e.coli killed my salad craving

Posted on 08/06/2011 by oneexpatslife

It is full-fledged summer here in Germany and the produce at my local market is just beautiful. Sadly, however, we are in the grips of a very scary e.coli outbreak which has already killed quite a few people and hospitalized many more.

One of the scarier sides to this outbreak is the fact that the authorities are still (after two, going on three weeks) not 100% sure where exactly the problem is coming from, and have admitted that we may never know for sure. The first suspect was the cucumbers, but that has since been ruled out and they are now giving the side eye to bean sprouts. In the meantime we are all being advised not to eat lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and now sprouts, and to generally take extra precautions with all raw produce.

Hopefully the worst of it is over and we can all go back to eating salads again soon. In the meantime I am just grateful that my friends and family have remained healthy so far.

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my 220 volt Food Processor!

Posted on 06/06/2011 by oneexpatslife

Nothing forces us to reassess the accumulated stuff in our lives like an overseas move.

Four years ago I moved from Chicago to Frankfurt, in order to be with my then boyfriend, now husband. At the time, it was very difficult deciding what to bring and what to leave behind, but the astronomical price of overseas shipping focuses the mind and forces one to be practical. And shipping was not the only consideration. The fact that European household voltage is about double that in the US meant that I had to say goodbye to most of my electric gadgets, the most difficult of which was my beloved Cuisinart food processor.

Now my husband had never even heard of a food processor before and he probably thought I was a little crazy for bemoaning the loss of a kitchen appliance, but he at least had the decency to feign sympathy and promised that we would buy a new one in Germany as soon as possible. So, once the move was complete and I had begun to settle in we took a trip to our local kitchen supply store to scope out the options. I was prepared for the fact that the same brands may not be available and that there may be other small differences. What I was not prepared for was that the prices would be twice as high (some machines even more!) than what I had paid back home. I simply couldn’t do it and we left empty-handed.

Four years later I have calmed down a bit and come to accept that the price of living is simply higher in Europe. I don’t have to like it, but there are plenty of other things to like about living here, so I guess I have to take the good with the bad. And last week I finally broke down and ordered a beautiful new food processor from Amazon.de. Today it arrived and I practically hugged the poor DHL guy I was so excited!

Now, what to make first…

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warm weather pot-au-feu

Posted on 03/06/2011 by oneexpatslife

I am a huge proponent of pictures in cook books. They provide inspiration and give you a visual goal to aim for. As a home cook, I find it enormously rewarding when my finished dish looks like the picture in the book, as happened with this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Warm-Weather Vegetable Pot-au-Feu.

The best word to describe this week’s recipe is “nourishing”. It was low in fat, high in vitamins, and way higher in flavor than the simple list of ingredients would suggest. That said, I added all of Dorie’s “optional” touches, including lemongrass, home-made cilantro coulis, and a poached egg, and I can’t imagine the dish without each and every one of them. The lemongrass and herb coulis added depth of flavor, and the egg turned a simple soup into a hearty meal.

All is all, this recipe was a winner and I will definitely make it again.

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leek and potato soup

Posted on 31/05/2011 by oneexpatslife

There are so many reasons to love soup: it is the ultimate comfort food, an easy way to feed a crowd, usually inexpensive, and it stores and reheats beautifully. At any given time my freezer is crammed with various canisters of leftover soup, just waiting to be reheated for a lazy lunch or dinner.

Potato Leek Soup is a particular favorite of mine and I was thus looking forward to trying Dorie’s version, which the French Fridays with Dorie group had already done this past December. So this is a catching-up-with-old-recipes post for me.

Dorie’s soup won point from me for easy prep, basically just chop up some veggies and sit back while the soup cooks. The end result was a soup with a thinner consistency than my usual recipe, but with a very full & tasty flavor.

Final verdict – we will definitely make this soup again. The recipe is fantastically versatile, left alone it is a nice dinner for two, pureed and garnished with some home-made croutons it becomes fit for company.

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a rice revelation

Posted on 28/05/2011 by oneexpatslife

This gallery contains 1 photo.

The cows are mad, the birds and pigs have the flu, and now in Germany we are experiencing a rather serious E.coli outbreak. Apparently they have decided that it’s the Spanish cucumbers which were to blame, but for basically the … Continue reading →

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Why?

Posted on 27/05/2011 by oneexpatslife

This is very unlike me… blogging I mean. I’ve never been described as outgoing or particularly open about my private life. And does the world really need another blog at this point? I find myself secretly hoping that nobody will ever read it, but I guess that defeats the purpose now doesn’t it?

Setting these concerns aside for now I’ve decided to charge ahead. Carpe Blogdom, or something like that. Now, let’s get cooking!

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