Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to accompany a med school friend to a presentation about Global Health.  Not only was the information that was presented very informative, inspiring and motivational - but the food was awesome!!  I've never really eaten 'real' German food before.  We went to a place called Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit in NE Minneapolis.  It was phenomenal - everything from the various types of German beer, to the cheers (Ziggy Zaggy, Ziggy, Zaggy, Oi Oi Oi!), to the waitresses in German Uniform, to the Rouladen and Weinerschnitzel to the checkered tablecloths - it was all fabulous!

I'll give you a run down of what I tried.

Rouladen - Marinated beef rolled with mushrooms, onions and bacon - DELICIOUS!  This one was my favorite!  I'm normally not a mushroom kind of girl, but I may just start trying more mushrooms because it was sooooo good!

Weinerschnitzel - Breaded Veal Cutlet - Now I'm glad that I tried this BEFORE I knew what it was because I'm one of those name people, where if it's something that I think sound gross (baby cow :( ) I will not eat it.  However, it was very tasty!

Jagerschnitzel - Pan fried pork loin in mushroom sauce - I ate a bite of my friend's and wasn't terribly impressed.  It reminded me of country fried steak and I'm not a huge fan of that either.  I'm glad I got to try it though!

Mash potatoes and gravy - Now this is something I'm very familiar with - yummy!

Spatzle - homemade pasta - which were HUGE noodles - and awesome!  We covered them with the gravy from the potatoes

Red Sauerkraut - I did not try this but it was available in the buffet. 

They also had Caesar salad and some delicious bread and this awesome dessert that I still can't figure out what was in it - sometimes it tasted like apple and other times I thought I was eating chocolate - perhaps it had both...hmm..

Spatzle and Rouladen

You should check this place out and if you are in the area you should REALLY go there!  I brought some food home for the husband and he loved it just as much. My hubby and I have definitely decided it's a destination for our parents some visit!  http://www.gasthofzg.com/

Moscato Wine!

It's no secret that I love wine, especially white "desserty" wine.  I follow many different blogs and one of them that I stumbled across, Life's a Happy Hour, featured my favorite flavor of wine, Moscato and I was intrigued by her review of Villa Alena Moscato Wine from Trader Joe's, so obviously, I had to try it - and I loved it!  We drank some after canning on Friday night and I have to share our pictures of our "food photography" experiments.

Oops, too fast!

Again, my hand is in the way, and it looks just plain weird to have the bottle right there.

There!  The grapes do the trick!  I think the wine glass could probably be moved off the cutting board, but we are amateurs, what do you want from us? ;)

Canning Adventures!

This past weekend, Jessica Malone and I canned.  It was awesome and exhausting!  We definitely made a whole weekend out of it!  On Friday night, we canned dill pickles.  Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn and pulling into the Farmer's Market right when it opened!

Yes, that's the clock in my car.  We had to take a picture because otherwise we were afraid people would not believe we actually got up that early on a Saturday!

We bought all our produce and headed to a place called Granny's Donuts for a quick breakfast.  I will have to share more about that place another time.  It's got a great little story behind it and is such a great bakery in West St. Paul.  We made another quick stop to the grocery store for some seasonings and were chopping and peeling by 9am!

Peeling Tomatoes!

Jess taught me a great trick about peeling tomatoes that I hadn't done before.  I'm sure it's well known to the canning world, but this was our first time canning without someone else who really knew what they were doing!  We boiled the tomatoes for 30-45 seconds and then plunged them into ice cold water.  The peeling just slipped right off - it was awesome!  And saved us soooo much time!  I also used my food processor for parts of the chopping process.  We had a nice mixture of chopped tomatoes and pureed tomatoes for a perfect consistency.

Then we chopped onions, peppers and added all the seasonings!

We mixed it all up and started boiling it on the stove.  Once simmered for what we deemed "an appropriate time" which I can't honestly tell you, because we didn't keep track - we filled jars and put them in the canner.

We canned them for 15 minutes and let them cool enough so we were sure the pressure cooker wouldn't blow up and then took them out :)



Viola!  Finished product!

Sadly, we didn't get a picture of all the jars we did.  However, we made mild, medium and hot salsa.  We took a Caribou break for an hour or so, but for the most part our canning adventure lasted from 5am-8:30pm on Saturday.  Then we decided to can some raspberry rhubarb jam on Sunday. 

We prepped the rhubarb on Saturday night so it could soak in sugar overnight. Then we added the raspberries!  

And boiled it on the stove.

We decided to hot water bath our jam, just to mix things up and give us full exposure to two different types of canning.  And after 10 minutes or so they were ready!

How cute!!!

Overall, VERY successful canning weekend!  Thanks Jess!

Canning, Football, Friends, Fun!!

My weekend was filled with fun.  I'm exhausted!  Friday night, I canned dill pickles (read bout it here). Saturday morning I woke up at 5:10am and headed to the farmer's market for my produce to can some salsa!  Yum!!!  And it was so much fun - and lots of work.  I have a bunch of pictures, but they are on my friend's camera so you will have to wait to see them until tomorrow or something.  We canned ALL DAY!  Then Sunday we made raspberry rhubarb jelly and rhubarb muffins.  Sunday afternoon we headed to a friend's house for some Vikings football and even though we didn't win, it was still a wonderful time!  Our host made bbq ribs, corn muffins, cucumber salad - wow!  I ended the night reading a book - all in all, successful, fun filled weekend!!

