Food Glorious Food

It's been a very pleasant week so far.  It's fall break for the schools so I didn't have to go to my German class which meant more time to play with Piet.  His English has totally come out of the woodwork and we're able to chat and understand each other easily.  Yesterday we made a band called The Riff Raff and the Crazy Pirates.  He sang into his maracca and I played the bowl drums.  We sang his new favorite song, "Mrs. Robinson."  It makes me laugh to think that one day he'll grow up and see The Graduate and realize what that song is actually about.  Ha. 

Today was pretty rainy, but we spent most of it at Catrin's parents home which is about 50 minutes away in a town called Emmen.  Her mom fed us really well, like a good grandma always does.  We had a very traditional dish for lunch that consisted of thin slices of roast beef filled with vegetables and rolled up, served in a tasty gravy.  We also had potatoes and red cabbage, which were delicious.  For dessert we had vanilla ice cream with plums that had been soaked in red wine.  It was pretty unusual, but I liked it.  After we had completely stuffed ourselves, we rolled into the car and looked around the town.  Most towns look similar with brick roads and brick buildings and lots of Eis (ice cream) shops.  Emmen is a port town so we walked on some restored boats, one of which Catrin and Jorn got married upon.   It was nice.  When we got back home, Catrin's mom, we call her Oma, showed me how the people in that area have tea throughout the day.  They take cute and tiny tea cups and place in them a piece of sugar that looks like rock candy. Then they pour black tea over the sugar and then use a miniature dipper to pour cream in.  Then you take time to see how awesome it looks when the cream rises to the top. I liked that that was an actual step in the process.  Small spoons are given but you're not supposed to stir the tea, you're just meant to put it in your cup to signify to the server that you don't want anymore tea.  Oma said we could stir ours though so we could taste the sugar better.  Tea was served with shortbread cookies and chocolates.  It was simply delightful.

By the way, as I was typing the previous paragraph, Catrin came in a offered me a small glass of grappa, a strong alcoholic drink that's meant to be good for digestion.  I took a swig and forgot how strong that stuff is.  Blaaa.  I forgot to mention that we also had a tasty dinner which consisted of super fresh fish, prociutto, and bread.  I think the fish was bought at the store, but usually they eat fish that Opa (grandpa) catches in Norway every summer.  He loves to fish.  Their house is located beside a little water way where he can fish everyday.  Their back yard was perfectly manicured, like all German yards, and had a huge tree that had an owl living in it.  You could see his digested mice below his favorite branch. EEW. They also had an "American Oak" which I think was a white oak.  Daddy's quized me enough times that I should remember, but I still get my oak trees confused.

In short, today was a simple but lovely day and I got to learn a lot more about old German eating traditions.  Oh, I also ate fresh cherry tomatoes, or tommy-toes, as we always called them, straight from Oma's garden.  They were as sweet as candy...much better than this last swig of grappa that I need to finish before I go sit and watch t.v. with Catrin and Jorn.  It's so nice to be a part of a family and their daily traditions.  Definitely makes me miss my own from time to time.