the best fake german dinner ever

Okay, so Matthew and I love German food. I have a great and very authentic german food cookbook but the recipes are often time consuming, although scrumptious. Last monday, I made a random cauliflower casserole with ham and swiss cheese but i didn't bake it until wednesday or thursday. Anyway, I thought it needed a bit more to go with it so I made a delicious pork roll with paprika and parsley. After I had that in the oven, I realized that the pork would taste delicious with some red cabbage, so for this I took an actual, authentic recipe from my german food cookbook. Anyway, by the end of it all, I had a delicious, but not not very authentic german meal and a very late dinner. Probably it tasted so good because we were starving.

Cauliflower casserole
1 head cauliflower cut into bit size pieces
1-2 cups chopped ham
a cup of swiss cheese, grated
2 cups white sauce*
a few tablespoons thyme leaves(a total pain, but well worth it)
a couple tablespoons ground nuts(I'm not sure what I had in the freezer, almonds or hazelnuts, I think)
salt and pepper to taste

Layer half of the ingredients into a dish, in this order:
cauliflower, salt and pepper, ham, cheese, thyme, white sauce, nuts. Then repeat. you can save a little extra cheese for the top if you want. I ended up cooking mine for way too long and I forgot to take the lid off during cooking. But it was still incredibly delicious. Anyway, cook at about 350 or 375 for 40-50 min. You can cook it longer if the cauliflower doesn't feel done. And you can take the lid off, or not depending on if you want it soupier or not. Mine was a total soup but so so good.

Pork roll
cut a pork loin into a nice sheet of meat. Then, salt and pepper it and sprinkle tons of paprika on it(probably use a tablespoon or more), then sprinkle freshly chopped parsley over it and finally lay thin slices or garlic all over the top with about 1/2-1 inch between each slice of garlic. Then roll tightly and tie with string.
brown roll on all sides in an oven proof pan and bake along with the casserole.

Just use any jarred red cabbage or find a sweet and sour cabbage recipe.

* Okay, so my white sauce is always just thrown together on the fly. I don't have exact recipes for all the different amounts you might need, like my grandmother has. Also, I don't buy milk so I always end up using almond breeze or buttermilk.
So, my rough recipe for white sauce
Melt about 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan. whisk in a sprinkle of flour and keep sprinkling and whisking it in until it makes a bubbly paste. Pour in milk or almond breeze(usually about two cups) until it looks right, which is to say, until it looks thicker than regular milk. I don't know, just spend years watching your grandmother make white sauce and you'll know how it should look. Then cook the sauce over medium-low heat, all the while whisking it until it thickens. You can salt and pepper the sauce if you want.

The new puppy

Well, the new computer seems to be fitting right in with the family. The two lappies have met and seem to get along alright. I'm still using the old one as my primary computer while we're setting up the new one.

a new addition to the family

Recently, Matthew and I broke down and ordered a new laptop to replace my 8 year old behemoth that it still going strong, but slow. My old Hewlett Packard Pavilion was a high school graduation gift from my parents. It is the most expensive thing they've ever bought me and one of the most useful gifts I've ever received from them, or anybody for that matter. After the first 6 months of working out the kinks, my lappy and I have always maintained a fantastic relationship and I dearly love it, which is why I get teary eyed at the thought of replacing it.

Now that my new lappy is on it's way I've grown increasingly anxious about how the two lappies will get along. Actually, I avoided buying a new one for quite some time because of that very reason. I didn't want to hurt the old lappy's feelings and I really expected it to die years ago. It has been a good and dutiful computer for ever so long and to just casually toss it aside for something new and shiny and light(yes the old lappy weighs at least 10 pounds) seems too cruel. Admittedly, for the past 2-3 years, my baby lappy has only worked while plugged in and during this past year it has taken a good 2-4 minutes for Firefox to start up every morning. And starting up any other program is just a joke. But still, I worry about it's little feelings. I'm just sure it's going to start acting up the very minute the new one gets here. Just like an old dog does when a puppy joins the house hold. Either that or the old lappy will give up and decide his little sweet life isn't worth living.

Either way, I worry about it's sad little fate.

