EGGGSSSS

I need to start making breakfast again. Most of the time it's just coffee or a smoothie if I'm lucky to be able to afford it. 

Late But Christmas Treats

I know this is Kinda late but these are some of these really awesome things my mother makes for christmas. She's the queen of christmas and really into tradition. We are almost in our mid twenties and it still feels like we are kids. She really has a special talent for doing that kind of stuff. She literally prepares all year for it. And then she hosts it for over 40 people two different nights. It's like a three day celebration. But she always makes a feast. Most of the time it's similar to our thanksgiving meal with more turkeys and duck, and pork.

One of my favorite parts is Breakfast. She makes bacon, scrambled eggs, and french toast on challah bread. So french toast with a syrup walnut butter she pre-makes for topping it.

Also she makes the best deserts to!

This is the first time she made this Cranberry Compote cheese cake. I think there's another flavor maybe walnut. But it was incredible. the best cheesecake she's ever made. And she's known for them. The cranberries are a large part of her winter cooking. These were reduced down in sugar and syrup. super sweet!

This is a little more delicate desert. It's chocolate moose with marscapone whipped cream and frozen sugar coated cranberries. It's super pretty and pretty light for desert. Great!

Some more coming soon!

I have been starting to cook more, because I got some new kitchen pans and gadgets.

<3 

kyle

Thanksgiving! America!

Sorry it's been so long. But Things have been a little crazy lately. I have some thanksgiving photos to put up. I think my mother is seriously the queen of holidays. I've never missed a holiday with my mother because I can't have it any other way. Anyway She's the type of Woman who doesn't measure anything she just knows. She makes so many delicious deserts too and all practically from memory. So Enjoy!

My Mothe has had this crazy cheesecake recipe passed down for years and years. She's really amazing at it and she even makes variations like key lime and pumpkin chocolate cheesecakes. When she puts it in the oven she doesn't let anyone in the kitchen because she thinks that vibrations of someone walking around it while it's baking will make it split down the middle and not look as pretty. This time it came out perfect. 

We have a bunch of family over for the holiday now so we have to make a lot of food, not that me and my brothers wouldn't totally destroy two turkeys. But we had two 20-something pound turkeys and a bunch of lamb shanks. So amazing!

Dad Carving Turkeys.

Grandfather...

Feast for the Eat Beast!

Cranberries with orange marmalade and roasted walnuts and sugar!

My mother calls these Christmas Carrots and it's a boiled carrot with breadcrumbs paprika, and a horseradish sauce. It took me a couple years growing up to like them but now I can't get enough. 

These are potato halves mixed with cheddar cheese and butter and paprika and then stuffed back into the skins and baked. Then some fresh melted butter & paprika again on top while serving. Almost everything we eat on Thanksgiving and Christmas has been made the exact same way for my entire life or the last 23 years. And I still love it. My mother has so much preparation to do that she starts cooking things and freezing them weeks in advance. 

This was plate Number 1 for me

My mother and her brother!

My two brothers. on the left.

The Most American thing and I can't get enough of it. Apple pie. Never tasted one as good as my mom's. But who doesn't say that. But well this is true. Try it. 

And if we couldn't have enough decadence Mother made us Pumpkin Pancakes the next morning with melted browned butter. Toasted pecans and brown sugar and syrup. It was absolutely amazing. She's a hell of a woman, and this is for her. Keep it up! Se's responsible for all of the amazing memories that not only I have but that everyone in my family has. Because she loves to give, and no one can do it like her.

<3 

Kyle

Daddy CAt was there too...Not psyched 

Risotto Recklessness

So I made risotto the other night, and it was amazing. But it took me forever. By the time it was ready to eat I wasn't hungry anymore....

I don't have any photos of it but it tasted really amazing it it's one of those things that is just beyond heavy. The recipe was really simple!

So I used Ariboro Rice which I got from whole foods.

So the Recipe is as follows:

1 small yellow onion, chopped finely with 2-3 finely chopped cloves of garlic

1 quater stick of butter

handful of dandelion greens, arugula, and or spinach just not to much greens. I like a mix.

