Grad school update

I've got a few more weeks of my fifth class, Leadership and Decision Theory. Sometimes it's hard to get work done:

Either there's dinosaurs all over the place, it's too hot to do anything, or I'm distracted by super fun activities.

Or it's just right outside and there's no way I'm sitting infront of a computer screen.

But when I do buckle down, it's a pretty good class. My final project this time isn't a big long paper, either, it's a narrated powerpoint presentation. You know, because it's 2001.

It's actually not that bad though. I had to pick a business decision that went awry and analyze what happened. I picked the introduction of New Coke. I'm much farther along for this assignment than I have for past final projects. Luckily I haven't had too many impromptu trips or activities so I've been able to really concentrate on getting stuff done. I'm definitely on track to get everything turned in before my sister gets here at the end of the month, woo hoo!

I've also had some additional time for new recipes, like baked buffalo chicken with homemade blue cheese dressing....

Cheesy onion pork chops....

And beef burgundy.

One that I didn't get a picture of but turned out ahh-mazing, was what we had for dinner last night: chicken lettuce wraps. So great for when you don't want to turn the oven on during the heat waves. I found a yummy dipping sauce recipe and everything. Excellent.

Anyway, that's what's going on. Reading, writing and eating. And drinking refreshing beverages.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

How to prepare and have a blast at Weinwanderungs (Wine Hikes!)

A weinwanderung is a great outdoor activity they have here in the spring and summer months. Some towns that have a lot of vineyards host the events, which consists of setting up tasting booths all through the vineyards as well as some food stands. Sometimes you pay a fee upfront so you can taste at each station, sometimes it's pay as you taste.

On Saturday, Matt and I went with a group to one we had hit last year. We paid a fee upfront and got a little glass. The glass held .1 liters, and there were 10 stands setup. Let's do the math together...Since a bottle of wine only holds .75 liters, it means we could drink more than a bottle of wine for 12 Euro. And have a cute glass!

Preparations
Things to bring:

• Water bottles (it's a good idea to fill up that .1 liter glass between stands. This saved me, especially when everyone started taking turns buying bottles...)
• Sunscreen (you're walking through a vineyard, where obviously there are no trees. The summer sun in Germany is vicious! Matt and I lathered up before we left the house.)
• Hand sanitizer or towelettes (the bathrooms are porta-potties at some of the stands)
• Extra snack (I had a nice Larabar with me in case a stand didn't have something I wanted to eat)
• Extra cash (for snacks at the stands - Matt and I had a delicious spundekas and pretzels, and a cake at another stand)
• Hat and sunglasses (to go with the sunscreen- it was quite hot on Saturday so the hat was especially useful)

Enjoying the day
At the start you got your glass and your booklet. At each stand when you pick your wine they stamp it, so at the end you feel like you accomplished more than drinking more than a bottle of wine.

 Pretty sweet dragon planter there.

 View from one of the stands.

 This kid had the right idea to cool off in this box of water. Plus he had his own lounge chair.

 Luckily, at most of the stands there were tents to shade us temporarily before we ventured on further.

 Here's me! I really like wine hikes when the weather is this good.

 Pretty!

Even if you're starting to get a little tipsy on the hike, just look for the bright colored signs to show you the trail. Otherwise you'll end up walking aimlessly around the vineyard.

 Hey, goats!

 I very much enjoy unicorns, so I was quite excited to see a bottle featuring one.

 Always a fun time :-)

It's coming...

The heat waves! This weekend is supposed to be around 90 degrees (or here, in the 30s, yikes), and this country is all about NOT having air conditioning. Ugh. You may have your heat and humidity back in DC and other areas of the U.S. but at least you can escape it inside your own homes. I can't. And I spend a lot of time being inside during the day, either cleaning, cooking, or studying.

After I returned from a trip in the U.S. last summer, I hemmed and hawed and made Matt drive us to the Hornbach (the German equivalent of Home Depot) and purchase a window unit.

We named him Harvey. He's a very important member of our household, even more important during these trying times of summer heat.

Of course, in our apartment, we don't have windows so we have to get creative and rig it with a partially opened door and use masking tape and a big piece of cardboard. It's nowhere near perfect, but it's effective enough when combined with a careful positioning of the fans, keeping the rolladens (super swanky window shades) drawn down to keep the sun out, and also just sitting still. We only have the one Harvey so it lives in our bedroom at night and then we typically move it upstairs during the day if I anticipate being upstairs a lot.

