Menu:

Wassail
Selection of Cheeses
Bread
Potato and Leek Soup
Pheasant from the King’s Forest (aka Roasted Chicken Legs)
Wild Boar (aka Ham)
apple tarts
gingerbread

Recipes:

For the wassail, we just used warmed apple cider. You could put some mulling spices in it if you want to.

Leek and Potato Soup

One bundle of leeks (about 1 cup diced)
One 16 oz. box of chicken broth
2 cups shredded hash brown potatoes or peeled, cubed potatoes
1/2 cup butter
one large onion, diced
1/2 cup flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste,
chives to garnish (optional)

Wash the leeks thoroughly. Cut off the green part of the leeks as well as the root end. Remove the outer layer. Dice the white part that remains. You are going to put it in a blender after it is cooked, so the leeks can just be rough chopped.

Boil the potatoes and leeks in the chicken broth until soft and tender. In a separate pan, melt the butter. Saute the onions in the butter until golden. Stir the flour into the onions and cook until bubbly, stirring constantly. Slowly add the milk to the flour and onion mixture, stirring to combine. Now add the onion mixture to the vegetables and broth, stirring well.

Pour contents of the pan into a blender and puree. You may need to work in batches. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add additional broth if the soup seems too thick or starchy.

Variation: This is my go-to cream of vegetable soup recipe. You can substitute broccoli, cauliflower, or other vegetables for the potatoes and leeks. I love this recipe!

Apple tarts

This recipe was a bit of a flop…I tried to make little apple tarts by cutting pie crust into rounds with a biscuit cutter and making tiny, hand-held pies. There was just too much crust for the amount of filling that could fit on a little round. If you want to make tarts, I suggest using a flakier pastry, such as puff pastry. Alternatively, use your favorite apple pie recipe, making it one day ahead of time so that it has time to firm up. If you aren’t using plates or forks, you do NOT want an overly juicy pie!

Roasted Chicken Legs

Brush chicken legs with Olive Oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast on a baking pan in the oven at 400 F for 30 minutes. Before removing from the oven, broil for 2 minutes to brown the chicken legs. I found a wonderful roasted chicken leg recipe here.

No feast has been more highly anticipated in our home than the Viking Feast. My husband can trace his Norwegian heritage all the way back to Harald Hardrade, the Norwegian King who was killed in 1066 in the Battle of Stamford Bridge….and beyond. My sons take great pride in their Viking blood.

My mother-in-law makes a pilgrimage to Wisconsin every year to eat Lutefisk. In olden-times, Norwegians ate a fish that was so hard and bony, they had to use Lye to soften it. I’m not sure how they make it now, but everyone says it is an acquired taste (i.e. it tastes horrible). Needless to say, we didn’t have that on the menu.

We do eat Lefse every Christmas, which is a tortilla-like Norwegian flat bread spread with butter and brown sugar. I didn’t have that on hand for this feast, and I doubt it was around in Viking times anyway.

We did not have costumes for this feast, either. Sorry! The white sheets used in our Egyptian Feast, Greek Feast and Roman Feast could not be adapted for the purpose, and we didn’t have time to pull anything else together.

My Vikings enjoyed this feast. We used or Hnefetafl Board as a centerpiece.

Want to know what we did have? Keep reading for the menu and recipes. I relied heavily on The Viking Answer Lady and on a PDF file from Tjurslakter titled Viking and Anglo-Saxon Recipes for my information about what people ate during Viking Times, as well as for some of these recipes.

We learned that Vikings typically only ate twice a day, morning and evening, and their fare was simple.

The Menu:
non-alcoholic, homemade Mead
Rye bread with salted butter
soft cheese
Stewed beef
Norwegian pancake with berry sauce
Stewed fruits with yogurt

The children wanted to taste Mead, so I searched the internet for a non-alcoholic version. I found a few. Here’s the recipe I used, taken from the Group Recipes site:

Soft Mead
4 cups water
1 cup honey
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 lemon

The instructions said to boil this but I was in a rush, so I did it in the microwave. It turned out fine. I put the water, honey and spices into a dish and heated it until it boiled. Stir in the honey until it dissolves, and squeeze the lemon into it. The instructions I found said you can also use orange slices, and that the drink should be cooled and strained. We did not strain it, and we drank it warm. It was yummy!

Easier Mead alternatives

Another recipe that sounds even simpler called for 2 parts apple juice, 4 parts honey and 6 parts water. Mix in a pan, bring to a boil and let simmer for half an hour, then cool and strain.

Research indicated that the Vikings also drank herbal concoctions. Chamomile or Rose hip tea might be a good choice.

Stewed Beef

For the stewed beef, I simply put chunks of stew meat into my crock pot, along with some root vegetables and onions. My kids like carrots, but turnips or parsnips would also do. I added a bit of water and a couple packages of stew flavoring, and set it on low for several hours.

Viking fun without the fuss!

