Hello Fam!

Here are some photos from our winter Holiday in Tenerife, Canary Islands. We had beautiful weather for our 12 days on the Island. Apparently it was stormy before we arrived and it rained the day we left, but we had blue skies and sunshine! Depending on where we were, it was either T-shirt and Shorts, or jacket and scarf. Such a variety of landscapes and weather for such a small Island! You will see what I mean with the Pictures….without further ado:

Waking up on our banana plantation near Guia di Isora

Alcala

Gigantes

El Teide Volcano and the Masca Valley

Taverna Escondita in Guia di Isora – best Pulpo alla Gallega ever!

After a night in Vilaflor, driving through the El Teide National park

Cactus Figs

El Medano

Montana Roja – a windy day at the beach

Los Abrigos fishing village

Los Gigantes again

Our Lady of Africa Market in Santa Cruz

Somewhere along the southern coast North of Santa Cruz 

And this is where the road ended…

So we drove across the Island to the northern coast of the northern tip

and had a Little picnic of Avocado and guava

and then went for a hike because the road ended agin…

and after a drive through the Anaga jungle, we emerged to a beautiful sunset over la Laguna on Christmas eve. You can see the ocean on both sides of the Island…

We had a wonderful trip – admittedly lacking some Christmas Flair, but a beautiful adventure!

Happy happy birthday to the best mom ever, I love you!

Hello from the past! November was sort of a strange month, also that went by really quickly and involved lots of squash but sadly no pumpkin pie. (Not for lack of pumpkin pie mix- thanks UB!) Actually due to a lack of a funktioning oven, with moving and all.

Spaghetti squash, which Milo missed out on and as far as I know has never experienced. He is skeptical. I know the truth about it and I love it. Luckily I found a one-person sized squash at the market.

Milo bought a celery root so I decided to make a salad.

For reference, this is how the celery salad from Alsace looks, finely shredded with a bit of cream.

My shredder doesn’t go that small, but I made due. Mixed with carrots and seasoned simply with olive oil, salt and pepper.

I shredded a quarter of it and had enough for lunch the next day plus a snack with garbonzos mixed in. That root multiplies when you shred it, just fyi.

In the spirit of pumpkin, I roasted one just for the heck of it.

Since I discovered that I am (I think) lactose intolerant (don’t cry for me, goat cheese in small portions seems to be okay, it is the milk and yogurt that gets me) I have been eating my muesli with soy milk, which is still really good.

Milo brought me a grapefruit from Zadar. The little tree had two giant fruits! Which tasted very lemony and bitter! But it is the thought that counts, let us not forget.

Typical salad that I have been consuming happily and regularly since summer, this one with a bit of chevre…taking a walk on the wild side.

I made a tea advent calender this year – a different variety every day with a little inspirational quote to boot! Due to the strange living/moving/chaos of December, we managed to úse it on approximately three days. Fear not, the tea will not go to waste.

And now, on to December! Which is exciting because it actually STILL IS December. Woohoo!

Hi, so I am cheating switching things up by mushing October, November and December each into their own monthly wrap-up post. Somehow, since we got back from Zadar in September, time has just flown by. Work was really busy with being audited and fiscal year end, then switching to my new job and moving cities. Splotchy internet means I wrote a bunch of posts but never published them, and it is just more fun posting in real-time. So I am not going into too much detail, but I still wanted to share some photos from the past three months.

Kale Chips made from Wirsing (Savoy Cabbage) because we really wanted to try these but kale was not yet in season on 13.October.

Washed, patted dry, rubbed lightly with olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt, baked about 20 minutes or so until crispy. We also made them again the next day with a squeeze of lemon which was also quite yum.

Kale is amazing, we since eaten in many times- especially delicious braised with a bit of garlic, olive oil, salt. Also great braised then mixed with tomato sauce and pasta. It is cool because not only is it really healthy, but it is hard to over-cook. It still retains a little bite, unlike spinach which gets soggy and wilty really fast (not that that is a bad thing.)

Tea Time: Earl Gray and Orange Marmelade.

And Heide Honig is something awesome.

Habibi Falafel on Zulpicher Straße in Köln- awesome discovery! We went three times within a month. Falafel plate with amazing hummus (creamy and mild, just enough lemon and not too much garlic) and equally great Tabbouleh. Carrot juice fresh pressed and cinnamon tea on the house. 10-12€ buys a yummy and healthy (perhaps except for the deep-fried falafel) dinner for two.

Fall is in the air.

German efficiency:

Sunday nature walk.

A new restaurant in Alsace (Auberge L’Agneau)  because we decided to take a a risk and branch out from our usual Flammkuchen place. Very awesome! I tried real french-onion soup which was so rich that I only ate a few bites…needed to save room for frog legs provencal.

Baden Baden how we love you! (October 28- notice the snowy mountain!)

Kale Again! This time as a salad with orange, almonds, avocado, dressed in orange juice and olive oil.

De Puy Lentils. Yes, this is indeed the first time I have prepared and eaten De Puy Lentils. Look how pretty they are!

Paired with roasted butternut squash, rice, tofu.

Remixed the next day with curry powder. Squash season has begun. Whew that was a lot, how about a coffee.

See you in November!

