Kitchen Witches

My new Kitchen Witch. For centuries Norwegians and Germans have hung similar witches in their kitchen. The theory is that the Kitchen Witch has the power to keep roasts from burning, pots from boiling over, and sauces from spilling.

She comes with her own Broom and the price was right. She was only .50 cent Euro.

I think she and Alan will get along just fine in our German Kitchen!

Labor Day 2010 - Ludwigs Palace

Ludwigsburg Palace a tour in pictures. A great day spent touring the palace of King Frederick in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Apple Pie!!

For this recipe you will need:
1 Mixing Bowl
Rolling pin
Knife
Measuring spoons
Measuring Cups
Fork to mix the Dough
Cutting Board
9 inch Pie Pan (smaller is ok, but not bigger)

Preheat Oven to 425
First Step: Mixing the Pie Crust Ingredients
(I used a Betty Crocker Oil Pastry Recipe)

Mix in a large bowl:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
I teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup Oil

STIR until pieces are the size of small peas. Then add water a tablespoon at a time
(up to 3-4 tablespoons). Mixing until flour is moistened and dough almost
cleans the side of the bowl.

Gather dough together and press into a ball.Divide the dough into two pieces. Now between two pieces of wax paper roll out one ball of dough.

Roll pastry 2 inches larger than inverted pie pan. Peel off top paper. Place pastry paper side up in pan. Peel off remaining paper. Ease pastry loosely into pan.

Note I didn’t bring a pie pan to Germany with me.....so I made mine in a cake pan and it seems to have turned out great!

Filling for 9 inch Pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash of Salt
6 cups thinly slided peeled apples (6 apples)
2 tablespoon butter

Stir together sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt; mix with apples.

Dump into pastry lined pie pan, dot with butter.

Cover with top pie crust AND cut slits in it.

Cover edges with foil strips to prevent over browning.

Bake first 25 minutes with foil strips and then remove.

Serve warm with Vanilla Ice Cream!!

Purple Car Wobble

So today I found out what the wobble was on Purple car....I took her over to the POV Inspection station for a courtesy safety inspection. They put her up on a rack and gave her the once over (all free of charge!). What they found was a bad ball joint on her front right side. Her symptoms (or my description there of) matched this diagnosis according to Alan. So we have scheduled her for ball joint surgery on 15 September. If all goes well she will be up and running again very soon! With that, a new clamp for her exhaust pipe and the new battery I put in last week she will make someone a great around the town car!

Purple Car on a Rainy day!!

We put Purple Car on the Lemon Lot (for her I guess it should be the Grape Lot) at the Base Exchange with a For Sale sign on her. Alan got a call for a test drive and he and the potential buyer took her for a spin. The guy bought another "gently used" car and wished up luck selling her (she was his second choice (man don’t you hate that.) So before we left for Denver Alan went back over and dropped the price on Purple Car to entice a quick sale. His climbed in started her up to make sure everything was ok and then posted the new sign in her windows.

Purple car did not sell before we left town, so Alan wanted to drop the price again and made up some signs for me to put in the window upon my return to Germany. Sunday I went over the the Exchange and while there checked on Purple Car. When I unlocked her door she sounded funny. As I climbed in I noticed her lamp lights did not come one. And sure enough when I tried the keys she would not start. She was dead and a door nail (now I wonder where that saying came from??). I also noticed that her parking light switch was on ( this is right on the dash board where someones knee frequently would rub across and turn the lights on as he was getting out of the car but in the garage it was always apparent that the parking lights were on). I turned off the light switch, posted the new signs and locked her up and headed home to call back to my stateside car expert.

We decided to see if someone could jump start me and if so maybe that was all it would take. Monday morning I canvassed the office and couldn't find anyone with jumper cables. And surely know one had a 220 jump box... (Man I miss my Man). I had about decided I was going to have to have it towed to the car repair shop when the Swing Shift crew came in and sure enough one of them had cables. My friend Jerry found the jumper cables (they were Jason’s and being that kid of guy, Jason went out in the pouring rain to get them out of his car for me). These guys over here really do look out for me when mein Man is out of town.

Mo (who’s wife lives a 4+ hr drive from Stuttgart and so must know what it is like to have to have other men help out his Fraulein) took pity on me and went over the the Lemon Lot at the end of the work day and met me at the car. He jumped it and we let it charge for awhile. Then he turned it off and tried to start it and it wouldn’t so we jumped it again (the rain had stopped while we were doing this) and I drove it around on post for 15 minutes (it was pouring rain again). AS I drove past the Car Care place I noticed that they were open until 1800 so I decided on my next time around I would pull in and park as this would be the nest place to be if it didn’t start again.

Sure enough it wouldn’t turn over. So I went inside and the guy came out and tested it. He said all it needed was a quick charge. Then he brought out some big jump box and plugged it all up. It took it a long time to get enough charge for it to turn over but he told me the battery was good, it just needed a good charge or a long distance drive. But all the while this was going on it was raining again.....I did not want to be out driving around in the rain and have it die on me so I told him to replace it ($64.99 install free with 2 year warranty).

After he installed the new battery (rain falling the whole time but the kid was from Seattle {I’d tell you his name if I knew how we were related :) } he told me to drive it around as these new ones are only 80% charged. She started right up and we left it running while I went in to pay. When I came out it had stopped raining and there was a vacuum right there and so Purple car got a 25¢ swipe over!

