Dinner in Gasthaus Rols-up n-Hook Abbing

Tell me about it .. what a name for a restaurant! That aside, everything was superb in this restaurant albeit slow service but the best thing is, I don´t have to cook tonight :-)

Here´s what we had, Smoked Trout (Forellen) with Berry Mousse - complimentary from the restaurant while waiting for our main course. Lovely taste, super fresh and not too salty. Plus point is, the sauce complimented the Smoked Trout well.

My main course of Schlemmerschnitzel (13.90 Euro), basically Pork Schnitzel with Creamy Mushroom Sauce serve with assorted salad, and poach vegetables. I love the mushroom sauce.  It was perfectly cooked, mushroom was fresh and the bits and pieces of nibble complimented the main well.  The only thing I don´t get is the sweet sauce on top my my Schnitzel.

Hubby had Schnitzel too but ala Prager Art.  The Schnitzel came wrapped in a huge egg omelette!  It surely does remind me of Thai Style Nasi Paprik or Japan´s Tomato Rice.  Anyway, hubby enjoys it and that´s all that matters. 

The thing about ordering main course here is, it always comes with a hugeee portion of french fries, boiled potatoes, or something with potato to fill you up further.  Mine came with Krokette (Mashed Potato Dumpling) while hubby´s one came with french fries. Though tasty, I had hard time finishing them.

This restaurant is pretty generous! Not only they serve  us complimentary Appetiser while waiting for main course, the wait staff surprised us further with FREE dessert too! We initially mistaken it to be vanilla ice cream at first glance but upon tasting, yikesss ... it is actually Pudding with Eier Liquor (Egg Liquor).  Since hubby had to drive, he ate the pudding up by scraping the Eier Liquor away.

The bill came up to 22.00 Euro including 2 small beer and 2 pot of Apfelschorle. Thanks to the discount voucher book you see here, one of our main course is free.

Charcuterie Platter Dinner

Tonight, I decided to go easy on hubby because he is not well. I would love to cook him a nice bowl of hot porridge to nurse him back to health but alas, my hubby is not chinese, nor asian so ... I´ve prepared his kinda comfort food in form of bread assortment, slices of cold cuts, cheese spread and nibbles here and there - just as how my inlaws downstairs have their dinner every night.

There goes our last batch of yummy french hazelnut salamis. Btw, do you know whats that orange looking thing at the bottom right corner of this photo? It is cactus fruit! They taste pretty good, sweet and creamy, but the rather awkward seed appearing now and then is a bit troublesome to remove away and yet, uncomfortable enough to swallow.  Nice nevertheless.

Curry Chicken Katsu Don Dinner

Last night, I decided to make Ching He Huang´s classic Curry Chicken Katsu Don for dinner.  I´ve made them once - remembered being vowed by it but something is definately not right with the recipe I´d jotted down.  The gravy were way too much, too liquidy, calling for 450 chicken stock of which I foolishly poured into the already filled-up pot.  I´ll say pour half portion in if you wanna give this recipe a try, that will do well.  The taste is yummy with slight sweetish taste, result from the apples and bananas used.  Hubby loved it so that´s a plus. With the two extra katsu chicken pieces leftover, I packed one into his `bento`box for today´s lunch and the other will probably be used for my lunch today.

Oh btw, do check out Ching He Huang if you´re into chinese food.  She´s a British Chinese, a sweet and shy-ish looking presenter I must say ... not too bad.

Nasi Lemak Sambal Sotong Lunch

Food blogs are generally a blessing in today´s world but for me whom lives far away from home, I really should tread carefully because the photo starring back can tempt you so much that I´m leaved with not much choice except do something about it! 

Thanks Sonia, your Nasi Lemak post made me scrambling on my feet to the kitchen this morning.

Curry Chee Cheong Fun Lunch

Emo post ...

The weather forecast says it is going to rain for the whole day today.  It is strange how bad weather can affect a person´s mood.  Hubby came back last night.  I am thrilled of course to see him after so many days of absense but why, oh why that all I am feeling right now is like the weather - rainy and gloomy and wanting to cry, curl up in bed sleeping and not give shit about the world.  I miss home.  Missing both my nieces including the younger one whom had on several occassion started called me EE when I called home.  My heart twiched  a little and cannot help wishing I am there to really, really get to play with her and to get to know her.  It is not helping too that I feel more and more distant from the elder one - the one and only niece whom I have been attached too since she was born.  What am I to do when I am not there to see her thru her day to day excitement, achievement, mischieviousness and more?

Today is the 27th September 2010.  If all goes well as planned -

It will be 132 days more to go before we fly back to Kuala Lumpur.

P/s: My precious chee cheong fun (thanks CL again, for bringing me this) lunch which I had awhile ago with pork curry

Todays Brunch of Three Eggs Omelette with Blackforest Ham

Frau Pepping, MIL´s cleaner delivers us her fresh farm eggs whenever she comes over every Wednesday.  It would not have been a problem finishing them in a weeks time if hubby was around but as it is, he will only be back early Monday morning.  Not wanting to bake, I cracked 3 eggs into the pan this morning before adding some Blackforest Ham in.  It took me no more than 5 minutes to prepare and then, brunch is ready.

Grapewine Jelly, Fresh Fruit Juice + A Clean Terrace

From the 5kg grapes we harvested, what you see here are the half of it.  The grapejuice taste awesome and super fresh like no other grapejuice I´ve tasted, but the bottles of Grapewine Jelly is still untouched.  Waiting for hubby to return for the ´opening ceremony´.

`

Just for the record here so that I know how our terrace look like in 2010 when I open up this entry in the future :-)

Last Night´s Roast Chicken Dinner

The Roast Chicken look kinda pale isn´t it?  I wanted something light hence I gave my usual olive oil drizzle on the skin a miss.  This is how it looks like after roasting in the oven for about 30 minutes.  The taste is somewhat compromised without the crispy chicken skin but for the sake of eating light, its OKAY.

Braised Yee Mee for Lunch

I developed a sudden crave for Braised Yee Mee last night before dozing off. It is strange really when this kinda thing happen.  I mean, out of the blue with nothing infront of me, no food pictures, not watching any food program, not looking at any yummy recipe books, or not even chatting with any evil friends or my brother whom loveeee tempting me with their recent food adventure.  Really, n-o-t-h-i-n-g at all. 

It is a good thing our pantry and fridge is well stocked. Craving satisfied today :-)

Oven Baked Endives, Pear & Tuna Dinner

Boy, am I worned out today - both from work and from lack of sleep last night.  Yesterday evening, my considerate neighbour decided to shift things around their new bedroom (which coincidently is adjoining to our master bedroom) way pass the allowed hour at 10pm.  In many cases, any locals here would have probably alarmed the authority after signalling him/her to stop by banging the wall.  I don´t know what came to me that I did neither. I just wanted to curl in bed and wish it went away :-( It did eventually.

This morning, I went out shopping for household stuff.  It is funny that when Autumn arrives, every single household here starts heading to the nearest Baumart (DIY store) for shopping, pack their stuff up and starts cleaning every single nook/corner of their home.  When I first arrive, I was appalled by such action but guess who is doing it now.  Did some cleaning afterwhich but that not all.  Me and MIL decided to harvest our grapes and make some Jam Jelly out of it.  Jam Jelly is different from marmalade or confiture.  It is a lot more tedious because we have to pluck each of the grapes out, clean them, cook them slowly before sieving the juice out.  It is after these process then, that we´re able ot cook them into jelly state.  While MIL cooked, I decided to clean our terrace. You see, our grapes hang over our terrace (you can click here to take a look how its like) and due to us harvesting them late, some had dropped all over the floor leaving the terrace floor with stains and what not. I had to move the furniture pieces around (and boy, they sure are HEAVY!), the flower pots (oh boy, they surely make me itch!) and whatever comes inbetween and then SCRUB dee dub dub the entire terrace before using a squeegees to remove the access water.  My body is aching now and hubby´s not home to give me a massage.

