Was wir machen in unserer Freizeit

(What we are doing in our free time). Germany has been so much fun so far! We have so many great pictures, but the highlight has unexpectedly been the food! We have been to Cologne and Munich in Germany and are leaving for Rome early tomorrow, but German food has been quite the pleasant surprise.

Deutschland!

We are heading to Germany tomorrow morning and are so pumped! We will be back in a week and a half with lots of pictures.

Risotto

Thanks for all the dinner suggestions! I have yet to make one but I will! The crock-pot lasagna sounds great cause I can cook it while at work. The salmon is good! I have already done that many times. And I want to try the enchilada casserole soon.
But in my searching for new food to try the last couple weeks I can across 2 very good risotto recipes. I had never made it nor am I sure that I have ever really eaten it before. But I went for it and in Adam's words it was "something you would eat at a really expensive restaurant."

The first is from Rachel Ray Click here for link. It was somewhat time consuming but worth it. I did not have pine nuts and it still tasted great.

Popeye Risotto with Beefy Balsamic Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (use vegetable to make this meal vegetarian)
• 2 cups water
• 2 pounds spinach, stems removed
• 1/2 cup (about a handful) pine nuts, toasted
• A few grates fresh nutmeg
• 1 cup (about 2 handfuls) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, divided, plus additional for passing at the table
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated, plus 1 clove cracked
• 2 cups arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 large or 6 small portabello mushroom caps, brushed clean of dirt and sliced
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (eyeball it)

Yields: 4 servings

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Preparation

Bring the water and stock to a boil, then reduce heat to low to keep warm.

While the liquids are heating up, add the spinach, pine nuts, a few grates of nutmeg and a handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano to a food processor. Pulse a few times to get everything chopped up. Add a ladleful of the hot stock and water and about 1 tablespoon EVOO. Run the machine to puree and reserve.

Place a large skillet with high sides over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 turn of the pan of EVOO. Add the onions and chopped or grated garlic, and saute until the onions begin to get tender, 4-5 minutes.

Add the arborio rice and toast it in the pan, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and cook until all the liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Ladle about half of the stock or broth into the pan with the rice and bring it up to a bubble, stirring constantly. Simmer the mixture, stirring frequently, until all the liquid is absorbed, 4-5 minutes. Ladle in about half of the remaining liquid and continue stirring the rice until that liquid has fully absorbed, 4-5 minutes. Ladle in the remaining stock and cook the risotto until most of the remaining liquid has been absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 7 minutes. Season the risotto with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Once you get the risotto going, place another skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining tablespoons of butter and EVOO. Add the mushrooms and cracked clove of garlic into the other pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are golden brown and tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, and add the balsamic. Cook about 1 minute to glaze the mushrooms then remove from heat and discard the garlic clove. Keep the mushrooms warm until the risotto is finished.

Once the risotto and mushrooms have finished cooking, add the spinach puree and remaining 1/2 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano to the risotto and give it a good stir. Spoon the risotto out onto a serving dish and top it with the glazed mushrooms. Pass additional Parmigiano-Reggiano at the table.

(Pictures and recipe from www.rachelrayshow.com)


I made another risotto last night and found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen which is a great food blog. Click here for link.

Tomato and Sausage Risotto
Martha Stewart Everyday Food

Serves 4

1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
1 small onion, finely chopped
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 bunch flat-leaf spinach (10 to 14 ounces), washed well, tough stems removed, chopped (about 7 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (optional)
2 tablespoons butter

1. In a small saucepan, combine tomatoes (with their juice) and 3 cups water. Bring just to a simmer; keep warm over low heat.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add sausage and onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, breaking up sausage with a spoon, until sausage is opaque and onion has softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add rice; cook, stirring until well coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine; cook, stirring until absorbed, about 1 minute.
4. Add about 2 cups hot tomato mixture to rice; simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until absorbed, 4 to 5 minutes. Continue adding tomato mixture, 1 cup at a time, waiting for one cup to be absorbed before adding the next, stirring occasionally, until rice is creamy and just tender, about 25 minutes total (you may not have to use all the liquid).
5. Remove pan from heat. Stir in spinach, Parmesan, and butter; season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately (risotto will thicken as it cools), and sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired.

(recipe from Smitten Kitchen which might be from Martha Stewart)


Both recipes made enough for dinner (main course) and then lunch for both Adam and I.

What's for dinner??

If there is one thing I hate about Sunday night/ Monday morning, it's planning meals and making a grocery list for the week. I have completely run out of food ideas (and Adam is no help- he eats anything and has almost no opinion). So please help me! What are you making this week? Thanks!

The Great Lakes State

After the wonderful wedding in San Diego, Adam and I were off again! We flew into Chicago late Sunday night and stayed in a (awful!!!) hotel. Monday morning we took a cab to Adam's parent's condo to see his mom quick and pick up the car. And we were off! It took up a good 5+ hours to get to Caseville but it was a fun drive. We were loving the lack of traffic but disliking the amount of trucks. For whatever reason, there are about 0 truck on the expressways here. My dad made grilled vegs and steaks for dinner!

We stayed two nights. Tuesday it rained on and off so we spent most of the day inside and downtown. It cleared up and we were able to have a nice beach fire.

Wednessday we were off again!

Again on our drive to Mac Island, Adam and I loved the open road. No traffic and beautiful sights! We took the Star Line ferry to the Island. It was the best deal (free overnight gaurded parking). We stayed at the Island House (do NOT recommend!). We ate fudge (but never bought any :) ). And then went to the most amazing resturant ever!! It was Woods on the Stonecliff property but owned by the Grand Hotel. It was so much fun to get dressed up (not too fancy) and take the horse taxi into the island to get to Woods. It seemed to be an old building but it was recently redone to look like (to me) a old hunting club of someone really wealthy. It was just plain cool. The service and the food were amazing! And in true Mac Island form, there were some fudgies there in their shorts and t-shirts and then some others in full out dresses with sequins.

Due to our not so nice hotel experience, Adam was up very early the next day and took some beautiful pictures just after sunrise.

After a crappy night's sleep we decided not to ride bikes around the Island and instead took a carriage tour. It was a lot of fun!

Thursday afternoon we left the Island and drove to Petoskey. As soon as we checked in to the Perry we went to the beach! Oh how I LOVE Petoskey State Park!

We ate at the hotel bar that night and were able to sit outside on the patio. We had Oberon! Beer that cannot be found in Cali.

Sunset from our room balconey.Friday we were off again! We made a short trip to Harbor Springs to look at the boats and get a cookie from Tom's Mom's. Then we drove through Bay Harbor (beautiful developement where the water is deep and the houses and boats are huge!) on our way south when we decided that this will be our boat as soon as the market goes back up :)

It started to pour not long after this picture and we ran back to the car and started out drive to Elk Rapids for the Ericksen family reunion. It was awesome to see everyone! We ate lots, swam, kayaked, and went boating. Saturday most cousins and my dad went on a long boat ride to "the sandbar" where we jumped off and swam. The water was amazing!

We left Elk Rapids on Saunday and drove back to Chicago. We got there for dinner with Adam's parents. We went to a great Italian place. Monday Adam, Michelle, and I shopped for a few hours before having to get back to the airport. At this point in the trip I guess I forgot about the camera and here is the only proof that we were in Chicago... Navy Pier.

Ryan and Carlee's Wedding

We started our 1-year anniversary trip in San Diego for Ryan and Carlee's wedding. It was an awesome wedding; so much fun to see them and to hang out in the great city of San Diego. The wedding was at Bali Hai and was absolutely beautiful. It was right on the water with a great view of the city of San Diego.

The groom waiting for his bride:

The bride walking down the aisle:

They did wedding cupcakes that were delicious. I had 2.

JAR (Josh-Adam-Ryan) crew reunion picture:

Instead of riding out in a car, Ryan and Carlee rode out in a tandem bicycle:

For the rest of the day, we hung out with Josh, Kristen, and Kevin in downtown San Diego. Then on Sunday we went to Coronado Island and lounged around in the sun. Overall it was a great weekend and we are looking forward to making it back to San Diego again some time.

SF with the Salazars

We're back from all of our trips, so we are going to start posting pictures from the last month. It has been such a great time to see both of our families and be back in the Midwest a couple of times.

The weekend before we left for our 1-year anniversary trip, our friends the Salazars visited town. I (Adam) lived with Josh my Sophomore year of college and he was in California to see our other college roommate, Ryan, get married. They had decided to make a week-long road trip out of it, so they came to visit us and we showed them around the Bay Area. Here are some pictures of our trip to San Francisco:

Here is Coit tower, with a statue of Christopher Columbus:

When we were walking up to Coit tower, we had a good view of Lombard St: