More Meals from the Past
In the spring I cannot think of a treat I enjoyed more than Oma's potato salad. She would boil and peel round potatoes, slice them very thin, cool them, while she prepared the dressing and boiled at least a dozen eggs. The dressing was made from fresh buttermilk, Hellman's Real Mayonnaise, French's Mustard, some salt, chopped onions, fresh parsley, about 10 chopped hard boiled eggs, all mixed in with the potatoes. This was left in the fridge to "stew". Peggy and I never could wait, and ate it warm. We thought it best warm! But Oma wanted it properly garnished, and put it into a clean bowl, after it had stewed a bit and chilled. She created a "sun" with the yolk of one boiled egg, made rays with the whites of that egg for the center, then added other chopped egg and parsley bits onto the top for flare, and it was a piece of art. If it weren't so good, you would have hesitated to dig in!
A Sunday Dinner, meaning late lunch, would be a boiled cow tongue. I recall enjoying that meal, watching Oma peel the skin off the boiled meat, and then seeing her slice it carefully, giving the tender tip to Opa as the best cut of all. I liked that there were no bones, and that it was all tender and tasty. It did make me think when my Onkle Gerhart came to dinner and commented, "I don't eat anything someone has already had in their mouth!" Days later we still ate from that tongue, with sandwiches of sliced tongue meat on toast and Hellman's Real Mayonnaise. That was the only kind that passed muster in her kitchen. I recall having tongue at my Tante Barbi's house, too, but she had a variation that was served with rice and a white gravy she made from Julia Child's cookbook. I think it was a Hollandaise sauce, made with the juice of the meat. It was superb!
Mom loved scrambled cow's brains. She fried them up, and ate them sometimes for breakfast, I think from when she grew up living on a farm. I also ate that dish, but never relished it like she did.
Our family also served boiled heart for the dinner meal, with boiled or baked potatoes. Oma served the potatoes with butter or cottage cheese. With all the boiled meat came a soup, and the soup had vegetables which provided soup for meals for days before and after the main meals. Usually the vegetables were carrots, beans, peas, spinach, kohlrabi, cabbage, and Lima beans. Often we ate tomatoes, lettuce, onions and carrots for our salad.
Oma began baking large Idaho potatoes a unique way after a while, by cutting them lengthwise into eighths, and putting them directly into the oven. They came out with a light skin all over, and soft inside. They were also done more quickly than if you baked them whole. If she decided to brush them with butter, they were even crisp and shiny when they came out.
I do not know where Oma got the great sausages she had, but I always had Leberwurst, Teawurst and Blutwurst to put onto special breads for breakfast in the mornings. We did eat cereals, but I loved those meats, too. Salami was great, something like hard salami, but more flavorful. Bread was full of grains and flavor. Even the white bread was savory, not too plain, even though after a while Tyll and I wanted our dough in the middle so we could make little balls when we pulled it out of the middle.
We loved all kinds of noodles and beans. I recall Oma making lentil soup or green pea soup with a ham bone. The aroma coming from the kitchen was always so tantalizing, and tortured you for hours. I could hear Opa shouting about how long the dinner would take, and that it was never done. But one thing was sure, it was always special and delicious!
A Sunday Dinner, meaning late lunch, would be a boiled cow tongue. I recall enjoying that meal, watching Oma peel the skin off the boiled meat, and then seeing her slice it carefully, giving the tender tip to Opa as the best cut of all. I liked that there were no bones, and that it was all tender and tasty. It did make me think when my Onkle Gerhart came to dinner and commented, "I don't eat anything someone has already had in their mouth!" Days later we still ate from that tongue, with sandwiches of sliced tongue meat on toast and Hellman's Real Mayonnaise. That was the only kind that passed muster in her kitchen. I recall having tongue at my Tante Barbi's house, too, but she had a variation that was served with rice and a white gravy she made from Julia Child's cookbook. I think it was a Hollandaise sauce, made with the juice of the meat. It was superb!
Mom loved scrambled cow's brains. She fried them up, and ate them sometimes for breakfast, I think from when she grew up living on a farm. I also ate that dish, but never relished it like she did.
Our family also served boiled heart for the dinner meal, with boiled or baked potatoes. Oma served the potatoes with butter or cottage cheese. With all the boiled meat came a soup, and the soup had vegetables which provided soup for meals for days before and after the main meals. Usually the vegetables were carrots, beans, peas, spinach, kohlrabi, cabbage, and Lima beans. Often we ate tomatoes, lettuce, onions and carrots for our salad.
Oma began baking large Idaho potatoes a unique way after a while, by cutting them lengthwise into eighths, and putting them directly into the oven. They came out with a light skin all over, and soft inside. They were also done more quickly than if you baked them whole. If she decided to brush them with butter, they were even crisp and shiny when they came out.
I do not know where Oma got the great sausages she had, but I always had Leberwurst, Teawurst and Blutwurst to put onto special breads for breakfast in the mornings. We did eat cereals, but I loved those meats, too. Salami was great, something like hard salami, but more flavorful. Bread was full of grains and flavor. Even the white bread was savory, not too plain, even though after a while Tyll and I wanted our dough in the middle so we could make little balls when we pulled it out of the middle.
We loved all kinds of noodles and beans. I recall Oma making lentil soup or green pea soup with a ham bone. The aroma coming from the kitchen was always so tantalizing, and tortured you for hours. I could hear Opa shouting about how long the dinner would take, and that it was never done. But one thing was sure, it was always special and delicious!
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