Food at Home

One of the best things about being back home in Austria is the food, the glorious, glorious food! Honestly we spent so much time eating in the few weeks we were in Austria, but then, if you can’t eat a ridiculous amount when you’re on holiday when can you?

So here is a little tribute to these culinary delights:

The regular barbecues we enjoyed in the garden as a family….

Fraser, here eagerly awaiting his plate of grilled food.

Sausages, vegetables, chicken… we felt as if we could have had this for every meal.

The delicious (and in the heat much needed) ice creams.

And ice coffees, eagerly scoffed down by my brother Dieter.

Of course the other lovely drinks we enjoyed too, such as post-dinner chinese plum wine, and refreshing beverages.

Great restaurant food.

And last, but certainly not least, 60th birthday ice cream cake.

So back in Edinburgh now it is definitely back to exercising and eating more healthily, but, my God, was it good while it lasted!

Sunny Saturday and Sunday

This past weekend was beautiful and sunny and wonderful and so needed after the long cold winter that felt like it would never end. Here are a few images from our weekend:

A Saturday walk through town, doing some shopping:

Panini take-away:

An even sunnier Sunday as we set off from our flat:

A Sunday burger lunch:

Invitingly summery Meadows:

An interesting Meadows festival with a random assortment of stalls:

Including a giant bee:

And a dog show that included a dog egg (well, tennis ball) and spoon race:

Walking under the trees seeing what is left of the lovely cherry blossom:

Ending the day with a chocolate milkshake for Fraser and a lemon zester for me:

And a reminder of just how long it stays light at this time of year with the sun slowly setting over the city:

Please, lovely weather, stay for as long as possible!

Sunday Lunch

This past Sunday happened to be Easter Sunday. I say ‘happened’ because Easter really doesn’t mean that much to us (not that it isn’t a great excuse to enjoy some chocolate). The far more important thing to us, was that it was the last Sunday before I leave for just over two weeks, and the last day before my departure on which Fraser wouldn’t be working. So we decided to go out for lunch and spend a nice day together.

Easter Sunday, it turns out is a great day to go out for lunch because most of the students have gone home and most families, I guess, are eating at home. So there weren’t that many people in the café.

We had some excellent pizzas, meatball for Fraser and cajun chicken for me, and some kind of zesty lemonade thing which was excellent (we’re thinking probably crushed ice, lemonade and lemon ice cream)!

^^^^So much yummy pizza!

Then it was home to indulge in the aforementioned chocolate. Easter eggs, coffee and Sunday football. Good times, happy Easter!

 

Sunday Fry-up Day

Sometimes the perfect addition to a Sunday is a fry-up. That’s just the way it is. Or at least that’s what we felt last Sunday. It’s something we very rarely indulge in, in fact that last time we had a  fry-up was last June, so it seemed we were due one. Here is the tasty, tasty result.

The ingredients:

The start of the frying of…

sausages,

bacon,

mushrooms,

and, of course, eggs.

The final amazing result (including potato scones, mushrooms – for me and black pudding – for Fraser). Sunday fry-up day, try it!

Pancake Day

Last Tuesday was pancake day. We hadn’t planned on making any pancakes, but once I started reading recipes online the idea just seemed too enticing  So with the promise of some good football viewing that evening, we decided to make some pancakes to celebrate the day.

With all the ingredients out we were ready to go.

Fraser started, throwing all the pancakey ingredients together and then whisking.

Then it was my turn, more and more whisking. Now, making pancakes isn’t hard but whisking is tiring.

Then on to the fun part. Into the pan.

Fraser managed to expertly flip the first one. Then it was over to me again.

After another successful flip we quickly made a few more, not quite anticipating how many pancakes the mix would yield. (To be honest, we had too many).

We gathered together the various toppings we wanted, such as melted chocolate, peanut butter, sugar and lemon juice (depending on individual taste they were combined in various ways).

And there they were, our delicious (but oh so filling) pancakes. We were ready, the football was ready and the chosen toppings turned out to be the perfect additions to pancake day.

A deliciously perfect pancake day!

Edinburgh in September

September in Edinburgh so far has been lovely. Once you get over the fact that there really is no more chance of any kind of warm weather, you can just get on with the autumn activities. For us that meant my lovely cousin Laurence visiting. One of the most important people in the world to me came up for a weekend and it was really nice to catch up and hang out.

He was up in time for Saturday’s football. We chatted and watched some good games.

Then we headed out to dinner with some friends, where Laurence insisted on having the full Scottish experience despite us being in a Turkish restaurant. This included haggis with cous-cous (yes, there is such a thing).

 

Afterwards we all went for a lovely evening walk on what was probably one of the last warm evenings of the year.

  

Laurence, continuing with the Scottish theme purchased a deep-fried Snickers bar.

Then we found our favourite ice cream place, and I had my favourite combination of flavours, chocolate and lemon.

 

The next morning we went to a patterserie for a very unhealthy brunch.

That meant, lemon tarts, cream teas and chocolate tortes.

  

And yes of course the torte proved to be too much for me, I never stood a chance of finishing that thing.

All too soon it was time for Laurence to leave. I am glad we had so much fun together and had a chance to catch up, but I can’t wait until we get to see each other again.

The days are getting shorter and colder. We have had a few days where it has seemed as if the sun hasn’t come out at all.

All you can do on such days is visit charming little cafes/bookshops,

sip coffee and nibble on brownies,

 

have fun together,

and feel grateful when a lovely person is cooking for you.

Especially when he tries to spell out a ‘J’ on your food.

September proves that good food and good company are the best way to spend a rainy evening.

Summer holiday at home

In August I finally managed to grab some proper summer weather as I headed home to Austria for two weeks. I was lucky that I had already been able to spend time with my parents in Devon and in Edinburgh but I really wanted to see them again this summer. And of course the promise of Austrian summer weather was also very enticing.

However, one thing we all love when we go home are those home cooked meals. My parents are both excellent cooks and I was immediately greeted with fantastic food.

I arrived in the middle of a heatwave so for the first few days of my stay there was nothing to do but head to a lake to swim. There are a lots of lovely lakes for swimming and it was the perfect way to cope with the heat.

First we found a shady place to lie, so that we could read and relax when not in the swimming.

Then we made for the water to cool off.

  

After the first few days it finally cooled down a little bit. So we were able to do other things and mostly just spend time sitting around, chatting, catching up and enjoying being together.

 

We went to my favourite Chinese restaurant,

 

to a Buschenschank for some classic Austrian food,

  

and celebrate my Papa’s birthday, twice!

Because after a few days my brother and his girlfriend joined us and there were yet more celebrations to be had as we also pre-celebrated my brother’s 26th birthday.

 

We also drove out to visit my lovely grandmother on a particularly nice and sunny day that wasn’t too hot.

 

We all went to yet another nice restaurant to celebrate all of us being together again.

And of course there were more delicious meals and desserts to be had.

 

Then we drove home again as my stay drew to a close.

I am always sad when I have to leave home. Even though I always have stuff to look forward to back in Edinburgh, Austria is where I grew up and I hate that my family live so far away. All I can do is make as many trips as possible out to see them and ensure that they come and see me when they can. But it is comforting to know that every time I return we all have such a wonderful time just being together.

What’s been happening recently … July

Time for another brief post containing shots of what’s been happening in life recently. Here the entry for July of what’s been happening recently: