For the Love of Food

For this month’s Taste&Create I was partnered with Kris from Behold the Metatron. And, when I came across her meatloaf recipe, I knew exactly with recipe I was going to make! I looooove meatloaf, but I rarely take the time to make it. So, since we hadn’t had it in …well months… now was as good a time as any to make some.

I have to say that it was very easy to put all the ingredients together, and the addition of the oatmeal gave it a lighter less dense texture that we all enjoyed. I did use a mixture of ground beef and pork since I have no access to ground turkey. I would have really liked to have tried it with ground turkey..maybe when I’m in the US on vacation I can. I really liked the addition of the red bell peppers – I’ve never had meatloaf with bell peppers in it. In the future, I may go ahead and add roasted bell peppers instead so that they are softer – even after an hour of baking the chopped bell pepper retained it’s crunch. I also think the smoky flavor of a roasted bell pepper would really complement this recipe.

Also, another first for me was tomato sauce on top of my meatloaf. I’m still not sure if I really like it or not with tomato sauce on top – barbecue sauce on the other hand would convince me a bit more.

All in all it is a great recipe that is really easy to put together. You can find the original recipe here!

I rarely have leftovers standing around in my refrigerator for the simple fact that I am so well practiced in cooking certain meals for my family, that I only make just the right amount for us to eat. Not too little, and not too much.

However, when we have guests over, I often go overboard because it’s hard to calculate know just how much each guest will eat since I’m not well acquainted with their eating habits. Last week I happened to have two set of guests over for dinner on different evenings. On one evening I made the best (unfortunately photographed) fajitas that I’ve eaten to date – even beating the best Tex-Mex restaurants I’ve visited in Texas, and on another evening we enjoyed a Greek meze in my attempt to bring a little bit of summer into the cold days of Fall.

By the time Friday rolled around, I had left over sautéed bell peppers and homemade guacamole from fajita night and hummus from Greek night – as well as some left over deli meat that I use to make sandwiches for my husband and older son during the week. But, what drove me to make this salad was, quite simply, the alfalfa sprouts.

I love alfalfa sprouts, but I so rarely come across theme here in the grocery stores. But, on the rare occasion that I go to my local, but not so close, organic grocery store, I can almost always count on them having it there.

Our local organic grocery store is also our only source of certain products, such as 100% cranberry juice, chocolate without soy lecithin, and steel-cut oats. I happened to be there looking for all three last week. And, when I walked by the alfalfa sprouts, I quickly took a few steps back, grabbed the last package, and headed off to the check-out with a big smile on my face because I knew just how I wanted to enjoy these – in a sandwich.

While I enjoy a traditional mustard, meat, cheese, and pickle sandwich, I mush prefer a non-traditional mixture of whatever I have at hand sandwich. And, this sandwich really hit the spot. Continue Reading »

I love the sunny days of summer. The warm air, the garden parties, and the simple meals.

A sandwich is the epitome of a simple meal, and this one is loaded with very complex flavors.

Prior to the creation of this meal, I had been very shy with using – or better said, not using – my chipotle chili powder. Now that I have taken a leap of faith and experimented, I am inspired everywhere I go with new ways to use it. One of my favorite ways it in guacamole. It will take an guacamole recipe and add the wow factor to it. And, because of the cool nature of guacamole, the chipotle chili powder doesn’t come over spicy at all, but rather adds delicious smoky undertones…which enhances any meal that you wish you could bbq, but can’t.

The chicken breast also has chipotle chili powder liberally sprinkled on it. Traditionally, I use Tone’s Garlic & Herb that I brought back from the US with me, and this time around I complemented it with the chipotle chili powder.

Serve your sandwich with a side of chips and some homemade lemonade, and you can pretend (or not) that you are basking in the warm summer son of a few months ago. Continue Reading »

As I mentioned yesterday, I am a big fan of Big Macs and Special Sauce, but not a big fan of actually eating McDonalds because of all those unnatural extra ingredients that they add to their foods – among other things.

But, no worries, I make a burger that is tastier and much much healthier. And, while I don’t advocate eating more meat than is recommended for our daily intake, I do think that it’s ok to splurge every once in a while.

