Christmas Market in Cologne

Last weekend we took the train with some friends to Cologne, Germany to visit the city's Christmas Market. We love the Christmas Markets because they bring so much of what we love together to one place: eating, drinking, shopping, eating, drinking, and eating.  

The Cologne Christmas Market is split into five separate markets throughout the city, each with its own theme. There was the main market, the angel-themed market, the medieval market, a market devoted to selling food (for cooking- every market had food for eating), another market on large barge docked on the river. We took our time and didn't make to each one, but saw most of them. The medieval market is like a renaissance fair, so it's kind of A Very Hippie Christmas, but the food looked great- giant kabobs of meat and "mead." Unfortunately, it was evening by the time we got there and, this being the medieval market, they weren't too big on electricity, which made it kind of hard to see everything. Still, the markets offered many temptations (that's our friend, Paul, ordering some cookies):

While the Christmas decorations are always beautiful, we mostly bought things we can use (i.e. eat) like some delicious German mustard and a handful of things from a booth where every thing for sale had vanilla in it. But, really, shopping is only a small part of why you go to the market. Here, Erika waits in line for (another) gluhwein (with amaretto, of course):

Japanese Pancakes

We don't know about you, but we'd never heard of Japanese Pancakes before, and when our friends invited us to dinner, we figured it was a weird Dutch take on Japanese food (the Dutch do love their pancakes). Instead, it's an actual real thing and even more, it was delicious.  The Japanese word for this kind of pancake is Okonomiyaki, which literally means 'cook as you like.' At the restaurant in town, they serve three different styles: Osaka, Hiroshima, and Negi-yaki. Naturally, we tried all three.

The Osaka style has most of the ingredients mixed in with the batter and then various toppings are added depending on what you order.

The Hirosima style starts with a thin, crepe-like pancake of only batter, and then several layers of ingredients are piled on top, including fried noodles and a fried egg. That's the monster on the left side of the picture:

The Negi-yaki style also starts with a thin pancake, but differs from the others in that it has no cabbage, but plenty of scallions.  The Negi-yaki pancake is also topped with another pancake and compressed as it cooks (also note the toppings added to the Osaka pancake in the foreground):

Most are served with a Japanese mayonnaise or a sweet sauce and they are very filling (but, allegedly, full of enough cabbage to keep the calorie content down, which of course means, sure, have another beer).  The finished product:

They were amazingly good and we can't wait to go back. 

Food!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had our big dinner a couple weeks ago (with a 28-pound turkey!) so we've already enjoyed a solid week of leftovers and get a couple extra weeks to recover before the Christmas meals. Still, in the spirit of the holiday and the fall season, here are some recipes we've enjoyed recently:

We went on a barley kick for a couple weeks and made this barley soup and this wonderful (Rob really liked it) risotto-style barley.  

To prepare for our Thanksgiving dinner for 30, Erika whipped up a practice batch of this stuffing, and then did it again a week later. That's a lot of stuffing. No Cuisinart over here, but it would have been nice. Twenty minutes seemed a little long for the lemons - we'll peel them a little next time and cook them for only 15.

If you can believe it...we're cooking brussel sprouts now (even Rob- of course, everything's better with bacon). 

And just another plug - the butternut squash lasagne is perfect for the fall. Good eating!

Snowstorm in Amsterdam!

We knew something was in the air yesterday when it hailed twice (for a total of 90 seconds):

But we weren't prepared for the total blizzard that hit the city this morning. Just look at our car! It's going to take us days hours minutes seconds to dig out of that:

Apologies to Rob's parents, who have already had one real blizzard this year and to those of you who can look forward to many more!

Remember

It's Veteran's Day, and since there aren't any sweet old vets selling poppies here, we thought we'd post one here for our dads, granddads, and all of our friends who still serve.  Speaking of which, our friend Duffy is home again.  You should check out the link at the right to see some very happy little girls. Welcome home, Duff!

Last Boat Trip of the Year

Incredibly, we had a beautiful sunny day yesterday and so we jumped at the chance to take one last boat trip before the winter sets in. We bundled up with blankets, (spiked) hot chocolate, (spiked) coffee, and some (unspiked) hot apple cider and tried to capture the quickly fading fall colors. We took turns with the camera, but Erika got most of these:

There's a whole in the world like a great black pit

We hope everybody had a great time this Halloween.  We got together with a some other Americans and crowded into a dutch bar and forced our holiday shenanigans on the bewildered locals.  Can you guess who we are?

If you guessed Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, you are correct. If not, don't feel too bad.  We had to explain it to a lot of folks- basing your costume on a year-old musical movie is fairly obscure. Still, it was a lot of fun.  Did you notice the meat pie Erika's holding?  Nice, huh?

Jelelelelele! Ajax, Amsterdam!

