A Georgia Girl in Germany

MacKenzie just finished taking her quarter-long Intercultural Education class, where they learned about German culture. Her final project for the class was to cook something German and bring it in to share with the class. Fortunately, I have a “German Baking” cookbook that she was able to peruse to find something relatively easy to make, and she settled on making the classic Eiserkuche (egg waffle) recipe...and it didn’t call for anything out of the ordinary.

She began by melting 5/8 cup of butter then letting it cool and solidify. She then sifted 2½ cups of all-purpose flour and set it aside. She mixed 2 to 3 drops of vanilla into 1 tablespoon of sugar and added it and another 2½ cups of sugar to the slightly set butter, then mixed it with the whisks until it became white and foamy. She then added 2 eggs, one at a time, whisking each for about 30 seconds on high before alternatively adding it and 2¼ cup of milk to the mixture.

The tricky part was making the waffles. We added the mixture to our greased waffle iron, but it didn’t want to cook through or come out easily. So we adjusted.

After a few attempts with the waffle iron, we cooked the rest of the batter in a pan and made crepe- looking pancakes. These cooked much better than they did on the waffle iron.

In keeping with the recipe, MacKenzie rolled each one around the handle of a wooden spoon. They turned out pretty well considering our minor adjustment. When she took them to school, her classmates enjoyed them and ate all but a few. The few that came back home didn’t last more than 24 hours.

Here’s our final version side-by-side with the book’s final version. The recipe book includes a tip of using a special waffle iron to make very thin waffles -- I think that’s what’s in this photo. They didn’t look the same, but they still tasted pretty good!

Labels: Cooking, Germany, MacKenzie

MacKenzie really enjoys cooking, so she and Nana picked out a few new recipes to try when Nana and Papa were here over Thanksgiving. This one turned out real well, so I thought I’d share it.

To start things off, here’s the recipe:
1 egg
2 15-oz containers ricotta cheese
1½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
½ cup chopped fresh parsley or 2 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 12-oz box jumbo shells, cooked 15 min and drained
3 cups pasta sauce

First, cook the shells so they’ll be ready when the spinach-cheese mixture is ready.

Then, in a medium bowl, beat the egg lightly. Stir in the ricotta, mozzarella, ¾ cup Parmesan, parsley, basil, salt and pepper. Mix. Stir in the spinach.

Nana likes making her own pasta sauce. Not bad for a farm girl from South Georgia who married into an Italian family! {grin} MacKenzie was really getting into it by simultaneously stirring the shells in one pot and the tomato sauce in the other. What talent!

Spread ½ cup sauce in an 11- x 7-inch baking dish. When the shells are cooked and drained, spoon about 2 Tbsp of the spinach-cheese mixture into each shell.

Arrange the shells in the baking dish.

MacKenzie enjoyed licking the sauce off her fingers. Nana’s homemade pasta sauce sure is good!



Top with remaining sauce, sprinkling remaining Parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 350-degrees F for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Enjoy!

Granny Mary would be so proud!!

Labels: Cooking, MacKenzie, Nana and Papa

Zachary once didn’t care for eggs, but has recently decided he likes omelets. Papa is the omelet-master, so he and Zachary cooked up omelets for breakfast one morning.

Shortly after Nana and Papa returned home, we received a package with a small omelet pan -- specifically for Zachary to make his own omelets. Yes, he’s already put it to good use (he likes that we’ve had leftover ham in the refrigerator) several times.

MacKenzie even had to get in on the action by making her own scrambled eggs this past weekend. She’s not quite ready to try adding ham, cheese, mushrooms and/or tomatoes to create an omelet though. I’m sure she’ll come around soon enough.

Back to the photos ... Papa had to add the finishing touch to his omelet creation: salsa. Zachary thought it was delicious!

Labels: Cooking, Nana and Papa, Zachary

Shortly before the Christmas break, Zachary had to complete a “sequence project” for his Language Arts class. Essentially, he had to describe something with at least 10 steps. At first he wasn’t sure what to do his project on, but he finally decided to explain how to make his favorite meal (OK, so he spent THREE WEEKS “thinking” about the project before putting it together in three days!). For those of you who have seen me bring this in to work for lunch as leftovers and have asked me how to make it, here’s Zachary’s explanation.

