Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes)

Kartoffelpuffer are potato pancakes.  We used to grate potatoes by hand until we bought a food processor.  We like to serve these pancakes with applesauce, sour cream, sugar and/or some salt.

2 pounds potatoes
1 small onion, grated
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
pinch pepper
1 tsp. parsley or more, chopped
Tablespooons of olive oil for frying the pancakes

1.  Peel and wash potatoes.  Grate potatoes at once.  Drain the excess water.
2.  In large bowl mix potatoes with onion.  Add eggs, flour, salt, and pepper.  Last, blend in parsley.
3.  In a cast iron or electric frying pan, heat oil until bubbles form.  Pour in 3 tablespoons of the potato mixture to make each pancake and flatten.  When golden brown on one side, turn the pancake over. Cook until crisp and brown on other side.  Keep warm while frying remaining pancakes.Potato pancakes


Potato Pancakes
2 pounds potatoes
1 onion, grated
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
pinch pepper
1 Tbsp. parsley, chopped

1.  Peel and wash potatoes.  Grate potatoes at once.  Drain excess water.
2.  In a large bowl mix potatoes with onion.  Add eggs, flour salt, and pepper.  Last, blend in parsley.
3.  In a frying  pan, heat oil until bubbles form.  Pour in 3 tablespoons for each pancake and flatten.  When golden brown on one side, turn pancake over.  Cook until crisp and brown on other side.  Keep warm while frying remaining pancakes.
4.  Serve with applesauce (or sugar or sour cream or all three.)

Cherry and Almond Crumb Torte for Birthdays

Cherry Almond Crumb Torte

This is a great torte to make for a Kaffeklatsch or as a birthday cake.  Each summer we used to pick cherries, wash and pit them and freeze them and use them in cakes like this.

This recipe is an old recipe from an Air Force wife and mom named Jan Tremain.  I found it in a magazine called LADYCOM in the 1990's.   She writes that her family lived in Weilbach, an hour from the Rhein-Main Air Base.

2 cups flour
pinch salt
2/3 cup finely ground almonds
grated peel of a lemon
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 butter set out a room temp about 15 minutes before using
2 pounds of sour cherries

1. Stir flour, salt, almonds, lemon peel and sugar together in a large bowl.  Cut in butter with a fork or pastry blender.  With hands, knead until well-mixed.  
2.  Put half the kneaded mixture into the fridge.  Press the remaining mixture onto the bottom and sides of a 9 or 10 inch springform pan, forming a crust.
3. Spread the drained cherries over the bottom crust.  Take remaining mixture from fridge and sprinkle over the cherries to make a streusel topping.
4.  Bake on middle oven rack at 375 degrees for 60 minutes.   Remove to a rack; cool.  Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Mrs.Bauer's Christmas Stollen

My mom kept this paragraph that explained the history of the word stollen and the Christmas tradition.   We would include a copy of the paragraph when we gave the stollen as gifts.

This is the legend of how stollen got it's name:  One winter in the 1850's in Dresden, Germany there was a coal mine cave in that trapped many miners underground for many days. The miners were rescued and they had stayed nourished by sharing the loaves of fruit and nut bread in their lunch pails that their wives had baked.  The bread contained raisins, citron, butter, and leavening, was baked for its nutritional value and flavor. It also "aged well" and stayed great tasting after weeks, unlike other bread.  The word "Stollen" is the old German word meaning "mine shaft."  Stollen became a traditional delicacy baked and eaten during the winter holidays.   

These were directions that my dad photocopied from a Goleta Bakery stollen that they once ordered from Goleta, CA.   I added my observations to these directions. 
1.  Always keep tightly enclosed in original wrapping otherwise the bread will dry out.  We wrap ours in foil and then in an airtight plastic bag. 
2.  Europeans let the stollen "age" it at room temperature for one or two weeks, but stollen taste great right away too.  
3.  In Europe, stollen is always served sliced medium thin, plain and without previous heating. In other places, like in the U.S., I have seen people enjoy stollen toasted and  buttered. It make a delicious treat anytime of the day when served with coffee or tea.  

 Mrs. Bauer's German Stollen

A colleague of my dad's figured out the measurements while watching my mom make stollen.  Here is the recipe.

