Pumpkin Bumpkin

The fall is surely pumpkin time, one of our favorite flavors. Pumpkins have been American favorites for centuries, and connected with history and folklore through the ages. The Indians roasted strips of pumpkin for food. Colonists sliced off the top, removed the seeds and filled the center with milk, spices and honey which they baked in hot ashes; probably the beginning of pumpkin pie. Folklore is filled with pumpkins in stories and fairy tales. Cinderella rode to her dream-of-a-lifetime ball in a pumpkin-turned-coach. She just had to remember to be home by midnight (have you heard someone say they'll turn into a pumpkin if they don't go home early?).  Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater kept his wife in a pumpkin (not an appealing adobe). And, on Halloween, let's not forget The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Ichabod Crane disappearing after meeting the headless horseman, leaving behind his horse, his hat, and a pumpkin.

Today, I haven't heard any modern pumpkin stories, just good pumpkin recipes. And its a food you can enjoy for the taste and for the nutrition. The orange color of pumpkin is a sign of the rich antioxidant beta carotene, and Vitamin A. This nutrient may help reduce the risks of certain cancers and protect against heart disease as well as some degenerative aspects of aging. And, if you're worried about freckles or snakebite, Indian legends claim that pumpkins are good for curing both!

Most of the pumpkin supply is available in October and the fall is my favorite time for baking with pumpkin. I recently visited son Clint in Iowa and did a 'pumpkin weekend', making pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin pie.  Here's my recipe for pumpkin muffins, quick and easy, and extra good!

WHOLE WHEAT PUMPKIN APPLESAUCE MUFFINS

2 cups whole wheat flour (or blend)

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

⅓ cup white sugar

¼ cup canola oil

½ cup applesauce

½ cup canned pumpkin

⅓ cup buttermilk (or 1 tsp lemon juice + milk = ⅓ cup)

2 eggs, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl; set aside.

Beat eggs. Combine brown sugar, white sugar, oil, applesauce,, pumpkin, buttermilk, and eggs in a medium bowl. Mix until well blended. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in raisins and pecans, if desired (1/4 cup each)

Divide the batter evenly in 12 muffin tins. Bake 15 – 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack and remove from pan. 

another favorite, and quick-to-do recipe, is this one for pumpkin bars: I made this for church coffee time earlier in the fall. 

Pumpkin Spice Frosted Snack Bars

1 pkg. (2-layer size) spice cake mix

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

1 cup Miracle Whip dressing

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, beat cake mix, pumpkin, dressing and eggs in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Pour into greased 15x10x1-inch pan.

 Bake 20-22 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

 Frosting:  (or if you're in a hurry, use a can of ready-to-spread cream cheese frosting)

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 pkg (16 oz) powdered sugar (about 4 cups)

Beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gradually add sugar beating after each addition until well blended. Spread over cooled cake. Cut in to bars to serve. Store any leftover bars in tightly covered container in refrigerator. 

Crumbs from Germany

Crumbs - the tasty small bits broken from the whole. Thats what this blog is - bits and pieces of food pictures and trivia from our River Cruise through the Netherlands and Germany that didn't fit with the other blogs (Apple Strudel 10/12; Sweet Dishes 10/11; The German Table 10/10; German Beef Rolls 9/13; and Garnished! 9/9).

I'm not sure there are still 'traditional' German foods as food preferences everywhere are constantly evolving. Some regional dishes have blended to become national or international. Other cultures have added flavors. Lifestyles and health concerns changed preferences. But we still found unique food trends and deep held traditions in the 'street food' of Germany.

People in Germany, like in the U.S., buy much of their food on the street. Whether it is a local bakery, a sandwich shop, or a small grocery store - convenience, location and taste are important. The grocery stores we saw were much smaller than our supermarkets, but I'm sure there were larger markets farther away from the town centers where we were touring.

Pretzels always come to mind with German food - Pretzels, sausages and beer.

