Oma's Special Meals
I recall special foods Oma used to prepare on a regular basis for Opa that I now miss greatly. There was a beef broth she made from some bones from the meat market, she boiled for a long time, then she boiled cabbage and made hard boiled eggs. She chopped the eggs, with some spices, and rolled the cabbage leaves with the eggs inside to be eaten next to the beef broth. This was a very tasty combination.
Weslee shouts out, "Happy Cinco de Mayo!" and dances to a jaunty tune of his invention.
Chester paws my arm, as he wants a treat for watching.
I also loved her finely shredded potatoes, which she mixed with one egg and made into fried potato pancakes. She served these with applesauce, sugar or salt, and jelly. So good.
Weslee is clueing me in about the problems of Bengals having two sports contracts. "They should have lost all their games after the beginning of the season, Mom. Then they would have had better picks at the draft. They have a new QB now. Why do robins have a fat stomach? The orange spot is SOOOO fat!"
"Mr. McGuire scared the guts out of us! It was a fake turtle, and we saw two geese, and we put a board across a mud puddle. It's 42 degrees, and we might have the game."
"Mom, Mom, they were littler kids, at Camp Campbellguard, Mr. McGuire jumped out and scared us, and we were stuck! It's time for me to get my hair cut!"
Oma made rice a lot. It was a necessity at our house, since Opa had spent so much time traveling in the Orient buying and selling oriental rugs. She had part of a stove pipe(an 8 inch section of 8 inch diameter metal tubing used to vent stoves) to put onto the stove. She would put her pot of rice on it to cook. She insisted she could not get the gas flame low enough otherwise. Then she made a dish to go with the rice. I really loved it when she cut pieces of lamb, browned it with raisins and Cinnamon, and somehow made a sauce somewhat juicy to go over the rice.
Why is it so quiet? Weslee, stop watching TV and get ready to get the bus!
Oma's goulash was the best! She insisted on using tomato paste. On the tiny can was a lady from Italy carrying a flat basket of tomatoes, and it came out really red and thick. That came first into the pot. Then she would brown onions in a separate pan, brown the pieces of beef from the butcher(she went only to HER personal butcher for reasons I will later explain), and once browned, add them to the pot. Then came hours of cooking. The aroma of the goulash would tantalize us and agonize us, wondering when we could finally eat!
Weslee! time to get the BUS!
Oma often put this wonderful goulash over or next to boiled potatoes. Often cottage cheese was also a dish served with this, NOT sour cream.
Opa wanted his Beef Tartar off and on, and we also had this as a treat. It meant you had to really know the butcher and trust where the meat came from. Oma only used one butcher, and she trusted he had a reliable source of meat. When she asked for Beef Tartar, it meant they would be eating the ground beef raw. Oma would use a raw egg, salt and pepper, mix it in certain proportions, and serve on small pumpernickel bread rounds with an onion on the top. I would NEVER eat this today, fearing for my health, but then? It was another time.
Ever heard of Gockle-Mockle? We ate these occasionally as treats as children, and again, would not eat these today, but then, we were told this was a health food. Oma would take the yolk of an egg, beat it with a lot of sugar, add some Manischievitz wine, and serve.
When in the old country Oma took her family to vacation in various countries, and I believe she just loved the various customs she encountered. Even to an old age her favorite breakfast was Ry-Krisp, cottage cheese, and tomato paste from a tube, or anchovy paste from a tube. We always thought the Ry-Krisp tasted like cardboard(can you still buy it today?). But Oma loved it, and it stayed "fresh", or shall I say, it stayed like it came forever.
One of my favorite memories was Oma baking my birthday cakes. She baked a large bread, with bits of fruit in it in the shape of the new number I was becoming. If I would become 6, it was a 6, and so on, until I was 9. The year I was 9 she informed me, "Das ist das letzte Jahr fur Geburtstagkuchen, Cornelia. Wenn Du 10 bist, macht es 2 Kuchen, und das mach ich nicht mehr." So ended my special Birthday cakes. From then on I got the usual American Cakes, with layers, and candles as American children do. But because Oma made them, I missed them sorely: they meant MORE.