I know it would have been more authentic in a giant kettle over the fire, but I try to keep most of our “feasts” something that is reasonably done on a regular school night, in the same time I might normally spend making dinner. The main point to keep in mind about Viking stew is that they did not have potatoes or tomatoes, so your stew shouldn’t have them either!

We purchased the rye bread and cheese. We used Brie, as our whole family loves it. We learned during our studies that the Vikings conquered quite a bit of territory, including part of France, so we felt fine about our choice.

I had told my husband to get Brie at the store, but the children wanted to buy Jarlsberg, which is a Norwegian cheese. Hubby bought the Brie anyway, certain that he should get “whatever mom wants”!

When they got home and told me about their shopping trip, I knew that the kids were right. To be more authentic, we should have had Jarlsberg. Those boys certainly do know their cheeses!

Dessert: Norwegian Pancake with Berries, and Summer Fruit, Honey and Hazelnut crumble with yogurt

Pancake with Berries (this recipe came from The Viking Answer Lady and is for four servings).

2/3 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup lingonberries (we used raspberries)

Turn the oven to 425F. Whisk the batter together without the butter and stir in the berries. Melt the butter in a heat resistant baking pan or oven proof skillet, and pour in the batter. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes or until the pancake has a nice color. Cut into pieces and serve with jam.

I doubled this recipe, and there was a lot left over. It took 45 minutes for the larger pancake to set. I didn’t think the kids would like it, as you could clearly taste the whole wheat flour, and there was no sugar in the recipe. I melted the jam in the microwave so it would pour onto the pancake like syrup. The kids loved it, though. So did my husband! Everyone wanted the leftovers the next day, and asked if I would make it again in the future.

Vikings in Anglo-Saxon Britain: Summer Fruit, Honey and Hazelnut Crumble Recipe from Viking and Anglo-Saxon recipes.

2 pounds mixed soft summer fruits (raspberries, lingonberries, strawberries, currants, cherries or similar)
honey or brown sugar (to taste)
3 oz. toasted hazelnuts
3 oz. whole wheat brown breadcrumbs

Put the fruits in a pan or in a microwave dish with about 1″ watr in the bottom. Cook gently for 10 to 15 minutes (microwave for 4 to 6 minutes on high), or until the fruits are soft without being totally mushy. Sweeten to taste with the honey or brown sugar.

Drain off the extra juice and save it to serve with the pudding. Chop the hazelnuts in a food processor, then mix them with the breadcrumbs. Pour the fruit into an over-safe dish and cover it with a thick layer of the nut mixture. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Serve with cream or plain yogurt and the warmed fruit juices.

We enjoyed this. I serve plain yogurt very often, flavored with a bit of brown sugar or honey and some fresh fruit, so this was not too unusual for us. I liked the way it tasted with the warm fruit. The kids enjoy it more without the nuts and crumbs.

We kicked off our back-to-school hands on projects with a Roman Feast this week. We ended the school year studying Ancient Rome and picked up where we left off with a look at how the Roman Empire fell.

Things are crazy busy right now, so I wanted to keep this feast simple. I managed to pull it off without much planning at all, using ingredients I already had in the house. Of course, we recycled the sheets used in our Egyptian Feast and our Greek Feast to make Roman tunics. I simply cut some sheets from Goodwill in half and cut a hole for their head and two holes for arms…voila, instant (if not perfectly authentic) Greek chitons. These also served as our Roman tunics. If you start with the Egyptian Feast you can use the same sheets for all 3 costumes, and I found that a couple of large sheets were enough to serve the entire family with some judicious cutting.

I used tablecloths, sheets and (for my little guy) a table runner to make the togas that drape over their shoulders. I wore a tablecloth also, as a simple cloak.

Click here to watch a brief video that shows how to put on an authentic Roman toga.

We set up our Triclinium table again using the leaves from our dining room and kitchen tables and surrounding them with couch cushions. I learned a lesson during our Greek Feast and covered the cushions with bedsheets this time, in case of spills!

For dinner, I decided to serve a mix of some traditional foods of Ancient Rome that we still eat today, as well as some fun “make-believe” dishes which the Romans ate but we would never touch. We pretended to be wealthy so that we could enjoy several different dishes.

The boys thought it was pretty fun to eat Roasted Doormice (chicken legs) and Peacock Nuggets (Anytizers cordon blue nuggets). We learned that the Ancient Romans liked Omelets with honey, so we tried that, too. Side dishes included bread, grapes, olives, nuts, apples and salad. I did not make a dessert for this meal, though the Romans did eat desserts at their feasts.

I recommend waiting until near the end of the feast to inform boys that belching was considered polite at Roman feasts.

This meal did not take any more time than a normal dinner would have, aside from the few minutes spent setting up the Triclinium table and getting the costumes together. The side dishes were very fast and simple, and I made the omelet quickly on the stovetop as the chicken legs finished cooking.

