We’re having friends over for dinner tomorrow and I had the task of going to pick up more t-bones at Metro. You have no idea how giddy it makes me feel to type that. Even better is the thought of getting another 10 big juicy t-bones fresh off the bull from our butcher in Höchst in a few weeks. No denying we’re big carnivores in this house. I am a Texas girl after all. Stefan was actually a bit surprised that I didn’t have my own cattle ranch after learning that’s where I grew up. Sadly, that just wasn’t the case. But I do what I can to keep cattle ranchers in business otherwise.

Up until a year ago, you couldn’t get t-bone steaks in Germany. They tried to say there was a greater risk of Mad Cow disease in these pieces. But now they are just popping up everywhere. So we’ll be firing up the grill and slapping some huge 21-25 ounce (600-700 gram) steaks on our good old Weber grill. We brought it with us when we moved here. They’re wildly expensive in Germany. Quite sad, really. It’s definitely making their nice gas grills a bit less obtainable.

Some people wouldn’t imagine grilling when it’s freezing outside. But there’s no kind of weather that’s too bad to grill in. Ok, well maybe a torential downpour…or hail. But Stefan has been out tending the fire in the snow before. Sometimes it’s just the lengths you have to go to if you want to enjoy your meal.

I made Chantal’s New York style cheesecake today with a ginger snap crust. I’m going to share it tomorrow and it smells so heavenly. I was seriously considering stealing  a piece of it already but I’ll restrain myself. I’m always a bit shocked at how easy it is to make cheesecake (a horrible thing really since I could lose myself in a good cheesecake)…but I can never manage to keep it from cracking. I let it cool in the oven and everything. Oh well, it still tastes awesome. And it gives me a little help with cutting it later.

Can’t wait until we can be eating salad from our own garden and tomatoes that don’t taste like water. Speaking of which, we’re still on track to finish the compost bin this weekend. We also are going to get the greenhouse closed up again since the plastic has blown off. We even bought our seed starting soil this evening at the home improvement store. All ready to get that garden jump started. 😉