Shark Week

In excited anticipation of Discovery's upcoming Shark Week (thanks for the reminder, Mom!), Toby did his best impersonation of a shark. Enjoy!

One-Pot Red Beans and Rice

Since our "kitchen" is fairly small, we mostly make one-pot dinners.
Always on the look-out for tasty and relatively easy dishes,
I came across this gem a while back and wanted to share it.

I found it on Elly Says Opa and slightly modified her
Quicker (and Lighter) Red Beans and Rice recipe.

If you're interested, the few modifications I made were:
-turkey sausage instead of andouille
-low sodium, low fat chicken broth
-the ingredients list says 1 T of creole seasoning, divided, but the recipe itself only ever
calls for 1/2 T which is plenty in my opinion since creole seasoning can be a bit salty

We've made this dish about five times and love it just as much,
if not more, every time we make it.

One night, when we were cooking at Jeff and Marissa's, we tried this awesome
Tilapia with Lemon Pesto and Oven Roasted Tomatoes dish also from Elly Says Opa.
Divine and SO easy!

Guten Appetit!

Photo Essay: Toby & the Cat

Toby was definitely unsure of this new creature. It was so funny to watch him figure it out. His favorite maneuver was the classic bark-at-the-cat-and-then-run-behind-Mom-or-Dad.

True Life: Daily Ritual

One of my most favorite daily rituals since we've been in Germany may be surprising (although as much as food makes an appearance on this blog, it probably won't be that surprising...). Each morning, regardless of what else I have for breakfast, I always (seriously, every day) eat one of these beauties:

A bretzel roll!

Bretzels (soft pretzels) are extremely popular here. You can find them anywhere and everywhere. Generally they're served in the more traditional looking pretzel form, but a lot of times you can find the smaller (and cuter) bretzel rolls which quickly became my favorite. Breztels and bretzel rolls in Germany have a much richer, flavorful taste than the soft pretzels we're used to in the States. Early on in my breztel roll devotion, I started pairing my daily breztel roll with this dynamite find:



Kräuter (herb) cream cheese!



Match made in culinary heaven.

Since I will probably go through some sort of bretzel roll withdrawal after I leave Germany, I've already found a (hopefully) good recipe.

What is your favorite daily ritual??

Drumroll please...

Here's a fabulous Happy Birthday greeting to our sweet sister-in-law, Elli!

We hope you have a wonderful day. We are so excited for your big move and
can't wait to hear how it all goes. Weiss!!
Love - C & B

Blumengarten

Remember the post about our cute local biergarten? Well it turns out that the biergarten area is a great place to walk the pup. There are lots of big open spaces for him to explore and seemingly millions of new smells for him to sniff out. Another great aspect of that area is that it has a truly darling blumengarten (flower garden).

I fell in love with the adorable slate stakes:

The last time we went to that park, the boys ran ahead while I stayed behind and snapped a few photos of the beautiful, bright blooms:

There are SO many gorgeous blumengartens in our area, it's getting me very excited to create one of our own when we're back in the States!

All Things Toby

We've been having a great time with our new pup! He seems to be picking up on how things run around here rather quickly. Don't get us wrong, he's still a baby and has his moments, but on the whole we feel very lucky to have such a sweet puppy.

We quickly learned Toby's favorite sleeping position:

Speaking of sleeping, the little guy does it all the time! It's amazing the amount of sleep he gets each day, hopefully all that sleep will help him grow into his ginormous paws. Not a favorite, but just as hilarious is this sleeping position:



He slept like that for about 35 minutes.

When he's not sleeping we try to get him out and about on walks as much as possible. Here are two of our favorites from some recent walks:



Right now the little dude is taking a little snooze in his crate, nuzzling up next to his tennis ball. Each day is an adventure with our little guy and we are enjoying it!



Am I one lucky girl, or what?

Positano: Finale, La Tagliata

After our first breakfast at the hotel we chatted with Tony at the front desk and he told us that La Tagliata had a table available for dinner tonight and if we wanted he would book it for us. Good food, music and entertainment were all promised. So, not totally sure what La Tagliata was, we excitedly accepted. The shuttle from La Tagliata arrived at our hotel around 1930 to pick us up, along with another family from our hotel. After one more stop at a different hotel the small shuttle was full and we were on our way to the very top of Positano. 20 minutes, and many many twisty-turny roads later, we had reached La Tagliata. We stepped inside to find a warmly rustic Italian restaurant with perhaps the most spectacular view of Positano and the Mediterranean:

It was a bit hazy that night, but that just seemed to add to the romantic beauty of the view. You can see Positano near the very bottom of the photo and this quaint little neighborhood in the foreground:



As soon as we walked in the fun began. We were immediately directed to our table (right by the open windows!) and asked if we wanted red or white wine. No menus, no fuss. We opted for red. The delicious house wine came out and not five minutes later we were inundated with the antipasto course.

Zucchini lasagna & pizza. Chick peas & fava beans. Spinach, broccoli & peas.



