CHRISTMAS MARKET!!!

Here is a quick overview of the Christmas Markets I went to. It's such a beautiful time where people are out and about, not afraid of being cold because there is always food and Glühwein.

Here is my first Christmas Market experience. Really low key, but nice to be out and about. Rottenburg, Germany

Not too many booths.

Houses are all in the spirit of Christmas.

It's like all houses on the corner are decorated with different decorations. An Advent calendar is neat to see on a house. Is there chocolate on the other side??

During our Christmas shopping, we saw this huge loaf of bread....we just had to have it. I had to have the 1st bite. YUM!!! It took us a couple weeks to finish it. Don't worry, we put half in the freezer. hehehe.

My next Christmas Market in Stuttgart, Germany. So many beautiful decorations.







So many things to buy, so many things to try....

We had a great day looking at all the different crafts. It's a great way to celebrate Christmas.








Wish I was a kid to go on this.

When you are freezing your butt off, Glühwein is all I've got to keep warm. Hot red wine is all you need during this cold weather.

AND some food. Deep friend potato with apple sauce. YUM.

Last but not least, gotta have a tree photo. hehehe

A dinner on the sofa. I'm eating well....look at that yummy food and the glass of wine. :)

What I do with my time!

Hi Readers. I apologies for not writing. I've been quite busy over the holidays and haven't had the time to sit and think about what to write. Or...just in a bit lazy during the holiday time. Spending it with my family that I have here in Germany. Or....I just been feeling out of it....not doing a lot of laughter....just living it up. hahhaaa. Well, I'm back, it's a new year, and I hope that I can share more of my thoughts. Yes, you can say I have been in hibernation. I haven't been true to myself and doing things that I should be doing. Lots of procrastination. You know how it is.
None the less, I do think of you all. I take lots of pictures just for you. I just haven't had the time to upload them as it takes for ever. Then i just get lazy cause I do other fun things and forget to post my thoughts.

So, I hope you will get a chance to read up on my trip to Vienna, my Christmas market experience, my Choir Experience, my glasses dilemma, and watching 5 seasons of "One Tree Hill" in 3 weeks. YIKES!!! I did that over the holidays? I was sure a hermit over the holidays this year.....but there is a good reason. I'll tell more later.
But 1st, some of my creations during my stay in Germany so far. I have lots of time to cook and make delisious things. Next up on my list are Chocolate cake, Nian Gao, Law Pak Ko, and much more for the Chinese New Year. I hope i'm not celebrating it myself. :) Actually, I won't. I'll have JAN. :)






Alrighty - Step 1 to my so called Leek Quiche. The crust. There wasn't much crust to this crust. Kind of sad looking.

Here is the mix that goes into the bowl. It's been a long time since I made this. Jan doesn't like Leek so I had most of it. YUM! Leek, shrimp, onions, eggs, and what else can you see?

Oh whopps, this is the one with the eggs. hahaha

 Oh look, the almost finished product. Right before it goes into the oven. I didn't have goat cheese so I used brie. I believe that orange cheese was Gouda cheese. Germany doesn't have orange cheddar cheese.









I know this picture is on its side. As you can see, it's the finished product. It was good. We had it for 2 days. Breakfast, lunch and Dinner. YUM!!! JK.

This is one of my apple cakes. It turned out okay. It was an experiment. We have so many apples that I don't know what to do with them. I don't want them to rot, but they seem like they are already rotting. As long as it stays in a dark and cool place, they will be good til the spring. Well, I sure haven't had apples that last all fall and winter. Have you???

One of our freshly made bread. One of our better ones. Every time we make bread it comes out differently. hehhee.

Oh, what is this? On it's side......right, homemade apple sauce. Who knew that it was so easy to make. No sugar is needed at all. All you got to do is boil the apples and there you have it. APPLE SAUCE!

This was another apple cake or apple bread as it doesn't look like just a loaf of bread. It was taken a while back. I would have to look up my recipes to see what I actual made. I made so many cookies as well that I don't remember what I have made. I make new dishes all the time. I even wonder what I'll be doing today. :) hehehe.

Oh, this is a good one. Germans like Roulette. I learned how to make it....which is really easy and i made one for dinner one day. Cooked potatoes on the bottom, a layer of Roulette cheese, then another layer of potatoes and on top, i added ham and mushrooms I think and added more cheese. In the oven it does until the cheese is all melted. Now how easy was that!

This is one of my favorite. Cranberry bread. YUM!!!!

Jan and I had company over one day and I made Chinese....well, Cantonese food!!! HAHAHA. Here is my Chow mien dish.

My Teriyaki Chicken with beans.

My Curry Chicken.
It was a yummy feast. I should do it again.

Spinach Quiche.....tooo  spinachy. But good. The crust was better than my Leek Quiche crust. This was more solid and held it's place.

