Hi all,
Today was a long day of rest. I did some errands in the morning between breakfast and cleaning and let Sam have a sleep-in. I went after lunch and had a nice nap, and that and an hour or two this evening was the extent of my free time.
However, I did spend most of the afternoon with Sam learning how to make kaese spaetzle (German egg noodles with cheese...yum!), a pork roast with gravy, and we cheated on the sauerkraut. It was definitely a process and we just pushed our way through in parts. The noodles come from an extremely sticky dough and you use a press lowered into boiling water to cook them, an interesting process. Sam had also made sachentorte (a special cake from Vienna, which turned out pretty well and was delicious), so we all were absolutely stuffed. Now we'll need the next few months to recuperate!
It was marvelous weather again for most of the day, until it suddenly down-poured right in the middle of us doing dishes after dinner. This spoiled my plan of time out in the hammock. Oh well, there will be other days!
In other news, I should've done laundry, more room cleaning and several other small things today...but time just was not allowing for it. It will be a relief to get back to normal days tomorrow!
Hope all is well,
Steph
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Feel The Burn
Hi all,
The sunburn, that is. I was in a sundress today, and it was probably during the brunch. I only got a touch of color - so I'm taking it as a warning. However, it was an extremely gorgeous day today!
Breakfast was stupidly early because of a hall event - honestly, what's wrong with the normal time?!? And then we had neighborhood brunch with another house. There was delicious Pashka (a Russian sweet/soft cheese...mmm), challah bread, ham, fruit and cinnamon rolls. Housemom's recipe is terrific, and I helped to roll them out, I'll definitely need the recipe. The best part was sitting with some of the other co-workers I don't see so often. Rapier wit and horrible puns and sarcasm were cutting across the table. Sam shares this sense of humor, but culture plays a large role sometimes.
After lunch we had some quiet time, where I got a nice little nap in. Then I hiked off to a house to borrow a spaeztle maker (German egg noodles...yum!) and enjoyed the nice walk. We basically hung around the house socializing with anyone who dropped in, while housemom corralled the children and baked her special spring lime cake. I wasn't up to having my slice tonight, but I'm looking forward to it tomorrow. We had dinner a little late because of yet another hall event, but it was simple "bread and spread" affair.
Tomorrow I'll have parts of the day off (Sam and I are being flexible with this, this won't be a normal thing) and so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully a quiet day, I know that they might go out for a walk as a house. Should be nice, but I'll be happy to get back to a regular work schedule on Tuesday!
Hope all is well,
Steph
The sunburn, that is. I was in a sundress today, and it was probably during the brunch. I only got a touch of color - so I'm taking it as a warning. However, it was an extremely gorgeous day today!
Breakfast was stupidly early because of a hall event - honestly, what's wrong with the normal time?!? And then we had neighborhood brunch with another house. There was delicious Pashka (a Russian sweet/soft cheese...mmm), challah bread, ham, fruit and cinnamon rolls. Housemom's recipe is terrific, and I helped to roll them out, I'll definitely need the recipe. The best part was sitting with some of the other co-workers I don't see so often. Rapier wit and horrible puns and sarcasm were cutting across the table. Sam shares this sense of humor, but culture plays a large role sometimes.
After lunch we had some quiet time, where I got a nice little nap in. Then I hiked off to a house to borrow a spaeztle maker (German egg noodles...yum!) and enjoyed the nice walk. We basically hung around the house socializing with anyone who dropped in, while housemom corralled the children and baked her special spring lime cake. I wasn't up to having my slice tonight, but I'm looking forward to it tomorrow. We had dinner a little late because of yet another hall event, but it was simple "bread and spread" affair.
Tomorrow I'll have parts of the day off (Sam and I are being flexible with this, this won't be a normal thing) and so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully a quiet day, I know that they might go out for a walk as a house. Should be nice, but I'll be happy to get back to a regular work schedule on Tuesday!