Fresh mozzarella. Grilled zucchini & fresh tomatoes.



After the flavorful and wonderfully satisfying antipasto course we realized the entire restaurant worked on a prixe fixe menu. No choices, except whether or not you choose to eat everything...and given the quality and the homemade deliciousness of the food, our plates we always clean by the time the next course rolled around.

During our first intermission, we managed to get the couple next to us to snap a picture. We're a little out of focus, but the background looks fantastic:



Just as our stomachs were getting used to their new size after the antipasto course, we were greeted by the primo course, homemade pastas:



There was homemade: ravioli, gnocchi, and linguine in a mushroom sauce. Divine.

As this guy worked on our next course (the grill was located in the dining room area)...



...the band came out to serenade us with some classic Italian music.



The singer had such a powerful and lovely voice. Throughout the course of dinner the band would come out for two or three songs and then break for a little while. It was a lively source of entertainment and fun for us diners.

Next up was the secondo course, meat. There was lamb, beef, and chicken. At that point I could hardly take another bite after the antipasto and primo courses, but I tried. Brian was the champ of the secondo course and we almost cleaned that plate. Knowing that we were in the home stretch, we readied ourselves for the dolce course. We're still not sure what the desserts were, but all three of them were delicious and surprisingly light after all of the other heavier courses.

We drank a little more wine, listened to a little more music and then before we knew it, it was four hours since we had arrived and our shuttle home was waiting out front. As we rode back down to our part of Positano we basked in the warmth of such a unique and delightful dining experience; one, unfortunately, that we cannot imagine recreating anytime soon.

If you'd like to view all of our photos from our visit from Positano, please click on this link:
Positano Photos

Positano: Our Neighbor

This pretty kitty greeted us each morning and each evening on our balcony. We believe he (or she) lived next door and was able to walk over from his (or her) roof. We'd never seen such a striking cat before! I think the piece of prosciutto we offered up the first night cemented our vacation-long friendship. He (or she) was a sweet kitty that we were happy to have hang out with us.

Up Next: Finale, La Tagliata

Positano: USS Merritt

Please meet our humble crew.

The Captain:

The Admiral:

We rented a little motor boat at the Spiaggia Grande for a few hours of tooling around the Mediterranean. It was a little hazy the day we went out, but we had a great time exploring the majestic coastline and being out on the clear, cool water. Not too far from Positano we passed some cool looking caves:

The water around the caves was a gorgeous green-blue. Since the USS Merritt was a small vessel and many larger boats were motoring around it was a bit choppy, so we didn't take a ton of pictures, but the scenery was divine. This is the town of Praiano, right next to Positano:

Praiano doesn't have much beach coastline like Positano, but I assume it offers the same beautiful views. We cruised up a bit farther and anchored for a bit of relaxing and quick swim for B. After a few hours out on the high seas we headed in for a little lunch and more lazing around.

Up Next: Our Neighbor

Positano: Good Eats

We loved the food in Positano the first time we were there for our honeymoon and this past trip lived up to all of our gastronomical expectations.

Arancini, a local treat we did not try on our honeymoon, was an utterly delectable find this time around. Arancini is a fried rice ball with either cheeses, meats, and/or vegetables mixed in. The first one we tried was filled with cheese:

Arancini can be found on almost any menu in Positano and their fillings are all a little different. We had our second round of arancini during a beach lunch and they were stuffed with rice, peas, and onions. Yum!

The pizza in Positano (and all of Italy) is just to die for. Thin, flavorful crusts, fresh tomato sauce, and hearty mozzarella are what makes these pizzas so special. A commonly served pizza in Positano has artichokes, mushrooms, and prosciutto for toppings:

The two most popular seem to be the margherita and the marinara pizzas. The margherita is the classic crust, sauce, mozzarella, and basil. The marinara is just the crust topped with a thin layer of an amazing marinara sauce. We tried the marinara and are happy to report it was delicious. Brian averaged almost one pizza per day while we were there.

Another phenomenal treat in Positano is the pasta. I couldn't get enough! In pretty much every restaurant we went to the pasta is cooked very al dente...more so than you would expect, but I happen to love it that way. Our first meal in Positano, after we checked-in, was at Caffé Positano for a pasta lunch. Check it out:



My rigatoni with eggplant, mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil is on the right and Brian's spaghetti with crayfish and shrimp is on the left. Both were lovely! Since Positano is right on the Mediterranean they offer a LOT of seafood pasta options. One of the most popular seems to be the seafood risotto. If you look to the bottom of this picture, you can see a tiny glimpse of it:

The seafood risotto was fantastic. Shrimp, crayfish, and mussels flavored the perfectly cooked risotto.

Believe it or not, but when we got home from Positano we felt like we had stretched our stomachs about three times their normal size...but we'd do it again in a heartbeat if we could get our hands on some of the wonderful food we enjoyed in Positano.

Up Next: USS Merritt