Close enough

A strange thing happens when you move from your home country and live somewhere quite different. After a while, you find yourself craving foods that were never all that important to you in the U.S. There should be a medical term for it. Surely I'm not the only expat who has experienced it.

For example, I've baked chocolate chip cookies more in the past year and a half than in all of the years combined prior to moving to Austria. There's just something so American about chocolate chip cookies that they're irresistible here. And pizza. I've blogged several times about going to another country to eat at Pizza Hut because you can't find thick crust pizza in Vienna. The pizza here is good, but sometimes I just want an American-style pizza.

Fortunately for me, some friends here in Vienna tuned me into a place that has a pizza crust that is almost exactly like Pizza Hut's. Almost, as in, I'm pretty sure it's the same recipe. They even have three crust options -- pan, deep dish and stuffed crust. The pizza toppings are still definitely Austria (corn and tuna, anyone?), but it's close enough for me!

When I was young my family visited Germany and we learned the hard way that there was no pepperoni in Germany. We ordered the pizza that was called pepperoni on the menu and were served a pizza covered in peppers (similar to banana peppers, I think). No pepperoni in Austria either, but salami is pretty popular. This one came with salami and bacon.

Some of the pizzas were named after famous people. Our other pizzas were the Schwarzenegger with salami, bacon, peppers and corn and in the back the Falco (named for the famous Austrian pop rocker) with ham and mushrooms.

Sorry Slovakia -- I don't think I'll be visiting you any longer for my Pizza Hut fix.

Guess what?

Get it? Guess what? Chicken butt. My mom didn't get it at all, but Christy knew exactly what I was talking about.

My family and I visited Schönbrunn palace the other day where there was a small Easter market. There we saw, among other things, this giant chicken.


I think she must be the one who is responsible for laying these giant eggs.


I finally have some things to blog about, but I don't have a lot of time. I'll be back sometime next week with more posts.

Birthday extravaganza

Yesterday was my birthday, but I held off on the celebration until today. This morning my parents, younger sister and her husband Bryan arrived for a special birthday visit. (Okay, so it was really just a coincidence that they arrived the day after my birthday. But I can tell myself otherwise.)

Last year I wrote about how my mom brought a red velvet cake all the way from Texas. This year I told her that I would bake a red velvet cake so she didn't need to bring one. But she defied me. Well, sort of. She brought red velvet cupcakes. And actually, I was pretty glad about it because this is the best red velvet cake ever.



Now my sister is harassing us to do something other than play on the computer -- Brian, my dad, Bryan and myself are all on our computers, but my mom and Christy don't have computers. I guess I can entertain my guest now.

Storytime

When I was young, I went through this phase where I really liked science stuff. I remember getting gifts like a rock tumbler and a science kit and a microscope. But there was one thing that I really wanted -- a telescope. And when Christmas rolled around I was sure that I would get a telescope. But I didn't. I got a pair of binoculars instead.

Brian always get a kick out of that story. And this year he decided to fulfill my childhood dream of studying the stars and buy me this telescope for my birthday.



Isn't he sweet? Now we just have to learn how to use it.

(Full disclosure: I ended up getting a telescope the year after I received the binoculars. But it wasn't nearly as high tech as the one Brian bought)

Odds and Ends

I'm making roman shades for the windows at the office, but I haven't been able to find one key component -- the cord lock. You know, the little thingy that keeps the cords locked in place when you raise the shade. I've checked several DIY stores and have even asked at a couple of location and have had no luck. Does anyone know if you can find these easily in the U.S.?

I made banana bread today and it turned out pretty dry because I was short a banana. What should you do when you don't have enough bananas? I thought about adding yogurt, but didn't try it. An extra egg? Milk?

Yesterday I bought a small food processor/chopper thingy. Today I tested it out by chopping nuts, pureeing bananas and making a peanut butter shake. Now I wouldn't normally use the chopper for shakes, but I was curious how it would fare. It fared well.

The Angry Chicken has been making butter. I remember doing this when I was a kid by shaking cream in a jar until it became butter. The results were delicious. I may give it a try sometime soon, but I think I'll use the stand mixer this time. I don't know, the shaking method may be fun, but it seems like a lot of work.

More water

A couple of people have reminded me of another non-profit group that is building wells in Africa -- Wishing Well. This is a student-led organization with roots at Pepperdine and Oklahoma Christian. Their goal is to bring attention to the water crisis and be a catalyst for action through art, photography and film. Definitely an organization worth supporting.

Today is World Water Day

From Charity: Water:

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

From Living Water International:

The United Nations Development Programme estimates the cost of meeting the MGD [Millennium Development Goal, to “reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.”] to be about $10 billion a year. Again, that is for water and sanitation for half of those lacking. They add that the figure “…represents less than five days’ worth of global military spending and less than half what rich countries spend each year on mineral water.”

I always check out charities on Charity Navigator and the BBB website prior to supporting an organization. I was unable to find any information about Charity:Water on either site. However I decided to include the link because there seems to be enough evidence of the good work that they do. They partner with many organizations, including Living Water International, and have received a lot of positive press. You can also view their completed projects in Google Earth. My guess is that they do not have a report with Charity Navigator or the BBB because they are such a young organization.