Lazy Sunday Casserole

I made this casserole for dinner last night and it was really delicious and better yet, super easy! I found it through pinterest and was not disappointed. Here is a link to the recipe: Lazy Sunday Casserole and a picture of the finished product.

Picture by Kayotic Kitchen

Hope you enjoy it!

Our first Thanksgiving

I will save you the details of how hard it was to find all the ingedients and move straight to the main event.

The Turkey: We managed to find a 12 pound turkey in a nearby city and thankfully it fit in our oven...it is very small in case you were wondering. It was a true eye opener for me having to clean it out and seperate the skin from the meat to season (I read that on the internet since I had no idea how to cook a turkey). I rubbed herb butter in between and added some salt to the skin to make it crispy. Please let me know if there is a better way to do this. 

"Oh help me please, my hand is in a turkey!"

After hours of cooking and a near drop of the turkey, it was finished. We let it rest and then Stephen got to carving.

The first Spanjer turkey...."can you tell I have been in that sweat box of a kitchen for a awhile?"

I decided to make all the traditional dishes (at least traditional to my family), and am pretty pleased with the outcome.

We had sweet potato casserole....this was probably my least favorite dish, but not too bad. The topping lacked a little sweetness, but it was one of our friend's favorite dishes. I guess I tend to have a sweet tooth.

I made the traditional southern dish, Green Bean Casserole and it turned out great. We unfortunately don't have the fried onion things to put on top, but Ritz crackers were not a bad substitute.

The stuffing was not too bad either, bread, cornbread, veggies...you get the idea.

Since you cannot buy the cranberry sauce over here I had to make it from scratch. It was actually incredibly easy and turned out way better than the can version. The recipe I used called for fresh cranberries, orange juice, and brown sugar. It was one of my favorites from the meal.

Traditional mashed potatoes...not much to say about them.

 And the ever fattening, yet delicious, deviled eggs!

We had four friends over and ate until we could not fit another bite.

 Well there you have it, an American Thanksgiving in Germany. Hope you all had a nice holiday as well!

Dinner with Sophie and Leo

Two of my favorite girls were home for about a month from College so we decided to celebrate with dinner. It was great to just talk and catch up. Sophie is on the right and studies Economics and International Business about 2 hours from Neuenburg, while Leonie is on the left and we are still not really sure what she is studying! 

So pretty!

Just kidding, it is a mix of South American Cultural, Spanish, Portugese, and "a tribal language of choice" whatever that means. She is really happy with it though so "press on little Leo!"

that about sums up Leo, "you taking a picture of me?"

Sophie got some cool new glasses, you know European and all so Claudine and I gave them a shot. Is it just me or do my eyes look strangely huge in them?

I kind of think she looks good in them?!?

Anyways, just a night in the life of an American in Germany with a friend who wants to be South American!