Different Taste 10

Different taste... one of my favorite topics to write about because it combines two things I really enjoy: first of all being advantageous by trying new things and most of the time it involves food as well. A great combination ;-)
This time I speak about cheese which is bit different over here too. Well, you can get French, German and Irish cheese here too but the American version is sometimes... well let's put it this way, surprising! For better understanding you have to know that they have a product called 'I-can't-believe-it-is-not-butter' which is exactly that, not butter. This applies to cheese too. The worst cheese I found so far is the 'yellow fluid 'cheese-wanna-be' which you can pour directly onto your Nachos or burger. Very strange is if you don't need to head it up and it is coming directly out of a dispenser. That case keeps me wondering how many chemicals it takes to keep it in this state in the first place. Under this circumstances you might understand the picture of my favorite frozen pizza brand over here which is advertising 'with 100% REAL cheese'!
What are the other brands using? Unreal cheese? Yellowish fluent wanna-be cheese? I feel that I don't want to hear the answer to this though ;-)

Ekki on top of the world

On top of the world, ey? Well more like on top of a mountain you might say. And other might even argue... only a hill. But 'on top of the hill' doesn't really looks that good as a title. And it doesn't even describe remotely the fun you have skiing down... a hill... fast :o)

So being out on the piste (slope) a second time this year shows you how much fun I have following my new hobby taking me outdoors in the winter time. Usually not the best time of the year to get in front of the door you might think.

And you are right about that. This time was the coldest skiing day I had so far. 15 F (-10 C) is quite chilly when you have snow falling on top of you as well. But brilliant ski conditions with as much new powder snow as you can ask for!

Hope to see you down the slope in one stage :-)

The 5000th visitor

5000 visitors! I am still amazed about the huge number of people who like to read this little blog about my adventures in the new world. And lots of things I have seen so far over here and lot of things have changed. The most obvious one is of course the world economy which really sucks right now. Over here though things changed in a matter of days when people stopped talking about their 25 or 30% ROI they got from funds in the stock market to loosing the same amount of money in a matter of a few hours. On the other hand we have a new president and it was great to see the election campaigns and of course being able to keep you up to date. Also I went to Germany, Ireland, Houston, Dallas and Las Vegas all in the last 2 months alone! Busy times and interesting times we are living in right now.

In times like that it is good to focus on things that really matter again... like health and the happiness of loved ones. Everything else is just the icing on the cake, right?

Thanks for reading my blog! Stay save... and read you soon!!!

New season - new fun

The winter is back! I still remember my very first ski season like it was last year... oh well... it was last year ;-) And it was great fun too! At the end of that season I finally managed to conquer a blue slope (second easiest level) without falling. I was so proud of me, simply ignoring all the 6-grader who were flying past me in the process :o)

So this season I planned on improving my skills and maybe getting the same success with a black slope (a really easy black slope) at the end of this season. I started off on the bunny slope (green) and was surprised that I didn't even crashed ones. It's a bit like riding a bike, once you learn it you don't loose it. So next week I will try my luck on the blue ones! Fingers crossed.

Gingerbread house in January

One of the things I didn't get into my suitcase anymore was the 'Gingerbread House Kit' which I thought would be great fun to build with my family in Germany. Unfortunately the 1.2 kg (2.6 pound) of pure sugar were too heavy for my luggage. A pity... so what to do with such a fantastic kit when I got back to Colorado in January?

Well... I think you understand where I try to get with that. Should I let it going stale on me? Sweets? No way! So I revived the 'Ekki cooks...' post series on this blog especially for this project.

Lucky enough all ingredients were in this set so I didn't have to go crazy with the oven. Not that I am capable of doing that :o)

And as you can see... after two hours of hard decoration work where I felt like one of these guys in our neighborhood decorating their houses for Christmas... just a bit smaller of course ;-) after two hours it was done!

And two days later the house was in my housemates and my bellies!

Tasty! And this year I will build the house BEFORE Christmas. Promise ;-)

Back in Colorado

But every good thing has to come to an end... even my amazing travel through Europe. I have seen my friends in Ireland, my old office, was on the annual Christmas party and had plenty of proper Guinness.
Then I saw my parents, my brother and my friends in Germany... I traveled to Frankfurt to meet my old mate Heiko, in Hofheim I had some drinks with Siggi, in Nuremberg I saw a great comedy show with Christine and went to the Imax with Torsten. I celebrated New Years Eve with Annika, Pete and Christine and also got a chance to hang out with my buddy Gerald. Oh... and I had a BBQ on the first Christmas day :o) I really felt that I spend an entire lifetime in only three weeks while I was over there. Thanks everyone for having me!

But now it's time to head back to Denver, Colorado. I am sure I am needed there as well :-)

Germany tour 08/09

Like my infamous German Summer 08 tour, the Winter tour 08/09 was again aimed to meet as many friends as possible in the shortest amount of time. This time I went to Nuernberg where I met Christine... don't ask me why she had to kiss the blue horse instead of me :-)

After that I went to meet my good friend Siggi who moved recently to a very nice place called Hofheim close to Frankfurt. We had some wines and cigarettes like the good old study days ;-)

With a big hangover I continues my journey to see my friend Torsten.

Of course I had to go to the Imax cinema with him and we watched some 3D movies... I know... I know... geeky but hey... I like ;-)

After traveling hundreds of kilometers (miles) across Germany it was time again to think of heading back to Colorado.

Home sweet home

And finally I found some time for going back to my hometown in the principality of Waldeck: Nieder-Werbe. At summertime this place is full with tourists hanging around the second biggest man-made lake in Germany. But at wintertime the water level is lowered and all you can see is a frozen peace of wanna-be lake in the middle of the village. Hence not that many tourists are finding their way over there...

Of course I also had time for meeting my parents again who are always happy to see me once in for a while. America is still quite a way to go I guess ;-)

Home sweet home!