America Update

Sorry I have been so bad about posting. I have not been doing a good job taking pictures, but I am going to do better this spring! Here are a couple pictures from our visit to the states....better late than never.

Our new nephew Thomas, at his baptism in New York...that Stephen got to perform.

Trip to Cracker Barrel. 

Great visit with friends in Birmingham, thanks for hosting Hil!

Happy Easter!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving again this year....even if we did celebrate a little late on Saturday! We wanted our friends to be able to come and Thursday is not a holiday in Germany,  which is mildly shocking considering just about every other day is...see post here for more about that!

I went with a more modern eclectic table setting this year that sprung off my new 9.00 Euro teal Ikea tablecloth. It was on sale and I couldn't resist the stripes and the material is nice and durable. The mustard color is actually really pretty too...maybe next time! 

GLÄNTA tablecloth from Ikea

A while back I visited a local park and picked up some large bark pieces and decided to incorporate those in as well. I dried them in the oven and then added some gold paint to lighten the wood and add some interest. With candles we had and some orange lanterns (real branches given to me by our landlord) I think it turned out okay.

This year I simplified the menu a little, but it was less stressful and to tell you the truth Germans have no idea what you normally eat on thanksgiving so they didn't miss the sweat potatoes or green bean casserole. I decided on a new spanjer favorite "roasted broccoli" and then just stuck to the classics including homemade cranberry sauce  which is really easy to make and tastes way better than the canned version. We used Alton Brown's brining and turkey cooking recipe thanks to my parents suggestion and it turned out great! I think an improvement from last year and a lot shorter cooking time.

Stephen did the honors of cutting our little bird to pieces

and we finished the night off watching Men In Black 3. It was a fun night of friends, family, and lots of eating! Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving! 

Cheap Trip

At the end of August I took a quick trip north to visit a good friend who moved to Bonn to attend college. I purchased my train ticket through a last minute discount website and was delighted to only pay 25 Euros each way. Not bad for a 5 hour train ride that usually cost around 80 Euro each way! Here is a link to the website in case you are ever in need of some discounted Rail Tickets: http://www.ltur.com/de/bahn.html....you can also get tickets to Paris for 35 Euro from our home. Feel free to come and visit and we can test out the Paris route!

University Students get a free pass to ride all public transportation and lucky for me they get to take a friend free after 7 pm. Since Bonn is only a 20 minute train ride away from Cologne, and it was free, Leo and I went for dinner one night. Here is the main cathedral, which is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. 

You will love the european rail system, come and try it out!

Happy Birthday!

Just wanted to say H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y  to three of the best friends a girl could have. 

They have been there from the beginning when warm-up suites and scrunches were cool, 

 and when we lived in t-shirts and sweats.

They laugh at your jokes that to anyone else are not actually funny,

and endure your interesting fashion choices (....all in the name of JT!).

They go to questionable music concerts with you ("I love you Zach!")

and always come to your birthday parties!

They help you experience the best of moments 

and keep you grounded, reminding you of who you are.

They are willing to lend a hand

and you can always count on them to be there. 

Love you Christy, Hil, and Em: wish I could be there to celebrate your birthdays with you!

NIC Christmas

..I only said it might be the last one! This one really is! Just wanted to post a picture from our Christmas Eve Service at NIC. We had a great group and even some new visitors. Until next year...

"It brought me to my Knees!"

First off I would like to thank my dear friend Anita (seen in the picture below) for her continued thoughtfulness in trying to make me into a gardner.   

Anita and me in Basel Switzerland (near to where she lives)

This past May she very kindly bestowed upon me some lovely plants she started growing from seeds. I was ever so delighted to oblige and attempted to keep the two tomato plants and one pepper plant alive. I am not the best at remembering to water my plants every day....I mean people have lives, but somehow they survived for a time and even produced a couple little vegetables or fruits (that is an argument for another day).

As you see below we received one ever so cute pepper and thought we better eat this thing after months of "watering". At the time Anita said she was unsure as to what kind of pepper plant it was, but I am pretty sure I know now!

Deceptively cute, isn't it!

