My west coast brother has informed me that today is Ancestor Appreciation Day and also German Butterbrot Day. I do appreciate my ancestors. They were hard working immigrants who came to this country beginning, as far as I know, in the mid-1700s. One ancestor arrived in time to fight in the Revolutionary War. The family story goes that he escaped from Germany after being arrested for killing the king's deer. I like to think that he wasn't really a bad man, just trying to feed his family. Since my ancestors were almost all German (with a little Scots-Irish and French mixed in) I do appreciate them for many things including their good cooking. So it seems very fitting that I honor them for German Butterbrot, also being celebrated today. It turns out that, without even knowing it, I have been carrying on this tradition. Almost every morning my breakfast is a slice of toasted bread liberally buttered and sometimes with one more layer on top such as jelly or honey, and that is exactly what butterbrot is. Happily, I often have cinnamon bread from the Amish bakery which makes it even better. My spouse, on the other hand, is of Viking ancestry. I'm not sure if his breakfast choices reflect his heritage, but he certainly burned and pillaged his way through our Scrabble game tonight. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but he did win by 40 points. I have demanded a rematch.
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