A German Home

It might be difficult to see the sign on the lower left, but it says, "Spargel." Now, Springtime, is the season for spargel in Germany. Spargel is the white (weiss) asparagus that Germany has fallen in love with.

Here is some spargel I bought at the local Viktualmarket this week.

Spargel needs to be washed, trimmed, and using a vegetable knife, the sides of the spargel should be scraped before boiling or steamed.

Then, boil or steam the spargel until it is very tender. Do not overcook.

Take a short cut and make the packaged Hollandaise Sauce. I brought this from the United States, but the Germans have their own packaged Hollandaise Sauce, made by Knorrs that is excellent. I add a quarter of fresh lemon and two tablespoons of butter for a much better flavor.

Use the "weiss spargel" in a meal as you would green asparagus. Here I put it with dilled cucumber salad and a paprika grilled steak. Many Germans eat it alone for a meal.

I have to share this photo of my first apple tarte . I made from scratch after I bought a springform pan. Now, I'm trying out different deserts with it. I have a recipe for a lemon torte and I'll let you know how it comes out.

German bed linens are very different from ours. Firstly, they are smaller because the beds are typically smaller. The bottom sheet is mitered/fitted and is made of a stretchy jersey material. Even though I bought the largest size for an American queen-sized bed, it still does not cover all of the mattress sides, darn! Forget a bed skirt, they are non-existant.

This is the large sized pillow that Germans use instead of our standard, queen or king-sized pillows. The material encasing the pillow must match the duvet coverlet. I tried very hard to find a less vivid color, but it appears that this is the style. The brighter, the better. I think my mother had a kitchen wall paper similar to this pattern. I'm reliving the 60's all over again!

Here is the duvet in it's coverlet. The interesting thing about German coverlets are that they are made so that even if you share a double bed or larger with someone, each person has their own duvet. So, beds will have two duvets folded at the foot of the bed as you see above.

I hope Jaci, my mother-in-law who arrives Friday, likes her "German Style" bedding. When I make my trip back to the U.S. at the end of July, I'll pick up some Queen sheets and pillowcases. Until then, this will be her bedding.

1. Bagels
2. Popcorn
3. Arm and Hammer Baking Soda
4. Hunt's BBQ Sauce
5. Heinz Baked Beans
6. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
7. French's Mustard
8. A-1 Steak Sauce
9. Maple syrup
10. V-8 juice
11. Dr. Pepper
12. Cream Soda
13. Chips Ahoy
14. Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix
15. Peter Pan peanut butter or Reeses'
16. Pam cooking spray
17. Campbells canned soup
18. Bisquick
19. Pillsbury crescent rolls
20. Twizzlers licorice
21. Brown sugar
22. Crisco
23. Chocolate chips
24. Cranberry juice
25. Welches Concord Grape Jelly

These are just some of the things that are very difficult to find in Germany. Now, I don't care for many of the things on this list anyway. You can keep them all as far as I'm concerned. But life would not be the same without Twizzlers Red Licorice!

I'm not saying these items are impossible to find, I'm saying it would be easier to find the Holy Grail. Germany has concord grapes-- for one week --in August. You could buy them and then can your own jelly; yeah, like that will ever happen! To find Crisco , I was told that it could be found across the city in the window of a sex-shop and I was reminded of the fact that it probably wasn't intended for baking either. I'm sure!

Thanks, but no thanks.

1. Fly screens in windows
2. Round door knobs
3. Sink garbage disposals
4. Central heating as opposed to floor heating

These are some of the things that German homes, don't have. There are many more, but the one thing I find hard to live without is number 3, a sink garbage disposal. Everything has to be disposed of into the trash can and since the German home doesn't have one more thing, air conditioning in summer, that means the trash has to be taken out daily.

1. Grocery carts that cost one Euro
2. Measuing tapes with meters and centimeters
3. No liquid or dry measures for cooking --only weight measures
4. Centigrade instead of farenheit for baking
5. Bicycle paths on the walking path (be sure to stay clear of these when walking!)
6. No bicycle helmet laws
7. Seemingly no smoking indoors public places laws as they are largely ignored in restaurants.
8. Milk that is not fresh and does not need to be refrigerated.

These are a few of the differences I have faced and all require a certain amount of a learning curve. You don't want to be at a market and not have a Euro coin for the grocery cart. I have found myself in this situation a couple of times and it is impossible to do any amount of shopping this way.

These are all just minor differences and in no way am I suggesting that we, in the states, do anything of these things better---just differently.

I can overlook and adjust to all of these differences quite easily. But it is absolutely uncivilized not to have Twizzlers Red licorice at every market!