Food Friday - Strawberry Salad

As I've mentioned before, I love strawberries!  This is one of Igor and my favorite summer salads.  I usually make it with fresh spinach, but I didn't have any on hand, so I just used "Roma herz salat" (not sure what it's called in English).

The salad dressing is a recipe that I don't feel at liberty to give away, so either buy vidalia onion salad dressing (or some other sweet-tangy-creamy dressing but not ranch!) or visit Camp Susque's website and order their cookbook - I used their dressing recipe for the bacon-lettuce-egg salad and added 2 Tbsp poppy seeds.  Background: the dressing is from the camp cook Mabel, who used to shut herself in a closet to make some of her secret recipes.  Since she passed away years ago, Camp has been able to use her recipes with more freedom, but I don't think it's my place to publish one of my favorite dressings from Mabel on the world wide web.

Anyway, the super-easy, super-delicious salad:

2 heads Roma herz salat (green salad) or 2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
4 sliced mushrooms

Tangy-sweet-creamy poppy seed salad dressing.

Wash and tear salad into bite size pieces.  Add sliced strawberries and mushrooms.  Top with dressing.  Enjoy!  It's kind of a strange combination but it tastes so good!

Food Friday - Beet-Feta Salad

I love salads.  Nothing says to me "adult meal" like a nice salad.  Most times when I'm at a restaurant, I'll order a salad and savor using a knife and fork (two hands!) to eat my salad...I guess the years of eating one-handed while feeding little ones with my other hand have made a strong impression.

Currently, this is my favorite salad for dinner - quick, easy, nutritious and delicious.

Beet-Feta Salad

1 cooked beet or 6-7 sliced pickled beets (from jar), chopped
3 Tablespoons sunflower seeds, toasted
125g Feta cheese (about 1/3 cup) crumbled or in chunks
1 Head of Butterhead lettuce (or Feld Salat or another dark green lettuce)

Balsamico Vinaigrette Dressing

In a frying pan, toast sunflower seeds on high heat for several minutes, occasionally stirring to prevent burning.  Clean and prepare lettuce, add chopped beets and Feta.

Dressing: (OK, I've never actually measured, so this is my best guess)
1 Tbs Balsamico vinegar
3 Tbs oil - I use olive oil, sometimes with lemon or lime flavoring. Pumpin and walnut oils also work well and add a nice flavor.
1-2 Tbs beet juice
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt, pepper

Sometimes I add mustard to the dressing, which overrides any other flavors in the dressing (so I do that only if I'm not using a flavored oil).

Add sunflower seeds to the lettuce, Feta and beets and mix with the vinaigrette  - Enjoy!

Food Friday

So, the past few weeks have been pretty stressful and tiring.  At first, I hoped it would just be for the last few days of February, but this first week of March wasn't looking too great, either....  So last night, when I was home alone with the kids, I indulged my "comfort" food of choice: ice cream.

Living in Frankfurt, I can have delicious "real" ice cream from an Italian Gelateria - so good and so cheap!  But I'm sure I'll post more on that later; it's one of our favorite cheap dates in warm weather:)

No, last night was purely about sugary sweetness just for me: Cookies and Cream

I only had time to run to our local (cheap) supermarket, so I had to choose an "American" generic brand, but it tasted great, so I can't complain (and some other time I'll talk about the "American" products that you find in supermarkets - very enlightening):



Now, this kind of adventure can only take place at night.  Otherwise, I have this:

before I can say, "Stop taking the food out of your mother's mouth, please!"

Oh, and speaking of comfort food, an American friend brought me Reese's PB Cups and Robins Eggs for Easter - awesome!  Now, if I can only hold out 'til Easter and actually share them with my family....

What's your favorite comfort/indulgence food?



Food Friday - Lamb

As a Valentine's dinner for Igor, I prepared lamb, one of his favorite meats.  With the kids asleep, we were able to enjoy a lovely, candlelit dinner.  (we need to do this more often!)  My sweet neighbor shared this recipe with me; I, of course, made up my own measurements and added a bit here and there. 

Lamb with a Mustard Crust
2 Lamb filets (~150g each)

Crust: 2 Tbs Dijon Mustard
1 Tbs Butter
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp Herbs de Provence
1/2 tsp Salt, Pepper

Sauce: 1/2 cup dry red wine
1 Tbs Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp flour
1 tsp Herbs de Provence
Salt, pepper to taste

Lightly coat lamb filets in flour and fry in 2 tbs oil  on medium-high about 5-7minutes until medium-done.  Mix Mustard crust together.  Remove lamb from pan and put mustard paste on one side.  In the pan, mix together the red wine sauce on low, allowing to simmer.  Place mustard-crusted lamb in the sauce and put the pan in the oven (or, if your pan isn't oven-safe, put the sauce and lamb in a casserole dish) on 350F for 8-10 minutes until the crust is golden-brown.  Remove from oven and let the lamb sit for 2 minutes, then serve with sauce.

I  served the lamb with a grapefruit-olive salad (without schrimp), roasted potatoes with herbs, a good red wine and great company - perfect:)


Hope you enjoy it!

Food Friday - Savoy Cabbage (Wirsing)

Mmmm....Winter in a "temperate seasonal climate" offers a limited range of seasonal vegetables.  In the grocery stores, I'm seeing 10kg (25lb) bags of potatoes and cabbage.  I love when I can buy and prepare a seasonal meal (usually involving potatoes and something from the cabbage family): Savoy Cabbage (Wirsing) Stirfry.

Even my kids liked this (although, they were a bit suspicious of the wirsing strips...but the did eat and enjoy the dish, with help from the promise of dessert for finishing their dinner).



