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One of the best ways to put your dollars to use is, of course, to shop locally and to buy from independent retailers. So if you want to shop direct or shop small for German products, one of the best ways to spend those dollars effectively is to shop direct.

You don't even have to search for a lot of things now, either, as I've created a collection of German, Swiss and Austrian products and services right here at GermanWithNicole.com. It's all listed on the Produkte page.

Here are a few highlig…

When you want to buy a German, Swiss, or Austrian product online, it can be hard to track down. Do you search for the German term or the English translation?

What if you want to "shop small?" How do you do that without searching through page after page of online search results?

You can now easily find more German, Swiss, and Austrian products and shop small/direct on the Einkaufen page.

For months now I've been searching, gathering, and creating this collection of German, Swiss, and Austrian …

When you grow up in Wisconsin, potato salad is a fairly common salad. But the "German Potato Salad" I had growing up was...not...what I ate in Germany.

I wonder if the recipes that so many of German heritage here in Wisconsin enjoy are from the generations that immigrated to the US?

I ate a lot of Kartoffelsalat in Germany. As in two servings (at least) at any party I went to. Except for one, that one Kartoffelsalat was not good. It was that bad that I remember it 15 years later. As we say her…

Have you ever had a Grillabend (grill evening)? If you haven't, there are two condiments that stand out the most: Soßen und Kräuterbutter. Sauces and herbed butter.

Sauces are fun, like Curryketchup and BBQ sauce.

But Kräuterbutter? Now that speaks to my dairy-consuming, Wisconsin-raised heart.

What is Kräuterbutter?

Kräuterbutter is simply a bunch of butter mixed with several herbs and some salt. It's really easy to make, easy to enjoy, and sehr, sehr lecker on grilled meats and vegetable…

Juhu! Ausgezeichnet! Ich hab's geschafft!

Seven Years in Business!

In any business there are highs and lows. Sometimes they are close together, like heartbeats, and sometimes they are stretched out over a length of time.

There are no highlights without lowlights and I’ve included them both in this list. In seven years a lot happens in any business, so I’ve selected seven of them for you today.

The Highlights and the Lowlights of the First Seven Years of GermanWithNicole.com

#1 Highlight: Th…

What are they, noodles? Dumplings?

It doesn't matter--it's SPÄTZLE!

I don't believe you've really had German food until you've had homemade Spätzle.

Maybe you've tried dried Spätzle noodles? They're ok. You can find them at ALDI several times a year here.

Spätzle at many Germanic restaurants here is usually pre-made and then reheated in a pan. They're ok but usually they dry out quickly and then they're tough to eat.

The best Spätzle are made at home. They take time, it's effort, and if you…

Diese Woche machen Privatkunden eine besondere Aktivität, anstatt den normalen Unterricht zu haben. Sie backen, kochen oder machen ein deutsches Rezept (oder ein österreichisches oder ein schweizerisches Rezept) und schreiben etwas darüber.

Deutsches Essen zu machen ist auch Deutsch lernen. :)

Und Sie dürfen diese Woche mitmachen!

Diese Woche lesen Sie hier drei Rezepte für typische, deutsche Gerichte und es gibt sogar Rezeptkarten, die Sie herunterladen und ausdrucken können. Alles ist auf D…

If you've seen the combinations A1, B2 or C1 on your German books but you don't know or understand what they mean, this post is for you!

There are six total combinations of letters and numbers: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. These are simply guidelines for figuring out where you are in the German learning process.

The name for this straightforward scale is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or the CEFR.

Why the CEFR is so helpful

This scale is so clear, so helpful for Germa…

Ask any new German learner and they will say German has a million parts and a gazillion words and then you can add the words together to makes new words and...

Stop!

There are only six parts to learning German.

No one part is more important than the other, either, as they are all part of the same machine, if you will.

Think of it like a car.

Does a car function well if part of it is missing or broken? Not usually!

A couple of weeks ago my car battery died (I'll spare you the details becaus…

You could be at home, you could be in a park, you could be on your own balcony.

Every place is a good place to learn a bit of German.

Here are three new ways you can learn a bit of German in any of those places.

1. eine Wortsuche

A word search is a good way to engage with German over a bit of time, but it's not so much energy that you can't get started or keep focused.

In fact, that's exactly what one client said about the newest word search activity:

 "The word search was so entertainin…