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K is for Cookie

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Actually K is for Kekse, but I don’t think the Cookie Monster song translates well into German.   Another thing that doesn’t translate well are my Christmas cookie recipes.  I started out with 5 target recipes and went shopping.  I found the ingredients for 3 of them.  Some things like Reese’s chips or instant oatmeal just don’t exist in our village.  It’s not that Austrians aren’t into baking.  There are huge displays in the grocery store of flour, sugar, nuts, spices, and all the stuff needed to make cakes, gingerbread, and all sorts of Christmas treats, just not cookies.

I should have taken the hint when I tried to buy an extra cookie sheet and couldn’t find one among the 20 types of cake pans and spring forms.  Instead of swapping between two trays, I decided to just use the one that I had brought from the US.  This would have been a good plan except that when I went to put the first batch into the oven, it didn’t fit.  It was about 2 inches too wide.  After a brief panic, we ended up using the broiler pan set on a higher rack.

Considering the pan situation and a few ingredient substitutes, the M&M (yes! they have those) cookies turned out close to normal, but a little crunchy (read: rock solid).   We’ve been eating them anyway, so they can’t be too bad.

A few other things I’ve learned: Vanilla is called Bourbon Vanilla and is a powder, not a liquid.  Backpulver is something like baking powder, there is no baking soda, and cream of tartar is called Natron and sold in organic health food stores. I’m going to try my new knowledge out on batch of peanut butter cookies tonight.  Stay tuned.

Far, far away

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

We’ve just had our one year anniversary of arriving in Austria, and celebrated with a vacation from Austria.  Not that we don’t like it here, but most of the travels we had over the last year have been in Austria or our neighboring countries. While we saw some amazing things and had some great experiences, we thought it was about time for a real “holiday” where we could just relax and not have to figure out any languages or navigate any strange roads.

Deciding where to go was a little harder.  In the US we probably would have hopped on a plane to Hawaii or the Caribbean, but here there are some other interesting choices.  We decided to take advantage of our position in Europe.  The Maldives are about 24+ hours of travel from most places in the US, but just an 8 hour direct flight from Vienna.

With that decision made, we spent a wonderful week in an over-water villa, eating spicy curries, drinking good wines, soaking up the sun and generally being pampered at Constance Moofushi (and it looks exactly like the pictures on their website).  The snorkeling in the Maldives is some of the best that we’ve done.  The trips out to the reefs were great, but even from our villa we could watch sharks, rays, and angel fish every day.

Boarding the seaplane to leave on the last day was sad, but just as shocking was the cold weather that awaited us back in Vienna.   It’s Winter!

Here’s a view of the villas taken from our kayak:

Getting ready to snorkel and I already have a visitor: