Food: mine, others and things at the store.

 If any of you know me you know food is my love language. I enjoy all kinds of food and will try most anything at least once. This is interesting, and I tried it at the church retreat, so I thought I would buy it. Jeff was less than impressed and really fought trying it.... alas he did. He did not like it, Milo thought it was ok, Lexa did not try it YET and I thought it was good. It is vegetables in gelatinous substance, pig fat maybe. I think that is the case, as there is an image of a pig in the blue circle. This is how I figure out what all meat is. I thought this was confusing as there is no meat in it, so I am assuming the gelatinous stuff is pig fat. Anyhow, it tastes like it is pickled (I love pickled things) and has the texture of a knox blox  or jiggler as they call them these days. I held it up to the light so you can get the idea. Funny I think. They also make this with chunks of meat, which I have not tried, and not sure I would pay for that.  Seems to be this was  preservation method. You can buy it a the deli and it usually has a boiled egg in it. I have not braved the deli, meat, cheese section yet, as I am not confident in what I am going to ask for, but it will happen and when it does I will let you all know!!

This is a fantastic place called Bread and Coffee that has AMAZING Greek pastries. My new friend is up for sharing, so that is lovely, we had a cheese one and a spinach one, so good.  

ALMOND BISCOTTI:  Yum  So I needed almond extract. They have these. Which are like the old perfume samples you used to get. Mandel is almond in German. It is MUCH more potent then our almond extract, so you need much less. It is interesting because the vanilla here is not potent at all. It is better to make your own vanilla extract. I was gifted some by a friend here and am very thankful for it! 

Turned out pretty good for the first try. It was funny, you bake it, then cut it, and bake it again. For some reason I decided I should take a nap after I cut it and put it back in oven and forgot to set timer. Jeff gently woke me to ask what to do with it, but he had been turning them and continuing to bake them and they turned out really good. The second time I made them, I don't think I cooked them as long as Jeff did, and they were more crumbly. Too bad I don't know how long they were cooked this time. 

They do not have raw tortillas here really not many Mexican ingredients at all. Decided to try my hand at home made tortillas, they turned out pretty good. We have had a few people over for tacos and that has been really fun. Another funny thing is refried beans in Colorado are under $1, here they are 2.58 Euro, which would be over $3 a can, but they are so good, I think I will see if I can find dried beans and do that next time, but those are had to find too. I took for granted going to one store and getting all my groceries. Here I go to one store and there is no cauliflower or cilantro (Koriander, is what it is here) so I go to another store and so the story goes. 

By this point the kids had moved on, it was just the adults! I guess Lexa did take the picture. 

Fresh picked apples. I will post those photos later. 

What to do with so many apples, try my hand at apple cake. MMM, I am not a huge baked apple fan, but the cake was good and I have made 4 of these, don't worry I have given one away and shared at dinner parties. The first one Milo ate the entire thing but the 3 pieces Jeff, Lexa and I ate. 

This is a Doner place near by to our house, which could be dangerous. Similar to a gyro in the fact that the meat is cut off the spit. The fixings are red cabbage, onions, lettuce. and different sauces, Knoblach (garlic) Youghurt and spicy (can't remember what this one is in German)

My first German food restaurant. We went to Dresden for the day, I'll talk about that later.

Wish my folks were able to come, this reminds me of holidays with family. I know it isn't exactly what we have, but the sauerkraut, makes me melancholy. It is the brown, colorless plate of food. Haha My Aunt Bev would notice that the meals we would have at holidays, duck or goose or both, dumpling, sauerkraut were all dull brown colors, and this is what this way. It made me feel cozy.

Jeff had this. He even ate and liked the sauerkraut. 

What do you think this concoction is????

 

FALAFELS, they turned out really good and we will make them again. I froze several and Lexa made them this morning for breakfast. I am realizing I could have much better presentation then on a paper towel, but..... maybe next time I will work on better presentation, but that would not be a true representation of how it all goes down here. 😏 Falafel on a paper towel is more legit.  Please excuse any typos, spelling errors and grammar problems, just working on getting it all down at this point.