I wish I could help you out, as I'm 1/2 Czech, but challenged when it comes to Czech food. My mother was Bohemian and she never cooked using recipes. She didn't make a lot of different things, but the ones that immediately come to mind are strudel, kolache(which I make once a year for my son's b-day, recipe from a Czech cookbook), and stuffed green peppers with dumplings. I miss the last one the most. The peppers were stuffed with a meatloaf mixture(no rice, but bread cubes), and the dumplings were cooked in the sauce that the peppers were cooked in, on the stovetop in a large pot. I've never been able to duplicate the sauce(and I didn't get the 'recipe' before she passed away). It was a tomato sauce, almost sweet, mild and infused with the flavor of the peppers. Her dumplings were made with flour, eggs, and bread cubes. They were heavy, not light and fuffy, but I loved them. As a kid, I didn't like the peppers, but ate the stuffing and dumplings covered in sauce. As I got older I came to love the peppers too.
Sorry this wasn't much help, but your post sure brought back some memories for me.

You've given my inspiration to simplify.

Appetizers: Mulled wine, edam cheese, blue cheese spread, fruit chutney and mixed marinated vegetable salad with kalamatta olives, artichokes and roasted red peppers. Rye toasts.

Soup: Mushroom barley, I have a good recipe

Dinner: Chicken paprikash with potato dumplings. I don't have a good recipe for either, lol!

I've got to find a recipe that you can cook in with the sauce. That's the kind of dumplings I like.

Stir fried cabbage, sweet and sour style.

Dessert: Apple bundt cake made the day before, with warm caramel sauce on top, coffee. I have a killer apple cake recipe. I never make it because it is a PITA and not worthe the trouble for just me. This is the perfect time to pull it out.

Hi Pinky:
I think that combination ( Czeck- German )is Italian.

So how about Chicken Cacciatori ???
Very easy to make and you can add all the good Veggies.
OR, How about a German Pizza ?

Lou

Yes, I make a mean cacciatore which is what gives me confidence that I can make decent paprikash. Plus I have a load of paprika a friend brought me from Hungary. I make good stuffed peppers but like Noinwi said, not everyone likes peppers . . . I figure I can put big slices of peppers in the paprikash and folks can identify them and pick them out if they don't like them. The key will be the dumplings Lou . . . That's where I'm out of my league. I suppose I could serve with wide egg noodles, but that's a cop out.

Pink, search for some of the recipes that Sharon CB posts. I've made her braised red cabbage for a couple of years and love it! She is also very good at answering questions.

I haven;t tried this one yet but it really grabbed me when posted by Malna on a Paprikash thread some time ago. Her recipes were very traditional family recipes...where did she go anyway. I liked her contributions.

Chicken Paprikas With Nokedli - Malna

1 onion -- chopped
2 tablespoon shortening
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon salt
1 -1/2 cups water (I use chicken broth)
4 to 5 lb -- chicken disjointed (I use chicken thigh
1/2 pint sour cream

Brown onion in shortening, add seasonings and chicken. Brown 10 minutes. Add water, cover and let simmer slowly
until tender. Remove chicken, add sour cream to drippings in pan and mix well. Add nokedli, arrange chicken on top.
Heat through and serve. For more gravy, add 1/2 pint sweet cream to sour cream.

Aunt Irenes Nokedli Recipe
3 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
Mix all ingredients together and beat with spoon. Drop batter by teaspoon-full into boiling salted water. Cook about 10 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water. Drain well and add to paprikash.

I'm still around, Chase. I just lurk these days and check in to see how everyone is doing. :-)

Malna, so good to hear from you! I recall your posting this and a bit of a story with it. I just loved it, it stuck with me.

Thanks for popping in , hope you stay awhile.

When we were recently in Czech Republic staying with family of DH's brother's fiancee, we had only one meal with potato dumplings, which were made by cooking premade dough bought in a tube from the supermarket. They were traditional (pretty much a national dish) and rather stodgy, which I liked but not everyone does. Another meal we had awesome potatoes and I asked our hostess how she made them. Here's the recipe. They do take a long time and are a bit labout intensive as you have to stire them a lot but they are so yummy :-)
Ana's potatoes
Take new potatoes and cut into smallish chunks, about 3/4" on a side. Finely slice a few spring onions. Saute onions and potatoes in a little oil, not enough to colour. Stirring more or less constantly, add a little water at a time, adding more as it is absorbed. Keep going until the potaotes are quite soft and all the edges are rounded and there's a little mashiness happening. A the end stir thorough some chopped parsley.
I should also note that every Czech meal starts with soup, if you go to a restaurant and have the daily special soup is ALWAYS included. They look at you funny if you don't order soup :-) And DH titled one of his emails home about Czech Republic as "The Unbearable Absence of Vegetables" as we ate so few during our ten days there. It's weird: you see piles of delicious looking vegetables in the markets everywhere, but they don't seem to end up on plates anywhere...

