Adventures in cooking (and food in general)

The hubby and I have been all over the place cooking-wise. When it was super hot, I refused to make anything that had to be made in the oven or in multiple pots on the stove, which made meal planning challenging. We've been doing a combination of our usual meals (tacos, stir-frys, pizza and salad) and adding in a few German meals like curry wurst and schnitzel. The grocery store has an entire aisle of seasoning packets, which makes it really convenient to just pickup a packet, pickup your meat, and any other ingredients needed. With the schnitzels, it's usually cream but we cut back on the portion sizes and I make a veggie.

When we go out for schnitzel, unfortunately the size is far too large... this Gorgonzola schnitzel is the size of your face which I can't finish (but hubby does and practically licks his plate clean):

Gosh those fries are good. Germans do potatoes so well.

Last week we had pepper cream chicken schnitzel with roasted carrots. The entire meal could be prepared in the oven so I was excited to try out two of the oven dishes we got as wedding presents. Carrots have been my go-to veggie as of late since they're cheap and can just be tossed in olive oil and seasonings and thrown in the oven. They also make an easy snack for hubby with some hummus or ranch dressing.

One item I keep going back to at the grocery store are mini turkey meatballs. Very flexible - we'll use them for our spaghetti and meatballs, eat them as-is with bbq sauce, or even add them to pizza.

I'm definitely looking forward to cooler weather so I can up the ante with some cold weather soups, chilis, stews, and baked goods. Pinterest is going to come in handy and my pins will be put to good use - I vow to not just pin things but also MAKE the recipes I pin! I'm particularly intrigued by these Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Speaking of cookies, two weeks ago hubby had a craving so we walked over to the grocery store for the ingredients. The cookies were oatmeal chocolate chip but we had trouble finding chocolate chips... hubby was fine getting a bar of baking chocolate and cutting it up. They came out pretty delicious, even better as we made them a few days later from frozen balls:

Up in the next month or so: Oreo cheesecake bars, black bean & brown rice burgers, veggie mac and cheese, and oatmeal applesauce muffins.

Ich bin ein Student: Finally starting Grad School!

Yay! Beginning in September, I will start attending Colorado State University's Global Campus to get my Master of Science in Organizational Leadership, with a specialization in Strategic Innovation and Change Management!

CSU is on a trimester system, which means I'll be taking one class every 8 weeks. The trimesters usually roll into each other so I can either just keep taking one class right after another, or take off a month in between. If I take one right after another, I've estimated that I can be done with the degree by the summer of 2015.

It seems like the right time to get this degree since I'm a full-time hausfrau, but if you read my post last week about all the things I do each day, you know that I still have some schedule adjusting to do. I'll also have to figure out what trips we can take and when. Luckily, I already know what classes I'll be taking and the order that I'll be completing them, and have access to the syllabus for each, so that will help me plan things out a little better.

The entire program, since it's through their "Global Campus," is online. I'll be using Blackboard (which will be kinda neat after working there for a bit) and completing readings, commenting on message boards, commenting on other student's comments, etc. The courses sound pretty interesting, so I hope they live up to their titles. My first class is Effective Organizations: Theory and Practice.

Even though I've been out of school for 6 and a half years, I always associate Fall with school so I'm excited I have school to think about again! I wish I had back-to-school shopping to do, though - that's really the best part. Maybe I should just go buy a spiral notebook anyway, I do love my notebooks. Or a "first day" outfit.... otherwise it will just be my typical daily uniform of t-shirt and leggings.

Woo hoo!

How's that German coming?

Oh, it's coming. It's a slow process. If you think about it, when you're little and learning to speak, you're learning a language over time and acquire more words and learn by example how to put them together.

So in German, that makes me at about....oh, let's say a 2 year-old. A smart one, for sure, but a 2 year-old.

I've been doing Rosetta Stone each weekday and try to jot down key/useful phrases as I go to study at a later time. Sometimes I'll point to things when we're walking and say what they are in German. Things like, "The car is green," [das Auto ist grün],  or, "My shoes are blue." [meine Schuhe sind blau].

A favorite: anything having to do with a cat being under, on, beside, or far from a table.

Yep, definitely a smart toddler.

