random Katie email!
I had a look on livejournal just now and realized how fleißig you're all updating your journals, whereas I've turned into a sporadic lurker. I'm not promising to change that, necessarily, but here are the (slightly edited) comments from an email I sent to my family yesterday. They're too trivial to put in an official Katie-update but mildly interesting enough to justify a livejournal-post.
"...Andra is taking Laura and Torben on a three-week "Kur" starting on February 24th. A Kur is a peculiar German thing -- essentially it's a two- to six-week-long vacation in a spa resort somewhere in Germany (usually on the islands in the north or on Lake Constance in the south), all paid for by insurance. To me this sounds like an extension of the European-sick phenomenon, in which a mild headache inspires British to quaff paracetamol and Germans to run back and forth to the Apotheke to acquire strange herbal remedies. Andra's been going to acupuncture for a few months now for a sore back, but apparently her problems (which I suspect stems partly from the fact that Carsten rarely, if ever, helps with the kids and housekeeping) warrant a stronger approach. So she's taking Laura & Torben with her to Sylt, an island on the west coast of Denmark/Germany, where they will be in a sort of day care every morning & afternoon, and Andra has water therapy classes or yoga or something. And it's all paid for by insurance.
So! This will leave Carsten and me alone in the house for three weeks (Carsten is already planning to have lots of loud rock music and invite his buddies over for Bier galore), and I'll most likely be fending for myself in terms of meals. Any suggestions? I was thinking zucchini pizza, spinach calzones, corn chowder, baked beans ... the sorts of things that can be reheated for several days in a row. It doesn't matter if they take a long time to prepare since I'm home from the FAL pretty early in the afternoon. The Germans *hate* leftovers, but since Carsten has his main meal at VW every day anyhow, I'll probably be the only one eating them. So if you could send recipes for one or two of the aforementioned items (or anything else that would be good), I'd be much obliged.
While on the topic of food, we made enchiladas last weekend. It was a very German version of enchiladas, with no vegetables -- just ground beef wrapped up in flour tortillas, with a little gouda cheese on top and some extra meat. Andra was in charge of preparing the ground beef, and she used one of the seasoning packets you sent. However, she was using an enchilada recipe from Carsten's Texas cookbook to the letter, and just threw the entire seasoning packet on top without thinking twice. The result? SUPER-SALTY enchiladas. I ate about half of one cause I was hungry, but couldn't manage any more. The weird thing was, she wouldn't admit she had messed up the cooking. She even claimed that the seasoning packet said "no salt" on it (I checked after the fact, and there was no such comment. The first ingredient was salt!! And I *know* Andra speaks English well enough to know the difference between "salt" and "no salt"). The nachos we had before the meal were too salty and sort of gross too... I miss good traditional Mexican food from Maine. ;)
The few times I've made baked goods, they'll try one piece out of politeness, but then the rest just sits there for a week or two. As a result, I haven't baked in about two months :( going into withdrawal!! I did try to make millionaire's shortbread at Ben's two weekends ago, but that turned out weird because one can't buy the proper flour or sugar here in Germany.
February 26th is Karneval, a huge festival in Braunschweig and across Germany. I don't know anything about the holiday's history, but the celebration itself involves a long parade, costumes and parties galore. Sounds sort of like Mardi Gras, though it's held on a Sunday. Andra will still be on Sylt with the Kindern then, but Carsten's going out to party and Ben's coming to Braunschweig to festivate as well. I'm trying to come up with costume ideas ... suggestions? So far I've come up with silly things like a Smart car, a teapot, an American flag, a klein bottle ... but nothing has really clicked yet..."
If any of you folkses have a) good recipes or b) silly Karneval costume ideas, please post a reply or send me an email!
"...Andra is taking Laura and Torben on a three-week "Kur" starting on February 24th. A Kur is a peculiar German thing -- essentially it's a two- to six-week-long vacation in a spa resort somewhere in Germany (usually on the islands in the north or on Lake Constance in the south), all paid for by insurance. To me this sounds like an extension of the European-sick phenomenon, in which a mild headache inspires British to quaff paracetamol and Germans to run back and forth to the Apotheke to acquire strange herbal remedies. Andra's been going to acupuncture for a few months now for a sore back, but apparently her problems (which I suspect stems partly from the fact that Carsten rarely, if ever, helps with the kids and housekeeping) warrant a stronger approach. So she's taking Laura & Torben with her to Sylt, an island on the west coast of Denmark/Germany, where they will be in a sort of day care every morning & afternoon, and Andra has water therapy classes or yoga or something. And it's all paid for by insurance.
So! This will leave Carsten and me alone in the house for three weeks (Carsten is already planning to have lots of loud rock music and invite his buddies over for Bier galore), and I'll most likely be fending for myself in terms of meals. Any suggestions? I was thinking zucchini pizza, spinach calzones, corn chowder, baked beans ... the sorts of things that can be reheated for several days in a row. It doesn't matter if they take a long time to prepare since I'm home from the FAL pretty early in the afternoon. The Germans *hate* leftovers, but since Carsten has his main meal at VW every day anyhow, I'll probably be the only one eating them. So if you could send recipes for one or two of the aforementioned items (or anything else that would be good), I'd be much obliged.
While on the topic of food, we made enchiladas last weekend. It was a very German version of enchiladas, with no vegetables -- just ground beef wrapped up in flour tortillas, with a little gouda cheese on top and some extra meat. Andra was in charge of preparing the ground beef, and she used one of the seasoning packets you sent. However, she was using an enchilada recipe from Carsten's Texas cookbook to the letter, and just threw the entire seasoning packet on top without thinking twice. The result? SUPER-SALTY enchiladas. I ate about half of one cause I was hungry, but couldn't manage any more. The weird thing was, she wouldn't admit she had messed up the cooking. She even claimed that the seasoning packet said "no salt" on it (I checked after the fact, and there was no such comment. The first ingredient was salt!! And I *know* Andra speaks English well enough to know the difference between "salt" and "no salt"). The nachos we had before the meal were too salty and sort of gross too... I miss good traditional Mexican food from Maine. ;)
The few times I've made baked goods, they'll try one piece out of politeness, but then the rest just sits there for a week or two. As a result, I haven't baked in about two months :( going into withdrawal!! I did try to make millionaire's shortbread at Ben's two weekends ago, but that turned out weird because one can't buy the proper flour or sugar here in Germany.
February 26th is Karneval, a huge festival in Braunschweig and across Germany. I don't know anything about the holiday's history, but the celebration itself involves a long parade, costumes and parties galore. Sounds sort of like Mardi Gras, though it's held on a Sunday. Andra will still be on Sylt with the Kindern then, but Carsten's going out to party and Ben's coming to Braunschweig to festivate as well. I'm trying to come up with costume ideas ... suggestions? So far I've come up with silly things like a Smart car, a teapot, an American flag, a klein bottle ... but nothing has really clicked yet..."
If any of you folkses have a) good recipes or b) silly Karneval costume ideas, please post a reply or send me an email!