Just like Mom and Oma: Frikadellen

 Today I had time to cook and be domestic!  It isn't often I cook a big meal, but my family is always happy when I do!

On the menu today, Frikadellen and Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes). 

FRIKADELLEN are German meat patties.  There are quite a variety of them - some are all beef like mine; some add ground pork.  I bread mine after dipping the patty in egg white (but you don't have to) and fry them in margarine (like my Oma did).  

They are almost like mini meat loaves.  I like mine with ketchup; my husband likes mustard on his, and my son wants gravy!  Frikadellen pair well with potatoes (I prefer fried because that's what my family did.).  

Bratkartofflen

Here is my recipe for Frikadellen (how I learned from my Oma and mom) - approximate measurements because I just eye ball it:

Ground beef, about 1 1/2 pounds (for 5-6 patties)

ADD:

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 - 1/2 cup bread crumbs (or stale bread, hydrate with water & then squeeze out well - crumble into meat)

2 eggs (separate!  Put yolks in the meat and use whites if breading before frying)

a squirt of ketchup to taste

a squirt of mustard to taste

diced onion (about 1/2 an onion) or dried, minced onion 

You have to get your hands in there to mix this!!  Take your rings off and have at it!

Form into patties (hamburger size). 

IF BREADING:  dip each patty in bowl with egg white and then bowl with more bread crumbs. 

I use margarine (but you can do oil or butter to preference)

Heat a frying pan and melt margarine.  Add patties and let bottoms brown (at med-high heat). 

Flip and let other side brown.

Then lower stove temperature and cover the pan.  Let meat cook through for 8-12 minutes (or til middle is not pink).  

I also serve a vegetable to add some nutrition - ha!  My family likes red cabbage or cucumber salad on the side.  Today we actually had a tomato salad (olive oil/red wine vinegar, s&p, and feta cheese).  

As we say in Germany before eating a meal together:  GUTEN APPETIT!  

REVIEW: Easy German Cookbook

This book arrived today!  I immediately perused it - cover to cover.  And I was super impressed. 

The author Karen Lodder signed my copy.   What a sweet touch.  I've been following Karen's blog and social media for a few years now:  German Girl in America.   Her blog is a little like mine - except hers is WAY more professional!  We are both German girls who grew up in between our American home and our German heritage.  

This book is the perfect resource for German-Americans or anyone who wants to cook like "Oma" - but can't sit in her kitchen or shop at her local supermarket.  Karen covers a wide variety of regional dishes and desserts with helpful commentary and suggestions.  

These are a lot of basic and popular recipes ... and it is a great starter to German cuisine.  I'm from Frankfurt, and my Oma was originally from East Prussia.  There are some recipes specific to my own family that I now want to dig up as well!  I have a few German language cookbooks, and I am inspired to see if I too can incorporate some of my German recipes into my American kitchen. 

But for now, I plan on trying some of my favorites in Karen's cookbook, and I think my family will be thrilled!  The recipes look easy to follow; the ingredients, easy to find; and the photos in the book are already making my mouth water!  

Does this book sound like something you'd like to have?  You can order a copy on the German Girl in America website:  order Easy German Cookbook.  At $16.99 + $5 flat rate shipping, it is a great value!  

As Karen wrote to me:  Guten Appetit!  

Contrasts in Care and Caring

I personally dislike stereotypes a lot. For one, I am not your "typical woman":  I am not very emotional, I don't cry easily, I am not naturally nurturing, etc ... But for the sake of this blog post NOT being about me, answer me this:  When I say "typical German", what do you think of?

Loves beer and sausage, cheers loudly for soccer, wears Lederhosen, is punctual and direct, doesn't have much of a sense of humor.  At least those are some stereotypes I've heard and read about ... and many are actually somewhat true!  

I recently had a discussion with my mother about the stoicism of old-fashioned Germans.  My mother was born in Germany shortly after World War II ended.  Her mother was a refugee from East Prussia, and my mother carried that label through her early childhood as her parents were homeless and unemployed when they arrived in the city of Frankfurt, where my Opa's family was from and re-gathered after the war.  

My Oma had fled Prussia from the Russians in 1944; she only had her baby boy and a suitcase as her husband was away due to the war.  Her parents also fled ... but with 8 children, ranging in age from 3 to about 17.  They walked endless miles on foot, crossed frozen creeks and rivers, were hungry and scared.  My great-grandmother spoke some Polish and some Russian and was able to negotiate for food and shelter easier than some Prussians on the flight.  

Funny thing is ... when my grandparents or my mother talked about these times, they never complained.  It was just facts.  They did what they had to do ... to live!  To survive!  

That isn't to say they didn't get discouraged or suffer or feel sad or frustrated.  My great-aunt self-published a book (only for our family) about their flight from Prussia.  She was among the younger of the children in the family ... maybe age 4 or 5.  She remembers fear and hunger and sadness.  Two of her older sisters also were altered very much by those months on the run.  Yet, resilience is what comes to mind when I think of them all.  

The conversation with my mother came up because I recently had to get a tooth pulled due to eroded enamel.  It was more of an ordeal than I expected, but I am so very thankful for modern medicine that I really didn't feel a thing while the dentist drilled and chiseled at the long, curved, strong root that was stubbornly embedded in my gums.  Afterwards, I brushed a hand through my hair and came up with 2 small pieces of my bloody tooth ... just a reminder of the fight it had with the dentist!  

