Weinachtsbaum Hunt 2009

Last year for Christmas we decided to get a live, potted tree so that we could use it again the next Christmas. Sadly, our little Christmas tree didn’t fair too well over the past year. It is slowly dying from the bottom up and now only has a few boughs of needles at the top. In my effort to be more green, I failed to consider my lack of a green thumb.

Since we were going to be here this year for Christmas, we needed to have a full sized tree and needed to get it early, before the baby came. So last weekend we set out for a Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree. We went to a Christmas tree farm out in Pech.

Germans generally put up their Christmas trees much later than we do in the States. Some follow tradition and still wait until Christmas Eve to put up their tree. They pick out the tree in advance and tag it with their name in order to reserve it until Christmas Eve when they will come and cut it down.

We liked the idea of cutting down our own tree, but unfortunately we couldn’t find a skinny enough tree to fit in our apartment. They were all quite fat at the bottom and a bit Charlie Brownish. Not having shopped for a Christmas tree last year, I didn’t realize that this was the norm. In Germany, they don’t do much grooming of the trees. They look much more natural rather than the full, perfectly cone shaped trees in the States.

After thinking about the differences between the German and American cultures, it makes a lot of sense that Germans would go for the natural tree look. They eat natural and organic foods, take a more natural or holistic approach to medicine and even like to swim au natural. Whereas Americans want the perfect tree to go with their Botox, pill popping and preservative laden food lifestyle

I spent a day looking for Christmas trees at the various DYI stores in the area and decided that Knauber had the best tree selection. Jim and I went back that night and found a nice skinny tree. The best part about a more natural tree was that Jim could carry it all by himself.

While we decorated the tree Jim drank some Glögg (sweden's version of Gluhwein) that we had been given to us by some Swedish friends. Even though he was the one drinking, it was his clumsy wife who broke an ornament. Jim had just said that he thought too many of my ornaments were fragile. Of course, I disagreed with him and then seconds later dropped a hand painted ornament which shattered on the floor.

Successful 1st Turkey Day

Last Friday we celebrated Thanksgiving with a Swedish couple from Jim’s work. I decided that for my first time entertaining on Thanksgiving I’d invite a couple who didn’t know anything about the American Holiday. That way if anything didn’t turn out, they would have no idea what it was supposed to taste like or compare it to their great Aunt Bessie’s recipe. Plus we only have two additional chairs so our entertaining is generally limited to one other couple.

I decided to go the route of a turkey breast rather than the whole turkey. I figured that most people like the breast meat the most and with my tiny oven I’d have to have a rather small turkey. I also didn’t want to have another overcooked turkey like last year’s Thanksgiving attempt.

I brined the turkey in a salt and brown sugar solution at my mother’s recommendation, and it turned out beautifully. After brining, I slathered it with some herbs and put it in an oven bag to cook. I couldn’t believe how flavorful and moist it was, even the next day. I’d definitely recommend the brining technique.

The rest of the menu was pretty traditional and basic with sage stuffing, sweet potatoes topped with caramelized pecans, green beans with toasted almonds and a warm cranberry sauce but surprisingly everything turned out really well. I think it was the first time entertaining that I was pleased with everything I served.

I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin pie. My slice is generally slathered in so much whipping cream that you can’t even tell there is pie under there. So for dessert I decided to make a French Apple Tart from cooking light. It looked quite pro for the non baker that I am and was very tasty along with some vanilla ice cream.

All in all it was a successful Thanksgiving. Jim said that it was the best Thanksgiving he’d ever had. I’m not sure though if that was because I had a knife in my hand at the time or that he is smart enough to know that he should tell his very pregnant wife who has cooked and cleaned all day that it is the best food to ever touch his lips.