German Christmas Markets 2013, Part 1

Nothing like looking at Christmas photos in January, right? But since I did say I would share some Weihnachtsmarkt pics, I'm keeping my word, even if no one's in the mood for them now! And since I'll surely have more to share next year, anyway…

Here's a photo from our first market of the year, in a village called Dudeldorf, which is just down the road from us, between Bitburg and Spangdahlem. It's always one of our favorite markets, because it has a true small-town feel, with many vendors showcasing their goods insides houses and converted barns. Plus, it's low on junk and high on handmade goods. We bought some glass lanterns there a few years ago. One important note: it's held on only the first weekend of Advent every year. Now, I'm sorry to say that this is the only photo I took there this year--too busy eating, drinking, seeing friends, and wending our way through the crowded main streets. But this is Torschänke, one of our favorite German restaurants anywhere. It's impossibly quaint, and it's built into the old village walls, at the starting point of the market.

Check out this giant Advent calendar--it's a highlight every year of the market in scenic Bernkastel-Kues, 45 minutes away from us. It's pretty neat to be there when one of the windows is opened at 5:30, here in the heart of the market area. Everyone stands around with a bratwurst or a cup of glühwein, waiting for someone to appear in the lighted window. We were there with a group of friends, and the window that was opened that night was the teensy-tiny one at the very top. None of us could actually see what the picture was, but I believe it was an angel!

It's especially fun to visit this market on the evening when St. Nicholas arrives by boat to bring candy to children. He's accompanied by around 100 people in wet suits, swimming down the river from Kues to Bernkastel while holding torches! It's quite the sight to see. We posted ourselves atop the bridge that is just before the point at which the swimmers climb out of the water and add their torches to a bonfire.

The weekend after The Girl arrived in town from college, we all went for the first time to the Dom market in Köln. As the name suggests, and as you can see from the photo, this market is just outside the famous Cathedral. It was absolutely packed when we were there (we took the train right into the station next to the Dom, so we wouldn't have to find parking). It was fun, though, as people were really in the Christmas spirit and didn't seem to mind being jostled too much (I'm talking mostly about us--the Americans, who revere our "personal space"!). We found out later from a friend living in the Netherlands that there is another less-crowded market that she prefers over this one (Köln has a total of six or seven Christmas markets), but this one is still good. Next year we'll have to try the one she recommends.

We ate a lot at this market. One thing we shared was reibekuchen, a fritter that is made of potato, onion, and egg, and often served with applesauce. It's very popular in the Rheinland region, where we live, especially in Köln. It's the perfect street/market food: portable, cheap, and filling.

Just before leaving, we saw (and heard) these guys playing Alphorns. How cute!

I'll be back with a few more Christmas market and other Decemberish photos soon. Tchüss!

Global Style Love

If you appreciate and embrace global style as much as I do, I think you'll enjoy the first online magazine of Once Upon a Tea Time, a global interiors blog I've been following for several years. Due to great feedback so far, the magazine, which was designed to be a one-off, will become a monthly. Yay! 

Have a look and let me know what you think. If you love it, you may want to add Gypsy, the latest book by Sibella Court to your wish list. I'm such a fan of her styling, and I own two of her previous books.

Have a great day! And seriously, German Christmas markets are indeed on the agenda here!

November in Germany

Hope you don't mind my catching up a bit on last month before I get to the happenings of December. One day before Thanksgiving, we woke up to this scene. The snow had melted by early afternoon, but that's just fine, as we know we'll be getting more soon enough!

It was definitely time for warm drinks in a little corner of our favorite coffee shop in town. We stopped by a couple of weeks ago.

After our drinks, the owner, Guido, decanted some olive oil, walnut oil, and apricot vinegar for us. We love that he gets the finest oils and vinegars in his shop, displays them beautifully in glass, then makes recommendations and allows tastings before you make your choices and have them bottled. I used some of the walnut oil in the celery-date-walnut salad I've made for the past five or six Thanksgivings.

The following Friday, Husband and I drove to a fancy mall in Luxembourg City to visit a Cora Hypermarché (large, very overwhelming grocery store). Our main purpose for driving an hour each way for groceries? Husband is mad this year for moules (mussels), and after recently figuring out how to prepare and cook them ourselves, we've had them several times. The next time we had mussels, we were fortunately able to buy them locally. Above is our third effort, Thai Red Curry Mussels. So good.

Note the gray skies. When the weather was dry enough, the Boy shot baskets at a kindergarten playground. He's getting so strong.

On chillier evenings, we got the wood stove fired up. I do love it, even when it's not really cold enough in the house to get it going! Our home, built in the 1990s (not 1890s), isn't drafty at all. 

Oddly, I didn't get a single photo on Thanksgiving this year. 

Oh, wait--Husband did. Here's the ham he smoked, which was fantastic. Ever since we bought this Brinkman smoker over the summer, he's been a smokin' fool. It was the first time in ages that we haven't hosted on Thanksgiving, but we and another family still managed to eat ourselves silly in the home of some good friends a few villages over.

Coming up: oh, yes: it's time for German Christmas markets!

Two Women Cooking, in France

It's possible that I am ever-so-slightly just a tiny bit obsessed with Paris-based chef Rachel Khoo. This is a trailer for her second cookbook, My Little French Kitchen. Ever since I spotted her first cookbook, The Little Paris Kitchen, in a shop window in Ireland last year, I knew I'd have to buy it and also find out more about this chef, who is clearly vintage-quirky adorable and also really good at making the preparation of French food seem quite accessible, even in the tiniest of kitchens.

Elle a Table, March 2013

 I somehow missed her BBC series named after that first book (sheesh, the names of the two books are awfully similar!), but I was able to catch a couple of episodes during a flight last summer. For twelve video clips from this series, visit YouTube.

Then there's Mimi Thorisson, who writes the blog Manger.

Glow Magazine/ Greece December 2012

She's all glamorous and Gypset, but she lives in the French countryside with a bunch of kids and animals (oh, and her photographer husband). She cooks and eats great food and throws fantastic parties.

Just look at her, making that tarte tatin in those heels! These two women live very different lives, but I'm thinking they both rock the Fairytale lifestyle. I know, I'm sounding all girl-crushy--but these women are just cool! Don't you think so?

**Update: you can now preorder Mimi Thorisson's cookbook A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse!

The Sullivans, and the Soul of a Home

Robert and Suzanne Sullivan (and their kids) are very, very cool people, if this video of them in their home is any indication. And I'm pretty sure it is.

As soon as I watched Our American Revolution, I immediately pinned it, but then I realized I couldn't stop there. I had to share it here as well.

Why am I so taken with it? Well, I love that these creative people seem to be living exactly the way they want, doing what they want to do. They live a home-based life, which I admire, and they appear to get along with each other really well. And I love that they surround themselves with beautiful things--not expensive things, but items that often have great personal meaning to them.

I sometimes like to look around my home--in any particular room, or two--and call up memories of where and when I got many of the things my eye falls upon (there's plenty to see--I could never be a minimalist!). I'm looking at one shelf now, and I see items from South Korea, Malaysia, mainland Japan, Okinawa, Hong Kong, Panama, Germany, England, and Ireland. I have these things because I truly like them, and they remind my of my travels (though a couple of the items were gifts from friends). The only thing there that I could remotely call "expensive" is the lamp from Hong Kong.

But of course, it's not necessary to travel abroad to build your own collection of tangible memories--you'll see this in the Sullivans' video. It's about having things that you love around you--not so you can show them off to others, but because they make you happy. Isn't that the best kind of "decorating"?

I Heart a Good British Mystery

Have I ever mentioned here how much I love British TV? Hmmm, I probably have. I've been a big fan since high school, when I'd run into the living room and flip the channels on our chunky console TV, hoping to catch whatever might quench my Anglophilic thirst on our local PBS affiliate in northwest Louisiana. These days, I'm so glad to have digital tv providers that give me the option of watching many of the shows I love best.

British mysteries tend to be at the top of my list, but I have plenty of syndicated and new comedy faves, and I wouldn't dream of missing certain dramas, such as Downton Abbey (but don't dare talk to me about what's happening right now, as I'm still a season behind!).

Something about British television mysteries--the production values, the writing and the pacing, the set direction--tends to pull me in quite often. Though I think the U.S. does an outstanding job at dramas in general (I'll save that for another time), true mystery series aren't so much a forté.

Here are some really wonderful British mysteries that are now airing, or that have recently aired: Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, Lewis, The Bletchley Circle miniseries, Vera, DCI Banks, and Sherlock.

Midsomer Murders, for whenever I want a charming country-house fix, which is quite often!

And I have to add some "vintage" loves: Inspector Morse, A Touch of Frost, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Campion, The Last Detective, Rosemary & Thyme, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, and just about all of the Miss Marple, Poirot, and Sherlock Holmes stories.

Ah, my beloved Inspector Morse (John Thaw) and his loyal sidekick and friend, Lewis (Kevin Whately)

I'm guessing I've left out some good ones accidentally. Perhaps I'm a bit obsessed, but I'm thinking there are worse things in life.

Do you enjoy some of these shows, too, and are there any more you would add?

Lovely Little Monschau

Well, hello! We've been back in Germany for about a month now, after getting First Child settled in on campus at her university in Arkansas (sniff, sniff!). Before settling back into a routine here, we made a day-trip to the delightful little town of Monschau, about an hour and a half from us in our Eifel region of Germany. In between rain showers, I had fun taking photos on my iPad of our eating mustard soup, seeing pretty flowers and cute dogs, and just wandering the streets of the Old Town. We have absolutely no idea why we'd never visited before, but we do know we'll be back.