It’s been a month after my previous post and the final fixes have just been completed on my home. That’s not to say that I have an updated kitchen and tile floors and everything’s put away, but… well, what was waterlogged has been replaced and things look tidy. My tutoring room is still a bit messy, but I could straighten it enough for company in a day. We’ve spent a month putting things back where they belong and soothing the kitties. I’ve even made an ever-growing pile of things to donate.

Since my previous post, I’ve also celebrated my birthday and Pi Day, tutored less than anticipated (darned staggered Spring Breaks and sick kids!), had my TI-84+ Silver Edition mysteriously die on me (no, the batteries do not need to be changed, but maybe I spilled something on it), and I’ve cooked and baked very little (what I have cooked and baked have been holiday-based). However, I am learning and planning more meals and goodies for the future.

A few days before Pi Day, I made 5 batches (each enough for a 9 inch circle) of pie dough using a recipe the Brown-Eyed Baker posted, adapted from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. I used the food-processor-method described in detail in the post, with my teeny 4-cup Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus. I discovered that the butter must be cold, or else it just becomes a slightly-whipped mush below the blade and doesn’t mix properly. I first tried making two half-batches, then felt brave and made a full batch. A full batch worked very easily, but the Mini-Prep Plus can’t handle more than that. I was impressed by the little machine and the ease with which the crust was made.

Unfortunately, rolling it out a few days later was exhausting! For a 9 inch pie, you need two 12 inch diameter discs.  I had to rest after rolling out the crust, which was fine because it had to be molded to the container (or laid flat, for the top) and refrigerated.

I only wound up making three “pies,” unfortunately. Apple Pie was the first. It was pretty easy and turned out very well. I used a recipe I found online (I think off allrecipes.com), but for the life of me I can’t find it now! Luckily, I saved a copy of it, which can be found at the bottom of this post. Peter’s coworkers had been forewarned, so one brought vanilla ice cream in anticipation, which I believe was part of its success. One said, “you can’t buy apple pie like this!” They saved me a piece and I can honestly say it was good but next time, it will be even better, with a little lemon zest in the crust or something. Better than super-market-made is good, but comparisons to someone’s grandmother’s is always the goal.

My First "Apple Pi"

I also made Chicken Pot Pie, which was an epic fail, and Shepherd’s Pie, which was definitely not worth repeating (and my husband could not put into words what it needed or had too much of, in terms of ingredients or flavor or texture); both savory dishes were foods I don’t normally eat but my husband loves.

I also made iced four-leaf-clover sugar cookies and chocolate mint cookies (recipe at bottom of post, adapted from allrecipes.com) for St. Patrick’s Day, both of which were greatly enjoyed by my husband’s coworkers. Next year, maybe I’ll try a cookie with a whiskey or Bailey’s Irish Cream base.

St. Patrick's Day Cookies: Iced 4-Leaf Clover Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Mint Cookies

There are two lessons I could learn from this. Either I should stick to baking, or I should stick to what I know or could imagine eating. I plan on going with the latter, mostly because I have had some relative wins in cooking in the past (e.g., pot roast, Swedish meatballs, and Czech chicken paprikash) and we do happen to eat meals every day.

Ali’s Apple Pi

Ingredients:

• 2 twelve-inch-circles’-worth pie crust dough
• 2 1/2 pounds (about 6 large) green apples, peeled, cored and sliced into ¼” x 1″ chunks (about 8 cups sliced)
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine the sliced apples, sugars, lemon juice, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Let the apples macerate at room temperature for about two hours.
2. After the dough has chilled sufficiently, remove one portion of the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry into a 12-inch circle. Fold the dough in half and gently transfer to a 9-inch pie pan. Brush off any excess flour and trim the edges of the pastry to fit the pie pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.
3. Then remove the second round of pastry and roll it onto a 12-inch circle. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator.
4. Place the apples and their juices in a strainer that is placed over a large bowl (to capture the juices). Let the apples drain for about 15-30 minutes or until you have at least 1/2 cup of juice. Pour collected juices and the 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 6-7 minutes or until the liquid has reduced to about 1/3 cup and is syrupy and lightly caramelized.
5. Meanwhile, remove the top pastry crust from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes so it has time to soften and become pliable.
6. Transfer the drained apples slices to a large bowl and mix them with the cornstarch. Then pour the reduced syrup over the apples and toss to combine. Pour the apples and their syrup into the chilled pie crust. Moisten the edges of the pie shell with a little water and then place the top crust over the apples. Tuck any excess pastry under the bottom crust and then crimp the edges using your fingers or a fork. Using a sharp knife, make five 2-inch slits from the center of the pie out towards the edge of the pie to allow the steam to escape. Cover the pie with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill the pastry while you preheat the oven.
7. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the oven rack at the lowest level and place a baking stone or baking sheet on the rack before preheating the oven. Place a piece of aluminum foil on the stone (or pan) to catch any apple juices.
8. Set the pie on the stone or pan and bake for about 45 to 55 minutes or until the juices start to bubble through the slits and apples feel tender (not mushy) when a toothpick or sharp knife is inserted through one of the slits. Make sure to cover the edges of the pie with a foil ring to prevent over browning after about 30 minutes.
9. Remove the pie from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 3-4 hours before cutting. Store at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.

adapted from allrecipes.com

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/8 cup (3/4 stick) butter
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 tablespoons water
• 1 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 5/8 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 24 chocolate-covered thin mints

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, butter and water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate chips until melted and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
2. Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the egg. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll cookie dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, be careful not to overbake. When cookies come out of the oven, Press one mint wafer into the top of each cookie and let sit for 1 minute (for smaller cookies, break mints in half). When the mint is softened, swirl with the back of a spoon or toothpick to make a pattern with the green filling of the mint wafer.

adapted from allrecipes.com

It’s the two weeks before Pi Day (3/14, also celebrated as Einstein’s birthday by nerds around the world). I have a lovely Pi plate (courtesy of Grandpa Susie and Grandpa Bernie), as well as other pi-making accoutrements: pi baking dish with crust protector, glass pi baking dish, and a baking pan to make a set of 4 tartlets.

Pi Plate

The goal had been to bake at least 3 pis a week for the 22 days (3.14 weeks) before the big day.

However, that’s not going to happen. A pipe burst in our kitchen and a-larger-than-R2D2-sized dehumidifier and its mini microban mate have been sucking the wet out of our subfloor until (hopefully) today. There were 4 more downstairs, but only 1 remains, in the wreck of the bathroom beneath the subfloor.

Kitchen and Lower Bath, deconstructed

But I do have some baking plans for Pi Day that WILL NOT be derailed!

2 meals: Chicken Pot Pi and Shepherd’s Pi

3 desserts: Apple Pi, Ice Cream Pi, and either some evil chocolatey pie or tartlettes.

I will let you know what happens as I reinstate myself of queen of that kitchen and the pis come together.

Further, my birthday is coming up, and I had planned to make a smaller version of my grandmother’s spectacular Nusstorte, a pecan cake with whipped cream filling and dark chocolate ganache icing. Maybe I’ll put that off for another celebration. We’ll see. My parents (or, at least, my mother) will be visiting that weekend, so maybe I’ll do some baking with/for them.

This year, I made three things for a friend’s small Super Bowl gathering. I made a lot because we weren’t sure how small it would be. It wound up being just five of us (our two couples and a friend), but I didn’t mind having left-overs (although not as much as I’d expected). Plus, I’d been wanting an excuse to try making a Buffalo chicken dip, and I couldn’t not make cookies. And I couldn’t let cutting my finger keep me down.

The dip was pretty successful. My husband’s from Buffalo. For years after moving to Maryland, he’d bemoan the dearth of real Buffalo chicken wings. He said it was good but after eating it for a while, you might get a little too much blue cheese of the blue cheese taste. That sounded good to me – it meant a person might want to eat it for a while, which sounds like a large amount of snacking for a dip. I got the recipe from the Brown-Eyed Baker, and cross-checked it with recipes from Allrecipes.com. Eventually, I just switched ranch dressing for low fat blue cheese dressing and, because low fat dairy products can often be too watery, only substituted half of the cream cheese for Neufchâtel (also known as in some areas as farmer’s cheese). Next time, I’ll use an extra half-pound of chicken breast and 4 oz of Neufchâtel, to yield the recipe below.

Buffalo Dip, single serving garnished with celery rose

The next morning, I made Citrus Butter Thumbprint cookies with fig preserves and raspberry preserves, my own recipe Frankensteined from butter cookie recipes and one I found from Betty Crocker on allrecipes.com. The raspberry preserves seemed to have enough tartness to offset the sweet butter cookies, but fig was very good too.

Citrus Butter Thumbprints, with fig and raspberry preserves

Then, I created my own chocolate peanut butter cookies with semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, Frankensteined from a bunch of different cookies I’ve tried and found from allrecipes.com. These were just how I like my cookies: soft, chewy, and chocolatey but not over-sweet. The peanut butter added a saltiness that I loved and our friends keeping a bunch and the rest being snapped up by my husband’s coworkers first thing in the morning.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie

RECIPES:

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Yield: About 12 servings

Prep Time: About 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20-30 minutes plus 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs chicken breasts or tenderloins (about 4 breast halves)
• 12 oz. bottle of hot sauce (not to be confused with Buffalo wing sauce or barbeque sauce)
• 16 oz. bottle of Blue Cheese Dressing (light or low-fat)
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 12 oz. Neufchâtel cheese (1½ 8oz. packages)

Directions:

1. Remove the cream cheese, the Neufchâtel, and the blue cheese dressing from the refrigerator so they can warm to room temperature.
2. Put the chicken breasts in a saucepan with enough water to complete submerge them. Put on medium-high heat until boiling, then reduce to simmer for twenty to thirty minutes. Then cut the chicken breasts into bite-size-long pieces and shred.
3. Put the shredded chicken breast in a 3 quart baking dish (a shallow 9″x13″ dish may be preferable to a taller dish, for dipping leverage) and pour the hot sauce on top of as much of the chicken as possible.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. While you’re waiting, combine the cream cheese, the Neufchâtel, and the blue cheese dressing in a saucepan over low heat. Mix until the cream cheese is completely melted and smooth, then pour the mixture evenly over the chicken.
5. Bake uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes.
6. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. If you wait and reheat it, use an oven. Serve with celery sticks (and/or other vegetables), tortilla chips or crackers.

Note: Many people may enjoy adding 2 cups of Mexican-combo, cheddar, or M cheese before baking (which yields a hard crust on top) and/or afterwards.

(adapted from recipe given by the Brown-Eyed Baker)

Citrus Butter Thumbprint Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, VERY mushily softened
• 1½ cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½  teaspoon grated lemon peel
• ½ teaspoon orange juice
• 1/3  cup fig or raspberry preserves

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, and Splenda Sugar Blend until smooth.
3. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lemon peel, and orange juice.
4. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
5. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and prepare ungreased cookie sheets with parchment paper, if desired.
6. Roll dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Using thumb or handle of wooden spoon, make indentation in center of each cookie. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon preserves into each indentation.
7. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Yield: 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped semisweet chocolate
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup peanut butter chips
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup peanut butter
• ½ cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
• ¼ cup Splenda Sugar Blend
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Melt 1 cup semisweet chocolate. Let cool to room temp.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, and Splenda Sugar Blend.
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
6. Stir in corn syrup, water, and vanilla.
7. Stir the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture.
8. Fold in chocolate chunks.
9. Drop, by double-tablespoonfuls, 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
10. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

FRIDAY

I planned to make a simple partially-homemade dinner: handmade meatballs, personally-seasoned garlic bread, doctored spaghetti sauce, and whole grain spaghetti (from a box). A child of two working parents, my husband grew up on food-from-a-box-or-bag. When they had spaghetti and meatballs, the meatballs had been precooked and frozen, a jar of sauce was to be dumped on top, and of course frozen garlic bread. So, when my fibromyalgia flared up (or we just got ridiculously busy), we pretty much did the same thing to prepare what had once been my favorite meal.

Well, not tonight!

I have 1.25 lbs of 87% lean ground beef, a stale baguette, a jar of Progresso Meat-Flavored Sauce, “Heart-Healthy” whole-grain Spaghetti, 2 large eggs, freshly shredded Parmesan, a stick of butter, olive oil, cream cheese, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, 2.5 cloves of garlic, and an onion.

I let the meat and eggs stand out to get closer to room temperature. Eventually, I got impatient and nuked the meat for 30 seconds at 40% power. This way, it won’t be too cold for my delicate hands. I plopped the meat unceremoniously into a small metal mixing bowl (mostly because I wasn’t sure what sort of ceremony it could possibly call for – maybe I should have used more of a flourish or shouted to the cats: “Aaaaand heeeeeeeere’s the meeeeeeeeeaaat!!!” But I didn’t. I just dumped it in.). I wasn’t sure whether 1 or 2 eggs would be called for. I couldn’t decide whether to add the freshly shredded Parmesan cheese to the meatballs.

My mother’s recipe involves a lot of “and then add some…” or “…a bit of…” and then doing something until “it starts to look about right.” This makes sense, given my grandmother always doctored her recipes to fit our larger audience, our fluctuating hunger (my brother was a growing boy and getting more adventurous in his food choices), and my mother’s electric stove (which must be said with a sigh of disappointment in how a daughter of hers can live like that). However, I don’t know how it should look oftentimes (especially when getting my grandmother’s old recipes). So I just fly by the seat of my pants.

But I did know things were going to get messy. So I stayed in my workout gear (to shower properly later, I naively planned), took out some paper towels, and began mincing 5 garlic cloves and 1/3 of the onion for the meatballs. I wound up with a pile about the size of a baseball… Okay, I don’t know exactly how big a baseball is. So I measured. The base of the cone-shaped pile had a 5″ diameter and was 2.5″ high, or 49 cubic inches, or 803 mL, or a hair over 27 fl. oz. That’s approximately a cup and a half of minced onion and garlic.

I put that momentarily to the side, removed what rings I could, pulled up my sleeves, made sure to play a show on the DVR I could enjoy (even if I’d have to watch the commercials!), and broke 1 egg onto the meat and mushed it together (I believe the culinary term is combined thoroughly). My mother uses jumbo eggs and thought I’d probably only need one egg but maybe two (they act as glue to hold the meatball together) – I had large and extra large, and sop I selected large so that there was room for a visibly significant part of one more egg if necessary. I mushed and mushed and decided I needed part of another. Based on how meat seemed to really respond more to the yolk, I used the yolk of the other egg. Mushed some more. Then dumped in the onion and garlic. Mush, mush, mush… When it was not yet completely combined, I added a pinch of salt, a few turns of pepper, and a shake of garlic powder. Then I mushed and mushed and mushed some more until it was thoroughly combined. I decided against adding something as unusual (to me) as cheese.

The plate I’d had the onion and garlic on now will hold the meatballs. I like small meatballs. My meatballs were between 2cm and 4cm (inch-lovers: stick to staying between 3/4″ and 1 3/4″) in diameter. All meatballs shrink, those that weren’t rolled with enough pressure or had a large piece of onion dividing it too much will probably fall apart and become one with the sauce. When rolling meatballs, think about you once-upon-a-time had rolled play-dough into balls using your palms, with occasional adjustments from your fingers. Use enough pressure to squish it a bit, but make sure it rolls around enough that it does become spherical in shape.

Now remember, I’m a little OCD and haven’t done this in a long time, so working up to this point took me an hour and a half. Washing my hands took another 15 minutes (tip: use dishwashing soap like Palmolive, squirting a couple of times, to remove the meat-fat that now covers your palms and don’t be afraid to scrape a bit using your fingers, then use your regular antibacterial kitchen soap).

Now, I clean up the counters a bit, because things can get messy, and took out the spaghetti pot and the cooking pan. I also chopped the remainder of the onion into small-to-medium pieces and tossed them into the pan. Since, in the past, I remember adding too much olive oil, I was more judicious with the EVOO before turning the burner on to Medium. I soon added more. And when that burned away, added more. Eventually, the onion became “glassy” (clearish and shiny). Then I added the meatballs. And more olive oil. And I browned the meatballs on ALL sides (I try to go for 4-sided pyramids to 6-sided cubes, depending on how they flop). Browning helps keep them from falling apart in the sauce. Eventually, I got tired of all that browning and decided it was enough (yes, I’m aware my OCD/perfectionistic-streak is very selective), so I dumped the sauce on top and swished it around. I closed the top for a few minutes and then checked again a couple of times, stirring. Once it was bubbling significantly, I brought the burner down to Low/Medium-Low. I stirred one last time and covered it, leaving the mixture to simmer for a half-hour to an hour with stirring each ten-minutes to quarter-hour.

Now, if I ran upstairs to shower, I’d be away from it for a half-hour straight. So I decided I’d just shower later. But sitting around a little sounded nice.

After half an hour, I figured why not get started on getting the garlic bread prepared, so all I have to do is pop it in the oven when Peter gets home? Sounds great, right? Wrong.

That baguette looked like a skinny little thing but she was rock hard and had an attitude. With my first slice, my blade glanced off the bread and “fillet”ed my left middle finger’s middle knuckle. At least, that was the doctor’s scientific term for that kind of laceration. I underestimated the injury and rocked the bread knife back and forth on top of the bread to get it through before realizing my left hand was burning and getting messy.

I called my friend, a nurse. She was getting Physical Therapy or driving home from it and didn’t answer her phone. I considered calling my mom, but she’d attempt to send me by ambulance regardless and make me feel like a Monty Python sketch comedian arguing, “It’s just a flesh wound!”. So I called my husband at work. He tried to put me on hold, so I just asked outright: “How deep does a cut have to be to need stitches?” Since it was still bleeding, he came home 10  minutes early and helped me turn off the burned on the stove (never, ever forget the stove, regardless of injury! You don’t want a serious injury AND a burned-down house!) before bringing me to urgent care. I stayed on the phone with my parents during the ten-or-so minutes it took him to get home, during which time I put a clean rolled-up paper towel over the wound and held it above my head.

The people at urgent care (All Well MD, on the corner of Snowden River Parkway and Oakland Mills Road) were great: I was seen quickly, my finger irrigated by dipping it into a urine specimen cup filled with saline solution and iodine, and (due to the “fillet” nature of the laceration) got a steri-strip instead of stitches (think medical duct-tape) and a full-finger-immobilizing splint (since the cut was on the knuckle, which I mustn’t use). I also got a tetanus shot. OUCH. I also got a prescription for antibiotics and my husband and I spent the next hour trying to get it filled at Target and eating dinner at Chicken Out (which was a challenge).

My Taped-and-Splinted Finger

When we got home, I threw away the offending bread, turned on the burner, finished off the sauce by crushing 6 cloves of garlic into the sauce and adding 1 tablespoon of cream cheese I had put into the microwave for 30 seconds on 40% power. I stirred it all in and let it simmer for fifteen minutes, then I turned off the burner and let it cool for a half-hour. Then Peter dumped it into tupperware for me and slid it into the fridge and we went to bed.

SATURDAY

Peter didn’t come home in time for dinner. Oh, well.

SUNDAY

It was Superbowl Sunday, and we had plenty of food at my friend’s house. (see my next post)

MONDAY

Yesterday morning, I had my follow-up with the doctor. He said my finger was healing nicely and gave me a shorter splint, with a few extra splints so I can replace it as needed over the next 7 days.

Smaller Splint

So, after having picked up 4 oval-shaped Italian-bread-like hard rolls at the store, I finally resolved to make Spaghetti and Meatballs with Garlic Bread for dinner. After getting home from work, I put the spaghetti pot on to boil, set the oven to 350, and began to peel 6 cloves of garlic (which wound up not being enough) and greatly soften 3/4 of a stick of butter. My husband cut the rolls for me, just in case.

Then I slathered each side with a thin amount of butter (about 1/2 of a tablespoon), at least 1 clove of crushed garlic, a sprinkle of garlic powder, and a sprinkle of paprika. By the time a half-hour was over, the water was at a roiling boil and I was wrapping each of the rolls (closed again, face-to-face) in aluminum foil and placing them on a baking sheet. They slid inside the oven and I began to put spaghetti in the pot.

Now I have 10 minutes. I opened the container of meatballs, turned the lid 1/8 of a turn (so the corners were halfway between the container’s corners), and popped it into the microwave for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, I mixed and turned the meatballs and set it for 3 more minutes. After 3 minutes had passed, I mixed and turned the meatballs and set it for 2 more minutes.

Finally, I took the spaghetti off the burner and drained out the water, putting the spaghetti in a soup bowl, and removed the garlic bread from the oven, placing the cookie sheet on my wire cookie cooling racks. We each unwrapped 1 roll for ourselves and sat down to devour our meal. Peter used the fresh Parmesan cheese on his spaghetti. I’m not a fan of it and ate mine “plain”.

It was delicious, even so belatedly eaten. There were no leftovers, and we tucked right into our meal, so I have no photo to share.

AFTERMATH

There are still dishes to be washed. But, more insidiously, the scents of the dinner is still within us. My fingertips absorbed the garlic juices and smell quite garlicky. And our bodies rid themselves of toxins and waste through the common bathroom routes as well as through our pores. My brothers wife and my younger brother’s girlfriends have complained they sweat garlic for a week after consuming it. I really hope I smell fresh.

In any event, these meatballs have lingered for 5 days. (Or 8, if you start counting the day I went to the supermarket to get the ingredients.)

Of course, I’ll probably have evidence for much longer. And I’ll show it to you, if you dare suggest I give up bread or cooking. Lord-oh-lord, I love garlic and bread, spaghetti and meatballs is still my favorite meal, and cooking and baking are just way too fun to give up – they’re artistic mathematical kitchen experiments!

When my husband and I first moved in together (gasp, yes, we moved in together before we married, even in this day and age!) and I was starting the summer session of graduate school, I made attempts to cook and the results were pretty good. Then again, two years later when we married and bought our first home, I made more attempts at cooking. Then I worked my butt into exhaustion, we moved to Maryland, I got sick, and I let my husband take over more and more of the cooking duties.

Now I have been feeling better. So after my first forays into baking in December, I decided that my husband could do with some home cooking. The thing is, he grew up with parents who made short-cut from-the-back-of-the-can/box dinners, which are also the kind of thing we’ve subsisted on for nearly a decade. I grew up on meals in which the prepackaged parts were the pasta or spaghetti sauce, but otherwise I get a lot of recipes from my mother that involve adding “some” of this, until it starts to look right, a shake or two of that seasoning, a whole lot of garlic, mostly because the volume grew a lot as my baby brother got older and we still wanted some leftovers and then shrank back a bit. My maternal grandmother’s recipes were some of my favorites growing up. Unfortunately, my grandmother had severe enough Alzheimer’s by the time I was in college that my husband never met her and she was unable to communicate the recipes to me directly. My mother was recently able to scan most of the recipes my grandmother had written down, but most are in varying combinations of English, Czech, and even some German.

