France: Simple Cassoulet

So I'll admit, this whole random selection thing isn't working out quite like I planned. But that's OK. I'd rather cheat than let ingredients go to waste or bust my budget.

I was also thinking I'd save a cool country like France for something big. But I had lots of onions, carrots and celery in the fridge that I needed to get rid of. And it's been kind of chilly here, so I wanted to make a warming, quick, one pot dish that I could feed off of for awhile.

I decided to go ahead with a simple version of the French cassoulet, a meat and bean stew that is named for the cassoul pot it is traditionally cooked in (remember this bit of trivia if you ever play Foodie Fight). I don't have a cassoul pan, so I just do it in a regular pot. Some versions are loaded with all sorts of meat, like duck and bacon, but this one keeps it pretty straight forward. And I'm having a lazy weekend.

Of all places, I first learned of this dish on last year's Next Food Network Star. One of the contestants whipped it up as her signature dish. I thought it looked great, so I tried it. This time around I made some changes, using dried instead of fresh herbs (because I had them in my cabinet and didn't have to buy them) and regular pork sausage instead of chicken (because I like it). I also mixed up the technique a bit, letting the veggies cook in the oil from the sausage for added flavor. It came out pretty salty, so on a next go around I'll probably try to make some substitutions to scale back that flavor. I may have also screwed up the ratios substituting dried for fresh herbs. I like to eat it with some crusty bread and sprinkle some parmesean cheese on top.

What you need:

3 tbsps. olive oil

5 links of hot Italian sausage

3 yellow onions, chopped

5 carrots, chopped

5 celery stalks, chopped

10 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsps. dried thyme

2 tbsps. dried oregano

1 tbsp. dried rosemary

2 bay leaves

fresh ground pepper

2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

6 cups chicken stock

What to do:

Heat the olive oil in pan. Remove casings from Italian sausage, add to pot and cook until done. Remove with slotted spoon and place on a paper towel-lined plate.

Add the chopped veggies (including garlic) to the pot with the oil from the sausage. Cook until soft. Add spices and season with pepper. Let cook for about 10 minutes. Then add the beans, chicken stock and Italian sausage back to the pot. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for at least an hour, until the stew becomes thick.

A final thought on Spain ... for now

Well I'm going to leave Spain alone for a little while, but I'm sure will be back with more stories and cooking. My lil bro is a big Spain fan himself, so I'm sure he'll be making an appearance and cooking up some paella and tapas with me, figgy style.

But I feel that it's prudent to have a little discussion about the paella pan. I mean, why would anyone invest in a piece of kitchen equipment that's pretty much good for one recipe?

Basically because the pan is shallow and wide and comes in all different sizes. The sides are sloped and the bottom is dimpled, which helps the rice cook more evenly than a frying pan.

I keep wowing my friends with stories of ones I saw in Spain that were three feet across that chefs used to make the paella over an open fire. Traditionally they make the fire with orange and pine branches, and the smoke infuses flavor into the paella. The flames also help create a nice crust around the edges.

For lack of an open fire, we of course cooked our paella on a charcoal grill. I've also done it on the stove top and it works fine. Mine of course is probably a measly 18 inches. But just big enough for a decent size paella party : )

Spain, El Primer Viaje: Tortilla

Well I know my love of wine started in Spain. Perhaps so did my love of communal dining.

Sushi. Fondue. You name it. There's something about sharing food with the people you love that I find so comforting.

Of course one of my favorites is the traditional Spanish tapas.

Tapas would be the fourth (and sometimes second) of the typical five meals Spanish people eat in their day. For them, this pace isn't about weight loss or keeping their metabolisms going. It's more or less a good excuse to take breaks from work and hang out with friends.

A quick debriefing on the Spanish feeding schedule: Meal one is typically a light breakfast of coffee, light cookies and fruit generally consumed at the ungodly hour that Spaniards wake up. A few hours later, they're in the cafe for drinks and some light tapas (This usually coincided with my morning coffee... I could never get into this early business). Third meal is the big meal during siesta. Anything's fair game. Fourth is the traditional post-work drinking and tapas, followed by dinner in the late evening.

I didn't know much about Spanish cuisine when I went there, but very quickly realized I loved it. Simple things like olives, serrano ham and manchego cheese drizzled with olive oil and all packed with amazing flavor.

And then of course there is the tortilla, a delicious egg and potato omelet that you can mix up with various other add ins.

I've made the tortilla several times before, including a few times with a recipe my brother scored from his host mother when he studied in Spain. For the paella party I made one from the Williams Sonoma Savoring Spain and Portugal cookbook.

A note on the tortilla: The potato-egg ratio is extremely important so the tortilla holds together. I allowed a renegade potato to find it's way into my mix this time around, so it didn't hold as firm as I would have liked it.

What you need:

1/2 cup plus 3 tbsps. olive oil (Live large and get the real Spanish kind. You'll notice a difference in the flavor. They sell it at Publix, and I'm guessing most other decent supermarkets.)

2 lb. baking potatos peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick

salt and fresh ground pepper

1 yellow onions, thinly sliced

6 eggs, lightly beaten

4 oz. serrano ham

1 large red bell pepper

chopped flat leaf parsley

What to do:

Roast the red pepper. You can do this by heating the oven to about 375. Coat the red pepper in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for about 20 minutes. Occasionally turn the pepper so all sides get equal attention. After the 20 minutes, put the pepper in a bowel and cover with plastic wrap so the skin gets loose. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. When it is cool enough to handle, remove skin, stem and seeds from inside. Chop and set aside.

Heat the 1/2 cup of olive oil in a frying pan and lightly fry the potatoes until tender, but not browned. You may have to do it in two patches (probably will). When done, transfer to plate and season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Once you've removed the potatoes, add the onions to the frying pan and cook until golden. Remove and let sit for about 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. Add the onions, ham and roasted pepper and combine. Fold in the cooked potatoes.

Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan and pour in the mixture. Cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Then you'll need to flip the tortilla. You can do this by placing a plate on the top, flipping it over and then sliding it back into the pan. Cook another five minutes or so until the second side has set.

Serve with parsley as garnish.

Spain, El Primer Viaje: Paella

Manana.

They say it a lot in Spain. Tomorrow. That's when I'll get to it.

It flies in the face of everything we value in this country. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. The early bird catches the worm.

That's not how the Spaniards see it.

No, they'll sit for hours lingering over a good glass of wine or a cup of fine coffee. You could sit at a restaurant all night waiting for your bill if you do not ask for it. They don't want to rush you.

I happened to be in Madrid when the first Starbucks opened in continental Europe. People were outraged. They just couldn't understand why anyone would put their coffee in a paper cup and run, not sit there and enjoy it.

This whole laid back attitude drove me nuts at first, a highly driven, motivated and anxious college student. If the group leaders said be on the bus at 9, I was there early, only to sit sometimes for an hour and a half waiting for the trip to start. Usually, we were waiting for someone to finish their morning coffee.

So it seems appropriate that my friends and I have been saying we need to have a party ever since I got my paella pan. That was over a year ago at Christmas.

We kept putting it off. There was always manana. Finally, this weekend we did it. We hauled all of our meats and seafood and spices down to the beach, lit a grill, sipped some vino and had our own little paella party.

We used a recipe from a local woman who owns this business Tapas and Fun. She will come to your house and cook traditional Spanish foods. Since she hands out the recipes at her events, I figure it's OK to post it.

It came out all right. Some of us thought it was slightly light on flavor (but we're a group that likes spicy and bold in the spirit of Bobby Flay and Emeril). So next time we'll probably make our own go at it - more onion, more garlic, chicken stock, maybe some chorizo. As far as Spanish paella goes, it was very traditional.

And there will be a next time, now that we've mastered using the grill at the beach. Besides, there are so many things to say about Spain. Such an awesome cuisine. So many personal stories.

I'll get to them all at some point, but for now I'm still recovering from the beach blast. I guess they'll just have to wait until manana : )

Paella Mixta: Seafood and Meat Paella

(We doubled the recipe)

What you need:

1 small tomato, chopped

1 small onion, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 lb. boneless pork loin, cubed

1 lb. chicken breast, cubed

20 medium sized shrimp

15 clams

15 mussels

2 cups clam stock

1 tsp. paprika

pinch saffron

salt

14 oz. rice (boma is the traditional kind ... arborio is an easier to find variety that works well)

lemon wedges

olive oil

What to do:

Heat about 3 tbsps. of olive oil in your pan. We used the grill, but you can also successfully do the paella on the stovetop. When the oil has heated, add chicken and pork and cook until meat is done.

Add the onions and garlic and cook until golden. Stir in the tomato and let cook for 15 minutes over low heat.

Add the paprika, saffron, rice, salt, clam stock and two cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the mussels and clams so that they open.

At this point, you want to keep cooking the dish until the rice is done. Cover with aluminum foil to lock in moisture and check periodically. Add more water as needed. The shrimp can go in when the dish is a few minutes from done.

Serve with lemon wedges that guests can squeeze over the dish.

Poland: Mushroom Soup

I couldn't let my holiday vacation start without making one last legitimate global blog effort.

A few weeks ago, when I meant to get back on track, I tried my luck with the wine bag of fun and drew Poland. Immediately, my mind flooded with memories of the best thing I ate when I was in the country - mushroom soup.

(And seriously ... I did not cheat this time. I really pulled out Poland!)

Anyway ... I visited Poland when I was in college on a tour for college newspaper editors. The trip involved spending two weeks riding around on a tour bus through three different countries with people I didn't know, but shared some sort of odd passion with. That's the same trip that took me to Israel. Anyone who ever worked at one knows it takes an interesting person to run a college newspaper. We had a whole bus full of them.

Poland was the first country we hit, the first phase of the trip when everyone was still feeling each other out out to determine who would be the most fun and who would, well, be a little creepy.

We visited Auschwitz and Warsaw and Krakow. I remember seeing the old ghettos, walking through a beautiful rose garden dedicated to Chopin and touring the castle where all of the Polish kings are buried. Then there was some story about a fire breathing dragon that went after sheep and young virgins until being defeated by a noble young suitor. I still find that story amusing for some reason. Maybe because there's a large, metal statue that spits fire at the castle in the dragon's honor. I didn't see a memorial to the dashing young suitor.

But anyway...

I'm sure we ate all of the standard Polish fare - kielbasa, pierogis - the few days we were there. But the only thing I remember eating was the mushroom soup. Maybe that was because I found it warm and comforting when everything else around me was kind of odd and unfamiliar.

It was a day or two into the trip, but we were running around doing and seeing so much it felt like we had been at it forever. I remember it was cool and dark outside when the bus pulled up at this dimly lit tavern. I was tired and drained, overwhelmed and still a little jet lagged when I took my seat at the long wooden table with the people I barely knew for my pri fixe dinner.

The soup was probably a starter to some other standard Polish meal, but it's the thing I remember most about being in Poland. That and the dragon.

It came in a bread bowl that absorbed the yummy juices from the mushrooms. It was somewhat creamy but with big chunks of delicious wild mushrooms, apparently a big staple in the Polish diet.

I don't know where we ate it, or what exactly was in it, but it stands out in my memory as one of the best things I've ate in my life. Seriously. Maybe it was just my memory.

So soup was the first thing I thought of when I pulled Poland out of the wine bag. Finding an awesome mushroom soup recipe.

I studied different versions on the Net and came up with my own that seemed to combine some of the best flavors, and then some. I used a combination of dried porcini (extremely flavorful), shitake and portobello mushrooms.

It's pretty good, but still doesn't stand up to the one I remember. I guess all good things come with practice.

Polish mushroom soup

6 tbsps. butter
3 yellow onions

6 carrots, chopped

4 stalks of celery chopped
1 cup Italian parsley, chopped

1 cup fresh dill, chopped

1/2 cup thyme, chopped

1/2 cup rosemary, chopped

3 bay leafs (dried)

2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, chopped

1/2 lb. shitake mushrooms, chopped

3 large portobello mushroom caps, chopped

8 cups beef broth

Salt, pepper

2 cups sour cream

2 cups whole milk

1 loaf sourdough bread

What to do:

Bring half of the beef stock to a boil. When it is boiling, add the dried porcini mushrooms to "reconstitute them." Cook for about five minutes and then let drain, saving the even more yummy beef broth for later.

Melt 3 tbsps. of the butter in a pot and then saute the onions until soft, about five minutes. Add the carrots and celery and then let look for about 10 minutes. Season with some salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, melt the rest of the butter in a saute pan. Add all of the chopped mushrooms and let cook for about five minutes until soft.

Add the mushrooms to the other vegetables and stir in the herbs. Add the beef broth - both the reserved and the rest - and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 30 minutes.

After the soup has simmered some over low heat, add the sour cream and milk. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cook over low heat until ready to serve. The soup will thicken as it cooks. Serve with crusty bread.

Germany: Holiday non-traditions

This week I got an e-mail from my uncle inquiring about German holiday traditions. Apparently my nine-year-old (soon to be ten-year-old) cousin is working on a class project that involves researching the food and desserts of her heritage. Me being an advocate of education, food (especially desserts) and different cultures, helping her was right up my alley.

Given that - as noted before - my family is made up of bad Germans, we didn't really have any cultural holiday traditions. So I turned to some of my German friends for answers. It then only seemed appropriate to make a virtual return to the homeland to blog about it.

The first person I hit up was one of my editors who lived in Germany for a few years. He suggested something I later learned is a Feuerzanger Bowle, which involves heating red wine and traditional holiday spices in a fondue-like pot. Sounds like a pretty good idea, but perhaps not appropriate for an elementary school holiday celebration. (Although, I'd be amused to score an invite to that party and write a story about it.)

I then turned to my friend Nina, who was born in Germany, for some more kid-appropriate suggestions. She came through big time with some of her holiday favorites.

Without further ado ...

Stollen: This appears to be a yeast bread filled with nuts, currants, etc. Kind of like a fruit cake, I guess. And what do you know, Food Network gives us this recipe from Sara Moulton's old show. (I actually met Sara Moulton on one occasion ... this was before my current heyday of stalking celebrity chefs. We'll save that story for another blog posting).

Springerle: These are anise flavored sugar cookies made with molds to create intricate impressions on them.

Brat Apfel: Baked apples. Pretty self explanatory. Some of the "recipes" I found for baking apples involve serving them with ice cream, caramel or cinnamon.

Lebkuchen: Cookie (apparently Germans like cookies) similar to gingerbread, but softer. The Internet abounds with recipes.

And of course, Germans can be credited with coming up with Advent calendars, the Christmas tree and gingerbread houses (in the spirit of Hansel and Gretel).

I guess that means we weren't terrible Germans. We did do all of that. In fact, we used to go over to my Grandma's house when we were little and decorate a little gingerbread house. And last year, my sister decided to resurrect this tradition and we did a house on Christmas with Grandma. The difference is now my sister and her boyfriend take their cookie baking and gingerbread house making quite seriously, a warning to Bobby Flay if he ever comes around looking for a Throwdown.

