Sitzfood: Krautburgers! (Relax, It's Not An Ethnic Slur)

I noticed recently on Facebook that my cousins AnnaLisa and Josh had been making Krautburgers, and I thought it was time for me to get in on the fun! For those of you who don't know what a Krautburger is, it's basically a cabbage, beef, and onion-filled turnover, and they're apparently a staple in every Sitzman's diet. I used to think that Krautburgers were German, but while in high school we invited my German friend Lars over for dinner and he'd never heard of them. Also, living in Germany for two years showed me that they don't really exist there, and in fact the name wouldn't make any sense at all in German. So I did a bit of research for this post!

According to the recipe, these things are called "Cabbage and Hamburger Turnovers" or also "Bierochs." Here in Costa Rica I described them as "empanadas," and I know that the fast food restaurant in parts of Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa calls them Runzas (hence the restaurant's name). In any case, the Krautburger doesn't seem to be German, but instead Russian-German, passed on by the so-called "Volga Deutsche," or the Germans who came to the U.S. via Russia. Apparently, that's where most of my old man's family originally came from.

The name "Krautburger" appears to be something that was tacked on in the area near Greeley in eastern Colorado, where my dad's family is from--but please don't tell anyone! In fact, the website www.krautburger.com is registered to a restaurant in Evans, Colorado. I think I may have to make a visit next time I'm in Colorado! There are also other websites with recipes for Krautburgers. In the end, you just need to go with what you feel in your heart when you make them, so this post will show how I approached the Krautburger-making process from start to finish.

The Krautburger recipe that I had is an old copy I got from my mom, and it's credited to "Mrs. Harold Miller, Independence, Kansas, Colony Neu Norka":

"Gott sei Dank" is right, Mrs. Harold Miller!

It calls for all manner of tasty goods, dividing the dough and the filling into two parts. I later got a copy of a recipe from AnnaLisa that mentioned something like a 60-minute roll dough, but since I have no idea what that is and I'm sure they wouldn't have it in Costa Rica anyhow, I had to make the dough from scratch. If you're doing that, it's best to start with the dough and while that's rising, to make the filling.

Most of the ingredients (The coffee --or booze-- is critical, as this is a long process)

To start the dough, you need to scald a cup of milk. That sounded suspiciously like "burn a cup of milk," but my mom told me to just put it in the micro until bubbles form, but before it boils:

You'll want to mix that hot milk with 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 Tablespoon of salt, and 1/2 cup of shortening (I used vegetable shortening, since it's what's available here): 

Now you need the yeast. This was the downfall of my first attempt, since the yeast here seems to suck. In any case, you need to mix a cup of lukewarm water with a packet of yeast. Yeast isn't sold in packets here but according to my cookbook, that's about 2 and 1/4 teaspoons of yeast:

On your next visit to the Costa Rica, bring me some good yeast, please.

Let the yeast bubble up for a few minutes, then mix it in with the (cooled) milk mixture. Add a beaten egg and then three cups of flour. I used half whole-wheat and half regular flour:

So you add the flour to the mixture, and eventually add up to 3 or 4 more cups of flour (making the total between 6 and 7 cups of flour):

When it's mixed well, turn it out onto a floured surface and start kneading. This is the boring part. I can't explain why, but I hate kneading.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes or so. You know the drill. Then set it aside and let it rise until it's doubled in size. This can take anywhere between a few hours and eternity, as was the case with my first dough attempt. I think the yeast must have been bad. So this whole meal preparation actually carried over into a second day:

The first batch of dough after 24 hours, just sitting there like a yeasty turd.

The first batch (above) didn't work, so we had to postpone Krautburgerfest for a day while we waited to get more yeast on a trip to town. The second batch turned out fine, though:

The second batch after 5 or 6 hours.

OK, so we'll get back to the dough later, but now let's look at the filling. You'll need a head of cabbage, 4 onions, a pound of hamburger, a bit of oregano, and some salt and pepper. It's also time to start thinking seriously about your prep music. I like to make my Krautburgers like my forebears: while listening to Poison and Def Leppard:

Of course you can substitute with Journey or Foreigner if you want your Krautburgers to be a bit more mild. So, now you start chopping everything up and cooking it. I had previously cooked the ground beef, so I just had to chop and cook the onions and the cabbage:

I have major problems chopping onions, so this took a while since my eyes were watering like crazy. Ironically, as I chopped I heard Bret Michaels sing "Something to Believe In," and these words came up:

I tried all night not to break down and cry

as the tears rolled down my face

Sorry, Brettie Boy, but if the tears are already rolling down your face, it's probably too late to try not to break down and cry. Mission failed. 

