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Pasta-tively Amazing Bernie Germeroth keeps family tradition alive each Christmas by making homemade noodles with her kids and grandkids. STORY: VICTORIA SCHLABIG
ernie Germeroth recalls the tradition of making noodles for Christmas starting about 20 years ago, in the garage. Now, Bernie, lovingly called “Mom Mom,” with assistance from her husband, “Pop Pop,” their three children and nine grandchildren, makes 10 pounds of noodles every year to share with family and friends. While they all enjoy eating their yummy creations, it’s the tradition and time spent together they most appreciate. “It’s a tradition carried on three generations from Mom Mom’s Italian family to ours,” says Bernie’s daughter, Lori. Bernie used to make noodles several times a year, and still uses
her father’s fettuccine noodle machine today. While noodles are her specialty, you can’t have them without her tasty meatballs in tomato sauce, made with four meats: chicken, pork, beef and sausage. Bernie loves this noodle-making tradition, as it is a time to get ready for the celebration of Jesus’s birth, and she appreciates the blessing of family time when everyone’s lives are so busy. “We all make noodles. Even the little great grandchildren have their own dough to work with and get flour all over their faces,” she says. “Every year it is a tradition a few days before Christmas Eve to gather and make the noodles,” says Bernie’s granddaughter, Aubrey. The family’s Christmas Eve menu (made to serve 40) typically consists of homemade noodles with sauce and meatballs, two large pans of lasagna, a large Italian salad, and garlic and cheese bread. On Christmas Day they also enjoy homemade Maryland crab soup, ham and other sides.
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