How to make a Xmas crib

I am not exactly a great wood worker,
but was still in need of a little Xmas Crib in order to present the lovely figures i got last year from my in laws in a nice setting under the Xmas tree.

I remembered the salt dough prints I did with my baby last summer. So I thought Salt dough can be used also the make a little building (crib)

So how to make the dough, you can look that up in my earlier post , unfortuantly in this project my one year old couldn't help much.

I started with a case kind of like a pizza,
and added on to that.

On the picture on the left you see i made walls, and checked if they will be high enough for the figures i already had.

With toothpicks I brought some strengths into the structure.

From time to time i put the structure for 10 minutes in the 180C degree oven, to make it more stable, and than to add on and make the walls high enough.

I figured i had to make pillars in the corner to support the structure as well.





Painting the roof, here my one year old could help.


The wholes in the room have been there,
but i figured i leave them, so i can stick through them 2 lights from the xmas tree lights later.

This way it will hopefully look more romantic.

.

Thats the final result, considered that i only spend about 30 minutes to form the building, i am pretty proud of myself looking at it.


I am already planning add ons for next year, and since the matterial is flexible I also could do more artwork on it, with paining it, or add an wall brick stone effect, etc...

With 2 pins i actually fixed also 2 angels on the roof...

Well, anyway, thats a easy way to make a little crib, with 100%  biodegradable ingredients.

Enjoy the Xmas time !

Recipe: Schnitzel

Earlier this year I wrote about Schnitzel in a blog post, and was now asked what it is and how its made.
Its so simple but delicious, here it goes:

Get yourself some Pork chops from the local store or butcher and follow the instructions below.

 Ingredients:
 Pork
 Flour
 Breadcrumbs (can be self made from dried bread our bought)
 Eggs
 Salt and Pepper, Lemon, Potatoes
 butter

First use a hammer to flatten the pork, than spice it wit Salt and Pepper. Put it in the flour, after in the eggs and finally in the breadcrumbs.

Its a bit messy for your fingers so you can use a fork to if you like.

After you prepared all, fry them in the pan with lots of butter, until they are golden brown. Traditionally Schnitzel is served with Potatoes, and arranged with fresh Parsley and lemon.

Enjoy !

Recipe: Crème brûlée

It was my first time making Crème brûlée, so I was nervous, having a French wife i wanted to fulfil the expectations.

It turned out actually so good that to have to share my recipe, which I adjusted a bit from a original recipe I found online:



Ingredients for 6 portions:
400 ml Cream
200 ml milk
90 gram sugar
4 Egg yolks
1 pack Vanilla sugar (or use sugar and a vanilla stick)

brown sugar to make the caramel on top with a burner.

Basically you mix all together, but be careful not to get to much of bubbles or even a foam into the cream. I kept the cream overnight in the fridge, but its also okay if you let it rest only for a few hours.

Next step is to take a oven tray, and the ceramic to fill in the creme. Its Important that the containers for the cream are not too big, look at the size in my pictures, that was a perfect size one.



Fill the baking tray half way up with water so the containers are surrounded by it and give it in the preheated oven at 150 degree C for 45 minutes.

The cream should have settled. As a last step sprinkle the brown sugar over the creme and burn it so it builds a nice layer of caramel on top.

You can serve the creme still warm, or I actually prefer it once it has cooled off.

Its gorgeous !
Men out there, think about serving that to your Lady on new year or valentines day,
She will love you !

Make Xmas tree decoration with your Kids

Its so simple to make nice, self made Xmas tree decoration.
All you need is:
2 cups flour 1 cup salt and a bit water,
make a stable dough.
Use a cookie cutter of any form, for example Xmas Trees and Bells.
Let the salt dough cookies dry in the oven on low temperature. Make sure that you punched a hole on top so you can hang them later.

Let your kids paint them with water colors and let them dry well before you hang them on your tree.

Even your smallest kid can help.

Enjoy !

Edit:
This is how the tree looks than after:

Recipe: Erdaepfelnidei

An other bit of Austrian cuisine is Erdäpfelnidei,
which is translated a potato dumpling.

