Getting Ready for Out of Town Visitors

My parents are coming into town from Arizona tomorrow. I'm so psyched. I haven't seen them since the summer of 2007. I started my vacation today so I can bake lots of goodies and start cooking up German food for tomorrow's dinner. My mom's family came to the U.S. from Germany in the 1950s', so I was raised with lots of stick-to-your-ribs German food. These days, I make it on special occasions mainly because it's so time consuming to make everything from scratch.

While they are here, I want to spoil my parents rotten. I'm going to take them to the popular tourist haunts here in Northwest Arkansas. We're also going to the Beer and Bratwurst fest in the little town of Hermann, Missouri. Hermann is an awesome little town that was established by German settlers way back when. If you haven't been there before and you enjoy homemade food, hundreds of flavors of handmade sausage (after all, this IS a German town), wine tasting, antiques and shopping, you'll want to check out this little town. The small-town ambiance and activities make it the perfect trip for little weekend getaways.

The photos here were taken during my last trip to Hermann this past March. Check out all of the homemade cheese and sausage in the photo on the right. When it comes to good food, these people don't mess around.