christmas dinner

My first christmas away from home was definitely kind of special. I missed my family and friends although I had a long chat with them while I was still at work.
But when it comes to celebrating that eve there has to be great food, great drinks and great guests...
As most people I know were staying with their families that night we were a rather small group of only my roommate, a friend and me. I decided to follow my family's tradition and prepared a 3-course menu for us that we all enjoyed very much. I do not have much experience in cooking several courses but I think it was quite a hit. Also our fireplace made it really romantic.

New year's eve is coming up and I still have no idea how to spend it right. I would really love to participate in a party on one of the high rises with an amazing view, but it's kind of hard to find one that is open for public and not horribly expensive. Anyway 2014 will be a great year no matter where and how it starts!
See you all then!

cozy fake fireplace, baked pumpkin with parmesan and pesto, slow roasted duck legs on yam and carrots 

it never snows in Vancouver

Total breakdown of public transportation, no caps to catch anywhere, big coats, scarfs and toques. It's snowing in Vancouver!
Again!
And this does not happen very often I was told, so better make it count. This time actually it wasn't just a little bit, but a whole lot over night. Some two inches covered the whole city in beautiful white fresh powder.
Usually at this time of the day the streets are packed with cars but today is different. All you see is umbrellas.

West Hastings St. is one of the busiest in all of downtown...

christmas cookies

It's the first christmas I don't spend at home with my family and all my Canadian friends are gone for the holidays. So to wish them farewell me and my roommate hosted a little christmassy style cookie baking party yesterday. To cheer everybody up we were doing everything from scratch so that our kitchen gets really busy and messy...
We encouraged our guests to bring their own recipes and provided basic ingredients. At this point I'd like to thank Mary for coming up with that awesome Bailey's white chocolate chip cookies and Ben for his fancy coconut macaroons!!
There were also a bunch of german travelers over for they are also missing their families, so guess that could even be considered as charity work at 1623 Haro.
By the way, if you like to have any of the recipes just write or comment...

the bakers, the macaroons, the Bailey's dough, the decorated cookies, the hosts.

the vancouver christmas market

A few days ago me and some coworkers went to the german christmas market in Vancouver. It is small but pretty and we enjoyed a free carousel ride. Lots of guys from the hostel work there so it was quite familiar. The gluehwein is also almost the same as in Germany and they sell handcrafted gifts everywhere.

As it was also snowing a little bit, it was a wonderful night. A definite recommendation for anybody who wants to get in a christmassy mood!

first snow

So it's winter now, finally. We had a couple of cold days lately with temperatures dropping far below 0°. For Vancouver that's pretty cold... I've been told. Today it was manageable but when I woke up, the city was covered under a thin layer of snow. In Munich I love this mood, but here it was different. As buildings are high rises, you don't see snowy rooftops from the streets. What a shame, just half the fun!
Still fun though, time to take my new winter boots on a little hike.
Just a couple of blocks from my apartment there was a blown up water pipe last night. It was just a 20m fountain in the middle of the street. Did't have the chance to capture it because I discovered it at night but what happened to the tree next to the fountain was beautiful! It was completely covered in ice!