Postings from Germany

Food

Seems to me we spend a lot of time - Werner and me - dealing with food.  Thinking about meals.  Planning meals. Shopping for meals.  Cooking the meals - good grief, that takes some time!  We eat breakfast and ask each other What's for lunch?  What's for dinner?

So, I was thinking the other day that with all the thought and time we put into planning, shopping, preparing and the final eating, I should perhaps say something more about it.

We're in the middle of a scandal at the moment.  Dioxin in animal feed.  Not good.  The farms that unknowingly used this feed are mostly in Lower Saxony, our closest neighbors, and mostly in feed for layers and pork.  Yes, we eat a lot of eggs and pork here! Makes you want to go organic. Fast.

And then last Friday we asked Nickolet and her roommate for dinner and offered hamburgers or tacos as the meal, thinking that would appeal to young people.  Great - hamburgers! they said.  Then they arrived and - horror of horrors - Ranisha had not an inkling that hamburgers were made of beef.  Sacred beef.  OMG.  I thought we all spoke English.  Not so much.

We got over that.  I whipped up a veggie burger for Ranisha and afterwards we played Scrabble - and for the second time, Werner won.  I think I should get extra points for helping the others, but they don't. 

But back to food ...  we have had some lovely meals lately.

First, the table is always welcoming. 

Cabbage rolls with ground lamb.  This is so green and bright for a winter meal!

After the very rich dinners over Christmas and New Year, we went for fish, but somehow I couldn't just do plain fish.  Here, poached haddock with a vegetable sauce and rice.  Another keeper.

And though Werner says he doesn't really like risotto, he will yummy it down when it shows up on his plate.  I had an itch for a butternut squash and Jamie Oliver had the perfect recipe here for risotto with the squash and all my favorites - pancetta, sage, chili peppers and parmesan.  Oh, that was good.  (Truth be told, I altered the recipe a bit - not celery but celeriac since that was on hand and not mascarpone but crème fraîche for a slightly sour rather than sweet accent.)

Note the tulips on the table.  The snow has melted.  We'll likely get more snow, but spring is closer.