Picture-worthy meals.

Warning:  catch-up (ketchup?) post ahead.

Gropius and I have enjoyed a few good meals lately--last night's fondue with homemade bread was particularly tasty, but unfortunately, NO PICTURES FOR YOU! (insert Seinfeldian Soup Nazi voice here)

In the past couple of weeks though:
He roasted a tasty, small pork loin roast in the oven that we served with tiny, perfect, multi-colored potatoes, and shredded brussel sprouts (my preferred method).

And this past weekend, we enjoyed a spanish-inspired risotto with manchego and chorizo and a green salad.  Unfortunately, the close-up photo resulted in a not-so-tasty looking meal, but the first one I took isn't bad.

Backe, backe Kuchen!

the proud baker herself

pointing out the finer pts of her bread

Lulu baked her own cake today. Well, technically, she assisted, but she assisted quite a bit and was quite adamant that she could DO IT, Mama! So, I chopped up a couple of pears that were just this side of being tossed out and measured out the dry/wet ingredients which Lulu poured into the bowl and mixed together. Then, she spooned the batter out into the loaf pan I had prepared in the meantime and we popped our pear-walnut tea bread into the oven.

She was so excited to see the end product of her hard work--I think we might have a baker on our hands!

a close-up of the end product--very tasty!

Dido sez...

Merry Christmas, @#$#*!

Leftovers, part two.

We had frittatensuppe with our leftover broth tonight for dinner.  We made tafelspitz and frische kase spätzle for dinner last night and made soup with the leftovers because the broth was delicious!

I made crepes for the first time since my 4-H cooking days back in middle school and then we cut them into thin strips, put them in the broth and sprinkled chives over the top.  Overlooking the whole tafelspitz prep part, it was actually a quick end easy dinner, esp for a weeknight.

Lulu, however, was NOT thrilled at the prospect of frittatensuppe (even though she ate her weight of it in Europe this summer?).  Someone ended up giving herself a yogurt facial instead...

Breakfast

After an awful start to our weekend that involved the Golf not starting once I had Lulu loaded in at Merryhill and then having to sit there for an hour, waiting for Walter to arrive and then trying to figure out why it wouldn't start before finally loading all of the groceries from the trunk and Lulu + carseat into HIS tiny car for a ride home, I decided that Saturday morning HAD to be better, right?  Right?

So, we enjoyed some blueberry scones with some leftover Thanksgiving pecans with fresh coffee this morning.  Much better!

Lulu thought so, too:

Happy Turkey Day!

Or Tofurky (your choice!).  Gropius and I were busy cooking like crazy people most of the day:  turkey, pumpkin pull-apart dinner rolls, wild rice dressing, southwestern roasted green beans, caramelized carrots and pecans, sage-scented mashed potatoes,  gluten-free apple pie, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top.

Hey, you can take the girl outta Texas, but you can't take Texas outta the girl!

I tried to shoot a few shots of the dinner prep for the folks who were unable to make it:

turkey brining in our ice chest--compliments of the freezing overnight temps, this worked out well!

Lots of chopping going on--and a whole lotta rice.

My precious dinner rolls--my first attempt at baking dinner rolls that didn't come from a box.
Yes, I AM quite proud.  Thank you.

Pumpkin + poppy seeds = DELICIOUS!

The table set and ready for guests....

We had a very merry, Jewish thanksgiving this year, completely unintentionally.  We realized after we invited everyone that all of our Jewish friends were coming (which settled the annual turkey vs. ham question!).  It was also our first gluten-free thanksgiving because we wanted Tina to be able to enjoy everything (hence the wild rice dressing).

We also set up some cheese and crackers on the "piano bar" and served everyone clove-scented Sidecars (see the last page of Sunset's Dec 2010 issue for the recipe) in the living room.  (forgot to take pictures of that, but it looked really swanky!)

Tina and Shaya arrived first and Lulu was SO excited to have Shaya over, even if it took Shaya a while to feel comfortable enough to take off her coat.  :)  Then Todd, Delia, and Max (aka Zorba Spartacus) arrived from Grass Valley and we settled in to our cocktails and appetizers while everything finished cooking/warming up in the oven.  Tina's friend, Karsten--a neurologist who was on-call at the closest hospital, was also able to join us for the main event.  Gropius carved the turkey and then left to pick up Elisabeth at the airport while we all settled in at the table....they arrived back in time to join us for our second helpings and apple pie for dessert!

Unfortunately, once everyone arrived, I didn't get too many shots b/c I was busy playing hostess, but here are a few I managed to snag before the evening was over:

Lulu and Shaya snacking on some pre-dinner bunny grahams

The only picture I've got where you can get a sense of the scale of all the food.
Walter's getting ready to carve the turkey in this shot.

Lulu and Max playing "we're cooking, too!"

Tina, Shaya, and Karsten--Shaya's already dressed for bed!

Dinner

We put some of that excess of tarragon in our garden to good use last night for dinner:  chicken with tarragon-mustard cream sauce over buttered noodles with fresh green beans from the garden and a nice green salad.  Add in a splurge for a nice Cremant d' Loire and it was a wonderful night!

Gropius savoring his wine

The wine splurge of our weekend.

The meal in question

close up of the noodles and mustard-cream sauce

salad had a hazelnut oil dressing that was delish!

view of Walter's plate from mine...