First Day of School and Strawberry - Mascarpone Roulade - "Schultüten"

Today was the first day of school for our second youngest.

On their first day of school, German school children receive so-called “Schultüten” – big cardboard cones filled with sweets, fruits and small presents such as puzzles, coloring books, crayons etc. This is a tradition that dates back to the 19th century to Eastern Germany and, today, is popular across the country. In former days, the godparents would give these cones to their godchildren, today it is mostly the parents that craft or buy these cones, fill them and give them to their children on their first day of school.

So this morning our second youngest started school, carrying her cone with the unicorn design that she had previously chosen and her new school bag with the “forest/deer” design…every year, there are new designs for girls and boys and the kids just love their new schoolbags.

In order to celebrate her special day, she got to choose dessert too. And remembering Dorie´s Blueberry-Mascarpone Roulade that we made on July, Friday 13th, 2012 for the FFwD group, she asked that I “make that roulade but with strawberries, not blueberries”, and I gladly obliged using some late summer strawberries.

Dorie´s Roulade is equally delicious with strawberries as it is with blueberries, I think the kids liked it even better this way.

And I did add some mascarpone/whipped cream to the top of the roulade, decorated the outside with additional strawberry halves and served the remainder of the berries on the side!

This was a nice dessert for this special day!

Tuesdays with Dorie - Popovers

Today´s recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie group is Popovers.

I had never made popovers before, let alone tasted them. Not really that popular around here and considering that “Popover is an American version of Yorkshire pudding “, that does not really come as a surprise. But Popovers are easy to make. For the dough, all you have to do is mix five ingredients together, namely milk, eggs, butter, flour and salt. Then you have to butter either a Popover pan (which I do not own) or bowl or even cups or mugs (which I used), bake in the oven and wait for them to pop over the rim. That is it!

They are quite fun to make and can be enjoyed at breakfast or tea time with butter and jam or at lunch or dinner time to mop up some wonderful sauce.

They have a wonderful appeal to them because of their puffed tops and their crusty outsides and soft insides. Let us not forget their taste, to me they can be considered comfort food, they are similar in taste to the Yorkshire pudding that I ate a few times, sans the roastbeef drippings.

Today´s gracious hosts are my seriously talented blogger friend Paula from Vintage Kitchen Notes and Amy of Bake with Amy.

The contributing baker is Marion Cunningham.

To see how the other members of the Tuesdays with Dorie group prepared the Popovers, please click here.

Let's call Yorkshire pudding

A fortunate blunder:

It's a sort of popover

That turned and popped under.

(Ogden Nash)

Dille & Kamille, Middleburg, The Netherlands

At the Dille & Kamille shops located across the Netherlands and Belgium , you can find a wide selection of things that you might need for your kitchen, garden, bath or young children.

The assortment ranges from bakeware, home canning supplies, cake decorating, assortment of glassware and serving pieces to childrens' toys, craft supplies, gardening equipment, food stuff, cleaning items and things for the bath and body.

The stores carry a wide range of porcelain serving ware, butter dishes and bowls of different sizes...

...glassware and bistro-style dishes. I particularly like the off-white French inspired dinnerware with a blue or red rim that is part of the current collection and perfect on any table, for breakfast, lunch or dinner or just about anytime.

Then there is the huge selection of wooden boards and bowls and the enamel dinnerware, also off-white with a light green rim. A great choice for taking along on a picnic, to the beach or, perhaps, arranging a country-style table setting.

There are muffin and cupcake supplies, including liners of different colors and sizes. Pepper mills of many colors. Wooden cookie molds that are in particular demand around Christmas time to bake those wonderful speculoos cookies that everybody is raving about.

And, of course, scales - maybe a good idea to get one so that you do not have to recalculate the recipes with metric measurements.

Basics and gadgets for yourself or as gifts for the special people in your life. Love the sieves, colanders and salt shakers and in particular the old-fashioned hand-held whisk with a crank.

You cannot overlook the wonderful selection of childrens´ wooden toys,  all natural wood or cotton and safe colors. You are sure to find a lot of things that will make the small people in your life more than happy.

Which aspiring knight can resist those wooden swords or shields and which chef in training would not want these wooden stoves with tiny colorful pots and pans.

There is cotton tea towels and tablecloths of different sizes that are sure to match the dinnerware that the stores carry or make a wonderful addition to your collection.

