Daisy Hats

Here is a picture of our adorable niece, Lena, modeling her new Daisy Hat, created by my sister- and mother-in-law. You can also find them on Facebook. What a great Christmas, birthday, or baby shower gift idea, especially for all those little girls living in Germany (baby/child + no hat = guaranteed interference from a random German)! There are all sorts of color combinations available and they will also create custom orders. The ribbon provides added detail, but also means that the size can be adjusted for newborns, toddlers, and beyond. *They will ship to APO addresses, which is always a bonus* Check them out!

I'm a pretty little thing,
Always coming with the spring;
In the meadows green I'm found,
Peeping just above the ground,
And my stalk is cover'd flat
With a white and yellow hat.

- from The Field Daisy

Summer Recipes

Palmer's Style Chicken Salad
- compliments of Liz and Sue E.

5 cups cooked chicken (5 chicken breasts poached w/ bay leaf, salt, and pepper) or 2 cans albacore tuna
1 cup diced celery
2 cups green or red grapes, halved
1/2 cup mayo*
1/2 cup sour cream*
1/2 cup slivered almonds (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
"Spike" seasoning to taste...no more than 2 TB, possibly less

Blend mayo and sour cream. Add remaining ingredients. Serve as a sandwich or on a bed of lettuce. Serves 4-6.

*I recently substituted homemade vegan mayo and sour cream. Let me know if you want the recipes!

Technicolor Bean Salad (from The Silver Palate Cookbook)
1 can (16 oz) each of garbanzos, white kidey beans, red kidney beans, baby lima beans, and black-eyed peas (or any other beans you have sitting in the pantry)
1 lb fresh green beans, or half green and half yellow wax beans, cooked- optional
Garlic Dressing (see below)
1 cup chopped well-rinsed scallions (green onions)- optional
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leafed parself, for garnish- optional

1. Drain canned beans, rinse with water, drain again
2. Cut green beans into 2-inch lenghts
3. Toss canned and fresh beans together in large bowl, pour dressing, sprinkle on scallions, toss again
4. cover and refrigerate over night before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley, serve at room temp

Garlic Dressing (makes 1.5 cups)
1 egg yolk (optional, I leave it out)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1 TB sugar
1 TB chopped garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup olive oil

1. Combine egg yolk, vinegar, sugar, garlic and salt and pepper in food processor
2. Slowly dribble in the olive oil
3. Taste, correct seasoning if necessary, and add to bean salad as directed above (or transfer to storage container)

Enjoy!

Wiesbaden Wine Fest

This was our third (and sadly final) Wiesbaden Wine Fest while living in Germany. In typical fest fashion, Matt had a pork loin sandwich and I had a Tomato, Mozzarella, Pesto Flammkuchen (very thin crusted pizza). We enjoyed hanging out with friends over a bottle of local Riesling Spatlese wine.

This was the first year that the church was completely without scaffolding and as you can see, we had great weather.

Melanie, Ashley, Elizabeth, Kristine and Katie

Family picture- Calvin's first wine fest

Dinner with Iowans

Recently, I found out that my college friend Kristi and her husband Darren were living about 40 minutes away from us on an overseas assignment for an Iowa based farm machinery company. We met for dinner in Weinheim a couple of months ago and just had dinner again last night before they return to the U.S. It's been great to spend time with you guys!

Happy Birthday, Kristi!

Last weekend, we attended a birthday BBQ at Kristi and Dan's house. We had fun hanging out with everyone and the ratio of children to adults is very noticeably shifting the longer we are here (I believe there were 7 kids and 1 on the way to 9 couples at the party)!

Kristi, Melanie (with glowing child carrier), and Carrie


Howdy, Alan!


Happy Rhubarb Farmer Family

Funemployment

My first full week off from work has been surprisingly busy. I have been catching up with friends, blogging, walking to the German grocery store for produce, jogging and biking, working on projects that have been on my list of things to do for about 2 years, and also making some time for school work :) Just wanted to share a few photos...

Melanie, Mandy and me before a tasty dinner at Bockshaut in Darmstadt

And today, I went down to Heidelberg with Melanie for Calvin's 2 month immunizations. Mom and baby were such troopers, we indulged in some American-style lemonade (not the same as German "lemonade," which is essentially Sprite), tuna/chicken sandwiches, and "Rock the Boat" dessert, a ridiculously delicious and sinful brownie, ice cream, banana, whipped cream, and caramel sundae, at Mandy's Diner. When you step into this eclectically decorated railway car, it feels like you are stepping into a 1950s "greasy spoon," complete with breakfast served all day (a very American thing) that is surprisingly very refreshing when living in a foreign country.



It's been a great week!

Nerobergbahn

This past week, I spent the day with my friend Mandy and her two little boys, Sam and Jack. We decided to check out the Nerobergbahn in Wiesbaden. Although the plan was to park at the bottom of Neroberg and take this old train up the mountain, we diverted from our Googlemap directions when we started seeing signs for "Neroberg" and ended up driving up the mountian in the car. So instead, we rode the train down and back up. There were some really pretty views at the top and even an old Russian church hiding in the woods. Check out Mandy's blog for more pictures.

Model of our train

All smiles on the train

View of Wiesbaden

Pretty church


It was really great to spend some time with Mandy and the boys before they head back to the states for good. I was lucky enough to hang out with the boys again this weekend while Mandy and Greg had a lunch date in Darmstadt. Such sweet kids! We will miss you guys!

Two-Year Mark

It's hard to believe we've reached our two-year mark in Germany and only have one more left! This past year has been jam-packed with travel, including:

Germany (Rothenberg, Munich, Triberg, Stuttgart, Schoenecken, Trier, Frankfurt, Garmisch x 2, Dachau)
Swizerland (Lauterbrunnen, Geneva)
Czech Republic (Prague)
Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Mallorca)
Austria (Lech, St. Veit)
France (Chamonix, Paris, Alsace)
Ireland (Dublin, Glendalough, Kilkenny, Kinsale, Blarney, Dingle, Cashel)
U.S.A. (Iowa x 2)

Which brings our running total of countries visited from 2007-2009 to...

Germany
Austria (5)
Switzerland (3)
Italy (1)
Greece (1)
Belgium (1)
Luxembourg (1)
Spain (3)
Netherlands (1)
Czech Republic (1)
France (3)
Ireland (1)
U.S.A. (3)

We have had such a great time living in Germany and are really looking forward to a few more big trips in the upcoming year. Unfortunately, this will also be a year of goodbyes to many of our friends as they return to the states. We're ready to make the most it!