I have some good news to report today, some wrongs were righted and that is always a good thing.  I think I may have mentioned that my husband is cooking this year.  He’s a great cook when he wants to be because he looks up recipes and he follows them.  This is only mildly interesting to me because he makes some really yummy comfort food that he remembers from his youth, but the actual recipes he uses have been tweaked and modernized by today’s creative cooks and what he produces is probably much better than he remembers. While I view cooking as a necessary evil, he views it as something to be done well when he does it.  It’s a bit like a sport, sport cooking with Scott!  During our year of adventure, he is planning on getting us back on the healthy eating wagon, an admirable goal, and I support him.  I try to support him anyway and be nice at the same time but it really gets me down because nachos and cheese and crackers do not rate on the health-o-meter and if he’s cooking and shopping, that means I am not eating those little sweeties (at least not as easily).

Scott’s Tuna Casserole

I am the first to admit that I have really fallen far off of the wagon.   He is not without mercy, he buys dark chocolate bars (with nothing in them, no nuts, not caramel, not even any stinking sea salt) for us to split midway through our nightly game of Liverpool rummy.  It’s a bit of torture.  He invited me the grocery store a few days ago, invited me! And then he complained when we got back to our little apartment and there were bad things in the shopping bag (of course he happily ate them).  Do you blame me though?  We’re in Germany and I will be trying every food item I can get my hands on.  I need to sample all of the German food.  I will get my hands on those food items…I have my ways…like today.

I missed out on my Kaiserschmarrn a few days ago (Four Lessons and a Three Hour Tour) and I needed my Kaiserschmarrn, I have been on treat reduction!   I knew the kids would be on board so I suggested we take the gondola (that we had missed along with my Kaiserschmarrn) back up Laber Mountain and enjoy a treat for lunch.  They loved the idea and so did my husband but he’s thinking he’ll be sneaky and so he says, “We should hike up the way we came down (when we missed the gondola) instead of taking the gondola up.  Fine, fine with me.  I like hiking, I like exercise.  Exercise is why nachos and I get along (not here in Germany though, I think I might replace them with the incredible bread).  Here we are though and more than nachos, I love being outside in this crazy beautiful place and listening to my kids chatter up the mountain.  I just reason that if I am hiking up the mountain, then I am eating more, more yummy German food to sample.  We hiked up two hours of stunning, sweat inducing, trail.  We marveled at a paraglider and I learned more than I will ever need to know about cameras from my son as we huffed and puffed up the trail.  Oh and one lesson I did learn today; if your kid is big and strong and almost fifteen, he should be carrying the backpack.  That took me a while to figure out, probably because I have a calorie deficit going on these days.

Carry the backpack, son!

Laber Mountain boasts a darling restaurant at the top right where one catches the gondolas down (and everything is open and running today because I learned my lesson and checked the website) and my sweet little hiker husband had Bier and a menu of possibilities waiting for me.  Yes, Kaiserschmarrn is delicious as is Apfelstrudel mit Sahne (Apple Strudel with cream, I seriously wanted to lick the bowl clean) and Schnitzel and Pommes Frites (French fries) and sausages.  I got my Kaiserschmarrn and then some and I got my gondola ride.  Oh, I love a happy ending to a story and this was definitely a happy ending!  I do have to note though that we had watermelon and popcorn for dinner but that didn’t matter because I was still very full of delightful, German yumminess.  So, I guess that makes both a happy and healthy ending to the day.   Good job husband!

Kaiserschmarrn, Schnitzel und Pommes Frites

www.laber-bergbahn.de