call me butterrrr.

I'm on a roll.

Yeah, okay, the brussel sprouts were a bit undercooked, but it was the first time in my life I have ever even eaten fresh brussel sprouts, I think (and even frozen ones I might've had five times ever), and I had to google for half an hour before I felt confident even pretending to cook them. I was pretty happy with this stuff.

Confession: I cheated. So, I'm not going to post a real recipe. That pork was delicious, but it was pre-cooked and pre-seasoned. All I did was set it in the oven for five minutes so it was a little above room temperature. And that rice? Uncle Ben's Minute rice. I heated it up and put it in a pot. The brussel sprouts, however, I boiled with a cup and a half of water, a spoonful of butter, and one garlic clove, sliced ultra thin. Added salt and pepper. Not bad, if I do say so myself. And it sure as hell looks tasty, even if I didn't cook most of it.

Busy, busy getting ready for the American invasion of Sachsen-Anhalt. Realized last night, after working for at least ten hours on the very very detailed itinerary that we couldn't take half the trains I had planned on, so I was up till 5am fixing it (thanks, OCD!). Pretty tired, and releasing my frustrations in vanilla-hazelnut pudding (also amazing) and paprika potato chips. But as for now, I'm going to eat dinner with one of my youth and her family in ten minutes. Write more later, maybe?

edit: Check out these shoes! They're not real comfortable, but how awesome are they? Possible for Jenn's wedding, maybe? Gotta decide in the next two days if I wanna return them, though.

fish stick eater

I might've mentioned at some point that it wasn't as cold as I had expected.

I take it back. It's freezing.

When I say "it's freezing," what I mean is, it is between -10 and -2C. That's, technically, a good bit below freezing. I have a cold, and it's not fun. It's difficult to make myself go outside, b/c it really is physically painful, but it's easy to get depressed around here if you don't take advantage of the sunlight when it's there. Man, tonight, for example, I had on my thermal top and pants, leg warmers (thanks, Amanda's mom!), jeans, a turtle neck, one of dad's ultra thick sweaters from MI, a scarf, hat, and my pea coat. I still wanted to cut my face off so it would stop hurting. There's simply no relief.

I'm excited that Furman gets here in like a week. I can't wait to see Mason, to get my camera back, and to have something to do all day. Granted, it will be stressful to have people here constantly for the next month, and I won't get a break at all, but you know... small blessings.

On an entirely unrelated note, I don't think I've ever in my life eaten fish sticks. I know mom never bought them for us, and I think I successfully avoided them in the school cafeteria. However, I have become a fish stick eater. They're not that bad, really, if you get the breading cooked real crunchy and put a little ketchup on them. Anyway, I just bring that up because I ate them today with my lunch, which, outside of this little foray into the trashy, I was really proud of.

Kat's tomato tomato tortellini
1 cup dry cheese tortellini
1/4 cup sliced sun dried tomatoes
1 small fresh tomato
basalmic vinegar, olive oil
black pepper, to taste

Boil tortellini in salted water with a bit of olive oil (to keep it from being sticky) for 10 minutes. Depending on volume, cook time may vary. Pasta should be just barely undercooked. Drain.

Heat a skillet and coat with olive oil. Place tortellini in skillet and fry, stirring constantly, until crunchy. Add tomatoes (both kinds) and a tiny splash of vinegar. Cook until sun dried tomatoes are rehydrated and soft. Lightly pepper.

Serve with fish or chicken.

Serves: 1.

food, cooking, surviving.

So, I'm not a very good cook. Compound that with the fact that grocery shopping here looks very different than in the states. Add the lack of desire to stock a nice kitchen when you're only going to be somewhere for a few months. You get lots of pizza and döner take out.

However, there are a few things that I can make tastily with some variation: pasta with just about any combination of vegetables and tomato sauce; tiny spicy hamburgers (without buns); fajitas with either chicken or ground beef; eggs; things that come from cans.

With this limited background I have been attempting to prepare food for myself (which, btw, is much more difficult for one person than for ten). There have been some minor victories. For example, I can pan fry potatoes like nobody's business. I now know how many grams of cheese slices I am capable of consuming in one week. I have discovered the joys of zucchini and plain white rice. But my greatest victory thusfar, since I've mostly been spending a lot of time cooking individual foodstuffs with very little attention to spices and even less to making sure they fit together, was this soup.

Naturally, I paired it with potatoes, because it's what I love the most, but I only had one left, so I also ate some bread with this deliciousness. This was the first time I got thin-cut potatoes cooked through but not burnt, as well (I usually cook chunky potatoes). I took a regular ole can of tomato soup, added zucchini slices and some leftover gnocchi from the day before, and voila! it was delicious, if I do say so myself. And warm! Oh, boy, was it warm!

For those of you who like recipes, and ingenuity, I'm going to start adding stuff like this, so that you can try to eat like me--poor and away from home!

