In Celebration of Oktoberfest and sixty years of Great Chairman Mao's Revolution tomorrow I'm hosting a small lunch gathering of friends at home. I provide all the food, they bring the drinks. College football and cut throat card games followed by USC vs. Cal at 5PM; if all goes according to plan I won't even need to prepare munchies for the Big Game.

If you know me you know I don't skimp on food. I have 5 kinds of Wursts from the local German deli Dittmer's (which I don't know how to cook but have an idea) and produce from local European Open Air Market The Milk Pail. I also have Black Forest Cake, BBQ and Onion Ranch chips, A&W Root beer from Safeway's; some things are better slow/organic/local, some are better factory made.

Only thing I forgot? Spices, for the German Red Cabbage. My recipe called for:

6 whole peppercorns
2 whole cloves
2 whole allspice
1 bay leaf

So I figure, "Mreh, I'll just run back to Safeway after dinner and pick up what I need." To my dismay--due to my ignorance in American home cooking--I found that I have to buy spices in little bottles with thousands of whole cloves or allspice or peppercorn. I only need two allspice/cloves. That bottle would make this recipe x500 times.

So instead of awesome aroma reminding them of the Holidays my guests will just have to suffer Chinese Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage, which coincidentally looks and tastes like German red cabbage.

Happy 2X Birthday, Aoife-Hime! I'm going to try to write you some fic this weekend, so look forward to that.

Edit: I'm panicking now because I have good sausage but don't know how to cook them. The internet has failed me with its conflicting opinions. I've seen beer/water simmer, grill, and pan fry, in different combination and order. HELP.