Anyhow, chop up the onions and the cabbage. According to the recipe I have, you should cook them separately; the onions in 4 Tablespoons of butter and the cabbage in 1/2 cup of shortening. So, I did it that way, although I'm not sure how critical it is.

After the onion and cabbage are soft, you should combine the two with the cooked beef:

Now that's what I call "something to believe in."
Our kitchen smelled awesome, sort of like a Soviet restaurant.

Let the filling cool and later drain the excess liquid off (else it'll mess up the whole thing when you go to bake it). Turn your attention back to the dough now. It should have risen to at least double its original size. Punch it down and start rolling it out. My mom advised me to try to get the dough to about an 1/8 of an inch, but I think I must have missed the mark. The recipe said it would make about 28 Krautburgers, but I only came out with 13. Clearly I did something wrong, although the final product tasted fine, so who really cares?

The dough. A moment later I divided it into two halves to make it easier to work with. Roll it out on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch...

...divide into "squares" about 6 inches wide...

...put a large spoonful of filling into each square...

...then fold the corners into the center. Pinch them closed or else the remaining liquid in the filling will seep out onto the baking tray. I think this gave some of them more bread on the bottom, since you should flip them and put them on a greased tray before baking. Still, like I said, they came out fine, so all's well that ends well.

Put them on a tray and let them rise for 20 minutes or so while the oven heats up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit; that's about 175 degrees Celsius, according to our crappy El Salvador-made oven.

You can also mess around with the dough leftovers and the filling. I made a second batch with some of the leftover filling a few days later and tried out some new techniques. I also added some chopped jalape�os and cheese, which I thought was incredibly inventive until I saw that the previously-mentioned Krautburger restaurant had already beaten me to that idea.

So, once the oven is heated, pop a tray of them in for about 15-20 minutes, according to the recipe. I actually needed about 25 minutes all-told until they were nice and golden, but that may have something to do with the altitude or with our lahmarsch oven:

I'm sure you can adjust the dough-to-filling ratios to your preference, but these turned out quite well. I'd suggest accompanying them with some spicy mustard if you want to be all German about it, or alternately with some ketchup if you want to look like a culinary Philistine. Both are delicious.

Or you can just eat them plain, like Angela does. It's all wunderbar in Krautburgerland, so go nuts!   It's just that easy!

In any case, if you have any questions or comments or if I forgot any information, please tell me. And try making some yourself-- I'd love to hear any tips you might have! Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Ebooks

A new Ebook on the Monts d'Arr�e is now available from www.brittanyexpert.com (link opposite). The list now includes town guides, the Nantes-Brest Canal, Food and Drink, History Essentials and more. All proceeds help to support the Brittany Walks website. There is also a FREE well-illustrated Ebook called Brittany Basics, with a one click download.

Dry walk!

The weather was kind for an enjoyable walk around Chateaulin and the Aulne river yesterday afternoon. Thanks to Harold for taking the group in my continued absence, and to everyone who came along. Thanks to Chris and Barry for the photo.

Our next walk on September 6th is a fabulous megaliths trail from Erdeven in Morbihan: easy route and a stunning variety of neolithic monuments all along the way.

Names

A couple of weeks ago I shared an article about naming customs in Costa Rica. I had written it for my Sitzman ABC language learning blog, which is mainly directed at my students. However, many people who read Sitzblog seem interested in Costa Rican customs, so I shared it here.

I've now finished the second half, and it's about naming customs in the U.S. Most of the people who read Sitzblog are in the U.S.; if that's you, it still may be interesting to read. Alternately, you can read through it and pick it apart, calling me out on all the mistakes! In any case, if you want to check it out, here it is:

Different Countries, Different Names: The U.S.A.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Well, it took me longer than I imagined, but here's the second half of our series about naming customs. We recently looked at naming customs in Costa Rica, so today we'll look at names in the United States.

Generally speaking, the naming customs in the U.S. are sometimes similar to the practices found in Canada and some western European countries, such as the U.K. or Germany. Still, there are variations, especially from generation to generation. Because of that, you should only read this as a subjective explanation of names in the U.S., since it's based on my own personal observations of people that I have known and met while living there.