I found some interesting notes about Roman cooking, including this chicken recipe, here. The people who wrote this site took their recipes from an old Roman cookbook, which was written by a Roman gourmet named Apicius in the 1st century and added to over time. Eventually an editor published this cookbook in the 4th century and titled it after Apicius. Much of what we know about Roman cooking seems to be taken from this record.

Here are the recipes I used:

Roasted Doormice (aka Baked Chicken Legs)

Put the following ingredients in a large ziploc bag:

1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp caraway seed

Dredge the chicken legs in a dish of milk and then shake in the flour mixture. Double quantities if you are using a large number of chicken legs. Place on a baking pan and brush with olive oil. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until done.

My family did like this recipe, but felt it could have used more spices. This is just a guideline, as no measurements were given and I just “eyeballed” the quantities.

I used Anytizer chicken nuggets and called them Peacock nuggets. You could make similar substitutions for exotic foods like ostrich and flamingo.

Green Salad

For our simple salad I tore Romaine lettuce leaves and topped them with black olives, red onion and some feta cheese. Romans did NOT use tomatoes, so neither did we. I like to top a simple salad like this one with some dry Good Seasons Italian dressing, just sprinkled over the top, and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. For other occasions, add red or yellow pepper strips, tomatoes, and sundried-tomato flavored feta cheese. Everyone seems to love this simple, delicious salad.

Omelet with Black Pepper and Honey

The Roman omelet recipe I used called for adding both milk and a bit of olive oil to the eggs before cooking the omelet. I don’t usually add oil to omelets, but “when in Rome!” When the omelet was finished I topped it with some fresh ground black pepper, as the recipe instructed. Mushrooms were also called for, but my family hates them so I left those out. The recipe said to serve the omelet with honey. Our four year old was the first to taste it and he loved it! I tried it, too, and it reminded me of egg custard…not unpleasant at all!

Slushies

I was keeping things simple so I did not make slushies, but you could. I read that sometimes slaves were sent into the mountains to bring back fresh snow for slushies. If you have a snowcone maker this would be a fun addition to your feast!

We had our Ancient Greek Feast this weekend! Here is our menu and the recipes we used.

Menu:
*Dried apricots and dates
*Olives (Kalamata, black and green olives)
*Green and red grapes
*Cheese tray with herbed goat cheese, Greek Feta cheese, Pita bread slices, and toast-crackers
*Marinated, grilled leg of lamb with Tzatziki sauce
*Greek salad
*Baklava
*Sparkling Red Grape Juice

Shopping Instructions:
Many grocery stores do not sell lamb. I initially planned to do Lamb Chops, but they cost $22 a pound here! So I quickly decided a leg of lamb was a more economical choice. I found this frozen at a specialty butcher. Publix also had several cuts of lamb available. The cheeses were found in the deli section of my normal grocery store.

The dried fruit, grapes, olives, cheeses, bread and crackers required no preparation. Just plate and serve.

Recipes:
This feast was delicious and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! It isn’t hard to make this food, but several of the dishes need some advanced preparation. I would recommend reading instructions for all the recipes before you begin, so that you know which steps need to be done in advance. For example, you’ll want to make the lamb marinade in advance so that the lamb has time to soak up the flavors. While the lamb sits in the marinade you can move on to the Tzatziki sauce, which also has a few steps.

Here are the recipes for our Ancient Greek Feast. Enjoy!
I found this recipe on Epicurious.

Marinated Grilled Leg of Lamb
6 lb. boneless leg of lamb
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice, preferably fresh
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. dried oregano

Mix everything together. Pour into a ziploc bag and marinate the lamb for at least an hour or up to 8 hours in the refrigerator. Allow the lamb to sit in the marinade at room temperature for about an hour before grilling. I followed the grilling instructions found here. We have never made lamb at home before, but it turned out fantastic!

Tzatziki sauce

We love this sauce, typically served on Gyros. We ate it with the lamb tonight. Yummy! I found this recipe on the internet, as well.

Ingredients:
* 1 (8 ounce) container plain yogurt (Preferably Greek yogurt or Fage)
* 1 cucumber, peeled and grated
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1/4 lemon, juiced and zest
* 1-1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill
* 1-1/2 cloves garlic, peeled
* 5 Mint Leaves, chopped fine
* Salt and Pepper to taste

There are two initial steps which MUST be done before making the Tzatziki sauce. First, if you don’t have the Greek yogurt, you’ll need to drain the extra water out. Lay a piece of cheesecloth inside a colander (or use a very fine strainer). Pour the yogurt in and allow it to sit in the strainer (over a bowl or in the sink) for at least an hour so that the extra water drains out. If you have time, and can allow it to drain over a bowl in the refrigerator overnight, that is even better.

*I love Greek style yogurt, and use this method frequently.

