So, I think it’s been about 1 year since I last posted on my blog! Wow…

So, I guess/hope you have all been curious as to where I have disappeared to.

I do think about my blog often and wish I had the time and energy to post to it, but…

I now have my own bakery/café!  Columbia Bakery Café.

So, for the last year, I have disappeared to set up my bakery, and we finally opened up on October 1, 2011.

I have been a busy little bee, and business is booming! I now have a pastry chef that I work with as well as 3 ladies for sales. And, believe me, even though I have all those people working for me, does not mean that I have time to put my feet up and relax.

We have a baking “marathon” every Monday and Tuesday. My pastry chef, Drew, bakes about 6-9 hours on one day, and I have another 10+ hours of baking on the next. We are now open 4 days a week, and will soon be adding a 5th.

Please, check out all the yummy sweets I have been working on and testing for the past 2 years to get my bakery up and running.

And, if you are so inclined, you can also follow us on facebook, where I post weekly updates!

Time sure does fly when you have a lot to do.  I want to apologize to my Taste&Create partner for being over a whole week late to post…even though i did have my recipe done with plenty of time left.

For those of you who are curious – this is what I have been working on: Columbia Bakery Café for over a year now, and I will finally be opening my café in July.

And, let me tell you, this soup is GOOD! really good. It tastes like silky smooth sweet and slightly savory buttery potatoes. Please check out Samayal Arai for her recipe. It’s really quick to put together and so delicious!

Here’s her recipe.

Welcome everyone to this month’s Taste&Create event! Welcome to our new members and welcome back to our older members!  I will not be taking part this month since I am on vacation deep in the Rocky Mountains and will be flying back home to Germany shortly before the deadline.

Just a reminder:

-the rules can be found here.

-please do not email me your submission, go to the Taste&Create website, register/sign-in and submit your entry there by the 24th of March, 2011.

The next Taste&Create you can sign-up for is April and sign-ups will end on April 8th, 2011 for that event.

Here is this month’s partner list:
Searching for Spice& samayalarai-cookingisdivine
The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch & Seduce Your Tastebuds
On and Off My Plate & Elephant Eats
NO REASON NEEDED& The Bad Girl’s Kitchen
Everybunny Loves Food & Eat Laugh Love

For this month’s Taste&Create I was partnered with Seduce Your Tastebuds…. who has a whole slew of exotic dishes on her blog.  I searched through her blog for a while not able to decide on exactly which dish I would make – they all looked so good – until I came across her Kiwi Salsa recipe and I knew then and there that that was the one I had to make.

I LOVE salsa: fresh tomato salsa, cooked tomato salsa, tomatillo salsa, roasted tomato salsa, mango salsa…but I had never heard of kiwi salsa.  And, I thought that it was quite fitting since I am currently on vacation in Texas to go ahead and make a salsa.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how well all the flavors harmonize together.  The acidity and subtle sweetness of the kiwis left little need for added acidity (lemon juice) and perfectly replace the traditional tomato.  I did add more kiwi than the recipe originally called for because I thought it tasted good, but needed more kiwi to really hold the name kiwi salsa, and I reduced the onion to 1/4th of an onion, which I still found a bit over powering – I will reduce to 1 Tablespoon in the future.  The cucumber gave the perfect body to the salsa helping to diminish the heat of the huge jalapeño I added.

As opposed to PJ, I went ahead and threw my ingredients, individually, into the food processor because I don’t like chunky salsa since I feel I don’t get all the flavors in one bite.  That and (sorry mom) my mom has a tiny knife that I don’t get along with when chopping vegetable…I really miss my cook’s knife.

Ironically enough, I didn’t have any tortilla chips on hand to go with the salsa, but crackers work well too.  I will be using the salsa tomorrow as an accompaniment to fish which I can’t wait to try because I think they will go perfectly together.  I will keep you informed on that!