Hungary: Goulash

I cheated again this week. I just picked a country that I felt like, instead of pulling one out of the wine bag of fun. This weekend, I felt like a tasty goulash. There was just something about the lure of a meat and pasta one pot dish that I found enticing.

The last time I made Hungarian goulash someone asked me how it is different from regular goulash. I don't think it is. Goulash originated in Hungary, where it was traditionally prepared by herdsmen (gulyas in Hungarian ... thus the name goulash). So I guess that's why some people call their goulash Hungarian. I suppose it's like saying Italian pasta. Perhaps unnecessary...

Either way, goulash is a soup or stew typically made with beef, veal or lamb, vegetables and paprika. The paprika is the distinguishing ingredient. Some variations have it served over pasta.

I poked around the Internet for new recipes and they all looked pretty similar so I decided to go with this Rachael Ray recipe I had made before. It seems to have all of the traditional elements and when I tried it the last time it was, as Rach might say, delish.

Traditionally, the goulash may be made with tougher cuts of meat, like the shank or shoulder. I guess that gives it a richer flavor. This one calls for ground meats, which are a little easier and quicker to work with.

I followed the recipe for the most part, with a few exceptions. I added an extra onion, and cooked the onion in the pot before adding the meat to give the meat extra flavor while cooking. I also seasoned the meat with the salt, pepper and paprika - about twice as much as the recipe called for - before cooking because I thought it gave it more flavor. Oh, and I added about a tablespoon of cayenne pepper to give it some heat.

I also probably used about half the macaroni and a fraction of the sour cream. The last time I made it the sour cream flavor kind of overpowered everything else, so this time I just gradually added it in to the mix, probably using about half as much. Same goes for the macaroni.

After I mixed everything together I let it sit on the stove for a while so the macaroni could absorb the juices and flavor from the stew. The garnishes may seem odd, but I do recommend the gherkin pickles and radishes. The crunchy texture is a nice contrast to all of the softness of the goulash.

Greece: Menu for a Grecian kitchen Odyssey

The first time I ever tried to make Greek food I was a college intern working at a newspaper in Jacksonville. It was a disaster. I followed recipes in a cookbook I bought when I was over there (I don't know why because at the time I anticipated a life of lackluster domestic skills).

Either way, the recipe for moussaka didn't say to drain the eggplant, so I didn't, and ended up with a soupy, watery mess. At this time in my life I also didn't understand the concept of Greek yogurt, so tried to make tzatziki with the regular kind. I was also halving the recipe, but forgot about that when I added the garlic. More soupy, smelly mess. Don't even get me started on the Greek potatoes.

But now I'm a little older, a little wiser and a little more savvy in the kitchen. At least savvy enough to look to what I consider the best recipe source on the Internet: FoodNetwork.com.

I love Greek food, and over time have found some awesome recipes there. Here's the menu I used for my Grecian kitchen Odyssey.

Greek salad: This Ina Garten recipe uses all the classic elements of Greek salads, but instead of serving it over lettuce you pour the dressing over chunks of vegetables. It's been a crowd pleaser every time I've made it. Everyone seems to like the crunchiness.

Tzatziki: This is another Ina recipe for the traditional Greek cucumber, dill and garlic yogurt dip.

Moussaka: Emeril gives us this recipe for the traditional Greek lasagna-like dish. It's layers of potatoes, eggplant, meat and of course the signature bechamel sauce. The recipe calls for lamb, but if you have guests who don't go there you can just substitute for more ground beef. I also add nutmeg to the meat mixture and the sauce, which is very traditional.

And the final recipe is actually one I've adapted from that otherwise useless cookbook I picked up somewhere in Greece. Just a nice little side dish. We paired the meal with quite the variety of wines and capped it off with some ouzo. More on beverage pairings later ...

Green beans with tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 tbsps. minced garlic

2 tbsps. olive oil

1 pound of green beans

1 white potato, sliced thin

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 can whole plum tomatoes

What to do:

Start by heating the olive oil in a large saute pan. Then add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are tender.

Now for the potatoes, I usually fry some up from the moussaka recipe and save them for this side dish. If you're not making the mousakka, add the potatoes to the onion and garlic and let them fry a bit.

Add the green beans, crushed tomatoes and whole tomatoes with their juice and transfer to some sort of soup pot. Bring to a boil, and then let simmer until the green beans reach desired tenderness. This will probably take about 20 minutes, and the tomato sauce should thicken.

Opa! My kitchen Grecian Odyssey

So I guess if life is about balance, the perfect ying to the yang of an elaborate solo evening out is an equally elaborate dinner party at home with some of your closest friends.

I never picked a country from the wine bag of fun this week. For starters, I wasn't home to do it. Life got busy, or at least busy enough for me to handle. I was too tired for menu planning.

By the end of my week some of my friends were floating ideas of getting together Saturday. I thought it would be fun to have them over and cook for them and wanted to make something dinner party friendly (ie: tried, true and delicious).

At some point Saturday morning I realized my sister was on her way for her first time for Greece. I knew there would be no better way to wish her bon voyage than by with some moussaka.

