Tuesday Tales: Daily Food of a Consultant

My laptop seems to work again and this is why I can publish again weekly! This week started with a Caesar Salad from the hotel we stayed in. On Tuesday there was good old Spaghetti from the Post canteen which is directly opposite of our office location in Frechen near to Cologne. On Wednesday I was able to taste delicious Schnitzel (the real one made of veal). I am very happy that we get daily per diems... otherwise I would not pay this price for two pieces of meat ;). Thursday was bureau office day. I was close to Frankfurt (Eschborn) and in my office, trying a new snack stand which sold this currywurst. 

Currywurst (German pronunciation: [ˈkœʁiˌvʊʁst]) is a fast food dish of German origin consisting of steamed, then fried pork sausage (Wurst) cut into slices and seasoned with curry ketchup, regularly consisting of ketchup or tomato paste blended with generous amounts of curry powder, or a ready-made ketchup-based sauce seasoned with curry and other spices. However, I think this specific type from this snack stand made me very sick... ending even in a non picture for Saturday due to a diet only containing of saltsticks and apple sauce. Apple sauce? yes true - I searched quite a while until I tried apple sauce and bananas which helped pretty well: Click for info. Don't worry, I did not forget Friday! On Friday I tried another "used to" meal with Spaghetti - which did not really help and Saturday, like I said, was skipped when it comes to food. Sunday, after not really eating anything, we ran a five kilometer race ("Lauf für mehr Zeit") to support the HIV-support Frankfurt. Good preparation for going to Belgium next week!

Udon Soup

We made this all the way back in June but have put off blogging about it because we are not exactly sure what we did.

Bear with us while we try to explain how we made this (delicious) Udon  soup and when in doubt, experiment and try what sounds good to you!

Soup = putting in a lot of stuff and making it delicious through cooking :)




For three to four huge portions, we used:

Udon noodles (200 g)
Mushrooms (250g)
Sprouts (two handfuls)
Chicken (200g)
Green onion (2-3)
Nori (dried seaweed) (one handful - they grow!)
Chinese noodle soup mix (we used one from Asian Home Gourmet, but you can also use normal chicken broth)
Sweet rice wine (two-three spoonfuls)
Seasoning (pepper, chili flakes, curry)




Heat one liter of water in a large pot. Once hot, add the soup mix (or make chicken broth). While the water cooks, dice the chicken, green onion, and mushrooms. Add to the broth with the sprouts. Save a handful of the green onion to garnish the soup at the end.















Let cook until the chicken is cooked through. Then add the nori and the noodles. Let cook 3-5 minutes (or follow the directions on the package).










Season the soup with the sweet rice wine and seasonings.Garnish with green onion.










Serve in a large bowl and slurp away using chopsticks! Yum!

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

Tuesday Tales: Daily Food of a Consultant

Welcome back to the Tuesday Tales! Unfortunately, I have to run my online life currently trough a Ubuntu stick because the hard disk of my laptop completely gave up now... that is the reason for again combining two weeks in one.
Here are my food pictures of the last two weeks:
Starting with the bottom right picture on Monday, I had a Nussschnecke (very delicious for breakfast or dessert) from the local bakery. The next day, Tuesday, was also very typical German and included a meal of Sauerkraut, meat and mashed potatoes. This week was nice and short and I had taken holiday on Thursday and Friday and therefore I was already able to leave to go home to Frankfurt on Wednesday evening. While waiting for a delayed train in Cologne, I figured that in the Deutsche Bahn first class lounge you are able to get everything for free (including Weizen). Hence I ordered one (still somehow expecting that I have to pay). A very enjoyed way to start the first evening of my days off and the delayed train turned into a very useful discovery I plan to use again some time! On Thursday, I visited her at the airport for lunch where we had all you can eat sushi. The benefits of time off! On Friday we enjoyed homemade Kaesespaetzle and Saturday was a lazy weekend day so I had take-out Thai food.

The following week started with a rucola and Parmesan cheese pizza from the usual Italian place in Frechen. I had a chicken and rice lunch on Tuesday which is not very exciting to write about. Her birthday was on Wednesday and I was able to travel back to Frankfurt to surprise her. She had dinner with all our friends and I was able to join only a little after it started. Chicken fingers was my chosen meal. Not very much compared to the birthday girl who got all she could eat and drink for free from the restaurant. On Thursday she made macaroni with cheese, sausage and (of course, the one and only vegetables for Americans...) broccoli >:D. The mac and cheese recipe will definitely be getting blogged about soon. Aglio Olio was served by me on Friday (a safe choice on Fridays and Saturdays when we do not have to work the next day = lots of garlic) followed by sandwiches and take out Thai food on Sunday (two separate meals of course!).

