Trip to the US Part 2: Nashville!

Alright...continuing on...after our 7 hour drive up through the entire state of Alabama, Lexi and I got to Nashville mid-afternoon on Sunday.  I'm a bit spoiled that I went to college in Nashville, and still have a lot of people and places I love there, and shortly after I left for NYC my sister moved there for college as well, and she loves it enough not to have left yet.  So this part of the trip was jam packed with friends to see, restaurants to visit, and shopping to be done!

My sister knows me well...our first stop...SATCO for dinner with some of her friends...plenty warm enough to sit outside and enjoy our food...yummmmmmm.

After dinner we drove downtown to have a quick stroll around.  So classy. 

After a morning of shopping at a few US specialties that I do miss (Banana, Gap, etc...) we stopped for a bit at Lipscomb so I could see the campus.  While some things are just the same...this building is where I lived for 2 years...and at least from this angle it looks identical to how it did then...they have definitely added quite a few new buildings and I nearly got lost in the Student Center...

While this may not look like the prettiest restaurant ever...it is hands down some of the best southern cooking anywhere. We were on the early side of the dinner crowd, but shortly after I took this picture there was not an empty seat anywhere.  You can sit up on the porch (as we all did) or inside at a couple tables, or in these various tables in the yard.  The service basically consists of someone coming out of the house and yelling off the porch "all y'all doin ok??" and everyone yells back "yes" or "we'd like more sweet tea" etc...and it is fantastic.   

This is the menu...sticks to the southern basics...everything is amazing.

Poppyseed chicken, mashed potatoes and brown gravy, and corn salad...so so so good.  I'm thinking poppyseed chicked might need to be a meal I attempt for my friends here...I should investigate how many of those ingredients we have...

Fresh blackberry cobbler...oh gosh.

Also...extra family bonus in Nashville these days!  Our cousin (on the left) is now my sister's roommate, so we had lots of fun times hanging out together. (She's not technically our "cousin" I suppose...but one of those...parents are best friends so we've always called them aunt and uncle kind of cousins...doesn't really matter...)

After dinner we drove out to Leiper's Fork...listening to bluegrass and watching the sunset over the horse pastures the whole way.

Leiper's Fork

I have no idea what this is exactly...it's this super small building on a fence...with tiny rocking chairs on the porch. Adorable.

The next day I got to spend the afternoon with these lovely ladies! Sadly their husbands were at work...so it was just a girls and kids afternoon.  We've all been friends since our freshman year of college and now they have little growing families! Andrea, on the left, had her 2nd little boy about 36 hours after we took this picture!

Andrea's other little boy who's now 2...and Tiffany's 5 week old! 

My last night in Nashville we had a wonderful dinner at Rolf and Daughters.

These two like it a lot...and they were correct...it's delicious.

And my mom had driven in to overlap me for this one night! She and my sister were then heading to Texas for some Memorial Day weekend fun with my mom's college friends, but it was really nice to all be able to have a nice dinner together. 

That's about it!  The next morning we got up early and drove me back to Atlanta to catch my flight back to Vienna...not quite as smooth as the trip down...delayed flights, missed connections, etc...but I made it as did my luggage, so it's all good.  I'm trying to fully get over my jet lag and catch up on everything for classes this week.  Although here in Austria we have another public holiday later this week, so that will be helpful.  Such a quick but wonderful trip to the States, and a great opportunity to see lots of friends in such a short time!

Trip to the US Part 1: The Wedding!

I could probably break down the last week or so into many blog posts, probably one on the various chips and salsas I enjoyed alone, but I'll spare you those ridiculous minute details and hope to have more of an overview record of this trip.  Last Thursday morning I got up at 4am and had a car pick me up at 4:30 to head to the airport...gross.  I had carefully booked my flights from Vienna through Amsterdam to Atlanta and finally on to Pensacola, FL to line up with my friends flying to Pensacola from NYC so we could then rent a car and drive to where the wedding was in Alabama.  I had all of my fingers crossed that these connections would work out ok...and thankfully they did. 

Finally arriving at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama, right on the Mobile Bay.  The wedding weekend began with an informal evening of drinks and food outside at the hotel around several fire pits.  It was a great way to see everyone and begin the festivities as we watched the sun set over the bay. 

