It’s Valentine’s Day and my little girl is sick. She’s had a pretty high fever for the past 3 days fluctuating between 38 and 40 degrees Celcius, is congested with a head cold and has had little to no appetite at all. We took her to the emergency pediatrician at the local clinic on Sunday night and were sent home with nausea medication and told to wait it out. So Thomas and I have been up nights taking her temperature, giving her medicine every 4 to 6 hours and checking on her. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten much sleep and if I had the energy or the time I would make a nice dinner for my husband and myself to enjoy and we would have had a relaxing night at home with our normally boisterous two year old. But instead of celebrating this holiday as two lovers rejoicing we are spending it as worried parents drawn thin by Anna’s lack of appetite, vivacity and normally good spirits. We are trying desperately to coax her to eat toast, or anything at all really, drink plenty of fluids and keep her fever down. Over the past few days Anna, Thomas and I have been watching Baby Einstein videos over and over again and Disney movies like Dumbo, Bambi and The Jungle Book as we sit together on the couch, or we’ve been building block castles, drawing on her marker board, coloring or doing puzzles and when the medicine makes her feel a little bit better we have even kicked a ball around the house a little bit (sorry downstairs neighbor)!

So here is what I would have liked to have made if we were all feeling well this Valentine’s Day. I hope your Valentine’s Day is filled with love and fun with the ones you care about even if you are stuck at home eating boiled potatoes with spinach and drinking lots of camomille tea. I just hope that my little girl will be feeling better and be back to her old self very soon!

Tomato-Bulgur Soup

Tomato-Bulgur Soup with White Wine and Parsley

adapted from Mark Bittman

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, halved and sliced

3 large celery stalks, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2⁄3 cup white wine

3 cups diced tomatoes (from a can is fine)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

5 to 6 cups vegetable stock or water, or more as needed

3⁄4 cup bulgur

1⁄4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Salt and black pepper to taste

Saute onion and celery in oil in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. When the onions are translucent add the garlic and saute for a minute more until fragrant. Add the wine and cook for another minute, then add the tomatoes, thyme, stock, bulgur wheat and salt/pepper to taste. Simmer stirring occasionally for about 15-20 minutes or until the bulgur wheat is tender. Serve with chopped fresh parsley on top.

Pasta Amatriciana

Pasta Amatriciana with Homemade Pasta

Adapted from Scott Pampuch, Corner Table Restaurant via fresh tart

About 2 cups Sofrito (recipe here)

1 large can of Crushed Tomatoes

salt and black/red peppers to taste

Romano cheese or other hard cheese of your choice

Follow the recipe for Sofrito (and if you wish substitute 1 Tablespoon of tomato paste instead of the tablespoon of slowly simmered fire roasted tomatoes). Combine the crushed tomatoes with ALL of the sofrito and add salt and peppers to taste then simmer over medium low heat until the sauce thickens a little. Add the freshly cooked pasta to the sauce and combine then add grated cheese on top just before plating.

For the Pasta

In the past I’ve used this recipe from my Atlas pasta maker or you can use any pasta of your choosing.

Raspberry Pie with Lattice Top

Raspberry Pie with Homemade Pie Crust and a Lattice Top

Adapted from Mama’s Minutia

6 cups (frozen) raspberries
1 cup sugar
5-6 tablespoons tapioca pearls (blended in a coffee grinder to a fine powder)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For the Crust (recipe here)

Preheat the oven to 400° F Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and allow to sit for about 15-20 minutes while you prepare the crust. Roll out two halves of dough into circles large enough to fit your pie plate. One of the circles goes in the plate the other gets cut into strips (about 18 to 20 strips). Don’t worry that they will all be different lengths! Fill the pie crust with the filling and start laying the longer strips on first in the center of the pie (both horizontally and vertically) making sure to follow the lattice structure of over one under the next when laying the strips. Work your way out to the edges using smaller and smaller strips until the entire surface of the pie is covered. Curl the ends under and crimp and brush the top with milk being careful not to drip too much milk into the filling. Bake on the middle rack with a parchment lined cookie sheet under it on the lower rack, to catch any spills, at 400° F for 30 minutes and then turn the oven down to 350° F for another 30 minutes. Cool for at least 2-3 hours to let the pie set before attempting to cut. It will be juicy but the longer it sits the firmer it should set up.

Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yellow Lentils

Warm and comforting is the style of food that I am after right now and quick and easy doesn’t hurt either! This dish of yellow lentils is exactly that. Any cooked legume can be considered a “dahl” but traditionally one associates this dish with the yellow or red lentils that are often used when preparing an Indian dahl. The very first time I ever tasted an Indian dahl was when I was a freshman in college and a friend of mine, who had recently spent a year in India, took me to an Indian restaurant to sample the cuisine. My first bite was of a lentil soup or “toor dahl” made with bright yellow lentils, ginger, garlic, fragrant curry spices and delightful little mustard seeds. From that first bite I was hooked. The rest of what we ate was fantastic too but this bowl of delectable, warm and hearty, fragrantly spiced dahl had my taste buds soaring and from then on I knew I would be in love with the Indian food and their way of cooking. My friend Sarah and I went back to that restaurant many times during our first year together at a State University in upstate New York (SUNY) and she told me many stories about her adventures in India. Stories about volunteering at a homeless girls’ shelter there, about how she learned to enjoy sleeping on a mat on the floor, eating as a strict vegetarian (even though at the time she wasn’t) and then becoming one after her return and most of all about the comradery she experienced there with the women who ran the shelter and the girls themselves. Sarah and I were fast friends from the start even though we had only just met in one of our classes at the beginning of the school year. She and I were kindred spirits and I am forever indebted to her for sharing her love of the Indian culture and their cuisine with me.

Indian Yellow Dahl

Adapted from Mark Bittman‘s Spiced Red Lentil Dal

A Pot of Gold

1 1/2 cups Yellow Lentils

3 cups Water

1 can Coconut Milk

1 medium Onion diced

3 cloves Garlic finely chopped

3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

2-3 tablespoons Ginger finely chopped

3 whole Cloves

1 tablespoon Mustard Seeds

1 tablespoon Curry Powder

1/2 tablespoon Salt

Pepper and/or Red Pepper to taste *Optional

Cilantro for garnish *Optional

In a large soup pot or dutch oven heat the oil. Saute the onions until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, cloves, mustard seeds and curry powder. Saute for a couple of minutes stirring constantly so the garlic won’t burn. When the garlic and spices are fragrant add the water and lentils and stir to combine. Simmer on medium high heat, covered for about 20-30 minutes, until the lentils are tender, stirring occasionally. Add the coconut milk, salt and peppers to taste and continue to cook with the lid off until the dahl is the desired consistency. I like mine to be thick but still soup like. Serve with chopped fresh cilantro on top. Enjoy!

Indian Dahl

The Way of Tea, Chado

Chashaku (Bamboo Spoon)

Chasen (Whisk)

Matcha, Green Tea Powder

Chawan (Bowl)

80 ml of Water at 80° C Whisked with the Matcha Powder

Frothy Green Tea

Makes Me Think of Spring

*Information source: Wikipedia

When I was in high school/college and still living at home with my family, in upstate NY, I would make large pots of soup for us to enjoy during the winter months. We would get piles of snow several feet high this time of year and nothing satisfied on a cold winters night like a homemade bowl of soup or stew that was set to simmer on the stove all evening and filled the house with its warm aromas. I used to love to make potato leek soup this time of year and would often spend the evenings with my siblings watching Masterpiece Theater on PBS and enjoying a steaming bowl of freshly made soup. During the winter break from school my sister Jess and I would often, late in the evening on a moonlit night, bundle up and head out to the big hill across from our house to go sledding in the dark. And on the way home, wet, cold and tired from sledding we would fall into the towering snow drifts (or be pushed) that were were formed by the plow and were at least as tall as we were. These tall white towers of snow were soft enough to cradle our fall and left us laughing, out of breath and headed home for some more soup to end our late night adventures.

We haven’t had any snow yet here in Germany where I now live, just to the east of Cologne, but the cold, rainy and quickly darkening days have me yearning to make a pot of soup anyway. Thanks to Krista of the Monday Baker I made this beautiful soup yesterday and it was fabulous. It was one of the quickest soups I’ve ever made and depending on how thick you like it, it really is more of a chowder. I don’t typically like corn in soups, so it became more of a secondary ingredient rather than the main one but I really enjoyed it all the same. Since I wasn’t going to be relying solely on corn to beef up this stew I decided to add some leek which gave it very nice flavor and some added color. I also threw on top a few pieces of avocado at the last minute (it needed to be used up and I love avocado). So on this dreary rainy day it not only served as a garnish but also added a little extra splash of color to our night. Usually the pairing of potato and leek in a creamy broth only finds its way into my cooking repertoire when I make potato leek soup, which I love, but this chowder was so delicious and unique that it takes a stage of its own and will definitely be added to my list of favorites and be revisited many times in the near future I’m sure.

