Oktoberfest: The Meat

While we managed to serve the perfect amount of both pretzels and beer at our Oktoberfest celebration, we bought twice as much sausage as we ended up cooking. We had way too much meat, and a good chunk of it is sitting in my freezer. Not a bad thing, just a classic case of me overestimating what we needed to serve; I would always rather have a little too much.

We served meats from Werner's (Cheddar Bier Brats, Polish Sausages, Bockwurst & Weisswurst), Bichelmeyer Meats (Garlic Knockwurst & Hot and Spicy Knockwurst), and Krizman's House of Sausage (Bratwurst and the sausages they make for Oklahoma Joe's). The overall favorites appeared to be the Hot & Spicy Knockwurst from Bichelmeyer (which were actually both hot and spicy), the Oklahoma Joe's sausages from Krizman's and the Polish from Werner's. I simmered all of them in either water (with onion for flavor) or beer until we were ready to grill, and then they were grilled by people more skilled in the grilling arts than I. They were all delicious.

Totally worth it was schlepping around in the car to all three places, talking to the people behind the counter and really feeling proud of the foods we had to serve. I always remember that KC is a great town to eat in, but sometimes it takes a hunt for great local something to remind me what fun eating here is as well. By the third stop, I would ask the boy what we were there to buy and he would exclaim "MEAT!" It was a crack up.

I think our first annual Oktoberfest will not be our last.

(Stay tuned for my next post, featuring potato salad with ungodly amounts of bacon.)

Werner's
5736 Johnson Drive in Mission
913*362*5955

Bichelmeyer Meats
704 Cheyenne Ave in KCKS
913*342*5945

Krizman's House of Sausage
424 North 6th Street in KCKS
913*371*3185

Oktoberfest: The Pretzels

I made 64 miniature soft pretzels for our Oktoberfest party on Saturday night and not one of them made it to the end of the party. I'm glad they didn't; when you're serving 5 different types of really tasty beer, it's best to have some pretzels on hand to soak it all up.

I'm so craving soft pretzels today I might just have to whip up a non-miniature batch and eat one right when it comes out of the oven. They were so soft and chewy and salty and delicious it was easy to overlook how horribly shaped they were. We had many a laugh during our marathon pretzel baking session about all the poor horribly misshaped little pretzels that we had created. They were like little Frankensteins - really delicious Frankensteins.

Despite the work involved in baking them - they were worth it. The dough comes together easily, and rises easily, but right about the time you're putting your 4th or 5th batch in the simmering baking soda bath to poach, you start to think that maybe they're not going to be worth all the work. You're wrong, silly person. They're totally worth it.

(Click here for the recipe, which came from Martha by way of Smitten Kitchen.)

Oktoberfest

We've been planning this big Oktoberfest party for over a year. Late last summer we had a long meandering conversation about having a big party in our backyard with beer and sausages on the grill and how we could finally use our outdoor firepit and how wonderful it would be to celebrate our favorite month, October. This party has been in the back of my mind since then. It's been really really big, and then a little more manageable, and now it is almost here. I'm very excited.

I'm making obatzda, and soft mini pretzels, and soft pretzel sticks, and we've got sausages out the hoo-ha (from Werner's, of course), plus a bunch of different kinds of mustard. I'm even attempting my Great-Grandmother's German Potato Salad recipe for the first time. I'm hoping to make Lena proud, but am expecting to be a little disappointed. Nobody made it like Lena.

Expect a wrap-up of that next week - with recipes and photos!