pretzels

Martinmas

Last year, we celebrated Martinmas (the commemoration day for St. Martin of Tours) for the first time by making Martinsbrezeln (German sweet pretzels) and reading Snow on Martinmas. I really enjoyed this pre-Advent holiday, so we celebrated again this year, with more Martinsbrezeln:

And an added craft…Martinmas lanterns. After all of these years of homeschooling, this was my first experience using Mod Podge, and it wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought! The lanterns turned out really well, and are so pretty with the candlelight shining through them!

This is a very natural addition to our rotation of observed Saints’ Days, as Martin Luther and (I assume) Martin Chemnitz were both named in honor of Saint Martin, as their birthdays are both adjacent to his commemoration day. It’s also a fun way to break up the conclusion of the endless green days of Pentecost!

Family Oktoberfest 2023

Today I finally got around to preparing our annual family Oktoberfest! Of course I had to wear a dirndl…I think I wore five of my six dresses to various Oktoberfests this year!

I didn’t make fondue this year, but I did make pretzels, and I even experimented with making a few larger ones. I need to work on rolling them out a bit thinner, but they were good!

Of course I had to celebrate in Animal Crossing, too:

I made our favorites for dinner…Schnitzel (which at this point, I think I’ve perfected!), spaetzle, and rotkohl. I still haven’t been brave enough to make sauerkraut from scratch, so that was store-bought. I did make Jäger sauce this year, though!

Yes, our house smells like a German restaurant!

For dessert, I made our favorite Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte…I wouldn’t dare make something else!

This is always a delicious day!

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!

Tasty Tuesday–Homemade Pretzels

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I mentioned that we had our family Oktoberfest celebration recently. The format changes some from year to year (we picked pumpkins this year, which was a nice, new addition), as does the date (anywhere from late September to, well, any point in October), but the children have a favorite activity that we make sure to do every year…make pretzels! It’s a fun, child-friendly activity, and everyone can enjoy the results (they’re especially delicious with the cheddar and beer fondue I also make every Oktoberfest!). If you’re interested in adding this tradition to your family’s celebration, here’s the recipe I use:

  • 4 tsp. active dry yeast
  • 1 tsp. white sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups warm water
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • 4 cups hot water
  • 1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two more tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease baking sheets.
In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in 4 cups hot water; set aside. When dough is done rising, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape (other fun shapes can be made, as well). Once all of the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda-hot water solution and place pretzels on baking sheets. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
Bake in preheated oven until browned, about 8 minutes.

Tasty Tuesday–Oktoberfest 2013

Over the weekend, we had our annual Oktoberfest celebration. It’s nice to have one holiday with a somewhat fluid date, so that I can fit it into our schedule, instead of the other way around!

We made soft pretzels, and a cheddar-beer fondue to dip them in:

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For dinner, there was Jaeger schnitzel with noodles and sauerkraut:

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And, the real star of the day, Black Forest cherry torte for dessert!

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Wunderbar!