You can also buy handmade soaps, natural cosmetic and bath products.

Then there the cookbooks, tea, coffee, chocolate, jams, jellies and preserves.

The emphasis at the stores is always on natural materials, especially wood (rooling pins, spoons, speculoos molds, carving boards, shovels and much more, and, in particular, childrens'  toys) or metal (spoons, whisks, racks, moulds, pans).

Dille & Kamille ( "Dill & Chamomile"), are stores in various locations in the Netherlands and in Belgium. And they ship only to these two countries (EShop). The website is designed beautifully and published in Dutch and French.

Please note that the above pictures were taken last week at the Dille & Kamille store in the utterly beautiful City of Middelburg (the capital of the Province of Zeeland) in The Netherlands.

A big "Hartelijk dank" - "Thank You" to the very friendly manager of that store who patiently endured one long photo session in his terrific store!


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Stores in the Netherlands ("Winkels"):
Amersfoort, Arnhem, Breda, Delft, Den Haag, Deventer, Haarlem, Hilversum, Leiden, Middelburg, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Zwolle


Stores in Belgium ("Magasins"):
Aalst, Antwerpen, Brugge, Brussel, Gent, Kortrijk, Roeselare, Turnhout

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Website: http://dille-kamille.nl/start/
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French Fridays with Dorie - Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad

This week´s recipe for the French Friday`s with Dorie group is Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad (“carottes râpées”).

The recipe is nice and simple, with only a few ingredients required. Apart from fresh carrots, of course, the recipe calls for a dressing made of Dijon mustard, honey, cider vinegar, oil, pepper, salt and optional chopped parsley, walnuts and raisins.

I have been making grated carrot salad for years, on a weekly basis, and it is our favorite “raw vegetable” salad. Today I decided to prepare the carrot  salad as a side dish to grilled pork tenderloin with  homemade zucchini chutney and oven-roasted potatoes.

The recipe for the zucchini chutney was developed by one of my favorite cooks, I saw it featured on his cooking show on Wednesday and tried it for the first time today. Wonderful. The carrot salad was a nice side dish to the other dishes and the different tastes harmonized well together. I made sure to use the same apple cider vinegar for the salad and the chutney and used a neutral salad oil (sunflower) - so no one taste overpowered the other.

In summary, Dorie´s Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad is simple, refreshing, healthy and delicious, not only for a hot summer day. It is great picnic fare as well as a wonderful side dish and a winner at our house.



Zucchini Chutney
(recipe translated by yours truly from a German recipe)

Ingredients

300 g zucchini (use a medium sized zucchini, or use more and double or triple the recipe)
1 tbsp ground fennel seeds
2 shallots
1 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 small bunch Italian parsley
fine sea salt
freshly ground pepper (to taste)


Preparation

1. wash the zucchini, cut ends off and slice thinly (using a mandolin makes it easy)
2. using a pestle and mortar, grind the fennel seeds
3. peel the shallots, mince finely
4. to a medium sized heavy saucepan (depending on the quantity of zucchini you chose to use), add the olive oil, heat on medium
5. add the zucchini, fennel, sugar and vinegar
6. bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, then simmer uncovered, stirring every once in a while, over medium heat for about 25 minutes or until the zucchini have “broken down” and the chutney has reached the consistency of your choice
7. in the meantime, wash the parsley, dry and mince relatively finely
8. add the parsley to the chutney, cook for additional 3 minutes
9. add salt and pepper to taste



To see how the other Doristas prepared the Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad, please click here.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum 100. Geburtstag, Julia! Happy 100th Birthday, Julia!

"Dear Julia,


before we start the celebration on your special day today, let me tell you that although we have never met in person or had our picture taken together and although I was never lucky enough to attend any of your cooking shows or book signings, our paths have crossed in more than one way, and one aspect stands out in particular.



For two years of your wonderful and interesting life, you used to live in the same City that I grew-up in and live in again today with my family!



While I was reading the fabulous book „As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto” (published December, 1, 2010), I came across the following excerpt from the book, it is one of your letters to your friend Avis, dated October 27, 1954:

In 1954, you and your husband Paul moved to what was then the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, namely Bonn. You lived here for two years. In your letter, you talk about your time in Germany, your struggles with learning the German language and the apartment that you and Paul used to live in. You write that the apartment was located at “Steubenring 3, Apt. 5, Plittersdorfer Aue, Bad Godesberg, Germany”. It was located in an area of Bonn known then as the American sector, it was an apartment complex owned by the HICOG, the “High Commission for Occupied Germany”.

