Merry Sauerbraten

I hope you all had a happy and merry Christmas holiday. I spent Christmas Eve with Marga. You know about her from previous posts. We met a short time ago and one topic was what to do over the holiday weekend.

Marga said she wanted to prepare 'Rheinischer Sauerbraten' How to translate this? It is braised beef marinated for five days in red wine with raisins, almonds, cranberries and herbs/spices served with  cranberry/thick gravy, cooked red cabbage and potato dumplings - or plain boiled potatoes. Mmmmh...delicious!

 I had tasted this dish before, but not cooked in this Rhineland way. Marga comes from there, She learnt to cook it using her mother and grandmother's recipe. She later refined it with her own mix of herbs and spices. I was so full I could not eat the mince pies she had prepared. Here is a photo of the meal with our starter of Champagne. Zum Wohl!

I opened my presents and cards on the 25th, as usual, and you can see the many cards I received with some nice presents. Thanks to all who remembered me and sent them :-) I spent Christmas Day with friends = more eating and drinking.

In the evening I met Jan for a relaxing chat. It was great to see him looking so well and to hearing his news, He also showed me photos of the ship on which he had recently worked. Fascinating, and I was able to follow it all.  I went to bed very late - but very happy!