Those old Germanic month names can really play havoc with your poetry

 

Eosturmonath showers bring Thrimilchi flowers.

Happiness is whole kernel rye breads by Mestemacher in Germany, available in the United States

 I found these at my local health food store in Michigan, and they are delicious.

 

Happiness is an authentic German stollen on Christmas morning

 

Happiness is lavender oil for anxiety

Have never tried it internally, but externally it's great!

Doctors should dish out LAVENDER OIL as a first-line treatment for people with anxiety instead of addictive drugs, psychiatrist claims:

Professor Hans Peter-Volz said doctors are too quick to dish out benzodiazepines and other drugs to patients with anxiety. ...

Professor Volz claimed lavender oil capsules have been shown to be as strong as commonly used anti-anxiety medications. ...

Professor Volz is the medical director of the Hospital for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine in Schloss, Germany.

It's May Day! Time for "Springtime for Hitler and Germany"!

Springtime for Hitler and Germany

Mel Brooks, who won an Oscar for his 1967 film The Producers, will be 93 in June.

Happiness is politically incorrect soap ads

In Alaska happiness is a cake from a mix

From a delightful read in The New York Times, here:

“Cake mixes are the center of our little universe,” said Cynthia Erickson, who owns the only grocery store in Tanana, an Athabascan village of 300 along the Yukon River in central Alaska. “I have four damn shelves full.”

Happiness is . . . Der Wunder-Meyer

The Great Encyclopedia for the Educated Classes by Joseph Meyer (1796-1856).

Ultimately numbering 52 volumes, Das Grosse Konversations-Lexikon für die gebildeten Stände was the most comprehensive completed German encyclopedia of the 19th century, also called "der Wunder-Meyer" (The marvellous Meyer). The complete set was reprinted 1858-59. ... The 9th edition, now from Mannheim, entitled Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon in 25 Bänden (in 25 volumes), appeared in 1971-79. Just like the very first, this final Mannheim edition was the most comprehensive German encyclopaedia of the century.

Happiness is Monty Python's send up of long aristocratic German names: Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplendenschlitter . . .

Johann Gambolputty
de von Ausfern
schplendenschlitter
crasscrenbonfried
diggerdingle
dangledongle
dungleburstein von knackerthrasher applebanger
horowitz
ticolensic
granderknottyspelltinkle
grandlich grumblemeyer spelterwasser
kurstlich himble eisenbahnwagen
gutenabend
bitte ein nürnburger bratwustle gerspurten mitz weimache luber hundsfut gumberaber schönedanker kalbsfleischmittler

aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.

Here.

 

Or maybe here.

Vangelis: What I'm Listening To Now

 

In the "tyranny of Greece over Germany", winter is finally getting a proper beating tonight in Michigan so I am enjoying a little light Vangelis over dinner. It transports you to a warmer, more relaxed place which you have been missing for too long but suddenly remember viscerally. This album charted in Europe most popular in Ungarn, followed by Oesterreich, in 1996. Romantics all.

 

 

 

Johnsonville Brats Give Me A Headache

Johnsonville bratwurst gives me a headache.

The reason? Johnsonville brats are made with MSG (monosodium glutamate), evidently to help preserve the product for national distribution.

Back in the day in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, we never bought Johnsonville, and rarely many of the other local brands available in Sheboygan. We bought a smaller brat available from Luedke's Meat Market, which started way back in 1917 if my information is correct. It was our meat market of choice for sausages of all kinds in the 1960s and beyond, including Sommer Sausage, mit oder mitout (with or without garlic -- a little Sheboyganese German-American lingo there). The brat fit perfectly in half a semel roll, a light airy hard roll I've never seen anywhere else. The Luedke brat was also preferred because it was NOT a pure pork brat, but a pork and beef mixture. Better flavor and texture.

At any rate, I've found a grocery store brand brat without MSG for tonight's nod to Oktoberfest, at which I'll be drinking . . . Bud Light Platinum!

Sie Lebe Hoch!

Sour Cream Blackberry Pie

I had no intention of making this. The blackberries were on sale, half off, and they were enormous. So I bought three packages, just over a pound, for three bucks. And they sat there in the refrigerator, screaming at me, "Make something with us already!"

