So Many Dishes

Although three of my grandparents were Pennsylvania Dutch, and they all spoke at least a bit of the German dialect commonly called Pennsylvania Dutch, I only learned a few words. The only one I still use is the one I heard most often: Schluck.

The term refers to a small amount of drink, and can be translated as a gulp or mouthful, a swallow or a swig. I associate it mostly with my maternal grandmother. She rarely drank a beer, but she’d take a “schluck” of my grandfather’s. I’d hear one of my parents say, “can I have a schluck” of whatever the other was drinking.

Although his background is entirely different, Ken spent enough time around my parents and grandparents that he now uses the term regularly. I always hear it on an evening when he’s cooking. His mantra is, “if I don’t schluck, I don’t cook.” Because most dishes that he makes have a long cooking step, we end up having a small glass of wine—a schluck—during that time. Because I generally cook the sides, I earn a glass, too. Ken always pours into our “Prague glasses,” cut Czech crystal that we brought home after we lived in Prague over 30 years ago. They’re beautiful glasses, but we’ve only managed to keep two of the original six intact. There clearly was a weakness in the design; the other glasses broke at the top of the stem, with the bowl just popping off. So we treat these very carefully, but it makes that little quantity of wine extra special.

Tonight’s dinner was one of Ken’s specialties, Greek meatballs in a tomato sauce with Kalamata olives, and served over orzo. It’s definitely one of my favorites. I made the simple salad that is the standard side at one of our favorite local gyro spots: greens, chopped tomatoes, chopped red onions, kalamatas and feta. Usually I dress it with lemon juice along with good olive oil, but I have an excellent Greek citrus vinegar that’s just perfect for this, so I used that in place of the lemon juice. Dinner doesn’t get much better!

I hope your dinner was special, too. Happy eating!