHUANIAN CABBAGE
Printed from COOKS.COM
1 med. head cabbage
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 med. head purple cabbage
1 med. can sauerkraut (strain a little)
1 lb. bacon, chopped and cooked (pour some fat off)
1 med. onion, chopped and sauteed in bacon fat
Cook cabbage in small amount of water for 10 minutes or until crisp and tender. Cook onion and bacon until bacon is crisp. Combine cabbage, brown sugar, bacon, and onion. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.

Christian said it was very similar (sans beef broth and cooked less) to a kraut dish served by his mother, so the taste was familiar and good for him. Talk about a hearty, healthy winter dish that costs so little! I only used half a head of cabbage of red and white, and we will be eating this for days.
Christian made the entree… basically “Lithuanian Latkes,” for lack of a better description. Again, SO good, hearty and penny-pincher friendly:

LITHUANIAN POTATO PANCAKES (BULVINIAL BLYNAI)
Printed from COOKS.COM
7-8 potatoes or 3 c. cubed potatoes
2 eggs
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
Peel and grate potatoes. Mix in other ingredients. Melt fat or heat 1 tablespoon cooking oil in frying pan. Drop spoonfuls of mixture onto hot skillet. Brown each side to a golden brown. Serve with sour cream or applesauce.

It was tough finding a dessert for our Lithuanian meal. I guess folks in that country are too full to think about a post meal dessert. I know I was almost ready to pop (no, not pregnancy related!) after three pancakes. But here’s what I found and made:

SALTANOSIAI (COLD NOSES)
1-package won-ton wrappers
Berries (blueberries, raspberries or blackberries)
Sugar
Sweetened sour cream (Stir in approximately 1 teaspoon honey or Sugar per 1/4 cup sour cream.)

1. Use an inverted glass like a cookie cutter to cut the won-ton wrappers into rounds. Or, if you prefer, wrappers can be left square.
2. Place lightly salted water on the stove to boil while preparing the dumplings. Use enough water so the dumplings can move freely about without crowding, otherwise they will stick together.

3. Place about one teaspoon of Berries in the center of the won-ton wrapper. Be careful not to use so many Berries that they are likely to leak out during cooking. Place about one teaspoon of Sugar on the Berries.

4. Moisten the edges of the won-ton wrapper. Fold over the edges sealing well. If you used round wrappers, your dumplings will now be in half circles. If you used square wrappers, you will have triangular shaped dumplings. Repeat until won-ton wrappers or Berries are used up.

5. Reduce the heat on the boiling water to a gentle simmer. Drop the dumplings in the hot water one at a time. To prevent the dumplings from sticking together, stir once around the pot with a wooden spoon. Do this only when necessary, as you do not want to break open the won-ton wrapper and have the filling leak out. Simmer gently about 5 minutes.

6. When done, remove dumplings from water using a slotted spoon. Drain well.

7. Using small serving bowls; place 2-3 dumplings in each bowl. Top the dumplings with a dollop of the sweetened cream.

It will be an adventure thinking up the next “culinary travel” destination next week. But after last night’s hearty meal and today’s scale reading, it just might be somewhere tropical, fruit-based, and where staples grow high up in trees, not under the ground, lol.

•••

And another couple’s adventure that we’ve decided to start up this week? Starting today, we’re going to be doing our version of the “staycation,” or “Travel on a Dime,” since this is how it works: We lay out a map of El Paso and toss a dime in the air. Whatever grid that dime lands on is the area we explore next. Today it’s going to be somewhere in the Eastside, near Railroad Drive. Never heard of the area, mostly residential it seems, but it has a park. We have no plans other than to just check it out, take some photos and see how others live. Who knows…if we keep this up, we’ll become our own Google Maps and not ever get lost in the city again. At least the dime didn’t land in South, South El Paso right on the border (yes, we have set limits!)

•••

Yesterday was a major milestone day for us… we installed the car seat and put together the travel system for Hannah!!!! Hey, I get my thrills in small ways, my friends.It was so amazingly cool to have her system set up and good to go for whatever could happen early (god forbid, but we wanted to play it safe), and to watch Christian set it up in no time and for us to actually have that little car seat base permanently installed in the Jeep really makes me feel like a mom, lol

One-hit wonder?

I am uncannily good at making amazing pasta sauces from ingredients that wouldn’t, “couldn’t,” SHOULDN’T go together. Forget pouring a jar of Emiril’s sauce in a pot and heating it up. I have to make it funky, spicy and unique, even if I have to do it under wraps in order for it to be accepted at the table.
For instance, last night I made farfalle pasta and, although we had a ready-made jar of olive/caper tomato sauce, I went out on a limb to not only create something truly unique, but to use up ingredients in the fridge I’d hate to throw away just because we haven’t gotten around to using them.
So here it is, the ingredient list for my pesto/baba gannoush pasta sauce. And yes, it was a hit!

