So, to continue sharing with you all that I have been keeping busy doing the past few months…while I wasn’t blogging…I want to share with you my garden!

I have been busy growing may types of plants – most importantly the ones that I can’t get here in Germany like Tomatillos and Jalapeños. By the time September roles around I hope to be making Tomatillo salsa and canning it to hold us over for the winter.

For the past 4 garden seasons I have not had any luck with cucumbers. This year I tried a different type that seens have be doing very very well in my garden. I have harvested 7 of these so far and more are growing! It’s so exciting to eat food you have grown yourself. Check out these slices:

Oh, and, my almost-1-year-old has been keeping me quite busy…mostly I spend my time keeping things out of his mouth…

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to share some pictures of lobster that I realized I hadn’t blogged….they’re from New Years eve!!

So, yes, we had lobster for New Years because one of the local grocery store was selling frozen pre-cooked whole lobster for €4 a piece! They each came in a double bag sort of packaging and where frozen like big popsicles..I mean…really really big.

I hadn’t had lobster in years and we all really enjoyed it, although I don’t think my husband appreciates when I buy food that he really has to work hard to get to and can be a bit messy. My then 2-year-old son found it fascinating that he basically got to beat up his food with different tools before eating it…he also ended up eating almost an entire lobster!!

So, enjoy the mosaic – I shot the pictures with my new macro rings that I got for Christmas from my husband – and a super happy belated New Years to everyone!

Well, it’s another beautiful day outside today. And, what is nicer than taking a stroll outside on a cool sunny morning? Taking the same walk with a homemade soft pretzel hand.

My husband and son made these one afternoon. And, what recipe did they use?? Can’t remember…. bummer huh?? They were really yummy too.

So, enjoy the pretty pictures of pretzels.

I’m still not moved into my new apartment..it looks like the move date will be in about 2 weeks from now. I will believe it when it happens.

We bought an apartment back in January from a company called Pravexx GmbH and the renovations were supposed to be done by the beginning of March. Well, it’s the end of April now and we are still crammed into our 400sq.ft. in-between apartment. And, as we have learned over time, the work that they had planned on having finished in 8 weeks (by contract) was not even feasible to begin with since the floor that we had poured takes 6-12 weeks to dry depending on outside temperatures. We are still waiting for the floors to dry…walls to be built, tiled, and painted, flooring to be laid, etc…

Now I understand why my mom said that buying a home and moving are the most stressful times in life.

Looks like I need a nice soft pretzel myself to get today off to a good start!

About two months ago I saw a small sign on my way to kindergarten with my sons that said “Markt der Ideen“. No other information. So, I googled them and found not much more to help me. So, I went and ended up with a free ticket from a friendly lady leaving the convention, and I made my way inside.

Wow.

It was handmade/homemade heaven! Cookies, cakes, jams, jellies, sauces, postcards, paintings, dolls, tapestries, etc, etc…

I dream of selling fantastic homemade goodies here one day!

Just see all the awesome things I found bellow:

Jellies, Jams, Preserves, and Sauces from different vendors.  My husband tried a Currant Ketchup and he said it was deliciously sweet.

These are some amazingly realistic flexible clay flowers made by a very talented lady.  I took a few of these home – I always have to take a double take on how real these look.

I also took home a bookmark of one of my favorite views of historic downtown and the artist who painted them.  I love buying things from people you can talk to – I always feel best when I buy local.

Some homemade local Lebkuchen from a local Konditorei.

So, a few months back I was meandering through my local grocery store when I came across a package of “wild tomatoes”- also known as heirloom tomatoes. Having heard so many wonderful things about heirloom tomatoes and never having seen them in any of my local stores before, I got excited and bought them.

Never buy tomatoes out of season…it’s always so very disappointing…I wish they’d just take the temptation away.

Anyways, getting past the disappointment, I was sitting at the table watching my son cut tomatoes into funny shapes and eat them when something caught my eye.