1/2 to 1 pound of butter at room temperature

7 1/2 cups flour mixed with 1 cup sugar and 3/4 tsp salt

8 packages of yeast or 6 cakes of yeast or 16 tsp.of yeast in 1 1/2 cups very lukewarm water with 1 Tbsp. sugar.

1 1/2 cups scalded milk (I put the milk in a glass measuring cup and microwave it for 2 to 3 minutes.  I let it cool to warm if it is too hot so as not to burn the yeast.)

1 grated lemon peel, 1 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 1/2 tsp cardamom,1 pkg. white raisins and 1 pkg. currants, 1  8 oz. container of candied citron chopped fine, 1 8 oz. container candied orange peel (optional), 1 1/4 cups almonds silvered or chopped fine

1. Let the butter soften at room temperature or melt the butter in a microwave.

2. Prepare the yeast by adding 8 packages of dry yeast, 1 Tbsp. sugar to 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water.  Be careful the water is not too hot.  Set this mixture in a warm, still place, cover with a clean cloth and allow the yeast to bubble and rise.   I took off the cloth and this is what the yeast, warm water and sugar mixture looks like:

3.  Put all the dry fruits, seasonings, nuts and lemon peel in a separate bowl and mix together.  I like to let this mixture soak in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of rum overnight.  One time I let it soak for over 1/2 a year because I didn't get around to making more stollen at Christmas the year before!  My brother calls this mixture "stollen gorp"  because it looks like a special trail mix.

4.  In a large non-metal bowl mix the flour, sugar and salt together.  My Joe says that the yeast doesn't rise as well in metal bowl.  Also, make sure the salt is mixed in because the yeast also doesn't rise as well if it touches high concentrations of salt.  Add the butter and yeast to the dry ingredients. Then add the milk and dried fruit and nut mixture.  Fold out on a floured surface and knead, adding flour until the dough is soft and doesn't stick to your hands.  Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a towel and let rise until double in size in a warm quiet place.  This takes about an hour.

5.  After the dough has risen, fold it out onto the floured surface again and divide the dough into the desired number of stollen loaves.   I usually make three or four loaves.  Pat the dough pieces
to make a rectangle and then fold the long edge over so the edge is along the middle of the rectangle.  Curve the ends slightly to make a crescent shape or keep the dough as a narrow rectangle. Put the loaves on greased cookie sheets and let rise a final time in a warm, quiet place.

6.  Bake about 40 to 50 minutes in a 325 degree oven until lightly brown and until the loaf sounds hollow when you tap on it.  Brush the warm stollen with melted butter and sprinkle with vanilla sugar. Next, allow the stollen to completely cool.  It is best to wrap the loaves tightly in tin foil and then put in an airtight plastic bag.  My mom says the stollen tastes better as it ages.  

7.  Sift powdered sugar over the top to look like snow before you serve the stollen.  Slice the stollen and serve with coffee or tea.  A lot of Americans like to put butter on the stollen and eat it like toast for breakfast but traditionally stollen is eaten un-toasted without butter.  One time I didn't put enough of the dried fruit and spice mixture in the dough and the stollen was more bread-like than normal.  

3 Christmas cookie recipies to save forever: Vanille Kipfel, Spekulatius and Lebkuchen

Vanille Kipfel

In English these are called Almond Crescents.  These are my family's favorite Christmas cookie. My mom taught me how to make them when I was a kid.  They are fun to make with family and friends because you shape the cookies between your palms and it is good to have extra hands to help.

Dough:
2 cups flour (you can start with 1 3/4 cups of flour and then add the rest at the end as you are collecting all the dough into one ball.) 
1 cup ground almonds   (I grind the almonds in a blender so they are like coarse almond meal)
1/2 cup sugar
1 pkg. vanilla sugar (My mom used to use Dr. Oetker's  packaged vanilla sugar but she also showed me how to scrape out a vanilla bean and put the hollowed bean and the beans insides a container of sugar and make vanilla sugar over the course of a few months.  One bean for each two cups of sugar.) 
some salt
1 1/4 cups butter, cold
Extra vanilla sugar or powdered sugar for dusting the cookies

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  You don't have to grease a baking sheet because the cookies will spread out too much if you grease it.  Blend the flour, almonds, sugar, salt and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into small pieces over the dry ingredients.  Mix the butter into the flour mixture with your hands.  Roll the butter and flour mixture between your fingers over and over to mix the butter evenly into the dry ingredients.  Work theses ingredients together quickly into a smooth dough.

To make the crescent shape, I pinch off a small amount of dough and shape it into a ball using my palms. The dough ball should be smaller than golf ball.  I then roll my palms together back and forth to make the ball into a cylinder or log shape.   I push the ends in if they are tapered too much.  I then form the cylinder into a crescent with my fingers and put it on the baking sheet.  My mom's friend, Emily, made very small delicate looking crescents, whereas my mom made bigger more hearty looking cookies.   It is fun to do with others and see how people have different styles of shaping these cookies.

Bake on the middle rack in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden in color. Let cool slightly before removing the cookies from the baking sheet otherwise they will break.  I put the cookies face down in a shallow bowl of vanilla sugar a few at a time and then turn them over to coat both sides of the cookies.  I then take them out of the sugar to make room for the next few.  Some people use powdered sugar instead of granulated vanilla sugar.


I like these cookies a lot. 
Spekulatius
500 g. flour
1 pkg. baking powder
250 g butter or margarine
250 g sugar
2 eggs
150 g almonds
zest of a lemon
5 g cinnamon, 2 g nutmeg, 1 g cardamom, 1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Bake for 10 minutes at medium heat.

or 
this recipe, but it has only cinnamon as the added spice 
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder

In a large bowl, mix the butter with the sugar until creamy.  Beat in the egg until fluffy.  In another bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon and baking powder.  Gradually add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing at low speed until well blended.  Cover and chill at least 2 hours.   To cut out with cookie cutters, roll well chilled dough on a floured board to 1/16 thickness.  I usually decorate the top of the cookie with a few blanched almonds before baking.  Bake in a 350 degree oven until edges begin to turn dark, about 6 to 8 minutes.

Lebkuchen (or German Honey Cookies)

heat slightly in a large saucepan:
1 1/3 cups honey and 3/4 cup (or less) sugar

add and melt
3 Tbsp. butter

Sift together and add:
about 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. baking soda

add:
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup chopped citron and 1/4 cup candied orange or lemon peel
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cardamom
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves

add:
1 1/2 to 2 cups more flour to make a sticky dough.  You can chill the dough overnight or roll it out right away.  Use cookie cutters to cup out shapes or roll the dough to fill a buttered jelly roll pan. Bake about 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Cut into squares and ice with lemon glaze made with powdered sugar and lemon juice.

One of the easiest to make and best tasting cheesecakes

Traude's Cheesecake Recipe

My mom had a German friend named Traude.  This is her recipe. It is one of the easiest cheesecakes to make.  It is light and fluffy not heavy and dense.  It doesn't have a crust.  The bottom layer is a cream cheese based layer and the second layer is a sour cream based layer.   You could put a third layer of fruit and then a fourth layer of a fruit glaze over the fruit if you want to.

First layer:
Mix together in a bowl
one pound of cream cheese (at room temperature)
three eggs (at room temperature)
2/3 cups sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. almond or vanilla extract (optional) You can also use a zest of a lemon if you like.

Beat these ingredients until thick and fluffy.  Pour into a buttered 9" inch pie dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Cool for 20 minutes before adding the second layer.

Second layer:
Mix together
1/2 pint sour cream=1/2 pound  (I asked: how much is 1/2 pint? There is that easy-to-remember rhyme "A pint is a pound the world around."
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Spread this mixture onto first layer and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool thoroughly before adding fruit if you want to add fruit.

My mom used to sometimes put canned mandarin oranges, or pineapple and those candied cherries on the cake and not glaze the cake at all and it looked great.  She would also sometimes prepare a glaze from packaged powder or you could use this recipe:

glaze for the fruit:
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup fruit juice

Bring these ingredients to boil.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Pour glaze over the fruit.  Cool and then refrigerate cake before serving.

A dish using Cheese, Canadian bacon, English muffins...

Add to this List of Best Songs to get Everyone Dancing

I started making this list over 20 years ago.   I love the phrase "irresistibly danceable."  I read those words in a TIME magazine article about music and dancing from India.  I used to organize swing dances, ballroom dances, line dances and square dances for ages 12 to 112.  I love to see the generations mix.  Dancing changes the atmosphere in the room.  Even the cartoon character Snoopy says:  "to live is to dance and to dance is to live."

Newer
Titanium  by David Guetta  (this has been my favorite song for about a year now.  Irresistibly danceable!)

Older
Gloria                         

Rock Around the Clock       
A-B-C

Stray Cat Strut

RESPECT

Dancing in the Street 

Browned Eyed Girl    (Van Morrison)
Rock and Roll High School        (the Ramones)

Billy Jean, Thriller, Bad, Beat It   (Michael Jackson)

Eat it                        (by Weird Al)

LaBamba
Shout                       (Isley Brothers)

Twist and Shout       (Chuck Berry, the Beatles)

Celebration

YMCA                     (One of my friends jokes that she doesn't think a couple are really married unless the DJ plays YMCA at the reception.)

I’m walking on Sunshine by Katrina on the Waves

Maria                       (by Blonde or Santana)

Barbara Ann            (and any other Beach Boys songs)                            

The Hand Jive          (from “Grease”)

Walk Like an Egyptian            (The Bangles)

Johnny Be Good                     (Chuck Berry)

Believe                        (by Cher)

Back in the USSR       (The Beatles)

Carry on My Wayward Son    by Kansas

Cotton Eyed Joe

Wipe out                                    by the Surfers (1963)

Group and Line Dances
The Chicken Dance

The Macarena

The Electric Slide

a Conga Line song  (like Gloria Estafan’s “The Rhythm is going to get you" and

“Turn the Beat Around”)

a song that causes the dance floor to form a Soul Train

Slow and sweet

Always on my mind

You are my special angel

Blueberry Hill             Fats Domino

Teen Angel

Cheesecake made with Ricotta Cheese

This is a recipe from the April 1976 issue of Sunset magazine.

Ricotta Cheesecake

Serve it with fresh strawberries, or add raisins or currants to the cheesecake filling.

I have made this without a crust and also used this lemon crust recipe.

Lemon Crust:
Blend
1 1/2 cups crushed lemon cookie (or vanilla wafer) crumbs with
2 1/2 Tbsp. melted butter
Press over bottom and sides of a 9-inch cake pan with removable bottom; Bake the crust in a 350 degree oven for 6 minutes;  cool before adding the filling.

Filling:
3 eggs
1 1/2 pounds ricotta cheese
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup each sour cream and corn starch
1 tsp. each baking powder and vanilla
3 Tbsp. melted butter
2 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/2 cup raisins or currants

Blend eggs, cheese, sugar, and sour cream until smooth.  Blend cornstarch and baking powder;  add to cheese mixture with the vanilla, butter, and lemon peel.  Stir in raisins, if used.  Spoon filling into prepared crust.  Bake in a 325 degree oven for 60 minutes or until center appears set.  Cool on a rack; cover, and refrigerate.  Makes 16 servings.

101 Uses for Zucchini

Budapest, July 27, 2022 I sent this email and link to a video I liked. I bought a huge patty pan squash at the farmer's market here near our flat here in Budapest. What do you do if you have a mega big zucchini? I will add the photo here:

Barbara Carlson Tue, Jul 26, 9:20 AM (23 hours ago) to me, bcc: Joe, bcc: Thomas, bcc: Rose, bcc: Elizabeth, bcc: meli.carlson@gmail.com, bcc: Maria Hi Joe, Thomas, Rose Ann and Elizabeth, I saw this food and music video just now and thought of you. I could see us making this together. I bought a mega big patty pan at the farmers market here at the church park where I live. I was going to cut it into pieces and roast it but I think I'll grate it instead and make this. I never saw such big patty pan squashes like they have here. They also have this one that they sell grate already and it bag and with a smaller bag of dill. I don't know what it is called, but it is a very loved squash dish here. Joe and I make a grated zucchini and parmesan cheese, salt, pepper baked in a pan like brownies things that this is similar to. 'Backen macht Freude', right? I love you and God put you in my thoughts as I was watching this food music video. LOVE again from Barbara

One summer I took care of my friend's garden while she was in Switzerland.  We had so much zucchini and joked about writing a pamphlet called "101 uses for Zucchini."  My neighbor, Mr. Bill Little, gave me a few excellent recipes.

This first one was on an index card.  Bill said Arlene was a friend of theirs.

Here is Arlene's Zucchini Casserole

5 yellow and or green zucchini squash (about 8 inches long)  sliced
4 to 6 strips of bacon (chop and fry til crisp---drain grease)
1 medium onion chopped
1 Tbsp. butter or bacon grease
3 eggs beaten
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Put zucchini in water and bring to a boil for 1 minutes--then drain and run under cold water to stop cooking.  You don't want the zucchini over-cooked and mushy.

Saute onion in the bacon grease until just cooked.

In a 2 quart casserole dish, put 1/2 of the zucchini, onion, bacon and beaten eggs.
Repeat for second layer and top with grated cheese.

Bake in 350 oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until the eggs are cooked and the cheese is melted.

This dish is also good reheated in microwave and for breakfast.

The Little's Meatloaf

Dan Howard's wife's Zucchini Bread

The Best Cookie Press Cookies I have tried

These are good cookies to give as a gift because they look like store bought but taste so much better.   They look like the Danish butter cookies you can buy in round or square tins.  I also remember Julia Child wrote advice to not "over finger" the food you make.  Don't make the food look like you over handled it.   The dough of these cookies is squeezed by you through a press so you don't have to over handle the dough by rolling it between your palms and etc.

A few years ago I signed up to bring butter cookies to a bridal shower so I tested a lot of cookie press recipes.  I said already that I like that cookie press cookies look like store bought cookies but taste homemade because they are.  One of the recipes I tested, was a Martha Stewart recipe and used corn meal as well as flour.  The cookies were grainy and gritty because of the cornmeal  My husband, Joe said the cookies tasted like I made them at the beach!

That made me laugh long and loud----aerobic laughing.  Maybe this kind of laughing gets a person's heart rate up and/or burns calories?

I found this recipe called Cream Cheese Bows in Martha Stewart's Cookie book.

3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter at room temp.
3 oz. cream cheese at room temp.
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
powdered sugar for sprinkling

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Put the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium speed until creamy.  Mix in granulated sugar. Add egg, lemon zest, lemon juice and mix well.  Reduce the speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place the dough in a cookie press.  You may need to chill the dough a little to get the right consistency to press the cookies.  Press the cookies onto a cookie sheet.  I decorate with sprinkles before I bake the cookies.  Bake the cookies until golden brown on the bottom about 12 minutes.

I am going to try to make these for St. Patrick's Day, March 17th and use yellow and blue food coloring mixed together to make them green.

Homemade Braided Egg Bread

This bread is also called challah.  It is important to use all of the 2 tsp. of salt otherwise the bread doesn't have taste.

1 pkg. yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of water and 2 tsp. sugar.  Cover and let bubble up in a warm place.  Sift 4 cups of flour together with 2 tsp. salt into a large mixing bowl and add 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp. melted butter or oil and 1 cup warm water and the yeast mixture.

Stir together until all is well-blended.  Dust a large board with flour and turn the dough out to knead.  Knead in as much flour as needed to make a smooth, elastic, non-sticky dough.

Grease the mixing bowl and put the dough into it.  Cover and leave it to rise in a warm place without a draft for about an hour.  Punch the dough down and on a lightly floured board, divide the dough into three equal pieces.  Roll these pieces into logs or strips.  Braid these strips into a fat even braid on the board or on a buttered baking sheet so you don't need to move the braid once you have made it.

Cover the bread with a light tea towel and let rise for abut 1/2 an hour.  Brush the loaf with a slightly beaten egg yolk and sprinkle the loaf generously with poppy or sesame seeds or leave plain.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes.

Homemade Peach Jam

One of my teacher friends gave me a spiced peach jam recipe.  She adds
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
to each batch of the peach jam.

Streuselkuchen aka Streusel topped Cake aka Tennis Team norishment aka "fruit pizza"

Streuselkuchen

In Germany, most bakeries sell Streuselkuchen.  My mom made it from scratch and showed me how.  One of my brothers calls it "fruit pizza" because it is made with a sweetened pizza-like dough, covered with fruit (like plums, pluots, applesauce, etc.) and then topped with streusel crumbs.  My friend, Lura, had a green pluot tree in her backyard and that fruit made an amazing, memorable streusel kuchen.

Steusel crumbs are made with 1 cup softened butter, some salt mixed into 1 cup of flour (or more) and 3/4 cup of sugar more or less.  I sometimes add some lemon juice like 1 Tbsp. I add lemon juice  to make the streusel dough crispier/crunchier.   The very best batch of Streuselkuchen I made was during the summer of 2011 because the streusel had a great texture.  It was crispy and tasty.

When I taught in Zarqa, Jordan and in Beirut Lebanon I was inspired to make streusel kuchen because the plums were so tasty. 

The sweetened pizza dough:
2 cups flour and 1 tsp salt mixed with 1/3 cup sugar (more or less is okay)
My husband noticed that the yeast doesn't like touching high concentrations of salt.  The salt can keep the yeast from rising and even kill it.
1 package of yeast (2 1/4 tsp.) dissolved in 2/3 cup of warm water and a Tbsp of sugar (or more) and
2 Tbsp of vegetable oil.

Put the 2/3 cup warm water in a measuring cup.  Mix in the Tbsp of sugar and the package of yeast into the water.  Cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place.  Don't let there be a draft on the yeast.

Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients for the crust:  2 cups flour, 1/3 cups of sugar and 1 tsp. salt
together in a plastic or glass mixing bowl.  My husband also noticed that yeast doesn't like touching metal as much as it likes plastic or glass so try not to use a metal bowl or metal spoons.  Pour the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients when the yeast starts to bubble.  Mix the liquid and dry ingredients together to form a ball.  Don't forget to add the oil.  I have used corn oil, coconut oil, etc. You may need to add/sprinkle more flour in at this point to form a dough ball that doesn't stick to your hands.  Put the dough ball out on the counter and start to kneed it.  The dough should feel soft, springy and nice to the touch. Good work!  Then put the dough back in the plastic or glass bowl and cover with the clean cloth.  Put in a non-drafty location.  My mom used to put the dough on a picnic table bench in front of the fire place.  Let the dough rise until it is twice the size.

Stretch the dough (and toss it if you can like a pizza parlor employee) so it fits into a jelly roll pan or in a cookie sheet with sides.  Make a few fork holes so the dough doesn't blister while it is baking.  If the dough is too small and doesn't fit into the cookie sheet I let it rise again on the cookie sheet covered.  Next, pour over the applesauce or cut the plums or pluots to cover the entire surface of the dough.  My favorite fruit to use is plums but most of the time I use applesauce because it is more readily available.  One time my friend gave me green pluots from her tree and that cake tasted so great because the pluots (like plums) were sour and a great contrast to the sweet streusel.  You don't want the fruit topping to be that thick otherwise the yeast dough stay soft and gooey even after baking.

Cherries are also a great filling.  We used to go pick Bing cherries in Brentwood, CA every summer and take the pits out and freeze them so my mom could make Streuselkuchen with cherries all year round.  Crumble the streusel on top of the fruit.

Bake at 350 or 325 for 25 to 30 minutes.  When I was little I used to take off the baked streusel and eat it without eating the pizza dough part.  Now I like eating the fruit part and the yeast bread part. I think I liked only the streusel topping because my mom baked the Streuselkuchen so the crust was darker brown and harder than I liked it.

I have tried pumpkin pie filling but I didn't like it as much as the plums, pluots, cherries or applesauce.  My mom liked a ground poppy seed filling called Mohn best.  That is an Eastern European specialty.   One of my high school friends called poppy seed Streuselkuchen "dirt cake" because the ground poppy seeds look like dirt.  My husband likes when I add cinnamon to the apple sauce or to the streusel.  I have done that and I have also added nutmeg and cloves and sometimes cardamon instead of the cloves. 

Recipes using cucumbers

Sunomono Salad

This is one of my favorite cucumber recipes

Mix together
5 thinly sliced tomatoes
1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
2 to 3 cucumbers, thinly sliced
a generous drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and 2 splashes of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Let stand about 20 minutes for the flavors to mix.  Re-toss and you can serve with crusty bread for mopping up the juices and oil.

This is a pickled cucumber salad 

2 to 3 cucumbers

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar, white vinegar, or apple cider

1 Tbsp sugar

a few drops of soy sauce
green onions (optional)

Peel and slice cucumbers into very thin slices.  Sprinkle sliced cucumbers with salt and let stand a few minutes. Drain out excess moisture.  Combine vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce and mix well. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumber slices and mix well.  

I found this refrigerator quick pickled cucumber salad during the summer of 2017 on the internet and it might be the best recipe. 

Quick Pickled Cucumbers – Refrigerator Pickles

Quick and easy pickled cucumbers with onion made in the refrigerator; our favorite way to use summer cucumbers!

• Author: Melissa Griffiths
• Prep Time: 5 min
 
• Total Time: 5 min

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vinegar (apple cider, white, and rice wine are all good)
• 1/3 cup sugar (optional)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons salt
• sliced garden cucumbers (about 2 cups)
• sliced onion or green onion (about 1/2 cup)
• additional vegetables as you like (bell pepper, whole cherry tomatoes, etc.)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine and until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion. Taste and adjust the ingredients to your liking.
2. All the cucumbers should be covered in the brine, if you have lots of cucumber or are making a big batch, make more brine.
3. Let the mixture rest in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The flavors develop over time, so an overnight soak is great but mine are normally gone by dinner.

Notes

I love adding the sugar and my mom does too, but my grandma doesn’t add that much (she only adds a few tablespoons). I say try it and see what you like.

White vinegar is the traditional vinegar for this recipe and a great place to start. If you know that you like apple cider or rice wine vinegar they are also good.

You really can’t mess this up. Just adjust to taste and enjoy!

An Asian-Style Cucumber Salad

This recipe comes from the August 2003 issue of Good Housekeeping.  The woman who submitted it, Cindy Alleman, says it comes from the Quark's Bar and Restaurant at the Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek: The Experience.

1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. Thai sweet chili sauce
3 medium English cucumbers (2 1/2 pounds)   I have used regular cucumbers and taken out the seeds and this works too.
1 Tbsp. black sesame seeds, lightly toasted

In a medium sized bowl, stir rice vinegar, sugar, Thai chili sauce, and 1/2 cup cold water together.
Cut unpeeled cucumbers into 2-inch lengths.  With a mandolin or with a chef's knife, cut cucumbers into 1/4 inch-wide, matchstick-thin strips.
Add cucumber strips to the dressing in the bowl; toss to coat.  Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight to blend flavors, stirring occasionally.
To serve, throughly drain cucumbers strips; transfer to serving bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Roasted green, red, yellow or orange peppers

Roasted green, red, yellow or orange peppers

I always need to double check the oven temperature and cooking time for this recipe.  Set the oven at 375 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The rest of the recipe I have memorized.

Cut peppers in half and use a small knife to cut away the core at the top and the seeds inside.
Rub the skins on the outside with olive oil and put the peppers skin side up on a baking sheet.
Bake them in a 375 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the skins are browned and blistery.
Take them from the oven and let them cool off.
Use your hands to pull off the browned skins.
Cut the peppers into slices, and put in a bowl.
Moisten with some olive oil and add a bit of salt.
These will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for 5 or 6 days if you don't eat them all up before then.



Roasted Bell Peppers

Roasted peppers are flavorful, right from the oven, or they can be stored in olive oil in the refrigerator, for up to two weeks.

4 large bell peppers, halved, seeds and ribs removed

Preheat oven 500 degrees F.  Place peppers cut side down on a baking sheet, and roast until charred, about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Place in a large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap;  let cool.  Slip off charred skins, and slice peppers.  Peppers can be stored, covered in olive oil with herbs, if desired, in the refrigerator up to 10 days.

Lidl's Apple Orange Brownies that don't require bringing out the electric mixer

Lidl's Apple Orange Brownies that don't require bringing out the electric mixer.

This is also great recipe to double.

