Frasca

Todd invited us to join him, Delia, and his parents for dinner at Frasca in Boulder. He also invited more Schwarms, but Roland and Lisa were already busy and my in-laws declined the invite (too bad b/c dinner was fabulous!). Frasca is one of the top restaurants in the country and arguably the best in Colorado, so we were excited about dinner.



We drove up to Boulder and did some shopping early before dinner to build our anticipation. The menu was a four course prixe-fixe with additional cheese and salmi offerings. Todd ordered our wine:



We tried to vary our orders so that we got to see almost everything on the menu:
Appetizer Course:
chestnut soup with speck

fried hen egg on a bed of lobster salad (apologies for the fuzziness--it was low light)

pork pate


Primo Course:
butternut squash/amaretti ravioli with brussel sprout leaves in brown butter

Gnocchi with chanterelle sauce


Secondo Course:
Guinea Hen wrapped in prosciutto with cranberry relish

Veal Ribeye with hedgehog mushrooms

Grilled Tuna with polenta and cabbage


Dessert Course:
Chocolate Malted Milkshake with Chocolate Pearls


Frangipane Tart with grapefruit


Brioche (apologies again for the fuzziness)

My Latte


It was a great dinner!

Christmas Dinner

We had a lovely dinner Christmas eve--lots of food, family, and presents! But the dinner actually started the day before, as we prepped all sorts of dishes, including the buche de noel (the yule log):



To start, we enjoyed some nice appetizers with our champagne punch in the living room:


Isn't that lovely dinner table?

Apparently, I wasn't the only one to think so!

Assorted Cheeses

Gropius made crab cakes

Various ham and salami

Snow peas

Pork Tenderloin (I think I ate most of this!)

Yes, I think I did...

The Lovely and Talented Roland and Lisa


And we ended dinner with some lovely desserts!

Lebkuchen

Buche de Noel/Yule Log

Enjoyed with a little Schnapps!

Duck, Duck......Goose!

So, Gropius has wanted for years to cook a goose. He remembers his Tante Babette cooking Christmas goose, but apparently his father was very attached to the goose he fed as a boy that eventually became dinner. So, no goose!

Gropius finally got his wish and we had a proper Weinachtsgans with all the trimmings for dinner last night. We co-hosted the dinner with Derellek and got to serve all the dishes that we can't make on Thanksgiving or Christmas at either parents, as well as some traditional favorites.

Hellen came over yesterday afternoon and helped us by arranging beautiful flower arrangements and ironing napkins while Gropius and I worked on the food side of things.





Hellen also printed out menu cards for each of the 8 place settings of us sitting down for dinner (Derellek, Todd, Delia, Fiona, David, Gropius, and me).







Our meal started with mango-rose water cocktails, spicy almonds, and indian-spiced popcorn.



Then, we moved on to roasted goose, baked apples, rotkraut (red cabbage), wirsing from the German side and roasted turkey, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, sausage-chestnut dressing, and green beans with shallots and walnuts from the Texas side.



For dessert, we enjoyed Hellen's "chocolate cake," raspberry-pear gallette, stollen, and chocolate-chestnut truffles with coffee and cordials.

It was a wonderful "Thanksmas" dinner--Hellen thinks it might just have to become an annual tradition!

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??