Oatmeal with Coconut Milk

Guten Tag!  It's another gorgeous day in Vienna!  A perfect spring mix of cool and crisp air with warm sunshine to lift the spirit.  I'm looking forward to spending the afternoon outside absorbing some spirit-lifting Vitamin D.

As for this morning, I'm enjoying time on the couch with my Friends and a bowl of Indian spiced oats with coconut milk.  You should know this recipe -- it's super easy to make, but tastes like something special that you'd only eat on holidays.

Heat wave!

Well, no, we're not exactly having a heat wave.  Though we are warming to above freezing temperatures in Vienna!  The sun shined on Saturday and David and I just couldn't get enough of the thermal, golden rays.

Casted shadows and blue skies.  Take a deep breath and say it with me, people, "Ahhh..."

As we stretched our legs and inhaled the sun infused air we found ourselves heading down Kettenbrückengasse toward the Naschmarkt.  Without even comprehending what was happening, our hips shifted simultaneous and we found ourselves opening the door to Fruth, the neighborhood's heavenly French pastry and chocolate shop.  With the shop's famous chili hot chocolate mix in hand, we continued our lazy walk to Naschmarkt.

  The blood oranges being sold at every stall and this post inspired me to make these delights today:

 Blood Orange Muffins á la the boot!

How was your weekend?  I hope you had some vitamin D shining down on you as well.

Mexican Food in Austria!

You would think that our 3 week Mexican food binge (well, really Tex Mex) would have satisfied our bellies for at least a few weeks after coming home to Vienna.  What were we thinking?  We used to devour it 2-3 times a week when we lived in California.  Indulging in the good stuff only once a year is a shame.  A crime.  A violation.  An abomination, I say!

Even still, Mexican food is not easy to come by in Austria.  Sure, sure, there are a couple of restaurants in Vienna that we've tried out, but alas, it's nothing like getting a giant, juicy, two-hand-needed, aluminum wrapped, $4 burrito that you can find almost anywhere in North America. This being the case, we have to take matters into our own hands.  Yes, it's come to that.  If we want it bad enough, the mister and I must cook it for ourselves.

And cook we did!  Or bake.  Yeah, so I guess we baked it.  A Chicken Enchilada Casserole that is.

To our relief, the preparing and baking process didn't kill us.  In fact, we had a lot of fun making the dish together.  I can kind of, sort of understand how some of you like cooking.  Nevertheless, I'm still not totally sold on the culinary art.  David and I are good at many things.  Wicked good, actually.  But cooking's just not one of them.  And we're okay with that.

That being said, we'll make this recipe again.  Our bodies need it.

Here's the recipe we found on All Recipes.  We made a few changes because we can't find everything here that the recipe calls for.  Here's what we made:

Ingredients:
225g sour cream
8oz jar of salsa
20g sliced onion
1 can red kidney beans
5 flour tortillas, cut into strips
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cooked and cubbed
1/2 packet of Taco spice mix
225g chedder cheese shredded
For the roux:  1 Tbs butter, 1 Tbs all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup milk 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 175'C (350'F).
2. Cook chicken.  Adding Taco mix and a splash of water.
   
3. Prepare roux
   
4. In a large bowl, mix sour cream, salsa, roux, onion and beans
5. Layer the bottom of a 9x9 inch baking dish with 1/3 tortilla strips. Top with 1/3 chicken, 1/3 sour cream mixture and 1/3 cheddar cheese. Repeat layering with remaining ingredients.
6. Bake in the preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbly. Let stand about 10 minutes.  Devour! 

The Warmth of the Season in a Mug

My girlfriend Kajsa introduced me to this chai tea recipe when I was visiting her in Sweden four years ago.  It's quite tasty and it's a great start to the holiday season!

Kajsa's Chai Tea

4 dl water (a little less than 1 3/4 cups)

2 packets black tea

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1/2 ginger powder

4 whole cloves

3 dl milk (a little less than 1 1/3 cups)

Boil all ingredients except for milk.  Add the milk.  Let sit for 2 minutes.  Enjoy!