I went ahead and caramelized some onion rings to perfect that burger flavor. You can add anything that your heart desires to this burger. Continue Reading »

Sometimes I need to throw together a really quick meal – like on cleaning day when I have to spend 8 hours cleaning our home …all those toys (and having to pick them up over and over again because of my 1-year-olds “help”) leave little time for an elaborate meal.

But, that doesn’t meal that I’m about to go and call the pizza man. I want a real meal that will not leave me wishing I’d eaten something else.

So, I went ahead and bought myself a package of pre-made spaetzel, which is the equivalent of buying fresh noodles in your grocer’s refrigerated section, and cooked up some pork steaks with chentrelle mushrooms and caramelized onions. You can also make delicious homemade spaetzle – I have a great recipe in a cookbook that “we” (my husband is the spaetzle cooker in our home) always go to.  There are plenty of recipes online, but if anyone wants my recipe, I’d be more than happy to share – just lease a comment.

All in all, the meal takes about 30 minutes from start to finish, but you can cut the time to 20 minutes if you leave our the chantrelle mushrooms and caramelized onions – or sauté them in a separate griddle (should you have two) while cooking the rest of the meal. And, if you need to further reduce your cooking time, you can pound your steak out with a meat hammer and reduce cooking time to 5 minutes a side.

Here is my great pork steak recipe: Continue Reading »

Way back when my husband and I were just married, we used to go on picnics all the time. My husband’s work route took him through a park, and after work on nice warm days, I would meet half way and we would have a picnic for dinner.

Now that we have two wonderful children, our picnics revolve around play grounds and sandboxes more than they do around food. So, since Foodbuzz asked us to blog about a meal on the go for this weeks Project Foodblog challenge, I decided to recreate a picnic for two.

On one of our previous visits to Prague, we discovered 94-year-old Deli in the heart of Downtown that has some of the most unique and delicious sandwiches I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying. Today, I would like to share the experience of a true Bohemian picnic with you.

The region of Germany that I live in is right next to Bohemia – which is in the western part of the Czech Republic, and much of the Bohemian culture extends into Bavaria. And, my butcher’s family just happens to be from Bohemia, so I asked for some advice as to what would be a typical Bohemian picnic meal to complement my potato salad and roast beef sandwiches. His mother-in-law came out from the back where she usually helps prepare take-away food, and shared some advice with me.  We settled on Brussels sprout salad, rice pudding with preserved, sour cherries, and elderflower spritzer.  My Bohemian picnic was starting to come to life.

And, with the surprisingly sunny weather we had this weekend, we were able to head on over to our community garden for a nice picnic dinner for two – while the kids played in the playground, of course!  I really love the scent of fresh air with my meal – it makes everything taste better.

Potato salad is a very classic picnic dish, but it’s much more fun – and delicious – when it’s in a sandwich.  It transforms a dry piece of bread into a deliciously creamy sandwich.  You can top it off with any deli meat of your liking; my favorite is roast beef because, not only does it taste good, but I have many wonderful childhood memories attached it it.  Then, go ahead and add some tomato, hard boiled egg, and pickle, and you have yourself the perfect Bohemian sandwich.

To complement the flavors and textures of my creamy potato salad and roast beef sandwich, I made a Brussels sprout salad.  I actually grew-up eating this same dish at home – even though I’m not Bohemian – with one major difference.  They add sugar.  I was really worried that this would over sweeten the Brussels sprouts and make them taste gross, but I was quite wrong.  And, although I still prefer my mother’s tangy version, this one is quite palatable and a really big hit with the kids.  My son was begging me for more after 2 helpings!

To help wash everything down, I chose to make an elderflower spritzer.  True, beer is very Bohemian, but I wanted something lighter that would offset the savory flavors of the sandwich.  This was actually the first time I had ever used and tasted elderflower syrup, and I was pleasantly surprised by its fragrant flavor.

To crown the meal, we enjoyed rice pudding topped off with the sour cheery pie filling that I canned this summer.  Traditionally, you would use sour cherries preserved in their own juices, but I find the creamier pie filling preserves the consistency of the rice pudding instead of turning it into a watery mess.