Names in the U.S.A.

In the U.S., most people have three names. We'll talk later about where those names come from. Unlike in Costa Rica or many other countries, there is no national ID card like a c�dula. Most people do carry some form of photo identification, like a driver's license or a student ID card, but carrying an ID is generally not required by law (unless, for example, you're driving a car, in which case you'd need a license). Now let's look at an example of two typical names in the U.S., one female and one male:

Sarah Marie Johnson

Matthew William Smith

As you can see, each person has three names. They're called the first name, the middle name, and the last name. 

First Name: The parents choose the first and middle names of a baby; when they do this, the verb we'd use is "to name." For example, I can say "My parents named me Ryan." If the parents give the child the same name as a relative or any specific person, you can say that the baby is named after that person. For example, "John was named after his grandfather." or "Tina was named after the singer Tina Turner." My parents named me, but they didn't name me after anyone--they just liked the way "Ryan" sounds!

Middle Name: There are some people (but not many) who have two middle names, and there are also people who don't have a middle name at all. Still, it's most common to see people with one middle name. However, in contrast to some countries (like Costa Rica) most people in the U.S. rarely use their middle names in normal interactions. I almost never use my middle name, and I don't know most of my friends' middle names. Most people see a middle name more as a "decoration," but not a very useful one! There is a notable exception, and that's when the middle name is abbreviated with an initial, as in "John F. Kennedy," "Michael J. Fox," or "Homer J. Simpson." Perhaps some people write their names that way because they think it makes them seem more sophisticated. Or, maybe they just like the way it sounds. In any case, it's still not as common as not using a middle name.

Last Name: This is where you can see the biggest difference between names in Costa Rica and names in the U.S. As we mentioned before, in Costa Rica a person normally has two last names; the first one is from the father and the second one is from the mother. In the majority of families in the U.S., everyone has the same last name. My last name is obviously "Sitzman," and that's also my brother and sister's last name, my dad's last name, and my mom's last name. How is that possible? Well, the majority of women in the U.S. change their last name when they get married. It's not obligatory, but it's still common for a woman to take her husband's last name after marriage. If a woman does this, the children would also automatically inherit the family's last name. Let's examine this a little more:

Names After Marriage

Men: Generally, when a man gets married, he doesn't do anything to any of his names. It's theoretically possible for a man to change his last name to his wife's last name, particularly if her name is prestigious or his is "bad" (if he were named "Peter Hitler," for example). In practice, this is very uncommon.

Women: When a woman gets married, she has to decide if she's going to keep the last name she got from her parents (this last name is also called a maiden name) or if she will adopt her new husband's last name. If she does the first option her name will remain the same with no changes. If she decides to adopt her husband's last name, she can either eliminate her maiden name, or she can eliminate her original middle name and replace it with her maiden name. Using our names from above, if Sarah Marie Johnson married Matthew Smith, Sarah could become either "Sarah Marie Smith" or "Sarah Johnson Smith." From what I've noticed, the second option is more common.

A third possibility is for the woman to "hyphenate" her last name. If she "hyphenates," then she uses her maiden name and her husband's last name, connected with a hyphen. Using our examples above, if Sarah married Matthew and wanted to hyphenate her name, she'd be "Sarah Marie Johnson-Smith."

Children: As mentioned above, it's most common for the children in a family to have the same last name as their mother and father, that is, the father's last name. Using our example of Sarah and Matthew, if they had a kid, they might decide to name her "Emily Rose Smith."
Another, less common possibility is to incorporate the both the parents' last names with a hyphen. If they do this, the child's last name would start with the mother's last name first and the father's last name second (in other words, the opposite order from Costa Rican last names). So the girl's name would be "Emily Rose Johnson-Smith." This is maybe less common because it's more complicated to decide what happens to a hyphenated last name if its owner gets married. (See this article for an interesting perspective on all this.)

Ways to Address People

It's sometimes a little difficult to know how to address someone if you're talking to them for the first time. If you're asking for someone on the phone, it's usually no problem if you want to use the person's first and last name, as in "Could I speak with Emily Smith, please?" If you know a person's title (such as Doctor or Professor), you should usually include those. If you're talking to someone face to face, it's often best to use a title and his or her last name as a show of respect. You could say "Hello Mr. Miller" or "Good morning Professor Johnson." Very often, people find this a bit formal, so the person you're talking will say something like "Please, call me Jane." If the person doesn't say that, it's still best to be cautious and use a title.