The girls all catching up.  The bride is originally from Alabama, but I met her while living in NYC, which is where she also met the groom, although he actually hails from England, and they currently both reside in London, so the wedding guests were a mixture of Brits, Southerners, and several New Yorkers...which made for an awesome weekend.

Our lovely room

The view from the rocking chairs on our little terrace.

Friday during most of the day my old roommate and I spent enjoying the pool and walking along the beach hanging out and catching up.  We lucked out with beautiful warm sunny weather in the 80s all weekend.

Random hammocks all around

The rehearsal dinner was at a place called Big Daddy's, and is right on the river.  They basically serve everything imaginable in some fried form.  Our table started with fried pickles, fried okra, and fried crab legs to share...then we all got baskets for dinner which included fries, onion rings, hush puppies, cole slaw, and some sort of fish (I opted for blackened instead of fried...not that it makes it any better...)

The food was super delicious, although most of us aren't used to eating this food, and these baskets surely didn't get finished, but they were incredibly good. 

Lots and lots of laughs.  So good to see these people.

The girls. Lots of life lived with these 5, so awesome to be able to celebrate these big life events together as well.

Saturday morning 4 of us got up to run some errands and explore downtown Fairhope nearby.  Kiersten and I decided coffee would be a good idea...so we stopped at Sonic to get some quickly...Medium? sure...that sounds great...less than $2?...super! except that what comes is larger than your head...I'm sad my hand is covering the bottom half of my cup...

mmmm brunch.  fresh hot beignets...excellent.

Now it's time to get these two married!  The ceremony was outside under a beautiful large tree with a view out to the water.

The beautiful bride walking down the aisle

The bride and groom!

After the ceremony we all moved down the water a bit to where a lovely outdoor cocktail reception had been set up...complete with a fresh fruit mojito bar and mini fish and chips!

former roomies! 

After the cocktail portion of the evening we all moved inside for a delicious dinner and lots of dancing

On the dance floor!

The next morning the 4 of us who had driven from Pensacola initially all piled back in our car so they could catch their flight.  My sister had driven down from Nashville to Pensacola to pick me up, so we decided to get up extra early and include a proper southern Cracker Barrel breakfast into our trip. 

I love how every single one looks and smells the same.

And of course no trip to Cracker Barrel is complete without testing out some rocking chairs!

The entire wedding weekend was fantastic...it was so so great to be around all of these people, not only my friends from New York, but all the other friends and family of both Sarah Beth and Tim who came in for the weekend.  After this it was a 7 hour drive with Lexi back to Nashville where we tried to cram in as much as physically possible in my remaining few days in the States! 

Schnitzel Making!

I suppose this post is sort of a follow up to many others about food in Austria, international cooking, etc.  I've been looking forward to this for a while actually, as I attempt to expand my cooking knowledge and expertise to encompass all of these wonderful foods I'm now exposed to.  What better place to start than Schnitzel!

After a day of class last week my very capable Austrian culinary guide and I went to the grocery store to get all our ingredients.  Since we'd just had a discussion in class about seed laws, (and my guide is a bit of a produce fanatic)...we opted for these funny looking wrinkly ochsenherztomaten, oh so delicious. 

Our ingredients for dinner (schnitzel, salad, potatoes, and dessert). 

First up...chop everything for the salad and put the potatoes in water to boil (the potatoes eventually got peeled and tossed with olive oil and parsley...although I don't have any other pictures of them). 

Then set up our little assembly line for the schnitzel...sifted flour, eggs, and semmelbrösel (bread crumbs)

we used pork...but you could also make it with any number of other meats.

smash it thin

cover each piece first in flour, then through the eggs, then finally in the semmelbrösel

try not to focus too much on this part...just look at the lovely alpine scene on the container...

using a wooden spoon to see if it's hot enough

and then you toss the breaded meat in! I'm still not entirely sure how you know it's done, we kept flipping it until it sort of felt and looked right...whatever exactly that means...but you can always cut into a bit to double check

Two other friends came over to be the taste testers once we had finished cooking...they approved!

And of course if we somehow hadn't had enough food...we bought these delicious strawberries that are now in season

and some neapolitan ice cream to go with them...yum yum yum. 

It was a super fun evening all around, learning to cook new things and being able to cook for friends, which I don't get to do all that often here and should really try to do more of.  Also looking forward to my next attempt at other Austrian staples!