German Baked Apples Bratapfel takes me right back to childhood! I don’t think at the time anyone thought of them as being particularly “German.” They were, like so many recipes that were ubiquitous to the Midwest, just a part of small-town, down-home cooking. Baked apples appeared a lot-at our table for dessert.

Sheet Tray Sausages with Onions & Grapes
Every once in awhile I come across a recipe that defies every known law of cooking! That’s this one. Sheet Tray Sausages with Onions & Grapes. It has a handful of ingredients, one admittedly a little strange, that you might have at home. It’s no effort, drop-dead simple and ready in about 35 minutes. And it’s so absolutely delish you’re gonna be flabbergasted by how good it is. Sound like a small miracle? Yep. And we all need small miracles every now and then.

Obatzda – Bavarian Cheese Spread
Yanno what’s happening now? Octoberfest. A celebration that I usually don’t think about much, or when I do I think about it until too late. I think that’s because it’s not in October, at least most of it isn’t. Octoberfest runs from mid to late September until the first Sunday in October. And so every year after Octoberfest passes, I think “Wow” I should have made something special to honor the German heritage that comes down from my Grandpa Herman. This year, I did. I made Obatzda – Bavarian Cheese Spread.

Braised Pork Roast with Sausage & Cabbage
Usually, I think of long, slow cooking like Braised Pork Roast with Sausage & Cabbage in the fall, but a pot of this glorious dish couldn’t be better on a cold, winter night or a drizzly spring day. This is like Sunday dinner extraordinaire! You might want to try to make this sometime this spring (I’m posting this is March) before it gets too warm for a hearty dinner.

Ground Beef Noodle Bake
I’m not sure what made me think of this old-fashioned recipe…I’d call it comfort food. I don’t think my Mom made it but it was always around at someone’s house. I made it way back when I was a young Mom. I always called it Ground Beef Noodle Bake. I suspect it has roots in the German Kugel but became “casseroled up” in the U.S., much the way our “American Goulash” did.