Military Dining-Out! (And a Handsome Husband in Uniform ;-)

Zev and I attended a military Dining-Out last night.

For those who are not familiar with a Dining-Out, it is a formal dinner where the military member wears their evening uniform (called a "Mess Kit") and the spouses wear evening dresses or tuxedos (for the male spouses).

A lot of preparation goes into planning and executing a Dining-Out.

 There is an official "Head" table with a President of the Mess and guests of honor.

There is also a "Mr. Vice" who sits on his own table across the room from the "President" and is like a Master of Ceremonies. Mr. Vice coordinates events such as requesting members of a service like the Air Force or the Marines to sing their service song. 

Dining-Outs have lots of "mandatory" rules and fines for breaking those rules, which usually involved drinking from the "Grog" bowl (filled with a mixture of drinks, each representing the branch of service represented, like sake for the Navy etc).

I thought Zev looked so handsome in his uniform!

All in all it was a fun night, and especially fun to see all our friends dressed up so smart!

Have a lovely week!

When in Germany...

Zev and I turned to each other last night at the Fruehlingsfest and said "I love Germany" about three times.

 We truly do love living in Germany, especially now that the weather is starting to get warmer and the flowers are blossoming and we have a great friend/ colleague/ church/ German school mate network.

We will certainly treasure our memories of Germany and Europe when it is time to leave.

Our love of all things German has even transcended the way we dress! Ha!

Well no, not really, but only for certain events, like the Fruehlingsfest (Spring Festival) where it is fun to wear the traditional costume of dirndls and lederhosen.

We went to the Fruehlingsfest last night with colleagues from Zev's work and their spouses.  

It was fun to sing along to some German songs with our friends, some of whom are due to return to the States soon.

Earlier this week, Zev made a delicious Black Forest Cake (in line with our trip to the Black Forest last weekend to find a cuckoo clock).

It tasted great and he took half the cake in to work to share.

Our cuckoo clock is doing well. As I type this out, the clock just chimed at the half hour mark. I love the sound of the cuckoo and the little song that is played afterwards. The interesting thing is, you have to wind the chains with the weights on the bottom, each day. The weights are what powers the cuckoo clock (no batteries or solar power or electricity here!) so they are in different positions are various times during the day. The pendulum which swings at the bottom of the clock controls how fast or slow the clock moves along. I had no idea it would be this involved to get it set up, but Zev and I have been "playing around" with adjusting the "swing" of the cuckoo clock- sometimes it is too fast, sometimes too slow. I like it when Zev turns the hands of the clock to make it "cuckoo."

Zev and I are looking forward to seeing our Australian family very soon! We are also excited to meet the newest member, due to be born any day now! In July, our sweet friend Leslie is coming to visit. I can't believe that when I see Leslie, it will have been TWO years since we have seen each other! Wow. Zev already knows that there is a "Sound of Music" girls trip to Salzburg with Leslie planned. The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music, la la la la....

We hope that your May is off to a good start! To all the mums out there- Happy Mother's Day for tomorrow!

Love, Zev and Fifi xoxo

Cuckoo Clocks and the Black Forest

When Zev and I first found out we were coming to Germany, about two years ago, one of the first things that came to my mind was the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), which is famous for cuckoo clocks and Black Forest cake (both wonderful German creations).

So today Zev and I took a lovely drive down to the Black Forest, only about 1 hour and 45 minutes from our house. We stopped for lunch in a quaint little gasthof that used to be a bank vault (it still had the original bank vault doors and windows!)

We brought "Flat Stanley" along, who is visiting us all the way from Shreveport, Louisiana! We wanted to show Stanley some of the famous sights of Germany, including the House of 1000 Clocks in the Schwarzwald town of Triberg.

We even took a picture of Stanley with some "girl" dolls dressed in the traditional Schwarzwald costume called the "Bollenhut."

You can see from the picture below, that this traditional dress involves a special hat with 14 "pompoms" on the top. They are meant to symbolize cherries, which are very prevalent in the Black Forest (hence the awesome Black Forest cake or "Cherry Cake" as it is known in Germany.) Only unmarried women wear the hats with the red pompoms. Married women wear black pompoms.

