My favourite dish

Hey guys!

Do you like to eat? Well, I do. I really do. 

I'm sure all of you have this one special dish you absolutely adore - I have that one too. Mine is lasagne. 

It is a typical Italian dish that consists of a ‘Sauce Bolognese’, a ‘Sauce Béchamel’ and lasagne noodles.

If you want to prepare this dish at home you need to preheat your oven to 180 degrees and then start to prepare a ‘Sauce Bolognese’. The most important ingredient is onion. Your first move will be chopping an onion and two garlic clove into small pieces. When you are finished, put some oil in a non-stick frying pan. The moment you notice the oil is hot enough, put the onion and the garlic into the pan and stir-fry them until well browned. Stir in ground beef, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and a bit of water. Season everything with salt, pepper, oregano and two tablespoons of parsley. Let the mixture covered with a saucepan lid simmer for about 20 minutes. 

While the ‘Sauce Bolognese’ is simmering you start to prepare a ‘Sauce Béchamel’. This is a sauce consisting of milk, butter, flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. You have to start with melting the butter in a pot. Then you have to stir in the flour. Be careful! The mixture might stick at the bottom of the pot!

You have to stir in the milk. Be sure that the butter-flour-mixture doesn’t go lumpy. When you’re done bring it to the boil and season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg. The Sauce Bolognese should be ready by now. Take an ovenproof dish, cover its base with lasagne noodles and put in a ladleful of ‘Sauce Bolognese’, then a bit less ‘Sauce Béchamel’. Then you have to cover everything again with lasagne noodles and so on and so forth until everything is in the ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the top of your dish with cheese and season everything again with oregano. You don’t have to season it again with oregano but it is my favourite herb. I adore its fragrant smell. I tend to season everything with oregano.The lasagne is now ready to be baked in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. 

If you try to cook it at home tell me if wether you liked it or not!

Keep reading (:

Another piece of homework

Hey guys!

Maybe I'm overposting right now, but I have to post a rewritten piece of homework we had to write a week ago. 

The text is a letter. Or, more detailed, it's a 'House Swap Letter'. In the letter I pretend that I'm going to do a 'house swap' with strangers. This is why they need to have some information how to get to our house and so on. So, the following part is what I wrote. (It's already rewritten)

Dear Marcella,

Thank you for your letter. My family and I are really looking forward to coming to your house! As promised I am sending you all the details you may need to know about our place.

Let me start by telling you how to get there. When you arrive in Ternberg, you need to turn right immediately after the police station. After about one and a half kilometres, you will come to a crossroads. Turn left and again follow the road. It's a pretty rural area, so don't be surprised if there doesn't seem to be much action. When you see a chapel and a fire station slow down a bit; otherwise, you might miss the small path one the left that leads to our house. Follow the path –the first house on the left is ours. You can park your car in our garage. You need a code to open the garage. The code is 4367. I suggest saving the code in your phone in case you forget it as you won't be able to get into the house otherwise. I will hide the keys for the front door in a flowerpot next to the front door.

As I told you our house is a little farmhouse. Please look after our animals! Do you have experience in handling horses? If so, you are allowed to go horse riding. Our horses are fed fresh hay. This is already prepared and only need to be fed to them.

We also own some cats and have bought some extra milk and cat food for them. Buying food for our cats is nothing you need to care about. There is plenty in the base cabinet in our kitchen. Please feed them two times per day and mix the milk with a bit of warm water. I suggest you feed them every morning and evening as they are already used to it.

If you need anything, there are some shops in the city centre. If you want to buy some bread, then you are best going to Kleindl. There are also a couple of supermarkets where you can buy your food. If you want to see the beautiful countryside, you are best hiking up the “Schoberstein” which is a small mountain in Trattenbach, a neighbour village of Ternberg. If you would like to eat out, I can recommend a restaurant that is called “Derfler’s”. They serve very good food there, but I have to warn you – it is a bit pricey. If you want to go out at night and have some fun, you should go dancing in one of our pubs. There is also a well-known discotheque called “Monte” where famous DJs spin the discs.

If there is anything else you need or if you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch!

Regards,

Michaela

What do you think of my letter? Are there still many mistakes in it I didn't notice?
Please, leave me a comment :)


Keep reading! (:

It's gonna be our summer!

