The "Uncle Sam I Drunk Yet?" Shot

Happy Fourth of July everybody!! I know it's not technically the 4th yet in the States (which are probably the only time zones that count), but since I can't be home to celebrate it, I'm bringing it in with a bang here in Germany. :) 

I've planned an American dinner for my international friends, and hopefully they'll like my Southwestern Chicken Chili and Chips, Ranch Dip, and Oreo truffles, and St. Louis style Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. In order to throw in a bit of patriotism, I decided a Red, White, and Blue drink was also in order.

I also wanted to somehow incorporate Kool-Aid into the mix, because my mom had sent me some packets in the mail, and Kool-Aid is pretty much distinctly American. So welcome to the party Kool-Aid! But how to make a layered shot? This led to lots of speculation, google-searching, and in the end just testing everything out. So you're welcome all you patriotic people out there, I just had three of these babies because I couldn't let the bloopers go to waste. You can make it with alcohol, or omit the alcohol completely for a (still really awesome) virgin drink. 

 In the end, here's the recipe that I came up with! I apologize for my makeshift recipe, and props to my friend Emily for the name!  Although it's a bit tricky to get the layers perfect, after pouring a shot or two, you get the hang of it! Pretty, ain't it? :) 

Note: This can be a very sweet drink, and may take some manipulations. However you mix it though, both grenadine and banana nectar are still pretty sugary, so don't forget you're consuming alcohol! Hence the name ;)

The "UNCLE SAM I DRUNK YET?" Shot

 What you need (it's simple really):

-RED LAYER: Raspberry or Grenadine syrup (whichever you prefer, but make sure it's a heavy full-sugar syrup)

-WHITE LAYER: Banana Nectar  (This must be REAL nectar, no banana-flavored stuff, because the banana bits are what helps the layers form) 
*can also be substituted with any cream liquor for a more alcoholic content and different flavor

- BLUE LAYER: Diluted Berry Blue or Mixed Berry Kool-Aid with added Vodka or Gin to your preference. In order to reduce wasted Kool-Aid (since you're really only making a couple shots), make the Kool-Aid as normal, then set aside a very small bowl of Kool-Aid to use for the shot(s).

Directions (these seem long, but it's not difficult, don't worry!):

1. Add additional water to the Kool-Aid you set aside to dilute. You don't want this layer to be very sweet, since the banana nectar and Grenadine are already sweet enough! I diluted mine quite a bit, so that it didn't really taste good plain anymore. Then decide how strong you want your shot to be. I mixed about 1/4 Kool-Aid, 3/4 vodka. This will be your blue layer. Don't worry about adding too much vodka, because this is the only alcohol in the shot. I also used a double shot glass so that the alcoholic content would more resemble a shot. 
*For the non-alcoholic version, just make a diluted Kool-Aid mixture. It really doesn't have to be sweet at all.
2. ASSEMBLY: 
-Pour the grenadine into the glass. 
-Using a spoon, slowly pour the banana nectar into the glass.
 *If you're not familiar with this, this is how it's done: Trickle the banana nectar over the round back side of a spoon into the glass while keeping the spoon end against the wall of the glass. The nectar should flow gently down the side of the glass and onto the previous layer. 

-Using the same spoon method, finally add the vodka/Kool-Aid mixture to the top. 

And voilà! You have a pretty, patriotic, layered shot! 

I also had to include a photo of the irony here, because I only had one shot glass on hand, but shhh, don't tell! :)

That one time where I bought orange pants..

So there I am in H & M. Looking for shoes, but they caught my eye out of nowhere. Granted, they are pretty hard to ignore. The Pants. Orange pants. I mean, I'm all for colored pants! I think some nice aqua or coral tweed would be adorable. But imagine traffic cones. And oranges that you eat. And Hooters. Halloween.Construction workers. Nike shoe boxes. Yep.  The brightest, loudest screaming orange I could possibly hope for and imagine. I looked in the dressing room mirror for about 5 minutes thinking about how accurately my ass resembled these things and thought, "these are the ugliest pants ever."  I bought them. 