Potato-Leek with Corn Chowder

adapted from the Monday Baker

4 tablespoons Butter (or Olive Oil)

1 medium Onion chopped

1 large Leek cleaned and chopped into rounds (white and green parts)

3 heaping tablespoons flour

1 liter Vegetable stock

2 medium/large white Potatoes diced

1 1/2 cups corn

2-3 teaspoons dried Tarragon

salt/pepper to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream *optional

Avocado for garnish *optional

Heat the butter or oil in a large soup pot. Saute the onions and leek until the onions are translucent. Add the flour and stir to evenly combine. Continue to stir for a minute or two. Add the potatoes and then the stock. The broth should thicken as you stir it. Bring the soup back up to a simmer and then add the corn and the dried tarragon. Simmer on medium heat until the potatoes are soft, about 20-30 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the cream, if adding, and any additional seasoning. Serve garnished with avocado pieces *optional and extra tarragon sprinkled on top. Enjoy!

When I was home in NY in December my mom made Rugelach. I am not a big fan of cookies but this is one of my favorites and I can’t get enough of them when my mom makes them around Christmas time! Lucky for me, when I go home for the holidays I am treated to lots of delicious homemade cakes, pies and cookies. My mom buys her flour and oats by the “ton” from the Amish living in our area, pounds of organic chocolate, nuts and dried fruit from a nearby health-food store and locally laid, free range eggs roll into her home every day by the dozen, you see, my mom runs a private baking and catering business out of her home. She has two separate kitchens in her house, one for the family and one for her business.  My mom makes and sells her cheesecakes, pies, crisps, cobblers, muffins and delicious breads but mostly she is well known for her amazing cookies.  These large 4 inch cookies that she sells mostly by word of mouth but also from local shops, her yoga studio (yes, she is also a full time yoga teacher!) and in and around our town and surrounding areas are a delicious and healthy treat that is perhaps a meal in itself. They are loaded with oats, nuts and ground flax seed and either dried fruit (my favorite are dried cranberries) or chocolate and if you are feeling particularly decadent there’s also peanut butter chocolate chip and double chocolate. My mom’s cookies are famous in the Leatherstocking region of upstate NY where I grew up, for all those who have tried them and for everyone in our family and even for me, who pretty much dislikes all cookies, my mom’s cookies will win you over every time and keep you coming back for more! Since the recipe for these cookies is a well kept secret (and yes, I know it!) I will share the Rugelach recipe with youthat is by far the best Rugelach I’ve ever had. And if that’s not good enough you’ll just have to get in touch with my mom for your own batch of her wonderfully delicious, healthy and unique homemade cookies!

My Favorite Cookies

Rugelach

Adapted from “Maida Heatter’s Brand-New Book of Great Cookies”

Makes 32 cookies

Dough

4 oz/ 1 stick Butter (melted)

1 Egg Yolk from a small (free range) egg

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Sour Cream

1 Lemon rind finely grated

1 cup Flour

With a mixer or a whisk beat the yolk, salt, sour cream and lemon rind in a small bowl. In a larger bowl add the flour, melted butter and sour cream mixture and mix until smooth. The dough will be wet and sticky. Divide dough into 2 pieces and wrap with plastic. Let the dough rest in the fridge overnight or in the freezer for up to 1 hour and then in the fridge for 1/2 an hour. The dough should be firm but manageable.

Filling

4 oz / 1+1/8 cup Walnuts (finely chopped)

4 oz dried Cranberries, Raisins or Currants (finely chopped) *I prefer currants or cranberries but raisins will do in a pinch

1/4 + 1/8 cup Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cocoa Powder

1/8-1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/8-1/4 tsp Ginger

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Mix everything together in a large bowl. Roll out one of the dough rounds on a floured surface to about a 12 inch in diameter circle. Sprinkle with half of the filling. Spread the sugar mixture all over the dough but push the nuts and dried fruit out around the edge of the circle so that there is about 6 inches in the center that’s free of any large pieces. Press the nuts and fruit into the dough slightly. Cut the circle into 4 equal pieces and each piece into 4 so there is a total of 16 wedges. Roll each wedge from the outside of the circle in to the point. Place the rolls point side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you want a shiny cookie you can brush them with the remaining beaten egg white but I like them left uncoated. Bake for 23-25 minutes until lightly browned. These should be stored in an airtight container or zip lock bags and last longer when kept in the fridge.

