For the first time :)

Last night I flew into Boise after a 5 hour trip from Chicago. It was pretty late so Jen and I visit for a bit and then went to bed. BUT this morning, I was awakened when my new little niece came into meet me for the first time. As she laid beside me a few tears welled up in my eyes. She is soooo precious and such a sweetheart. I'm so proud of my sis too. She is such a good mama. So excited to be here and looking forward to spending the next couple days together. My mommy gets here this afternoon too so some girlie time will be taking place.

Where am I?

Where am I? I have lived in so many places and experienced quite a few things that sometimes there is a brief moment in a day where I have to remind myself where I am. It isn’t a bad thing….it’s just a extremely brief strange feeling. For instance, when I first moved back from Heidelberg, I often found it weird for a brief moment when walking down the street I would hear passers by speaking English or hear people in restaurants at the table next to me speaking English. You may think that sounds funny but I had gotten so used to hearing people speak German all around me that English became an odd occurrence and it stood out more when I would hear it. So here it so much when I got back was pretty over stimulating and a little awkward at first. I had to keep reminding myself I was back in the States. Another example, I always recognize Montana license plates since I have lived out of state for a while and sometimes when I go back to Montana I look at a license plate and for a brief second think “oh, they must be from Montana” when really, of course they are cause that is where I am in that moment :)
So, two days ago I saw someone in the grocery store that I couldn’t remember where I had known her from. Turns out I worked with her in California at the weightloss camp last summer for a short period of time. Crazy! This morning, I ran along the little beach by my house and as the waves crashed onto the sand, the rain drizzled down, and the fog rolled off the water I felt like I was in Santa Cruz again. As I came around the corner by the Planetarium and expected to see the beautiful view of the city, all I saw were sail boats, water and fog. Kinda weird how it feels like a whole different place or experience when you don’t see the normal view.
It’s also interesting how when you have been somewhere for a certain period of time it just becomes another place and you aren’t as observant or in awe of your surroundings. Things like the amazing view of the city from my bedroom window become taken for granted and not as recognizable or as amazing until someone who doesn’t see it every day points it out again. Kinda like running by the river in Heidelberg and walking down the Hauptstrasse. I still think it is beautiful and always will but when I was living there, the beauty, although it continued to take my breath away at times, became such a normal everyday sight. Not sure if I am making sense. Just saying that there is a different feeling and view of a place between the first time you see it and after seeing it over a period of many days, months, or years. I still remember the first time I came here 5 years ago and how it was a cool unfamiliar vacation spot. Now I live here and it’s just a normal occurrence for me to run along Lake Michigan or walk by the Sears Tower or ride the EL around the city. It sometimes isn’t until people come visit and you get to show them around that you observe where you really are again. I love being in different places, seeing different things, experiencing different cultures, and I’m not sure that will ever change, I just sometimes have to remind myself where I am and really be there.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s day has so many meanings for people. For some it is a day to tell mom how much she is loved and appreciate and for others it is a time to morn and/or celebrate the life of the mom that is no longer with us. Some are celebrating it for the first time with a new bundle of joy while some are wishing that one day they will have the chance to experience it. Some never had a mother figure to appreciate while others maybe have more than one. For some it will be a very happy time and for others it may be sad. Whatever it is for you, I send you lots of love, comfort, and joy. For me, on Mother’s Day, I think of my mom and how awesome she is and has been for me; I think of my little sister, whom I am so proud of, and her new little girl; I think of my great sister-in-laws who raise my incredible little nieces and nephews; I think of my grandmothers who worked so hard to raise so many kids; I think of my friends who are all incredible moms and are always teaching me; I think other “mom’s” in my life whom I love and appreciate very much; I think of so many others who do one of the hardest jobs in the world; and I think of myself and how I one day hope to have that job and when the time comes I’ll be ready. Today I send out a blessing and love to all those mom’s out there and wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day but I also send out comfort to those people whom this may not be a happy time. xoxoxo

All Things German

"German" Bakery

German Supermarket

Jaegerschnitzel and sauce ingredients and recipe

Spaetzle ingredients and recipe

Rote Gruetze mit Vanillesauce ingredients and recipe

Me in my kitchen

Cookin with attitude :)

