For the Love of Food

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Meeta from What’s For Lunch Honey? has created a great post card exchange – the BPW!

So my postcard got sent a bit late…but I actually have a really good reason for it . You see…I had my post card picked out, the address of my recipient in hand, (no postage), and my PDA set to remind me at lunch time on January 29th to walk to the post office and mail off my postcard. But, Sunday, January 28th, I came down with a really bad cold, and by the evening had a fever, and being 8 months pregnant, I thought it would make sense to go see a doctor right then. After being sent from one after-hours provider to another, I finally ended up in a hospital and they realized I was also having contractions…I never realized it, but their machines did. So, that meant I had to not just stay over night for observation, but 2 nights. They took really good care of me there and were really nice…I would have loved to been able to cook my own meals, not that the hospital’s food was bad, I just like more fruits and vegetables in my meals that what they offer. But, since I didn’t have to cook or clean the dishes, I didn’t complain.

Anyways, so now I’m back at home, and today I was able to send off my post card with a very special stamp! I live in the city of Fürth in southern Germany and this year is Fürth’s 1000th birthday. And, since you only turn 1000 once, the Deutsche Post released a new stamp commemorating Fürth’s 1000 years of existence.

So, about my postcard: This is one of few post cards that the city its self prints out. I thought the spring-look was appropriate to valentine’s day since most of the available valentine’s post cards have lots of lovee-dovee words all over them, I thought this would be more appropriate. Unfortunately, it doesn’t depict much of the city, just the local park in spring time, but I think the stamp does a good job and showing the other aspect of town. BTW, it’s a depiction of “Marktplatz” (market place) which is the traditionally where city’s and town’s open-air markets are held, but in Fürth’s case it has become a semi-chic area with lots of cafes and restaurants. If you can see the white semi-triangular building in the back ground, we almost bought an apartment in that house when we first moved in, but the kitchen was so small and the ceiling in it was so low that my husband couldn’t stand up straight in it! But, it would have been cool to be on a stamp!

Ok my BPW secret valentine, I hope you enjoy your postcard!

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Ingredients:
2 Cups of uncooked Spiral Noodles
2 Cups of shredded Gouda cheese
1 Enchilada Sauce recipe (see below)
Lettuce, Tomato, Olives, Sour Cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Cook noodles according to package directions. In a large casserole dish, add noodles and enchilada sauce and mix. Add the cheese and mix in. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes. Serve and add any toppings you would add to a taco.

Serves 4-6

Enchilada Sauce (recipe from Donna Matthews on Recipezaar):
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Chili powder
3 tablespoons Flour
1 teaspoon Cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
½ teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Oregano
3 Cups Water
500 grams Tomato sauce

Directions:
Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl. Stirring constantly, slowly add enough of the water to make a thin paste. Pour into pan and add rest of water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 20 minutes (if you get impatient, add some sauce thickener). Stir in tomato sauce.

I found this recipe online back in 2003, wrote it down, and never remembered where it came from. So, this is not my own creation, but it sure is yummy, so I thought I’d share it.

Ingredients:
1 Lb. Chicken Breast
2 Jalapeños
4 Garlic cloves, mashed
2 Tablespoons of Water
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons Thyme
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
½ teaspoon Allspice
½ teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Directions:
Thinly slice chicken cross wise into 12 slices about ¼ inch thick. Place in a shallow bowl or pie dish.

In a food processor, blend the rest of the ingredients together. Pour the sauce over the chicken to coat well. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 20 minutes to 8 hours.

Preheat broiler when ready to cook. Place chicken in a casserole dish with marinade. Broil 5 inches from heat for 5 minutes, then turn and repeat until chicken in fully cooked.

Serve immediately over rice.

It is not because of a lack of memorable meals that I find this entry difficult to write (how do I not list ALL my memorable meals??), but rather because of an overabundance of them. My husband sometimes makes fun of me when I can’t remember a meal that I ate…because, if I liked it, I remember it forever…I even remember meals I ate when I was 3 and 4 years old.

After giving it some thought, it wasn't really to difficult. As opposed to picking out meals that had featured the most delicious food(s) I have ever eaten I chose to concentrate of the special memories that a meal left behind. The 2 meals I came up with are: The first date I had with my then-boyfriend/now-husband and the first meal he cooked for me.

1. The reason that our first date was so memorable, but not the most memorable, is because he was the first guy to take me to a unique restaurant. We went to a small Turkish restaurant in Austin, TX. I always found that most men tended to pick “safe” places to go eat like Italian restaurants where there is a very low chance that there won’t be something on the menu that you will dislike. But, this was different, this was going out on a limb, and it was so delicious and new. I had never eaten Turkish food before, nor had I known any Turkish dishes…I actually had to do some online research before going on my date!

2. But, the most memorable meal was the one that he prepared himself on Valentine’s day of 2001. He cooked vegetarian low-mein and baked homemade fortune cookies with messages in them that he had written himself. Now, that may not sound too exciting to the rest of you, but it was the fact that he had figured out what my favorite meal at the time was and cooked it. I never told him that I loved low-mein; he apparently over heard me telling someone and remembered. So, what made that evening so memorable was realizing that I had found someone who listed to me…and the fortune cookies were so cute!

Very few of you may have ever heard of a restaurant called Leños Y Carbon. That’s because it’s located in Cali, Colombia. Jacob and I went on vacation there in January of 2006 to visit my family (great grandparents, grandma, aunts, cousins, etc) since he’d never met any of them.