White Bean Soup with Fresh Pasta

Thanks for your help and I’ll let you know how the contest goes!

Now without further ado here is the best taste of 2011:

1) White Bean with (or without) Kale Soup

White Bean and Kale Soup

Adapted from The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2009

1 pound or about 500 grams dried Cannellini Beans

2 Liters or about 8 1/2 cups of Water or Vegetable Stock (I’ve used both and it comes out just as good either way)

1 large or 2 medium Onions diced

1 Garlic Bulb (about 10 cloves) cut in half, crushed and roughly chopped

3-4 large Carrots cut into rounds

400 gram can or about 14 ounces of diced Tomatoes

1 bunch of Kale chopped *optional (I’ve made this recipe with and without kale and it’s tasty either way)

2 Bay Leaves

3 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

Olive Oil

Salt, Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes to taste

The night before sort, rinse and soak the beans in a large bowl with plenty of water, you can optionally add 2-3 tablespoons of salt to the water when soaking. Soak overnight and up to 24 hours. (If you don’t have time to soak the beans the night before, but I highly recommend this procedure, you can quick soak the beans by bringing the beans and water to a boil for 10 minutes and then letting them soak for an hour) Drain and rinse the beans. Saute the onions in a large dutch oven or soup pot coated with olive oil over medium-high heat until translucent and just starting to brown. Add the garlic and saute for a minute more, until fragrant. Add the water or stock  and the drained beans. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer on medium heat for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally until the beans are slightly tender. Add the bay leaves, tomatoes, rosemary and carrots. Simmer for an additional 1-2 hours or until the carrots are soft. If using kale add to the pot 1/2 an hour before the soup is done. Before serving remove the woody stems of the rosemary and the bay leaves, add salt and peppers to taste and season with additional olive oil if desired.

2) Buttermilk Biscuits with Fresh Thyme

Buttermilk biscuits with thyme

adapted from Summer Harms

Cutting in the butter

Pull the thyme leaves off of the stems and mix into the butter-flour mixture. Add the buttermilk and gently stir to combine until a wet dough forms. Flatten the dough out on a floured surface until it’s about 1/2 inch thick.

dough

Cut rounds with a floured biscuit cutter or a cup and place on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Reform remaining dough and cut rounds until all the dough is gone. Makes about 10 biscuits.

Cutting rounds

Strawberry Clafoutis

Slightly adapted from La Tartine Gourmande

*The original recipe calls for cherries. I really like the clafoutis made with cherries or with strawberries but I do favor the one with cherries a bit more. I’m featuring the one with strawberries here as I didn’t have time to take pictures of the one I made with cherries before it was entirely eaten at a dinner party this summer.

4 1/2 cups (600 grams) of Fresh Cherries pitted and cut in half OR Fresh Strawberries

2 large Eggs and 1 Egg yolk

1/2 cup (100 grams) of Demerara Sugar, Blond Cane Sugar or Sugar in the Raw

1 oz (30 grams) of Corn Starch

1 oz ( 30 grams) all purpose Flour

7/8 cup (200 ml) of Whole Milk

1 Vanilla Bean

1/2 cup (100 ml) Heavy Cream

Powdered Sugar *optional

Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Whisk together the eggs, yolk and sugar in a large bowl. Cut the vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds. Add the vanilla seeds to the egg mixture and whisk together. In a smaller bowl mix together the milk, cream and cornstarch. Add the milk mixture and the flour to the egg mixture and mix well. Grease a glass pie plate or tart pan with butter. Put the cut berries in the greased pan and pour the mixture over top. Bake for at least an hour or until the center is no longer liquid when moved gently. Allow to cool slightly and serve with powdered sugar sprinkled over top.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

As December continues to grow colder here in Germany (still no snow yet…) and the only thing left to do in my garden is to harvest the rest of the kale that is left I am now busy getting ready for our trip home to the States. This time next week, if all goes well, we should be home in upstate NY and I will finally get to see my family again! I have been preparing for our trip by making homemade Christmas gifts for Thomas’ family here and for my family back home in New York state. I have made jellies and jams with the enormous amounts of berries that we harvested this summer, I am currently knitting several different things like tea towels, dishcloths, hats, gloves etc. and am baking cookies and cakes for some last minute gifting before we leave here to go back to the States. I really enjoy the holidays this time of year and even more so the preparations: making gifts, cooking, baking, listening to Christmas music and getting a tree ready to decorate.