How to make a Broccoli Calzone (A.K.A., broccoli bread)
By: Zachary Cook

If you are hungry, want something Italian, and don’t want pasta, then try making broccoli bread. Broccoli bread is a type of large calzone with broccoli, tomatoes, pepperoni, and a couple types of cheese. With this dinner, you can make four to five servings. You can even save it for another day for lunch or if you just don’t feel like cooking.

Step One: Gather all of the needed supplies.

First, you will need to gather all of the ingredients to make dinner. Some things you might have to go out and buy from the commissary, although you might already have some items on the list. The ingredients you might need to buy are:
-one loaf of frozen bread dough,
-four to six oz. of provolone cheese,
-a pack of pepperoni, or if you want healthier results, turkey pepperoni, (70% less fat),
-up to a pound of broccoli (you will need at least 10 oz.),
-eight oz. of mozzarella cheese,
-and two medium tomatoes

Step Two: Rising the bread.

Once you have the ingredients, you will need to preheat the oven to 200°F or about 100°C, turn it off when it reaches that temperature, put the bread dough in a pan, boil some water, then pour the water into another pan, and set them both in the oven so that the dough can rise. WARNING! If you don’t put the dough in the oven around noon, it will not rise enough in time for baking the calzone that night.

Step Three: Rolling the dough.

When you’re ready to begin cooking, pour some flour on the counter or a cookie sheet sized rolling board, get a rolling pin and flatten the dough. Next, roll out the dough to about the size of a cookie sheet.

Step Four: Preparing the fillings.

The next thing you will have to do is boil the broccoli. The broccoli takes the longest. While the broccoli is boiling, you should start cutting the pepperoni into quarters. You should cut the provolone into half-inch slices. Then dice the tomatoes.



{{Nana was helping Zachary, and she simply couldn’t let the extra tomato juice go to waste! Yes, this is a common sight when Nana is around tomatoes!}}

Step Five: Applying the fillings.

Once you have all of the ingredients ready, you will need to put them on the flattened dough, leaving an inch on all edges. Before you do this though, you will need to preheat the oven to 350°F or 175°C You will need to place the different fillings in a specific order in the middle of the dough. The order that you place them in from bottom to top is:

1. provolone cheese
2. pepperoni
3. broccoli
4. tomatoes
5. mozzarella

If you want to add other fillings, you may, but the cheeses must always stay first and last.

Step Six: Folding the dough.

When you fold up the dough, you must make sure that the edges overlap. First, you will need to fold the long edges over the toppings so that they overlap, almost like a flattish burrito. Once you do that, you will have to fold the empty ends of the “burrito” in toward the middle. *NOTE* Do not fold any parts that have fillings in them.

Step Seven: Flipping the calzone.

Once all of the previous steps are completed, you will need to get out a 10 by 15 inch cookie sheet, spray it with cooking spray, and place it upside down over the bread dough. Then, grab everything and flip it over. Now you should have a nice, smooth lump of uncooked broccoli bread.

Step Eight: Baking.

After the calzone is ready to go in the oven, cut three slanted one-inch holes in the top of the calzone. Make sure that the holes are at least one inch from each other. When the oven is at the temperature that you set it to, and the calzone is ready to bake, place it in the oven and let it bake for half an hour. After the half hour, take it out of the oven (with oven mitts).

Step Nine: Cutting the calzone.

Once the calzone is out of the oven, slice it into two- to three-inch slices and place onto plates to serve.

Step Ten: Eating the calzone.

Eat. Devour. Digest. Enjoy. Oh, and use a knife to cut your bites.

The End

Labels: Cooking, Nana and Papa, Zachary

Nana found a cool recipe to make “Pilgrim Hats,” and wanted to try it out with the kids while she was here. MacKenzie was very eager to help make the cookies, and stayed in the kitchen until the last one was done.

Benjamin was also very good at assembling the cookies, frosting, peanut butter cups and tic tacs.

Zachary obliged and made one, then quickly left the kitchen.

Doesn’t this look delicious? The orange tic tacs are the buckles on top of the hats. Very creative!

