Dad's Favourite Fudge :)

Back when we lived in Texas, I borrowed this book from the San Antonio Public Library (Enchilada Red, was it called?) about a little girl in a restaurant, and in the back there was a recipe for really simple fudge. My dad loved that fudge, and must have asked me to make it a dozen times or so when I was like, 12. I finally found the recipe again, though I cannot remember for the life of me what in the world that book was titled. So anyway, here is the recipe, just for my dad, and just in time for Christmas.

How to make Super Easy Fudge: for Dad



Firstly, go ahead and butter a 9x9 pan

then line it with parchment paper and butter it again. The initial buttering helps the paper stick to the pan, and keeps it from creasing or tearing, and the second buttering helps the paper peel off the fudge easily, leaving it smooth and pretty.

In a metal bowl set over a pan of gently boiling water (or in a microwave safe bowl, if you are in a hurry or don't like stoves or don't have a metal bowl and a pan of water) dump a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

add one can of sweetened condensed milk
(mmmm doesn't that look nice?)
and about a teaspoon of salt
and a teaspoon of vanilla and mix it all together.
Eventually, it will all melt. Whip it with your spatula to make sure that all of the lumps and chunks have dissipated - there are fewer things more disconcerting than biting in to a piece of fudge that has a big lump of salt right in the middle.
Spread the mixture into your buttered, papered pan and refrigerate for a good two hours. Remove the fudge by gently pulling the paper out of the pan, flipping the fudge over onto a cutting board and peeling the paper off of the bottom (now top, once you've flipped it). I prefer to cut it with a pizza cutter, and it is super rich, so the squares can be pretty small.

I don't have a picture of the finished bits, because they quickly disappeared into the goodie bags that we passed out to our friends and teachers this year :)

You can also feel free to add (as I sometimes do) a teaspoon or so of one of the following: almond extract, cherry extract, peppermint extract, fleur de sel or finishing salt, or amaretto.

So dad, I hope you have the opportunity to make fudge this year! I love you!

December Girls' Night Out

So, a week late...but here are pictures from our GNO last Tuesday (the 15th) at Restaurant Delphi in K-town!
Greek food in French side of Germany, you ask? Why, yes! And mouth watering, delicious, craving-inducing Greek food it is.




I spent a wonderful evening with Sara, Liv and Adriana - many laughs were had, a few new signs were learned (Adriana is signing one of our new favourites - hungry, hungry, hungry!) and many other diners' meals were interrupted. In fact, they skipped out on giving us the customary Ouzo afterwards, possibly because we were so raucous that they didn't think we needed it, or maybe because Liv is obviously preggo, or maybe because...well, who knows, but did we really need it anyway?

My last meal was the most awesome tsatsiki, gyros and souvlaki in Germany, finished off with a truly bitchin' baklava. Oh. My. Gosh. I swear, I would eat here every single day if I could. In fact, I'm going for lunch again next week, if I can talk someone into going with me.

Of course, on the way home I was horrendously sick at Adriana's and barely got everyone else to their villages before nearly dying...I'm pretty sure it was just nerves over the impending surgery, but it sure capped off the night.

Recovering

The surgery seems to have gone well. And I'm recovering more or less as expected - there's a lot more bleeding than anticipated, but still within the acceptable range for such things.

I stayed overnight and was released to Will on Thursday at lunchtime. He brought me home, and we've been inundated with meals, treats and well-wishers ever since. I'm so unbelievably grateful for every person who has contacted us - it really makes me feel amazing to know so many wonderful people are concerned about my family!

We had a little scare and a trip to the ER on Friday night, because I hadn't stopped (or slowed) bleeding since the surgery. I'm still getting a lot of blood in my stomach, which is unpleasant for everyone involved, but since I can't taste anything (yay for nasal surgery!) it isn't as bad as it could be. They double checked my plastics and changed my pain meds. Everything is where it should be, I'm apparently just a bleeder.

I've been asked a few times if this is worse or better than I expected it to be, and I can honestly say 'both.' I don't look nearly as bad as I expected - the bruising is minimal, I'm pretty swollen and my nose is crooked at the moment, but it isn't as grotesque as I'd thought. The pain, on the other hand, is more intense than anything I've ever experienced. You know how your eyes water and your head throbs when you bang your nose? Yeah, well, they broke that. On purpose. And then they broke all the stuff around it. And then they cut it up, took parts of it out, and stitched the rest back together. And then I popped a stitch, which sucked. And it hurts like that pretty much constantly. I've got good pain meds, though, so it is under control, for the most part.

Generally speaking, if I'm not sipping liquids, checking my email or changing my dressing, I'm passed out in the recliner, breathing through my mouth and enjoying pain-free dreams. It hurts to talk very much, to swallow, to make any facial expressions aside from slack-jawed indifference and to chew. So there go most of my favourite amusements. Add to that the raging, throbbing pain in my eye sockets, and reading, writing, cross stitch and tv are out for any significant periods of time.

