stuffed Zucchini

                          stuffed Zucchini

 Stuffed Zucchini  are a nice change every once in a while. Easy to prepare and then
just put in the oven. No-sweat-dinner. I like those dinners.

This is what you need:

- 2 Zucchini, cut in half

- 1 small onion, diced

-  1/2 lbs ground meat 

- 1 1/2 TBSP Tomato 

- Paprika, salt and Pepper, marjoram 

For the sauce you need:

- 1/2 can Tomato Paste

- 1 cup Broth

- 1 TBSP Flour

- 1 TBSP Butter

- Salt and Pepper

This is how you do it:

Cut the Zucchini in half and steam it for 3 min., remove with a spoon some of the flesh inside after it cooled down a bit. Place the halves it in a Casserole. Cut the Zucchini flesh and the onion and saute it in a pan with some olive oil. Now add the meat and cook it until its brown and season it with Paprika, salt and Pepper and marjoram. Spoon the filling into the Zucchini and top it with some cheese. In a 350 degree oven, bake it for 15 min.. You can also make the meat raw with some egg and breadcrumbs and add it to the zucchini. 

In the meantime, you can make the Sauce. Melt the Butter in a pot and add the flour. Cook it for like 1 min.. Then add the Tomato Paste and the broth and stir well to combine. Once it starts bubbling up, it gets thicker. If it's to thick for you, add more broth. Season with salt and Pepper and serve it with the Zucchini or stuffed Bell peppers (thats where I also have the sauce recipe in) 

You can serve it with rice, mashed potatoes or pasta. 

Guten Appetit

Lamp chops

                             Lamb chops

I found another recipe for Lamb chops. I had a Lamb rack and didn't really know what to do with
it. 

So I cut it into pieces and had some nice Lamb chops. This time I made them on my electric grill.
You might just use a big frying pan. After making this I was like: wow. I love you. LoL.


This is what you need:

- Lamb rack to cut into slices or Lamb chops

- Salt and Pepper

- 1 stack of fresh Rosemary

- 2 Garlic gloves, smashed

- Butter or Ghee 


This is how you do it:

Heat the electric grill or the pan nice and hot. Salt and Pepper the meat from all sides. 
Melt the Butter and add the Rosemary stack and the garlic and let the butter infuse it a bit.
Watch out that you don't burn it. Move it around a lot.

Now place the meat in and sear it from all sides for around 2 min on each side. (I do the same with 
my Beef Steaks btw. amazing) 

I like to serve the drippings as a little sauce and the Garlic with it. My husband isn't to crazy about 
it. Good, more for me ha ha ha. 

Guten Appetit 

Pho - 30 min soup for the quick appetite

                                  Pho

This viatnamese soup is very popular, and, good. But not everyone has a good viatnamese
Restaurant around the corner. Or, the 10 hrs to cook the broth.
I found in one of those thousand recipes a really good and fast one. To satisfy your appetite.
The other ingredients like the Thai Basil, however, is another story. I used regular Basil what is
not the same, but out of desperation. I just couldn't get in my sleepy little town some Thai Basil.

The other ingredients are thin sliced beef (what cooks in the hot broth as soon as it touches
the plate). Soy beans, green onions, Pepperoni (whom likes), rice noodles and lime. Here I am just going to write the recipe for the Broth. The rest is not really something you can do home style.
Just buy it lol.


This is what you need:

- 1 TBSP black peppercorn

- 1 TBSP Coriander seed

- 4 Star anise

- 4 x 2-3 inches spring onion

- 2 inch piece fresh and sliced Ginger

- 4 Cups hot water

- 8 Cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you are vegetarian)

- 1/4 cup Fish sauce


This is how you do it:

In a hot large soup pot put in the black peppercorn, Coriander Seed and the star anise and cook it for 2 min.. Then add the sliced Ginger and green onion and cook it for another 2 min. (no oil, no nothing).

Now add the 4 cups hot water and the 8 cups chicken broth and simmer covered for 5 min.. Remove all the solids with a colander and add the Fish sauce. Simmer covered for another 3 min..

Done. 

Told ya, it was quick and easy. And tastes almost as good as from a Restaurant. 

