One Chicken, Three Meals

I like meal plans where I can go shopping once and from one main item (in this case a chicken) make three different meals. Even better is when I can use up whatever is in my fridge and nearing the end of its life. This post is mainly for my daughter, who is now living on her own and on a budget, but I thought I'd share it as a blog post.

The short version is that I bake a chicken (meal 1), make soup from the carcass (meal 2), and use the leftover chicken meat to make a chicken-pasta-salad (meal 3). This works with one chicken for 2 people. The chickens here in Germany are smaller than ones you can get in the U.S., so if you're there you can probably feed 3 with this plan.

To avoid chicken three days in a row, freeze the soup for later, grill a juicy steak on Day 2, and make the pasta salad on Day 3.

During the hot summer months in Germany where you don't have air conditioning, pick a day that isn't hot to bake the chicken. If you don't have one of those, buy a rotisserie chicken to avoid heating up your kitchen.

What you need

Baked Chicken (Day 1):
  1 chicken
  1 apple
  1 onion
  1 clove garlic
  2 or 3 unpeeled baking potatoes (not too big)
  2 tablespoons melted butter
     thyme
     paprika (the spice)
     salt & pepper
     an additional side - cooked carrots, bread, or a salad

Chicken Soup (Overnight, Day 2 or freeze):
    chicken carcass and skin
    water
    whatever you have in the fridge and spice cupboard for making soup
         (carrots, celery, onion, garlic, seasonings [but NO salt], parsley, etc.)

Creamy Chicken and Pasta Salad (Day 2 or 3):
  8 oz (250 g) or less of tube-shaped pasta
  1 1/4 cup (318 g) Greek yogurt
  1/2 cup (100ml) mayonaise
  2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  1 teaspoon dijon mustard
  1/3 cup chopped fresh dill (or whatever amount you want)
  1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives (or more!)
     leftover chicken meat
  2 stalks celery
  1 small cucumber
     pepper
     mesclun greens (green and red lettuce)

Directions

Baked Chicken (Actually "Chicken-Potato Roast"):

1. Rinse chicken inside and out, and dry with paper towels.
2. Heat oven to 375°F (190°C).
3. Peel onion and cut into wedges.
4. Cut apple into wedges.
5. Peel garlic and cut into small pieces.
6. Salt and pepper inside of body cavity if desired.
7. Stuff apple, onion, and garlic into chicken's body cavity, and tie or skewer legs to tail.
8. Place chicken, breast side up, on rack in roasting pan.
9. Cut potatoes crosswise about three-fourths of the way through into thin slices. Place on rack around chicken.
10. Mix melted butter, thyme, paprika, and salt and brush over chicken and potatoes.
11. Roast uncovered for 2 hours,* basting chicken & potatoes with drippings every 30 minutes or so.
    *The original recipe says 1 1/4 hours, but it was never done that quickly!
    Chicken is done when meat thermometer reads 180°F (82°C) and juice is clear.
12. Let chicken stand 10 minutes before carving. 
13. Discard apple, onion, and garlic, but save the carcass!
14. Serve the drumsticks and wings with your choice of sides. Save the breasts and thighs for the pasta salad.

Chicken Soup:

1. Put the chicken carcass and leftover skin in a slow cooker. 
2. Add enough water to just cover the carcass.
3. Add whatever you have in your kitchen that beefs up soup - see ingredient list for ideas.
4. Turn the slow cooker on to high for 30 minutes, then reduce to low and leave it alone overnight.
5. In the morning, remove bones and vegetable pieces with a slotted spoon, strain soup, cool.
6. Refrigerate if serving soup that day or the next; otherwise freeze it.

Creamy Chicken and Pasta Salad:

1. Chop dill, chives. and celery.
2. Peel, cut lengthwise, seed and chop cucumber.
3. Shred the chicken meat.
4. Cook pasta according to directions, drain and rinse under cold water.
5. Meanwhile, whisk the yogurt, mayonnaise, 1/4 cup water, the vinegar, mustard, dill, chives, and 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl large enough for the pasta salad.
6. Add the chicken, celery, and cucumber to the dressing and gently stir to combine.
7. Shake excess water from the pasta and add it to the chicken salad.
8. Season with fresh ground pepper and toss.
9. It's best if it sits for an hour or longer in the refrigerator so the tastes blend together.
10. Serve over greens.

July Highs and Lows 2015

I've been sluggish with the blog this month, even though I'm behind in some things I want to write about. It was just too hot to think in the office, and I try to keep my laptop out of the living room. In the second last week of July it was really not as bad temperature-wise as in the first two weeks, but it's hot enough and I'm tired of sweating.* Our hedge is badly in need of trimming, but the mere thought of working outside is enough to give me a headache. In this one can tell that I'm not a true Swabian - our neighbors are outside working in their garden every day regardless of heat or humidity.