1 cup white wine ( the liquids are really important and important to be exact with risottos  because that's what makes them creamy and moist)

5 cups of chicken broth you could use veggie broth too i suppose

2 hot italian sausage links loosely torn apart out of their casings

2 cups of rice

So boil some water, and then throw the greens into it for only a minute, then drain them and let sit in a cool place.

Then melt your butter and saute your onions and garlic in it until translucent. Basically for 5 minutes. Then through in the broken up sausage pieces, and mix it cook it for another 3 minutes. Now comes your rice. Throw the two cups of dry rice into the pan or pot, use a pan or pot with a lot of surface area but somewhat deep so rice doesn't go flying.

I quickly added the one cup of white wine to moisten up the mixture. stir it in and let it reduce so there is no more liquid and is soaked up entirely by the rice. At this point you can start adding some salt and pepper to taste, and your first full cup of broth. Once again stir the broth into the mixture and let it absorb completely. So now you have 4 cups of broth left to cook into your mixture. But they have to be added by 1/2 cups and let full absorb into the rice stirring and mixing. This requires pretty constant attention. Once your near completion go back and grab your greens and through them in mix it around and finish your broth. Once all the broth is gone your ready to serve! Enjoy!

Don't slip into a food coma.

This makes enough to feed like ten people too it's kind of crazy.

Cook on!!!!

- k

speedy lunch

I felt like I was going to collapse from hunger when I was helping my mom move today! She didn't have much in her fridge either so I threw this thing together. I actually ended up liking it allot, and it only took ten minutes to cook.


2 boiled potatoes
some kidney beans
1/2 zucchini
parsley
yogurt
salt

I cubed the zucchini and threw it in a pan with some sunflower oil and fried it for a couple minutes. Then I added the beans, stirred and covered, checking on it occasionally. Chop up some parsley in the meantime. I found some left over boiled potatoes in the fridge, cut them up into somewhat bigger pieces so they would't fall apart, and threw them in with the other veggies when the zucchini seemed to be almost done. At this point I also added the parsley, and covered the veggies for another couple minutes. Thats it! take it off the heat, pour in a little yogurt, and salt to taste.
I thought it turned out pretty good, but then again I was also starving :)

-steffi

radishes

You can buy really good gluten free bread in austria, it's pretty amazing. I never had allot of luck with bread in the states, they are fine at making white bread, but none of the dark bread really hits the spot for me. When I started eating gluten free in NYC, I pretty much just stopped eating it for the most part. My brothers fiance, Claire, who has celiac disease, had some of her favorite gluten free bread brands that were defiantly alright. http://www.udisfood.com/
Austrians however have mastered their bread-making skills, even in the gluten free section. So I am back to stuffing my face with it!
Here is a open faced sandwich I did. I just used some sliced goat cheese, sprouts, and radishes. It looked really pretty and was super delicious

Sweet Teeth

 My friends Helen and Justin who are long time vegan / vegetarians took me to this place in the east village that sells ice cream made from mainly cashews and various other nuts. It's really small in the store but has a really nice little charm and the ice cream is amazing. It was better than normal ice cream. And they can make these crazy old school bananan splits and sundaes. So here's the link Check them out!

                                                                                              Photos are not mine.

                                                                                http://www.lulassweetapothecary.com/

- k

good morning

These past three weeks have been somewhat hard for me in the kitchen. I went on a gluten and cheese binge, which is fine, as long as you're main meal of the day isn't bread and cheese, in my case it was.
I might have fallen into a pre winter mini depression, so my food is looking kind of sad. I feel bad leaving you hanging Kyle, and since this blog is about sharing our lives in the kitchen 4000 miles apart, here is how my morning started.
love you

-steffi

Kale Cooked Right

I think there's still many people who don't know what Kale is or haven't tried it. I think the only reason I know about it is because of vegetarian friends. It has so many uses which is amazing for it being a leafy green packed full of nutrients. I think the first time I had Kale was on my Cave trip in West Virginia for Ryan Mcginley. I think we ate vegan that entire week and it was really awesome. But when we would get home from shooting he'd always bring out this pot of steaming hot water in a kettle full of kale leaves. So it was just boiled Kale turned tea. He told me it was really good for me and I feel like it made me feel better. But another cool thing you can do with Kale is make chips with a dehydrator or just your oven but then your gas bill is gonna cost as much as the dehydrator.