Pretzels are often served with mustard - we did a bit of shopping for things to bring home and bought German mustard (senf). Mustard, and many jams and other condiments, are sold in tubes. Just be sure you don't brush your teeth with it!

At lunch during a Frankfurt tour outing, we ate at a local restaurant, the food served was similar to a German ravioli. It is called "maultaschen", supposedly developed by monks in the 16th century who wanted to eat meat (and hide it from the Lord) during Lent, so they mixed the meat with spinach and herbs and hid the mixture in dough pockets.

 Many shops and stores have large signs to illustrate what they offer. Makes it much easier than trying to read German! This is a pretzel shop.....

Bakeries are on many streets, as everyone likes sweet treats. The Berliner is a popular German, and Dutch, jelly-filled donut. When President Kennedy visited Berlin in 1963 during the Cold War, he meant to express solidarity with the people of Berlin, but instead he said "I am a jelly donut".

Other sweet treats were Schneeballens - Snowballs. It seems every cuisine from the State Fair to fine French cooking has a favorite fried dough recipe. The Snowballs were strips of dough formed into a ball, deep fat fried and coated with powdered sugar.

We like to look at grocery stores when we travel, even if its Dillion's in Wichita! Just to see what other people might be buying for their foods. We always check out the meat counter. In Karlstadt we compared the milk products and meat . "fleisch" is meat, Hackfleisch is ground meat. 

In Nurnberg we saw representations of tradition and today. Saturday's activity filled the town square with street market stalls of fruits, vegetables, flowers and baked goods. The McDonalds (also know as the unofficial American Embassy) was right behind the street market. Guess where the tour group headed on a rainy morning! 

Sampling the food and learning about a country's culture through food are part of the fun of traveling. We sometimes find things we like and will adapt at home (German Meat Rolls) and some we won't try again (roasted duck). I'm sure our Taste of Germany was only a small sample of the foods German families enjoy, just as I hope travelers to the U.S. don't think that we eat hot dogs and popcorn all the time (although popcorn is one of my favorite foods!) 

Apple Strudel

Apples are a fall favorite in many countries and apple strudel is a favorite German dessert.  Strudel is a pastry with a filling rolled up in a very thinly stretched dough. The name "Strudel" means Whirlpool since the dough is rolled and the center of the pastry resembles a whirlpool. After the ship chef's demonstration of Apple Strudel and the delicious dessert at dinner that night, it was something I wanted to try. But I had memories of a long ago Extension lesson with much kneading, rolling and folding. Traditional strudel dough is made with high-gluten flour, water, and oil. Preparing the dough requires intense kneading to develop the gluten, followed by resting for the dough (and the baker!).  The dough becomes elastic enough to be stretched into a very thin sheet that is almost transparent.

Easier recipes, such as the one the ship chef used, substitute the traditional dough with a ready-made phyllo-dough or puff-pastry.  But the chef's demonstration still seemed difficult to follow:
His recipe, spoken with a heavy German accent, is: Apple 1 kg, Sauer cream 200 g, Hazelnut powder 100 g, Raisin 200 g, Cinamoon powder 50 g, Butter 1 pk, Sugar 350 g. It was made with philo dogh layers and baked at 180 C degrees for 20 minut.

But luckily Taste of Home has a similar recipe with American measurements and instructions. The bonus is that it is easier and quicker, as well as lower in calories that the traditional strudel recipes. This recipe uses phyllo dough. I discovered that the original recipe for Strudel was called 'phyllo', which means 'leaf', by the Greeks who first perfected strudel, thus named because it was so thin. So, using phyllo dough for your strudel may be going back to the beginnings of the custom.