While she was running and charging I got out the paper work and uploaded the Radio code (she was saying the code, the code, figure out how to enter the code, but the book was all in German). See when it looses all power the computer goes dead and before the radio can play again you have to enter a factory provided code. It took me a couple of tries but I got her music box playing again...these words were all in German too!

Then I headed off base towards the Penny Mart and was going to take a 30 minute drive (or so) but the car started acting funny. It got a wobbling kind of thing going on as I slowed down. I seem to remember it did this on the way home from the Black Forest once. It was only when I slowed down (might just be wheels out of alignment; man I miss my man). Naturally I got spooked , took the first round-a-bout full circle and headed back to the post. I backed her into the parking spot turned her off. Then tried to start it again, sure enough it fired right up. I put the for sale signs up in the windows and tired to start her again, yep she was liking her new battery.

I think I’l update that for sale sign with NEW BATTERY!!

AS I drove off in my new Mini it started raining again and I got to test out the rain censored wipers!! Maybe I can do this with out him but it is so much easier with him! Have I mentioned I miss my husband lately??

Castle Tours

Hohenzollern Castle, Hechingen, Germany

(click on Hohenzollern for a pictorial of our day)

Today we went on a tour of Hohenzollern Castle. It is about 30 miles from Stuttgart and takes about 45 minutes to get there from our house.

The existing castle is the third castle erected on this hilltop overlooking Hechingen. Records show the first castle was built here in 1025 and was destroyed fter a 10-month siege in 1423 involving a family feud. A second, larger and sturdier castle was constructed from 1454 to 1461. By the end of the 18th century, however, the castle was thought to have lost its strategic importance and gradually fell into disrepair, leading to the demolition of several dilapidated buildings. Today, only the chapel remains from the medieval castle. These remains or what was left of the grand castle were in ruins when Frederick first saw them in 1819. And finally rebuilt the 3rd time with the corner stone being laid in 1852

King Frederick William IV rebuilt this castle following a dream from his childhood to live on these elevated hilltop grounds of his ancestors. See as a prince, he visited these grounds (1819) and was so impressed by the romantic castle ruins that he ordered its reconstruction. But the rebuild did not start right way. Between 1850 and 1867 the king’s dream was finally realized. Following the romantic ideal of that era they built one of the most imposing neo gothic castles in Germany.

The Hohenzollern castle rises from atop a 855 meter high mountain overlooking the Swabian Alb. Its bastions and paramounts offer a breathtaking panorama over the countryside. The splendid halls and rooms have been furnished by Prince Louis Ferdinand or Prussia (1907 - 1994) with valuable art work pertaining to the kings of Prussia and the emperors of Germany. Besides the artwork there are crown jewels, gold and silver-smith works and original garments worn by Frederick the Great and Queen Louise housed here.

There are 2 chapels on the castle grounds, St. Michaels chapel dates back to the 15th century and the Protestant Christ Chapel built during the rebuild of the castle. The stain glass windows in St. Michaels are from the 13th century and are the oldest know depiction of the Hohenzollern heraldry (coat of arms). The coat of arm colors are black and white and many of the outside decorations carried this same color scheme.

We took the shuttle bus up to the castle from the parking lot but decided to walk down the mountain (855 meters is about .5 miles; straight down). It was a beautiful day (high was only 81), the skies were blue and there were big white puffy clouds floating by all afternoon. We had a snack (pommes) sitting under shade tree on the terrace prior to our tour. There was an English speaking tour guide who shared the history and family stories during the 45 minute tour.

It was an unforgettable afternoon!

The Others

Most of The Others ventured out and traveled away from home at one time or another, we stayed in the OKC area.

We moved a few miles but all within the same school district; The Others moved their families out of the Oklahoma City area and across the United States.

We raised our children only a few miles from where my husband went to elementary school; most of The Others moved elsewhere and those with children put them in schools outside of their hometowns.

The Others came to visit for the holidays and stayed with the parents, we lived across town so we went home after these family gatherings.

The Others came for summer visits, we arranged our schedules so that we would be in town for their visits.

The Others made long distance calls back home to stay in touch with the parents, we made frequent week night visits and lunch plans every Sunday after church.

I always envied The Others being able to come and go, their exciting life of travel and venturing out beyond the familiarity of home and hearth. But I loved the fact that we lived our life so close to “home” knowing we were making our foundation for our children right there in our home town.

Then after almost 30 years of marriage in a matter of weeks we made a decision to move to Germany. In the course of 2 months we joined "the others" category.

We no longer have children in school but we will be the ones coming home for Christmas this year, we might even be staying at the parents over the holidays. Better yet in just a couple of weeks we will be the ones coming home for vacation...

And this vacation will be ever so special we are going to home to meet our newest granddaughter!

For this particular trip we won’t care that The Others will not be around to spend time with us. We will relish the short time we have; splitting this time between our sons and their families and our parents. We will be on a leisure schedule all the while loving being with granddaughters Ryan and Isabella!

I have experienced The Other side and it is something I think everyone should get a chance to enjoy. I have not yet seen all I want to see during my time as an Other but I can tell you one thing when this stint is over I am going to enjoy once again being the hometown sibling~