Hump Day Giveaway

Ha! I recently learned a new word: Hump Day. It's the fun part about being in immigrant. The learning never ends. There is always new vocabulary to learn...Now at first I was a bit stunned. I thought the word meant something indecent. My 15-year-old son laughed at me cruelly. I wasn't getting much help here. Just teasing.

So I went and looked it up in the Urban Dictionary where it says:

Hump Day:

 

1. The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week.

After hump day, the weekend gets closer.

So in celebration of my newly learned word and the fact that we are getting closer to the weekend I decided to do a fun Giveaway on my Facebook Fanpage. Please visit my page for details.

Who would steal a broom?

In case you are wondering where I have been and what I have been up to: RAKING LEAVES.

The joys of fall. Is that why they are called leaves in English? Because everybody just wants them gone from their yard. I think they are so pretty. Why not enjoy the sight and crunching a bit longer? But I finally got tired of the neighbor's angry stares. Every day when I left the house I felt his piercing eyes. Maybe I was only imagining it. I decided to get the rake out. My daughter and I spent two whole days raking the front and backyard. Funny thing was, when it was time to sweep up the last leaves on the walkway I found that my broom had gone missing from the front porch?

Who in the world would go up on another person's porch and steal an old broom? Was it a witch on Halloween night who lost her's maybe? I guess we will never know.

And of course, last night a big wind blew into town and sprinkled a fresh layer onto the lawn. Seems like you just cannot win some days. Oh well, it was good excercize. Who needs the gym when you have yardwork to do?

I will just ignore the neighbor, the leaves, and the yard. Got more sewing to do. Or who will make the stocking stuffers for the little kids this Christmas? A little while ago I got a request for more merbabies. I swear, I did not forget. Just took me a while to get around to it. In fact, I had not made one since this summer and plain forgot how I made them. Does that ever happen to you? With a recipe or pattern? You don't make it for while and forget how it's done.

I am glad I remembered. Here are 3 little merbabies ready for some fun!

Happy Halloween!

I know there are a lot of people who are not in favor of Halloween. Since it's a holiday we don't celebrate in Germany (at least didn't use to when I was little) I get a bit confused. I don't like the scary monster costumes either. Neither do I understand folks who like slasher movies. But is the holiday evil because some people make it so scary?

To me it's just an occasion for the kids to be creative and come up with a cute costume. My daughter wanted to be a Minion from the Despicable Me movie this year. So we worked hard together to make our own costume. We died a white shirt yellow. I made a head covering from yellow velour and sewed some hair to it. The overall were decorated with stencil by my daughter. Dad helped with the goggles. Big brother helped with quality control. It was a project for the whole family.

Didn't it turn out great?

How to make German Sauerbraten

Sauer macht lustig - Sour makes you happy

It's a German saying that eating sour foods makes one happy. Not sure where the notion comes from. It's a fact the Germans are often unhappy and need a lot of cheering up, considering the grey weather this time of year....Of course, everyone in the US knows about Sauerkraut. My children hate it. I have tried and tried. They are not being good little Germans. But maybe that's partly because the stuff they sell in the stores in the US is nothing like German Sauerkraut. It's way too sour! Some day, if I have the time, I'll get to the bottom of it. Some day I will try and make my own Sauerkraut.

Then there is Sauerbraten. Have you ever had a German Sour Roast? I am glad to report that this is a dish my children very much appreciate. The announcement of a Sauerbraten will bring smiles and shouts of joy. Figures, since it takes about a week to make it...We cooked up a really nice roast this weekend. Making Sauerbraten takes a bit of planning ahead. First I had to remember to take the meat out of the freezer. It took about 2-3 days to thaw it out. Next I had to make a marinade for soaking it. Unlike my husband who claims that Germans bury the meat in the yard for 3 weeks to rot it and cook it afterwards, this is NOT TRUE!

This is how it's done:

you will need

• a nice piece of beef, a roast about 1-3 pounds (we like to get a big one, the leftovers are yummy!)
• 2 medium sized onions
• 1 large carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 5 peppercorns
• bay leaf
• 5 dried juniper berries (optional)
• raisins
• 4-5 tablespoons flour
• red wine vinegar
• ginger cookies (optional)

Chop an onion, peel a carrot and dice it, and cut a stalk of celery . Throw the vegetables in a saucepan together with 250ml of red wine vinegar, 500 ml of water, add bay leaf, and some peppercorns. If you can find them, add some juniper berries. Heat this mixture to right before boiling temperature. This is the marinade that you pour over the roast.
I like to put the meat in a big Ziploc bag and put the marinade in the bag. Then you keep the Ziploc bag in the refrigerator for 3-4 days - depending on how sour you like your roast.


Cooking the roast:

After the meat has been properly soured take it out of the bag. Don't throw out the marinade. Put it through a sieve and throw away the vegetables. You must reserve the liquid because you will need it for cooking the roast later on!

Dry the meat with a kitchen towel or clean cloth. I don't use paper towels because I find it wasteful. ( Don't be an Umweltschwein! as we say in German).
After you patted the meat dry put some oil in a pot and heat it up. Now you must sizzle the meat, brown it nicely on all sides. It's best to use a pot that is tall. I use a heavy stockpot. Otherwise you may get splattered with the hot sizzling oil. Next you add some chopped up onions. Don't worry about dicing the onion small. The meat will cook for quite a while. By the time it's done cooking the onions will have disappeared. After the meat is browned properly on all sides add 375ml of the marinade back to the pot. If the roast is not covered add more water to the pot.

Now you need patience. The roast needs to cook very slowly on a low temperature. Don't boil it! You can add more of the marinade or water as the liquid cooks away. Keep checking the roast for softness. After about an 1.5 - 2 hours it should be getting close... Add a couple of hand fulls of raisins. If you have some gingerbread cookies break them up and add them to the pot, too. I rarely do have them. So it's fine without. Once the meat is nice and tender take it out of the pot. Mix a few tablespoons for flour (3-4) with some of the liquid from the pot. Bring the liquid in the pot to a boil and add the flour mixture in to thicken the sauce. Add salt and pepper as needed.

All that is left to do is to slice up the roast and serve it on a warm platter. We serve it with Spatzle, German egg noodles made from scratch. What the heck. You might be bored while waiting for that meat to get cooked. Why not start another huge project and mess up the kitchen some more?

But I swear this is so delicious. Even if you have to wash every single pot and pan in the house afterwards and spend the whole day cooking it is so worth it!

A Holiday Dress for Sooki

October has been pretty good to me. Sales are definitely picking up, and I am looking forward to the busy days of packing boxes and getting packages ready every single day.

Meanwhile I get complaints from the family that our porch is still not decorated for Halloween...Only three days to go. Hopefully I'll make it to the basement tomorrow and dig out the decorations.

I did put together a costume for my daughter this year. I hope to share some photos of it on Thursday maybe.

My daughter is very pleased indeed and so was little Sookie when she received a new red Holiday dress...

'mericka, need more Guns!

Jeden Tag, nachdem ich die Kinder zur Schule gebracht habe, ist es Zeit für ein Gebet. Schreckliche Nachrichten diese Woche haben mich sehr deprimiert. Wieder einmal mussten 2 Lehrer ihr Leben lassen, weil ein Schüler eine Waffe mit zur Schule brachte. (Nevada, Massachusetts).

Wieso? Weshalb? Warum? So hiess es in der Sesamstrassenmelodie im deutschen Fernsehen als ich ein kleines Kind war, und man uns vorgaukelte, wie toll es ist ein Kind zu sein in Amerika. Warum? Reimt sich mit: Manche Menschen hier sind halt dumm. Oder wieso ist Selbstverteidigung mittels Schnellstfeuerwaffen wichtiger als die Sicherheit unserer Kinder in der Schule? Welche Eltern lassen Waffen im Haus herumliegen, damit ein Schüler, weil er Hass auf seinen Lehrer oder andere Schueler hat, diese totschiessen kann? Ich werde das niemals verstehen.

Ich hasse es taglich mit dieser furchtbaren Angst  leben zu müssen. Wenn ich die Kinder aus dem Auto lasse schaue ich mistrauisch umher. Was, wenn irgendeines dieser unschuldig blickenden Gören meine Kinder nicht leiden kann? Vielleicht ist dieser Junge vom Cross Country Team sauer, weil mein Sohn schneller laufen kann und jetzt nach Colorado Springs zum bundestaatlichen Wettbewerb mitfahren durfte, während er zu hause bleiben muss? Was wenn dieser Junge so deprimiert ist, dass er meint sich an meinem Kind rächen zu muessen?Verrückte Gedanken gehen einem ständig durch den Kopf in diesem verrückten Land.

Schutzengel braucht man unbedingt in diesem Land!

Ich muss diese Gedanken verdrängen um es hier auszuhalten. Oder vielleicht hilft es sie aufzuschreiben? Ich weiss genau, wenn ich diesen Blogeintrag auf Englisch schreiben würde, kämen sofort die Leser mit den Waffen im Schrank und würden sich über mich lustig machen. Hab's letztes Jahr erlebt, nach meinem Eintrag ueber Connecticut. Wie bekampft man die Gewalt in den Köpfen?

Mein Mann unterrichtet an der Uni hier. In einem seiner Kurse hat er den Studenten beigebracht jedes mal,wenn die Rede von Amerika ist, zu rufen:" 'mericka! Need more Guns!" Man hofft, dass die Studenten die tiefe Ironie erkennen.

Ein Kollege meines Mannes hat mir erzählt, das er niemals Studenten durchfallen lässt. Könnte ja sein, das einer Rache ueben will. Ist wie im Wilden Westen hier. Wo bleibt der Fortschritt?

Ich sage: " 'mericka, if anything ever happens to my children, I will never forgive you! Du bist einfach nur krank!"

An Apple a Day...

Sadly I have to report that we didn't get any apples this year. All the blooms were destroyed by a late frost. So if I want to make apple pockets, apple sauce, or any of the other applet treats our family loves I'll have to resort to store bought apples. Not a happy prospect.

why is it that fruit you pick yourself tastes so much better? I wonder if other folks in Colorado are having the problem as us. If you know of any place where I can get local apples fresh from a tree please let me know!

But you know what they say: An apple a day, keeps the Doctor away.

So to make myself happy I cut into this super delicious precious piece of Japanese apple fabric. I have been saving it for a day when I crave apples really badly. Like - right now. I wish I had bought more at the time...

Here is my little apple. ;)

Hope you had better luck with your apples this year!