Dog Treats: Bacon Bits with Parsley and Carrots

Rikki and her freshly-baked dog treat!

I started working for a small hotel, doing breakfast thingy. Instead of throwing the rest of the bacon (I try to avoid throwing food as much as possible), I've decided to bring them home and create something delicious for Rikki. Thus, the Bacon Bits with Parsley and Carrots Dog Treats.

Bacon Bits with Parsley and Carrots Dog Treats

Saturday is Barbecue Day with a Fresh Fruit Joghurt Dessert

Chillin' while grillin'

A fine Saturday! My husband needed two days to get the front yard and the backyard ready, but he did it (with a little help from us, of course! If answering his yells of  'I need something to drink' or 'Can you please get the thingymajig' etc...) Now, we celebrate with a barbecue party!

Our menu for today? Pretzel, Lamb's Lettuce Salad, Chopped Tomatoes and Mangoes Salad, Rice, Steak, and Spare Ribs! Yummy.

First Garden Party in our New Home

Hey, we've moved!

And we even had our first garden party with our new landlords.

Will just show you the pictures for now as I am still busy with the boxes and yes, the cafe, too...

Our 14th Wedding Anniversary at Ratsstube in Sinsheim

So, as usual, it's only my husband who remembered that our wedding anniversary is fast approaching, Meaning, he told us over dinner the night before :-D To the great disappointment of the girls, who always planned a surprise and wanted to shower us with gifts during this special day.

But because of too much happening around us, aside from moving into a new home and the still new experience of owning a coffeeshop and bakeshop, the girls forgave us for not giving them enough time to prepare something. They were happy to know that their Papa already know where to go for the special day.

And after a long walk in which they complained a lot (and I was grateful that I decided to change my high-heels into flats); we discovered the Ratsstube. We hesitated to enter the premises first because there was a sign that says no dogs allowed inside (arrgh!).

But because Rikki is a good girl (and maybe there's no other dogs around); they gave us a place in the spacious garden area.

And here's our dinner in photos:

Ratsstube Hotel, Restaurant and Butchery

Ratsstube

Our Aperitif: Hugo and Non-alcoholic Hugo for the girls

My Starter: Scallops with Mango

New House, New Garden View

Moving is not easy! Yet slowly but surely...

Let me show you our new garden view...

Yep, Rikki's pool is an important part of the garden view :-)

There you go, green all over!

Will tell you more once all the boxes have been unpacked :-)

FOR SALE: Kitchen Set / KÜCHE KOMPLETT ZU VERKAUFEN

KÜCHE KOMPLETT ZU VERKAUFEN

Kitchen Set for Sale

800 Euro VB 

(Price is negotiatiable)

Wegen Umzug verkaufen wir unsere Küche.

We are moving and our kitchen set is for sale.

Sie beinhaltet: 

(The set includes)

-       - Alle Schränke die man auf dem Foto sieht (All the cabinets seen in the photos)

    - Ein Ceranfeld (A ceramic glass cooktop)

-       - Eine Spülmaschine (A dishwasher)

-       - Ein Kühlschrank (A refrigerator)

-       - Eine Dunstabzugshaube (An exhaust hood)

-       - Ein Backofen (An oven)

Maße der Küche: 
Länge der Küchenzeile: 213 cm 
Backofen- Kühlschrank 120 c m 

Kitchen Set Dimensions:

Length of the kitchenette: 213 cm

Oven/Ref Set: 129 cm

Living Room Choices

It's time for a new living room set.

We ended up with two choices, after looking seriously between five and six for hours. Yep, we need to decide as soon as possible because delivery dates vary from one week to six weeks, gasp!

Not to mention, one shop is offering free delivery so why not take advantage, right?

Okay, here's what's we are looking into now:

This in dark gray.

Yes, this in black.

Our consideration in these choices would be:

- Easy to clean (and maybe wash when necessary)
- Not easy to see dirt (something to hide, huh?)
- Stable and comfortable (why not?)
- Dog-friendly, of course :-D

I'll let you know our decision later this week.

P.S. I also received a handmade living room set from the 1950s as a gift, I will combine those with what we ended up with. Soon, photos will come up!

Sunday's Dinner: Cherries and Asparagus

It's the season for asparagus and cherries... so, we enjoyed them for our early Sunday dinner!

First my husband and IC drove to the next city to buy fresh asparagus tips and strawberries; then they raided our garden for the red, red, cherries!

freshly picked cherries from the garden

asparagus tips from the street stalls with sauce hollandaise and pancakes

Not Yet Red is our Garden

So IC needs to finish her class' Tree Journal Project and we finally went down to check our garden. I think this is our first time to go down and really look around the backyard this year.

We know that it's a bit of a jungle, but we didn't realize that there's color coming out already! Look at the cherry tree!

And the strawberries are coming, too. In fact, IC and our dog, Rikki, already shared a few, freshly-picked pieces. I didn't go to the yellow plum area, I am sure there are fruits there, too.

Our New Year's Eve 2014

New Year's Eve and the girls have a plan. The same procedure as last year, you know.

Dinner prep, some kiddie fireworks, watching TV and board games (don't forget to watch Dinner for One!!!), raclette dinner, some table fireworks, TV, some more fireworks outside and then the real fireworks.

Of course, we kept the same traditions as usual: wearing clothes with rounded prints, rounded-shaped fruits, marzipan and chocolate made lucky charms, sekt and kiddie wine, mini table horns, fireworks, and a Bleigießen set (lead kit).

Fruits and Raclette on the table

Our Christmas Eve 2014

So, it's Christmas Eve!

The best time of the year, but 'could we open one gift already?`', pleaded the very impatient IC.

To appease her, I told the girls they could already put their gifts under the Christmas tree as early as the 23rd of December. This year, they shopped and wrapped the gifts.

And this year, too, they helped their Papa to prepare our Christmas Eve dinner. Yes, they are our secret Christmas elves :-D

Of course, the Christkind passed by secretly to bring the bigger gifts.

As our tradition, we attended mass, went to the cemetery to visit Oma and Opa before I had the privilege of checking if the gifts from the Christkind arrived on time while the kids and my husband took a short drive.

Rikki is happy to find a big bone under the tree!

 What a surprise! There were more gifts under the Christmas tree!

Our Traditional Christmas Baking

Our traditional Christmas baking started the week before the first Sunday of Advent.

As tradition goes, my husband and the girls got busy while my chore started after their done. Yes, I am the Christmas baking cleaner :-)

The girls decorating the Kulleraugen (Saucer Eyes Cookies).
This cookie is a favorite in our family.

Nice and easy, IC.

Having fun!

Yes, and going great, too!

This time, it's Spritzgebackenes (Shortbread Cookies).

They always have fun making this because of the machine.

Yep, Rikki is busy cleaning the work area, too.

Faster....

Okay, they are comfortable using the machine now but they still can't help making themselves crazy with the tempo...

See how the girls work?

Kulleraugen, done!

Something new :-)

Our Garden Harvests

Our gardens in the backyard and the mountain are thriving, but not as much compared to last year.

The cherry trees in our mountain garden did not bear any fruits this year, while the raspberries and the strawberry patches didn't survive. There were not much red currants and the gooseberries, too. We are still waiting for the carrots, red beets, tomatoes and peas in our backyard. But we already harvested some zucchini and beans. And my husband sadly informed me that we might not get any squash nor cucumber nor cabbage this year.

So, might as well enjoy the fruit-bearing trees as much as we can!

The strawberry patch bearing fruits in our backyard last May 

The red currants in our mountain garden

My Husband's Baked Filled Zucchini

This is my husband's favorite food because it's his favorite recipe because it's easy and delicious: Baked Filled Zucchini (the second one is Baked Filled Paprika :-D)

Baked Filled Zucchini

Asked about the ingredients he would always say:

two big zucchini from the garden (cut in half)
some minced meat (around 500 grams)
some chopped herbs and spices from the garden, anything available
spinach (because it's available this time)
grated cheese
some cornflour (around 2-3 tbsp)
pepper and salt to taste

Preparation:
Prepare a greased baking form and place the pieces of zucchini on a row and pre-heat the oven at 200 C. Place the rest of the ingredients together and thoroughly mix, except spinach and grated cheese. Fill the zucchini with the meat mixture, topped with spinach and grated cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Yummy!

Serve with pasta, potatoes or salad.
More recipes here.

Benefits of Watching the World Cup with the Family

The World Cup started when we were out camping in the Black Forest, during the Pentecostal holiday break of the girls. Because of the time difference, the last game ended after midnight. And because we were in a camping site, we could hear different groups of people cheering for their favorite teams. Oh yes, I guess, nobody got to sleep early that night :-D

Our mascot

The next day, you could see people around the camping area preparing for another late night: tons of chips, cases of beer and softdrinks, meat for barbecue, etc. were being readied by our fellow campers. Not to mention the different flags hanging around and about -- in cars, around their motor homes, in hats, etc.

Now, my girls got interested in watching the game the first night we arrived back home because the German team would be playing. Actually, they have been wanting German flags for our car but my husband and I refused as we usually drive along the highway (and I have seen lots of car flags littering the highway). IC settled in having stripes of the German colors on her left cheek and her left arm. MC begged me to buy flags and something to decorate our car.

DIY: From Rice Sack and Old Shirts Into a No-Sew Foot Mat

Summer time and our inflatable pool is again ready for the girl's invasion.

No-sew foot mat for our inflatable pool

This time, we needed something to use as a foot mat. My husband wanted to buy something, but I told him to wait until I thought of something else.

Since we needed to buy a sack of rice, the idea of creating a foot mat out of the used sack. I admit, something out of my school project year ago prompted this concept, but I can't remember exactly what.

Visiting our Mountain Garden

After almost two months of not visiting our mountain garden because of some issues, we finally found the time last week as we were sure we could be harvesting baskets and baskets of cherries already. Remember we started harvesting cherry in our backyard a month ago?

And what did we find up there?

Red currant

Compared to last year, the red currants were not thick with fruits this year. My husband told me he had to trim the plant and that's the result.

Vaddertag = Father's Day in Germany

Enough with the discussion about Father's Day. My girls know Mother's Day is being celebrated, so there should also be Father's Day, right?

Despite that, IC's still disappointed that they didn't do anything special in school for Father's Day.

Whatever, in our home, we celebrate Father's Day, too.

And traditionally, we started it with a breakfast feast. A short note: Father's Day in Germany is celebrated during the Ascension Day so it's really a holiday, meaning, no school!

Here's what we did -

Father's Day breakfast 

The girls told their Papa to stay in bed as we're supposed to be responsible for breakfast. Well, my husband savored his long bed time :-D

Tracking the Growth of our Plants in the Backyard

My husband is a bit skeptic this time.

He thought we might have been too late when we started our backyard garden's planting season this year. I told him we simply need to think positive. Am I right?

We started pulling weeds and clearing up some corners on the second week of May. That same weekend, we planted our cucumber, tomatoes, beans, melon, peas, red beets, etc.

The tomato corner after the hailstorm that same Sunday

I Love Oma's Waffle Machine

I am lucky to find this waffle machine in my in-law's living room's side board, behind other kitchen knick-knacks. It seemed it has been collecting dust for a long, long time.

I was real excited to find it. But, where's the electric cable? My husband and I decided to rummage in the attic. We found all sorts of electric cables and hoped that one of them would fit the waffle machine.

Well, one did fit :-) The next challenge would be -- would the waffle machine function properly?

Oma's waffle machine

I am happy to let you know that yes, the waffle machine is functioning properly. The girls and  I have been using the machine for breakfast and dinner waffles! And always, we cannot believe how this old waffle machine worked better than our 'new' waffle machine.

You could regulate the heat, meaning, it bakes waffles faster, too. It is more stable and yes, a bit heavier. Cleaning it is a breeze, too.