The general rule of a Bohemian picnic is to use what’s available to you.  Don’t have access to roast beef?  Use ham.  Or, go vegetarian and leave the deli meat out all together.  Not a big fan of Brussels sprouts?  You can make the same delicious salad using cauliflower.  Did you miss-out on the 3 weeks of the year when sour cherries are in season?  No problem, you can also top off your rice pudding with preserved plums, raspberries, or apples.  Use what you have in your pantry or what is in season and local.  Never heard of elderflowers and they don’t grow in your region?  Make a simple syrup with fresh petals and herbs available to you: rose petals, orange or lemon blossoms, lemon verbena leaves, lavender flowers, hibiscus flowers, mint leaves, vanilla bean …the list goes on and on.  Mrs. Willomitzer shared with me that when there was no wine they even made a simple syrup out of red wine vinegar and drank that mixed with water.  Creativity is key.

So, get your creative juices flowing, get cooking, pack your awesome Project Foodblog cooler or picnic basket, and take the time to have a Bohemian picnic. Continue Reading »

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We really like pizza around here. Back when I only had one kid, we used to make pizza all the time. Now, I have a second child and not as much time during the day to make my favorite homemade pizza dough. So, when Foodbuzz asked us to put our own spin on pizza for Project Foodblog’s fifth challenge, I was happy to get baking again.

I decided to make a pizza that revolved around two of my favorite ingredients: chicken wings and ranch dressing, but not in a form that you would normally suspect.

Continue Reading »

Today we are moving onto the main course of my Iraqi dinner party. I will be breaking the dish up over three days so that each piece of the dish can have it’s time in the lime-light.

This post is all about the lamb – succulent, melt off the bone, is there more? lamb. The key to making such deliciously soft lamb is patience and cooking them in a rack. When you cook them individually, as I often enjoy doing, they come out a bit tougher – although still very flavorful.

When all my guests asked if they could use their hands to finish the little pieces of lamb left on the bone, I knew it was a hit. One of my friends commented on how it would be such a shame to let even the smallest piece go to waste, and I have to agree.

The daylight pictures are from the day after, and as you can see it looks a bit drier. And, while it was still soft ans delicious, it was no comparison to the night before. My husband was really able to pull this dish off perfectly. This, for your information, is the only dish that he actually cooked in the entire evening. The other dishes I had pre-prepared prior to the meals and he tastefully arranged them on our plates and served them to us. Oh, it was such a lovely evening – I wish you all could have been there.

Ok, back to the lamb. Bellow is the recipe, courtesy of bon apétit. To change the flavor up slightly, I left out the garlic and let the rack of lamb marinate for 2 days instead of just overnight: Continue Reading »

In the spirit of trying new foods for my Iraqi dinner party that I held last weekend, I made shorbat rumman (pomegranate soup).

This was the only course that left people saving the word “interesting” too many times to have it seem enjoyable. To be honest, I was quite disappointed by this soup. It ended up being over spiced, but not flavorful enough. I would definitely make some changes to this soup to have it fit my flavor palate.

Now, I’m not a big fan of cilantro (coriander), but I wanted to try the recipe in it’s entirety…although I had to leave the mint out because mint will dry up your milk if you are breast feeding. So, I left it as it was – the recipe called for 2 cups of chopped cilantro. It just sends chills down my spine to think of eating so much cilantro in one dish. Next time, I will just leave it out completely. If you are a cilantro-lover – like my mom – just leave it in and you will be happy. Also, in the second round of adding liquid – at the very end when the pomegranate juice comes into play, the original recipe calls for adding another 8 cups of water. I think this really ruined my soup’s flavor and made it taste so watery that I couldn’t save it by adding my of anything else. I would also add more salt to the meatballs.

Here is the original recipe. Has anyone ever made this or had it somewhere? What is it supposed to taste like? Continue Reading »

This is the dish I served as entrée for the luxurious Iraqi dinner party that I held this weekend.

I used my favorite bulgur salad recipe and found this delicious shrimp recipe on Taste Buddies. The shrimp were out of this world. The harissa really gave it a nice spicy flavor without leaving my mouth burning. And, the cooling flavors in the salad help to off set the spiciness of the shrimp. This is definitely a dish worth making again.

My guests were all thrilled about the bulgur salad. They all thought this was such a complicated dish to make, but I reassured them that there was nothing more than a bit of chopping.

The servings in this dish are meant as a side dish. To serve as a main course double the amount of shrimp – 2 large shrimp per person, and double the salad recipe. Continue Reading »