Go into my kitchen and let's cook
Gypsy Schnitzel

Notebook size Step by Step recipe with pictures
for Gypsy Schnitzel

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larger close up pictures of Gypsy Schnitzel

Our Family
Cookbook

Recipes
from a
German Grandma

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Comes with 28 Bonus Step by Step Recipes with color pictures.

See the Whole List Here of Recipes Here

16.97

Special Goodies Package to go with our Cookbook

Bratwurst

Old Fashioned Home Made Noodles

Apfel Strudel

Sauerbraten

Elderberries are a common berry used in
many homespun jams, jellies and wine.
An interesting berry, that is a common delight in Germany, both the berries and flowers are eaten.Even Fanta in Europe makes a soda pop from the berries.
More about the history of the elderberry here...

Just returned from staying with my friend Ariane in rural eastern Germany . We picked elderberries, which grow wild all over Germany , to make jelly and soup. When I was a child my Grandparents (my Grandmother Emily Sauerland was German) and I used to go in the rowboat on the Ramapo River in Oakland , New Jersey where they lived, in August, to pick berries from the bushes hanging over the river.

What wonderful memories! It was a heavy tub of a wooden rowboat which Uncle Gus (my Grandmother's half brother) had made many years before. My Grandmother, who was fat, (comfortingly so!) wore a printed cotton house dress and a non matching printed cotton apron, and a big straw hat to keep off the sun.

When we got the berries home my Grandmother, with my "help" made jars of deep purple jelly sealed with paraffin on the tops of the jars. When I told Ariane about picking elderberries from the rowboat, she collected her children, and some buckets, and we walked to the end of the village and filled our pails with the deep blue/purple berries.

We cleaned the berries (strip them off with a dinner fork, works like a charm!) People generally use pectin to make jelly now these days, However my Grandmother made it the old fashioned way, cooking until the jelly would sheet when spooned onto a plate, or dripped from a spoon.

Read the rest of Karen's story plus her recipe for Old Fashioned Elderberry Jelly

*******That's right, to make old fashioned Jam or Jelly you just use the fruit and sugar.

Here is a recipe in a nutshell;

If you make jelly you need to strain the juice from the fruit. If you make jam either grind or mash the fruit depending on the kind. You can add apple chunks or apple juice as
this gives you pectin which is a natural gel for the fruit.

1 cup of fruit
1 / 4 cup chopped apples or apple juice
1 / 2 cup to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)

Use a thick bottom pot

This is just a small sample batch to show you the basics.
I put frozen berries that I bought at the grocery store, and added
1 / 2 an apple for the pectin. You can of course buy pectin in a box,
but this is the old fashioned way.
Cook for about 20 minutes. The thick bottom pot is important or it will stick or burn.
An alternative is to cook it in a double boiler.

Strain the berries and apple in cheese cloth in a strainer. Later I will use a potato
masher to get all the juice I can. If you have a lot of berries and you want a clear
jelly you may want to omit this step.

I then added the sugar to the juice and simmered it for 10 minutes or so until the
syrup sheets on this dish that i am holding sideways. Of course if you are doing a
big batch you may need to simmer quite a bit longer.

Just let it cool and you have a nice jam or jelly and it is soooo flavorful! Plus you
get to feel you stepped back 100 years when this was done for the winter months.

Here is Anna's recipe for
Elderberry Jelly and more of Karen's memories

Here is a recipe for old fashioned Grape Jelly

Arianne makes Jelly now with Pectin, Here is a simple recipe

3 pounds elderberries
juice of 1 lemon
1 box fruit pectin
4 1/2 cups sugar

Heat the berries over a low fire until the juice starts to flow and then simmer the fruit for 15 minutes. Strain the liquid through a double layer of cheesecloth (easier if you cook the fruit in the evening and let it drain overnight). Mix the elderberry and lemon juices along with just enough water to make three cups of fluid. Add the pectin, bring the mixture to a boil and stir in the sugar. Bring the jelly to a full boil again for one minute, pour it into sterilized glasses and cover the jars with paraffin.

Come into my kitchen and let's make
Himmel und Erde

ingredients:
1 cup (250g) Butter
1 cup (180g) Sugar
3Tsp. Vanille sugar
4 eggs
3 cups (350g) Flour
3Tsp. Baking Powder
100g Chocolate-shavings or Chocolate minichips
150ml Eierlikör, similar to egg nog....
Here are several recipes for
Eierliqör

Directions:

1. In large bowl cream together the Butter, sugar, eggs and Vanilla sugar.
2. Add flour (which has been mixed with Baking Powder) Chocolate
shavings and Eierlikör.
3. Pour batter into a greased "kugelhupf" pan and bake in a preheated
oven for aprox. 1 hour. Oven temps can vary but depending on your
oven set your oven temp to 175-200 Degrees Celsius.

For an extra tasty glaze use 250g Icing sugar and aprox. 2-3 TBsp. of
Eierlikoer and drizzle over cooled cake

 
Nordic Ware Platinum Collection
Kugelhopf Bundt Pan

Bahlsen Comtess Eierlikoer Kuchen (Advocaat Cake)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are my personal Vanilla favorites that I sell

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Ingredients:

2 Tbs. Lemon juice
3 Tbs. Sugar
1 Lemon
2 bottles (1.5 liters) Moselle wine
1 bottle (.75 liters) Champagne

Directions:

Chill wine and champagne. Chill glass punch bowl thoroughly in refrigerator or by filling with ice. When cold, dissolve sugar in lemon juice in it. Peel lemon in spiral, with top of lemon left on. Rub lemon spiral around sides of bowl and leave peel in bowl, hanging top end over edge. Pour wine over peel and let stand in refrigerator, 15-20 minutes. Add chilled champagne.

Serve in glass punch cups, with 1-2 small ice cubes in each cup. If you like a greater sparkle, add a glass of club soda. This is the original of the now popular bottled wine drink. Classically, it is made with white wine and German champagne. The spiral of lemon peel, cut with the top of the lemon left on to be hung over the side of the punch bowl, is the cold duck" that inspired the drink's name. The homemade version is an elegant far cry from the insipid bottled version.

Barb Rokitka

Kurbisbrai Mit Kase

4 Servings

Ingredients:
2 lb pumpkin
1/2 oz ginger, ground
3 oz butter
4 oz apples, Sliced
4 oz cheese, grated
2 c salt water
1 salt & pepper

Directions:
Cut pumpkin in segments and remove peeling and seeds. Boil in
salted water with ginger and apples for 20 minutes until soft. Pass
pulp through a sieve and blend with butter. Season to taste. Place
in a shallow dish, sprinkle grated cheese and brown under grill.

Donated by Barb Rokitka

Roy Black was only 48 when he passed away and his idol was Roy Orbison from whom he took on the black hair !