Continue of ITALY.......Praja Ajeta Tortora

Alright,
for those who have been following my Italy trip, here is now next destinations. Praya, or also what is shown on the right. So many names from English to Italian. Not sure what is the best to communicate this as all the signs are slightly different. None the less, this is a beautiful place. But we didn't stay long. We wanted the sun. :)

It sure was a nice place. There are lots of outdoor activity things to do. I saw beautiful water, but it all depends when you go. The summer is over hence not a soul around.




Wished it was hotter. I guess we missed out.

So we took some pictures, tried to find food....

But again, not a soul in town.

But what a beautiful sun set.

Alright, so here is the meat of this blog!!! HAHAHA. Look at this size of T bone steak, all for me!!! hehehe. NOT! I could barley finish my own mean.

So at this hostel we stayed at, it was run by this old man's daughter. He doesn't speak English. He only cooks and picks people up at the train. We he first picked us up, we were a bit nervous. Where are we going with the big Italian man? YIKES.
But due to the low season, the parents are living in the house. They usually move out during the summer and the daughter runs their house as a hostel for young adults.

Here are a few pictures of the hostel. What a way to make money for the family. So the daughter goes travelling around the world during the winter....low season. Her English is great and she lived it on her own. What a smart gal.

The only thing is, that she was sewing her thong on the dinner table. She doesn't mind. It's what she does and who she is. Strange.






So, this hostel provides food. Usually just breakfast, but because of the low season and the parents are living there and they need to eat, they make food of us as well. Italians sure eat well. But it was too much for my little tummy!!! Actually my big tummy!!! HAHAHAHA.
 First course.....PASTA!! With TOMATO Sauce.

Alright, 1st plate done. Whew! That was yummy.

2nd course, a slab of meat. MEAT that was in the picture above. That is what you have after your pasta. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE THE BREAD ON THE TABLE UNTIL I WAS FINISHED MY PASTA. Who needs bread after pasta and steak!!!

3rd course.....fruit...and more fruit.. I had to have more and more and more. Yes, i did say I was hungry in the beginning, but what was I getting myself into????

And here I am, having to be force on bread. Only used for the sauce to finish the plate. HUMMMM.....

After all the food, I'm so glad to be out of the house. Don't worry, this was breakfast. hehehe. :) Not sure if I could have one pancake with banana and cinnamon on top. 

I didn't expect this much...and we bought eggs for us to eat on the road. But knowing me....silly me...I left all 6 boiled eggs at the hostel. What a waste of my good old protein!!! HAHAHAHA. 

Alright, what's next on the agenda. I'm on a roll. Actually, i have to get ready for my concert!!! Yeah, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!! I'm singing in a concert tonight....well a church service, but still...I'm singing ALTO!!! I never would have thought I can do it. One song is really low, but other than that, we only had 3 practices. I'm impressed with the choir. I only know 2-3 people as we never had a time to meet people or anything. It was purely come and sing and perform. So, i hope the video recording will work and you can all see me in action here in Germany. :) The best thing is, the conductors been communicating to everyone in German, which means, I don't know what the heck they are talking about. I guess i'm the only know who doesn't know a word!!!! Well, i have learned a lot since I got here, so i can get by....except when people are laughing and i have no idea what they are laughing about. :( Booo.

Chocolate Heaven!!!

CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL IN TUEBINGEN!!!!

So the last week of November and beginning of December was Tuebingen's annual Chocolate festival. I can't believe how much chocolate was available and how much was sold. It was a big hit. We hit it in the beginning, middle and end. I couldn't get away. We tried so many different things.
For example, these balls of cookies. It's the size of your palm just like a huge jawbreaker. It was definitively JAW BREAKING!!!
IT was good, but I'm glad I got to share it with Jan.

Other things you can see at the festival were people who made chocolate for a living or even decorate things with chocolate. Look at this beautiful art work. Some body paint!!!

Perhaps I should get my body painted with Chocolate!!!!!

 
Besides all the booths and purchasing about 30 Euros worth of chocolate, they had great displays during the evening. It was like gingerbread houses everywhere. Can I live in one??

Not but least, all these festivals are all about eating. So on the last day, I was coming back from a Volleyball game and walked through the festival to get to my train home. I stumbled upon this food item i have not had before nor seen. I should give it a try, even when i had lunch. hahahaa. Well, had lunch about an hour ago!!!
So this Schupfnudeln. IT is a Swabian Potato Noodle. I had it again at the Christmas Market this past weekend. :)

Basketball Game

Alright, here I go to post a few for my fellow readers.

We went to a Bastketball game in Tuebingen...the Tigers.  I wondered if it would be like a canuks game!!!! HAHAHAHA. NOT!!

It was fun, loud, just like a soccer game. Those
Germans do know how to cheer.







Here is a glimpse of what the gym looks like. Apparently, they have all kinds of games at this facility. They don't have volleyball lines on the floor like we do. They take out the basketball flooring and then add the volleyball. Is that a lot of work! They sure have the money to hire people to do that!!! Here are our tickets for the game. Opps, it's upside down.. Oh well.