My girlfriend Vera introduced me to her homemade healthy tea.  We were sharing our home remedies for colds in class and Vera told us about her Kick-the-Cold tea.  We made it together last week.  As fate would have it, David was sick this weekend and he drank an entire pot of it.  He felt all better 24 hours later.  So, I guess it works! 

 Vera's Kick-the-Cold Tea

8 cups water

1 packet green tea

1 orange sliced

1 lemon sliced

1 inch sliced ginger

3 cinnamon sticks

honey

Combine all ingredients except for the honey.  Bring to a boil, then simmer.  The longer the tea simmers, the better.  Add a tablespoon of honey to an empty mug.  Ladle warm tea into the mug.  Stir, sip, and feel that nasty cold leave your body.

And these pictures are just for fun.  Isn't Vienna beautiful this time of year?!

Lazy weekend turns very exciting Monday!

Do you enjoy lazy weekends?  I love a good, lazy Saturday & Sunday.  David, on the other hand, prefers being busy and productive all seven days of the week, with the occasional Saturday or Sunday (never both) to pause and catch up on his reading.  This weekend, however, we stayed close to home the entire two days.  We acted like vegetables, laid like broccoli. 

In any event, this was a particularly good weekend to be at home.  While I could not care less about American football, there was a particularly interesting game being broadcast on Europe's ESPN America network.  Our undergraduate Alma Mater played their bitter rival, the University of Florida, in the Swamp.  The University of Tennessee lost, which is never any fun, but it was pretty cool for me and David to see the Vols on TV in Vienna. 

During the game, I started a new cross stitch project.

Saturday night, we made another tasty dish from Mollie Katzen's healthful vegetarian book, The New Moosewood Cookbook.  Her Broccoli Noodle Casserole is perfect for Vienna's chilly fall.

And Sunday, we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned,... 

... because we have two very special visitors arriving in Wien today!  My mom and sister land at 5:35pm tonight!  Ahhhhhhh!

When it's Hot

Summer

When it's hot
I take my shoes off
I take my shirt off
I take my pants off
I take my underwear off
I take my whole body off
and throw it in the river.

~Frank Asch

When it is hot enough to throw our whole bodies into the river. . .

we head to the Donauinsel. . .

and we eat strawberry and kiwi fruit pops. . .

and we lay like vegetables in front of this.

Allegedly, this weekend will be another hot one in Vienna.  So, I'll take my shoes off, my shirt off, my pants off, my underwear off, my whole body off, and I'll throw it in the river.  Or the pool.  We may meet a friend at this one.

I hope you all have a lovely, relaxing, and enjoyable summer weekend too!  

Fancy Lemonade

Is there one thing that best represents summer?  Could it be the smell of chlorine?  Slipping into flip-flops? Sandy beach towels?  Mindless reading?  Tandem bicycles?  Climbing into a car where the inside temperature has reached 120'F?

For me, it's fruit.  When I taste blueberries I'm reminded of my childhood summers in Stone Harbor, NJ.  When I bite into juicy peaches, I revisit my summer days on our back porch in Knoxville, TN (especially, when I eat my sister's Peach Pie!).  When I taste Rhubarb, I'm taken back to the summer I arrived in Sweden to study for a semester in Stockholm.  When I even see an Avocado, I'm transported back to grad school and the famous Farmers' Market in Davis, CA.  But. . . when I taste lemons, I don't know where I go.  I go somewhere special, though.  Somewhere I want to be all the time.  A place where lemons grow on trees and it's summer everyday of the year.  Oh, wait, there are such places!  California included!  You lucky devils you.  If I had a lemon tree, I'd be making homemade lemonade as often as lemons came available to me.

Alas, summer is but only a season in Vienna.  It's a nice season, though.  Not too hot, not too humid.  Just about manageable without A/C.  But definitely manageable if one has a cold glass of lemonade in their hand.  And that's just what I've got.  Except, my lemonade's a bit fancy for today.  

Strawberry Basil Lemonade

 

 
And what represents summer to you?  David says that to him, it's the smell of freshly cut grass.

       

The Food Edition

I'm still sticking with the declaration that I am a pathetic cook. Despite my inadequacy, I have prepared a few eats lately that are worth sharing here on the blog. Many of you readers are foodies, and so, this post is for you.

Peas & Feta on Toast
I found the recipe by Debbie Carlos here.

This is my adjusted recipe (I quadrupled what I found online):

• Butter
• 1 medium white onion
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 6 oz. crumbled schaftskäse (or Feta)
• Salt and pepper
• 4 pieces toast, toasted
• 4 eggs, fried

First, saute the onions in butter (or oil) until transparent and edges have browned. Then, add the vinegar and frozen peas and saute for another 3-4 minutes (or until they are a little mushy). In another pan, fry the four eggs in butter. Meanwhile, toast the bread. When it's all ready, spoon the pea mixture onto the toast. Then add the cheese and a fried egg on each piece. Salt and pepper to taste.

*My dad suggested adding bacon to the dish. If you're into that, I'd recommend frying the eggs in the bacon fat. My friend Will makes the best fried eggs this way! Guten Appetit!

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Dad's Potato Soup
This soup is one of my dad's specialties and my favorite dish of all time. He used to make it for me before important events growing up. The soup was superstitious and my good luck charm. He'd even come home early from work on game days so that I'd have a fresh bowl before important soccer matches. Now, whenever he visits, he always makes a giant pot to last us for days. I've never made it as well as he can, but regardless, I try because 1) I feel closer to him and to home when I make it, 2) David loves it too, and 3) it's something I can make anywhere in the world since the ingredients aren't hard to find. When I'm in the US, I make cornbread to go with the it. When cornmeal is scarce, I usually eat it with a baguette or, like this weekend, with Garlic Knots (see below).



There's no exact science to this recipe so adjust as necessary. . .

• Potatoes (5-6 large Russet potatoes)
• 1/2 large onion
• 1/2 stick butter
• Milk (no specific amount)
• 1 large scoop of sour cream (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1-2 stocks of celery or 1 can of Cream of Celery Soup
• Green onions, chopped
• Chedder cheese, shredded
• Bacon

Peel potatoes and cut into small pieces. Place potatoes, chopped onion, and celery (if using) in a large pot. Add enough water to just cover the potatoes. Add salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes can be easily mashed with a fork. Remove from heat and carefully mash potatoes in broth. Add butter, sour cream (if using), milk (no desired amount, but enough to think the mixture to desired consistency -- usually enough when mixture turns to a more whitish color). If cream of celery soup is used, more milk should be added to the mixture because it tends to thicken more. Serve with chopped green onions, shredded chedder cheese, and bacon bits on top.

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Easy Peasy Garlic Knots
by Jill Clark
I found this yummy recipe here.
I followed the recipe almost exactly as it was posted so I won't bore you by retyping it since Jill did such a good job already. However, I will note that I used real garlic instead of garlic salt (2 big cloves) and grated Parmesan cheese rather than shredded. I'll definitely use real garlic again but I WILL NOT use the grated cheese. It soaked up the garlicky oil goodness and I would have rather had that goodness to dip the knots in.

Bread Pudding

Lindsay here!

Thursday was an unusually chilly day and I had a craving for something warm, comforting, and homemade. First, I thought about vegetable soup. Then after thinking through the preparation process I decided that all the chopping and dicing required for this dish was too much work for me. Not to mention, the root veggies I would need to buy for the dish are no longer in season and therefore pretty expensive here. So, I moved on.

