2011 Eastern European Reading Challenge

Here's a way to expose yourself to new books and new writers and new cultures.

After a Motorcycle Ride

I took a walk, P took a ride.  This is what he saw.  Malibu Pier.

And this is what he ate when he got home.  Camembert with lingonberry jam on my homemade hemp seed bread.  

By the way, I think I fell in love with him after he made me a meal of fried Camembert with lingonberry sauce more than 20 years ago in an apartment over the Sunset Strip.  Hard to resist.

Palatschinken with blackberry jam

I could eat these every day for every meal.  Have I ever said that before?  Because I would never get sick of these.

Leftovers

Every culture has its dumpling.  The Austrian version is the Knödel and it's mostly bread with eggs and onions and parsley, all boiled together into either a ball or a sausage-shape.  For our recent winter goose meal, I baked the bread that became the Knödel.  But the next few dinners were what I really looked forward to: Knödel leftovers or geröstete Knödel mit Ei (fried dumpling with scrambled egg).  You can improvise a lot with this by adding savory fried onions and/or cranberry sauce or apple sauce.  Or cheese sprinkled on top.  Or bacon if you are the vegetarian-who-eats-bacon.  Since it's really the same ingredients as French toast, maybe try some maple syrup.  I bet that would be good.  But I chuckled when I was having dinner #2 of this delicacy (and I don't use that word lightly) at the fact that we were having bread that had first been baked, then boiled, and now fried.

Leftover Dinner #1

Leftover Dinner #2

Homesick and Hungry

Almost every year, P gets homesick and hungry for a good, winter, central European meal.  

The stuffing for the goose starts with onions and butter in sage.  Then he added carrots and walnuts.

Slow-cooked goose, red cabbage made the day before (it improves as it marinates), carrot-walnut stuffing, and Knödel with gravy (dumpling made from my homemade bread).

A's amazing pumpkin tart.  She baked a real pumpkin, none of that canned stuff for her.  The crust is graham cracker.  This had a gorgeous, caramel flavor.

A's Christmas cookies.  

A's red wine.

A Working Girl's Dessert

Trogir

I just remembered the Croatian town of Trogir.

(I did not take this picture.  I borrowed it.)

Shanavision

Shanavision is the blog my friend is keeping while she's on sabbatical in China with her husband and daughter.  She is a painter and a teacher and I've known her since college.  She's the only one of my friends who actually became the artist we all set out to be.
Here's one image from the beginning of her adventure.

Yellow

I have no idea how I happened to collect this yellow bunch.

Breakfast

My own toast with homemade apricot jam from Karin in Austria; if only you could always have homemade jam.  And by the way, toast and tea is the best meal ever.  Always.