Cookaholics Bulletin Board

So, I'm planning to do a German theme for Christmas Eve dinner. I have some ideas on what to make, but would love others, because the German cookbooks I've checked out of the library aren't helping much.

• appetizers: thin-sliced rye bread with cheeses & speck
• soup: lentil? pumpkin?
• main fish: trout?
• main meat: sausages?
• sides: spatzle with onions & cheese (required), some kind of potatoes or beets, red cabbage
• dessert: up to my sweetie

Any ideas welcome. Particularly if anyone has an idea for a meat which wouldn't strain my non-meat-eater cooking abilities or require 6 hours of cooking (saurbraten) that would be welcome. One of our guests can't eat fish, so we can't just go with the fish.

Try the German book mentioned in my recent posting to Kathy's request for Xmas books; the one from the NYTimes

Wino,

TheGerman Baking Book?

German baking is not just sweet things and I thought you might find some inspiration through something like strudels (which can vary a great deal) to some of the more savory bakings.

However, her classic, My Berlin Kitchen, should help marvelously. https://www.amazon.com/My-Berlin-Kitchen-Story-Recipes-ebook/dp/B007V65ULK/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481208796&sr=1-2&keywords=weiss%2C+luisa

Both books received amazing reviews.

Oh, the library had My Berlin Kitchen, but I passed it up because it seemed to have more non-German than German recipes (it's a memoir of her world travels).

Sadly, the baking book has a waitlist at the library. Unlikely that we'll get it before the holidays.

What about schnitzel? You already have the noodles, might as well go full Sound of Music on that thing.

What about sauerkraut? It's not German without pickles. If plain sauerkraut is too strong, try rinsing it well and cooking it with a bit of apple cider. shredded apple, and caraway.

JB,

Could do the schnitzel. I'll run it past some of the meat-eaters. If I start singing "The hills are alive with the smell of weinerschnitzel" I'm pretty sure everyone will lose their appetites, though.

I wasn't planning on kraut mainly because I was planning to do the cooked red cabbage. Seems like too much cabbage, you know? It would be easy for me to do, given that there's a good German deli here ... that was going to be the source of sausages if I don't come up with other meats.

Difficult to get more German than rouladen, and one very wonderful taste!!

My favorite Gasthaus meals were always schnitzel, spatzle, braised red cabbage, and salad with spiralized pickled radish and pickled beets on top in a creamy/tangy poppyseed dressing. The schnitzels have different variants. One fave was with asparagus, ham, and hollandaise. They do that combo on toast too as an appetizer, or on trout as the fish course. You could also do jaeger schnitzel with the brown sauce on the spatzle. Braised pork hocks/sausages in sauerkraut is pretty traditional too. Hard to get more Geran than wurst, and it's easy as a bonus. Grilled/fried wurst with red cabbage as a side is pretty tasty too. I prefer bratwurst or knockwurst over weisswurst.

For years, our Christmas Eve meal was Ham and Hot German Potato Salad.