Salad 101

There have been some requests for recipes as well as the much sought after "Debbie Tips". I must tell you that the following content is not rocket science by any means. There are a lot of little things I am learning in the kitchen these days that are kind of rocking my world. Nothing crazy new, but just a lot of "Ah ha, I never thought of that" moments. Here is the recipe for one of the salads I made this week that I particularly enjoyed. Simple, accessible, and yummy.

Christmas Salad (named for it's mix of green and red colors; you may eat this at any time of year) - 

1 bunch of red leaf lettuce 

1 yellow apple, cubed

1 pear, cubed

3 oz. shredded parmesan cheese

3/4 cup cashews

1/2 cup craisins

1 small red onion, sliced or diced (whatever)

Christmas Salad Dressing - 

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tsp poppy seed

Debbie Tip #1:  Back at home I had always washed the lettuce immediately before preparing a salad, assuming it would make for the freshest results. However, Debbie has taught me that washing lettuce the day before a salad is to be made allows the lettuce to be clean, crisp, and fresh, yet not at all wet or soggy. I rinse the lettuce in the sink with water, use a salad spinner to drain off any and all excess water, and then put the lettuce in a tightly sealed plastic bag. When it's time to make the salad the next day, I only need to rip the lettuce up and discard any pieces that aren't looking so hot.  

Debbie Tip #2:  I'm learning to accept correction, but hey, it's a process. I am a work in process. The first salad I made here was for a small group of 4 people (it was not a house event), and afterwards Debbie kindly informed me that salad I had made needed a bit of, well, improvement. She warned me that if I don't tear the lettuce smaller for our house meals, to about an inch or an inch and a half squared in size, my salad would not feed the entire group. To be honest, I didn't believe this to be true. It seemed an optical illusion to me. I mean, you have the same amount of lettuce either way... right? So what difference does it make how small you tear up the lettuce? It doesn't change how much lettuce you are working with. But now that I have done it three times, I am now a believer. Tearing the lettuce into smaller pieces appears to make the salad go further than it would have otherwise. It looks bigger too.  

Debbie Tip #3:  Mix all of the salad ingredients together in a small bowl, except for the lettuce. As you are tearing the lettuce up into a large bowl, layer it with the small bowl ingredients. Repeat this again and again. Layer o' lettuce, layer o' mix-ins, layer o' lettuce, layer o' mix-ins. Doing this means that you don't need to toss your salad. Everything is already evenly mixed/layered together. 

Debbie Tip #4:  It takes about 2 minutes to make the dressing. Before I even assemble the salad, I make the dressing and toss it in the fridge where it's going to hang out for the rest of the day. If everyone's coming for dinner at 6:30pm, I pull the salad out of the fridge at 6pm, throw the dressing on it, and stick it back in the fridge. A half hour is the perfect amount of time for a salad to be "dressed." It's not soggy from sitting in its dressing all day, but it still has time for deliciousness to permeate. Mmmm. 


Enjoy! If you guys like this kind of thing, let me know and I'll do more. Pamela Ellgen's chocolate cookie recipe is so totally killer, and I might be willing to share that with you... Love you guys.

Photos for the non-FBers out there...

I posted a bunch of photos on Facebook from my travels to Switzerland and Turkey (approx 200) that you are all welcome to peruse at your leisure. My plan is to upload the rest of my photos from my Turkey/Greece trip onto FB soon as well, within the next few days or so. But for those of you who don't have Facebook (I know there are a few of you out there), I will share my favorites here. We don't want you missing out! You won't get to see all of the photos unless you bite the bullet and sign up for that Facebook account, but you will get the meat and potatoes here at Das Bloggerstein. Hopefully I will be as good about taking photos now that I'm settled in here in Germany. Hopefully.

PS - My luggage was not decapitated on the flight back to Frankfurt like I thought it might be. It was labeled a "special needs" bag and transported to and from the plane on an extra-large conveyor belt, haha. She's hanging in there!

Home Alone

Debbie is a domestic goddess, and she is teaching me how to be one as well. With 30 years of hospitality experience under her belt, Debbie is simply the best when it comes to maintaining a home and cooking delicious meals in mass quantities that are economical. It's really an art. Debbie and I spend most of the day together. We have been meal-planning, grocery shopping, preparing meals, cleaning up after meals, doing dishes, cleaning toilets, and more. There's a lot to be done around here, but we work and rest, work and rest, work and then rest some more. And I'm finding it all to be pretty doable and pretty restful. There's still time for me to do the things I want to do, like reading and running and communicating with all of you people. 

The two regular events of the home are Wednesday's Dinner & Discussion and Friday's Dinner & Bible Study. There are frequently other events, like weekend excursions (both in and out of town). For example, this past Wednesday Debbie and I met a group of ladies and their kids for lunch, which was a really nice thing. And this coming Saturday night we will be having folks over for waffles and games and a movie. Wednesday we had 11 people over, and our philosophical conversation was about why it's difficult for us to  admit when we're wrong about things, why we so badly need to be right about things and have our "stuff" together. We kind of talked about a lot of interesting ideas, but that was the big one. Tonight Brad will finish up a study on Ecclesiastes.

Brad and Debbie leave on Sunday for England and will be gone for one week. They will spend time with their son, Richard, and his family, as well as attend to some Cadence ministry business (meetings, etc.). This means that I will be left to my own devices to keep this house running. I'm no Debbie, and I'm no Brad, but I am me. And I can sure bring my own gifts and talents and spice to the table. The house will remain open while the Ellgens are away next week. Lord help us. ;)

The army base is constantly in transition, it seems. Depending upon deployment (and other factors I'm not aware of the specifics), people are always arriving and departing in droves. It waxes and it wanes. At this time, the Baumholder base is all but shutting down, which means that just about every single person has been reassigned and is leaving. Many have already left and everyone else has their dismissal date and is preparing to leave shortly. This all means that there are goodbyes to be said on a weekly if not daily basis. I can tell this is really hard for Brad and Debbie, as they have invested themselves in relationships with folks who have been a part of their ministry for a long time, some as long as three years. And in a short while, there won't be anyone left until sometime this fall. I think saying goodbye so many times so often must be very tiring.

Thanks again for our prayers and support, you guys. I would appreciate it if you would continue to remember me in your thoughts and prayers. Specifically, you can pray that everything goes well next week, that I don't burn dinner, and that I don't burn down the house. Haha! Pray that I remember to feed and walk Sam the dog, and that I don't feel stuck or lonely on the days that there are no quote ministry events end quote.

And now I'm off to make the chicken salad casserole with Debbie for tonight's dinner. We already made a broccoli salad this morning, so that is ready to go. Yum yum!

Broken

That was a close one! Charlotte and I nearly missed our ferry from Mykonos to Naxos yesterday (by the way, we decided to add another island) - as in the boat's engine was started, the passenger ramp had been raised, and they were just about to raise the main ramp and take off. Boy that got our hearts beatin' good. As soon as we got on board Charlotte and I looked at each other, took a big sigh of relief, and then let out a big laugh. It wasn't our fault, because I'm sure that's what you're thinking. Tisk tisk. Our hotel manager (Bobby) was 15 minutes late in picking us up, and then he needed to drop this Italian guy off at the airport first, so then, late we ran.

I've had an encouraging last couple of days following a couple of rough days. Greece was just so much hotter than I thought it'd be. The beaches (depending on where you go) are way overcrowded and overstimulating. Greece has a lot more trash and litter than I though it would. (They don't show that part in Mama Mia or in any of the pretty magazine pictures either.) Somewhere between Syros and Mykonos I got ten or so mosquito bites below the knees. (Charlotte got none, by the way. I guess my A+ blood is sweeter than hers.) And then, my new luggage turned into something of a hot mess. I didn't really think that part through fully - how much I would  be lugging it on and off of ferries, up and down hills, over cobblestone roads, up and down stairs. It never occurred to me that this was a backpacking kind of trip. I only really pictured the beach part of it all, I suppose. I now deeply and genuinely wish I had brought a giant backpack instead of a rolling suitcase, especially now that my suitcase handle is broken. My attitude was broken for a while there, too. But then it occurred to me, "Good grief woman, you are in one of the most beautiful places in the world; let it go and enjoy." I cannot let this stuff steal my joy; it's not gonna happen. Regarding the luggage, we've done all that we can do, and so it appears that my luggage handle is forever at attention, ready to be rolled away at any and every moment. I have a strong inclination that when I pick it up after my flight back to Frankfurt it will have been decapitated. Oh but later on then I saw a lady with the wheels broken off of her bag, dragging it around town, and it occurred to me, "Oh thank God the wheels on my luggage work. They are still attached. Oh yes yes, thank God."

Naxos is the best island we've visited. Tomorrow we are headed to Athens for our last two nights. I have been taking lots of photos - hundreds in fact, keeping up better on my journaling than I have in a long time, and reading quite a bit, too. I read Prince Caspian of the Narnia series. Mehhh, not my favorite so far. And now I'm on to With by Skye Jethani. Ever since we visited Ephesus I've been hanging out in Ephesians, too. Paul's, like, too smart for me though...or I, too lazy. I wish I had a small group readily available to study and talk about it with right now. That would be nice. I've been working on memorizing Ephesians 3:17b-18. You should join in on the fun and memorize it with me. 