That is the most prominent chant for the local soccer team (of course we thought it had, you know, words in it, but these are soccer fans we're talking about). Rob went in for season tickets with some friends and we took advantage of a rainy Sunday afternoon to catch the most recent match. The home team won handily, 2-0, and the team is having a pretty good year so far- the team always seems to do 'pretty good.'  They're not the Yankees or the Red Sox, but more like the Cardinals- an old team with a great history and every once in a while they'll take the championship from the better clubs in the country. Just look at all the banners:

 

Rob's still learning the ins and outs of Ajax fandom, but most of the fun is just going to the game.  We 'enjoyed' some lovely stadium food, including a noble, but failed Dutch attempt at a hamburger, and were thrilled to find the belgian waffle stand as we filed out toward the train station after the game.  

The nice thing about a soccer match is that it's 90 minutes of play with about a 10 minute halftime, so we can get there and back in just over two hours (as opposed to a baseball or football game which approach four hours).  Of course, soccer being soccer, that doesn't always mean it's an exciting two hours. Erika said she had a good time, but judge this picture for yourself:  

Wedding Planning, by Donald Rumsfeld

As we start to make plans we've discovered that "we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

Thankfully, one thing we know we know is what our song will be. Vicki, start learning the words...

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Ah, Paris!

A few weeks before we moved to Amsterdam, we had dinner in Portland with two other soon-to-be-expat couples, Sara & Aaron and Chris & Casie.  Like us, Sara & Aaron moved to Amsterdam, while Chris & Casie have been enjoying life in London.  Anyway, at that dinner in Portland we had many bottles of wine and decided that we should all meet again for dinner a year later in Paris to celebrate a year abroad... and so we did.  

The weekend weather was incredible and we took advantage of it by mostly staying outdoors. We headed back to Montmartre to find some art and we were happily surprised to find a food and wine festival taking place.  It was a gorgeous day spent sipping wine and tasting various honey, sausage and cheese. After a while, we decided to take in a little art and headed to the Musée Rodin, where we walked through the sculpture garden and Erika took the briefest of naps before we were shooed out at closing time.  Here's Rodin's The Thinker and a stalkerific shot of Erika (taking stalker candid photos of Erika is one of Rob's new hobbies with the new camera. He would have put up more to prove it, but Erika's eating a sandwich in most of them -the same sandwich-Erika doesn't go all around Paris eating sandwiches- and pictures of someone eating aren't always very flattering, or so he's been told).

On Saturday night we had an amazing dinner in a small French restaurant just off of Pont Neuf and then went out for a few more drinks.  

On Sunday we remained outdoors on a nice bike tour of the city, including lunch in the Jardin des Tuileries (the garden in front of the Louvre).  

It was an absolutely lovely weekend (even carpooling with a 10 month old wasn't too bad) and a very cool way to celebrate our first year in Amsterdam.

On the Boat with Jason

Erika's cousin, Jason, was in town last weekend for a quick visit before heading off to Denmark on a business trip. Rob and Jason toured the inside of several local cafés and the two cousins later took in an exhibit at the Van Gogh museum. After one failed attempt at a canal tour- it started raining buckets as we left the house- we were able to bundle up for a brisk evening boat ride. We even managed to bring a thermos of hot chocolate.  

For some reason, the canal that runs through the red-light district was overrun with swans, so we played 'chicken' (or is it 'swan') as we made our way through town.

Crete

Our trip to Crete was wonderful, even before we got engaged.  While it was great to be home in August, it proved to be one of those "vacations" where you get home more tired than you left, and so the point of the trip to Crete was to sit on the beach, read a few books, and to generally just relax. Of course, an hour after we arrived on the island it started to rain (for the first time in six months), so we were a bit nervous that we'd waited too long to get in one more week of summer. However, the bad weather blew over as we napped the next day and we were able to get plenty of time on the beach.  

In the interest of keeping it a stress-free, relaxing trip, we spent most days by the beach and only took one day trip, to the island of Spinalónga, in East Crete. Spinalónga is a small, impenetrable island that served as a Venetian fort in the 16th century, but is more recently famous for having been home to the last leper colony in Europe. Fun!

Our trip included a tour of the island, swimming on a remote beach, and a greek barbecue and while the swimming, the barbecue, and the views were great, we wouldn't recommend the trip. There are other, better sights to see in Crete, but we weren't really interested in getting up at 5 to catch a 3 hour bus ride- at least not for this trip.  Still, Crete is home to the caves where Zeus was born and who could forget the Minotaur?!  Maybe next time.  

The sun and the ocean were amazing, but we were just as happy with the food. Greek food is so good! And, since they have a lot of German tourists in this town, everybody served German beer. (In fact the town seemed to cater strictly to Dutch, Germans, and Brits. Every one we met was surprised to find out that we were American.) So, we ate a ton of food, which is sort of the opposite of what you want to do when you're spending all day in a bathing suit. We ate at many different places in town, but we found that the consistently best food was at the restaurant run by the people who also ran our apartment. Here's a shot of a typical starter, stuffed vine leaves and some baked feta. Sooo good! 

And then, of course, we got engaged, which is all well and good, but was really just Rob's insecure way of keeping Erika from running away with our waiter and host, George, who constantly plied her with booze and Greek food in an effort to drive a wedge between us. 