Oh - and there is a moratorium on using the oven for obvious reasons. Thank goodness for the crock pot. I also will be making batches of cold-brewed iced coffee and some iced tea to have at the ready.

Cold brew iced coffee is one of my favorite things. I loooove scooping my Lavazza Qualita Oro coffee in the French press, pouring fresh room temperature water over it, stirring it all up and sticking it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, all I have to do is press out the grounds and it's absolutely perfect with a splash of milk. It offers a great escape from the weather with each sip.

Is it iced coffee weather where you are? This website tells you for sure :-)

The German postal system continues to rock our socks off.

Did you know you can get beer shipped to you?!

As has been stated before, Matt's current favorite brand of beer is Schneider Weisse. It's found down in Bavaria, so it's not one that's easy to find up here in Western Germany. When my parents were in town we went to the brewery for lunch, yet were saddened to find the store closed. Matt was bummed because he wanted a case of most of the varieties they carry. We even tried to head back there on the return trip, but alas.

After checking around at a few Getrankemarkt (which translates to "drink stores") in the area and only finding one variety that we already had, Matt took to ordering it online. He ordered a total of 18 bottles.

Yep, it's a thing. A postman tried to deliver it, but I wasn't at home to receive it, so Matt and I headed to the post office to pick it up. Unfortunately for Matt, it was only in one huge and heavy box so I couldn't be much help. I trailed behind him as he carried it, in a vain attempt to be an effective stop between it landing and smashing on the sidewalk should it slip from his hands.

But yay, it's here! We'll totally do that again. Matt has already enjoyed one on the balcony.

Next time I'll be more aware of when we order it so I can be around to sign for it. It's really nice to have the option to have alcohol delivered to your door - that really speeds up the whole drinking thing, so, hats off to the postal service in Deutschland.

Veggie Chili

So yesterday, I had every intention of going to the grocery store to pick up some extra food.

I soon had to change my plan when I walked out of the house and over to the gym, because this is what I saw:

Desolation....

Not so much destruction....

A stray car here and there....

Which could only mean one thing: It's a German holiday I totally forgot about. Which means everything is closed, and apparently nobody goes anywhere.

I was going to make this sweet potato and black bean chili anyway, but I was bummed I didn't have any sour cream for it. Oh well, next time.

After the gym, I panicked when I saw my aging sweet potato, so I peeled and diced and got rid of any bad looking bits and dunked it into ice water (thanks, internet for telling me that was a thing!) and stuck it in the fridge for later.

I also started getting my extra ingredients out...(yay quinoa!)

(Not pictured: seasonings and probably some other stuff).

Matt was dubious when I told him what I was making, a little concerned about how sweet potato would go in a chili, and I don't blame him. I offered other things (frozen pizza, tortellini) for him to eat but he passed. He's working in the home office right now on the computer, so I had the kitchen all to myself.

How it turned out. I had to cook it for much longer than was stated in the original recipe, and also reduce the liquid (uh, also, I should have pulled out my 5 quart pot and not use my 3 quart, because man that was close to some crazy spillage). A few of the potatoes were still undercooked when I finally had had enough and decided to eat. The quinoa was spot on, though.

I'm pretty sure my ratio of sweet potato (it was a big sucker) to beans and tomato and onion was off. It was a tad too sweet potato-heavy.

The first few bites were a little bland, but then I started to "get" it. It made sense. It also was improved by the shredded cheese and the taco sauce. Matt even gave it a "yeah, this is pretty good" approval. Will definitely be better with sour cream though.

Final verdict: For some reason, this tasted twice as good the next day (today) for lunch. Not only did it heat up well, the flavors meshed a lot better, and I'm sure the spoonful of hot salsa didn't hurt, either. And the cheese.

We still love our meaty chili, but when we're in the mood to try something different, I will certainly give this another go, and probably add some more veggies like red pepper, extra tomato, beans... all sorts of things to junk it up. That's the best part about chili - you can add tons of random things and still call it chili.

Burger Review: Bully's Burger

There's a new burger place in town, called Bully's Burger. Their original location is in Frankfurt, and this branch is a short walk from our apartment, and is actually located in the center of a street close to the train station. I was immediately drawn to it because of its adorable mascot, the bulldog. Their Facebook page is chock full of the sweet, sweet puppydog.

