Ein Grossartiger Tag in Deutschland (A Great Day in Germany)

We have been working on our flat all day every day. One evening, I decided to have a nice little Italian dinner with some wine for us. It was a beautiful evening, so we sat out on our balcony.

Here’s a picture of the small anti-pasta Italian meal I put together of olives, fresh mozzarella, onion, tomato, fresh basil and drizzled with rosemary oil, and warm tomato breadsticks. The wine, Bardolino is from an area on Lake Garda in Italy. 

On Friday, after a long day of painting and running errands, we finally sat down with a nice cold brew of Grafenwalder Pils. Early this year, I bought one of the glasses so I could put in the freezer for my nice cold beers. At the time, my Love said he didn’t need one. After taking a sip from a previous beer we had, he picked up one for himself. I introduced him to a nice cold American brew. 

Yesterday, we had a full day. First we went to a flea market in the morning, and then went bike riding around by the Lake with my Love’s brother and his children. I thought I’d have some difficulties since I haven’t rode a bike in 3-years, but I did fine. We had a nice lunch at the Lake, and it was fun hanging out with his brother’s children. Below are a few pictures I snapped during my bike ride. 

 

From there, my Love and I went to Blankenstein to have some ice cream. Here are a few pictures of the area where we rested our aching bodies from biking. 

In the evening, we met up with my Love’s brother and went to a Knight’s Festival. The festival was setup around the Castle Burgaltendorf. It’s so cool experiencing a festival in another country. Below are a few pictures of the castle and festival.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Bicycling and Adventure,

Bea

Food for the Soul

I                                                        You. Or maybe this looks like a butt to you—it’s all about interpretation. We bought a huge bag of potatoes, so my Love could make some potato soup (Kartoffelsuppe). He was in the kitchen for a few hours grating the potatoes, cutting up carrots, onions, sausage, boiling and creating the base of the soup. There are two kinds of sausage in this soup, one is a smoked strong sausage (Mettwurste) to add to the flavor and then he put in whole sausages that we cut up when the soup was served. Mmm...he did a fabulous job making this soup that kept me full for at least a few hours.

 

The next pictures are of some pastries we picked up at the bakery, Löscher Bäckerei. This first pastry is a traditional German dessert called Bienenstich (Bee Sting). This is the one I picked and it was instant love. This is made with a sweet bread, cream or vanilla pudding, topped with honeyed almonds. 

 

  

My love ordered this one and it was called Mangaroca Batida De Coco. Layered chocolate cake with cherries and whip cream flavored with Batida De Coco (coconut liquor) topped with a cherry sauce. He let me have a small bite—a very, very small bite—accompanied by a ‘you ain’t getting anymore’ look. This one was fabulous too.

One day, we went to a place called Das Pfannekuchen-Haus (the pancake house) for lunch. Much of the menu consists of a pancake (unsweetened) topped with whatever toppings you order. The first picture is of my Love’s meal. It’s a pancake topped with ground beef, broccoli, spinach, cheese and Hollandaise sauce. Again, he let me have a small bite and it was fabulous. Actually better than what I ordered.

I ordered a pancake with potatoes in it and topped with onions and a sunny side up egg. This also came with bacon, but I asked for it without. It was good, but didn’t have enough flavor as the other one.

  

My love washed his down with a Köstritzer bier (black beer). He said the beer was okay, but he still prefers Guinness.

And finally, an ice cream I had at the ice cream parlor in Blankenstein. This place, like many ice cream places, will close up at the end of the month and return in the spring. Many of the ice cream parlors are Italian owned, so they return to Italy over the winter months and return in the spring to serve their homemade ice cream. I’ll admit that this was half-eaten already when I remembered to take a picture. I had two types of ice cream, a almond and a cookie dough ice cream topped with fresh whipped cream (unsweetened). I don’t even know if I’ve ever had homemade unsweetened whipped cream, but this was fabulous.

For now, this is all I have to serve--until next time, Bon appetit.