Speaking of, I'm getting pretty achy writing this, so I'm going to close it up and go back to sleep. My friend Liv should be by soon with homemade corn chowder for dinner, and I really want to be awake to say thanks :)

Getting Ready for the Big Day

Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday morning, and the final procedure tally is: - bilateral maxillary antrostomy - anterior ethmoidectomy - septoplasty - turbinoplasty - removal of diseased tissue in maxillary and ethmoid sinuses I'll be in overnight, and if everything goes well (which I'm sure it will) I'll be released Thursday to Will. Several wonderful ladies have made arrangements to bring dinners for my family, to come sit with me and to visit with us afterwards, and I can't thank them enough. And if anyone else wants to come visit or hang out (or help me wash my hair, which I can't do by myself), please let me know With any luck, having the masses removed will solve an awful lot of my problems. I've got a great, competent doctor, an anesthesiologist who has a great sense of humor (always a plus) and my surgical nurse is my neighbor, who has been following my case from the beginning, so I know I'm in good hands. They'll have someone there to monitor my levels, to make sure I'm not in any danger, and will keep me for observation until everything has stabilized and I pass a neuro exam. In addition to the normal risks of anesthesia and surgery in general, they'll be operating super close to my brain when they go for the ethmoid sinuses, which are part of your eye sockets, and there's an extra little risk of brain damage. There's also the significant risk of my blood sugar dropping super low and going unnoticed for enough time to cause semi- or permanent neurological damage. If that happens, no one will know until afterwards, since I'm past the point of exhibiting noticeable physical symptoms. So I'm understandably scared. Scratch that - I'm terrified. The last time I had a surgery this scary (emergency C-section) it all happened too fast for me to truly grasp the risks and potential complications of such a procedure. I find myself wondering if it is worth it... is the risk of having an undetected low during surgery greater or less than the risk of having one in my sleep? What if this doesn't work? What if this doesn't work and I have an undetected low during surgery? What if I wake up and I can't remember words, or how to spell, or can't speak clearly? I know they're all super slim chances, but they could happen. I mean, what's a few sinus infections, a mass (that may or may not be an insulinoma) and a deviated septum in the grand scheme of things? Enough to risk, how ever slim, the chance that I might lose my short term memory, or suffer frequent loss of consciousness? That I could drop into a coma? Develop a stutter or slur? I'm just not sure. But I'll go ahead with it. It is the only option I have right now. And like I said - the odds are greatly in my favor. Almost certainly, none of those possible complications will come to pass. But what kind of person would I be if I didn't entertain them?

How to make Pasties

How to make Cornish Pasties

One of my favourite foods from our time in England is the Cornish Pasty. A buttery pastry filled with beef, lamb, vegetables and gravy, purchased for 70p at Sainsbury's, their ancestors were made by housewives in the 1700's and carried out to the fields wrapped in a handkerchief by farmers for their midday meal. They are hearty, sturdy and filling, plus they are one of those foods that tastes delicious both piping hot and at room temperature, making them an ideal convenience food.

So! Let's get started!

1 cup of cold butter, chopped
1 tsp salt
and 3 cups of flour go into your big bowl.
Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter or two forks - it takes a little while to figure out, but once you get the rhythm, it is easy peasy. We're looking for a coarse meal texture, here.
Add about 1/2c water, 1TB at a time, until your dough sticks together and makes a ball. Knead it a few times to mix the butter through, and form it back into a smooth ball.
Dust the ball with flour, wrap it in wax paper and stick it in your fridge while we make the filling.
SO chop about half a large onion
2 ribs of celery
1 carrot
2 handfuls of cabbage
2 or 3 small potatoes - enough for about a handful of chopped spud
and about 1/2-3/4lb of beef or lamb. I like to use a London broil for this, because it gets so tender. This needs to be in 1/4in cubes, super tiny, so that it will cook through inside the pastry.
This is 2TB of Dale's Marinade (or worcestershire sauce, or liquid seasoning of your choice), 1tsp pepper and 1tsp salt.
Put all the veg, the meat and the spices into your bowl, top it with a good sprinkle of flour (that will help make gravy inside the pastry) and mix it up. Ta da! Filling!
Retrieve the dough from your fridge and divide it into six pieces.
Roll out a piece on a lightly floured surface, aiming for about 1/4in thick. Flip the pastry over so that the floury side is facing up. Put about 1/2c of the filling into the middle of your pastry - don't worry about spreading it out, just let it be a little pile of tasty goodness.
Fold over the pastry, and press around the filling, to kind of seal it in there. Don't worry if there is a huge excess of dough around the filling because...
You get to cut it off with a knife! Leave about a 1/2in 'rim' around the filling.
Seal the edges of the pastry with a fork, like so ^ and cut a few holes in the top with a knife to let the air escape.
Brush them with butter and pop those suckers in your oven (preheated to 350'F, of course) for about an hour. You don't have to use parchment paper, but I like it because I know they won't stick. I don't play when it comes to my pasties.
An hour later, this will emerge fragrant, buttery and golden brown, from your oven. Go ahead. Admire your handiwork.
Oh, check out the flakiness of the crust, the tenderness of the beef, the spice of the pepper - truly, these are a gift from the angels!

