Nikkilooch

If you are a completely unbiased person, like myself in this situation, then it’s easy for you to realize that my parents are the best.

Why?  Because they sent my husband a grill through the mail for his birthday.  I know, right?

This weekend we christened her with ribs.

Annnd I’m pretty sure my parents like my husband more than they like me.  Can’t say that I blame them.  He’s pretty awesome.

Besides our tiny most perfect grill, what did I bring to this barbecue?

Peanut butter cupcakes with cream cheese chocolate frosting, of course.

I’m such a good friend.

Both the peanut butter cupcakes and the cream cheese chocolate frosting recipes I used were from the Joy the Baker Cookbook.

Laura came over Friday.  She’s my best friend named Laura.  Not to be confused with my sister name Laura.

She brought her fiancee.  I had my husband here waiting.  I taught them how to eat artichokes that were stuffed with ricotta, parmigiano reggiano, parsley, mint, garlic, and abundant olive oil.  I was going to document the whole delicious event, bite by bite.

But then life happened.  And we got to talking.  And laughing.  Photo shoots didn’t happen.

It’s ok.  It’s life.  I’d rather be living it than documenting it.  You’ll just have to trust me.  It was my best night of this Fall so far.

Cecilia’s been gone since Thursday to London to visit her cousin.

I’m having serious withdraws.

She’s going to be moving back to the States with her husband a month before my husband gets home.  I’ve already started planning how I’m going to keep my nights full while she’s gone: local Italian classes, more running, more devotion to my schoolwork.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my husband about it on the phone and started to get choked up.  He said, “Seriously, Nikki?  I’ll be home a month after that.  That’s nothing.”  I whimpered a pathetic I know type noise.  ”I feel like,” he continued, “you’re going to miss her more than you miss me.”

“You’re coming back!  She’s leaving for good!”

Little army wife tip: Don’t tell your husband while he’s in Afghanistan (Iraq, Germany, Kuwait, insert your chosen deployment place here) that you miss your friends more than you miss him.  It tends not to go over so well.

She’ll be home tonight.  Hopefully she misses the shuttle from the airport to post so I can pick her up.

I don’t talk very much on here about being an army wife.  Even though it’s a big part of my life (huge actually) it’s not one of the things I use to define myself.  Christian? yes.  Student? yes.  Southerner? yes. Reader? yes.  Writer? most of the time.  Army wife? not really.

I’m not sure if it’s the bad connotations that are attached to the stero-typical army wife or if it’s that I have enough of being identified as my husband’s wife in my non-blog life.  Either way, one thing that I do love about being an army wife are the deep friendships that are made.  I don’t have family within 4,000 miles of here and don’t speak the language well enough yet to feel completely comfortable.  Added by the fact that if I did have an emergency my family would have to use a passport to get to me.  My husband is gone 80% of the time.  I’m alone in the truest sense of the word.

Enter Cecilia.

Last Sunday, my favorite girls and I met up for brunch at the DFAC (dining facility) on post. It was the first cool and sunny day we’ve had this year and I couldn’t pass it up. So I invited them over for a BBQ. We all went to the commissary after brunch and decided on our menu. I knew I was going to be trying out smitten kitchen’s hacked caprese salad because I had bought three rounds of fresh mozzerella the day before in anticipation of making it.

Cecilia bought a magazine (I forget now which one) that had pictures of 12 different ways to enjoy hotdogs this summer. One was with onion rings on top. I decided to try it. Because you know, trying one new recipe when entertaining company isn’t enough. I like to live on the edge.

Plus the commissary had something like 1/2 a pound of pre-sliced onions for 60 cents. They looked at me from the shelf and asked me to please batter and fry them. I don’t take the words of talking onions lightly, I obliged.

It was amazing. Please do this if you are going to have a hotdog again ever in your life.

To finish, Cecilia made brownie cupcakes.

With cream cheese frosting on top.

Cecilia loves brownies with cream cheese frosting.

Having the girls around makes things so much more fun and makes me feel a lot safer when my man is gone.

We paid 50 euros for a tour to Luxembourg. We figured after buying a train ticket and the amount of time it would take us to figure out where the heck we were going it wound up being cheaper than going there on our own. According to our tour guide, Gabi, there is no poverty or unemployment in Luxembourg and the average annual income of a Luxembourger is 47,000 euros.

I guess that means they have plenty of money to pay for ridiculous signs.

Lunch was the first order of business. Our waiters did NOT like us. I’m pretty sure it’s because we drained our water the first minute after we sat down. When we asked for more, they brought us tap water. Then they brought our food out after everyone else’s in our group.

Chicken a la King is a typical Luxembourg meal, we got ours with a side of salad and fries. I’m not sure I’ve ever had Chicken a la King before. This one was shredded chicken in a mushroom gravy, with a soft croissant type pastry on top.

We kept asking for more water even after we ate. We kept drinking it even though I’m pretty sure people in Luxembourg spit in your drink if you make trouble like they do in the States.

After lunch we went on a train tour. It covered 8 kilometers in 50 minutes. Lighting speed. Instead of a real live person telling us about our surroundings we had an audio recording. They play acted out the history of Luxembourg. Once the extensive history of the country was over, they spent 5-7 minutes telling us that Luxembourg is “Small but grand!” in about 8 different languages. Then the audio tour ended about 10 minutes before the actual tour did.

