Euro Blogging By Pest…I Mean, Post
This April marks a very special three-year anniversary.
Do I celebrate with a coupe of Champagne?
Do I whip out the mixer and make a celebration cake?
Do I pull out what’s left of my hair and be bitter?
No, no…and maybe.
In April of 2003, I shipped two cases of books to my address in Paris, and somewhere between here and there, someone is enjoying a very carefully edited collection of cookbooks that a certain American living in Paris would really like to be using. So here I am, 3 years later, sans my favorite cookbooks, unable to find solace that someone else is leafing through my personally-autographed copy of Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child herself, (or using it for kindling), or Alice Medrich’s Chocolate And the Art of Low-Fat Desserts (if you’re snickering, stop it. It’s an amazing book.)
Living abroad certainly has many challenges, but one of the most vexing of mine is getting anything delivered. When I moved to Paris, a French friend advised me that you need to be standing there with your door open and your named emblazoned across your chest when they show up to make a delivery.
Before…
And after…
When Andrew announced Euro Blogging By Post, it sounded like a fun idea. Those of us living in Europe would swap packages of our favorite local foods via the post. A great idea, so I carefully spent a few days shopping, and off went my package to Kristina at Clivia’s Cuisine in Sweden.
A few weeks later a package arrived at my doorstep, feeling suspiciously light, from Gerda at Dinner For One. I ripped open the package to find lots of ripped packaging and a few meager crumbs, along with a few mouse ‘souvenirs’.
Apparently the little euro-critters couldn’t resist participating in Euro Blogging By Post #4 either, but at least they left me the bottle of Grüner Veltliner wine that I’m saving. But I salvaged a few of the Mozartkugln, each wrapper emblazoned with a picture of everyone’s favorite Austrian (and no, it’s not the Governor of California…), but the Linzertart, the orange-scented chocolate, and the sausages (Meat?) were gone for good.
Attached was a note from Gerda, “MOZART Of course!!” but thankfully she included a book for making Austrian desserts that apparently held little interest for the mice and soon I’ll tackle some of the recipes, like Burgenländer Marillenknödel and Powidltascherln, or maybe Weicher Marillen-Topfentommerl.
(Raabtaler Weinbackerl and Salzburger Nockerln mit Ribisel-Rotweinsosse sound good too, don’t they?)
Or…I could wait until the next round of Euro Blogging By Post, and take my chances….
