Onion Rings

It's a good thing we don't own a deep fryer or this could become a weekly addiction!

A bit time consuming but oh so worth it, these onion rings should be eaten quickly to be hot and fresh - not a problem with how good they are.


 
~ for four people:

1 onions, sliced into rings
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
3/4 cup bread crumbs
salt
oil for frying







Cut the onion into rings and separate. Mix flour, salt and baking powder.











Dip each ring into the flour mix and tap to shake off excess.







Set the onions aside and add the wet ingredients (egg and milk) and dip each onion into it so each side is well covered. Lay each onion ring on a wire rack to drip excess liquid off (for less mess, place wax paper under this).

 
Once the onions are no longer dripping, dip them into the bread crumbs.





Heat the oil (enough for deep frying) or medium-high. Once hot, add onion rings (a few at the time depending on how large your pot is) and cook for 2-3 minutes or until nicely browned.

Place on a paper towel to get rid of excess oil and then serve hot.

We recommend serving them with our meatball subs, but we are sure they also go with lots of things like Hamburgers or sausage.

Carrot Salad

First off, please excuse the photos for this entry. Her camera skills are not very good and taking pictures of orange things in bright light just doesn't work too well!

This carrot salad is very quick and easy and a nice change from normal lettuce salad. The important thing is to make it early enough that it can sit at least 30 minutes before eating. This really does make a difference in the flavor!

Serves 2-4 depending on if it is the pain part of the starter

1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp mustard (we used spicy but they recommend Dijon)
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and shredded
1 Tbs parsley 
1/4 tsp salt
 pinch of freshly ground pepper




Peel and shred the carrots. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving so that the flavors really mix.

Enjoy! (We told you it was easy!!)

This recipe was from Rebecca Franklin

Foolproof Meatballs

We have been cooking up a storm lately and have lots of recipes to share - now we just need to the time to blog about all of them!

These meatballs are a great starting point because they are easy and extremely useful. You can eat them plain or make them the basis of another meal. We made 30 meatballs this time because we knew we could easily use them for other recipes, but next time I think we will double this. Stick them in a freezer and pull them out whenever you need a quick and tasty dinner!

30 meatballs:

1 lb ground beef (as usual, we used a ground beef/pork mixture)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1 small onion, diced
1 egg
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Parsley - optional but parsley is great in almost anything!

This recipe is super simple - no excuses! Preheat the oven to 205 C (400 F) and put all of the above ingredients in a bowl.

Mix everything together. Don't even bother with a spoon. Get down and dirty and put some muscle into it.






Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and roll the mixture into balls. The size is really up to you, it will only change the cooking time and how many you will make. What is important is that all of your balls are about the same size.






We made small/medium sized balls and got about 30 from this recipe.

Once the oven is hot, put the tray in and cook for 18-22 minutes. You know they are done when you cut one open and it is no longer pink inside.




We originally used this recipe to make meatball subs - recipe coming soon, but you can also use this with spaghetti, or eat them plain. The options are endless!

We adapted this recipe from Betty Crocker, which used ground turkey.

Italian Pasta Salad

We enjoyed this refreshing pasta salad on the bank of the Main. Nothing like a picnic to kick off the weekend on a warm Friday evening.





Two-three (meal-size) servings:

300 g noodles (whatever shape you want)
300 g tomatoes (we used slices baby tomatoes)
2 red bell pepper
1 bundle of green onion
4 Tbs oil
2 Tbs balsamic
1/2 tsp spicy mustard
1 clove garlic 
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to its directions. Drain and cool down using cold water.



In a small bowl, mix the oil, balsamic, mustard, and diced garlic.

Dice the tomatoes, green onion, and bell pepper. Mix with the pasta. Pour the oil mixture over the pasta and cover well. Season with salt and pepper as needed.








Serve right away or keep in the fridge to let the flavors really mix.

This recipe was adapted from Rince.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

 

Sometimes you just want a little comfort food...








8 oz. of macaroni or other pasta of choice
3 Tbs of butter
1/4 cup of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp sweet paprika, plus extra for on top
2 1/2 cups 2% milk (we used 1% and it worked)
3 cups grated cheddar cheese (we used a little less and couldn't find cheddar but it was still great!)

Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C)

Boil the pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.

 
While the pasta is cooking you can start the sauce.  Melt the butter in a pot or pan over medium heat. Add the flour, salt, dry mustard (we used regular mustard because we had no dry mustard), and 1/8 tsp paprika. Still constantly for about three minutes.









Add milk and whisk constantly for about 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens.










Remove the pot from the heat and stir in two cups of cheese.






By this time your pasta should be finished. Either in the pot (if large enough) or the pot the pasta was boiled in, mix the pasta and sauce together. If you really really love cheese, pour half of the pasta into an oven safe dish, add 1/2 cup cheese, pour the other half of the pasta over it and add the other 1/2 cup cheese. If you are like us and do not need it so crazy cheesy, add all the pasta at once and only add a little cheese on top to make it look nice. Sprinkle with paprika.





Bake for 25-30 minutes or until slightly brown and dry on top.










We enjoyed our mac and cheese with broccoli and sausage but it could also be a meal on its own.

This recipe is from Kitchen Treaty

Rich Brown Mushroom Sauce

We promised to share the amazing rich sauce we served with our Pork Fillet Wrapped in Ground Beef and Phyllo Dough entry but traveling and other tasty entries got in the way. Never fear, now we are sharing this delicious secret with you!

For this sauce you need:

The pan drippings from cooking a red meat (of course, if making the pork fillet just use these)
100 ml white wine
100 ml broth
100 ml creme fraiche
200 ml creme
1 Tbs tomato paste
750 g mushrooms, sliced
2 large onions
2 cloves garlic
50 g butter
A few shakes of Worcester sauce
Salt, pepper, and other herbs of choice (like parsley or chives)

Once you are finished cooking the meat, remove the meat and add a little of the wine or broth to help scrape off the pieces stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pour what you get into a glass and set aside.

Melt the butter in a pan over medium-high and once hot, add the tomato paste, mushrooms and onions. Cook until they are well done and have no liquid left in them. Add the garlic (pressed or diced).










Add the cream, creme fraiche, wine, the drippings you put aside, and broth to the pan. Let simmer for about five minutes or as long as it takes for the sauce to start to get very thick.

Add a few shakes of Worcester sauce and seasonings (salt, pepper, parsley) to taste. Keep cooking so that the sauce gets very thick. If your sauce is not thickening it may be because the mushrooms still had too much water in them. To fix this, add a small amount of flour or corn starch, just not too much or your sauce will taste like flour!






Once thick and tastes great to you, take it off the stove and serve!

Italian Asparagus Salad

It's that time of year - Spargelzeit! Germans run to the grocery stores, street vendors, farmers markets and restaurants to get filled up with asparagus (white asparagus) before time is out, only a few weeks after Spargelzeit begins.

We are not too crazy about white asparagus but we can't help but get wrapped up in the excitement. For that reason, many of our meals recently have been planned around asparagus eating.

We started last weekend off with crepes filled with white asparagus and topped with Hollandaise sauce. Yum. It was our own simplified (and less sweet) version of the recipe we shared last year: Kasierschmarren, Asparagus, and Hollandaise sauce.

That night, we kept going with the asparagus theme and made Italian Asparagus Salad - to her, tomato mozzarella topped with asparagus (no complaint there!) but he says it is truly a different recipe!

To make this salad for two you need:

Asparagus (use as much as you want, we used about 300 g)
A few pinches of sugar
100 g mozzarella (use what seems right!)
200 g tomatoes (again, use as many or as few as you want)
3  Tbs Balsalmic
2 Tbs Olive oil
Fresh basil
1/2 fresh avocado (we left this out)
Salt, pepper

Peel the asparagus and boil in sugar water for about 14 minutes. Remove and pat dry.

Slice the tomatoes and cover with the cheese.



In a bowl or glass, mix the salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic, and fresh bail (this is basically our Tomato Mozzarella recipe but mixed together instead of put directly on the tomatoes).




Slice the optional avocado and the asparagus into one-half to one inch slices and place on top. Drizzle the olive oil mix on top and done!

It is as easy as that!

Serve with warm bread and enjoy!

Kale Chips (Grünkohl Chips)

A friend came over last weekend and made these for us. Luckily she left some kale behind so we could make our own, because we were addicted!

Kale chips are super easy, the toughest part is finding kale in season (which luckily is now).



All you need is:

Kale, washed and ripped into small/medium pieces
Oliver oil
Salt (either table salt or thicker salt (like pretzel salt)


Preheat the oven to as high, or as almost high, as it goes. We cooked ours at 230 C or so (450 F).

Wash and dry the kale and rip (or cut) it into smaller pieces.

Place the kale in an oven safe dish with sides. We used a glass dish.




Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the kale (we made a lot of kale and used less than a tablespoon). Less is more in this situation because you do not want the kale to be soggy and greasy.

Use your hands to work in the olive oil so every piece is covered.

Sprinkle with salt and stick it in the oven (toward the top). After about 5 minutes flip the kale and let the other side cook. In about 10 minutes it should be crispy (a little brown) and delicious. A healthy type of chip!

Homemade Pasta (Fettuccine)

We have a new toy. A pasta maker!

Homemade pasta is much easier than anyone believes (her mother has been telling her that for ages but she never believed it until now). Also, the time spent making the pasta is actually saved in the cooking. Fresh pasta only needs to be boiled for about two minutes in comparison to store-bought pasta which takes ten to fifteen minutes.

The first time we used our pasta maker we made fettuccine, but any noodle shape can be used with this simple recipe.

Pasta for two:

250 g flour
2 Eggs
A little water if needed

For the best result, use white four, eggs that are at room temperature, and NO SALT!

All you have to do is mix the eggs and flour together. The work the dough with your hands and add a small amount of water if really needed. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour.

Once everything is kneaded together, you can use the pasta machine to make the noodle of your choice.

Once the pasta is made, make sure to keep the pieces apart. Do this by either laying it out flat or using something like clothes hangers to hang it up. You can also buy expensive pasta hangers but that seems useless to us. If some does stick together do not worry too much. Once in boiling water the pieces often separate.

We ate our pasta right away but you can keep it for a good amount of time...we just are not exactly sure how that all works yet :)

Enjoy homemade pasta and you will be tempted never to go back to the store-bought stuff. In the future we hope to try other pasta types, such as ravioli stuffed with cheese and meats.

Her Addiction: Tomato Mozzarella

He let is slip in his in his last Tuesday Tales entry. She is completely and utterly addicted to tomato mozzarella. She could eat it every single day, and often does, until he makes her change it up a bit.

This might not be the fancy Italian restaurant version, but after months of eating tons of tomato mozzarella, she knows what she likes. Try it, and then make the changes you need to find your own perfect version.


For one (enough to fill you up for lunch or dinner):

2 tomatoes (if they are tiny use three)
1/3 - 1/2 of a mozzarella ball*
oil, balsamic, basil, oregano, tomato salt, garlic seasoning
 2-3 rolls for dipping


* We use cheap mozzarella made from cow's milk. A large ball of this (enough to make tomato mozzarella two to three times) is only 45 cents in Germany. Sometimes she uses the low fat version of this. It is not nearly as good but when she eats this all the time it is much healthier. Last week we went to a market hall here in Frankfurt and bought real buffalo mozzarella. It was very expensive and we felt that the quality did not make up for the price. Since we do not use expensive oil or balsamic, why waste expensive cheese?

If you use rolls that you have to bake like we do, start them in the oven before you start on the tomato mozzarella part.

Slice your tomatoes and lay them out on a plate. Add the cheese on top. She used to slice the cheese and lay it out all pretty like a restaurant would, but to save time and because it tastes better (says both of us) now we just crumble the cheese over the tomatoes. 



Season with mozzarella-tomato salt (an amazing seasoning here in Germany and hopefully in the USA.) If you do not have this you will need to play around with what tastes good to you. A lot of people like fresh pepper but she does not. She also uses a little dried oregano, basil, and garlic seasoning.



Add oil and balsamic. We have used nice oils and vinegar from Italy and we have used the cheapest stuff at the store. Yes, there is a difference but since she eats this so often she is very used to, and likes, the cheap stuff. (We know, all you foodies out there are rolling your eyes!)

She used to measure the oil and balsamic but now she does it by feel. About two seconds of pouring for the oil and almost four seconds for the balsamic make the perfect mixture for her, with enough leftover to dip the rolls into.

Sometimes we have fresh basil (like this time when she took pictures) and put that on top. Although full leaves look prettier, the taste is stronger if you rip them into small pieces.

Serve with fresh warm bread and enjoy. Yum yum yum, soooooo good :)

Extreme Garlic Sauce (Knoblauchsoßen)

Fondue!

This recipe is a favorite of his family. It makes a great dip when serving bread or as a side to fondue. We warn you though, it is extreme. We recommend that you do not serve this sauce unless everyone plans on eating at least some or if you have any important meetings the next day! Nothing brings a family together quite like stinky garlic breath :)








Because this is a family recipe we are never very exact. The general recipe goes like this:

Equal amounts of Schmand (a heavy sour cream) and plain yogurt
As much garlic as you would like (at least three cloves)
Salt and pepper to taste (we also added other herbs like oregano and basil)







For example, we used 200g Schmand, 200g yogurt, 10 cloves of garlic, and seasoning.

Finely dice the garlic, mix everything together and season. We used a hand mixer to get the garlic really tiny and mixed in.


Enjoy!

Pancake Soup (Flädlesuppe)

Flädlesuppe

Without fail, whenever we make crepes we have leftovers. Usually, the leftover is the first crepe made. Neither of us want to eat it because one, we are already stuffed by the time we get to the bottom of the pile, and two, for some reason the first crepe never comes out as well as the others. Instead of throwing this crepe away, however, we keep it and make pancake soup.




This soup is as easy as warming up soup from a can. All you need is broth (we use either chicken or vegetable broth) and the leftover crepes.

If after reading this you have a major craving for crepes you can get our recipe here.



We made this pancake soup the day after we made savory crepes filled with a mix of vegetables. To add to the flavor, we mixed herbs into the crepe batter. This just made the pancake soup even tastier.

We suggest one crepe is good for 500 ml (2 cups) of soup. Realistically, it doesn't matter if you are heavier on the broth or the crepe.






All you have to do is heat up your broth (we used bullion cubes).

Flädle

While your broth is heating, cut your crepe into strips.

 

Once the broth is hot, remove from the heat and add the crepe strips.

Flädlesuppe

Serve immediately. The crepe strips are best once they have sat for a minute or two, but letting them sit too long just makes them soggy.



Easy but delicious - our favorite type of dish.