Cucina Aber

One of the best dishes that I even ate twice while at Cucina Deli in Salt Lake City, UT was their spaghetti pie.  Mmmmm mmmmm good.  Dean gave me the recipe verbally while at the deli one day and I decided it was time I give it a shot.  Now there were several substitutions that had to be made due to what we have in stock here at the condo, but all in all it turned out swell.  I was pretty worried that I'd end up with a pie plate full of loose spaghetti on my hands but the thing held up nicely.  I really think this will become a go to dinner dish for us.  

Boil up some spaghetti until it's just underdone and prepare the filling.  I chose to use spinach, onions, mushrooms, black and green olives, and ham.

Add the filling along with two beaten eggs to the prepared spaghetti and mix.

Place the whole concoction in a greased pie plate.  It looks a lot cooler if you use a spring form pan like Cucina Deli and display it as a stand alone pie. 

Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese, or in our case extra sharp white cheddar (that's all we had). 

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Top with pasta or marinara sauce.

Thank you Dean Pierose and Cucina Deli for the inspiration!

I Found the Polish Cook Book

We had a nice trip into Walsenburg to pick up some milk for Jay's cheese making and saw 6 deer on the road from Cuchara to LaVeta.  The deer were the tame city variety and we haven't seen any up in the wild near us yet.  There's plenty of wildlife sign around here but nothing seems to be sticking around long enough for us to get a peek at it.  

We decided to have a big night out on Friday evening and went to the Dog Bar in Cuchara.  I even blow dried my hair and put on makeup.  There was lots of interest in us new kids in town and we met several of the locals.  I'd say a good 20 people came and went as we ate though the place was less than half full the entire time.  We dined on fresh salads as we don't keep a large supply of fresh veggies on hand at the condo.  The food was good and it was nice to see some other human beings.  The owner of the bar filled us in on some upcoming events including some live bands and a local game of broom ball that will be taking place up at the ski resort.  We'll report back when we figure out just what broom ball is.   

With 6 gallons of milk in the fridge Jay is hard at work getting some cheeses made and ready for curing in his makeshift humidity closet in the basement.  I'm sure he'll be posting a detailed cheese making update soon.  While Jay has been in the kitchen stirring his curds and whey I have been cooking alongside him.   After some experimentation with a bread maker donated to the condo by my sister-in-law Amy, I've finally got a loaf to come out without one end being sunken in.  A cinnamon raisin loaf is kneading away in the cooker now.  The bread maker has been a good introduction to working with bread making ingredients and sure does make easy work of getting a loaf of bread made.  Soon I hope to graduate to the real deal, baking in the oven, and kneading the dough myself.  

Today I found the Polish cook book and it just so happened that Jay had made a fresh batch of cottage cheese.  It seemed that fate had a batch of Pierogies in store for us.  They weren't bad for a first attempt, but  certainly need the Amy touch with vinegar in the dough next time.  We ate the first batch boiled and will freeze the leftovers to be pan fried in butter later. 

Rolling out the dough.

Jay's fresh cottage cheese.

The filling made with salt, sauteed onion, egg, and cottage cheese.

Packing the dumplings was the hardest part for me.

We ate ours boiled, though they should be pan fried in addition to the boiling.  We were just too hungry.  

Pierogies Please!

Boiling the Weisswurst.  Believe it or not these came out of a jar and are just delicious.

A German - Polish fusion meal.

Day One Down!

 Operation cat hair removal is in full effect.  We spent most of our first full day in Cuchara vacuuming and organizing.  It's been really exciting taking inventory of our pantry goods and getting them shelved and organized for use.  I'm looking forward to the challenge of making our staples stretch and trying new recipes with all of the food we brought out.  We stopped on our way into town to pick up milk, eggs, and butter.  I think we'll have a good long run before needing to get groceries again.  Soon Jay will be beginning his cheese making and I have lots of dishes in mind for the soft cheeses he'll be starting out with.  I have a feeling many of my blog posts will center around what we eat, as cooking is something I really enjoy.  So here it goes with our first meal at Cuchara: Ham and bean soup with corn bread muffins. 

These are not from scratch because you just can't beat a Jiffy mix.

Ham bone, white beans, and a little canned corn.

Dinner for the next 3 nights!

