Molcajete

We have been searching for a molcajete for our kitchen for several years now. Any trip near the Mexican border has involved a search for one that was heavy enough to be autentico but that also didn't cost an arm & a leg.

We finally found one and after the appropriate amount of seasoning with onion, garlic, rice, heat, etc. it was ready for use!



and later in the guacamole-making process:

Dr. Pepper Cake

I don't have tons of memories of my Grandma Chalmers. She and I weren't especially close, but I never doubted that she loved me. And one of the ways that I knew she loved me was that she would make her Dr. Pepper cake for all major holidays when she knew I was going to be there.

So, when I needed to make something for a Student Econ Association event tomorrow afternoon and because I just got home from Texas and spent another Thanksgiving without a Dr. Pepper cake, I decided that it was a logical thing to make for tomorrow. The trick was converting a 9x13 cake into cupcakes since I didn't want to have to deal with forks, plates, etc. Turns out that 9x13 cake makes a LOT of cupcakes. I baked 12 cupcakes, plus 24 little mini-cupcakes, AND 12 madeleines (I was running out of pans!). But, they all turned out okay and I'm looking forward to sharing them tomorrow.

Cake:
Put 2c sugar, 2c flour, 1 1/2 small marshmallows in a bowl and set aside.
In a saucepan, bring 1/2c crisco, 1 stick oleo (butter), 3 Tb cocoa, 1c Dr. Pepper to a boil.
Pour it over the flour mixture and beat til marshmallows are melted.

Add 1/2c buttermilk, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 eggs, and 1 tsp vanilla.
Bake in an oblong pan at 350 F for 40 minutes (or 325 F for 50 minutes)



Icing:
Bring 1 stick butter, 6 Tb milk, 4 Tb cocoa to a boil in a saucepan and then let cool.
Add 1 box powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla. Stir until well-mixed.
Top with chopped pecans if desired.


Oh, and I also made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and sugar cookies, too.

Thank goodness I'm foisting all this stuff onto people with faster metabolisms than I!

Dieter Bros

The night before we left Texas, my entire family went out for barbeque at Dieter Bros Restaurant in Lindsay, TX. Lindsay (contrary to the name) was settled by German immigrants to Texas (as was nearby Muenster) who adapted the local cuisine and made it their own. Consequently, the best BBQ joints are run by Germans who also serve smoked sausage and "German" sausage (I'm putting that in quotation marks for the Gropius's family) which is more like a variant of kielbasa than a bratwurst.





The weather was cold, so we bundled the kids up in jackets and Mom put one of her hats on my niece:



We all arrived at Dieters (next door to The Smokehouse--also good BBQ) and I snapped a few quick shots of the outside. I especially like the drive-through BBQ to go option:





Inside, Dieters is like any other Texas BBQ joint that's not a chain restaurant:




And the menu is pretty much identical, too (although some BBQ joints don't offer a special German plate):



My brother ordered a single children's chicken strip meal for both kids and my niece was having fun licking the gravy off the french fries:




I guess that's a Texas thing? Cream-style gravy with fries? The waitresses as Texas Roadhouse always look at me funny when I ask for it special on the side....which makes me wonder exactly how "Texan" that restaurant really is??

Thanksgiving Dinner

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday because my brother had to work Thanksgiving day. He and his family drove over on Friday afternoon and we had dinner around 2:30pm. His wife left that evening and drove back home, but Stewart stayed with the kids all weekend long.

For Thanksgiving dinner, Gropius roasted a turkey breast and a spiral-sliced ham. I made clover-leaf rolls, bundles of green beans (wrapped in bacon and roasted in butter and brown sugar), and marshmallow-covered sweet potatoes. Mom made my grandmother's famous fruit salad, kernel corn, and stove-top dressing. And we also had jellied cranberry sauce (for my father) and an olive tray (for my brother).

Turkey


Dinner Table


Sweet Potatoes (with a streusel topping on one end for Gropius)

Spiral-Sliced Ham

Stouffer's Stove-Top Dressing


WV Wine (we brought it down with us two years ago but Mom couldn't drink it due to chemo/radiation therapy--she liked it though!)


My niece and nephew had cut-up wienies, corn, shredded cheese, and mustard. My nephew had coffee to drink with his meal. I think my niece had Tang? We put them at their own special place-settings at the bar behind the table.



After dinner was through, my sister-in-law lay around while Gropius, Mom, and I put away the leftovers and washed dishes. My brother herded his children and my father and grandfather sat and watched college football.

Stollen Update

So, Gropius and I made a recipe that produced two stollen loaves yesterday. Unfortunately, we mis-read the recipe and the first loaf was improperly sized (still delicious, but not as pretty as its twin). We included candied orange/lemon/citron peels, brandied cherries, currants, and marzipan in our version. We based our recipe from the one in Kaffeehaus by Rick Ro(d)gers. His recipe used dried fruits, but we went with the traditional European stuff instead. Here are some pictures of how it all turned out (these loaves won't last through Thanksgiving, fyi):


the one on the left is how stollen is supposed to look (the right one is trying to pass as German biscotti!)



big chunk of marzipan there on the right


YUM! I love Christmas......

Catch-Up meal(s).

Things have been busy lately. Nothing like being out of town for most of last week and having Thanksgiving looming over you to make you feel pressured and over-worked. (irony of ironies, we are studying Marx in my History of Econ Thought class right now).

So, I have neglected the blog in my (futile) efforts to get caught up with my to-do list. The following is a mish-mash of various meals from the past week, but there are a few good pictures among them, I think.

schnitzel with german potato salad and asparagus (this is Gropius's plate with my asparagus tips--I don't like the tips)

prosciutto-wrapped, quince chicken in a white wine sauce on a bed of leeks with wilted swiss chard and carrots


coffee cake muffins (Saturday's breakfast)


beet risotto (recipe from Martha Stewart)

we liked this one because it used beet greens, too.


We have spent the weekend in the kitchen doing some pre-holiday baking warm-ups: christstollen and kastanove bramburky (chestnut potatoes). I will have better pictures of those efforts posted later, but for now you can see some preliminary results on flickr.

We also made a quick trip to Home Depot and acquired a new vent hood for our stove-top. The puny microwave vent hood that the flippers installed in the kitchen before we moved in just isn't sufficient. We looked at several more expensive brands and (we think) lucked into a cheaper line by an Italian company known for more expensive range hoods. Will have more pictures of how that projects turns out later, too (after Thanksgiving though).

Guys never make passes....

....at girls who wear glasses....