Go Forth...

and have a happy Fourth of July

365 day project

Okay friends, so today's the day I reach out and ask you for help.

But first, a little backstory:

1. My wonderful Mr. Bama is gone for work for a year starting in a few weeks.
2. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm sort highly motivated / an overachiever.
3. Working as an employee on the German economy isn't an option, as in I don't have a work visa.
4. I have travelling access to all of fantastic Europe.

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So now you, my fabulously creative readers come into play.  Starting July 30, I'll be up for a project.  You can get an idea from my previous posts what my interests are - cooking, design, travel, etc.  My goal is to expand your horizons and as well as mine, so be creative, but not extravagant.  What do YOU want to read about me exploring?  You read about blogs where people tell you want they want you to hear, in this case I'm asking you what do you want to read about?  Here are some very small  rules:

• it cannot include me risking my life... that includes heights, i.e. me standing next to them or jumping off of them.  no no no
• it cannot cost more than $15 a day.
• it cannot include me doing anything illegal.

And that's about it.  I'm excited to hear about what you would me to take on this next year, especially for those readers who usually read, but don't ever feel like commenting! Be creative!

Sacred Beer Atop a Holy Mountain

There's an interesting phenomenom in Germany - Monks.  Who brew beer.

The Kloster (monastery) Kreuzberg, atop the Kreuzberg mountain in the Rhon mountain range, has been brewing beer since 1731.  Even since we arrived in germany, everyone we met told us we had to travel to Kreuzberg to hike the mountain and have the beer.  So naturally, when we found out that there would be a bus trip to visit this wonderful location, we signed up and were excited to go!  While it was freezing cold (and yours truly did not dress appropriately) and drizzly, we still managed to have an absolute blast.

big mug, little mug

Mr. Bama's big mug

happiness is a full beer mug

thats 5L of holy beer

the 3 crosses at the top of the Kreuzberg
mountain.

view from the top.  Gorgeous

Happy Bamas

Awesome + Awesome = Awesomer

If you haven't seen this blog then you really should.

These are some of my faves:

one bakes a cake, the other is often baked.

Salvidor Dali and Coco Chanel

Chick Norris and Bruce Lee... how can a picture
contain this much awesomeness!

MJ and Paul McCartney.  Washing dishes of course

and last but not least... but perhaps the most beautiful

Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.  The two most beautiful
women in the world at the time

all pics are courtesy of awesomepeoplehangingouttogether

(many thanks to Misa for exposing me to this link... as always, you rock)

My Newest German Obsession

It may help to have Google Chrome to read this, but I'm in love with this wonderful grocery (Bio) chain Tegut .

Small, but a ton of local bio chicken, beef and pork.  I'm slightly discouraged by the amount and price of grapeseed oil (Traubenkornöl) so Ill have to find a new high temp cooking oil, but alas, such is the challenges of a new country.

We've also found a wonderful home that rents to American's w/ dogs (a BIG deal).   It's perfect, as it has 3 bathrooms, four bedrooms AND a fitted kitchen - something that is VERY hard to find in a German rental.

our new kitchen -  stove, fridge, oven, sink AND dishwasher!

This is all dependent on an inspection this week, but if all goes well, we have an new home come July 1st.

On another note, out new village is lovely, with 2 hotels, a Tavern around the corner, a grocery and a bank.  Can a girl ask for anything more?

When Good Food Goes Bad

I'm sure this isn't news to you if you've even glanced at a newspaper lately, but Germany's going through a *small* health scare.  It's not just "oh, gosh! I got food poisoning, was sick all night, but felt good the next morning" kind of food poisoning, but the scary "organ failure, you may die" kind of nasty E.Coli food poisoning.  While it's primarily an issue in North Germany (think Berlin), many places down in Bavaria have pulled lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes from their food offerings as a safety precaution.  While I appreciate the proactive approach from restaurants and grocery stores, it has turned salads and anything else green and normally "healthy" into being characterized as unhealthy and dangerous. It also has resulted in slightly less desirable food.  I was standing next to a girl in a sandwich shop and she ordered a BLT sandwich.  The result was a piece of bacon between two slices of bread... yeah.  So this normally healthy green loving girl has resorted to trying out the less than healthy delicacies of Germany.

First - the Pork Schnitzel

Breaded and fried pork with french fries.  Kind of like a pork chop, but the seasoning makes it delectable.  It's actually pretty light for a fried food, but still it's fried and not something that should be eaten daily.  But boyyy is it tasty (especially mixed with a local Hefeweizen).  PS - The famous Jaegerschnitzel is when they add a mushroom sauce to the schnitzel.  Germans LOVE their mushrooms, not so much for this non-fungi fan.

