About this blog


Sauerbraten, Rouladen, Spinach, Spaetzle
I recently received an email asking "what the purpose of my blog was?" Other than the ramblings of a baby boomer, my purpose is to share some traditional family dinner stories from my past, and explore foods that were once considered elegant "classic foods," like Beef Wellington, Châteaubriand, Lobster Thermador, Steak Tartare (Cannibal Burger), etc., that have, for one reason or another, fallen from a once prominent position in food history. 
I will explore and  try to understand what we call "Comfort Foods" really are. What gives us that warm and fuzzy feeling at the mere thought of any of these comfort foods. Cuisine from other cultures has always been of interest to me, so we will explore culinary boundaries their impact on our lives.

Since this is a new project for me, I asked one of my cousins to look it over and give me some feedback. He wrote "I went to the Kartoffelklosse Project and thought it was wonderful, especially having had the same experience as you when we were little kids - just not as much as you!  I have vivid colorful memories of those dinners with Otto and Selma and the rest of the family.  I remember how amazing it seemed, how many people they served from that small kitchen. The dining room was the most important part of the apartment, where the food was showcased!  Remember when we, kids of 8 or 10 years old were assigned the chore of grating the raw potatoes and then squeezing out the excess liquid using cheesecloth?  We didn't like it much, but the end result was more than worth it!  Also, what little kids in the world would even try those "funny" sounding names of something to eat!  The rule around here when my daughters were growing up was they had to try everything once. Then, if they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat it. As a result, I could feed them some funny named dishes that most kids wouldn't touch because it didn't 'sound' good.  This includes some of the German recipes, Greek, etc.
This is really just the beginning still working on this page. I am also working on the sister site for this blog at 
http://theretrocookingguy.com/

© TMelle 1998-2011