Titles for Men: Titles for men are usually not as complicated as titles for women. For most men, if you say Mister and his last name, as in "Mr. Smith," you'll be OK (or he'll ask you to simply call him by his first name). There are a few exceptions. If you know that the man is a doctor, you can and should address him as "Doctor Smith," and if he's a professor (meaning a teacher at the university with a doctorate degree), then you should call him "Professor Smith."

Titles for Women: There are three main titles specifically for women: Miss, Mrs. (pronounced "missus"), and Ms. (pronounced "miz"). Here are some guidelines:
Miss: Used for unmarried and/or young women, and generally followed by the maiden name
Mrs.: Used for married women, and generally followed by the husband's last name
Ms.: Used for married or unmarried women. If you don't know if a woman is married or not, this is a safe choice. Also, some women choose to use this as their title since it's really nobody's business but their own if they're married or not, and the title "Ms." allows them to keep that information private.
As with men, if you know that the woman is a doctor or professor, use the appropriate corresponding title instead of Miss, Mrs., or Ms.

For men and women, there's really no corresponding title to "Don" or "Do�a" in Spanish, since those are used with a person's first name. For example, no one would call me "Mr. Ryan," since Ryan is my first name.

One major difference that I've noticed as a teacher is how my students address me. When I taught classes at the university in the U.S., my students generally called me simply "Ryan" because I asked them to (I was only 24 or 25 at the time and "Mr. Sitzman" sounded strange to me). When I was teaching German a few students called me "Herr Sitzman" semi-ironically, but that's a different story. None of them called me "Professor Sitzman," though, since I'm not a professor (I only have a Master's degree in German). In Costa Rica, though, my students all call me either "Teacher Ryan" or simply "Teacher." It's pretty weird and annoying. I've eventually gotten used to it, but I still call my students "Student" until they address me as "Ryan." I don't even want to try "Mr. Sitzman" since my last name seems to give most people here nightmares!

So, I think that's it for now! Thanks for your patience if you made it to the end of this article! When researching for these two articles I came across some interesting statistics related to names, so I'll try to write a shorter post about that in the near future.

If you have any comments or questions, or if you're from the U.S. and your name doesn't follow these patterns, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Slideshow from Colorado Trip

I was going to put up some individual pictures of our recent trip to Colorado. That's a bit of work, though. Since no one mentioned any problems with viewing the recent slideshows of Pictures of the Day from June and July, I just decided to put up another slideshow of Colorado pictures, from the beginning to the end. Feel free to check them out, and hopefully there's something interesting in there for you!

Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

Git a Load of This

After visiting my folks I brought back a load of magazines to cut up for my classes. One of them was a diving magazine, and it contained an ad for an oil drilling company that was searching for divers to do industrial work:

Wait, did that actually say the ideal candidate will have "a git-er-done attitude"??

So this is what it's come to, eh? What a bunch of gits.

Sitzbook: "Siddhartha"

Three of the four versions I have of this book. It's a bit worrying that I have
that many copies of one book. Isn't that the type of thing crazy people do?

When I first read Siddhartha it was assigned reading for an Asian Humanities class in high school. I really liked it, and I guess that proves that not everything that you have to read in school is awful. In fact, I counted it as one of my top 10 favorite novels, at least until recently, when I decided to give a few books a second read-through to see if they were as good as I remembered them to be. The book was still good, but maybe since it was actually one of the few books I'd read more than once (at least one additional time each in German and English), it didn't jump out at me or seem as special as it once had. It may also have something to do with the fact that for the first half of the book I was alternating between the English, German, and Spanish versions. It's kind of weird, but since I somehow had acquired all three (and a fourth free version on the Kindle, I later remembered), I wanted to take advantage of them. For the second half, though, I was more eager to take advantage of a long weekend to get ahead on my Sitzbook project, so I blazed through the English version so that I could check out the Hunger Games series.

Siddhartha still does have some nuggets of wisdom, though, so I mainly wanted to write this post to include a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

(p. 52) �Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.�

(p. 113) ��When someone is seeking,� said Siddhartha, �it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal.��

(p. 115) �Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish [�] Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, like it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.�

Well, that's it for today. If you've read or re-read this book, I'd love to hear your take on it. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!