Simple German dinner

Yes, we're still here. I know it has been a while. After our long hiatus from cooking and posting, we're enjoying a week of great food.

This past Sunday, we made our first Around the World dinner since summer. It was a simple meal: open-faced sandwiches, German potato salad, and homemade Christmas cookies.

M is school, enjoying pajama day on the last day before Winter Break starts. He told me to let you know that he really liked the meal, especially the sandwiches and the potato salad.

German Potato Salad (from epicurious.com)

2 lbs potatoes
2/3 cup vinegar
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered dry mustard
1 scallion, finely chopped

Dice potatoes and cook in boiling water until tender. Set aside. In a large pan, cook vinegar, water, sugar cornstarch and mustard on high heat until it comes to a boil. Reduce to simmer and stir until thickened. Add potatoes, salt, pepper and scallions. Mix carefully to prevent mashing the potatoes.

German Christmas cookies (from cooks.com, we made a 1/4 recipe which gave us 30 cookies)

8 eggs
4 cups sugar
4 oz. chopped citron
4 oz. blanched almonds
grated rind of 2 lemons
9 cups flour
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Beat 8 eggs. Add 4 cups sugar, beat until smooth, about 15 minutes. Add 4 ounces chopped citron, 4 ounces blanched almonds, (which have been coarsely chopped) and the grated rind of 2 lemons.

Sift together 9 cups flour, add 1/2 tsp. ground cloves, 2 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper to flour and sift again. Add to the first mixture.

Roll out dough 3/4 inch thick. Cut into small rounds 1-inch in diameter.

Before baking, turn each cookie upside down, put a drop of water on each and bake at 350°F. for 15 minutes.

Happy Holidays from Around the World dinners!

Retro Ornaments Brown Christmas

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(look for some great holiday Around the World dinners coming next week...)

What We're Eating When We're Not Having an Around the World Dinner

I tend to fall into the habit of making the same thing over and over again for dinner. I'm going to list our favorites so when I am doing the menu planning, we have some more ideas ready. The names are in our household's shorthand. If you are interested in more detail or a recipe, ask.

1.) Tacos
2.) Seitan fajitas (I haven't been able to make this in a while, as all of my seitan sources dried up. But seitan is back at the local co-op, so it's back on our menu. Yay!)
3.) Seitan stroganoff (ditto above, another Yay!)
4.) English Tea dinner (always a favorite with M, but it's labor-intensive, so I resist making it too often)
5.) Pinto and poblanos (I have a great recipe for healthier chile rellenos; with Spanish rice, pinto beans, and corn tortillas on the side, it's a terrific meal)
6.) Pasta (sometimes with traditional red sauce, more often aglio olio style, as M doesn't like tomatoes)
7.) Hoppin' John
8.) Tortilla Espanol
9.) Quiche
10.) Red beans and rice
11.) Breakfast dinner (poached eggs, toast, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, vege breakfast sausage)
12.) Stir fry
12a.) Moo shu (a la M's Flat Top Grill recipe, this was dinner last night and lunch for Steve and me today)
13.) Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup
14.) Baguette sandwiches (we're skipping these until M's front teeth come in but they have been a favorite for nights when we are rushing to soccer practice)
15.) Enchiladas
16.) Burritos
17.) Black bean chili
18.) Pizza
19.) Quesadillas with refried beans (check out Molli Katzen's Pretend Soup for this and other great recipes for parents and kids cooking together!)

OK, that ought to keep us well-fed for a while. I'll update as I remember more. And I am sure that M will have something to add when he gets home from his first day as a second grader.

On location: Chicago

Hi. This is M. We went to Chicago a few days ago. This trip included a baseball game, Shedd aquarium, Adler planetarium and The Field Museum. But in this blog post, the two most important places are Trader Vic's and Flat Top Grill.

My Flat Top Grill Recipe

Pineapples
Noodles
Broccoli
Edamame

Sauces

Soy

Sticks

Roti
Mu-Shu
Tofu


Mom's part
We had a great trip to Chicago. M listed all of the highlights, the attractions and the two best restaurants. We ate twice at Flat Top Grill, which is a create-your-own stir fry restaurant, and once at Trader Vic's. I enjoyed the seared tuna salad and a mai tai at Trader Vic's (which claims to have invented the mai tai in 1944). M had the macaroni and cheese and a "Kona Cooler" (mixture of fruit juices). He too enjoyed the meal. I took a picture of M next to one of the Tiki statues and will post it later, when I finally get those pictures off the camera.

