MarcoFrom.Com ☆ Marco in Seattle

Tiramisu

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:28:43 -0800

Tiramisu from Italy!
My version isn't the original recipe, but I claim that it tastes as good! And especially, if you're in the US, you might not want raw eggs right now... Ingredients:

1 lb Mascarpone
13 tbsp Eggnog with Alkohol
3 tbsp Powdered sugar
1 lb Ladyfingers
2 cups cold Espresso
1 tbsp Cocoa powder

Method:
Mix macarpone, eggnog and powdered sugar. Dip ladyfingers one by one into cold espresso and layer them into a nice container. Top with the mascarpone mixture and repeat 2-3 times, finishing with mascarpone.
Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Top with cocoa powder just before serving.
Buon Appetito!

German Cabbage Cake - Krautkuchen

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:02:04 -0800

Recipe from my mom, typical in the Swabia region around Stuttgart, Germany.
Dough - mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for at least 45min.

250 g - 1/2 lb flour
120 g - 1/4 lb butter
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
75 ml - 1/3 cup water

For the filling:

1 kg - 2 lbs (white) cabbage, finely grated
2 tsp oil OR 1/2 lb diced bacon
1 tbsp flour
300 g - 0.6 lb sour creme
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
Caraway, salt, pepper to taste
butter to grease the form

Saute cabbage with the flour in oil or the rendered bacon for 20min. Preheat oven to 200C - 400F. Mix sour creme with the eggs and the extra yolk with the still warm cabbage mixture. Add spices to taste. Roll out the dough and put it into an 11" spring form, forming a nice crust all around. Add the filling and bake for ca. 45min. Enjoy!

Spicy Slowcooker Goulash

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:58:10 -0800

I was very happy with how my slowcooker Gulasch (German spelling) turned out today. Since my wife didn't want beef, I cooked it quite spicy and shared it with our neighbor ;)

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs beef (London broil), cubed
1 Onion, finely copped
1-x cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
2 stalks of Celery, chopped
2 medium Carrots, chopped
1 can of diced Tomatoes
1/2 can of Tomato Paste
2 Cups of Beef Broth
1 Bay leaf
1 tbsp Marjoram
1-x dried Chili, without stems (add all things spicy, like hot-sauce and chili powder as much as you can take)
1 tbsp Paprika
Salt & Pepper

Brown Onions, Garlic, Carrots and Celery in some Oil for 5min. Add Beef and brown. Add a little red wine, if you want or just the broth and cook loose the brown bits. Mix the contents of the pan and everything else together in the slowcooker.
Cook on low for 8 hrs. If the sauce is not thick enough at the end, cook it on high for a while.
Serve with Sour Creme and Semmelknödel :)

Toddler mischief

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:46:52 -0800

Today we rearranged oour living room a bit and I was surprised to hear my subwoofer make a strange rattling sound, when I moved it. The first thing I found inside was the plastic chicken. Turning the subwoofer upside down didn't work very well and I couldn't even get my hand in there.

Finally I realized that toddlers are not only good at making a mess - Tim's tiny hands were able to reach inside and get all the plastic toys back:

A chicken
A carton of milk
A car
A monkey
An ear of corn
A carrot
A banana
A cookie
An orange
A pear
Two lemons

Bretzel vs Pretzel - The deluxe recipe

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:57:35 -0800

This is the hard way of baking original German (Swabian) Bretzels. For the easy way, check out the Pretzel post at TheFreshLoaf. And by the way, I do think that going the extra mile of creating the Pâte fermentée and using real lye (Food grade Sodium Hydroxide - NaOH, which I bought from AAA Chemicals) is totally worth the effort.

I got the recipe from a German site called Chili und Chiabatta. This is my English version, slightly simplified:

A day ahead, create the Pâte fermentée (fermented dough):

144g White Flour
94g Water
2.8g Salt
1 pinch of Dry Yeast

Kneed everything together, cover and let rise for 12-16h at about 70F.

Now create the real dough:

578g White Flour
340g Water
12g Salt
14g Fresh Yeast (I used 2.5 tsp Dry Yeasy)
36g soft Butter
7g Baking Malt (I used 1 tbsp Cane Sugar)
240g Pâte fermentée (all the above)

Mix everything together, except the Pâte fermentée, for 3min in the FoodPro. Now add the Pâte fermentée in chunks and continue to kneed for 5min. Let rise for 1h (in a slightly greased bowl, covered with cling wrap at 21C), fold the dough and let rise for another hour.

