Week 13: Oktoberfest

Recipes to Go: 507 389
Weeks to Go: 52 39

Recipes Made this Week
Nut-Topped Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins
Asparagus Crepes
Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cakes
Sweet Milk Dinner Rolls
Hearty Sausage Sandwich
Sauerbraten
Red Cabbage with Apple
Crumb-Coated Spaetzle
Black Forest Cake

Since I missed two recipes last week, I spent most of Sunday morning and afternoon baking. It ended up being a bread-filled day. I cooked the rolls since the dough was ready from the night before. They were very sweet, which is surprising because there no sugar in them. Just the milk, which I guess should tell me how sweet milk really is.They were pretty amazing, and I just found two tucked away the other day, two weeks after making them and no mold. They were rock hard, of course, but still good. So apparently they are hardy, too.

I made the yummy breakfast I had planned for Saturday on Sunday instead which consisted of Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins. I must say, I'm liking rhubarb more and more. It's such a unique flavor; I like the way the aftertaste feels in my mouth. I think it will become a freezer staple for me.I only put nuts on half of these so The Captain could enjoy them, too. We ended up eating all the nut-topped one quite fast,but I still managed to be able to enjoy them all week for breakfast.

With the muffins, we had asparagus crepes. They were delicious, but had very complex flavors, thus The Captain did not fully appreciate them like The Husband and I did. I haven't had something this delightfully complicated in a long time.Simple, but wonderful. So I guess you don't have to be complicated to be complex. At least in the culinary world.

The last thing I made was this beautiful coffee cake. I've never braided dough before, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. This was even more complicated than that since I had to "jelly roll" each of the strands of the braid before braiding them. And I don't jelly roll that much either. It would have been easier to see the cool design this made if I had used the nuts, but I didn't for The Captain's sake. They did end up quite yummy. Needless to say, we had good breakfasts this week.

Monday night, I made this Stromboli Sandwich. It was another night that I ate way too much and had a stomach ache, but it was a Thanksgiving-esque stomach ache where I could not complain about the pain since it was caused by joy.This was a hearty sandwich. We didn't need anything else with it for dinner and didn't even finish the whole loaf in one sitting. It tasted a little like stroganoff, with three kinds of cheese. The Captain enjoyed it as well, and the leftovers for lunch.

Tuesday was my anniversary. We spent the day together, shipping The Captain off to our friends' house. As payment for their sacrifice, we sent The Captain with the other loaf of coffee cake. It was the least we could do. But before we left, I taught my morning class and came home to freshly made waffles and yummy syrup. We ate lunch out and got dinner on the way home, so I didn't cook anything that day.

Wednesday, I used the leftover bread from the Stromboli Sandwich to make Ham and Broccoli Bake, which I had made before, but this time I used broccoli instead of peas. It was still delicious. The Husband liked it more, I liked it less, but that's because I love peas and The Husband doesn't.

Thursday was Oktoberfest. We used to have Foreign Food Fridays in my college apartment. They were awesome. I remember them all. And after our great time at an Oktoberfest event last year, I decided celebrate Oktoberfest this year by doing something I haven't since I started this goal--make a meal as it was designed in the cookbook. There are several groups of recipes in the back of the book that are set up as meals, and there happens to be a meal with a German theme. . . . voila, Oktoberfest.I didn't have time to marinate the sauerbraten for two days, but I did start early in the day, so it got a lot of time. Plus, instead of marinating in a bag, I marinated it in a bowl so it was completely submerged, speeding up the process slightly. I also made the cake in the early afternoon, so it would have time to set up in the fridge. The sauerbraten baked for 4 hours, so come actual dinner time, I only had to make two recipes.It actually worked out quite nicely.

The Husband told me to remind him occasionally how much he loves cabbage. This was delicious. The apples gave just the right touch.And I was lucky to have The Husband there because I almost forgot to put in the bacon. It would have still be good, of course, but missing a big taste vitamin. Bacon is one of the three basic taste vitamins along with cheese and chocolate.

The Spaetzle was just as delicious as I remembered from when my roommate used to make it. I could eat spaetzle with every meal. It's not very photogenic, but don't hold it against it.It's easy enough to make, too, just takes a little work to mash it through the colander into the pot to bake. Worth it.