*I wrote that paragraph last week - now on the last day of the month I'm sitting here in a sweatshirt, sweatpants, and socks, and my feet are cold. After that heat wave, I'm not complaining, but rather enjoying the coolness!

HIGHS 

• spending a day in Strasbourg/Straßburg first visiting the EU Parliament, then having a tour through the old town followed by some free time and then dinner with the representative who invited us. A blog post about the day is still pending!





• getting away for a weekend in Bamberg with M, where we stayed at a nice hotel (again - no air conditioning, but we had an excellent meal at their restaurant and a standing fan in the room), took a town tour, and hung out with our former exchange student and her boyfriend.





• the arrival of our Thermomix, which we use often! We have made mashed potatoes, smoothies, chocolate mousse, vanilla pudding, seasoned paste (to use in place of vegetable bouillon cubes), kohlrabi-potato soup, boiled potatoes, and hard boiled eggs. Fruit sorbet or ice cream is coming up soon.


• starting talks with a friend of mine* about a possible riding vacation next year in Scotland - as in a week-long vacation that centers on riding 5-6 hours a day in the Highlands.
  
  *Funnily, I consider her my friend and we have a fair bit in common, but we've never actually met. I know her kids, her husband, and his family, but she and I have only communicated via email and Facebook.


• because of the possibility of the above trip, finally contacting a riding stable in the area and getting an answer from them - I will start riding again in August or September! I also bought a riding helmet and gloves last week (I already have the pants and boots).


• visiting a farm with the Lebenshilfe kids where we could pet camels, llamas, ponies, a goat, several dogs, and a sheep. The kids learned how to groom the ponies, too. It's really neat to see kids with disabilities interact with animals. I totally adore the llama, but my family vetoed it when I used it as my Facebook profile picture for a few days.

• my kids' birthdays! They turned 20 and 22 last week Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Kinder!

• having our neighbors over for a grill party - finally! - and really enjoying the evening getting to know them. It was about time - we've been waving over the hedge for nearly three years already!


• successfully driving to and from Esslingen and within and around Esslingen three times without getting killed or smashing into anything. This is huge, folks. I'm almost ready to say I can drive in Germany when I must.


• the beginning of this summer's exchange between students from my hometown (Sheboygan, WI USA) and its sister city (Esslingen, Germany). Yesterday we took a day trip to Tübingen, where we climbed the church tower, which I'd never done before! On Monday we're off to Ulm.
  

LOWS

• sweating. Sweating through my BH, through several shirts a day, and in places that just shouldn't sweat. [I'm no expert, but climate change deniers can bite me.]


• developing a cold after our day trip yesterday. Seriously? Nonstop sweat for the first three weeks of the month, and then a cold? What the heck?!

I have to love months in which I can come up with only two lows at most. :-)

I hope your month was good as well!

Typical American: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Important: I made a serious error on the original recipe, so if you made note of the measurements, please look again. This recipe calls for TWO and one-fourth cups of flour (2 1/4 cups)! The recipe below is now corrected.  (Thanks, Mom!)

Coming to Germany and don't know what to bring as a gift for your hosts? Visiting an American expat in Germany and want to bring a little taste of home? Are you an American expat and want to bring something typical American to a German party?

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, Baby!!

For whatever reason, Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels (chips) are not available in Germany. Ok, I found them on Amazon.de, but they are so expensive that I would have to be extremely desperate to order them. Instead, I stock up when I am in the States, and I ask any visitors coming from there to bring me more bags. There are chocolate chips in Germany, but don't use them. They're milk chocolate and too sweet for these cookies.

Of course I can get semi-sweet (halbbitter) chocolate here in the form of a candy bar, but then the pieces of chocolate won't hold their cute little signature chip shape.

I've been baking these tasty little buggers since I was old enough to turn the oven on by myself. Here in Germany by now when I bring them somewhere where I've brought them before, people say, "Oh my God, are these THE cookies?!"

In Germany cookies tend to be treats baked at Christmas time. In America, cookies are available all year round - chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, snickerdoodles, and of course all the processed pre-packaged ones like Oreos, Keebler Fudge Stripes, Windmill cookies, and hundreds of others.

But let's get back to home-baked Nestle Toll House cookies. I'm not going to worry about copyright infringement because in order to bake these you must buy the Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels, and the recipe is on the back of the package. I'll just include the German measurements as well.

