Chicken in a Cashew Nut Sauce plus Potatoes in Yogurt Sauce

Oh, yes, that was Valentine's Day dinner! We've had the Chicken in a Cashew Nut Sauce before, but the potato dish was new and well worth it. It's a bit spicy, but I used Anaheim Peppers instead of Jalapeno to keep the heat mid-range, but creamy and a tiny bit tangy.



There is something so unexplainably satisfying about cooking from scratch, especially with lots of spices and unique ingredients. I love having to dig through and pull out all the spices for indian food, using my food processor to pulverize onions, add spices, and then fry it all up.



Over the holidays, we bought a 5 quart Le Creuset pot (on sale at Williams Sonoma, thankfully) and it's awesome! I still use the old one if I have two dishes going in a row, but the Le Creuset is worth the money because it heats evenly, keeps its heat, and makes food delish.

I also baked a cake - German Chocolate Cake - since Valentine's Day is all about a little chocolate. Turned out great, but I should have just baked in a deep pan like my mother since all the frosting on the side slid down and pooled at the bottom. This picture is shortly after it was frosted - you should see it this morning! It's shrugging off its suit!



If a passionate homecooked meal with a chocolate cake wasn't enough celebration of interests, we watched "Strangers on the Train," a 1951 Alfred Hitchcock film based on a Patricia Highsmith (my favorite) book. Great thriller! We also liked that there were two future Bewitched actresses in it, and the mystery that the male lead was born in Salt Lake City, had been committed for psychiatry problems before, and died to an adverse drug reaction given by a psychiatrist one night. Actor/actresses these day are so boring.

Tschüß!

Ryan's 30th Birthday Party!

Ryan celebrated his 30th birthday on the 30th of August...and we threw a party! Finally, a party in our house. We didn't even have a housewarming (sort of a tradition for us...it takes us so long to get the house "together" and presentable that we always seem to skip that one). But, we had about 26 people over and it went super well! We catered some Chuy's Nacho Bar, which rocked, and everyone seemed to enjoy the food, beer, and wine...did a mixture of beers and for wine Kris brought over a bunch of whites (Tomeresca Chardonnay) and Ryan had selected the Hob Nob Pinot Noir (a french one) that was super.

Sighh...that's done...next stop, Cancun! We leave in a week and I can't wait to help Ryan celebrate his birthday. LOL! Check out the pictures below...

2008-08 Ryan's birthday

In other news, I've checked out a few hotel options in München and reserved a room at the Zurich Marriott using points (only there for one night). Also did some research in Amsterdam. Last night we watched The Counterfeiters, a sobering and powerful Austrian film that won the Best Foreign Film Academy Award last year...great movie.

Tschüß!

Penpal and Chicken Tikka Masala

I have a new penpal in Germany!!! I signed up via www.mylanguageexchange.com and didn't hear anything for a few weeks...then a wonderful e-mail popped into my inbox.

"Hey Scott,
wie geht es dir?
I have just seen your profile and wanted to leave a note."

OMG, can you imagine the look on my face as I pounded out work at the bank??? She is from Hamburg, 30, and just started at an international company. She wants to learn more business english, I want to learn basic and business german, and we've had several days of fun e-mails. It takes me about 1 hour to write to her...I write in German, read her corrections and suggestions, correct her English and teach her new idioms, and we talk back and forth about culture.

She lived in the US for 12 months and loves US culture and wants to return for a visit but is afraid because it might hurt her...

I said: "I guess the grass is always greener on the other side (which means that we always want what we don't have...but once we get it sometimes it's not as super as we thought) because I want to live in Germany so bad! We are taught to be isolated from the rest of the world, to be in charge and cocky - but I don't like that, I want to meet other people and fit into any culture. Sometimes I'm not proud to be an American because of our awful president and some of our stupid politicians. I look at Germany and the pride everyone has...and the traditions...ahhh, everything is so much smarter there! People in the US have too much attitude and are so fake."

She replied, "Ich musste ein paar mal wirklich schmunzeln als ich deine mail las. (I had to smirk a few times while reading your mail.) Your views about Germans or Germany are so twee." (Editors Note: I don't know that word...I suggested to her that she might use "a bit naive instead.)

