lulu castagnette

Darn it - no internet sales, no known shop fronts and they do have a lovely watch I want - especially as my current teddybear watch just died!!
Major bummer - and they are really cute, see below

www.dailymotion.com/video/x7tqud_lulu-castagnette_creation

Anyhow while googling for a shop I found this - enjoy!

Siebenburgen kraut rezept

Ok - the power of the Internet!

Here is the link to the original website and the recipe.
I have included it here as well - and credit should go to Marga - the author.

http://www.siebenbuerger-kraut rezept

Siebenbürger Kraut

Ungewöhnliche Zusammenstellung,aber richtig gut an kalten Tagen!!!!!!

		Zutaten für Portionen 1 gr Zwiebel 1 Knoblauchzehe 2 EL Öl 400 g gem.Hackfleisch Salz,Pfeffer 1 EL Paprikapulver 1 EL Kümmelkörner 1/2 EL getr.Majoran 1/2 EL Schweine-oder Butterschmalz 500 g Sauerkraut 250 g Langkornreis 2 Lorbeerblätter 375 ml Fleischbrühe 250 g saure Sahne 1 Bd Petersilie

Zubereitung: Zwiebel und Knoblauch fein hacken und im Öl glasig braten.Hackfleisch zugeben und unter Rühren braten,bis es krümelig ist. Mit Salz,Pfeffer,Paprika,Kümmel und Majoran würzen.

Einen Schmortopf mit dem Schmalz ausstreichen. Sauerkraut abtropfen lassen.
Dann den Topf schichtweise mit Sauerkraut, (ungekochten) Reis und Hackfleisch füllen. Auf die letzte Fleischschicht die Lorbeerblätter legen und mit Sauerkraut bedecken. Die Brühe an der Seite zugießen und die Sahne auf dem Kraut verteilen.

Den Topf zugedeckt in den kalten Backofen auf die untere Schiene stellen. Auf 160° schalten und 1,5 Stunden schmoren.
Die Petersilie hacken und auf das fertige Gericht streuen.
Zum Servieren mit einem großen Löffel Portionen abstechen.

Mhmmmmm lecker
und etwas anders als unsers - but hey - its all good!!
Enjoy

Siebenburgen Kraut - another buerger??

Well wouldn't you know it - good old Adolf has a lot to answer for.

Yesterday I googled for a rezept of Siebenburgen kraut and afterwards wrote my blog (see below) and then went for a sleep - this morning I googled it again cause I wanted to check up on something (location mainly) only to find my blog entry the top of the list out from 4470 entries.

Wohoaaaa - how weird/ cool is that.

Well to cut a long story short - seems by heritage I am Austrian/Romanian/German - in that order. Really weird, my Opa and his wife left Liebling (now in Romania) just before the war finished and walked - yes walked - the near 1000 km to Austria - thats 5 children the youngest some 1 year old!! And now - well I am living in New Zealand, my Uncle in Stockholm and pretty much the rest of the gang in Austria!
However I understand that there are long distance cousins still in Romania.
There could even be a long distance relative in Chicago! Can the Blocher clan in Austria confirm that??
Meanwhile - my dearest wife also known as mamabear - has English bloodlines, but is born in New Zealand, as are our boys. Regular UN kids here!!! Wonder who - or should that be what nationality they will marry - eventually - plenty of time yet boys!! :)
Must go and urm wash something then take Max (the beagle) to the beach, another 30 plus degree day today.

To all Blochers out there - wohoooooo, nice to meat some of you via google - small world . . . . . . .

Siebenburgen kraut and Pavlova

Well, you learn something new every week - just as well - I think. Anyhow - my Mom has cooked from time to time a Siebenbuergen kraut - a dish she learned from her time post war in Austria. Originally from a lady who came from Poland if memory serves correct. Anyhow - this urm lets just say polish "lasangne" is delicious and my sis cooked it for us while we were over there. So now we were game and try it here in NZ - only to discover that

1; we cant get decent sauerkraut and
2; the sausage required here are not spicy enough.

