For the Love of Food

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 »

I am so excited to share with you that I have made it to Round 6 in the Project Foodblog competition! I’m so thrilled that I think I may just blog the whole night long! Thank you all for your votes!

In challenge 3 we had to hold a luxurious dinner party, and, as I promised in that post, I would post all the recipes from that evening. Well, somewhere along the way a few weeks ago I left you at the main course. Now, it’s time to pick-up with the rest of the main course with the Cardamom Rice.

I searched for quite a while before I found this recipe, but when I found it, I knew it would be great. And, it was fantastic. Prior to this dish I had never used cardamom, and I was pleasantry surprised that it has a delicious, yet mild aroma. So many spices that I well loved in the middle east are quite intense and can be overwhelming to the unfamiliar palate. Cardamom is not one of these spices.

The dish is quite easy to prepare, and involves little prep work for such a fragrant dish. I goes well with lamb, but I imagine it would even go well with beef or pork roasts.

Just a word of warning! The grains in bastmati rice and very lose and it takes some practice with presentation.

The original recipe can be found here. 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 »

Voting is now open!  Please cast your vote for me here. 

Now, I have hosted many parties in my short life: impromptu dinner parties, lunch parties, brunch parties, garden parties, winter solstice parties, children’s birthday parties, Thanksgiving parties…I could go on for quite a while.  But, I’ve never hosted a luxurious dinner party.  So, when Foodbuzz challenged us to host a luxurious dinner party I hit the web to get ideas on how to host one.

To my utter surprise, there is not a lot of information out there on how to host a luxurious dinner party – needless to say a small intimate dinner party.  There is plenty of information on how to throw huge and elegant wedding bashes, but since I cannot seat 100+ in my home, I had to turn to other sources.

I quickly emailed the two people I knew would have detailed thoughts as to what a luxurious dinner party would entail.  Could I hold it in my home since my dining table is in my kitchen?  Would I need a server?  These are just some of the questions I had.  Surprisingly – well, maybe not – I got quite different answers from both sources, but good advice none the less.

So, what do you need to put together a luxurious dinner party?? Continue Reading »

I have been dying to try to make Chinese dumpling (in any form) for quite some time now. And, when I stumbled across Jaden’s really easy-looking recipe I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and time to start cooking!

She has a really great step-by-step tutorial on how to fold them – and it is really fool-proof! I did have some issues in making the dumplings, but this problem started at my local grocer. Where the heck do I find dumpling wrappers in my small town?? No Where. But, I never let that stop me – I was determined to make these babies. So, I grabbed a pack of wonton wrappers and made my way home. And, yes, wonton wrappers do hold up well, but you will end up with rectangular dumplings. And, I’m not sure if the flavor is any different than that of dumpling wrappers. Oh, and although I have 3 huge bouquets (or bushes) of chives growing in my garden, I somehow came home without any and ended up having to use the green onions.

We really enjoyed the dumpling, despite their rectangular coutures. The pork and cabbage filling is full of flavor and I promptly started dreaming up other dishes that I could use it in. Jaden recommend enjoying the dumpling with some hot chili sauce, but we found that the slippery consistency of the dough wasn’t able to hold much of the flavor of the sauce. Maybe this wouldn’t have been the case had I pan fried them?? On the other hand, the next day my Chinese friend stopped by the a bowl of Congee (she stops by practically twice a week with some sort of new and exciting Asian food for me to try) and we warmed it up with these dumpling inside (did I just commit a mortal sin by doing that??) and they worked wonderfully together.

Here’s the recipe, and you can find Jaden’s step-by-step tutorial on how to fold dumpling here in her Steamy Kitchen. Continue Reading »

All that talk of making beer yesterday made me hungry! And, nothing like some delicious southern food to satisfy our hunger – I tend to miss being home in the summer and this really hits the spot.

My husband put this wonderful meal together for us last week.  He found the hush puppies recipe here – we tweaked it a bit.  I did the cocktail sauce.  And, I am no lover of cocktail sauce, but I blew myself away with this sauce that I put together for my boys so much so that I ended up consuming half of it myself!

After the jump, you’ll find all three recipes: Continue Reading »

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been quite busy in my garden the last few months, but it hasn’t always been weed-pulling, raking, and watering.

We have had some fun grilling every once in a while the last few months. This specific time we made ribs and grilled vegetable pockets. And, let me “warn” you – the pockets look boring and drab, but they explode with delicious flavor – and they are soooo easy to make!

For the ribs, I made one of my previous recipes and steamed them the night before – this is how they become nice and soft. The recipe calls for just seasoning it with salt and pepper, but next time I will use my dry rub to give it more flavor.

May recipes after the jump: Continue Reading »

Souvlaki is one of my favorite summer time meals. And, and although the weather is so cool here right now you’d think it was Fall, it’s still nice to pretend that it’s sunny outside! But, honestly, souvlaki is great any time of the year, and although most recipes require you to grill your meat, I cook my in a griddle pan (without the grill ridges).

So, what goes well with souvlaki?? Zatziki – zattiki – zatziki, rice, and cabbage salad. You can vary the vegetables beyond cabbage salad if it’s not winter, but it’s quite delicious.

Please don’t be scared of the long resting hours – these recipes are all really worth making and well worth the wait. Continue Reading »

About a year ago our friends from Hempe Kommunikations Deisgns invited us over for a delicious traditional Franconian meal of pork roast and potato dumplings.  I’m not sure whose idea it originally was, but our friends ended up taking step-by-step photos of the process and giving me the recipe.  It was not only a fantastically delicious meal, but it seemed simple enough for me to reproduce.

So, after some practice, I thought it would be great to use my opportunity to through another Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 event and show my friends how well I have learned their recipe myself.  And, since it’s the right time of year, I decided it was time to break out the wooden Spekulatius boards and make some spiced cookies.

I was so excited when I pulled the pork roast out of the oven and saw the look on my friend’s face..and hear the words that came out of her mouth: look at the crust, I don’t think we’ve ever had a crust like that on any of our roasts!

And, as many cooks, what do I like more than cooking and eating my own creations?? : when people love my food.

The roast was a huge hit – crunchy, juicy, perfectly flavored – same with all the side dishes.  The cookies..well, they were ok, nothing to talk over…a shame.  But, we will keep trying until we get the perfect recipe.  After the fact I was doing some things and came to the realization that I used all local products to produce this delicious meal – wines and beers as well.

Ok, bellow I will leave you with 3 great recipes (pork roast, potato dumplings, and spekulatius cookies) all with step-by-step pictures which makes this a long post.

Between all the delicious Franconian wine, beers, delicious food, and conversation I never ended up taking any pictures of my guests enjoying the meal!  Continue Reading »

The other day I was perusing one of my favorite blogs (Steamy Kitchen) and I found Jaden’s post on the Pioneer Woman’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken. I have a weakness for fried chicken.

If you can make a good fried chicken, you can win over my foodie heart.
And, if you can make perfectly crispy homemade fries…well…I will just been sitting next to you with a big smile and greasy fingers.

But, since I’m the cook around here, I am the one in charge of satisfying my cravings. So, I got to it.

You will find that the secret to a crispy crust is not a soggy wet batter, but rather a crumbly dry one. I recommend checking out the Jaden’s post with step-by-step images.

And the fries, well, it’s easier than you think to produce perfectly crisp fries at home. It’s a trick a friend of mine taught me. It’s all about the double frying. Which, is basically what you do when you buy the pre-cut frozen fries from the grocery store. Continue Reading »