Greece also has special meaning for me. It was the first country I ever visited overseas when I was a 16 year-old-soon to be senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Buffalo. I was lucky enough to be in the group of about a dozen teenage girls and half as many nuns who spent roughly two weeks touring the ancient ruins and gorgeous islands in the Mediterranean.

Thus began a period in my life when I was doing a lot of traveling.

My friend Sarah and I have occasionally mused about whether Greece was really as amazing as we remember it, or if we were just young, naive and impressionable.

I know a lot of people who say they didn't take travel opportunities when they were younger because they wanted to wait until they had more money to enjoy the experience. For me, I am I happy I did. There's nothing like being a teenager leaving the country for the first time marveling at the Parthenon or a college student wandering around the villages of Spain on her own looking for direction.

We did all of the must have sight seeing in Greece - the Parthenon and Plaka, the ruins at Delphi, the theatre in Epidaurus. I ran the original Olympic stadium with one other girl and the tour guide made me a wreath crown from a nearby laurel tree. I'm not sure if I violated the customs rules about bringing agricultural products back to the states, but I did. The dried wreath still hanging in a frame in my old bedroom at home in Buffalo.

One of my favorite stories is about the time they dropped us off in Rhodes and told us we could go wander. My friend Sarah and I got lost, and figured the best way to find our way back to the boat we arrived on would be to just head for the water. We underestimated the fact that Rhodes is an island, and ended up on an extremely long walking tour through the maze of streets and neighborhoods. Lucky for us, Rhodes is a pretty small island.

We tried milkshakes made from goats milk, Greek coffee and ouzo (Yes, the nuns let us drink ouzo ... or maybe they had too much themselves and didn't notice ...)

I remember eating some the best and freshest food of my life in the quaintest little cafes and restaurants with amazing views of ancient ruins or beautiful coastlines. There were many a lunch on our own when Sarah and I figured it was more prudent to save our money for things like souvenirs, and just split and salad of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and ate it with pita and tzatziki.

So as my sister made her way across the ocean to Athens, I thought I would go Grecian in her honor. And what better way to celebrate a country I have such great memories of, than with my closest friends.

My Grecian cooking Odyssey did get off to a fairly rough start. I cut my time to get everything ready pretty close, and then of course my trip to Publix was hampered by what appears to be the arrival of the snow birds blocking the aisles and stealing my basket (no joke... I had to chase this old guy down to get it back). And apparently the recession has Publix scaling back hours for cashiers. So that took much longer than expected.

By the time I got home I found myself frantically peeling eggplants, slicing potatoes and frying them while simultaneously simmering onions and ground beef for the moussaka. Then there was the battle with the bottle of Greek wine, whose cork just about disintegrated into a fine powder when I tried to remove it from the bottle. My solution was to try to pry it out with a long fondue fork, but ended up accidentally (and roughly) shoving it into the bottle, cork attached, splashing the red wine all over my face and my kitchen. Thank goodness for aprons!

My laptop froze up just as I needed to consult with a recipe, so I had to take the time to restart it. I was still finishing the Greek salad and hadn't even started the tzatziki when my first batch of guests arrived - two children in tow - pulled out the baby bag of fun and their toddler promptly started exploring my living room. I brought in my chairs from the patio for people to sit on, not noticing the renegade palmetto bug that rode in on it. (We did promptly identify and take care of that issue).

But there were moments of peace in all this chaos. Every so often when you're scrambling to prepare a big meal - probably taking on too much - to entertain guests there are moments when all you can do is wait for something to finish. There are those times when you've done just about everything you can and you just have to wait for the meat to brown or the eggplants to fry before you can move on to to make something with it.

And in the end, when everything's done, all you can do is sit down with your friends and a nice glass of wine and enjoy every bite of it.

In case anyone was wondering about beverage pairings ...

We did have some German beer to go with all of this, but my brother was in charge of that. I'm really not a beer person. I'll see if he can send me the names of what he got so I can include them.

I was on wine duty, and this posed quite the challenge. One's gut tells them to go red with a heavy, meaty meal, but Germany is not known for its red wines. Along with that, I had my own personal bias against a) white wines and b) sweet ones. I like a big, smoky, spicy red, especially with a good meal.

My initial thought on the reds was to pick something bold and rich to match the meat, either a Shiraz or a Zin. My sister, on the other hand, thought a traditional Riesling would be a decent complement because the sweeter wine would help balance out the sour flavors of our dishes.

I did some Internet research and found an article from the New York Times that also suggested Shiraz and Zin. But many of the people commenting on the story suggested pairing sauerbretan with Riesling, particularly one from the Alsace region (which is actually now part of France).

So armed with all of this seemingly conflicting information, we headed to Premier and decided to consult one of their wine "experts." I went up and explained we were looking for a German wine to go with sauerbraten, and the guy immediately got this pensive look on his face and muttered something along the lines of "ahhh ... yes. I believe I can help you." I thought he was full of BS.

But the guy confidently led us along the aisles of German wines and those from Alsace and helped us pick four that were pretty reasonably priced. Of course it was after we put these in our basket and were ready to check out when he made some comment about how the Rieslings were good with any kind of spicy sausage. This is about when we realized he didn't know what sauerbraten is (Deal breaker?)

