2007 in Pictures

I admit, I am stealing this idea from Jessica...here is a picture per month highlighting our year! It's been a great one!!


In January, we rang in the new year with our friends Melissa, Kirk, and Broc.


In February, we crafted a ton -- scrapbooking and, shown by Scott in this example, pajamas and scarves!

In March, SaraCat helped us clean the closet out in preparation for new bamboo floors!

In April, we celebrated the 30th birthdays of Melissa and Scott! She really knows how to make a good impression...


Also in April, we saw the birth of our new Audi A3!


In May, we took a nice roadtrip to Fredericksburg with Kirk and Ron (sandwiched above) for Ron's b-day.

In June, we lost SaraCat after a very strong fight against cancer...gosh I miss her.


One week after Sara died, the cute kitten Grete came into our lives!


In July, we fell in love with the Hether street house...and put a contract down on it!

In August, Ryan celebrated his 29th birthday with a tower of gifts!

In September, we moved.

In October, we celebrated Oktoberfest multiple times. We even went to Fredricksburg with Kris and Steph. We also hosted our largest dinner party in a loooong time -- it was fantastic!

In November, Scott visited home and had a wonderful time -- we also spent Thanksgiving at my cousin Claudia's house.

In December, Ryan and Scott celebrated their 11th anniversary!

Yeah, it's been an incredibly growing year, both in our careers and personal life. Losing Sara was really tough but we made it through and continued to build a fantastic life in 2007!

Tschüß bis 2008!!

Weihnachten Roundup

Ah...the holidays are almost over and here is a final wrap-up of our comings-and-goings over the holidays.



Tschüß!!

Chicken Kiev

This was the second in my retro series -- quite easy to make...holy cow it has a good amount of butter! I'm really interested in dishes where you roll the meat up and dredge it. This dish, certainly, also the Käse-Shinken from a few posts back and Rinderrouladen, which will appear in a future post since we ate it on Christmas day.


Gladly, our friend Kris came over to enjoy this with us. It turned out great!

We are lazily enjoying the time off -- I saw "I'm Not There" with my friend Melissa yesterday...it was an amazing movie! I really am not a fan of Bob Dylan but that really doesn't matter because the storytelling, the visuals, and the acting was superb. I think the less I related the film to Dylan the more I enjoyed it.


Grete, as you can see, is cute as ever. She always looks a little fake...like we stuffed her and make her pose...but honestly she does walk!! :)

Tschüß!!!

Keeping Up Appearances

I gifted Ryan the british comedy "Keeping Up Appearances" for xmas -- he has always loved the show and we were in need of a new nightly television show. For some reason, a couple months ago, we started watching an episode of Are You Being Served? each night before bed. Sometimes we watch the whole episode, sometimes two, and sometimes only two minutes. We went through all 14 DVDs of AYBS and then watched a bit of Absolutely Fabulous (we've seen them all waaay too many times anyway). Now, onto 8 DVDs of Keeping Up Appearances. For anyone who hasn't seen it, Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced like Bouquet) comes from a lower-class family but is very upper crust.

Every once in a while, I feel a bit like Hyacinth...tonight is a perfect example. Just wrote all of our Thank You cards, entered new addresses into our Apple Address Book, synced address books between the two laptops, and wrote up our list of Christmas Cards to send for 2008. Ahhh...to be organized! :)

We saw Charlie Wilson's War tonight -- very good movie. It's crazy how much can be done through willpower and how much can be undone with indifference.

Tschüß!!

Beef Wellington

Last week, I started into a "retro food" kick and put Beef Wellington on the menu. I found a neat website of original recipes from era cookbooks. For my first foray, it wasn't too bad! Holy cow the meat is an expensive cut; I always forget that Beef Tenderloin is super pricey but super good. So, after purchasing it, I knew I really couldn't screw this up.


This recipe called for a mix of onions and mushrooms...next time, I'd mince the onions and mushrooms into more of a paste instead of a goopy mess. It started to soggy the pastry you wrap around. I'd also do some new tricks on getting the pastry tighter to the meat. (Gordon Ramsay shows how it should be done.)


A beauty!


Scott dishes it up.

I think this dish should go on the "once a year" rotation. I do want to try some more soups...now that it's winter, the ol' standby soups always look super appealing. We have a ham bone from our Xmas ham...perhaps a bit of ham soup is on the menu??