Stephen decided we should both take a sliver to try it.....I think he forgot I am a girl! My mouth is burning just thinking about eating that tiny pepper. I literally was sitting on the ground drinking milk out of a coffee cup...it was that bad!

Ridiculous, I know!

 Thought you would enjoy!

Goodbye Sheena!

Sheena (fellow softball player and friend) who I wrote about in an earlier post headed off to college a couple weeks ago and to celebrate we had a team breakfast at a local restaurant. It was a nice Saturday morning with the girls + Sven (one of our coaches). Enjoy the pictures.

Sheena and Maria

Evelyn, her daughter Zoe, and Anita

Evelyn's other daughter May and Claudine

Anita, me, and Sven

Together at the field

Baking with Tia

Last week I had the pleasure of entertaining the ever delightful Tia. She is a girl that goes to our church and her mom often translates for Stephen when he preaches. Tia's mom is German and her dad is American so she speaks both languages perfectly...lucky girl!

Andy (her Mom) had been sick for about a week so I invited Tia over to bake and do a little craft. In August she came over and helped me make chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter Icing (always a winner) so we decided to do it again. We tried a healthier recipe that does not have eggs, butter, or oil and as much as I want to say you couldn't tell, it ended up being pretty gross. Next time I will just stick to the fattening stuff!

While our cake was backing we painted pumpkins in honor of fall. It turned out to be pretty fun, 

even though my pumpkin looked like this....bless you little pumpkin. I think I was a bit ambitious for a 20 minute painting session with only two colors!

Tia did the icing for us (the only good part about the cake),

and then we sat down for a "Tea Party" or in our case a "Not so Delicious Cake and Milk Party"!

Oh and did you see Tia's shirt? I know you are thinking she looks younger than 30. Some of our German friends gave it to Stephen for his birthday a couple years ago!

Alright, happy baking and let me know if you come across a healthy chocolate cake recipe that actually tastes good.

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!

Green Eggs and I'm Hammered!

If you know Stephen very well, you are aware that he has friends from everywhere in every city and places he has never even lived....really it is truly a gift to be so like-able. So today you can meet one of his favorite people John McArthur, or as we call him Max! 

Max, a professional concert pianist, doctor, published author, professor, landscape architect, and all together renaissance man is one of Stephen's best friends. You may wonder how a farm boy from New York got to know a brilliant Jamaican pianist, it is not an everyday occurrence. Well in between Max playing concerts in China, France, Spain, South Korea....etc, etc, he was a professor at Stephen's alma mature, Nyack College. I am still not clear on how Stephen, the baseball playing history major came to meet the music professor, but needless to say he did and there are many a story to be told about escaping night security by jumping into poor Max's window at 1 am. I will let you ask Stephen details about that one. 

So now to the reason for this post. Max....or in author terms, John G. McArthur got a cookbook published....did I mention he is an amazing cook?! When Rob Piscatelli went home a while back he was fortunate enough to pick us up a copy. The cookbook (which is dedicated to Stephen...he smiled for an hour when he saw that) is a guide for beginners and could really be read as a comedy with all the creative titles and instructions. For example if you pick up a copy you will see "Piscatelli's Lopsided Meatballs" and many other hilarious titles including one with Stephen's name in it!

Okay, now to the point. In honor of Max getting his cookbook published we decided we should make some of the recipes. Stephen's recipe was too hard to find the ingredients in Germany so we settled for a few of his breakfast items: "Kosher French Toast? Oi!" and "Slap Me, These Eggs are Sliggin' Cheddar!" We decided that Stephen was in charge of the eggs and I would take the french toast challenge. We gathered the ingredients as close to the recipe as possible (why Germany doesn't have cheddar cheese is beyond me...but that is another post) and got to cookin'!

Ingredients, sans Cheddar!

Stephen insisted we play Bob Marley in honor of Max while we cooked.

Excuse the outfit...it was early! War Eagle!!

Finished product with a side of bacon...we are so healthy!

It was delicious, thanks Max!

So there you have it, the tale of two hungry Americans in Germany without cheddar that still made some pretty good eggs with help from the one and only Max McArthur! And if you want to check out his music here is a link to his myspace page: John McArthur. Check it out!