I was starting to get a little overwhelmed at this point so we just went with what he picked. I threw an Australian Shiraz in for good measure. We were all actually pleasantly surprised by how much we liked the selections and how well they went with the German feasting (although in all fairness, much of it we drank before we sat down at the table).

Our wines were also all pretty dry and crisp, which I think helped cut the acidity in all of the vinegar. Heather was right. It was a nice balance.

Here were three of the four we ended up with. The fourth bottle of white remains unopened in my mom's refrigerator (I'll see if I can get little bro to track down what it is).

HUGEL GENTIL 2005

This was a dry, white blend from Alsace that was made of Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Sylvaner. This was my favorite because it was extremely crisp and refreshing. A winner!

SCHUMANN NAGLER CHRISPTOPHER PHILLIP RIESLING, 2005

This was a nice, light Riseling that was on the drier side. It was fruity and pleasant to drink.

BOULARD EIFEL RIESLING 2005

This one was the sweetest of the three we drank. Also nice and fruity.

Germany: Gingersnap gravy and sauerbraten

You make this gravy with the leftover brine from cooking the sauerbraten (see recipe below). The gingersnaps give it a sweet flavor to balance out the sour flavor of the beef.

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. butter

3 tbsps. flour

2 tbsps. sugar

lemon juice

8 crumbled gingernsnaps

1/2 cup white raisins, soaked in water

What we did:

When meat is done cooking (tender enough to easily stick a fork into it) remove it from the brine. Strain the brine and reserve the liquid. Return to pot.

Melt butter in a saucepan and when hot stir in the flour and sugar. Cook the roux until the mixture becomes a caramel brown color. Be careful doing this because the sugar will cook very fast and can burn easily.

When the sugar/flour mix is done, add it to the reserved brine liquids and stir briskly until combined. Add lemon juice to taste and stir in the crushed gingersnaps and raisins.

Return meat to pot with gravy and simmer 10 minutes.

For sauerbraten:

You saw a few days ago we started brining the sauerbraten so it could sit for three days. After this is done, you can prepare the meat.

When it's time to do this, you remove the meat from the marinade and strain, reserving the liquid. Dry the meat off, getting off as much liquid as you can. Heat some bacon fat in a dutch oven and when hot sear the meat on all sides. When the searing is done, add about 2 large, sliced onions to the pot and the reserved juice from the marinade. Add 1 bay leaf and six cloves and bring to a boil. After it boils let simmer for about three hours. Remove meat and use the liquid for the gravy recipe.

Germany: Dumplings

Ingredients:

10 white rolls
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup crumbled bacon
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
3 eggs
salt and pepper
nutmeg

What we did:

Rip the rolls into pieces and put into a bowl. Gradually add the milk. This whole gradual instruction is pretty important. We put in the full amount and ended up with bread that was too moist and had to add more bread. So put it in a bit at a time. You can always add more later when you've put in all the ingredients. You're going to want to mold them into little balls.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and saute the bacon. Add the onions and parlsey.

Add the eggs and spices to the bread misture, then combine with the hot mixture.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Shape the bread mixture into little balls and drop them in the water. Cook for 20 minutes. Serve with ginger snap gravy (recipe to follow).

Germany: Potato pancakes

The potato pancakes really ended up being our own invention, largely because we couldn't find a recipe we were entirely happy with. They all had some good elements, so we just took the best of several of them and came up with our own. The difficulty making potato pancakes is getting a nice, firm little cake - as opposed to a crumbly mess of potato that falls apart when you cook it. The potatoes can't be too watery (you should drain them), and you need to make sure you have enough stuff in the mixture to bind it all together. You'll probably want to gradually add the ingredients in gradually to make sure you get the right consistency.

So this is what we came up with ...

(And yes, we did make 10 pounds of potato pancakes. My family is a big fan of these. Feel free to adjust the recipe for smaller quantities).

Ingredients:

10 pounds white potatoes (boil four of them)

3 yellow cooking onions

1 1/2 cups chives

lemon juice

10 eggs

4 tbsps. milk

3 tbsps. flour

4 tbsps. salt

applesauce

sour cream

What we did:

The first, and most laborious thing, we did was finely shred all of these potatoes. Luckily for me my sister's boyfriend Amit is a self-proclaimed awesome shredder and volunteered for this activity. So we peeled all of the potatoes and then using a fine grate shredded them into a strainer (Heather and Amit later pointed out after about two hours of this that you could probably achieve the same affect in a food processor).

As they were shredding we started to notice this, like, foamy stuff oozing out the bottom of the colander. The two of them are scientists, so they figured out pretty quickly is was starch from the potatoes (I'm not sure I would have picked up on that one). So after we shredded them all we took the colander to the sink and rinsed them to get the starchy stuff out. Then we let them sit and drain for a long while (Probably at least an hour. We did then let them sit on a towel for a bit as well. It's important to acknowledge, Heather and Amit did most of this).

