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You are here: Home / Holidays / Birthday Dinner

Birthday Dinner

August 18, 2006 By Jenn @ Frugal Upstate 7 Comments

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Well, since Mom2Fur asked about DH’s birthday dinner, I’m posting about that today and will follow up tomorrow with the hummus recipe. I promise!! It is actually already all typed out, so I really will put it up.

DH and I met while we were both in the Army over in Germany. We were in a small town called Baumholder*, which is sort of in the middle of nowhere. I remember before I left I was talking to one of my very good college friends Evelyn (Hi Evelyn!!) who had been in Germany with her husband for a tour before they both came back from college. She said “Oh, German food is so good”.

I remember thinking what could be so good about sausages and saurkraut? Well let it suffice to say that Evelyn was right and I had no idea what German food tasted like from the greasy sausages and kraut folks serve over here when they are pretending to be German. Their food is totally delicious. Most of it is a heart attack waiting to happen, but boy is it good šŸ™‚

Actually, despite the lack of concern about fat (for example, the prefered German method of eating french fries, which have of course been fried in beef lard, is with mayonnaise. Don’t try it, you might like it) Most
Germans are actually pretty slim. This is because of 3 factors. #1 Germans don’t eat between meals. They have a simple breakfast, a mid morning coffee break (which is usually just coffee and a bread roll or something) then lunch and dinner. No snacks in front of the TV, no afternoon munchies. #2 Germans walk a lot. Cars are just so expensive to run, and things are much closer together. #3 There is a mysterious substance in beer that counteracts calories. . . . . . well ok, I’m just joking about the beer.

So to celebrate DH’s birthday I decided to commemorate our time in Germany by making a German supper. I only do this about 3 times a year or so. The menu was:

Osman’s Schnitzel (recipe link)
Brown Gravy
Spaetzle (Homemade German Noodles) (recipe link)
Gurkensalat (cucumber salad) (recipe link)
Garden Fresh Greenbeans
Pumpernickle and Rye bread
Cherry Pie (recipe from Betty Crocker Cookbook)

The reason this meal is infrequent is because of the homemade spaetzle. The sticky, elasticy dought has to be cut into little pieces as it is dropped into boiling water, then fished out as they float to the top in batches. I boiled a big pot of water, then scooped up a big spoonful of the batter and used kitchen scissors to cut little slivers off. You need to make them a bit smaller than you want them to end up as they puff while cooking. When they started sticking to the scissors I simply stuck the blades into the boiling water.

All in all the cooking part of the process probably took at least a half hour, if not more, of standing over a pot of boiling water. I had sweat rolling down my back while I was doing it (AC would be nice when cooking this dish, although it was cool yesterday). The recipe made enough to feed 3 adults and 2 kids, with plenty left over to be a side dish for another whole meal. So most folks could probably halve the recipe no problem (or even 1/4 it if you can figure out how to use half an egg).

The cherry pie isn’t really particuarly German, but it is DH’s favorite dessert so I made it instead of a cake. I bought the crust, bought canned pitted dark red morelli cherries at Trader Joe’s while visiting my mom and made the pie filling from scratch. Usually I make the recipe where you toss the cherries and a bit of juice with some sugar and instant tapioca and then throw it in the shell, but of course I was out of instant tapioca (this is one of the few recipes that I use it for) so I had to do the filling where you boil the juice with cornstarch to thicken it.

Actually since I used 2 cans of cherries, there was plenty of juice left over, so I thickened it up with a little bit cornstarch and added some extra sugar and put it in the fridge to be used over icecream, pancakes or cake later. Yum! One tip for making cherry pie-even if the recipe doesn’t call for it, add about a 1/2 tsp to tsp of almond flavoring and a dash of lemon juic-it really adds to the flavor!

There you have it, not exactly low calorie but very yummy~and hey, it was for a birthday.

Tomorrow, the Hummus!

*If you click on the link and go to the article about Baumholder, you will notice that it says there was a major deployment of troops from 200-2001. I don’t know about that, but I know that while I was there almost the entire post (including yours truly and DH) deployed to Bosnia/Herzogovina in 95-96 for 10 months as part of the intial force going into that country.

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Filed Under: Holidays Tagged With: Birthdays, Food, Frugal Celebrations, Homemade Treats, Recipes

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Comments

  1. annab says

    August 18, 2006 at 7:53 am

    Sounds yummy!

    Reply
  2. Mom2fur says

    August 18, 2006 at 8:04 am

    Oh, man, you’re killing me. But it would be a happy death after eating a feast like that! I bet your husband felt like he was in heaven.
    I think that a lot of Europeans are thin for the same reasons as the Germans–they walk everywhere!

    Reply
  3. Mom2fur says

    August 18, 2006 at 8:24 am

    Hi, Jenn. You asked about my book proposal. If I could figure out how to e-mail you I’d tell you about the books I’ve written. I don’t want my real name on a public blog, of course. But the ‘book proposal’ is for a suspense thriller series aimed at the Young Adult market. I have written mostly horror novels (my friend calls them ‘light horror,’ LOL, because they aren’t as weird as Koontz or King) and I have also written 3 middle-grade reader books about immigrant children. And if anyone’s wondering, I’m not rich…which is why I’m sorta frugal, LOL!

    Reply
  4. Amanda says

    August 18, 2006 at 10:28 am

    Wow, the dinner sounds delicious! I am so jealous, and hungry right now. You sure do have a lucky husband!! šŸ˜‰

    Reply
  5. Evelyn says

    August 18, 2006 at 5:24 pm

    My sister gave me a spetzle maker, and wow, do I love it!!!! Wish I could have been there to share the meal with you!

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says

    August 18, 2006 at 7:39 pm

    Happy Birthday to me!!!!
    I am a lucky hubby SIL – but you already knew that a long time ago!
    Schnitzel, spetzle, a ride on my new-used Hog and a cruise in one of my old Buicks – topped off with a kiss from my lovely wife and kids! Life IS good!

    DH

    Reply
  7. Anonymous says

    November 2, 2006 at 9:56 am

    hey, came across your blog–do you know of any restaurants in the Norwich/Binghamton area that do German food by any chance?

    Jim

    Reply

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About Frugal Upstate

About Frugal Upstate

I’m Jenn –an Upstate NY wife, mom, blogger and veteran. I talk very fast, read constantly, take on too much and make plenty of mistakes. I’m a real person, not perfection. I love to talk about the frugal lifestyle, ā€œVillage Homesteadingā€, living a more sustainable lifestyle and being prepared for all the curves life throws at you.

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