A Whole Heap O' Randomness - and My First Giveaway!!!!!

Oh, the days are flying by, and not.  I've been on the go much more than usual, and yet have not much of humor or significance to report. 

HOWEVER,  I'll try to cobble together a bit of what's going on here and in the meantime, am soliciting advice on all sorts of things! 

First of all, if any of my readers here in Germany know of a good place to find end tables, and a dining room buffet or china cabinet or server, and room-sized rugs, please call me.  Better yet, come get me and take me there, because Sir is just about worn out with taking me to the grocery store and back.  I fear it's time to  stop being Mammaw ChickenHeart and morph into the Little Old Lady From Pasadena.  Yep, I'm going car-shopping.  One thing you can be sure of is that I will not be purchasing this:

Do you know what Citroen means in French?  Oui oui - it means "LEMON."  We parked behind this car the other day and I fully expected Inspector Clouseau to emerge from the building and enter it.  The doors are about as thick as a sheet of aluminum foil.

Now what I'd really like to do every day is stay home and drink this hot chocolate with plenty of whipped cream and read books, but My Girl tells me I need to get a life, so car-shopping it is.

The Army term for a car bought for just a pittance overseas, driven while you're there and then sold to the next soldier as you leave, is "hoopdy."  There's a parking lot on post called the Lemon Lot, and soldiers park their hoopdys there and sell them to each other.  We've seen everything from Mini Coopers to Monster Trucks there over the past few months.  I'll keep you posted.

Thanks to some very sweet new friends, I've been having some social life - last week the local chaplains' wives group went out to a lovely Italian restaurant.  We rode the Strassebahn (trolley) downtown, ate and rode back to the chapel, just a couple of blocks from my building.  The next night, Sir's unit had a fall festival at a winery, to which I took the following:

 Thank you, Pioneer Woman, for returning the layered salad to my life.  It was so good I made another one for the Clergy Appreciation luncheon yesterday - a very fun group of women did a beautiful buffet for all the army ministry teams here in Heidelberg.  One talented wife decorated the church basement like a fall magazine spread, all out of things she had in her house!  How I miss the Hobby Lobby and Michaels and Home Goods!!!!!

Oh, and Saturday night we were invited to the pretty home of another Chaplain B and his family - they grilled steaks, had these amazing potatoes and a salad straight from heaven.  Most fun of all was the fellowship with this wonderful couple and their beautiful almost-grown kids.  I look forward to more girl-fun with G, who wants to take me out to practice driving....she is wooing me from my fears with promises of showing me a fabulous Italian grocery store.

I've been invited to go on a "girls' field trip" Saturday to Ramstein, home of the Big PX in the Sky and a real live Macaroni Grill.  Oh, American food, how I miss you!  I look forward to lots of laughs and fun that day for sure.  God is so faithful to provide His people to love and support us wherever we go.   As easy as it is for me to hibernate, I'm so thankful He is not letting me get away with it.

And speaking of God, a few weeks ago a girl who writes a hilarious blog I love to read told about a book written by her pastor.  I ordered two copies, one for me and one to give to My Girl for Christmas.  I'm pretty sure she's too busy to read this blog, so I'm not going to keep it a secret from the rest of you.  Read it!  Read it! 



In fact, I think this would be the perfect opportunity for The Portable Nest's very first Giveaway!    Leave a comment below, and I will choose a number at random from the entries.  You'll win a brand new copy of Radical.  Good luck!

Oh, and as I mentioned above, I'm seeking advice on lots of things:

I MUST cover the seats on my dining room chairs.  I would like to fly my friend P over here to help me, but she's already flying to San Antonio so I'm going to have to do it myself.  Any advice on HOW, and also on where to find (by mail/website) a good neutral fabric to cover 4 chairs.  How much fabric will I need?  They are regular queen anne dining chairs nearly identical to the ones in our inlet house, for those of you who have been there.  Suggestions?  Leave a comment below and it counts as your entry for the giveaway too!

Thanksgiving menu:  Sir and I are inviting a LOT of people here for Thanksgiving. We hope to make it a festive and happy time for quite a few folks who are usually alone for the holidays.   It will be interesting, because there will be no football for background because of the time difference.  The Macy's parade, if we get it, will be at suppertime here!  Anyway, I'm looking for recipes, especially those which I can make ahead.  I'll be working out of a tiny kitchen and need to do as much in advance as possible.  Suggestions?  Leave a comment below and it also counts as your entry for the giveaway too!

In addition to recipes, I'm going to need to beg, borrow or steal (okay, buy) some folding chairs and tables.  Anyone who has good and inexpensive sources for these and knows who will ship to APO, let me know!

AND, right now we are using $6 folding TV trays for our living room end tables.  I hope to replace them at least with those round accent tables that can be covered with a skirt and topper.  Budget friends, any suggestions on where I can purchase all of the above?  I don't have a sewing machine here and so far have not met anyone who has one I can borrow, plus finding fabric is not easy, so I'd prefer to find something cute and reasonable.  OH, how I miss Home Goods, Marshalls, TJMaxx, Dillards, Belk, WalMart, Target and my MOM!  Suggestions?  Leave a comment below and it, too, will count as your entry for the giveaway!

Oh, sorry - you're yawning!  I'll do better tomorrow.

Wordy Wednesday - Die Kartoffel

 When Sir and I embarked on The Great Ferry Adventure of 2010, we were in search of a restaurant simply called The Potato.  It's famous for its Argentinian steaks, which of course is why the Germans would name it The Potato.  (You see why I'm having adjustment issues.)

We found it, as well as the delightful town of Ladenberg, about which I've already told you.  We'll be going back for sure. 

 Could they possibly have used an uglier potato on their sign?  Here in the land of the most spectacular painting I've ever seen?

The interior made up for any lack of appeal on the outside.  The building is from the 1300s, and aside from a tiny closet-like room that holds shelves and an electric dishwasher like the one in my apartment, I don't think much has been renovated.  It is rustic, charming, and cozy.  There's really not an inch of space on the walls or beams that's not covered - old black and white photos, certificates and documents; children's sleds and old farm implements hanging from the ceiling.  The tables were rough-hewn wood with benches and simple, mismatched chairs pushed up to them.  I love that we had a lit candle at ours, even though it was two in the afternoon.

Across from us (and not pictured) were the most interesting couple - they had to be French.  He was a miniature man in slacks, a shirt and a felt beret.  She was a faded beauty in a blouse, scarf and skirt, with a cloud of wispy curls on her head.  They shared bread and salad and smiled at each other in that wonderfully intimate way that can only come from years together. 

As I mentioned, the specialty here is steak, served on a square hot lava rock in a wooden frame which also holds three little pots of dipping sauces.  The meat is brought sizzling and raw to your table, and as you watch, the rock cooks it in front of you.  You can flip your steak at your leisure, cut it into pieces and let each of them sear, or eat it tartare if you prefer (ewww).  It. Is. Delicious.  Oh, and served with a baked potato that's so buried in sour cream that it's unrecognizable.

A big plus for me was that The Potato offered English menus.  They are so comforting when I'm trying to stumble through ordering in German!  They also have their share of built-in humor - apologies for the photo quality; my phone and I are still in the dating stage. 

 Now what they mean there is that if you ORDER the shrimp dinner, your potato will arrive with half sour cream and half cocktail sauce.  But we got a hearty giggle out of picturing short people being insulted by this menu.


Additionally, we felt very dungeon-ish when we saw our seating options listed below:

 I made Sir go find the vault.  When he returned safely, I went to find it myself.  I forgot to take the camera, but it's down a narrow flight of stairs, past the Herr and Damen's rooms, and through a low archway.  It's basically a private dining room tucked into a corner of the basement - low ceiling, very wine-cellar-ish and probably very cool in the summer.  I was relieved not to find chains, locks and coffins.

 This was dessert, and honey, I wish I could tell you it was good.  But underneath that delicious-lookin' wrapper was a white square which looked and tasted much like a ceramic tile on a stick.  A very short stick.
Good thing we were full of red meat and sour cream.

We heart you, Potato House.  See you in December when we bring my girl!

You Are My Sunshine

Today is my mom's birthday!  She told me last night on instant message that she's not counting birthdays anymore, so I can't just come out and tell you that she's 78 today, but isn't she beautiful?  I love how she smiles from ear to ear whenever anyone comes in the room.

And here's the kind of girl she is.  You would never know, and I didn't, that in this picture she was in a lot of pain because she got her finger caught in a car door between the wedding and the reception.  Never said a word to me - I found out the next week.  It didn't surprise me, because she has always been the Pollyanna of our family.  If someone  broke his leg and had to stay in bed for a month, she'd say, "Oh, well you needed the rest anyway, honey."  I love that about her.  Positive.