These are things that Rosetta Stone teaches you first, probably because you'll obviously need to know how to say "the horse is far from the house" before you learn how to ask for a beer and order food.

If we get all of our travel on the books this Fall, I'll see if I can actually take an in-person class. Either way, that's happening this Fall or during a Winter month. Rosetta Stone is totally helpful, don't get me wrong, but when you're learning a language it's not enough. To really learn a language you need to speak it on a daily basis and be put into those pressure-cooker situations where you have to respond to questions (and understand them) on the fly.

When we were in France, I was amazed at how much high school/college French I remembered, but when it counted I totally blanked on how to ask for the vegetables. I was out of practice. Luckily, most people in Europe are smarter than you, so they do speak English, if not fluently then certainly well enough for their occupation. 

But back to German... I don't want to rely on someone else knowing English to get by, that's no fun. That's being an elitist and lazy American. Plus, it makes it more difficult when someone seriously doesn't know English, and living here, it does happen. You think dealing with Comcast is tough? Try calling Kable Deutschland and talking to a customer service rep.

I am picking up more and more every day but haven't gotten around to those super long words just yet. I recently came across a list of some of the longest words in the language and my favorite word is actually the number 7,254: Siebentausendzweihundertvierundfünfzig.

Nope, not there yet - still on "I'm hungry" and "You have blond hair." I'll be over here with my juice box and stuffed animals.

Trip to Trier.

According to Wikipedia, the city of Trier is probably the oldest city in Germany. The hubby and I saw that they were having a wine festival this past weekend, so we decided to drive over and see what it was all about.

Namely, we heard there were Roman Ruins to be explored.

Trier is still in the Rhineland-Palantinate state of Germany (which is where Mainz also sits), but it is on the Moselle river very close to Luxembourg. Driving around we even saw a few cars from Luxembourg.

It took about an hour and a half, then another half hour deciding where to park, but we got to the festival side right at noon on Sunday. Right when "die oldieband" was taking the stage:

I could definitely see my dad here, listening to the songs he's used to, just drinking a bottle of wine.

After finishing our glasses, we got a meaty sandwich and headed back to the car to drive to the other side of town where the main ruins are located. We had already seen the Porta Nigra driving, which was constructed as a city gate.

We re-parked and walked over to the Kasierthermen, or Imperial Baths. What was so neat about them is that they were never completed as a bathhouse. The city was becoming more and more important in the 4th century so they started construction, however everything stopped when Constantine I shifted political activities East, thus eliminating the need for a bathhouse in a city where people wouldn't congregate.

It wasn't until after 360 AD that construction started again, but this time, as a reception or parade hall. From there it was a residence, a church, expanded into a castle in some points - all sorts of things.

I was just happy that we could go exploring away from the scorching sunshine:

Someone really likes the sun in pictures.....

Here's me!

I don't know why he looked so victorious. Trying to pretend he's back in Roman times, I suppose.

He's so darn cute.

We did get a map of all this, but I couldn't tell you where we were at this point. We were just walking around, enjoying the underground coolness.

Here is the largest portion of the ruins, where that castle once stood. It sits along the old city wall.

After we had our fill, we decided to meander through the center of town and check out this Cathedral:

And also get some ice cream. Mmm.... I had coffee flavored and the hubby had the special of the day: Oreo.

We even walked over to the Porta Nigra. Here's me standing in one of the arches. It was hot.

About this time we decided to head back over to the wine fest. It was just getting going around lunchtime, so we were looking for a few more things to be open. We found the action and as I was distracted looking at a stand of cakes and cupcakes and other sweets, I stabbed my foot on a stick.

Hubby said I'm no longer allowed to wear flip flops out anymore....

To make me feel better, hubby got this for us to eat. It's one of my favorite fest foods, the Flammkuchen.

It was hands-down the best one I've ever had. Might have been that extra cheese.

We happily munched on this as some roadies did their sound check on the nearby stage (to Wonderwall, of course, only knowing about half the lyrics) and decided that we'd had our fill of Trier. Time to head back to Mainz.

The wines were delicious, but man, that car AC never felt so good.

So what do you DO all day, anyway?

