Spring Bridge Luncheon

While lying around the pool in Bali and being utterly lazy for a week, I decided once we return home our diet has to change to a healthier one with a lot less sugar (=less belly fat – at least that’s what research promises!).

I realized that I am hosting a bridge luncheon that very next week and decided to put my plan into action. I knew my fitness conscious bridge buddies would appreciate it as well.

However, while deciding what cake to bake, I came across my mom’s Rhubarb Torte recipe. Although it didn’t fit the ‘less sugar’ category, rhubarb is in season and not a fruit/veg you can get year round and I had a sudden craving.

So the menu came together like this:

Insalata Caprese

Asparagus Salad

Chicken & Arugula Salad

Fresh Strawberries

Rosenblüten Secco

Van Houten chocolate covered almonds (from Singapore)

Rhubarb Torte (Omi's Recipe)

Whipped Cream

Wurzelbrot

homemade Bärlauch Pesto

Salted butter

I’m always amazed at how quickly the Insalata Caprese is eaten. I had some ‘issues’ with the dressing for the Chicken & Arugula Salad, but after some searching, found an excellent substitute on the internet. 

The blog I found the recipe on is called “Orangette” http://orangette.blogspot.com. I was so impressed by Molly Wizeberg’s blog, that I immediately ordered her book “A Homemade Life” http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-Life-Stories-Recipes-Kitchen/dp/1416551050

and have loved every word of it so far.

The asparagus salad’s dressing also gave me some trouble. I reduced the balsamic vinegar too long and it became almost solid. On the second try, I boiled it for only a minute or two. It turned out delicious and I could have eaten the dressing with a spoon.

Asparagus Salad

Epicurious

2 lbs                 asparagus, cut on diagonal into 1 – 2 in pieces

1 small             red bell pepper, chopped

1/3 cup            pecans, toasted and chopped

1/3 cup           balsamic vinegar (boil 3 min until reduced by half)

3 Tbs.              olive oil

1 Tbs.              Dijon mustard

1 tsp.               dried majoram

1 tsp.               minced garlic

Whisk together ingredients for dressing.

Cook asparagus for 4 minutes and rinse with cold water. Mix with dressing.

Sprinkle with pecans and small red bell pepper.

Chicken and Arugula Salad

Ingredients:

·         Chicken breast, cooked and cubed

·         Arugula

·         Grape tomatoes, halved

·         Black kalamata olives, pitted

·         Pine nuts, toasted

·         Parmesan cheese, shaved

Dressing:

1 Tbs               Dijon mustard, preferable Grey Poupon

3 Tbs               good-quality red wine vinegar
½ tsp              fine sea salt
5 Tbs               good-quality olive oil

Combine mustard, vinegar, and salt in a small bowl, and whisk to combine. Add the oil one or two tablespoons at a time, whisking continuously to emulsify. Taste to correct vinegar-oil balance, if necessary

OMI’S RHUBARB TORTE

1 cup               flour

5 Tbs.              powdered sugar

½ cup             butter

½ tsp              salt

Mix flour, sugar and salt together and cut in butter as you would for pie crust. Pat gently into an 8 by 8-inch greased baking pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Prepare the following filling:

2                        eggs, beaten

1 ½ cups          granulated sugar

⅓ cup                flour

¾ tsp.               baking powder

                            dash of salt

2 cups               diced rhubarb

¾ cup               chopped nuts

Add the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into the beaten eggs and mix well. Stir in rhubarb and chopped nuts.

Pour over slightly cooled crust; return to oven and bake an additional 40 to 45 minutes. Serve with a dab of whipped cream or ice cream. Serves 8 or 9.      

Looking for a fabulous new Christmas Cookie this year?

Look no further. A big thanks to Sassy Radish (http://www.sassyradish.com) for this recipe which is based on Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in “Paris Sweets”. Personally, I really appreciated the measurements being in metric so I could use my scale. I let the dough rest overnight and baked them this morning. OMG, are they awesome!

