Dia De Los Muertos Party

Just about to leave for our former neighbors' Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) party. This is their 2nd annual, I believe. It will be strange to see our former house across the street! Ryan has a migraine though and I'm not sure if he's coming with me. :( I hope he does...I leave tomorrow for Norfolk (only 1 night) and it's going to mean we don't have the day together. I also went to my first baby shower today -- it was actually a lot of fun. I got to decorate a onesy with puffy paint!

Halloween is only a few days away -- I am very excited! We'll be having "steak bites" which is a play on dracula...steak that you poke with a stake to eat. Har har!

Tschüß!

Off without a hitch

Our Oktoberfest dinner with our monthly Mira Monte supper club went off perfectly! We had such a fun time and I think everyone else did as well. The fun part was everyone did their part to bring a "German" dish and by the end, some were surprised how GOOD german food really is -- no sauerkraut or bratwurst at this meal...nothing wrong with it but this isn't a festival or a picnic.


Das Menu:

• Wienerschnitzel: Homemade, of course. Made 8 of them and timed it well...I was worried that after making them, they would get soggy or the breading would fall off. But I put it in the oven at 200 afterwards and it really kept it warm and dry. Might have dried it out a bit but the Jägersoße (see below) helped.
  
• Käsespätzle: I made a double-batch and had to do it in 4 sets...making Spätzle isn't easy! But it was worth it...they looked authentic, and broiled with Butterkäse and Butter made it sehr, sehr gut.
  
• Jägersoße: Totally used a packet from germandeli.com and it was AWESOME. Everyone could not believe it was from a packet...I will so be buying more of this.
  

Others brought...

• Bretzen: Pretzels...Whole Foods makes some fancy pretzels! Rosemary, parmesan, etc.
  
• Gherkinsalat: Spencer, who told great stories about how his dad's family would run around their Georgia backyard in lederhosen, made two types...American and Deutsch. The former had red onions and white vinegar. The latter was more creamy. Both were amazing.
  
• Kartoffelnkuchen: Julie did a great twist on these, using butternut squash and garlic in the batter -- they were fantastic!
  
• Deutscheßhokoladenkuchen: Totally made that word up -- German Chocolate Cake, a decidedly American dish, that was sooo awesome. Yum!
  

With that large of a party under our belt, I suppose we are ready for more. Sadly, our dishwasher gave out (a short maybe?) the day before so we had a lot of dishes to manually wash. But, it gave us time to talk about dinner and relax. Isaac was a GEM. He knows everyone, but usually only sees them on a one-on-one basis. He chatted a bit, even sat on Dennis' shoulder!



Tschüß!

German Oktoberfest Dinner Tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are hosting our first Oktoberfest celebration at our house and our first large dinner party! The "Mira Monte Originals," our monthly dinner group, are coming over.

OK, I am not smiling because I am a bit nervous -- so much to do, like cleaning, shopping, cleaning, figuring where everyone is going to sit (9 people total!), compiling all of my German music, getting our treat bags ready, and and and...

How neurotic of me -- I suppose eventually this will be a non-issue, easy process to put on these sorts of shows. We had a run-through dinner party with our friends Suzanne and Gary last week -- it was a great success! But prepping for 9 is much different than prepping for 4.

My part of the menu: Weinerschnitzel and Kaesespaetzle. Should be a snap, right?

Tschüß!

Another Sunday

Another Sunday goes by...we bought new plates at Crate and Barrel, thanks to a very generous housewarming present, and are so excited to use them. We host the next "Mira Monte Originals" dinner, which consists of current and old (us included now) members of the neighborhood. It's always a fun event. Ours will be an Oktoberfest theme (go figure!) so now we have 10 new dinner plates, low bowls, and coffee service for four. We have plenty of other cups for espresso service, etc. so we should be just fine. And won't everyone be drinking beer anyways??

I have been savoring a fantastic German wine that Central Market (an Austin central market chain) has been importing...it's a red wine, which isn't the normal German wine you see...mostly you'll find Riesling or Gewürztraminer...but there are some fantastic Pinot Noir grapes from the Baden region.

The wine I've been liking is called Spätburgunder (which translated could be "late burgundy" as in a late harvest of Burgundy grapes but really does mean Pinot Noir). I want to buy a case and I know they have 2 1/2 cases left...perhaps I will have to splurge a bit and do so.

Time to prepare for Monday...

Tschüss!

Lights and Buses

Phew, I survived the week. Work was full of re-organizations, work on structuring the new team, building curriculum, etc. Home was closing the house, trying to find time to relax (I didn’t find much of that), and starting some little improvements.

On Wednesday, we arranged a dinner with our friends Melissa and Spencer, old neighbors from Mira Monte who moved a few months ago, at planned to meet them downtown at The Belmont. Ryan doesn’t get off work until 7:00 and I didn’t really want to drive from home 2 miles and then have to BOTH drive home.

So, I took the bus. My first ride in Austin and it wasn’t bad for 50 cents. I was only on there for five minutes and it picked me up 1/2 block from our house. It dropped me off about 2 1/2 blocks from Ryan’s work. I loved it! And I’m going to do it again in a few minutes...going to a b-day happy hour at the Gingerman downtown. I heard it’s closing, which makes me sad. It has about 75 beers on tap.

Ryan also worked on a lighting improvement project for the driveway -- it’s quite long and very dark at night...so he found a contractor, met him, and it’s done! It’s beautiful...absolutely stunning!




Better get ready for the evening...and the bus ride. Kind of lame but oh-so-very German.

Tschüss!

p.s. Happy Oktoberfest!!!

So this is goodbye

It’s over. Phew. It’s funded, closed, paid, done, moved out of, missed, exhausted, finished. The house is sold. Not like it was a big ordeal -- we had a horrible time selling our Utah condo -- but it feels so good to be done with this one.

We went and said “goodbye” last night -- I brought SaraCat’s spirit with me back to the new house. It was hard leaving the room that we had her put down in -- but that was just a thing and I know she’s with me.

Ahhhh...so I am enjoying sitting in the new house, having a celebratory beer, and looking forward.

Tschüss!