One of the nearby towns, Gent, does a citywide meatless Thursday, where once a week, all schools and public offices serve only vegetarian dishes to promote sustainability. I think it’s a great idea! This last week, I tried to cook a few vegetarian meals (and they were tasty too). Here’s what I made:

Couscous and feta stuffed peppers

Coconut rice and beans

I also made some penne alfredo with zucchini and tomato, but since it was without a recipe, I didn’t take a photo. I’m now quickly running out of ideas and would love some recommendations on vegetarian recipes or websites. I still have a bunch of black beans (from the US) to use up, and I would also love to find a tasty veggie burger recipe since you can’t buy those here. Got any suggestions?

What’s better than fresh peppermint bark from the refrigerator? Peppermint bark made from Belgian chocolate! I used Savory Sweet Life’s recipe to make some delicious peppermint bark last week and it was so easy, and so tasty. You should try it.

The key to this recipe is having all of the ingredients prepared beforehand. You need two chocolate bars, a bunch of peppermints, a cookie tray with a lip, parchment paper, a hammer, and a plastic bag.

1. Put the peppermints in the bag and smash them to pieces. Separate the dust from the crumbles – you’ll use both.
2. Chop up all your chocolate and keep it separated by type. I used milk chocolate and milk chocolate, but I bet dark chocolate would be good too.
3. Line your cookie tray with parchment paper and set it nearby.
4. Melt your first type of chocolate. You can do this with a double boiler if you have one, but I just microwaved mine in four 30-second increments, stirring between each set.
5. Pour the chocolate into the pan and spread it out as a thin layer. Set it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to cool.
6. Add the peppermint dust to your second chocolate and repeat the microwave steps.
7. Pour and spread it over the first layer in the cookie tray. Sprinkle the bigger peppermint pieces on top and set it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to cool.
8. Once it is solid and you can pick up the parchment paper without it bending, break the bark into smaller pieces to eat. Enjoy!  Note: The box my Christmas cards came in made a great gift box.

The photos from this set are posted on Picasa Web:

• Peppermint Bark (9 photos)

Vinyards in the Mosel Valley

Last weekend, Thomas and I joined the A-club for camping in Trier. Though in Germany, Trier has a long Roman history. It was originally called Augusta Treverorum, and founded by Emperor Augustus in 16 BC, even earlier than ancient Rome. While we were in Trier, we had an interesting experience at Zum Domstein, where we enjoyed an authentic Roman dinner.

Tourists at Porta Nigra

Dinners were the largest meal of the day for Romans. We enjoyed a multi-course meal based off of Apicius, a collection of ancient Roman recipes. Romans did not have all the same ingredients we have today, such as tomatoes, potatoes, and sugar.  For sweetener, they used honey instead.  Wealthy Romans would often lounge on sofas as they dined, but we sat at regular tables, surrounded by local Roman artifacts. However, the waiters did wear togas.

For my meal, I had:

• Apertif: Mulsum – White wine mixed with anise and honey, served in a clay cup
• Soup: Tisana – hearty barley soup with a little lemon juice and dill
• Bread: Mustea – Bread made with wine, cheese, anise, and a bay leaf  (best bread I’ve ever tasted)
• Appetizer: Lucanicae/Fabaciae – Sausage links mixed with pine nuts, served with green beans in fish sauce
• Appetizer: Cardui – Cooked artichokes in vinegar sauce
• Main Dish: Chicken in Allec sauce – Allec sauce is the sediment left at the bottom of the barrel that other fish sauces were made in. Luckily, I didn’t know what it was when I ate it.  Thomas had lamb with herbs, wine, onions, and dates, but I couldn’t tell a difference between our sauces.
• Dessert: Patina de Piris – Pear souffle with peppercorns

If you head to Trier, I really recommend the restaurant.  It was a delicious and very unique meal. For the foodies out there, I’ve linked to some of the corresponding recipes that I’ve found online.

St. Peter's Cathedral

Also on our trip, we wandered around the Mosel Valley where we visited a castle, saw many great views, and visited a wine shop where we tasted eiswein, a sweet wine made from grapes frozen on the vine. Though the wine was very good, it was pretty pricey, so we just bought a bottle of Reisling instead.

