Traditions: New Year's Day

Before I realized I would be spending all of New Year's Eve and the beginning of New Year's Day in a maternity ward, I had planned to cook my grandmother's traditional New Year's Day dinner: Sauerbraten, potato dumplings and german red cabbage. I was also going to try some popovers from a recipe found in one of my under-the-tree presents.

Sauerbraten takes three days to marinade and 4 hours to cook, so when I arrived home at 9:30 am without having slept in over 24 hours, I didn't really have the option of changing dinner plans. Instead the meat went in the oven and I took a 2 1/2 hour power nap. Luckily b helped out and we managed to whip together the improvised potato dumplings and cabbage. Alas the popovers didn't make it. I had planned to serve 3 different homemade ice creams (thanks to another present b and I gave to ourselves): raspberry, coffee and cinnamon. Due to the amount of time it takes for the ice cream maker to refreeze, the cinnamon ice cream didn't make it either.

Nevertheless, dinner was quite the success. A very tired Pumpkin (who spent the day packing after her power nap) and BB came over to help us eat it all. Below are some photos of the process.

The Ingredients (recipe calls for juniper berries)

The Browning of the Meat

Marinating Meat Needs to be Turned Daily

Preparing the Potato Dumplings (Dumpling Flour Wrapped Around Croutons)

Cooked Sauerbraten Sans Ginger-Snap Sauce