Oktoberfest

2023-24 School Year–Week Four

Fun things first! We took some time out of our school day today to go to the library and visit our town’s Oktoberfest as long as we were downtown!

Ladybug read about the expansion of the early church in religion. She used the trig table to solve for an unknown in pre-calculus. In writing, she came up with a conflict for a story. She read about Jeong Jung-bu and the overthrow of the Goryeo Empire in Korea. There were even more comma rules in grammar. In physics, she started learning about two-dimensional vectors. She continued her literature study of The Hound of the Baskervilles. We also started reading The Two Towers.

Chickadee reviewed everyone’s favorite, long division, in math. She started a chapter about muscles in science. We started reading Felicity Learns a Lesson. She learned about Justinian and Theodora in history, and then moved on to the Gupta dynasty. In grammar, she reviewed simple, progressive, and perfect tenses. We read my favorite parts of Anne of Green Gables, when Anne cracked her slate over Gilbert’s head, and when Diana inadvertently got drunk when she came to tea. We also baked the Chocolate Goblin’s Food Cake from The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook:

“I just grow cold when I think of my layer cake. Oh, Diana, what if it shouldn’t be good! I dreamed last night that I was chased all around by a fearful goblin with a big layer cake for a head.” –Anne Shirley

Sartorial Saturday–Mother-Daughter Dirndl Wearing

I think by now it’s obvious that I love wearing a dirndl, but I love even more that it’s something I’ve been able to share with Bunny, who received a dirndl on her 18th birthday last year.

I love how she adds her own personal style to how she wears it!

We even had a chance to get dressed up and go to our town’s Oktoberfest last fall:

I’m so happy she shares my interest in the culture of our ancestors!

Oktoberfest (Finally!)

It’s a little later in the month than I would have preferred, but today we finally had our annual Markel Family Oktoberfest! It was a beautiful day, and I thought it was very fitting that we sung a hymn in church this morning that I remember my dad singing in German while I played the piano when I was a child.

I was excited to have a dirndl and lots of edelweiss accessories to wear this year:

When we got home from church, we had our traditional Oktoberfest lunch of fondue with brats, German pickles, and homemade pretzels:

I made most our dinner of schnitzel, spaetzle, rotkohl, and sauerkraut from scratch (the sauerkraut was the only store-bought item).

For dessert I made our favorite Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte:

Oktoberfest is a lot of work…like an actual holiday’s amount of work. But it is a holiday for us, and I love having a way share my heritage with my family!

Sartorial Saturday–Oktoberfest

For the first time, I had national dress to wear to Oktoberfest! I went with my newest piece from Rare Dirndl, the Herbology dirndl, and I dressed it up with my fanciest apron:

I planned my outfit carefully, including some lovely Edelweiss accessories and a not-quite-Alpine hat:

I even painted my nails in lovely fall colors for the occasion!

I decided to try something different when it came to footwear…I went with ankle boots, and I love how they went with the outfit!

I’m really happy with how this look came together!

Here’s a pair of photos from the event:

And some pictures of the event itself:

It was so much fun to be able to dress for the occasion!

Tasty Tuesday–Jäger Sauce

I don’t always make Jäger sauce to go with schnitzel, but when I do, this is the recipe I love!

  • 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 white onion, diced
  • 1 8 oz. can sliced mushrooms
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 beef bouillon cube or 1 tsp. bouillon granules
  • 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
  • 4 oz. sour cream

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Sauté a few minutes until onions are soft. Add water and bouillon and simmer for about 20 minutes. Combine cornstarch and sour cream and stir into sauce. Cook over low heat until sauce thickens, taking care not to boil. Serve with schnitzel.

Oktoberfest 2021

For the second year in a row, we didn’t get to go to the inaugural Great North American Oktoberfest in St. Louis (and at this point, I’m kind of thinking that the event will never happen), but we did have a happy Markel Family Oktoberfest at home! I started last week by assembling all of our favorite German foods from Aldi’s Deutsche Küche:

For lunch, we had cheddar and beer fondue with homemade pretzels, German pickles, and Nürnberger Bratwurst, plus more pretzels with beer mustard and nacho cheese sauce for those who don’t like fondue:

Dinner was schnitzel with optional Jäger sauce, spaetzle, sauerkraut, artichoke and cheese strudel, and red cabbage with apples:

And dessert was, of course, Black Forest cherry torte:

I also had a fun Oktoberfest celebration with my neighbors in Animal Crossing: New Horizons:

It wasn’t quite the Oktoberfest I had hoped for (again), especially after I derailed our pretzel-making to go to Urgent Care to have a splinter removed (that was unpleasant!), but it was a fun day of celebrating our German heritage!

