Die sonne zuruck!

I'm not sure I'm spelling that properly -- I'm understanding a little bit more German every day, but can't spell it or speak it -- but I think I wrote that the sun has returned. In any case, in the long days of cold gloomy rain we've just come through, we learned a few interesting things about Vienna. For instance: you can not buy chocolate chips anywhere, nor the kind of brown sugar you buy in the states, or vanilla that is in liquid form. Can you guess what we were trying to do? Yes, we were trying to bake cookies.

It fascinates me that in the largest, fanciest grocery store here (Interspar), there are whole AISLES of chocolate -- various kinds of milk chocolate, various percentages of cocoa in dark chocolate, chocolate candies, chocolate bunnies (actually there's probably more chocolate available now, just prior to Easter, than at any other time) -- but what I would consider the lowly, the humble, the mundane chocolate chip is nowhere to be found. Vanilla is available as vanilla sugar, in small one tablespoon packets, as is baking powder (also in small packets). But brown sugar is nonexistent, the closest you can come is "braun zucker" which is less processed, granulated sugar which doesn't clump together at all.

We still haven't gotten around to actually making cookies yet, because now the sun is out and we've returned to walking in the Vienna woods. But I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to experiment in the future...