Second - The Döner Kebap

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Turkish immigrants brought with them to Germany the Döner Kebap and it has became as big a part of the German cuisine as the Schnitzel. The bare hunk of meat rotating on a pike seems kind of scary at first, but trust me, it is amazingly tasty.  Usually you add tomato and lettuce to your döner, but since that ingredient is currently hard to come by, döner and onions with garlic sauce it was!

Döner macht schöner ( Döner makes you beautiful).

YUM!  Sidenote: I got the "small" size.

Third - Anything from a backerei

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 The French have their croissants, the Belgians have their waffles and the Germans have their pretzels.  And trust me, you haven't had a pretzel until you've had a German pretzel.  Ohmygoodness.  Even if you aren't a pretzel fan, the options avaliable at any backerei around Germany are enough to send you into a carbohydrate coma.

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So now I know why everyone warned me about how hard it was to avoid the "Bavarian Bulge" when you live in Germany.  Here's hoping we get veggies back soon, otherwise my waistline doesn't stand a chance against this amazing food!  On the flip side, it is better than contracting a deadly strain of E. Coli.  Oh the sacrifices...

The Bamas Meet Bruno the Beamer!

Yours truly is proud to report that I am now the rightful owner of a German driver's license.  Yup, after 3 days studying, taking an agonizing 4 hour class on how German driving is different from American (its all about the Right-of-Way), and completing a 100 question test, I'm legal!  Itching to get on the road, I put my energy into finding a car that was afforable (read under $3,000), reliable and not a gas guzzler.  Enter Bruno:

this is Bruno

Bruno is a  German spec 1995 BMW 320i who was for sale because his owner bikes to work and didn't have a need for him any longer.  He's not as snazzy as the BMW's we test drove Saturday (more about that later...) but he's something that I can drive without worrying.  HOWEVER (and this is big), Bruno has a manual transmission.  Not usually an issue, but when you don't know how to drive manual., it's a big deal.  

So not only am I dealing with a whole new set of road rules, but I'm faced with the challenge of learning how to drive a car that can't figure out on its own what gear to be in!  

Mr. Bama took me around a rarely traveled loop of road near our Inn to train me in this new adventure.  After lots of stalling and swearing, I've finally gotten a hang of it.  But in short: clutches are stupid and I DESPISE hills.  But I do like the sense of control.....

story of my standard transmission life

While we're still on the topic of BMWs, guess what I got to do last Saturday:

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We test drove brand new BMW's at the Schweinfurt dealership -- The autobahn made it so I was able to drive my  personal record speed of 100mph while Mr. Bama clocked out this bad boy at 160 mph

The BMW M3.  Its prettier in real life.  I promise

Next blog post:  Eating healthy when you a) live in a hotel and b) theres a *slight* produce shortage.  And by slight I mean substantial.  Yay E.Coli!  Fun fun times, I tell yah.

German Lessons

We've been in Germany for a week so far and it has been a definite adventure. We've moved into an actual hotel now with internet, and we've met so many amazing people who have been gracious enough to show us around the area (as well as drive our car-less selves around.)  Here are some fun observations from just a week of living in beautiful Bavaria

• Get off work late? Want to go for a run around the block before it gets dark?  No worries, it doesn't get dark til around 9:30.  It is truly weird for us southerners, but a nice change.
• German wine is wein-derful (haha).  We went to a Wein Fest this weekend in the neighboring city of Wurtzburg and it was an absolute blast!  We ate a ton of potatoes and Bretzels (pretzels in German) and drank a good amount of wonderful German wine (I even tried the weisswein- white wine, which is a big deal for this died in the wool red wine drinker).   

With new friends Eleanor & Memree enjoying Erdbeere Bowle  (Strawberry Punch)

• The yogurt is AMAZING here.  Same goes for the bread and the coffee.  You need less here because its so rich, but the quality is top notch.  Another plus - no preservatives, minimally processed and very fresh!

vanilla & strawberry yogurt.  So yummy

• They like pork here.  Lots and lots of pork in all forms (filet, sausage, etc)...  This may take a while to get used to, as in I never ate pork back in the states.
• EVERYTHING closes on Sunday.  New Orleans did a pretty good job of prepping us for this, but it does take some adjusting.

Theres far more to discover here, and unfortunately we're going to have to wait to get a car to really check out everything Germany  has to offer.  But we are absolutely in love with our new country!

48+ Hours Later

and we've survived!  We don't have internet from our "hotel," but I've been able to find places with internet.  It was an incredibly long journey that included:

- starting at 4am from Virginia --> Atlanta --> NOLA --> Dulles.

Then once we were in Dulles, our flight to Frankfurt was delayed 3 excruciating hours.  We were able to sleep a little on the flight, but then once we arrived (8:30am in Germany, so 6:30am in Virginia -- a whooping 26hrs, 30 mins later) we ended up waiting until 2pm for a bus.  By 5:30pm we had finally made it to our new town.  So we're here after our long adventure.  Once we get a sense of the place as well as a car (Guess who is going to be taking the German drivers test this week!) we will be able to really explore our new city!

Leaving on a Jetplane (4 to be exact)

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all our bags are packed (as of May 10) and we're ready to go (whether we like it or not).  Today we lift off for our VERY unnecessarily long trek from the east coat, to Atlanta, to New Orleans (yeah... ridiculous), then back to Washington and finally off to our new home.  I feel incredibly under-prepared and slightly overwhelmed, but alas - change is a comin'.  I have no idea how much Internet service I'll have access to or if my computer will even work over there -- I'm already going to be iPhone-less over there, so lets hope things go smoothly with the flights, getting out of the US and into Europe, finding Internet access, settling into  our new home.

So auf wiedersehen America!  Here's to new adventures, a new country and a new chapter in the Bama family story!

Adventures in Life Changes

To say things have been hectic lately would be a definite understatement.  As I write this I realize that the sheer amount of things that have changed over the past 3 weeks is amazing and I'll be the first to admit that it all hasn't really hit me yet. 

Example: I am, for the first time in my life, homeless. 

Ok yes, that sounds extreme, as in-between Alabama and Virginia I will always have a home either at my parent's or my in-law's houses.  But honestly, a location that is "ours" and full of our "stuff" does not currently exist.  As we walked away May 11th from our very empty, beautiful home on the corner of State & Laurel in New Orleans an overwhelming sense of sadness and anxiety overcame me.

the tiled road markers that graced our little corner of new orleans

Just some more of the many changes occuring over the past few weeks:

• Everything that we own has been packed up (it took two whole days to wrap and pack up everything in a 950 sq ft house... me thinks we may need to do some uncluttering once we unpack) and it all is sitting in a shipping container on a slow boat to Europe either now or in the near future.  Mr. Bama and I each have 2 suitcases of clothes & shoes to choose from until July.   My daily clothing options definitely demand creativity.

I've gone from a huge closet to this.  Not an easy task.

• You're looking at Alabama's newest resident. Due to tax reasons, we both have to be residents of the same state, so alas, new license.  It was actually the most pleasant DMV experience, but it resulted in the worst license picture I've ever had.   Less than a 30 min wait at the DMV + very pleasant employees = unattractive license picture.  Oh well.

• As of tomorrow, when we fly to our new home, we will be without a vehicle.  It's amazing how you can go from 2 cars to no cars in less than a month.  Also we are leaving our bundle of fur behind for the foreseeable future, until we can figure out where we will be calling home for the next three years.  It pains me to leave him behind, but it's not fair to him to be moved oversees unless it is to a place that is established and won't change drastically over the next few years.  He's already a little shell shocked from coming home to an empty New Orleans house, I can only imagine how drastic a change it will be to him to put up with an 8 hour flight overseas, in cargo, and then be moved from hotel to apartment to house.
  

  

  you have no idea how much I'm going to miss this face

• iPhone's do not work in Germany.  This makes me very sad

• Did I also mention that Mr. Bama is leaving in July for work.  For an entire year?  So I'm going from cozy home in a city I adore with an amazing husband and a fabulous (albeit awkward) dog  to no home (hopefully temporary), an absent husband and no dog all in the course of a month.  No complaints, it is just truly crazy how change can come so quickly.

So many changes in such a small amount of time.  In all seriousness, the one constant is that my companion and best friend will be by my sida the whole time, thus making the adventure that much more exciting.  Who knew a year & 1/2 ago when we started our lives together, that it would take us on this whirlwind of a journey.  The exciting (and slightly harrowing) thing:  It's only just begun!

My Life in Boxes

Multiply the above picture by 20 and then you will have a mental picture of the state of my house.  The appliances that are of no use to us in Europe are getting picked up tomorrow by my father-in-law to be stored in Alabama and then everything else is prepped and moved onto a shipping container next Tuesday, safe and sound for its 2-3 month trek across the Atlantic.  That means Mr. Bama, Bear and I will be living out of a suitcase for 2-3 months, something that is definitely going to put me outside of my comfort zone.  That all being said, I'm probably not going to be able to post as frequently as I have been.  But I assure you I'm still here!

Prayers for the South

It's been a crazy night / day in our house --While we didn't experience any foul weather in New Orleans, the rest of the deep south wasn't as fortunate.   The images of just the immense damage from Alabama and the Deep South keep coming in over the news and have been sent to us from friends.  We've been able to confirm that all of our loved ones are safe and sound, but many of them were as close as a few miles from the tornadoes that wrecked havoc across the state.

I came across this video on  youtube that was filmed in the parking lot of University Mall in Tuscaloosa and in short, it is horrifying (especially at 4:25 and then again at 6:00, when you catch a glimpse of the Belk).