 Stanley in downtown Triberg:

After lunch, we headed to a little cuckoo clock factory to pick out a special cuckoo clock. This cuckoo clock is extra special because it is actually my 30th birthday present from Zev.

As cheesy as this is going to sound, and I KNOW that some of you will groan, but I've got to say this: I love Zev more now than when I first met him, 8 years ago. He is my best friend and he loves me to bits, he looks after me and cares for me and makes me laugh. We laughed so hard about the silliest things in the car today. I thank God for our marriage. I tell you, having faith in Christ has helped Zev and I really build the foundations of our marriage and approach life with the right perspective. Our lives are not perfect, but we thank God for everything, even the little things like a sunny day or waking up refreshed and being able to enjoy a cup of coffee today on our balcony.

The greeting on this wall is used a lot in this part of Germany. "Gruess Gott" translates to "Greet God."

Although there were lots of cuckoo clock shops in downtown Triberg to choose from, we actually went with this little shop, which was a little ways out from town, on top of a hill, next to a sweet old church. The man who owns the shop was very sweet and gentle and didn't speak any English so I translated for Zev. The man's father started making clocks and then passed the business to his son, who continues to make the clocks in the factory next door.

Zev was as amazed as I was at the selection of beautiful wooden cuckoo clocks. The sound from the cuckoo clocks all "cuckooing" (not sure if that is the proper name for it but I hope you know what I mean) was incredible. I wonder if it would get old after a while- hearing those clocks cuckoo every half hour? I guess we'll soon find out! Ha! The cuckoo clock in the middle here is the one that we picked. It even has little people that dance during the "cuckoo" times and depicts a little German village scene below. We love it!

I couldn't wait to come home to get the clock set up and hung on a wall. However someone is taking a nap (at 5.55pm) on the couch next to me.....ah, maybe tomorrow. Have a great weekend, all!

Love, Fifi xoxoxo

Maultashcen Merriment

Guten Tag, family and friends! Sorry that it has been so long between blog posts! I (Fifi) was especially busy studying for my big German exam (TestDaF) which I took on Tuesday, April 20th. The results should be released in about 6 weeks. Only 1/3 of the students in my German school passed the last exam, so I am praying that the examiners liked my attempt at the German language! This is what Ground Zero looked like at our house the week before the big exam:

But I am back to blogging and I can't wait to tell you about the AWESOME day Zev and I had yesterday. The weather is starting to get really lovely here in Germany. A little fresh at night, but absolutely lovely during the day! Yesterday, Zev and I learnt how to make Maultashen!! Our friend and fellow military spouse, Micah, and her German friend, Birgitte, arranged for a small group of us to have a private lesson learning how make this typical Schwabisch dish. It turns out that Birgitte knows one of best Maultaschen chefs in the German state that we live in (Baden-Wuerttemberg)- Mattias Straehle from Weinstube Eissele.  Apparently this small, typically Schwabisch restaurant is so well known for its Maultaschen, that people from all over drive to this restaurant just to taste this awesome and unique south German speciality.

When we arrived, Mattias, who is truly a larger-than-life-character and could give any of the Food Network chefs a run for their money, told us about how he was transiting through Atlanta airport once (Mattias has traveled EVERYWHERE- including New Zealand, Australia four times and the States etc etc), when a man recognised the name of his restaurant (Weinstube Eissele) and stopped to tell him about his Maultaschen experience. People in this region even pre-order Maultaschen for Easter lunch, because it is traditionally eaten at Easter time. I think it's time for a quick Maultashen lesson, don't you think?

Side note #1 about about Maultaschen: according to Wikipedia (the trusty source that it is ;-)): "Maultaschen is specialty food, consisting of an outer layer of pasta dough with a filling traditionally made of minced meat, spinach, bread crumbs and onions and flavored with various spices. Similar in appearance to Italian ravioli, Maultaschen are usually larger, however, each Maultasche being about 8-12 cm (3-5 inches) across." (Oh, but they are SO MUCH better than ravioli!)

Maultaschen are traditionally eaten either geröstet (cut into slices and fried in a pan with onions and scrambled eggs) or in der Brühe (simmered in vegetable broth), or geschmälzt (dressed with butter and onions), usually with potato salad. (We also learnt how to make the BEST potato salad also- Schwabisch style, of course. Let's just say there was TONS of oil and butter- hence the good taste.)

