Low Key Week

It is our last full week in Germany and we’re pretty sad about it. We’ve had such a great time in Karlsruhe and beyond! This week we went to the park (as usual), and had a really great playdate with some friends 🙂 We also got to borrow a bike from the friends with an attached trailer to haul Nate around in…he LOVES that thing. Too bad Florida is so stinking hot, or we would be purchasing bikes ASAP when we get back!

We’ve been trying to think of things to bring back to the states that we can’t get there…as well as gifts for everyone. It’s so hard thinking of things! I can assure you we will be loading up on tasty gummy bears, though.

The rest of the week should be fun. Dinner with friends tomorrow and Saturday we’re going to Munich! I’ve been teasing James about getting some lederhosen when we go to Bavaria 🙂

Baking Adventure

I love love love (did I say love?) baking. However, Germany has made it extremely difficult. First problem is that I don’t have an oven in the apartment. We do have access to the house kitchen that DOES have an oven, but it is a pain in the butt to have to carry down all the ingredients…

Speaking of ingredients, that is the second problem. My first weeks here I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies. Then I realized…German stores don’t sell chocolate chips. Or brown sugar. Or vanilla extract. Or baking powder/soda. I did make the cookies with some substitutions…a bar of chocolate chopped up instead of chips. I found something very close to American brown sugar at the Asian grocery store (that’s right folks, my brown sugar super exotic and from Thailand), instead of vanilla extract I used a common German item…vanilla sugar. Baking soda equivalent is KaiserNatron. Baking powder’s (not very good) equivalent is Back Pulver. They turned out decent…the texture was only a tiny bit off. And that was with me using not-quite-exact measurements; our measurements don’t always come out so nice when converted to metric.

So, with this experience under my belt, I decided to brave the kitchen once more with my handy metric converter and a mind for substitutions. I was lucky enough to find a brownie recipe that did NOT use cocoa powder (can’t find that in any of my local stores), but I was able to find vanilla aroma. It is kind of like extract…only an oil and MUCH more potent, so you only need a few drops.

Thank you Food Network! I doubled the recipe, skipped the nuts, added some milk chocolate to the batter, and sprinkled in a packet of instant espresso. Absolutely AMAZING. Waiting for them to cool was torture.

I’ve also got some dough in the fridge for Nutella Pinwheels. I found an amazing food blog called The Purple Foodie. What could go wrong? Buttery shortbread and gooey Nutella? Yes please. I’ll post pictures if they come out as pretty as hers!

James and complimentary prosecco.

You too, can dine with 1920s Italians!

my caprese

he was wayyy to happy for this

my pasta

tiramisu for the grown ups

inside the eiscafe

Pistachio angel!

Food Post!

James’ post about the pizza reminded me to post pictures from our super tasty Italian dinner! We are big fans of Groupon.com and we landed an AMAZING deal…19 euro for a 3 course meal at a super trendy Italian place in town with complimentary proseccco. We went and it was awesome! James had a green salad and pizza, I had caprese and rigatoni with beef, ham and tomato-cream sauce. Nate shared with both of us (portions were gigantic). We finished off dinner with tiramisu…Nate wasn’t a fan, so we promised him a trip to the eiscafe (ice cream shop) for a sundae. He got a pistachio angel sundae while we sipped on coffee.

James and complimentary prosecco.

You too, can dine with 1920s Italians!

my caprese

Yummy sundaes. Good for you!

Schnitzel mit bratkartoffeln

onward to Baden-Baden!

Our gold robot-friend

amphitheater with the choir

gorgeous shallow canal

canal and cafes

Baden-Baden

This past weekend we took a ride into the hills of the Black Forest and visited Baden-Baden. It is well known through Germany as a spa town, famous for being a luxury vacation spot for the wealthy. It is absolutely beautiful!The winding streets were flanked by shallow canals and lush foliage. There were promenades with huge shade trees and flowers everywhere. The market square was filled with high-end shops and boutiques…but if you ask Nathan, is favorite part was the street performers. Naturally, you need a little glitz in a place like this, so there was a living statue that was entirely painted gold! He was a robot and make a lot of clicks and whirring noises…but made sure to tip his hat to Nate and blow me a kiss! It was really fun.

We also happened to find ourselves in the middle of yet another festival. I swear, no matter where we go in Germany, there is at least one festival there! In Baden-Baden we found ourselves in the middle of a French-German unity festival. There were choirs singing in an outdoor amphitheater, wine, and crepes. Yum!

That night, we made our way back home to Karlsruhe and decided to eat outside. On our way to a popular cafe area, we noticed signs for….you guess it…a festival. Apparently that evening was a city-wide music celebration. There were stages set up throughout the city and youth musicians were performing. We decided to eat an an outdoor restaurant that is in the same park as one of Nate’s favorite playgrounds. This way, he could go play within eyesight if he finished before we did. The food was amazing and about halfway through dinner a precussion/rhythm band paraded up the street and started performing on a stage right next to our tables! Can’t really beat free entertainment 🙂

Heidelberg

We visited Heidelberg this past weekend and it was a great day-trip! It was only about an hour away on the regional train. From the train station we boarded a bus to the “old city” where all the tourist-y things are. Lucky for us, we had already upgraded our tram passes to allow for regional travel and it included all the public transport!

First thing we wanted to do was check out the castle. It sits high up on the hillside and you can either walk up an old cobblestone path (15+ minutes uphill) or take the handy hillside tram to the top (it included admission to the castle). We picked the tram! We are still not used to having castles and palaces all around us, so we were just in awe of being able to walk through a place with so much history. I wish I could describe the smell of the wood casks in the wine cellar…it was just so cool to be surrounded by it all! Unfortunately, you could only explore the upper rooms of the castle if you went on a guided tour and man were they pricey! We opted out of it this time around. We did really enjoy looking out at Heidelberg from the castle’s terrace though. Amazing views of the city and the Rhine. We also got free admission to the German Apothecary Museum which was pretty neat.

After the castle we found ourselves in the Marktpatz (marketplace) and there was an African market going on. Tons of booths selling wares from all over Africa. Very cool to stumble upon that. A little more walking and we found ourselves at the “Old Bridge”. Again, on a bit of luck, they were having a festival honoring the bridge that included lots of beer tents and a band playing. Naturally we took this opportunity to take a break from walking and have a stein.

Afterwards we strolled down one of the main shopping streets. I really love the pedestrian-only, cobbled streets. Its just so quaint. Little shops and cafes everywhere and people just enjoying themselves. We checked out a couple shops selling cuckoo clocks and christmas figurines and then found a place for dinner. We ate our fill of tasty German food…James ordered käse spätzle (fresh egg noodles baked in a cream and cheese sauce), I had schnitzel mit käse und schinken und pommes (breaded pork cutlet with ham and cheese on it with a side of fries). Nate shared and had quite the feast!

We walked off our food and ended up at University square, but the museum was closed. It was getting a little late and we had an hour long ride home, so we just headed for the train station. It was a really great trip and we’re looking forward to going back. A little weird though, it was full of Americans! The Women’s World Cup is being held in Germany and Heidelberg is one of the “ports” to the game cities…and that night was the US v. Columbia day.

waiting for dinner

So tasty.

world’s largest wine cask…serves 5,000

apothecary museum

The Rhine from the old bridge

the old bridge

the castle

Heidelberg Trip-Part 2