HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
One of the first countries to celebrate the new year was Australia. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of Germany's on TV as I was outside on our patio watching and listening to it all. At midnight the church bells rang from all the towns everywhere, including our town, with fireworks lighting up the sky.
Before all the New Year's Eve festivities began, we made a last visit to the Kreuz on the hill above our town in late afternoon of the 31st to
wish the Wirt and his wife good luck in the next segment of their
lives. They are leaving the Gasthaus for good and heading to Spain to
the Valencia area where they have rented a house. I feel sure he will
be working again before he knows it as he is a great cook and baker. Time will tell reference that of course. In the meantime, they are now looking forward to some stress-free days.
We nearly always sat at the table in that far corner under the windows.
On this occasion, we just had a drink at the Stammtisch with a Schnaps (Hans) and a liqueur for me on the house. (Two views of this delicious cherry liqueur shown below.) The Stammtisch is where the long-time or regular customers of a Gasthaus sit to talk over events of the day or year and to have a glass or two of beer or wine.
Two days prior to New Year's Eve we went to the Kreuz for our evening meal. The picture below shows the platter for one person with pork steak, mushrooms, French fries. It was enough for two! As we each had one of these platters, we took some steak home (and left behind some fries). The pork was as tender as can be with a great sauce. A salad accompanied it.
New Year's Celebration
On New Year's Eve we had Raclette, something we have had before on this date as it is easy to prepare and takes little time. As well, it is relaxing.
On New Year's Day, we had breakfast with several types of fish and sauces as well as a large Pretzel which is traditional for New Year's. Accompanying it, we enjoyed a bottle of Sekt (Germany's Champagne-type wine). Yes, it was breakfast--but late morning!
Our New Year's dinner in the early evening included the goose remaining from our Christmas dinner along with various vegetables.
Our Christmas Celebration
Christmas is now past. As always, it was quiet but traditional. Here are some of the dishes we enjoyed. First, our Christmas Eve supper. 
Hans sauteed the scallops and made a sauce which included tarragon, lemon, cream, a little white wine, butter, salt and pepper and a few capers. Wonderful! Well, the sauce was wonderful. The scallops were not as good as expected. There are two types and ours were not the ones we know so well from Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, ones we have had here in other years. These were called Kammuscheln, not Jacobsmuscheln. They looked perfect and were expensive but they were too soft and had no fibre. Next year we shall be more careful. We did, however, enjoy the meal.
The sauce and the good bottle of wine did overcome that as did the following dishes that are traditional for Hans.
Hans' potato salad with a fine German wiener.
Christmas morning we enjoyed a traditional German breakfast.
Our Christmas Dinner
This is a two pound goose breast and enough for two meals for two people with enough left for one more. We roasted it for two hours and it was perfect. The second meal was for our New Year's dinner.
With the goose, we served mashed potatoes, red cabbage (made from a fresh red cabbage) and Brussel sprouts and, of course, gravy made from the drippings. The large white ball on the plate below is a dumpling or Kloesse, nearly always served with goose and game here in Germany.
This year, we had a German red wine and it was very good.
To you all, a healthy, happy and prosperous 2017!
Happy New Year! You really know about German Christmas food tradition. Respect! It's a lot of work, and looks very tasty.
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