APPLE STRUDEL
Ingredients:
1/3 cup raisins
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups coarsely chopped peeled apples
1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 sheets phyllo dough (14 inches x 9 inches)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons canola oil
Directions:
* In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the raisins, water and almond extract. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 1-1/2 minutes, let stand for 5 minutes. (this smells wonderful) Drain. Add the apples, 1/3 cup sugar, flour and cinnamon; toss to coat. Set aside.
* Place 1 sheet of phyllo dough on a work surface. Combine butter and oil; set aside 2 teaspoons. Lightly brush some of the remaining butter mixture over the phyllo dough. Keep remaining phyllo dough covered with plastic wrap and a damp towel to avoid drying out. Layer with 7 more sheets of phyllo, brushing each layer with some of the butter mixture. Spread apple mixture over phyllo to within 2 inches of one long side. Fold the short edges over filling. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting from the long side where the apple filling is 2 inches from the edge.
* Place seam side down on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. With sharp knife, cut diagonal slits into top of strudel. Brush with reserved butter mixture. Sprinkle with remaining (2 teas.) sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden.
If cut into 4 servings, this is only 205 calories per serving, but I thought it was large enough for 6 or 8 servings. That makes the calories so low you could even serve it with ice cream! 

"susse Speisen" - Sweet Dishes

At the end of a meal we often enjoy desserts, or sweet dishes. The desserts in Germany on our River Cruise were delightful! When we think of German desserts, stollen (yeast fruit bread), Lebkucken (gingerbread), Black Forest Cherry Cake, Apple Strudel, and rich cheesecakes probably come to mind. Those are all German favorites, as well as many lighter fares such as cream puddings, custards and fresh fruit. These are especially tasty after the heavier meals often served.

We learned of many special German food inventions and traditions. Did you know Gummi bears were invented in Germany? The ship chef demonstrated Apple Strudel on board, but that's a topic for the next blog! Here are some pictures of the German desserts we enjoyed on ship.

Lemon white wine cream with merenque and berries

Creme caramel and almond panna cotta with fresh fruits

Black forest cake, served in the glas

Melted choclate cake with almond panna cotta and fresh fruit

Creme brulee with fresh fruits

Apple crumble cake with Bourbon vanilla ice cream

Apricot dumpling on orange sauce and ice cream

Apple strudel with vanilla ice cream

Warm plum crumble cake with ice cream and cinnamon sauce

"Kaiser Schmarren" with marinated strawberries and ice cream

Baked Alaska

desserts served at Tea Time

Cream brulee with fresh fruits

The German Table

We've been back from our river cruise of the Rhine and Danube for almost 6 weeks now, the pictures are even in a scrapbook, and I keep thinking about the food. Maybe its because German cooking is similar to much of our American basic "meat and potatoes" meals. Many German main courses are based on beef, pork or veal, with frequent servings of fish also. A favorite is Schnitzel, which may be any type of cutlet (and we called it "chicken-fried steak"!). The Braten, or roast, is Germany's national dish. The flavors are similar to midwest favorites, not too spicy or hot, with thick sauces or gravies.

Most of the meals were served with several courses, starting with an appetizer, often a salad of some sort. This was followed by soup, usually cream of something. The joke on-board got to be that today's soup was cream-of-yesterday's-vegetable. By the end of the trip I was passing on the soup course.

This blog has a selection of pictures of the main courses we were served on the ship as we sailed through Germany.

Fried filet of Norwegean salmon with vegetable rice and grapefruit beurre blanc

Fried trout on warm German potato salad with sauce remoulade

Roasted pork tenderloin, homemade spaetzle, buttered broccoli and creamy chestnut mushroom sauce

Corn fed chicken breast with sweet potato mash, assorted vegetables and veal glace

German Wienerschnitzel; served with french fries

Whole marinated roastbeef, with green beans, stuffed potato and Marsala sauce

Roasted rack of lamb, ratatouille vegetables, wasabi puree and garlic jus

White fish picata with vegetables and tomato basil gnocchi

BBQ spareribs, sauteed corn and baked potato with sour cream

Argentinian beef tenderloin on broccoli mousse with pommes macaire, sauce choron and port wine glace (this was served under a silver domed cover)

Hungarian beef stew with bell pepper and herb rice

Even the airplane food was served in a unique way! notice the triangle plate and dishes that fit together on the serving tray.