Spatzle

For my daughter's birthday, I'm republishing this old post on the Spaetzle we're making tonight.

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Fifteen years ago, my neighbor, who was a great cook, invited me over for dinner. She had made homemade spätzle with a spätzle maker she'd found in a yard sale during a visit to her home state. The maker looked like a cheese grater with a shuttle across the top of it. I was delighted when she demonstrated it: the dough drops through the holes as the shuttle scrapes over them, dropping drippings of spatzle dough right into the boiling water. How clever; how sensible!

Spätzle fascinates me. I classify it as a homemade pasta or egg noodle, and I love that there's no running the dough through a pasta maker several times to make it smooth, and no figuring out where to hang the pasta to dry. But there's still enough effort involved that it feels like a homemade food project, a bit of an adventure, a bit celebratory.

I've been wanting to make spätzle for years since, so on my recent trip to Austria I purchased a spätzle maker of my own. It has a curved surface with holes, and a rubber scraper for pushing the dough over them. It's wide enough to rest over any of my boiling water pots. I understand you can substitute a large-holed colander for a spatzle maker, but I've never tried.

The recipe I used: 500 g flour, 6 eggs, 150ml water, teaspoon of salt. I let my stand mixer do the work.

• 500 g flour
• 6 eggs
• 150ml water ( 1 2/3 cup water)
• 1 teaspoon salt

I brought a potful of water to boil, adding salt and oil.

I put a big scoop of dough on the spätzle maker. I could tell the consistency was right because it drooped through the holes but didn't fall or run out. I scraped back and forth which forced the dough out. The spätzle that floated was done; I pulled it out with my mesh kitchen sieve.


Now, what to serve with it? Spätzle is a German food I associate with chunks of meat and gravy. Yet like egg noodles, it's good with butter and a little salt. I made a simple mushroom cream sauce by sautéing chopped onion and finely diced mushroom (used food processor to chop) and then adding some cream and cooking it a bit more. Add a side salad, and we had a delicious dinner tonight.

Thoughts about men's watches

what your watch says about you.

Mesh straps were an upcoming trend in 2012

GQ UK editorial picks: Milanese band men's watches. Date unknown

Roman Shades Project

http://www.addicted2decorating.com/second-roman-shade-finished-plus-a-tutorial.html
http://www.ohohblog.com/2016/03/sew-roman-blinds-shades.html

Alternate: no rings, just eyescrews in the end of the dowels.
And, channels in lining fabric ONLY, so this would work with a large print.
http://wipster.blogspot.com/2010/06/avoiding-night-time-peepery-with-roman.html

fajitas dinner

I had leftover rice, potatoes.
I made scarlet runner beans that morning.

It was hot, so I didn't want to do oven fajitas.
2.25 lbs of chicken thigh meat, cut up.
heat oil in skillet, add
1TB good chili powder,
1teas paprika
a little garlic powder.
Put meat in, added salt.
cooked the heck out of it, since I felt like the meat was starting to turn.
lemon zest and some squeezed lemon, because I had it.
lots of spice-colored greasy juice in this one.  It was a hit.

Prepared beans with same spices; not as successful.

sauteed most of a large red onion and a large red pepper in another skillet for fajita veggies.

grated cheddar.

tore up a head of iceberg lettuce

The kid who wasn't feeling like mexican food put chicken on rice.

The woman who is dieting put a bed of lettuce on her plate and topped it with onion, pepper, and a little chicken, and some oil-and-vinegar dressing.  But she got hungry at 10 and had a half a PB&J for dessert and then popcorn.  So next time, more chicken for her.

One made two bean burritos with potato inside, and then still couldn't sleep four hours later because so overstuffed.

Teen age boy ate the one serving of leftover meat rather than bother putting it away in the fridge for tomorrow.

Garden Sun Notes

First week in July
6:00 front veggie garden in shade
6:45 south half of front veggie garden in sun
7:15 all of front veggie garden in sun;
     --nb: stake shade is 2.5x its height, adding a 3-ft eastern hedge would shadow all the garden!!
7:15 all of back garden in shade
7:45 southern half of back garden (lawn side) is in sun
8:30 back garden in full sun except for tomato plant closest to gate.
9:05 still: back garden in full sun except for tomato plant closest to gate.
10:00 all the back veggie garden in sun, including tomato plant closest to fence.

1 pm full sun everwhere
2:40 front yard: the lilac is making a shadow into the front garden, but the roofline shadow hasn't reached it yet.
2:40 back yard: back 2/3 of veggie garden in shade; front half of garden along fenceline are getting sun; grassline along "triangle" has sun for those plants.  Tomato addition along fence to gate in full sun.
3:30 roofline shadow at border of front garden.
3:30 backyard tomato area along fence in full sun;
        some dappled sun on corner of main backard garden

What to make when you're feeling sick

Vermont spring comes late but then unrolls four times as fast as anywhere else, like we're watching capture-motion photography.  I didn't have the usual allergies and thought maybe the mild winter had kept the pollens down.  Then, a few days after school got out, the allergies hit hard probably followed closely by an opportunistic cold.

I was really shocked this year--I was weak, tired, achy.  My throat was pain.  It's a tribute to my privilege of health that I'm so unfamiliar with feeling physically unwell.  Also, it was just bad.

We ordered pizza twice.

Fortunately (?) my daughter succumbed before me, and I made a big pot of chicken noodle soup for her.  The next day when I was sick, the leftovers tasted like heaven.  I had no idea.  We had Ritz crackers in the house, which was very good.

Ramen: kid made ramen for lunch a couple times.  So I'm glad I had that on hand for her.

I lost all interest in eating salads.

When I started to feel better, I made rice in the cooker and baked a turkey breast that I had defrosted the day before.

When I was well enough to go to the store, I bought deli salsa (uncooked; my favorite) and it tasted AMAZING after days without vegetables.

Also relatively easy: pumpkin pie using canned ingredients and a store-bought graham cracker crust.

NYT Berry Buckle, made two with doubled recipe.  The hot cooked berries are heaven.

Pioneer Asian Noodle Salad

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/asian-noodle-salad.html

video uses rice vinegar