Top Chef

You would be quite surprised by how much I have cooked/baked while being in Salzburg. I cook dinner nearly every night and to my surprise, I'm not too shabby. Well, I thought I wasn't until I cooked Jason's birthday cake yesterday.

Now, as a side note, it is very difficult to cook here because I can't read the back of boxes since they are all in German and they use the metric system for their measurements. Because of this, a simple meal takes twice as long because I have to type the whole darn thing into Google Translation and then convert the measurements. Blah! Ok, back to the story...

For those that don't know, Jason hates fruits and vegetables. Tisk tisk, I know! The recipe called for some apricot marmolade but I knew Jason wouldn't like that, so I 86ed that idea (sorry, restaurant talk) and made the cake without it. Because I didn't cook it with the marmolade, I probably shouldn't have baked it so long, so the top started to burn. Whoops. I had to chop it off. Long story short, this is what I ended up with:

Oops! Not the prettiest looking cake but it was still pretty tasty. It's the thought that counts, right? I guess I should have tried to learn how to bake cakes like my cousin Remy. Oh well.

Last week, I made stuffed peppers just like my Mom makes. They turned out amazing (if I do say so myself). I guess from now on, I should just follow the original recipe.

Do you have any recipes that are to die for? If so, please share! :)



Happy Birthday J!

That's right... today is Jason's Birthday! Yippee! Happy birthday, my love!

I remember when we celebrated last year in Orlando, Florida. Crazy how much has happened since then and how fast time has flown by!

Here are some memories from our trip last year during Jason's birthday:

What a ride it has been!



J- Although this year has been nothing short of amazing, I know that the best is yet to come! Ich liebe dich!! ♥

XOXO -L

3 Months!!

Three months from today, I am going to be Mrs. Jason Shannon. Can you believe it?! I sure can't! I am super excited to marry the love of my life!

This weekend included:
Irish pubs, flea markets, long afternoon naps, home cooked meals, German homework, me driving our car (yay, I can drive a stick!), building our bed, grocery shopping, and walking around town.

Today, we woke up to snow! So pretty... but so cold!

Happy Monday! :)

Frogger

The last several weeks in Salzburg have been quite the learning experience. On top of trying to learn German, I have had the joy of learning how to drive our car that is a manual.

Driving in Salzburg makes me think that I'm driving in a real life video game. Not only am I trying to get used to the whole clutch/gas nonsense, but then I have to dodge pedestrians and bicycles and maneuver the bus lanes while going through roundabouts and narrow streets. What do you get when you win the game? To drive on the autobahn, of course. I don't think people realize that the autobahn is not just in Germany; there are also autobahns in Austria and Switzerland. So, to the many cops that have gotten me for speeding, I was just practicing! ;)

Tuesday night on our way to book club, it was almost a GAME OVER for the poor soul we noticed who was driving the wrong way down a one way street. She was driving full speed and came within inches of hitting another car head on and then had to turn around in traffic. You can't get too surprised because it could happen to anyone. There are one way streets everywhere here and the road signs are difficult to read.

So, although Frogger was one of my favorite games when I was growing up, I am not going to try to reenact it here in real life. Wish me luck!

A Walk To Remember...

Remember the stories that older folks told about how they had to walk 2 miles uphill, barefoot in the snow to get to school or where ever they were going? I think we need to start taking those stories more seriously.

I signed up for the gym in Salzburg called Vita Club. It is located in Salzburg about two miles away from our apartment. Since we only have one car and Jason takes it to work, I walk where ever I need to go during the day. Since the club is a straight shot down the road from our place, it really didn't seem too far. A 30 minute walk later, I finally got to the gym.

Now, I'm sure like I sound like a spoiled American but just going to and from the gym is a work out. By the time I got there, I was cold and tired. Of course, today was sunny and I didn't figure I needed my hat or scarf. Wrong! I definitely did not think about the fact that I would be leaving the gym sweaty or that I might turn into a popsicle on the way home. Now I see why all the Europeans are so skinny... they walk everywhere, even to work out.

I think my next investment will be a bike. Don't worry Mom, I already tried to get a Vespa but for some reason Jason thinks I'll kill myself here with one. Seriously, I emailed him this picture of a Vespa I saw on the side of that road that was for sale.

Wishful thinking, I know. At this point, a pedal bike would be just fine.