We grated the onions to the same texture, and then drained them (no rinse). When this was all fairly dry we mixed it all together and threw some chopped, fresh chives in. We did all of this the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight with some lemon juice to keep from browning.

The next morning we made the batter by adding in the eggs, milk and flour. We mixed it all together. We cooked them on two cast iron skillets outside on the grill (as to heat the house up and get it smelling like fried potato pancakes). You could, however, do this in a typical frying pan.

We like to eat them with sour cream and apple sauce.

Germany: Black Forest Cherry Cake

This is my mom's favorite part of the Oktoberfest, and probably her German heritage. A three layer (actually five if you count the frosting and cherry ones) chocolate cake laced with kirsch.

The kirsch is the prominent flavor in the cake. It is a clear brandy that is made by distilling sour cherries called morellos that are native to Europe. This is not your typical chocolate cake. The cakes themselves are stiff, the cherries sour and the kirsch gives it a fairly bitter flavor. Definitely an acquired taste.

Ingredients:

For cakes:

6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 squares of unsweetened baking chocolate melted (we used the choco bake things that Toll House makes)
1 cup flour

For syrup:

1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tbsps. kirsch

For the buttercream frosting:

1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
2 tsbs. kirsch liqueur

For topping:

2 cups drained, canned sour cherries
2 tbsps. confectioners' sugar
2 cups heavy cream, whipped

What we did:

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla together until thick. This will take about 10 minutes. Blend in the chocolate and flour into the batter.

Pour the batter into 3 eight-inch round cake pans (already greased) and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool the cakes about 5 minutes.

While the cakes are cooking, you can make a syrup by boiling the water and sugar for about five minutes. Cool it. When it is cooled, add the kirsch.

To make the the buttercream filling, beat the sugar and butter until well blended. Then add egg yolk and beat until fluffy and thick. This should take about five minutes. Blend in the kirsch.

When the cakes have cooled, use a fork to poke the tops of all of them with numerous little holes. Then pour equal parts of the syrup over all of the cakes. The liquid should get absorbed into all of the holes.

Now you can start assembling the cake. Take your largest cake round for the base and cover the top with some of the buttercream filling. Strain the can of sour cherries, and stick some of them in the frosting of this layer. Put the second cake on top, spread with butter cream filling and more cherries. Put the third cake on top.

The final step is to cover the cake with a whipped cream topping. To make the topping, just beat the whipped cream with the confectioners sugar until fluffy and thick (it should be like whipped cream). This will take about 10 minutes. You want this to be thick enough to spread over the cake. You should get medium-sized peaks as you come to the end of the beating.

Frost the top and sides of cake with the whipped cream frosting and decorate with cherries. Put in a safe place until guests arrive to avoid early hijackers.

Germany: Hot potato salad w/ bacon

Same goes for this one on adjusting the ingredients to your liking.

Ingredients:

3 medium white potatoes, boiled

3 slices bacon

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 tbsp. flour

2 tsps. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. celery seeds

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 tbsps. vinegar (you may need extra)

What we did:

Boil the potatoes in their skins. When they are soft (and cooled) remove the skins and slice them into about 1/4 inch rounds. You want them thick enough so they don't fall apart, but not too thick.

In a large frying pan, saute the bacon and remove the meat for later. Leave the bacon fat in the pan and saute the onions until golden brown. Add the flour, sugar, salt, celery seeds and pepper and mix it all together. Stir in the water and vinegar and stir until smooth and well combined. This is going to make a whitish/gray colored sauce. Heat until boiling, and then stir in the potatoes and bacon.

If the mixture seems too dry, add in equal parts of more vinegar and water until the potatoes are all coated and there is some extra sauce. The sauce should be thick, not watery. Adjust the seasonings to your liking. It should have a strong vinegar taste, but not so much that it overpowers the other flavors. Let it cook on very low heat on the stove for a few minutes.

We made the potato salad the night before we planned to eat it so the flavors could meld together.

Germany: Red Cabbage

We ended up improvising quite a bit on all of our recipes. This is a rough guide that is somewhere between what we did and what the recipe called for. One can, obviously add ingredients to taste.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. red cabbage, finely shredded

2 cups wine vinegar

2 tbsps. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup bacon fat (the grease)

1 cup sliced onions

1 cup sliced apples

2 pints beef stock

salt

1 onion stuffed with 4 whole cloves and two bay leaves

1/4 cup wine

1 cup jam (redcurrant, strawberry or blackberry - we used strawberry)

What we did:

First thing we did is chop the cabbage into little 1/2 inch wide strips. Then we mixed in the salt, sugar and vinegar.

Heat the bacon fat on the stove in a large pot (you'll have to fit the cabbage in it) and saute the onions and apples. You want them tender, but not browned. Then add the cabbage, mix it all together and let cook for a few minutes.

Add the beef stock, cover and bring to a boil. While it's working, get the stuffed onion in order. You basically just gut the onion and shove all the spices in it. When the stock is boiling toss it in. You will take it out at the end of the cooking.

Let everything simmer for a while until the cabbage is tender, but not mushy. This probably took about a half hour (at least - we weren't really paying attention). About halfway through add some salt and pepper to taste, jelly and wine. Make sure to take a swig for you!