Its a very old recipe, used to be cooked by farmers in Salzburg County / Austria.

Ingredients:
1 kg potatoes
2 eggs
250 gram flour
bit of salt
bit of muscat.

Side dish, Sauerkraut (or in Polish shops called Kapusta) with cubes of bacon and pepper corns.

Boil the potatoes until they nearly fall apart, so they need to be well done and it should be potatos with lots of starch.

After remove skin, and mash them while they are still hot, make a dough with the flour, egg and rest of ingredients and start forming little dumplings as shown on the picture straight away.  Don't let the dough rest !

If you would be Italian, and if you would be cooking Gnochi, you would throw them now in boiling salted water for 10 minutes and serve them after in cheese....
... But you are NOT Italian, you cook an Austrian dish so you throw them in boiling vegetable oil and fry them until golden brown !

I always let them drip of the oil afterwards, and you can keep them warm in the oven until you have fried them all.

Before you east them, so should salt them to taste, and I also serve Sauerkraut with them.

This dish is very filling, so if you have some left you can use them next day as a side to a different dish.

Enjoy !

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Thanks to Caschy to inform me about Google Current in his blog (German)

Recipe: Tagliatelle with Cream Spinach

Yummy,
what our  Au pair cooked last time, coming home stressed from the office this lovely dish waited for me.

Yet simple but very delicious Tagliatelle with cream spinach, a great and very healthy dish.

So instead of the odd spaghetti try this next time if you have not much time but want to have something tasty !

Recipe: Soy chicken

Cooking Chicken is actually not an art, well I had once a frozen chicken incident 5 years ago i will now not closer describe.

Anyway, so make sure if you want to make a chicken in the oven, its not frozen ! once you are over that stepping stone you should do OK.

I got last time a nice compliment for my Soy chicken,
but i actually didn't do much to it. I only made a sauce out of a bit of honey, dark soy sauce, mustard and salt/pepper and i cooked the chicken slowly in the oven for 2 hours.

I trick I learned from my father is to fry first the chicken from all sides in a pan, that way the juice stays in the chicken and it doesnt get dry.


I always let the chicken a bit a rest before serving as well, this gives me time to prepare the rest of the dish, f.e. sauces, etc.

Recipe: Scalops

I love seafood, I am sure i said that before.

But i really do !

Sometimes it can be so simple to prepare a quick seafood dish. Get out there to the market, buy some fresh scallops from the fishermen, wrap them in ham or leave them plain.

Add a dash of Soya or olive oil in a pan, give them a short fry and serve with a side dish of your choice.
Thats heaven !

Xmas Cooking: Vanille (a) Kipferl

For all those who want to enjoy a little Austrian Christ­mas atmo­sphere at home, here is the one  recipes for Vanilla crescents:
Ingredients:
200 gram of margarine (no salted butter please(
100 gram ground almonds
200 gram plain flour
50 gram white sugar
2 egg yolks
vanilla sugar for topping the Kipferl


For the amount of cookies and dough shown in this picture i used 4 time the above amount,
and it took 2 people about 2+ hours to prepare and than bake them.

Quickly mix all the ingredi­ents to a short-crust dough and leave it in a cool place for one hour.
Roll out the dough to a thick­ness of about 1 cm before cut­ting into small pieces meas­ur­ing about 2 cen­ti­meters and form­ing crescent-shaped cook­ies.

Place the cook­ies on an bak­ing tray with baking paper and bake at a mod­er­ate tem­per­at­ure (180°C) for about twenty minutes or until they turn a light brown color.
Straight after removing them from the oven sprinkle them with vanilla sugar.

Let them cool down and enjoy.
They can be kept 2-3 weeks easy, but normally wont survive that long, at least not with my wife :-)

Tip: if you cant get your hands on vanilla sugar, use a vanilla stick and normal white sugar, add the stick to the sugar and leave that in a glass for at least 2 weeks... here you go, vanilla sugar self made.....

This cookies are also a great self made gift !