Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Sunday, December 6, 2015

From the Kitchen

As many of you know, I love creating in the kitchen! Not necessarily my own recipes, but creating delicious food from a variety of good ingredients. And my first love has always been and still is baking. My mother was an excellent cook, but she didn't like baking and so I got to do all the baking, much of which I learned from my grandmother and my aunt Inge.

If you like baking bread of if you want to start baking your own bread, but don't have the hours to watch the dough rise repeatedly, these two bread baking books are for you! I use them all the time - and when they say "five minutes a day," it's quite true! The loaf I made here is their European country bread, which I altered a little by increasing the amounts of rye and whole flours. It is soooo good! Each recipe makes enough dough for several loaves. You keep the dough in the fridge and bake the bread as you need it during the week. Fantastic!!
This next cookbook I got at the library. I got a very cheap copy at one point for my kindle (it was one of the almost free bargains one day), but I wanted to check out a hardcopy to get a better feel for it. It's all about preserving - canning, pickling, curing or smoking. Very interesting and it has a few really good recipes I want to try.
Now here's a new cookbook that is quite amazing. It reminds me of the way my mother and grandmother often cooked while I was growing up - farm to table. I read the entire book and want to make almost every recipe in it! Here I tried the mussels cooked in hard apple cider with leeks and apples. They were amazing!!
Ok, these next two pictures are also recipes from this last book. But I need to give you a little background story first. When I was growing up my dad was always into healthy living (and he still is). We kids were not always convinced, especially when we all "got to" drink cider vinegar with honey for a while. Of course, now I know how good all of these weird things really are! The cider vinegar, the grainy bread, nuts and seeds, whole grain everything, etc.

Among other things, my mom made our own yogurt for quite a while, which I always liked way better than the store bought kind.  So again, as I mentioned in my last post, I feel like I am coming full circle now making my very own yogurt. I decided to buy a starter culture for a yogurt that ferments at room temperature. Once this batch is done, I can use a little bit of it to start the next batch.
And then there's kefir! I remember my mom and dad getting a milk kefir culture from some friends of theirs and making and drinking kefir for a good long time. We kids thought it was disgusting. It looked like cauliflower to me and the taste was not something I liked at all back then. The culture I got here is for water kefir, which I've never tried. Both the yogurt and the kefir need a couple of days to be ready, so when they are, I will update on how the experiment is going...
And lastly ... a new love: oatmeal from steel cut oats! How amazing. How creamy. How delicious. How warming. And how had I never tried this before?! It's definitely a staple in my pantry now, especially during the colder winter months!

Here's wishing you a week filled with good food!

With lots of love,

Silke

Monday, November 10, 2014

La Boqueria - Food Market in Barcelona

While writing down the Paella recipe it occurred to me that I never really shared any pictures of our last Europe travels in France and Spain. It seems like it was just yesterday and at the same time ages ago. Why does time seem to move so darn fast?!
My very favorite place we visited was La Boceria in Barcelona, a food market just off of La Rambla, the main tourist street in central Barcelona.  I admit it, I have a thing for beautiful markets.
If you love to eat and cook like we do, then a market like that is a feast for the eyes as well as the nose and the taste buds!
And visiting one of these markets in other countries gives you such an insight into what foods are regularly consumed that we might not touch at all... I spared you a few of the very graphic photos of whole sheep heads! I think some things you have to grow up with to really appreciate. I did not appreciate those!
Ahhhh, look at that fruit - a riot of color.
Can I have one of each, please?


Barcelona, of course, is famous for the Iberico hams and I ate plenty! I love cured meats - something I definitely grew up eating a lot of in Germany.


You could even buy paper cones filled with shavings of ham on the street for a quick snack. That's my kind of snacking...

The other local food we ate plenty of was anything prepared with salt cod, or bacalao. Delicious!!
That reminds me that I have some in the pantry. I brought back a few cookbooks from Spain and can probably find an excellent recipe. Must remember!!
The seafood in general was amazing!! Fresh and so much variety. We certainly ate our fill on this trip!



 
And here, friends, is my all-time favorite spot of the whole vacation: the Pinotxo Bar at the market.
Daniel recognized this wonderful gentleman from a photo in our Rick Steves guidebook and we patiently waited until a couple of seats became vacant.
When he took our order, he simply asked if we wanted seafood or meat and when we both answered seafood, he took a look at us, nodded his head and went off to put in our order. The food was amazing!! Big shrimp as a starter, followed by a delicious fish entree.
Somehow he knew exactly what we would like. I could have stayed for years... Seriously!! 
 
Actually, there are not many places I would move to for a certain time period, but Barcelona I would! It's such a beautiful city, right on the water. I'll have to share more photos with you...

For today I leave you with much love!

Silke
P.S. I've been painting again and will have some art to show you soon.

P.P.S. I'm also knitting like a fiend and need to take a photo of all my projects in the works on big fat needles, smaller needles and on some that feel like I'm knitting with toothpicks. 

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Paella

Several friends on Facebook have asked for my paella recipe, so I thought I'd write it down and post it here so I can find it as well if I need it again. I studied several recipes (everyone seems to have a different version) and came up with one that we really like and that works well and isn't too complicated. The one I followed most closely was a recipe for grilled paella (click here to see it).
Paella

16 large shrimp (about 12 ounces), peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika (pimentón dulce)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
8 ounces Spanish chorizo, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, as needed
1 medium yellow onion, small dice
2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup diced canned tomatoes with the juice
1 large pinch saffron threads
2 cups paella rice (about 1 pound), sometimes labeled bomba or Valencia
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning the shrimp and chicken
4 cups (1 quart) low-sodium chicken broth
16 mussels, Manila clams, or a combination, scrubbed (or more)
squid or any other seafood you’d like to add
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 medium lemons, cut into 8 wedges each, for serving

Place the shrimp in a medium bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon of the paprika, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine and refrigerate.

Place the chicken in a medium bowl and season generously with salt and pepper; set aside.

Heat a large deep pan over medium high heat. Add the chorizo to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is starting to brown and the fat is rendered, about 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the chorizo to a large bowl; set aside.

There should be a thin layer of rendered fat in the pan. If there’s not enough, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the seasoned chicken to the pan in a single layer and sear, stirring occasionally, until both sides of the chicken pieces are golden brown, about 6 minutes total. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to the bowl with the chorizo; set aside.

Add the onion to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, remaining 3/4 teaspoon paprika stir to combine, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the cup of diced tomato with the juice and cook until the mixture has slightly darkened in color, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile infuse half the hot chicken stock with the saffron. Add the rice and measured salt and stir to coat in the tomato mixture. Add infused stock and leave to cook on a medium heat, stirring from time to time.

After 20 minutes the rice should be nearly cooked. At this point add the reserved chorizo and chicken, pour in the rest of the stock along with the peas, prawns, the mussels, clams and squid if you are using them. Arrange the shellfish hinge-side down on the rice, pushing each mussel or clam a little bit into the rice.

Place a lid on the pan and cook for 10 minutes more without stirring. You want that rice to get just a little crisp on the bottom of the pan. And you want all the clams and mussels to be opened.

Remove the pan from the stove, cover with foil, and let stand for 5 minutes. Before serving the paella, discard any unopened shellfish and sprinkle the dish with the parsley. Serve with the lemon wedges.

Serves 8

Notes:

It really helps doing all your prep work ahead of time, especially getting all the seafood ready. And the veggies as well. Then when it comes to cooking time, you can just add the things and it won't be stressful.

The smoked paprika is what gives it that very distinct flavor. It used to be hard to find, but now many grocery stores carry it.

If you can't find paella rice (I ordered mine from Amazon), I read that you can substitute arborio rice.

Also, it's a great dish to play with the ingredients depending on what you like. I'll definitely be making it again!!


Silke
P.S. I have so much going on right now and so many thoughts swirling around in my head, I'll have much more to share with you next time!! 

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Creative Stuff & Birthday Dinner

