Real (German’s Walmart), Butlers and Sendlinger Christmas Market

Yesterday, my mom and I went to REAL, which is the German version of Walmart and I must say that it was a bit on the gross side. You know when you walk into a Walmart and there is something not right with the lighting and it makes the store almost feel dirty…well this is how this store felt. We did find some good stuff for cheap such as hangers, Christmas decorations, champagne, under the bed storage, and lego advent calendars (my mom bought these for her future grand kids). Afterwards, I brought my mom to a store called Butlers which has a variety of home goods and Christmas decorations. My mom loved this store and we may even go to the larger one in Odeonsplatz tomorrow as I think she wants to see what they have as well. After looking around and purchasing some ornaments and other items for my flat, we decided to check out the Sendlinger Tor Christmas Market. It was around 17:30 uhr and it was filled with the after work crowd, but we noticed that this market was filled with more locals than tourists, which was nice. We had our mugs of gluhwien and I actually ended up holding a two minute conversation with three German men. My mom was very impressed as I was speaking German. I was pretty proud of myself!

We love the Christmas Markets!!!

We then decided to bring food in from the Mexican restaurant near our flat as Brad had German class and we wanted him to eat with us. Of course my mom wanted to have the bottle of bubbly we purchased at REAL, so to ensure that it would be chilled in time, I placed it on our patio under a bed of snow. I love our huge freezer! Off to the galleria to find Brad some boots as he finally admitted to needing them…I guess he almost slipped four times yesterday.

Wir vermissen dich – die Gauntletts

Flughafen

We have finally returned from the airport where we got to see my grandma and grandpa Hickey prior to their Christmas Market 10-day cruise, but getting there was a disaster. First, we were running late and going to miss the u-bahn. So Brad ran to the ATM, while my mom finished getting ready and ended up meeting him at the corner. We were back on schedule until we got the train station and figured out that the ticket machines do not take 50 euro bills. Therefore, Brad had to run back upstairs, find an open coffee shop (harder than you think as most places are closed on Sundays), purchase a coffee and then hurried back to the train station. At this point, we are completely behind schedule and decide to take the S8 via Hauptbahnof rather than our normal way as it appears to be coming more frequent. Upon arriving at Hauptbahnof, we noticed several of the trains were not running and the same announcement was coming across the loud speaker every few minutes. After five minutes of trying to interpret what they were saying, we decided to ask someone. Sure enough the S8 was not stopping in the main station as something had occurred early that morning and we need to take a different train in order to pick it up some place else. After about an hour we arrive at the airport and are looking forward to seeing my grandparents. However the directions my grandpa wrote out are extremely difficult to read and somehow we wind up at a Bayern Munich Soccer press conference. Completely random and of course I want to stay and watch it, but my mom gets directions and after about ten more minutes of walking around, we find them. After an hour or so visit, my grandparents are off to catch their cruise and we all decide to hang out at the Christmas Market. The airport has a fairly large one, with lots of food, shopping, an ice skating rink, and of course, gluhwein!

A view of the Christmas Market from one of the gluhwein outside bars

Brad love the cheese pretzels the best.

After a few mugs of hot spiced wine and ornaments, we decide to head back to the flat. Since it is cold and snowy today (not to mention everything is closed), we decide to hang out at home and watch movies. We did enjoy a wonderful dinner at Lowenbrau last night and my mom loved her Wiener Schnitzel and giant beer!

Ludwig’s Crazy Castle

We all just got back from a great day in Neuschwanstein and I cannot believe how beautiful it was up there. The snow was fresh and white.

Because the snow had recently fallen and the path was slippery, the buses were not running. Therefore, we had to walk up this extremely steep and winding path up to the castle and I quickly realized that I did not wear the proper boots. Also, when we purchased our tour tickets, the cashier told us it was a forty minute walk and we would be unable to enter the castle until our tour. After going to the restroom, we embarked on the journey and after about five minutes my feet were frozen and my mom was taking off her jacket…pretty funny to have the two extremes. About fifteen minutes later, we see a little booth with wasser, gluhwien and bretzeln. We thought we were about half way to the castle, so my mom asks the vendor, “how far is the castle? Are we about half way?” All of a sudden the vendor gets a huge smile on his face and says, “you are two minutes away, look behind you.” Oops, we totally did not even see it, but the castle was pretty much next to us. Then I noticed a little restaurant to the left and suggested we grab something to eat and try to warm up as our tour was not for an hour. My mom and Brad got pea soup and sausage and I went with the hot chocolate.

