I've Seen Soccer Balls Before

Today was one of those hodge podge days. I went on my usual Friday morning walk around the Ohmbachsee with my walking gal pal, Teri. We caught up on the past few days and wished each other's week end to be pleasant.

I was looking forward to the late morning because Spousal Unit was getting off work early and we were going to go exploring. I have been sick most of this week and stayed home. One of the benefits of not working is the luxury of staying home when one is sick. But.... enough already. I was starting to feel really cabin fevery. Is that a word? Whatever, I needed to get out of the house.

Last night Spousal Unit suggested that we go to Zweibrucken for the afternoon. I immediately zoned into the famous rose gardens. I lived there years ago and am ashamed that I never visited them. True, I had a newborn and a very young toddler, but still. To have never gone?

He countered back that he thought that going to the new designer outlet mall might be fun.

"Who are you and what have you done with my husband"? He just smiled and said that he thought it might be nice to go and look and to have lunch there. OK, I am always up for a shopping trip.

Well, we got some culture.

We had lunch. He chose a white wurst/sausage that came with mustard and a soft pretzel.

Yikes..... that is a white wurst. A little too obscene for my taste.

I chose the salad plate with fried potatoes. Really nummy.

The fun part of the day was coming across this cutie. I've seen soccer balls before, just not quite like these.

Man, Was I Miffed

OMG it just took an hour and a half to load 5 pictures. If anyone out there in Cyber land can give me some hints. Please do. I sit here and get old waiting for them to load. And ya all know from my recent posts that I have a really full social calendar. LOL. I wish.

Any way I promised some pictures of the countryside with the rape seed in bloom. I sorta kinda got some, but where I could safely stop for pictures was not really the best vantage point for a photo Op. Here is what I got. Grumbly tummie and all.

This is on the top of the mountain where I live. I am at the soccer field looking across over. Da Toni's restaurant is just to my back. Did I mention Da Toni. Must have a Da Toni salad.


This is also on top of my mountain.

This is one of the safer places to pull over to get out to take pictures. See the rape seed blooms towards the top of the photo?

This is also on the top of my mountain. The rape seed is over on another mountain. Today was really hazy. Sorry.
This is on the street where I live. My house is directly across the street from the house in the middle of the picture. The street bends a little to the right. Da Toni's is directly to my left. Da Toni's salad. Have I ever mentioned how good it is?

Maybe I am fixated on food 'cause the outing today was almost a total bust. We went antiquing and the place was closed. It was too early to go to lunch so I suggested going to a flower place right down the road. Which had a coffee/bakery right next door. So we had coffee, which led to kuchen, which led to no lunch.

Man, was I miffed. I was looking forward to some soup and salad.

Move over Jack Bauer

I have yet another conversation with myself while IMing a friend.

What's up?
7:40 AM

Me
TabbyCat is Available
(7:54 AM)
OK I really like talking to myself, actually I like typing to myself. Ho hum now I am boring myself.
8:06 AM
OK I'm leaving for a moment. I need to refresh the Underground site to see if anyone is on yet. Not that anyone has been on. Just need to check.
8:08 AM
Nope not really any activity yet. Just a rant about the BX and fat lady clothes.
8:09 AM
I am getting rather good chatting with myself. Don't ya think?
8:09 AM
Yes, you are.
8:10 AM
So what do you want to do today?
8:10 AM
Oh I don't know. I should go to the commi and get some lunchmeat and salad fixins.
8:10 AM
And I need a new hose so I could go to Prakiter. Also look at the flowers while I was there.
8:11 AM
Oh the Euro store. I could check that out. Hadn't heard about that before.
8:12 AM
If I go to the commi, don't forget to put the cooler bag into the van, in case ya want to stop somewhere on the way home.
8:12 AM
Must not have had enough coffee this morning. Starting to get hungry. Way too early.
8:13 AM
Hmm. If I can hold off for a while maybe I can go out to lunch.
8:13 AM
Nah. Don't like to go out to lunch alone.
8:14 AM
Maybe someone might like to go out to lunch with me. I am really hungry for some soup and salad. And I heard of a really good restaurant up near Vogelweh. Nah. I still need someone to go to lunch with to enjoy it.
8:15 AM

I feel like I have my own version of 24. Move over Jack Bauer.

After Dinner Schnapps

Spousal Unit made it back safely. Yeah I already told you about that trauma I went through getting him back home. Well, we went out to dinner the other night. At Da Toni's. Our current favorite restaurant. It also helps that we have a really good restaurant just up the street.

Both Spousal Unit and I were in the mood for pasta. The schnitzels are awesome, but sometimes we want something a little less. The schnitzels are huge, so we thought we were ordering something less. WRONG. The pasta is also huge.

Spousal Unit ordered the spaghetti Ala Forno. Not really sure what that is, but it sounded good. It is a tomato based sauce with lots of cheese and baked in the oven. Also a hard boiled egg is in there somewhere. Ya gotta eat it to appreciate it. I had the green, spinach noodles Ala Forno but I stirred them up before I thought to take a picture. Bad me, it looked a little funky when I took the picture, but tasted to die for.

The pasta was OMG, enough for three people.

Being Spousal Unit, he was up for the challenge. He finished his plate. Yeah, a new member of the clean plate club. He needs to walk a couple of more miles every day. Tee Hee.

Oh, the salads are also to die for. This is what our salad plates always look like after we eat them. He did slurp the sauce up again. I may need to chastise him. That is not public behavior!

Da Toni came by after we asked for the bill and sat down with us. He extolled us with the story that his parents were visiting from Italy and his Mother in law was giving him grief about having a couple of beers after the restaurant closed for the night. He said that he doesn't drink during working hours and can't a man have some down time? I think he's right.

Ya gotta love him. Oh, he also makes sure we always have an after dinner schnapps to send us home. A digestive, to make sure that the dinner settles correctly.

Ramblings

For my Irish tacos last night I added extra lettuce and guacamole. It's green right?

The Spousal Unit is gonna cook me a cheeseburger on the grill and I'll make a lovely salad for the both of us.

Good thing Easter is coming soon. With all the salads and green stuff I am eating, to be a better me, I am turning into a rabbit.

Then, I figure Easter Bunny and I will be able to converse.

Shame he doesn't bring chocolates anymore. 'Cause living here in Europe I am sure he would bring Belgium, Swiss, and German chocolates. Don't ya think?

But I Will Figure Something Out

Happy St. Pattie's day.

I usually make corned beef and cabbage for St. Pattie's day. I have had a flurry of appointments in the past few days and didn't realize that I neglected to purchase a corned beef.

I really thought I had bought one a little while ago. But.... when I went looking in the freezer it was corned beef less. Hedoublehockeysticks. I was already at home and so called the Spousal Unit to ask him to pick one up at the commissary. I figured if I stuck it in some cold water for a few hours it would defrost enough for me to throw it into the crock pot in the morning.

Well, when he got home HE was corned beef less. The commissary had a few left, but he said that they were green. How can frozen corned beef be green prior to being cooked, she asked?

You really don't want to know the answer to that question. The commissary is very lacking in some areas that I don't want to go into at the moment.

Anyway, I know some people go to extremes with "greenness" on St. Pattie's day but I thought that starting out with a green corned beef was not a good idea and thanked the Spousal Unit for saving some money on food we wouldn't/couldn't eat.

I am "She Who" after all and he will often go to extremes to please me. Rightfully so, but not always the wisest course of action and so thanked him for his good discretion.

So.... I made a command "She Who" decision and decided that we were going to have Irish tacos instead. I don't know what Irish tacos are yet, but I will figure something out.

More stream of consciousness stuff:

Spousal Unit came home today. He is really tired and didn't sleep on the flight over. Because I am the wonderful, considerate "She Who" I let him take a nap and woke him up 2 1/2 hours later. I really am considerate, in that if I let him sleep, he would not be able to adjust to the time change for several days.

After I woke him we went to base for recycling and a grocery run. He wants steaks tomorrow and I will marinate them overnight.

On the way home we checked out a couple of restaurant's menus to see were we would go for dinner.

One came very highly recommended. It had a limited, if non-existent menu. I think that the high recommendation was either beer or wine induced.

The other is next to the Ohmbachsee. We stopped by last week to preview their menu. It looked good. This is where we went for dinner.

The salad was awesome. Notice that there is nothing left on Spousal Unit's plate. He slurped down the dressing when the waitress wasn't looking. That is not at all my Spousal Unit's type of behaviour. I attribute this behaviour to the jet lag.

Nectar of the Gods. Wine. I have rediscovered wine. Dry, "Sahara Desert" dry. It is hard to find here in Germany, but really good when found.

Spousal Unit is a beer man. Good Weisen beer. He likes the wheat beer and tonight he chose a dark wheat. He said that it was really different, but good. He ordered two tonight.

I love taking pictures of "the man" enjoying himself. The dinner was not the best we have had, but far from the worst. The salads were excellent. The atmosphere was great.

We probably won't come here to eat again, but will come for the welcoming we received and the friendliness of the other patrons.