Lemon Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
2 sticks (8 oz; 230 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅔ cup ( 2 ½ oz; 70 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature, separated
pinch of salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
grated zest of 1-2 lemons (to taste)
2 cups (9 ⅞ oz; 280 grams) all-purpose flour
Approximately ½ cup (3 ½ oz; 100 grams) sugar, for coating
Preparation:
Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and beat at medium speed until it is smooth and satiny. Add the sifte confectioners’ sugar and beat again, starting on the lowest speed, gradually increasing, until the mixture is smooth and silky. Beat in 1 of the egg yolks, followed by salt, vanilla, and zest.
Turn the mixer speed off and add the flour. Turn the mixer on the lowest setting and mix until the flour just disappears. It’s crucial here not to overbeat. So, if you see that the flour isn’t fully incorporated, that’s okay – just blend in whatever remaining flour there is using a rubber spatula.
Tear 2 pieces of plastic wrap enough to wrap the dough that will be deivded in half. Spoon half the dough onto one piece, and the other half onto the other piece. By lifting sides of the plastic wrap and placing them over the dough, shape each mound into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Working on a smooth surface, still using that same piece of plastic wrap, to keep your dough in place, form each piece of dough into a log that is about 1 to 1 ¼ inches thick. Dorie tells us here that if you get the thickness right, you will end up with the proper log length. Then you use the piece of plastic to wrap the dough back up and give it at least a 2 hour rest. I gave it an overnight rest because I thought it could use some lounging time. In retrospect, that was the best decision I could’ve made.
Position the racks in the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celsius). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. [If you happen to be on a mad cookie baking project, remember this - you can reuse your parchment paper, which is both much simpler logistically, and creates less waste!]
While oven preheats, work on the sugar coating, by whisking the other egg yolk in a small bowl until it is smooth enough to be used as glaze. Spread the sugar out on a piece of wax paper. Remove he logs of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap them and while they’re lying in the plastic wrap, brush them lightly with a little egg yolk. You want a thin coating so that the sugar sticks.
Roll the logs in the sugar, making sure to coat all sides. Then, using a sharp, thin knife, slice each log int o cookies about ¼ inch thick. Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving about ½ inch space between them.
Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, rotating midway, or until they are set but not browned, though it’s fine if the yolk/sugar edges brown a tiny bit. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes, before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.
Packed air-tight, the cookies will keep for 5 days at room temperature, but good luck keeping them that long.

I Should Follow My Own Advice!

Earlier this week, I found myself telling someone that I wasn’t too impressed with Martha Stewart recipes as everything I’d made so far was mediocre.

Then why did I decide yesterday to make “Chocolate Charms” from an old Martha Stewart Christmas book I own??

They were awful. I have put them in a tin and hope that perhaps they will get better as they age.

Here are two of my favorite tips for your Christmas baking:

1. Invest in some good cookie dough scoops. I prefer the ones I purchased from Williams-Sonoma over Crate and Barrel or Target. When a recipe calls for 1 inch rolled cookie, I scoop the dough with my smallest scoop and then roll them. They are uniform and will bake evenly. The same goes for crescents, I scooped first and then shaped the crescents.

2. Buy a gram/oz digital scale. I have both American and metric recipes, which is why I purchased the scale initially. An added bonus is that I now weigh the ingredients that are messy and hard to clean out of measuring cups, such as peanut butter and shortening. 1 cup of peanut butter weighs 260 grams. 1 cup of Crisco weighs 208 grams. 1 stick of butter weighs 4 oz. My scale has a big metal bowl which makes cleaning up a breeze.

These are the cookies I have baked so far this month:

• Vanillekipferl (almond crescents, or ‘Moons’ as Julia called them)
• Sandgebäck (shortbread sandwiches filled with black currant jelly)
• Peanut Butter Cookies with PB Cups
• Basic frosted brownies (no BtS Brownies this year, we’re dieting!)
• Russian teacakes
• Chocolate Charms

 I'm planning to experiment with my favorite Rugelach recipe and make it into a bar cookie. Keep your fingers crossed!