Ludwig’s Castle is beautiful and does look similar to Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. We learned during our visit that although the castle was designed to look medieval, it had several modern refinements, such as running water, hot air, and automatic flushing toilets. Also, King Ludwig had numerous swan icons throughout the castle as this was his favorite animal and is often known as the Swan King. The castle was actually far from completion when Ludwig passed away and has been open to the public ever since.

After walking around the grounds and taking photos, we decided to indulge in fresh doughnuts and gluhwien.
After doughnuts and gluhwien, we started down the path to head back to the train. We did stop to take these photos as the scenery was too beautiful to pass up.

Heading to dinner at Löwenbraukeller, hope my mom likes German food and bier.

Champagne, Gluhwien and More Champagne

My mom arrived this morning and we had a wonderful day together. First, we enjoyed a coffee at the airport starbucks and then headed to the S-Bahn, here she is waiting for the train:
After a forty-five minute train ride with one transfer and a two block walk, we arrived at our flat. My mom put her stuff down and immediately began looking around. She thought our place was really nice and very impressed with everything I had done so far with it. We ate some lunch (left-over thanksgiving food since she was on a plane during our family dinner in Chicago) and she too enjoyed the food. We both decided that the marmalade was delicious and that I should make it for Christmas dinner this year. Afterwards, we ventured to Marienplatz as I wanted to show her the famous clock tower, the Galleria and one of the Weihnachtsmarkts. We took the u-bahn to Sendlinger Tor and then transferred to the U3, which takes you right to Marienplatz. After looking at the clock tower, we headed into the Galleria where I took her to the Gourmet Grocery Store, which has a bubble bar (champagne) in the middle and I knew she would love it. After having a few glasses of bubbly, chatting with a German couple, whom spoke perfect English, and purchasing a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier Reim (gold label) Champagne, we went to the American section. My mom thought it was so funny and could not believe what they import here, especially the spray cheese:
On our way out of the store, my mom noticed that some gentlemen were pouring wine, so we decided to stop and taste. We ended up purchasing a bottle of white wine from Chateau Dereszla, Tokaji Dry – Furmint Trocken 2009. Afterwards, we decided to check out the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) and try some of the famous gluhwien. Here we are enjoying our first cup together:
My mom and I also discovered Zartbitter-Schokolade Trauben und Walnüssen (Dark Chocolate covered Grapes and Walnuts), which was absolutely delicious. It is going to be hard to resist these tasty treats. After walking around drinking our hot wine for a while, we decided to return our cups and head back to the flat to see Brad and head to dinner. Since my mom was getting a little tired, we thought it would be best to have dinner in the resturant directly downstairs. This little Italian place is great and so convenient as it is located in our building. We recently found out that we can order food and they will bring it up to our flat as well as take our packages if we are not home. How fantastic is that!?!?! My mom wanted to try their champange; however they only had Rose, which my mom normally despises, but she decided to order it anyways. She ended up really enjoying it and now I must find out what it exactly is. Dinner was really good and now it is time for bed as we have to be up early to catch a train to Neuschwanstein as we are visiting Mad King Ludwig’s Castle.

Happy Thanksgiving

James, Sheryl and baby have just left our flat and Brad is speaking with his family, so I thought this was a perfect time to blog. I woke up early this morning, had coffee with Brad (my favorite) and then began to set out the serving trays. I did still need to run a few errands (purchase candles, a baguette, tea, etc), set the table, clean the flat, plate the appetizers, make the sweet potato puree/gravy and get ready. Everything was moving along fantastic and the table turned out perfect:
The appetizers were tasty too: Cheese Tray, mixed nuts, dried fruit, crackers, veggies, eggplants dip and hot apple pie cider.

