EuroLife: Day 37

I will begin today with the bad news: the elephants upstairs have returned, and they are once again singing. Hopefully this will not go on all night! The good news, I have two happy culinary events to share with you today.


First, I found milk in glass bottles in the local grocery store! Now, if you have never had had milk out of a glass bottle, then you might not understand why I did a little dance in the aisle when I spotted this milk. If you have, then you probably understand perfectly. It's just delightful. I first tried it in Lancaster, PA, where you could refill your bottles weekly at the Farmers Market. So far, this local milk is not quite as good as I remember it being in Lancaster, but it easily surpasses the boxed milk that we've been using. It's only .99/Liter, which is actually not much more than the boxed stuff! We bought 3 liters, two of whole milk for Michael and one 2% for me. Michael has already finished his first liter. Next time I might splurge and get the bottled chocolate milk.


Now for our second culinary event: this one was really more of an adventure. We haven't done a ton of cooking here, and when we do cook we generally make either weiner-schnitzel (breaded porkchops) or just boil up some tortellini. Today we tried something new. We bought potatoes, some ham-like meat and "Rot Kraut", which is exactly what it sounds like: Red Sauerkraut. We had some brown mushrooms, which we sliced and sauteed and set aside. Then we cooked the ham, though we were honestly unsure of whether or not it was cured already, a very odd situation to be in. We cut and boiled some potatoes (oh there go the elephants yelling and pounding again--I mean, they don't even invite us!) and then tossed them in with the meat. We added the mushrooms and I was one happy girl. Delicious ham hash with mushrooms--this was exactly what I was in the mood for.


Then Michael came along and dumped the bag of Rot Kraut on top of everything, and my lovely little Irish meal was transformed into some sort of German abomination. At least, that's what it felt like at the time. (I really was very hungry.) Here's what it looked like:

Hmm. On further inspection this is not a great picture. What's worse, we have already eaten half of what you see, and put the rest away, so this is the only picture you get. Ah well.

Despite appearances, and my initial misgivings, this was a delicious dinner! Really delicious, actually.

That's all I really have to say today! I know, I know...when Michael writes the post you learn all about Napoleon, Trabbys, Irish rock groups and the like. When I write, you get birds and food. The thing is, I like birds and food!

One of these days one of us is going to do a post about the Mensa. Not the Genius Club, but the University Cafeteria at which we dine daily. Then you'll be in for a REAL treat.

One final comment: According to "Dolly", a.k.a. Grandma, there's a delicious sandwich or sandwich meat named after this region. I am now making it a priority to find and sample said delicacy.