Thoughts on blogging

I don't seem able to keep this blog going on a regular basis.  I'm not sure if this is because nothing in particular ever happens in my life, or I just don't think any of of it is really worth reporting to the world, or what. 

Not really complaining, I like my quiet life.  But  perhaps I really do need to pep it -- and my blogging -- up a bit.

So, have the day off from CN and time to do some fun things.  Washed all my scarves and hung them outside in the sunshine and fresh air.

I enjoy my scarves.  It is an easy way to pep up an outfit and in fact, stretches the wardrobe enormously.  A nice pair of navy slacks and a white t-shirt can be turned into  many different looking outfits with different scarves.

I think I have too many..... need to check if I really wear them all!

I also like to combine them.  The light pink and the dark pink one go well together, and the dark pink and the teal one, too, for example......

Now, on to food!  One of the grocery stores had a sale on chicken breasts last week.  I think I underestimated just how many 24 skinless boneless chicken breasts are......

One package of three got frozen "as is", two got a barbecue sauce marinade, and one got a Weber "Kickin' Chicken" rub. (Love that name!)

The remaining 20 got cooked and then chopped.

You end up with a LOT of chopped cooked chicken!

Here we have one sauce cooling while the chicken, peas and carrots wait to get added.

This is chicken in curry sauce.

Two bags of chicken curry and two of filling for mini-pot-pies, to go into the freezer.  The mini-pot pies are made in muffin tins.  Can't wait to try them (when it is cooler and I don't mind turning on the oven......)

Two meals of chicken a la king and two of chicken and broccoli.  Had the latter last night and it was far too watery.......

There is still a bunch of chicken left over which will get tossed into tonight's chef salad, and Kitty got her share as well. Far more than her share, actually......

So that is what I have been up to lately.  Plus continuing to clear out the basement and everything else I can.  (WHY do we have all this STUFF????)

Susan

Pizza!

Last time I was in the US I bought the Casserole Queens' cookbook, partially because of the photo of the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.  Today was finally the day to make it.

Started off by sauteeing (that word sure doesn't look right!) a half pound of mett, or seasoned ground pork -- rather like sausage, an onion and half a green pepper.

That was set aside and garlic was chopped. The last batch of garlic Norbert bought was not the usual cloves, but these  cute little ball-shapped things.

One of them got cut up and sauteed in a bit of olive oil.

Afterwards it got mixed with some tomato paste and then some seasoned tomato sauce.

I lined a large casserole with baking paper and laid out the bottom with sliced mozzerela, which you can't really see.  Then the meat-pepper-onion mixture was put on.

The tomato sauce was poured over that and then the whole thing was covered with grated mozzerala.

This is how it looked going into the oven....

And coming out of the oven!

It actually turned out too liquidy (maybe next time I should measure the tomato sauce).  I also used a smaller pan than called for.

However, the sauce was fantastic, with perhaps just a bit too much garlic (hard to believe that is possible!)

Here is a close-up of the yumminess:

We decided this is worth keeping and tweaking to make it perfect.

And in other news:  We all have lots of work.  At the moment I actually have quite a bit of time off, but between the Tour de France and the Olympics, there has been and is plenty to do. Norbert works late practically every day, as is firm has so feel to do. Of course it is better that they have a lot do do than that they don't, but still......

Our summer has mostly been much too cool and too wet.  Last week it was hot and humid. Apparently that was it for summer!  We are back to cool and wet. I think we have eaten outside once this year, sigh.  Not sure why we have nice patio furniture.

Susan

Summer love

Summer love in this case is summer food. Now that summer has finally arrived here in Germany, it is time to change the meal plan and stop thinking about casseroles and hot ovens.

And start thinking about lovely things like icebox pies.

That is the peanut butter pie from the Tale of the Whale restaurant at the Outer Banks in NC (also known as "Heaven on Earth"). Whipped cream, peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, all in a chocolote crumb crust.

Calories?  never hear of them......

In the summer one can grill, too.  Fortunately I have a husband who loves to grill and who loves his gas grill.  I found a recipe for  Garlic Balsamico Pork Chops.

First they marinate, as above.  And this is how they look when they are done:

That recipe is definitely to be added to the family recipe book.

And the fun continues:

That's going to be dinner tonight..... at least the first course.

What else is going on? Work, work, work.  We have survived the Tour de France, now the Olympics are upon us, to be followed directly by the Vuelta a Espana.  Whew.

No vacation for us this summer.  Norbert's firm has so much work that he doesn't see clear to taking more than a day off, maybe.  On the other hand, it is much better that the firm has work than that it doesn't, right?

And we still LOVE our new kitchen. It is not only gorgeous but totally practical, what more could you ask?

Susan

I love my kitchen, part two

Let us continue this journey of discovery.

Next to the sink, we have the baking cabinet.  Looks innocent enough, right?

But it has a secret. It was something we splurged on but something that was very important to us.

Those wonderful shelves go all the way into the corner and pull out entirely!

Is that cool, or what?

Turning the corner, we have lots of drawers.  They are very deep and very stabile. And very easy to use, much much easier than cabinets.  In fact, it is very unusual to find lower cabinets today.

And next comes the cooktop.

You will notice that the backsplash all around is the same material as the countertop. You can't really see the cooktop here, but you can see the lovely ventilator. (Is that what its called in english?)

And now on to the cooktop.  It is an induction cooktop, which means it works on magnetic priniciples or something like that, all of which is totally beyond me.  All I know is, it is fast, you can use almost any size pan anywhere, and only the portion of the cooktop immediately under the pan gets hot.

There are three huge drawers underneath it, too.  The top one has a divider and is used for spices and cooking utensils.

The next two have pots and pans.

So let's close out with some general shots.  Here, the sink, window, little shelves, etc. Same curtain as in the old kitchen, but new curtain rod.

The stove area:

And the "tall wall" with the Coffee Counter:

And I made the first batch of muffins today! So now I have used all the new appliances and they all work. I still haven't quite memorized where everything is, but it is getting better and better.

Susan

I love my kitchen!

There turned out to be so many photos, this will have to be a two-parter.

Well, we have had the new kitchen for something like five whole days now, and I still absolutely love it!

The most important place in the entire kitchen is, of course, right at the entrance:

The cat food corner, with the supplies right there at hand.

This one is more important to the humans:  the coffee machine! The coffee mugs are stored in the cabinet underneath.

Speaking of the cabinets underneath, here they are.  They hold (so far) serving dishes, coffee supplies and the overflow of baking supplies.

We then move around the corner to the "Tall Cabinets".

First of all we have the built in microwave and oven.  Underneath are two deep drawers which hold the baking pans and microwave dishes. Love the elevated oven, my back appreciates it soooooo much.

Next is a wonderful pantry, called an Apothecary's cabinet in German.  Anyone know the English name?

And then comes the refrigerator.  Small by American standards, large by German standards.  All the built-in appliances are totally typical, too.

Oops, don't seem to have photographed the fridge door, but you can see it above.  Underneath it is a very deep drawer, which is fantastic for holding tall and heavy stuff.

That's the dishwasher, also built in and disguised.  It flashes the time left on the programme on the floor!  Have to get a photo of that next time I run it.

It's a bit hard to see, but the dish drainer it etched into the stone countertop.  It is not really granite, but some kind of natural stone, virtually indestructible allegedly.

There are two drawers underneath the sink.  Is this clever or what?

and the bottom drawer has built in trash bins, for all the sorting and recycling we have to do:

Hope you enjoy this look at the details in the kitchen.  More to come later!

Susan

Chaos :-)

And I love it!

About quarter past eight, the delivery guys called to say they would be here in about half an hour. And they were!

All the trash got dumped out front (and they took it with them, too!)  But of course the little fuzzy four-legged one had to check it out.

Some of the stuff got put in the diningroom.  (Yes, that used to be a diningroom!)

And here:  the first view of the new kitchen, in a totally incomplete state!

And here the other wall:

Looks pretty funny so far, I must admit.

Oh, and there's a lot of stuff in the living room, too.

One of the main features Norbert wanted was granite countertops.  And here they are!

And because they are so wonderful, here they are again.

The appliances are living temporarily in the garage, all seem to have discretely turned their backs.

The installers will be here tomorrow to actually make it into a kitchen.  Which will be total chaos, plus I do have to work, since the Tour de France starts Saturday......

But still, I can't wait!

Susan