Every year when I was a child my dad would go out to our wood lot a day or two before Christmas with his snowmobile, as we would usually have several feet of snow at that time of the year, and select our Christmas tree. When I was old enough I would go along with him to pick out our tree. I would bundle up, put a helmet on and get ready for our ride into the woods. Soft, white snow would fly up high on both sides of us as we soared through the wide open fields and into the contrasting greens and browns of the darkening woods. My dad would point out a couple of trees to me that he had selected on an earlier trip to the wood lot and then he let me pick the one I liked the best to be our Christmas tree for that year. I was nervous that we would be taking such a large tree and that it would be cut down only for us to observe for a month or so but then my dad surprised me by climbing up a branch or two and chopping off only a small portion near the top of the tree. We then fastened our tree to the back of the snowmobile pointing away from us and drove it home leaving a pine brushed trail though the pristine snow all the way back to our home.

Lemon Tea Loaf

Unknown Origin:

(My mom makes this Tea Loaf from a recipe she had when I was a kid but it has long since been lost and I was lucky enough to get a copy of it before it was gone.)

I like this recipe a lot because it uses fresh herbs steeped in milk which is then incorporated into the batter. And also because it’s very moist after you add the glaze and allow the freshly pressed lemon juice to soak into the warm loaf.

• 3/4 cup Milk

• 1 Tablespoon finely chopped Lemon Balm

• 1 Tablespoon finely chopped Lemon Thyme

• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour

• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt

• 6 Tablespoons (85 grams) Butter (at room temperature)

• 1 Cup Sugar

• 2 Free Range Eggs

• 1 Tablespoon grated Lemon Zest

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celcius. Heat the milk in a saucepan with the herbs until almost boiling and then take off the heat and let steep until cool. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then the lemon zest. To this mixture add the flour mixture and then the milk mixture alternately in thirds while blending on medium-low speed. Mix until the batter is just blended. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool out of the pan on a wire rack and pour the lemon glaze over while still hot. Continue to pour any glaze over that doesn’t get absorbed by the loaf until it is all absorbed. Alternately you can do this while it is sitting on a plate and the glaze will collect around the bottom of the loaf.

Glaze

• Juice of 2 Lemons

• About 1+ cups Confectioners Sugar

Mix the confectioners sugar into the lemon juice a little at a time until the mixture is thick but still pourable.

The day after Thanksgiving most people who celebrate this holiday with a large meal wake up not wanting to cook or prepare an elaborate breakfast. If something light and quick is what you need I have just the breakfast for you. Since Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here in Germany my husband, two year old daughter Anna and I will be celebrating our own version of Thanksgiving this weekend instead. Last year our celebration of this merry holiday was postponed as well. I am looking forward to a large feast on Saturday with a fresh turkey from a local farm, which my husband the vegetarian will not be eating most likely, plenty of sides and of course a pie for dessert. Until then we are keeping it simple and Anna and I have been enjoying a very simple version of muesli for breakfast almost every day this week. It is wholesome, tasty and light but satisfying enough to fulfill your morning hunger without leaving you feeling overly full. And after a night of indulgences this muesli is just the thing to wake up to.

Morning Muesli

For one serving you will need:

2/3 cup oats (I use quick oats but old fashoned will work too)

2/3 cup milk

*Blueberries fresh or frozen (I use frozen wild blueberries)

*You can use any fruit with the oats or dried fruit, raisins, nuts etc. Be creative!

Pour the milk over the oats and mix to cover the oats then add the fruit on top. That’s it! Enjoy!

The cold weather is rolling in now. Here where I am near Cologne, Germany we have been getting frost every night, which dissipates only by mid morning into a cold, sparkling dew. I still have kale, escarole and a few other hardy plants growing in my garden and I just made a white bean soup with some escarole that I had harvested. It was delicious and I am looking forward to making (and sharing) some more savory dishes in the upcoming weeks with the robust greens that are still growing here despite the cold weather.

Pear Bread

Adapted from Linda Patrick’s Pear Bread from allrecipes.com

• 3 eggs
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups peeled, cored and finely chopped pears
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup ground flax seed meal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl combine the wet ingredients. Toss the chopped pears with lemon juice. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix them well, then gently mix in the pears. Divide the batter into two greased and floured loaf pans and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the bread to cool for at least 10 minutes before attempting to remove from the pans otherwise the bread may not come out easily (I had this problem and ripped part of one loaf because I didn’t want to wait…). Enjoy warm or at room temperature and store in a cool dry place for up to one day or refrigerate what is left for up to one week (if it lasts that long!).