Applesauce is bubbling on the stove, Meredith is sleeping on the living room floor, the other three are playing and fighting over legos, and me, well I'm going to blog.=)
We've just finished our eighth week of school. I can hardly believe it. And we've just finished our fourth week studying Germany. We spent the first week studying the highlights-flag, culture, major cities, and such. The boys learned how to count to 20 in German from their good friend Benny-of German descent. They made up interview questions for Benny's dad, Gerhard-a home grown German. Then we dug into the history. It is rather complicated, but if you look at the changing maps of Germany, you get the general idea.
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| The salad. I don't know how authentic it is, but it looked nice. |
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| spaetzle |
Yesterday we indulged in German food. This would be the crowning moment, the culmination, the coup de grace. Germans are known for their breads, beer, salads, and brats. To quote
Rogers and Hammerstein, we had "schnitzel with noodles..." I have brats and a gallon of sauerkraut for tomorrow. Our German friends filled us in on some traditional German dishes, then I looked up recipes on the internet. I found Jaegerschnitzel-breaded, fried pork cutlets served with a white wine, onion, mushroom cream sauce. Amazing. I was going to be uber industrious and make spaetzle but when you can buy imported spaetzle at Aldi, why bother? I did toast my own bread crumbs to toss with them. It was a ton of work.=) I also made a German salad. Christina told me that the Germans don't mix up their salads like we do-they pile the vegetables in their own groups. Artfully. She gave me an herb mix from Germany, and I added some of it to a balsamic olive oil dressing that we drizzled on top. Pretty good. The dinner was topped off with German Chocolate Cake. I made a mistake on the frosting, so it wasn't exactly what I intended. I was going to do the coconut pecan frosting on the top and between layers, and then put chocolate buttercream on the sides, but I ended up with way too much of the coconut stuff, so no buttercream. It was not my favorite. I don't even know if it is authentic. But at least it calls for
German chocolate. Everyone was pleased with the overall results. I'd have to say it was more popular with the kids than the Egyptian food was. And it really fills you up. All that breading, and bread crumbs and noodles, and rolls. Wow. I was eating it and thinking, "good running food."
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| Jaegerschnitzel |
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| "schnitzel WITH noodles" |
Anyway, as we finish up this foray into all things German, I am reminded of an
I Love Lucy episode. Typical storyline...Ethel wants Ricky to sing for her lady's club benefit. Lucy will only let him if they can do a duet. Everyone thinks that will be a disaster, but Ricky agrees (when his arm is dutifully twisted by Lucy) and picks out a song,
Auf Wiedersehen. Ricky and Lucy begin rehearsing together with Ricky telling Lucy that she only sings the words on her sheet music-which incidentally reaches to the floor. Ricky starts playing the piano and singing his part, with Lucy chiming in "auf" on a somewhat regular basis. That is the some total of her part. She gets perturbed and tells Ricky that she sounds like a barking dog. It is hilarious. Watch it. German culture with a Cuban twist, you know?
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| German Chocolate Cake |
So in the words of Ricky and Lucy, "Auf"(Lucy)"Wiedersehen"(Ricky).