The blog fairy is not being kind to me today, and it won't let me post more than one photo without deleting everything.  I wish I could share the pictures in my head of my mom looking amazing in her shorts and sleeveless blouse, singing away while she tackled the never-ending laundry that three kids generated; of her making chocolate milkshakes and letting us have a picnic in the side yard under the big elm tree; of her serving up Sunday dinner after Sunday dinner for our extended family; making birthday cakes and stretching grocery dollars so we could have our favorite Nestle's Quik and pop tarts.  If I had a nickel for every chocolate chip cookie that woman has made, I'd be a rich girl.  But no one could be richer than Roy, Kirk and me - we've gotten to have Dottie Jean as our mom!

Shall I continue?  Yes, please!  She also made many of our clothes when we were kids - and made many for her grandchildren and their dolls as well.  My Girl  treasures and still has the little jumpers she wore to school that her Gammy sewed.  I look forward to seeing them on my own little grandchildren someday.

She is the consummate caregiver.  She took care of her own mom and my dad's mom lovingly and selflessly (and obviously did a good job because they both lived to be 95!)  Now she looks after my Aunt June, keeping her supplied with lollipops to give away to her friends at "the home" and helping her play bingo.  I look forward to the chance to care for her and my dad in the same way someday, but so far they refuse to get old, so I will just have to be patient.

Most of all, she is a natural at being a mom.  Whereas I tried so hard to be the perfect mother, she just is.  She loves us and raised us so confidently.  She created memories in every holiday and every ordinary day.  She is absolutely essential to me in every way - I can't imagine one minute on this earth without her.  Wish I could be there to make a moist and delicious cake for her, cook her a fabulous dinner and scratch her back.  Instead I'm remembering her sweet voice singing old hymns, being very thankful that she'll be cooking a Thanksgiving turkey with my girl this year, and hoping my present arrived in her mailbox today!

Where did the week go?

I am a blob.  It was Monday, and now it's Friday, and although I have cooked beef stew, baked chicken, bison burgers, a cake and assorted side dishes, I can't think of a single other productive thing I have done all week.  I have big plans to get the apartment finished and decorated before we start having people over for the holidays, but that would involve actual movement and apparently I don't want to rush into anything. 

Last Sunday, Sir and I took a quick afternoon trip.  We had heard about a restaurant and decided to give it a preview try, because we felt pretty sure it was going to be a definite destination when My Girl comes in December. (We were so right.) 

We typed the directions into Newman (the name Sir gave our GPS even though it's a girl's voice), and drove a very short distance, when suddenly the road just stopped.  Literally, there was a river in front of us.  The road went straight down to the edge.   Then we saw it - a ferry!  Newman gave us no warning whatsoever - just sat there passively waiting for us to continue.  So we checked Sir's pockets, and sure enough he had some Euro.  The most fun part was driving right onto the old, rickety ferry along with hikers and bicyclists EXACTLY AS IF WE HAD ANY IDEA WHAT WE WERE DOING, which we did not.

See Newman?  She looks so innocent.  Just drove us right to the water.  We quickly discovered that it was going to cost 1.60 Euro to get across.  Since we were already floating, we paid it.

Oh, dear.  Please ignore the old lady in the mirror.  She is just trying to take pictures of the ferry ride.

 Once we got to the other side, we were pleasantly surprised by a gorgeous park.  Germany is big on Sunday being a day of rest, which we really like.  Other than restaurants (and ferries, apparently) not much is open for business.  People had set up small portable picnic tables along the riverbank and were eating and watching the ferry, and snoozing in the sun, and thoroughly enjoying what really was a picture-perfect afternoon.  Newman led us through the park, right to the town of Ladenberg. 

What we are seeing with most German towns is an outer part that looks just like a modern city, but an inner part that is either pedestrian-only or you-wish-you-were-on-foot-because-the-cobblestone-winding-narrow-street-maze-will-drive-you-crazy.  Ladenberg is no exception.  Once we made our way back to the wider streets, we parked and walked the small old town area.

We did drive through there, and it was like stepping back hundreds of years.  Little did we know!

The town of Ladenberg dates back to the double digits, kids - my phone/camera picked a danged inconvenient time to run out of battery, and these are all the photos I have of this charming place.....but there were signs everywhere near that lovely church and cordoned-off areas which allowed us to look down to where the original bricks and foundations of the buildings that are still there have been uncovered.  40 AD.  90 AD.  200 AD.  This built by the Romans.  That built by the Romans.  Astounding.  There was the top of a column that may date even earlier. 

What amazed me most was that these stately, gorgeous old buildings are still being used.  Delightfully, two (the end of the catholic church shown above) and another beside it, are obviously schools.  My girl is going to love seeing the colorful paper cutouts all over the windows, the huge handwriting charts hanging inside in plain view.  Can you imagine the creativity being fostered in children who are learning while gazing out at architecture like this?  The cobbled courtyards have this funky modern playground equipment - it's so jarring, but so cool at the same time.  I wish I had more photos for you.  Trust me that this is a place rich in history.  All the huge marble slabs on the outside of the church had a timeline of historical events (all in German, but we could glean some of it.)  What made me laugh out loud is that the very NEWEST entry on the timeline is 1903!  I think we Americans forget how young our country is!

Ok, it's time to take the ferry back home to Heidelberg.

 Aren't you glad to know we had this lifeboat? 

 Poor picture, but I was trying to capture the picnickers - see their tiny selves?

Aaand, they're back.  We were wondering how many cars they would allow on this thing - you can see that the river is not very wide at all - the whole ride takes about a minute - there were 2 going over, and 4 going back - and the poor walkers and bicyclists were squished to the edges!  I really felt bad when the captain motioned us up within inches of those folks.

I'll save the tale of the restaurant for tomorrow's post. 

This-N-That Thursday

It's literally gray outside.  For the first time since our June arrival, I cannot see the mountains just a few hundred yards from my living room window.  The steep, pointed, red-tiled roofs of the houses across the street are still visible, and there are some very chilly-looking blackbirds perched on a power line above them, but other than that, all I see is grayness....actually pretty appropriate surroundings for how things have been feeling lately. 

However, in the Blessings Counting Department, there's a very tall mug of hot chocolate beside me, I'm wrapped in a warm sweater, and besides running up and down to do laundry in the basement, I don't have to go anywhere today!  Add to that we got our weekly dose of 1-day-late American tv last night and were able to watch NCIS and NCIS LA; I've gotten to talk to my parents every day this week; and the laptop is keeping my legs warm because when in the world are they going to turn on the heat in this building??  Wait, I'm counting blessings.  Sorry.  They fixed the dryers after our entire building had to go without them for a week and a half; Facebook is a lifeline; I made a really good beef stew in my awesome LeCreuset dutch oven; Sir is the neatest roommate anyone could ever ask for - really, he cleans the bathroom sink every day.  He never leaves his shoes around all over the floor like I do.

It appears I've taken a week's vacation from blogging.   It wasn't intentional - the days kept going quickly by.  Sir had a 4-day weekend, and we had all big plans to go to Switzerland or France to sightsee, but they evaporated in the busy-ness of running errands.  I do miss having a car - I know Sir does not get the thrill I do from grocery shopping; but the roads around here intimidate me too much to venture out.  The autobahn isn't nearly as scary as the local roads - they are impossibly narrow, people park on both sides and then one pretty much has to play chicken to get around the parked cars, there are trolley tracks all over the roads and the trolleys come fast and often, there are pedestrians and bicyclists whizzing everywhere one tries to drive.  There are approximately a million and six different traffic laws and signs, all different from the US.  So, we spent the long weekend trying still unsuccessfully to get Deutschland Telekom to actually hook up the internet service we have been paying for since July, ordering ridiculously overpriced snow tires for the car, and generally missing how easy it is to do things in America!

There WAS some fun, which I shall parcel out to you over the next few days. (Because heaven forbid I use up all my fun in one post.  And this gives me yet another chance to try and figure out what I'm doing wrong uploading the photos.)   An afternoon trip to Ladenberg, the huge Holiday Bazaar here on the army post, and a truly international dinner - stay tuned!~

Wordy Wednesday - Dies ist die Kuchen

When you move to Deutschland and want to live "on the economy" as opposed to "on post," you'd better be prepared to BYOK.  I ain't making that up.  Houses here for rent do not generally come with their own kitchens.  There is usually an empty room which has a hot and cold water pipe poking from the wall, and for the price of a trip to Ikea or Bosch or a local department or Home Depot-ish store, you may Bring Your Own Kitchen. 