Knocker on the Cathedral Door

In Trier, we visited the Roman sights: Imperial Baths, Porta Nigra city gate, Cathedral of St. Peter, and also the Karl Marx house.  It’s a great town to visit for a weekend – very walkable, and plenty to see.  And, I’ve heard they have a fantastic Christmas market.  If you’d like to see more photos from our trip, I’ve posted them on Flickr:

• Camping in Mosel Valley and Trier (22 photos)

Supposedly Pangasius is very similar to catfish. I found a delicious recipe posted by I Dine Alone for Pan Fried Paprika Pangasius. I haven’t been that successful in the past in keeping breading on meat, but this came out great. And it was very flavorful and easy to make. The whole deal took no more than 20 minutes. Overall, I rate this recipe high and will definately try it again.

I know this doesn’t look that appetizing, but trust me, it was really good. It’s the leftover Olive Pesto Pasta that I reheated for lunch today. I made it for dinner last night, and it was delish.

I think the original recipe was from Real Simple (I cut it out a long time ago, so I’m not certain). But, it was really easy – I don’t think it took even 30 minutes to prepare.  I will definitely try it again, so I thought I’d share (my version of) the recipe. Sorry, I don’t have amounts – I just worked with what looked good.

1. Boil the spaghetti al dente.
2. Remove pits from green and black olives. (I used the second method here to do this.)
3. Toss olives in food processor with garlic, parsley, basil, pine nuts, and olive oil.
4. Process the pesto.
5. Breifly heat pesto on stove.
6. Add drained spaghetti, and a little of the spaghetti water to pesto.
7. Continue cooking until water is gone.
8. Sprinkle with feta cheese.
9. Eat and enjoy.

P.S.  Ahh, I found the actual recipe online. – here you go. The main differences are to skip the nuts and feta. Use only green olives in the pesto and sprinkle sliced black olives on top. The final dish will be more green than black like mine.  Enjoy!

P.P.S.  Anyone have any good recommendations on cooking blogs?  I’m looking for some that have normal, everyday recipes with nice photos – not fancy gourmet.  I’m just a beginner cook. :)

The recipe said mini-marshmellows, Thomas...

Bigger, better, tastier, more!

We came home and took a post-turkey nap, and then joined up with Bill and Jane for some boardgames – Turbo Taxis, Blokus, and Scattergories. I think we all had a great time.  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving too.

The rest of my Thanksgiving photos are on Flickr:

• Thanksgiving Photos (9 photos)

Don’t forget that I’ve got two fabric giveaways in the works, and I’ll post another one soon. Be sure to check them out here and here. And if you’re interested in more fabric, some of my Ebay auctions are ending soon.

A CSA is a way for the public to create a relationship with a farm and receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become “shareholders” of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season.

Each week, I go to the Local Food Stop website to see if I want to purchase the basket of produce they’re offering.  If it is things I’ll use, I pay and pick it up at our church Thursday evenings.  There’s no subscription commitment or requirement to work on the farm, and it’s reasonably priced – cheaper than both of us eating out all week, and healthier.  Because they’re working with several farmers, there is a varied selection of produce, and so far, it has all been top quality.

This is what we got the first week: apples, plums, a pomegranate, romaine lettuce, green peppers, an acorn squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, purple cauliflower, and a little basil plant.

The best part of it is that we’ve been cooking a lot more with this great food.

• Baked apples for breakfast – cut in half, spread with brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins, and microwave for 5 minutes.
• Pomegranate Walnut Chicken – bread chicken with walnuts and saute, cover with sauce from pomegranates, juice, red wine, broth, and some seasoning
• Acorn squash – cut in half, spread with butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, thyme, and bake for an hour
• Beef stew – crock pot the beef, cauliflower, zucchini, tomato sauce, and potatoes
• Pesto sauce – mix olive oil, basil leaves, garlic, and walnuts and then pour over cheese ravioli – we added in a little cream sauce too

I snacked on the plums, and am saving some of the stew veggies for chicken curry.  I haven’t used the tomatoes or lettuce yet.  We had a couple of snaffus due to our inexperience in the kitchen – we didn’t know how to properly bread chicken but the delicious pomegranate sauce covered it up, and our beef stew was a little bland.  The pesto was awesome, and I discovered a really cool mini food processor that was under my cabinet.  (Mom, did you leave that there?)  So overall, it was good enough to try another week.

This week, we got: tri-colored shard, red leaf lettuce, snap beans, concord grapes, radishes, yellow squash, apples, pluots, mushrooms, green onions, and an avocado.

This week’s recipes haven’t been posted on the CSA website yet, so I’m a little unsure on what to do with some of these items.  If you have any great recipes these, particularly the chard, lettuce, radishes, squash, or onions, let me know.