Monday, October 19, 2015

Announcement!

Sorry I've been a bit of a negligent blogger lately. I have been a busy. Do you want to know why? Do you want to know the exciting announcement?

I am moving to Germany!!!

Yup, for real.

I have an opportunity to transfer my job to the Nuremberg area so my husband and I will be moving at or around December 1st. This just makes the blog SO much better, am I right?

In fact, we went on a "secret" 5-day trip to Germany just under a month ago. I was just DYING to blog everything while we were there. So now I finally get to! We went on a "look and see" trip courtesy of the company and stayed in Nuremberg. We got to experience the culture, look at apartments with a relocation agent, andddd make a quick, little trip to Munich for Oktoberfest. Talk about a whirlwind 5 days! Now you get to hear about it.

We landed on a Wednesday afternoon so we had dinner later at an authentic German restaurant.


Seriously, German beer is amazing. This restaurant was called Zum Flößla in Nuremberg.


My husband had a schnitzel in a creamy sauce with pasta and I had pork skewers with bacon and a sauce that was close to BBQ sauce.

We did lots of exploring of Nuremberg.




Really pretty, right? There was also the Alstadfest that was going on. The Alstadtfest is the "old town fest." There was an area in the city that had cottages that were little mini restaurants for different local breweries. It was fun to walk around and so we picked a random one to go into.


We had a VERY nice waitress who helped translate the menu for us. We got flammkuchen with bacon and onions. Flammkuchen is an extremely flat, crispy pizza. We also tried a cheese spread called Obatzter. Think pub cheese but creamier and better. Served with bread. Oh and beer.


We also had a dessert flammkuchen with apples and cinnamon.


As part of the festival, there were stalls and tents all around town selling a variety of products.


I just HAD to get raclette. You might recall that I had this at the Boston Public Market over the summer. It is melted cheese goodness that is melted onto bread.


Another day we bought a meter long sausage, fries, and currywurst. Currywurst is a large sausage with curried ketchup sauce on top of it. 


We got crepes one day. Because, duh.


Oktoberfest on our second to last day was certainly an experience. We took a train from Nuremberg to Munich and it only took about an hour. German trains are amazingly clean and smooth. Complete with a nusschneke, a nut roll.



Hello Munich!


We didn't have a plan when we arrived and ended up not anywhere near Oktoberfest (oops) but then figured out where we needed to go.


There were rides, giant beer tents themed based on the brewery, food, and people in lederhosen everywhere. We weren't able to actually get into a beer tent but we just walked around to take in the sights and sounds.


We found a random restaurant called Marmaris just outside of the Oktoberfest area. Best decision ever. It was amazing Turkish food. I had beef kababs wrapped in pita with yogurt sauce and rice. 


Oh and 7.50 euro liter beers.



That capped off a great trip. We are very much looking forward to moving to Germany so we can travel and experience the world. Great blog material. 

Friday, October 9, 2015

Plated...again

I ordered Plated for the week! As you may recall, I have done this a few times in the past with Plated and Blue Apron. It is a meal subscription service where you order "plates" and you receive all ingredients to make each dish. The best part is that it is the exact amount of each ingredient so there is no waste and less dishes/utensils used in the kitchen. Also, you don't have to plan dinners! You receive all of the ingredients in a refrigerated box along with recipe cards.


The first meal was Cheesy Quinoa-Stuffed Poblanos with Creamy Tomato Sauce. The quinoa was cooked and then stuffed into small Poblano peppers. A tomato puree was warmed with garlic and cream for the sauce. They topped with the sauce and cheese and baked. On the side was sauteed black beans and spinach. Yum.

Tonight was Apple Cider Porkchops with Butternut Squash Polenta. The recipe was for 2 servings but it made a butt-load of polenta. I also wish there was more squash that was added to the polenta but you could taste a touch of sweetness. The porkchops were cooked and then a pan sauce was created with shallots and apple cider.


The meat was literally swimming in a pool of polenta. I don't hate it. 

Super exciting news, I got a new camera! 

Usually I use my iPhone for my pictures and have a basic digital camera but wanted something a step up. I bought a Nikon D3200 big girl camera. I took a couple of pictures tonight while my husband and I were practicing cocktail recipes. I swear, that's a real thing.


I bought that amazing glass at an antique store. I love how vintage-y it looks with the drink recipes on it.



Until next time, friends.




Sunday, October 4, 2015

Anniversary

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Saturday was our first wedding anniversary. And, like it was a year ago, it was raining out. 


The bakery that we used for our wedding cake makes a complimentary, fresh top of cake if you choose not to put your cake top in the freezer for a year. We decided to opt out of freezer-burned cake and went with a new one. I picked it up from The Cake in a Box during the day Saturday.


My husband worked during the day so I spent it hanging out with mom, experimenting in the kitchen. Something we do quite often. 

She found this recipe in the newspaper:


And decided to make the English muffins. Believe it or not, they were pretty easy! There are two rises so they take long for that reason.


After mixing the dry and wet ingredients into a dough, you let it rise for an hour. Then you form the dough into 12 even, flat balls and let those rise.


After that you put them onto a griddle for a few minutes to brown the sides.


You then have beautiful English muffins!!


They were much better than store-bought English muffins. Fluffy as opposed to dense and flat. 

Later that night, Tim and I went to Mooo in Boston for dinner. Before leaving, we busted open this gift my sister and her boyfriend had given us.


There's a bottle of wine for the 1st, 3rd, and 5th anniversaries that you open. This time was a Layer Cake Malbec. Yum. Appropriately eaten with a slice of our wedding cake. Yes, before dinner.

I didn't take any pictures at Mooo because 1. It was dark and 2. I felt it was too upscale to be whipping out my iPhone 3. It was our anniversary.

For an appetizer we order fried calamari with peppers. Dinner for me was Steak Au Poivre (pepper-crusted sirloin) with a bordelaise sauce and Tim ordered rack of lamb. The best was a flight of side dishes. Yes, a flight. In our flight was whipped mashed potatoes, parmesan truffle fries, squash puree, and creamed spinach. OMG it was perfect. For dessert, we split a vanilla creme brulee. We are on a Negroni kick and ordered a couple of those. A Negroni is a cocktail of sweet vermouth, gin, and campari. A perfect night!