Tuesday Tales: Daily Food of a Consultant

Welcome back to Tuesday Tales: Daily Food of a Consultant. The last two weeks were really busy. Here now is a combined version of the Tuesday Tales. Beside other tasks, I was on my way to Belgium last week and not able to write. Nevertheless, I brought tasty pictures about the food I had during these busy times of project work and workshop preparations for my European project.
Monday started with a typical German potato soup with a huge sausage. Clearly something my Dutch colleagues were able to laugh about. Tuesday continued with another German meal: two Schnitzel with potatoes made my evening perfect.
I had German Knödel with Hackbraten on Wednesday. My Dutch colleague was wondering because he thought that the Knödel was a potato. I guess dumplings are not very common in the Netherlands. After going to Frankfurt on Thursday, we ate fish stick rolls followed by tasty Chinese food on Friday. Due to a Nancy Drew competition (Germany against America) on Saturday and Sunday, we ate a lot of junk food while competing with her sister and her sister's husband. Unfortunately we were about 1,5 hours slower than our opponents while solving the mystery game in an 48 hour marathon.

The week after started right away with as much work and the outlook to visit the new project location in Belgium. Monday started with a Caesars salad followed by pasta on Tuesday. On the same day, we ordered 8 pizzas for our team leads while they discussed the current planning approach and finalized our September workshops. Late night (or early morning) we were arriving in Belgium drinking tasty Kwak beer upon arrival. 

As with other Belgian beers, Kwak has a branded glass with its own distinctive shape. While drinking from the glass, the bulb at the bottom will remain filled for a relatively long time. As soon as air reaches the still-filled bulb, a large amount of beer will gush towards the drinker. This is accompanied by a characteristic sound which sounds like Kwak spoken quickly.

We had typical lunch: sandwiches with lots of mayonnaise. Thursday was accompanied by homemade Chinese food from her and the last left overs from our Nancy Drew session the week before. On Saturday I had my favourite meal: Spaghetti Aglio e Olio. 

Beside eating all you can eat buffet brunch with our friends on Sunday morning, I made Okonomiyaki which prepared me for a short week with two days holiday :).

Creamy Shrimp Pasta with Creme Fraiche

Even though we made this meal completely from scratch, pasta included, it took really no time at all - about 30 minutes. Making our own pasta really added to it but we are sure the creamy sauce is good no matter what type of pasta you put it on!


 
Pasta:

Check out our Homemade Pasta (Fettuccine) recipe to see how we make our pasta. This time we did learn and hung our fresh pasta over coat hangers to keep it from sticking together. This is a very cheap and easy way to avoid getting one giant glob of fresh pasta when making the rest!

Sauce:
1/4 cup creme fraiche
1 pound shrimp
1/4 cup butter
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic
1/2 Tbs wine
1/2 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tbs chicken stock
salt, pepper, basil

The sauce only takes about 15 minutes so prepare you pasta accordingly!




Prepare the shrimp by peeling and deveining them (if needed). Melt butter in a large skillet, add lemon juice and diced garlic. Add the shrimp and cook them until they are opaque.







Remove the shrimp and set aside. Return the skillet to the stove and add the wine, corn starch, chicken broth, and creme fraiche. Simmer the sauce until it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put the sauce over the pasta and shrimp and garnish with fresh basil.



We got the idea for this recipe from Paula Deen on Foodnetwork.com but what we made it not very similar to the original recipe.

Traditional American Pancakes

He is not a fan of American breakfast, he makes this quite clear, but every once in a while he will humor her by letting her serve a very American breakfast.

You can imagine it caught her by complete surprise when last Sunday he sat on the couch and announced that he felt like American pancakes. She didn't even give him the time to change his mind, within seconds she was in the kitchen whipping of a batch of this American classic :)

We made this full recipe because it used only one egg (and who wants to use only half an egg!?!) but it made a lot!


1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs white sugar
1 1/4 cup milk
1 egg
3 Tbs butter, melted





Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Pour in the milk, egg and melted butter. Mix until the batter is smooth.

Heat a griddle (or frying pan) on medium heat with a small amount of oil. We find it is best to put a oil on a paper towel and gently rub the bottom of the griddle.



It is important to be patient when making pancakes. The pan needs to be very hot before you start but you also do not want the heat turned up too high because the outsides will get brown and the insides will still be raw.

Use a 1/4 cup scoop to transfer the batter onto the griddle. It is up to you if you would like a very large, very small, or medium pancakes.





Let cook (don't play with them or even peak!) until the pancakes start to form small bubbles. When this happens you know it is time to flip them. Flip and cook for another minute until golden brown.





If you are making many pancakes and want to serve them all at once, heat the oven on low and let them stay in there until the rest are finished.

Serve with maple syrup (the proper way!) or if you are like us and don't have any maple syrup in the house, Nutella, cinnamon and sugar, or peanut butter.



If you want something a bit different, try our Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

This traditional recipe was found on allrecipes.com, but there are many recipes out there and all about the same!