Make about 15 portions (85g each) and roll them out to about 60cm long 'worms' with a thick middle section. Lay into the typical Bretzel shape.
Cover with cloth and let rise for 30-45min. Now cool in the fridge for 30min - the Bretzels are a lot easier to handle afterward.

Now the fun part - The lye:

1250g cold Water
50g NaOH

Warning: Wear protective goggles and gloves and only use glass or stainless steel - especially aluminum does not withstand this solution (check your baking pan)!
(Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 230C) Slowly stir the NaOH into the cold water until fully dissolved. Using a large skimmer dunk each Bretzel into the solution for 5s. Top with coarse salt and using a sharp knife, make an incision at the belly of the Bretzel.

Update: Because those Bretzels taste the best right after baking, I did try to freeze a couple of them at this point in the process and the result was encouraging - Give it a try, if you don't think you will eat all of them right away :)

On a well greased baking pan (No Al!) bake the Bretzels for 14-16min at 230C.

Bretzels taste best when still warm - try them with a Bavarian Cheese spread called, aka Obatzda!

Get 'em while they're free

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:35:20 -0800

Sorry, for US residents only.... unless you're good with a proxy ;)

No-WWW

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:06:53 -0800

Long-overdue! Get rid of the www.
double-you-double-you-double-you is just a waste of money, brains and time (wombat)
marcofrom.com is at Class-B compliance level!

My Dæmon Eutropia

Tue, 22 May 2007 17:00:20 -0800

I'm very much looking forward to The Golden Compass - check out the Trailer!

Island in flames

Fri, 11 May 2007 12:10:48 -0800

9 days ago our cruise stopped at the little island of Catalina and we drove around the island in a golf cart:

You can tell it was pretty dry.

Yesterday a fire broke out and 4000 acres of the island are in flames:
News Report.

The previous entry shows Timmy on the beach on Catalina...

Sea-Water Experience

Tue, 08 May 2007 15:43:29 -0800

This is Tim, 16 months, shortly after his first contact with the sea. I thought the water was ok that day in Catalina, but as you can tell from the picture, he is not a fan of cold, salty water.
A few days later, we tried the heated hotel pool, which he liked ok, but he only really enjoyed the water in the adjacent hot whirl pool.
Bonus material: Video of Tim dancing!

Protest!

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:04:04 -0800

Iraq war enters its fifth year - the protests in Seattle go right past my office:

Maybe I didn't see all of them, but that group weren't the expected thousands....

Tim goes shopping

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:46:20 -0800

Tim made is first purchase today. He grabbed the remote control for our DVR and managed to purchase an on demand movie for 3.99$. I'll make sure to deduct that from his allowance, once he as one, because the movie sucked!

The Black Dahlia is nominated for an Oscar (Best Achievement in Cinematography):

An adaptation of James Ellroy's novel about two 1940s L.A. cops who head up the hunt for the killer of starlet Elizabeth Short.

Update: At least Black Dahlia didn't win an Oscar, instead Pan's Labyrinth won that category (and others) - a movie I really enjoyed ;)

Post V-Day

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:39:56 -0800

Flowers and Greeting-Card vendors hang their heads, on the day after:

Fast Food

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:41:16 -0800

"I'll have the Cheetah Steak and the Peregrine Falcon Wings."
"Sorry, Sir, we don't carry Fast Food.

Mal wieder was aus Deutschland

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:16:14 -0800

Gefunden über Google AdWords:
Matthias Pöhm Rhetorik-Seminar und Schlagfertigkeit - schlagfertigkeit.com

Ist Ihnen die Antwort wieder zu spät eingefallen? In Zukunft ist das kein Thema mehr für Sie, denn Sie werden durch den Besuch dieses Intensiv-Seminars erfahren, dass Schlagfertigkeit nicht angeboren, sondern erlernbar ist.

Das Beste ist die Antwort-Bibliothek:
Ich frag mich zwar, wie das schlagfertig ist, wenn ich erst mal mit dem Computer online nachschauen kann, mit was für einer spontane Antowrt ich da jetzt zurückschlagen kann, aber wenn man sie alle lernt, ist man nicht mehr zu bremsen!
Z.B. Da sind wohl ein paar Pfunde zu viel! * Hast du ein Problem damit? - Wow, ganz schön schlagfertig! oder
Du Idiot * Da falle ich ja in deiner Umgebung nicht weiter auf

Da bleibt dem Gegenüber sicher die Spucke weg!