2 zucchinis, sliced
three cloves garlic
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup baba gannoush
1/2 cup pesto sauce (I used Frank Sinatra brand creamy pesto sauce)
handful of fresh, chopped parsley
3 slices raw bacon

I simply added all of the ingredients into a sauce pan, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. When done, I added it to the drained pasta, mixed, and sprinkled walnuts on top. Delicious. AND I have yet another pasta sauce that no one would ever eat if they knew what I threw in there, lol. And a fridge that is not in danger of having a huge expiration date stamped on it.

Mamma’s in the kitchen

I spent most of my waking hours in the kitchen yesterday, fine-tuning my baking skills and trying out new recipes. Again, I never ever go by a recipe and always just wing it, but yesterday the culinary gods were on my side, because Christian loved everything I made! No one ever said I was Betty Crocker, but I must say, my dishes did turn out (luckily? A one-time fluke?) amazing.

I started off making lunch, which consisted of rigatoni pasta made with a sauce that included:
• 2 oz. Muenster cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• chile powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup olive oil (yes, I know, milk and olive oil do not mix. No worries. It all got mixed up in the rigatoni in the end, and you can’t tell the difference!)
• Dash dried thyme
• Dash onion powder
• One big “blob” of hickory bbq sauce (like a big squeeze from a bottle)
• 1/2 sm. can of tomato paste
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 1 package deli honey ham, sliced

I mixed all that stuff up together and cooked it while the pasta cooked. Drained the pasta, added the sauce, tossed it around, and voila! Christian’s FAVORITE sauce I’ve ever made for him. He said it might even be better than his, and folks, he follows recipes. GOOD, established, haute cuisine recipes. Score!

When Christian went to work, I went to work on using up the eggs we’ve been neglecting, as well as the rye flour, semolina flour and white flour that we’ve avoided. I decided to make a sweetish bread. Sweetish as in not TOO sweet but not bland and “brick of lead” bread either.

And the finished product!

I mixed two cups regular flour, some baking powder/baking soda, 1 cup rye flour, one cup semolina flour, two eggs, 1/2 stick butter, 1 1/2 cups or more (?) water, allspice, sugar, salt, cinnamon and a tiny bit of milk, and made a boule from that. Then I shaped it into a loaf and put it in a pyrex dish. On top of the loaf, I glazed with some leftover cherry jam, and on top of that placed slivers of Granny Smith apple, sugar, cinnamon and walnuts. Baked at 375 for about an hour. Heavenly, aroma-packed bread, perfect with a cup of herbal tea and some jam.

Dinner was a mix of elbow grease and convenience. I bought a DiGiorno’s self-rising four cheese pizza, and added bacon, slices of yellow onion, tiny pieces of one of our habanero peppers from our indoor “garden,” canned pineapple and dried thyme.

Before the bake

After an hour

Dinner is served

Baked it for about 25 minutes at 400, and it turned out way better than any Domino’s Hawaiian pizza I’ve ever had. The habanero, alas, was a bit TOO hot and sort of overwhelmed the pizza, but all in all, the entire pizza with the side ingredients cost about $10, which is a few bucks less than the equivalent from any delivery service. Plus, it looks “sexier.”

Comforts of home

It seems all Bavarian households have an orchid at their window...we do too, now.

I had never felt so AT HOME than I did when I went to go stay with Christian at his home in Rohr, Niederbayern. I was fortunate to have stayed with him and his family about 4 times, each time no less than two weeks, and twice for a month at a time. Despite the language barrier, I felt utterly at ease and at peace just sitting in the living room with his mom, having Kaffee und Kuchen in the back yard under the huge apple tree, and sleeping in Christian’s bed, his room having a view of the vast, rolling hops and rapeseed fields.
Christian’s and my niece Nina (the daughter of Frank, Christian’s brother) and her brother Dominik would come over almost daily for K and K and to play, and I guess that’s when (hindsight is 50/50) I knew I had it in me to actually have maternal and nesting instincts, as I loved so much to watch over them when their parents were occupied, and I was mesmerized by their rapid learning and growth. Their Oma’s home, Christian’s home, was a fortress of serenity, comfort, good food, good company, and a wonderful routine that never became mundane.