 



Lost in Translation

Tomorrow night I have my first book club with the girls. We are discussing The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. I really enjoyed it and am so thankful that I will be introduced to other English speaking ladies in Salzburg. I'm sure we are going to have a blast. For our get together, I am making an appetizer. I called Jason's Mom this weekend and got a great recipe for pinwheels that I want to make. Easy, right? Not so much...

I went to the grocery store this afternoon to try to find all the ingredients. Grocery stores are much more stressful here than in the US.

When you first walk in, all of the carts are chained together. In order to use one, you must put a Euro in to unchain one. They do this so people will return their carts in order to get their money back. I think this is a great idea so there are not carts all over the streets. I can dig.

After you get your cart, you immediately walk into the produce section. Here, you have to bag and weigh what you want and then put a sticker on the bag with the price. Sounds easy, right? Not really, when it's all in German.

Thank God Jason got me an iPhone when I arrived in Salzburg and I could use google translation. People were staring at me as I typed in everything that I was picking out throughout the store. I kept circling the store like I was lost because nothing was where I thought it should be. Between trying to guess what some things were and then having to google translate it, grocery shopping took forever.

Some things are easy to tell, what they are.

Others, not so much.

This is a tube of mustard, by the way. Some things I'm just going to have to get used to.

The checkout part is the WORST. If you want sacks (bags) to put your stuff in, you have to pay for them. If you get more than a couple, people look at you funny. And you just better pray that you got the right amount because either you will have extras or not enough. Most people just bring in containers to put their stuff in. They are super big on recycling here, so it doesn't surprise me. If you need bags, the cashier rings them up with your food and pushes everything to the end after she scans them. So, you are rushing to pay while packing up everything you've purchased before the stuff the person behind you has just bought comes flying at you. All of this, while they are talking to you in German. Phew! I'm glad it's over.

I am not sure if I got the right chilis and pimentos that the recipe calls for, but I've had enough with the grocery store for today. So, let's just hope that the pinwheels turn out the way they are supposed to. I can tell that grocery shopping is going to take extra patience and some getting used to. My everyday life is quite the adventure.

C-ouch!

All of our furniture in our flat is from Ikea. It was delivered on Friday. Since Jason works all day and it would take me months to build it all myself (and would probably turn out crooked), we hired a build-up service. They arrived on Monday and Tuesday, and away they worked. Some items still have not arrived and others were just dropped off yesterday, which we will have to put together ourselves, but it's better than nothing.

Yesterday the couch cover was dropped off. Luckily, the guys put the couch together but I had to cover it and handle the cushions. No big deal, right? Wrong. We got in a fight. The couch won. Don't believe me? I have proof.

Here was my progress.

Boy were those cushions a pain! 

The apartment is still filled with empty boxes and boxes that need to go into storage downstairs, but it is coming along. Hopefully by Monday everything will be all moved in and we'll be settled. One week isn't too bad, right?

Besides not having a TV or the pictures up, the living room is pretty much done. Here's finished product.

The pictures were taken on my iPhone with the Hipstamatic app. I just love it! 

This is just a teaser. Pics of the rest of the house to come soon!



First Days in Austria

My first days in Salzburg, Austria have been quite hectic. Add that with jet lag and you have a recipe for exhaustion. Luckly yesterday, I had a free day but we'll get to that.

I arrived on Saturday morning at 7:45am local time (1:45am for most of you guys). I was greeted by Jason at the Munich airport which was so wonderful. He woke up at 4am on his day off just to pick me up. Now if that isn't love, I don't know what is. On the way back, we hit major traffic, which we realized was due to everyone going skiing for the weekend. It took so long to get home but at least we had plenty of time to catch up.

In order to overcome jet lag, you have to make yourself stay up for the first day. With this in mind, Jason and I picked up keys to our apartment, headed back to the hotel so I could shower, and started our day. We went to Ikea to pick out all of our furniture, which was quite a task being that we don't speak German and they only had certain items in stock. By the time we were through, we went back to the hotel and grabbed a drink before dinner. We decided that we wanted to go back to this Italian place that we had visited on a previous trip. We walked into what we thought was the restaurant and it was a wine bar. Of course we couldn't leave at this point. We stopped for a glass but then made friends with the bartender and his wife and ended up staying for a couple of hours.

The next day we went back to the apartment to gather measurements of each room in our flat. We realized that this was imperitive the day before at Ikea when we had no idea what furniture would fit or not. On Sundays, not many shops or restaurants are open. We tried to go to one of my favorite lunch spots, but it was closed. We decided to head to another one of our favorite Italian restaurants (and made it there!) for some tasty lunch. Jason was going to take me out to the country and try to get me more comfortable with driving a stick shift, since that's all they drive over here, but I was much to tired. We went back to the hotel, watched some TV on our slingbox, and called it a night early.