Weslee shouts out, "Happy Cinco de Mayo!" and dances to a jaunty tune of his invention.
Chester paws my arm, as he wants a treat for watching.
I also loved her finely shredded potatoes, which she mixed with one egg and made into fried potato pancakes. She served these with applesauce, sugar or salt, and jelly. So good.
Weslee is clueing me in about the problems of Bengals having two sports contracts. "They should have lost all their games after the beginning of the season, Mom. Then they would have had better picks at the draft. They have a new QB now. Why do robins have a fat stomach? The orange spot is SOOOO fat!"
"Mr. McGuire scared the guts out of us! It was a fake turtle, and we saw two geese, and we put a board across a mud puddle. It's 42 degrees, and we might have the game."
"Mom, Mom, they were littler kids, at Camp Campbellguard, Mr. McGuire jumped out and scared us, and we were stuck! It's time for me to get my hair cut!"
Oma made rice a lot. It was a necessity at our house, since Opa had spent so much time traveling in the Orient buying and selling oriental rugs. She had part of a stove pipe(an 8 inch section of 8 inch diameter metal tubing used to vent stoves) to put onto the stove. She would put her pot of rice on it to cook. She insisted she could not get the gas flame low enough otherwise. Then she made a dish to go with the rice. I really loved it when she cut pieces of lamb, browned it with raisins and Cinnamon, and somehow made a sauce somewhat juicy to go over the rice.
Why is it so quiet? Weslee, stop watching TV and get ready to get the bus!
Oma's goulash was the best! She insisted on using tomato paste. On the tiny can was a lady from Italy carrying a flat basket of tomatoes, and it came out really red and thick. That came first into the pot. Then she would brown onions in a separate pan, brown the pieces of beef from the butcher(she went only to HER personal butcher for reasons I will later explain), and once browned, add them to the pot. Then came hours of cooking. The aroma of the goulash would tantalize us and agonize us, wondering when we could finally eat!
Weslee! time to get the BUS!
Oma often put this wonderful goulash over or next to boiled potatoes. Often cottage cheese was also a dish served with this, NOT sour cream.
Opa wanted his Beef Tartar off and on, and we also had this as a treat. It meant you had to really know the butcher and trust where the meat came from. Oma only used one butcher, and she trusted he had a reliable source of meat. When she asked for Beef Tartar, it meant they would be eating the ground beef raw. Oma would use a raw egg, salt and pepper, mix it in certain proportions, and serve on small pumpernickel bread rounds with an onion on the top. I would NEVER eat this today, fearing for my health, but then? It was another time.
Ever heard of Gockle-Mockle? We ate these occasionally as treats as children, and again, would not eat these today, but then, we were told this was a health food. Oma would take the yolk of an egg, beat it with a lot of sugar, add some Manischievitz wine, and serve.
When in the old country Oma took her family to vacation in various countries, and I believe she just loved the various customs she encountered. Even to an old age her favorite breakfast was Ry-Krisp, cottage cheese, and tomato paste from a tube, or anchovy paste from a tube. We always thought the Ry-Krisp tasted like cardboard(can you still buy it today?). But Oma loved it, and it stayed "fresh", or shall I say, it stayed like it came forever.
One of my favorite memories was Oma baking my birthday cakes. She baked a large bread, with bits of fruit in it in the shape of the new number I was becoming. If I would become 6, it was a 6, and so on, until I was 9. The year I was 9 she informed me, "Das ist das letzte Jahr fur Geburtstagkuchen, Cornelia. Wenn Du 10 bist, macht es 2 Kuchen, und das mach ich nicht mehr." So ended my special Birthday cakes. From then on I got the usual American Cakes, with layers, and candles as American children do. But because Oma made them, I missed them sorely: they meant MORE.
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