Here’s me at the Wine Restaurant!

I have a choice this morning. Either work on Hubby’s 2010 taxes or write about food.  Screw the taxes.

I’ve been thinking this week about how much I love food, but rarely write about the meals I love to eat.  So I decided to try to write more about the food I enjoy and maybe share a recipe or two.  I also thought it might help me to remember the yummy meals we had, especially for the days when I need some inspiration in the kitchen.  This may also be especially helpful when meal planning for Little T, as if he had it his way, he would eat pasta with bacon every lunch and dinner.

Let’s start with last Friday.  Hubby was vacationing away on business in South Africa for the week, and after an eleven hour flight back home, I thought a lighter meal would be a good choice and went with Eggplant fritters.  Here is closest recipe I found on the Internet that is similar to the one we use from “The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia”, except we substitute feta for the smoked mozzarella, and add 2 crushed garlic cloves to the egg, cheese, breadcrumb and parsley mixture.  We also serve it with plain yogurt that you can flavour with fried red chilies and cumin seeds with lime wedges on the side (we went with just the cumin seeds, which Hubby smashed up in a mortar and pestle).  I think this recipe can be halved and served as a meal for 2 people.

 http://www.grouprecipes.com/46562/crispy-eggplant-fritters-with-smoked-mozzarella.html

On Saturday night, Hubby baked a prime rib which he had reserved at our local Friday afternoon market the week before.  With it, he made mini salt potatoes (potatoes that you boil first, then sauté them after with, you guessed it, salt and butter) and roasted cauliflower. Normally cauliflower doesn’t get me excited, but it can be quite delicious with a nutty taste served this way.  Earlier that day we devoured a gooey, runny Époisses which is a cheese from Burgundy, France.  Wine was naturally sipped with all of this but I can’t remember what we drank. Maybe I should start writing that down too.

Sunday we drove to Schwerin and explored a really cool castle and grounds.  Unfortunately, it was a rather chilly day with a vicious wind, and I forgot to bring my hat.  So, we didn’t spend much time as we would have liked outside, but promised to return for another visit in warmer climate.  Before we set off, I had researched where we were going to have lunch (very important itinerary planning in this household) and found a Weinstube which is a type of restaurant in Germany that normally offers a great selection of wine and food.  Sometimes the food offering can be minimal, but this particular Weinstube had an amazing menu on-line.

Unfortunately, they stopped serving lunch 10 minutes before we arrived.

But, they recommended another Weinstube within walking distance called Weinrestaurant Uhle that luckily for us, was still serving lunch.  Dating back to 1751, it claims to be the oldest wine restaurant and shop in the city. We apparently missed the traditional period of lunch, as we were the only ones dining in the restaurant. But they accommodated us as if we were royal, playing nice soft jazz music and seating us in their grand restaurant even though the bar part was pretty much empty.  I ordered the fish platter that delightfully arrived with Grilled Baltic Sea turbot, salmon, pike perch, shrimp skewer, herbed butter, lemon, saffron foam, sesame spinach, cabbage and parsley potatoes.  Hubby had pheasant breast wrapped in serrano ham with champagne cabbage and thyme potatoes.  We switched meals half way through, as we normally do to take advantage of sampling something else.  To drink, we enjoyed Riesling, Germany’s star grape for white wine. I love having a larger lunch on Sundays, as it leaves the rest of the day to just relax or walk off all the calories!

Monday night we ate leftover tomato and tofu sauce with spaghetti. I originally made it for Little T the previous Thursday night, sneaking in green peppers, zucchini and tofu that I pureed with a hand mixer right before serving.  He ate 3 mouthfuls before looking down at the bowl and questioned what was in it.  “Just tomato sauce” I happily lied. Cooking for a 6 year old that has a rather picky palate but normal for his age, I try to sneak in healthy additions to the stuff he does like.  It wasn’t bad, but I have to admit the pureed tofu left a rather grainy texture. I would rather have the sauce with the Tofu in small pieces, similar to what you find in a bowl of Miso soup.  But, he ate it, and got his protein.

Wednesday night I returned home from a 90 minute body workout followed by sauna to find Hubby cooking shrimp, arugula and feta risotto.  We still had some goose stock in the freezer (thanks to Hubby’s brother-in-law who brought us a goose a few weeks earlier), and the shrimp came from the freezer too.  We love risottos. In fact, we make chicken stock with the main goal of enjoying a risotto a few days later.  But if we are fortunate enough to have room in our tiny freezer, having it on hand to make on demand is heaven.

And finally, for last night’s supper I picked up some Pollock from our local fish store which Hubby seasoned with flour and pan-fried in oil/butter and topped with capers that were heated up in the remaining pan juices with the addition of lemon and more butter.  Another recipe from our Italian Encyclopedia.  With it, he baked up a round zucchini that he sliced and doused with olive oil, salt and pepper with more salt potatoes.  Little T’s fish version was first drizzled with warmed goose fat, rolled in rice krispies, baked and served with a side of ketchup.

I just realized with all this food talking, I have gone on for almost two pages! Sorry to bore you with all this food talk. I promise not to go into so much detail next time.

Well, (ugh!) back to taxes.