Last week we shared some big news with the boys….we’re going to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  That’s right, watch out Europe, the boys are coming!  Josh took the day off work (already planned for other reasons) and he went to the German Meat Market here in town.  Among the sausages bought he also got some authentic Bavarian pretzels.  We gave the boys pretzels for their snack when they got home from school and had them make the connection to figure out where they were going.

The rest of the weekend was spent eating other German food, practicing German vocabulary and talking about travel in general.  Jack is my worrier so he wasn’t thrilled at first, fearing the plane could crash over the ocean.  After more talk about all the food they could eat he is warming up to it!

Sunday morning after having weisswurst for breakfast the guys were all outside.  Josh was working in his garage and the boys were playing in the yard.  I took advantage of the quiet and poured myself some prosecco with pear liqueur.  After all, we had breakfast and not brunch so I didn’t get my morning bubbly yet!

Then I pulled out all my German cookbooks, some in German, some in English and one hand written from recipes my host mom made while I lived in Germany.  I had some quark in the fridge I was itching to use.  My first thought was for a quarktorte, similar to cheesecake but lighter.

So here I am, sitting in the family room looking through recipes.  Sean comes in the door, without a shirt on.  I asked him what happened, his reply was “my brothers took my clothes off”.  Like that was believable!  So I sent him out to get his shirt and put it on.  He returns, walks around the couch to put his shirt on when I discover that he is COMPLETELY naked!  The couch blocked my view earlier, I assumed he was just missing his shirt.  Long story short, he goes back out to get his clothes, wet from playing with the hose and eventually is full dressed again.  Is Europe ready for this bunch?!

Back to my quark.  At this point I’ve decided I don’t have enough quark for a torte.  Plus two of the boys were going to a birthday party that afternoon so we really didn’t need more dessert in the house.  Nothing like a reality check to kill my cake buzz.

No fear though, quark makes a great dessert served simply with fruit.  My host family would have this for dessert after lunch sometimes.  I love how quick and easy it is!  It’s kind of like having pudding only you don’t need to cook it.  Plus quark is low fat and fruit is healthy so really it’s the perfect dessert.  You only need to add a little sugar, even less if your fruit is already naturally sweet. Listen to me justify this indulgence!

Quark can be a little tricky to find.  I got it at Whole Foods.  If you can’t find quark, there are alternatives.  There are recipes all over the internet on how to make it yourself.  It’s relatively easy, but I found an even easier solution.  After I made this the first time it was of course in high demand.  Because I wasn’t heading to Whole Foods anytime soon I took cottage cheese and blitzed it in the blender.  It doesn’t taste quite the same as quark so add a little extra cream, not much.  I found that to be a good substitute, and I don’t even like cottage cheese normally.

I chose to top it with blackberries because I still had some in the freezer from when we picked them last summer.  I’m slowly using some of my hidden stashes since it is getting close to berry season again.  I hoard the berries I pick!  The second time I used peaches and blended them up into a sauce.  Really any fruit works, whatever you like and have sitting around.

If the boys have it their way quark with fruit will become a regular item in our house.  I can’t blame them, it really is delicious and so easy to make.  As for other uses for quark, you can expect to see some kind of torte or cake recipe in the future.  You can also expect to see other German recipes as I prepare the boys for their adventure overseas.