Small…

but grand!

We got back from the Bourg just in time for dinner. That’s right:

Mussels in Brussels.

Jean Claude Van Damme may THINK he’s the muscles from Brussels, but he ain’t got nothing on this girl.

Last night Sinbad the comedian came to post on his “Funny to the Corp” tour. And while this isn’t really something I talk about a lot I’m a HUGE Sinbad fan. He came for a meet and greet at 1200 which I had to miss because of work. I tried to talk my co-worker into staying a little later so I could meet Sinbad.

“Can you cover for me?” I asked.

“Why? What’s up?”

“I really want to go meet Sinbad,” I said.

“Who?”

“Sinbad. The comedian. Have you ever seen First Kid?”

*blank stare*

I then proceeded to clock in.

We did get to go to his show that night though.

Cecilia and Melissa went with me. We had to wait in line for kind of a while outside. I didn’t know there were so many other Sinbad fans. I’m not alone in my love.

Even though Cecilia only went because I told her a month ago to put it on her calendar and texted her about dreams I had about us not getting into this show and she felt like she couldn’t let me down.

I’m pretty sure Melissa just went for something to do on a Wednesday night.

Unfortunately this is the only decent picture I have from the whole night. My camera broke a couple weeks ago in Copenhagen. All those beautiful pictures you see are Cecilia’s. So I’ve been on the lookout for a new camera since the FRONT of my camera decided to fall off in front of that church in Copenhagen.

The other day I was walking through the PX and saw the majesty of purple wonder staring at me.

Y’all know how I feel about purple. It is currently charging and I’ll give you an update as soon as I get a chance to use it.

Night before last Cecilia had some of us over for dinner. Usually dinner parties are at my house and hang out movie time is at Cecilia’s. It’s good to mix it up. Mix and match. Salsa dance.

The first time I ever had swordfish was last summer in Palermo. We had it the one time we went out to eat. It might be my most favorite fish ever and if it wasn’t so expensive I’d probably eat it once a week.

This is what fried swordfish looks like. Looks kinda like strips of pork chop. I bet your tastebuds are watering. Do tastebuds even water? I know mine are.

We got to enjoy swordfish tacos because when Cecilia’s husband was home for R&R he bought 60 euros worth of the stuff. At the time that was over 100 dollars worth. Sometimes Cecilia’s husband goes a little over the top. It’s a typical soldier trait. Above and beyond. Army of one. Hoo-ah.

Jocelyn (who’s pregnant belly you can kinda see here) made tortillas from scratch. They were fantastic. Makes me want to try my own soon.

I was going to prepare a celebratory post for being half-way through this deployment. Only 6 more months (give or take) to go.

But then Margo’s husband died yesterday in Afghanistan. I know people die in this war every day and that is tragic. There’s something different about it though when you go to that person’s promotion ceremony from Major to Lt. Col. and when you saw that person dressed up for Halloween as a football coach (Margo was a football player) and when you cared for that person’s child at the center where you work. You hurt pretty bad for someone when you were in thier Bible study class on marriage, which Margo was really qualified to teach since she and Tom have been married over 20 years.

Had been married.

That’s hard to get used to.

Margo and Tom have two beautiful daughters. Please keep Margo and the girls in your prayers.

Cecilia and I have been wanting to go to Greece this deployment. Heck, I’ve been wanting to go to Greece since I got here. Last night she found a 6-night cruise for $300 in October.

On Sunday Cecilia and I (plus some other friends) went on an ODR (Outdoor Recreation) trip to the Dolomites. First we stopped at a distillery that makes grappa. They showed us the barrels where the grappa is aged in different types of wooden barrels: cherry, oak or walnut.

After the tour we got a tasting. Then of course we got to browse the shop. I bought some grappa crema di nicciolo. It’s a creamy grappa that’s hazelnut flavored. I’m thinking a treat in coffee after dinner? Or a necessity in coffee before going to work with the kids?

This is a before picture. That’s why I’m smiling. This stuff was no joke. It was 85% alcohol and my sinuses have been clear ever since I drank this glass. It’s a good thing grappa is for sipping, not for shooting.

Next we went to Trento where they have a cute little castle.

More importantly (to me anyway) they had a cheese tasting and brewery. I bought some of this yummy cheese that is local to Trento. I asked the lady what it’s called and have no recolection of the name. But trust me. It’s tasty.

We ate lunch at the brewery and all got pasta typical of the area. Except for Brooke, who got french fries. I’m not sure that she knows we live in Italy.

This is spaetzle allo speck. The green pasta is made with flour, peas (I think), and melted butter. The white pasta is made with flour, potatoes and melted butter, much like gnocchi. The butter flavor was really strong in this dish and really tasty. It made the texture different from gnocchi in a good, buttery way.

After lunch at the brewery we stopped into a little gelateria called “la Delizia” and picked up fresh crepes. Cecilia got nutella and banana and I got cream of chestnut. It was the first time I ever had that spread before, or even heard of it, and man. Delizia for sure.