Help needed with foodstuff.
Nov 28th, 2006 by B.
Ok, even though I don’t enjoy cooking… and even though I rejoiced at not having to make thanksgiving dinner, I go all out for christmas. I figure once a year I can morph into julia childs, and what better time to do it than christmas?
Anyway, I knew this year recreating our standard fare would prove challenging, so I’m starting early trying to track everything down. I’ve managed to find the majority of it, but I’m still missing a few things…
~ Libby’s canned pumpkin (or a reasonable facsimile thereof)
~ Canned cream of chicken soup
~ Cheez Whiz (gross, I know, but I need it or something resembing it)
~ Packages of dry yeast for baking
~ Brown sugar (the brown sugar I find here is nothing like what I need)
~ Cool whip/Dream whip or something similar
If anyone knows where I can track these things down locally, or even semi-locally, I’d really appreciate the tip. I realize the times, they are a-changin… and some of the stuff we’re used to having I’ll have to replace, but I’m not giving up yet.
In other news, we figured out last week that @ 11:00 (23:00) each night on cnbc we can watch Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien back to back. The lag is only 2 or 3 days behind the original american airing, which is very cool. I’ve never been a Leno fan (I’m a Letterman gal) but I love Conan, so it’s a real treat.
ha! I happened to find cans of canned pumpkin in my pantry recently… however they’re all from america, so i have no idea where you can get it here.
As for dried yeast, that one is easy: at your local grocery store. You want packets of “Hefe.” Dr. Oetker’s is green–they come three or four to a small clear plastic wrapping.
I’ve bought Cream of Mushroom soup–so I imagine Creamed Chicken Soup should be accessible. The Cream of Mushroom soup was found at Edeka.
Adam- Thanks for the info on yeast packets. I figured they were around… I just didn’t know the name/what to look for. You’d think they would have cream of chicken if they’ve got cream of mushroom, but they don’t. Or at least I’ve yet to find it.
Where’s good old campbell’s soup when you need it?
I will have to check Edeka by me for the cream mushroom soup!
I would suggest that you check the more expensive grocery stores - the Feinkostläden in the basements of Galleria Kaufhof and Karstadt. There are differences in the selection from city to city. My local Karstadt has canned pumpkin mix, but not canned pumpkin. They have nacho cheese sauce, but I don´t think they have cheese wiz. (I think someone at jewelled concrete wrote the other day that pumpkin is available in Basel - but I think that´s even further for you than for me!) There is also an online shop where one can buy it, but it was more than 5 eur a can the last time I looked.
http://www.english-shop.net/index.htm
Here´s an address I found, but this shop does not appear to have pumkin.
There is, of course, the painful - make your own suggestion- and it is definitely doable, but a huge amount of effort.
Have any military contacts in Germany? (MIne don´t come til next year.)
I have used the brown sugar here (braun not row) for baking and although it isn`t moist like the sugar from home, everything has come out ok. (Edeka)
There are also related topics in the archives of the german-way yahoo group.
Good luck!
As someone said, your best bet for American-type stuff would be an “international” supermarket like the one in Kaufhof if you have one near you.
canned pumpkin: never seen it here, I just cut up a pumkin, remove innards, steam or boil the rest, take off skin and puree. It’s not that much work, needs to be drained well, though, and spices added.
cream of chicken: The Erasco brand is actually Campbell’s but it seems to be difficult to find a good selection. I’m not sure if I’ve seen chicken or not. There are recipes on the net for making your own condensed soup mix with powdered milk etc.
Cheez Whiz - Processed cheese is called “Schmelzkäse” here and I think Kraft makes something called Milkana in a couple of different flavours but it woh’t taste like cheddar.
brown sugar: I found nice soft brown sugar at Kaufhof. Also maybe try a health food store - “Reformhaus”.
Cool Whip: If real whipped cream isn’t your bag, there’s some semi-vegetarian lower fat stuff from Rama (plastic bottle in the dairy section, purple, I believe) that you can whip up, but I haven’t seen any ready-made topping or topping mixes here.
Not much help, eh? It can be so frustrating- sometimes you just have to improvise, or abandon certain recipes all together and come up with something new.