Germany Week!

Guten tag! This week we explored Germany! Fun fact, in high school I was in the German club during my senior year of high school. Why? Because my friend Lee was in the club and it looked good on my college applications. I never took German and rarely attended the events, but it was fun to say I was in the club.

I've visited Germany a few times now, and it really is a fantastic country. Each region is so different and provides unique entertainment, scenery, and food.

Crafts

There's definitely a trend here where the crafts have fallen off a bit. With both camp and pool happening every day, we have less time for crafts. It's been so wonderful having these summer activities right now. The one craft we did attempt this week was making a cuckoo clock, since they were invented in Germany. I say attempted, because it didn't really hold either of their interests, so this was all we managed to get.

Culture

This week we took a field trip to a German market to get an apple strudel. It was about an hour away, and this should tell you a lot about our family. We are willing to travel for food.*  The market was small, but cute. There was a deli counter filled with German cheeses, meats, and baked goods. The rest of the shop was filled with all sorts of German goodies like sauerkraut, spaetzele, and candies. There was a whole section devoted to mustard! 

We also watched a few videos on Germany and German culture, including ones on German Christmas markets (a huge favorite of ours!), gingerbread houses, and skiing.

Food

I already mentioned we went to a German market to grab some apple strudel. While there we also picked up a piece of Black Forrest cake and took both pieces to a park to eat. 

To be honest, they were both pretty, but not amazing. We decided to make our own strudel, and it was delicious. Look at how well Dan made this strudel dough! The test is whether you can read a newspaper through the dough, and Dan succeeded. 

The rest of the menu was: veal schnitzel, kaesespaetzle, brats with sauerkraut, homemade pretzels, kartoffelpuffers, and potato salad (forgot to take a picture). 

We opted for Beyond Meat sausages for our brats. They were delicious. Especially with the authentic kraut and mustard.

Dan made these yummy pretzels using sourdough discard. They turned out great! A kartoffelpuffer is basically a giant latke (potato pancake). It's delicious on it's own, topped with apple sauce, or even a fried egg!

Another great week in the books. Next up, India!

See our other country weeks here.

* In fact, without exaggeration, we once stopped in Florence just to get a sandwich. True story.