Mahlzeit - Food without Borders

I watched some cooking show this morning when I was waking up. I don't remember if it was Valerie, Trisha or Ree. The talk was about a creamy cauliflower soup. Now there is an idea. I didn't feel like running a soup through the blender. Other then potatoes and cauliflower I don't remember anything about it... Sorry, I was waking up... Now there was a cauliflower in my fridge, there is a package of Eckridge Turkey Sausage. I can make something out of this. 1/2 bag of baby carrots 1 tbsp of margarine 1 cup of celery chopped 1 medium onion chopped 4 potatoes chopped into bite size pieces 1 head of cauliflower cleaned and cut into pieces 1 pack of Eckridge Turkey Sausage cut into slices 6 cups of water 2 tsp of ground all spice 2 bay leaves 2/3 tsp dried thyme 4 tsp of Knorr Tomato Bouillon In a stock pot melt the margarine, add the onions and let them get translucent. Then add the carrots, celery and sausage. Cook for about 10 minutes to get some color on the sausage and the o...

I always wanted to make some bread dumplings. Together with a mushroom ragout this is delicious. I found a recipe that sounded good, all posted in German and a ton of commercials on the page.  So this post will be a rather lengthy one.   Bread Dumplings I dried hot dog buns. Big mistake. They have a sweet after taste. Not what I want in my dumplings. Right now there is a french baguette, cut in half in over the length and it is drying now for the next week. The recipe calls for 11 oz of dried bread cut into cubes 1 cup of hot milk 1 medium onion cut very finely 1 tbsp of butter a hand full of chopped parsley (I used flat leaves parsley)  1/2 tsp of salt 1/4 tsp of ground black pepper a little bit of ground nutmeg If needed bread crumbs if needed In a big bowl add the dried cubes of bread crumbs.  Heat up the milk. On the rim it should start to show little bubbles. Do not cook it, but should be to hot to stick the finger in. Pour the milk over the bread crumbs. Stir i...

In the grocery store I found pork butt steaks. We ate a lot of them from a grill growing up. Normally they marinate at least 24 in beer and onions. I decided to just take one, salt and pepper on each side and onto the BBQ it goes. As a side I wanted to try grilled melon. Each side from the pork about 10 minutes. And the melon about 4 minutes a side. Serve with another veggie. -Mahlzeit-  

A noodle soup can be done very fast.   I like to take my noodle soups into the Asian direction. So here it comes 1/2 gallon water 6 tsp of Knorr Tomato Bouillon 2 kefir lime leaves 1/2 star  anise 1 black cardamon Mix all of this in a stock pot and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer. Add the rice noodle vermincelli and let it simmer for 8 minutes. Add the cleaned shrimp and serve after 5 minutes. -Mahlzeit-

1 lbs of shrimp are quite a few. Enough to make at least 2 different meals out of it. Normally grits takes forever. This needed to go fast. This takes 1/2 cup of 5 minutes grits 2 cups of water 1 tsp Knorr Tomato Bullion  Mix all of this in a pot, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. While this is working add a bit of bacon (I used some of the bacon I smoked earlier) and cook the shrimp. They don't need more then 2.5 minutes a side.   On a plate add a layer of grits, add some grated cheese of your choice and another layer of grits. Add the bacon and the shrimp. -Mahlzeit-           

Time to deal with the country style pork ribs. The spice rub will be easy this time, just Old Bay Spice. During the smoking I will be basting with  Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Voodoo Sauce. It is sweet and spicy and tangy. I like it a lot. I also added 4 slices of bacon and some meat balls on the smoker. I removed the tray with the bacon and the meat balls after 90 minutes. Now this is smoked bacon. Any so called smoked bacon from the grocery store may have walked past a smoker, but that is about it. Next time I reduce the smoking time to 60 minutes as 220F. The meat part of the bacon got a little dry. This is the taste of bacon I remember growing up.  The pork stayed on the smoker for another 2 hours. Every 30 minutes the meat gets basted with the VooDoo Sauce. Serve with what ever sides. -Mahlzeit-          

The remaining cooking liquid from the meat balls is being used here.  The veggies 1 bag of store bought baby carrots (about 1.5 cups) 1/2 celery root cleaned and chopped into 1/4" pieces 2 stalks of leaks, cleaned and cut into 1" pieces cut in half 2 cups of Brussels spouts cut in half 1 large onion coarsely chopped   Add all of that to the cooking liquid from the meat balls, and bring it to a boil, add salt and pepper to taste and simmer until the veggies have the desired crunchiness. Add some of the meat balls. A starch is optional here. - Mahlzeit-

I thought it is a good idea, to have some meals in the fridge, so at lunch it does not always was to be a soup and sandwich or salad. So I bought  1 lbs of shrimps 3 lbs of ground turkey 85/15 country style pork ribs One of my favorite meals are Koenigsberger Klopes (cooked meat balls in a white caper sauce) Those meatballs can be used in several other dishes (without the caper sauce). In a big bowl mix the ground turkey with 2 eggs 1 tbs anchovy paste salt, pepper 1 medium onion finely chopped 1 cup bread crumbs 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce 2 tsp of ground allspice Form little balls about 1" in diameter. I take am ice scoop for this.  In a big and wide pot bring 3/4 of  gallon of water to a boil. Spice the water with 4 tbsp ground allspice, 3 bay leaves, 3 tsp of dried thyme. Turn down the pot to simmer and add the meat balls. This will have to be done in batches/ They will eventually start floating at the surface. Then they need about another 5 minutes. Take 1 and chec...