I grew up in quite the opposite atmosphere, never routine. I loved my childhood and my home, but I do admit I always wished I had more structure and routine growing up, and I got it rather late in life via my husband. I could show him spontaneity, and he could show me structure, discipline and a sense of routine that I find so comforting…to be safe in knowing that things will pretty much be in their place and as they always have been. I need a little (or a lot) of that.
We live in a 580 square foot apartment, and with the addition of one in January, space will be even more of a commodity. However, we’ve managed to begin to create a wonderful little home, filled with traditions from both sides of the Atlantic. Whereas Christian collects American sports team baseball caps, Homie figurines and books… I collect reminders of “home” in Rohr, with Lebkuchen tin boxes, incense smoker figurines, orchids for the window, family photos, garden gnomes and German language-learning books and tools. It’s a complete hodge-podge of American and German influences, and I just adore my home. I adore coming home and seeing what we’ve created with what we’ve got.
Sometime within the next few years we will make the permanent move to Bavaria but in the meantime, this is home sweet home.

Curry… and hurry!

We wrapped up the holiday weekend last night with a curry chicken dinner I prepared, served alongside yet MORE of Christian’s kartoffelsalat, baguette, and salad. And I finally polished off the remaining two pieces of German chocolate cake (store bought) I’d been having at practically every meal since I bought the whole sheet of cake a week ago. I normally (i.e. pre-pregnancy) am not enamored of chocolate and especially not enamored of coconut, but the two items have been calling to me regularly since the two blue lines showed up on the stick!
Since we’re about one day away from grocery day, we were down to just four chicken thighs, half a head of cabbage, some very floppy veggies and lots of potatoes, I made the best use of spices and condiments I could, and came up with this recipe that turned out to be fantastic. Now the cubbard is bare, but we definitely made the most of what we had.
The meal was done in less than an hour, and gave us plenty of time to grab a post-dinner latte at Starbucks and settle down to an evening of watching “Babies” (HIGHLY recommended!) together.

Chicken curry in a hurry:
I’d have served this with rice had I had the instant kind. But it works just as well with crusty baguette.
Serves two generously.

Four chicken thighs placed in a well-oiled baking pan
One zucchini, sliced
curry powder to cover thighs
dash of salt on each thigh
generous dashes of cracked pepper
two fresh basil leaves placed on each thigh
Crushed dried habanero pepper to taste
More olive oil to drizzle on chicken

Bake at 450 for about 40 minutes.

My life in pictures

Despite the mosquitos, this was so fun!

When I was about 18 years old, my first car, a (what was cool then) turquoise VW Golf, was stolen. In it were just about all of my childhood photos in a box, that I’d been planning to put together in scrapbooks but never got around to it. (Note to self and others: NEVER use your car as another closet!) I’ve been trying to make up for the first two decades of my life in lost pictures ever since then, ruining lots, losing lots and not storing them correctly (most of my photos now sit forlornly at my father’s house, in an old wicker picnic basket. But now, especially with my daughter’s impending arrival, I realize JUST how important, meaningful, life affirming and educational family photos are, and how they help us shape who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going…
That being said, we got a new camera yesterday. My Olympus Camedia has been a good friend to me these last 8 or so years, taking me to Munich several times, Paris, New York, Cloudcroft and many places in between. But it’s put itself into retirement mode, to the point where taking one simple photo of a stationary object takes about eight seconds. On a good day. We are the proud new owners of a Casio EX-H10, and I’m ecstatic. Ecstatic because now CHRISTIAN’s camera happy too, and shares with me the strong desire to record just about anything and everything. So we took 200 photos yesterday. You only have to endure a small percentage of those
I’m so grateful for Flickr and Picasa and iPhoto, my three “albums” of photos I have online. Now it’s time to start printing these babies out to fill up not a virtual scrapbook, but a real, true old-fashioned one that Hannah will be able to flip through and see the evolution of the Waldmannstetter-Kemp families.
•••
I picked up Christian from work at noon and we had an outdoor “picnic” at my dad’s house so we could hang out with the dogs. This weekend we’re going to housesit/dogsit for my dad, who is taking a much needed mini-vacation with my mom. We love dad’s house for its location (Kern Place), great outdoor grill and pretty amazing King size bed (we’re learning to deal with our Queen at our apartment…)

I didn't know just how big I was getting until I saw this...

It was a treat having cold pasta leftovers, salad and potato rolls while we watched the dogs entertain us, beg for treats, and snoop the cracks and crevices of the yard…

My male Shar-Pei/Pharoah Hound dog

•••
In the afternoon, we lolled about at home, avoiding the (still) heat outside, and playing with our new Casio toy…and then we took it on “safari” on the banks of the Rio Grande…

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•••
We spent the evening at home, taking goofy shots and having dinner. Yes, I took photos of just about everything and anything, but no worries… I’ll get over it, lol.

Hausfrau in training

They FINALLY have my beloved Sharon fruit at the grocery store!!!