Bring on the brine!

So the very first step of our cooking adventure is done - brining the meat for the sauerbraten.

We ended up going with an eye round of beef, since that's what the guy at the German store dad found recommended. I guess it has more fat in it than a higher end cut, like a top round. Apparently it also makes for a nicer, more traditional presentation.

The recipe we had from the cookbook called for larding the meat, which some research via Google revealed involves using a fairly complicated tool called a larder to shove pieces of fat into the meat. I consulted with my buddies at the Food Network (Emeril, Alton, Bobby, etc.) and none of their recipes online said to do this, so we didn't. Besides, our meat looked fatty enough anyway.

To make the brine, we basically brought the three cups of white vinegar, three cups of water, an onion (chopped obviously), a carrot (also chopped), two bay leaves, eight cloves, 1 tbsp. pickling spices and eight peppercorns to a boil and then let it simmer for five minutes. My dad was getting pretty excited when it started to emit its vinegary aroma. My eyes watered it was so potent.

Then we let it cool to about room temperature, poured it over the meat and stuck it in the fridge where it will live for the next three days and we will have to turn it periodically.

In the meantime, I'll be hitting up the National Chicken Wing Festival on Saturday!

Germany: Rhineland Marinated Pot Roast (Rheinischer Sauerbraten)

We're not really sure where many of our German recipes came from, but we know Dad picked the sauerbraten from The German Cookbook, by Mimi Sheraton. He remembers eating sauerbraten with a ginger snap gravy, which is apparently characteristic of northern Germany. Like many other foods, the sauerbraten varies depending on what region it's from. Some are more vinegary and some might be creamy. Grandma, whose family is from Bavaria, remembers her mom making one that was more on the vinegary side. Apparently none of our family members wrote down their recipes though, so we defer to Ms. Sheraton.

I feel compelled to include this link to Amazon.com where you can purchase her cookbook if you are interested.

Otherwise here are the ingredients we'll be picking up in a few hours after my little bro and I hit the gym (working off the calories is essential to this obsessive eating) and then brining it this afternoon so it can sit about three days.

Without further ado ...

5 lb. rump of beef

bacon or salt pork for larding + 4 slices

salt

3 cups white vinegar

3 cups water

3 large onion

3 bay leaves

14 cloves

8 peppercorns

1 tbsp. pickling spices

1 large carrot

3 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

lemon juice

1/2 cup white raisins (Blah! I hate raisins. So does my sister But I'm guessing we're not going to win our lobby to exclude them. Dad says you need the raisins.)

tomato puree or sour cream (which we are actually skipping)

Lecker schmecker means yum yum in German... I think.

So my dad is TOTALLY excited about this whole German Oktoberfest situation. Perhaps even more excited than I am. Within a few days of announcing my little blog project a few months ago, Dad sent me a menu with probably two dozen German food options to choose from for the cookoff.

I'm just now becoming clear on where Dad's side of the family comes from (I guess his father came from Alsace-Lorraine - which I guess qualifies as German. I don't think we ever got a real straight answer about his mother... but he's now staking claim to Germany for her as well). Regardless, Dad has all sorts of memories of eating German food with family and friends as a child. At one point, probably when we tired of watching old men in lederhosen, Dad decided he would make us our own Oktoberfest and in those pre-Internet days headed to the Buffalo library to check out cookbooks with recipes that matched the memories of his childhood.

Fifteen years later, we're doing it again. We've decided to keep it fairly simple, settling on a menu of sauerbraten, potato pancakes, German potato salad, dumplings, red cabbage and black forest cake. Yes, this is a simple meal in my family.

We thought about getting some of our supplies at this awesome looking German store Dad found in the city (Buffalo that is - in Western NY, Buffalo is "the city" one refers to). But then we found out they don't have the cut of meat we need until October. So we'll be going to Wegman's instead. The site is still amusing. A pig snorts when you scroll over the menu.

Since you have to brine the sauerbraten for days in advance, we'll be doing that today.

In future cooking adventures, I anticipate posting links to the web sites I find recipes on in advance. But this time around I have pages and pages of copies from many different cookbooks I don't feel like transcribing - and I am not about to violate any copyright issues. So I'm not going to put the entire recipes up. I will put up all of the ingredients, and give you a general gist of how it was prepared when I blog about the cooking.

In other news, Grandma liked the blog. Score! She was cute and sent me an e-mail - yes Grandma e-mails and now follows a blog - about it this morning, saying it reminded her of when we all used to go to Epcot at Disney when I was growing up and ate our way through all the countries. This whole eating thing is nothing new in my family.

She also thought my story about Hohenwarth was pretty funny.

"Your memories of Hohenwarth are just as I had imagined the place must be," she wrote. "The pictures you brought back are more than I thought you would find."

I think it's pretty hilarious my family got to sit back and be amused as I cluelessly, bumbled my way out into the nothingness in the Bavarian Forest.

I also decided to post another picture from Hohenwarth since I have yet to master posting multiple photos with each post. If anyone is schooled in this matter, please advise.