If you had a foreign guest in your home and wanted to thank him for something, how would you do it? How about baking him a traditional pastry from his home country?

My friend Brigitte and her son Sören from Lage, Germany, visited us last summer in Mobile for several weeks. It was Brigitte’s fifth visit to the USA and her son’s first. They were exposed to southern hospitality in various ways, including some of the culinary delights from that region of America.

When I visited Brigitte’s family in Lage at the beginning November, it was a chance to remember all the things we had seen during our days in Mobile and our trip to Texas, where Sören attended a church youth camp. Brigitte and Sören mentioned how much fun their visit to the United States had been.

When we had dessert after dinner at Brigitte’s home, it was her turn to produce a local specialty, but not a German one. Instead, her dessert was American-style: pumpkin pie! Not a bad achievement for someone from a country where there is no real pastry equivalent to the our pie in the USA. Brigitte’s delicious homemade pumpkin pie came just in time for me to get in some practice for my favorite dessert at the Thanksgiving holiday! I’ll be in Mobile for that to celebrate with our children Ted and Rachel and their families.