Spaetzle

Spaetzle in its ice bath!

Yeah, it's New Year's Eve, 10:30 PM, and here I am blogging about spaetzle.  Again, 2 years ago tonight, I wouldn't have seen this one coming!  But this is my kind of night: low key, lots of good food, and reminiscing about spaetzle.  I'm a total dork - for many reasons, including the fact that I am blogging about spaetzle on New Years Eve, but also because I made it as part of my Sound of Music Austrian feast along with the paprikash soup.  I ended up tossing them into the soup, and I would definitely recommend that.

So, what is spaetzle?  Basically it's a homemade noodle, and far easier than the homemade pasta that I've made before.  You make a very quick and easy dough - it's literally just 3 ingredients - and then push it through a colander into boiling water.  That's it!  You scoop them out and put them into ice water to stop the cooking, and voila: spaetzle.  It's kind of messy but it's really fun - you just may want another set of hands; mine got pretty tired holding up the strainer and pushing the dough through the holes with the spatula.

But really, that's all you have to do, and you have these lovely, soft dumpling-like noodles that you can do whatever you want with.  I've seen them in soups, served with butter, browned in a pan, etc..  Your options are endless.  For me, tossing them into the paprikash soup was a home run idea.

Spaetzle in the soup!

Some notes about the colander: I know there is such thing as a spaetzle maker, and I kind of want one (perhaps it will appear on my registry!)  But truthfully it's not needed.  I have lots of colanders for some reason, and I tried out a couple, but finally decided on a metal one with many good sized holes. Small holes don't work well and will kill your arm as you try to force the batter through, and hole placement is key too - make sure however you are holding the colander is not going to pour the batter right into the water, and that the holes are on the bottom.  It sounds complicated but this was a simple method, and you end up with such great little noodles!  Try this!

Recipe:

spaetzle 
from Smitten Kitchen 

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
7 large eggs
1/4 cup milk

Instructions:

1) Combine the flour, eggs and milk in a large bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.

2) Prepare an ice bath.  Bring a large pot of well salted water to boil.  Set a large colander with holes anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2-inch wide over the pot.  Put on 2 potholders to avoid being burned by the steam.  Pour 1/4 of the batter into the colander and press it through the holes with a flexible spatula.  Boil for 2-3 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to fish spaetzle out and drop it in the ice bath.

3) Continue with remaining batter in 3 batches.  It is important to use only a little batter at a time - and even less if your pot is smaller - because if you push too much batter in at a time, it becomes one huge dumpling as opposed to hundreds of tiny twisty ones.

4) When you're done with the batter, drain the spaetzle well and toss it with a small amount of olive oil to keep it from sticking.  You can use it right away, or keep it in the fridge for a day until needed.

Guest Post #2: Mom

Happy New Year to everyone, and happy second blogiversary to me!  Who'd have thought 2 years ago tonight, when I was chopping lime zest to use in frosting (yes, chopping, not zesting), that I would be a blogger whipping up 3 different desserts in one day (that was today)!?

I am more than happy to say good riddance to 2013.  It was a pretty terrible year.  But 2014 is bound to be, while stressful, definitely better.  By this time next year, I will (hopefully) have a new house and a new husband!  It will be a big, exciting year for me, and I am happy for it to get started.  I am spending New Year's Eve at home (just how I like it) with my mom.  We thought tonight would be a good time for her to do her guest post! 

If you follow my blog, you know that my mom is one of my biggest challenges when it comes to my cooking!  She is always very appreciative, but she is... not picky per se, but critical.  And when she finds something she likes, she is willing to eat it nonstop for months (which is an issue when I am so into trying out new recipes!)  She also likes things "plain;" she doesn't like bread with flavor, likes to avoid rosemary because it's strong, and her favorite dessert is probably just a good old chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.  But despite her culinary differences from mine, I love this woman with every ounce of my being.   She may prefer meat to meatless, but she likes mushrooms and lentils, and she is willing to try just about anything.  Oh, and she is the kindest, sweetest human being.  And so, here's my mama.

Please introduce yourself!  
Hi I am Kim,  Bridget's mom.  I love her to the ends of the earth and back.  Love her love of cooking too.  Even love many of her creations, although you'd never know it to read about me in her blog!

What do you think of Bridget's cooking?
Bridget is a wonderful cook.  She isn't afraid to tackle even the most complicated of recipes.  Her affinity for meatless recipes gets to me sometimes.  But she makes far more delicious dishes than things that I would turn my nose up at.

