Almond Poppy Seed Muffins

They sound much more alliterative in German:  Mandeln-Mohn Muffins.

And they were a great use of the leftover creme fraiche and ricotta cheese in the fridge...

Makin' Mozzarella!

When we had our weekend in San Francisco, one of the souvenirs we brought home for Lulu was a cheese-making kit we bought at Heath Ceramics outlet.  She's been asking to make cheese ever since and we finally bit the bullet and bought the gallon of whole milk cheese from Straus Creamery required to make it.

All ready to go!

It's cheese-making time!

First off was dissolving the rennet in unchlorinated water and the citric acid in different unchlorinated water.  Then, we had to carefully heat up the milk to a certain point and add in the rennet and citric acid and definite temperatures to coagulate the milk proteins together.

Lulu was an excited helper...up to a point!

curds and whey

Once that was done, we had to strain out the curds from the whey before heating up the curds (carefully!) in the microwave to stretch them into mozzarella cheese (after adding a bit of salt).

strained cheese, ready for the microwave

stretched cheese, ready for a rest in the fridge...

The good news is that we still have LOTS of rennet, citric acid, and cheese salt, so we can make more cheese than is healthy to eat!  Next up, homemade ricotta....

Terlaner Weinsuppe

Gropius and I made an interesting soup for dinner tonight.  I found the recipe on the website for a German food magazine Essen und Trinken.  I'm not sure what, who, or where Terlaner is, but the soup was definitely tasty.

 

I mean, c'mon...what soup that involves homemade chicken broth, 1/2 a bottle of wine, and cream isn't tasty??

 

We reserved the carrots and chicken breasts used to make the chicken broth and ate them on the side.  I also cut the recipe in half because I didn't think we needed to make 10 servings of soup!  I can't say that I've ever had a soup with cinnamon, nutmeg, and diced apples mixed with chicken broth, but I would definitely make it again!

Rösti via far southwestern Switzerland....

in the background is my new drink:  tumeric juice diluted with mineral water
(very zingy!)

We made an oven-roasted rösti for dinner that was delicious!  I riffed on the basic recipe and added green chiles, cheddar cheese, shredded chicken and some southwestern spices (namely cumin and smoked pimenton).  I baked it in a springform pan to easily remove the sides and make it easier to slice/remove to our plates.  I think the cheese helped hold it all together well.

It was really, really tasty--if not entirely authentic!

Fröhliche Weinachten! Merry Christmas!

Lulu ended up falling asleep on the drive home from Christmas eve services last night around 8:30ish and we put her to bed without dinner because she could barely keep her eyes open.  (one of the benefits of no nap, I guess?)

So, we put out cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer ourselves before turning in for the night.  I also made cinnamon rolls and put them in the fridge to rise overnight while we were sleeping while Gropius made blaue zipfel for dinner.

Lulu slept until 7:40ish this morning...which was awesome.  She was excited to see the new stroller and baby doll Santa brought her and to hug her new teddy bear to hear Umpapa's voice wishing her Merry Christmas.

And then we got around to the serious business of stockings and opening presents.  Note:  I was taking pictures, so there aren't really any of me opening *my* presents.  This is not a representative sample.

Stroller, bear, and baby doll with stockings and tree.

Awwww!

to keep our strength up for the arduous task ahead...

new shiny shirt from Oma and Opa

unicorn slippers from Mommy and Daddy
(in a size 1!!)

alphabet and numbers books from Oma and Opa

new puzzle from Oma and Opa

New book from Oma and Opa

Gropius got a new set of lager glasses from me

baby doll getting changed into her new clothes from Nanny

new underwear from Oma and Opa

new book of Grimms Bros fairytales from my Mom and Dad

new self-locking tongs (very cool!) from me

Lulu wanting to try out her baby bjorn carrier from Mau-Mau and Umpapa

More accessories for the new baby doll

Afterwards, Lulu decided to change into her matching pajamas and push her new baby doll around the house in her new stroller.

very proud of her new presents!

And then we got down to the task at hand:  eating cinnamon rolls!

ingenious--hadn't thought of putting them in a muffin tin before!

look at all those rings!  so pretty.....

Elisenlebkuchen

Gropius and I tried our hands at baking a special kind of lebkuchen this past weekend:  Elisenlebkuchen.  These are very similar to the lebkuchen that we purchase every time we're in Nürnberg from Düll (down the street from the Altbrauerei and the Tiergartnertor).  I found this recipe on Essen und Trinken's website and we decided to give it a whirl because we had some candied orange and lemon peel that was taking up valuable refrigerator space.

So, first up was assembling our mise en place (notice computer in background for recipe instructions--and helpful video!):

Marzipan, candied citrus, egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, lebkuchen gewürz (spices),
flour, almond meal, hirschhorn salz, salt

Interestingly, the woman in the video grates her marzipan which was something we've never seen before:

Candied peel on the left, marzipan on the right

We put it all in the food processor and gave it a spin to mix it all together.  Then, I put it all in a gallon-size Zip-Loc bag and snipped off one corner to make an ersatz pastry bag:

Oblaten and lebkuchen dough

I had to cut the Oblaten (literally, "the Host" wafers that they pass out for Communion in the Catholic church) down to size--each sheet made four rectangular cookies:

ready for their dough

The next step was piping the lebkuchen teig (dough) onto the oblaten.  I will warn you though--this next photo will remind you of something else!  After this picture was taken, we wet our fingers with some water and then smoothed out the dough.

I swear, Dido was NOWHERE near the kitchen!

See what I mean?  But, once it was smoothed out and baked, the finished product does not resemble anything a dog or cat might produce--I promise!  (This does remind me of the time I made Hungarian chocolate-chestnut "potato" truffles at Christmastime and Gropius thought I had been raiding Dido's litter box.  Why do all my special Christmas projects look like poo??)

finished batch on the left/back and ones ready for the oven on the front/right

The finished product is square instead of round (different Oblaten) and would look even better covered in chocolate or a sugar glaze, but the taste is divine!  We have made lots of Christmas cookies this year to share with friends, but these aren't leaving the house!

finished product

DELICIOUS!!

Oktoberfest

We went to Oktoberfest at the local Turnverein this past weekend.  We went on Saturday afternoon once Lulu woke up from her nap, but the rhythm of the celebration seemed off.  We kinda felt the same way about going on Saturday last year, so I think we're going to go on Fri evening next time, made crush of college students and all.

Lulu actually agreed to wear her dirndl with its matching shirt (as opposed to Maifest last spring) and its apron!  Gropius wore his lederhosen and I wore my dirndl, too.  Here's a post-Oktoberfest photo once we got home.

nominee for awkward family photo??

When we arrived, we went ahead and found a spot and ate dinner.  Lulu and I had sausage and sauerkraut while Gropius had the ham knuckle (eisbein?).  And of course, there was beer and wine to drink.

hamming it up for the camera

After we finished eating, we went downstairs and enjoyed the music and dancing.  The Schuhplatter dancers were there again this year as well as the Al Gruber family band.

the main hall is always full of people...

someone wanted to watch the dancing until....

....she decided she had to join in the dancing.

children fascinated with the "alpine horn"
(aka a modified beer bong)

And we wandered outside to the biergarten to see what was going on outdoors.  Turns out that they had music outside, too, as well as food.

perhaps I can put that clarinet to good use after all....?

Before we left, we wandered back upstairs to enjoy a slice of cake and finish off the last of our tickets, but we got home in time to put Lulu to bed around her usual bedtime.