My families usual eating habits for dinner are foods such as salads, roast beef with green beans and mashed potatoes, pizza, etc. But every once in a while we have Rouladen and it is one of my favorite dinners. The meal consists of meat that is wrapped around an onion and a piece of bacon, held together with toothpicks. It is usually cooked with a pan and something to flip it with, so all sides of the meat gets cooked. Our sides usually are mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds on them, gravy, and noodles. The meat is round steak.  It's chewy, but not to chewy and it s juicy from the gravy. I get so stuffed after eating this dinner because I have so many helpings.

One of the reasons why I love this dinner so much is not only because it is delicious, but because it reminds me of my grandma. Rouladen is very German and so is my grandma. She always used to come over when we made it because it was her favorite meal of all time. When I was in the eighth grade my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is when your brain cell connections and the cells themselves degenerate and die, eventually destroying memory and other important mental functions. My grandma has had such an impact on my life and it is difficult seeing her go through this. Ever since I was little she would always be there for my mom and dad because they both worked. She would take my sister (Madison) and I to our ice skating lessons, quiz us on spelling, give us baths at night, etc. I was really close with her I will never forget this apple shirt she used to wear. The shirt had three apples on it, one with a full Apple, one with a half eaten Apple, and one with the apple all eaten. For some reason I loved this shirt and always asked her about it whenever she didn't wear it. Then one day when her symptoms started to occur (when we had no clue she had Alzheimer's) I said "Grandma remember that Apple shirt you had?" And she said "Apple shirt? What Apple shirt?" That was the moment I knew something was up because she always remembered the Apple shirt. Of coarse her symptoms got worse but now we try not to look at is as bad and just giggle and say okay grandma.  But whenever we have Rouladen it reminds me of the good times that I had with her.

When my mom is making it, I usually help her wrap it up in the tooth picks then I go and help make the noodles. I always tend to bring up some type of story about my grandma and my mom and I both laugh. I know that if she didn't have this disease she would still be enjoying the meal as much as she used to in the past. I hope that Rouladen will be a recipe that can go on for generations in my family. I am going to try to pass it down to my kids and they pass it down to there's and so forth.