Guten Appetit

German Cheesecake

                     German Cheesecake

I can't believe I have NOT posted a recipe yet from the german cheesecake. Oh boy, I will do now.
It's impossible to keep you guys from this. I mean, it's one of Germany's most popular cakes.
The big difference between an american and a german cheesecake is --- the cheese. Yes, americans use cream cheese. We use Quark. I assume that you don't know what that is. I explained it and how
to make quark in the "Buttermilk" recipe. If you don't want to make Quark for the cheesecake,
a full and plain greek yogurt is a wonderful substitute. But make sure its plain and has at least
10% fat. 


This is what you need:

For the dough:

- 100 gr Sugar

- 200 gr softened unsalted Butter

- 300 gr Flour

- 1 Egg


For the Filling you need:

- 1000 gr (1kg) plain full greek Yogurt or Quark 

- 100 gr Sugar

- 6 Eggs

- 1 pack of Vanilla pudding to cook (or 49 gr Corn starch and 1 TSP Vanilla Extract)

- Lemon Extract or the zest of 1 lemon

- 12 inch spring Form 


This is how you do it:

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees. In a bowl add the sugar, butter, flour and egg for the dough and kneed it with your hands until you have a smooth dough. Put it in the fridge to rest.

In the meantime, you make the filling. In a big mixing bowl add the sugar, eggs and the vanilla pudding (or mix corn starch with Vanilla extract) and mix it well with either a hand blender or
the Kitchen aid. Now add the greek yogurt and the around 1/3- 1/2 TSP Lemon extract and again,
mix it well until you get a smooth but liquidy filling.

Spray or brush the spring form well with oil/butter. Take just enough of the dough to cover the
bottom, pushing it down with your fingers. It should be around 1/4 inch. The rest of the dough,
put in clinch wrap and freeze. You can use it for another batch. Now add the filling in the 
Spring form. 

Place the cake on a baking sheet and in the preheated oven for 90 min.. When it's done, do not
remove the cake from the oven. When you see the top to be a golden color to light brown, it's
done. Turn the oven off and either, leave the door closed with the cake inside or, if your oven is cooling slower, open the door just far enough to put a wooden cooking spoon in. My oven is cooling 
pretty fast. Sometimes I put the spoon in and it's cooling even faster, making the cake fall back into
itself. The cheesecake doesn't like sudden temperature changes. It will fall into itself. It's still going
to be really good though so don't worry

Guten Appetit

Mousse au Chocolat

                      Mousse au Chocolat

This is a classic french dessert. But it is very popular in Germany. I tried it for the first time to 
make it by myself and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I tried the white chocolate 
version but you can also use dark chocolate with no issue. 

This is what you need:

- 150 gr. of white (or dark) chocolate drops

- 3 medium sized eggs

- 1 pinch salt

- 3 pieces of Gelantine (or a half bag of powder) 

- 40 gr Sugar

- 14 gr. Vanilla Sugar (or just add 14 more gr sugar and add 1/2 TSP Vanilla Extract)

- 2 TBSP Rum (or 1/2 TSP Rum Extract)

- 200 ml Heavy Whipping cream

- Cinnamon (for the white version) optional

This is how you do it:

If you have Gelantine letters, soak them for 10 min in cold water. If you have the powder Gelantine, do as the package says) 

Melt the chocolate in a hot water bath. Simply add the chocolate drops in a metal bowl and place this bowl in a bit bigger pot full with hot water. So the Chocolate can melt slowly. 

Seperate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Whisk the egg yolks with the Sugar and the  Vanilla Sugar until its smooth and color changes to a light yellow. 

Now add the melted chocolate and the Rum to the egg mixture (Rum only in the white chocolate version). Mix it well.

Melt the Gelantine in a small pot on low heat. Then add it to the chocolate mixture and mix well. 

In 2 seperate bowls, whisk the egg white with the pinch of salt until stiff peaks. Whisk the heavy cream until you have whipping cream.

Slowly add the whipping cream into the chocolate mixture. Do it in 2 patches. Repeat the same with the stiff egg white. Be careful not to over whisk this. You want the air bubbles.

