Who has a burning desire to fire up the grill this Friday? Chances are most of us have plans for this long weekend (if you have Friday off) but if you’re on the fence come and join us.

Weather permitting we’ll be setting up around 5 pm on the “Isar Flaucher” just south of the Brudermühl bridge on the east bank. (See the map) If it decides to rain we’ll move the grilling to our place and heat up the electro-grill. We’ll provide the grilling equipment. It’s up to you to sport your grilling and beverage creativity. (BYOB)

Most of the time it’s a cocktail of people who show up to anything Alex and I organize. So if you’d like to brush up on your German or English (and maybe Spanish, Portuguese and French) you know where we’ll be.

As always, feel free to bring or pass this invite along to any one else you’d think would be interested.

Hope to see you on Friday.

Invitations were sent via e-vitation. We sent 40 invites through Goovite. I chose this invitation software because it was pretty basic, wasn’t littered with ads, guests don’t need to sign up and email address/invitations are erased 14 days after the party.

Still this form of invitation service is relatively new in our circles. The instructions to confirm were written in English, which also caused a potential problem. Alex presumed our German friends wouldn’t know the meaning of RSVP. But honestly, I didn’t know what the acronym stood for either until I found out that it is French: “répondez s’il vous plaît” for “please respond”. Do the French write RSVP on their invites?

In the end, the last standings for Goovite projected 7 yes’s, 1 maybe, and 2 nada’s..the rest just responded by email, confirmed with Alex or were tag-a-longs. I guess I’ll stick with good ol’ email until I can (or somebody nerdy and savyier) develop a similar system through my personal website.

Read Further for Party Highlights..

As usual, I focused on the food. Maybe too much. But I wanted people to eat – and eat well. We made lumpia and spinach pockets (thx Eva for the all the help); tomato, basil & kumat salad; mixed salad; thai noodle salad; bean dip; and a fruit salad. Trust me, I had more planned but ran out of time and steam.

For desert, I made a double chocolate terrine.. and double pan of chocolate cake with choco ganache. I know. I know. I went over board. Even throughout the evening we steamed shrimp and pork dumplings and with Mandy’s help, honey chicken tempura. Yummy.

The day before, Alex searched out good wine and run-away, stink cheese for the party. Every thing was gone by one in the morning. I think this was a good sign, oder? (one of those German words that commonly infiltrate into Expat-English. In this case it means, eh?)

Funny that so many guest expected to see boxes and bare walls. We aren’t done with the place by far but we know in a few days we won’t have time to be Bob Villa for the next 6 months. We have space but not that much for random boxes cluttering the walk ways. Knowing my track record it’s best to hang precious paintings. Besides we’re engineers and like to get our hands on power tools.

Our leaky toilet also survived the night. But it’s got to get fixed soon…sorry if any of you received a oyster squirt.

As you can see, this post lacks pictures of the party. Sorry. I guess you had to be there. The party also lacked good party music, which I am totally bummed about because that is my happy place. Blame it on my lack of delegating skills or the fact that Ubuntu Rhythmbox software wasn’t cutting it at the 11th hour. Next time. It’s on.

Other highlights: We received tons of wine. We need another party just to drink these bottles from all over the world. Somehow we missed out on Japanese sake?! jk

Party Guests:

Mr. Angelkötter; Mrs. Faust; Peter; Thierry; Holger; Christina, Rainer and Oliver; Eli and Scott, Sebastian & friends; Caro and Basti (ty for the couscous salad); Dave D and Carina (awesome blue bottle prosecco); Eva and Erwin (I love her cookies und gute Besserung); Jochen (lovely lila or-chi-dee); Bernhard & Rosi; Julie, Scott (I won’t forget now) and F; Max and Veronika; Mandy, Fabina, and Muffin dog (leave it to M to find a cake form in the shape of a house); Andrea, Alex, and Benjamin; Diana and F; Matthias and F; Cornelius and family’

My first 3-course meal dinner party was a success. I’m so proud that there were no major disasters. Thanks to Alex for attending the drinks and entertainment. Oh and a big thank you to Veronika for helping me with squeezing and cutting the fresh pasta into the boiling water. Mandy, Fabian and Muffin-dog were the first to arrive. I immediately gave Muffin a chew bone to welcome her to the party. I think she remembered being at my place of a week. (Awww moment)

We started the apéritif with a home version of Kir Royal, a mixture of sparkling wine and splash of cassis or for those with the darker love, a traditional Bordeaux, not too heavy but unfortunately with a bit more sulfur than usual. Max arrived then followed by Tavia and Karl. I started the appetizers hoping Veronika would arrive as they were being served but that didn’t happen until we decided that I should fire up the pan for the main course.

Appetizers consisted of crab-stuffed mushrooms and crab rangoon (very simple mixture of cream cheese, surimi, soy sauce, & worcestershire sauce in a folded wonton or gyoza wrappers fried until crispy). Tavia isn’t a fan of seafood so she got pork fried wonton. The main course was a pork filet mignon with a red wine balsamic sauce, fresh ricotta-bergkäse gnocchi, and spinach-rosenkohl stuffed tomatoes over a dapple of topinambur puree. The evening ended with a three layered dark-white chocolate terrine with a raspberry sauce and a sweet Riesling. [recipes to follow]

When I asked everyone how they liked their meat cooked, I got answers that ranged from bloody to well-done. Uh-Oh. After the thumb test, the evening arrived at the moment-of-truth as I sliced into pork. Ah. Success. Those who wanted well-done got end pieces and the rest got two slices of a nice rosy color. *Pride*

Everyone ate everything, including the remaining pork. I worry that I didn’t make enough and I kick myself for not taking a picture. The balsamic sauce went over very well and the plates were cleaned with the bread that Alex picked up at the last minute from Aldi (I always forget the bread). Fabian finally asked where I got the pork filet mignon and I admitted that it also came from Aldi. I’m not being cheap, they really do have good pork filets. Tavia thought my gnocchi looked like cauliflower, which to my amusement, they kind-of did.

I was a little disappointed that my mushrooms were too cold; I didn’t leave them in the oven long enough and my terrine was grainy in one layer, but those are just minor complaints. I also should of had a white wine or more sekt for those who can’t stomach red wine. (Yet some think it is a crime to drink white wine with a red sauce.)

We were definitely at our limit with 8 people for dinner. We only have 8 forks in this household, thus the appetizers were finger food. I hope the mix of people worked out alright. With three girls from the U.S., there were times of English speaking but mostly German. (Good job, girls)

Ashame I was there for only parts of the conversations but that’s part of the fun of hosting a dinner party. I can’t wait to do the next one, I’m thinking fish..

Recipe links:

• crab-stuffed mushrooms
• Red Wine Reduction: Pork Filet Mignon
• ricotta-bergkäse gnocchi [recipe to follow]
• spinach-rosenkohl stuffed tomatoes [recipe to follow]
• quadruple chocolate terrine & raspberry balsamico drizzle [recipe to follow]

My knee is doing well. My tibia is still sensitive to pressure along my shin, near my knee cap and inner meniscus. I’m walking without the 550€ metal brace because it’s more trouble than its worth. The thing keeps slipping down my leg and pinches the inner-side of my knee. Now’s the time to start krafttraining (strength training) because I’ve lost considerable muscle that is supposed to protect my ligaments. What a balancing act. Here are pictures of my progress:

taken: 3 days after OP,     15 days after OP,             1 month after OP

it’s so big!It has been a 4-day weekend for us. I’ve been studying my Fragebogen for my European drivers license test and Alex has been studying the features of our new television. We are able to hook up our computer to the HD screen and let the movies fly. No more burning stuff to disk. Handy.

tenley and meTonight we are off to another Halloween party with our English-speaking compatriots. It should be ghastly. We went to Robin’s party on the 31st but left at midnight because the knee was being a pussy and my tolerance for spirited beverages isn’t what it was over a month ago at the Okfest. Tomorrow we’re headed to Regensburg to finally meet other fellow expat blogers, like Christina. I’m looking forward to good Bavarian food and good company. Cheer to you all.