Knoedel, roast duck and brussels sprouts

Our holiday dinner this year was simple, although still requiring monitoring and juggling. I had no idea how fatty a whole duck would be, having only cooked duck breasts before. Woody is still hoping for duck skin handouts (plenty to be had in the next couple of days).

The knoedel and Brussels sprouts were the standout; hard to beat roasted vegetables, but knoedel is a treat. 

I made it again this Christmas in honor of Tim’s Austrian heritage and his grandmother’s making it for family Sunday dinners, as well as for holiday ones.

I have an old recipe card that she typed up for me. Tim thinks now, looking back, that she appreciated my interest in cooking. I don’t think I’d actually made knoedel, though, until Tim and his brother became dual-citizens with Austria last year, reparations as their grandparents, father, and uncle had fled Austria for Southern California in 1939.

There’s much more to that story, but knoedel is the important element to me on this Christmas evening, linking us with family as heritage, as many of my relatives came from Germany and the Netherlands. And the roast duck honors that, as well as our part-time life now spent in Quebec, where duck is much more popular than here in the U.S.