On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, Maultaschen are a traditional dish in Swabia, because the meat is concealed under the pasta dough and cannot be seen by God. Therefore they have earned the nick name "Little Cheaters on God" (Swabian "Herrgottsbscheißerle").

And the best part- turns out that this famous restaurant is like TWO minutes from our house! Zev and I have literally run by Weinstube Eissele a few times on our runs, and everytime we take a peek at the menu and say "we need to try this place out"!!

Our lesson started with a glass of Esslinger Sekt (from our own local Champagne Cellar in downtown Old Esslingen, of course!) We then headed down the the "Vorbereitung" Kitchen which is the prep kitchen, to weigh and mix our ingredients. (Side note # 2: Matthias shared his secret Maultaschen recipe with us!!! You may be lucky to get a sneek peek of this recipe if I ever get the chance to make Maultaschen for you ;-))

Matthias and his incredible Head Chef, Oliver, run the restaurant together. Matthias explained that the unique "beziehung" (relationship) between he, Oliver and the friendly, home atmosphere, are what make the business so successful. Side Note # 3: Matthias knows EVERYONE in town. Granted, so do our landlords, Jorg and Ingeborg. Zev and I have a sneeking suspicion that the neighbors on our street know us as the "Amerikaners" even though we try to blend in. Must be Zev's haircut that gives it away! Ha. But seriously, when we told Ingeborg later about our cooking lesson, she was impressed and then asked if I would share Oliver's secret recipe with her! Natuerlich!

After we prepped the ingredients, we went upstairs to spread the filling onto Teig (dough) made especially for Maultaschen-making. In fact, the bakery that makes the Teig for Weinstube Eissele makes a special "length" to fit exactly onto the workspace in the restaurant's kitchen. Side note #4: Notice Zev's neatly lined up Maultaschen packets ready to pop into the boiling water on my left.

The next step was to pop the Maultaschen into the rolling boiling water. No more than 2 minutes, thank you very much. Stir once. Then pop the little babies into cold water. Not luke warm water, but cold water. It has to be cold. And pay attention. Matthias was very precise in his instructions and even asked Zev (who was ALWAYS paying attention!)" Zev: you need to listen to this."

I, on the other hand, was having fun and probably not paying as much attention as one should in a German kitchen. When it was my turn to try making the potato salad with the slicer, he pointed to my potato slices and said  "and this is NOT how you make potato salad, but this is how you make potato mousse." Such is life in a professional kitchen, huh!? 

As you can see above, we still managed to make about 10 kilos of Great German Potato Salad.

As shown above, you can see why the stuff that goes ON the Maultaschen tastes so good. Oliver fried about 1kg of chopped onions into this pan of goodness. (Well, not good for your heart, but good for the soul!) The topping for Maultaschen (as explained above) is called "Zwiebelschmaelz" which literally translates to "Melted Onions." That's one good thing about the German language- even though the grammar can be a killer to work with (I have almost pulled my hair out in frustration), at least the words are logical, even though they are long!

Our special cooking lesson culminated in everyone sitting together to enjoy our Maultaschen and German Potato Salad creations! I cannot describe HOW GOOD it all tasted. Amazing stuff. Matthias also handed everyone a certificate of "graduation" and let us keep the aprons we used during the lesson. Once we arrived home, we prepared two plates of Maultaschen to bring over to our neighbors on both sides of our house.

We have mentioned this in previous posts, but God really blessed us with awesome German neighbors.We first brought over a plate to our neighbors on the right side of our house, Jorg and Ingeborg (also our landlords) and then a plate to our other neighbors, Heinz and Magda. There is no such thing as a quick "drop in" however, but it was nice to sit down for a chat with these neighbors. Magda (who is seriously ALWAYS baking, no matter what time of the year it is) asked if we would like some of her homemade Austrian Apple Pie (there is a difference between Austrian and German apple pie/ apple cake.) Once she mentioned that it had rum-soaked raisins and almonds in it, we were sold...

Needless to say, guess what Zev and I are doing right this minute, on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Germany? We are sitting on our balcony in the sun, drinking some nice coffees and enjoying Magda's Apfel Kuchen.

We hope you are doing well!