Here is Brad making the gravy, I cannot believe he did it in his work clothes:

This is Brad and I having our first Thanksgiving dinner:

Here is the complete menu:
Appetizers:
-3 CheesesApples, Grapes and Pears
-Nuts, Dried Fruit, Crackers and Pumpernickel Rounds
-Eggplant Dip with Veggies
-Hot Apple Pie Cider

Main:
-Turkey and Gravy
-Marinated Carrots
-Yukon Gold, Sweet Potato Puree
-Stuffing
-Cranberry, Cherry & Walnut Marmalade
-Fresh Baguette
-Red Wine

Dessert:
-Chocolate Chip Cookies
-Fruit Loop Rice Crispy Treats
-Dark Chocolate Truffles
-Caramel Popcorn and Candied Walnuts
-Tea and Scotch

We had a great dinner and our TV was working perfectly. Time to clean up and go to bed as I need to wake up early to pick up my mom at the airport!

Thanksgiving Prep/Cooking (Day 4)

I was able to talk Brad into going to work a little later than usual (7:30 AM instead of 6:30 AM), so he could come to the butcher and approve the meat selection with me as I was still unsure and since I do not eat it I figured he would be the right person for the job. Luckily, the shop was on the way to the U-Bahn and not out of the way for Brad. He approved the two turkey breasts I had sen the day before and went off to work. The butcher wrapped them up and I headed home to cook. I decided to make the cranberry, cherry marmalade first, which turned out amazing and I hope everyone enjoys it. The marmalade has fresh cranberries, dried cherries, port, orange zest and walnuts.

Next was the fruit loop rice crispy treats. A few weeks ago, we were having lunch with the couple who is coming over for dinner and James mentioned that he loves fruit loops, but have been unable to find them in Munich. A few days later, I was in the store and saw them, so I purchased a box for Brad as he loves them too. Then, I got to thinking that there had to be a recipe for some type of fruit loop treat and since I was only planning on serving chocolate chip cookies, this would be perfect. These ended up turning out stickier than I had hoped, but still good. Then, I prepared the brine (sage, rosemary, water, brown sugar, lemons oranges etc) for the turkey breasts and placed it back in the refrigerator. The popcorn was a last minute addition as Brad had made some the night before and, instead of snacking on it, I decided to make it into caramel corn. I added nuts to it and it ended up being quite tasty, but I love all popcorn!

The spiced chickpeas did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but oh well. Everything was coming together and Brad insisted on trying everything when he got home. Brad agreed that the chickpeas were not the best and encouraged that I did not serve them, but I may still put them out…stay tuned. Less than twenty-four hours until our first thanksgiving meal, hope it all goes well.

Thanksgiving Prep/Cooking (Day 3)

I was able to get almost all the items I needed for dinner except for the cheeses and puten (turkey) breast. Therefore, I decided to head to Karstadt’s gourmet grocery store and tackle the remaining items. However, I was a little nervous about the cheese counter as I cannot read German (not very well, at least) and was unsure if the ladies would speak any English. Therefore, I did some research online and after writing a long list of cheese varieties/types (both in English and German) I decided to venture out to the store. After circling the store a half a dozen times and walking up to the cheese case at least once and then turning around, I finally got up the courage to ask the large German women, “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” She responded, “a little.” After picking three all by myself and tasting a few others, I decided on an Ubriaco Prosecco Cheese, Truffle Brie, Hirtenkase, Edelpilzkäse and an English hard cheese with a fig topping. After taking care of the cheese plate, I stopped over to the meat counter to see what type of puten they had available. To my surprise, there was nothing and I started to get nervous since this is the main component of the meal. On my way home, I stopped at two butchers and did find something at the second one, but did not purchase it. Hopefully, Brad will be able to come with me tomorrow morning before he goes to work and approve my findings.

After putting all the groceries away, I decided to start making the marinated carrots, eggplant goo dip and cutting the bread for Brad’s stuffing. Now, I have to mention that the only thing Brad requested as a side for our first Thanksgiving dinner was stuffing and I was super nervous that I would mess it up. Being the good wife that I am, I took out a ruler and began to cut twenty-two slices of bread into perfect 5x5 squares. After a few hours of chopping and cooking, the bread was in pans drying out (see picture), and the marinated carrots as well as the eggplant dip were in the refrigerator.

Stuffing Squares = 22 slices of white bread

After admiring my work, I poured myself a glass of wine and thought of all the things I needed to do tomorrow: the cranberry sauce, caramel popcorn, fruit loop rice crispy treats, spicy nuts, buy and brine the turkey breast and arrange flowers. Off to bed, Gute Nacht!