A Few Things That I Miss…Quite A Few Things!

I have been so lucky and blessed to have been exposed to  whole new lines of foods and seasonings and products here in Germany that I haven’t spent much time thinking about the common everyday things that I miss. Food items that I took for granted because every time I opened a cupboard door, there they were. Nope. Haven’t missed them too much. That is….until now. Now that we are planning our permanent return to the good ol’ US of A, I have started to mentally put together a list of items that we’ll need to stock our pantry and refrigerator. And OH WOW, that list is getting bigger by the minute! I told Sparky what I was going to write about and first thing out of his mouth was “Nestle Chocolate Chips!” There are no chocolate chips in Germany. Nope, not even one.

Here’s our ever growing list of foods and food items we miss!

McCormick’s Pure Vanilla extract – Flavorings here are sold in tiny 1 ml size tubes and all you can get is Vanilla, Zitrone, Rum and Almond.

Flavored Coffee creamers  -Just not used in Germany.

Sweetened Condensed milk – Again, just not used here.

Baking Soda!- Not used in German baking

Water chestnuts -I put them in Fried Rice and Stir Fries and you don’t see them here.

Graham Crackers – Can’t make a cheesecake without them. Dan brought this box back from the USA.

Odom’s Tennessee Pride Pork Sausage-I make my own breakfast sausage now but I will be buying a roll of this one!

Italian  – sausage See above comments. Not sold in Germany.

Domino’s Brown Sugar – Yep, I will continue to make my own after I go through a bag of Domino’s!

American Sandwich Breads!- Any type or variety. German brot is great until you want a grilled tuna and cheese.

Bush’s Baked beans – They sell Heinz English style baked beans that are no where near the same.

Campbell’s Tomato Soup!-There is one store that sells it here at $4.79 a can.

Lipton Dry Onion Soup- Once in a while you just have to have a Pot Roast with it.

Beef Chuck Roast – Nope. That is not a cut of meat found here. No Pot Roasts for us.

A1 Steak Sauce – I like mixing into hamburgers for grillin’

Worcestershire Sauce – Sold here in tiny bottles at an exorbitant price! 125 ml bottle.

Chicken Breast Quarters-Whole chickens. Boneless breasts. Legs and thighs are all readily available but no breast quarters. What do they do with them??

Pecans -No Pecan Pies for us.

Canned Pumpkin – Just not something Germany cooks with.

Miracle Whip – Oh yes, we can buy it all over the place here….in Pint sized bottles. I buy 3 at a time.

Baker’s Coconut –  Dessicated  coconut is the product sold here. Completely dried out like grains of sand.

Canned Crabmeat and canned shrimp – Just not used here. I can buy 20 different kinds of Sardines and some tunafish but that’s it.

Baking Potatoes – I’d give my right arm ( well, not really) for an Idaho Russet! Germany produces excellent potatoes but not a baker in sight!

Barilla Pasta – Actually I don’t miss Barilla Pasta because thankfully it is sold everywhere here! It is the Pasta of choice in Germany and the Giebel household. I always use Barilla brand as I find it cooks consistently well. Has great “bite” and uniform flavor. I was so happy to find it in every grocery store in Germany! It really doesn’t take much to make me happy!

But, having made this list, I have to tell you that the list of German foods that we are going to miss when returning to the USA is just as long!

And that’s life. My advice to myself is to enjoy whatever is on hand and savor the memories when it is gone.

Thanks for stopping by today. Journey on!

Karen, TJG