What do you wish Bridget would change about her cooking?
Perhaps she should not be afraid, or repulsed to cook with meat.  Meat is tasty and is a good source of protein.  Also,  Bee should not act like I am sticking knives in her when I give her constructive criticism.  I often love her creation but say that I think it would be even better with nuts.  And then in her blog i come off as a godzilla.

What have been some of your favorite all-time recipes that Bridget has made?
I love so many things.  Date nut bread, stuffed shells, green lasagna, pasta with lemon and tomato sauce, baked alaska, salted caramels (but I wish she would put nuts in them), angel food cake, beans and rice, and sticky buns, lettuce wraps, fluffernutter cookies.  I could go on forever!

What were your top 3 recipes from 2013?
date nut bread, sticky buns and pasta with lemon and tomato

Vegetable Paprikash Soup

Maybe I was the only person ridiculously excited about watching the remake of the Sound of Music on TV a few weeks ago... it felt like that... but I was excited enough that I decided to cook an Austrian/Hungarian/German feast for dinner that night to celebrate.  I was singing the songs in my head all week, and even gave my students the option to watch it in exchange for a no homework deal.  Needless to say, I was pumped.  I spent lots of time while I was bored in the waiting room at my doctor's office looking up recipes, and I decided to make vegetable paprikash soup.  Yeah, I know, that's Hungarian, which isn't exactly Sound of Music setting, but close enough (didn't they use to call it Austria-Hungary!?)  I also made spaetzle, which I ended up adding to the soup, but you will have to wait for that recipe till the next recipe post :)

I can't say enough how awesome this soup is.  I very happily ate it for lunch all week, along with my mother.  It's flavored with paprika - obviously - and sour cream, and full of vegetables like corn, carrots, potatoes, and peas.  It was so flavorful and exotic.  Add the spaetzle to it and you've got yourself an amazing dinner.  The original recipe recommends adding homemade herb dumplings; since I was making the spaetzle, I didn't make the dumplings, but I am fairly certain that they would be just as exquisite.

Again, I was probably the only person who was excited to watch the movie, because everyone ended up leaving the house except for my mom, so we were the only two to eat this meal, along with Mark. But all three of us gave it rave reviews.  Alex and Rachael came home later and tried it, and even Alex had seconds and said that it was very good.  I will definitely be making some paprikash soup in my near future!

Recipe:

vegetable paprikash soup
from Rolling in the Dough
serves 6

Ingredients:
paprikash soup:
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 medium potato, peeled and cubed
1 cup peas or green beans (frozen is fine)
1 cup corn (frozen is fine again)
4 - 6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup sour cream

herb dumpings:
1 potato, peeled, chopped, steamed until tender
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, or 2 tablespoons dried
up to 1 cup whole what pastry flour

Instructions:

1) In a large pot, sauté the onion in olive oil over medium heat until onion begins to soften and brown.  Add salt, paprika, and pepper, and continue browning until a darker golden color.  Add carrot, potato, peas/beans, and corn, and lightly sauté for less than a minute before adding the vegetable stock.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer, uncovered, for about 1 hour.

2) Make the dumplings: mash steamed potatoes with a rover or pastry blender.  Add egg and seasonings and mix well.  Add flour until dough is fairly stiff but still a little tacky.  Dust your hands with flour and knead the dough a little more in the bowl or on a floured counter.  Allow to rest 15 - 30 minutes, then pat out into a square and cut into small pieces.

3) Bring pot of water to boil.  Add dumplings to the water and simmer gently until they float to the top, from 4 to 7 minutes.  Lift dumplings out with a slotted spoon, transfer to a buttered plate, and continue with remaining dumplings.  Set aside.

4) Add the sour cream to the soup, one large dollop at a time, and whisk into the soup.  If the soup os too thin, add more sour cream.  When ready to serve, float dumplings in each bowl as you serve it.  You can also add the dumplings to the soup and allow them to warm up before serving.

Guest Post #1: Mackenzie

As we come close to my second blogiversary this week, I thought it might be kind of fun to have some guest posts.  I have seen this done on other (real) blogs, and I've always wanted to give it a try.  While it is true that I have lots of recipes to share, as the new year begins, I think it is important to look back on the last two years of this blog, and all of the recipes I have made.  Some have been hugely successful, and others... not so much.

Then again, success depends on who you're talking to.  Besides Mark, who eats anything with a smile, my biggest cooking champion is probably my sister Mackenzie.  She is the least picky person in this house - she will tell you that she only hates mushrooms and lentils - so she can be the most fun to cook for.  She is willing to try most things, even the ones that seem pretty weird.  We also have similar tastes sometimes, such as our love for Oreos and all things potato.  For these reasons, I decided that she would be the perfect person to start off my guest posts.  And thus without further ado, here's Kenz.