Kat's Rainy Day German Tomato Soup
1 can plain tomato soup
1 medium tomato
1 small zucchini, sliced not-that-thin
1/2 cup leftover gnocchi
1/2 cup lowfat milk
salt
white pepper
oregano (to taste)

Let tomato soup (not thinned) and diced fresh tomato simmer over medium heat. Heat sliced zucchini covered over low heat with a splash of water (just enough to keep it from burning) and some butter for 5 minutes or until water is almost evaporated. Add gnocchi, salt, white pepper, and milk. Cook until gnocchi is hot. Add to tomato soup. Let cook all together 2 minutes, flavoring as desired.

Serves: 2

TRY: substituting leftover rice, pasta, or potatoes for gnocchi!

kindertage

Mann o Mann am I tired!

Monday - Today we had Kindertage up at Sankt Annen. It was kind of like vacation bible school, only German. Our theme was "Kunterbunt," which means both "chaotic" and "colorful" at the same time. So we talked about creation and how there were all these different creatures created, and how we're the body of Christ and we all have different talents, and etc. etc. Anyone who ever went to Sunday school ever probably knows what went down. I'm sure it was fun--at least, the kids all seemed to enjoy it. Only, here's the deal. The dialect here, is super mumble-some. Then even more people mumble because they're too lazy to talk right (which is not an attack on this region. It's true of people everywhere). Then they speak fast. And their kids speak faster and more mumbley than they do. And kids don't pay attention when you say "oh, I'm sorry, what was that? I'm not a native German speaker so you're going to have to slow down." They either repeat themselves just as fast and unclearly as before, look at you like you have three heads, or go ask someone else for whatever it is they need (it's usually a kleenex). My brain is just about ready to explode.

I know I said I would dish, but I just can't. I even tried to post something exciting three times today already. I just... can't. I'm going to watch scrubs and fall asleep.
xoxo

i'm sorry. seriously.

I know that I promised all of you I would be updating this blog when I arrived. I'm sorry that I didn't do a good job of that. I will try to do better in the next month.

Yep, that's right. I've been here about a month, now. I won't lie to you. It's been a rough transition. Although we knew, statistically, that there were very few young adults running around Eisleben, before I came, nothing could have prepared me for the reality of that experience. EVERYONE leaves after graduating or finishing their practical training. That's not true. Most people leave. The others resigned themselves at the age of 16 to a life financed by generous German unemployment benefits and alcoholism. After living in a college town my entire life, this is a world I never imagined. It's difficult to find things to talk about with the majority of the people I meet. The students from the youth group are a welcome change--as Gymnasiumschüler, they all expect to go to college--it's weird that the closest thing I have to friends are all 17 years old. True, German kids grow up faster. But then when you sit in a bar with them, and they talk about their 18th birthday party like it was yesterday, not because they're swept up in nostalgia, but because it actually WAS yesterday... and then, inevitably, someone mistakes me for a 19 year old and I have to say, no, actually, I'm 22. You wouldn't believe the blank stares. What the hell is a 22 year old doing in Eisleben hanging out with us?

I guess I should address my apartment somewhat as well. After I got over the jet lag, this apartment started to creep me out. I mean, you saw it. It's huge. I've spent the last four years sharing a tiny room with someone. Before that, I lived with my parents. On top of that, I hated the feeling that no one would be looking for me immediately if anything happened. The people who've lived here for a while all talk about Eisleben like it's the perfect town. People walk around at night by themselves, down alleys with no lamps (granted, it does get dark at 5pm, so you don't exactly have an option all the time). But no matter what I did, I was creeped out. So, my unbelievably awesome "host parents" that didn't really sign up for host parent duty let me sleep upstairs in the attic for about a week. I've been back downstairs for 3 1/2 weeks now, and I'm doing considerably better. But this house is nearly 350 years old. It creaks. It whispers. And I'm alone. It's a weird feeling.

I went to Erfurt last week to check things out for the spring break trips. I also visited the son of the people I live with, Philip, who is finishing up his studies there. He's becoming an elementary school teacher. I had a lot of fun, and I promise I'll write more details soon.

This week we have a vacation bible school type thing going on up at St. Anne's, and Thursday I'm going to Wittenberg to scope out the city tour situation. Next Sunday I'm going back to Köthen to visit with Steffi and Franzi. I cannot even explain my excitement.

Tonight I hosted youth group at my house, since Scott is on vacation. Since I was missing home, I hosted my own little pancake supper (which is a fat tuesday tradition in my family/at CU campus ministry). It went fairly well, although all the Germans wanted to eat jam on their pancakes instead of syrup and I had to eat all the bacon myself (YEAH I FOUND BACON IN GERMANY WHOOT!) because they refused to mix sweet and salty at dinner time... Oh, German culinary rules. Will you never fail to ruin my parties?
Anyway, the point is that I'm really tired, so I'm going to go to sleep now to get ready for our last day of Kindertage. I will do my best to write more tomorrow, or at the very least this weekend.
xoxo

ps. THANKS to everyone who's sent me mail. I got 5 letters today and was so excited, I ran upstairs to show the Quenzels. They think I'm weird, but I say, keep 'em comin!