These are not as good as my mom makes, but I've got plenty of beans to work with as I try to reach that goal.  For dessert I made macaroons drizzled with chocolate.  They weren't very pretty but sure hit the spot.

Aber & Out

St. Wenceslas Has Returned

Down boy!

Speaking of Christmas beverages, as Lauren mentioned in our previous post, I have been hard at work in the brewery...St. Wenceslas' Winter Warmer 2012 is happily bubbling away in our basement.

I think this has to be my favorite time of year, due in no small part to the multitude of drinking opportunities. Of course there is Oktoberfest, then we have the grape and hop harvests, all new seasonal beers, free-calorie day (aka Thanksgiving), and finally the king of all drinking holidays: Christmas. Well, for me anyway. I fully subscribe to Washington Irivng's (probably fabricated) historical view of Christmas being celebrated in the Victorian English countryside. Inviting strangers and friends alike to drink wassail and feast in front of the warm hearth. Wassailing used to even involve going door to door adult-Halloween-style demanding drink or threatening a curse.

More contemporary are the German Christmas markets, which solely exist to sell hand-made (maybe)  wooden ornaments, and to drink. Basically, these are open air markets in a city square that last for about a month, where you go and stand around in the freezing rain, sleet, or snow while eating half meter long bratwurst and drinking hot mead, hot grog (spiced rum and water), and/or Glühwein (hot mulled wine). I may have frequented the Braunschweig Weihnachtsmarkt on a pretty regular basis when I lived there.

Anyway, my point is, Christmas is for drinking by the fire (or outside if you are a masochist or German) and preferably with others, whether strangers or family. And aside from all the wine and spirits flowing around at Christmas time, beer is still my drink, so Christmas beer it is! And brewed just in time to be ready by Christmas Eve. You can even make my famous Christmas beer too if you want: just look below those pictures because hey, I just gave you my secret recipe! Don't you just love the giving spirit of the (almost) season?

Grains Steeping away in the mash

Look at that sweet electric brew kettle

Mmmm. Citra hops.

Corriander!

Ceylon Cinnamon, Star Anise, and Cloves

St. Wenceslas' Winter Warmer

Gravity: 1.080
Alcohol: 8.5% (abv)
IBU: 53 (Rager)
Color: Dark brown with ruby highlights

Ingredients (for 8 gal. batch):

Malt:
15 lbs. Golden Promise
2 lbs. Munich II
2 lbs. Victory
2 lbs. Crystal 70-80
7 oz. Carafa

Hops:
1 oz. Citra (15.6% AA), 75 minutes
0.5 oz. Citra (15.6% AA), 40 minutes
1 oz. Goldings (6.9% AA), 15 minutes
1 oz. Willamette (6.5% AA), 10 minutes
1 oz. Goldings (6.9% AA), after boil
0.5 oz. Citra (15.6% AA), after boil

Spices:
3 Cinnamon Sticks, 10 minutes
2 Anise Stars, 10 minutes
6 Cloves, 10 minutes
2 tsp. Allspice (ground), after boil
3 tsp. Corriander (ground), after boil

Yeast: Wyeast 1469 - West Yorkshire (x2 smack packs)

Mash:
Infusion mash for 90 minutes at 157 deg F and 1.25 qt./lb
Fly Sparge for 90 minutes with 7 gal. water at 170 deg F

General Tso's Venison

I still need to work on the cook time for the venison but this turned out pretty tasty and cooked up really quickly.  We're going to try and eat a lot of venison during the sabbatical so I'm experimenting with a variety of new recipes.

Ingredients:
1 pound venison tenderloin
2 tbsp oil (I used canola)
2/3 cup General Tso's Wok Sauce (From Aldi)
1 yellow squash
1 package of Asian style frozen veggies (snap peas, red pepper, onion)
A dash of red pepper flakes
2 tbsp sesame seeds

Directions:
Chop the venison into 1/2 inch cubes and cook it in oil for about 3 minutes.  Strain off the oil and remove meat from the heat.  In a separate pan steam the frozen veggies and squash until tender.  Lastly, stir the meat, a dash of red pepper flakes, wok sauce, and sesame seeds into the veggies and bring to a simmer.  Be careful not to overcook the venison as it can get rubbery and chewy.