Hope all is well,
Steph
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Of Cabbages and Kings
Hi all,
Yesterday was a pretty intense day. We had a play in the afternoon to go to (one by the founder of Anthroposophy, it was a little obvious, to be honest) and along with other household things we ended up keeping busy. Dinner was at about 7, while we were aiming for 6:30. We had all three of us cooking at the same time, so it was pretty chaotic. Sam pulled off a light cole slaw, Housemom did the garlic mashed potatoes, and I masterminded the fish. There was probably over a pound of butter involved with frying them...but they were amazing. Keep in mind that I don't like fish...
I have the recipe from when I was working at a restaurant this summer, and so it finally came in handy. True, it wasn't walleye, but the talapia fish was soooo tender. The breading held well, although the children didn't like it. Silly littles.
I could barely clear half the food off of my plate, and we had enough fish leftover for lunch today!
We were going out to celebrate someone's birthday, and it turned out to be a huge mess. Rides were confusing, as always, and I ended up having to drive. Although it's really not a major thing. The barkeep was a complete bitch, and wouldn't let the birthday girl drink with her temp (which acts as a legal, as they take the other away), her social security card, a picture id and her mom! Her mom bought everyone a shot, and we waited until she was able to come back and get her passport (ridiculous for an American citizen...they also did it to a dual citizen...hello harassment...). The night ended with a window being broken, but through no expected way. A bench against the wall was completely warped and when someone attempted to use it as support (who was, ironically sober) it tipped him completely off balance and knocked his head into a window. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, although things got a bit ugly with one drunk old guy demanding to know who pushed who and the drunken proprietor flipping out and raging against all of us (who had brought him good business with no other problems to that point, really). So that was fun.
Not.
It made for a really late night, and was definitely an experience.
Fortunately, today was a bit lower-key. We didn't go to the service, but stayed home to help do chores (I have blisters on my hands from beating out the never-removed-from-the-van-before floor rugs...ouch) and to get lunch done so we could go out. We went to Kingston, stopping at Poets' Park to do a little hiking, tag and sunshine time, since it was at least 80 degrees and sunny! We went to Barnes and Noble, and then out for dinner for pizza. We got back too late for the night event, and with well-worn out children. Yay for screaming.
I got to talk to some family tonight, which was nice, especially as a relative just passed away. A great uncle who was a great guy and always fun at the family gatherings. So a bittersweet gathering for my family.
Tomorrow will be a full day, so...
Hope all is well and have a Happy Easter!
Steph
Yesterday was a pretty intense day. We had a play in the afternoon to go to (one by the founder of Anthroposophy, it was a little obvious, to be honest) and along with other household things we ended up keeping busy. Dinner was at about 7, while we were aiming for 6:30. We had all three of us cooking at the same time, so it was pretty chaotic. Sam pulled off a light cole slaw, Housemom did the garlic mashed potatoes, and I masterminded the fish. There was probably over a pound of butter involved with frying them...but they were amazing. Keep in mind that I don't like fish...
I have the recipe from when I was working at a restaurant this summer, and so it finally came in handy. True, it wasn't walleye, but the talapia fish was soooo tender. The breading held well, although the children didn't like it. Silly littles.
I could barely clear half the food off of my plate, and we had enough fish leftover for lunch today!
We were going out to celebrate someone's birthday, and it turned out to be a huge mess. Rides were confusing, as always, and I ended up having to drive. Although it's really not a major thing. The barkeep was a complete bitch, and wouldn't let the birthday girl drink with her temp (which acts as a legal, as they take the other away), her social security card, a picture id and her mom! Her mom bought everyone a shot, and we waited until she was able to come back and get her passport (ridiculous for an American citizen...they also did it to a dual citizen...hello harassment...). The night ended with a window being broken, but through no expected way. A bench against the wall was completely warped and when someone attempted to use it as support (who was, ironically sober) it tipped him completely off balance and knocked his head into a window. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, although things got a bit ugly with one drunk old guy demanding to know who pushed who and the drunken proprietor flipping out and raging against all of us (who had brought him good business with no other problems to that point, really). So that was fun.
Not.
It made for a really late night, and was definitely an experience.
Fortunately, today was a bit lower-key. We didn't go to the service, but stayed home to help do chores (I have blisters on my hands from beating out the never-removed-from-the-van-before floor rugs...ouch) and to get lunch done so we could go out. We went to Kingston, stopping at Poets' Park to do a little hiking, tag and sunshine time, since it was at least 80 degrees and sunny! We went to Barnes and Noble, and then out for dinner for pizza. We got back too late for the night event, and with well-worn out children. Yay for screaming.
I got to talk to some family tonight, which was nice, especially as a relative just passed away. A great uncle who was a great guy and always fun at the family gatherings. So a bittersweet gathering for my family.
Tomorrow will be a full day, so...
Hope all is well and have a Happy Easter!
Steph
Friday, April 2, 2010
No Blog Post...April Fool's!
Hi all,
Yesterday and today were momentously long days. I managed to catch Sam in one April Fool's joke (they don't have the faucet sprayers in Germany, so the rubberbanded one worked beautifully...it took him about 10 seconds to realize what was happening...nice). I made hot chocolate for breakfast, and except for about 1 minute with Connie, it went over spectacularly well.
Lunch was another matter.
However, we got to the hall very early to do our run-through and then do the actual skit. The voice choir messed up and I was left to soldier on and it ended up doing pretty well. Maria was supposed to recline her head on "Jesus'" shoulder, but the bossy co-worker who was "producing" us spoke so harshly to her that I knew she wouldn't do it. And she didn't.
I didn't get back to the house until 10:30 and had to catch up on chores before starting lunch. However, since the falafel recipe called for putting everything into the food processor, I wasn't too worried. I was after it became apparent it would take about 5 different steps that I knew I was in trouble. Plus the fact that housemom was out and not coming back, along with two lunch guests. Luckily, Sam pitched right in when he got home and helped me finish them and lunch was only 15 minutes late. Not bad for the first time in 3 months, right?
But stressful.
I spent the rest of the time doing lunch dishes, only taking about 20 minutes to have a coffee (yes, dire situation here...) before going to work. We were doing fish for tonight's dinner, so it had to be weighed out and delivered to the houses. It went swimmingly and we got to enjoy the gorgeous afternoon that appeared out of nowhere after lunch.
We had a "green dinner" with challa bread (amazing...yum!), which consisted of pea shoots - very tasty - and a rather gross chard soup. Had I known the green's fate, I would've gotten kale...
Anyhow, going out now...more about tomorrow.
Hope all is well,
Steph
Yesterday and today were momentously long days. I managed to catch Sam in one April Fool's joke (they don't have the faucet sprayers in Germany, so the rubberbanded one worked beautifully...it took him about 10 seconds to realize what was happening...nice). I made hot chocolate for breakfast, and except for about 1 minute with Connie, it went over spectacularly well.
Lunch was another matter.
However, we got to the hall very early to do our run-through and then do the actual skit. The voice choir messed up and I was left to soldier on and it ended up doing pretty well. Maria was supposed to recline her head on "Jesus'" shoulder, but the bossy co-worker who was "producing" us spoke so harshly to her that I knew she wouldn't do it. And she didn't.
I didn't get back to the house until 10:30 and had to catch up on chores before starting lunch. However, since the falafel recipe called for putting everything into the food processor, I wasn't too worried. I was after it became apparent it would take about 5 different steps that I knew I was in trouble. Plus the fact that housemom was out and not coming back, along with two lunch guests. Luckily, Sam pitched right in when he got home and helped me finish them and lunch was only 15 minutes late. Not bad for the first time in 3 months, right?
But stressful.
I spent the rest of the time doing lunch dishes, only taking about 20 minutes to have a coffee (yes, dire situation here...) before going to work. We were doing fish for tonight's dinner, so it had to be weighed out and delivered to the houses. It went swimmingly and we got to enjoy the gorgeous afternoon that appeared out of nowhere after lunch.
We had a "green dinner" with challa bread (amazing...yum!), which consisted of pea shoots - very tasty - and a rather gross chard soup. Had I known the green's fate, I would've gotten kale...
Anyhow, going out now...more about tomorrow.
Hope all is well,
Steph
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