A visit from forum friends, plus ethnic foods (kind of)
I had company this weekend, and it was such fun! Peppi came from Chicago with her Dad and Sherry (sheshebop) visited from Indiana. They both arrived on Friday, and in honor of Peppi's Dad and their German heritage I made sauerbraten. At least it was the Michigan girl's version, LOL. I didn't have the final item I needed to finish off the "gravy", so Peppi brought it along:
Yeah, I'd never heard of Apfelkraut either, but it's kind of like a very dark and very thick apple butter, Peppi says it's fermented. She also brought some potato dumplings to go with dinner and a jar of spiced red cabbage. I made homemade dark rye bread and a "German" apple cake. I doubt that it was anything close to German, but that was what the recipe said, and it was frosted with cream cheese frosting. Yeah....German. Ahem.
We were up until far past midnight, gossiping and solving all the ills of the world. Peppi's dog, Emma, was loving my stubby tailed cat, Sparky, they both weigh about 15 pounds and they played together very well while the big dogs tried to ignore them.
Saturday morning we had homemade corned beef hash, eggs, toast from the rye bread, and pumpkin muffins. Unfortunately the only thing I remembered to take a picture of was the muffins!
Unfortunately Peppi's Dad was in a hurry to go home, so they left after breakfast. I offered to take Sherry anywhere she wanted to go, but she expressed a preference for just sitting around the living room and catching up, so we talked the afternoon away, munching on a tray of cheese, olives, crackers and sopressata in lieu of lunch.
the small appetizer plates on the right were a gift from another Cooking Forum member, Doucanoe/Linda. She made them herself and I miss her, you betcha...
For supper I hauled out the Atlas and made fresh pasta:
Half were this size and the other half were long strips for a batch of lasagna later.
I made a sauce with the last of the garden eggplant, ricotta cheese, the end of the garden tomatoes, and some cream. We also had the last of the golden beets from the garden, a Caesar salad and some of the blue Hokkaido squash, along with a Pane Bianco that sounded good with the pasta. (Yes, LindaC, I removed the ricotta carton from the table, LOL)
To be continued, because I'm out of room for pictures.....
Comments (19)
lindac92
6 years agoRelated Discussions
A visit with a forum friend
Comments (15)Lpink, that is a very nice picture of you. Nice picture of your french toast, too! Glad to hear that you two had a chance to catch up and that Lpink could vent a bit. I've had the "estate plan" conversation with my mom. Thank heavens she is realistic about it all and it wasn't hard. I hope you weren't driving through those horrible storms we had on Sunday. What a mess....See MoreA wonderful visit with a CF friend!
Comments (13)LOL - my beautiful gift bag - can you tell I was makeup shopping? We had such a wonderful visit - it was way too short and I know you all will NOT believe that - especially considering that it was Alexa and ME involved - there was NO alcohol. none. zip. nada. OK, pick yourselves up off the floor...we still had a 6 hr drive ahead of us, so Scott definitely couldn't and we did arrive at 10:30 AM...we considered bloody mary's but the visit was so short, we never got to them. :-) First Alexa gave me a wonderful basket filled with some of her home canned goodies! I got some of the gingered holiday chutney! YEA! Also some yummy looking apricot chutney, and some pickled asparagus! I appreciate these so much because I know what it takes to can - and I also am skeptical as to whether anything I have done this year is going to be edible - LOL! also in my basket were some green bean crisps that she got at the local farmer's market - these things are addictive. We can't figure out how they make them. They're crunchy but light green beans. (Sammy had one in the car and she likes them too.) Also some beautiful little wooden serving dishes - Alexa knows that sometimes my "entertaining" involves cocktails and assorted nuts - LOL. For lunch she made bbq'd pork sandwiches and following Alexa's lead, we put our coleslaw right on the sandwich - mmmm! We also had a yummy salad with lots of veggies and fresh cheese She had also made some great tortilla roll ups - we loved the red ones which had jalapenos in them. Here we are in Alexa's picturesque back yard with Sammy (who was a bit of a pain) Here are the texting buddies (LOVE that hair!) And here are all of us minus Scott who was taking the pic... Alexa's boys are adorable and friendly - and Scott and I both found Alexa to be charming, intelligent, funny, interesting, and a wonderful hostess. She was able to do all of this without having a car to get around - with her DH's vehicle issues this week! We all were so at ease together - we plan to get together again when we had down that way. I don't think the boys will let us forget it, either - LOL. Sorry it took me so long - we were on the road til almost 8 last night...long day but very fun. And I forgot to say that she lives in a beautiful beautiful area... Stacy...See MoreThe Forum Friends Support Sherry
Comments (43)Ellen, welcome to my world, where EVERYONE is taller than me. Even you. (grin) Karen, we all missed you, I would love to see you again, and Pam, one of these days we'll meet up, I'm sure. And you'll be taller than me too... CC, that would have been great fun to meet you too. Maybe on my next trip out to visit the California boys, we'll be driving that one, I'm betting. No way would Elery leave his "favorite girl", Molly! Annie...See MoreFood Forum Friends visit
Comments (15)Cathy, we were thinking about you, and agreed that next time we'll try to plan far enough in advance to have you come along, we missed you. Lars, when you do come to Michigan, we'll definitely have to have a get together, either here or in Chicago or SOMEWHERE, we can't let you come this far and not meet everyone! writersblock, the crust is a mixture of a one pound bag offrozen hash brown potatoes, one egg and salt and pepper. I press it into a buttered springform pan, mine is a 9 inch, and then add the filling and bake. My oldest daughter is celiac, so I'm getting better at gluten free cooking, even for other people, LOL. stir_fryi, that's my Grandma's recipe and the trick is to not overbake or they get crisp, like gingersnaps instead of staying chewy. The recipe was been very popular here over the last few years, then kind of dwindled away. Here it is, my favorite cookie since I was a child. Chewy Molasses Cookies (Annie CF) 1 1/2 cups of shortening (I use half and half with butter, but all butter makes them too crispy for my taste) 1 cups granulated sugar 1 cup dark brown sugar 2 eggs 3/4 cup of dark molasses 4 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons cinnamon 2 teaspoons ginger 1 teaspoon ground cloves Chopped crystalized ginger, optional, to taste. I used about half a cup, finely chopped and wish I'd have used more but I love ginger Coarse sugar or turbinado sugar for rolling Cream the shortening and sugars. Add the molasses and eggs and mix until well blended. Sift the flour (yeah right, I don't, LOL) and measure 4 1/2 cups into a separate bowl. Add the spices, salt, and baking soda and whisk to combine. Turn the mixer to low or stir, and add the flour slowly until well mixed. Stir in the chopped ginger and chill the dough for at least an hour. After the dough has chilled for an hour, roll tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and roll the balls in the coarse sugar to completely coat. Place the dough balls about an inch apart on a greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. The cookies will puff up and crack. When the cookies are done the cracks should still look a little wet, but the outside should look dry. They'll "fall" a little as they cool, let them sit a couple of minutes on the sheet before you try to move them to cooling racks. Peppi, we love having Emma and you here, and your Dad too. All I have to do is find a "babysitter" for the dogs, the cows, the horses and the chickens and we'll be right there! (grin) And, as Peppi mentioned, we had beef stew the first night. Maybe not special company food, but something that could sit in the oven and give me some time to visit instead of "hands on". I did use a Porterhouse, a Sirloin and two Rib steaks, so it was kind of special... Annie...See Moreannie1992
6 years ago
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annie1992Original Author