The last two days have been somewhat “short” because we are playing “Skip Bo” until 2:00 am. in the morning, get up around 11:00 a.m the next morning, drink coffee, eat breakfast, clean up, take a shower and its 2:00 p.m. before we can even do anything outside of the house. A lot of time in my parents household is spend on making breakfast and dinner, shopping for it and cleaning up after it. So currently we are not doing any sightseeing, we are keeping that for when Mike comes and joins me, which will be this Friday. Then my blogs will feature a few more sightseeing’s and breweries – Mike loves German beer and so far he has never tasted Alt Bier – the typical beer you get in this region.

Friday July 25th

Breakfast:

Mett Broetchen: seasoned minced Pork meat usually topped with thin slices of Onions. Wikipedia definition: The name is derived from Low German mett for “chopped pork meat without bacon”, or Old Saxon meti for “food”. It is also known as Hackepeter (20th century jargon, Northern Germany and Berlin). It consists of minced pork meat, normally sold or served seasoned with salt and black pepper, regionally also with garlic or caraway, and eaten raw. It is also permitted to add chopped onion, in which case it is known as Zwiebelmett (onion Mett). Legally, German Mett is not allowed to contain more than 35% fat.^[1] Unless pre-packaged, the German Hackfleischverordnung (“minced meat directive”) permits mett to be sold only on the day of production.

Dinner:

Huehnchen im Papier mit Chinakohl und Kartoffeln (Chicken breast baked in seasoned paper with Chinese cabbage and potatoes)

Saturday July 26th
Today we visited my parents friends Trude and Herbert in Krefeld – a 20 minute car drive from Monchengladbach. Trude and Herbert have a beautiful yard with tons and tons of blooming Hydrangeas and a flag pole – the American flag raised – what an honor!!

Breakfast:
Roastbeef – that’s a very thin sliced, seasoned beef, a little bit more on the rare side that you eat on Schwarz- or Graubrot (Pumpernickel type or dense rye bread) with horseradish.

Mum made use of the left over chicken we had cooked the night before and dad ate “Leberkaese” – which literally would mean “liver cheese” but in reality it consists of corned beef, pork, bacon and onions and is made by grinding the ingredients very finely and then baking it as a loaf in a bread pan until it has a crunchy brown crust

Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake)
Plum cake with whipped cream. It is somewhat customary in Germany to have “Kaffee und Kuchen” (coffee and home baked cake or pie) with friends on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and I was the lucky recipient of home baked plum cake, it was very delish!

Dinner:
Schweinshaxe mit Sauerkraut und Puree (Ham Hawk/Shank with Sauerkraut and Mashed Potatos). This is a very special dish for me since its a type of Ham Hawk that you do not get in America. The Ham Hawk in the US is always one that is cooked like a rotisserie chicken, so a brown crispy kind of pork meat. This Ham Hawk is called “Surhaxe” and is pre-soaked by the butcher in a particular kind of salt (Poekelsalz) and then cooked in hot water and some seasoning at home. The Ham Hawk turns red and you have to peel off all the wabbly skin and fat, but what you find underneath is the most moist and tasty meat that doesn’t taste like anything you have tasted before.

Guten Appetit!