The warm, yet cool-breeze at the shopping mall Chipichape in Cali makes the shopping and dinning experience there quite unique and comfortable. The mall has an open-air environment and when you look up to the west you can see the lush green mountains staring down at you.

So, I found myself waiting in line with my family and trying to decide what to eat. We had previously had the “Baby Beef”, but this time we wanted to try something new.  Jacob and I split pork ribs marinated in tropical fruits…it was heavenly! I don’t always like to venture and try new things…I’m not too fond of fruit on meat, but Jacob likes to try new things and
I figured it couldn’t hurt. One day I will try to recreate it myself.  It came with a side of potato, rice, salad, and sweet platanos.  I wish I could go there right now…

I made the Spicy Feta cheese a really long time ago for a recipe that my brother-in-law recommended (the spicy feta recipe is his) and then I froze it because I had more than I could use at the time. Yesterday I found it in my freezer and smelled it and the first thing that popped into my mind was, hey, I could make this taste like Caesar salad dressing! And, sure enough, that’s exactly how it came out!

Salad:
Ingredients:
Bibb Lettuce, washed and torn
¼ an English Cucumber, julienned
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Brandy Vinegar (or other spirit vinegar)
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
a few Tablespoons of Spicy Feta (see recipe bellow)

Directions:
In a medium sized bowl, combine lettuce and cucumber. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and toss. Add as much of the feta mixture as you like and toss. Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to start with and toss. Add olive oil and toss. Taste and add more vinegar if you want it to have a bit more zing to it.

Spicy Feta:
Ingredients:
400 grams Feta, crumbled
4 cloves of Garlic, pressed
1 small spicy red Chili, finely shredded

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together.

This is a delicious filling for fried wontons or to toss onto a salad. It can be frozen in a freezer bag and used as you need.

So far, I haven’t found any sites that review restaurants and offer images of those places around the city where I live in Germany…so I figured I’d start doing it. We don’t dine out very often, since I really love the foods I cook, but every once in a while I will throw in a restaurant review.

Today I am featuring Our Place in Fürth www.ourplace-fuerth.de . Unfortunately, they don’t have their menu online, but I was able to get one emailed to me.

In general, I find the food there good. We go to Our Place when we don’t feel like making our own American food or for those dishes where we can’t find ingredients for them at our local stores. The meals I like the most there are the burgers, Texas fries, any of their appetizers, and their baby back ribs with their BBQ sauce. And, the portions are really big! Jacob and I usually get an appetizer and then split a burger and fries.

But, last night we didn’t get burgers, instead we got their “All You Can Eat Spare ribs, Baby back ribs, Chicken wings, Garlic baguette, French Fries, Cole Slaw, & BBQ Sauce” which they offer on Mondays and Wednesdays…I was in heaven. The great thing about their all-you-can-eat deal is that it’s not a buffet…so your food comes to you warm and hasn’t been sitting on some hot plate underneath funny colored lighting. You are served a cutting bored covered with everything, or you can ask them to leave certain things out. I, personally, don’t care for their chicken wings, so I leave those out. At anytime during your meal you can just ask for more of whatever you want and they’ll bring it. All this for €9,90 (tip and tax included) plus whatever you want to drink…and they have a large selection of beers, wines, liquors, cocktails, and non alcoholic beverages.

Other specials that they offer are: happy hour on Fridays and Saturdays and “Pimp My Burger” on Sundays. They are closed on Tuesdays.

So, if you’re even in Fürth (or in Nürnberg) and you find yourself craving that little piece of the USA, this is a great place to go. Not everything is authentic American food, but when the US is over 5000 miles away, this hits the spot.

Ingredients:
1 Pineapple
1 Banana, chopped

Directions:
Cut the pineapple in half. Carefully cut and remove the pineapple flesh. In a bowl mix together pineapple cubes and banana. Refill 1 half of the pineapple with as much fruit as you can fit into it.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:
cooked Sushi rice and Sushi-zu (see recipes here)
2 Avocado, halved, peeled, and sliced (see how-to here)
12 breaded Calamari rings, toasted, halved
½ a Carrot, julienned
Wasabi paste
black and white Sesame seeds
4 Nori sheets
plastic wrap

Directions:
Place 1 nori sheet on your bamboo rolling mat and cover with rice making sure to leave a lip. Sprinkle the rice with the sesame seeds. Place a piece of plastic wrap that is longer than the nori sheet on the rice-covered nori. Gently place you hand on it and flip the nori sheet over so that the rice is on the plastic wrap facing down. Place a dot of wasabi paste on your finger and smear it down the middle of the nori sheet. Place 6 calamari ring-halves over where you smeared the wasabi paste. Place some carrots on top of the calamari and carefully roll your sushi roll closed. It will be an inside-out roll since the rice is on the outside.
Place the roll in the middle of your plastic wrap and cover the top with avocado slices. Carefully place cover the roll in the plastic wrap and begin to tighten it so that the avocado becomes pressed to the rice. Once you are ready to serve, cut the roll while it’s still wrapped in plastic wrap to hold everything in place. Remove plastic wrap and enjoy!

Makes 4 rolls.

They were growing so slowly…I thought they would never make it or it would be summer by the time I saw anything..but here they are! They smell so delicious!