Hauptspeise - Main Dish of Jaegerschnitzel and Spaetzle with Jaeger Sauce and Brussel Sprouts

Great meal, great view

our upscale cuisine

Nachspeise - Dessert - Rote Gruetze with Vanilla Sauce

Every Friday I have German lessons with a private tutor which I am very glad I decided to do. I enjoy it very much even though it tests my patients a little bit. She says I'm a very fast learner but I'd like to just know it all now :)

Today I decided to make it an "All things German" day (well, many things German anyway). After my lesson, I went up north to check out a bakery called "Dinkel's", that has been family owned since 1922 by a family from Bavaria. I had high hopes of seeing some German pastries and maybe even sitting down for a little afternoon Kuchen and Kaffee. The place was cute and had some pretty good stuff but it was pretty Americanized of course so I was a little disappointed. Nothing REALLY lured me in and I left the place a little bummed without a taste of Germany. I hopped in my car and headed to the grocery store cause #1 I was planning on cooking dinner and needed ingredients and #2 it may sound weird but I never get to REALLY grocery shop AND take my time doing anymore. I love doing that and I feel like I haven't gotten to do it in a long time since I work at one and I just want to leave right away when I get off so I just end up getting a few things quickly and going on my way. Well, on my way to the huge Whole Foods in another neighborhood, I drove up right beside a store called Aldi. Awwwww....I had to stop. This was my all things German day and if I was grocery shopping there is no way I could miss going to Aldi. Aldi is a discount supermarket based in Germany and Caro and I would shop there all the time. Of course many of the products were different but it definitely had the same general atmosphere and setup. Made me a little giddy and put a smile on my face to be walking through there and remembering my trips to Aldi in Heidelberg. If only I could get some of the same products that were regular purchases of ours :( After my trip through Aldi, I made it to Whole Foods and spent the next hour or so and a chunk of cash but loved every minute of it. I even (because it was a German day) sat down around 4 o'clock to slowly enjoy some Kuchen und Kaffee (a little tradition that was introduced to me by meine liebe Heindel Familie). I finally made it back home a little before 5 and begin what turned out to be a 3 1/2 hour German cooking extravaganca. I was lovin it! I turned on some tunes and rocked out in front of the kitchen island and stove. I had decided to cook a well known German meal for Sari and I regardless of nutrition but all from scratch (that counts for something) :) It was REALLY good! The menu consisted of Jaegerschnitzel with Jaeger Sauce, Spaetzle, and Rote Gruetze with Vanilla Sauce. It was accompanied by a bottle of German white wine that was used in some of the cooking as well. I pulled all of the recipes from a German cookbook that I bought in Heidelberg before leaving. SO the 3 1/2 hours was partially due to the fact that I had to translate the directions and convert all the metric units to cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons etc. Not only was I cooking something completely new but I was reading the recipe in German. My brain was workin double time. I think next time I will translate and convert it all before I start :) It went fine but I think I may have missed a couple tiny steps and maybe had a couple conversions wrong but I was able to improvise. The Jaegerschnitzel was made by pounding out a thin piece of veal, breading it with egg, flour, and breadcrumbs and frying it in olive oil. Yikes! Not only have I never cooked veal (Sorry for anyone who this may offend. It was pasture raised though if that makes a difference.) but I also haven't fried anything in years! I was cringing a little while doing it and Sari laughed as I just tried to push aside my nutrition morals and enjoy the process. The sauce was made with a little butter, garlic, bacon (another item I haven't used in forever), mushrooms, water, white wine, some spices and herbs and a little cream. Freakin good but really rich and not real low fat :) That is one thing about German food: Very heavy! On the side was steamed brussel sprouts and Spaetzle. Spaetzle is like a pasta/dumpling made from flour, egg and water. There is actually a Spaetzle maker or board especially for making it but I just improvised with a cutting board and cheese knife. I was very happy with the outcome. For dessert, I made something called Rote Gruetze with a vanilla sauce. The Rote Gruetze is sort of like a gelatin dessert with fruit, water, sugar and starch. I used cherries, rasberries, and strawberries. Then on top you put a vanilla sauce made from real vanilla bean (which I always thought looked like an actual bean but really looks like a stick), milk, sugar and egg yolk. I'm not sure I did it right cause it was very liquidy but it sure tasted good. Overall the meal was a big success. Sari enjoyed all of it. I enjoyed it and loved doing it. Alles schmeckt mir sehr gut! The only downfall was the SUPER full stomach and the slight headache I got from the richness and my body not really being used to that much eggs, milk, butter and meat. I definitely couldn't eat meals like this every night but the cooking experience and the cultural acknowledgement truely made my heart sing. Heidelberg memories surfaced as well that put a little extra smile on my face. Looking forward to the next evening of another cultural cuisine.

