Author: Jacob Thomas

Cherry Jam Margarita

Published by

It’s the weekend!  The weather here in Stuttgart has had its moments.  a few moments of sun, followed by it going away for a while, then you get some rain mixed in there. With the weather being nice at points, here Stuttgart, that is anything over 72 °f (22 °c), I start going out for more walks in my neighborhood, as well as to the farmers market.  Not to mention you see really nice seasonal fruits and vegetables come about.  When I start seeing strawberries, blueberries, cherries, etc.  I can’t help but just want to make a nice cocktail.  Normally, if you follow my instagram, you know I love a Friday cocktail.  I come home after work, hit my liquor cabinet and decide what I’m in the mood for.  My Friday rule is pretty clear, nothing too simple, because I deserve something tasty as a reward for finishing a week of work. This time I was in the mood for a margarita.  I enjoy the taste of a margarita, if you can find a nice tequila …

Tasty Carrot and Banana Bars

Published by

It’s been an interesting time with February rolling in, here in Stuttgart, the weather always leaves you wondering what will come next.  For instance, take last Sunday, I was sitting here in my living room, look outside and there are nice fat snowflakes.  I should probably mention a few days before if I wanted, a nice light jacket could’ve been worn.  That’s just the weather you come to expect here.  Can’t say I’ll ever get used to it, but it’s not something that going to stop me from really being active.  I mean it’s just a little random weather, right? Other than the random flurries along with the seesaw of temperatures, an excellent bright side is the fact it’s staying brighter a little while longer.  Everyone knows what that means?  Cold temperatures are leaving, and longer days are on the horizon.  However, we still have some colder days coming, which means you will probably want something that’s going to warm you up.  Carrot and banana bars anyone? These bars have a lot going for them. …

Gooey Bacon Brownies Revisited

Published by

  Several years ago I shared a recipe for gooey bacon brownies.  I know the thought of bacon in something that is sweet is still odd to a lot of you.  It was that way to me too, but I thought why not.  The funny thing is that when I made these, then had friends try them, let me tell you something.  To this day, people who have either heard about them or tried them, the first question is, “Do you have any of those bacon brownies?” There was a time when I made these things a lot.  I really enjoyed trying out different ways of layering them, presenting them.  Not to mention the fact of taking them to different parties is always fun for me to do. When I put this up this recipe in July of 2012, it was inspired thanks to an ebook called 21 Bacon Desserts Recipes That You’ll Wish You Would Have.  Going back and looking to see if the author did anything or just to see what was happing with the …

The return, this time hopefully for good

Published by

  It has been over 2 years, 2 months, and 27 days, if anyone was counting, since I’ve graced my own my page with new written content.  I’m always putting material up via twitter (@jacobkthomas) and on Instagram (@jacobkt225), however actually putting words to a page, hadn’t really happened.  The question of why/how this happened is first question.  That answer is kind of easy to answer, that little thing called life.  Also, I didn’t have anything to live up to my mission statement.  I’m supposed to be providing things about my travels, my food, and my life in Germany.  I am still traveling from time to time.  I’m still eating and making excellent food, look at my Instagram, seriously, I’m not ashamed of the food.  Lastly, I’m still living here in Deutschland.  I guess when it all came down to it, providing new content that I thought people would like to read wasn’t something I felt up to doing. However, after over 2 years of nothing, I feel like now I’m able to finally put something …

The times you know you should be doing something else

Published by

I’m always surprised at the times I tell myself, “You know you should probably get back to writing.”  I then think I should be working on getting something up, I have been to Greece, Spain, back to Belgium, and back to Berlin. I however hadn’t been able to get myself into doing the actual task.  I mean the reason is pretty much I’m a perfectionist.  I’m far from being perfect, for me to go into the reason why would take longer than I really want to get into.  In any case, I’m actually writing something.  I’m working on a true system, so I can do this a whole lot more.  I like writing though actually doing it is the real problem. The first thing to get to is where have I been?  For those of you that haven’t paid attention to the calendar, it is October, which means, it is Oktoberfest time. Unlike last year, when the government was shutdown and I decided to spend a Friday in Munich for Oktoberfest, I’ve only actually been …

The road to a new life alone in Germany

Published by

In one of my last post, I wrote how I had been away from the blog for a little while.  I also thought I would get myself back in the swing of things.  I however forgot the fact oh I had a lot of things to take care of with my move to downtown Stuttgart.  This meant we had to say goodbye to the Leonberg house, which is above.  Not to mention slowly getting myself into the proper mindset of starting a new life.  The life of actually for the first time in about five years of living on my own.  In some ways the time had some.  However I wish it hadn’t had to come in such a surprising way. As I mentioned before, I always thought I would have another year with my parents but alas, that wasn’t the case.  My mom, stepdad and Jada flew out on Sunday, the 7th of July.  To say that I was sad, would be a complete understatement.  The bond between my mom and I is a …

Wine, Esslingen, some amazing views, oh and good friends to

Published by

Do you like wine?  Do you like seeing where the wine comes from?  Would you like to walk through hills that have wine carts setup, which let you try said wine, oh and see some amazing views?  If you answered yes to these very important questions, then the Esslingen Wine Walk is for you. A few weeks ago it was that lovely time again when a bunch of my friends and I trek our way to Esslingen on a Sunday afternoon, and take part in the Weinwandertag Esslingen or in english the Esslingen Wine Walk.  Esslingen is a lovely city right outside of Stuttgart.  People love coming here because its just a nice place.  It has a great river, where you can find a cafe and sit outside and just enjoy yourself.  This is truly my favorite event in the early part of the year.  Why?  Mainly because it lets you walk through the wine vineyards in Esslingen, take some really awesome pictures, and just enjoy being outside.  Not to mention that its pretty much …

The traveler returns

Published by

So its been 106 days, or 15 weeks and 1 day, or well, I was going to do the hours and minutes thing, but you all get the point.  Its been a minute since I last put something up.  I actually have a few drafts that I started during that time.  Alas, they never made it up, so the simple question is, what happened?  Well, I got a little sister.  Jada Jenae Johnson was born in April.  I’ve been an only child for 30 years, my mom and stepdad were able to do this amazing thing and I’m pretty happy with it.  It is really funny to be a big brother now.  Jada is so cute and its interesting to hold a baby. My other interesting change was the fact while my mom was pregnant, her and my stepdad told me they were going back to the states for his job.  What did that mean for me?  Well, I’m staying in Germany for the near future.  Along with that news from my parents, I also …

Stuttgart a pretty solid view

Published by

Living in Germany you can see some pretty cool things.  Today the rage amongst several of my friends was this solid time lapsed video called Stuttgart in Motion by  Sebastian Weitbrecht.  Mr. Weitbrecht put together this video that consist of over 18,000 still photos.  This took him over a year to do this project.  I have to say in watching this allowed me to see things which I see all the time, along with new things I hadn’t really paid attention to before. Sit back and watch this 3 minute video.  You won’t be sorry. Stuttgart in Motion from Sebastian Weitbrecht.

This is how to celebrate New Years in Germany

Published by

Happy 2013 everyone!  I spent my new years eve with friends and got to see an excellent fireworks show at a local pub called the Maulwurf in Stuttgart.  Every year they do a pretty awesome show.  Here in Germany fireworks are legal to purchase and use during new years.  I’ve attached the video I took during the show.  It is a little long, but totally worth the time to see the craziness that ensued. I hope everyone has a great start to the new year.  I know I can’t wait to see and do so much more in my career, personal, and travel life.  Happy New Year!!