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I was Russian, I'd have about $12 right now, ...and well that would buy my lunch, which would be great.

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."    Ephesians 3:17b-18

It's All Greek to Me

Hello friends! I am writing to you from an internet cafe on the island of Samos, Greece. Thank the Lord for air conditioning. With some conversion here and there, we believe that it is approximately 89 degrees Fahrenheit outside with 80% humidity...pretty warm, folks! Charlotte and I finally nailed down our travel plans - well, mostly. We will be visiting Samos, Syros, Mykonos, and Athens this week. I'm sure it will fly by as everything seems to have done thus far. Samos is really just a starting point for us in Greece, as we are not staying long. We will take a ferry boat tonight in just under five hours. I would describe Samos as a quaint historic port town. We have walked around and explored quite a bit here. There's a city square, a small park, some churches, and lots of cafes, restaurants, ect. We visited the museum today, which has this giant old human sculpture in it. And by giant I mean two stories giant. They only discovered it 30 years ago, and it is really really cool. As it turns out, Charlotte is a wonderful traveling buddy (haha!) - not that it ever crossed my mind that she wouldn't be, I swear it.

Our time in Selcuk/Ephesus/Sirince with Chelsea was - dare I say - perfect. It was so very restful and complete. We stayed at the most wonderful little pension/hotel there called Hotel Nazar (in case any of you are thinking to visit Turkey/Ephesus. I would definitely stay there again, and I will be certainly let Trip Advisor know this as well. Osman and the staff there took very good care of us and said that we were like "the angels of the pension." :)

My time is about to expire...ahh!! Farewell for now.

Ef - God - Is - Stow.... Say that altogether fast and it means "thank you" in Greek. Love!

Istanbul'dayim

Translation: I am in Istanbul. I wasn't so sure I was going to make it here after all because the staff of Turkish Airlines decided to have a strike the day I was scheduled to fly out. I made more than a few friends in the airport waiting area as we talked about if and when this flight was ever going to leave. Apparently, per contract, Turkish Airlines is supposed to cancel the flight and offer hotel accommodations to its guests once the flight has been delayed for five plus hours, but no, we waited eleven hours. They refused to cancel that flight. An 11:45am flight ended up actually being an 11pm flight...but I made it at last! Arriving at Anneliese and Marc's doorstep two shuttles and a taxi later with the sunrise. Praise the Lord. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that so MUCH of my Turkish language flooding back to me. It was as if a light switch went on. I'm still pretty terrible at communicating with Turks, but I understand a lot of the things I am hearing and reading. It's been quite the sensation.

My time here has been so nice. Anneliese is doing a great job with new baby Rahel, and Rahel is a very good little baby. Perfect combo really. She doesn't cry or fuss much at all, and her temperment is pretty darn easy going, I'd say. Easiest baby of the year award goes to...Rahel Madrigal!! We are trying to be a support to Anneliese in whatever ways we can be....I hope it's working. But honestly, she doesn't need a lot of support. She's a really good mommy already.

Today we had an outing with baby and visited a small island just off the coast of Istanbul called Büyükada. (It means big island.) Charlotte and I rented bikes and road up and down Büyükada's many hills. It felt good to do something active. I hadn't really done anything active (aside from walking the city) since the aggressive adult hike last weekend in Switzerland. The scenery was beautiful. Only emergency vehicles are permitted on the island, so everybody else must get around the island by horse and carriage or bicycle. Charlotte and I had to dodge some stray horses and cows on the bike pathway...kind of funny. 

We will say goodbye to Anneliese and Baby Rahel this Thursday and travel down the coast of Turkey a bit. Chelsea will visit with some friends in Izmir, and then the three of us will stay one night in Selcük, which is the town nearest to Ephesus. We will walk around the ruins during the day and then have dinner nearby in Şirince. The next day we will travel on to Kuşadası, where we hope/expect to find a Turkish bath. Charlotte and I will catch a ferry out of Kuşadası for our nine day "Mama Mia tour" in Greece. (We're not really taking a Mama Mia tour, we're not even really sure which islands that movie was filmed on, but we would be pleased if the islands we visit are just like the ones in the movie.) I will then return to Germany on June 18th where I will stay a while. Anyway, that's the general itinerary. When I get back to Germany, Brad and I are going to sit down and talk more in depth about expectations and what my time will look like while I am there. I'm looking forward to this conversation.

I'd better get back to the girls. Tonight is our last night altogether, which is hard to believe. It has totally flown by. Is anyone reading this thing? Show some love and leave a comment, people!