My mother had her wisdom teeth extracted as an 18 year old ... in Germany.  The dentist, a heavy smoker, didn't practice much sanitizing or hand-washing.  My mother's mouth became incredibly infected, and she was unable to eat or do much of anything for a long time.  In our day, we would have rushed back to the dentist or went to an urgent care center for help; however, she just suffered through it for days and weeks, losing so much weight that when her body finally conquered the infection, the dentist stated, at a follow-up appointment, that he wasn't sure she was going to pull through ... but it never occurred to my mother or her parents to complain.  One just accepted one's fate and trusted in the professionals.  

What a contrast to today's medical world.  My husband and I both work in medical industries though not directly related to patient care.  We are around it daily in administrative and support capacities.  To be fair, I like to think someone enters the medical profession today to help people.  It is honestly what we want to do ... and are glad to do when someone genuinely needs help.  But may I tell you (please, don't judge me!) that there are a whole lot of whiners and users of the system out there as well. 

That isn't the point of my post.  The point is how WELL and EASY we have it in our sanitized world of modern medicine.  You still have some gruff professionals with poor bedside manner, but these days, doctors and dentists are rated by their manner as well as their know-how.  If you ask someone how their surgery went, they may tell you that they received terrific care and that the hospital staff were friendly and attentive.  Friendly and attentive are new concepts compared to the old, stoic (and sometimes barbaric!) medical professionals of years ago (with exceptions, of course!).   

In conclusion, I am just thankful.  I am a very empathetic person so when I read accounts of - for example - concentration camps, I can put myself into their situation and image the horror and inconvenience and just disgusting conditions these prisoners endured.  It is the stuff of my nightmares.  Even talking with my mother about her wisdom teeth extractions, my heart just hurts that she had to endure all those weeks of pain.  And also, I admire her.  I wish it hadn't been like that, but wow, she was one tough cookie!  A stoic, strong German girl ... 

Thankful to be Bilingual

Today I was watching TV ... I really don't do a lot of random TV watching, but I was just needing a mindless time waster.  For whatever reason, I stopped on an episode of Chopped Junior, a cooking competition for children.  In this episode, one child had an Egyptian father and another had an Italian mother.  Both children traveled to that parent's home land yearly ... and you could tell what an influence the broader spectrum of culture and knowledge had on these children.

Even though I was born in Germany and spent much of my childhood there while enjoying a typical American schooling and home life in the States as well, I never really thought of the amazing opportunity I had until just in the last few years ...

There are statistics out there about children who are raised bilingual.  While there are a few issues for some children who have two parents speaking two different languages, it mostly seems to work itself out in their brains as they get older to separate the languages.  The advantages usually outweigh the early issues.  Children exposed to two languages at a young age, like me, usually have no accent in either language.

Bilingual children are NOT smarter, they just have some advantages ... but don't despair, so do adults who learn a second language as an adult!

From The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual:

Despite certain linguistic limitations that have been observed in bilinguals (e.g., increased naming difficulty7), bilingualism has been associated with improved metalinguistic awareness (the ability to recognize language as a system that can be manipulated and explored), as well as with better memory, visual-spatial skills, and even creativity.29 Furthermore, beyond these cognitive and neurological advantages, there are also valuable social benefits that come from being bilingual, among them the ability to explore a culture through its native tongue or talk to someone with whom you might otherwise never be able to communicate.

In my experience, being bilingual hasn't made me much more creative ... nor do I seem to have a better memory (fading fast every year!!), but that last sentence struck a chord!  I have had "the ability to explore a culture through its native tongue or talk to someone with whom you might otherwise never be able to communicate."

What a rich oral history I have stored up due to conversations with my German relatives, friends, and acquaintances - and even just American friends who have traveled in Europe.  Granted, every grandparent, in my opinion, is a treasure trove of time past ... when life was very different than it is now; but to know and understand another history and culture entirely in real life not just from a text book is a great privilege.  

How much I now treasure the fact that I know children's songs and nursery rhymes in both English and German ... have tasted so many diverse foods and learned to hold my cutlery in two different ways.  It is those little differences, I think, that I appreciate now, and I revert right back to what my Oma and Opa taught me the minute my plane lands in Frankfurt.  I gesture differently when I speak; I conduct myself differently when meeting a stranger; I count using my thumb to indicate the number 1 just as German children are taught to do.  It is those funny little things that make me German ... some I learned because my mom and grandparents instilled them in me, some I mimic their behavior.  

It is my bilingual-ness and the need to cherish and share those memories of my German side that inspired this blog.  I am so grateful for the gift of knowing two languages and cultures ... it is also what makes me yearn always to return to my "home" in Germany. 

Umschalten - Switching

Today is February 29th - Leap Day.  This is an occurrence that happens every 4 years.

In Germany, it is called Schalttag.  The Schalttag happens in a Schaltjahr.

Schalt means switch.  Schalten is the infinitive verb form (to switch).

Schalt + tag (day) = Leap Day
Schalt + jahr (year) = Leap Year

Another word that comes to mind for me is Lichtschalter

Licht + schalter = light switch!

A typical German light switch as I remember looks like this:

But I also remember in the Keller (cellar) of my German grandparents' apartment building, there was a very old light switch that looked like this:

In any case, I hope you enjoyed your extra day this year - your Schalttag!  

By the way, I read today that in true German fashion there is actually a law pertaining to any person born on February 29th.  Of course!  It is that on non-leap years, you turn your next full age on March 1st (never on February 28).  So, for example, when you turn 18 and become volljährig (an adult, "of age"), you are not considered an adult until March 1st if your 18th birthday falls on a leap year.  

And that is just a little "tidbit" - a small bite - of German.