Penne alla Caprese (Penne with Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella)

Nick's favorite food is probably spaghetti with chili peppers and olive oil, which is a delicious thing, except he makes it with fresh chilis and so many of them that just walking in the kitchen causes eye-watering and coughing fits. (If Nick ever does a cooking show, it will be called Cooking with Napalm.) But tomatoes are so god right now (that's a typo, but I'm keeping it), and then I found this gorgeous buffalo mozzarella at the cheese shop, so I elbowed him out of the kitchen and made this penne with tomato, basil, and mozzarella instead.

Heidelberger Bratwurst

I was sitting around the house and working on some stuff when Nick came home for lunch. He looked a little bummed.

"I was going to get some stuff from the farmers' market," he said, "but they haven't shown up yet. There's just this guy with a sausage cart."

He had me at "sausage cart."

Apartment Therapy: How to Get a Bird Out of the House

Bird in the house! Bird in the house! Oh my God, there's a bird in the house! Read this post on Apartment Therapy to learn how to get it out.

Fantasy Shopping League: Antique Kimono Reproduction Project from Ichiroya

It's been a long time since I posted anything about kimono, but yesterday I was lurking around on Ichiroya.com, one of my favorite Fantasy Shopping League haunts, and I saw that they've rolled out an antique kimono reprint project with Iuchi Shoten.

How to Pot a Meyer Lemon Tree

I finally got a Meyer lemon tree! Nick and I have been wanting one of these guys since Stanford, but we never managed to get one. Our apartment in New York didn't have enough light for even a cactus (sorry, cactus), and we couldn't find one in Beijing. But I was walking down the Hauptstrasse yesterday and it was just sitting there in front of a shop full of dorm supplies, so I finally have my Meyer lemon tree.

Of course, that means I had to make a spiffy house for him ...

Sunday Breakfast in Heidelberg

Sunday breakfast at Strohauer's Cafe in Heidelberg. Two perfectly runny soft-boiled eggs with mini ham and cheese sandwiches on fresh bread with tomato and cucumber. I love the presentation. From now on, all my eggs will be delivered in brandy snifters.

Crowdsourcing My Bathroom Design

It's time to decorate my currently empty Heidelberg apartment. Most of my worldly possessions are still in a shipping container somewhere in Great Britain, so I've decided to start with the bathroom because it is the most immediate necessity, and also there are no bathroom things coming in the shipping container.

So it's time to start afresh! But I have an odd problem with my bathroom, and I think I need some help figuring it out. Bathrooms are not my forte, and I have absolutely no idea how to decorate this one.

Also, as you can see, there's a problem:

First Look: My New, Empty Apartment in Heidelberg, Germany

The previous couple posts on this blog have followed a certain theme, and that theme is: I have moved to Germany!

Nick is now teaching at the University of Heidelberg, and we've taken a new apartment in the Old Town there. It's an adorable little teddy bear village of a college town, and there will be more on that later. But considering that I'm now chasing ambience in an entirely new location, I thought I should give you an idea of what I've got to work with. More pictures after the jump...

Apartment Therapy: First Things to do in a New Home

This week's post is up at Apartment Therapy. This week our subject is Making it Yours: The first things you should do in a new home.

And be sure to check out the handsome cover boy.

Apartment Therapy: What to Bring when Moving Abroad

Another Apartment Therapy post about moving abroad ... read along to mock me for all the obvious things I forgot I'd need. Le sigh.