Combine in a sauce pan over medium heat.
6 Tbsp butter
1 to 3/4 cup brown sugar in a saucepan (a little less than 3/4 works well too)

Cook until butter is melted.
Then beat in 1/2 cup apple sauce, some orange peel and
1 beaten egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift together:
1 1/4 flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp soda
and then stir these dry ingredients into the mixture in saucepan.

Stir in 1/2 cup walnuts. 

Spread in greased 15 inch by 10 1/2 inch pan and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

While the brownies are still warm top with orange glaze.
1 cup sifted powder sugar  (not sure of this amount.  I will have to call Lidl or experiment.)
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp. orange juice or more
dash salt

Omi's Bundt Cake and other Bundt cake recipes

Omi's Bundt Cake and Other Bundt Cake Recipes

My mom used to make a bundt cake almost every week.  She would invite friends over for coffee and cake and also offer cake to our friends when they came over to our house.

1 cup of margarine (I like using butter or coconut oil instead)
1 1/2 cups of sugar (less works out okay too)
4 eggs (using 2 eggs works as well)
1 or two lemons (juice and the rind)

Sometimes my mom would put finely chopped walnuts in the batter instead of lemon juice.  She would also make a marbled bundt cake by taking 1/3 or 1/2 the batter and adding chocolate powder. )

2 1/2 cups of flour
some baking powder and some salt
2 heaping Tbsp of yogurt

Grease a bundt pan.  Pour the batter in the pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack so air can get underneath the bundt pan. Turn the pan over onto a plate after 10 minutes of cooling time.  If the cake doesn't come out run a knife around the edges to free the cake from the pan and try turning it over again.

The original recipe that my mom adapted used 1 8oz. package cream cheese, 1/2 pound butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups vanilla, 4 eggs, 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup candied fruit and 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Blend cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Gradually add 2 cups flour sifted with the baking powder and salt.   Combine 1/4 cup flour with the candied fruit and 1/2 cup chopped pecans; fold into batter.   Grease a 10-inch bundt or tube pan;  sprinkle with finely chopped pecans.  Pour batter into pan;  bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.   Cool 5 minutes;  remove from pan.  Garnish with candied pineapple and cherries.

This recipe uses crazy cake batter. I think it looks more festive in a bundt pan than in a flat sheet cake.

Crazy cake has an interesting story.  The recipe was popular during the Depression or during World War 2 when butter and eggs were in short supply.  

Sift together:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp. chocolate powder

Stir in:
10 Tbsp. melted Crisco (coconut oil works too and is a better for you)
2 cups cold water
2 Tbsp. vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat by hand. Pour into a bundt cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  After I let this cake cool, I like to top it with Sherri's frosting or dust the cake with powdered sugar.  

A delicious bundt cake that uses cake mixes

There is a chain called Nothing Bundt Cakes that was started by two friends in Las Vegas.  

1 pkg. cake mix

1 pkg instant pudding the same basic flavor as the mix

4 large eggs

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

(For chocolate chocolate chips cake add 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

Mix cake mix, instant pudding, eggs, water and oil in a bowl with an electric beater.  Pour into a greased bundt cake pan.  Cook in an oven at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 20 minutes. 

You can sift powdered sugar over the finished cake or you can used this cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cups butter, softened

3-4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and the butter.  Mix in the vanilla and then gradually stir in the powdered sugar.  I like to be able to pour the frosting on like a very thick glaze so that it slowly runs down the sides of the bundt cake.

Butterless Bundt Cake with banana, orange juice and golden raisins 

I made this cake for the county fair.  It won 2nd place!  Instead of butter, this cake has yogurt and bananas.

10.5 ounces of flour

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp baking powder

6 ounces brown sugar

lemon and orange rind

3 eggs separated

2 bananas mashed with 1 Tbsp. orange juiced from an orange

2/3 cup yogurt

4 ounces golden raisins

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.  Stir in the sugar and lemon and orange rind.  Make a well in the center of these dry ingredients and add the egg yokes, banana, yogurt and golden raisins.

Beat the 3 egg whites until they are white and fluffy and then fold them into the batter.  Pour the mixture into a bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

When the cake is cool, drizzle with a sifted powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze.