Moving Day, Mother’s Day, and … finally … a Kitchen!

Saturday I finally moved out of the hotel, and of course, it was at the very last minute. Late actually.

A couple of guys from work and I decide to go to the bar downstairs for a beer after work on Friday. We had a couple of beers, which quickly turned into a couple more. By the time Mario bought the round of bourbon, I was already planning to walk back to the hotel. Two of the guys left, and Mario and I got into a long conversation that lasted until Rolando started killing the lights. The two of us looked at our watches in disbelief. It was already past 2200. So we hoofed it into town and grabbed a couple of Doner Kebaps. It was 0030 Saturday morning before I made it back to the hotel, and to bed.

I woke up later that same Saturday morning (check out day) and had to take a bus to the office to get my truck. I hadn’t packed yet. But because I never really unpacked since my last near miss at moving out, it wasn’t that bad. I ended up checking out about 1130, which was ½ hour past the “official” check out time. I had cleared this first with the manager though. They were good about it and allotted me the extra ½ hour. This was a good thing because it began to rain, so I had to pack everything inside of the cab of the truck.

The rain didn’t last though, and I was able to unload my stuff into my new place without much problem. Saturday afternoon I went to various stores to buy the stuff everybody needs to buy when they move. Dishwashing detergent, paper towels, condiments, beer, &c. Realizing that Sunday was Mother’s Day, I went by the office and called a florist back in PA to get some flowers for my Mom.

On Sunday I realized that I had no food in the place, so I went to the Commissary. Not being sure of what I had in the way of cookware limited my choices, so I stuck with the staples (sliced roast beef, bread, spaghetti, chicken livers, &c.). While I was there I saw this package of bratwursts, and I thought to myself, “Hey, those look just like four…”



… must mean something else in German.

Sunday afternoon I took a walk down to the river. There is a place in Hattenheim where you cross under the highway that separates the town from the riverfront. On the river side there is a little kiosk that sells wine by the glass, soft pretzels, and little smoked sausages. I had one of each, and all were quite good. I especially liked the wine, but I don’t know what it was other than #5 on the wine list. I’ll be back soon enough though.

After the wine and snack, I proceeded to walk along the Rhein toward the town of Erbach. I crossed under the highway again at Erbach, and headed up into the vineyards. I came upon this wall that had old ivy all over it. One spot had very few leaves. I thought it looked cool, so I took a couple pictures. I played around with it on the computer and think it looks better in black and white.

It reminded me of a drawing from a book called The Studio. I think it was done by Barry Windsor-Smith or it may have been Jeff Jones. Not sure.

I also took some pictures in the vineyards. Here is one looking up towards Kloster Eberbach. I was zooming in as far as the camera would go, and never even saw the crow.



Turned out pretty neat. I wish the day was a little less hazy though. I ended up climbing a fair piece into the vineyards, and came back down on the other side of Hattenheim. I walked through the town and stopped in at a small bar for a Pilsner on the way home.

Once home I started my prep work for cooking. I am not very well equipped with knives and such so I didn’t get too crazy. I had bought these dried lemons at a Spice Suq in Dubai and wanted to use them. I put half of one into a glass of water to soften it up a bit. I also diced about ¼ of an onion, and two cremini mushrooms. Put some butter and olive oil into a pan and sautéed the onions for a while, then added the ‘shrooms and the lemon. The lemon probably could have had another hour or so in the water, but it wouldn’t have made it into this dish.



While the mixture was sautéing, I lightly floured about ½ lb of chicken livers. I’m not used to this stove, and the elements do not respond very quickly to changes in temperature. So the onions got a little more browned than I had planned for before I added the livers. However, everything came together in the end, and I didn’t burn anything (too badly).



It was served up with some of the Lord’s hot sauce, some hearty bread, a fantastic Kloster Andechs Dunkel Bier, and some pickles. It was very OK. Not great, but at least I got to cook something. I was going to say it was nothing to write home about, but then I realized that is exactly what I am doing.



It really looked a lot better than this washed out picture shows. The livers were actually extremely OK, and no celebratory meal at the new Haven d’Okra would be complete without some pickled okra.



I would especially like to thank my new neighbor from whom I am surreptitiously “borrowing” internet access. Don’t you just love wireless modems?