Please introduce yourself!

Hi there. It's Mackenzie, Bridget's younger sister.  I am the middle of the three sisters.  For a long time, I was the cook in the family.  I  was a much different cook than Bridg. I had some specialties and was certainly not as adventurous as Bridget.  I like to cook meals such as chili, meatballs and sauce, pizza and cakes.  I enjoyed cooking but sometimes it was a bit overwhelming to be the chef among other duties.  I was more than happy to pass the kitchen over to someone else when Bridget came up with this new years resolution. Little did I know how drastically it would alter the culture of the house.

What do you think of Bridget's cooking?

As I said in the first question, Bridget is a very adventurous cook. She does not shy away from difficult recipes and is ready and willing to try almost anything complicated. THAT BEING SAID, she has grown increasingly opposed to meals including meat.  This has become a big issue in the house.  We need our protein!! Bridget will stir caramel for 4 straight hours but will not deal with any meats.  This is an interesting part of her cooking. She is a big proponent of the BYOI system (Buy Your Own Ingredients). This means if you pick a recipe, and buy the ingredients, she will make you whatever you want. This now excludes meat.  I also have to add that Bridge's cooking has gotten much weirder over time.  If you look back in her blog you will see that she made much more regular meals in the beginning.  Since then, it has changed into foods including odder and odder ingredients.  I am willing to try almost everything, except lentils and mushrooms, but I could go for some more "staple" type meals.

What do you wish Bridget would change about her cooking?

More meat. Less mushrooms and lentils.

What have been some of your favorite all-time recipes that Bridget has made?

-broccoli cheddar soup in homemade bread bowls
-Apple cider caramels
-pulled cauliflower 
-homemade pretzels
-cheesesteak soup
-chocolate crinkle cookies
-taquitos
-rice balls


What were your top 3 recipes from 2013?

-broccoli cheese soup
-cheesesteak soup
-pulled cauliflower with homemade bbq sauce

Kale and Pumpkin Stuffed Shells

Merry belated Christmas!!!!

Okay, 'tis the season again: the season when I become a terrible blogger.  Last year, my excuse was that the aftermath of getting engaged was too exciting and crazy, and this year, it's because we were n Florida for the last week.  I had plans of keeping updated with posts (and I had planned to cook, for that matter) but all the fun things to do (as well as my mid-week flu) sort of took precedence over cooking and blogging!  The good news is that I have 4 days of vacation left, so I will try very hard to catch up on the plethora of recipes I made before I went on vacation.

The bad news is that the jury is still out on this first recipe.  Some people liked it, some (guess who) hated it, and there were definitely some issues in attempting to translate a vegan recipe into one that my family would eat.  For instance, it calls for "one batch of vegan ricotta."  I wasn't about to use fake ricotta, and since I wasn't sure what a "batch" was, I just had to add it until it looked right.  It also called for a bunch of kale, and my bunch was so enormous that I ended up hacking off probably only a fourth of it.  You will just have to eye it.

Then there was the sauce issue: what kind of a sauce do you serve with pumpkin stuffed shells?  I thought that pumpkin and tomato just don't seem to be good partners, so I was at a loss of what to put on top.  The blogger said she made a "vegan béchamel," so that's what I decided to try.  Unfortunately, I had to take Daisy to the vet that night, and I ran out of time.  Kenzie volunteered to finish up the meal for me, so she made the sauce and topped the shells with it and baked them.  I texted her to ask how they were going, and the response was, "the sauce turned into molten rock."  I asked if that meant they were ruined, and she replied, "meh tastes decent."   Not the most glowing of reports, and I wasn't sure what molten rock was like to eat, so I went home with a healthy old hound to give them a try.

Here's what I think: these have potential.  The mixture of pumpkin and ricotta is smooth and creamy and a little bit sweet, sweetened a bit more by some balsamic and a little honey.  The slightly bitter kale offsets the sweetness.  But the béchamel was pretty weird... it somehow hardened into a rather unappetizing rock (now I get the molten rock reference, but it was more rock than molten).  Maybe it's not supposed to get baked, and only gets added afterwards?  Vegan béchamel is maybe a different beast.  Either way, I think I would try either tomato sauce or something else again.... if there is an again, since as you probably guessed, my mom hated them (she isn't a pumpkin fan)!

Recipe:

kale and pumpkin stuffed shells
from A Baker's Doesn't

Ingredients:
1 batch of vegan ricotta (or regular ricotta!)
1 bunch of kale
1 box of large shell pasta
1 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
olive oil for pan
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1) Boil a pot of water and cook shells until al dente.  Drain and set aside to cool.  In the meantime, heat a large skillet with a little olive oil.  Cook down the kale leaves until wilted.  Add salt, pepper, honey and vinegar.  Stir, and once well combined, add kale and pumpkin to the ricotta.