I have bene really slacking on my cooking lately. Pizza haas become a huge portion of my diet. Sometimes I'll seriously eat slices three times a day. But this recipe was real quick and easy. This was the first time I soaked beans and then cooked them rather than using canned beans. Apparently for the recipe it was important so they would brown up nicely. But I think the beans were too dry after I cooked them. The Kale itself came out amazing. I got the recipe off this girls website called 101 cookbooks which is all vegetarian / mostly gluten free recipes.  http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/panfried-corona-beans-kale-recipe.html

I skipped the use of walnuts. But I think next time I would rather just cooke some black beans and tomatoes and onions separately or use drained canned white beans. Or just use the Kale part of the recipe because it is seasoned perfectly, and use it as a side dish to another meal. 

But I haven't met someone who has tried Kale at least properly cooked Kale and disliked it. 

Soon I'm going to do a sort of retrospective on my trip to Austria this summer! 

Stay healthy.

- k

 Me and My mother had this weekend of food in Jersey when I went home. We went to some farmers markets, and apple picking. It was kind of amazing. We made beef stew, roasted chicken and baked apples that weekend. I love my mothers stew but I didn't get great photos so I'm not gonna post it. But it's really basic. Also my mom kind of goes crazy for the seasonal decorations. She has the entire house decked out in fall decorations. 

Apple picking in New Jersey is pretty rad, But we got some of these winesaps from the market instead. I think that Rome apple are better for baking because they are a little bigger and they really hold thee shape well.

 Veggies for the Chicken we got from the market

So the roasted chicken is real easy. I take a lemon punch some holes in it with a fork and then stuff it inside the chicken with some sprigs of fresh rosemary. It looks better when it's fresh than dried but you could also easily use dried rosemary. So then next you tie or truss the wings and legs which means tie them up and close to the body fo more even cooking otherwise they could burn easily. Cover the top of it with one cup of chicken stock, white wine, and a water. Then some olive oil rosemary and salt and pepper. 

Now your ready to very loosely chop some veggies ( stew style ) I like using carrots, with the green on the tops still. you can find smaller ones that fit entirely and don't need to be cut up. I use an entire onion, some red and yellow potatoes, and yams. You can use beets and various other root veggies if you like. It comes down to personal preference. Then make sure you got some olive oil salt and pepper on the veggies and begin to cook in the oven at 425 covered tightly with foil for 30 minutes. then remove the foil and cook for 2 hours basically. or until golden brown and done. If need be remove the veggies and keep the chicken in longer. Also don't forget to BASTE! otherwise it'll turn out dry,

So here's the finished product. It's good too because you can have a lot of leftovers and it makes for excellent lunch. I think it's a pretty cheap way to have a really hearty and impressive delicious fall meal.

As for the baked apples that is something my mother makes really well. I love these things I only get to eat them in the fall too. But she takes the apple and cores it. Stuffs the center with brown sugar and cinnimon, and lots of butter. Then she pours a little water into the baked dish so the apples don't burn. I can't remember but for some reason i thought she used to wrap them in foil. But she didn't this time. Anyway you just pop them in the oven and cook until they look done and are soft. Some people like them falling apart and I like them more firm.

 Serve with some ice cream or whipped cream hot out of the oven and it's an amazing desert.

Some nice apple cider to is really amazing. I love this stuff I usually destroy it. I love the bite it has. 

Hope you have a good fall. Enjoy the seasonal food while you can because it's really distinct in the fall. Apples rule! 

- kyle