And I made a new friend - and we are going to start a book club!  I can't wait!

Dill Pickles!!!

I love Fall.  I love Fall for so many reasons.  One of these reasons is because it's canning season.  Today Jessica Malone and I canned - dill pickles!  It was my first time canning pickles myself and Jess's first time ever.  For a couple of newbies, we did pretty well!  I can't wait to taste them in 4 weeks when they will be completely finished.  Here are a few of our pictures to document our adventure:

Washing cucumbers - with a brand new toothbrush, no worries ;)



Beautiful garlic!



All Clean and Ready to be canned!



Jess, stuffing jars!



 

Me, stirring the pot



Filling Jars with Vinegar solution

Final Product! 2 dozen quarts - well almost!

 We have been preparing for salsa and pasta sauce tomorrow!  Stay tuned for pics of our adventures tomorrow :)

An Evening Out

I can't say med school is all work and no play.  Tuesday evening the hubby and I had the pleasure of going out with some friends to Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge in NE Minneapolis. The Hawaiian atmosphere was perfect for the hot humid night we had in the TC.  We started the evening with some great drinks (mine was in a tiki cup!) and wonderful conversation. 

Then, we headed to the deck for dinner. The hubby and I ordered Suzi's Supreme Deep Dish Pizza and another group of our friends ordered a chicken pizza with a white sauce - both were AMAZING!!! 

 

 Our only disappointment was our friend Jess's ridiculously small Caesar salad and our other friend's request for a beer refill that took 3 reminders - it was super busy there though. I'd still recommend it.  We had a blast - but maybe it was just our company ;)

To Market, to Market - to by a bunch of cucumbers!

The Minneapolis Farmer's Market has been quoted to be the largest in the midwest. Now, I don't know if that's true, but it sure is big!  I think there are 5 (very long) permanent red tents that make way for a large selection of locally grown (and some imported) fruits and veggies. Then there are more tents that are set up by the vendors themselves.    This past Sunday was my first official trip when the market was going on.  I have been to the location before, but only to park for the Twins' game since Target Field was so close!  Oops!  Honestly, I didn't see this sign there that day! My trip was awesome. Although I could have done without the heat, I came home with a bunch of cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries.  I could have bought a ton more, but I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with everything. My friend Jessica Malone joined me - well, actually SHE drove ME.  The farmer's market is on my list of places to go again (at least a few more times) before they close up in late September.  And, of course, Jess and I have major plans to tackle some canning with all our produce, too.  I am enjoying the TC, but apartment living doesn't leave much room for a garden and I do love to can.  At least I have a ton of options from the Farmer's Market this year and they are all pretty affordable.

Weekend Re-Cap

I had the best weekend.  Friday evening the hubby and I went to Teresa's Mexican Restaurant in Mendota Heights.  I thought it was delicious.  I had tres Marias and the cheese sauce was awesome.  I also indulged in a daiquiri (which was so big I couldn't finish) and I thought it was delicious.  The hubby thought it was too syrupy though, so I guess it's really a hit or miss depending on your taste buds.  Then we went home and I slept  - and slept - and slept.  I think I fell asleep around 8pm and woke up around 4:30am Saturday morning.  It was much needed though and I wish I could go back to sleep right now.  There was a huge storm all Friday night/early Saturday morning and the skies did not look like they were going to clear up for my tubing adventure.  Instead, the girls and I headed to Rochester anyway, met up with my sister-in-law and went to a burger joint called Newts.  Again, delicious food!  I was quite spoiled this weekend because I got to indulge in a lot of delicious cuisine.  On our way back from Rochester we stopped at the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls, MN.  It just so happened to be their wine and art fair this weekend too!! Lucky us!  We paid $5 and got to try 3 different types of wine.  My favorite was Winter Ice - and then I looked at the price of the bottle $45!  I think I'll stick to my barefoot wine for now ;)  It was tasty and light too - the perfect dessert wine.  We hustled back so some of the girls could go to the HP-72 movie. Who knew that movies were going to be getting abbreviations like that.  To me, it seems like a listing of some sort of gene that I'd study in school ;).  The other girls and myself went to Jen's apartment and swam and gussied ourselves up for a night on the town at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill.  It was a fun night filled with lots of laughter and old stories :)  Sunday brought on another heat wave and a much needed trip to another local ice cream shop.  My friend Jess LOVES ice cream and so I do, so I know exactly who to call when I want an ice cream fix.  This time we ventured Izzy's Ice Cream Shop  in St. Paul.  It was delicious!  They even have black licorice ice cream, which is my mother-in-law's favorite, so I can't wait to bring her there.  They make their own waffle cones and they have what they call the "Izzy Scoop" which is a watermelon ball size scoop of ice cream (of your choice of flavor) on top of your regular scoop of ice cream that you already chose. It's like a sample of a new flavor ;)  Sunday afternoon we had friends come over for swimming and pizza and then at 8pm I had a softball game in St. Louis Park.  Overall, awesome weekend - hoping this week flies by because Saturday is a wedding in Rochester and Sunday I'm going to attempt to tube..again!  Wishing you a great week!