All in all a fantastic vacation and a wonderful trip.  If you ever go to Crete, here are a couple things you should know: 1.  The water is heated by the sun, while sitting in tanks on the roof.  So, hot showers in the afternoon or evening, but not the first morning you wake up.  2. The beaches are topless (or, at least, top-optional) but the people who choose to go topless are never the people you'd choose to go topless.  And finally, while you can't smoke on the plane, you can smoke in the airport (everywhere), which was probably the most foreign thing about the whole trip.  It was like going back in time or being on Mad Men....

She Said Yes!

We spent last week in beautiful Crete, trying to squeeze in one more week of summer, and while we were there, Rob surprised Erika with a proposal.  And she said yes. We'll put up more pics of our trip soon, but here's a shot we managed to grab with our first ever use of our camera's timer. Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes!  

Un Petit Chateau

This weekend we joined some friends for a quick getaway to Cambrai, France. We stayed on the grounds of an old chateau and spent most of our time either eating or looking for a place to eat- which makes for a pretty good weekend. The chateau was nice (and cheap when you stay in a room not actually in the chateau), but the weather and the fact that not much in the town was open on Saturday made for a slightly different weekend in France- since all the churches and bell towers in town were closed, we opted for a trip to the local grocery store and an afternoon of, um, wine-tasting (you know, the kind of wine tasting where you buy a few bottles and then taste 'em.  Repeatedly). 

Sunday's weather was sunny and beautiful and we made a stop in the town of Lille on our way home.  Lille has a couple of lovely squares in the city:

Rob especially liked this statue, which, if she were holding a wooden spoon, would be a dead-ringer for his mom giving the old, "You'd better get over in here by the time I count to 3. One.  Two...." There's nothing like finding a little piece of home when you're living abroad...

All in all it was a lovely weekend and also gave us an opportunity to debut as The Latest Annoying Couple to Play With a Fancy New Camera. Below, Erika holds court, followed by a cool shot of the sunlight shining through the trees.

Parrots... ...Parrots.

Last night we took a walk through the park and thought we'd practice with our new camera. We're still figuring out the camera, but we did manage to get a few photos of the often-rumored but rarely-seen parrots that live in the park.  

Of course, parrots aren't the only wildlife in the park.  There are ducks, pigeons, herons, and hippies.  Oh, and of course, rabbits.  If only the hippies hid in the bushes, too.

Badlands National Park

Rob's parents and grandparents live on opposite sides of the state and so the easiest way to get to see everybody- and show Erika the state- was to drive. And unlike driving through, say, Kansas, or Iowa, the drive through South Dakota isn't too bad. We started out in the Black Hills, moved east into the rolling plains, crossed the bluffs over the Missouri River, and then eased into the flat farmland.  It was a little tough going over and back without much of a break, but the promise of free ice water at Wall Drug can really keep you going. But, before we stopped in for our free drink, we pulled off the interstate and looped through Badlands National Park.

Like a scene from another planet and completely out of place in the prairie, the Badlands is an absolutely gorgeous park. Formed of sediment left behind when the inland sea that used to cover the Great Plains receded, the Badlands continue to erode with each rain (which also brings out bright coloring). The area is fossil-rich and finds have shown the area was once populated by precursors to the horse, rhino, and alligator. These days, it's home to bison, bobcats, coyotes, bighorn sheep, rattlesnakes, and of course, prairie dogs. We took some shots at the prairie dogs (with the camera!) but didn't get much more than little blobs of fur.  So, instead, here are a few more pictures of the Badlands:

The World Famous Corn Palace

Okay, maybe it's not world famous.  Did you know there's a place in South Dakota that has a palace made of corn?  Okay, not made of corn, but beautifully decorated in it in honor of corn's important standing in the state's economy.  Originally built in 1892 as part of an exposition displaying the viability of the state's farm land in order to entice farmers and settlement, the Corn Palace has been torn down and replaced twice.  Today, it's used for the annual Corn Palace Festival, the Corn Palace Rodeo, and- hold on to your hats- the Corn Palace Polka Festival.  Oh, and there's a basketball court inside where the local high school team (The Kernels!) plays.  

The exterior and interior are decorated in murals made of corn cobs sliced in half lengthwise and affixed to the wall.  The designs are first drawn on tar paper, which is like a paint-by-corn diagram.  We actually caught the palace in the process of pulling down the 2008 murals (theme: Everyday Heroes) and putting up the tar paper for 2009 (theme: America's Destinations).  Here's the plan for a diagram featuring monuments in Washington D.C.:

There are around 6 different strands of corn used, which allows for the variety of color.  Here's one of last year's murals of an everyday hero, followed by a close-up:

Inside the palace is a large exhibit hall where they hold the various games, festivals, and cream corn wrestling matches... okay, so they don't really have cream corn wrestling matches... but they should!  The inner wall is ringed with photos of the Corn Palace from almost every year of its existence and then there are more murals above the stage and court, including this one of Mt Rushmore: 

As we said, we just missed the big festival, but it's still an interesting stop if you're ever on I-90 and you need a break before you get to Wall Drug.  

It's cheesy.  It's kitschy.  It's, well, you know.