German Night

My parents got me German Cooking Today for my birthday... it's apparently THE cookbook authority to have.  Anyone who's anyone (in Germany) has this sucker in their kitchen.  Except mine is in English (whew!) and has a lot of handy conversion charts for me (whew!)  So I planned out a whole German meal for "German Night" and then employed my whole family (basically) to help me cook it!  Dad and Steph were on baby duty and Bethany was my second pair of hands in the kitchen... until I needed Brother and Mom's hands, too! ;o)

Bethany and I learned all sorts of fun things... like how to blanch cabbage.  Even if we didn't do most of the things we *learned* exactly right!  (Because I didn't think ahead to research some stuff... so we mostly had a lot of fun and unpredictable guessing going on!)

Here you have us making spaetzle.  Very, very interesting dish.  They're basically little baby dumplings... noodles... things... that you drop by clumps into boiling water.  (You're supposed to grate them but we couldn't get the dough through the grater we had so we improvised and just dropped them in small chunks into the water!)  When they're cooked, they float to the top.  Then you rinse 'em, saute 'em, and eat 'em!  (With butter and browned onions, according to the cookbook... or with a sauce.)

Time to pan-fry some potato-crusted cod!  Shred potato, mix with egg, "bread" the fish, and fry away!  Mmmmm.

Prepping our stuffed, baked apfels.  (Aka apples with butter, sugar, vanilla, raisins, and almonds!)

Mustard mousseline.  I was really proud of the fact that I (along with my extra set of arms: Bethany and Mom) whipped the cream for this sauce BY HAND... something I've never tried.  Okay, so I could have done it in 2.5 seconds with a mixer, but I didn't want to dirty more dishes AND I wanted to see if I could be authentic and do it *myself* (but my arm got tired so... I guess I sort of failed anyway!)  :o)

Plating photo contest:  Top - Bethany, Bottom - Jesse.  Cast your vote now! ;o)

It was delicious.  Everyone agreed that the potato-crusted cod was a little bland... and a bit fishy for some in the family.  BUT with the sauce and a squeeze of lemon it was great!  Also, the mix of flavors between the tangy, creamy cabbage and the mustard sauce was lovely.  The spaetzle was fun because it was the most foreign thing to us all... though it doesn't have much flavor on it's own. 

My Sammy Doll-Baby is getting interested in food already!  Jury's still out on how she feels about lemons, though! ;o) 

Lily liked the food.  Also, let it be known that my candid shots are going to become more difficult... as Little Miss Cheesy-Grin is starting to... grin... cheesily!

Dad, the hero of the night, cleaned up the aftermath while the apples finished baking and we got the girls in bed.

Then we all enjoyed THESE beauties!  Mmmmmmm.

And that is all, my friends! ;o)