What a day!

Today went something like this:

4:50 - phone call saying there was a 2 hour school delay due to snow...yes!

8:00 - make breakfast

8:30 - phone call saying school is now canceled due to snow

9:00 - Chimney sweeper arrived....he comes 2 times a year (winter and spring) and it is always a surprise...no notice ever! Yes, he wears a traditional chimney sweeper outfit and is covered in soot.

12:30 - I decide today is a good day to make my first batch of homemade spaghetti for dinner tonight. I was in the process of making the dough when.....

1:00 - furniture delivery....YES....we now have some much needed storage for the kitchen AND for the bathroom upstairs. That will be another post. Lets just say there is NO storage in German homes!

1:15 - back to making the spaghetti...

I read that fresh spaghetti is best with a dairy based sauce. So, I had all of the ingredients to make Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoe Sauce which is made with a heavy cream.

Add these ingredients plus a little water....

After I took this picture I realized that I had the dough hook on instead of the flat beater.....
Due to the large amount of counter space in my kitchen (wink), my cooktop doubled as my workspace. The dough is divided into 4 sections and then runs through the pasta roller several times to knead the dough. Then it runs through a few more times on smaller settings to create the thickness desired.

Here is the dough after running through one time....each piece ended up being at LEAST 4 times this size!!!
Now it's time to run the extremely long dough through the spaghetti cutter. Um...I learned that I need to cut the pieces into smaller pieces than I did today!

My kids loved this part!

Here is the finished product on the drying rack......

Basil Italian bread we had with our dinner.....

Colton took this picture of Ian sleeping. Yes, he has a bed, but the floor works fine too:)
Homemade pasta IS different....lighter and less chewy! It is DELICIOUS!! Totally worth the small amount of effort it takes to make. I see more batches of dough in our future!

Sunday drive......

If you were to visit our house on a typical Sunday morning you'd more than likely see my husband cooking something yummy for breakfast.....that is except for this past Sunday. Instead, we decided to load the kids up and venture out on the snow packed roads for a nice little drive to McDonalds! The kids think it is a special treat to get their favorite Sweet McGriddles (little pancakes) and the oh so popular McToast Schinken Kasse (ham and cheese in something like pita bread??)
Jacque needed a potty break while we were trying to quickly run some errands on post. He has decided that it is fun to check out every bathroom anywhere we stop!! Amazingly, the sun came out as we were waiting outside.....I don't remember when the sun has peaked out from behind the clouds this much!

This little river is on our way home......I think it looks so pretty with the snow!

The kids love to look for wild animals in this area. We see many deer, rams, and boars. They like to ride with the windows down in the summer and see who can spot the most animals. No windows were down today though!

A little further down the road are a few windmills.

Yes, that is the road we are traveling on. See those little markers sticking up on both sides of the road? These are used in place of the reflectors in on the center line of the roads. I've become very used to using these to guide where I'm driving at night....strange when I think about it, but it seems completely normal. Kind of like looking at the km on the speedometer instead of the mph. I thought I'd never be able to completely ignore the mph, but I can say it has somehow happened and I don't even notice it anymore.

...and one last windmill picture
The kids are hoping for a snow day real soon! Maybe tomorrow.....

Sony Touch Reader!

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It's time for skiing!

Today was the first day of ski lessons for the kids. They were all really excited this morning! It is amazing how quickly they can get ready when they want to!! In fact, we didn't even have to wake them up because they were already out of bed and getting ready!! Now, if I can only get them to do this on school days!

Here they are just before loading their gear under the bus.

......and they are off!Colton will be learning the tricks to snowboarding and the girls are learning to ski for 8 weeks. The ski area is located about 40 minutes away. They get to ski from 9:00 to 3:00...long day, but tons of fun! The last week is the BIG ski trip to the Black Forest (awesome opportunity for them)!

It has been really cold around here lately and there has been an enormous amount of snow. It was like we were driving in a winter wonderland today. The trees have been frozen for the past few days and look beautiful.

Here's a close up....

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

I recently purchased this cookbook and have been very pleased with what I've made so far! The potpie on the cover was delicious and the Ham & Egg Casserole for breakfast on Sunday was great too! However, the King Ranch Chicken Casserole was a huge hit the other night for dinner!!! I didn't take any pictures to share, wish I had, so here is the recipe instead. I seem to have trouble actually measuring anything that I have to cut so I'm going to add what I actually did in GREEN. This really was YUMMY!

What do you need??

1 C onion, diced
(diced up 1 huge Vidalia onion)
1 C green pepper, diced
(diced up a really ginormous pepper)
8 oz pkg sliced mushrooms
(sliced an entire pkg......I really, really like them!)
1/4 C butter
10 3/4 oz cream of mushroom soup
10 3/4 oz cream of chicken soup
10 oz can tomatoes with chilis
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T chili powder
1 T chicken broth
12 (6inch) corn tortillas, torn into quarters...oops, forgot to quarter
3 C cooked chicken, diced, and divided
(just diced an ENTIRE pkg of chicken breasts...way more than 3 C)
16 oz pkg shredded cheddar cheese, divided
(actually used the Mexican mix instead)

How to put it together:

Saute onion, pepper, and mushrooms in butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add soups, tomatoes, garlic, chili powder, and broth; heat until bubbly and set aside.

Arrange half the tortilla pieces in a lightly greased 13" x 9" baking dish; top with half the chicken, half the sauce and half the cheese. Repeat layers. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees (well...I had to cook at 176 Celsius) for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serves 6.

I also need to THANK my husband for putting up with my love for mushrooms. He despises them, but he puts up with me cooking them! Sarah is with me on the mushroom love so at least it is not all for me:) He nonchalantly picks them out into a huge pile and saves them for me (or Sarah)...what a guy!!! I found a kit the other day for growing your own mushrooms...he put his foot down on that one. I thought it sounded like a fantastic idea!

Almost favorite thing....

The slide from the 747 was a huge hit with the kids..and the big ones too:)

Just around the corner we saw this....

This submarine was used for almost 30 years.
We've never been inside of a submarine so this was pretty exciting for everyone!

I have to say, it was a little scary to get into though!

We all managed to climb down!

The first thing we saw was the torpedo area.

The numbers match the ones on the outside of the submarine.
Here is torpedo #1.....

This is one of the tightest spots.....

Here is a view from the opposite end that we entered.
You can see the spiral steps that we climbed to the top.

Section of the Berlin Wall......

Jacque & Ian patiently waiting for me to get out of the sub.....

Now that's a slide!

Once we headed outside the kids were totally looking for this.....

Boeing 747

Here's why....
Yep, you get to slide ALL THE WAY DOWN!

There was an old phone booth that housed the slide blankets.....

Getting ready to slide down.....

...and down they came!

Yes, everyone headed back up to do it all over again!

Here is a glimpse at the next outdoor highlight....