I've had a few people ask me this and I scoff. I scoff because they can't actually fathom filling up an entire day without an out-of-the-house job. I understand; I used to think the same thing. I promise you I don't just sit around drinking wine and watching Netflix everyday.

I only do that when I have some free time, which I try to carve into my days, but sometimes doesn't happen.

Here is a "typical" day, Monday - Friday. I say "typical" because those times are only loosely adhered to, as it often depends on when hubby gets up and moving around, and how long he's stuck in the office. Or if I get done earlier or later with these tasks.

8:00-9:00: Get up, make breakfast, lunch for hubby, put dishes away
9:00-10:30: Blog entry/Internet news/research short-term or weekend trips and events
10:30-11:15: House cleaning item for the day (alternating between kitchen, living room, dining room, guest bed/bath, master bedroom, master bathroom, office, hall/stairs, trash/recycling)
11:15-12:15: Workout (essential for the heavy diet in this country)
12:15-1:00: Shower, start laundry (laundry takes forever)
1:00-2:00: Lunch break
2:00-3:00: Rosetta Stone/German workbook
3:00-6:00: Grocery shopping/misc. paperwork for hubby/budget planning/trip planning/meal planning/continue laundry
6:00-8:00: Prepare, eat, cleanup dinner/kitchen

I'm also hoping to add a few more things into the mix, like time to try out new recipes, read books, and I don't know, just learn new stuff. Or indulge in a guilty pleasure. Like a nap.

For those of you who think that it would be easy and you'd have all the time in the world to do everything you want if you didn't have a job or worked from home, think again. It takes a lot of self-discipline that not everyone can deal with - and some days are better than others. Nobody is here to bark orders at me, it's just me. It's also strange to think that you can do ANYTHING YOU WANT. Anything is so very vague, so all-encompassing that at times it's overwhelming to have the freedom. You have to somehow pull yourself out of the notion that this can be a cushy life if you want it to be, because this is not permanent.

I don't want to get behind in missing all the things I loved doing while working at a law firm. I want to keep advancing and learning and knowing what is happening around me so that when I get back, I can have a better chance at picking back up. That's why I have routines to do things and try not to let the comfy beds and couch call out to me mid-afternoon.

I don't mention any of this to say that it's easier or harder than having an outside job. Just a different kind of job. It has all the makings of what I used to have: big and small picture tasks, tons of planning and budgeting, needing to be flexible to changing conditions, creating process improvements, and delegating tasks (i.e. "honey, can you please be in charge of making X today?") to my team member.

I am absolutely thankful for this time in my life where I don't have to commute an hour each way to work and to make myself lunch each day. And I'm going to take advantage of that by not wasting my time. I'm in freaking Germany and I love that I get to do all this hausfrau stuff here.

My goal is to rock whatever I'm doing and right now, this is what I'm rocking.

The rest of the furniture!

Ah. So happy to have all of our rental furniture delivered. Still waiting on one essential piece of the wardrobe for me - the bar to hang clothes (who forgets to bring that, btw?!)- but besides that, everything is here.

Both wardrobes:

The gorgeous Belgian dining room set- we have six chairs total and there's a leaf in the middle of the table that extends the length:

We originally were going to have this "sofa table" behind our couch so the couch would stop sliding around (and act as a place to put two of the speakers), but it was much too wide for the space. Luckily, this solved our shoe storage problem, and fits perfectly at the bottom of the stairs:

If I can manage to get a few odds and ends cleaned up, I'll try to do a video tour of the entire apartment one of these days. Oh - we also got our guest bedroom mattress. VERY comfortable.

I'm also pleased to introduce a new member of the family - this is Harvey. He's an air conditioner and I love him:

While yes, Germany is relatively cool in the summer, there have been plenty of super hot days (and humid nights) when a few fans were not going to cut it. It's also hot and stuffy if we're cooking, especially with the oven.

For those struggling to do the math in your head, 27 degrees equals 80.6 Fahrenheit. Sounds warmish until you remember that this is doing a great job of pushing the air around, with the help of a few strategically placed fans, making upstairs quite comfortable. When we move it down to our bedroom at night, it gets even lower since it's in a much smaller room. The only challenge is getting it to sit properly in the door since we have zero windows. The hubby would argue it looks like a mess, but I'd say it's a sophisticated system of masking tape and cardboard that is working just fine thankyouverymuch.