Not to be outdone we did seem to manage. Anyhow you start by layering a hot sauerkraut followed by the fried sausage meat and then the cooked rice followed by the browned curry mince and lastly another layer of Kraut - topped with sour cream and sprinkled with ground paprika. Bake in mod. oven for around 30 min at 200 degrees Celsius. Serve with cold salad and a glass of medium wine - delicious!!!! oh I forgot the various spices and onion and garlic - well - season to taste.

The thing I learned - google siebenburgen kraut and you will come across a website that tells you all about historic settlements near Translyvania (yes Dracula Country) very very interesting reading that was. And of course - in my old age - clean forgotten my history lessons from school.

Anyhow it was a hot day again and Mamabear did fancy a Pavlova - a traditional New Zealand dessert. To hot to bake it, so we cheated and went to the supermarket and picked one up. In the fotos you can see the nearly finished product and then - well bon appetit.

Hmmm my see-food diet has not started - contrary to my boys opinion, who believe that a see-food diet for me entails see the food - ergo eat it!!!!








Mamabear about to finish the - as we call it affectionately- "Pav"

hot lulu castagnette bear

Ok crucify me - but assuming you happen to be on a beach and alone and this hot lulu castagnette bear would walk past you, you would (and what you think I would do???)

a; look the other way

b; look at the teddy bear

c; use your favorite pick up line (on the teddy bear - of course!!)


No prizes are offered for the correct answer! No correspondence will be entered but your dreams are free . . . . . .

Sagems My411C Lulu Castagnette clam shell phone for the old teddybear!!

Well, of course, there is a story behind this too.
Suffice to say I really wanted it and nearly missed out on getting it.
By pure chance there was one left in the whole of Austria and we were for once in the right spot at the right time. So we just grabbed it - I mean payed for it and took this back home to New Zealand!
I mean - HOW could anyone resist this?????






Yea, yeah - ok - so the smart ones of you googled lulucastagnette and discovered that it is - ahem - " a girlie" phone, somewhat light on grunt and features - but c'mon - it sure looks so cute - hot almost. It does everything I want it to do - and thats enough!
Best off all the local sim card fits and I can actually use it here! wohoooo

Now I see that Walmart is selling luggage with the lulu castagnette images on it - urm - they look very very cute and ahem, *cough* , we will need new suitcases for our next trip. Wonder if Mamabear is prepared to spring US $ 100 or thereabouts for three suitcases??????

some 30 min later:
Hmmmm they sell watches in the store - maybe we need to make a detour to Paris next time round- waddya think mamabear - fancy another trip to Paris?????



July 2009
Well we do seem to want to travel - so I am looking at some new suitcases - here are some Lulu castagnette suitcase samples - they look just gorgeous. Wonder if can do a mail order from Paris?? What do you think our chances are in that??

What a fruitcase - something to ponder?

Well - I just made myself a fresh fruit salad with a dash of yoghurt and some lemon juice for my lunch. Have added cut banana / plum / blueberries and some strawberries - which reminds me . . . .



While in Salzburg (regular readers will know the time frame)- in the depths of a cold winter - at some minus 10 degrees - we were able to buy a punnet of strawberries in the local supermarket - fresh from Italy - for 1 Euro - yes 1 Euro. Naturally we had to indulge ourselves and not only buy them but eat them pretty much on the spot. They were actually and surprisingly very tasty!!!!

So when we are buying Strawberries back here in good ol NZ - right at the height of the growing season - eg summer and we have to pay - urm - add 1 detract 4 ahem - 1.50 Euro's - it makes you wonder!!!!!!!
We were staggered to be able to buy them in Salzburg in wintertime at the first place - but then to be cheaper then here in Chch in summertime - wohaaaa. What is the world coming to???

Hmmmm better go and eat my lunch or the local vultures here will devour it and there are no more berries left to make another one!!