The Black Forest Cake is my new favorite. It could be the best thing I've ever made. (I think I say that every week, but this time I'm serious.) You know by now I don't really like cake, but I think I might have to amend that to say I don't like cake-mix cakes that taste like cake-mix. (There are some people that have a talent for deliciously disguising cake-mix. I am not one of those people.) But that doesn't matter because this was more like brownies, plus pie, plus cheesecake. Could there be a more yummy combination?It was divine. I normally am not extremely tempted by desserts, but this one was like a siren. Seriously. It was like the cake was a women in a slinky black dress with red underwears and I was a man. I didn't stand a chance. I might have to use my own seductive powers more carefully after this. That's powerful stuff.

Didn't make anything over the weekend because we went to D.C. Which was fabulous. We will definitely be going back, and hopefully soon.

Week 12: Prematurity

Recipes to Go: 507 398

Weeks to Go: 52 40

Recipes Made This Week

Spicy Shrimp

Garden-Fresh Fettuccine

Creamy Lime Sherbet

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Hazelnut Pear Tart

Raspberry Coconut Bars

Pacific Rim Salmon

Mixed Bean Salad

Before this week started, The Husband had a conversation with me which reminded me that I have let this experiment overwhelm me too much in the last few weeks. I did sign up for this, I knew what I was getting into, for the most part. And despite having specific goals I wanted to achieve, it was primarily, a bit of fun. So with that in mind, I rethought some of the philosophies and practicalities I have been employing thus far. I decided to start earlier to prepare dinner and have it waiting in the fridge, so that when things go crazy at 4:30, as they always do, I could be almost done, or already have dinner in the oven. Who doesn't want to just be able to stick something from fridge to oven?
So afternoon snack time has become dinner-prep time. Result? = a little too much gusto on my part. I ended up slightly over preparing this week.

Monday was the beginning of a cold front that lasted all week. We had zero prepared foods in the house, which meant there was literally nothing for The Husband to take to work for lunch except three hard-boiled eggs. In this sad state of affairs (brought on mostly because I hadn't be able to go shopping on Saturday), I did the shopping and made beet curry for dinner. Not in the book, sadly, because it was good and lasted all week, but it used up a delicious beet I bought from the farmer's market and warmed us all up.

So Tuesday was really my first day to cook. Luckily so because we were having the missionaries over for dinner and one of them had really set the bar high for me by talking up my cooking to her companion. So the preparation began. We were having Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and a corn salad I made for a funeral and didn't get to taste. A repeat, but I meant it as a surprise since the missionaries loved the leftovers the first time. I also wanted to make Lime Sherbet for to celebrate The Captain's 1/2 birthday. I personally love 1/2 birthdays, but this one is special because it means he gets to go into the nursery class at church instead of wrecking small havoc hanging around with me. I'm sure lots of people will be sad he isn't around, but he will definitely be happier, consequently, I will, too.

Well, that was the plan. Starting a little after 2, I got the ice cream going, made the corn salad and got started on the chicken. It was about 4 o'clock when the missionaries called. Everything was in the fridge ready to go into the oven. But as it turns out, we weren't feeding the missionaries on Tuesday, we were feeding them on Thursday and they were calling to ask if we could have dinner at a specific time and with one more person. (Both of which I said yes to, of course, since dinner was pretty much already done.) Story: I usually feed the missionaries once a month, and always on a Tuesday. When I got the schedule for September, it was full with only one day left, the 30th. So I took it and made a mental note to put it in my calendar when I got home. Only I forgot, so I planned on Tuesday and prematurely made dinner.

But after all that prepping, I didn't really have any time or energy left to make an entirely new large meal, so we had leftover curry that night. We did, however, get to eat yummy sherbet.And yummy it was. Authentic lime flavor, none of that artificial stuff, which is to be expected when you use lime zest and fresh squeezed lime juice. The Captain liked it, despite what his face says.
Then came Wednesday. I started chopping vegetables for the spicy shrimp and garden fettuccine around 3, while the shrimp was defrosting. I had all the cans I was using for the week set out on the counter already, which sped things up as well. So while the timing of the fettuccine was a little tricky, it all came out nicely and at the same time.

