Mix-Up Monday: Commands

Nothing like a mixed-culture relationship to bring out how stereotypical you are for your culture. We have really noticed this lately when it comes to commands, or telling people what to do.

She is much more American about it than she ever realized. First he ignored it (aka, didn't notice it (she thinks^^), then he tried to figure it out, and now he is just more confused then ever. Whenever she wants something done...anything, she very often phrases it as a question/suggestion. In the last day alone she has asked him, "Do you think the dishes need to be washed? " "Should you get a plate now?" "Does this need more salt?" The list goes on and on and on (he wants to add that it goes on and on and on past that too!) At first he did not really notice it because to him a question was a question and he did not always need to answer. Now he very often asks her a question back: She: Does it need more Salt? - He: Do you think it needs more Salt?  Then she started to repeat what she wanted over and over and he got that it must mean do it, not think about it! She never even noticed that she did it until he started to point it out. He says that the questions aren't questions, they are just commands formed to sound like nice suggestions and they drive him crazy! The other night she asked, "Do you think we need to take out the trash?" and he took it out because he assumed it was another one of those question-commands. She swears it really wasn't, she was just asking! (he adds: blablabla)

German style (e.g., him) is about as opposite as it gets. He isn't rude but if he wants her to do something he says it. "Give me the salt, please." "Can you get the remote?" She says that he isn't always being very nice about it, he says he is being clear. She says that she is always nice about it, he says she just confuses him.

The difference can even be seen in the two languages. In English, commands are written as normal sentences except for the sentence order is changed. "Go do your homework." In German, commands are always written with an exclamation point, "Go do your homework!" Giving the appearance (at least to an American) that commands are being angrily yelled.

Now that we know we do it, it isn't a big deal. The misunderstandings give us a good laugh. Besides, she isn't complaining...sometimes he gets so confused he takes out the trash, washes the dishes, and does the laundry :)

Sweet and Sour Sauce in Four Ingredients

This sweet and sour sauce is as easy to make as they come. We don't think that it matches restaurant-quality sweet and sour sauce exactly, but for the speed and ease it is definitely worth making (and eating!).

All you need is:

1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup crushed pineapple (with the juice)
1/3 cup brown sugar

Make stir fry however you normally would. We were making stir fry to use up a lot of stuff we had in our fridge so we realize the pictures might not fit a normal stir fry that goes along with sweet and sour sauce. This time we included mushrooms, corn, sprouts, broccoli, bell pepper, carrot and onions. We didn't even add any meat but often we do and we think it does add an extra level of tasty.





While you cook the vegetables it is a good idea to also make rice. 







When you vegetables are almost done cooking, mix all four ingredients together in a bowl. Give it a good stir (to make sure the brown sugar does not get stuck to the bottom) and then pour it over your stir fry mix. Mix well and cook for about 2-5 minutes or until it thickens.

 






Serve over rice immediately.

Tomato-Mozzarella in Eggplant Pouches

These pouches made out of eggplant and filled with tomato, mozzarella, and basil make a good side or appetizer. Although we were missing some of the ingredients (fresh basil and sun-dried tomato paste) we made it work and were quite happy with the results.




Eight filled eggplant pouches:

2 medium or one large eggplant
8 oz (225 g) mozzarella cheese
2-3 tomatoes  (16 slices)
4 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar 
1 Tbs sun-dried tomato paste
1 Tbs lemon juice
Fresh basil, salt, pepper



Wash the eggplant and remove the tips from both ends. Slice the eggplant longways into thin slices (about 1/4 in or 5 mm or thinner). You need 16 slices (not including the ends). We managed to get this out of one large eggplant (although the pieces were a little bit odd shaped) but we don't exactly know how we did!

While you are slicing the eggplant, put a large pot of salt water on to boil.

Once the water is boiling, drop in the eggplant slices and let cook for about two minutes. Drain and run cold water over the slices. You may need to use a paper towel to dry them to make the next part easier.








Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella. Then, lay two eggplant slices on a flat surface so they make a cross.









At the intersection, place a tomato slice and mozzarella slice. If you have fresh basil add a basil leaf. We did not have a basil plant and it is not a good time to buy them so we had to use dried basil. It was still good but we think fresh would have been better.







Add another tomato slice, season with salt and pepper. We used a seasoned salt instead of plain salt.









Close the pouch like you would wrap a present, folding each end in.



















Once all eight pouches are finished, refrigerate for about 20 minutes.











During this time you can make the sauce that goes with them. Mix the oil, vinegar, lemon juice and sun-dried tomato paste. We did not have this either so we used regular tomato paste. It worked out but we definitely think sun-dried tomato paste would be better.













Turn on the broiler, remove the pouches from the refrigerator and place on the oven rack. Use a brush to brush each pouch with either the sauce you just made (this is what we did because we did not think we could use all of it on its own) or will plain olive oil.





Place under the broiler and cook for about five minutes on each side.



 


Serve with the sauce and extra basil leaves. We also ate bread with the leftover sauce.

Mix-Up Monday: Measurement (American versus German Measurement)

He wants to point out how crazy the US is (torontomike.com)

We are a multicultural household which means we are also a multi-measurement household. Fahrenheit, Celsius, cups, pounds, ounces, kilograms, tablespoons, and Esslöffel. Everything gets used and converted on a daily basis.  You may have noticed that our recipes use a mixture of the metric and the imperial system (Come on, admit it, how many of you ever realized it was called the imperial system???). Sometimes we even go back and forth in one recipe.We know we must be a lot of fun to try and follow :).

This is just the way our household works. She has gotten a lot better about using (and more importantly understanding) the metric system and he tries to figure out the nonsense of imperial. But in the end we are both pretty stuck in our ways.

Our solution? Lots of items that help us measure in both systems!

1 EL (Esslöffel or eating spoon) = 1 Tbs in the USA (there is supposedly a 5 ml difference but we use them interchangeably).

1 TL (Teelöffel or teaspoon) = tsp in the USA (again 5 ml off)






Our American measuring cups also have milliliters on them which makes these conversions easier for us. One American cup is 120 ml).

Our super handy scale. We think every kitchen needs one of these! Not only does it allows us to weigh things in grams and ounces but the tare function lets us zero the scale with a plate or bowl already on it.

For you readers who we confuse :) (spiekermann.com)

These are just a few of our multicultural measuring systems. Our bathroom scale also weighs in kilos, pounds (and even stones if we want!), her computer is set to tell the temperature in Fahrenheit while his is set to Celsius and we have both become experts at googling all of our conversion needs :)

Potato and Sausage Casserole

This seemingly bland meal has a lot of unexpected taste. Also commonly made with bacon, we saved on the calories and were still pleasantly surprised with the result.






Our estimate is that it feeds about three people alone or four with salad and bread.

2 large onions, chopped
2 garlic gloves, crushed or diced
5-8 sausages (we used a traditional German brat)
4 large baking potatoes 
1 1/4 (300 ml) vegetable or chicken broth
1 Tbs oil
Salt, pepper, parsley or sage

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). 




 





Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the diced onions. Cook for about six minutes or until golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Return the pan to the stove and add the sausage (ours came in packages of five so we did not use the full eight called for by the recipe).



 





Cook for about six minutes or until browned. They do not need to be cooked through because they will be going into the oven.

While the sausage is cooking, peel and thinly slice the potatoes. Our potatoes were quite small so we used six. 

Layer the potatoes in an ovenproof dish. Add the onion mixture on top along with salt, pepper, sage (we had no sage so we used parsley and it was delicious).








Pour the broth over the potatoes and add the sausage on top. Cover and bake for one hour. Our potatoes must have not been good for baking or too thick because ours took about one and a half hours to get soft.

Eat alone or with sides. Bread goes really well with the juice that comes with it.


If you want to make this to be even more delicious, add bacon in (about 4-5 strips) while you cook the onions.

Lemon Cloud Cookies

She has been doing a lot of pinning lately on the website Pininterest. Although it is quite a time waster, the good thing about Pininterest is that it has a lot of food pictures that lead to a lot of recipes. One of the pictures that caught her eye was of a soft and flakey lemon cookie. The original recipe is by a woman named Lauren Brennen. You can find her own blog about food and life here. We changed the name of the cookie but the same idea stands. Simple and quick-baking lemon cookies. Stepping into the kitchen to eating all in under 25 minutes.






About 2 dozen cookies (when medium sized)

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 Tbs lemon juice (we recommend fresh)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl.

Add the vanilla, egg, and lemon juice. We did not have any lemons so we tried to use lemon juice from a bottle. DON'T DO IT! It is not worth it. If you do not have any fresh lemons get up and go get some or wait for another day to make these cookies. Fresh lemon juice would have made them so much tastier (and they were already pretty tasty). To try to compensate we used 2 Tbs of lemon juice but they were still not lemony enough for us. If you love lemon, don't hold back from using a little extra juice.





After mixing the wet ingredients in, add the flour,sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda (so yes, everything but the powdered sugar). Stir in just enough to have everything well combined. Do not mix it more than you need to. This will keep it from being as fluffy (and cloud-like).


Put the powdered sugar into a shallow bowl or on a plate. Make balls of the dough (it is okay if they are a bit sticky, as soon as they are in the powdered sugar they will be easier to handle). It is up to you how large you would like your cookies to be. We made our dough balls about one inch across.

Roll the balls in the powdered sugar so they are completely covered. Put on a baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. If you have a dark tray, reduce the baking time by 2 minutes. Our cookies took 9 minutes to be finished. When they are done they should no longer look shiny and the bottoms will start to just barely brown. We let our cookies cook a bit longer the second batch (until starting to brown) and thought they came out much better.

  Let cool 2-3 minutes and then remove to cool (or just dig in!)

Mix-Up Monday: Windows (German Fenster)

She thinks the coolest thing about all of Germany (and perhaps all of Europe) might be the windows. 

American windows are very boring and not technologically advanced when compared to German windows. They only slide up and down or left to right (never both on the same window). Blinds are inside the house (except for a few new windows that put them between the glass). Although it has taken her a long time to learn how to correctly use German windows (and he wants to point out that she sometimes still has issues), she thinks they need to become the new trend in the USA. Right now, America is just missing out!

American windows that only go up and down (doingitourselves.com)

First, German blinds (they call them rollers) are a hard metal that are outside of the window (but closed from inside). They perform the same function as blackout curtains and allow for total darkness.  They also do a great job of blocking out sound.

Wide open position

The window itself is very versatile. The handle of the window can be turned to a  horizontal position that allows the window to be swung open. This is, perhaps, the only downfall of German windows. They open into the house instead of outside (so that window screens can be used) and therefore if you have any type of furniture blocking your window from laying flat against the wall they take up quite a lot of space.

Tilted position

If you would only like a little air to get in, the handle can be swung up to a vertical position that allows the window to open at the top but not the bottom. This is the German solution to Americans only lifting up the window a little bit instead of the entire way. When you want to lock the window, close it tight (the part she forgets to do) and swing the handle back to face down. This keeps the window tightly sealed and locked.


If we ever build a house in the USA, the first thing we may look for is how to install German windows. They really are that awesome.