Food for thought, or thinking about food

I have to take a moment to brag about two wonderful recipes from this past week. So proud of myself, because they both came out wonderfully!

Fist, I made a delicious orichette and radicchio pasta salad from a recipe in last month´s Martha Stewart Living.
Since it has been such a cold summer, we definately haven´t been to many cook-outs, and I found myself craving pasta salad. Martha Stewart came along just in time to provide me this outstanding recipe that yielded this beautiful salad!


(http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=d1fb2af968fd3110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default)


Today, I went to a pot-luck brunch for the Early Learning Center of the International School. The ELC is pre-K through 1st grade, and we all got together to kick off the school year. It was held at the home of the deputy lower school principal, and it was wonderful! It was so great to see some old faces I had worked with last school year, and of course, it was brilliant to get together outside of the school. I took a chance on a Paula Deen recipe. I firmly trust Paula, and know that I don´t ever need to test her recipes before introducing them to people, because they will always be good. Well, yet again, Paula proved herself with an incredibly rich, yet amazing Praline French Toast Casserole

(http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_26774,00.html) which was out of this world! Go Paula!!!

Three cheers for drugstore.com!!!!

I know that I really have to start getting used to German products. You would think that after 5 years, I´d have better integrated myself. But, there are certain things I just can´t give up on, and since I can purchase said items in dollars, it is cheaper to have some things sent from the States.
Yesterday, I received my drugstore.com purchase of- cleaning supplies and face soap! Woo Hoo!!! I ran out of my regular cleaer last week, and then considered buying something German. But, since I have yet to find something that comes remotely close to those wonderful scents of lavender and pine, I really didn´t want to buy a whole bottle for a week. So, shhhh.... I didn`t really clean until my precious bottle of multi-purpose cleaner arrived. Now, I am in the throes of cleaning heaven (okay, maybe that´s a little dramaticized,) but I am really excitied.
So, three cheers for my absolute favorite internet drugstore, for feeding my "dis"integration into German society :)

Baden Wuertemburg History

Today was a really fun day! Surprisingly so. My new resolution has to be better about cleaning and doing laundry during the week. I am so impressed, because I now actually have time on the weekend to do things! Yay!
So, today, Joern and I decided on checking out the Baden-Wuertemburg history museum in Stuttgart. Marcel came with us :) They opened about 3 years ago, and I really can´t believe we haven´t been there before. The museum was very interesting, it followed the history of our state from the time of Napoleon´s invasion to the present. The first floor focused on the history, and was very well presented, if you speak German. They had so much to see and read about. And, everything was artfully displayed, which really added to the experience.
I learned so much about the impact of Napoleon, the struggle to separate from Prussia, the experiences of the people living here through both world wars, and some interesting information about the state today.

The second floor was very interactive, which appealed to "my boys." There was a large display about the Black Forest, which is a very important part of our state. What I found most impressive was the hall that highlighted all the companies that are headquartered here in BW. Wow, I can´t believe how many well-known businesses are from here. Of course, there are the big ones, Mercedes, Porsche, and Audi. But, Steiff, SAP, Fischer dowels, and many others call this great state I live in home.

My favorite though was the "ABCs" of Baden-Wuertemburg exhibit outside of the museum. They had cases all over the walkway with a product or idea that is native to the state. Here are a few of my favorites:

"B" for Bretzeln (pretzels come from Altenriet, the village next to ours!)


"S" for Spaetzle, Swabian noodles!


"V" for Viertele, I know it´s hard to see, but those are wine glasses. Viertel is German for 1/4, as in 1/4 of a liter of wine, "le" is a Swabian ending for words.

Wow, where has the time gone?

Well, since my last post, which was over a month ago, a lot has gone on. I will hopefully be able to find our missing photo cards to post pictures from Mallorca and England. Until then, I guess I should just start with now, and work on reviews of other trips as I get around to it.

Things here in Germany are great. We have been having miserably cold and rainy weather, which isn´t so bad compared to the killer heat waves in some parts of Europe and the US!

This past weekend, we dog-sat for a friend. It was so much fun, we really enjoyed having a dog in the apartment. The dog we took care of is Abigail, a 75 lb. black lab. She is also one of the best behaved dogs I´ve ever met! We had her for 3 days, enjoyed lots of walks through the fields around here. I definately see the fields surrounding our town (which are the cause of our being unable to build a house,) in a whole new light! Abigail was afraid of Leo, which was priceless, considering that sopping wet he weighs 4 lbs. I finally got Abigail to come sniff Leo by sitting on the floor and petting Leo, so that he wouldn´t make his mean face and scare the poor dog! Unfortunately, our time with Abigail went really quickly, and has now left Joern and I considering a dog of our own!

Otherwise, the week has been pretty slow. I finished reading a great book- The Savage Garden by Mark Mills. It is set in Tuscany, Italy about 10 years after WWII. The main story is a murder-mystery, but there are many different levels to the story. Although I found it hard to follow in the beginning, mostly because it was weighed down with a lot of Roman mythology, I really enjoyed the book by the end!

I guess that´s all for now, hope everyone reading this is doing well!!