Advent Calendars for Everyone

Yesterday was the beginning of one of my favorite holiday traditions. Advent Calendars are great for everyone....for kids, it helps pass the time and count down the days till Christmas and for adults, it helps limit us to a piece of chocolate per day. Or is an excuse to eat some chocolate every day. Not sure which, but both are good ideas.   

The Germans have take Advent Calendars to new heights. They are everywhere, beginning in October. But be warned, if you wait until December, you may not find any! 

It's not just chocolate anymore - there really is something for everyone these days. Chocolate advent calendars still are by far the most popular ones, but there are plenty of non-candy calendars or manly calendars on offer. 

My Advent Calendar Guide: 

For Mom:
(probably you should give her a chocolate one, too)

The Tea Party Advent Calendar, which includes tea bags and holders in the shape of famous politicians, artists, and Biblical characters (Queen Elizabeth, Baby Jesus, Rudolph, Sarkozy, Mozart, and Merkel).  

   

For the Hello Kitty fan in your life:
(it's ok to admit it, you know you have one...or are one!)

For Father/Husband/Boyfriend:
The Handyman Advent Calendar. I got Herr J one so we could see what goodies are inside!  

  

For those who don't like chocolate:
(yes, i have met one or two in life...I both envy and pity them) 

Gummi Bear Advent Calendar, from the neighborhood Bears and Friends.    

For the younger brother:
Unfortunately, I really couldn't find a justification to buy one. But there are a few varieties out there of Lego Advent Calendars.  

For the teenage daughter/sister:
The Body Shop here has an advent calendar full of small-sized products.  

They seem to be out of them, so I'll just show an even more fun one...the famous Selfridge's advent calendar. Similar idea and cost, just the Body Shop uses their own products.  

Selfridge's Advent Calendar

For the Music Lover:
Or also good for parents who don't want to give more candy to the kids... The Musical Advent Calendar, with a new song each day (38 minutes in total).  

 

For children of all ages, or also for yourself:
The Kinder Surprise Egg Advent Calendar. Full of Kinder Eggs, with Christmas toys and ornaments inside. Also it opens up to have a nice 3D scene and a sleigh to hold a Kinder Egg.  

In the interest of full disclosure....I got one for myself. I love Kinder Eggs and am looking forward to hanging some of the ornaments on my Christmas tree.  Will post later pictures of what suprises are inside.

Kinder has a variety of advent calendars on offer...     Kinder Friends - with Bueno, Bons, Country and Chocolate 

Kinder Mix - with Happy Hippos, Bons, Suprise Eggs, and Chocolate

Or if Kinder is not your favorite, all of the major German and Swiss chocolatiers have at least one calendar on the market....

Ritter Sport

       Milka   Mozart

Niederegger (Marzipan and Chocolate) Lindt, as usual, has a wide variety of advent calendars...dark, light, spiced chocolates, kid's chocolates, pralines, and mini-truffels.

  

And, finally, we have my awesome, homemade Advent Calendar. What's in it? We'll see tomorrow....

The Company Cafeteria, Part II

Frau A and I recently met up with a friend of mine from high school.  Her sister lives in Germany, and she & her husband were visiting the sister's family and traveling around southern Germany, Switzerland, and France.  We had dinner at one of the nicer Bavarian restaurants in Munich, Wirtshaus in der Au.  Thanks for stopping by, Heidi and Chris!  (Great German names, BTW)

Our dinner together was a reminder that the first German corporate cafeteria post deserves a follow-up.  Here are some more offerings from the office food service.

One common item in colder weather is the "eintopf mit wurst".  This is a bowl of lentil soup with two frankfurters thrown in.  A German food site has over 50 recipes for this!  It can look a little mushy, and tends to be a bit bland, but with a little salt, pepper, and maybe paprika added it's pretty good.  Perfect for you low-carb dieters too.  You just get a strange feeling cutting up a hot dog with knife and fork... in soup.

Unfortunately, the "wurst" in the soups is not the highest quality in a corporate cafeteria.  And it is not bratwurst, but just a standard hot dog style weiner.  No grill here either.  Boiled.  See them floating on the left here:

The above photo is also a warning about a typical mistake in Germany.  If you order "Pizza Pepperoni"  over here you will not get the pizza you expect.  Pepperoni means the vegetable, not the meat.  You will get what you see above, a cheese pizza with a long green pepper on it (or a bunch of smaller ones).  You need to order "Pizza Salami" instead (although they do put salami on it, not the pepperoni style used in the U.S.).

Then there is leberkäse, or shortened to leberkäs.  It's the German meatloaf, made with pork instead of beef, so it looks and tastes completely different.  It is typically Bavarian comfort food, found at every train station (a slice of it is eaten in a roll with mustard), and often even served for breakfast!  In my experience, quality varies greatly (like meatloaf, I guess) but I think there is a reason that the Germans eat it with a lot of mustard, if you know what I mean...

Need something with your leberkäs?  Looking for big and starchy?  Go right for the knödel.  It's a mammoth dumpling -- usually potato but can also be bread-based.  You will need some kind of sauce to add moisture and get it down, that's why it often accompanies roasted pork dishes that come with sauce, like schweinebraten.

Finally, I need to end with something positive: another photo of bienenstich.  Love it.  In the first post it was a stock photo from Wikipedia.  This time, they were serving it in the cafeteria and I grabbed one.  Didn't last long...