April 30th in the Netherlands is a special day. Queensday, or 'Koninginnedag' if you speak Dutch. It celebrates the birthday of their Queen (although April 30 is actually the birthday of the current queen's mother). Basically, it's just a chance to have one big party. And party it was. Just Google search images of Queensday, and you'll see! I have never attended a bigger event in my whole life. Some might say it resembles Mardi Gras in New Orleans, although I'm not sure having never been to New Orleans. 


I feel, however, that Queensday is not a comparison. It is not just a day that you throw around in casual conversation. You don't go, "oh yeah, I think I bought some pants on Queensday." If you were to say something about Queensday, it would probably be "OH SNAP, I HAD THE BEST QUEENSDAY EVER WEARING ORANGE PANTS." Or, maybe "Duuuddde, those pants are sooooo, ya know, orrraannnge. Duuudde." (depending on how you spent your Queensday particularly) Orange, orange everywhere! Orange cowboy hats, jerseys, T-shirts, tiaras, flags, streamers, balloons, dresses, and pants too! I bought the orange pants in preparation for Queensday, which was a pretty good choice, seeing as I would've looked pretty dumb without any orange on. It was really cool to see the streets packed with solid orange. I imagine it would be phenomenal to fly over Amsterdam on this day and just see gridlines of orange. 


Remember my last post about Amsterdam? Now imagine those peaceful little canals packed with boats full of people dancing, blasting music, drinking Heineken, and throwing things at the casual observers. The streets were even more packed with all sorts of vendors selling yard-sale items, clothing, food, drinks, anything. You name it, you could find it somewhere. 










And the food. Oh my, the food. Right now is where I ask you not to judge me for the amount of food consumed during this trip.... freshly squeezed orange juice, sliced apples with chocolate syrup, Poffertjes (half-dollar sized pancakes with sweet butter), Dutch fries, Kroket-a weird concoction that is basically fried gravy (it comes out of a vending machine), and flaming shots called the Harry Potter. I even had the McDonald's version of the Kroket, the McKroket, which was even better than the real thing. 

The infamous Dutch Kroket in front of its vending machine.

What the inside of a Kroket actually looks like. 

The McKROKET...patty-form

"Harry Potter" shots

I felt pretty much like this graffiti afterwards, "Consumer" 

 The absolute best part of the day was a small table set up with some housewares for sale in a residential part of town. The adults sat in lawn chairs outside conversing, drinking beer, and watching the parade-like throngs of people pass by. But there was a little sign taped to the edge of the table with an arrow pointing down and text that read "slapende kat" (or sleeping cat), and underneath, a small little kid dressed up in a cat costume, laying in a little nest of blankets pretending to sleep, occasionally peeking open their eyes to see if anyone had put a coin in the box. Right on cue, Emily and I both stop and completely melt. We'd have probably  sold our souls to that adorable little cat-kid if asked, and proceeded to empty our pocket change into the box, while the parents laughed at our obvious amusement. 

Trash in the streets during the day.

I wish I could describe the atmosphere. It was somewhere between brawling, obnoxious, pressing, and loud to laid-back, chill, easy-going, friendly, and relaxed. If someone shouted something, they did so for merely the purpose of declaring their happiness. At times, I was pressed body-to-body with people on all sides of me in the middle of a street, the constant threat of being run over by the push of people behind, and at others I lounged languidly with Emily, our legs hanging over the side of the stone canal wall, throwing our faces back to the sun, soaking up the music and smells, and atmosphere. It was just a festival which embraced all the nationalities, all the quirkiness, all the weird, mismatched, and friendly people that Amsterdam had to offer. 


 I wish my photos did it justice. But I didn't bring my camera along with me this time (seeing as I got my phone stolen and, praise Jesus, returned!) so I had to settle for cell pics. I won't bore you with any more details, but trust me, those orange pants were worth every penny. (Although I secretly plan on returning them if I can successfully remove the dirt stain from the leg)   :) 






Oh, and did I mention, I got to watch my favorite band in the whole world perform live approx. 20 feet in front of me the next day? Life was good. I couldn't ask for more blessings.

Mein erstes Wochenende!