Astounding displays of bad parenting

Alright, I know I've never been a parent and I really have no desire to become one, but I'm 100% sure that I know when I see amazingly bad parenting. On our Saturday afternoon stroll around the San Diego Zoo I was amazed to hear one mother calling her son a craphead. Yes, it sounds hilarious and it was rather hilarious in the, "I can't believe that grown woman actually used that word and on her tantrum throwing 8 year old child. What kind of wacko world does she live in?" kind of way. We kind of stared in disbelief, while fully aware that people use all sorts of inappropriate language towards their children. Really now, if anybody had ever used that sort of language towards me when I was a child I would have grown up to be a rather miserable little wretch. I was just so sensitive, it would have been severely detrimental.

The other amazing display of bad parenting technique was just odd. A mother was walking around a cute little pond full of giant Koi, turtles and ducks, with her two sons(one pre teen and one about 4 years old). We saw the little guy throw a rather large rock into the pond and were relieved that it didn't hit any of the fish. We assumed that the mother would scold her boy and so turned back to watching the fish, but the stupid woman just stood there while he picked up two more even bigger rocks and threw the smallest one at a turtle, just missing it by an inch or two. Finally I realized that neither the mother or the older brother would intervene and so I walked over and said "No, don't throw rocks at the turtles and fish. That is mean." And I stared and him until he stopped his naughty little throwing. What a naughty little boy. His mother still didn't really react. Maybe she was too tired to do anything but in that case it's just time to leave the zoo. How horrible!

So, I'm just an interferer, and I'm sure that my scolding won't stop that little boy from a life time of throwing rocks at little animals, but at least someone has told him not to do it.

mold is cute

Here's a picture of the mold that I found behind the bottle of Hello Kitty bubble bath, as imagined by Matthew, who is at work, but has vast amounts of experience in cleaning out moldy showers. Such an accurate depiction =)

The Housewife in me...

Since I didn't take my theraflu today I've gotta find something else to motivate me to do the dishes and I think Caldrea dish washing liquid will do the trick. Seriously folks, this stuff smells delicious and it works really well. It's also exorbitantly expensive so I probably won't be buying any when my samples run out. My dear, sweet employers brought back a handful of these little samples from Market(the place where buyers for retail shops go to shop) and I am now absolutely in love with Caldrea's product. I do have to wonder if paying 8 bucks for a 16oz bottle of dish soap ever evens out. But then, when you consider how much less you have to use of the product and when you consider how yummy it smells, therefore how much happier it makes you feel while you're doing a pile of dishes, it might not be such a rip off. Hmmm....I'll have to reconsider this question when I actually have money in my bank account instead of a big fat zero in my account and a pile of new clothes from victoria's secret in my closet =) Then I'll see if the $8 dish soap and the shipping cost on the dish soap will be justifiable for such a luxury.

My drug of choice is...

Theraflu, specifically the Daytime Severe Cold version of the medicine. This stuff is crazy. I have no idea what they put in it to make me so hyper and full of energy but it works very well. I mean it makes me want to just do chores all day long. The only thing that kept me from cleaning everything in sight was the knowledge that I was in fact sick, despite how I felt, and that my incredibly runny nose would just spread germs as quickly as I cleaned.

That's my only complaint, it decongests and therefore does not stop a runny nose. As soon as it wears off, I remember why I took it in the first place, but until then having a head cold does little to stop me from doing more, with more energy, than I ever do when I'm perfectly well. I think I already feel an addiction forming, so hopefully I'll be fully well by tomorrow(and I won't have an excuse to use it). I'm having trouble resisting the tempting thought that this could be rather useful, for those days off when I just don't feel like doing chores.

The problem with whatever energizing ingredient they put in this version of theraflu(it isn't listed, at least not that I can tell) is that it makes me want to stop resting and do something, anything to keep from being idle. The benefit is that it helps me focus. Yesterday, after finishing up making a delicious pot of soup, doing the dishes, taking out the trash and fighting off the urge to clean the entire top of the fridge(believe me it is nasty) I was able to read for a couple of hours with such focus that I finished way more than I expected to. It doesn't make me feel the way caffeine does. I know this because all caffeine does is help me not focus and frazzle my little nerves.

What is in the theraflu? Can I get huge amounts of it? How much does it cost? Is it highly dangerous and addictive? I think this could be useful if I ever get to grad school.

Perhaps I'll just have to start saving up all my nasty chores for when I'm sick and have an excuse to take this delightful drug =)