We're Home! (And American Cheese!)

It's been a couple days now, and we're pretty settled in and mostly over jetlag - and mostly unpacked - (ugh - 7 suitcases!!) It's super cold here. I guess I didn't really think it would get that cold here. It's been about 5-15 below Celsius. I thought that the thermometer was broken at first, so I set it out in the sun... it just went down, so it turns out that it's actually working!

First day back we loaded up on groceries. And I am SO excited, because I found American cheese! I know you must be thinking - "What are you doing eating American cheese in Europe, where the best cheeses in the world are readily available?" and don't get me wrong, I love European cheese - but there's nothing like American for a grilled cheese sandwich, burgers or macaroni and cheese. Anyway - we were standing there looking at the different cheeses, and I saw some that were pre-sliced and packaged in plastic just like singles. So I started looking them over, and thought, hmm - why not? Got it home and tasted it, and sure enough, it tastes exactly the same - if not a little better! And I'm sure it has less preservatives! It's called Schmelzkase, which means Melting Cheese, and comes in 3 different flavors. I tried "Toast" flavored, and it was perfect. I'm so excited.

Then I also decided to bake some of my Mom's Cowboy cookies, which is a super good recipe for a chocolate chip type cookie which also has coconut & walnuts. Well the last time I really baked here was when I made Luna's 1 year Birthday Cupcakes. At that time I sat down with our landlady and had her tell me what to get for shortening, baking powder and baking soda - because of course the names are all different. And not only could I not find any of those ingredients in my kitchen, I sent Bas to the store to look for me.

He came home with most of what I needed, and some of what I didn't. SO after another trip to the store... we had everything we needed - except brown sugar. They just don't have it here. So next time I will have to see if they have at least molasses, so that I can make some myself. So I used regular sugar. I think that was the least of my problems. We got Bak Pulver on our second trip (Bas originally brought home a sack of flour, because he thought that was baking powder :)) and I remembered it (Bak Pulver) from when I cooked the cupcakes. I had Arm & Hammer at home, so that was taken care of.

Long story - short. The cookies turned out super flat and crumbly. I'm sure brown sugar would have helped, but I don't think it would make that much of a difference. Then I found Te baking supplies from when I made cupcakes and started taste testing stuff. The baking powder (Bak Pulver) tasted exactly like the Arm & Hammer. So I looked it up online, and everything I could find said that Bak Pulver is indeed baking powder, but I know that I also used something called Natron when I made the cupcakes. So does anyone know - do baking powder and baking soda taste the same? I'm wondering if Natron is actually baking powder... anyway - they're still good, just not as chewy as they should be!

Today we went to N-berg. We've used up all of our favorite new mustard - Tomato Senf, so we wanted to get some more. We had lunch at the famous place for Bratwurst on the Marktplatz, and then went to the Toy Museum or "Spielzeug Museum. Most of the toys were behind glass of course, but we did find a couple for Luna to try out. It was a really nice day - and even though cold, nice to walk around.





I got in trouble for taking these pictures, too! A voice came over the loudspeaker... oops!