Savoy Cabbage (Wirsing) Stirfry
5-7 leaves of savoy cabbage, de-ribbed (technical term: cut out the thick rib in the middle of the leaf) and finely chopped
4 pork chops/steaks, sliced
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
Marinade:
1/2 leek, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed (1Tbs from jar)
3 Tbs sesame seeds
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oil

Marinade cut pork in soy sauce mix for several hours.  On high heat, sautée pork until cooked through.  Add mushrooms and chopped savoy cabbage; sautée 3-5 minutes.  Serve with rice.

Oh! and my favorite kitchen tool when preparing food for children: kitchen scissors.

You can cut almost anything super-easy with kitchen scissors!  Mine are in use almost every day:)


What's your favorite simple but super kitchen/cooking tip?

Food Friday - Grapefruit, Olive and Schrimp Salad

I know - strange combination.  But it actually tastes great!

The original recipe is from a Williams & Sonoma cookbook by Emanuela Stucchi Prinetti. (I added the fried schrimp and substituted Feldsalat for red leaf lettuce)

Ingredients:

1 head red leaf lettuce (or 50g Feldsalat)

2 medium grapefruits

12 black olives, pitted

12 (or so) schrimps

2 Tbs strong mustard

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp sugar

salt

pepper

1/4 cup olive oil (I used lemon olive oil)

Clean salad and place in a bowl.  Fry cleaned schrimps in butter with some herbs de Provence.  Peel and section the grapefruit; remove white membrane from each segment.  Add grapefruit, olives and fried schrimp to the salad.

Combine mustard, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper and oil; pour dressing over the salad.

This salad goes perfectly with a nice white wine and baguette - enjoy!

Food Friday - Finger Food

How's that for alliteration?
Today, Monkey's kindergarten group (the Waldmäuse - wood mice) is having a night hike (4-7pm) with a picnic.  We're to bring finger food, so I'm preparing one of my favorite and simplest recipes:

Tortilla Rolls (makes about 100 bite-sized pieces)
8 Tortilla Rolls
300g/11oz Cream cheese (you can use flavored cream cheeses to add variety)
sliced ham or chicken


Spread a thin layer of cream cheese most of the tortilla, leaving just a small portion plain. Add 1-2 slices of meat. Roll, leave the non-cream cheese part as the bottom of the roll.  Cut into about 1/2 inch (2cm) slices.

Super easy and always a crowd pleaser:)

I sometimes add Feldsalat or rucola salad to the tortillas and leave out the meat in some, for those who don't eat meat.

Oh, and something extra special for this Friday:

Last night it snowed!!!!

Have a great weekend:)

Food Friday - Breakfast

I think I am going to love Food Friday...it's fun to think about what I can make, photograph and present.  It's even more fun to eat it!

This week I've tried a long-time favorite recipe (a breakfast egg dish - original recipe given to me by my friend Maurie when I lived in Arizona) in a different form - as muffins instead of a casserole.

The recipe: (+/- a bit for the veggie content)
2 inches leek, sliced
5 mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp butter
1/2c frozen spinach (thawed, chopped)
3 eggs
3 Tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
Salt, Pepper, Herbs de Provance (to taste)
250ml/1 cup cream
1cup (about 75g) shredded cheese - Gouda, Emmentaler, Cheddar

Sautée leek and mushrooms.  In a mixing bowl, combine eggs with flour, then add baking powder and spices.  Add leek, mushrooms, spinach, cheese and cream.  Mix together, then spoon into muffin tin.  Bake at 350F/180C for 25 minutes. With this recipe, I made 6 normal-sized muffins and 12 mini-muffins.  You can refrigerate the muffins and reheat for breakfast - a great, fast breakfast!

Sometimes, I substitute the spinach with broccoli.  If I want meat, I combine broccoli with bacon and spinach with sausage.

Normally, I pour the egg mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes.  This is also really easy to mix together the night before, refrigerate and bake the next morning (without the baking powder...I add that just before baking).  But the muffin form made this dish even more fun for the kids and having a quick, relatively healthy breakfast is nice for me. Guten Appetit!

Food Friday - Appetizers

I love appetizers!  Nothing says to me "kid-free/date-night dinner" like nice appetizers.  I'm not talking about bacon-cheese-fries or breaded mozarella sticks, although those are definitely two of my favorite foods!  I mean like the dinner Igor and I enjoyed with our candle-lit christmas tree (those Germans!): stuffed mushrooms and bacon wrapped dates.  So, to begin my Food Friday series, I'll start off with these two super-easy appetizers.

Stuffed Mushrooms:
20 Mushrooms
2 Tbsp/28g butter
1/2 onion (in this case, I used 2 inches of leek)
1-2 cloves diced garlic (1 1/2 tsp)
Salt, pepper, mixed herbs (I like rosemary and thyme or Herbs de Provence)
100g/3.5 oz cream cheese
10-15 pistachios, coursely chopped

Wash and de-stem mushrooms.  Dice onion and mushrooms.  Sautee onion, garlic and mushrooms in butter until tender.  Season to taste.  Let cool, then add chopped pistachios and cream cheese.  Stuff mushrooms with cream cheese filling.

This recipe tastes great and makes me feel healthy - raw mushrooms have to be healthy, no matter what the filling!  For a less healthy alternative, take out the cream cheese, add 1/2 cup bread crumbs and broil (400F/220C) the mushrooms for 5-10 minutes until brown (oh, and brush them with 1/4 cup melted butter) - amazing! (but doesn't feel as healthy:) oh! and it works well to make the filling the day before and pop the filled mushrooms in the oven when guests arrive.

The bacon wrapped dates are just that: pit dates, wrap in 1/3 slice bacon.  Broil (400F/220C)10-15 minutes until browned -

uh-mazing!  This is also perfect to do with plums (even sweeter!)

What's your favorite appetizer?  Do you agree that bacon makes just about anything taste better?