Semolina soup, turkey sandwich and salad dinner

Losing at the lanes, not at the table…

Yesterday, Christian and I attended a friend’s birthday party at Fiesta Lanes Bowling Alley. Now, I have bowled once before in my life, and I was about 13 years old. I think I cheated then AND I didn’t have a bowling ball growing inside my tummy at the time, lol.

Suffice it to say I SUCK at bowling, as you can see by the scoreboard. But it didn’t put me off trying again sometime in the not so near future.

Loved the theme of the party. “Toy Story.” The birthday boy did NOT celebrate his 13th birthday, but rather his 31st. And I thought it was FANTASTIC! We even got goodie bags filled with “Toy Story” pencils, kalaidoscopes, keychains, Tootsie Rolls and stickers. I think for my next birthday, which is about 2 weeks after Hannah is born, I want a theme birthday party too, just like that (no, not at a bowling alley, more like Chuck E. Cheese and NOT Hannah Montana-themed!) Retro birthday parties are going to be the next IT thing to do, I can see it…
•••
Last night I made chicken legs, and again wanted to use up some ingredients that have been taking up needless space in the fridge and pantry. SO, I poured the entire contents of a can of cream of mushroom soup on top of the legs, placed in a Corningware dish. Added springs of fresh thyme and oregano, placed it in a 400 degree oven for an hour, and voila…. it turned out AMAZING. Christian looked beyond skeptical when I poured the soup on the chicken. I told him it was an “American thing” and it is. Isn’t it? Just pour cream of …………. soup on something, bake it, and there you go, dinner is prepared! Luckily mine turned out and didn’t taste like it came from Luby’s or Cracker Barrel. With that Christian made cabbage salad and potato salad, and we served leftover couscous with it.
I slept sooooo well last night that I got up a few minutes ago and said, “Forget my walk.” I didn’t want to lose this incredible feeling of relaxation I’m feeling right now. I will HAVE to fit the walk in, alas, because I promised myself 30 minutes a day. But for now, I will do as Cowboy our resident cat does. Curl up, purr, and perch out on the patio, waiting for the sunrise.
•••
Another promise I’ve made…. 30 minutes of German lessons PER DAY, every day, on Rosetta Stone. It crushes me when we Skype with Christian’s family each weekend, and all I can do is smile and say, “Wie get’s,” or “danke” or “Alle ist güt.” UGGHHH. I want to be able to just have it roll off my tongue, so desperately!
Please encourage me!!!!

Cevapcici on a rainy day…

El Paso finally saw a rainy day like it hasn’t seen in years, allowing me to wear my new slate blue cord jeans and a turtleneck sweater (I love dressing for the fall!). It was pouring during the morning rush hour, so what normally would have taken me about 15 minutes took me about 50 on the slow, slick city streets. And it gave me a quick lesson in how important it is to have decent, non-bald tires on my Jeep. I fishtailed a few times, gratefully avoiding any accident, but that enough put new tires at the very top of my priority list. It’s always hard parting with $450, but we came away with four spanking new tires and a sense of relief.. oh, and better tires than we paid for, since the ones we asked for weren’t in stock, even though we’d already paid and signed for those. They HAD to upgrade us on the house.
So, ONE major expense on our list out of the way and to not fret about. Second one is the trip to Munich in late March or April. Of COURSE the price went up by about $200 for EACH of us in just one day, but I’m optimistically holding out and hoping that the price will again hover around the $800-per-person level again in the near future. And when it does, I’m pouncing on it.
I thought morning sickness was strictly a first trimester occurrence and gratefully I never had it. However, twice this week I’ve been utterly nauseous and queasy. I can tell that Hannah is DEFINITELY going through a MASSIVE growth spurt this week and, although I can’t see them, I can FEEL each and every future stretch mark make its, well, er, mark. It’s only a matter of time before those little buggers make their appearance, lol. As for the nausea and the ligament-stretch pains, I am more than happy to deal with them because of the ultimate outcome. Nothing to do but to grin and bear it.
Perhaps sensing my exhaustion, weakness and need for some homemade comfort food, Christian last night turned to a recipe his stepdad Uli had given him for Cevapcici, which I’d had in Germany a few times and just loved. It’s a basic Middle European meatball dish that is hearty, inexpensive to prepare, yet looks like it takes lots of TLC and effort. I managed to eat about 5 of the balls before my queasiness and my lack of tummy space took over, but I assure you, the queasiness did NOT come from the Cevapcici. It’s a great fall dish for the entire family and comes highly recommended by me!

Cevapcici (It’s even fun to say! Ce-VAP-Chee-Chee)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder

Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl and knead well to bind the meat and spices together. Shape into balls and cook on a grill so that they stay juicy. Turn only once and do not pierce. Serve with baguette or rice, with sauteed onions and tomatoes.