Heading out for New Years'

We are traveling to St. Petersburg, Russia tomorrow evening. Approximate arrival time, due to a two hour time difference with Germany will be some time after midnight.
Carlo and I usually love to take advantage of the many 24-hour restaurants once we arrive, in particular, a place called "Takao" which is a sushi place close to where Carlo's brother lives. They have an american-style diner interior with red booths and even a live band setup. It's new, with friendly service and it's right on Nevskji Prospect which is the "main drag" of the city. :-)

On new year's eve we have booked a dinner with entertainment (very typical in Russia), champagne and dancing after midnight... Very much looking forward to it, as russians really do know how to party!

We will meet up with our friends Harvey and Yuliya from California, who will be visiting the city during the same time. YAY!!!

We will have access to the internet at Carlo's brothers house, as cell phone connections are very expensive and the time difference to America is huge!

More snow pics

Before Christmas, we had snowy days off and on...so far the most snow we've seen since moving to our apartment...

Making Arrancini

Carlo was really excited about making Arrancini... a typical sicillian dish, which consists of ragu-stuffed rice balls, battered and deep fried... and VERY delicious!

Once you prepare the ragu, you have to carefully form the balls and add the ragu and cheese only to close it all up and hope that they will survive the frying intact!






PREGO!!!

Photos to come...

We currently cannot find the cable to upload our pictures to the computer! AHHH!!!
So, no new photos until we find it. :-(

A night at the Circus Krone, Munich

Carlo and I just returned from the circus! Ever since we arrived in Munich I had been driving past the winter arena of the Circus Krone not far from our apartment. Finally, last week the shows were set to begin again and I reserved two tickets. Yesterday was opening night, tonight the second day of performances! Elephants, tigers, horses, clowns, jugglers to unbelievable trapeze artistst...we saw it ALL!! What a great show!
Once we arrived to pick up our tickets, which were at the very back, the lady at the ticket counter started selling the leftover seats closer to the arena. (Tickets reserved but not picked up in time). We were able to get two tickets in the middle between the entrance and the exit. The program was amazing, varied and really fun.
Here a few shots of the same artists we saw tonight. (Taken from their website, as we forgot the camera at home!)


This guy was great. Johnny Fischer in his "Lucky Luke" performance with trained cats, goats and even chickens!


Cesar Dias from Portugal had a funny act based on sound effects!


This trapeze troop from russia was breathtaking! "White birds" as they called themselves - gave us sweaty palms - watching their acrobatics in high air. I think Carlo really liked them.





The horse shows were beautifully choreographed symphonies of black and white. At one point there were 8 black frisian stallions and 12 white arab stallions in the arena...

Christmas Day

Santa brought a huge hat for Carlo's trip to Russia!



Ines received something for the other end...



After the wonderful meal from the night before we slept in till 10AM and gathered for yet another meal...breakfast! :-) By this time I had noted the absence of some good old American Christmas songs. We don't own a single radio, we discovered, and our one CD with Christmas songs was starting to sound like a broken record! Long live the internet (!) as it provided us with a staggering selection of Christmas albums and songs to choose from.

Thanks to Carlo's patient wrestling with the numerous forgotten usernames and passwords for ITunes, we finally ended up with a classic mix of Christmas songs ranging from Ella Fitzgerald, over Marilyn Monroe to Elvis Presley. NOW it was CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

Around noon, I started the long awaited and arderous task of successfully roasting my first duck in the oven! In Germany it is custom to eat either goose, duck or a small turkey on Christmas Day. I think I completely underestimated the time and effort it took to accomplish such a task! Ugghhh..but it was an experience to remember. Now I know why people only roast a turkey ONCE a year!

I had set high goals by not only planning to roast a bird, but also prepare all the side dishes from scratch. So there it went. Chopping and simmering 2 lbs of red cabbage for 2 hours, cooking brussle sprouts with a lemon-lime sauce, while preparing the duck with an orange - zest sauce...only to be finished off with a big batch of mashed potatoes....By four o'clock in the afternoon I realized that I could claim victory and relax for a while:-)



The duck weighed around 2,3 kg... I guess that's between 4-5 lbs.

