Once again from the top...

Hello Readers,

I´m sure many of you know that I´m not very good at updating blogs. Over the years, I have started and stopped about 4 different ones. I´m hoping this year will be different. My goal is to write at least one post a week, including pictures and things, so that friends at home and family will know what I´m up to over here in Munich!

The “blog theme” may change over the next few weeks as I fiddle with the website and learn more about it. Just bear with me on this. :-)

Feel free to send me a message if you´d like to see more pictures, or to remind me that it´s time to update. I´ll try to be better about it though!

More to come soon, I promise!

Leslie

Silvester! :)

I love it that in German, there´s a special word specifically for "New Year´s Eve". It´s Brilliant!

Today, being New Year´s Eve, I am cooking another HUGE meal. YAY. Miche and I have been menu planning for about 3 days, and are looking forward to cooking tonight. We we started by planning the sides we wanted to have, and figured they´d have some good looking meat at the grocery store...and we were right. Pork loins were on sale for 4-6 euros! Yay. I´m not sure I´ve ever had pork loin before, and I´m looking forward to it. We will be using this recipe for the pork loin, and then making Yorkshire Pudding as well as homemade mashed potatoes and vanilla pudding for dessert.

We´re then going to watch "Dinner for One", which I had never heard of before I studied in Germany. It´s a huge tradition here to watch it on New Year´s, and it´s playing at least 30 times this evening on TV (which isn´t all that much considering it´s only about 15 minutes long). After this, we´re going to watch a movie with friends, and then head out to watch fireworks around midnight. I´m really excited. This is my first New Years in Munich! I will update tomorrow or so with the results of our dinner and evening plans, and hopefully some pictures as well. Until then, I wish all of you a wonderful New Year´s Eve!

Hello Friends, and Merry Christmas! Once again, it has been an embarassingly long time since I have updated this blog...woopsie there. I will strive to be more diligent about these updates in the future. My dear friend Kindli and I usually try to motivate each other to update, but I unfortunately have fallen a bit short there. As I mentioned before though, I will do better!

I had a wonderful Christmas Holiday. My boyfriend Miche and I spent a week with his parents in Bad Reichenhall. We had a great time...we went sledding, put up the Christmas tree, and did some cooking and baking. It was also nice to have a little break from work, too. The weekends always go by way too quickly. :)

I had a great visit with my Dad and Andy a few weeks ago. We went skiing, explored the Deutsches Museum, did some shopping, and had some wonderful meals out together. It was a real treat to see them, and I hope they come back again very soon!

I think that´s about it for now, but I will try to update in the next few days with whatever adventures I have chanced upon in that time. Until then, have a wonderful New Year´s week!

Servus aus München!

It has been a rather embarassingly long time since I last updated this blog...woops there. In that time, quite a bit has changed: I switched jobs 3 times, had to pay wayyyy to much to fill up the car, and moved to Germany. (A lot more happened than this, but it would take too long to talk about...) Thus, I am writing this blog from München. How brilliantly fantastic.

Things in München are grand. I´ve been here a little over a month, and am moving into my first apartment on Tuesday. I am so psyched. :) The new job is going well, too. I´m working for a very posh Kindergarten here in Munich, and am starting out in a group with little ones from 10 Months-18 Months. They are adoreable, sometimes very loud, and just a joy to be around.

If you´d like my new address come Tuesday, write me an email! I´d love to hear from you, anyway!

More to come soon. I swear! :P
Pfia di...

Freude beim fahren...

This German saying hits on the head the way I’ve been feeling the past few days. "The joy of driving"! I hardly drove at all last year, or really the year before that, and am finally realizing how splendid it is to be able to drive. Sadly, gas prices are terribly high, so I can’t drive as often as I would like, but when I have the opportunity to drive, I really relish it. I’ve found I really love driving with bare feet...which I know is a "no no" in some states, but I enjoy doing it whenever I can.

Another funny thing I’ve noticed: I seem to get an adrenaline rush when I come up to a stop light...I’m not sure why. Perhaps I’m afraid the light will suddenly turn yellow on me as I approach at a rather quick speed...I’m not sure. Either way, it’s a funny feeling. This doesn’t make my driving experiences any less fun...just more exciting.

Either way, I’m thrilled to be driving again. My car has been dubbed "the Hitchcraft", and Kim and I came up with names for the mirrors in my car. Yes, I know...it’s odd. But, I’d like to think I’m just terribly creative...at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

Baking Adventure #1: Zucchini Bread

We´ve had a Zucchini the size of Manhattan sitting in our veggie drawer for a little while, so in an effort to regain that space, I decided to make some zucchini bread. As I zipped about the kitchen, making sure that we had all the necessary ingredients, I realized we were totally out of sugar. This would never do...Thus, I had to make a quick trip to Schnucks to pick some up.

The recipe itself is very easy and straightforward, and didn´t take long to mix all the ingredients and put it into the oven. I was also amazed to see that I still have a ton of Zucchini left...probably about 3-4 loaves worth! Amazing.

And now for the recipe:

Zucchini Bread

Makes 2 Loaves

4 Eggs, Beaten
1 cup salad oil
3 cups sugar
1 Tbs. vanilla

Add together and beat well.

2/3rds cup Water
2 cups firmly packed Zucchini

Add to egg mixture

3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 tbs. cinnamon

Sift together and add to mixture.
Bake in 2 well-greased + floured 9x5 pans at 325*F.
1 hour, or till done. Let stand 10 minutes and remove from pan...

This does contain quite a bit of sugar and such, but it´s really really yummy. As a result, we don´t make it all that often, but it´s great for breakfast or with dinner. Even better with a tinsy bit of butter!

I´ll let you know how it turns out!

UPDATE: The darker pan took about 10 minutes less than the other, but they both looked great when they were done, and I let them cool about 15 minutes. They came out of their pans very easily, and I wrapped them in tin foil. Just cut mom a piece to have for dinner: her rating: DELICIOUS!. Yay. :-)

Why "The Revealed Utensil"?

Over the last few years, I´ve created several little websites, blogs, and other unique website-ish endavors. As with essay writing, I always had a terrible time coming up with the titles...but all this changed today when I thought of anagrams. Kindli and Gavin used anagrams to come up with the name for their website as well, so I decided to give it a shot.

I tried several times to find a witty and clever one...using "leslie berner" "festive frizzles" < a rather unique nickname from college, "leslie elizabeth" and various other things. There were several that I found greatly amusing, but it wasn´t until I used "leslie" and "adventure" that I found the one I was looking for. I love adventures!

Thus, "The Revealed Utensil" was born...and as it will be mostly documenting my culinary attempts at brilliance, it seemed fitting.

Other possibilities could have been:

Learned Wiles
Zestier, able hen libeler
Lane wielders
the odd "Its feverless fizz"
and "Universal delete"