Please, if you have the resources and means, do not hesitate to give to the recovery efforts not just in Tuscaloosa, but from Mississippi all the way to Virginia -- they will need all the help they can receive.  You can text "GIVE" to 80888 to donate $10 to the Salvation Army, which already has feet on the ground in the areas affected (you can visit them here ).

And most importantly, please keep all affected in your thoughts and prayers

Ginger & Berries Never Tasted So Good

I've been a huge fan of Kombucha recently, but it wasn't until today I was truly grateful for it.  I've been spending all day unloading our storage unit (New Orleans + no garage = no storage) in preparation for our move.  Exhausted from the tons of boxes of books and Rubbermaid containers, I arrived home craving one thing and one thing alone:

source

It has it doubters.  It has its faithful followers.  You can debate all day long, (and read about it here) but all I know is that this one of the tastiest drinks I've ever sampled.  My old boss let me try a little of the Gingerade 100% G.T. Kombucha version a few months ago.  I liked it, as the ginger flavor balanced the natural flavor of kombucha, so I bought a whole bottle.  I quickly realized that with every Gingerade kombucha I drank, without fail I developed a raging headache within an hour.  So I tried the strawberry version (95% kombucha, 5% fruit juice).  No headache, but the tartness of the strawberry needed something to balance it out.  So then I tried ginger berry with the hopes that the ginger would balance the strawberry.  And it does perfectly.  I now crave this stuff.  And since its ohsoclose to hitting the 90 degree mark on the thermostat down here, I'm discovering it may just be the perfect summer drink.  yum yum

Have you tried kombucha yet?  If so, what are your thoughts?

My Awkward Puppy - the Graduate

Bear just graduated a few Saturdays ago from intermediate obedience class at Petco (product of our hoping he'll have manners in Europe).  One of the things we found out that came with his graduation packet, in addition to more treats than he'll ever need, was a free professional 8x10 graduation photo.  We figured "hey, it's free, so why not?"

Turns out our dog is quite the diva.  The first few shots were a little awkward, but by the end, Bear was totally posing for the camera, complete with stuffed Easter chickens and fuzzy blue blankets.  His attention to the camera was seriously impressive.  The photos were processed and when we went back to pick out what picture we wanted to have as our one 8x10, the photo lady said "oh, well if you use the free photo coupon, then you can only choose the first picture out of the entire series."  Um, terrible policy if you ask me, but whatever.

So instead of having a picture of our bundle of joy posing perfectly and looking adorable, this is the picture we were required to choose:

awkward? yes

It also wasn't til we received the print that I realized just how large an 8x10 picture is.  We have NO idea what to do with this photo, which is as awkwardly large as our pup.  An odd combination of weird factors that actually add up to make perfect sense.  Such is life!

Onion Soup for the Stressed-out Soul

Yesterday was one of those days where a full day of running around "getting things done" actually resulted in nothing getting done.  The result was such a feeling of defeat (especially after the news that the move will NOT go as planned) that I just wanted something super comforting to make and eat for dinner.  I've been in the process of transferring my recipes to my new fancy schmancy recipe book (thanks mom!) and I found one of my favorite long lost recipes:  Spring Onion Soup. It's the Spring, and I still had yet to initiate my Le Creuset Christmas present, so I figured heck why not!

Spring Onion Soup (makes 6 1-1/2 cu servings)

• 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large sweet vidalia onions, sliced
• 2 cups chopped Spring onions / leeks
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 cup sherry
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 3-14 oz cans low sodium beef broth
• 1/4 minced scallions/ chives
• 6 slices country whole wheat bread
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese

Here's where we start:

onions galore!

this is the hardest part of the entire recipe for me.  Onions and my eyes
do NOT get along

lots o' leeks

1.  Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add sweet onions and stir to coat. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring often until soft and starting to brown ; approx 6-8 mins.

saute-ing onions are one of my fave kitchen smells

2.  Add spring Onions/ leeks, garlic and thyme.  cook uncovered, stirring often, until starting to soften, 3-4 mins.

yum yum

3.  Stir in sherry and pepper; increase heat to medium-high and simmer.

got to use up the contents of our well-stocked bar since we
cannot take any of it overseas with us.  

Cook, stirring often, until most of the liquid has evaporated, 1-2 mins.

4.  Stir in broth and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to simmer and cook until veggies are tender, about 3 mins.  Remove from heat and stir in chives/scallions

5.  Meanwhile, toast the bread and divide among bowls; top bread with cheese.

Ladle soup over bread and cheese.  Serve immediately

absolutely simple and amazing!

Instant stress relief, at least for the moment.  Here's hoping for a less stressful and much more productive day today. Have a spectacular Tuesday!