Alright, so what do you see in this crowd of people. I thought it was strange to see a snowman indoors. hahaha. Plus a rocket with one of the basketball players' head on it. A way to cheer on the team...to put their face on a rocket. Strange.

Here is Tuebingen Tiger's Mascot. It's a tiger. hahaha. He did all kinds of dance moves. Not a lot of flipping around though. He did glide through the court on a skateboard.

A slam dunk by one of the players. It was a great game to watch. Jan says it was the lowest scoring game he had ever watched!!! By the end of the game, Tuebingen won 81-69. Not bad for a game where Tuebingen is ranked 8th in their league, playing a 12th ranked team. hehehe.

Hungarian Langos

Hi family and friends. 

I apologies for not posting. There has been other things on my to do list and this keeps being on the bottom of my list as i can't seem to finish my to do lists every day. But I had to make an effort to start posting again, so i hope you don't get overwhelmed. First of all, i have to post this. I had this yummy, delicious food this weekend. And you can make it too. 

I had a chance to hang out with Jan's Mom, Andrea.  I saw a man eat this, then a child, then more and more people walking by me eating it. So i asked Andrea if we can try it. She's never had one so we were on a hunt. We were in Karlsuhure Saturday morning, at the Christmas Market trying to find this donut people are eating. 

Finally, Andrea, the brave one she is, asked a few women who where holding one each. They told us where it is and that there were many flavours. You can have it with just sugar, cinnamon, both, cheese and this garlic sauce, or just plain. It's similar to like the elephant ears you have at PNE, but thicker like a donut. It was yummy.  So i thought i'd share this yummy food before i start blogging more of my journey. If you decide to try to make it, let me know how it goes. Or i'll do the same. Good luck. :)

From chriesi 2 years ago

• Serves 10

Lángos is a deep fried flat bread made of potato-based dough. It is sometimes rubbed with garlic or garlic butter, but can also be eaten with sour cream, grated cheese, or other toppings. The name comes from láng, the Hungarian word for flame, because traditionally it was baked in the front of the brick oven, close to the flames.

Ingredients

---

• 600 g flour 
• 500 ml milk 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 1 tablespoon sugar 
• 20,5 g fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoon oil 
• oil for frying 

How to make it

---

• Warm milk, it should be lukewarm.
• Put yeats in a bowl, sprinkle sugar over it, add lukewarm milk.
• Sift flour, salt and knead a dough.
• Add 2 tablespoon oil and knead into the dough.
• Leave for about 30 minutes in a warm place so that the dough can raise.
• Cut into 9-10 portions and deep fry in hot oil. Serve with sour cream and cheese.
• For the red currant foam beat 1 egg white with a pinch of salt. Add 5 tablespoon sugar, one after the other and add 150 g red currant in small portions to it.

Snow Vs. Glasses!!!

Readers from all over the world. :)
Thank you for continue to read my posts and keeping an eye on what I'm up to. I haven't been very good on blogging lately as I started to work and learn more about how to tutor someone. It's been a great experience, but I feel that I know have enough knowledge so i'm reading lots and preparing a lot to ensure that I teach the right material and that I'm prepared for all kinds of questions. Hence, I haven't been blogging as much as I would like.
So I hope to keep blogging more of my thoughts, and my journey in life. I constantly check where I'm at, how i'm feeling and what my next step may be. Life seems so short when you do have time.
But when there is time, you gotta take the time and have fun.
Yesterday, we woke up to 2 inches of snow. It was very pretty. Then the sun came shining down upon us. It was even better. So, when Jan came back from class, we went outside to play, just like kids, which we all are. I hope you had time to get outside to play. It helps relief any stress you may have. Unfortunately, when it becomes too much, adults having way to much fun, there might be accidents. You may throw too hard, hit too hard, or facewash someone good!!! I sure did, but what I got back....broken glasses. Opps. We were having way to much fun. I hit Jan in the face with a snowball. It was bang on. I was sure waiting for one coming back to me. But instead of a snowball, a bit of a fist instead. WHACK!! Right on the tip of my glasses and now they are in two pieces. Fortunately, we were able to find the small piece in the snow. WHEW!!! I'm sure i can tape it back together. I'll just look like a geek. It would be a great story to tell. Jan didn't feel excited to be in the snow any more. It was just an accident. No big deal. I can live with broken glasses. It's not that I haven't done it before.
I remember breaking my glasses playing basketball. I remember my contacts falling out during a volleyball game. Me can't see....isn't the first.
So we went home to see what I can do with my glasses. I put that silly puddy or that blue/white tack stuff. It sure looked good. Then Jan's mom suggested to go to a optometrist to try to get it fixed.
Se we quickly planned out where to go, and got my glasses fixed. New again. :) See. No sweat. No more sad Jan!! :)
There is always a solution. :)
Until another accident. Happy Snow Day. Picture of our snow day to come...oh and more on my italy trip. I promise. It's always in progress. :)
Cheers.