Here's what you'll need:

  2 1/4 cup flour (ca. 300g - online conversion says 280g)
  1 teaspoon baking soda (Backnatron)
  1 teaspoon salt

  1 cup soft butter (227g)
  3/4 cup sugar (135g)
  3/4 cup brown sugar (132g)
  1 teaspoon vanilla (1 Röhrchen Butter-Vanille Aroma)
  2 eggs
  2 cups Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels (340g)
  1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (97g)*

*The nuts are optional. If you don't add them, though, you'll need to add more flour or the cookies will be paper thin with chocolate bulges. How much extra flour? I don't know because I haven't made them without nuts since I was a teenager. Probably 1/2 cup or a bit more.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C Ober- und Unterhitze).
2. Combine first three ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Mix together butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well.
5. Gradually add dry ingredients, mixing well.
6. Add chips and mix to evenly distribute. Use a wooden spoon - the dough is thick!
7. Add nuts if desired, and mix well. 
8. Drop small blobs of dough mixture onto a cookie sheet (Backblech lined with Backpapier*).
   *Backpapier is like parchment paper.
   If you keep them small enough you should be able to fit 20 blobs on one sheet.
9. Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown (I usually bake the first sheet for 11 minutes).
10. Cool cookies on cooling rack.

The dough is distressingly delicious, but really bad for you (raw eggs and all).
Don't eat too much of it.

five rows of four dough blobs

first sheet done - do try one fresh out of the oven,
but careful not to burn yourself on the chocolate

Tips and tricks:

While one sheet is in the oven, tear off another sheet of Backpapier and drop 20 cookie dough blobs on it. When the first sheet is done, slide the Backpapier off the cookie sheet (Backblech) onto the counter, slide the next batch onto the hot cookie sheet, put it back in the oven, and start the timer again for 10 minutes. This saves time!

If you don't eat much or any of the raw dough and keep the blobs small, you can get 100 cookies out of one recipe!

If you're using the American measuring cups, use the same 3/4-cup measuring cup for the sugar, brown sugar, and flour to save on dishes to wash afterwards. 3/4 cup flour x 3 = 2 1/4 cups! I'm not sure how that dawned on me when I was young, because I've always sucked at math.

Don't store the cookies in an air-tight container or bag until a day or two after baking them. That makes them harder, but if they're stored uncovered, they stay softish. After a few days it doesn't seem to matter and you can put them in a plastic container or ziplock bag.

You can freeze extras! So, for instance, serve and eat half the batch, and put the rest in the freezer (after they're totally cooled). If you're lucky you'll forget about them, and then a month or more later you can thaw them and enjoy it again without the work of baking! Actually they're good straight out of the freezer as well.

Gluten-free Version

Use Buchweizenmehl (buckwheat flour) instead of regular flour. The taste is a bit different, but if you have to avoid gluten, this works!

Swabian Version

Re-use the Backpapier so that you're only using a total of two alternating sheets rather than a new sheet for each 20 cookies (five total!). I am not taking a cheap shot at the Swabians, whom I hope you know by now I adore! - I do this myself every time!!

Re-using my Backpapier - why wouldn't you?!?

A fun note about German and American recipes:
  In German recipes, TL means "Teelöffel", which means teaspoon.
  In German recipes, EL means "Esslöffel", which means "eating spoon" or tablespoon
  In American recipes, T means "tablespoon", which is an Esslöffel in German, but...
  In American recipes, t means "teaspoon", which is a Teelöffel.

My point is that in American recipes, the capitalization (or not) of the T makes a big difference. In German, all nouns (and tablespoon and teaspoon are both nouns) are capitalized.
I can't tell you how many times I've been using a German recipe, got to "TL", and added a tablespoon of the ingredient (salt, for instance) because of the capital T, when only a teaspoon was called for. Oops.

Anyway, have fun baking and enjoy the cookies!

SURPRISE! Our Thermomix has arrived!

Disclaimer: This is not a sales pitch. I have nothing to do with the Thermomix or Vorwerk, the German company that sells it. 

I've written often enough that M and I enjoy cooking together. It's fair to say that he's the better and more confident cook, but we make a good team in the kitchen.

After M used the Thermomix at the three cooking classes we've participated in and after seeing it on just about every German cooking show we watch, we decided in early May to finally order one. We were told by the salesperson (they're only legally sold by consultants who come to your home - not in stores) that it would arrive sometime in September because the orders were so backed up. It arrived today!

You should have seen us - we were both more excited about this gadget than we were when his new Audi arrived in May.

The Thermomix is an amazing kitchen appliance that is hard for me to describe. Click here for a very dramatic marketing video that will make you think, "Wait, it's a mixer?"

Ah, but it's so much more than a mixer. It's a mixer, blender, food processor, scale, oven, stove, steamer, and chopper all in one. I was told by one woman I met who has one that she hardly ever uses her microwave anymore.  According to the instructions, the 12-in-one appliance weighs, mixes, chops, whips, kneads, blends, steams, cooks, beats, heats, grinds, stirs, and emulsifies. Note to self: look up "emulsify".

the accessories: a steamer basket with lid, spatula, mixer attachment,
and cooking insert

It's great for making Hollandaise sauce because you can set the temperature while mixing - and we have some weißer Spargel (white asparagus) waiting in the freezer for this occasion. It comes with a thick cookbook and several brochures full of tips and recipes, so this will be my reading material for the rest of this week.