Did you see it??? It says USDA Organic….and they’re from Holland. Why are tomatoes being shipped from so far away to the US?? Did our tomato plants all shrivel-up and die or have we run out of green houses to produce for our people during the cooler months?? Why are tomatoes even available for sale out of season?? They’re just so flavorless…

It just blew my mind and I thought of sharing this with you.

Question: Does your local grocer always supply a label with where your food comes from?

Just want to share some of the past few months with you…

About a month ago I was in our local mall and I found this amazing Lebkuchen (a cake-ee German Gingerbread type cookie) shaped like Saint Nicolas. My son was so very excited to receive this big cookie with chocolate candy coated eyes, nose, and buttons; a coconut beard; and sprinkled hat.

Before I left on my trip to the US, my in-laws visited us here in Germany and we took a 3 days trip to the Czech Republic. We spent 2 days in Prague and a day in Pilsen – the birth place of the pilsner beer.

I really really enjoy Prague every time I go, it’s just so very beautiful. And, I recommend if you ever have the chance to go that you take it.

Bellow I will share with you some of the many pictures that I took while in Prague and on our tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery. Enjoy!

The tour starts in a HUGE elevator.

Then, there is a video about the brewing process.

A cool beer-cap “road” in the bottling plant.

There are kilometers of Beer Cellars.

Have a taste of unfiltered Beer – quite bitter!

Brewing kettles.

Once the tour ends, enjoy a game of extra large beer chess.

Prague:

Enjoy a “Beer Spa” at home.

They love their ketchup!

There are many beautiful sites for a foodie!  We actually missed their anual food festival by a day…

At one of my favorite candy stores in town you can find all these exciting treats:

Flavored chocolates.

They will chocolate-dip fruit for you on the spot.

Why everyone comes to this candy store – to watch them make these delicious little hard candies:

candy dough

It’s rolled and then hand cut.

Passion fruit hard candies.

Banana, watermelon, and cherry flavor candies.

This hard candy can be found in the Chocolate Story Museum in the heart of downtown Prague.  Next trip I plan on visiting the chocolate museum…seem interesting!

As I hinted at in the last post, my father-in-law visits cooking classes at his local Williams-Sonoma that they offer for free on Sundays to anyone who wishes to attend.

While were were visiting, my husband and I had the opportunity to visit a class with him in north Austin.

I found the set-up quite nice. They had a large angled mirror on the ceiling so that we could see what they were cooking. We were able to taste-test everything and it was quite tasty. I was, however, disappointed that they were using mainly ingredients that you could only buy in their stores – like their roasted version of Ro-Tel for $12!!!

My father-in-law mentioned that they have different cooks for the different classes, and that this lady is the one who plugs their products. Other cooks cook from scratch and give tips as to where the correct ingredients can be found at other locations around town.

So, what did we eat while we were there??

Hot dogs topped with a very very spicy pickle relish (also only found at Williams-Sonoma). The relish really made me sweat from the heat, but it was delicious.

Hamburger sliders made with a spice mixture (also only found at Williams-Sonoma). The hamburgers tasted ok – I have definitely made better ones before – but I was quite impressed by their table-top electric grill. I would like one of those babies for home. It seemed to really work well and better than the grill pan that I have at home.

Rotisserie chicken with different bbq sauces (also only found at Williams-Sonoma). I found the rotisserie that they used for it nice, but impractical since it can’t double as a toaster over or something else that I would use more often. The bbq sauces were just not to my personal taste – I’ll just lease it at that.

Queso dip with Williams-Sonoma $12 version of roasted Ro-Tel served over tortilla chips. It was ok, but there is no way that I would mix a $12 bottle of tomato concoction with a chunk of Velveeta.

So, what are my thoughts on the overall event?

If I lived in the US, I would definitely go to more of these. I think it’s a great place to get ideas and fun to cook with others. However, I don’t think I will ever walk out with a $12 bottle of roasted Williams-Sonoma Ro-Tel…

While on my vacation in the US my brother took me to a cupcake bakery in Austin called hey cupcake! I’d never been to a bakery before that only specialized in cupcakes.

I have had my fair share of bakery cupcakes in my life time, so I wasn’t expecting too much. Then, I took the first bite…

They were heavenly! So perfectly moist, but not gooey, with the perfect creamy frosting on top – I was in heaven!

I had “The Standard”, which is a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting. I shared it with my son…who was not too fond of the whole sharing idea and ate all the frosting off.
My husband had the “Michael Jackson”, which is a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

My brother had the “Michael Jackson – whipper snapper”.
And, his girl friend had the “Red Velvet – whipper snapper”, which is a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

The “whipper snapper” means that stick a whipped cream bottle (homemade of course) down the center of the cupcake and fill it with whipped cream – like a sort of cupcake Twinkie.

You can check out the rest of their menu here.

Cupcakes are $2.50 each, and no extra charge as a “whipper snapper”. And, for something as delicious as these cupcakes, I think they are very reasonably priced…I was actually expecting to pay more before we got there.  For those of you interested, they even offer vegan cupcakes, but I’m not sure what flavor combinations are offered.

So, if you’re ever in the Austin area and feel like a cupcake, they have a three locations around town and I can highly recommend them!

Well, I am back into a normal sleeping/waking pattern – finally! I actually have been for a few days now, but being at the end stages of pregnancy makes it hard to sit at a computer and do anything – because it makes my feet swell.

Anyways, I want to start sharing some pictures with you from my vacation, and I’m going to start backwards. The last leg of our vacation took us on a 15 hour car ride from south-central Texas to just south of Denver, Colorado. So, why would I subject myself to a 15 hour car ride with 5 other family members (including a 2-year-old)?? For my brother-in-law’s wedding, of course!

We had a really great time – especially escaping the intense Texas heat and getting to visiting with the extended family that flew in from all over the US and world. Of all the people who enjoyed going to Colorado the most, I believe it was my son. He fell in love with his new aunt and still talks about her all the time. Many evenings he will come to me while I’m in the kitchen preparing dinner and tell me “goodbye mommy – going Jessica home”. Then he puts on his helmet, gets on his bike, and rides down the end of the hallway and tries to open the door to no avail. It is quite cute, ut makes me sad that we live too far away for a quick visit. Maybe that will change in a few years….

First, let’s talk wedding location:

The wedding was held in a beautiful private garden that can be booked for events or you can pay admission to enter to just walk around.  They have a few little alcoves that are meant for ceremonies and the one that they chose was nice and intimate.

This place is impeccable.  I just couldn’t get over the perfectly manicured lawn.  And, much to my surprise and content it was a turf lawn – as in fake grass.  It looked and felt so real that I had to go to an edge and try to pull out a piece of grass…and it just lifted up like a carpet…it really was fake.  If I ever have a home with grass, I want the fake stuff – no mowing, no watering, no fertilizing.

Right at the entrance to the alcove where the wedding was held was a table with cups and lemonade.  I thought this was a fantastic idea because many of us had to be there hours before for pictures, etc.  I do have to add, though, that I am not a fan of drinking from plastic cups and find them very environmentally unfriendly, but the over all ideas was a good one.

Second, the photography:

So, as I said earlier, we were there a few hours ahead of time taking pictures.  I have tons of great pictures, but I’ll only share a few with you…no need to over do it.  There were 3 photographers at the wedding and I had a few conversations with the head photographer who was admiring my camera lens.  We traded some tips (her sister is a big fan of food photography) and I got to pick her brain on what types of lenses she used for the different shots.

Third, the wedding ceremony:

Then, we headed off to the wedding – my son was extra excited that he was going to get to see his new aunt.  Luckily, she likes him just as much as he likes her.  He was 1 of two children there (the other being only 3 months old), and he got quite a lot of attention.  Now that we are back in Germany, he is having a hard time adjusting to the lack of being the center of attention 100% of the time.

She’s coming – can you see the excitement in his face??

The ceremony was nice and short and simple, much to my liking.  Then, we all headed off for more photos and then to the reception which was held in an air-conditioned tent on the garden grounds.

There was a nice BBQ buffet, an awesome Mario & Princess cake, and lots of dancing.