Garlic

braided and hanging to dry

We tried growing garlic in our garden for the first time this spring.  We bought a head of it from the local food co-op, broke it into individual cloves and planted them in the "new" bed this winter.  I can't remember which type we bought (or even why we thought of planting garlic!)--just regular ol' garlic.

But, we were pleasantly surprised when little shoots of green came popping up as the weather got warmer!  Gropius had to do some research online about when to tell that they were ready to harvest, but once the green leaves started browning out, we knew it was time to pull them.

So, from one head of garlic, we now have all of these!

Aren't they pretty?  We won't have to worry about vampires around here this year!

German Eintopf (One-Pot meal)

Eintopf with schupfnudeln, sauerkraut, onions, and bacon
green salad with carrot relish
pear cider

This was really tasty and quasi-vegetarian (by German standards--there's a sprinkling of bacon in the sauerkraut).  Of course, we can't just buy a package of Schupfnudeln at the grocery store like you can in Germany, so we made ours from potatoes we had lying around as extras from Mother's Day dinner.  Schupfnudeln with a couple of purple potatoes was kinda cool-looking.  They almost looked like bratwurst from the specks of purple that resembles the spices in a Nürnberger bratwurst.

If we could've bought schupfnudeln from the store, I could see this being a quick weeknight meal.

Eierlikör

Waiting for this to get out of the oven....subb'd eierlikör doctored up with a splash of bourbon leftover from making this last weekend....

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!