Uhhhh huh huh ... :-(

But really, I am only half of MIL´s age and she´s been doing it all these years ALONE.

Na ja ... I´ll probably hit the sack early tonight.  How´s your day so far?

And oh ... the endives, pear and tuna which I baked in the oven for dinner tasted surprisingly good together.  Another new discovery :-)

Chinese Jiaozi for Early Mid Autumn Festival Dinner

I´m a bit confused.  I read in some blogs Chinese Mid Autumn Festival falls tomorrow but a quick check with Wiki states that it is on the 22nd September this year???  Anyway, we celebrated them today since  hubby is going off to his Stammtisch trip tomorrow morning.

(I just realised that today is 21st! Blurrrrr me!)

Instead of serving tradtional mooncake, I cooked two varieties of Stir Fry Vegetables as side dishes. We had Stir Fry French Beans with Shrimps and Stir Fry Spinach with Baby Shitake Mushrooms.

I made Jiaozi for the first time from scratch! A lot of work people but sooo, sooo worth it.  Thanks to Cooking Gallery where I got the recipe from, the dumpling were super, duper yummy!  Even my hubby whom detest ginger and garlic in his meal ate them all up and gave thumbs up for the taste!  I have another batch to go and I´ll probably have them for lunch tomorrow.  Do look out for the recipe in my other blog soon yeah.  You will not be disappointed, I promise :-)

White Fish in Grapewine Sauce on Bed of Spinach

Tonight´s dinner was not too bad.  While I love the sauce again because of the of the usage of alcohol in them, I wish I can say the same about the fish.  It was the frozen kind with slight fishy smell.  I think that´s it ... the white variety kind seems to be very unforgiving when its frozen but surprisingly, all the frozen salmon I´ve tried taste superb.  Í guess I know what to do next time.

Harvested Grapes, Homemade Grapewine & Snacks

My tummy was rumbling again after brunching on a small bowl of Meehoon Soup awhile ago.  I am going to blame it on the cold weather be it a genuine reason or not.  Haha.  It really is not helping that the freshly harvested grapes from our garden were screaming for me to eat it from our kitchen counter top.  Since I am such a health freak, why not accompany them with something healthy such as cheese and alcohol?  :-P

Two nights ago, MIL and hubby turned our grapes into a small portion of grapewine (its more like a cocktail really, base on the method used ... hehe) and it tasted super yummy!  All I know is, they added some sugar and alcohol in without any cooking process but I will observe further when we (me and MIL) harvest and make something out from the remaining grapes when hubby goes off for his second summer vacation coming Wednesday.

I had them with sliced hazelnut salami which I brought back from Rhone´s Valley along with St Albray cheeses.  They say, eat like the french or japanese if you wanna stay slim :-P

Galettes, A Breton Style Buckwheat Crepe

This crepe caught my attention years ago upon reading them from this japanese lady´s blog.  She was raving about this particular french stall near the market of her place (somewhere in Los Angeles) that it never left my mind.  I finally get the chance to taste the infamous buckwheat base Crepe after spotting a packet being sold here.  This kinda crepe originates from Britanny, North France apparently.  Unlike in Paris where they usually serve their crepe with Nutella or sweet stuffing, seafood is use abundantly in their daily diet since they are closely located at the coast area.  Other form of savoury are commonly use too.

I made a simple Schinken or Ham based Crepe for hubby, along with slices of tomatoes, gouda cheese and lots of fresh herbs.  I wanted mine as close to Breton style as possible so I stuffed mine silly with prawns, squid and mussels which I precooked with lots of garlic, white wine and cream.

I´ve made a batch of the crepe on a standby along with all the other ingredients for whole day assembling and munching.  Today is Sunday - means no slaving around day! Haha.

An Apple Heart Me ...