Another lazy holiday day...did some shopping yesterday, a big cleaning blitz (even scrubbed the master bathroom with our german Coronet Scrubber, and then watched "The Wind and the Willows/Legend of Ichabod Crane" on DVD. Not sure what we're doing today...maybe another movie? More shopping? Certainly more laziness......haha!

Tschüß!!!

La Faute à Fidel! (Blame it on Fidel!)

I really miss the Sundance Film Festival. I attended for a few years and always saw the coolest movies! Now, I'm still catching some of them but on DVD 2 or 3 years later. Take the fantastic movie we saw last night, "Blame it on Fidel!" a french tale about a bossy little girl whose parents turn communist and downgrade their lives from astutes to serfs. Kind of ironic to watch that the day before Boxing Day, which is the traditional "give to the poor" type of holiday.


And then I see it in the Rotten Tomatoes description: "a Sundance favorite..." My blood boils! I used to be the one who said that! Even the last movie, Sommersturm (the german gay coming-of-age gem) was "a Sundance audience award-winner..." Damn!

Oh well, it's my fault anyway because I've promised myself to go attend a local Austin film festival and never do. I wish they would do single ticket sales...that makes it a bit easier for me to pick and choose...but not very cost-effective. OK, I think I'm ready to start my resolution list........

Going to get out of the house today, do some shopping, enjoy my hot new jeans and the beautiful weather!

Tschüß!!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always a magical night -- Ryan and I really try to not have anything else going on, since it's so much fun to cook, play with the kids, listen to music, eat and drink! We started a new tradition this year, making Apfelstrudel. Now, there was a little drama when I introduced this...mostly because its a two-page recipe and a several hour commitment...but we got over it, got into it, and got it done!



The strudel dough was very interesting...you beat it up a ton to stretch the glutens. (Oh we had stretched our own glutens earlier in the day with a walk around the lake...in preparation for the Scalloped Potatoes that have 4 cups of heavy cream.) I have no idea how to bake; this was very apparent early on and Ryan thankfully took over and saved the dessert. Luckily, I did get a glamour shot in...see below:




It turned out beautifully. Ryan also whipped up a vanilla creme sauce (I don't know how he does it...double boiler and everything!) and the whole dessert was delicious!

I was spoiled with a new kitchen gadget...a Mandolin! I was about to handcut four potatoes for the Scalloped Potatoes and he pulled a gift out of the tree...it's beautiful and will make isaac food preparation very easy and fun! I also see Waffle Fries in our future.

Take a gander at our Xmas Eve photos...

Käse-Schinken and Chicken Cacciatore

This was a GOOD one -- we had ordered a "packet" from www.germandeli.com called "Käse-Schinken" but I wasn't sure what the package had in it...the picture looked like a Chicken Cordon Bleu sort of a roll with tomato sauce on it. Come to find out, the packet is simply a tomato sauce that goes on top of a turkey/gouda/ham roll-up.



Mmmm it was really good. The deli counter at Central Market recommended a Smoked Gouda and he was right! Perfect flavors. Next time I'll skip the packet since making my own tomato sauce is very easy.

Also made a Giada Laurentis recipe for Chicken Cacciatore and it turned out really good. Sadly it didn't compare to Buca di Beppos' dish.....



Christmas/Weihnachten is fast approaching -- I picked up our traditional Honey Baked Ham and today need to plan our dinner. We're thinking Scalloped Potatoes....hmmmm...I need to think about this!!

Tschüß!!

Tree Trimming Photos

The Tree Trimming photos are in -- the night we put it up, Grete was pretty fascinated with the tree. We were in bed, lights off, and heard a loud noise...then "crash, BOOM, shatter..."

Running up the stairs, we saw shards of Mercury glass all over...thank goodness they're just Target ornaments...but the kitty knocked about five off. Good thing the tree didn't fall over!

Enjoy the pictures below....

Gearing up for Schönes Weihnachten

Xmas cards...done.

Xmas treats...done.

Xmas tree...done.

We're on our way...!

Finally starting in on the season

I have been lagging behind on everything lately. At work, I've been working to prep the new release and it's a ton of work. Also went to Charlotte, North Carolina this week and it was a great trip (more later).

But, it's time to prep for the holidays. We're making holiday cookies with Melissa tomorrow and tonight we are putting our tree up and other decorations. Should be fun!

Tschüß!