Raspberry Lemon Tart

"The Queen of Hearts,
she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts,
he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!"

- Lewis Carroll


This week, I made a Raspberry Lemon Tart that I found on http://www.sassyradish.com

Her tart looks much nicer than mine did, even though I did try to get rid of the air bubbles. My oven also has developed a mind of its own, so I am dealing with spiking or dropping temperatures. The taste was heavenly, light and summery. I served it with a dollop of whipped cream.

I used the same tart dough as for my Rhubarb Streusel Tart although the recipe she used sounds pretty foolproof.

Filling:

2 medium lemons
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 cups raspberries

Preparation:

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F.

2. Finely grate the zest of both lemons; set aside. With a small knife, cut off the top and bottom of each lemon and then carefully cut away the cottony white pith and a tiny bit of flesh from each lemon–the juicy sections of lemon should now be completely exposed. Lay the lemons on their sides and cut each lemon crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices; remove the seeds.

3. Place the lemon slices, eggs, yolks and sugar in the container of a blender and puree until smooth. Strain the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the reserved zest and the cream. Give the bowl a good rap against the kitchen counter to de-bubble it–if there are bubbles in the cream now, there will be bubbles in your tart later. (It’s not tragic, but neither is it attractive.)

4. Scatter the berries over the bottom of the crust and pour over the filling. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the filling is set in the center. Transfer the tart to a rack and cool to room temperature.

To serve: Cut the tart into 8 wedges and serve as is with some lightly sweetened whipped cream, raspberry coulis or even a spoonful of berry marmalade.

Makes 8 servings

Paris, the city for lovers...

What better place to celebrate 34 years of marriage than Paris?

Fortunately, my hubby agreed and off we went last weekend. We had gone to Paris a few times before, but Gerhard's last visit was over 30 years ago. The buildings still look as beautiful as ever, but the city has lost some of its 'French-ness'. There were too many tourists, the kind that don't blend in very well.

We strolled around Montmartre, hoping to find the same magic we felt when we were younger. Had it changed or had WE changed?

We decided to visit the Louvre early Saturday morning, as Gerhard had never been inside.


Here are two of my personal favorites:


Does anyone else think this looks strangely like Gerhard?



Umm, not really sure about this one...

Excitement in Lenzhahn

We live in a tiny village where there are several horse farms. Usually by this time of year, there are five horses in the fields next to our house. Two days ago, there was quite some commotion outside. I looked out and saw a tractor literally racing through the fields, mowing down the grass. Gerhard was a little concerned last night about the horses, now that there is no grass for them to graze. A little chat with the horses' owner, Wilma, and I got the scoop. She's bought one of the fields across the road and she's keeping the horses there all summer and fall. Today, the farmer returned with two big John Deeres and they rolled the hay into bales, all the while, the mouse buzzards were circling above...



(Pictures taken from my study)

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I have been craving Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins for a while now and decided to find a recipe that I could use as a starting point. The muffins should be light and flavorful. Perhaps next time I will add a little lemon juice to the batter for a bit more punch.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

1 1/2 cups of spelt flour
1/2 cup of whole grain spelt flour
(the original recipe calls for 2 c all-purpose flour)
1 Tbs. poppy seeds
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1 scant cup of sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 pkg of Citro Back by Dr Oetker or zest of one lemon
1 cup of regular plain yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla

Lemon Glaze:
1 tsp. butter, melted
powdered sugar
lemon juice, adjust to how thick you want the glaze

Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Blend the sugar and butter until smooth, add the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Add the dry ingredients, folding them into the batter until just combined. Do not overmix at this point.

Fill into a cupcake pan which is lined with paper. Bake at 375 F for 18-20 minutes. Let them cool about 10 minutes and drizzle with lemon glaze.