Kaiserslautern Christmas Market

It is Christmas Market time again here in Germany! Today we ventured out in the snow to visit Kaiserslautern's annual Christkindmarkt. By far one of the smaller Markets we've been to, it certainly wasn't lacking in all of the Christmas Market necessities; namely rides, gluhwein, dampfknudeln and hats.


Joseph and Ella enjoyed this small ferris wheel, and were positive that they could convince me to ride it with them. Mommy: 1 Small Children: 0


And here's Will with his two favourite market items: chocolate crepes and gluhwein cups! He has a whole collection of the mugs on top of our kitchen cabinets, but this is the first with a picture on the inside. He's very, ridiculously excited about it.







Like I said, it was snowing and cold, so we all bundled up in our warm winter clothes. Joseph and Ella love their coats and hats and gloves, so this is easier than you'd expect. You can't see, but Joseph is incapable of keeping track of gloves, so the ones he wore today were not matched - one was teal, one was brown. To be honest, Ella can't keep track of these things either, but she's bad with hats - that's why she's wearing last years' set rather than the new Hello Kitty stuff I bought her a week ago.



We're all home now, and our tummies are full of home made pasties, which were awesome, and I'll post the tutorial for those in a little bit for my friends. We're hoping to hit two more 'big' Christmas Markets this year - Deidesheim and a super cool one that is inside a cave - and we'll post pictures from those when we're done :)

A Day in Our Life

This is a project for a swap on Swap-bot, but I thought I'd post it here in my nearly defunct blog, on the off chance that someone still reads this thing :) We were asked to photojournal a day in our lives, so here's what our days more or less look like here in Germany!

0700 - Wake up time! We get dressed in nice, warm clothes, and get ready to take Joseph to the bus stop for school!

It is cold and rainy here in the winter, so coats are a must, even when you don't really want to wear them :)


0730 - Time for breakfast! We head over to the bakery in our village for some warm bread. The bakery is right down the street from the bus stop, so it is quite convenient on busy mornings. As you can see, it is still very dark outside. In the winter, we'll only have sun in the middle of the day, so it is dark when Joseph leaves for school, and dark again when he comes home!

Joseph and Ella are very good at paying with Euros. That is what we use here instead of Dollars. One Euro is about $0.70 USD on a good day. See that crescent thing by Joseph's elbow? That's the German version of a croissant. It is less flaky and less buttery, and more like plain German bread.
Showing off our breakfast bags!
We eat our pastries in the car, because it is very cold outside! Today, it was about 35'F and drizzling all morning.
0800 - The bus is here! Kids in Germany don't ride yellow school buses, they ride big touring buses that are all different colors. Joseph especially likes the blue bus, because it has rainbow seats.
0830 - Ella helps me make a shopping list, because we really, really need to get some groceries today! I try to write my lists in sections that match the sections of our grocery store. It makes sense to me, but seems to confuse everyone else :)
0900 - We get to drive on the Autobahn here, which is a very well made road that is super smooth, so you can drive very, very fast. This is my speedometer in the slow lane, going about 130k/ or 80m/ph. There were Mercedes and Audis in the fast lane that were flying past me - they can get up to 120mph on these roads!

1000 - I had a doctor's appointment today, and Ella came with me. This is her favourite picture at our ENT office - a picture of a healthy sinus and a picture of a sick one. I'm having surgery next week to fix a lot of the things that are wrong with the sick sinus picture, and she likes to show me what I will look like afterwards :) She knows all of the parts of the nose and sinuses now, because she asks so many questions about this picture.

She also really likes this ear model. It is missing a few pieces - the eardrums and the small ear bones, but she still loves to show where the blood flows and where the air comes out. She says she wants to be a nurse some day, and I think she's starting already!

1200 - Checking the mail! All of our American mail is shipped to this post room at the hospital. If we have a package that won't fit in our little box, they'll put a special slip in. We take the slip to the window to pick up our packages! Alas, there were no slips in the mail today :(

1230 - Grocery shopping! This is our favourite grocery store: Globus! It is like a little tiny mall, full of different shops selling everything from expensive clothes to flowers to vacations!

There is also a restaurant in the grocery store, and we love to come here for bratwurst mit brotchen (sausages with bread), pommes (french fries) and Cola for lunch. Ella really loves brats!

We get lots of fresh produce from all over Europe, especially Spain and Greece. The grocery store has a huge cheese section, and a full butcher's shop, too. You don't get grocery bags at the stores here, you have to bring your own. We bring reusable bags to the store every time, or else we'd have to carry our food out in our hands!

1400 - We have a waffle from the vendor outside the store - you can see his cart in the first picture. Warm waffles with sugar are one of the best cold-weather treats!

1600 - Time to see Santa! We picked Joseph up from the bus stop (I forgot my camera for that part) and put on our nice clothes, then headed over to the Community Center on base to see St. Nick!

He was super nice, and even though Ella was upset about the other reindeer being mean to Rudolph, Santa assured her that everyone loves Rudolph now, and they are all friends. He promised to bring Rudolph by on Christmas Eve when he brings our presents!

1730 - Dinner time! Homefries, veggies and chicken for dinner - yum! After dinner is bedtime and then mommy can finally take a deep breath and relax :)