An Airline Comparison

After taking my 13th flight this year, I realized I may have a problem. (Okay, it didn't take as long as that). I've been quite the jet-setter these first seven months of 2013 and am looking forward to this chunk of time where I don't have to go to an airport, get patted down, wait in a line to board a plane, or keep weighing my luggage to avoid paying an overweight fee.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to provide my thoughts on the three airlines I've taken to make the transatlantic flight, and to also share our experience with Europe's low-fare airline, Ryanair. That way, those of you planning trips to see the hubby and I can make informed decisions.

United.

United is what hubby and I took on our trip to Italy last year, and I took it again when I went back in April to present at the NALP conference. When I got to the airport, I had the pleasure of sitting around with my fellow passengers for more than a few hours before they canceled my flight completely. 

Not cool, United.

They did put me on the next flight with Lufthansa (but that wasn't until the following morning) which was super pleasant. I did take United on the trip back to Frankfurt which almost made up for the stress and hassle - it was a Sunday evening flight that was half-booked, which meant I was able to easily squat a three-seat aisle and actually sleep on the journey. (Take THAT, jet lag!)

The food is pretty standard, and their breakfasts are the most hearty out of the three (think yogurt, roll, fruit or granola bar, versus just a roll and jam). Not surprising for a US-based airline - we're such a bunch of fatties.

Lufthansa.

Hubby and I took this for our initial trip to Frankfurt in late February. Despite some annoying Spanish tourists seated in the rows in front of us on the plane (who took no time in reclining their seats in our faces), I enjoy the airline. It's based in Germany so the flight crews are always professional, you can get alcohol in Economy (beer, white or red wine, and then either Bailey's or Cognac after the main course), and their entertainment selections are pretty good. I think I like their food the best. When I was coming back on that United-turned-Lufthansa flight, their snack option was a bratwurst and roll - perfect.

In fact, I enjoy their entertainment selections the most, too.

British Airways.

I booked BA for my flight back for my friends wedding because at the time, it was the cheapest option. This was the first time I didn't have a direct flight, but rather had to connect at Heathrow in London. I thought certainly that will be no problem - they are entering and exiting the same terminal - I'll have time to spare!

Wrong, Kim, wrong.

Never having been to Heathrow, nor changing flights in Heathrow, I was under the impression that I'd get off the plane, find my next flight at a nearby gate, and have plenty of time to poke around a gift store or something. In reality, when you get off an international flight at this (stupidly large) airport, you have to enter through passport control AND security again. Oh - and as for the same terminal? The terminal itself is so large there is a tram that runs between A, B, and C (a la Dulles). This makes layovers of 1 hour 25 minutes super fun, unless of course your plane/de-planing takes a little longer than usual.

I was supposed to only have a layover of 65 minutes on my return flight, but thank goodness - the plane was delayed by an hour and a half leaving BWI, so I was automatically re-booked on a later flight to Frankfurt, thus eliminating my need to plead with people to let me cut their line, or sprint through the airport like a hooligan smuggling drugs.

Also not a huge fan of the BA airport staffs. I thought they didn't really have their stuff together and had a dazed and confused look on their faces more often than not. Once airborne, though, the flight attendants and pilots (one was named Ian, how British indeed!) were pretty good.

As for the seats, I have mixed feelings here. You can pick your seat (which are more generous space-wise than United and Lufthansa) but you have to pay for the privilege. The other option is to wait until 24 hours prior to your flight to check-in and choose one (that's left, anyway) free of additional charge. I decided to go for it and pay for an aisle seat on my Heathrow-BWI trip, because I knew out of all the flights, it was going to be one of the longest (in that direction you're up against the jet stream, so it usually adds time to the flight). Luckily, I had one of the best seats I've ever had - it was one in the first row of economy with tons of extra legroom and directly across from a restroom. After reviewing my BA-assigned seats for the journey back, I found them to be pretty good, so I didn't need to change them after all.

Entertainment-wise, I think their selections were lacking, with the exception of their informational tv channel - I got to learn about how water impacts the makeup of Europe, so that was pretty cool.

The food was kind of meh, but it did feel fun asking for tea. The BLT wrap I had on my last leg (Heathrow to Frankfurt) was delicious... I certainly wasn't going to pass up British bacon! The alcohol selection is much more generous, even more so than Lufthansa.

Ryanair.

Very much like Spirit Airlines in the US, Ryanair is all about being the lowest cost airline for European travel, making it a hit with students and other budget travelers. Hubby and I decided to give it a shot on our trip to Lake Como earlier this month. We could have driven, but we really wanted this trip to be as relaxing as possible, and if we were driving that was less likely to happen.

Two people flying from Frankfurt to Milan cost us well under $100 total. But of course there are tons of catches - the airport in Frankfurt isn't the main international one that I've spent so much time in - it's actually much farther away (like an hour and a half drive from our apartment) in what I definitely wouldn't consider the Frankfurt area anymore. Their flights only leave in the wee hours of the morning, too, so when hubby and I were leaving our apartment at 4am, there were still people out from a night of drinking wandering the streets.

When we got to the dinkiest airport I've ever seen (what seriously looked like the train station of airports, or a converted hangar), there were huge lines to check-in (we had to have someone stamp our boarding pass since we didn't have an EU passport) and nowhere to stand and wait at the gate. I was already in a mood because I hadn't had any caffeine or breakfast, and I had just flown from the US the day before so I was operating on very little sleep.

Eventually, we were allowed to walk out onto the tarmac (!!!??) and board the plane. It's best to be at the head of the line for this, because unless you paid extra, it's a free for all seat-wise. Hubby and I were not guaranteed to sit next to each other, but we managed to find two seats together.

The planes were nice looking but at the back of each seat there are ads for their food or duty free right in your faces. I told the hubby that it would be best if I got a cappuccino and ham and cheese croissant during the flight so as to avoid any further hangry unpleasantness. He agreed and ordered.

When the ham and cheese croissant finally showed up, it had neither ham nor cheese in the middle. I was heartbroken and still hungry. We alerted two crew members who did nothing about it. (Which reminds me - I need to lament this fact on their Facebook page to get my 4 Euro back!)

After being sad from the breakfast incident, the flight crew proceeded to try and sell us lottery tickets for prizes like free flights, phone cards, and duty free items. Not interested, Ryanair.

We landed in Milan around 7:30 am, and in true Italian fashion, proceeded to leave the airport without so much as a glance from passport control. They just don't seem to care who is coming into their country.

Anyway, on the trip back from Milan to "Frankfurt," their airport is much larger and nicer, despite it still being a second-tier airport for Milan. (And holy duty free shopping, Batman! What a great selection!) Unfortunately, as we were getting past the gate, everyone was told to stop, turn around, and come back later since they just discovered something wrong with the plane. Argh. Then, they changed our gate so we went down there to line up to get to the shuttle bus to take us to the plane. After boarding said bus and remaining there for about 20 minutes, the driver finally got in and took us to the plane.

When we arrived and were getting off the bus, the crew came out of the plane and waived us back into the bus. Everyone was audibly complaining now, in several languages. Totally ridiculous. Soo, we got back on the bus and literally drove around for 10 minutes before going back to the plane and boarding.

But wait folks! You'd think this is where the plane would just take off, but no... we were told by the crew that we had to wait before takeoff now because there were thunderstorms in Northern Europe and Brussels was telling us not to enter airspace just yet.

(I don't know who put Brussels in charge of such things, but now I was also upset with the country of Belgium.)

Our 7:20 flight finally took off around 10:25. It was an experience to be sure - but next time, we'll be paying a bit more for a much better flight.

Final Thoughts.

For transatlantic flights, I think a safe bet is Lufthansa. It also code shares with United so if something goes wrong, they'll be a better outcome in getting you from point A to point B in a more timely manner. If you prefer having two slightly shorter flights and are itching to hang out in Heathrow for awhile (the shopping was nice - there's an entire Harrods department store in Terminal 5), go with BA but make sure you have a ridiculously long layover time.

If after arriving in Europe you want to pay next to nothing for flights and don't mind being utterly inconvenienced at every opportunity, go with Ryanair.

Happy travels!