Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

This week was very busy at work. My outlet is cooking something nice on the weekend.  After all the meat, Salmon is in order. I went to Wegman's grocery shopping as I had an appointment close by. The store is usually very expensive, but once a quarter I treat myself to spend some money there. I got 2 nicely cut 6oz of salmon and lots of other goodies. I will talk about those in future posts.   The plan: Salmon filet with  potatoes, German cucumber salad and as desert cucumber, melon, feta salad  Melon, Cucumber, Feta Salad The melon, cucumber salad take the most time as it should be marinating overnight in the fridge. 1/2 cucumber (peeled or not, your choice), sliced into 5mm slices (the thickness of your little finger where there nail is). Then quarter the slices 1 cup of grape tomatoes cut in half 1/2 cup of feta (crumbles or little chunks) 1 tsp of onions finely chopped 2 cups of melon cut into bite size chunks 2 tbsp olive oil 3-4 sprigs of fresh mint In a bowl mix all of this,

Meat prices are up pretty much 100%. I better don't budge anything. This Sirloin Tip Roast did cost me a pretty penny. Spice rub 2tsp salt 2 tsp black ground pepper 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp sweet paprika 1/2 tsp ground allspice 3 tsp dark brown sugar 1/2 tsp onion powder Heat the smoker to 225F. I used hickory pellets. Cover the meat in well mixed spice rub on all sides and put it on the smoker. I have a Traeger smoker, for the first 2h I had the extra smoke added. I decided I want some baked/smoked potatoes. When I turned off the extra smoke , I added a few potatoes in an aluminum foil pouch into the smoker. When the meat reached 142 (medium rare in my case) I put the smoker into shut down mode.The potatoes were not done yet. In a countertop stove I turned it on convection at 450 for 30 min, added the potato pouch,  and all was hunky dori. Time for dinner.  Serve with sour cream for the potatos and if you like with a side sald. Remove the net. -Mahlzeit-

 I had a lot of tomatoes in my fridge. Some of them looked like that they may have only 3 days left. Chunky tomato soup it is.   Veggies: 2 carrots chopped 1/2 cup of celery chopped 1 large onion chopped 1 cloves of garlic sliced  3 cups of water 1/2 cup of chopped Famous Dave's Spicy Pickles 1/2 cup of Famous Dave's Spicy Pickles liquid 6 large tomatoes chopped 1 can of diced tomatoes 2 tbsp of tomato paste   Spices: 3 tsp of Knorr Tomato Bullion 2 tsp of sweet ground paprika 1/2 tsp of ground tumeric 1 tsp of  ground allspice 1 tsp of curry 1 tsp of cumin 1 tsp old bay spice mix 1 tsp of ground smoked paprika   Other: 2 tsp margarine 1 pack of Eckrich turkey sausage, sliced   In a soup pot melt the margarine, add the sausage  and add let them brown a little bid. add the onions, carrots and celery. Let the onions get translucent. Add all the remaining Veggies except the tomato paste and all the spices. Stir to get everything mixed. Cover and bring to a boil. When it boils, tur

The freezer needs some room. There are a couple of pork loins that can go. Into the fridge they go and defrost. Spices: 2 bay leaves 2 chipotle peppers from a can sliced 1 big clove of garlic sliced 1tsp tumeric 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp ground allspice 1 tsp curry 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground mustart 1/2 tsp thyme leafs 4 cups of water 3 tsp Knorr Tomato Bullion 1 large onion chopped 2 tbsp veggie oil 1 tsp margarine  Meat 2 pork loin chopped into bite size pieces At the end 1/2 cup of fat free half/half 1 tbsp tomato paste   In a Dutch Oven, add the margarine and the veggie oil and heat it up over medium heat. Add the onions and let them get translucent. Add the pork. Mine was actually still a bit frozen, but that is ok. Turn up the heat and sear the meat. Be careful not to burn the onions. Add all the remaining items under spices, stir so all is mixed fine. Cover and turn the heat down to medium. Bring it to a boil and then turn the heat down, so it only simmers. Check every 20