So my first attempts to cook were with my mother’s recipes. But now I wanted to try my hand at those recipes I’d wait weeks to taste again, until Babi came to visit (babička is Czech for grandmother; her name was Mila, but as our only Czech grandmother, we called her simply Babi). So, until they are translated, I’ve been utilizing the power of the internet to find the recipes of Czech expatriates or the progeny of Czechs. Like everything else, I did a great deal of comparing and contrasting and trying to determine what seemed familiar and what seemed authentic.

My first meal was my absolute favorite as a child: chicken paprikash (kuře na paprice). It’s a Hungarian favorite, but it also is very very Czech. It turned out very well – the meat was tender, the sauce a nice combination of mild flavor and bland smoothness, but I hadn’t warmed up the sour cream enough or lowered the temp of the sauce so the sauce wasn’t consistent.

The short version of the recipe is to chop up half an onion and saute it in a bit of olive oil until glassy, then take a chicken cut into pieces (breasts, thighs, drumsticks, etc.) or just several thighs, bone-in with the skin still attached (but some of the fat beneath removed), shake paprika all over it (both sides) and brown it on all sides. Then put in enough chicken stock to cover it and bring the stock to a boil, then simmer it for a few (3 to 4?) hours. Remove the chicken, let the sauce cool a little and thicken it up with sour cream you have brought to room temperature (otherwise, it looks a little chunky). Then add the chicken again and shake a little more paprika over it all, and serve over egg noodles.

Chicken Paprikash (Kuře Na Paprice)

The second meal I made was another favorite, but rarely made: roast pork loin (vepřová pečeně) with bread dumplings (houskove knedlíky). I really enjoyed it when my parents took my baby brother and me to Prague when I was a teenager. It was super-easy to make. However, I am not a beer person, nor did I know that beer brings out the saltiness of food. I just read that no traditional Czech meal was complete without a good beer like Pilsner Urquell. I may have had too much salt or the beer might have been a poor addition. Either way, less salt next time.

For pork loin, here is another short-version recipe. Get a 3lb bone-in pork loin, or just a pork tenderloin that is well-marbled with fat or at least has a thick ridge of fat on top. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Make a rub out of two or three cloves of minced garlic, half of a minced onion, a teaspoon of caraway seeds, and a tablespoon of olive oil, then rub that rub all over the loin. Place into a roasting or baking pan with 1 cup of water. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated oven for 3 to 6 hours (longer makes it more tender). For the last half-hour or so, remove the foil. Serve with bread, bread dumplings (the recipe for knedlíky is below), or pan-roasted potatoes.

Czech-Style Roast Pork Loin (Vepřová Pečeně)

The third meal was Czech-style goulash (guláš), which is more like a thick stew, whereas Hungarian goulash is more like a soup (gulyás, in the hungarian sense, is known as gulášová polévka, or goulash soup, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia). It was okay (not extremely flavorful). I really enjoyed it for a few meals, but my husband only ate it once for dinner.  I’ll definitely make it again, but with potatoes for my very American husband rather than knedlíky). The recipe I used was from Czechmate Diary, as well as her recipe for a smaller batch of knedlíky, which tasted very much like the recipe I used the week before to go with the pork loin.

Czech-Style Goulash (Guláš) with Bread Dumplings (Houskove Knedlíky)

Houskove Knedlíky (Bread Dumplings)

Yields: 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1  to 3 cups milk
• 4 cups stale rye bread cubes

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of very lightly salted water to a boil.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Make a well in the center, and pour in the eggs and ½ cup of milk. Mix it all together until smooth and soft/doughy but still holding its shape (add additional milk as needed – I used just under 2 cups).
4. Fold in rye bread cubes.
5. Use wet hands to form the dough into 3 loaves about 5” long and roll in a cheesecloth, tying the ends.
6. Gently lower into water, and gently simmer for 30 minutes, rolling about 3-4 times while cooking. Remove from the water and unwrap.
7. Cut with a bread knife into half-inch-width pieces.

adapted from a recipe on allrecipes.com

Note: If left to sit for more than 10 minutes, it may get stale.

Houskove Knedlíky (Bread Dumplings), before and after cooking