I had not heard of German meatloaf and when the recipe appeared in Cook's Corner from a respected and generous recipe 'offer er', one who seemed to get every recipe he sent in published, I thought it might be a really interesting loaf to try. If you like sauerkraut and my husband, who is German through and through, does. This is from Classic Corner, recipes from ten years ago repeated.
German Meatloaf
2 cups soft unseeded rye bread crumbs
16 ounces of well drained sauerkraut
2 eggs slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons ketchup or chili sauce
2 pounds ground beef (I used chuck)
Heat oven to 350
Line a 13x9 inch pan with foil, insert a rack
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the meat. Mix well. Add the meat and mix thoroughly, but lightly.
Pat into a thick flat loaf abut 10 inches long. Place on rack in prepared pan. Bake 75 minutes or until nicely browned. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. I did not bake it that long, but I have a convection oven which bakes quickly.
English Trifle
1 recipe Vanilla Pudding Sauce, cooled (recipe follows)
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
2 tablespoons red raspberry preserves
1 (10 inch) round sponge or white cake
¼ cup dark Puerto Rican rum, optional
¼ cup dry sherry
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
Fresh raspberries for garnish (use any fruit you like)
Carefully combine cooled Vanilla Pudding Sauce with 1 cup whipped cream. Coat the inside of a deep 10-inch glass bowl with raspberry preserves to within 1 inch of top. Slice cake horizontally into fourths. Place top slice, crust side up, in bottom of bowl, curving edges of cake upward. Combine rum and sherry; sprinkle about 2 tablespoons over cake slice. Spread 1/3 of chilled pudding mixture over cake. Sprinkle 1/3 of raspberries over pudding. Repeat procedure twice. Cover with remaining cake layer, crust side down. Sprinkle with remaining rum-sherry mixture. Place remaining whipped cream in pastry bag with fluted tip; pipe rosettes around edge of bowl and in center. Top with fresh raspberries. Chill at least 8 hours before serving.
Makes 12 servings.
Vanilla Pudding Sauce
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 (3 inch) piece vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, well beaten
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
In heavy saucepan, blend sugar, cornstarch and salt; add milk and vanilla bean; blend well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly; continue cooking 2 minutes. Stir small amount of hot mixture into beaten egg, return to pan and cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and remove vanilla bean; add butter and stir to blend. Chill thoroughly, covering top with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming.
When Andy and I were just married Battelle sent Andy to California to work on the Minute Man Rockets. We left for California right after the wedding reception and each week end we were there we did something special. We saw it, tasted it, and were pleased about everything in California except for the smog, which was vicious. One night we went to Lawry's for prime rib and I still remember it today with fondness. The meat was so delicious and so tender you could cut it with a fork. We kept eating and drinking and eating and drinking, but then the open freeway was ahead of us. Columbus had not seen the freeways yet and we faced six lanes of highway with crazy drivers while we were a bit tipsy. It was dangerous and foolish as I look back now, but it fades with the memory of Lawry's prime rib.(Lawrey's also sold packets of spaghetti sauce to grocery stores years ago and I loved that taste on pasta, but now those seem to have disappeared.)
Lawry's Prime Rib Roast
1 (4 rib) standing rib roast
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 bag (5 lb.) rock salt
Sprinkle fatty cap of roast with Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Spread rock salt evenly over bottom of heavy roasting pan; place wire roasting rack on top of salt. Place the roast on the rack, fatty side up. Make sure no salt actually touches the beef. Insert meat thermometer in thickest part of meat, making sure it does not touch a bone. Roast in preheated 350 degree F oven until thermometer registers 130 degrees F for rare, 140 degrees F for medium, or approximately 20 to 25 minutes per pound. Remove from oven and let stand 20 minutes before carving. Using a sharp carving knife, slice meat across the grain for serving. Discard rock salt.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Note: If desired, use an instant read thermometer and insert to test internal temperature periodically; do not leave this type of thermometer in roast.
Lawry's Whipped Cream Horseradish
1 cup whipping cream
¼ teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, well drained, or 4 tablespoons finely grated fresh horseradish root
Dash Tabasco sauce
Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in Lawry's Seasoned Salt, horseradish and Tabasco until well mixed.
Makes 6 servings.
What are you reading?
Nancy Drew taught me to read. I had never heard the word phonics until I went to Otterbein College. Back then we learned by seeing and memory and repetition, by rote. That method served me well and so I taught a mixture of the two. If one didn't work, certainly the other would help out. Once I caught wind of Nancy Drew's adventures, I never looked back. I was and am a reader. One time I told a reading teacher how I got started reading and her question was...are you still reading trash? Well, yes, I guess I am and I am enjoying every minute of it. Now I am reacquainted with James Patterson. I had read all the books that he wrote himself but I did not care for the ones with co-writers (which is rarely a good idea anyway, in my opinion.) But, never say never, so I met his other works on vacation and read three of his back novels and got Andy hooked as well.(I just finished Private. Could hardly put it down.) I also read The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore which grounded me after three books of killings and mayhem. The French Gardener is a slow quiet read that put me in mind of being young with a long hot summer day stretching endlessly. Those days seem to happen more rarely now.
Have you seen the book Monet's Table?It's the cooking journals of Claude Monet with wonderful pictures of his home and various scenes. His stuffed onions are pictured here and I have made his recipe except I used Georgia's vidalia onions. Pretty soon we can have these outdoor meals like Claude and I am sure he would be pleased with his recipe using our vidalia onions even though he was a cranky old sort.
Monet's Stuffed Onions
1 cup cooked roast pork, chicken or calves'liver
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 tablespoons dried mixed herbs
1/2 cup rated Gruyere cheese
1 hard boiled egg
Cut 1/2 inch slices off the tops of the onions. Blanch the onions, by putting them into boiling water to cover and cooking for 30 minutes. Drain and cool. Scoop out the center of each, leaving about a 1/2 inch wall. Combine the ground cooked meat with the chives, dried herbs, half the cheese. Mash the egg yolk and chop the white;combine them with the rest of the mixture and stuff the onions. Mound the mixture because it sinks a bit. Preheat oven to 350, place onions in a greased roasting pan and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until the cheese is lightly browned.
I found this Fougasse (Provencal Bread with Olives & Herbs) on the web site of The Hungry Mouse several months ago. She has step by step pictures of how to make this easy bread. Her recipe was adapted from Saveur magazine. I have made it and it is rustic and delicious.
1 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/3 cups water warm enough to wash your hands but not too hot to ruin the yeast
Mix together in the mixer to make sure the yeast is good.
Add 4 1/2 cups of flour to the above mix and use the dough hook to knead it for a few minutes.
Pick up the dough and round it off in your hands...it should not be sticky.
Put olive oil in a bowl and roll the dough to coat and let it rise for 1 1/2 hours.
While that is rising cut up your olives and herbs. You can use most anything.
1/2 cup kalamata olives, minced
1/4 cup green olives, minced
2 tbsp. parsley, minced
2 tbsp. thyme, minced
1 tbsp. rosemary, minced
You can use dried but I happened to have fresh. Also, she did not put any herbs actually in the dough, but I did, so I will let you know if I ruined it. (It is difficult to ruin bread, however.)
Kosher or sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper.
Put risen bread on board and divide it into five wedges.
Roll each wedge to 8" long 5" wide, or about so. It is a rustic bread, so let yourself go.
Make four or five decorative slits in each rolled out wedge.
Prepare 3 parchment lined jelly roll pans. (2 per pan, I should think.)
Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, herbs and olives. Be generous.
Cover again with greased plastic wrap for 30 minutes on the pans.
Bake 15 minutes or until golden at 500 degrees. Scrumptious. (This bread looks and tastes like it could be on Monet's table shown above.)