The Mainz location is a super small shop, and Matt and I had previewed the menu online before heading over so we knew what we were doing. Within a few sentences, the guy taking our order asked if we wanted to switch to English (which was nice to ask since most people just switch without asking).

Matt ordered the Mariachi Burger, which had cheese, arugula, tomato, cucumber/pickles, red onion, jalapenos, tortilla, chili sauce, ketchup and mayo. Plus sweet potato fries with an aioli sauce.

Me? I went for the New York Burger: cheese, bacon, fried egg (!!!), some kind of cabbage slaw mix, tomato, onion, cucumber/pickles, BBQ sauce, ketchup and mayo. And also sweet potato fries with the aioli sauce.

Matt and I decided to take our food back home and eat, and that was the right call. There was absolutely no need to be seen in public as I made a 100% mess of myself as I ate this monstrosity. (So sorry for only one picture - Matt was into his before I could get one.) It was similar to other burgers we've had here in that the structural integrity of the bun became compromised with the juicy toppings. I myself had the problem of the bottom bun falling apart close to the end (even though I was shoving it in my mouth rather quickly). And yes, I did cut the thing in half.

The verdict: Matt liked his burger, but not the topping combo. He polished off all his fries and scraped the last bits of aioli clean too. He'd go back.

As for me, I'm still dreaming about this burger. I hadn't had a great burger in a looooong time. I don't think I can ever NOT have a fried egg on top anymore. Next time if I go with other people who would see me eat, I'd probably go for the cheeseburger which would yield a less-messy Kim. The fries were really good too, and you don't see sweet potato fries everywhere. Next time we could certainly split an order of fries, as I couldn't finish mine.

But this NY burger is perfect for those times you are going to eat by yourself in a ravenous and dizzying "MY PRECIOUS" sort of way that nobody wants to see. Just remember to wear a shirt made of paper towels.

Tis the season...

For festivals!

Contrary to the overcast skies outside as I write this, we're coming into the summer season here, which means a lot of sunshine, low humidity, and pleasant temperatures. It's a time when Germany and beyond gets all warm and fuzzy and start celebrating with festivals of music, culture, food and wine.

Oh the wine.

For this reason, I've been spending a lot of time at the gym recently, as I'm trying to bank some calorie burning-action prior to the endless glasses of wine, sausages, cakes, and more. And do some school work so I don't have to stress about it while enjoying all that the season has to offer.

Here are some of the events we did last year that are coming up fast! Who knows what we'll add on this year...

Wine Hike: These are awesome. They are heavy on the wine, very light on the hiking portion. The Eibinger Weinwanderung is a 5k loop with 10 stations setup for you to sample. At the beginning you get this little glass, pay 12 Euro, and at each stand you get a refilled glass. They've really made a game out of it, too, because you get a card to take to each stand for a "stamp" as well. Despite the fact the glass is on the small side and only holds .1 liters, about halfway through it's inevitable that we'll strike up a conversation with Germans our age, people will start passing around bottles.... and things get a little fuzzy. What saved us last year was Matt carrying large bottles of water.

Johannisnacht: It's Mainz's huge summer festival down next to the Rhine. I only got to enjoy one day of it last year, but this time I'm so going every day. And I'll get to see the fireworks this time! Great food, great wine and beer, and even a large selection of cocktails. Even live music and carnival rides. I'm really looking forward to it (especially since that after it's over, my sister is going to be here! Eeeeeeee!)

Lake Como: this isn't currently on our schedule right now, but I would always, always, always go back. It's one of my favorite spots, if not my top. We have two trips on the schedule right now, but I'll share that info later.

Frankfurt Apfelwein Festival! Take the train into Frankfurt, follow the crowds, find a table, and start imbibing in this delicious hard-cider cousin. Matt and I recall fondly the ham sandwiches from last year, which were perfectly moist and only included ham and some sauerkraut on a crusty roll. The music was good too.

Apartment grilling! I want to do all kinds of burgers and some chicken this season. Oh - and pineapple and peppers, mmm.....

Mainz Wine Fest in the Rose Garden: Another favorite. The backdrop is a huge park area, full of flowers (I recall I needed to pop some Claritin last time), and each night we went, we always ended up at the cake stand. Hence the preemptive gym action.

...Because after these have gone, it's not too long before Oktoberfest, and you gotta be in tip-top form for all that beer!