Category Archives: Food and Wine
Just Really a Lot of Eggs
Yeah, I know back home y’all have crocuses, buttercups and birds. Here in Vienna, nothing says “spring” like icy sidewalks, biting winds, and fragile stacks of $15 eggs for sale. As long as you are bundled up, Easter markets are a great place to enjoy a glass of new wine and a yummy snack while […]
An Advent Photo Gallery
Vienna is nothing if not photogenic at Christmas time. Click any photo for a slide show with captions. Enjoy!
Attitude Adjustment: Austrian Style
Fall is a tough time for me. Mostly because I know winter is coming. Now don’t go telling me to go skiing or whatever. I don’t ski. I do have my own ways of coping with winter. But coping is not the same as liking. I don’t have to like winter, no one can make me […]
Food is Homey
Last weekend, we went to an Austrian food festival at the Hofburg palace in Vienna. The motto of the festival was “Essen ist Heimat” which Google translates rather awkwardly as “is eating home.” In fact, it’s an expression meaning “eating is homeland” or “eating is homey” or something along those lines. Austrians, like Germans, are […]
Greens, Greens, the Edible Weed
We are a mixed marriage, you see. My husband is 100 percent Yankee, and I am 100 percent Southern. As you might imagine, he has some issues with my part of the country. Starting with the weather, and working on up to national politics, with several stops in between. Let’s just say we have settled […]
A Southern Girl Needs Her Greens
Strangely, though Austria offers perfect green-growing weather, they are just not that into greens here. I see fresh spinach sometimes, and less frequently, small bunches of kale or chard, but no great big bunches of collards, mustard or turnip greens like I could buy even in Giant Food back home. So, I’m growing greens on […]
In Which I Lose a Few
No, not brain cells. Too late for that. Pounds! About five months ago, I decided to become an incredibly irritating control freak and shed the ten pounds or so with which 2011 had cruelly loaded me down. (One of the more interesting results has been that people are apparently now finding my blog by searching […]
Catholic Bling, Awesome Ruins and Really a Lot of Apricots
The daughter is home from college and brought a friend with her to visit. I offered to drive the two of them to a famous abbey yesterday. Road trip! Traveling with college girls was slightly different than other family trips have been lately. No moaning, no groaning, no dragging anyone out of bed. Instead I […]
Signs of Spring
One sign of the approach of spring in Vienna: the ball season is drawing to a close. This has about as much impact on our nightlife as you might expect. We did to go to the OSCE Ball last night. Rather coolly referred to as a “dinner dance” by some Viennese because food and seating […]
Things I Like About Vienna
This week’s question for the Foreign Service Blog Round-Up is a good one: what do you like about your current post? We should all ask ourselves this question now and then! Even in a cushy post like Vienna. Especially in February. I’ve mentioned before that I am not here for the “typical” reasons. I am not […]
In Which I Become An Incredibly Irritating Control Freak
I have recently begun to understand several things that I did not before. The first is why women obsess so much about calories. I’ve always kind of scoffed at that. Blessed by genetics and raised in a family with reasonably good eating and exercise habits, I’ve never had to try all that hard to stay, […]
I Has a Rumtopf
I can tell because it says so, in big letters on the front. I saw it at the thrift store today (7 Euros! I love this store!) and had to have it. Rumtopf means “rum pot” and refers either to this sort of pot, or the traditional dessert that is made in it. The recipe […]
Tuscany Photos: San Gimignano
After a week in Tuscany, I have over 200 photos on my laptop–and those are just the keepers! It’s practically impossible to take a bad photo here, even with my ordinary little camera. Even in winter. I’ve already shared them with friends and family, but I’ll post a few here, as well, in batches. The first […]
I Bet You Didn’t Know…
…that Vienna, Austria, is a consumables post. Well, technically, it’s not. But I had to laugh last night, as I was searching my cabinets for just one more jar of organic peanut butter. I have to stand on the kitchen counter to do this, by the way, since we have ten-foot ceilings and a two-foot […]
Good Eats and a Little More Thrifting
Today, I was invited to a Turkish breakfast in the Naschmarkt. I had never heard of a Turkish breakfast before coming here. It involves fresh bread, excellent honey, feta cheese, olives, and other goodies, plus coffee. I am now a fan! Afterwards, since I was a only few blocks from Caritas, I dropped by there […]
More Wandering Among the Wineries
This past weekend, the weather cleared up and we did some more hiking in the Wienerwald. We can get to it with a quick bus ride, or with half an hour’s walk. It’s one the major attractions of living here, as far as I am concerned. I have exactly two athletic talents: determination and a […]
Slightly Homesick…
This week has been kind of weird. Fall weather is setting in here in Vienna, and for some reason, that was the trigger for me to feel a little homesick for the States, Virginia in particular. I don’t know why I was surprised, actually. It has happened every time we have been overseas! There just […]
Noshing at the Naschmarkt
Today we went by the Naschmarkt for well, some nosh! We just wanted to check it out, so didn’t buy a huge amount of stuff. But we will be back! I realize that I am spoiled by Virginia farmer’s markets, but I haven’t been super-impressed with the grocery store produce here. Especially considering it’s summer […]
White Trash Food
So, a friend suggested I watch the Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode on Vienna. We watched it last night on the DVR, and it was a hoot. The man is not a big fan of sweets, and I am totally with him on that. I mean, I don’t hate desserts or anything, I just don’t […]
