German Meal Selections for Winter Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

German Meal Selections for Winter Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

When I lived in Stuttgart, Germany for fives years, I learned that from Oktoberfest through New Year’s was a time to do Kaffeklatsches (stöllen coffee cake and coffee get-togethers) and informal lunches and dinners, so you could shop, cook, buy gifts, and get ready for the holidays.

The following items could be mixed-and-matched to make up small sit-down dinners or buffets:

-Sweet white wines from the Moselle River region can serve as a cocktail in green-stemmed glasses

-White asparagus points on toast squares with mayonnaise as an appetizer

-Roast chicken – sliced and served on platters separated into dark and white meat

-Spätzle – Swabian (Baden-Wurtëmberg) egg and milk dumplings served wit grated cheese and butter

-Rotkohl – Braised red cabbage made with sour apples, red currant, jam, and butter.  This dish is slightly sweet with a tart edge.

-Sauerkraut – Sour white cabbage sauerkraut can become savory when roasted with goose and/or caraway seeds

-Apple Strudel with golden Sultana raisins

-Black Forest Chocolate Cake

-Pear Cider

-Apple Cider

-Stöllen coffee cake with strong German coffee and cream

To really appreciate German meals, you need about 3 feet of snow outside and an icy, Polar Vortex blowing on the windows.

Happy Holidays!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Ruth Paget Selfie

Advent - 2 Activities for December by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Advent 2018 Family Activities: Dec. 2 – 24 by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The following activities are a continuation of the 7 that I listed in a prior blog on Advent:

8-Read Rumplestiltskin Picture Book for Story Time

This fairy tale was collected by the German linguist brothers Grimm in the 19^th century.

9-Read Rapunzel Picture Book for Story Time

This fairy tale was collected by the German linguist brothers Grimm in the 19^th centry.

10-Make Paper Bag Puppets to Teach Etiquette

Glue faces of famous German speakers on small paper lunch bags.

Give 5 biographical facts about each German figure.

Use puppets to:

11-Teach children how to do introductions in German for Austria, Germany, and German-speaking Switzerland (They are all a little different)

Show how to do the introduction first in English and then in German.

Practice the German introductions.

12-Teach Children How to Ask Questions based on the biographical data that matches the puppet faces:

Show how to do the questions and answers first in English and then in German.

Suggested questions from biographical data follow:

Where are you from?

What is your alma mater?

What subjects were your favorites in school?

What places have lived in?

What places did you like the best and why?

What foods do you like best?

13-Do a Chocolate Fondue Party

Dip tangerine sections, banana slices, strawberries, apple slices or marshmallows in fondue made with Hershey semisweet tablets and heavy cream.  Serve cider as a beverage.

14-Play Twister in German to learn colors and learn to move around in a limited space

15-Play Operation Game in German to learn the names of body parts well

16-Play Bingo game in German to learn numbers in a fun way

17-Play Euchre (Napoleon) card game in German.  The object is to avoid being Napoleon at Waterloo.

18-Play Old Maid card game in German

19-Play the Rummy card game in German

20-Play Calendar Game Showing different famous sites in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Famous buildings, famous natural sites, famous natural dishes to eat, and famous people are what you should show.

21- Listen to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at the Exhibition.

This symphony is a musical response to Mussorgsky’s walk to and through an art exhibit.

I am pretty sure Germans like this symphony, because their winters are similar – very schlecht – rotten. They do many of the same activities.  They go to art exhibits, the symphony, films, and clubs for dancing.  They also read and write a lot in winter.

The following art activities could be done to do something similar to Pictures at the Exhibition.

Write poems or music in response to a painting or photo that a child or teen selects.

22-Watch the Fantasia video.

This video is supposed to be an example of art, music, and informed dialog working together. 

I think it is great for children of all ages.

23-Read the Gingerbread Man Picture book to children and make gingerbread cookies from scratch

Happy Holidays!!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Ruth Paget Selfie

Advent - 1 Activities for December -Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Suggested Activities for Austrian Advent (2018) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The following 23 activities for children, teens, and parents promote knowledge of the German – speaking world using the German and English languages to learn about Austria, Catholic Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Wurtëmberg), and German – speaking Switzerland. 

Advent 2018:  December 2 – December 24.

The activities below can be used one per day in addition to Advent Bible readings for adults and Christmas picture book readings for children and teens as fun activities after doing those two activites:

1-Watch the film The Wizard of Oz by Frank O. Baum

2-Sing Christmas carols in German and English

3-Learn to waltz to the music of Austrian composer Johann Strauss such as the Blue Danube

4-Do a “show-and-tell” map and globe activity with large photos showing geographic features and famous architecture of the German-speaking world such as:

-Countries

-mountains

-rivers

-lakes

-capitals and other famous cities

-agricultural areas

-famous festivals

-famous foods

5-Show tourism documentaries from the consulates of the German-speaking countries in English

6-Listen to a Peter and the Wolf audio

This Russian symphony for children was written in the 19^th century.  Young children listen to it to learn about different instruments.

German women were nannies employed by the Russian nobility while the French were tutors and cooks for the nobility.  Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace reflects part of this situation.  (War and Peace was also the first bilingual novel written in Russian and French.)

The above information can be given as an introduction to the activity that runs as follows:

A music teacher will say the name of an instrument, show how it is played, play the instrument, and say which animal in Peter and the Wolf is represented by the instrument as the teacher holds up a picture of a fox, for example, along with its spelling.  The teacher, then, plays the instrument.

As children and teens listen to the Peter and the Wolf audio, the music teacher holds up the instrument that each animal represents along with a picture of the animal and the spelling of the animal’s name.

I learned this Peter and the Wolf activity from my 4^th-grade music teacher in Royal Oak, Michigan.

7-Wilhelm Tell Picture Book Storytelling

Wilhelm Tell was a famous archer in the Swiss Middle Ages, who had to shoot an apple in half off the top of his son’s head to save his son.  Spoiler alert – Wilhelm Tell was a very good archer.

Read story and ask questions about favorite images and why children liked them afterwards.

Have children draw and color the scene they liked the most in the book.

Play darts with a target board

Show how to do archery and shoot arrows at a bullseye board

Write a small play based on the picture book

Perform the play written as a group for fun

Part 1 – To be continued up to Activity 23 on my next blog.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Ruth Paget Selfie

Permanent Film Festivals with Associated Scriptwriting Contests Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Permanent Film Festivals and Scriptwriting Contests (Usng France as an Example) Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Many British tourists visit Northern France, because William the Conqueror and his descendants were kings and queens of both England and France. 

Ferryboats capable of bringing tour buses and cars use the harbor in Calais to bring over tourists and businessmen alike.

This region might like to hold permanent film showings of Luc Besson films that feature music, multiethnic heroes and villains, and technology from all over the world.  These films are already moneymakers in France and part of the country’s contemporary culture.

Theatres and sports bars could both show these films.  (People could wear ear buds in sports buds to watch various films and sporting events that are supposed to earn residuals for reruns.)

Also, scriptwriting contests could be run in different communities with a prize of free coverage to best determine which films to make for profit.

The French government subsidizes film production and might appreciate:

-scripts with coverage scores for production

-business plans that address distribution venues and merchandise marketing, especially of French agricultural products and useful products associated with the film

Scriptwriting festivals are a way of getting films ready for competition.  Towns around northern France might like to specialize in a particular kind of film.

The towns that might be interested in a permanent film festival with scriptwriting festival include:

-Cambrai

-Lens

-Valenciennes

-Calais

-Douai

-Béthune

-Dunkirk

-Maubege

-Boulogne

-Arras

-Saint-Omer

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Ruth Paget Selfie