We had breakfast, lunch and tea break and continued walking and shopping in Enschede till late evening yesterday.  By the time we arrived home, I had no energy left to do much else - needless to say cook so all I had was a small portion of yoghurt and snacked for dinner.  I also discovered an amazing site where I could read old issues of publication/magazines in assorted languages last night!  Isn´t that amazing?! Do visit the site if you are like me, living in a foreign land without an english bookstore nearby.  This site surely comes handy!

While munching on some snacks, hubby came in with a surprise for me :-)  It was from our apple tree downstairs and MIL was the one whom found them before passing them to hubby.  She is the sweetest isnt´t she ... :-)

Check out the heart ... AWWWWW :-)

Masala Glazed Pork Chop with Apples Dinner

We had another yummy dinner tonight. 

I cooked something similiar few weeks ago for hubby to try and he liked it but only after a while of getting use to having apples in his savoury dish.  Instead of using french mustard to season the sauce like before, I decided to experiment with Masala Liquor this time round.  And oh boyyyy ... it was a great decision because the sauce is super DELICIOUS!  I cannot believe that something so simple by dumping the sliced apples into the pan of pork juice, deglazing the apples later once slightly browned and then adding some cream over can have such an effect.  I am pretty sure I will experiment further with this liquor deglazing technique :-)

On a side note and lesson of the day, the pork chop was a tad too hard because I accidently left them on the frying pan wee too long.  Luckily it was salvaged and did not get burn, unlike the butter rice incident :-)

Blue Elephant Green Curry Chicken Dinner

Trust me when I said I´ve tried several curry paste brands since living here and none of them came close to what I use to enjoy back in Kuala Lumpur, or Asia.  With the exception of Koka Brand Singapore Curry Laksa Instant Noodle (which CL supplied me with yesterday, yay!!!)  ...

And this brand ... Blue Elephant.  Blue Elephant proclaimed to offer authentic Royal Thai Cuisine.  Not bad for a Thai Belgium couple whom took this brand to great heights since the 70s!



The instruction were clear and easy.  After sauteeing the paste till fragrant, just add the stipulated coconut milk (I substituted them with milk), water, chicken meat, peas, fish sauce, kaffir lime leave, chillies and sugar.  They tasted GREAT!

Another yummy dinner.

And hey, have I mention that hubby´s getting more and more adventurous with food lately?  He surprised me by ordering a portion of Naan Bread in an Indian restarant last week! He also thinks that my Naan taste better :-)

Brussel Sprout with Roast Duck Dinner

We are entering autumn season now which means that brussel sprouts, plums, apples and grapes will take centre stage in many fresh produce counter.  Our dinner tonight although were from the frozen kind, tasted delicious.  What is suppose to be crispy, ended up utterly crispy and what is suppose to be fresh tasting and not bitter in taste, tasted .. unbitter.  There you have it, tonight´s yummy dinner prepared with less than 45 minutes from thawing to roasting in the oven.

Nicoise Salad Lunch

My jeans had been getting a lot tigher lately, thanks to overindulgence during our recent holiday.

So, time for a little discipline.

Dutch Witloaf Dinner

I had instant noodle the night we arrive back from Bayern (Sunday) and hubby made himself a large batch of mash potatoes. The following day´s dinner was not better because we finally went for our Balloon Ride (it was fab!!!, will blog about them soon!) and by the time we got back, we were too exhausted again to fix anything fancy.  So, another evening of simple dinner.

Last night, I fixed a proper dinner finally after coming back from grocery shopping in the afternoon. I had a sudden craving for C.L´s Witloaf, a traditional dutch dish of Chicoree wrapped in Ham, smouldered in garlic cream sauce before sprinkling the top with Gouda cheese to be baked till golden brown.



It rained quite a bit yesterday so this dish was perfect.

Reber Sacher Torte Session with In Laws

What a mess you might say, but let me assure you that beneath the hard crack lies a not-too-bad Marzipan and Chocolate base Sacher Torte from Reber.  We wanted to try the original in Cafe Sacher, Salzburg but a freaking piece will set one back by almost 10 euro! Now, that is too much for an evening isn´t it.  And so, we got an alternative and am glad to report that the cake is not dry, as how the orignal one from Hotel Sacher is known for.  I am not so much a marzipan fan but surprisingly, this works well enough.  This cake can last up to 3 months in its original packaging so you can imagine what the hard chocolate cover is for.

Almost Moitié-Moitié Fondue Dinner

With a bit of time at hand before I head to bed, I thought I´ll share you what we had for dinner tonight.

Remember the red wine from last Sunday? I had to finish them off tonight otherwise, the taste will no longer be fresh when we return.  Our dinner was fabulous. We had a yummy Provence style fondue with very, VERY strong wine taste as we´ve got quite a bit of bread/toast left.  The fondue are packaged stuff from Switzerland but I swear that it taste almost identical to Moitié-Moitié Fondue (Gruyere / Vacherin Fribourg cheese mix) I´ve tried in Gruyere! Not bad for a 3.00 Euro ready made fondue packet :-)

Burnt Butter Chicken Rice

Hubby looked kinda shocked when he saw me dumping two medium size frozen chicken pieces into a pot of melted butter.  Luckily he did not hang around further to witness the smokey action in the kitchen after pouring the rice into the buttered chicken! Small accident where I left the heat on too high to cook while I tend to the vege dish.  Thankfully I discovered it early enough to produce two portion of rice still, minus the black ones underneath AND I must add that it was a wonderful accident BECAUSE, I loveeee the burnt fragrant smell of the buttered rice!

Dinner was not bad.  Hubby commented on how huge the plate of vegetables were.  Well, I need to clear the perishables so ...

One more day tomorrow before the road trip.  A lot to do tomorrow .... so hopefully, I will find time to come online. Otherwise, wishing you all great weekend ahead until I resume back to blogging mid September!

Inlaws Anniversary & A Bargain After Disaster

Yesterday was my inlaws 43rd wedding anniversary so naturally, we were downstairs celebrating with them from coffee till dinner time.  Actually I started earlier in the morning to deliver my inlaws their special gift when I suddenly find myself having a glass of champagne with her :-)  The photos you see here were taken just a while ago as I was a tied up whole day. 

We had two wonderful cake for coffee time.  The berry ones baked by MIL and Donauwellen, the one with white topping is store bought.  Both were truly yummy.

MIL informed me yesterday morning that a particular shoe shop were holding a half price sale starting yesterday due to last weekend´s  flood.  I was not sure if the shoes would be damp whatsover but figured, g check it out anyway.  Anyway, I found these all at half price and they were all in perfect condition so, no complain really.

I bought my first pair of Mary Jane at 9.90 Euro only (normal around 20 Euro).  It is superrrrr comfortable, came with chunky sole (perfect for cold, cold weather) and high (about 4 inch heels) and is something the locals here LOVEEEE wearing.  I am also a house shoe freak so when I spotted these Swiss Logo ones which I coincidently eyed on few weeks ago, I simply could not resist picking them up.  It was around 3.50 Euro only I think.  Bought a few pairs of socks too - winter is coming so stock them up first!  And one of my favourite item from Deichmann (it is a low end shoe store here btw) is their Soft-Gel Quattro Performance Gel Fussbett which cost 9.90 each normally and again, I got them at half price. I already have one and I swears by them.  I was one of those suffering from backaches after some hardcore walking but it miracelously went off during my last few travel trips.  It is really good.

Anyway, dinner was simple Croque Monsieur from Ina Garten´s Barefoot in Paris cookbook.  I must say it is THE BEST Croque Monsieur I´ve ever tasted and simple could not believe how easy is it to make them.  It is a bit time consuming though but nevertheless you´ll be vowed by how yummy the special sauce taste and how it can actually transform a simple toast, bacon and cheese sandwich call Croque Monsieur.

Okok, I shall share you the recipe in my other blog when I return from our yearly summer vacation.  Speaking of `summer`vacation ... I am officially bringing my winter clothes out from my side closet (boo!) coz seriously, was it not August only when the temperature decided to take a dip? Oh well ...