"I'm a stomach on a mission!"

It was the summer of 2001 and I had just graduated from college, my family was taking a 'Hall Family European Vacation' - move over Chevy Chase the Hall's are on the scene ... !  We went to London, England; Paris & Lyon, France; Lucern, Switzerland; Salzberg, Austria; and Munich, Rothenberg, Heidelberg, Ulm & Neu Ulm, and Frankfurt, Germany!  We had a great time!  It was an amazing vacation - on many levels, but the food and drinks consumed were one of the most exciting aspects!  Oh that Fondu in Switzerland; the Pub Food and Cask Ales in London; the Salad Lyonese in Lyon; the coffee's; the wines; the fresh food market's; the Beer at the Hofbrauhaus ... etc ... I could go on and on...

Right, so it was lunch time, and we were outside of the walled city of Rothenberg, Germany when I caught my father on video calling himself "a stomach on a mission"!  Laughter ensued, and still does from time to time when this saying is brought up in conversation.  But the truth is, the food is my father's favorite part of a vacation - being local to wherever we are at the time, the more interesting and the more expensive the better!  He instilled in me, and my entire family, the fabulous joy of trying anything at least once.

If I'm being entirely accurate my Granddad actually instilled this idea in us and my father (and mother) fostered it.  While I don't recall my Granddad actually saying this, the sentiment has remained and been ingrained in the brain (and is now being passed onto yet another generation - my nieces), "TRY EVERYTHING ONCE!"  How will you know if you do or do not like it if you are not even willing to try it once?!  And so ... a family of "stomach's on a mission" have been living, trying, exploring, cooking and eating for years!

Now my father might be the 'stomach on a mission' part of this blogs equation, but my mother is the one who taught me how to cook!  Half Italian, we grew up with a lot of Italian food yes, but we also grew up with a number of German foods gracing the table, as well as a myriad of "American Foods".

My folks had lived in Germany for three years, my father being in the service and being stationed there, so there were many dishes that friends of mine had never heard of, unless they came over to my house!  Rouladen, or as we call it 'Pickle Steaks' with homemade Spatzel ... oh yeah!  And Christmas is not Christmas without our Racing Stripe Cookies - more commonly known as Linzer Schnitten 

(I must check some of my spellings in this post...)

But I digress, my mother taught me how to make many things - from scratch - including, but not limited too pancakes, a breakfast food I'd cooked often enough that when I was living in London and wanted to make pancakes for my friends one morning, I was able to recall the recipe without much effort.  I started putting things into a bowl and before I knew it I had pancake batter.

Now, as adults, I find that my brother and I share recipes often - or at the very least, pictures of our newest cooking creations - and LOVE to cook new things while the other is about ... showing off our skills in the kitchen, and our everlasting love of trying new things - as a chef and as an eater!  :o)

Why I am now sharing it with "you" ... I don't know, seems like a fun idea!  And perhaps a way for me to obtain some new recipes from others out there ... ?  I'm guessing my posts will be a mixture of memories, cooking/food diatribes and recipes - oh yeah, and pictures of what I make (I do love photography as well, I'm a gal of many talents and likes ... we only live once ya'll ... )!  At least that's what I envision the blog to be, at this moment in time!  :)

At any rate ... visit when you can/want ... and enjoy!  Oh, and always TRY EVERYTHING ONCE!

Stay tuned for more.