MacKenzie convinced me to allow them to finish off the frosting that didn’t get used in the cookies. What a mess.

Yup, MacKenzie used the four-finger method to get as much frosting as possible per bite.

Labels: Benjamin, Cooking, MacKenzie, Nana and Papa

I thought it was about time to give you all an update on how well the kids have been doing with their kitchen duties. Yup, Zachary and MacKenzie still regularly take the lead with supper. This weekend, Zachary made hamburgers (MacKenzie was in charge of adding the seasonings). I usually make pork & beans to go with burgers, but they chose two other vegetables instead. They even made blueberry muffins to go with the meal. Of course, it turned out very well, and no one left the table hungry.

After supper was over, they were in charge of unloading the dishwasher (from earlier in the day), and Benjamin had his own job as well -- putting away the silverware. It’s so nice to have help in the kitchen, even if it is mostly on the weekends when homework isn’t an issue.

Labels: Benjamin, Cooking, MacKenzie, Zachary

We’re on week one of a new experiment in the Cook household: everyone age 10 and older is responsible for cooking supper one night a week. Of course, while lenient with food selections I retain parent’s prerogative and can wield ultimate veto power. MacKenzie took a turn Monday night, and opted for chocolate-chip pancakes. I can agree to this sweet-but-good breakfast-for-supper on occasion, but won’t approve it every week.

MacKenzie made the batter (and Benjamin helped stir it), got the hang of pouring it into the pan, added chocolate-chips to the cooking pancakes (without being overly generous) and even flipped them better than me at times.

They turned out delicious, and MacKenzie was proud that she chose and cooked the evening’s meal.

Benjamin even joined in by setting the table. He’s been reluctant to do so at times, but he’s slowly making progress and helping at suppertime more often.

Thursday evening, I went out to dinner with some co-workers and two visiting Polish Public Affairs officers, so Zachary had the helm in the kitchen. His menu of choice: angel hair pasta with Ragu sauce. He had it cooked and on the table before I had to leave since I didn’t want to leave the house before he was done cooking. I kinda like this idea!

Labels: Benjamin, Cooking, MacKenzie

MacKenzie really enjoys the field trips she gets to go on with her Summer Camp program. They go just about everywhere from amusement parks and the bowling alley, to a skate park and a nursery. Wednesday, they went fishing.

I thought for sure she’d enjoy the fishing adventure, and she definitely did! When I picked her up at the end of the day, she insisted on showing me the fish that the group had caught. For some reason, I thought they’d do “catch and release” all day. Nope. There in the kitchen was a cooler chock-full of freshly-caught fish on ice. Next thing I knew, she was being handed a bag with two fish! Yes, she caught two fish, although they were all grouped together, so she didn’t necessarily bring home the two exact ones she caught. She explained how she needed help casting the line, but that it didn’t take her long to catch them. She also explained that she had to “hit them on the head” to kill them once they were caught, otherwise they’d squirm too much...and to put them "out of their misery" (even though fish can't feel pain). Definitely not a girly-girl trait there!

Fortunately, one of the counselors had already gutted the fish. I’m not sure what species they were -- perhaps rainbow trout. As the reality of what I was about to bring home sank in, the counselor asked me if I knew how to scale them. Um, no! (All I could think of was how Grandpa Walker would catch a slew of catfish from one of his water holes and bring them home for Granny to gut, prepare and fry -- and how she didn’t particularly relish doing so!) Thank heavens for internet Google searches to help educate me on these things!

When we returned home, fish in hand (actually, in the bag), and Zachary saw MacKenzie’s bounty, he ran to his room and hurried out with one of his Boy Scout knives -- with the fish-scaler apparatus out and ready to use. He readily agreed to scale the fish, which then piqued MacKenzie’s interest -- so he retrieved a second fish-scaler-equipped knife for her to use. They were soon outside on the front steps, scaling away.

Yes, this was the typical look on MacKenzie’s face as she scaled her fish. She and Zachary even swapped fish when they were done so they could check each other’s work. They both did great – so great that at this point in time I had still not touched either of the fish! However, I soon had to chop off the heads and fins to get them ready to cook.

Here are "Bob and Joey" battered and frying. I'm not sure why MacKenzie decided to name them, but she did. Fortunately, it didn't stop her from eating them.

Of note, I had actually managed to plan our meals so Zachary and MacKenzie could help empty our freezer before they depart for the states on Friday. Alas, these two fish threw a wrench in my menu-planning. So, I cooked pork tenderloin AND fresh fish for supper tonight. Surprisingly, she and Zachary opted for eating fish instead of tenderloin, which means I now have leftover tenderloin to last me over the weekend as I prepare for the movers to arrive on Monday. Yup, Bob and Joey are gone, and Zachary and MacKenzie enjoyed devouring them.

Labels: Cooking, MacKenzie, Zachary

A few nights ago, when I announced that we were having hamburgers for supper, all three kiddos rushed into the kitchen to help make the burgers. I was surprised, especially since I typically can only elicit that kind of response from them when we make pizza (they love snitching as we pile on the ingredients).

The intrigue with making hamburgers is that they can get their hands messy while squishing the ingredients together. They all took turns adding the various ingredients (and I carefully watched how much garlic was added this time) and rolling the concoction into patties before putting them in the oven. I think I need to find a few more recipes that will have them rushing to help in the kitchen!

And, yes, the burgers turned out great. We had a slightly different mix of seasonings, but it was still good and very palatable.

Labels: Benjamin, Cooking, MacKenzie, Zachary

Yes, my birthday was yesterday. I’m proud to say I’m another year older, although I certainly don’t feel as old as my birth certificate states I am! But, greeting my birthday each year certainly beats the alternative...so bring ’em on!
We were out and about yesterday, which meant the kids didn’t get to finish decorating my cake last night (we baked it, but it wasn’t cool enough to frost), so we opted for an alternate dessert yesterday until the kids could put the finishing touches on the cake tonight.

Since I have a fall birthday, we went with a Halloween-themed cake. MacKenzie was in charge of adding sprinkles, and if you look closely, cock your head sideways and squint your eyes, they actually spell out “Happy Birthday.” Benjamin was in charge of adding candy corns, although I think half of them made their way into his mouth. Zachary was in charge of the candles, and he found a creative way to represent my age without setting off the smoke alarm. What a wonderful group effort to produce a stupendous celebratory cake that easily rivals the best cakes in the world (no offense intended to my grandmother and Aunt Mildred, who used to make the best cakes in the world as a side business)!

Of course, we now have plenty of cake to last for a while...then comes the plethora of Halloween candy and Zachary’s birthday celebration followed by the overindulgence of Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. Can I just go ahead and slather a few extra pounds on me now and get it over with?

Labels: Benjamin, Birthdays, Cooking, MacKenzie, Zachary

You may recall that we live just minutes away from one of the world’s best chocolate factories (in my humble opinion). We’ve made several treks there for numerous fresh varieties of the delectable treats. Last month, MacKenzie’s Brownie troop made a special trip to the Ritter-Sport Chocolate Factory...to make their own chocolate!

The girls learned a little about how chocolate is made, then proceeded to make their own unique bars. They mixed their own chocolate, then chose from an assortment of mix-ins to personalize their creations. Some of the options included jellybeans, gummi bears, rice krispies, marshmallows, mini M&M’s, hazelnuts, and multi-colored nonpareil sprinkles. They were allowed to select up to three mix-ins each, and, as you can likely imagine, the combinations were rather unique!




While their chocolate bars set in the freezer, they made their own boxes to package their creations, and they were just as creative in that venue as well. When the chocolate was done setting, they enjoyed taking the bars out of the molds and snacking on the extra chocolate that overflowed.

As an added bonus, Zachary even got to tag along with the girls…but only because there was an extra spot that would have gone unfilled. He didn’t mind one bit, and enjoyed creating his “Sprinkled-marsh-smarties” variety of chocolate.



Here are the finished products. I love the chunks sticking out from the bottom of the chocolate bars! And, yes, both Zachary and MacKenzie managed to create that unique, extra-bumpy effect that you can’t readily find in a store.

Labels: Cooking, Germany, Girl Scouts, MacKenzie, Zachary