Warum weinen Babys die ganze Zeit?

So the title of my post today pretty much describes my week. "Why do babies cry all the time?" The adorable, now 5 month old baby I watch has definitely screamed his cute little head off this week. I am getting better at reading his nonverbal cues for hungry and tired so hopefully I will be able to outsmart him next week and plan ahead to avoid the crying.

I cooked three dinner this week from my new German cookbooks.

1. Pork Escalopes in Mushroom Sauce with Spatzle

This time I bought the Spatzle from the store and just flash-boiled it. Some day in the future I will make it from scratch. The pork was lightly breaded and when smothered in the mushroom sauce made with creme fraiche it was delicious! Definitely a success.

2. Chicken Soup with White Asparagus

My first attempt making chicken broth from scratch by boiling the crap out of a boiling fowl and soup vegetables was pretty good. The white asparagus was a bit different but fun.




3. Lentils with Weiner Sausages and Oven Roasted Potatoes

Linsel or lentils are very Schwabisch. The dish with bacon, onion, and carrots tasted decent but definitely looked too similar to baby poop for me.

Side note - We have officially been in Deutschland six weeks but only in our apartment five weeks. During those five weeks Ryan and I have officially polished off 3 Craten or crates of beer at home (Each crate has 20 large bottles of beer). And I have single-handedly devoured an 800 gram glass jar of Nutella. No more Nutella for me but bring on the beer!

Thursday evening we went out for dinner with Ryan's German coworker Jan and his girlfriend. Jan just returned to Germany this week after working in Michigan for six months. Our landlord recommended a REAL Schwabisch restaurant called Gasthaus zur Sonne. It was actually quite different than the food served here in town and was much more traditional. We enjoyed a great dinner and stopped at O Donivans, the Irish bar in Boeblingen before calling it a night.

Saturday evening was a much awaited event called Lange Nacht der Museem. All of the museums in Stuttgart were open from 7pm until 2 am. Many had special events like live music, beer and food, and other performers or special exhibits. I spent the day before the event shopping with Rebecca, the only female Bosch trainee from the States here and then had to babysit for a few hours while Ryan and the other trainees enjoyed dinner. I met up with everyone later at the Landes Museum or Altes Schloss to have a beer and wurst. The Museum had a band inside and everyone was able to explore the museum while they waited for me. Then we all headed to the Rathaus to wait in line for a while and go into the Hotel Bunker. The Bunker is only open once a year for this event. It was interested but not as exciting as it had been cracked up to be.

After exploring the Rathaus itself we took a bus to the Planetarium which also came highly recommended. Unfortunately we waited in line for forever until we got into the star/sky show. The presentation was in German and the room became very dark and it was after midnight so of course I fell asleep. But so did everyone else except Ryan. We all woke up to blasting music and flashing lights during the long laser show to end the presentation. We ended up calling it a night early.

These pictures to above are from inside the bunker hotel. The wallpaper was peeling off and the air smelled moldy and stale. The hallways and doors were super narrow and the place was rather dark and ominous.

Ryan and I have a rather boring week ahead of us of work and we will be attending a Bosch cultural workshop on Tuesday downtown Stuttgart. I will be cooking up a German storm the next few days and then anxiously awaiting the weekend.

Happy St. Patricks day to everyone!!