Costa Rica breakfast dinner

We decided to make a meal from Costa Rica. When we pulled up the Wikipedia entry for Costa Rican cuisine, the photo showed a typical Costa Rican breakfast. Who doesn't like having breakfast for dinner? Certainly we like it. So we made the following meal:

poached eggs,
toast,
gallo pinto,
fried plantains,
and to drink, one of M's favorites, Mighty Mango Naked Juice.

M's Interruption
Hi. I liked the brinner, which is, yes, breakfast for dinner. Here is some other awesome naked juices:
Blue,green and red machine
Berry blast

Those are just some. You can find lots at Cub and Target. Some are at DBC.


back to Mom
Gallo pinto, which means spotted rooster, is black beans and rice, which are cooked separately and then pan fried together. It is often served with Lizano salsa but, as we couldn't find any at our local grocery stores, we had HP sauce with our gallo pinto.

I had never had plantains. I liked the taste, not as sweet and firmer than regular bananas.

It was an easy and yummy Friday night dinner.

I get my salsa from New York City!

Actually my salsa recipe. And it's from Spanish Harlem, to be exact. This is taken from FETCH!. In the challenge Sammy (one of the FETCHers) goes to Spanish Harlem to, apparently, learn the ingredients to salsa music and buys the ingredients for salsa (the food). In the other challenge Sam, Noel and Harsha make a cake protector. Oh, and D.J. and Jay get a perfect score in the Half-time Quiz Show.



Mom's Interruption
M did a great job of copying the recipe from the TV screen. But you'll notice what's missing from the recipe (shown in the picture above): what are we supposed to do with the ingredients?? We simply added everything to the food processor and coarsely chopped. To my tastes, the result is just a little sour ("pocky," to use M's word). Maybe we were just supposed to use the juice of the 3 limes? Next time, I'd probably add whole limes again, but use only two limes. Even with three limes, I agree with Ruff's pronouncement that "this is an excellent salsa" (and a very easy one, too).

The green tomatoes came from our garden and the garlic from our local farmer's market. And we even managed to find locally produced corn chips.

Back to M
I like this salsa, even though I don't usually like tomatoes and we have some great chips, too. I like watching FETCH! and I see it almost everyday.

Late Post: World Cup champion dinner

What are we doing with our time now that the World Cup is over? Our household followed all the action in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We watched the USA, we watched all Group C, we watched the Netherlands, Ghana, Uruguay, Germany, and Spain and... well, really we watched almost all of it. And what we didn't watch, we followed on fifa.com. M had a bracket poster that Steve brought back from Malaysia and updated the scores and winners of all of the games.

Around the end of the group stage, we decided that we would make an Around the World dinner from the champion nation. Spain, of course, came out on top. We debated making paella in honor of Spain's victory, but decided, in the end, to make another tapas dinner.

M's interruption
I do not think that I wanted Spain to win (Yes, even after the USA lost). Here are my top 5 nations that deserve to win the World Cup that haven't.


1. Netherlands
2. Portugal
3. South Korea
4. USA
5. Mexico

Me gusta tortilla esponol, chocolate caliente y churros.


Back to Mom...
Can you tell that we are a soccer family? :)

Anyway, the menu:
bread,
olives,
Manchego cheese
tortilla espanol
and, for dessert, hot chocolate & churros.

Tortilla Espanol is becoming one of my "go-to" dinners when we want a quick dinner.
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb potatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
5 eggs
salt & pepper to taste

1.) Heat oil in a non-stick skillet. Add potatoes, onion, and red bell pepper. Saute until soft, but not brown (about 15-20 minutes), stirring occasionally.

2.) In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add to the potatoes and veggies. Season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, shaking the skillet occasionally, until the underside is set and beginning to brown.

3.) Cover the skillet with a large plate and hold in place with one hand. Quickly turn the skillet upside down so the tortilla falls onto the plate (no, really, it's not that hard). Slide the tortilla back into the skillet to cook the other side. Cook until the underside is lightly brown. Slide the tortilla onto a serving plate.

Churros
Vegetable oil for frying
Powdered sugar for dusting

dough:
1 c. minus 2 Tbsp self-rising flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 c. butter, diced
3/4 c. water
3 eggs, beaten

1.) Sift together the flour and cinnamon. Set by the stove.
2.) Heat the butter and water until the butter has melted. Quickly bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the flour mixture all at once. Beat until smooth. Return to heat for about 30s, continuing to beat. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Gradually beat in the eggs until the mixture is a smooth, glossy paste.
3.) Heat oil to 375oF.
4.) Spoon dough into a pastry bag (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut) and pipe 3-4 pieces of dough into the oil. Fry for about 3 minutes, turning once, until golden. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the churros to paper towels to drain. Keep warm while cooking the remaining dough. Dust with sugar. Serve with hot chocolate, and dunk the churros in the hot chocolate.