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I updated my blog, but that is what happens when summer is over. It seems that with cooler temperatures we all come back to life and get really busy with meeting up with friends, going into town, going out for walks. In short, we love being able to be outside again without melting!
It also means though that computer time is cut short. And that means that I'm behind on e-mails and blog visits. I think I'll try adopting a once-a-week-blog-post approach for the rest of the year (which I can already see getting busy with fun stuff) and see how that works. Flexibility is the key, I think!
I have been so busy with creative projects and it has been beyond fun for me. In this post, I'll share a couple of my latest paintings, which have sold already. I'm working on another one and will maybe get that done today.  I'll also show you some of my recent sewing projects.
My art continues to excite me, especially since I work so intuitively for most of the painting and never know where it will lead. Fun!!
So, yesterday was Daniel's birthday and I planned a surprise dinner with some friends for him.
Because we've all been to Spain, I decided to make paella (the real thing!) and a few tapas for appetizers.  I was so nervous and really studied quite a few paella recipes and then put together my own combination of ingredients.
I finished these little clutches last week to send to a boutique in Texas to hopefully sell for me. They turned out beautifully, although I have to admit I am still a bit insecure about my sewing.
Speaking of sewing, just in time for the dinner I finished sewing these fun placemats. Each one is different and they all make for a happy table, don't they?  
And the paella? It was perfect and delicious!! I had bought the real paella rice for it and added chorizo, chicken, prawns, squid and clams. I was so relieved it turned out well!
For his birthday, I got Daniel (well, us really) a fire pit for the backyard. We've talked about it for a long time and I figured we'll make great use of it all winter long.
And as you can see, we tried it out last night. It was perfect! Even Winslow joined us for some conversation (although I suspect he was more intent on checking out dessert!).
It was one of those evenings that is just rich with all the good stuff: friends, family, laughter, good food, perfect weather and simply spending time together. In the end, those are the things that matter, aren't they?!

Sending you love and joy on this beautiful Thursday!

Silke
P.S. I made a fantastic Sangria to go with the dinner.

P.P.S. It may be responsible for the slight headache I have this morning...

P.P.P.S. It was totally worth it! 

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Granola Bars - well, sort of...

I have made quite a few recipes from this cookbook and all of them have been excellent! Most excellent! If we ever make it back to London, I want to eat at one of his restaurants. For sure!! 
Ok, so yesterday with the weather nice and cool I felt like baking. Oh, whom am I kidding? I always feel like baking! I had decided to make the granola bars from this book. Hm. It started out fine, but I got somewhat hung up on the cooking the caramel part. The instructions weren't precise and I am not patient. At all!
It looked fine and it dumped out of the baking form fine after it was done, but then when I tried to cut it after it cooled down, this happened:
Granola bars? I think not! More like granola crumble. But most delicious granola crumble. Did I care that I had to eat it with a spoon? What do you think? ;-) In fact, I had to stop myself from eating the whole thing in one sitting!
So this morning, instead of packing a nice granola bar in Daniel's lunch bag, I gave him a little tub of the good stuff with a spoon. I have a feeling he won't mind either.

Of course I'll give this another try. I don't like to be defeated by recipes. Next time I'll try to be more patient and cook the caramel longer so that it hardens more and glues all the good bits together.

Sending you love and gooey goodness!

Silke
P.S. How do you like my chicken mug? My sister-in-law gave to it me a couple of years back and it's still my favorite "good morning, have a fun day" mug.

P.P.S. The weather is still blustery and cool and I LOVE it!! I know it'll get warmer again tomorrow and the rest of the week, but for today I'm enjoying feeling chilled... I might have to bake something else. Who know?!

Friday, September 12, 2014

An Oldie but Goodie

We've been collecting cookbooks for well over twenty years. And over the years we've gotten rid of some and added others, but this one we kept (along with a few others from the Moosewood Restaurant - all of them excellent).
Yesterday, this book suddenly came to mind and when I picked it up it was like seeing an old friend. I have made so many delicious meals from this. I decided to make a Cauliflower Marranca recipe, which I had not made before, a casserole prepared with mushrooms, onion, cauliflower, garlic, basil, millet and cheese.
When I was at the store, I saw that they had red okra. Now I'm an okra fan to begin with and so it was clear that I would not be able to resist the red variety. When I cut them open, on the inside they look much like the green ones and just as pretty (although I was secretly hoping they'd be red all the way through).
I stewed them with a little bacon, onions, and tomatoes. Yum! A perfect accompaniment to the excellent cauliflower casserole. 
Excuse the foggy photo - steam was rising from the plate and I didn't notice until I downloaded the photos this morning... In the background you can see the inside of the Moosewood Cookbook - it looks handwritten and also reads that way and is interspersed with fun drawings and much humor. Definitely a keeper!!

Since I last wrote, which was quite a while ago, we've been to Atlanta (I'll share a few photos soon) and I also just finished another painting, which I have to photograph today as soon as it gets light out. 

Daniel starts teaching again on Monday and our lives will return to more of a routine, which for me will mean checking in with all of you more often and posting here on a  more regular basis. 

Today is going to be another very hot and humid day, but after that summer is cooling down just a little and finally in October we will start to feel the first cool promise of fall, my favorite season. I cannot wait!! And I have all kinds of creative plans... 

Wishing you a beautiful day!! And if it's fall already where you are, send me some, ok?!


Silke