On Thursday after work I met Miljo in Cologne. There was a slight chill in the air, and it was too early for dinner, so we headed to a little cafe. I love tea in general, but there is something special about mint tea made with fresh leaves. It just tastes…fresher, for lack of a better description.

Cheers!

The weekend after our wedding, we drove down to the Baden-Baden area to hang out. On Friday night we stopped by the gym, where Milo got to play badminton for an hour or so, while I chatted with some firends I hadn’t seen since spring. Afterwards we went to the Vogelbrau for a beer and schnitzel. It was great to see people and catch up on whats been happening in life (several weddings and a baby!)

On Saturday morning, we checked out the Rastatt market, which is astonishingly quite good.

Artichoke flowers.

Apple season has arrived!

Who wants to make pickles?

Assorted celery and root veg.

Heather!

Apples are awesome, crisp and juicy and sweet.

Then it was off to Strasbourg, where we enjoyed walking around in the sun. We stopped along the way to pick up a baguette and scallop pate, which is so yummy and much healthier than liver pate (at least that is what I am telling myself). We had a little picnic on the river.

In town we stopped at Galleries Lafayette for some Macarons. YUM! I only get to eat macarons when we go to France, so it is lucky we are moving that direction very soon!

On Saturday night we ate dinner at our favorite place in Alsace, Auberge. As usual we got a classic flammkuchen, and we also had a celery salad, salad with grilled chicken and mushrooms, and naturally a sweet banana/apple flamm for dessert. And some Gewurztraminer to drink.

On Sunday, we had our first “oven roast” of the season. Chicken with root veg. Fall is definitely here.

After lunch we went to Baden-Baden, where we walked around the park and woods. And through the town as well. I want dried herbs in my kitchen window too.

Milo found chestnuts.

 We also visited the castle. It was a fabulous weekend!

Hello from Keystone! After forty (40) hours of travelling, we finally arrived in Keystone, Colorado, USA early afternoon on Friday. Needless to say, we were so happy have finally arrived, after 10 hours in the Stuttgart airport, 9 hour flight, hotel night in Atlanta, and early flight out Friday AM to Denver. Delta provided us with plenty of meal vouchers, for both Stuttgart and Atlanta, as well as the hotel, which was nice. We spent it ALL.

Friday afternoon we took it easy, and explored around Keystone and River Run Village. For dinner, we had steak. Having awesome ingredients and a fantastic kitchen makes cooking so much more fun! We are taking advantage of this =)

On Saturday, we drove over to Frisco for the 19th Annual Frisco BBQ Challenge. Open to the public! We bought 20$ worth of “Hogbacks” to sample and try a variety of barbecued bits of goodness.

Ribs. Pulled Pork. Brisket.

Roasted sweet corn with butter, salt, pepper, and chili powder. This was my favorite! American sweet corn is the best.

After about an hour and a half our tummies were full and I was feeling a sun burn coming on, so it was time to leave.

We spent a couple hours back at the condo resting and hydrating, before our bike ride into Dillon. I was under the impression that the ride there would be easy and mostly down hill, but it was INCREDIBLY windy, and there were lots of little hills to climb, which seemed like mountains to my untrained legs.

But we made it, and found a local brewerey called Pug Ryan. That was fun.

 I ordered the wheat, and Milo was bummed when they were out of the pale ale, but then discovered the tasting option for 4 bucks, which had 7 types of beer!

That was fun to taste. But we had to be careful not to overdo.

Lake Dillon from Dillon Dam.

We were home by 8 pm, and again, steak for dinner. And awesome line-caught salmon for me.

Sunday: Happy Father’s Day Dad!

This morning after our chai latte at home (Third St. Brand concentrate, spicy ginger-so yummy) we drove up Swan Mountain Road to Sapphire point. There was a little loop path that was an easy 15 minute walk, and the views were gorgeous! PS Mom and Dad have cycled up Swan Mountain road to Breckenridge…seriously impressive.

In the afternoon, we drove up to Loveland Pass, and walked up the mountain for more spectacular views!

So, that is how we have been working up our appetite! Enjoying cinnamon-raisin bagels and cream cheese, sweet corn, and avocado every single day! And lots of water.

We went to visit family and friends over the weekend (May 26-27), and went on both Saturday and Sunday to a pick-your-own farm. The strawberries were bright red, sweet, and juicy. Best enjoyed while in the field, although the jam turned out extremely awesome, if we do say so ourselves!

Between the rows was filled with chamomile, so the whole experience smelled great. Naturally, flowers were plucked and dried for tea.

This was the first time I have been to a pick-your-own farm that had a covering, but the strawberries were by far the best we have had in the past two years. The tinier the better.

We each ate several kilos fresh, but we also made sure to get an extra basket to make jam. We used 500 grams of strawberries (cleaned and hulled), and about half the sugar suggested (and we were already using a reduced sugar-pectin blend).

Crush strawberries with sugar.

Bring to a boil, stir constantly for a couple minutes.

Enjoy!

Our jam was a bit on the runny side, but we think if we used more sugar it would have “gelled” however would have been too sweet. It tastes perfect to us!

On Sunday night we met Bjorn and Jenny for dinner at Punjab Indian Restaurant in Karlsruhe. Lots of fun and the best Indian we have had in a very long time!

Happy Birthday Dad! Happy Birthday UB!