Flat Bread

This flat bread is one of the easiest breads to make. Once it's risen, it just takes about 20 minutes in the oven. It should be called fast bread. If you invest in a little time for the dough to rise you get a really nice, soft bread. If you look on the store bought bread, there is an array of ingredients nobody can even pronounce. Bread should only have flour, yeast, salt, sugar and water in it. Of course you can mix in, or top it with all kinds of great things like nuts, sesame seeds oats, dried fruits or even cheese. There is no limit to your imagination when it comes to what you want to mix in your bread.

I dare you to try this one. Delicious!

Flat Bread:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 2/3 cups warm water
sesame seeds for topping
1-2 tbs. olive oil 

Dissolve the yeast  and sugar in the warm water. when the yeast begins to foam, you know it's active and you can add the flour and the salt. ( If the yeast does not foam after a while, the yeast is not active and your bread will not rise.)
Knead until you have a soft but not sticky dough. I keep the flour at hand, that way I can add a little at the time in case the dough is sticky.
Cover and let it rise until double in size.
Once the dough has risen, you can punch it down and divide in two parts.

Take a parchment lined ( you can also just grease the sheet ) baking sheet and form two flat, round breads. Brush them with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.
Now you can let then rest again until they are again double in size.

Preheat your oven to 440F ( 220C )  Bake for about 10 minutes, flip on the other side and bake for another 10 minutes or until its nice and golden brown in color.

Green bean, hamburger casserole

It's rainy, it's cold and it is the perfect day for a one dish meal, a casserole. I like this recipe a lot because you can modify it in so many ways.

Green bean, hamburger casserole:

 1 lbs. hamburger
1 onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 can of condensed tomato soup ( you can substitute 2 tbs. tomato paste and 1/4 cup water)

2 1/2 cups cooked and drained green beans ( you can substitute 1-2 cans of green beans)

5 medium potatoes
1/2 cup warm milk
butter
salt, pepper and nutmeg

french fried onions for topping

Brown the meat and onions. Season it to taste with salt and pepper. Add the tomato soup and stir well.
Add the beans. Pour this mix into a casserole dish.

Cook the potatoes until soft. Drain. Mash them with milk, butter and spices. ( you can also use instant potatoes, if you like) Spoon in mounts over the meat mix.

Bake in 350 F ( 175 C) oven for about 30 minutes
Sprinkle the french fried onions on top and bake for 5 minutes longer or until onions are crisp.

One dish goodness!

Banana Nut Bread

When I buy bananas, I can be sure that a few always are left with brown spots and that means banana bread. My family will not eat speckled bananas. Yes I know, I like them a little green myself. Lets face it, to make a sweet bread everyone likes, out of brown bananas is better then trowing them out.
You could also fry them in butter and drizzle them with honey and that would make for a fine dessert, maybe with whipped cream or ice cream. Today, however, it's time for banana nut bread.

Banana Nut Bread:

1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup shortening, melted
2 eggs
2 tbs. milk
1 cup ripe mashed bananas
1/4 cup chopped nuts ( optional)

Mix all the ingredients together, with a wooden spoon. Grease a loaf pan and pour the dough into the pan.
Bake at 350 F oven for about 60 - 65 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Take out of the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy!

Waffles

Waffles are not just for breakfast. Sure, you can eat the classic version with maple syrup and butter, or like me, I prefer peanut butter. But have you ever tried them with ham and cheese?
 Many people enjoy them with fruit and a dollop of cream.
I think Waffle recipes are worth exploring.
Years ago, I went to Georgia and for dinner I had a grilled Waffle Sandwich with ham and cheese.
They served a fruity sauce with it and it was sprinkled with powdered sugar.
I had totally forgotten about that, I think I will try to recreate that in the near future.
In the meantime, I made Waffles for our afternoon coffee break.

 Here is my favorite recipe for,

 Waffles:

 2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
4 tbs. baking powder
3 tbs. sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients, except the egg white, together until smooth. Beat the egg white until it forms peaks and fold them under the waffle mix. Bake in a waffle iron until they are nice and golden.

I topped these with cherry's and  vanilla whipped cream.  I hope you like them!

Oh, the possibility's!