Lent

While out and about I found an olive oil dispenser that I have been searching for long and far. Well, maybe not all that far but since I have been here. It came in a gift box, so it was a little pricey. Good thing that Spousal Unit likes spicy. He did marry me, didn't he? He was rather pleased when I showed him that it is a hot chili pepper olive oil. He adds heat to most of his dinners.

Oh yeah, the Lent part. We observe Lent. So no meat on Friday. Unfortunately we do not like fish. We like shellfish, but both of us need to watch our cholesterol. So cute little grilled shrimpies like I had in Brussels come few and far between. I figured that I hadn't made stuffed shells in quite some time so that's what I made.

I changed up the recipe a little this time and added chopped spinach and real Italian Parmigiano Reggiano cheese that I grated into to the cheese mixture. The Parmigiano was so tasty I had to eat a wee bit. Heaven.

Don't they look all pretty in the pan prior to baking?

Don't they look really good after baking?

I love living in Europe. I found a nice bottle of Italian Frascati for a pittance at the same local corner store. Light, dry, really good.

Add a lovely salad of mixed greens.

And a nice crusty baguette for sauce sopping. Dinner was awesome.

I'm gonna weigh a ton after four years of eating like this.

Brussels, Belgium Part IV

One of the streets that we stumbled upon was the street of seafood restaurants. Several of the restaurants had displays outside their front door. These displays are made only from fresh seafood and shellfish and fruits and vegetables. Really intricate.

Right around the corner from the fish street is a covered gallery. It is several blocks long and was the first of its kind in Europe. The shops in the gallery are rather upscale. I didn't have the nerve to go into this chocolate shop. I think they charge to breath the air. But, OMG the chocolates looked sooooo edible.

And finally here is my favorite shop. Belgium waffles. I can't believe I had spent 9 years in Europe and not had one. The only thing I can think of is that I do not normally like waffles. These are not normal waffles. Totally different. Light, fluffy, a little sweet. No Bisquick involved. I had the waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. I felt that I had gone to heaven.

Food, Beer, Sights, And Impressions To Follow

Updates:

We were able to pick up Spousal Unit's car today. The good news is that we have enough money for food for the rest of the month. Blackie, the car's name, is not cheap to fix. Luckily, the car was free, a gift from Spousal Unit's father. True, 20 years old, but Mercedes tend to last a long time. And are fun to drive.

Our planned trip for the weekend is still on.

We are taking a road trip to Brussels, Belgium. Spousal Unit has a meeting there next week and asked if I wanted to get away for the weekend.

I have spent the majority of the day researching the sites in Brussels. I have never been before.

I really want to see some of the museums, the architecture and the "infamous" fountain "Mannikin Piss" It is a centuries old fountain of a naked little boy. Well, the name of the fountain says it all.

Boo hoo. The Royal Botanical Gardens won't be open until Mid-March. The gardens are a wonder, all iron and glass over more than 6 acres, built in the 1800's. Maybe I can entice the Spousal Unit to return. Hmmmmm.

I am really looking forward to this trip and will keep you posted.

I am not bringing the laptop so this will probably be my last post until this coming Wednesday.

Hey Gal Pal, Sunshine. I am going to try to find a decent Belgium beer. grin grin.

Food, beer, sights, and impressions to follow.

Butt Side Up And Breast Side Down

I've been doing a lot of cooking recently. Its a little over the top, considering that I am now cooking for just two people. I also have the problem of not knowing how to cook for just two people. I still cook as if I have two growing, very healthy appetited, teenage boys in the house. True, I am learning to scale back, but really some recipes just can't be cut down.

Anyway, I have been cooking.

This past Friday I made Italian sausage and pepper sandwiches with a nice side salad. Of course since the grocery store only sells previously frozen Italian sausage packages, I have to cook the whole package. I usually eat one sausage and Spousal Unit will eat two. That leaves several to be baggied up and put in the fridge.

Saturday we were out and about most of the day and also went for dinner. There is a new place we tried. A Chinese restaurant the next town over that was actually rather good. I love how, here on all the tables, there is a small jar/container of Sambol Olek along with the soy sauce. Sambol Olek is a fiery hot sauce that we slather on most of our Chinese food. I really love mixing it with soy sauce and dipping my egg rolls in it. I also love it with fried rice.

So I didn't cook on Saturday, but I went all out Sunday.

While visiting in California, my adorable Step Mother-in-Law who doesn't cook, purchased half of a roasted turkey breast. She then proceeded to introduce me to turkey and avocado sandwiches. I fell in love.

To make a long story short, on that scenario, I have been craving more turkey. And I just happened to have a turkey breast in the freezer. I pulled it out to thaw several days ago and roasted it last night. I also made stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and a tossed salad.

