Beethoven

There is a nice children's non-fiction series called Enchantment of the World.  Each book in the series covers a different country with lots of pictures, some history, some culture and some interesting stories such as this one. 

According to the book, Beethoven was quite a slob.  One night in Austria he was picked up by the police for generally being a disreputable looking vagrant.  When they asked his name he said, Van Beethoven.  That REALLY upset the police.  How dare this scoundrel say that he was the great Beethoven?  They threw him in jail and he was there for three days before his friends came to the rescue and established his identity.

Church Bells

Went to the temple today and the lady I went through for was from Austria!  Love little miracles like that.  Afterward, I climbed a real mountain. No particular destination, but several trail heads are near our house and I like to hop on and just hike for half an hour up or whatever and then back down.  One of the things I like best about living in Ogden is the beautiful mountains--there is a spot when I walk to work that looks just like a postcard from Austria. Anyway, somewhere in the city is a church with a bell carrillion.  It began to play as I was hiking.  This is something that happens in Europe ALL the time, but I don't hear it here very often.  I think bell music is magical and hiking in the mountains whether in Utah or Austria or anywhere else is magical too.

Yodeling

Today I climbed an imaginary mountain to hear the cowherds yodeling to one another.  They were great--and in my imagination they had even dragged those huge alpen horns up the mountain with them.  If you want to learn how to yodel, you can check out a surprising number of sites on the web. While you get those vocal chords warmed up, here's a very lame joke to entertain you--
Knock Knock
Who's there?
Little old Lady.
Little old lady who?
Hey, I didn't know you could yodel!

Hallstatt

    Today I'm in Hallstadt.  A tiny storybook town on a lake.  It has a population of 1,200 and looks like it came straight out of a Disney fairy tale.  Oddly, this little town was the salt-mining capital of the world about 3,000 years ago.  It was so important that a big chunk of Europe's history is called the Hallstadt period.  (This according to Rick Steve's Europe throughthe back Door)  I absolutely need to come here.  It sounds like it's easy to find a charming bed and breakfast and then you can spend  your days hiking or rowing on the lake and eating terrific food.  You can even tour the world's first salt mine--and you get to dress up in miner's clothes to do it. 
    By the way, the cake from Siegfried's was as fabulous as I had fantasized--a white cake with cream and raspberry filling in the middle and the whole thing smothered in marzipan.  I don't know where Catherine get's her self-control, but her piece is still in the fridge.  She's running a terrific risk by leaving it there. 

Siegfried's

Oh dear, nothing's changed in 20 years.  When we went to Germany, Austria and Switzerland on our honeymoon the fabulous food was THE major focal point.  Both of our journals mentioned the wonderful sights we saw of course, but the really detailed descriptions were about the food. I haven't changed.   Today, I get to go to the Salt Lake airport to pick up someone for work, but the IMPORTANT thing is that Salt Lake contains Siegfried's Deli. Siegfrieds contains wurst and bread and chocolate and all kinds of imported wonders.  Today I'm going for a loaf of real german rye, a pound of aufschnit (a sampling of deli sausages), three pieces of cake with lots of layers and marzipan, and Mozartkugeln.  I've been looking forward to this and thinking about this FAR too much I fear.

A word about the Mozartkugeln.  Mozart is ALL over everything in Austria.  The kugeln are chocolate truffles wrapped with a picture of Mozart and you can't walk two steps without passing someone selling them in Vienna.  To tell the truth, they're not my favorite, but all chocolate over there is good by definition.  I think I saw some for sale here the last time I was at Target.  Check it out next time you're there.

Polka

Whew! Stressful day at work!  But I've put on some polka music in the background.  VERY difficult to take anything too seriously against a background of polka music.

Rouladen

I wonder if there's any real difference between Austrian food and German food?  I'm guessing not much, I think each little village/region develops its own specialties.  In any case, I was talking to my friend, Mary Hansen about the wonderful things my German mother made while I was growing up.  I told her all about Rouladen and she actually went home this weekend and made some!  She said they were great, but she will use less pickles next time. Way to virtual travel!  Here's the recipe that's been passed down in my family.  Internet versions are quite similar and one of them claims that a serving has 999 calories.  Darn it, that's probably a conservative estimate.  :)

Get some thin cut flank steak or rump roast or any kind of beef roast and have the butcher cut it horizontally in about 1/4 inch thick slices.  Take the raw slices and spread them all over the counter driving the cats insane with longing.  Spread each piece with yellow mustard (spicy is fine too), salt and pepper each piece, top each slice of meat with a small slice of raw bacon, some slices of raw onion and a sliver of pickle (I like sweet, but dill is fine).  Roll up each piece of meat from the short end and tie it up like a present with sewing thread or thin twine (twine is easier to remove).  Then take an electric skillet and fry up the meat rolls with at least one whole stick of real butter--feel free to add more.  The big secret is to fry up the rolls really really really dark (Mom does it much darker than what is pictured here).  Once the rolls have absorbed all the butter and look as though they may burn, add a couple of cups of water to the skillet and keep cooking.  If you have time to babysit the skillet, keep this up all afternoon until dinnertime, adding two or three beef boullion cubes throughout the cooking time.  (Once the meat is good and dark, everything is cooked through and is edible, but the longer you let them simmer the more tender and delicious they will be).  If you'd rather not babysit, once everything is dark enough dump all the meat rolls into a crock pot.  Add water to the skillet and with a spatula scrape up all the meat drippings pour all of that in the crock pot too.  Just cover the rouladen with water.  Add three or four beef boullion cubes and put the pot on low.    At dinnertime fish out the rouladen and cut off the twine. Make the gravy by pouring all the liquid into a pan and thickening it with cornstarch.  Add more beef boullion cubes until the gravy tastes good and rich.   Serve the rouladen with mashed potatoes and plenty of the gravy.