SusieJ's Advent Calendar: December 16, 2008

The recipe: Aperol cocktail

What better way to celebrate an anniversary than with a new champagne cocktail? I first drank these with my Stuttgart family at my cousin's 30th birthday party, and have loved them since. They are quite easy.

The surprise: Krampus

There is — or was — a cruel streak in German culture. I mean, have you ever really read the Grimm's fairy tales? Grim indeed. Roald Dahl was a lightweight at devising horrific punishments for minor childhood infractions when campared to Struwelpeter. Merry pranksters Max and Moritz were ground to flour and eaten buy ducks.

Even Sata Claus wasn't spared. For Germans of a century ago, it wasn't enough that some children got no toys or perhaps coal, instead, naughty children had a visit from Krampus, a demon who travelled with Santa and would beat them. Nice, huh?

Starting off on the wrong foot

In college, I liked to cook for my friends and boyfriends (surprise). The recipes were generally simple, although once I did (successfully) make falafel.

One night, I decided to make barbecued chicken wings for my new boyfriend. He was thrilled: free, home-cooked food! He'd been living in the dorms and eating on the meal plan, which had awful food because the entire freshman class had to eat on the meal plan.

The recipe came from James Beard, and was straightforward: onion, basil, honey, tomato puree, broth, worcestershire, dry mustard, red wine. I didn't have all of those ingredents (looking back, I'm not sure I had any. Past meals where I substituted and skipped ingredients had made my cocky; ketchup substituted for the puree, molasses for the honey, the worcestershire and mustard were left out.

Whatever was in that pan had no resemblence to barbecue sauce. It was inedible, more so than any cafeteria food served anywhere.

We quickly changed plans and had dinner at Won, 214 S 40th St, then the only good Chinese food in University City.

Now my rule is: no substituting or skipping more than one ingredient per recipe.