Tonight was Mexican night, at least I had a hankering for salt and cumin. Thanks to my family, Mexican night mimicked the stuff across the pond with a heavy dose of MSG in the Taco Bell Fajita seasoning. Oh heaven. Last weekend someone put stickers on our mailboxes that said, “Montag ist Reistag (Monday is rice day)” -some kind of advertisement for Uncle Ben’s. But oh contre! Monday is Mexican night. All the flour tortillas were sold out at the neighborhood store and the crunchy corn shells are only sold at the expensive department stores in the city center. Hey, No problemo. Now it’s nacho night.

Darn. Some of you guys have already seen the new layout. You all are quick. Yep, it commemorates the winter season, which isn’t always blue skies and brilliant white snow. Most of the time it’s grey, hazy pale lavender, nevertheless this time of year possesses its own beauty, which I’m very slowly getting accustomed to recognizing. In a way, I consider this layout an offering to the winter gods to make it more like winter. It’s a bit too warm for Glühwein and the Weinnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). Stupid logic would suggest the sooner winter comes the quicker I can get it over with. But dumb luck doesn’t matter in this case. We leave in about 3 weeks for Florida and return in the middle of January. It will be a shock the body won’t be able to avoid.

So last week I attempted a quick mock-up of Thanksgiving. Maribeth made me do it. She wouldn’t stop writing about all the goodies she was going, in the process of, had cooked up. I concentrated on the “Beilage” or side dishes with mashed potatoes inspired by my father’s cooking, and a sweet corn cake recipe I can’t wait to try again, that was delicious. It still needs some doctoring, though.

I bought a rotisserie chicken from the Wochenmarkt about 50 m down the street. The chicken man was speaking to some animated old guy when I strolled up to his traveling chicken roasting truck. I asked for a whole chicken and he asked if I wanted to eat it there or take it home with me. Funny man. Then he asked me where I’m from, Florida. Am I visiting. Do I live here. No. Yes. What am I doing here. I’m a student. Old guy chimes in and asks where? Florida. Ooooh! Old guy has relatives in Florida but its too far, like 19 hours! (more like 11 hours) All the while I’m impressed that I understand either one of these guys. Chicken man is either Italian or Turkish, his words are so jumbled and the intonation is mindboggling. I was invited to pick up another chicken next Thursday for 5.50 Euro. I feel I’ve passed the initiation, hehe.

The chicken was great, a little dry cause I bought it a few hours before it was served but our American guest, Mandy and her German fiancé, Fabian, seemed pleased with the meal. When we arrive in Florida, I think I will stock up on some canned cranberry sauce. That was a prize I definitely missed.