tucson_chick

.....and I already thought my life was complex........

*gives mox the evil-death glare*

My secrets were not to be revealed!

soooo... is it like mafia????? the godfather of vj?

uh, i've been gone too long. soooo how does one become an "organizer" or any powerful person alike? *curious*

welcome!

have a smooth journey!

ok. i have NO idea how to post links to pictures here....

Cinnamonstars:

http://www.brigitte.de/kochen/rezeptsuche/...+Zimtsterntaler

Ingredients: 3 Eggwhites, a pinch of salt, 300g Powdered sugar, 300 g unpeeled, ground Almonds, 1Teaspoon ground Cinnamon, Powdered sugar for the Countertop you work on, 40g Cherry-marmelade

How-to:

Mix 2 Eggwhites and a pinch of Salt until they are stiff, Add 200g of Powdered Sugar real slowly, together with the Almonds and the Cinnamon. Wrap the dough in ClearWrap and put in fridge or outside if its cold enough, for 30minutes. Then you take 2 pieces of big ziploc bags, and roll it with a rolling pin, in between the two ziploc bags real thin (the dough is crazy sticky and would stick to the countertop without the bags). Use a star-shaped cookie-cutter and cut around 110 stars and put them on a cookie sheet with baking parchment. Preheat oven to 150C.

Mix the reminding eggwhite and powdered sugar and spread it evenly over HALF of the stars. Bake ALL stars for 15minutes, and let them cool off.

Spread the cherry marmelade over the stars WITHOUT the eggwhite on top, and put one of the stars WITH the eggwhite stuff on TOP of the cherry-stuff.

Ginger stars:

(I have no picture, but they look similar to the Cinnamon ones, but they have little pieces of candied Ginger on each tip of the star)

Ingredients: 325g Flour, 125g Sugar, 1 pinch Salt, 150g Butter, 1/2 package of Lemonpeel-flavor (or the zest of half a Lemon), 1 Egg, 50g candied GInger,

Filling: 75g candied Ginger, 75g Marzipan, 30gGingermarmelade (or Orange).

Decoration: 60g candied ginger, 100g Powdered sugar, 1-2 Tablespoons Limejuice

How to: Mix Flour, Sugar, Salt and Butter, Lemonzest and Egg and very very finely chopped (food processor would be handy) ginger in a bowl, until you have a very smooth dough. Cover and put in fridge for 2hours.

For the filling: Put the ginger in the food processor, mix chopped ginger, marcipan and the marmelade.

Roll the dough with a rolling pin very thinly to around 3mm, and cut stars with a cookie cutter. Put the stars on a cookie sheet and bake them at 175C for around 10 minutes. Let them cool off and spread the GInger-marzipan-stuff on half of them, and put another, plain on, on top of it.

For the decoration, cut the ginger in very small, thin pieces. Mix Powdered sugar and Limejuice to a thick sirupy-thing. Spread over cookies, and decorate with the ginger pieces.

I can post more recipes some time late next week if you want. Unfortunately I will be offline for the next days, my niece is in the hospital (she's 14 months and has a serious heart problem and lung problems and a bronchitis to top it off) and my sister just called to ask if I could please help her.

I hope the cookies turn out great!!!

@stp: my best friend will be here any second, but I'll post a few recipes tonite, promise

it was VERY handy for me.

my mum told me how happy she was that I am in germany, because that way I can do all the cooking, christmas baking and cleaning.

that said, I'll spend the rest of the day in the kitchen, baking christmas cookies. my mum only wants 9 different kinds of cookies.

when I'm done I'll do a first round of cleaning.

you guys probably won't hear from me again until january. (I might be able to escape my kitchen prison, but I'm not sure).

I know its a bit early now, but we were planning for my fiance to have his POE at JFK although I am in Chicago, and the only reason, of course, the EAD stamp. But we will be filing for his AOS in Chicago since we will be living there (I am in Chicago now).

1.) I wanted to know what happens to the "brown envelope" after he hands it over to immigration at POE?

2.) Will it matter that we will be living in Chicago but he had POE at JFK?

Thanks!

-MARM

1. The envelope will be opened by the regular immigration dude, and then he'll send you to the dark, dirty unfriendly backoffice. you will not see that envelope (or to be precise the content) again until your AOS interview.

2. it doesn't matter at all where you live

a note on the side: have your fiance ASK for the stamp. they gave it to me after I asked for it. its a red, smudgy small stamp.

good luck!

uh! I just realized HOW MUCH I MISSED CIVILIZED EUROPE!!! a place where you can WALK to places without people donating money to you because they think that you are the poorest of the poorest because you walk and don't drive. A place with public transportation, railroads und things.

I HATE being looked at in that sorry-way for walking to the grocery store, and people asking me if I was homeless, just because I walk to places.

good luck for the AOS interview!!

I made it safely, and I'm utterly confused about where I belong, where is my home??????????

lots of chocolatey hugs and KISSES

@aly: christmas card to the arizona address, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! we are putting all our cards on our fridge, and I LOVE IT!!!

KGSODIE: As you wish..........................................

ahh, so great that you could bring your little man home!!!!you'll be tired for a couple of years now SOOOO happy for you guys!!!!!!