When Sir and I were looking for housing this summer, I was totally flabbergasted by this.  The eager, nodding landlords would usher us into this completely barren room and say, "Dies ist die Kuchen," and I'd be going, "Where?  Where is the kitchen?  Where is the sink, the stove, the fridge, the cabinets, the counters????  Where????"  "Oh, you have to buy," said they.  For real?  Yep.

I always wondered why Ikea had whole kitchens on display.  Now I know!  They also have neat little books with stickers so that one may design one's own configurations.  And the stoves/ovens and refrigerators are TINY.  I mean miniature.  It reminds me of the cute wooden kitchen center I used to have in the basement when I was a little girl. 

You not goin fit no Thanksgivin turkey in them thangs, girlfren.

Fortunately, we were finally able to secure on-post housing, complete with a small, already-installed Kuchen.  The appliances are American-sized, and even include a dishwasher, though its instructions are totally in German and I sort of wonder what some of the odd filters and such inside it are...

It's a one-person Kuchen, so I have to shoo Sir out when I'm cooking, but I'm thankful I didn't have to spend nearly $8,000 to buy one for off-post, because what would I do with it when we left here?  Would this sort of thing ever fly in America?  I think not.  Don't even get me started on the fact that it's also BYOLF (bring your own light fixtures) on the economy as well.  Here in our glamorous stairwell apartment, we have some uuuuggggllllyyy light fixtures, but they're there!  No wires protruding from our ceilings!

Another of the never-ending fascinations of life away from home.  May I take this opportunity to say how much I miss home?  Specifically everything at Chick-Fil-A, California Dreamin's she crab soup and salad, McAlister's brownies and giant spuds, K&W's sweet tea, Prosser's macaroni and cheese, Habaneros, El Cerro, Abuelos, and all the rest of you who are responsible for the fact that I gained nearly ten pounds in ten days while eating my way through the state of South Carolina last month.

Off to bake some cookies.  What's your favorite food at home?

Travel Tuesday - Heidelberg!

"Oh, the places you'll go."  Gotta love Dr. Seuss.  I had no idea he was addressing me personally. 

Right in my own backyard (name that movie!)  is the beautiful old town of Heidelberg.  When my parents were stationed in Germany in the mid-50s, a movie was made here called "The Student Prince."  It was filmed at an inn named "Three Golden Apples," and last month on a day off, Sir and I set out to see the sights.  We never did find the inn, but we walked miles and miles through this charming old town.  When my girl comes home to me in December, we're going to do the castle here, and hopefully some others, but here's a sneak peek:

Sir and I didn't climb up and do the tour.  This is the view from a public square down below.  The city is a funny mix - elegant old buildings house stores like Brookstone and Gap, and there was even a Woolworths, which I haven't seen since I was a young girl!  One of the unnerving things is that the streets are very narrow, very busy, covered with trolley tracks, and there are buses, bicyclists, pedestrians and mad drivers everywhere.  Not a place I want to drive.

This is the bridge you'd see in all the travel brochures for Heidelberg.  It's magnificent in person - so stately.  If you look closely at the bottom photo, you can see the lines marked to indicate flood levels over the years.  I hope we don't see anything like that while we're here. 

I'm also saddened to hear of the warnings for American tourists in Europe.  People are being asked to use extreme caution when visiting beautiful places like this bridge and the castle and other famous sites all over. As Americans living here, we don't want to feel like we're in danger, or that we're putting our German hosts in danger by being targets.  Living directly across the street from the headquarters of the US Army Europe, it's always in my mind.  And yet, our situation pales in comparison to some of our missionary friends who are embedded in countries that are so hostile to Christianity their lives are in danger every minute.  Such courage they have, and such a love for the Lord to risk all every day!  Is the time soon coming when all of us as believers will face circumstances like that?

Meanwhile, enjoy these little glimpses into our cobblestone world. 

Moved on Monday

I spent the morning coming to the slow realization that I had not much of value to report today....until I came across the following:
http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/2010/05/save-us-from-these-comforts-dannys-story/

The bit Carlos Whittaker typed below the video was so moving: 
If you listen carefully at the end you hear me saying this to Danny.
“Keep trying to make it man.”
He looked me square in the eye…cocked his head sideways with a confused look on his face…and said,
“Trying to make it? No man. I ain’t trying to make it…I’m making it. Jah puts His soldiers everywhere. Jah says, Yea though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death… So He places some of us, in that valley.”
A homeless man with his worldly goods stuffed into a plastic grocery bag.  He's making it.  He knows exactly where he is and he embraces it.  I am humbled.

