My Favorite Food is Cake

At least, that's what I told my German class on Monday night. It's true. I love cake. Yesterday morning I went to a German baking class. It was so fun! I didn't actually bake anything, though. The class was set up more like a TV show, with a cook and a host. But I still felt like I learned a lot! They made three different things:

Aprikosen-Eierlikor-Torte (Apricot-Egg Liquor-Torte) - AMAZING!!! I definitely want to try to make this myself. It looked very easy to make, tasted heavenly, and looked so beautiful when it was finished! I don't have a torte pan, though, and that seems like something I would definitely need to make this.

Basically, it was a short chocolate/hazelnut cake with about 4 inches of whipped cream mixed with gelatin (for stability) on top. The whipped cream was surrounded with chocolate dipped waffle cookies. Seriously, it was amazing.

Mohn-Kasekuchen mit Apfeln (Poppy seed cheesecake with Apples) - This one was ok. I wasn't really blown away by it or anything. It used something called Mohn-Back, which is basically poppy seed pie filling. I guess it's popular here in Germany (that's what the host said), but I wasn't really impressed by it. Maybe if I tried it in something else?

This cake was a German style cheese cake with sliced apples and poppy seed filling on top. Pretty simple with an interesting taste, but probably not something I'll be rushing off to make anytime soon.

Nektarinen-Quark-Taschen (Nectarine Quark pastries) - I really liked this recipe, too! It was simple and delicious. I think they'd make a really good breakfast! Quark is a German dairy product that the USA doesn't have - it's basically like a mix between sour cream and cream cheese. I guess it's super popular here, with the average German eating close to 17 lbs of it a year!

These things were fluffy, flaky pastry dough filled with fruit and cream. They were light and sweet, but not too sweet (as is the case with most German pastry I've had).

This is a picture of the finished Nektarinen-Quark-Taschen. They don't look that great in this shot, unfortunately.

After taking that class, I am definitely more interested in learning about German baking and cooking. I live in Germany, for crying out loud! I should learn all that I can about their food while I'm here. It only makes sense. The base offers 1 baking and 2 cooking classes a month. As money doesn't grow on trees, I most likely won't be doing more than 1 class a month. In March, they're having a Schnitzel class and I cannot wait! Schnitzel is definitely my favorite thing to eat in Germany and if I could make it at home...well, it won't be good for my waistline, that's for sure!

Right now, to help improve my cooking, I have a goal to cook at least 1 thing a week that I've never made before. Now I'm thinking that I should change that to 1 German thing a week that I've never made before! I think that would be a bit more of a challenge, don't you? Anyway. since I posted last, I've made a few things for the first time:

Black Bean Taco Pizza

Kind of a hot mess, huh? At least it tasted good!

The recipe came from Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking October/November 2009. I LOVE the Taste of Home magazine series. They always have great stuff! I ususally change the recipe in some way or another, though. This is a vegetarian pizza, because I decided that my husband and I need at least one meatless dinner a week.

I used a pizza crust mix (because I'm lazy! Shame on me!) and just made that according to the package directions. For the toppings, I mixed 1 can black beans (rinsed), 1/2 cup frozen corn, 1 chopped tomato, 1 can (4 oz.) chopped green chilies, and 1/4 of an onion (chopped). I coated the pizza crust with cholula hot sauce (my absolute favorite) and then topped that with the veggie mixture. Then I sprinkled a little cheese over the whole thing and TA DA!!! Black bean taco pizza. It was really good, but I had to eat mine with a fork. I will make this one again for sure!

Southwest Chicken Corn Chowder

mm mm good!

Another recipe from Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking, but this is from the April/May 2009 issue. Even though the recipe said it made 9 servings, I made the whole thing anyway thinking if there were leftovers, they'd be good for lunch over the next few days. This recipe made a TON of soup! I love corn chowder, though, so it's all good. I have used a different recipe in the past to make corn chowder, but I'm not sure which one I like better. To be honest, this one turned out more like corn soup. It just wasn't that thick. The flavor was so good, though!

The first thing I did was saute 1/4 chopped onion with 1 minced garlic clove. In a separate pot, I mixed 1 can of chicken broth, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, one can of evaporated milk, and 1 can of cooked chicken breast over medium heat. When the onion was tender, I mixed two cans of cream style corn and a bunch of spices (to taste) in with it and the garlic. when both pans were mixed well and simmering, I combined them and TA DA!! Chicken and Corn Soup, since it was too thin to be chowder. I will definitely make this again, though. I loved the flavor.

That's all on the cooking front. In other self improvement news, I've started crocheting! I'm pretty horrible at it so far. All of my chains are lumpy and gross looking, even though they're made with pretty pink yarn! The only way to improve is to practice, though. I know I know. So I will do just that! When I've completed my first project, I'll post it on here! But that might be a while haha - I'm really horrible.

The German class I mentioned earlier is great! It's a USO class that my husband and I signed up for. It's very basic, but I already feel more confident in my pronunciation and I can count to 10! Class is canceled tonight because it's snowing like crazy, but I am trying to practice on my own every-other day anyway. Unfortunately, I let my free Rosetta stone thing go inactive (shame on me), so I'll have to go to the library and sign up again. It might be a few weeks before I'm able to use it. I think if I use the Rosetta Stone along with this class, it will help me learn a lot faster!

I really want to sew something, but I'm nervous to use my sewing machine. I've heard that even with a transformer, the gears can strip! I am going to look into getting a duel voltage machine, that way it wouldn't be useless when we move back to the states. But I don't know how long it will be before I can get one. I guess I should pick up some hand-sewing projects, huh? Maybe some cute little crafts or something. I'll go through some of my J-mags and see what I can come up with.

This update is pretty huge, huh? I guess that's all I'll write for now! I'm hoping that I can keep up the productivity I've been feeling today! *BREAK*