Lunch with my classmates was so nice. There were 10 of us at the Firehouse, including two spouses. Lorraine Schmitt Schaap, Bob Guse, Diana Brown Jurista, Nancy Gallagher Roehre, Ken and Barb Richter, Joe and Sharon Ehren, Elaine Evanoff and me. Not too bad on three days notice. The Firehouse is always a good place to go. The food is tasty and the atmosphere is pleasant.

After lunch, I stopped at Mother's for just a few minutes. The guys have started the work necessary to intall the washer/dryer we got for her.

I am very tired tonight so this will be short. Only two more days left in 2005. We are spending a quiet evening here at home. We invited Mother for dinner on New Years Day. I am fixing Schlitzhagen with mashed potatoes. I need to decide what to have for dessert.

Did I ever tell you the Schlitzhagen story? Years ago, Dad was a good friend of a man named Fitzpatrick, who owned Fitz's Tavern on Broadway in Sheboygan Falls. They had a bowling alley in the basement and served dinners. Their chicken dinners were very good I guess. Anyway, Fitz asked Dad if he had any use for chicken broth. They preboiled their chicken for the dinners they served and had buckets of the stuff that was otherwise just tossed. Dad would occasionally bring a bucket home and Mother became very inventive.

One of the recipes was Schlitzhagen. She would mix up a meatloaf mixture, roll it into meatballs, flour and brown the meatballs and drop into the hot chicken broth and cook til the meatballs were cooked through. It is just great over mashed potatoes or noodles. We called it Schlitzhagen. Schlitz because the broth came from a bar and Hagen because we liked the sound of it.

Have a nice Thursday.

Love

Mary