Here’s my version of PJ’s recipe:

Ingredients:
2 Kiwis, peeled
1/4 Onion, roughly chopped (I recommend reducing to 1 Tablespoon minced)
3 small or 2 larger Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1/2 Cucumber, peeled, and roughly chopped
1 Jalapeño, de-seeded, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
Salt, to taste
Cilantro (Coriander) Leaves, roughly chopped, to garnish

Directions:
Pulse all ingredients (except cilantro), individually, in a food processor until diced.  Combine together in a bowl.  Salt to taste and garnish with cilantro.

Makes about 2 Cups.

 

Welcome everyone to this month’s Taste&Create event! It looks like it’s just the four of us this month, and we will make the most of it!

Just a reminder:

-the rules can be found here.

-please do not email me your submission, go to the Taste&Create website, register/sign-in and submit your entry there by the 24th of February, 2011.

The next Taste&Create you can sign-up for is March and sign-ups will end on MArch 8th, 2011 for that event.

Here is this month’s partner list
NO REASON NEEDED & Searching for Spice
For the Love of Food & Seduce Your Tastebuds

For this month’s Taste&Create I was partnered with Kris from Behold the Metatron. And, when I came across her meatloaf recipe, I knew exactly with recipe I was going to make! I looooove meatloaf, but I rarely take the time to make it. So, since we hadn’t had it in …well months… now was as good a time as any to make some.

I have to say that it was very easy to put all the ingredients together, and the addition of the oatmeal gave it a lighter less dense texture that we all enjoyed. I did use a mixture of ground beef and pork since I have no access to ground turkey. I would have really liked to have tried it with ground turkey..maybe when I’m in the US on vacation I can. I really liked the addition of the red bell peppers – I’ve never had meatloaf with bell peppers in it. In the future, I may go ahead and add roasted bell peppers instead so that they are softer – even after an hour of baking the chopped bell pepper retained it’s crunch. I also think the smoky flavor of a roasted bell pepper would really complement this recipe.

Also, another first for me was tomato sauce on top of my meatloaf. I’m still not sure if I really like it or not with tomato sauce on top – barbecue sauce on the other hand would convince me a bit more.

All in all it is a great recipe that is really easy to put together. You can find the original recipe here!

I have to say that I’ve learned quite a bit from my Project Foodblog experience:
-Step-by-step pictorial blog posts get the attention of more readers – probably because they are more helpful
-Taking time to set up a true photo shoot for a meal can produce amazing results

and

-Making a good cooking video is easier said than done

What I enjoyed most about the experience was getting to know myself and my new limits and being introduced to new recipes.

This recipe is one of those recipes. For years I had considered making it, but often decided against it because of lack of knowledge. So, when bell’allimento made a cooking video for Project Foodblog demonstrating just how simple it was, I had to get right to it.

First I dug out the bacon that we smoked with some friends last winter, then rummaged through the refrigerator for the other ingredients – which most of us would always have on hand. I used Pecorino cheese instead of Parmesan because my son is lactose intolerant and can only eat goat and sheep cheeses – Pecorino being a sheep cheese. And, I whipped this recipe up in a mater of 20 minutes. It’s quick and delicious.

Check out bell’allimento’s video recipe here.

Hi, yes, I am still here. Happy New Year everyone!

I have been quite a busy bee lately, and have neglected posting on the blog….I have had a few technical difficulties, but I am slowly ironing everything out!

