It takes two tables in our home – unless you want to be cramped.
Thanksgiving was just yesterday…right?
Honestly, where does the time go? Before you know it, it’ll be time to pack that dang cottage on wheels again and turn the trucks south. That’s ok, though.
So our Thanksgiving dinner was missing Curt, Jamie and Eli. They were headed to Colorado to have dinner with Curt’s family. But, we gained a few to fill their empty chairs. “How would you feel about having a German at our Thanksgiving dinner”?, asked Jenna a couple of days before the holiday. Heck, I’m always up for company and told her, “Of course”! Then she said, “How would you feel about having three Germans here for Thanksgiving?” Jenna works with German interns at CLAAS and she felt bad they were going to be spending the day without family – and turkey. They’d never experienced an American Thanksgiving before. I looked at it as an experience for all of us! Well, as it was, only two were able to make it. The third headed home on Thanksgiving.
When the day arrived, Jenna walked in and said she had invited another “orphan” to our dinner – bless her heart. She had invited Mat from Garden City the night before. Well, he must have decided it was an ok plan because he loaded up early that morning and headed his pickup Northeast for the big town of Manley. This was gonna be some kind of holiday!!
When Matias and Lisa arrived, they came bearing gifts. Lisa handed me a bouquet of flowers as she walked in and said, “for the cook”. Matias’ hands were full of goodies – German chocolates, cookies and Nussecken (pronounced “Noose Achen”).
We did what most American’s did that day – ate WAY too much!! It took all day to finally feel like there was some room for dessert. At 6:00, Jim says, “You know…it’s customary to get all the food out again about 6:00”. “Are you HUNGRY”?, I asked. “No, but it IS customary”. Well, we decided it would be the perfect time, instead, to bring out the pumpkin and apple pies and Nussecken.
Lisa made this to share with her American hosts. “Lisa, this looks like A LOT of work”! “No, it’s not”. She told us it was a treat that is usually made at Christmas time and then proceeded to tell me how it was made. The best part of the whole conversation was listening to her and Matias trying to translate measurements and ingredients from German to English. She promised me she would share her recipe with me.
Matias, Jenna and Lisa
The day was a good day for all of us. Matias, Lisa and Mat helped fill the seats that would have been left empty and we gave them something better to do than just hang out in their apartments. What were they going to do as they left our house? Head back to Omaha and take in more American “tradition” – shop! Thank you so much, Matias, Lisa and Mat, for choosing to join our crazy, chaotic household for Thanksgiving. Please know you’re welcome to come back ANY TIME!
And…as she promised, Lisa shared her recipe for her Nussecken:
Original German NUSSECKEN
Ingredients
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar (1 tsp. vanilla extract)
2 eggs
130g butter (1 stick of butter)
apricot jam
½ cup sugar
250g butter (2 sticks of butter)
2 sachet of vanilla sugar (2 tsps of vanilla extract)
4 tablespoons water
400g chopped almonds (2 cups)
Chocolate
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla sugar, eggs and butter. Knead ingredients into a dough and roll it out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
- Brush dough with apricot jam.
- Melt the butter in a pot and add the sugar, vanilla sugar and water. Let it boil up briefly and stir in the almonds. Spread the almonds mixture on the dough.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Let the NUSSECKEN rest and cut into triangles. Cover the “corners” with chocolate. (chocolate almond bark)