We finally had dinner around 7PM and surprise, surprise the duck was delicious! Soft and tender, with the side dishes also living up to my expectations. Yay! Our last bottle of 2004 Brander Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon, from Santa Ynez Valley in California elevated the evening to a very memorable one.

Around 9PM, Carlo and I braved the icy wind and VERY slick roads to drive to the nearby movie theater, which shows movies in their original versions. (English!)

The only show at 9:30PM at the one-screen movie theater was "Australia" - which Carlo and I absolutely loved!!!



Notice the 3-D paper nativity scene! I thought it was so neat!

Christmas Eve

We realized that we did not take any pictures of the food on our plates! But here are two shots before and during our dinner!



Since Carlo and I spent Christmas Eve on our own, we decided to treat ourselves to a gourmet dinner at home! Carlo's "inner chef" began to stir and we concocted a menu to be remembered! :-) We scoured the recipe books for just the right mix of dishes and I dashed from grocery store to grocery store to fetch the right ingredients. I don't think I have ever been to greater number of stores than for this dinner! Since the christmas shopping craze was in full swing it was more of a wrestling than dashing around, yet with lots of patience and some long, well thought-through lists, the task was accomplished at last. Since all grocery stores would be closed on the 25th and 26th people were gathering supplies like preparing for a hurricane or other longer period of food shortage!

In the morning, we actually managed to leave the house by 10AM for a last stroll across the Christmas Market at Marienplatz in the center of the city. All the Christmas markets would be dismanteled by that afternoon. We soaked up the smells of roasted almonds and chestnuts, crepes and sausage, mulled wine, cheeses and bread... The weather had turned bright and sunny - such a welcome change from the wet and dreary gray days we've had too many of in the past week. We purchased additional wine racks and a decanter, for Carlo finally had the time to organize his collection of wines... The last ingredients for our dinner in hand - we headed home around 2 PM to start cleaning the house and preparing for our dinner.

The menu included these deeelish treats:

• Smoked Salmon Potatoe Cakes (grated potatoes, smoked salmon, dill,parcley, homemade mayonnaise)
• Tiger Prawn Cocktail - Mexican style (With shredded iceberg lettuce, diced acovado, corn and lime juice-served in a longstem glass)
• Seafood Pasta (With clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp, garlic and cherry tomatoes)
• Tuna Steak with Samorillo (olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and fresh parcley)

The prep work too around 2 1/1 hours, as we had two kilos (4 lbs) of clams and mussels to boil and de-shell... along with lots of chopping, measuring, mixing and cleaning..

By 9PM we were finally showered and dressed for the occasion. With the table set and drenched in candlelight, we enjoyed each delicious course with the right appreciation.

It turned out to be a wonderful evening with much to be thankful for and little left to be desired.






Typical German Christmas Pyramid! Often imitated as the original and handcrafted models sell for 50 to hundreds of Euros... I have to admit that this one is also a copy, yet it was still beautiful...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all friends and family - near and far! We wish you health, peace and happiness for the new year and that all your plans and dreams come true!




THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR CARDS AND GREETINGS!!!


This year Carlo and I decided to spend Christmas eve all by ourselves here in Munich.
We had spent Christmas 2007 in Texas and in Sicily the year before. This year it was time for us to enjoy some quiet days together in our place. We will leave for St. Petersburg, Russia on Dec. 30th. for a fun-filled New Year's Eve with Carlo's brother Luciano, and wife Anna. We will also meet up with our dear friends Yuliya and Harvey from California, who will also be in St. Petersburg for the holidays. Can't wait to see them. On the program are a visit to the Marinsky theater to see "the nutcracker" ballet and a visit to the Hermitage. This will be my third trip to Russia and Carlo's fourth. We love the hustle and bustle energy of St. Petersburg, along with its cultural beauty, which combined, make for a great place to experience.

Christmas Market...

Since we located the cable to our camera, I can finally upload pictures again!

Here a few from Dec. 23rd...at Marienplatz, center city. Carlo and I enjoyed a "Gluehwein" with one of Carlo's co-workers, Axel.

Snowman!

I couldn't help but give in to a childish impulse to build a little guy out of snow...
It just seemed the right thing to do. He's already melted away...but it was fun anyway.