Saturday evening our friends invited us  to their house for some time out of the house with the kids playing in the garden and an early dinner. She said her mom, Theres, would be providing the food!  Her mom brought a beautiful spread of cheeses, smoked fish and bacon, bread, vegetable soup and a wonderful strawberry rhubarb dessert!  The boys played with their buddy Anna in the garden and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. By dinner time they were covered in sand and had to be hosed down. It was a really nice afternoon and a much needed break from our prepping for the packers. We felt so spoiled and taken care of!

Daniela’s mom kindly agreed to share her recipe for the wonderful dessert! I will get back on here soon and share it! Saturday we are picking strawberries so I may wait until Sat!

And as if this didn’t spoil us enough Daniela is the one who took the boys yesterday and brought dinner. And our friend Merve is delivering dinner tonight. Some other friends, Karen and Andy are having us tomorrow night to get us out and away from the boxes.  It’s funny because when I wrote this post a few weeks ago I was writing it about us taking meals, it never crossed my mind that we might need them. It has been such a blessing this week when I feel like I am wiped out and distracted. It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye to our friends!

Yesterday I hosted a lunch for Seth’s coworkers. He wanted an opportunity to thank them for making this post a great one! He has really enjoyed working here and has had great co workers, both local employees and his fellow officers.

So, we picked the last possible day to have people and somehow we pulled it off. In some ways I felt like a crazy lady hosting a crowd just before packout and in other ways it felt like a really good way to finish out before we pack up.

For all you foodies, here is the menu…

Grilled Meat Platter- pork tenderloin, sausages, skirt steak

Grilled Vegetables

Fruit Salad

Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Pasta Salad…this is one of Ina’s (we are on a first name basis now) but it isn’t online so I will get it for you!

Bread basket

For Dessert we served Brownies and  Triple Berry Crisp– this one I found on Gina’s Skinny Taste and it was delicious!  Served with whipped cream

All of the food turned out and everyone enjoyed a midday break from the office!   Thanks to the Consular staff in Bern for being such a great team!

Hey folks, sorry for the silence this week. I would say we are 90% done getting everything reading for shipping but I am trying so hard to have things totally organized so that when we arrive in VA unpacking can run smoothly!  I don’t naively think unpacking will be easy in VA but I have learned along the way that the more I do on this end gradually the less I have to do all at once there.  Here is a bit of our exciting (okay, not so exciting) week!

junk drawer sorting….done, whew.

and don’t worry, I didn’t drink all of these in one sitting, actually I found these bottled in a box in our storage room. They are from special occasions like my grad school graduation, Seth’s foreign service acceptance, our engagement, and others I can’t even remember.  Not sure why we didn’t just save corks but at the time it seemed fun.  I decided to take a picture for the memory and recycled these guys!   Reminders of lots of special times! I haven’t decided if the sorting every couple of years is therapeutic or will land me in therapy someday the jury is still out!

blueberry yogurt while nodding off before nap…(oops)

lots and lots of veggies and salads!  (although I am not sure it is making much difference!)

hedge hog bread…copied from this billboard. So cute, huh?! Ours were more a consistency of biscuits (American style..not cookies) but they were cute and Jackson was awfully proud.  Eating them with strawberry jam was a bit reminiscent of the armadillo cake on Steel Magnolias.

ohhhh, and I almost forgot. We tried a knock off recipe for a certain chicken nugget place back home which may or may not be Chickfila. I need to tweek it a bit and try a couple of more times before I share it. when I served them to Owen he immediately asked if he could have a “spwite pweez”.  He’s had sprite maybe 4 times in his life and of course it is a treat if he gets fast food so the fact that it is imprinted on his brain with chicken nuggets is scary.

So not too much to report here! If you took me up on the challenge to make a meal and deliver it to a friend write to me in the comments! I hope it was an encouragement to all involved!

Have a great week, y’all.   I’ll be back here soon with some yummy leek recipes in honor of Swiss cooking! Don’t be scared, if you have never had them they are really tasty!

I promised I would hop back on and bring you some recipe ideas for meals to take to friends and family in need!  If you missed the first post you can find it here.

*Remember it doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to know if it will be their favorite, just pick something that your family will enjoy and trust that someone in the family will get nourishment from it Don’t stress about kids being picky about it, chances are if they don’t want it and are super picky mom and dad are used to accommodating. You can’t anticipate every like or dislike!*

Here are some quick and delicious meals to deliver! They all make a good size batch, heat up well the next day and  are for a variety of seasons! Remember to grad yourself some cheap foil pans and save jars so that your friends don’t have to worry about making any returns!

*rotisserie chicken, salad and bread! (you can cheat on this one and buy it all!!)

*homemade bolognese sauce  . this is our new favorite sauce! (I assumed bolognese was a jar of sauce with a lb of ground beef browned and added, you must try this sauce!!) My sister-in-law and I decided the best way to take pasta is to take a pack of pasta along that your friend can cook!  Pick something that cooks quickly like angel hair! Add a salad and some bread!

*Wegman’s Minestrone …..modify with what you have if you don’t have a Wegman’s close by!  You can prepare this in your crockpot and take it over so they can smell it cooking all day! Just leave out the spinach and beans for them to stir in in the end! My friend Rebecca brought this when Owen arrived. It has become a family favorite!

*Barefoot Contessa’s Macaroni and Cheese! This one is rich but a super yummy comfort food! Ina mixes in a variety of things to make it a main dish so you can toss in bacon or whatever sounds yummy. This heats up well as leftovers. The cheese can be pricey (if you aren’t in the land of gruyere like we are) so maybe split the recipe and take it as a side, keep the other half to feed your family. Add a salad and they are set!

*Tomato Feta Pasta Salad this one is great with grilled chicken, or even by itself with some bread! A good summer salad!

*Tomato Basil Soup, so only glance at this Le Madeline knock off and you will see it isn’t so healthy but so yummy. .I have experimented and you can use half and half and for sure less butter. I do it with half the butter and it is still plenty rich!

*Tomato Basil Pie  you might remember me putting this recipe up last summer during tomato season! This, like all these others goes great with a salad and bread!

*Quiche is another great thing to take. It is a good dinner and can double as breakfast if they have leftovers!  Here is a link for about a dozen recipes for quiche from Southern Living!   You guessed it, add fruit salad or a green salad and some kind of bread or muffins!

*Scalloped Potatoes-this one below I am actually adding the recipe instead of a link because Better Homes and Gardens doesn’t have this recipe on their website. A friend brought this for us when Owen was born and it was wonderful!  I have to mention that this friend, Tiffany, had two tiny twin babies of her own at home and whipped this up!  I was so impressed at how she juggled it all!

Oh and you can of course add dessert to any of these meals! But that has to be another post because this is getting to be too long!

So there you have it! If you get a meal from us someday it may be lacking in surprise as you now know all of our favorites!  But now if you are needing ideas you have a few that have been tried and true!  This weekend when you go grocery shopping or plan your meals think of what meal might be easy to double and do it!! Think of who you can encourage…doesn’t have to be a mom with a new baby, who do you know who is having a really crummy time?!  I forgot to mention in the last post that if you feel too shy, just deliver the meal and put it on the families doorstep and ring the bell, only make sure they are home or that it is an entry way they will find it at! Nothing like surprising them with a rotten meal a few days later when they discover it!

Who do you plan on being a help to this week?? What is your favorite recipe to deliver?