So my first impulse was to reach for the Project Love Bethesda Cookbook, Volume III, courtesy of my cousin Ruth, in Iowa Falls, Iowa. And low and behold, there was the recipe, and I knew I had to make it because it also called for the left over sour cream which also has been waiting to be used up.

This is NOT a super foods recipe. It has fresh fruit in it, and some oat bran, which I used in place of the called for bread crumbs for the topping, but other than that, we're just talking fresh fruit delivery device here, that's it. But when you try it, you'll agree you've just had a slice of heaven. And for all you Sheboyganites out there, I guarantee it will remind you of the sour cream coffee cake we used to get from the bakery down by Prange's, and so? Same unique combination of sweet and sour, the German way. Mm. Mm. Mm.

Sour Cream Blackberry Pie

Filling:

1 cup sugar

1 cup dairy sour cream

3 T flour

.25 t salt

18 oz. fresh blackberries, washed

1 unbaked pie shell (or make your own, as the lady of the house did for me)

For the topping, mix together in a separate bowl:

.25 cup oat bran

1 T butter, melted

2 T sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour and salt, and the sour cream. Drop the berries into the unbaked pie shell prepared for the oven, and spread the sour cream mixture over the top. Sprinkle with the oat bran topping and bake at 375 degrees F. for 40 minutes.

Allow the pie to cool down completely before serving, or the filling will not hold together and ooze out all over the place. Really good ooze.

Hot Italian Sausage, Super Foods Style

Wednesdays and Saturdays at our house are Italian days, not because we're Italian, but because we like their food! My mother's maiden name is spelled just like a town in Tuscany, which was news to her. But her dad also looked more like a wiry Sicilian than a farmer from Germany. Hard to figure it out, after all these years. But this recipe for hot Italian sausage isn't hard, and you're going to love it, because it's delicious, good for you, and passes the kid test with flying colors!

You can make this sausage and serve it alongside the pasta with a fresh steamed vegetable with a little butter. (Broccoli florets are always popular here). Or you can break it up in my basic tomato sauce, semi home made, and serve it on the pasta. And it's also nice crumbled on the pizza! or in an omelet! How about in the lasagna?! Stuff it in the ravioli! Oh! Italian sausage! How do I love thee? Let me . . . get on with it.

Hot Italian Sausage Dry Seasoning Mix

.25 t garlic powder

.25 t dried thyme

.25 t freshly ground pepper

.5 t whole fennel seeds

1 t crushed red pepper flakes (pretty hot in this quantity, so be ready)

1 t salt

1.5 t paprika

Clean out the electric coffee grinder, but don't go crazy. Leave some traces of the espresso behind. It's good. Add all the ingredients above and let her rip for a minute or so. You have now made the seasoning for 1.25 lbs. of meat (and now you should clean the grinder thoroughly, unless you like your next cup a little spicy).

Hot Italian Sausage, Super Foods Style

1 prepared Hot Italian Sausage Dry Seasoning Mix recipe

1.25 lbs. ground turkey (half a 2.5 lb. flat of Jennie-O lean ground turkey)

Drop the turkey meat into a large bowl. Sprinkle the dry seasoning evenly over the turkey until you have covered it uniformly, then work it in with ye old trusty potato masher. Repeat until all the seasoning is mixed into the meat.

Next, oil or grease a 3/4 inch deep, 3 1/2 inch diameter form to receive the meat mixture to make sausage patties. (I use the rubber end of an old Zyliss Food Chopper. You can improvise with some other old lid to something, or buy one of those metal hamburger forms. It really doesn't matter if the size varies a little. If you're adventurous and have a KitchenAid mixer with a sausage making attachment, go for it! But you'll need casing!). Using a fork, load the form with meat and make a patty that holds together without being too densely packed. Plop it out onto a large plate and go on to the next one. I can make almost six with my form.

Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat for a couple minutes, then add canola oil to cover the bottom with a shallow pool. The high sides of the oven will help prevent splatters. Fry the patties two or three at a time over medium low heat, about four minutes per side. Drain and reserve the fried patties in a warm oven as you go. That's it. Badabing, badaboom.