Second, the cucumber will also have to be drained. Peel it, and then grate it with a box grater or in a food processor with a grater blade. Scoop up the grated cucumber and place it in some cheesecloth. Squeeze out as much juice as you can and discard the juice. Without these two important steps, your Tzatziki sauce will be really soupy.

You can see in this photo how much juice I was able to squeeze from one cucumber!

Once the yogurt is the right consistency and the cucumber has been squeezed out, combine all ingredients (listed above) in a large bowl, stirring gently to combine. Enjoy!

Authentic Greek Salad

Ingredients:
2 large cucumbers
4 large tomatoes
1/2 large red onion
12 kalamata olives
1/4 to 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and red wine vinegar for the dressing

Peel, seed and dice 2 large cucumbers and place in a large bowl. Chop the tomatoes and thinly slice the red onion. Add to the cucumber and stir to combine. Slice the olives and crumble the feta cheese into the salad. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil and the red wine vinegar and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Toss to combine.

Baklava
This is an authentic Greek treat, but my recipe is actually from Iraq. This recipe was shared with us by dear friends and it is, truly, the best Baklava EVER! The cardamon is the secret and necessary ingredient. It is expensive, so I normally only make these decadent treats at Christmastime.

1 package Fillo dough, (usually in the frozen fruit section at the grocery store)
9 oz. walnuts, ground
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. cardamon
2 sticks butter
1/2 bottle clear Karo corn syrup

Filling:
Freshness is key in this simple cookie. I prefer to buy whole walnuts and grind them in my food processor, and to get fresh cardamon, if possible.

Combine the ground walnuts, sugar and cardamon and set aside.
Thaw Fillo dough for 8 hours in the refrigerator and 4 hours at room temperature if you can. This makes it easier to work with. If you don’t have time, I have used the dough after it has set at room temperature for just 30 minutes. It tends to break more easily, but that doesn’t really matter with this dough.

Lay out half a package of Fillo dough, layer by layer, into an 18 x 14 cookie sheet. This dough is very forgiving, so it does not matter if it rips or tears. Just place the sheets into the pan, one at a time. It doesn’t matter if a sheet is ripped into 3 or 4 pieces, just lay it out onto the pan. What DOES matter is that you place the layers one sheet at a time, not all in a stack. Don’t allow the dough to overlap the edge of the pan. Fold edges in if you need to.

Pour the filling over this crust layer, spreading with a spoon so that it entirely covers the Fillo dough.

Place the other half package of Fillo dough over the top of this filling, working with it in the same way as you did before.

Melt the two sticks of butter and pour them evenly over the top of the baklava. Pull some of the fillo away from the sides of the pan so that butter can get down between the dough and the pan on all sides. Use a spoon or your fingers, if you need to, to ensure that all the dough is covered evenly with melted butter.

Take a sharp knife and cut the baklava into diamond shaped cookies. To make a diamond shape, bring the knife straight down in rows from left to right across the pan. Then cut in a diagonal pattern to reveal the diamond shaped cookies. This recipe makes around 50 cookies. They are rich, so don’t make them too big.

Bake at 350 for 25 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

Allow to cool. Re-cut the diamonds.

Drizzle with the half bottle of Karo clear corn syrup and serve. These treats are best fresh. They will taste their very best the day they are made and good for a couple more days after. Over time, they begin to dry out and do not taste nearly as yummy, so these should ideally be made the day of your feast.

I made Chinese fried rice tonight for our International Festival. This dish is so easy and so yummy that I make it frequently for lunch or dinner. It is a great way to use up leftover rice.

Ingredients:
vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
two or three cloves of garlic, minced
Cooked White rice (I start with 3 cups uncooked rice to make a large batch)
Frozen peas and carrots (or other vegetable, according to taste)
Soy sauce
3 or 4 eggs
Cooked chicken (or other meat, according to taste)

Prepare your ingredients first. Pour some soy sauce onto the meat and let it marinate while you get everything else ready. Dice the onion. Stir the eggs with a fork to break up the yolks. Cook the rice if you have not done so already.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil into the bottom of a deep, heavy-bottomed skillet or wok. Add the diced onion. When the onion begins to brown, add the garlic. Cook for one minute and add the frozen peas and carrots. Fry until heated through.

If you are working with large quantities, transfer the vegetables to a separate bowl before adding the meat to the skillet. Add more oil if necessary and fry the meat until heated through. Transfer the meat to the bowl with the vegetables. Add 2 or 3 more tablespoons of oil and allow it to heat up. Add the cooked rice. It is important to have a big enough skillet (or to transfer cooked ingredients if you don’t) so that the rice fries instead of steams.

Be careful! I make fried rice all the time, but last night I let the oil get too hot before adding the rice. Oil was spattering and popping everywhere and some landed on the burner and caught on fire! Thankfully, I remembered that you put small oil out fires with a towel, NOT with water.

Fry the rice for a couple of minutes. Push it to the sides with a spatula and add the egg. Allow the egg to scramble and mix it throughout the rice. Add the vegetables and meat back to the rice pan, stirring well. Add soy sauce to taste.

If you need to make this for a crowd, it can be done the night before and then warmed up the next day in a crock pot.

You can also use raw vegetables or raw meat, but you need to adjust the cooking time.

To decorate the houses, make up another large batch of frosting, adjusting this recipe as needed, based on the number of houses you are covering.

Frosting “glue” recipe:

1 lb. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbsp. milk

Blend powdered sugar and butter together, add vanilla and milk, beating until smooth. Add more sugar if the mixture is too runny, or more milk, one teaspoon at a time, if the glue is too thick to spread.

Set each child up with a work station: their gingerbread house on its stable platform and a place to corral all their candies.

I bought all kinds of vintage candies this year at a local farmer’s market. Any candies that the kids like will do, but I thought it would be fun this year to experiment with making old-fashioned looking houses.

We had peppermint sticks and peppermint chunks, crystal clear rock candy, sour cherries, licorice, hard candies, coconut, chocolate wafer cookies, Smarties, sprinkles, colored sugars, Swedish fish, jelly beans and mini marshmallows. You could also use pretzels, Frosted Mini Wheats for snowy roof shingles, gumdrops…the sky is the limit!

To attach the candies, fill a sandwich sized ziploc bag with frosting. Press out all the air and seal the bag. Push the frosting to the corner of the bag. It can be hard for little hands to hold the bag in such a way as to keep the frosting in the corner…tying off the top (empty) part of the bag with a rubber band can help. Cut a very small corner off the edge of the bag and pipe the frosting out through the hole. If you make this hole too big it will end up very messy!

Our youngest children found this way too frustrating and ended up slathering on the frosting with little spreader knives and even with their fingers.

Show the kids how to pipe rows of frosting on the roof and sides. They won’t need help figuring out how to place the candy! From here on out, your main task will be ensuring that they put at least as much candy on the house as they do in their mouths!

As I wrote in Gingerbread Houses: Construction, I had trouble making part of the roof and used cardboard. It didn’t stick that well on a couple of the houses. My 3 year old had the idea of using a cookie, which worked just fine and looked great!

Everyone was proud of the results!

One thing I enjoy about this activity is that I can see each child’s personality reflected in their creation.

My orderly child made this house.

One of my children is very artistic but completely disorganized in an oblivious kind of way. Here is his house.

All my boys seemed to focus more on the landscape around the house than on the house itself. Large portions of the houses were left bare, but they used gobs of mini marshmallows to construct fishing snowmen, lumberjacks stacking peppermint logs, blue frosting ponds stocked with red Swedish fish, a peppermint stick “North Pole” and snowmen tending flower and vegetable gardens.

The grandmas and I surmised that girls “decorate” while boys “build”.

One little boy got a little carried away with his house. We set the houses aside to dry and when we came back later, his looked like it had been hit by a candy avalanche. The weight of the candy on top caused the roof to cave in so that it needed to be propped up with long peppermint sticks!

Last year we made gingerbread houses for the first time. Everyone had so much fun that we immediately decided it should become a yearly tradition.

Here is a photo from last year:

I constructed the houses tonight. They need to be made in advance so that the frosting can harden. The kids aren’t that interested in building them anyway. They just want to frost them and put the candy on!

My three year old asked for a gingerbread square tonight while I was putting the houses together. After tasting it, he said, “This doesn’t taste like gingerbread! This tastes like a graham cracker!” That’s because it is a graham cracker! I don’t buy the fancy kits that cost a lot of money. We make our houses out of a box of graham crackers and homemade frosting.

First, make a batch of frosting.

1 lb. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbsp. milk

Blend the butter and powdered sugar on low until combined. Add the vanilla and milk. If the frosting is thin and runny, add more powdered sugar. If it is too thick to work with, add a bit more milk.

For one house, I use 6 Graham crackers. They need a stable surface for transporting, so I use a piece of sturdy cardboard covered in aluminum foil. You could also use cookie sheets if you are willing to give them up for a few days.

Cover the edges of the first cracker in frosting, all the way around. Lay it on the foil. Place one cracker on each long side of the base, so that the cracker rests on the cardboard surface (not on top of the base cracker) and press the crackers against the frosted surface of the base cracker. You may need to add additional frosting onto the sides where they touch the base…it takes a thick coat!

Break the next cracker in half and position one half on each end, using the same method. Place some of the frosting in a ziploc bag and cut off one corner. Squeeze a line of frosting down each seam where one cracker joins another, both inside and outside of the house.

Squeeze a bead of frosting around the base cracker where it meets the aluminum foil as well, for extra stability.

Set the house aside for about an hour to harden, so that it is easier to apply the roof. I made four houses tonight. By the time I was done with the 4th, the frosting on the 1st was set so I could move right on to placing the roof.

