My Big Fat German Dinner

I grew up enjoying big family dinners with my grandparents... with lots of meat and potatoes.  My Czech grandma would whip up duck and dumplings with gravy, pickled beets, sauerkraut and homemade rolls.  All my aunts, uncles and cousins would sit around the table, listen to Polka music on the radio, and discuss current events including the crops in the field, the price of soybeans, and small-town gossip. Those dinners are some of my favorite memories from my Czech-German family.

Now I am a mother who wants to preserve this prized family tradition of dinners together, including the food, the music and the conversation.  My grandparents are no longer alive, but I am lucky enough to have a wonderful relationship with my husband's grandmother who holds the same generational traditions and menu.

This week, my husband's grandmother is our guest from Iowa.  Her name is Gerda, but everyone calls her Granny.  She is a German immigrant who brings a rich heritage of world history, family history and many traditions to be honored.  During Granny's visit, my husband and I decided to host a German dinner for some of our California friends.  Granny made her delicious sauerbraten; I made my mom's German potato salad. Add some red cabbage, applesauce, asparagus, Black Forrest Cake, wine and friends... and you have yourself a German dinner. We also wanted to honor the details of our traditions, so we set a formal table with Granny's dishes from Germany, I added candles and flowers, and then I played some Polka music from iTunes.

Two couples were invited to share the experience, and the mix of their backgrounds and heritage made the dinner even better.  The friends from Ohio and Chicago loved the throw-back to their childhood meals; the native Californian, with a German grandmother she never knew, just loved the chance to dine and talk with Granny; and the friend from Iran loved trying new food and discussing world politics with another immigrant.

My Big Fat German dinner served its purpose: friends from all over the world gathered around a table, enjoyed delicious German food, talked and shared stories, and appreciated a time-honored tradition of a family dinner.  Most important, we shared a family tradition with our daughter, the next generation.

Prost!

This is an original  Silicon Valley Moms Blog post.  When I'm not eating sauerkraut and dancing to polka music, I'm blogging at Laptop Television Mom. 

Photo Credit: Torsten Seiler