St. Martinstag

To celebrate St. Martinstag yesterday, I made a German-ish twist to a Creamy Beef Stroganoff (see the recipe below), sauerkraut, and green beans. Raj & I had some beer from the Galena Brewing Company (not German, but good). We finished the frozen store bought pretzels I had left from Oktoberfest (not the greatest, but they did the trick). I was going to make Apful Kuchen for dessert, but realized too late I only had one apple. It wasn't a big deal, we were full after the pretzels anyway!  We could've done our lantern walk last night, too, but I didn't feel like the lantern was quite done yet and it simply got too late to go before we realized it! 

Creamy Beef Stroganoff (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

1 (10.5 ounce) can beef consomme 1 tablespoon prepared mustard 8 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked and drained 1 cup sour cream

Directions:

In a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in flour and salt until blended. Stir in soup, consomme and mustard. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the noodles and sour cream; heat through (do not boil).

However, as it usually happens with recipes, I really didn’t follow this too closely.  I left out the extra salt, only had beef bouillon crystals, added some garlic, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, and parsely, and had to substitute for a lack of sour cream (with a mixture or cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and lemon juice - thanks to my very handy book Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference by Becky Sue Epstein and Hilary Klein).  And, to help boost the German-ish feel, I swapped the wide egg noodles for Spaetzle.  Even with all of the substitutions and deletions from the original, the final dish seemed to be intact.  It turned out pretty well and it was nice to try a different recipe.  (I should’ve reduced the amounts in the sauce though, I have waaaaaay too much left over and no more Spaetzle!)

So, we waited until this evening for the lantern, but we did that part of the St. Martinstag tradition, too. I used a guide to help get me started on a balloon and paper mache lantern, but once I read through it, I remembered that it really is pretty easy.  I only made one lantern, since *ahem!* NO ONE else was interested in helping and I didn't think it was quite reasonable for me to make three alone! (grrrr...) I tried to get Shawn excited about making or at least helping me make a lantern, but he was absolutely not interested at all.  (Sometimes he’s all about getting his hands messy, but lately it seems to turn him off completely. Bummer… in a way.)  Raj used Shawn as his ‘out,’ too.  Oh, well!  I had fun doing it!  Once it was done, Shawn (finally) got excited about it.  He helped Raj find a stick that we could use to attach to the lantern. 

(No, I didn't draw any of those pictures myself, they are clip arts that I've used on our lanterns for the past few years.
Wish I could claim them as my own, but not even close!
After paper mache-ing them onto the balloon, I used permanent markers to dress them up a bit.)

Once it got dark out, Shawn got really excited about going on a walk with the lantern.  Raj did express a little concern about looking strange as we paraded around the neighborhood, but I made sure to point out that Shawn and I had just returned from a short walk and only saw one person the whole time, and besides, who cares?!  The weather was still holding on to a few warm degrees before dropping into Chicago's sub-zero winter that is looming just around the corner. (Though, the gusting winds were a bit tricky at times.)  In past years, we've kept the lanterns inside due to weather.  So, we took advantage of the evening, and it was a lot of fun!  Shawn got even more excited about the lantern when he saw the green glow stick to put inside of it and then watched the whole thing turned into a radiant orb!

 My camera's flash was too bright to get the full effect!

Gusting winds and an excited 2 year old swinging the lantern around made it a bit tough to get focused pictures!

Shawn carried it for the majority of the walk, but I think the long stick got a little awkward to hold and maybe even a little heavy after a few blocks.  When we were almost home, and Shawn was starting to lose interest and slow down, I took the glow stick out of the lantern and the three of us took turns tossing the gleaming rod a few feet ahead of us and then watching Shawn squeal, giggle, and race to retrieve it in the darkness.  NOTE: Glow sticks + outside + night time = FUN!  (Duh!)  Once that happened, there was no way I was going to get the glow stick back into the lantern – even back at home!  So, Raj had fun teaching Shawn ‘light-saber’ sounds and Shawn was his fully-attentive student.

Next year, maybe Shawn will be more willing to get his hands gloopy.  Or, maybe I’ll find another way to make lanterns.  Either way, it’s fun in the end and I’m thrilled to be bringing back some of our old family traditions!