Schwein und Kurbise....

WELCOME TO OKTOBERFEST!!!

This past Saturday, our local German Heritage Society held an Oktoberfest celebration and invited the German exchange students and their host families to join in the festivities. It was a lot of fun, although I left early and missed out on a lot of it. Aaron stayed and mingled, and his idea of having the roast hog with potato sauerkraut went over VERY well. Before the hog, we had bratwursts, which, although they had been thawing for a day and a half, were frozen together in a massive ball.

I decorated the tent in the Bavarian style, as it should be considering Oktoberfest's heritage. (Bayern ist ehrfürchtig!) It looks lovely if I do say so myself.



We were all supposed to bring a dessert so I made pumpkin bread pudding. I also made Sunday hard rolls, of which I should have taken a photo. They were SOOOO yummy! I was going to make pretzels, but they get soggy if they get cold, and they don't taste Bavarian because I don't dip them in lye (and probably never will do!). The bread took me over 3 HOURS to make, but it was SOOOO worth it! I was actually sad to take them to the party. The Cowboy said that when the hog came, the German girls were all very excited (because the bratwurst they had were kind of scary!) and kept whispering "Schwein! Schwein!" Then a few of the girls asked Aaron if there were any more rolls left because they wanted some more...unfortunately, they were out, but it made me feel good that they liked them! You just can't get German bread in the States, and American bread can't compete!

It was a very chilly day, but luckily there was a fire to warm oneself up to,

and the exchange students seemed to enjoy participating in their first ever pumpkin-carving. Unbeknownst to most Americans, not ALL countries celebrate Halloween.

I think that they may have thought the pumpkin guts were a little gross...

and didn't really understand why these crazy Americans carve pumpkins in the first place!

There was, of course, a contest for best design...

presided over by the Judge himself.

It was cold, but a fun day to be had by all!

Auf Wiedersehen!