Gutted

Wouldn't you know it - we have a TOTAL fire ban on in town!!! Major bummer.
I mean TOTAL - not even open gas cookers. pfft - poor old Larry will have a few weeks of xtra living to do and as he is a hmmmm 14 month lamb (I think)- by the time we cook him he might be a tad old in the tooth. And that means having to cook him even slower. Just as well we got all night to roast the poor beast! lol if we not carefull we could just smoke the poor thing and eat it over a few weeks. Poor lamb!! Still more time to sit round the roast pit and swap tall stories about previous scout encounters - oops camps!! Not to mention planning for our next camp!!
The way the local weather is going Larry will have till Easter at least - hmmmm don't get me started on a sacrificial lamb!!!! :D

Cool dip in a hot pool

Well last day of freedom - so we decided to head about 120km north of Christchurch and have a lay-in (speak soak) in the thermal pools there. I so miss the autobahn's - the trip took just over an hour - even though we did manage stretches of the road - urm - lets just say it wasn't exactly legal.
Micky came with us - his job was a recon for a poss venturer camp up there. Surprise surprise - he didn't want to be in the pool with us. Must be something about long hair. Or was it the thought of his mum in a bikini swim suit????? - You will have to ask HIM that!!

Anyhow - the pools where lovely - about 34 degrees and not overly full - which was nice and unexpected. School holidays - usually it is jam-packed full!! We managed to relax - and picked up diff languages being spoken - German/Croatian/Italian/French and I think some Russian.

Check this website out: -----> Hot Pools

Now it's the case of dinner and maybe some emails and then bed - gah - and work on Monday!!
Ciao

Returning to "normality"

Sigh - yes sadly my long holiday has come to an end. I was checking dates yesterday and realized that apart from a few weekends here and there and one week a few years back (and of course all the stats days in NZ) I have not had a decent holiday since 2002 - when ironically we went overseas for 5 weeks, to visit Europe and family!! Well ok - so I spent some of my paid holidays on Jamboree and Staveley Scout camps - which is a holiday of sorts!! No wonder I was getting drained! We certainly seem to struggle to coordinate mine and Pam's holidays. I hope that we don't have to wait another 6 years. Mind you, we got enough air points to fly free over to Australia - so Jade watch out - I might be there end of 2009 or jan 2010!!

Meanwhile - I go to work today to pick up the keys and then on Monday its back to normal! Wonder what will wait for me there!! In terms of Scouting - I have to sew some more scarves, and we are still working away on these computers. Seems while I was away the Uni donated some to our group - how cool is that??!! Then our QM tells me that we are running out of space in our store and we might have to either add on a room or buy a shipping container to store all our gear.
Radar - u are so lucky with your Den!! It was warm and spacious!! I envy you and your group.

The other upcoming big project will be the renovation of our kitchen. There is no real urgency, however the sink will eventually fall through the bench and at that point we will have no choice but to rip everything out and start fresh! Guess who will be doing the bulk of the work there!!

I am also getting my motorcycle license back eg transferred from Austria to NZ - and I am looking to buy some sort of mean machine - maybe a small Harley Davidson. Later when we "retire" we will be carefree and cruising NZ for a whole year - stopping wherever we feel like. From a previous blog entry you can see that Mamabear has already practiced sitting on the bike!!

mrs-santa-claus-on-harley-davidson.html

Well - better get ready - wake up my boys - and get meat out for dinner tonight.

oops speaking of meat - ^^ 6th Feb is d-day for Larry the lamb. Our challenge for our Senior scouts. We start with a live lamb - that needs to be -urm - you know. Then the skin taken off and gutted. Next item will be getting the coal bed ready and slowly turn it over the heat for several hours. This is usually a night activity and cooking starts sometime after 10 pm - and we eat in the every early hours of the morning. This should be fun!!! Usually is. More on that later

Staveley Round up

ok - I got a few days holiday left - basically to recover and get back into the groove!! Have been cleaning the kitchen top to bottom and will tackle the bathroom soon.

