Life in Germ, Beer and Pretzels, oh whatever!?!

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Location: Icking, Bavaria, Germany

I'm a Brittany Spaniel who came from Southwestern France. I'm a very friendly guy who loves to hunt birds and dig for mice. I like to go on adventure hikes and play with other friendly dogs. My dad is my best friend because he is fun, but I love my mom too because she feeds me. They are both crazy about me and I take full advantage of this at all times. My full name is Uben Berndl Tangerine Hertwig. Berndl sounds like my dad's name (Bernd) but with an l which also sounds like Dirndl since I live in Bavaria. Tangerine because I'm orange.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Food and Jamie Oliver


I really love to read about food. I love a good cookbook with photos, but more recently, I’m really into reading food blogs. There is no shortage of blogs to read out there, because there are a lot of people who thankfully like to write about food. My friend Mia has a great blog out there at www.invisible-jet.net/nosh/. I like her blog a lot because when she has posted something, I know I can get the ingredients here. I’m also partial to http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com/, which is written by a now really famous young French girl in Paris. I’m a fan among zillions.
And the most shocking part of this is that I have recently found
that I like to cook! I've never been that crazy about cooking, but my feelings about it have changed since I don't have my nose to the grindstone at a typical 40 hour a week job. I still don’t like that every day figure out something to make for dinner situation, but once in a while I think it is very fun to wreck the kitchen and make something special.
Last week Jamie Oliver was in Munich doing a book signing. My friend Mia who loves to cook and is one of his biggest fans (and she might be THE biggest fan) told me about it. I jumped right on that bandwagon because besides reading about food, I also love bookstores and signings. I had seen Jamie (Mia says I can just drop the last name since we are now friends) on TV and found him totally entertaining. I also like his easy-going style of cooking where he just seems to find the freshest ingredients and kind of throws everything together. He makes it look easier than it is. So Mia and I make a trip into town to the bookstore, and thank God we got there an hour early, because I heard later that the line ended up going from the 6th floor to the first and out the door, and some did not get their book signed at all. We were about 20 people back in the line, waited about 90 minutes, and thoroughly enjoyed our minutes with our new best friend Jamie. The first photo above is me and Jamie, and the second is Mia...a little blurry but I was kind of shaky after my chat with him! This was really a surprise, because I was not one bit nervous, but he's so cool that it actually shook me up a bit.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Hallelujah, the Holidays Have ENDED!!!!

January 6th is a holiday here in Bavaria....3 Kings Day, and the end of the twelve days of Christmas. Children dressed as the 3 Kings come to your door, sing a beautiful little song in German, take a little of your money for charity, and write C+M+B, plus the year over your door. These are the initials of the 3 Kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Historically the three letters allegedly came from the Latin phrase "Christus mansionem benedicat" which means "Christ bless your house." The arrival of these little girls in our case, is not only a highlight of the season, but officially ends it for me as well. And ain't there something to be said for moving on into the new year? Over our door is exactly the following:
* 20 C+M+B 06 *
I love seeing this all year, and as a bonus, our house is blessed and protected.