Pumpkin cannelloni

Here is the perfect recipe for all the pumpkin lovers out there.
I think pumpkin is still a bit underrated. There are so many great things you can do with pumpkins, besides using it as a Halloween decoration.
Pickled pumpkin, pumpkin bread, ravioli filled with pumpkin and pumpkin soup, just to name a few. 
I think one of my favorite dishes to make is pumpkin cannelloni.
It's a vegetarian dish, it surely hit the spot.

Pumpkin cannelloni:

filling:
2 cups pureed pumpkin
1/4 cup toasted pine-nuts
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
 salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste
 
sauce:
3 cups tomato sauce
1 tbs. sugar
oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste

grated cheese
about 18 cannelloni shells, uncooked


Mix pumpkin, ricotta cheese, egg and Parmesan cheese. Chop half of the toasted pine-nuts coarsely, and fold them into the pumpkin mix. Season with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg. Set it aside and prepare the sauce.

Heat the tomato sauce and season it with oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Add sugar to take the bitterness out of the tomato sauce.

Pour half of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Now it's time to fill the cannelloni shells. I usually take a zip lock bag or a cake decorating bag, fill it and then cut off one corner and squeeze the filling into the shells. Arrange them side by side on the sauce in your baking dish. When all the shells are filled, pour the other half of the tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle with remaining pine nuts and top with grated cheese.

Bake at 375- 400 F for about 30 minutes or until cannelloni shells are tender.
If the cheese gets too dark, cover the dish with some tin foil.

cake

I personally like cheesecake.
 Last week I felt like experimenting with that. Here is what I came up with. A "no bake sour cream/ cream cheesecake" with gelatin and a crumb crust.
My family loved it, I hope you will, too.

No bake sour cream cheesecake:

Crust:
1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs ( here in Germany, I use " Butterkekse")
1 tbs. sugar
1/2 cup butter melted

Mix crumbs, sugar and melted butter together and press in a Spring form pan. Set it aside.

Cream:
1 cup of heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1 pkg. powdered gelatin

1 cup sour cream
1 cup cream cheese
1 can mandarin oranges, drained


Place milk, sugar and lemon zest in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Take it of the heat and add the gelatin, stir until it is dissolved. Let it cool off, just a bit.

Mix together sour cream and cream cheese, then add the gelatin mix. Beat the whipping cream and fold it under the rest of the cream. Now you can add the drained mandarin oranges.
Pour the finished cream mix on the prepared crumb crust and let it set in the fridge for about 2 hours.

 

Focaccia bread

This is an easy recipe that fits with a variety of meals. Sometimes we eat the Focaccia bread just by it self, depending on with what you top it with.
Today we made Pasta and Pesto and I thought fit perfect with that.

Focaccia Bread:

2/3 cup warm water ( remember, warm not scalding )
1 pkg. dry active yeast
1/2 tsp. honey
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tbs. olive oil ( 2 tbs. for the dough and 2 tbs. for the top.)
 Toppings:
Anything you like
(coarse salt, onions, olives, caraway, sun dried tomatoes, rosemary, fennel seeds and so on......)

Dissolve the yeast in warm water with honey and wait for it to activate ( bubble ), that way you are sure the yeast is still fresh. Then add the flour, salt and 2 tbs. of the olive oil. Knead well, if the dough is sticky, add a little flour and knead until it is nice and soft. Place in an oiled bowl and let it rise until double in size.
After the dough has risen, punch it down and pull it into a rectangle and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Push little dimples in your bread with your fingers. Drizzle the remaining 2 tbs. of olive oil on your bread. Now you can top it with whatever you like.
I used coarse salt and onions.
Bake at 400F for about 15 minutes or until the bread has a nice golden color.

cilantro

A friend called me one day and told me;
"I don't know what happened to the parsley I just bought. It went bad overnight and I had to toss it in the trash! How can parsley taste and smell that way, it still looked great?"

When I heard about, how it had smelled and tasted, I could not help but smile.
She had bought cilantro, it looks like parsley but the taste is totally different.
Grocery stores like to place all the herbs together and especially parsley and cilantro.
Now, cilantro does not please every one's taste buds, but it is widely used in Mexican dishes.
I can not imagine a Salsa without it. I like the taste and the smell.
One lady at the little fruits and vegetable store where I buy it, always tells me, " cilantro tastes like soap". So, in other words, you either like the taste or you hate the taste.
Cilantro has a faint lemony smell to it. It always reminds me of fresh water, I don't know why, but it does. I hope you like this recipe.