Hey guys!


Even though it's only April I am already thinking about what I'm gonna do during the summer holiday. I also have already plans for the warm months (May and June). Wanna know? :)


My boyfriend, some friends of us and I are going to attend several concerts and also one or two festivals!

First:
The Australian Pink Floyd Show

The Australian Pink Floyd is a band that covers original Pink Floyd songs. I have heard that they do such a great job in covering that the songs sound almost the same! I'm excited to see them live and I hope they are really THAT good. That would be awesome :)

Second:
The Naked And Famous

The Naked And Famous is a band from New Zealand with a very intersting style of making music. I really enjoy their songs and I'm very looking forward to seeing them live in Graz!! :)

http://thenakedandfamous.com/

Third:
Acoustic Lakeside Festival

The Acoustic Lakeside Festival is a small festival with only around 2000 people. It takes place in Carinthia and the festival site lies next to a beautiful lake. My boyfriend and his best friend attended the festival last year and they were so overwhelmed because the  people had been so nice and everyone was so free with anyone they met!
You want to see photos, videos or just wanna know more about the festival? (sold out, by the way) check out the following link!

http://www.acousticlakeside.com/

I'm sure I'm going to write a post about every event. So, don't worry, you'll stay informed :)

Have you heard of the bands or the festival? What do you think of them? Leave a comment! :)

Keep reading and have a nice weekend (:

Why I love cooking - rewritten paragraph

Hey guys!

In class we had to write a paragraph why we love/detest cooking, about the worst cook we know or about the most delicious meal we've ever eaten. I decided to write about "Why I love cooking".

The following text is what I wrote. My teacher told me to rewrite the last part because she lost interest in reading it. This is why I'm going to post the rewritten version - I don't want you to lose interest in reading my paragraph :p


Why I love cooking

If I had had to write this paragraph two years ago I definitely would have chosen the adjective “detest”. Back then I was a student in a school where cooking and service were compulsory subjects and I absolutely did not like my teacher so these could be the reasons for me not liking to cook. Immediately after I finished school I realised that cooking is actually not a bad thing. Not having someone watch your fingers while you prepare a meal felt like a new kind of freedom to me and I realised that cooking is something that brings your creativity to life! Personally I think that it feels absolutely great if my meal is delicious! It actually makes me more self-confident. In my view the greatness of cooking lies in doing something with your own hands and the best fact about is that you can eat a delicious meal after putting a lot of effort in cooking!


What do you think about it? Are there still many mistakes?
Please leave me a comment. I would really like to know what I could do better!



Keep reading (:

German literature ♥

Hey guys!

I don't know if I ever told you that I absolutely adore German literature. Fact is: I do! 
A few days ago I bought myself a bunch of old "Reclam"-books.


Reclam is a German publishing house that mostly publishes German literature. At least I think so. If you want to know more about Reclam, click on the following link! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclam

Back to topic. On Facebook there exists a flea market where I found those books. I bought:

• Friedrich Schiller: Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and love)
• Henrik Ibsen: Gespenster (Ghosts)
• Franz Grillparzer: Wehe dem, der lügt! (Woe to him who lies)
• Gerhart Hauptmann: Bahnwärter Thiel
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Iphigenie auf Tauris (Iphigenia in Tauris)

Do you know something about German literature? About Friedrich Schiller or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? No? Ok then, let's get it started!

Schiller and Goethe are considered to be two of the most influencial German authors during 'Storm and Stress'. It was a proto-romantic movement in German literature and music from the late 1760's to the early 1780's.

In my view this is a very interesting topic. If you want to know more, just click on the following link!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_and_Stress

I actuall have not read the books above except for "Bahnwärter Thiel" so this is the only book I am able to tell you something about. 

Bahnwärter Thiel is one of the most important written pieces of German literature during Naturalism (literature!) written by Gerhart Hauptmann. It tells the story of a level crossing attendant who lives with his wife and his two sons in a small house. His wife has a very dominant personality and doesn't like the older son because he is not hers. She only cares about her baby. The story gets really exciting and thrilling. I can absolutely recommend reading that short story! My 'Reclam-book' only has 42 pages so it won't take you very long to read it. 

If you have already read it, what do you think about it?
Leave a comment! 


Keep reading (: