Rohrbach’s brewery was one of those places. Rohrbach’s brews many an excellent ale and lager. They have tours of their brewery and many local restaurants serve their beer. What I really love about Rohrbach’s, though, is their food. They offer the typical bar fare, sure, but they also serve some great authentic German dishes. My favorite was always the potato pancakes. Lately, maybe it’s because of the arrival of the cooler weather and the natural tendency for the body to want more hearty food, I’ve really been craving those potato pancakes.  Last night I decided to tackle them myself and the results were, dare I say, even better than what I remember from my time as a Rochesterian.  I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of the preparation.  These are perfect served as a side dish or appetizer. I’m definitely going to be cooking up batches of these guys more often. Ah, nostalgia. I never realized how fattening you could be.

Potato Pancakes

2 large potatoes, grated and drained of as much excess liquid as possible

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons flour

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ cup canola oil

1)   Mix potatoes, egg, onion, flour and salt together

2)   In a large skillet or frying pan, heat canola oil  (medium-high heat)

3)   Drop large spoonfuls of potato mixture into hot oil. Fry about 4 minutes on each side (or until crispy and brown)

4)   Drain pancakes on paper towel before serving.

Serve hot, topped with sour cream, chopped green onions and applesauce.

German style potato pancakes

Until last week, I thought that it must be very difficult to prepare, otherwise why hadn’t I ever had it anywhere else but in fancy restaurants? Thanks to my new best friend, How to Cook Everything, I discovered that mousse is not really that difficult to make at all! This, my friends, was a revelation. Why had nobody told me this before? All these years, I would wait months; possibly even longer between upscale restaurant trips to get my hands on more of that delicious substance, when I could have been eating it whenever my heart desired? It’s a crime against humanity, I tell you.

Anyway, I tackled my first mousse a couple of days ago and it was a success! As my mousse chilled in the refrigerator, I kept my fingers crossed that it would turn out to be just as delicious as the restaurant stuff because it could end up saving me some pennies in the long run! My boyfriend and my sister were the grateful recipients of the results of that first attempt and after we had each devoured a glassful of the stuff, topped off by homemade whipped cream, everyone agreed that it was just as delicious as any they’d had before. I’m so excited that I can whip up a batch of this whenever I please now, even though I’m sure my thighs will hate me for it later.

Chocolate Mousse

1) Using a small saucepan over low heat, melt 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter with 3-4 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate (depending on how chocolatey you want it). Watch the mixture carefully, because you’ll need to remove it from the heat just before the chocolate finishes melting. After removing from heat, stir until smooth with a wooden spoon.

2)Transfer chocolate to a medium sized mixing bowl and whisk in three egg yolks. Just the yolks! You’ll need to separate the eggs. Refrigerate.

3) Beat the three egg whites you’ve separated out with about an 1/8 cup of sugar until they form stiff peaks. This may take a while. Be patient.

4) Beat 1/2 cup of cream with an 1/8 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract until it forms soft peaks.

5) Stir some of the whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then using a spatula, fold in the rest of the whites gently. Next, fold in the cream and refrigerate until chilled. It will probably take a couple of hours for the mousse to set properly.

That’s it! You’re done! Much easier than you thought, right?

simply delicious.

Last night I went with a simple, classic chopped antipasti and it totally hit the spot. The key, I think, to a really great salad is to not overdress it~ let the ingredients speak for themselves. I used romaine lettuce, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, red onion, hard salami and provolone cheese. My dressing was a lemon squeezed over the whole salad, a drizzling of olive oil, a sprinkling of garlic powder and a few grinds of pepper. Not to toot my own horn or anything but it was mighty delicious. My boyfriend dubbed me “hands down the best salad maker ever” when he tasted it.  That’s no five star rating from Frank Bruni or anything, but I’ll take it.

After a mild, rainy June and July the heat and humidity of August was unexpected, to say the least. It’s been a sort of shock to the system, sapping me of all my energy and making air-conditioned movie theaters almost irresistible.  Needless to say, I haven’t been running the stove or oven much this past week, but I’ve still been able to whip up some mighty tasty dinners.

Yesterday, as an excuse to get out of the hot apartment and into an air-conditioned car, my boyfriend and I decided to head to Adam’s Fairacre Farms, a farmer’s market turned semi-gourmet grocery store in nearby Newburgh. Since moving to the Hudson Valley Adam’s has been my best discovery.  The store has reasonably priced, really fresh local produce, an amazing bakery and a wide array of cheeses to name just a few of the draws.  As a foodie, it takes a lot of effort for me to walk out of that store with just a couple bags of produce. I’m always really proud of myself when I’m able to bypass all those delicious looking Danish and crusty breads and creamy cheeses. I could easily spend hundreds of dollars in that place.

We ended up purchasing blueberries, peaches and bananas with which we planned to make smoothies, as well some tomatoes and a loaf of pan rustica. As soon as I saw that bread I formulated a dinner plan involving bruschetta which I thought would be the perfect way to use the rest of the fresh basil I had sitting in my fridge. That’s often how it works with me. I see something delicious looking and plan an entire meal around one ingredient.  Some of my best meals have come together that way.

It ended up being the perfect end to a hut summer day. By the time we got home, the sun was going down and the day was starting to cool off a bit. I whipped up my bruschetta, pan-fried my pan rustica with a generous amount of olive oil and garlic and we queued up The Wackness on Netflix. As we sat watching a perfect summertime movie, munching toasty bread and bruschetta and sipping fruit smoothies, I decided I could get used to this kind of low-energy cooking.

Bruschetta My Way:

3 medium sized ripe tomatoes, diced

2 tablespoons red onion, diced

2 tablespoons fresh basil, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

Mix together, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, to taste. I prefer mine a bit acidic with vinegar, some people like more olive oil. Pile on a piece of crusty bread. I fried mine in about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and a clove of minced garlic. Garnish with freshly grated romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

a perfect summertime meal

While I haven’t been writing over the past couple of weeks I haven’t stopped cooking. In fact, being back on the farm allows me a tad more kitchen space and a garden full of fresh vegetables and herbs. What more could a girl ask? Plus, one of my girlfriends dragged me out to see Nora Ephron’s new film Julie & Julia. By the time the movie was over, I was enchanted by Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Julia Child and in the mood to cook (and write). So here we are.

The meal I cooked last night was simple, but delicious- whole wheat pasta (not homemade, unfortunately) topped off with my mom’s homemade tomato sauce to which I added sautéed garden-fresh zucchini and onions and sausage from the pigs my dad raises. As my family sat on our front porch sipping mint iced tea made from fresh mint we collected and eating that delicious meal, bathed in the light of an old oil lamp, I thought: there’s no place better than this.

More to come soon!

There are nine hundred some pages of recipes in this book, ranging from simple dishes like scrambled eggs to exotic things, that  I will probably never even attempt to make, like Salt Cod Mousse. The book is great not only because of the variety of dishes, but because Bittman writes in a way that is simple yet engaging. He actually makes you want to try making things you’d never considered making before by making them actually sound doable. The recipes are simplified as much as humanly possible, which I love, because my attention span is not great.

I feel like I can breath a little sigh of relief now because I will no longer have to gaze longingly at the racks and racks of cookbooks at bookstores thinking how much crucial information I must be missing out on with my own meager collection. With How to Cook Everything, I think I’ve got it pretty well covered now. Oh, and by the way, it’s worth the fifty bucks. Think of all the money you’ll save now that you only need to buy this one.

Blondies

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) In your microwave or over a stove top, melt a stick of butter. Now transfer it to a medium sized mixing bowl and briskly whisk in a cup of brown sugar until the sugar is all dissolved. Add 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and whisk some more. Now add a pinch of salt and…you know the drill. When everything is good and mixed, gradually add in a cup of flour. You’ll want to switch to a spoon since the flour should be stirred in gently.

So this is the base for your Blondies, but you can basically add anything to them. I happened to have butterscotch chips, chocolate chunks and walnuts in my cupboard, so I threw a handful of each in. You can put in dried fruit, coconut, swap the vanilla flavoring for another kind like almond….the possibilities are endless.

Once you’ve got your mixture all set to go, pour the batter into a well-greased 8 or 9 inch square pan and bake for about 25 minutes. You want them to be just set in the middle in order to achieve that gooey brownie like texture.

Curse you, evil temptress!