Well, let me tell you, I was quite delighed to see that the housing complex still exists and so does your former apartment.

1952

2012

I took my two youngest daughters to the housing complex, a mere 15 minute drive from our house. When you compare the photograph dated 1952 with the photograph I took today, you will hardly see any difference. Except, today, the people that live in these apartments work mostly for the United Nations. While, obviously, the names have changed on the name plates, the apartments still bear the same numbers - yours was number five, third floor, on the right.

After our little photo session in front of your former apartment, we decided to wander in your footsteps for a brief moment in time and it felt really special! Right around the corner from the apartment complex, there is now the so-called United Nations Campus, then there is the Bonn International School and, of course the Rhine River. In your letters, I read that you really enjoyed your walks along the riverbank. There also used to be an American supermarket and an American Club. And just a few steps away, there is the “Stimson Memorial Chapel”.

Built in 1952 and owned by the American Government until June, 20, 1999, when it was presented as a gift of the United States of America to the City of Bonn...

…by the President at the time, Bill Clinton.

Julia, looking at the house where you used to live in while you stayed in Germany for two years with your husband Paul, and walking through your former neighbourhood, I could not help but wonder about the places where you used to take your walks, do your groceries and how your kitchen used to look like, I guess it was another “very small German kitchen”.

Oh, let me mention one more thing that we share. I was born in August too, just like you, born under the sign of the Leo – now, let´s celebrate and have a slice of the birthday cake that I baked for you, a marzipan cake, shaped like a flower and proudly displayed right in front of your former apartment by two young fans of yours, my two youngest daughters! And although I took the liberty of baking one of my recipes, I am sure that you approve, a German recipe to celebrate your birthday and remember the time that you spent in this country.

Happy 100th Birthday, Julia! - Herzlichen Glückwunsch zu deinem heutigen 100.Geburtstag, Julia!"

Christel Lechner´s Ordinary People Installations Celebrate Everyday Moments - Alltagsmenschen

Detail from "Tischinszenierung - The big Feast"

Art in Public Space

For many years the German artist Christel Lechner has been working on a series of engaging sculptures entitled “Alltagsmenschen - Ordinary People”. The life-size concrete constructions depict normal people partaking in simple activities, from bathing and dancing, sipping a glass of wine and looking at the stars, to having a meal at a restaurant, or hanging out the laundry, to just sitting around at a bus stop or in the park. The statues have been installed as public art  in real world settings at various nondescript outdoor locations. Please see also my post of May 6th, 2012

Christel Lechner is a well-known artist who is based in Witten; she is quite skilled at capturing the unique essence of regular folks  that you might pass on the street. Some critics dismiss the art as irrelevant “kitsch”, but I find the work reflects our human experience, while still being insightful, funny and powerful.

The sculptures blend into their surroundings, they seem to have become an integral part of the Town´s life, such as the "The Big Feast" which was placed in front of a kitchen and interior design store, the "Hog" which was put up in front of a butcher´s shop or "The Sun Worshippers" who are bathing in the sunlight in front of a local Hotel called "Hotel Sonne".

Tischinszenierung - The big Feast

To some visitors Lechner’s statues “brilliantly convey the culture, nuanced aesthetics and idiosyncratic behavior” that one often encounters in Germany. Some of the sculptures even seem to bear a striking resemblance to some people we know.

Following are photos from a recent art installation Lechner created in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheda-Wiedenbrueck), a town located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, founded about 1088. While visiting, you can admire the town´s beautifully renovated half-timber houses or pay a vistit to Rheda Castle.

Fotogruppe - Taking a Picture

Sonnenanbeter – Sun Worshippers

Tischinszenierung – The big Feast

Hamburger Paar – A Couple from Hamburg

Himmelsgucker – Looking at the Stars

Nonnen – Nuns

Waschtag – Laundry Day

Endstation Sehnsucht – A Streetcar Named Desire

Peter mit Heidi & Clara – Peter with Heidi and Clara

Ariadne

Frau mit Hund – Woman with Dog

Bauarbeiter – Construction Workers

Schwein Eberhard und "Wiedenbrücker Original"– Hog Eberhard and "Wiedenbrücker Original"

Grosses Tanzpaar – Large Dancing Couple

Schützenverein – Hunter´s Association