Meine Klein Welt

Experimenting with Pumpkin

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Pumpkin Macadamia White Chocolate CookiesEver since moving to Austria and discovering that there is no canned pumpkin, I’ve wanted to learn how to make pumpkin puree from scratch. I decided that this was the year, so Matt bought me a pumpkin and the adventures have begun. First let me say that making fresh pumpkin puree is soooo easy. Second, the one thing I’ve made so far has tasted way better than it ever did with canned pumpkin. Third, it’s a good thing it’s yummy because pumpkins here are expensive. Our little pumpkin cost us 8 euro. Crazy.

Creole Pumpkin SeedsSo far, I’ve made Macadamia Nut White Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies – so yummy – and creole seasoned pumpkin seeds. The rest of the puree is in the freezer until I can decide the best way to use it. Some good suggestions I’ve received so far are pumpkin soup, pumpkin brownies, and pumpkin bread. If anyone has good pumpkin ideas, let me know.

You can see the rest of the pumpkin excitement here: Pumpkin Pics.

The Europe Cup

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Austria is co-hosting this year’s Europe Cup along with Switzerland. This means that my neighborhood is in complete chaos for the coming month. There are crazed soccer fans everywhere! Today I took a little break and walked around the Graben which is the main street in the city. I took pictures of several different store displays as well as a few fans. Everyone has soccer fever! You can see pictures here.

Welcome to the Jungle

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Matt turned 30 this year. Actually, his birthday was a couple weeks before mine, but I blogged mine first. Tells you about my priorities. 🙂

Anyway, I threw him a “Welcome to the (30’s) Jungle” monkey themed party. It was a fun time of celebrating my favorite monkey. You can see pictures on our Flickr site here. The most popular gift of the night was the flying/screaming monkey. You send it flying like a sling shot and it does a crazy banshee scream when it hits something. A little scary when it comes at you, but mostly just fun.

The fun fact we all learned about Matt is that he has apparently played Barrel of Monkeys a lot because he pretty much always wins.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Best Birthday Quotes

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“Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
You look like a penguin because you are so beautiful!”

“You are so beautiful you could be a supermodel.”

A poem by roommate Rachel:
A Birthday Ditty for Tricia
I once knew a little lady named Zimmerman
Her favorite hobby was to organize and plan.
She had creative ideas almost ev’ry day
Of how to best act and to live and to play!
I had the great chance to share a flat with my friend,
And we have laughed and had fun straight through to the end!
Miss Zimmerman will soon marry and change her name,
And nothing in her life will ever be the same!
On that day in July she will truly be Klein,
When she says I do and Mr. Klein says, “You’re mine!”
So this poem is to honor Zimmerman’s birthday
And to wish her all the happiness I can say!

Happy Birthday to Me!

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Yep. Today is my birthday. Having your birthday on a school day is the best when you’re an elementary teacher. Today my students planned a surprise party for me. It was actually quite amazing. They plotted with Matt to have him come down at 10:30 and say he needed to talk to me. They even made him plan what he was going to talk to me about so he wouldn’t mess up. 🙂 While he was talking to me, the kids decorated the room with balloons, banners, and cake. They got it completely decorated in about 10 minutes. Then when I walked back in the room, they crowned me with a tiara and sang “Happy Birthday!” I tell you, fourth graders know how to throw a party!