A Food Trip To Germany Without Leaving Home

Before coming to our place for her summer visit, Kathy paid a visit to her brother’s house in Napierville, IL which is about 20 minutes from our new favorite sausage maker – The Wurst Kitchen in Aurora, Il, so she and Wende, who drove up to get her, graciously agreed to bring me a small order to tide us over until we got up that way in August.

Their white brats (fine ground veal) are pre-cooked and require only a warm up and crust (for us) from the grill.  To go with them, we nuked to just warm some real deal homemade kraut from the nearby Mennonite farmers market.

A couple of things to note about this kraut are the ingredients of only salt and cabbage and that it is not swimming in liquid – the maker knows what they are doing.  They lightly canned it but it tasted more like right from the crock than cooked but you can also buy it raw.

After grilling the brats, they were topped with the kraut and sided with some Inglehoffer Stone Ground Mustard.

I considered having another side dish and glad I passed so I could fill up on this.  In addition to being huge, the brats were moist, creamy, and lightly seasoned and the kraut was the best I’ve had in a long time, like grandma made and like I ate in Germany.  All I was missing to believe I was at a Bavarian Biergarten was a good German beer to wash it all down. 

Bev ate hers a little more traditionally by adding the brat to a bun before topping with mustard and kraut plus a piece of hot pepper cheese and she also thought it was delicious.  She recently had her ancestry checked and she has a little German heritage and it may be driving her desire to have sausages (usually with peppers and onions) about once a week.  If she suddenly decides she likes beer, I’ll know the German is coming through stronger.

Several packages of the white brats will be on the list for our August stop in Aurora and we picked up six more quarts of kraut which should last us through the winter and if not we'll get even more next year.

Follow up on previous post - This just shows how food habits may follow us through life.  Three folks commented that they have never had a grilled cheese with mayo on it, while I don't believe I've ever had one without it - come to think of it most of my sandwiches include mayo, just as mom made them - Hellmann's most of my life but now Duke's.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/11/18 Meal Date

Not Your Mama’s Grilled Cheese

I’ve never met a grilled cheese sandwich that I didn’t enjoy, even the most basic made with just a slice of American cheese and some mayo and I guess it’s because bread fried in butter taste pretty darned good by itself.   I’ve also had the other direction with a hamburger between two grilled cheeses...

The Kids Annual Summer Visit – Part 3

Following are some shots of our visitors, beginning with the Roden’s who got the tall gene from their dad’s family.  L-R it's 17 year old Jennafer, 15 year old Lauren, 47 year old Kathy, and almost 19 year old Katelyn.

The other half of our visitor group L-R was 18 year old granddaughter Reece, friend Trinity, friend Grace, and 16 year old granddaughter Riley.

The Roden’s again just before they hit the road for the drive to the Atlanta airport.

The Kids Annual Summer Visit – Part 2

Continuing with our visit by family, daughter Wende came down from Oak Ridge a couple of times and brought along the newest grandkid, seven month old Eliza and of course she was a hit with her older cousins.

The Kids Annual Summer Visit - Part 1

Daughter, Kathy, and her three girls (Katelyn, Jennafer, and Lauren) came in from San Antonio, TX for their annual visit to the lake.  Joining them were Reece and Riley Walker (Rhett’s daughters) and two of their friends for a total of eight visitors and adding in Beverly, that is nine females and me – Cindy and Pat were traveling or it would have been 11 to 1 – as my Dad would say “sounds about even according to players.” J

Other than visiting, their primary purpose for coming to Almost Heaven South was to play on the lake, especially pulling a tube with the jet ski, and Bev and my main function was to provide food for the throng.

Independence Day

I plan to take a moment from our 4^th of July activities to remember the real meaning of this day and thank those brave souls who sacrificed everything so that we could live free and celebrate this Independence Day.

A Southern Fried Supper

Last week, we made a trip to the Englewood Mennonite Farmers Market to pick up corn and potatoes for our Low Country Boil and as you might imagine, we loaded up for our personal use as well.  For tonight’s meal, the veggies all came from the market and to make it truly southern, all but the tomatoes were fried with the following menu:

- Sliced okra, rolled in cornmeal and flour, and fried in Crisco – a must.
- Bi-color corn, cut from the cob, and cooked in butter.
- New potatoes, washed, parboiled, and browned in butter
- Sliced vine ripened tomatoes

- Cottage cheese for those who wanted it

- S&P on everything as the only spices

It was all outstanding and Cindy, who had not had anything but the tomatoes before tonight, raved about it – I did my raving by quietly getting seconds J  The fresh corn was very sweet, the potatoes were extra creamy, the okra was tender, and the tomatoes were as good as they can be so we ate all of everything but the potatoes – no dessert required tonight.  I know all of this fried food should not be eaten often, but you really should become a Southener and give this meal a try.

No pics but as you might guess, the next morning the leftover potatoes were added to some fried onions and peppers then topped with some hot pepper cheese and a couple of fried eggs for a delicious breakfast.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/24/18 Meal Date