I was flipping through my beloved source of vegetarian food inspiration, The New Moosewood Cookbook, and came upon it. "It" was Bread Pudding. . . and oh. my. gosh. . . scrumptious! This "poor man's pudding" was just the thing to warm us up inside and fill our home with the aroma of Christmastime (without emptying the wallet!).

This is a fantastic vegetarian cookbook with recipes that focus on whole and local food that are simple, healthy, and sustainable. (If I can follow the instructions, anyone can!)

First time really baking in our convection oven. Sure, we've heated things up using the microwave, grill, and oven functions, but this was the real test. Everything worked flawlessly.

For my Austrian friends: I couldn't find vanilla extract at Billa, but I did find this vanilla Bourbon sugar packet. It was either this or scrape a real vanilla bean. I decided to make things interesting and throw the sugary-whiskey packet into the mix (I compensated and used little less sugar).
I must say, the combination aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, and Bourbon was almost as good as the taste. Let me know if you want the recipe!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Added on June 13, 2011

I've had a couple of requests for the recipe. It's posted online here with permission from the author. I encourage you to consider buying the book, though. Mollie Katzen has beautifully illustrated and hand-written each recipe herself. Just flipping through it makes me want to sit down and doodle. The book also makes for a very special gift. (Mine was a gift and I think of my friend every time I use it.) And, if that doesn't convince you, maybe the fact that the book was listed by the New York Times as one of the top ten best-selling cookbooks of all time will.

Guten Appetit!

Treats from Home

I (Lindsay) wandered into Bobby's last week after a lovely lunch with some Deutschkurs Freunde and here's what I came out with:

One can certainly find a version of each of these items (minus the Pop-Tarts) in Wien, but once I saw these particular products, my mouth began watering and I absolutely could not pass them by. After I paid for them however, I realized that actually I could have -- and probably should have -- passed them by (well, maybe not the Pop-Tarts, they are totally worth 5.60 Euros!).

29.90 Euros = $41.52 (yowzers!)

Marionetten und Mehr

On Saturday we saw the Hänsel und Gretel opera performed at the Marionettentheater Schloss Schönbrunn. We discovered soon after the start that Engelbert Humperdinck's opera version of the story deviates quite a bit from the Grimm brothers' fairy tale version. Regardless, watching the marionettes dance around the stage and practicing our German in opera form was a seriously fun way to spend our afternoon.

Marionettentheater Schloss Schönbrunn

A teeny stage for the teeny marionette puppets

The wicked Witch enticing Hänsel and Gretel to eat her gingerbread house

After the show, the audience was allowed "backstage" to see the puppets

Waiting for der Zug at the Schönbrunn U-Bahn station

Es war ein guter Tag!

And for dinner, we cracked open a cookbook and attempted to make ourselves another meal. We highly recommend the French Onion Soup recipe from The Joy of Cooking.


On Sunday we channeled our Davis past and went on a massive bike ride around the city.

Biking around the Ringstraße

A Segway tour slowly wheeled past us

Passing a Strandbar along the Danube canal

And because it's how we roll, we ended the afternoon at our neighborhood bar cafe

Christmas comes early!

Our boxes from the States arrived this weekend! Es ist Frühweihnachten in Wien!

Since we rediscovered our pots and pans buried deep within the shipment, we decided to cook a nice Viennese dinner to celebrate. As our close friends and family know all too well, Lindsay and David McCollum are no good in the kitchen. Well, I take that back... we can boil a tasty bag of noodles and heat up a mean jar of spaghetti sauce, but beyond that, we're quite pathetic. Fortunately, and yet surprisingly(!), the Potato Goulash we attempted was not so bad! Actually, it was pretty fun to make together, too!

And since you're surely wondering about these adorable place mats, wonder no more. They were made by the lovely, creative, and sehr sehr lustig (very funny) sister duo, Lazy Catfish and Timperton.
Naturally, lots of cooking means lots of dishes. :-( But have no fear, we finally have a dishwasher -- the best invention since slap bracelets.