Here are some great things that have happened in the end of November:
-I held a the most successful Thanksgiving party to date
-my year-long attempts at starting my own American bakery here in Germany are slowly coming to fruition (once things are up and running I will share more information with you guys)
-my baby (now toddler!) has learned to walk
-I am back doing organized sports – and loving it
-I got a new kitchen cabinet to store my daily-use dishes and glasses
-I got a lovely book case from France that’s about 100 years old
-I finally decided what colors to paint in the hallway and did it
-we had family over for the holidays – as well as a surprise visit from a friend we hadn’t seen in 8 years!
-my older son grew 2 shoe sizes in a week!!
-I was offered a part-time job – out of the blue!
-I learned how to knit!
-I got a sewing machine!
-I got an AWESOME new EIZO monitor for my computer
-we finally hooked up my computer for the first time in a year since we moved from our old home! Yes, I have been working on a borrowed laptop for that long! And I LOOOOVE my computer so much more now.
-and I was able to finalize plans to be on a relaxing vacation visiting family back home in the US for 6 1/2 weeks

And, here are the not so great things that have happened since last November:
-I injured myself climbing in the kitchen and have been walking around in crutches for a few weeks now..with no pain, but swelling…which has to go away before I sit in an airplane with 2 children for 12 hours! This really annoying injury has also caused me to stop doing my weekly routine of sports (about 5 to 7 hours a week) and has caused those pounds that I worked so hard to shed to come back.

Not too bad if you think of it…only 1 thing going wrong in 3 months and it’s wasn’t anything catastrophic! Heck, my new – and lovely – computer has been causing me more trouble! I haven’t been able to upload any new photos onto my Flickr account to blog for you guys – something screwy on my end. I will have to get my tech guy on it right away!

So, I hope you all bare with me for the time being. Blogging will resume as soon as my technical issues have been ironed out!

Oh, and you can find my biscuit recipe here!

I rarely have leftovers standing around in my refrigerator for the simple fact that I am so well practiced in cooking certain meals for my family, that I only make just the right amount for us to eat. Not too little, and not too much.

However, when we have guests over, I often go overboard because it’s hard to calculate know just how much each guest will eat since I’m not well acquainted with their eating habits. Last week I happened to have two set of guests over for dinner on different evenings. On one evening I made the best (unfortunately photographed) fajitas that I’ve eaten to date – even beating the best Tex-Mex restaurants I’ve visited in Texas, and on another evening we enjoyed a Greek meze in my attempt to bring a little bit of summer into the cold days of Fall.

By the time Friday rolled around, I had left over sautéed bell peppers and homemade guacamole from fajita night and hummus from Greek night – as well as some left over deli meat that I use to make sandwiches for my husband and older son during the week. But, what drove me to make this salad was, quite simply, the alfalfa sprouts.

I love alfalfa sprouts, but I so rarely come across theme here in the grocery stores. But, on the rare occasion that I go to my local, but not so close, organic grocery store, I can almost always count on them having it there.

Our local organic grocery store is also our only source of certain products, such as 100% cranberry juice, chocolate without soy lecithin, and steel-cut oats. I happened to be there looking for all three last week. And, when I walked by the alfalfa sprouts, I quickly took a few steps back, grabbed the last package, and headed off to the check-out with a big smile on my face because I knew just how I wanted to enjoy these – in a sandwich.

While I enjoy a traditional mustard, meat, cheese, and pickle sandwich, I mush prefer a non-traditional mixture of whatever I have at hand sandwich. And, this sandwich really hit the spot.

Ingredients:
Sliced Sandwich Bread
Homemade Hummus
Homemade Smoky Guacamole
Alfalfa Sprouts
Cheese Slices
Deli Meat Slices
Sautéed Bell Peppers (see recipe bellow)

Directions:
Slather one slice of bread with a thick layer of hummus, and the other with an even thicker layer of guacamole. Sprinkle alfalfa sprouts on the guacamole and layer on cheese slices and deli meat. Top with some sautéed bell peppers and close your sandwich.

Enjoy!

Sautéed Bell Peppers
Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Bell Peppers in assorted colors (ex. red, yellow, orange, green), sliced
Salt

Directions:
Pour olive oil into a griddle and heat over medium-high heat.

Once the olive oil is hot, add the bell pepper and sauté, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes, or until the bell peppers have slightly blackened skin and have softened completely.  Salt to taste.

Makes about 3 cups.