My new toy

No...not that kind of toy. Get your mind out of the gutter!

I got a Kitchen Aid mixer in Gloss Cinnamon from Markus for Christmas, and I just pucked it up today. We ordered it from the QVC in the US, since it came out to be about 200 Euro compared to about 600 Euro in every store here. My lovely friend Alice is letting me borrow her 750 Watt transformer until I can get one of my own. This is truly a lovely piece of artwork. Not to think about what the first thing I'm going to make is...cookies...a cake...muffins...oh, the options are endless!

How lovely!
A different angle...
The wonderful transformer that made saving 400 Euro possible!

From scratch...

I was a bit shocked to learn today that my lovely cousin Kira was planning on using ready mashed potatoes for her Thanksgiving dinner she is hosting. At first she just told me that she's doing mashed potatoes, the turkey and the cherry pie...I asked her if she was making them all from scratch (well, obviously the turkey will be bought...but her husband will be brining it.). I was a bit shocked to learn that she was just going to use ready mashed potatoes...luckily she will be making the pie crust for the cherry pie, and just a canned filling. I am sure this is the case with loads of families this holiday season though, not just with my cousin...besides, I believe I convinced her to make her potatoes from scratch...and then she'll also be a believer that mashed potatoes from scratch are super easy and the way to go!

This got me to thinking about how we (as a people in general, not just my husband and I) are eating. How is it that we have come so far in evolution, but insist on powdered mashed potatoes? Well, it is probably because we have come so far in evolution that we used these quick canned meals, ready meals...you name it. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Maggi Fix (a packet of powdered sauces that help out meals) and I use them often during the week. But this is a holiday! I wonder how many other American families are going to used pre-made things instead of trying their hand at making them from scratch?

I used to be of the thought that if it is in a can, dammit I am using it since it is simple! But seriously, making things from scratch is also pretty simple! Mashed potatoes, for example, are one of the simplest things you can do. Peel, cut into chunks, boil until tender, drain, mash with butter, milk, salt, pepper, garlic powder (or real garlic) and onion powder. If you have a pressure cooker, then it makes things go a whole lot faster!

Before moving over here, I would make dinner by calling the local take-out. Now, that really isn't an option, plus, it is my opinion that Germans are more about cooking a meal and sitting down at the table as a family rather than in front of the boob-tube. Because of this, I have re-discovered my love of cooking and if I could, I would cook from scratch every day instead of using Maggi Fixes, but alas, with an almost 10 week old, this isn't really that possible. I try to at least make dinner from scratch at least 4 times a week, and so far, it works out pretty well. Tonight, for example, we are having tortilla soup. Yes, this requires canned stuff, but it is all canned veggies. I think veggies in a can are pretty good, especially since you can't really find sweet corn at the ready here in Germany!

So, this is the challenge to myself for the coming months/year. I am going to make at least 4 meals from scratch each week and post about at least one of on the blog. There might not be time to get around to posting about all of them, but nonetheless, this is the challenge to myself.

To start, I'll be making tortilla soup. You can play along with or just read about this little adventure...This week should be pretty easy considering I'm making loads of stuff for our Thanksgiving feast on Saturday... :)

Sugar and Spice Pecans

These are incredibly good and super easy to make. Be careful though...you can't eat just one.

1 pound of pecans
3/4 tea. salt
1 tea. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 egg white
1 tbs. water

1. Beat egg white and water together until frothy but not super stiff
2. mix in sugar, salt and cinnamon
3. Add in pecans and stir well until completely coated
4. Spread nuts on a large baking sheet and bake at 200 F (95 C ) for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven when dry and toasted.
6. When cool, store in an air tight container.

One thing that I did do a bit differently...I baked these at about 125 C...they came out just fine.

These keep for a while, but they won't last that long because you seriously can't eat just one...these things are addictive!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

The other day I made a pumpkin cheesecake for the pumpkin carving party. It was quite a hit with not only the adults, but the kids as well. And hey, who doesn't love pumpkin cheesecake? Yeah, that's right...no one! So, here's the recipe...

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tbs. butter melted
1 tbs sugar
1 cup sugar
3 8oz. (226 g.) packages of cream cheese
1 tea. vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 tea. cinnamon
1/4 tea. nutmeg
1/4 tea. allspice

1. preheat oven to 350 F or 175 C
2. For the crust: combine graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and 1 tbs. sugar in a medium bowl and combine until it makes a crumbly paste. Press the crumbs into bottom of springform and 2/3 way up the sides. Bake for 5 minutes and set aside
3. For the filling: Combine the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla. Mix together until smooth.
4. Add pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Continue beating until smooth and creamy.
5. Pour over the crust.
6. Bake for 60-70 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Turn off oven and have the door slightly open and allow to cool like this for an hour or so.
8. Store it in the fridge until ready to serve...it should keep for a few days, but it really won't last that long (i.e. it will be eaten before then).

Now, this past time that I made it, I had to bastardize my lovely recipe here...For starters, I used the Philidelphia Jogurt (yogurt) cream cheese with only 13% fat. I thought I would cut down on the calories a bit. I have done this before and it doesn't change the taste or texture at all...but I wouldn't go any lower than 13% fat. Also, because I rock at the conversions, I didn't get enough cream cheese. I was about 150 grams short...damn. It really didn't matter though...I just added a bit more pumpkin. I also used a teaspoon and a half of pumpkin pie spice from Penzey's. Oh, and here in Germany, you've only got Leibnitz that are roughly close to graham crackers (that I've found at least), so to the crumbs, I added a bit of the pumpkin pie spice mix as well.

Let me know if you make this and what you think of it! :)

I know...it's been a while

I've been meaning to put up a few blog entries in the past week or so, but seriously, I just haven't gotten around to it. I haven't really been doing too much. Charlie was here all last week (and today he's at the in-laws, so I have a bit more time) but that isn't really an excuse since we go on just an hour walk in the afternoon. So, just call me lazy.

However, today, when catching up on reading some other expat blogs, I came across one of the funniest things that I have read in a long, long time. I was actually crying. It comes from 50% of my DNA who actually got it from CN Heidelberg. So, it's been around in the expat community for a bit, but I just got around to reading it.

Now, you don't want to be eating lunch while reading this, but seriously, don't be too grossed out because it is just too funny of a story. And it also makes me think that this is why Germans cook all meat until it is roughly resembles jerky.

Funny, yet gross, story....Enjoy :)

Jam Crazy

I went over to my in-laws house the other day, and Marianne had this HUGE bucket filled with cherries. Of course, I naturally start devouring them. I asked her where she got them, and she told me they were from Aunt Moni's house. She has a huge cherry tree and it is practically laden with cherries. My mind started racing as to what all I could make with this wonderful little balls of goodness. Then, it really hit me...well, DUH! I'm going to make a crap load of cherry jam and some cherry pie filling.

On Thursday, when I got back from Regensburg, I went straight over to my in-laws and Franz and I went over to Aunt Moni's to pick another bucket full of cherries. Well, I couldn't get up on the ladder, so Franz had to do most of the hard work, while I stayed on the ground picking ripe cherries and basically eating my weight in cherries. Good lord were they good! After about half an hour, the bucket was full...and by full, I mean there were about 4.5 kilos of freshly picked sweet cherries. (I'm really drooling just thinking about this...)


OK, now I've got the bucket of cherries, now I need to borrow Marianne's cherry pitter machine (see the previous post on making the Cherry Cake) and I need to run to the store to get some extra jars, since I don't think I have enough, and I need to pick up some "gelier zucker". This sugar that they have here is awesome! It already has the pectin mixed into it in the right proportions, so all you have to do is add 500 grams of this sugar for every 1000 grams of fruit...so easy!

So, I got home, got all the cherries washed and started the piting process at about 8. Let me tell you, it takes about an hour to pit 4.5 kilos of cherries. Luckily, there was a decent movie on, so I just had that on in the background while I was piting. So, after all the seeds were removed, I ended up with 3.58 kilos of pitted cherries. Not too shabby. So, I dump them all in the pot, get out my hand held blender and go to town until it is pretty smooth. Once it was smooth, I added the sugar and put it on to boil. Now I had to get the jars all ready. I had already washed them, so now just to do a quick sterilization (pour boiling water into them) and put all the lids into a pot of boiling water, and I'm ready to go.

Thank God for my huge Ikea pot. I use it just about once a year to make jam, but it is totally worth it's weight in gold! I brought it over from the states, and I'm not sure if Ikea has this pot over here...I'll check that today while I'm there...

Ok, back to the jam....It was boiling nicely, and I kept de-foaming it...there is always a bit of foam at the top...don't worry, I didn't throw this goodness away, I put it in a jar for Markus to mix with his cottage cheese! I'm such a thoughtful wife!

After having it boil for about 5 or 6 minutes, the time came for the moment of truth...pouring it into the jars. I don't have one of those fancy funnel things, (but I think I am now in the market for one!) so I just had to pour it from the pot directly into the jar. It was just a bit messy, but it worked. Sweet! This made 13 jars of cherry jam. HEAVEN!


Oh, and I forgot to mention, Markus was in Frankfurt during this whole jam making craziness.

Now, it's Friday...at the beginning of the week, I always said that I was going to go to the strawberry field in Hirschau and pick a wagon full of strawberries and make strawberry jam on Friday. That is exactly what happened. Don't get me wrong, I was tired from the jam session (haha) on Thursday night, which ended at about 11pm, but I was determined.

So, I headed down to Hirschau at about 10 and I went to my in-laws since Marianne wasn't sure on Thursday if she wanted to go or not. She ended up not really wanting to go...ok, that's not true, she wanted to go, she just didn't have time, so she is going today (Saturday). So I headed out to the strawberry field on my own. No worries though. It was nice outside...it was cloudy, so not too hot, but it was humid...not Houston humid, but humid nonetheless.

The absolute great thing about strawberry fields, is that while you're out there picking, you can eat as many strawberries as you want. Oh, and I did :). I think I ate my weight in strawberries. This baby is going to either look like a cherry or a strawberry...or just especially like the taste of those two fruits!


I got my pick on, and about 45 minutes later, I left with 6.28 kilos of strawberries for about 12 Euro! Once again, HEAVEN!


Oh, and I forgot to mention that while I was picking the cherries, my wonderful father-in-law went and picked another bucket of cherries for me so that I could make the cherry pie filling! What a great guy!

So, I'm back home, at the whole jam process again. Strawberries are definitely easier...you don't have to pit them, just pluck off the stem...no problem there. I only cooked up 5 kilos of the 6 though. I didn't have enought jars for 6 kilos of strawberries, so now I have 500 grams of frozen strawberries, and Markus and I devoured the rest.

This 5 kilo was PLENTY! It made up 28 (yes twenty-eight) jars of jam! YUM!!!

That second bucket of cherries that Franz picked was pited last night and half of them went to making a cherry pie filling (which, oh my god, is basically an orgasm in a jar) and the other half is now in my freezer waiting for me to do things with it.

End Cost:

Sugar: 8 Euro
Fruit: 12 Euro (the cherries were free)
Jars: 12 Euro
Being able to eat this goodness for the next year: priceless!

This jam extravaganza resulted in 13 jars of cherry jam, 28 jars of strawberry jam, 5 jars and 1 ziploc of cherry pie filling and about 4 other bags of frozen fruit!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie...finished

I just took it out of the oven and oh my goodness...does it look (and smell) amazing! I can't wait for this 15 minute wait time to be over. On a side note: As I said, it runs over, and boy did it. I tried some of the run over, and man, it is so freaking good.

So, without further ado, the finished pie...yum...


And a picture of the runoff...just so you know I'm not lying :)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie...continuted

Alrighty, so the pie is in the oven. I shall continue where we left off...First though, preheat your oven to 425 F or for us on the metric system, 220-ish C.

Take the crust out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface. With the recipe that I gave in the last post, it makes 2-nine inch pie crusts...or in my case, a top and a bottom crust (with some left over).

You've got the pie crust all rolled out, so place it nicely in the pan...What I do is I fold it in half then place the fold in roughly the middle of the pan and then fold it out. I just find it easier, but be careful, because the crust has a tendency to tear...I just put a bit of crust over the tear, especially since it's the bottom layer, and no one will see it. :)

I cut off the excess crust, you know, the stuff hanging over the sides...but that's just me, you can do your crust how you please.
Spoon the filling into the crust. At this point, you can do one of two things. You can either roll out the top crust and place it over, making a few slits for steam to escape, or you can make a lattice top. I'm quite partial to the lattice top myself, so that is what I do. It's a bit more work, but I've got time on my hands :).


After you cover the pie with whatever crust topping method you choose, brush an egg wash over it. It makes the crust pretty. What I also do is sprinkle some sugar on top since I always liked having that extra crunchy sugary goodness.


So, now you're ready to go. Be sure that you have a cookie tray in the oven because this sucker like to run over sometimes.

Put your pie in the preheated 425 F (220-ish C) oven. You'll want to bake it at this heat for 15 minutes, then turn it down to 375 F (190-ish C) and bake for another 50-60 minutes. Seriously, it takes this long! If the crust starts to burn, just cover those parts with foil.

Let it stand for about 15 - 20 minutes before devouring it! Trust me...you'll burn your tongue if you don't. Enjoy it with whipped cream or ice cream or both. Personally, I like it plain. It is just so good.

Spring is in the air!

WOOHOO!! Finally! Spring is here! We had a lovely weekend of being in the sun! Charlie enjoyed it too, meaning he jumped into every body of water, no matter the size. He was one happy pup!

Another way to tell that Spring is here, strawberries are on sale! Yes! And, what's more, the store had some very good looking rhubarb too. You know what that means! Yup, the first strawberry rhubarb pie of the season is currently being made in my kitchen. I know, I should be in there right now, but I have to let things sit a bit before I can put the pieces together. Basically, that means, I have to let the crust cool enough before I can roll it out. This will be a two part, maybe even a three part post, simply because I'm so excited about this pie! It is my absolute favorite pie! Oh, and it is Markus' favorite too :).

For the crust:

(notice the Jif dad!)

Since I can't just run out to the store and buy a ready made pie crust, I must make them myself. However, luckily, I have the pie crust making gene. My mother always told me that it takes a certain gene to be able to make a pie crust. Either you can make one, or you can't. Trust me, I can. Before I got my lovely food processor, I sat here cutting the damn butter into the flour, then the shortening into the butter...such a hassle, but it always came out lovely. Now that I have the food processor, it cuts the time tremendously.

I use a recipe out of Joy of Cooking, "Delux Butter Flaky Crust" or something like that. It's pretty easy.

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of sugar

into that cut 1/2 pound (2 sticks) of butter until it has pea size looking things. Very exact, I know :).

Then cut in 1/4 cup shortening.

Lastly, mix in 1/3 cup plus a couple of teaspoons of ice-cold water until smooth-ish. IT MUST BE REALLY COLD WATER! However, on a side note, I don't usually use all the water. I just eyeball it.

Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour or so.



Obviously, this isn't the exact recipe from Joy of Cooking, but I've made it so many times, that this is what I use and these are my directions :).

Now, on to the filling....my favorite.


This is everything you'll need:
3 cups of rhubarb
3 cups of strawberries
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tbs vanilla bean paste (optional, but it makes it REALLY good)
1 tea cinnamon


So cut up the strawberries and rhubarb (I also like to peel my rhubarb, but I don't think you have to. Oh, and NEVER eat the leaves or the roots of rhubarb as they are poisonous. There, that's my public service announcement.). Put them in a large bowl and then add everything else for the filling and mix it all together.


Alrighty, so now I must get back into the kitchen since I believe my crust is ready to be rolled out. I'll get the rest of the recipe to you in the next post...ha...what a cliffhanger!

First attempt at making any kind of bread...

So, my challenge today was to make a loaf of bread. Of course here in Germany they have loads of bakeries with loads of bread...white bread, whole wheat bread, really dark bread, bread with sunflower seeds, bread with pumpkin seeds...really any bread you can think of. However, they do not have a good cinnamon raisin bread (at least not where I live). So, I figured I would give it a shot.

I searched my favorite recipe site (recipezaar.com) to find a recipe in which you didn't need a bread machine seeing as I don't have one. Well, I found one and I thought I could do it. (Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Worlds-Best-Cinnamon-Raisin-Bread-Not-Bread-Machine-98867)

Everything started off good. I got all the ingredients together that I needed, measured them and got the butter and things to room temperature. My mom always did it this way, so I guess it just rubbed off. (Thanks mom! You're the best!) So, I add the warm water to the yeast and heated up the milk and everything was going well. Then I noticed that the yeast wasn't "foaming up" like the directions said it would...oh crap, what do I do now??? I guess at this point I should say the equipment that I have...I have a big metal bowl, a wooden spoon and elbow grease. I guess when I added the warm water to the cold bowl, it cooled it down considerably, and didn't activate the yeast properly...or something like that. So I did what anyone would do in this situation...I set it over the small pot that the milk was in and made a make-shift double broiler...Ok...now it's getting foamy/frothy...saved!

Next to the next panic...I had one egg...Luckily, I have a store about 2 minutes from here, so, quick dash over there...saved again!

Ok, so at this point, nothing else goes wrong and it actually goes pretty smoothly. It doubled in size, so I didn't mess it up with the yeast disaster. They were really lovely. And the taste! Oh the taste! My first attempt at bread was definitely a success! Not that I am tooting my own horn or anything... :) But just look at that swirl!!!