Monday morning came quickly. We woke up early and headed right to our German lessons. Jason had gone while he was here early but it was my first lesson. I don't think I did too bad, being that it was my first lesson. I have realized, though, that it is very important for us to learn German, as everyone speaks it all the time and people rarely speak English. After our lesson, I went to lunch with a friend whose husband works with Jason. She is also and American and had recently started a book club with several ladies who are all English speakers. She invited me to dinner to meet them all and we had so much fun.

Tuesday our stuff finally arrived from Singapore and Atlanta. I went over to the apartment and started to unpack what I could (mostly kitchen stuff since we still don't have furniture). Then I went back to Ikea with a lovely German-speaking woman that Jason works with so I could pick out the rest of the furniture and set it up for delivery. We received great news that our furniture will arrive tomorrow (Friday) and will be set up on Monday and Tuesday. This is amazing because usually it takes at least two weeks. Great news!

Yesterday I went back to the apartment to pick up some things from some of our boxes. A scarf for Jason, a thick coat for me, and several other personal effects. I ended up staying in the apartment for a couple of hours, listening to music, because I was dreading the walk back to the hotel in such cold weather. It sure will take getting used to! Then last night we had dinner with a co-worker and his wife at a Thai restaurant, which I am sure was Jason's idea. It was good food and really made me miss Asia.

Today is Jason's welcome party at his office. I will try to take pictures (if it's not weird to do in this culture) and post them when I can.

Although we've been quite busy, it has be so nice to start to get settled in. And now I am going to leave you with some pictures of the view from our apartment. Life is good!

Our (Empty) Flat in Salzburg

After arriving in Salzburg on Saturday, Jason and I made a trip to our flat to measure for furniture. I took this as an opportunity to take "before" pictures of our place before all of our boxes arrived this week. Our furniture will be delivered on Friday and will be assembled by a build-up service on Monday and Tuesday. Then, we will finally be able to move home. Yay! We can't wait! So hopefully I can post "after" pictures around this time next week (after we are settled and it looks cute, of course!). So, here is is:

View when you walk in

Walking into the kitchen

Where the kitchen table will be

Other side of the kitchen.

View of the castle from the kitchen. It was hazy out that day but still beautiful!

Guest bathroom (Didn't take a pic of the shower)

Jason's office

Guest room/possible future nursery? P.S. Notice how helpful I was while he was measuring? ;) 

Cute tush!

Master bath

And again

Master bedroom

Master again. Note: This is connected to the living room with doors. It probably isn't supposed to be the Master, but we do what we want. ;)

Living room. P.S. We have to fix the curtains

Living room connected to bedroom

Living room again

Master looking into Living room (und meine netten Mann)

Living room looking into Master

Excited to move into our new home!

Well, there you have it folks! Our empty flat. I will definitely keep you posted once we actually move in. Ciao!





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Trip Home

I can't believe how little I blogged while I was home in the States. While home, we went to Missouri to visit Jason's parent's buffalo ranch, we went out for a family night, I had a girl's night with my besties, we went to the shooting range, we had family and my BFF in town for our wedding shower, we went to Andretti's, and so much more. So, without further ado, here is a summary of our trip home in pictures.

Car ride with the fam!

The buffalo!

Driving in the pasture, feeding the buffalo as they chased us... very scary!

What are you looking at?

My brothers and sister-in-love! :)

 Mein Mann (German for my man)! :)

Soon-to-be Stepdaughter :)

My gorgeous friends!

Love this girl!

I'm a lucky lady!

About to go shooting! (Not my nephew, of course!)

Shooting my Beretta... notice the shell flying? :)

Chillin' with my bros!

Me and my Mama!

Gangsta!

Crazy! My bro's so badass! ;)

Just like Annie Oakley! ;)

My brother's a goob!

Love my sister-in-love!

My Mom and Aunt Annie met us out at the bar! :)

The whole fam at the bar! So fun!

My BFF came from New York! I love her!

Flowers from my man while he was away! Made my day!

Obviously we did so much more while we were home, I just wish I had taken more pictures. Oh well! Next time we are home, it will be for our WEDDING... how crazy is that?! I love you guys and miss you already!! XOXO