P.S. I meant to get a pic with my German tutor but didn't get to it AND I really think my food photography is improving :) Maybe one of these days I will update my camera. I love documenting it as I go and would love to make it look even better. I hope you enjoy seeing it as well.

leibe Gruesse - beck

German Success, Indian failure

Today was my day off and a pretty good day it was. It is getting alot warmer here and temps reached 80 degrees although the wind almost blew me across town as I walked around. I'm not light as a feather either so imagine what would have happened if Mary Kate Olson was in town. Yikes! Anyway, I went to my weekly German lesson and assured myself that it was a good decision to keep on learning the language while I am here even though it is a little expensive and I may rarely use it. If I was in Germany it would be easier but my tutor is great and I feel like I am understanding more and more each time. It will still be a while before I'm fluent but I definitely feel a sense of success. The remainder of the day was spent at the book store and the library first, looking for a couple reference books for "the project" and then I came home to expend my creative energy and write. I have decided that I will be taking a little sabbatical on my newpaper column articles so I can focus on my new project. I feel bad but I am finding that I am struggling to do it all right now. Perhaps I will be able to squeeze out more articles here and there but after the next one I write (hopefully this week), I am going to take a break. Tonight I then experimented with a few indian masala recipes and totally failed. It wasn't very good. Too bad I have a big pot of it :( I tried to fix it and make it something else and it is edible but not ver satisfying to my tastebuds. Better luck next time and perhaps I will find a food recipe and actually follow it the first time :) Oh, well, failures make better cooks of us all. I am thinking about pulling out my German cookbook this week and trying something from there soon. The hard part is I have to sometimes put my nutrition education stuff aside in my head and use ingredients that supposable aren't the healthiest BUT it is still better to use whole ingredients and make something from scratch than eat processed chemical laden foods. My mind sometimes has a little war about whole food flavor versus whether it is fully healthy. Guess that is the price I pay for being a foodie :)

Roasted Carrot Spread

This week at work I'm sampling some of our oil free, no sugar, sprouted grain breads from the bakery . They are delicious but I wanted to offer another quick easy tasty recipe for the customers as well. So I did a little searching, modified a couple recipes and came up with a tasty spread that you just might enjoy. You can play around with the spices a little bit yourself but here is what I did.

2 Large Carrots

2 1/2 T Tahini (Sesame paste)

1/2 T Agave, Brown Rice Syrup, or 100% Maple syrup

1/4 t salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

pinch of chili powder

Chop and roast the carrots in the oven for about 30 minutes on 375. Then put all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Season to taste. (I also steamed carrots one of the days and used a little bit of the water from steaming to make it creamier - I really like it this way. I added the steamed spread to the roasted spread I had from the day before. Either way it was good)

P.S. I would like you to note my picture as I'm think I am getting better at my food photography. What a great setup :)

Oh Man-o....

I'm already getting antzy. Chicago is cool, work is good, Sari is a great roommate, lots to do but still something itchin' at me. I'm such a traveling soul. It is hard for me to believe this is it for me right now. Don't worry....I'm not gonna just pick up and leave...I'm just sayin I think there is still more to come for me whether it be here or there. I have a little project up my sleeve that I'm SUPER excited about. Can't reveal it just yet but if it gets to going anywhere (which it will) I will reveal it in time. All I can say is I'm pretty confident about it and it is gonna be fun. Just wait and see. I have a pretty good feeling about this one and I've been pretty on with my predictions lately. To be continued...