Stuff

Got a crockpot today. Pretty exciting! They're very hard to find here, and we had some really great spareribs tonight so tender they fell right off the bone. We bought a gas grill right before break from some Americans who were returning home, so between the grill and crockpot, I am back in the cooking game.

We're about to get back in the groove of being back in Germany, back to school, back to work, etc. Making plans to head to Paris over winter break in February. It takes longer to go from Little Rock to St. Louis than it does to get from Duesseldorf to Paris. You can get to Amsterdam in about the time it takes to get to Memphis. It's kind of weird.

We may be a little extra careful in planning our travel from here on out. One of the women in the American Women's Club was in Tanzania over the Christmas break and got a speck of bacteria of some kind under her contact that caused an infection in her cornea, and she's had to have a cornea transplant. It's been really sad and a little scary. People in the know are saying that it's a bacteria you can pick up anywhere, but I think it's made people in the ISD community a little more wary of taking advantage of those North Africa vacation deals.

On a totally different topic: a question for your cooks--is there a good substitution when a recipe for cookies or cakes calls for shortening? It doesn't always work to just sub oil or butter. Shortening almost impossible to find here and if you can, it's ridiculously expensive. Also, it would let me make "homemade" Bisquick. You can't find that here either. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.