Cover the top edge of the two long sides with frosting. Place a long graham cracker on each edge, leaning them toward one another so that they meet in the shape of a V. Squeeze a bead of frosting on the seam where the two crackers meet.

If your crackers aren’t crumbly, you could probably cut half a cracker in half again so that you’d have two triangles for the ends of the roof. Mine broke every time I tried it. Instead, I cut triangles out of a cardboard carton and covered the back with frosting, sticking that on to the roof. Pipe a bead of frosting around all the edges where the cardboard meets the cracker. Tomorrow this whole thing is going to be covered with frosting and candy, and no one need know that part of the roof was constructed out of cardboard!

Set the houses aside to dry. When you are ready to attach the candies, make another batch of frosting using the same recipe as above (I’ll probably double that recipe to have enough frosting for four kids). Give each child their own ziploc bag and a work station with a variety of candy. I went to a Farmer’s Market and bought a bunch of vintage candies. I’m so excited about tomorrow!

Our family loves German food. We eat it all the time! I was blessed to go to school in Austria where I learned to cook several yummy favorites. Here is our favorite German menu. It’s perfect for a Reformation Celebration feast night!

Wiener Schnitzel
Kaesspaetzele (Cheesy noodles)
Apple Strudel

Wiener Schnitzel
Traditionally, Wiener Schnitzel calls for veal, but pork is more readily available here, so that is what I use. I buy the thin breakfast cutlets, so that I don’t need to pound the pork thin with a mallet. If you don’t buy the thin cutlets, you may need to slice the pork chops thinner, and you will definitely need to pound them flat with a meat mallet.

Ingredients:
Pork or veal cutlets
2 eggs, 2 TB milk, vegetable oil, salt
flour
breadcrumbs

Directions:
In a plate, mix together 2 eggs, 2 tbsp milk, a few drops of vegetable oil and a dash of salt. After pounding the pork chops thin, season with salt and dredge them in a dish of flour. Dip them into the egg mixture, and then press them into the breadcrumbs. Shake off any surplus crumbs and fry immediately in hot vegetable oil. Serve with hot German potato salad or Kaesspaetzele.

Kaesspaetzele (Cheesy noodles)
Traditionally these noodles should be home-made, but I sacrifice a little traditional flavor for ease and simplicity. I recommend boxed elbow macaroni or, alternatively, packaged egg noodles, according to preference.

Ingredients:
1 box or bag of pasta
sliced or shredded swiss cheese
onions, butter

Prepare pasta according to package directions and drain. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet. Dice the onion and fry in the butter until it is blackened (not just carmelized, it should be almost burned). The amount of butter you use depends on the amount of onion…for a batch for my family I use one large onion. For a potluck sized batch use 3 or 4 onions, with enough melted butter to coat the onions (a few tablespoons for a large batch).

Layer the pasta in a casserole dish or crock pot (one layer of pasta, one layer of cheese, one layer of onions). Repeat. Bake or warm in a crockpot until the cheese is melted. You can add smoked kielbasa or sausage to turn this into a main dish.

Apple Strudel
This recipe makes about 2 strudels. I usually make this for a crowd, quadruple the recipe (4x) and get about 7 or 8 strudels out of it.
Ingredients:
Strudel pastry: I prefer to purchase Phyllo Dough (sometimes spelled Fillo) from the frozen fruit section of my grocery store. It makes a wonderful flaky pastry, it’s perfect for apple strudel and it is fast and easy.

Filling: 2 pounds ripe apples, 1/2 stick butter, 1/2 cup raisins (optional), 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, cinnamon to taste (about 1/2 tbsp).

Slice the apples as thin as possible (I use a food processor, but it isn’t necessary). You can choose to peel or not, according to taste. Mix the apples with the sugar and cinnamon to taste. Add raisins if using.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet. Fry the breadcrumbs in the butter until golden brown.

The Phyllo dough box will have two packaged rolls of dough in it. ONE roll of dough makes about 6 to 8 strudels. Keep one frozen for future use. Thaw the other roll at room temperature for about 2 hours, or overnight in the fridge. When it is thawed, open the package and unroll the dough. You’ll have a stack of about 15 sheets. Lay a dishtowl out flat on your work space and place one sheet of phyllo on the towel. Brush about a teaspoon or two of vegetable oil onto the phyllo sheet with a pastry brush or your fingers. Then lay a second sheet on top and brush more vegetable oil onto the sheet. Place a third layer on top (do not brush with oil). Cover the remaining phyllo with a slightly damp dish cloth, as it dries out very quickly.

Scatter the fried breadcrumbs in a line over the top and middle of the pastry (from left to right)…so the pastry should be empty at the bottom, with the entire top and middle covered with a stripe of breadcrumbs about 2 inches wide. Make sure it covers the entire pastry left to right so that the end pieces aren’t “empty” of filling!

Next, scoop up some of the apple/raisin filling and spread it over the breadcrumbs.