 My friend Emily came to visit me this weekend! It was a spur of the moment decision on her part, but couldn't have turned out better! She brought some nice Australians along for the ride, and we all did a little bit of exploring, and when I say exploring, I mean going out on the town. Aachen is basically made for going out. There's an entire street that only has bars, pubs, clubs, and greasy food restaurants where you can get such things as döner kebap or fries covered in almost any sauce (I tried this weird sweet tasting curry sauce that was surprisingly good even though I don't like curry...again, idk what it was called since I just said "go for it" to the fry-chef). Pontstraße is where you find all +40,000 students on a typical weekend evening. 

 Below: (1)Gelato for dinner, (2) Emily and I eating our kebaps,(3) The mess that we made on the sidewalk due to the enormous size of those dang kebaps. 

In total for the weekend, I tried 4 different types of German beer. Dom Kölsch, Bitburger, König Ludwig Weißbier, and Beck's. The awesome part about German bars/beers is that they always serve the specific beer in it's designated glass. Sounds confusing on the part of the bartender, because some bars have at least 20 beers! 

Below: The Aussies (Andy, Trent, Ryan) and us went to a pub/restaurant but we weren't allowed to stay without ordering food. They directed us instead to a little room attached to the pub with a sliding wooden door, and we entered the tiniest bar we had ever been in, with enough room for maybe 5 people to stand up inside, or 4 people to sit down. Too many of us for the space, so we left. It turns out that in fact that tiny bar is the smallest in all of Europe! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture. But because we had seen on the menu that Dom Kölsch was an option, and were so intrigued by beer that was named after a church we were very excited to drink it. So we found this place instead and drank our Church Beer. Queen's Pub. Also, the Jägermeister poster boy gets in the picture twice. And Ryan's wearing a crown. 

Also, I've got to hand it to Aachen.. the Germans really like Americans (and Australians). Or so it seems. While we were out, people kept coming up to us because they heard our accents and wanted to know where we were from. They are all really friendly, and it seems they are genuinely excited to be able to speak English us. I think they like the practice. A nice bartender made us these custom Deutschland shots. Probably the best ever, but he wouldn't give us the secret... we probably need an Enigma machine to figure it out....(oh, too soon?) 

Aachen is GORGEOUS at night. Especially in the Markt, which is where Pontstraße (the bar street) begins. The Dom and Rathaus stay lit until the wee hours, and when they go dark, you know it's time for bed. :)

Also on a last side note, I tried my first home-cooked German meal (at the cafeteria in my school). Some sort of weird noodle creation that resembles meatloaf made out of vegetables. It was delicious, about the size of my face, and jiggled sort of like jello... I didn't want to know what was in it! :) 

And thanks a million Emily for letting me steal some of your pictures...I didn't have any of us on my camera. For the record, I took all of the ones except for some of those that contain the both of us in them. :) (obviously) 

****DISCLAIMER: Just because this post is mostly about beer, doesn't mean it's cause to worry. Yeah, Mom and Dad, I'm talking to you. 

"You really are English, I thought you were joking."

Today was the first day of school. Well, not really, but the first day of intensive German class and International Orientation. We did a pre-test to see which level we placed into, and luckily I was placed in the advanced level, so I don't have to learn to count or say "my name is...." again. After a really confusing hour or so afterwards, a couple other international guys and I ran around town trying to get our health insurance and student verification stuff organized so we could get a library card to get our books. We stopped at a little copy shop to print off my actual itinerary (so I could find out what the heck I was supposed to do), and Mikael asked the man for help. After I also started talking, he was like, "You really are English! I thought you were joking!" He was a nice guy though. But, it turns out I have none of the required papers to get my student ticket, so I'm stuck until Monday.

The cool thing about German University is that you just check out your schoolbooks from the library, you don't spend $800 on them. 


(the picture below is of another tower/city gate thing above a creepy little pedestrian underpass.)

I convinced the other guys we needed to eat döner kebaps for lunch. We found a little place that advertised döner, but no kebaps. Still, I had a dönertasche at the advice of Lluis (left in the photo, from Mallorca) and Mikael (those are his feet in the photo below, and he took the picture above, from Sweden).
Dönertasche is the most magical creation I may have eaten in a long time. I think I'm going to be craving it all the time, like at breakfast and lunch and dinner and fourth meal. I think it beats out Taco Bell for sure, which is saying a lot. It's greasy mystery meat plus some onions, lettuce, other weird veggies and such, in a grilled pita shell that's lined with weird sauces. I would be able to describe it better if I had actually specified what I wanted in it, instead of saying  "Just make it good! Go for it!" to the döner-chef. I think I got some weird sort of spicy sauce, an almost sweet flavored creamy white sauce, and some weird red chopped things that looked kind of like radishes. Anyway, the three of us seemed to have dropped half our sandwiches on the ground trying to eat the monstrosities that were the dönertasche. I didn't use the fork. I definitely used the napkins. 

I had to be back at school for orientation after lunch. The bummer is that the international students are all in different colleges, in different parts of town, studying smart things like Mechanical Engineering or Product Design, etc. My orientation was for Business only, so I got meet some of the kids I'll have class with. They are ALL French, except two Chinese students and me. They supplied us with snacks, and I had the worst let-down in history. There was this thing, shaped like a pretzel, covered in chocolate. I was so excited. Dude. Like, I saved it for last so I could savor it. And I bite into it expecting crunchy chocolatey pretzel goodness. NO. Instead, it's soft, weird, almost American sandwich-bread like in texture, a cinnamon colored brown, and tasted sort of like spicy, or curry. For the record, I like almost everything. Especially in the dessert world. But this was horrifying. I actually ate about 6 bites of it, because I kept doubting that I didn't like it. No cell in my body believed that something covered in chocolate could be gross.

Today was an accomplishment of a day. Especially after I bought Nutella and german cookies to make up for the chocolate pretzel incident. 

Apple Cider Caramel Cookies

So.. I know this is a travel blog, and my first post is about cookies...made right here in my homey kitchen with my family. NOT TRAVEL, you say.I can feel your skepticism, but I couldn't help but share these fabulous concoctions (recipe below). I'm justifying this post by using it as practice! Or you can pretend I found out about this marvelous treat in Germany..whatever makes you happy :)






 I found the recipe for these cookies on Pinterest, and the original source is by Scrambled Henfruit (here). I was craving something baked and delicious, and these turned out to be the perfect treat. The cookie has a tangy-sweet apple cider flavor (which is something I've never had in a cookie before), and the inside is gooey melted caramel. They were a humongous success with my family, even the uber-picky sister!

Most of the ingredients were found in my pantry. The only things I had to buy were the bag of Kraft caramels and the Alpine Spiced Cider, but hey, if I made these in October or November, I wouldn't have had to buy anything!

 

These were delicious with tea (or coffee if you're like my dad), and best eaten warm. In fact, if you aren't eating them out of the oven, I'd recommend a zap with the microwave beforehand.

 

 Hungry by  now? Here you go! Hurry! Run and make these!!!

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

taken from Scrambled Henfruit

(recipe very slightly adapted from The Cooking Photographer)

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 box (7.4 oz) Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix -not sugar free- all 10 packets (I found this in my grocery store near the hot chocolate mixes.)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups all purpose flour

1 bag Kraft Caramels (14 oz)

Directions 

• Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment. (I was out of parchment paper, so I just put them on a cookie sheet coated in cooking spray, although I would strongly recommend the paper if you have it!)
• In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
• With your mixer (or an energetic spoon) cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy.
• Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.
• Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.
• Refrigerate for about an hour. (If you're really impatient like me,you don't have to do this, but it makes it so much easier to work with. I made the first batch of cookies at room temperature, but placed the bowl in the fridge while they were cooking. Normally I would ball the rest of the dough while they bake, but this helps because after the first batch, you can adjust the amount of dough to put around the caramel.)
• When you are ready to bake, unwrap your caramels. 
• Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut. (I used a rounded cookie scoop-full. My scoop holds about a Tablespoon and I used a little more than that.)
• Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets 2 inches apart.
• Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Please don't over-bake! Once the cookies are done, slide the parchment off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment or on a rack.) If you forget about them and they cool too much and stick to your parchment, put them into the freezer for a few minutes and they'll pop right off. **since I didn't have parchment paper, I scraped them off the pan right away and let them start to cool on a plate, then when cool enough to handle, popped them onto my rack.**
• Yield: about 4 dozen, depending on how large you make your cookies (or how many caramels have been snitched out of your bag before you begin.) Store in an airtight container.