The words which originally attracted me to the song are the following chorus:

"Save us from these comforts

Break us of our need for the familiar

Spare us any joy that's not of You

And we will worship You."

As he notes in his blog, these are actually words from the Puritans - but how much more they apply in today's world!  Lately, I especially find myself needing the familiar.  I chatted on the phone with my friend P last week as she walked her dog.  What a comfort it was to imagine being with the two of them!  Facebook keeps me connected to so many folks, and it, too, is a comfort.  There are lots of nice people here in Germany, and I've been told, "You've got tons of friends here - you just haven't met them all yet."  Yes, I'm sure that's true, but my homesick heart keeps insisting that there's just no place like home.

Is that really how God wants me to feel?  I think not.  Home will only be found in the center of His will.  For me, that's a constant learning experience.  It's so easy to hear home in my mother's voice; to feel home when my arms are wrapped around my girl; to taste home when I bake a batch of peanut blossoms for my niece E; to see home on Thomas Drive or Sawmill Road or in a sandy pew at PICC or Garden City Chapel; to be home as I create a nest for Sir when he comes in weary from his ministry. 
What's not easy is to realize that all of this, all I cling to so tightly, is not really Home.  Home is where I'm headed ultimately....Home is where God sends me to serve Him in the meantime...may I be willing to learn,  joyfully, the truth of  "there's no place like Home." 

Feasting Friday....because ultimately, it's all about the food.

I can remember my dad talking about Weinerschnitzel from the time I was a little girl, and within just a few days of our arrival in Heidelberg, Sir and I paid a visit to the Schutzenhaus in Eppelheim.  Yes, everything has a big name here.  And most of them make me need to clear my throat.

It doesn't look like much from the outside, but behind that door is a cozy, charming dining room and a huge garden with umbrella tables.  It's the restaurant we've gone to most often, and I have the elastic waist mom jeans to prove it.  Not really.  My jeans are now to the point that if I sit down in them too quickly I may or may not pass out.  Because, mercy, the schnitzel.

That particular dish is called Bauerschnitzel.  It is pounded pork, breaded, then split open and stuffed with farmer's bacon, onions and wild mushrooms, cooked in the however-they-cook-schnitzel-to-make-it-so-delicious way, then covered with THREE kinds of gravy.  Then there's the side of fried potatoes, which rival my mom's.  It's the reason cardiologists were invented.  I left the salad in the picture because I don't know how to edit photos  because there had to be some kind of redeeming quality about the meal.

There are all sorts of new and exciting foods to be discovered, and they're not all necessarily German.  We ventured to an Italian place just a couple of blocks from home.  Aside from this adorable thing which took me instantly back 20 years

they had Spaghetti Ice Cream.  Yes, I was thinking "ewwww" too.  But it's not what you think!  Vanilla ice cream, run through a ricer to look just like spaghetti noodles.  Berry sauce on top to resemble spaghetti sauce.  White chocolate shavings to become the parmesan cheese.  Magically delicious.

Will the culinary adventures never end?

Even at home, new discoveries abound.  Some are convenient versions of old favorites (Lord help me with my eggs benedict issshhoes)

My kitchen dream - hollandaise sauce in a juice box.  It was all I could do not to frantically jab a plastic straw right in the top and have at it.

And some fall under the Who Ever Thought This Up category.

This comes in bottles (duh) or as a fountain drink in restaurants and is wildly popular, second only to dark beer as far as I can tell.  It's a mixture of coca cola and orange soda.  It's delicious once in a while, but I couldn't make a steady diet of it.  My dad raised me right.  I'll always come back to Pepsi.

Then we have the Great Mysteries.  I had such fun in the German grocery store, buying authentic sauce mixes and things like spaetzle noodles.  Then I got home and realized I could not read the instructions.  Lucky, lucky Sir who gets to eat my experiments.

And the gift we received from our friends L and G, who are Belgian.  We are still specu-lating about what exactly Specu-loos is!

I think I need a Zantac.  Anyone?

Last but not least, we have the MRE.  Sir was in the field playing war this past week, and he got to sleep on a broken cot, slog through the mud, and eat these.  He loved that experience.  And I loved the fact that he brought one home to me.....and look where it's from, y'all!  MULLINS!!!!  Big shout outs to Mrs. Delores' home turf for feeding our boys in uniform!

Tomorrow's post:  The Bathrooms of Europe.  You do the math.