I'm going back to being a vegetarian

I go to the market and stare at all the meat and I don't have a clue what to get or how to prepare it. Now this isn't really much different than in the states. All those years of being a vegetarian, during my key cooking period, has stunted my ability to cook meat. I never know how to cook anything, I usually look up a recipe 1st, then go and get all the ingredients and follow the directions step by step. (Whereas, I make a killer zucchini lasagna by the seat of my pants and can find something to put on a piece of fish in a flash.)

But here, it is compounded by the fact I don't read the meat titles either! So now I pick a random piece of meat and then try to ask the meat counter person how to cook it. It usually works out decent. But then, there is always risk involved in such a laissez faire attitude!

I go to the meat counter, there is some kind of meat slab steak like cut things that look like they have some kind of butter/spinach on them. Well that looks good, I like adding spinach to things. Let's try that I think. So I say "vier" and jab wildly at the glass towards my chosen item. The meat counter woman verifies my crazy jesters with a German word and pointing towards my meat. "Ja" I say in my best German accent with the only word I am truly sure of! She puts four of these steak like things on the weigher and I feel like a success. That is until I get to the checkout counter and think to look at the price. Wholly mother of all that is right with the world!!!!


keep in mind that this in in euro...which, because of reasons that I don't have time to go into here, you have to add 25% to in order to know how much I paid in dollars! Well it's an honest mistake, and next time I will ask how much and hope I understand what they say before I buy something.

Although, at least, the J man can't get mad at me. He did a similar thing when we first got here. We were still in temporary housing on base, and one Sunday he decided to go to the club for the Sunday Brunch. Being the rebels that we are, we don't belong to the club (it's yucky food and we don't ever go so why bother). We ended up paying $75 for the four of us! I said, "eat up kids, we are eating here instead of getting a weeks worth of groceries!". Even my anorexic, self-denying, non-foodie spouse ate more than normal to try to make it worth it.

Oh the learning experiences, creating memories for a lifetime!

I'll show you the end meat product and explain the cooking part in a later post, so look for a teil zwei! (Part two...my goal is to teach everyone German here, so pay attention!)