Now, this part is easy once you get the hang of it. Roll the strudel together with the help of the cloth so that the bare 1/3 is rolled in last. Place it on a baking tray and brush with butter. Bake in a 350F oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cherries can be substituted for the apples; omit the cinnamon and raisins.

We studied Ancient India this week. Our study culminated with an Indian Feast. Here are the recipes we used.

Menu:
Basmati Rice
Tandoori Chicken
Chicken Curry
Indian Naan Bread
Green salad
Kulfi (Indian Ice Cream)

If you decide to prepare an Indian Feast, plan ahead. The ice cream needs at least 8 hours to freeze. No one thought the Tandoori chicken was anything to write home about, so I am not including the recipe here. If you are interested in serving that, you can find many recipes online. We thought the recipe I used was very bland.

Chicken Curry

Ingredients: (Double quantities for a larger crowd)
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 3 tablespoons curry powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon paprika
* 1 bay leaf
* 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
* 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
* 1 can pineapple tidbits, drained
* 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into bite-size pieces
* 1 tablespoon tomato paste
* 1 cup plain yogurt
* 3/4 cup coconut milk
* 1/4 cup lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until lightly browned. Stir in garlic, curry powder, cinnamon, paprika, bay leaf, ginger, sugar and a pinch of salt. Continue stirring for 2 minutes. Add chicken pieces, pineapple tidbits, tomato paste, yogurt, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes.
2. Remove bay leaf, and stir in lemon juice. Simmer 5 more minutes. Add salt if necessary.

The curry was a bit hot. I did not add any cayenne pepper, which was recommended, and it was still spicy. The white rice helped, and so did serving it with some toppings.

Curry Toppings

It may not be traditional in India to serve curry with toppings. But that’s how we do it! That’s part of the fun! I set out several dishes on a lazy susan with ingredients to put on top of the curry. Everyone can personalize their own dish!

Suggested toppings include pineapple tidbits, sliced mango, dried cherries or diced dried apricots, coconut, nuts (many prefer peanuts, we use canned mixed nuts), and diced green onions.

Basmati rice is imported from India. I wanted to make Saffron rice, but at $15 a bottle, Saffron was too expensive. I made the Basmati rice in a steamer, and I didn’t add anything to it. It tasted good, even without salt or butter!

Indian Naan Bread

1 (.25 oz.) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tsp minced garlic (optional)
1/4 c. butter, melted

Directions:
1) In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth and set aside to rise. Let rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

2) Punch down dough and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

3. During second rising, preheat grill to high heat (I used a grill pan on the stove).

4. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil the grill. Place dough on the grill and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter and cook until the other side is browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill and continue process until all the naan has been prepared.

Kulfi (Indian Ice Cream)

Mango and Cardamom Kulfi

4 slices white bread with crusts removed
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk (light or fat free version is fine)
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (light or fat free version is fine)
1 (16 oz) tub cool whip (light/fat free is fine)
1 tsp cardamom powder or 1 cup mango chunks

Method:

1) lightly warm the bread…I used a toaster at the #1 setting. The bread should NOT change color, but it will be easier to pulse into crumbs if it is a bit warm. Out the warmed bread in a food processor or blender and pulse until it turns to crumbs.

2) In the blender or a large mixing bowl, add the thawed cool whip, condensed milk, evaporated milk to the bread crumbs and mix well. Blend/mix until everything is well combined and you can see bubbles starting to form. If in doubt, mix a few more minutes.

3) I wanted to make two flavors of Kulfi (cardamom and mango) so I separated the mixture into two batches. Adjust spices as desired if you do not want two different kinds of ice cream. I poured about 1/3 of the mixture into a pyrex dish (you can use a tupperware dish, a jello mold, a baking dish…whatever). I sprinkled the top of that mixture with cardamom powder.

The other 2/3 of the mixture stayed in the blender, and I added 1 cup of mango chunks (purchased in the frozen section). Pulse until the mango is liquified. Pour the rest of the mixture into another pan.

Cal tasted the mixture before it was frozen. He didn’t think it would be very good.

4) The ice cream should be frozen at least 8 hours before you eat it, or it can be made the day ahead of time.

This recipe can be adapted with different flavors. Some suggested grinding pistachios or almonds and adding those to the cardamom flavored ice cream. Experiment! All of my kids loved the Kulfi. Two preferred the Mango flavor, two preferred the Cardamom. I thought it tasted too much like sweetened condensed milk, so I didn’t really like it that much.

The recipes for Challah and Candlestick salad were borrowed from Martha Zimmerman’s excellent book, Celebrate the Feasts.