She went on to explain that there is little pride, mostly because their political history caused German Pride to be used against them by other countries. I meant the pride of traditions is what I'm most interested in -- and she agreed. Another line I love from her: "Die Wirtschaft hat ein Hoch und die Deutschen sind wieder glücklicher als in den letzten Jahren. Aber viele hier haben auch den Traum vom Ausland, von einem besseren Land, einem einfacheren Leben. Included me."

It means that "the economy is on a high and over the past year, the Germans are more happy. But, many here have the dream of going outside of Germany, to a better land, and a more true life."

How fun. OK, back to food news...I made Chicken Tikka Masala last night...I've dreamed of it since Ryan and I both had it at a british pub in Santa Monica. (We had it at separate times...) It turned out soo good. I've never broiled chicken skewers in the oven but it worked out sooo well!







I also watched a fantastic French film on Pay-Per-View. IFC has some amazing selections...this was a 1994 coming-of-age tale in early 1960s rural france, during the French-Algerian conflict. Les Roseaux Sauvages (Wild Reeds).

Off to reheat my leftover Tikka Masala and plop down for either Olympics or another movie. Oh, I also arranged some flowers...I suck at it but I guess it's kinda pretty.



Tschüß!!!

Indiana Jones

BTW, it absolutely rocked. Ryan even bought me a shirt afterwards -- it has a monkey juggling fruits and underneath it says "bad dates" -- hahaha!

Tschüß!!

Indiana Jones and Random Typing Fact

Yay, I just bought tickets to see Indiana Jones tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse. Heaven awaits us!!

Oh, and I found out this -- I can type 87 words per minute!

87 words

Nice, huh!

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!!

Mid-week Spaghetti

The menu has been pretty light this week and I'm running out of groceries -- I guess that's what $65 gets you these days.

Sunday: Pizza
Monday: Lemon Herb Chicken, Broccolini, Krautersuppe (with added Peas and Bacon)
Tuesday: Balsamic Pork Tenderloin, Parboiled potatoes
Wednesday: Homemade Spaghetti

Kind of uninspired but all freshly made. The Kratersuppe (which means Herb Soup) was from a German Knorr packet and by itself was really bland. Think of a white sauce with herbs that include dill. Yuck. So, we added cooked bacon and peas...marvelous! It rocked!!

Ryan put up holiday lights on our house -- they look fantastic! He ran to the store to get two more strings to wrap it a bit more around the house. He's such a crafty boy.

Oh -- we've been in quite a movie mood...we watched Sommersturm, a german coming out film that was really good, and then No Country for Old Men, which was well written and filmed. Pretty darn violent and bloody. I didn't faint, thank god, but pneumatic cattle prods will forever haunt me........

Tschüß!

Wir haben viel zu tun!

The holidays are coming quickly -- I'm starting to feel the pressure of finding suitable gifts for my parents, Ryan's parents, etc. While I normally get pegged as the "lazy, uninterested" half of the relationship I honestly have good intentions! I don't know if it's that I lose attention or just plain forget. I'll simply have to work harder this year.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday is all the food and drink that come with it. We're going to my cousin's house for Thanksgiving and I volunteered to bring the wine -- mostly because I love picking it out, hoping it matches the food, and then enjoying drinking it. While at Specs, a really neat "beverage store" in Austin, I also picked up a Pinot Noir from the Alsace region in France...it's to the west of Baden -- where my Spätburgunder comes from...and it was fantastic. The winery was "Secret Valley" and Iiked it's dry solidity quite a bit.

Last night, I made Chicken Parmesan (it was really good!) and we watched Transamerica. Went to bed around 12:30 and woke up to another grey day. Today should be a good amount of shopping...

Tschüß!

Das Leben Der Anderen

With our new TV, also came a renewal with NetFlix! So, the first movie was Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others), one of the best German films I've seen. It won the Oscar last year for Foreign Film and is an amazing story of the GDR, their "informants," and the fall of the wall.

I so enjoy listening to the language and trying to get past using the subtitles. Hard for me, since my vocabulary is still schlecht (bad) and sometimes the words run so fast together it's hard to pick anything up. (Which is why we just need to live there and that'll solve the problem!)

I was going to make a casserole last night, but a tree branch was literally scraping paint off the side of the house so we ran to Home Depot, bought a extended saw and trimmed it. So, instead we had pizza.

Off to another wonderful Sunday in Austin!

Tschüß!

(footnote: I totally misspelled the movie title, but have fixed it now. Oops!)