We spent this weekend with my in-laws and I think I gained back all the weight I lost over the last 8 months. My jeans were tight when we left and I spent today going through chocolate withdrawal. In case you don’t have a German mother-in-law, visits to a GMIL could qualify as world class eat-a-thons. There’s bread, cold cuts, cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and super strength coffee for breakfast; then a nice big Braten (roast) with Knödel (dumplings) and cauliflower in Hollandaise sauce for lunch with pudding for dessert; 2-3 slices of cake with another cup of super strength coffee for Coffee and Cake Time; then more bread and cold cuts for dinner. Sometimes, breakfast also includes leftover cake from the previous day. Actually, dinner often includes leftover cake too. In addition to this, there will be a large plate of chocolates set in front of you the entire visit. It is not possible for me to ignore this plate, even when I am bursting at the seams. To make things better/worse, my GMIL learned that Americans like fried eggs for breakfast and that we often eat warm dinners, so in addition to the above food, she lovingly prepares additional eggs for me at breakfast and dinner (fried eggs qualify as warm). So basically, I just ate a couple dozen eggs over the last four days.
For my birthday, Rainer got me the book “Top Secret Restaurant Recipes,” and I decided that this week, I’m going to try out a bunch of the recipes. Tonight, we started with the Big Boy Cream of Broccoli Soup clone.
I might have had this before, but the last time I was in a Big Boy, well… I can’t remember when that was. I was definitely a small child at the time. Do they even have Big Boys anymore? Aside from that, the soup was delicious, and easy to make too.
For the next course, we enjoyed the Dive! Sicilian Sub Rosa clone with a side of the Hooters Pasta Salad clone. I’ve never been to either of these restaurants, I’ve never heard of Dive! in fact, so I can’t attest to how well these recipes “clone” the originials, but both were very good. Actually, the sub might even rate as awesome. At first I thought the pasta was a bit boring, but it grew on me. Both were kind of a lot of work though, so I’d rate them as good for the occasional splurge, but not as a regular menu item in the AmiExpat household.
I’ll get around to answering comments tomorrow. I wasn’t the only one going through withdrawal today, Oliver was having constant-center-of-attention withdrawal. Tomorrow should be better and I should be able to get a bit done. Cheers!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I think GMIL’s must go through some kind of training, because it sounds like they must have learned from the same source!! Who doesn’t love 7 meals a day??
I remember Big Boy’s! I am totally caked out from the in laws too:)
Yes, my friends in Berlin and Munich always want to feed me and Hubby like this when we are over visiting. Including the egg thing. Too funny!
Hi everybody! I just started reading last week and I wanted to tell you all that I am really enjoying the posts and comments. I will be moving to Germany in July and can’t wait to share my experiences.
Now I know where my family gets it– our German ancestors. In our family it would be embarrassing for someone to leave your home hungry, so there is ALWAYS food and lots of it– much like your GMIL experience!
Glad your back!
@tammy: I think Hobbits must have been modeled on GMILs!
@schokolade mädchen: I can’t even think about cake right now, I’m so caked out!
@maribeth: your friends do the egg thing too! I so can’t look at eggs right now
@JA: Welcome! We look forward to hearing about your experiences!
@maria: Rainer likes to remind me that my (Thai) mom does it too. Except she does it with seafood.
Hah! I just threw away three pieces of cake from GMIL (sent home with us on Sunday because, of course, none of us ate enough during coffee and cake time).
GMIL and GFIL live right next door – literally on two meters away. As you can imagine there were problems in the beginning (2-8 Tupperware containers sitting in front of our door per day which we were expected to eat), but we’ve been since able to work through those and now I feel my son is really lucky to have Oma and Opa right next door.
He loves to eat breakfast with Opa before he and Opa walk to Kindergarten together – I think those are memories neither will ever forget! Brings a tear to my eye!
Man your sub and salad look good! Rainer knows how to pick presents! For his benefit as well!
There is still Big Boy in Cincinnati at least – and there they are famous for their pumpkin pies! I’m heading back to the States in a few weeks – and can wait to get my hands on a Papa John’s pizza – they just can’t make good pizza over here!
Good luck with Oliver’s center-of-attention withdrawal… man oh man I’m so thankful to be out of the baby phases!
I wish we lived closer to our inlaws. I think it is really great for kids to have contact with Oma and Opa. We used to stay with my grandparents during the day while my mom and dad were working, so that’s important to me.
I used to crave Papa John’s, but we’ve got some really good pizza places here in Regensburg.
Oliver is still requiring 24-7 attention. He does not get over his Oma and Opa withdrawal as fast as I do. I did manage to get him to take a 2 hour nap this morning though – unfortunately, it was on my lap!
Oh man, lucky you with the good pizza places… I think sometimes it’s a holy grail search here in this area!
I loved those lap-naps, mostly because my little stinker hated to snuggle (just like his dad!) – even from the very beginning – and this was my only chance to snuggle with him!
At three he rations his hugs and kisses to 1 per day… he’s worse than a Beamter!
LOL! I guess I’m lucky that I’ve got a little snuggle bug. Or maybe that’ll change when he gets older – I better enjoy it while it lasts!