Meanwhile - some 350 kids enjoyed clay bird shooting, silhouette shooting, archery, metal craft, leather work, stone carving, mountain biking, bmx biking, a series of water sports, horse trekking, bush tramp, 4 wheel driving through bush, a fishing and hiking trip, glass etching, electronics base, minigolf challenge, urm - got to fly (hands on like) a Cessna, camp cooking in an earth oven, mini digger, hehe and drive a small car round a circuit -giving the leaders near heart attacks;
if there are other activities I have forgotten - feel free to leave them via the comments.

Hmmm Holidays are soon over and I have to go back to work - earn cash so we can go again in some years time.
Bummer - I was getting used to be on holiday . . . . . .

PS - of course - how could I forget - there was also abseiling / rock climbing and a photography base

Euro pic's unsorted and unlabled

here is a link to see them all - well mine anyway - Mamabear's are yet to be loaded
Enjoy

http://cid-c6695e20e8e3fb7d.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Euro%20trip%20pic

Underground newspaper on scout camp

At Stavely we created a un-official camp newspaper called intentse. The paper took a fun look at camp life and the first two editions were printed underground and delivered late at night - or rather early morning. We had a lot of fun writing and using some subtle subterfuge to deliver.
Poor sea scouts - they featured rather a lot.
BTW - don't believe EVERYTHING that is written!!!!

Cutting a long story very short, by day three we became part of the camp team and published under the Staveley News banner. PDF's of intense can be found by clicking through to:

http://staveleynewsintentse.googlepages.com/

11 gig of fairies

wohooo; here is the complete collection of fairies and other assorted images from our staveley scout camp!! Heaps of people contributed to this page - spot the faires and the urm - lets say alternative washing line to dry out - urm - clothing of interest!!!
:D

Enjoy

Papabear

http://www.staveley2009/

Fairies on a tramp

Wohooo
Had a fast turn around after we arrived back home and after a wash and sleep, drove out to the Scout camps site at Staveley and met my fellow fairies for a week of fun and hilarity.
I had a blast, as have all the other kids and leaders that where there. We also were a little - urm - "off-beat" - in celebrating a leaders 21st b-day!!!! See photo attached! Are we a crazy happy bunch or what??

HAPPY 21st Jon-e


We had huge fun in producing a "underground" camp- news paper and well - Jorja - who will ever look at a carrot in the same way?!!!! Eh giggles??
Only sad thing was we missed our comrade in arms - still holed up in old blighty!! Gemma - I'm sure you would have fitted right in. In your honour we wore your scarve!!

We sweltered in hot conditions - one day reaching 35 degrees!!! Then my sister txt's me and informs us of -15 in Salzburg and that Rotterdam harbor had to use a ice breaker in a very loooong time to clear the harbour!!! This must be only the second camp that Brodie has been to where it had not rained at all. Mind you - while I was still in the air (coming back from our little junket) - they had to put up tents in gale force conditions. Tents got blown over and damaged in 150 km/h winds!!!! Glad I missed that!!
There are mor pics - but I have to wait for them to - urm - develop!!!

Back home - or are we???

sigh - we are back in Christchurch to be greeted by a thunder and lightning!! Most unusual - COULD we have brought back with us some winter weather????
Left Munich in snow fall and -3 degrees.
My sis tells me that today is yet another -10 degrees day in Salzburg
My dear wife informs me that she would consider another winter holiday - arriving 20 Dec and leaving after 5 weeks or so - we will need to save more then one penny for that!!!

For those stats minded folks!!

Traveled - total 4377 km while in Europe - most on the autobahns (I am so gonna miss that car)
The "little round trip" in itself was 2700 km!!

Munich - Dubai 6 hours flight
Dubai - Sydney 14 hours flight
Sydney - Christchurch 4 hours flight

That's not counting the time spent on cuing at airport/ Check in / Check out
We have handled our passport more times in last 30 hours then in the previous 10 years.

The first wash is in the machine, I had a shower, Jonno is gonna cook dinner and all I have to do is to dry said washing and then have a good nights sleep b4 I head of to Staveley Scout Camp!
So I am home - but not home - if you get the drift!!

Blow your mind job

Well I was gonna urm - "retire" from this blog (temp.) -

B U T

I have to tell you I think last night we blew Mamabear's mind out of her cortex!!!
We went into town 11 pm -ish and every men and his wife or dog went there too! The amount of people having a drink and good time was unbelievable - and more so as nearly everyone blew some firecrackers and sky rockets. There was a continuous bang and whizz and uuhhhhhh's and ahhhhh's. And yet Harald tells us it was poorly attended. Bugger - if this was poorly I do not want to know what a "good" crowd is!! The explosives going of in all shapes and directions are heaps more louder and stronger that anything you can get in NZ. These local native salzburgian (and the busloads of Italians and Germans that came too) certainly know how to party. And all this based on an ancient custom to freighten away any bad spirit in order to see in the new year in the best possible way!! The event was followed by a 10 min public fireworks display - fiered from near the castle. We did video some of it - 150mb and 2.40 min later we run out of space on our card. But then the party just started with equal equal amounts of oldies heading home and youngies heading into the town for more firecrackers and champange and dancing!!!!

Seeing we had to travel the next day we headed home for comfort and bed.
Then when we woke up (lol - on same day) - it SNOWS. Yes thick and heavey, the road is covered and Mamabear is now completly lost in her brain!!! We will see if now we can make our snowman - as promised to Brush!!!! It also means we might have to leave 60 min earlier as intended as driving on the autobahn is just a tad more hazardous!!!!!


You never know - we might yet be stuck here!!!!
Be good and Broom, Brush, Spade, Mr Schick and G.H. - I see you at Staveley Scoout camp!!

Last Post

Unless we get a net connection at a airport - I won't be online till at least we get home and possibly beyond. I am on a 7 day scout camp straight after we return home - and not sure if I can get net access at camp- so will blog away after Jan 7.

Be good and have a very good start to 2009.


Papabear and Mamabear - over and out - for now

Big Bang - in Salzburg

Wohooooooo
Its new years eve in Salzburg = hey NZ'ers - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Anyhow - its another stunning clear day - and yes another -9 degrees!! Slept in and then drove to a shop near airport to get last minute supplies for the feast later on. Saw the "other home" of Mr Red Bull - who is a native of Salzburg and has a luxury mansion on Lake Fuschl! He has a place at the airport which doubles as a display for aircraft (inside his house - talk about a

garage!!) and includes a very expensive restaurante and bar. Us mere mortals cannot afford to eat there!! He certainly has more cash then he knows what to do with it. He owns a soccer club, ice hockey club and wants to build a Soccer school - a school for soccer prodigy's!!















Anyhow - today will be our last full day in europe. Had difficulty confirming our flight back to nz, and mamabear -after freaking out - managed to get hold of a emirate spokesperson who did confirm our flights. For a while the internet hick up looked like we had to stay a few more days - but rats - yes we have to leave on time and should return on time!! STAVELEY - here I come!
So later early afternoon we will be in town where there will be a traditional "Boeller" urm bang from the top of the castle. Which is as I gather a rather large howitzer firing blanks from the top - but making a HUGE noise!! Cant wait. At some point we fire our own bangers and rockets. Daniel is itching to go out and let rip - yesterday, and today is worse!
Then back home and dinner and drinks and the obligatory tv show - "Dinner for One".
A annual new years eve tv classic, that has cult status in europe - you just wont believe!
Then back into the town to see the fireworks - and then bed. Urm just as well that our flight is not leaving till 9 pm on Jan 1!!! We can sleep in - a rarity!


Here is the promised picture to prove that I was in Munich with mayzoon and her crew. And yes it was as cold as it looks there!!
For those eagle eyed people - yes we were right outside the famous Brauhaus!!