Duck, Duck......Goose!

So, Gropius has wanted for years to cook a goose. He remembers his Tante Babette cooking Christmas goose, but apparently his father was very attached to the goose he fed as a boy that eventually became dinner. So, no goose!

Gropius finally got his wish and we had a proper Weinachtsgans with all the trimmings for dinner last night. We co-hosted the dinner with Derellek and got to serve all the dishes that we can't make on Thanksgiving or Christmas at either parents, as well as some traditional favorites.

Hellen came over yesterday afternoon and helped us by arranging beautiful flower arrangements and ironing napkins while Gropius and I worked on the food side of things.





Hellen also printed out menu cards for each of the 8 place settings of us sitting down for dinner (Derellek, Todd, Delia, Fiona, David, Gropius, and me).







Our meal started with mango-rose water cocktails, spicy almonds, and indian-spiced popcorn.



Then, we moved on to roasted goose, baked apples, rotkraut (red cabbage), wirsing from the German side and roasted turkey, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, sausage-chestnut dressing, and green beans with shallots and walnuts from the Texas side.



For dessert, we enjoyed Hellen's "chocolate cake," raspberry-pear gallette, stollen, and chocolate-chestnut truffles with coffee and cordials.

It was a wonderful "Thanksmas" dinner--Hellen thinks it might just have to become an annual tradition!

Molcajete

We have been searching for a molcajete for our kitchen for several years now. Any trip near the Mexican border has involved a search for one that was heavy enough to be autentico but that also didn't cost an arm & a leg.

We finally found one and after the appropriate amount of seasoning with onion, garlic, rice, heat, etc. it was ready for use!



and later in the guacamole-making process: