Lecker schmecker means yum yum in German... I think.

So my dad is TOTALLY excited about this whole German Oktoberfest situation. Perhaps even more excited than I am. Within a few days of announcing my little blog project a few months ago, Dad sent me a menu with probably two dozen German food options to choose from for the cookoff.

I'm just now becoming clear on where Dad's side of the family comes from (I guess his father came from Alsace-Lorraine - which I guess qualifies as German. I don't think we ever got a real straight answer about his mother... but he's now staking claim to Germany for her as well). Regardless, Dad has all sorts of memories of eating German food with family and friends as a child. At one point, probably when we tired of watching old men in lederhosen, Dad decided he would make us our own Oktoberfest and in those pre-Internet days headed to the Buffalo library to check out cookbooks with recipes that matched the memories of his childhood.

Fifteen years later, we're doing it again. We've decided to keep it fairly simple, settling on a menu of sauerbraten, potato pancakes, German potato salad, dumplings, red cabbage and black forest cake. Yes, this is a simple meal in my family.

We thought about getting some of our supplies at this awesome looking German store Dad found in the city (Buffalo that is - in Western NY, Buffalo is "the city" one refers to). But then we found out they don't have the cut of meat we need until October. So we'll be going to Wegman's instead. The site is still amusing. A pig snorts when you scroll over the menu.

Since you have to brine the sauerbraten for days in advance, we'll be doing that today.

In future cooking adventures, I anticipate posting links to the web sites I find recipes on in advance. But this time around I have pages and pages of copies from many different cookbooks I don't feel like transcribing - and I am not about to violate any copyright issues. So I'm not going to put the entire recipes up. I will put up all of the ingredients, and give you a general gist of how it was prepared when I blog about the cooking.

In other news, Grandma liked the blog. Score! She was cute and sent me an e-mail - yes Grandma e-mails and now follows a blog - about it this morning, saying it reminded her of when we all used to go to Epcot at Disney when I was growing up and ate our way through all the countries. This whole eating thing is nothing new in my family.

She also thought my story about Hohenwarth was pretty funny.

"Your memories of Hohenwarth are just as I had imagined the place must be," she wrote. "The pictures you brought back are more than I thought you would find."

I think it's pretty hilarious my family got to sit back and be amused as I cluelessly, bumbled my way out into the nothingness in the Bavarian Forest.

I also decided to post another picture from Hohenwarth since I have yet to master posting multiple photos with each post. If anyone is schooled in this matter, please advise.