All Things German

"German" Bakery

German Supermarket

Jaegerschnitzel and sauce ingredients and recipe

Spaetzle ingredients and recipe

Rote Gruetze mit Vanillesauce ingredients and recipe

Me in my kitchen

Cookin with attitude :)

Hauptspeise - Main Dish of Jaegerschnitzel and Spaetzle with Jaeger Sauce and Brussel Sprouts

Great meal, great view

our upscale cuisine

Nachspeise - Dessert - Rote Gruetze with Vanilla Sauce

Every Friday I have German lessons with a private tutor which I am very glad I decided to do. I enjoy it very much even though it tests my patients a little bit. She says I'm a very fast learner but I'd like to just know it all now :)

Today I decided to make it an "All things German" day (well, many things German anyway). After my lesson, I went up north to check out a bakery called "Dinkel's", that has been family owned since 1922 by a family from Bavaria. I had high hopes of seeing some German pastries and maybe even sitting down for a little afternoon Kuchen and Kaffee. The place was cute and had some pretty good stuff but it was pretty Americanized of course so I was a little disappointed. Nothing REALLY lured me in and I left the place a little bummed without a taste of Germany. I hopped in my car and headed to the grocery store cause #1 I was planning on cooking dinner and needed ingredients and #2 it may sound weird but I never get to REALLY grocery shop AND take my time doing anymore. I love doing that and I feel like I haven't gotten to do it in a long time since I work at one and I just want to leave right away when I get off so I just end up getting a few things quickly and going on my way. Well, on my way to the huge Whole Foods in another neighborhood, I drove up right beside a store called Aldi. Awwwww....I had to stop. This was my all things German day and if I was grocery shopping there is no way I could miss going to Aldi. Aldi is a discount supermarket based in Germany and Caro and I would shop there all the time. Of course many of the products were different but it definitely had the same general atmosphere and setup. Made me a little giddy and put a smile on my face to be walking through there and remembering my trips to Aldi in Heidelberg. If only I could get some of the same products that were regular purchases of ours :( After my trip through Aldi, I made it to Whole Foods and spent the next hour or so and a chunk of cash but loved every minute of it. I even (because it was a German day) sat down around 4 o'clock to slowly enjoy some Kuchen und Kaffee (a little tradition that was introduced to me by meine liebe Heindel Familie). I finally made it back home a little before 5 and begin what turned out to be a 3 1/2 hour German cooking extravaganca. I was lovin it! I turned on some tunes and rocked out in front of the kitchen island and stove. I had decided to cook a well known German meal for Sari and I regardless of nutrition but all from scratch (that counts for something) :) It was REALLY good! The menu consisted of Jaegerschnitzel with Jaeger Sauce, Spaetzle, and Rote Gruetze with Vanilla Sauce. It was accompanied by a bottle of German white wine that was used in some of the cooking as well. I pulled all of the recipes from a German cookbook that I bought in Heidelberg before leaving. SO the 3 1/2 hours was partially due to the fact that I had to translate the directions and convert all the metric units to cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons etc. Not only was I cooking something completely new but I was reading the recipe in German. My brain was workin double time. I think next time I will translate and convert it all before I start :) It went fine but I think I may have missed a couple tiny steps and maybe had a couple conversions wrong but I was able to improvise. The Jaegerschnitzel was made by pounding out a thin piece of veal, breading it with egg, flour, and breadcrumbs and frying it in olive oil. Yikes! Not only have I never cooked veal (Sorry for anyone who this may offend. It was pasture raised though if that makes a difference.) but I also haven't fried anything in years! I was cringing a little while doing it and Sari laughed as I just tried to push aside my nutrition morals and enjoy the process. The sauce was made with a little butter, garlic, bacon (another item I haven't used in forever), mushrooms, water, white wine, some spices and herbs and a little cream. Freakin good but really rich and not real low fat :) That is one thing about German food: Very heavy! On the side was steamed brussel sprouts and Spaetzle. Spaetzle is like a pasta/dumpling made from flour, egg and water. There is actually a Spaetzle maker or board especially for making it but I just improvised with a cutting board and cheese knife. I was very happy with the outcome. For dessert, I made something called Rote Gruetze with a vanilla sauce. The Rote Gruetze is sort of like a gelatin dessert with fruit, water, sugar and starch. I used cherries, rasberries, and strawberries. Then on top you put a vanilla sauce made from real vanilla bean (which I always thought looked like an actual bean but really looks like a stick), milk, sugar and egg yolk. I'm not sure I did it right cause it was very liquidy but it sure tasted good. Overall the meal was a big success. Sari enjoyed all of it. I enjoyed it and loved doing it. Alles schmeckt mir sehr gut! The only downfall was the SUPER full stomach and the slight headache I got from the richness and my body not really being used to that much eggs, milk, butter and meat. I definitely couldn't eat meals like this every night but the cooking experience and the cultural acknowledgement truely made my heart sing. Heidelberg memories surfaced as well that put a little extra smile on my face. Looking forward to the next evening of another cultural cuisine.

P.S. I meant to get a pic with my German tutor but didn't get to it AND I really think my food photography is improving :) Maybe one of these days I will update my camera. I love documenting it as I go and would love to make it look even better. I hope you enjoy seeing it as well.

leibe Gruesse - beck