If you'd like to start from the beginning, (and get the full story) here is the link to our Egyptian Date Night.
Tonight: Willkommen in Deutschland! (Welcome to Germany)
I felt like it went well! (Micah, Noah, Kourtney...correct me if I'm wrong) I had a lot of fun preparing this meal and the game we played after dinner was pretty entertaining, too. But, before I get to that part: here are the recipes I used!
Dinner: Braised Beef Stew and Potato Dumplings
Doesn't that look good? I MADE THAT! Sign me up for Cutthroat Kitchen, Iron Chef, or whatever cooking show is popular right now.. :)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of beef
1/2 Cup Flour (For breading the beef)
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 Cup Onion
4 Strips of Bacon
4 Cups Beef Stock (I used water and 2 Beef Bullion Cubes)
A dash of Bay Leaves
1 Tablespoon Hungarian Paprika (You can use just regular Paprika..it's not that different of a flavor)
Directions:
Cut meat into cubes and toss with flour and paprika. Heat oil in skillet and brown meat. Add beef stock, onions, bay leaves, and another teaspoon of paprika. (I also added about a 1/4 teaspoon of black ground pepper)
Brown bacon in another pan and add to the pot. Simmer for an hour. While stew is simmering...
Potato Dumplings
Ingredients:
6 medium, peeled, and boiled potatoes
1/2 cup flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
Directions:
I peeled the potatoes on my lunch hour today so that they were ready to go straight into pan to boil them when I got home.
Boil the whole potatoes until tender. Take the cooked potatoes, cut them open and put them on a baking sheet. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes (this dries out the potatoes)
** If you're impatient like I was, boil them, cut them and put them on the cookie sheet and turn the broiler on for a few minutes rather than waiting the full half hour.**
Grate the potatoes or put through a blender (I used a hand mixer?). Add the eggs, flour, and salt to make a doughy-like substance
Bring a pot of water to boiling, and then form the potatoes into little balls (maybe 1 inch?). Add them to the boiling water and cook them until they float.
Take out of boiling water and let cool down on a plate. While they are cooling, add a teaspoon of water to a teaspoon of corn starch. Mix them together and add to the stew. (This will thicken it a tiny bit)
After they have cooled, add them to the beef stew and let them simmer for a few minutes to pick up the flavor.
I have to say, for never making these before...I'm pretty proud! They didn't fall apart!!
Dessert: German Butter Cake
(I made this the night before, considering I had to basically bake bread)
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 package of instant yeast
1 cup butter
1 cup milk
Directions:
Place 4 cups of flour in a mixing bowl and make a hollow in the middle for the yeast. Fill with lukewarm milk (30 seconds in the microwave), add a pinch of sugar and mix a little to incorporate some of the flour. Let this sit in a warm place for 15 minutes. **I preheated the oven and turned it back off again so that it was warm, but not hot**
After the yeast is activated and showing growth, add the salt, egg, 7 tablespoons of butter, and 3/4 cup of sugar to the milk and mix the dough. Continue mixing until the dough is smooth and forms a ball. Form dough into a ball, place in greased bowl and let rise for 15-20 minutes. **I...didn't grease the bowl, I just stirred in everything and left it in the bowl I had already used..**
Roll the dough out into 1/2 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Preheat oven to 375. Mix 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon together and sprinkle over the dough (it seems like too much, but if you use any less it won't be sweet enough) Cut 9 tablespoons of butter into small pieces and spread evenly over the top. **Yeah....I used like 2 tablespoons and it was fine**
Bake 25 minutes or until cake is done and the cinnamon and sugar have melted together on the top.
For tonight's dinner, I made little German flags and stuck them into the pieces of cake that I served with dinner :) I just had to decorate a little bit!
Dinner was surprisingly good! I am not a huge fan of bacon, but it worked well with the beef cubes and the broth. Also surprisingly, Micah liked the potato dumplings! I figured he would think they were weird.. Both of the boys got seconds, which made me pretty happy, I'm not going to lie. Maybe it's just me, but when I cook a meal...it always feels good when someone wants more because it's good :)
When we were all finished eating, I cleared the table and got our game props. What's a German Date Night without a German Children's Game?
Game/Activity: Schokoladenessen
(Or...'Eat the Chocolate' for those of us who can't pronounce that..)
With a game name like that, who WOULDN'T want to play, right?
Game Rules/Instructions:
A chocolate bar (of your choosing) must be wrapped in newspaper or some sort of paper (As you can see, I had a weekly grocery ad for Aldi's), tied up with a string and set in the middle of the table, ALONG with:
- a hat
- scarf
- gloves
- fork
- knife
- and dice
(you can also add to this list for more of a challenge. I've seen where people add in putting on a vest or coat as well)
Each person will take turns rolling the dice to see who gets a 6 first. The first person to roll a 6 has to put on the hat, scarf, and gloves- and try to unwrap the chocolate bar. If he or she gets the bar unwrapped, they get to eat the chocolate bar, BUT THEY CAN ONLY USE THEIR FORK AND KNIFE to do so. The whole time that this is going on, the other players are taking turns rolling the dice trying to get a 6. When someone else gets a 6, the person who is currently trying to eat the chocolate has to immediately take off everything and hand to the other person who has rolled a 6 so that they can try to eat the chocolate. Then, the person that had to take off all of the winter clothing items gets to jump back into the rotation of players rolling the dice to try and get a 6 and eat more of the chocolate bar. The game continues until the chocolate bar is gone.
The hardest part was getting the chocolate bar unwrapped with those kitchen mits on. Noah got a layer off, I rolled a 6 and ripped through another layer..Then Noah got another 6 and was able to get the bar unwrapped and dumped it on the table, we all went back and forth so fast that the fork went flying at one point
...oh and in our case, when a 6 was rolled by someone else, instead of them "giving up" the hat and scarf...it was taken from them before they had a chance to even react. You can see the action shot I was able to get of Noah grabbing the hat off Kourtney's head. We got pretty into it and are all naturally competitive people :)
Supposedly everyone who gets to eat any of the chocolate is a 'winner', but I think I'd have to say that Micah ended up winning because he got to eat the most of the bar. The rest of us went through a dice spell where none of us rolled a 6 for a solid minute, giving Micah time to put on everything and eat 4 or 5 pieces of the Hershey's bar.
**
Just thinking out loud here: Next time, it might be fun to use a Crunch bar, or something with nuts in it to make it a little harder to cut with the knife?
**
Anyways, I got to eat two pieces of the Hershey bar- and I'm not sure about Noah and Kourtney (they both got at least one piece, but I couldn't keep count with everything else going on)
So, overall thoughts on German Date Night:
- I got to eat a beef stew that I really liked and will probably make again sometime!
- I successfully made my first ever potato dumplings and use a skill I've never done in cooking before (Grandma would be proud!)
- I got to put together a meal for my family that will hopefully hold fun memories one day
- I got some hilarious pictures during the game :) ...You're welcome!
- AND I got to eat a few pieces of chocolate
I might be biased, but I think that Schokoladenessen should make its way into our everyday lives..Chocolate, anyone?
...I'd call tonight a success! Now, I have a few miles to run (luckily tonight is a short-run night). Half-marathon is 7 weeks away!
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