German Dinner and RECIPES!

So, everyone knows that German food is delectable... but not as many people know that it's actually not as hard to make as you might otherwise imagine -- and you can have a truly German experience right here in Utah!

Tonight we ate Sauerbraten, Rotkohl, mashed potatoes and Mandelnhoernchens!!!

These are the recipes and tips:

Sauerbraten
1 large sirloin tip roast or any other good roast
1 - 1 3/4 c. chopped carrots
2 onions, thickly chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped in half
8 allspice berries
(the original recipe called for 14 juniper berries, 16 peppercorns, 6 cloves, 2 bay leaves too, but I didn't have any and omitted it. I added a dash of my own spices... nothing too fancy: garlic and the like)
2 T. salt 2 T. sugar
2 1/2 c. redwine vinegar (which we didn't have, so we mixed cherry pomegranate juice with white vinegar)
6 c. water

Mix the above ingredients and marinate the roast in this for at least 12 hours. Mine was closer to 20 by the time I got around to getting it cooked.

Remove the marinated roast and brown it in a stockpot. Remove and set aside on a dish. Strain off the marinade into a bowl, and put the carrots, onions, garlic and spices into the stockpot. Sautee them in butter and add 1 tsp of tomato paste. Then add back in the marinade (3/4ths of the marinade is what the recipe said, but we had a really large roast, so I put it all in). Hard boil for a few minutes and then simmer (should be a steady boil throughout. My simmer setting wasn't hot enough, so I put it back up on medium) for 2 1/2 hrs turning every half hour. The stockpot and juices should be small enough that the roast is still quite covered by the marinade.

After it's simmered for 2 1/2 or more hrs, remove the roast and slice it thinly in a casserole dish. Strain off the juice, and put the carrots, onions, and garlic in the casserole dish too (pick out the allspice berries and throw them away, and any other peppercorns). The remaining juice, put back in the stockpot. Bring to a low boil and add cornstarch and water to thicken it. Then add 3/4 c. sour cream. Whisk. It will end up being a thick, creamy, delectable gravy. Pour it over the meat and veggies in the casserole dish. Serve right away, or reheat in the oven at 200.

Rotkohl

Buy a large head of red cabbage. Cut in half, and thinly slice in strips. One HEAPING cup of cabbage is about 1 lb. (1 cup = 12 oz cabbage, so really heap the cup). Measure out how many pounds of shredded cabbage you have, and then proceed as follows:

1/4 c. vinegar (I split this half apple cider vinegar, half white) per pound
1 T. sugar per pound
2 tsp. salt per THREE pounds
(this is very important to note, otherwise you'll get a nasty, inedible cabbage)
bacon apples onions garlic
After your cabbage is shredded and measured, put it in a large pot on a medium high heat with oil covering the bottom (preferably bacon grease from cooking up 4 slices bacon which you'll add to it). Constantly stir it with wooden spoons, rotating the cabbage from the bottom to the top. This helps the cabbage retain its color -- sautee it on this med. high heat for about 10 minutes. Then add your vinegar, sugar, salt mixture, plus your chopped onions and apples, and the bacon pieces. I usually add 4 slices bacon, 2 apples and 2 onions to a 6 lb cabbage recipe.

Boil for about 10 minutes, and then transfer to a crock pot on high and leave it for about 3 hrs, checking on it occasionally. When the cabbage is soft enough to your liking, eat it. :)


Mandelnhoernchens!
These are German cookies made of marzipan and bent into horseshoe shapes with their tips dunked in chocolate. Scrum-diddly-umptious, if you love marzipan, which I do.

This recipe I got from the Confections of a Closet Master Baker blog, which you can google if you want more thorough instructions:

1 lb almond paste
4 oz granulated sugar (now, the only almond paste I could find was de Soto, a canned marzipan or 'almond baking paste' at Smiths, 5$ a pop for an 8 oz can. Needless to say, we won't be eating these all the time... they're a special treat. The cans already had sugar added, so I didn't add any more.)
3 egg whites
all purpose flour

simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water in the microwave until totally dissolved... about 1/2 c. worth)

Combine almond paste (sugar) and egg whites in a mixer (I did it with my hands and it was VERY VERY STICKY). Add enough flour to make it possible to roll it without it being completely stuck to your hands. Roll it out into a 15" long roll. Cut it in 12-13 pieces. Roll those into 4-5" long pieces, and roll them each through sliced almonds (make sure to crunch up the sliced almonds so their in smaller pieces and easier to coat the whole thing with). Once you've coated them, bend them into horse shoes, and let them dry for 3 hours. Then bake at 350 for 15 minutes. The minute you pull them out, put the simple syrup mixture on them. It sizzles and pops a bit on the pan, but it's all good. Then once they've cooled, dip their ends in chocolate. I should've used dark bark chocolate, but I just used semi sweet chocolate chips. These are pricey little cookies, but well worth savoring. It averaged out to be about 1$ per cookie.



Our little Amy is growing up so fast... I can hardly believe it.



She loves to paint, and is always keeping me on my toes.



I've taken a lot of cute videos of Esther, but sadly they won't load here.