Coffee Break

Well, really Mexican hot chocolate, but who's counting??

More than pizza.

My welcome home card from Lulu:  Mama from Lulu "I love you.  I love you more than pizza."

Thanksgivukkah

We celebrated Thanksgivukkah this year because the first day of Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving (note:  I said day, not night--technically it was the second night of Hanukkah).  To properly get in the spirit, we tried to merge traditional Thanksgiving dishes with traditional Jewish dishes, some to more success than others.

Our Grass Valley friends Todd and Delia and their son Max joined us before driving on to San Jose to spend the rest of the weekend with her parents.  Ta-Chen and Ben also joined in the fun, as did Tina and Karsten (Shaya was in Baltimore this year celebrating Thanksgiving with her father).  Tina had to work that day, so everyone came over for champagne and sweet potato latkes around 7pm before we moved on to the big bird.  I also made some warm roasted nuts with rosemary and shallots for folks to nibble on with their drinks while we all assembled in place.



This year, in honor of Thanksgivukkah, we brined our turkey in Manischewitz which turned it purple, but it also made it super delicious.  Seriously, that turkey was the best I think we've ever made.






We also had a bunch of tasty side dishes including a gluten-free (but not Kosher) cornbread dressing, Tina's bigos, horseradish mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and brussels sprouts.









It was a nice group size for dinner--large enough for a nice variety of conversation and opinions but small enough to feel intimate.



Afterwards, we all enjoyed the chocolate pecan pie I made the day before.


And I committed a MAJOR party foul by forgetting to serve the galette that Ben made.  But it did make a delicious Black Friday breakfast the next morning...and I'm secretly glad I forgot because then I didn't have to share it with anyone else!





Happy Holidays, everyone!

Recent Meals

Just a few recent meals around Chez Schwarm.

Moroccan Chicken on a bed of wilted spinach and carrot puree with a harissa-orange sauce
and moroccan-spiced squash from Jamie Oliver

Sauerkraut Flammkuchen

different flammkuchen teig than we've used in the past

finished product--delicious!

 
Chorizo Manchego Cheese Puffs (otherwise known as it's Thursday!)

my second attempt at pate choux after the success of gnocchi parisienne 

oh, so good!  cheesy and spicy.  I could see these at our next cocktail party!

Barrel-tasting at Crew Wines

 

Gropius and I were really disappointed with RH Philips moved their tasting room and wine-making operations from the Dunnigan Hills area of Yolo County down to Lodi because we loved taking visitors to their tasting room.

So, we were really happy to read all about Matchbook Wines's Tempranillo from the Dunnigan Hills in last month's issue of Sunset Magazine talking about great wine.  And even happier to look at their website and recognize a friendly face--the older sister of a friend of ours!  (We met Darcey in our prenatal ed/childbirth class and have stayed in touch the past five years)

So in anticipation of Gropius's parents' upcoming visit, I asked Darcey if she knew if her sister's wine company had a tasting room.  Unfortunately not yet, but Lacey kindly offered to take us on a barrel-tasting instead!

So, we drove up to the northwest corner of Yolo County and got to see a real, working winery without any of the special sheen of Napa/Sonoma.  And it was heavenly!  As soon as we stepped out of the car, you could smell the yeasty smell of fermenting wine....

And that was before she started showing us what wines at various stages of development tasted like!  Did you know that those big storage containers have little spigots near the bottom that you can use to fill an individual wine glass?  Me neither!

We had a great time, as you can see from the photos and Lacey even gave us a parting gift of some of their (finished) wines to sample at home, now that we've tried them along the way.... 

Oktoberfest

Family Photo

We got all gussied up and went to the Sacramento Turnverein's annual Oktoberfest again this fall.  Lots of fun!  We went when the doors opened on Saturday afternoon at 3pm and met up with several friends of ours who also have children Lulu's age (and younger).  The STV also had a children's arts/crafts area set up upstairs, so we were able to have a LOT of fun before leaving at a decent hour to get Lulu into bed (and leaving before the crazy college kids came out of the woodwork to get their drink on).

Our friend's Paul and Sarah brought a store-bought cake with them to celebrate their younger son, Tommy's, birthday.  So, we have some random birthday cake photos in here as well.

Lulu going crafts upstairs
(the poor girl in the dirndl is from Hamberg!)

A little daddy-daughter time was had....

 

I tried out the holding a beer stein in one hand contest (but without actually being in the contest--I just held it off to the side).  I compared later and the weight of the half-full glass I was holding was pretty comparable to the empty ones they were holding with a weight in the bottom.  I think, if I practiced, I could take 'em next year!  

me and Paul (whose glass I was holding)

The band sang Happy Birthday and we cut into the cake...which had blue icing.

Tommy, the birthday boy

Gnocchi Parisienne

So, I tried out a new recipe, all by myself, tonight.  It was from Food & Wine and Jacques Pepín.  I knew it was ambitious to try out a new recipe and a new technique while simultaneously supervising Lulu alone, but I did it!  While putting this together, I was able to also feed dinner to Lulu, wash dishes, do an art project with Lulu, and run Lulu's bath.

I'd like to see Jacque Pepín do that!

So, Gnocchi Parisienne are basically a French variation on gnocchi without the potatoes, using a pate a choux recipe instead.  I've never made pate a choux before, so I was a bit nervous about that part, but it went together swimmingly.

I boiled water, salt, and butter together and then added the flour into it before transferring it to a mixing bowl and adding the eggs and parmesan cheese.

cooked dough having eggs and cheese beaten into it

Then, I had to transfer the dough into a zip-loc bag and squeeze it into boiling water while cutting off pieces with a sharp knife.  Um, yeah.

the ersatz pastry bag

But, I managed to do that without cutting myself and the gnocchi turned out pretty well!  They look just a bit like pretzels...

half-way finished product, post boiling pre-baking

And once they were boiled and submerged in an ice water bath, then I transferred them into a 9x13 baking pan to cook for 25 minutes in the oven to puff up.  Afterwards, they had to be put about 6" under the broiler until they were browned.

the finished product!

Once Gropius came home from teaching his night class, we enjoyed them with a nice 2009 Alsatian gewurztraminer along with sautéed chicken paillards and haricots vert.  Once Lulu went to bed, of course.