Happy Christmas

So this is Christmas.

According to my mom, some people are feeling sorry for us because we're spending Christmas all alone in Vienna. Brian and I thought about capitalizing on this situation and finding a pathetic-looking Charlie Brown tree and posing for a Christmas photo. You know, to get more sympathy. But then we didn't, so I just photoshopped one instead.


But really, there's no reason to feel bad for us. Brian's sister sent us a lovely package, the contents of which allowed us to celebrate The Tradition on Christmas Eve. It wasn't the same without family, but it was still nice.


And then today, we enjoyed lunch with the Haskews. So you see, we weren't alone after all.

Even Sharkdog had a jolly Christmas.


Merry Christmas!

Christmas eve hijinks

It looks like Sharkdog has found someone who enjoys looking out the window just about as much as he does.

Around Christmas, my family always has sausage balls in the house. Despite my struggle with making peanut butter balls in Austria, I decided to continue with the tradition of making sausage balls. In the U.S., it's quite a simple recipe -- breakfast sausage, Bisquick and sharp cheddar. But everything is a bit more difficult here. First, I've never seen breakfast sausage. Second, I've never seen Bisquick or other biscuit baking mixes. (Or biscuits for that matter. Even KFC doesn't have biscuits!) And finally, I've never seen sharp cheddar -- though I have heard it's available.

So what's a girl to do? I imagine you can guess -- I went over to All Recipes. I used this recipe to transform ground pork (which is readily available and quite inexpensive) into breakfast sausage and this recipe to make biscuit mix. As for the sharp cheddar, I replaced it with mild cheddar, which (gasp) I had to shred myself.


The sausage balls turned out pretty tasty, though not exactly like the ones from the U.S. All in all, I'd call it a success.

Animal kingdom

Yesterday I had hippos on the brain. I know -- hippos -- it seems a little strange. But I ran across this website and had the song stuck in my head the rest of the day. I remember loving this song when I was younger. I can remember listening to it in the car. I'm pretty sure my dad sang along.

So yesterday when I saw cute pink hippos at IKEA, I was seriously considering buying one. But then I saw sharks and decided to get one for Sharkdog. Normally when Sharkdog gets a new toy, he's very hesitant about it at first. He'll dance around it, trying to sniff it without getting too close, and eventually he'll start playing with it. But when I showed him the shark, he tried to grab it immediately. And he played with it for quite a while. He even brought it to bed last night.


In other news, the Rushers started celebrating the holidays a little early. Check out Sharkdog's blog to read about today's happenings.

How lovely are your branches

Sharkdog really enjoys looking out the window. Especially when it's snowing. I'm glad our apartment has floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room.

We didn't get a Christmas tree this year. I kind of wanted a tiny tree just because I like miniature things. But Brian said no way. The conversation went something like this:

A: [kind and innocent tone] Brian, sweetheart, can we get a Christmas tree this year?

B: [loud and mean tone] No, wicked woman. No tree, and that's final.

A: But honey, it's Christmas. Just a small tree.

B: I said no tree. But I'm in a generous mood. You can have a branch.

Ok, so maybe that is a bit of an embellishment. But I do like all of the tiny Christmas trees. And Brian did tell me that I could have a branch. This is probably closer to the real conversation:

[walking past the Christmas tree lot after German class]

A: [casually] Those tiny trees are cute. Do you want to get a tiny tree?

B: [casually] No, I'm not really interested in a tree this year.

[We notice some branches laying on the ground.]

A: What about a branch? Are you interested in getting a branch?

B: Hmm... I like that idea. Yes, you can get a branch.

But I didn't get a branch. I'm pretty sure the guy would have given me a branch, but I didn't want to carry it all the way home on the u-bahn. Plus, I didn't want to try to have the "can I have a Christmas branch?" conversation in German.

Since we don't have a tree, I decided to decorate our crazy lamp. In Austria, Christmas trees are called Chirstbaum (baum = tree), so this is our Christlampe.


Every year, Brian and I get a new ornament. We haven't bought one yet this year, but I'm hoping to stop by a Christmas market tomorrow afternoon. This is the ornament from last year. I think it's my favorite.

The big disappointment

I've been so disappointed with Christmas baking this year. Mainly because I haven't done any yet.

I had big plans of making sausage balls and peppermint brownies. And I wanted to try some new recipes like this Raspberry and Almond Shortbread Thumbprint recipe. Or possibly (in my more ambitious moments), this recipe for Brown Butter Spoon Cookies with Jam.

I had good intentions. Really, I did.

But it just hasn't happened. I actually tried to make peanut butter balls. But something went awry. I must have converted some of the measurements incorrectly. It's a little tricky to convert "1 package of graham crackers" into grams of graham-cracker-substitute. (For those in Europe looking for a graham cracker substitute, I used Leibniz Vollkornkekes.) So the peanut butter mixture turned out very sticky and not as firm as it should be. Even after refrigerating it, it was still softer than I'd like.

And I'm not going to start with the troubles I had melting the chocolate. After two failed attempts, I switched over to the melting chocolate you can buy in a little plastic cup. It was a sad day.

After all that trouble, I didn't have the heart to dip a hundred peanut butter balls into chocolate. So I decided to make peanut butter bars instead. I put some foil in a baking dish, added a layer of melted chocolate, stuck it in the freezer to harden the chocolate, added the peanut butter mixture, then added another layer or melted chocolate and stuck it all back into the fridge. It turned out ok, but not as good as I had hoped. Not good enough for a photo.

But here's the recipe if you want to try it. As you can see, the measurements are based on American packaging, so perhaps I'll have to find a recipe with actual measurements for next year. However, I've successfully made this recipe many times in the U.S.

Peanut Butter Balls

• 1 package graham crackers (this isn't 1 box, but one of the packages within a box), crushed
• 1 lb box powdered sugar
• 2 sticks margarine or butter, softened
• 1 lb peanut butter
• 1/2 pack chocolate chips
• 2/3 block paraffin wax

1. Mix crushed graham crackers, powdered sugar, softened margarine and peanut butter. Roll peanut butter mixture into small balls (about 1 inch) and refrigerate.
2. Melt paraffin wax and chocolate chips in double boiler, sauce pan or microwave. Stir until smooth.
3. Use a toothpick to dip peanut butter balls into chocolate.
4. Place dipped peanut butter balls on waxed paper and refrigerate.

Monkey on the lam

What's funnier than a sneaky monkey? How about a sneaky drunken monkey?

A hard pill to swallow

Alternative and homeopathic medicine seems to be much more popular here than in the U.S. I've known this for a while, but it really struck me recently during German class. Earlier this week we discussed subjects related to health -- body parts, common health problems, etc. During one of the exercises, we were given a list of health problems and a list of remedies and had to "prescribe" a remedy for each problem. Here are some of the more amusing remedies.

Headache -- drink coffee

Dizzy/light-headed -- eat chocolate

Diarrhea -- drink cola and eat pretzels

And everyone's favorite:
Stomachache - drink cognac