What's for Dinner

The Bavarian Gastronomic Express blew through my kitchen last night; actually, I had planned this "all day" eating frenzy about a week ago and after shopping, prepping, and waiting to taste authentic German food in my own kitchen, my alarm at 6 am yesterday morning didn't make me jump out of bed like Julia Childs-have you seen the movie, Julie & Julia, yet? Oh, please do; we pulled it up through Netflix to watch here at home, and I really liked it. No, no food blogging for me; just the occasional dinner entry and if I do a creative project with Tristan's learning that pertains to food. Three blog pages are enough for me, really.

The Cooking of Germany, Nika Standen Hazelton & the editors of Time Life Books. Good book, and I've delved into some of the other "Foods of the World" cookbooks for exploring recipes and twitching in the afterglow if the meal was a hit-you know, the well planned meals that make you as tired as post turkey dinners on a Sunday with a ton of relatives, or the holiday meals that bring old recipes and dysfunctional families together? No relatives this time, just three adults and one toddler who can put the food away like a beaver building a dam. Yes, my boy can eat, of which I'm very happy for. On to the "five meal" Sunday....

Breakfast #1 (yes, I said it) 7 am

-Mixed Berry Muffins

-Apple Raisin Cinnamon Muffins

-Coffee

Breakfast #2 9 am

-Sausages with bread & gravy

-Coffee

Midday Meal 2 pm

-Braised Stuffed Beef Rolls

-Hot Potato Salad w/ Bacon

-Red Cabbage w/ Apples

Afternoon Break 4 pm

-Sugar-crumb Cake

-Tea

Dinner 7 pm

-Farina Dumplings

-Steamed Bratwurst in Sour Cream Sauce

Mind you, I'm only listing the meals throughout the day; skimming over the recipes, it would take me a couple of hours to write out the measurements and instructions to put together the recipes. And after all the eating that went on here yesterday, its a wonder any of us crawled out of bed this morning to function for the day. Just reading about eating five times a day was like a small challenge but when it came to the actual event, wow. Eating I've got down, and the cooking and prepping just goes with the territory. What tired me out was the feeling of constantly being in the kitchen to turn another burner on, empty another pot, cut this up, cook another half pound of bacon...yes, lots of yummy artery clogging pig protein. I remember eating a lot of potatoes when I was growing up, especially whenever we went to visit my mother parents and have dinner with them. Believe it or not, I always thought that only poor people ate tons of potatoes, pork, and greens from the local meadows. Maybe we didn't always have money for things that entice children because of what someone else may have but poor we were not. Rich in heritage, even if we didn't know, much less talk about it. Amazing what memories food will push to the surface while you're prepping, cooking, eating, and recovering....

I would say the best part of this cooking/eating experience was that it made me realize that I know how to cook most of this without the book but its always good to reference just to make sure you didn't forget something or change it in any way that you can't identify it later on when you attempt to replicate the recipes. I know what I'm putting in for a request for a Christmas gift this year-cookbooks. Definitely have to have German cookbook (no, believe it I don't have one!) and not sure what other literary collections of edibles I would be interested in but hey, time will come to figure that out at another time. I love to cook around the world, so its not like I don't have a book I don't use. ~Mom

God

-"God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things." ~Pablo Picasso