The Spicy Shrimp was very spicy. I didn't skimp on the Louisiana hot sauce. Luckily The Husband loves that stuff.I love shrimp and it was very refreshing to have a different protein source for a change.

The fettuccine was surprisingly spicy as well. I put in just the tiniest amount of red pepper flakes as per the recipe instructions and it really made a difference. This made a huge amount of pasta. I'm always surprised because the pasta itself never seems like that much, but it goes a long way. I didn't even get to put in all the veggies it called for because I didn't have fresh tomatoes and my pan didn't have enough room.This is definitely a harvest overload type of recipe--throw in whatever's growing and it will be delicious.

So when Thursday came, you would think it would be easy-breezy, but I decided to make the pear tart. I also decided after reading the recipe before hand, something I don't do often enough, to make the bean salad for Friday's diner a day in advance so it could fully refrigerate. That was easy enough. And the tart was less complicated than I would have thought. It turned out all right.

And the enchiladas look like any enchiladas, this picture was the forth time we had it for leftovers, or something like that.The recipe made 20, so we ate them with pleasure all weekend.

Also on Thursday, I decided to make a treat for my early morning class instead of waiting for Game Night on Friday, since we weren't sure if we were having a Game Night or not. So I made the Raspberry Coconut Bars. But since I used strawberry preserves instead of raspberry, so I guess they were technically Strawberry Coconut Bars, but regardless of what you call them, they were wonderful.Remember how I said I didn't love bars, just chocolate. I might take that back. These were simple, easy and yummy. The teenagers agreed. Also, we discovered the secret to drizzling chocolate is momentum. Also, don't put vanilla chips in the microwave for too long, they burn very quickly.

So on Friday,I started out ahead of the game with half of dinner all ready in the fridge, but as it turned out, I didn't prepare the other half since we didn't eat dinner at home on Friday. We were out with the youth, cooking hot dogs and stuff. Okay, confession, we did eat leftovers before we left because, they're hot dogs. They're pretty gross. And even though every once in awhile the idea of a hot dog is appealing to be, usually halfway through I wonder why and vow to never eat one again. These ones weren't as bad as some I've had because they were properly burned before eating. That's the only way to get the idea of leftover meat parts out of my mouth when eating one. So all my preparation was in vain again, since the salad now had two days to marinate.

But unlike the corn salad which has avocado in it and thus suffered somewhat from excessive fridge exposure, the bean salad did not.It might have made it more yummy. Here's another salad like the Tim Salad we used to make. Delicious. And all that marinating got The Captain to eat celery and green peppers. It was like a Christmas miracle without all the snow and stuff.

So we didn't get to eat it on Friday, and Saturday morning was a little rushed getting shopping in before our two day conference, so breakfast was neglected. Don't worry, I made up for it on Sunday, but I did finally make the other half of what was planned to be Friday's dinner--salmon to go with the bean salad. Remember way back when I bought the salmon and I said it was too fishy, well it was a little fishy with this recipe, but in a good way, if that's possible. It must have just been the tomato sauce that first time because the last two times have been delicious.This one was supposed to be grilled, and we still haven't bought a proper grill yet, so I pan grilled it, with a lid on, so I half grilled, half steamed it. The marinade was lovely and the fishy flaky and light. A very light, summer meal. Too bad it was very cold outside.

Does it seam as though something is missing on this plate?Well, I was supposed to make dinner rolls to go with this meal, but it was so cold outside and consequently inside, that the dough wouldn't rise. I had to take it downstairs and put it on top of our receiver that controls our whole television set up. It gets very warm when on and it had been on all day thanks to the conference which we were able to view via the internet on our giant tv thanks to our laptop. I love technology. So that worked really well, actually, but it was time for bed by the time the dough had doubled. So there was something else that got postponed until Sunday.

So my original ten recipe plan dwindled down to 8, despite my uber preparedness. Prematurity strikes again, I suppose. But on the bright side, I squeezed the two recipes into next week, so I haven't really lost any ground.