Lukas Schroeder reached out to me with some great news! Just in time for the Festival Season, the Bierkeller Boys are releasing their first CD… Dive In! This Polka playing Tuba Quartet has been entertaining people with their fun renditions of German Folk Music, Waltzes, Marches, and of course Oompah music at German venues and Fests across the Midwest. You…
Author: karenanne
The Origins of the “German” Dutch Baby Pancake Recipe
The “Three P’s” of German topics guaranteed to cause online arguments between normally levelheaded people are the German Potato Salad, the German Christmas Pickle, and the German Pancake. (Potato, Pickle, Pancake). It’s exhausting. All German Potato Salads are authentic. Regional recipes get passed down through generations. I will concede that your Oma’s warm German Potato Salad is tasty, but so…
Bryan Berenson- The Man behind the Masks
A few years ago, at German Fest in Milwaukee, I spent some time watching a man carve masks in the Culture Tent. He was swarmed by people watching his artistry. The way he carefully chipped away wood to reveal a face, as if by magic. You won’t find wooden masks or Larvae like the ones worn by the Muller Fasching…
German Cherry Streusel Cake Recipe
My husband did not want me to share this German Cherry Streusel Cake Recipe. Why? Because he loves it so much, he wants to keep it all for himself. But I explained to him that although it IS cake if I share it, plenty will still be left over for him. And besides, after baking it four times this week,…
Streuseltaler Recipe- Tasty Pastries with Fruit and Streusel
When I arrived at the Frankfurt airport, my daughter and I needed to fill an hour before our train. Fortunately, we found a bakery at the airport… so we filled the hour and our stomachs. I grabbed a fruit topped Streuseltaler because…YUM! A fruit compote, jam, or pudding sit on a yeast dough pastry, topped by crunchy sweet streusel, and…
The History of the Brandenburg Gate- A Berlin Icon
I remember the first time I stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate. On that drizzly day in 1988, the Gate stood behind a graffiti-covered section of the Berlin Wall. The backside of the Quadriga was only just visible from my low vantage point, the Iron Cross in Victory’s staff removed. The Gate, no longer in use, felt diminished- a…
Why is the German Chimney Sweep so Lucky?
You see him down the way, and your heart skips a beat with excitement… the man in black. He turns and gives you a smile, touching his top hat with a little salute, his gold buttons shining bright in the sunshine. You feel lucky; do you dare push it? Why not? You approach him, this German Chimney Sweep, and ask…
Top 10 Visited Pages on the German Girl in America Site for 2022
Every year I take a deeper look at under the hood of the German Girl in America website to get an idea of what interested all of you the most. I’ve been at this since 2014, and now with over 600 pages on the website (you read that right… 600 PAGES), it’s easy to lose track of things. Was it…
Christmas Eve Dinner in Germany – Würstchen mit Kartoffelsalat?
In the Netflix series Over Christmas (Über Weihnachten), the Christmas Eve Dinner is Würstchen und Kartoffelsalat (Sausages and Potato Salad). The Oma complains, saying that it’s also just the regular Thursday meal at her Old Age Home. But as her daughter points out, it’s Tradition; that’s what they’ve ALWAYS had; in fact, OMA used to serve it. The truth is,…