Mooing Mom

Today I cleaned house....and so what? you might ask. Well it has been a very, very long time since I have been able to stand on my legs to be able to accomplish that and while I am paying for it tonight, it does feel really good to have floors mopped and bathrooms cleaned, dusting and vacuuming accomplished, and general order. I am hoping that my legs will have continued improvement too! You never know how much you take for granted until you don't have it or it doesn't work properly!

This evening I made rouladen for supper - but it still had about an hour to cook when Rich came home and so it is still cooking. However, we went out to Ryan's for a quick bite. I sure wish Rich would find someplace else that he likes! LOL

As I made the rouladen my mind wandered back to my Mom. When we moved to Germany when I was a kid none of us spoke ANY German and Mom just treated it like one big adventure. We lived on the "economy" just like the missionaries and we didn't have access to any American products like our military friends. We had also gone there with only 44 # per person - about what you could put in a suitcase. But Mom created a wonderful home for us and worked really hard to learn what German food products were so that she could prepare meals that we would enjoy.

One day Mom and Dad went to the local farmers' market for produce and other items for our family. Lining the market were some "metzgereis" (butcher shops) and Mom decided to venture out of her comfort zone and get some meat - she specifically wanted beef and she was a little leery that she might get horse meat of something else. However, because she didn't know the word for beef (or really anything else at that time) she had to resort to pointing at what she thought was beef. However, as the butcher started to put her selection on the scale she really began to think that she needed to be sure that this was indeed beef. She tried asking him but he didn't speak a lick of English - nor did he understand her. Both the butcher and Mom tried to find someone who knew any English but there was no one...so as the transaction continued finally Mom resorted to the only thing that she could think of to verify that this was indeed beef - so she started mooing. The butcher was startled at first, and I think he was probably a little confused, and you can imagine how others in the market reacted too. Mom said that at one point she wondered if German cows actually mooed the same as they did in America - or maybe the Germans didn't express it the same way that we did...nevertheless...she continued to moo until the butcher got the point that she was trying so hard to make - and yes it was beef! LOL

Mom made wonderful rouladen and I don't even know where she learned how - I don't remember it until we moved to Germany - it could be that she had some in a restaurant and she just tried to duplicate it...but wherever she came up with it, she did it beautifully. And, it sounded so good tonight...but I guess we'll have it for lunch tomorrow. I wish I could just call her up and talk to her...sometimes I believe she had the wisdom of Solomon and I could sure use that right now...besides the sheer joy of just talking to her. Oh well, I still talk to her...I just don't hear her response.