Thinking that soup also sounded good I pulled a smoked ham bone out of the fridge and simmered that most of the day for some soup stock. I have the start for a 15 bean soup which is always good on a Winter's night.

Well, the directions said that the turkey needed to be in the oven for 2 1/2 - 3 hours for its size, considering that I stuffed it. After the allotted time I got out my handy-dandy meat thermometer and tested it for doneness. 160 degrees. Drats. It needed to cook til 190 degrees. Back into the oven for more cook time.

A couple of hours later I tested it again. 175 degrees. This can't be right. So I had Spousal Unit start carving the breast after it rested. Looked great. I threw the thermometer in the trash and will buy a new on in a few days.

On the up side the meat was moist and succulent. Its a good thing that I now roast the turkey butt side up and breast side down.

America Has Invaded

We have been traveling these past two weeks. I thought I was in Europe, Germany to be specific. Wow, am I suprised. I feel like I am almost at home.

Subway in a 100 hundred year old building.

Starbucks in a two hundred year old building.
Burger King in a three hundred year old building.

McDonalds in a building that dates to the 1400's.


America has invaded.

What's Up With That??

During our travels I saw some signs that were amusing. The Bear shop.

This shop only sells Gummie Bears. Some of them are offered in beer glasses. Yes, those are Gummie bears.

The standard Hard Rock Cafe.

This one is interesting. Chicken in a Basket.

And Mr Whang. What's up with that?????

Even If You Don't Have Any Cockles

I LOVE Christmas Markets. The decorations going into town. Not quite dark enough for them to be lit.

St. Nicolas hands out oranges (Clementines) to the children.

This is one of the stands. It serves Gluhwein. (Glue wine) Gluhwein is a spiced mulled red wine that warm the cockles of your soul. Even if you don't have any cockles. I LOVE Gluhwein. I've been making Spousal Unit take me to a Christmas market every Sunday so I can get so cold that I need a mug of Gluhwein.

A kindergarten class provided the music for this market. The teachers then went around and gave out cookies that the children helped to make for the guests to their concert. They sang like angels. They were really that good.

This is a pizza oven, powered by a wood fire. It is also made from a beer keg. How fun is that?

This is another market and the music here was also very good. Lots of wind instruments. And of course more Gluhwein.

Sons #1 & 2 will arrive in a couple of days to spend the holidays. I anticipate that we will spend more time investigating lots of markets and of course, Gluhwein.

Suzy Homemaker Revisited

Being all Suzy Homemaker today I wanted to bake cookies.

The butter was frozen, so I needed to thaw it out. Cookies generally need thawed butter to assimilate into that baked goodness that pads our thighs and clogs our arteries. Me, being the very intelligent "She Who" that I think I am, I decided to thaw the butter on the radiator. Also, being the very ADD "She Who" that I am, I took a break to go upstairs to blog and catch up on current events on the Internet.

Imagine my surprise when I finally disconnected myself from the computer, several hours later to go downstairs to find......

Butter. Ready for Lobster dipping, maybe, but not for cookies. Melted thoroughly. The wrappers were empty. Not having more butter to thaw, I measured it out.

And refroze it outside.

The cookies took forever...... I am still figuring out the oven. 9 minutes, 11 minutes, they just aren't quite what I am used to making. They were flat.

Maybe I should just make fudge.

Suzy Homemaker

From Dictionary.com

Main Entry: Suzy Homemaker
Part of Speech: n
Definition: a housewife who manages a household, esp. with enthusiasm; also, the sterotype of any woman who chooses a traditional female role
Etymology: from a doll of the 1960s

Hello All,

Today was really busy for me. I had my day all planned out.

Lets see.... I did all the laundry, dusted the furniture, cleaned the baths, straightened the downstairs, re-started organizing the 2nd floor, met with the rolladen repairman, volunteered for the Wounded Warrior dinner, did the dishes and made myself a turkey club sandwich for lunch.

I am now waiting for the butter to soften so I can make cookies, and will also make cinnamon ornaments.

How is your day going?

Love,

Suzy ("She Who" Homemaker)

I Don't Think She Liked It

One of my new found friends just couldn't wait for pie. She dashed into the kitchen, afraid that something was going to make the pies disappear. She didn't believe me that I really made two pies.

My handsome, long suffering husband, Spousal Unit. He, being always the gentleman waits patiently for the possibility of a sliver of pie.

Behold the pies. I really did make two.

I don't think my gal pal likes the pie. She even got some on her nose.

I know she doesn't like crust. Some of the crust must have gotten mixed in with the pie.

I don't think she liked it. Do you?