Käsenocken (cheese dumplings)

Ah this one brings back memories!! It's a recipe from South Tirol, a region in the north italian alps where I used to go skiing all the time. They have some absolutely deliscious food, this is one of them. it works well on it's own or with a nice refreshing salad.

The Goods:

1 oz (1 small) onion, diced finely
1 oz butter
3.5 oz hard cheese (Gouda, Cheddar, something like that), finely diced
5 oz old, dry bread,  finely diced
2 eggs
3.5 oz milk
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
4 table spoons chives
1 oz grated parmesan
salt, pepper to taste

The Works

Brown the onion in butter. In a bowl combine the diced bread, onion and cheese. quirl the eggs and milk, season with half the chives, some salt and pepper and then pour over the cheese mixture. Add the flour and knead into a dough. Using moist hands form small dumplings out of the dough and chill while bringing salted water to a boil in a large pot. add the dumplings carefully and cook for approx q0 min, dumplings are done when rising to the surface. Do NOT overcook. Fry the dumplings briefly in butter after you cooked them, sprinkle some parmesan and enjoy alone, with some salad or as a side dish.

Gurkensalat (german cucumber salad)

This one is for my friend Jess, she asked me for it. It is my version of it, not an *official cookbook one*. Sorry it took so long Jess

The Goods:

1 large cucumber (I prefer seedless or english, but any will do)
1 small very finely diced onion (optional)
dressing

The Works

Peel the cucumber (if so desired, some you can eat with the peel), slice thinly and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for about 10 minutes then get rid of the liquid that collected. Add the onion of you opted for it and your dressing and mix well, let stand in fridge for about 30 for best taste, but it is perfectly fine to eat right away.

Sour creme dressing for salads

I use this dressing for all kinds of salads it works perfectly for really anything and it is creamy, but yet on the lighter side, you can easily substitute the sour creme with greek yogurt regular yogurt or if you want to go extra creamy, heavy creme.


The Goods


1/8 of a cup very cold water

3 tablespoons oil ( I prefer extra virgin olive or grape seed)

3 tablespoons vinegar (I prefer balsamic or apple cider)

salt, pepper, italian herbs to taste (usually 1/3 of a teaspoon of each does the trick)

1/4 of a teaspoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon mustard

1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons sour creme (depending how creamy you want it


The Works


Mix the water, vinegar, herbs, spices and sugar thoroughly, add the mustard and sour creme, mix toroughly again, then add the oil and do the same. Pour, into bowl of salad and mix up or if you add portionwise just drizzle to taste

Nudelsalat (pasta salad, a lighter version to the mayo heavy ones)

There are tons of pasta salad recipes  in every country almost it seems, here in the US one of the ingredients that is usually used is mayo, which makes the salad very heavy in my opinion. In Germany, very few dressings are mayo based and even pasta salad has a vinegrette, which makes it a lighter version in my book. Since pasta salad is a favorite for cook outs and bbq's I thought adding my version of pasta salad here would be a good idea.

The goods:

1 pound of pasta cooked per package directions and cooled
1 cucumber (sliced, peeling optional)
1-2 tomatoes, diced
1 or 2 bell peppers, diced (color of choice)
 4 ounce of hard cheese (cheddar, monteray jack, swiss, really up to you), diced
4 ounce of honey ham, diced
 1 small can of sweet corn

for the vinegrette:

1/4 cup of cold water
1/16 cup of apple cider, wine or balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard
3 tablespoons sour creme or plain fat free yoghurt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons of mixed herbs (dried italian is an easy option)

You can also scratch the herbs and sugar and use a pack of italian dressing, mixing it as directed and adding the mustard and sour creme/ yoghurt if you are pressed for time or simply lazy hehe.

The work:

mix all together, chill and enjoy

Candied Sweet Potatoes with Marshmellows

So Thanksgiving is now ever and I am sure we are all stuffed to the guts even now a few days later, I know I am. This recipe came about because we were having thanksgiving with friends and the task of making the various potato side dishes fell to me. For the longest time I did not even eat sweet potatos but that changed ever since I tried my MIL's sweet potato casserole a few years back. There are tons of recipes online for all kinds of variations on sweet potato casserole or candied yams and I guess now I am adding mine to the mix lol. So let's get to it, shall we?

The Goods:

3-4 lbs sweet potato, peeled and cut in small pieces (~1 inch in size)
 1 1/2  to 2 cups of brown sugar ( ore or less if you increase or degrease the amount of potatoes you use)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 to 2 teaspoons (depends how strong you want the influence to be) ground ginger
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 cup of water
marshmellows to cover

The Works:

preheat oven to 375 º. in a large roasting pan (foil or nonestick, if you make it to take along I recommend foil) arrange the sweet potatoes, set aside. combine the other ingredients except the marshmellows in a small to medium size saucepan and bring to a boil, stiring constantly until it is a gooey mass and all the sugar is dissolved. Pour the mixture evenly over hte sweet potatos and mix to coat. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 50 min. remove foil and decrease temperature to 350º. bake for another 30 to 40 minutes. Now up to here you can premake the dish up to a day before, simply cover and put into the fridge if you make it ahead, or if you are using it right away (and I mean right away, if you don't need even just for a few more hours, then forgo this next step until about 30 min before you serve the dish) cover  the sweet potatos with minimarshmellow and broil at 500º for about 5 to 10 minutes until marshmellows are melting and slightly brown ontop.

Enjoy