Cooking with my exchange student

We're hosting a German exchange student, Lena, for two weeks. In June, my youngest son, Nate, will stay with her family near Stuttgart for two weeks. I lived in Germany three different times: one summer as a high school exchange student in Bruehl; another summer in college studying German in Rotenburg ob der Tauber; and for three years stationed in Augsburg when I was in the Army. I learned a lot about German food during my time there, and even have a German cookbook that I frequently use.

Last night Lena and another German exchange student, Caro, made Kaesespaetzle for us as part of our dinner. Kaese is cheese, and spaetzle are a specific shape of egg noodle common in Germany. We had great fun translating ingredients (Speck is bacon; Zwiebeln are onions) while cooking. Even better was the final result: a hit with everyone.

We're extremely lucky here in the US to have access to a wide variety of ethnic foods. But having the opportunity to cook with folks from another country and learn how they make a popular recipe is priceless. Lena and I picked out an entire German meal we're going to cook together on Sunday. Stay tuned for the results!