Oktoberfest 2020

This year’s Oktoberfest celebration was a weird one, which I guess shouldn’t be surprising in 2020. Normally, a Markel Family Oktoberfest is an at-home event. We listen to our Germany’s Greatest Hits CD, make some of our favorite German foods, and watch The Sound of Music and any episode of Rick Steves’ Europe set in Germany (or the Alps) we can find.

But this year was supposed to be different. The Great North American Oktoberfest was going to have its inaugural event in St. Louis this fall, and I had Plans. We were going to spend a day downtown, and listen to music and try out the rides and I was going to eat a steckerlfisch and maybe buy an authentic dirndl. And then COVID-19 happened. So we were back to our traditional Oktoberfest at home, which happens to be a very nice event. I started my shopping at Aldi a few weeks ago:

We made pretzels (of course):

And fondue:

We played Ticket to Ride–Germany:

We had a traditional German dinner

And our favorite German cake for dessert:

I even got into the spirit of the occasion in Animal Crossing: New Horizons!

So we had a fun day. Like so many other things this year, it wasn’t exactly what I had planned, but I’m glad we already had a tradition in place so we didn’t miss out on anything familiar!

The Top Five–Things I’m Looking Forward to in 2020

Here we are, at the beginning of a new decade! I thought it would be fun to come up with a “Top Five” of the things I’m most looking forward to this year. I kind of wish I had something really big on my list, such as a family vacation like the one we took to Florida in 2018, or a trip to London, but I really don’t need grand events to come up with things I’m excited about! So here are the things I’m thrilled are coming up in the next year (more or less in chronological order):

  • Lego Modular Bookshop–I always look forward to the release of the new modular building on January 1st, but I’m especially excited about this year’s set, because like the Pet Shop, it is a building in two halves, which will offer me lots of options for displaying it on my Main Street! Actually, I was so excited about the set, I was in line outside the Lego Store 20 minutes before they opened this morning, just to make sure I got one of the 29 sets they had in stock (I did)!
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons–I feel like I’ve been waiting for a new Animal Crossing game forever. Sure, I’ve played (and enjoyed) Pocket Camp for the last two years, but it’s not a full game, and it’s just not the same. So if you’re looking for me on March 20th, I’ll be living the island life with my animal friends!
  • Katheryn Howard: The Scandalous Queen–One of the highlights of every year for the last several years has been the release of the latest book in Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series. We’re nearing the end, with the last book set to come out in 2021, but until then, May will be a great month for reading for me!
  • Tokyo 2020–Everyone knows I love the Olympics, and I’m especially looking forward to this year’s summer games, because our whole family has an interest in Japanese culture. It will also be a bit bittersweet for several reasons, including the fact that it will be the closing bookend on Turkey and Bunny’s homeschool summer school experience (summer school began in 2008 with the Beijing Olympics), but in spite of that, it’s still going to be a fun time!
  • Great North American Oktoberfest–I actually thought this event, which is the first in what appears to be an annual event traveling to different cities, was going to be held in 2019 (and, as it turns out, I was right…originally it was scheduled for last year), so you can imagine my disappointment when we didn’t get to attend. I’m hoping that it won’t be postponed again, and I will be able to enjoy this experience in St. Louis in the fall!

A Markel Family Oktoberfest

Yesterday we celebrated Oktoberfest! This is something we do most years, but not always on the same date, and it definitely doesn’t always look the same (some years, we go pumpkin picking on the day of our Oktoberfest celebration, but it’s still a little too early in the fall for that). Here’s a look at this year’s festivities.

We started the day with a special (but not specifically German), fall-themed breakfast:

We made pretzels from scratch, which is always fun, and they went perfectly with the German fondue I prepared for lunch. We also had pickles and mini bratwurst for dipping (or just for eating, because the boys aren’t big fans of fondue), plus a delicious cheese and artichoke strudel I found at Aldi:

For dinner, I made schnitzel (also from Aldi…they’re the best frozen schnitzel I’ve ever had, probably because they have saltines in the breading), Jäger sauce, spaetzle, red cabbage, and sauerkraut:

And for dessert, our favorite German cake…Black Forest cherry torte:

We spent the day watching The Sound of Music (I know, it’s set in Austria, but Oktoberfest is a chance to celebrate part of our family’s heritage, and my grandfather was from Austria, so I think it works), and every episode of Rick Steves’ Europe set in Germany that we have. We also played Chrono-Trek, which really has nothing to do with Oktoberfest, but is our current favorite game, and so much fun to play. It was a great day!

Prost!