Fill the mixture in a bowl and place it in the fridge for a min. of 3 hrs.. There it will set. Don't peak, I know its hard. 

To serve, take 1 or 2 TBSP and form little boats. Enjoy

Guten Appetit

Pork Tenderloin with Pepper cream sauce

                Schweinelende in Pfeffersauce
               Pork Tenderloin in Pepper sauce

Pork Tenderloin is a very good, lean and expensive piece of meat. But people are scared to make
it because they don't know how. In the united states I have seen people making it in a whole. But
actually you can cut them in nice 1 inch pieces and then its a lot faster and you can control how
you want to cook it. In Germany its very common to make a good and exclusive cream sauce with
the expensive meat. I used to love the Instant Maggie Fix for that but its very hard, almost 
impossible to get it here in the united States. So I googled, found 2 recipes I liked, wrote them together and while cooking I adjusted it with some of my herbs. This recipe I came up with and I must say, it is very similar to the Maggie Fix I love so much. Here we go....


This is what you need:

- 20 gr Butter

- 1 small Onion

- 1 TSP dried black and white Pepper corns

- If you find multi colored Pepper corns, go for it

- 6 TBSP White Wine

- 2 TBSP Cognac (Hennessy, Remy Martin)

- 200 ml beef broth

- 200 ml heavy cream

- 2 TBSP dark Balsamic Vinegar

- salt, Pepper

- 1/2 TSP Paprika

- 1/3 TSP ground Piment

- 1/2 TSP smoked Salt

- 1/2 - 1 TSP Vegeta

This is how you do it:

Finely dice the Onion. On low Temperature, melt the Butter and cook the Onions until they are translucent. Add the White Wine and the Cognac and let it reduce for a min.. Then add the Broth and half of the heavy cream and let it simmer for about 10 min.. 

Add the rest of the heavy whip and all the spices. If the sauce is to thin for you, make a slurry with
Water and Corn starch. You also may filter out the onions to get it like a real smooth sauce. In his picture here I didn't but I like it better when the onions are actually out. It's up to you how you prefer it. If you leave the onions in the sauce, you may add the crushed Pepper corns now. For this just put them in a Mortar and crush slightly. Not to fine. If you don't want the Onions in, you might want to filter them out before you add the Pepper corns. 

The Pork Tenderloin I just cut in 1 inch pieces, push them down slightly, salt and pepper them and pan fry them for a couple of min on each side to get them a nice sear. 

Usually we serve Croquettes with this dish and some Vegetables or Salad as a side. You will find the recipe for the Croquettes on my blog. 

Guten Appetit

Italian apple cake

                      Italian Apple Cake

Thanks to a friend in Italy, I got a hold of this delish apple cake. It is the best I have had so far. 
I am not a big fan of the german Yeast dough fruit cakes, including the apple cake. This one is nice 
and moist and has plenty of apple bits for every bite. 


This is what you need:

- 2 big or 3 small eggs

- 10-12 TBSP Sugar 

- 12 TBSP Oil

- 12 TBSP Milk

- 1 TSP Vanilla Extract

- 1 TSP Cinnamon 

- around 12-20 TBSP Flour (dough should be still sort of runny from the spoon)

- 7 gr Baking Powder

- 1 pinch of salt

- 2 apples, diced

- 1 Apple finely sliced

This is how you do it:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celcius)

Add the eggs and the sugar into a bowl and whisk it with the kitchen aid or the hand blender until it's nice and creamy and almost white in color. It also will double in volume (about 5-10 min).

Now add the Oil and the milk and stir it well. Add the Vanilla extract and the pinch of salt. Now take it out of the kitchen aid and fold the Flour and Baking Powder with a Spatula in 2 batches under the dough.

Fold in the Cinnamon and the 2 diced apples with the spatula. 

Lay on the bottom of your round baking sheet a layer of waxed paper. Cut off excesses. Do not butter the sides of the baking sheet. The dough needs to be able to rise up and not slip down. Add the dough into the baking sheet. Now layer in a nice pattern the remaining sliced apples.

Place the cake in the oven and bake for 40-45 min or until tooth pick comes out clean.

Let it cool completely before removing from the sheet and dusting it with powdered sugar.

Enjoy und Guten Appetit