2) Stuff shells and place in a baking dish.  Add a few dollops over finished tray, and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the tops get crispy.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

Do you like soft, cakey cookies?  Or do you prefer them to be chewier, crunchier, "with a bite to them" as my mom put it?  If you fall into the latter group, this recipe is not for you.  In my desperate attempt to use up more of my homemade pumpkin puree, I was browsing my favorite blogs looking for something sweet and pumpkin-y, and I came across these pumpkin molasses cookies.  I was pretty excited because my mom loves molasses cookies, and Kenzie loves pumpkin, so I thought I'd be pleasing everyone.

Well as you might have guessed, apparently my family doesn't like cookies to be soft and cake-like.  They simply must be crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  Needless to say, these weren't the most popular.  But like I said, if you prefer your cookies to be soft and puffy, then these are a good choice.  Lots of interesting spices in there - even a tiny bit of black pepper!

The one thing I may want to reassess is the amount of baking soda.  Even Kenzie, my pumpkin lover, agreed with my mom that every now and then, they felt like they could taste the baking soda.  And 2 teaspoons does seem like a lot.  I did a little research, and I found someone who wrote an article called "Scientifically Sweet", and here's the exact quote: "never trust a chocolate chip recipe that uses more than 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda for a yield of 2 dozen cookies."  Now I know these aren't chocolate chip, but still... apparently baking soda is used to help use up acidic components in baked goods (like chocolate, lemon, buttermilk... pumpkin?  Maybe therein lies the problem and it should have been baking powder?), and the bitter taste you can sometimes get is from the residual sodium bicarbonate.  So that was your science lesson for the day.  My advice?  Lower that baking soda, embrace the cakey cookie, and call it a day :)

Recipe:

pumpkin molasses cookies
from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup molasses
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Instructions:

1) Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and pepper.

2) Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy.  Add the brown sugar, molasses, and pumpkin puree and beat for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add the egg and beat for 1 minute more.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until the flour and spices disappear.  If flour remains in the bottom of the bowl, mix the last of the dry ingredients by hand to avoid over beating.  You will have a very soft dough.

3) Divide the dough in half and wrap each piece in plastic wrap.  Freeze for at least 30 minutes, or refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  The dough is sticky, so the longer time it can chill, the easier it is to work with.

4) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

5) Put the sugar in a small bowl.  Working with one packet of dough at a time, divide it into 12 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball.  Roll the balls in the sugar and use the bottom of a glass to press down on the cookies until they are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.  Transfer to cookie sheets.  Do not overcrowd.

6) Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12-14 minutes, or until the top feels set to the touch.  Remove baking sheets from the oven.  Let cookies cool 5 minutes on the sheets before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin Muffins

After the insanity that was my Thanksgiving baking, I found myself tired, but my family hungry; we get so used to having the party here and having lots of leftovers, so it felt weird to have nothing!  Luckily I did happen to have a pretty big container of homemade pumpkin puree left over, and in fact, be prepared for a mountain of pumpkin recipes coming your way.  I had roasted 2 rather large sugar pumpkins, and even after my caramel-spiked pumpkin pie, I had lots of pumpkin to use.  We decided we felt like muffins, so I decided to try some good old fashioned pumpkin muffins from Smitten Kitchen.

I had made pumpkin muffins before: stuffed with cream cheese and pumpkin donut muffins.  But this time around I decided to just go with a simple pumpkin muffin, and thus we have these.

I was intrigued by the recipe, which claimed that these muffins are still "excellent" on the second day.    I have made enough muffins in my day to have a hard time believing that... but I can tell you that it's not a lie!  These pumpkins were really good right out of the oven, but my family continued to eat them for days.  Even my mom ate a few of them, and she claims to hate pumpkin.  So if you need a simple, easy, delicious pumpkin muffin that will taste good the next day, here you go.

Recipe:

pumpkin muffins
from Smitten Kitchen 
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + 1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg + 1/4 teaspoon ginger + pinch of ground cloves and allspice)
1 cup to 1 1/3 cup (more makes it richer) pumpkin puree
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Put liners in 12 standard-sized muffin cups.

2) Stir or whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spice in a small or medium bowl.

3) In a larger bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, and 1 1/4 cups sugar.  Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined.  Divide batter among muffin cups (each about 3/4 full).

4) Stir together last tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon.  Sprinkle over each muffin.

5) Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

6) Cool in pan on rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.