Here Comes the Sun - Team Theme Challenge Winners

Here comes the sun, little darlings, and it's here to stay. In some parts of the Northern hemisphere and for a few months, at least! The Etsy Expats have been even more industrious than usual this time, as for the first time the number of entries to the challenge surpassed the number of available spots in the treasury. And as if that weren't a felicitous development in itself, we get to crown as many as three winners this time!

The colors of the Sun seduced the voters in Grain's graphic design banner, Artophile's door topper and fabriquefantastique's summer scarf.

Easter Is from the East

As people around the world prepare for the most important Christian holiday in the year, the Easter bunny dragged in two winners from the Etsy Expats team theme challenge EASTER IS FROM THE EAST.

Two original items collected most votes: SewFineFashion's Tassel Bowl and Coco the Lop Eared Bunny by PeonyForest

Happy Easter to all and may your egg baskets be bountiful always!

Etsy Expats Become Official

Etsy has finally released it's revamped site for Etsy teams. You can now register to become an official member of the Etsy Expats, by clicking on the link and asking to join.

What's the oddest place you've sold your products?

In the forums at the end of last week, Nique was telling us about a bracelet she finished at the hairdresser - she ended up trading it for part payment on a cut and colour!

Ana added that she had once finished one cotton necklace in a plane and ended up selling a few things to the flight attendants and getting a custom order to fix a necklace too - which inspired us to ask:

"What's the oddest place you've sold your products?"

Answers on a postcard, or in the comments, please! ;-)

Expat Recipes: Maultaschen

by waterlilyjewels

Maultaschen are a Swabian (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) specialty food, consisting of an outer layer of pasta dough with a filling traditionally made of minced meat, smoked meat, spinach, bread crumbs and onions and flavored with various herbs and spices (e.g. parsley and nutmeg). Similar in appearance to Italian ravioli, Maultaschen are usually larger, however, each Maultasche being about 8-12 cm (3-5 inches) across.

Maultaschen are traditionally eaten either geröstet (cut into slices and fried in a pan with onions and scrambled eggs) or in der Brühe (simmered in vegetable broth), or geschmälzt (dressed with butter and onions), usually with potato salad.

Pasta Dough:
3 eggs
pinch of salt
for each egg, half an eggshell of water
360-400g wheat flour (1½ to 1¾ cups)
Mix eggs with salt and water. Sift flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle. Break the eggs into it and blend all the ingredients together. Take out of the bowl and then knead the dough on a board until air pockets can be seen when the dough is cut. You can knead by hand or with a mixer.

Depending on the flour, if the dough is too thick add a little water or an egg white. The dough shouldn't be too soft. Form a ball and place on a board. Cover with a cloth and leave to rest. Now you can prepare the filling.

400g fresh spinach (1¾ cups)
salted water
20g diced bacon (about 3 strips)
20g butter (4 tsp)
1 small onion, finely chopped
3-4 stale rolls, crusts removed
150g ham or cold meat, diced (5 oz)
250g ground meat (pork and/or beef) (9 oz)
2-3 eggs
a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg
boiling saltwater or meat broth

Clean the spinach well, wash and blanch it briefly in boiling saltwater. Rinse with cold water, let it drain and chop coarsley. Braise the bacon in butter for a couple of minutes, add the chopped onion and spinach and braise for a couple more minutes. Soak the stale rolls in water until soft. Squeeze out the excess water and chop the rolls into pieces.

In a large bowl mix the above prepared ingredients with ham and ground meat. Add the eggs and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

On a floured surface roll out the noodle dough into rectangular sheets (about twice as wide as you want your Maultaschen to be). Use a tablespoon of filling at equally spaced 3 inch intervals all down the middle of one side of the sheet of dough. Fold the plain half of the sheet of dough over to cover the filling and press firmly on the spaces around the pockets of filling. Use a pastry wheel or cookie cutter to cut into 3 inch squares.

Put them into boiling saltwater or meat broth and let simmer (not boil) for 10-15 minutes depending on the size.

You can serve these hot in a bowl with a little of the cooking broth with chopped parsley, or topped with melted butter and sauteed onions. My favorite way to eat them is geröstet... cool the maultaschen, then slice into strips about 2 cm (3/4 inches) wide. Slice two small onions into rings and quarter rings, then melt butter in a pan and saute onions until soft. Add a little more butter and place maultaschen slice into pan with onions. Sautee until heated through, then add 1 beaten egg mixed with milk to the pan (I like to season my egg with onion powder, salt, pepper, and a small spoonful of Thai red curry paste). Stir mixture until egg is cooked but still soft, about 1.5 to 2 minutes. Serve!

My Most Surreal Moment

by JustOneLook

[Note: We've had a few minor technical problems, so please forgive the late publication of this lovely and moving blog entry from Linda.]

'll try to keep this lighthearted. I thought this would be a good date to write this... September 5th., to share with my new friends (tribe that is)!

I have lived away from England for many years and 'adjusted' to not being around for special events; weddings, births, birthdays, etc., although I have managed to fly 'home' for both my nieces' weddings but when my elderly mother was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery , it was really hard.

Should I go now?-will she be too sedated to know I'm there, should I wait until she's home from the hospital ? or will she think I don't want to be there, will she make it through?....dilemma, dilemma! Finally I went over when she came out, to help my sister.

The next few years were tough, with a young family to care for in America and my mother in and out of hospital in England as though she was checking into a hotel for the weekend! She insisted on living on her own and when she didn't feel well she'd call the doctor and she'd be right back in the hospital. I never knew if it was serious or not.

The last time she was hospitalized I was booked to fly over for my niece's wedding and Mum was unable to attend...she was in fact far worse than I had realized. Leaving her in a hospital bed to come back to my husband and children was by far the hardest thing I have ever done and it tore me apart. I knew it was the last time I would see her.

Weeks passed and the expected news came late one night on September 5th. My sister called to say that Mum had 'checked out of the hospital' for good this time. (Not being flippant,...just trying to keep this lighthearted)!

I immediately said 'Oh no it's .........(my niece's) birthday' and my sister said 'No it's not it's .......(my nephew's) birthday'. (They have back to back birthdays 5th & 6th). We had this back and forth conversation for a minute or so then I realized!! While I was standing in my kitchen in South Florida on 5th September, my sister was calling me from England and telling me our mum had died on 6th September...the next day for me!! THE most surreal feeling ever. I still get goosebumps when I think of it. Some people don't 'get' it. I think you ladies will.

It's been 10years since my mother passed away and I will buy some chrysanthemums (for my mum) haha as I usually do and I will try to keep them alive, as I usually don't! Perhaps they are annuals?!

Thanks for being here to listen,

Linda

Etsy Expats badge

The lovely and talented Erica from Bliss Graphics, who designed our banner, has very kindly made us a team badge that members can use on their blogs, websites, or anywhere else they feel like. You should be able to save it by right clicking on the picture below:

Any problems, just give us a shout by emailing us at etsyexpats@gmail.com.

Hello world!

This is the fledgling blog for the new Etsy Expats team. The team is made up of expat artists and vendors who sell their work on Etsy. Based around the world, we'll use this blog to talk about us, our work, the trials and tribulations of expat life, and the entertaining and exciting things we've discovered in our new lives in our adopted countries. Those of us planning a move can get help and advice, and those of us returning to our native countries can find a sympathetic ear for all those "When I was in..." stories that, unaccountably, no one 'back home' seems deeply interested in.

If you're interested in contributing to this blog, please don't hesitate to email us at etsyexpats [at] gmail [dot] com and we can talk about your article!