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National Bratwurst Day 2025
Saturdays are perfect for grilling and so are tasty brats, so it’s a good thing that today is National Bratwurst Day. Warm up some kraut, break out the condiments and let’s get sizzling.
🍔🌭 From McDonald’s? 🍟🥤
I had gotten hungry for bratwurst and had been walking toward the entrance… of one of the four McDonald’s franchises in Undisclosed… If you think it’s weird getting a bratwurst from a McDonald’s, then you’re not from the Midwest. ~David Wong
Well, whenever Kelly and I get to go on our tour of the country, we’re going to have to check this phenomenon out.
I was stationed at Chanute AFB at Rantoul, IL. I got off base a few times while I was at weather school, but I can’t say that I remember finding a McDonald’s. So, I can neither confirm nor deny the prevalence of McBrats in the Midwest.
What I did find there was Red Pop.
It was the most bizarre thing I’d ever had.
It tastes like the color red.
Somebody told me they thought it was strawberry. I don’t agree.
Someone else said it was like someone had liquified a Twizzler (which is technically “strawberry flavored”, but…).
Okay, I can get behind that. It’s a bit more like red dye flavor than strawberry to me.
Be that as it may, I’m still completely addicted to it to this day and I bet it goes incredibly well with a genuine Midwestern bratwurst.
🌞 Summer 🔥 is ideal for backyard grilling, but grilling is awesome pretty much anytime other than the middle of a blizzard. ❄️🌬️🥶
In that case, just stay inside and grill them on the stovetop…
🧀🧑 Wisconsin-Style 🌭🍻
How To Make A Wisconsin Bratwurst | Recipe That Everyone Will Love
Pennsylvanians are also well known for our German heritage.
The Amish, the Moravians, Germantown, gee, we’re up to our ears in people with German ancestry, myself included.
Mine is one among many points of origin, but Kelly is about as German as if she came from Germany itself.
Honestly, she gets creative with grammar from time to time.
It’s not so much Germanic as she-Yoda.
But how can you go wrong? She’s adorable, whip-smart and she makes beautiful kids.
Yay for hot German chicks and yay for hot German food.
In addition to bratwurst, I’m a big fan of German-style potato salad.
The tangy hit of vinegar and the savory hint of bacon in the sauce really comes alive when you warm it up.
The German variety is meant to be served hot and I love when I can have some with my lunch in the cooler seasons.
In the current conditions, you can certainly still eat it straight from the can at room temperature.
I prefer mine like I like my German hausfrau, steaming hot and super tasty. 😉
🔥🌭 Sizzling Poetry ✍🏻📜
The Bratwurst: A Haiku
Tight skin flute of pork.
Juices fly, explode in mouth.
A little mustard. ~Nick Offerman
The only thing better than a haiku about food is one that’s every bit as spicy as the food it’s about.
Hat’s off to Mr. Offerman on this one. Well played, sir.
Holy double entendre, Batman! 🦇 That was a zinger!
I’ve been known to spin the occasional Haiku, but they’re usually off the cuff and on a topic of the moment.
I also tend to make them for humorous purpose, but I don’t go quite as deep as that one.
I’m not an enthusiastic poet. I tried, but it didn’t really take for me.
I don’t like it all that much.
Neither creating nor consuming, poetry doesn’t really do it for me.
What I also don’t care that much for is flash fiction.
I understand and respect the precision needed to create a well-crafted piece, but nah, miss me with all that.
I’m not into microexpression. It’s a skill, to be sure. Just not one I’m especially interested in cultivating.
Perhaps that’s wrong.
We should always stretch and learn new things.
At the same time, we can’t really spread ourselves too thin by trying to be good at everything.
There’s stuff I want to do, and there’s plenty of stuff I don’t want to do.
For me, that’s short-form stuff.
I could probably benefit from it and polish my prose by learning these skills.
If I ever get to the point where that becomes an appealing proposition, I’ll let you know.
I can see how it could be of use. Unlike a can of peas, I can envision the possibility of enjoying it eventually.
That day is not today. Today, I just want a toasty brat with carmelized onions and brown mustard with my long-form prose.
Precision is design. What I do is more in the style of verisimilitude.
I want you to feel as if you’ve witnessed an actual conversation between believable, grounded characters.
You can’t get that from finely crystallized microfiction.
To me, that’s more of an exercise in whether you can tell an entire story on a corner you tore off of a normal-sized page of paper.
I mean, not even on a sticky note or one of those little page-holder rectangular stickies.
That might as well be a legal pad to the practitioners of flash fiction.
Seriously, dog-ear a page in a paperback and then tear off the little triangle.
Tell an entire story on there. That’s their jam.
It’s a bit too intense for me. I prefer more natural flow.
As usual, optimal fiction is somewhere between these ends of the spectrum.
That’s all for today. See you back on Wednesday for 🥓🥓🥓…