Oct 29, 2010 Posted by Tiffany

Rotisserie chicken at home

When we bought our home and added the kitchen, I knew I had to have two ovens. I don’t use them both often — but when I do want to cook a feast and need them, it’s priceless. This is a concept that really hasn’t caught in Germany, mostly because people have rather small kitchens anyway. Thankfully we already had one oven that we bought when we first moved to Germany which was part... read more

Sep 21, 2010 Posted by Tiffany

Ten ways new appliances will make you happier

Since I’m so super excited about our washer and dryer, I thought I would suggest a few reasons why getting these new appliances will actually save you money in the long run. We had been using a 9-year-old Siemens washer/dryer combo machine before which was great to save space in our original apartment. But over the last few years, we had to have it serviced every year which was slowly costing us a... read more

Sep 20, 2010 Posted by Tiffany

Never knew I would be so excited

A couple of weeks ago, the inevitable happened: our 9 year old washer/dryer combo machine spun for the last time. Over the last few years, the machine has been rather iffy. Last year when we turned into what looked like homeless people and pushed all our laundry into the self-wash laundromat (which we actually had to drive 30 minutes to and barely found), we thought life was over for it already. But we... read more

Jan 4, 2010 Posted by Tiffany

Brunch is back in 2010!

The last four days have been wonderful. Stefan didn’t have to work on December 31st or January 1st so we had a nice little 4 day weekend, with no long trips planned or visits from anyone scheduled. We got to sleep in until 9 or so and prepared big, yummy breakfasts every morning. It was so nice. I got to use my KitchenAid for the first time while making pancakes. But I have to say that the minute or... read more

Dec 30, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

A laundry excursion

Yesterday was a bit of an excursion for us. Our washer/dryer unit has been acting up in the last few weeks and after numerous cleanings of filters, drain pipes and more, it’s still not completing a wash cycle. My guess is that the pump is out and I can only hope that it won’t be too expensive to replace. A repair person from Siemens was supposed to come out yesterday afternoon but apparently... read more

Apr 15, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Ultimate comfort food – Chicken & gravy with biscuits

Comfort food. There’s something special about it and everyone has their own special somethings that can just make the darkest days seem bright. We could have used a bit more comfort food around here the last few days. And now that Stefan is finally home again and getting back to a healthy state, he needs plenty of home-cooked to get him back on his feet. Hospital food barely qualifies as edible.... read more

Oct 10, 2008 Posted by Tiffany

My coffee maker is possessed

When we moved into our house two years ago (WOW!), my in-laws bought us me a lovely new coffee maker. It’s a fairly basic machine, which suits me fine because I don’t drink coffee that often (even less so now that I’m pregnant because even decaf seems to give me migraines) and Stefan doesn’t touch the stuff at all unless it’s in the form of a double espresso. But I have been... read more

Jan 15, 2008 Posted by Tiffany

Oh, it’s on! Laundry time!!!

Well, I guess I spoke too soon. Shortly after I posted about sitting here waiting on the repair guy, he showed up. Speak of the devil, I guess… It was the same guy as last time and he came in and got right to work. I was rather impressed when 15 minutes later he had the new part in and the machine was working again with renewed vigor. The process of printing out the receipt almost took longer than... read more

Jan 15, 2008 Posted by Tiffany

Waiting on repairmen…

There are few things I dislike more than sitting around, waiting for someone to show up and having no idea when and if he actually will. When I last talked about our washer/dryer machine that which is the fritz, I mentioned that the service guy who came out didn’t have the correct part with him to fix the machine that day but set up another appointment for a repairman to come out today, between 1... read more

Jan 9, 2008 Posted by Tiffany

Update on our washer/dryer

The repairman was here at about 11am to check out the washer/dryer we have. He showed me that it was the carbon brushes inside the motor that were causing the trouble and informed me that it would be just under 200 euros to make the repair. Since buying a new machine would run us somewhere around 500+ euros, I of course told him to go for it. We’ve had this machine for just over 6 years now and this... read more