 Cucumber cilantro salad:

1 cucumber ( if the seeds are too big, you can take them out, I prefer to buy the European ones,
                      smaller seeds)         
1/4 cup sugar
1 glove garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup onions, chopped ( you can use red, green or the regular yellow ones, I like the red or green
                                           ones for color)
about 3 tbs. cilantro, chopped ( I use more)
Peanuts optional

Peel, slice and if needed, seed a cucumber and set aside. Chop the onions and cilantro and add to the cucumber.
Place sugar, salt, pepper and minced garlic in a separate non metal bowl and with the back of a wooden spoon mash them together. Add vinegar and water and stir until sugar dissolves.
Now you can add the dressing to the cucumber, onion and cilantro and mix well. Top the salad with peanuts, if you like. It tastes great without the nuts.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sauerbraten

Today I made a Sauerbraten. Not the traditional, per say, but wanted to make one like Grandma used to make. The traditional ones are marinated in vinegar and are too "sour" for my taste. It's not every one's piece of cake, if you know what I mean.
You have to of plan ahead for this one, because the beef needs to marinate for about 3 days.
I marinated mine in buttermilk and used spices and onions for flavor.  It ended up being mildly sour with a beautiful hint of the different spices like cloves and juniper berries. The meat was so very tender, it really melted in your mouth, even though it was a super lean cut.
Here is what I used:

Sauerbraten:

1 1/2 lbs.  lean beef roast
enough buttermilk to cover the meat
about 6 juniper berries
about 3 bay leaves
about 5 whole gloves
1 small onion cut in slices

Put the meat in a container and pour the buttermilk over it until it's covered. Then add the spices and onions. Let it marinate for about 3 day's in the fridge. Easy enough, right?
When you are ready to make your Sauerbraten, take the meat out, but don't wipe of the excess buttermilk, just make sure all the spices and onions are not stuck to the meat. Don't yet discard the marinate, you want all those spices.
 Heat your oil and brown the meat from all sides. When the meat is nicely brown, take the spices and onions from your marinate and add them. Add water until it's about 1/3 of the height of the meat. Let it simmer, for roughly 2 hours. Discard the marinate.

After the meat has simmered roughly for 2 hours, take it out of the juice that it simmered in, and wrap it in tinfoil. Strain the juice, removing all of the spices and berries. This will now become a lovely gravy. Put the juices back in the pan and thicken it with flour.

When thickening the sauce, try this easy trick to make sure you don't end up with lumps!
I take a small glass jar with lid and fill it half way with cold water. ( cold water is important because you don't want lumps)  I add about two tbs. of flour and then I put the lid back on and shake it until it's all mixed.( It's also important to put in the water first, if you put the flour first, the flour likes to get stuck in the bottom corners and that will make a lumpy gravy.)

Add the flour mix from above to your gravy in progress until you reach the consistency of gravy you want. Don't forget to stir constantly to prevent lumps! Let it come to a boil and then simmer the gravy for about 10 minutes to get the flour taste out. Add salt and pepper to taste, I also added a little sugar.
Place the meat back in the gravy and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
And it's ready to serve!

I served it with a cucumber, cilantro salad and just plain potatoes boiled in saltwater. 
Yummm!

  

Time to bake

Today I wanted to attempt a braided yeast bread. I have never tried to make one before and today is as good as any day to try.

It was very simple to make and it turned out great. It is definitely going in my "favorite recipe book". I know it was a success when two hours after it came out of the oven, it has already halfway disappeared.  Buying a bread machine was really never an option for me, because there is nothing like kneading bread dough until it's nice and glossy. When I lived in the states I used to make bread at least once a week. Here in Germany bread is in abundance, and the varieties are amazing. However, there is nothing like the smell of fresh bread coming out of the oven.

