Month: October 2018

Hallo! It’s October. It’s time for us to go to our first Oktoberfest, courtesy of my family. I may be Italian (with a quarter French on my mother’s side) but if we’re going to be cooking, we need to be sampling from more than our comfort-foods. Lauren, Did I ever tell you I’m part Austrian through my paternal grandfather’s side? This is the sort of stuff my great aunt would make for me when I visited and she cooked for us.

My mother and I took to the food while my father and brother took to the drinks. We won’t be going into the drinks this time. It was just root beer, cream soda, regular beer, seltzer, apple cider, and water. For now, let’s focus on the food. There were all sorts of dishes to get us into the spirit of Germany: knackwurst and bratwurst, spätzle,  pretzels, sauerkraut, German potato salad, and periogies (which are Polish – not German, and came out of a freezer bag, but who’s asking) for the main meal, with some apple strudel, cider donuts, and German chocolate cake for dessert. It was a feast. I had to make sure that I didn’t go overboard, especially on the treats – that’s where Lauren came in to help me split everything with her. 

Oktoberfest, according to Wikipedia, is a Volksfest, or a beer festival with lots of activities. It is usually held in the waning weeks of September into the first week or so of October. Ours was a little late, and wasn’t as beer-centered as the original, but it was our version of it; after all, it’s origins are rooted in celebration and observing German and Bavarian culture.

As for the food – as usual, it was all excellent. There are actually several types of sausage out there. “-wurst” means sausage in German. Usually they’re made from pork, beef, or veal, and contain white pepper, salt, and mace. Spices are determined based on the local area. In German, “Knack-” means “snap” like the natural snap from casing the meat. Think of them like hot dogs, but made from much finer meat and much less fat. Brätwurst on the other hand contains mostly finely ground pork and veal (hence the “brät” in the name). It has a distinctive white color to it due to its initial boiling. These tend to be milder than the others. My friend Sarah Koster would have an easy time translating these names. She took German in high school and sang the German version of The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” to me after sleeping over. 

What goes well with sausages – sauerkraut (which translates to “sour cabbage”). I may not be a huge fan, but apparently the stuff is really good for you in the same way as kimchi what with the pickling brine and the regular benefits of cabbage. Sauerkraut takes roughly one to six months to ferment if you want the home-made stuff, so for the party, we bought the stuff in market, boiled it in some water with a little brown sugar to adjust the flavor and served it cold. I loved it that way. There’s none of that Brussels sprout flavor and all the fun pucker of vinegar potato chips and dill pickles.

Spätzle is a southern German food – the equivalent of egg noodles that are roughly cut and served in sauces or with gravies. They are made using only flour, salt, and eggs (of course).  The flour traditionally used in the preparation of this dish is the equivalent of a semolina flour or pasta flour. The number of eggs used, according to tradition, should be the same as the number of people eating the dish. When the dough has been made, it is scraped into little, bite-sized pieces, using a spätzlebret, into a pot of boiling water. It is a relatively simple dish to make, with many, many applications. We had ours as a side dish, and let me tell you, I was going to town on them (don’t let Lauren know…) Too late. I’m editing your half, Mister! I loved it too, but I let it last longer.

Finally there was the Strudel (German for “whirlpool” or “eddy”). Let me tell you, they had to keep me away from this. It looked so good, it reminded me of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In one of the scenes, they make this dish. Since then, I’ve always wanted to taste it, but never had the chance to. Now was my chance, but alas, I am trying to be healthier. Anyways! This is a German puff pastry dish served with a fruit and nut center but can contain cheese too. It is an example of a roulade – a dish of rolled or filled pastry. It is made from stretched dough (an example of how to make it can be found at FineCooking).

With the party now over, I think it is time for me to hit the gym again to work off all that wonderful food. Especially since Thanksgiving is right around the corner and all. Just you wait and see…mon amore.

Chim-chiminey, Chim-chiminey, Chim-Chim cheree chim cheree, Let’s have some sandwiches to go with our tea. Chim-chiminey, Chim-chiminey, Chim-Chim cheree chim cheroo. It goes with a movie we just had to view.  We went into the kitchen and made a drink too!

We have ourselves a magical cookbook here called “The Wizard’s Cookbook”. It delves into the most mystifying and whimsical franchises like Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Bewitched to name a few. The sequel to the Mary Poppins movie is supposed to come out December 19, 2018. Lauren really wants to go see it. She and her mother consider it a classic with the greatest performers in the starring roles of Burt and Mary Poppins. Mom loved the story and played her record of the soundtrack often as a kid, later playing the songs for me on her flute while I danced around the living room. To this day, she still sings along with “Spoonful of Sugar” and “Feed the Birds” whenever she’s in earshot. I prefer “Jolly Holiday”, “Chim-Chim Cheree” and in first…STEP IN TIME! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-b_GJ4ltk

She loves the message of mixing fun with practicality and connecting as a family. No, we will not see the overly cheery Broadway show that follows the books rather than the film. Needless to say, it was required viewing for me. So, we decided to give it a go. While we were enjoying a nice lunch at our favorite Sushi Nah-Rah, we broke out the magical cookbook and started flipping through when we found these smelt sandwiches. These looked simple enough and healthy too.

I loved reading the instructions for this one! It was almost interactive and playful in the steps for example; “I hear you tittering!” and “Now is not the time for jokes and funny anecdotes,” encouraging you to embrace the character, the mood and the enjoyment of cooking. I highly recommend “The Wizard’s Cookbook” to parents to help kids get into the kitchen. This was a straightforward recipe. Smelts are a small fish found in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They tend to be very salty, a big turn off it you ask me. Fortuitously, Lauren happened to have some tuna in a packet on hand. We followed the book’s advice and mixed it with some lime juice and herbs for a bit of zing and flavorful emphasis. Just what it needed, since normally the tuna is all one-note, and bland in my opinion. Whilst that sat, Lauren toasted up some bread, and chopped up some cherry tomatoes. Just like with our Toad-in-the-Hole recipe, we cookie-cut stars out of the toast to look like the picture. The book recommends using star, parrot or umbrella shapes for your sandwiches and once you finally let your laughter out, enjoying them on the ceiling.

They tasted practically perfect in every way right down to the lowest charge for ingredients we’ve ever had after a trip to the grocery store. I just wish we had used tooth picks to hold them in place. (So THAT’s what those do!) I concur, these sandwiches were just right. A perfect portion if you asked me, even though I (being one to eat quite a bit) decided to sauté some chopped mushrooms to go with the meal. We decided to use the crusts from the stars to feed the birds.

Meanwhile, I took care of the drinks. It’s an elixir said to be served during the horse races in the chalk country side. We didn’t want to buy grapefruit juice and peach juice from the store. The cheap ones tend to be full of added sugar, while the pure stuff costs more than a few tuppence. You really have to investigate before buying.

So we decided to puree a whole grapefruit and a peach. We were left with a bunch of pulp which Lauren strained. We reserved the pulp, since it could be used in Greek yogurt for breakfast – waste-not, want-not. Some of the rind of the grapefruit was still on (even when I tried to be careful) and the resulting product tasted very tart.

The vanilla extract and maraschino cherry water (couldn’t find cherry syrup anywhere!) helped cut through a lot of the bitterness, but ultimately this was a problem of proportions. The recipe originally called for a 3:1 ratio for the peach to grapefruit ratio. We kind of flipped it around, so instead it was more like a 1:3 ratio. I guess we were too dizzy from the carousel ride to think straight! I wouldn’t exactly call it supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I think it needed a spoonful of sugar to help that rind flavor go down.

 

Best of all, my brother was able to hook up the VCR into the TV so we could watch it the same way I did as a little girl, only this time, with a dance partner! Our version is from the original 90’s “Masterpiece Collection”. We may not have done well at making drinks, but at least we dressed it up right and enjoyed our evening dancing along with Burt and Mary Poppins. It goes to show that as the movie portrays; it doesn’t have to always be tea and cakes to have a jolly holiday. What really matters is being wit those you love while you still can and make the very most out of everything. A little magic never hurts either!

 

We have a little secret for you. We love watching Raina Huang on YouTube. In case you don’t know, she’s a foodie who goes across the map to wherever there’s a food challenge. Occasionally, she’ll do a cooking video. This one was for a curry mountain. She goes through step-by-step every ingredient of how it’s made.

Well, we didn’t use her recipe exactly because she used some green curry cubes from yamibuy. You need to plan your meals out 2 days in advance if you’re going to buy ingredients online in order to compensate for delivery time. We don’t get anything from websites. You never know what’s in those processed things without looking at the list of ingredients. We decided to switch gears and look up a Japanese curry recipe online. TasteofHome Curried Tofu with Rice.

We went on to get the chicken ready to be baked instead of fried in oil. There are many different things you can use for breading. We used Japanese style panko. We know, it’s just golden breadcrumbs, but for this recipe, it was our best option. This was our second time working with chicken. Our first time was a success. This time was satisfactory in that regard. We brought it up to 150 degrees and let it rest so it could rise to 160 on its own. Salmonella is REAL! Never serve or eat under-cooked meat!

The curry itself started out pretty chunky. We added liquids later and it started to turn out like gravy. None of this was what we had in mind. We weren’t that crazy about how the components turned out here. We put in the stock, onion, carrot and seasonings like it specified. This pasty and floury pepper-poisoning was not what we planned. I admit I went too heavy on the black pepper. (I tend to do that because I like REALLY spicy food!) We don’t know what went wrong with the rest. 

When it came to leftovers, we found that the curry had just about festered overnight! This next picture almost deserves a warning before viewing. *BEWARE!*

 

Oh well, you can’t win them all. We did our best. Maybe we can re-visit this in our 50th post or something. I mean, we’re learning so much along the way about safety, timing, working with different ingredients and how to make flavor and spice combinations. This is just another step on the path to becoming better chefs. You’re right, Darling. I’ve got an idea for what we can do instead…TOFU!!

It’s a nice sunny autumn day in Libra. The week is over. The wind is crisp. It’s the perfect time to be outside roasting marshmallows over a fire-pit. I remember Boy Scout camp fires and camping with my dad as being some of my favorite times growing up. You get that smell of fresh firewood, hotdogs, popcorn and sweet s’mores together and can’t help but feel relaxed with the fire crackling in front of your warm face.

Well, not exactly Jeremy. In our house, we had a tinker toy “fire” in front of a 2 chair blanket tent with camping tapes on the VHS. S’mores were made at first in the toaster oven, then later the microwave. Mom was never the camping type and Dad never got the time. Not exactly camping, but we made it work.

On a trip to Lavenlair Farm in Lake George, we were able to grab 2 large bundles of fresh lavender. The ladies there were sweet as their special lavender honey and led us to their lavender cookbook. (Who knew you could cook with a flower?) It is super skinny, but full of different treats and sweets for including this calming herb in ways other than aromatherapy and tea. The marshmallow recipe really struck us as an amazing feat. We were promised that once we tasted these, we would never want another marshmallow out of a plastic puffy bag again. Let’s put it to the test.

First of all, we had a hard time picking off individual pieces of lavender off of the stem and measuring it into the spoon without making a mess. We found it easiest to put the measuring spoon over a small bowl. It would have saved time if we had simply bought the container of cooking lavender instead of having so much fun picking it ourselves and enjoying some purple flowered couple time.

I’ve been living with a type 1 diabetic since I was 8. Let me tell you, the sugar count in this recipe is sky-rocketing. Powdered sugar, corn syrup, gelatin and honey all together make one sugary concoction. Best to keep these for lows that need a quick burst back up if you don’t have raisins or apple juice on hand. The Spruce Eats offers this advice:

1 cup of granulated Splenda or sugar and 1 Tablespoon of corn starch blended together make just as sweet powdered sugar if the store is out. Powdered sugar is crucial here for coating the wax paper so that nothing will stick anywhere.

Monk Fruit and Stevia have also been debated as being sugar substitutes for diabetic and people who don’t want to restrict their sugar intake. Healthline has these debate points.

They won’t have much affect on blood glucose levels and have 0 calories. Both can be sweet at first, but then give a bitter after-taste.

Monk Fruit on the other hand is SUPER expensive because it’s INCREDIBLY rare. It hasn’t gotten much research at all. 

Stevia on the other hand has been known to cause some bloated, gassy and nauseous feelings in some people. Those who are allergic to daisies, ragweed, chrysanthemums, and sunflowers will want to be careful of allergic reactions.

In our opinion, it’s better to just surrender to the sugar and count it on your meter.

That yellow stuff in the left corner and below is lemon zest. In this case, it refers to the colored outside of the fruit. Zest adds flavor like juice, but in a pulpy way so it’s not too moist. You see this a lot in Cupcake Wars where bakers will shave off the outside until they gets to the white bitter rinds of the peel and just use the ZEST. It’s where we get the word ZESTY as an adjective for a flavorful fruitiness or spicy quality. In short it gives it an extra kick.

We weren’t too keen on the accuracy of the directions. Yeah, for example when they said it would only be 5 min. for the batter to set. It took us more like a half hour, even with our brand new hand mixer from Christmas. Did they mean a standing mixer? Would that have whipped it faster? We don’t know. Still, it was so runny after 5 minutes. Sorry!

We let the kids (Our Build-a-Bears Emma-Belle and Prince Daniel) help decorate the swirls. She’s very creative (Note her “I Dream in Rainbow” PJs) and he likes things that are messy. The directions say to swirl and fold, but we decided to do them only on the one side. Maybe that affected the texture. We have to be careful not to change anything the first time unless it’s a minor one that won’t alter too much of the composition. Once we finished swirling, we covered the whole thing in powdered sugar.

They turned out to be more of a gummy than a pillow. It wasn’t even just us. My parents and brother agreed that they tasted more like big square gummy worms than marshmallows, but the flavors were there. For that real light and airy style, I’ll grab one of my Easter Peeps. Did you know they don’t go bad until 2 years later? The lavender really came through, but the lemon zest not so much. It must’ve been just a binder. (That thing that holds it all together) Still, we were proud that we made something like this that only comes already-made. As for preservation, refrigeration works best. But watch out, the food coloring runs all over. This was fun. Maybe we should do this for Easter. There is however 1 little side effect from these marshmallows…