Nachspeise

Nachspeise means Afterfood in German, AKA dessert. 

Today brings us Baking With Amanda day. Except Amanda is in Germany. And I am in Austria. 

So Skype Cookies.

We made a date yesterday, for after kindergarten so the kids could help. I gave her the shopping list.

Butter.

Sugar.

Flour.

Jam.

Quark.

WHAT?? WHAT IS QUARK?? Umm, well, here in Austria it's called Topfen, but there it's called quark. And in the US it's called..... Umm, it doesn't exist. It's kind of like ricotta. Apparently it was good she had a google translator app with her, or she might have bought Chive-flavored Quark, which would have probably ruined the cookies.

First we made the dough. Amanda lost the jam she bought yesterday, so we took a grocery run break. Then the fun started.

First roll it.

Then pat it.

Then say HELLO really loud to Amanda.

Which we tried to document with a screen capture:

ja!

Henry and Theodore got to put jam on it.

We formed some pinwheels.

Put them in my Austrian Oven and waited. 

Amanda set the timer, or I might have forgotten to take them out.

There she is putting them into her German Oven.

Lemon juice + powdered sugar = yum deliciousness.

German oven took longer. 

Felix looks dubious.

Irma's more trusting.

Amanda's downright overjoyed.

And Centa needs afternoon caffeine.

Not enough pinwheels for you? Check out Amanda's blog about the same story, and see how awesome she is at telling stories and learning German: 

Clicky Here! :)

Birthday Part-ay!

 Somebody had a birthday. Ingrid invited us over to a delicious feast of Frittatensuppe and veggie lasagna that ended with a fantastic dessert. Raspberries from her garden in a yummy cake.
She printed me a comic that says:
"Sorry, You're going to have to be strong, you have a birthday."
"Oh no, is that worse than Christmas?"

The cake was too pretty and (almost) too soft and fluffy to cut. But I managed. :)

Poor Theodore has an ear infection and no appetite.

But Henry wanted to try to do a hand stand. I took pictures. Then someone told me I should try. So I did.... And Henry took pictures. Thanks. 

Felix is holding the ubiquitous European slippers that every household keeps for guests. I had to take them off to try my handstand. That's about how far I got. ;)

Then we made confetti. By coloring in the little circles. Centa cut them out, and then I threw them in the air to great success. Even though all the pictures look like this

trust us, it was awesome.

Then lots of games, and popcorn, and then I went to Centa's improv group and even got to the 24 hour post office pickup to get surge protectors to protect our washing machine from further mishap. more on that later! :)  

As Felix says: Happy bosbos Happy!

Still alive!

Well, barely.

WE

HAVE

BEEN

SO

SICK....

I think we have hosted every available germ.

According to the internet (we needed technology to tell us this Earth-shattering information): Starting kindergarten can bring home diseases. Also, moving to another country, especially another continent can expose you to new diseases. Also even minor changes in diet can bring on new diseases. Using public transit can make you sick too. As can biking in the rain. We can't win. At least one of us have been sick every day since mid September. But I'll put up some blog posts to show that things haven't been all bad. :) Even sickness comes with cuteness.

Papa and the boys, sleeping all day.

Like, all day. Here, with his friend Natt-Natt (that's the sound ducks make, of course!)

A little happier in the mornings.

About all the energy he can muster today (ear infection, poor dear).

FOOD!

I know everybody is curious about food, because... well, food is food.

there are certain things that make food better here.

like this farmer's market at the end of our street. from 6-12 every single morning, except Sundays.

row upon row of just farmers and their families selling ... actual fresh food. That's Felix and Theodore and Brian. Henry didn't make it into the panorama because he was moving around so much, as usual :)

 We can walk there with tante C.

Even in the rain. I had to wait a while to get a moment when this wasn't packed with people.

We can also forage food. Right now on the Schlossberg we can find figs and pomegranates and chestnuts. Although pictured here are horse-chestnuts which we picked up by accident.

But lets pretend we're still hungry..... Why.... Look here, on our street is the Sammelbox - translation a collection box, aka FREEGAN FOOD. it's kind of a swap box for old expired or extra things. We get pretty much all our bread here, since it's free ... and there's so much of it that we can even be picky. We are officially Elite Freegan Snobs.

Still need food? That's ok. In the middle of the night you can go to the grocery store. Umm. not really Everything is closed by 9 no matter what. And nothing at all is open on Sunday, except at the main Train Station. But behind the grocery store nearest us, a stone's throw away, there are beehives. Yes. Your gigantic chain grocery store has beehives.

If you are still peckish, don't worry, there are still jars of marmalade my dear grandmother made in 2002. See here.

And finally a gratuitous picture of us on the Schlossberg, the number one tourist attraction in the city, in front of the Uhrturm only a few minutes walk from the kindergarten door. Behind us in front of the clockface, that green tree is the one laden with figs.