I finished packing and will finish a job application before I go to bed.

I tried to pack only little stuff, but I went WAYYYYY overboard...... like usual...........

About the signatures....i was wondering about shortening mine to:

K1 .....approved

AOS....approved

GC ....received

Any questions: Sure, but only if you really want advise.

STP, all the mods here will ban you and will launch warnings that it is very inconsiderate to blind people with flashing tickers and pictures :)

i just booked the train ticket to visit Eric in Cologne on thursday. AND I GOT A DEAL!!!!!!!

STP, all the mods here will ban you and will launch warnings that it is very inconsiderate to blind people with flashing tickers and pictures :)

I don't think 2.5 hours in between flights is enough time because in many cases processing can take up to 2-3 hours. Again, it all depends on the day and time you get there and how many international flights land at the same time you arrive. So it's best to allow more time, just in case.

Diana

well - it took me 1h to get to the IO, just because I was in the back of the plane and 3 international flights arrived at once. from there on it was a piece of cake and I had WAY to much time, but you never know.

if the immigration officer has a bad day, or if one of them is sick, it might take FOREVER. other than that they are really rude in NY.

I have to run a bazillion of errands and stuff, so I should get off the couch....

That's a lot of errands! I've only got about five hundred million, but I'm pretty sure I can do all of them on while still on the couch.

pharmacy

post office

trader joes

drop off key at friends house

and pack. oh, and apply for jobs, but that I can do on the couch.

See?! Told ya we should have come to visit!! Then there would be no way that Jeremy could work

I know - we should move closer to each other!!!!

I have to run a bazillion of errands and stuff, so I should get off the couch....

I AM BORED

sooooo bored......

guess I'll do some laundry and start packing.

Aww Agnes - you'll be with him again soon It's only a few days and then you will be with him and everyone else you love - I am sooo envious

Seriously though... if you're not busy maybe I'll have a word with Jeremy about taking a trip out to see you... I don't know what our plans are or our finances like but it's a thought As long as I can get to a post office though - I realllly need to get these things sent to my family for Christmas...

ah, aly, you're the sweetest! I will already leave on tuesday, so its just a few more days.

and I'll be very very busy because I need to run a bazillion errands. but things just feel so wrong without eric here.

well - i guess all in all i am very lucky to be so much in love!!!

how was your weekend btw? did jeremy have to work?

According to the definition of IMB, one must pay for the services.

We have filed I-129F for K-1 visa.

But my fiance and I did NOT pay for any services, we met through an online website chat-room, and it was culturally associated, not religiously associated, and we DID NOT pay for any service whatsoever, no membership fees, nothing at all.

But to my horror, now when I go back and review the forms, I see that my attorney has check marked the box for "yes" where it asks about meeting through an IMB on form I-129F.

Will this have a big affect on my case?

Will my fiance be put on AP/AR when the case gets to NVC? I read somewhere on this site that those that checked "yes" for IMB usually have a big chance of the beneficiary being put on AP/AR at the NVC stage.

I don't know what to do, maybe I am stressing for no reason?

Someone with knowledge about this please let me know, I need some direction!

fire your lawyer and call USCIS.

sorry that this happened to you.

just one more story where the lawyer screwed it up.

I never realized how much I love my husband and much brighter each day is because of him. He is the most fabulous husband ever. So understanding, so encouraging. He's the best thing in my life.

And now he's on an airplane above the ocean, on his way to germany. and I'm stuck here until tuesday. And I wish so much I could hug him and show him how special he is to me *sigh*

If you are successful in getting the K1 you might want to get The Disney Channel so she can watch Hannah Montana while you are at work.

I guess either way it will be some big adjustment.

And if the visa is granted (which, lets be true, will be the case, even though it might take some waivers and stuff) there will be lots of raised eyebrows from many people here in the US.

Prejudice is a human thing, and if I would see a 45-50 year old American with a 18 year old Phillipina - I would rise my eyebrows.

It's nearly 30 years difference. thats quite a bit. And it does rise red flags because she was a minor. But that's not of my business.

best of luck - i hope you will both find what you BOTH are looking for.

Only 25lbs...

I am heavier than I have ever been and can't fit into any of the clothes I brought - I had to buy trousers especially for our Colorado trip so now I can wear stuff... Other than that I just lived in sun dresses that had elastic on them so I didn't notice...

exactly what i am talking about..... my old winter clothes don't fit anymore....

eric is leaving tomorrow morning and still hasn't packed his stuff, or even put his clothes into the laundry. it will be LONG night.

(his fleight leaves at 6am).

I'll leave on tuesday.

Jobhunt here is kinda pointless at the moment because there aren't even jobpostings that fit.

anyway.

susie, glad that you guys had a great thanksgiving! what was adrianos favorite part of the thanksgiving foood?

i talked to a bunch of foreigners, and all liked the stuffing best. funny!

uh, don't talk about weight....i thought I had 3 more weeks to shed some weight, but now that I will leave next week......

i will come home as a fat unemployed wife. and everybody will ask if I was pregnant. sweet

ah, aly, I want to see a picture of the tree!!!!!!