Surprise, Tina!

This is my friend Tina.  She's awesome.  She just had a birthday the other day, too.  She has my blog with the apps on her phone so she can read it instantly.  When I don't post, she gets very upset with me. 

So, here you go, Tina! A post FOR you and ABOUT you!  :)

Tina was so kind to allow me to interview her earlier this spring for the Eureka paper. The story ran last week for Mother's Day.  I hope you all like it!

By Laura Melius

Keeping German traditions alive is important to Tina (Neuharth) Boe.  What better way to hand down her family’s heritage than through German foods?

Boe, a 1998 graduate of EHS and daughter of Charles and Marilyn of Eureka, now resides near Hatton, ND, with her husband, Dana, and their three children, Spencer (9), Lincoln (5) and Lillian (4). 

Since the Boe family is Norwegian, the German treats from Tina’s kitchen were a new experience for her husband.  Now, dumplings, knepfla, and kuchen are among their family’s favorite German foods.

“The kids call knepfla “little dumplings,” Tina said. “My oldest always requests dumplings for his birthday.”

Even though Tina makes many German foods, kuchen is her favorite to make because it reminds her of her grandma. Her grandma, Frieda Trautman of Eureka, first taught her how to make kuchen.

Within the last five years, Tina decided to learn to replicate her grandma’s recipe. As with most recipes handed down from grandparents, it was not easy and required some trial and error. 

“My grandma didn’t have a written recipe, so when she first showed me I was writing things down constantly. By the end, I had to condense the recipe because she was always adding more flour or more milk. I now have the recipe written for all measurements. And you can’t ½ the recipe either,” Tina explained.

As German bakers know, kuchen requires several ingredients and quite a lot of time to bake the large number each recipe makes. She plans ahead and buys her ingredients, such as half and half, eggs, flour, and sugar when they are on sale. Baking days are reserved for weekends. Her recipe makes 16 big kuchen, and since she is only able to bake eight at a time, it does take awhile to finish the project.

“I keep telling my husband I need a second oven,” she said. “I found a pan that makes small ones so that is new to me. My kitchen counter is full when I am done.”

As far as kitchen tools, Tina has her favorites. 

“I love my Kitchen-Aid mixer for mixing the dough. I have a wooden handled metal spoon that my grandma gave me and I use all the time, for everything. I also have inherited some aprons from my grandma that I love to wear,” she said.

Her children not only reap the benefits of eating kuchen, but they help in the kitchen as well. 

“My oldest is good at cracking the eggs,” she said. “The younger ones like to help with putting the chocolate chips in the kuchen.” 

Speaking of chocolate chips, chocolate chip is a favorite kuchen flavor of Tina’s family. She also makes many other varieties, including traditional flavors of strawberry rhubarb, cheese, and blueberry, taking the extra step of cooking down fresh or frozen fruit to make her filling. She has also experimented with flavors like caramel, peanut butter chocolate chip, white chocolate and macadamia nut, peanut butter and jelly, and s’mores.

Tina’s extended family is not only the recipient of her delicious kuchen.

“I share with co-workers and friends. Since I am in a Norwegian community, it is new to them and we do a lot of goodie trading,” she said.

Making kuchen is more than just baking to Tina. It’s passing down tradition and making new memories with her own children.

“It’s the memories,” she said. “When we were little, we would help carry the strudles to the pan. Our arms were not that big, so we were not able to carry many. Now it’s fun to have my kids help.”

The greatest compliment she has received is one all German bakers aspire to.

“My dad said that it was better than my grandmas and my grandma agreed,” she said.