neotoma

Heisser Kartoffelsalat -- Hot Potato Salad

Ingredients
8 medium potatoes, boiled in their jackets
8 slices bacon
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup vinegar
5 to 6 tablespoons sugar
salt and pepper to taste
spring of parsley or to taste

1. Peel and slice boiled potatoes while warm -- but do wait until they've stopped steaming.


2. Fry bacon in a skillet or deep pot over medium heat. You want it to get crispy, so it will take a while. Once the bacon is done, remove it to drain on a paper towel, but keep the hot grease.


3. Add the onion and celery to the bacon grease. Be careful adding them, as the grease can splatter if you just dump them in. Cook until the onion is clear.


4. Stir in flour, a little at a time so it dissolves into the oil. Then add water, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.


5. Add potatoes, or (if made in a skillet) pour over potatoes. Stir until potatoes are coated.


6. Serve hot, or if you prefer, cold.

It's really good, and even better if it's allowed a day to sit.

You can make it vegan by eliminating the bacon (or using a vegan substitute), cooking the onions and celery in your preferred oil, and using 2 tablespoons of hickory vinegar in place of 2 tablespoons of the white vinegar. I get hickory vinegar from Lindera Farms.

Sauerbraten -- Marinated Rump Roast

Start with 4 lbs of rump roast -- beef (or bison if you can get it)

For 4 pounds of meat you need the following, so you will need to adjust.

2 medium onions, sliced
1/2 lemon, sliced
1.5 cups red wine vinegar (can use cider or white)
2.5 cups water
12 whole cloves
6 bay leaves
8 whole pepper corns
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp powdered ginger

4 pounds rump roast
broken ginger snaps for gravy

1. In large bowl or crock, combine all ingredients except meat and crumbs. Add meat, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate about 36 hours, turning meat at least twice daily.


2. When ready to cook, remove meat and wipe dry. Brown in 2 tbsp hot fat. Add marinade (remove lemon slices). Cover and cook 2 hours (at 325F) or till tender. Remove meat.


3. For each cup of gravy: combine 3/4 cup strained marinade and 1/4 cup water; add 1/3 cup broken gingersnaps. Cook and stir a few minutes to thicken.

Serves 10.

Calville blanc d'hiver and Bramley's seedling baking apples, Spitzenburg eating apples (my favorite!!), apricot almond cookies, 3 mushroom swiss handpies, 2 Nigerian (ground beef, peas, corn, carrots, ginger, onion, garlic, spices) handpies, a vegan peanut butter brownie, a snickerdoodle cookie stack, and a chewy ginger cookie stack.

I went to the market with ellen_fremedon and the Vegan Knitter, because I'm currently not supposed to carry anything heavier than a gallon of milk (so, about 10 pounds) and can get tired easily. I have a basket with tote bag straps I got at MD Sheep and Wool two years ago that makes a good market basket if you're buying a moderate amount, so I brought that.

Because the dairy wasn't there this week, we also went to the local Whole Foods (half a block and up a stairway) so I could get a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk, 2 persimmons, a can of fancy tuna, a loaf of challah (low-fiber bread! yay!), and raclette cheese. This Whole Foods carries 2 different brands of milk in glass bottles from local dairies, but you can't order either brand for delivery -- very annoying.

I am going to make this rice-and-tuna casserole using the fancy tuna, raclette cheese, and the last tomatoes from my garden.

Also, I ordered a new set of paring knives from Kuhn Rikon since the hardware store doesn't carry them anymore -- they come with their own sheath, very useful if you're carrying one in your lunchbox to cut up fruit -- and Kuhn Rikon sells small raclette sets for under $40. It might be fun to get one for a dinner party and make raclette, now that I know you can get raclette cheese locally.

I made this pork tenderloin and chanterelle recipe, with three deviations. I used 2 onions, because the first one didn't look like it was enough, I used a splash of ramp vinegar (from Lindera Farms) because I never have wine in the house, and I made a smaller-than-normal batch of spätzle beforehand and dumped 2/3rds of it into the pan at the end so it would soak up the cream sauce.

It made enough for 5 meals -- dinner tonight and 4 lunches for the work week.

I reserved 1/3 of the spätzle batch and will try making a small batch of kässpätzle this weekend, assuming I can find a good Emmentaler-type cheese by then.

Made apple-rutabaga soup again finally. It's a nice cold-weather soup, chock full of root vegetables, and can easily be made vegetarian by using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

Here's the recipe again.

( Ingredients )

( Directions )

The tea savories were a big hit at wolfshark's stitch-'n'bitch, so here's the recipe:

( Ingredients )
( Instructions )

Note: Normally, Worcestershire sauce is made from anchovies, as well as vinegar, molasses, sugar, and onions -- if you wish the tea savories to be vegetarian, look for a vegetarian Worcestershire sauce.

From Eat Tea by Joanna Pruess with John Harney.

( Peach Crisp )
Ingredients
1 1/3 cup peaches, peeled and slices (about 3 peaches)
2 tsp lime or lemon juice
cinnamon
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped nuts
heavy cream or vanilla ice cream (optional)

( Directions )

What is the possible difference between "purple plums" and "plums"? I have a recipe that calls for both, and for the life of me I can't imagine what the difference is.

Gooey Butter Cake is a treat that comes from St. Louis. My paternal aunt makes it for most family gatherings, and my mom and I made it twice at my sister's when I was on vacation last week.

( Take 1 box cake mix, butter, 4 eggs, cream cheese, and a *pound* of powdered sugar )

It's sugary and gooey and quite wonderful.

Went down to Archives yesterday and had ochazuke at Teaism while waiting for twistedchick. I didn't scrap off enough of the wasabi, so it was eye-watering and nose-dissolving, but since I seem to be developing a cold, that's just as well. I really like ochazuke -- does anyone have a good recipe or a cookbook suggestion for it?

I lent twistedchick one of my books on kumihimo, the Catherine Martin one that I think it an excellent primer, and showed her the Maru Genji square braid. We'll see if I've infected her or not in a few weeks. I just wish I knew were to get good plastic embroidery floss bobbins, as I use those for tama when I do kumihimo.

Then we went next door to the Teaism tea shop and I bought one bag each of chai, Dragon Well, and Moroccan Mint. It'll be interesting to see how they turn out when brewed at home.

We rambled around Chinatown for a bit, and then went up to Dupont Circle. I found a jade bead to use as a toggle in the handbag project, and three stone rings that actually fit. One's sodalite and will likely be part of my Ravenclaw costume, and the other two are red jasper that are just a touch loose on my thumbs. I'm going to keep them for costume occasions and just be very careful with my hands when wearing them.

The last stop of the night was Olson's. I picked up Sewing for Dummies, because I really need a beginner's text -- I know various bits about sewing, but nothing that's a coherent whole --and two CDs of early music. If I'd seen a copy of The Barchester Chronicles in the bin, I'd have bought that as well -- I think there's an interest in my local circle in seeing that and squealing over younger Alan Rickman dressed as a Victorian cleric.

Then I came home and fell asleep.

Now I've got to work on my resume, because damned if I'm going to work at a place where the management is going crazy. I don't suppose any of you would like to look at my resume in a few days and give me advice to improve it?