Chase, I think of you every day when I look at all those quarts of dills in the pantry :-)

Interesting that most of the recipes for dumplings I find online call for making them in boiling salted water separate from the dish you are serving them with. To me that seems like an unnecessary step and another set of dishes to clean, but it would be the same I guess if I was doing pasta . . .

Yeah, this is where America gets its love of meat and potatoes, from all our N. European ancestors!! I know it is partly due to the dearth of fresh vegetables in that part of the world for long stretches. On the flip side, I had the BEST cream of asparagus soup in Germany when I was there in June. And they do great pickles!!

I's sure love to do some type of elegant vegetable soup for the first course, but so many people are vegetable adverse . . . which I think includes BF's son. I think he commented once that his son doesn't eat any vegetables. Sigh.

Malna.......:-) what a nice thought, thanks.

You could try these for dessert or how about Gingerbread or Gingerbread cookies?

Czechoslovakia Cookie Rolls

Cookie type: refrigerator or icebox

This recipe came off the internet at www.foodnetwork.com in 2004. These are a rolled into a log and then cut into slices. Yields about 40 cookies.

Ingredients:
Dough:
1 cup unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing baking sheets
8 ounces sour cream
2 cups flour
1 teas salt

Filling:
12 ounces apricot preserves
3 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
ý cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
12 maraschino cherries, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 baking sheets and set aside.

For the dough: In a mixer, beat the butter and sour cream until smooth, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the flour and salt until dough stays together and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Divide dough into 4 even pieces and roll into 9 by 12 inch pieces about ü inch thick. Set aside.

For the filling: In a medium bowl, combine all 4 ingredients and mix until smooth. Divide the filling into 4 even portions, and spread 1 portion of filling on each piece of rolled out dough, leaving a 1 inch border. Roll lengthwise and transfer to a cookie sheet. Place2 rolls on each cookie sheet.

Bake until golden at the edges, about 35 to 45 minutes. Slice while still warm into 1 to 2 inch slices and cool.

One possibility, rather than making dumplings would be to make pierogies. They would be not any more difficult than the wide egg noodles you mentioned, but would (in my mind) be more authentically Eastern European.

Chase I made your Chicken Paprikas With Nokedli - Malna!

My husband got teary-eyed and said that this was just like his grandmother's! It was delicious! Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!

Just wanted to mention that apple studel is wicked easy, if you've worked with phyllo dough before.

Mix up some thinly sliced apples with a smidge of lemon juice, a pinch of salt, suger, cinnamon, raisins and/or nuts (optional) and roll up in phyllo, buttering in between sheets.

If you pass on the dumplings and love asparagus, make the asparagus puree potatoes mentioned in the Whats For Dinner thread. It's potato - can't help but be German/Czech-ish. You do need a food processor, food mill, or (maybe) blender.

No real recipe, but utterly easy
- Take asparagus stems, boil until soft, puree in food processor, add a little water or stock as needed.
- Simmer puree plus whole milk or cream, and butter
- Peel and cube potatoes, par-boil in salted water
- Combine puree and potatoes, on low-ish heat, cover, check occasionally to make sure it is not burning
- Salt and pepper (preferably white). Garnish with a few asparagus tips, parsley, or whatever.
- I might try adding a couple drops of vanilla next time (try with just a bit of the puree, in case it is a fail)

I lived in Prague for three years in the '70's. A staple in restaurants was a sweet and sour cabbage or sauerkraut that had been cooked until tender and served with very tender pork or sausage. It was served with dumplings made of stale bread cooked in a tin can which were then sliced into neat half-inch rounds. The dumplings were wonderful for soaking up the sauce from the pork and sauerkraut dish.

Where's Peppi when you need her? LOL

Just a couple of things that come to my mind when I think about Czech/German food. Spaetzle with Brown Butter and Black Forest Cake. Yum to both. Not sure if either would work for you or not, just brainstorming with myself!

Linda

Well, I am living with BF now and make the cabbage and pork dishes fairly often. Fake sausages for me, lol! But I have yet to summon the courage to try ANY type of dumplings. But I will someday. He also said his grandmother made PEACH dumplings, and when he tried he could never make them as good as hers. I did some searching online, I may have to experiment with those too, when peach season comes around.

And thanks for the asparagus recipe John, we both LOVE asparagus and now that I'm working again I can afford it occasionally. It's about to come in season too! I'm not sure it's grown much locally though.

Oooh, I'd have to go with perogies. It does involve dough, but you don't have to roll it too terribly thin.

The menu sounds awesome! :-)