The first thing we made in it was mashed potatoes to go with meatloaf for dinner tonight. It was so easy! We peeled and sliced the potatoes, put them in the Thermomix with milk and salt (later adding butter and nutmeg), and the machine did the work. No more peeling hot potatoes, and there's less to clean up afterwards.

The thing is idiot-proof. There are pre-programmed recipes, and it tells us what to do at each step (we can also do our own thing). We just have to play with the seasonings for each recipe, because the mashies were a bit bland. Wonderfully creamy consistency, though!

I have a to-make list started already after glancing through the cookbooks:
  hard-boiled eggs (I'm starting simply, folks)
  steamed vegetables
  Banana-Mango-Smoothie & tons of other smoothies
  Chocolate Mousse
  Kohlrabi-Potato Cream Soup
  Strawberry Milkshake
  Raspberry Ice Cream
  Salmon with Mushroom-Cream Sauce and Potatoes

Theoretically we will no longer (often) need our measuring cups, our many and various choppers, the stove for melting or heating, our kitchen scale, or the electric mixer.

There's one funny thing about the Thermomix TM5 - funny beacuse of the emphasis on "not in any way whatsoever"...

From the Users' Manual (Legal Regulations/Copyright, page 53):
"Please note: The Thermomix TM5 has neither been developed/designed for the US market, nor has it been approved for or released in the US market. Accordingly, the appliance is purposely not being sold or promoted in any way whatsoever by Vorwerk or any other authorised third party in the USA, and no customer service is being provided in relation to the appliance by Vorwerk or any authorised third party in the USA.

Vorwerk does not and will not accept any liability whatsoever (including...any damages in respect of damage, injury, or death) for any damages and/or losses whatsoever in any way arising from or in connection with, or caused by or as a result of the use of the appliance in the USA. Persons utilizing the appliance in the USA do so entirely at their own risk."
*****

I'm not sure why that is the case, but I am assuming that the appliance can be dangerous if not used properly and according to the instructions, and the manufacturer knows how lawsuit-happy Americans tend to be. Since they did not engrave "Caution: Do not stick your hand into the appliance while the sharp blade is spinning" onto the side of the mixing bowl, they probably feel it's best to just avoid the American market altogether.

Update: The Thermomix IS now available and serviced in the U.S.. (See comments section.)

But that's all for now. Dinner has almost settled, and it's time to make the chocolate mousse!

Driving in Germany 10: Checklist update

I tackled a big hurdle this week. I drove alone to and from Esslingen for an evening meeting. This was the first time I have driven that far (75 km or 46 miles one way) without M in the car with me as a nervous passenger with his phantom brake and a firm clutch on the door handle. The drive should take an hour, but I left home more than 3 hours before the meeting knowing I could hang out at my Schwiegermutter's place until the meeting we'd both be attending. It's a good thing I left early because the drive there was basically a game of connect-the-Staus (traffic jams), and it took 2 hours and 15 minutes. John Denver kept me cheerful during the longest of the the Staus. Thanks, John!

The good thing about getting stuck in traffic jams is that other drivers' reckless speed is not a problem. I just remained in my lane, stayed a safe distance from the guy in front of me, and kept an eye out for the crazies.

The drive home was partly after dark but pretty uneventful. There was one Stau, but it didn't last too long. I saw no wild pigs dashing about on the Autobahn, so that was good, too. I did hear on the Verkehrsfunk that drivers needed to be careful on another Autobahn because there was a Schrank lying on the road. That's a cabinet, folks. There was a cabinet lying on the freeway.

I actually checked off several items from my driving to-do list:

   Driving back from Esslingen

   Driving to or and from Esslingen on a week day

   Driving into and parking in a parking garage

   Driving out of a parking garage

   Driving to and from a place other than Esslingen

   Driving in a big city (Esslingen has only 90,000 inhabitants)

   Driving with the radio on or a passenger talking

   Overtaking a slow car on a two-lane road (I have already overtaken a tractor and a bicycle…)

I did overtake cars on the Autobahn, but that wasn't on my list. The fastest I drove was 130 km/h  (80 mph), but that was only briefly. Even on the Autobahn, I just don't see any reason for me to drive faster than 120 (74.5 mph). I mean, there could be a cabinet lying on the freeway, and I have a better chance of avoiding slamming into it if I'm not driving faster than my eyes can focus. And yes, German readers, I stay in the right lane except when overtaking.

source

Yeah, that's a little bit what it feels like. It only took me two years, nine months, two weeks, and five days to gather the nerve to drive 46 miles from home. And back.  Boo YAH!