Braided yeast bread:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup warm milk ( not too hot, yeast does not like scalding liquids.)
Years ago, I made a recipe from an old cookbook and they talked about blood warm liquid with yeast. I found that that is definitely a good description of how warm it should be.
4 tbs. sugar
1/2 cube of fresh yeast or 1 pkg. dry yeast
6 tbs. butter, room temperature
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/2 tbs. lemon zest
2-3 drops of almond aroma

1 egg, beaten
2 tbs. coarse sugar or almond slices


 Dissolve the yeast in warm milk with sugar. Meanwhile, mix the flour and the salt. Add the rest of the ingredients; butter, egg, lemon zest, and almond aroma. Knead until dough is soft, but not sticky. If the dough is too wet and sticky, add a little flour, just a bit at a time. Let it rest in a covered bowl until it has doubled.
It takes about 2 hours.
Then you need to punch down the dough and knead some more. Divide in three equal parts. roll it out on a floured surface. The rolls need to be about the size of a Quarter in diameter.
You can start now to braid the three rolls, tucking the ends under. Place the finished braid on a Parchment lined baking sheet and cover up to let it rise again, until doubled.
When the bread has doubled in size, brush it with the beaten egg and sprinkle it with the coarse sugar or the almond slices, or maybe both. 
Bake in a 400 F  preheated oven for about 20 minutes, turn down the heat to 360 F and bake for another 25 minutes. The total baking time is 45 minutes. If the bread gets too dark, just cover it with tinfoil to prevent it from burning.

 

Holy Guacamole

Avocado is my all time favorite fruit to work with. I love guacamole, especially when served with Mexican food. In fact, I love it so much that when I want a quick dip, guacamole to the rescue.
We usually have tortilla chips at home, that way it's easy to grate some cheese on top and throw it in the oven to melt the cheese. For a super fast fix, just use a microwave. Served with guacamole, it's just plain good.
Here is what I use. Enjoy!

Guacamole:

1 ripe avocado
a dash of lemon or lime juice
about 2 tbs. diced tomato
about 2 tbs. chopped onion
salt
pepper

Cut the avocado in half and remove the seed. Then peel it, it works well when you use a spoon to scoop out the fruit. Discard the seed and peel. Mash up your avocado with a fork then add a little dash of lemon or lime juice, add the onions and the tomato, stir. Season the mix with salt and pepper, to taste, and presto, guacamole.
 ( If you want to grow a nice plant out of the seed, you just have to place the seed heavy side down in a flower pot with some soil and cover it with a plastic bag. Keep it moist. It will take a long time before the seed breaks open and a new plant grows. Don't give up!)

New year, new recipes!

Hi there,

First things first, I LOVE to cook and bake.

Since the new year just started, I have, like everyone else, a few New Years resolutions. One of them is to try out at least 2 new recipes a week. I will share them with you and if you would like, you can follow my progress.

When I lived in the US, I could not find some of the traditional German ingredients, so I had to improvise. However now that I'm back in Germany, I have the same problem with my American recipes. Either I can't find the ingredients or they are outrageously expensive.
Let face it, who wants to buy overpriced groceries?
In fact, some of my recipes I had to modify just stayed modified, because I like them that way.
Having lived all over and meeting people from different walks of life, I absolutely love new recipes, especially international ones.


I hope you will enjoy!


Keep in mind that some recipes are in grams and others are in cups ( one cup is about 250 ml )!

Today I made Ricotta-nockerl ( little spinach ricotta dumplings ) with Sage butter.
I served it with Rib-eye Steaks and fresh Herb butter.
For Vegetarians the little dumplings can be a meal by itself.

Ricotta-nockerl with sage butter

1 pkg. (450g) frozen, chopped spinach
1 bundle fresh parsley, finely chopped
250g Ricotta cheese
2 eggs
100 g freshly grated Pecorino cheese or  Parmesan cheese
100g flour
salt, black pepper, grated nutmeg

2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. olive oil
a couple of fresh Sage leaves


1. Thaw spinach and let it drip off in a colander. The spinach will still be very wet, you will have to
    use your hands to press out all the excess liquid. Set aside.

2. Wash your parsley and chop finely.

3. Combine ricotta, eggs, and grated cheese. Mix with spinach, parsley, and flour. The dough
   should be soft, but not runny. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

4. Heat a big pot of water. Use 2 tablespoons to form little dumplings
   from the dough and place on a floured surface. The flour will keep the dumplings  from sticking.

5. When you are done forming the dumplings, you can let them glide into the boiling water. Turn
     the heat down to a simmer. They need about 10 min., when they are done they will swim on top.

6. Heat butter and oil and fry the sage leaves lightly.

7. Take the dumplings out with a slotted spoon and serve with sage butter and grated
     cheese like Pecorino or Parmesan.