For the Love of Food

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I only bought enough supplies at the arts&crafts store to make 2 angels. But, the smallest pack of Ferrero Rocher you can buy is a 4-pack, so I decided to make some angels from items I already had at home.

I went ahead and replaced the thick golden wings with some butterfly wings I cut out of news paper, and I replaced the thick/large decorative napkin with 4 normal-sized white napkins.

This is a very flexible project. You can make the wings out of a hard clear plastic of thick cellophane paper for more fairy-like wings. Or, you can leave out the wings completely and make a ghost. You can also replace the Ferrero Rocher with a similar-sized round confection for different effects.

Here is a step-by-step how to: Continue Reading »

I am always amazed at the hidden treasures that can be found in my local arts&crafts store. It’s small…I mean really small – and packed to the brim with every imaginable supply one could possibly need to make any craft.

Bastel Paradis is run by 2 ladies who, when they aren’t moving around seasonal inventory and helping customers find just the perfect supply, are crafting right next to the cash register.

A few weeks before Christmas I walked in and asked for some advise on what I could make my mom for Christmas. The owner quickly pulled out a little angel and told me it was easy and would be great. I ended up leaving the store with enough supplies to make 2 angels, 1 big picture ornament, and 8 smaller ornaments (will post these later). And, a few days later I ended up coming back for more supplies to make more angels and more ornaments!

I used one of the angels I made to top off my Christmas tree. We decided to have a completely homemade tree this year so that our son could enjoy touching all the ornaments.

I also handed out some other angels (see tomorrow’s post) to friends for Christmas. However, the owner of the craft store told me that these were originally meant to be napkins that you place at the table with a chocolate in the center for your guests to enjoy after dinner – so these are perfect for Christmas, New Years, and Halloween (if you leave out the wings to make ghosts).

What you will need: Continue Reading »

This year I “discovered” a small, warm,and romantic Christmas market in my town. Who knew my town had 2 Christmas markets??!!

Apparently, each year for 10 days during Advent there is a Christmas market in the historic downtown of my town (Fürth). And, it’s a more traditional one – or so I would guess.

It just finished this Saturday, but it will be back next year.

There we found:

An Iron Smith:

A glass blower:

A Carpenter:

A Tin Man:

Felt Crafters:

A Paper Book/Journal Crafter:

Warm drinks and friendly chatter:

And this guy…who closes the market every evening:

It’s a small market…but a fine one.

I was so tired of eating turkey the week after Thanksgiving. We had never had left-overs for more than 2 days after Thanksgiving, but this year 6 of my guests didn’t show and I was left with quite a lot of turkey. So, we packed up what was left of the turkey and froze it.

The other day I pulled out a leg/thigh piece, defrosted it in the microwave, took the skin off, pulled off the meat, and shredded it by hand. I ended up with about 3 cups worth of shredded turkey.

I can’t remember where I saw this idea, but it sure was a fabulous-tasting one – and quite a delightful break from the traditional turkey over and over again.

I’d also like to wish you all a merry Christmas – will post more on the 29th of December – Christmas is 3 days long in Germany (25,26,27)!!  So, in case you making turkey for Christmas as well, this is a great left-over recipe. Continue Reading »

These biscuits will warm you up on a cold wintry day – done in just 20 minutes from start to finish!

The other day I wanted to make biscuits…I had all the ingredients, but when I pulled out the butter I gasped – there wasn’t enough! What was I going to do. I searched my refrigerator for a substitute – no margarine, no hiding butter – then I came across the lard I had hiding in the back of my fridge.

I do have to say that while I thought that the last recipe of biscuits were the best I’d ever made, I’m going to have to recant that statement and put the best-ever label on these babies. These are perfect in flavor and in texture. You will never want to go to KFC again to get these of pop some out of a refrigerator can – these are so easy it is a sin to not make them homemade.

And, for those of you who don’t readily keep buttermilk around the house to make these spontaneously, you can easily substitute with equal amounts of milk and 1 teaspoon of white vinegar.

Without further adieu: Continue Reading »

The other day I had the privileged of visiting one of the most adorable and Christmas-spirited towns as of yet in Germany.

A friend of mine has been talking about taking me and my family to visit the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber for quite some time now. It’s a small town west of where I live on the boarder with Baden-Würtemburg and Bavaria (but still in Bavaria).

The town is filled with the sounds of happy seasonal music, people chatting, roasted almonds, and grilled bratwurst. It’s everything I love about Germany,rolled into one small town during the Advent season. And, Rothenburg is defiantly a town built upon the tourism industry – there are just too many year-round Christmas stores to say otherwise.

Continue Reading »

I just wanted to go ahead share a nice breakfast I made the other day. Nothing “special” recipe wise – just your basic scrambled eggs, hash brown, and bacon.

What you may not realize, though, is that I completely styled this meal from beginning to end – AND it was still edible afterwards! Continue Reading »

This year I am taking advantage of my son’s young age. A Christmas tree is no place to be hanging fragile breakable ornaments with an almost-two-year-old around. But, his age and care-free ways are a great excuse to make some homemade Christmas ornaments this year that he can not only help make, but will also withstand pulling, squeezing, bumping, and falling.

And, in keeping with the theme of my food blog – these ornaments are made from recycled food packaging – namely – Actimel yogurt drinks (known as DanAktive in the US). To be honest, we don’t drink Actimel since we’re not really fond of sweetened yogurt, but since I wanted to be able to do this project, I bought a pack of 6 and poured out the yogurt into my popsicle molds and froze them – they make a great snack and hold much longer frozen!

This is a really fun, quick, and simple project that a toddler can help make with adult assistance or older children can make by themselves.

What you will need for 6 snowmen: Continue Reading »

This weekend we had dinner with some friends, and we were treated to a delicious Franconian meal of pork roast with potato dumplings.

Luckily, my friend was kind enough to photo-document the recipe before we arrived so I could post it. It was fantastic and seems easy enough to make: Continue Reading »

Last month I blogged about a book my husband found and we bought and read called “Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old” (by Suzy Giordano, Lisa Abidin) recommended by Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing.

I am SOOO HAPPY to let you know that all the recommendations in this book not only work, they are easy too.  There was very little crying involved, eventhough my son was 21 months old when we started (now he’s 22 months old).  And, this method worked from day one.  We started seeing results slowly – we did have a few nights the first 2 weeks of sitting next to a night light re-reading some recommendations.  But, by week 3 our son was sleeping through the night and taking 1 nap a day on time – AND we were all well rested and in a good mood.

Now, 4 weeks later, he knows when his bed time is and there’s no complaining involved – not even at nap time! The “key” is having a schedule.  You can have any schedule you like, but you have to stick to it.  Ours is as follows: Continue Reading »