Celebrating Biblical Feasts

Colin preparing his Challah
Challah (Sabbath bread)(yields two large or three medium sized loaves):

2 packages dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
4 tsp salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
7 1/2 cups flour

Pour the 2 cups warm water into a large bowl (I used my kitchenaid mixer). It should be warm, not hot, lukewarm or cool. Add the yeast, and allow to stand for 5 or 10 minutes. Add sugar, oil, salt. Blend in the eggs, reserving 1 TBSP of egg white for brushing on the loaves. Add 3 cups flour and beat well to avoid lumps. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Gradually, add the rest of the flour (4 1/2 cups). Oil the table or board you will use and your hands generously and knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

When I put my dough onto the board, some of the flour was still crumbly. I added a bit of oil to my hands and the board during the kneading process, working until I had a nice smooth dough. This was my first time baking Challah, and I am not a bread-maker normally, so I am far from an expert…but ours came out great.

After kneading, put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a clean cloth and leave in a warm place. Let rise about 1 1/2 hours. Shape the loaves, braiding them on a cookie sheet. (If you have a question as to how to braid the loaves, a simple Google search yields many photos and diagrams).

Let rise 1 hour. Brush the top of the loaves with egg white, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds, if desired. Allow to rise again for 1 hour. Bake at 375F for 30 to 45 minutes. Tap the bottom of each loaf. When there is a hollow sound, the bread is done.

For instructions to make a Challah cover out of paper napkins, see my post on Celebrating Shabbat.

Knox had lots of fun making his own Challah…and even more fun eating it!
VARIATION: I have 4 sons, and I wanted to use Ms. Zimmerman’s suggestion of letting each boy have their own small loaf to bless. I allowed each boy to make their own small loaf. This only left enough dough for one large Challah for the family, rather than 2, and yet I still wanted to tie in the symbolism of how God gave a double portion of manna on the 6th day.

Again, Ms. Zimmerman comes through with a great idea. She suggested making a lovely loaf by saving some dough to make a smaller braid, and then laying it over the top of the large braided loaf, pressing slightly so that it adheres to the lower loaf. This makes a beautiful loaf of bread! For our script, my husband just said, “You’ll notice that this large loaf of bread is actually two loaves, as there is a 2nd loaf braided on top. This is to remind us of the double portion of manna….”, problem solved!

Candlestick Salad
Three year old Cal enjoyed helping construct this simple salad, which reminds the children of the Shabbat candles.

Directions for one salad: Put a washed piece of lettuce on a plate. Place a pineapple ring on the lettuce. Cut a banana in half in such a way that it will stand in the hole (we had to cut ours into thirds and eat the middle portion, as otherwise the top-heavy bananas kept toppling over). Poke a toothpick down into a banana part way, and poke a maraschino cherry onto the toothpick for the candle’s flame.

It seems that many people eat Chicken soup and/or fish for their Shabbat meal, but a Google search yielded many potential recipes. For our Shabbat, we had the Candlestick salads, Roast chicken with carrots and onions, Challah, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. The children got to drink Sprite, which is a luxury for them. After all, Shabbat is meant to be a celebration, a feast! We had a store-bought pie for dessert to keep things as simple as possible.

Sunday meals
I prepared all the food we would need for Sunday ahead of time, on Saturday afternoon. For our Sunday breakfast, we had orange juice, Sunrise Smoothies and store-bought donuts.

Sunrise Smoothies
Combine the following in a blender:
1 carton of strawberries
1/4 can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 package frozen passion fruit pulp (frozen fruit section at the grocery store)
1 family-sized carton strawberry yogurt
Enough orange juice to thin consistency…adjust to taste

My blender was too small, so I poured some of the mixture into a pitcher before adding the rest of the strawberries and additional orange juice. I put all of it in a pitcher in the fridge overnight so it would be an easy breakfast on Sunday morning. I loved these Smoothies, but the kids thought they were too sour. Next time, maybe I will use less passion fruit and some milk instead of orange juice.

Sunday’s lunch menu was Italian beef sandwiches, green salad from a bag, fruit or applesauce and leftover potatoes from last night. If you wanted a dessert, you could serve something easy like store-bought cookies.

Crockpot Italian Beef Sandwiches
Place a 2 to 3 pound beef rump roast in your crockpot. Sprinkle the top of the roast with a package of dry Italian dressing (Good Seasonings). Add a can or two of beef broth to the pot. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. Serve on crusty rolls, with a ladle full of broth in individual dishes, for dipping.

My family’s favorite meal is Pizza night. We try to do this once a week on Friday nights and they just love it! The kids really wanted to have pizzas for our Shabbat celebration, but I couldn’t quite get my mind around that.

As a compromise, I said we would have pizza on Sunday night. It is the last meal of Shabbat, a time of celebration for the joy and refreshment the Lord brought us during the Sabbath, before we begin to look forward to the new week. It is also a meal that requires no work from me, so I felt it fit within my definition of what we could eat on this very special Sabbath.

On Saturday morning I purchased ready-to-bake pizzas at the Walmart Deli and kept them in the fridge until Sunday night. We also ate the leftover Challah bread from the night before. For dessert, we roasted marshmallows outside in a firepit and had S’mores.