Dates Around The World: France Date Night

Good news! I am (mostly) back to feeling like my normal self again and am happy to report that our France dinner was a success!

For this dinner, I decorated the table with fancy name cards.....

and pictures from my visit to Paris WAAAAY back in 2005.

In preparing for this dinner, we hit a few bumps in the road with the recipes, surprisingly for the first time. Did you know it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find Marzipan in Nowheresville, Illinois? And to make it was going to be more expensive than I wanted..so I had to do some improvising.

Also the cheese I was supposed to use for the main dish was nearly $10 for a small container. Geez, France! You're fancier than I can afford!

Anyways, the main dish of the night:

Croque Monsieur

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter                           Gruyere cheese
3 tablespoons flour                             1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 cups hot milk                                   White sandwich bread, crusts removed
1 teaspoon kosher salt                        Baked ham, sliced but not paper-thin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Pinch of nutmeg


Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour. Stir with spoon. Slowly pour in the milk and cook, whisking constantly until the sauce has thickened a little bit. Remove from heat and add salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese, and the Parmesan. Set aside. **I used a little more than 1/4 cup of the Gruyere cheese, not a whole 1/2 cup, same with the Parmesan***
• Cut the crusts off of the sandwich bread. To toast the bread, place the slices on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Turn each slice and bake for another two minutes until toasted.
• Lightly brush half of the toasted bread with mustard, add a slice of ham to each and sprinkle with Gruyere cheese. Top with another piece of toasted bread. Slather the tops with the cheese sauce, and bake a few more minutes. 

So, I tasted this cheese when I was grating it...and I got scared because it had such a strong flavor and I had never cooked with OR tasted it before, so I made some sandwiches that were just toasted ham and cheese and served both.

For dessert, I was going to make Apple Marzipan but....as I already said, I couldn't find Marzipan and didn't want to buy the ingredients to make my own. So, we settled for Apple pie instead.

No real recipe for this, I just peeled and cut apples, sprinkled about a 1/2 cup of brown sugar on top of them, sprinkled about..1 teaspoon of cinnamon over that and about 1/4 teaspoon of allspice. I used a store-bought crust and threw that on top and baked it. Really basic, really delicious. 

Now for the fun part. Since Paris is known for its fashion, I decided to do our goofy activity based on that. I saved all our junk mail from the last two weeks and tonight, we had a design your own fashion competition.

Each team got:

•  a roll of painters tape I found in the basement
•  a pair of scissors
• choice of materials from the junk mail pile

(Cat not included)

Noah set his phone to go off in 5 minutes, and we went to work.

5 minutes later, this was the result. We might not be quite ready for the Parisian runway, but in the end, I feel like we all won.

I had a few setbacks putting this one together, (not being able to find all the ingredients for the recipes I wanted to use, life weighing down a little heavier than usual, and re-scheduling two different times) BUT, I was pleasantly surprised with the way the Croque Monsieur turned out. The cheese I tried alone, cooked into to the sandwich and was actually pretty good when mixed with other flavors. (Don't eat it by itself though!) Turns out I could have just made all of the sandwiches with the cheese sauce on it instead of serving both like I did. I'll have to search around a little more in the future and if I can find some Marzipan, I'll try making the recipe I found for Apple Marzipan some other time. 

I actually have no idea what the next country will be. So far in this adventure, I've had an idea in the back of my mind by the time I finish the current country- what country will come next. I'm open to literally anything, so if you've got a suggestion, let me know! I generally love being creative and I'd like to hear what some of you would like to see us eat. 

*For the record: We have done Egypt, Germany, England, Russia, and now France. 

I have also had Iceland, Italy, and Greece suggested so far (and I had already planned to do all three of those, at some point!) 

The next dinner might not be for a few weeks, as our lives are going to pick back up and be constantly busy again once November hits, but I am having fun doing this so I intend to continue until it no longer becomes fun anymore. 

Dates Around the World: Russian Date Night

If you're just joining in on our dinner adventures, welcome! I decided last month that I was tired of cooking the same foods over and over again, so when I saw the idea online for Dates Around the World, I decided to make my own. The idea is simple, spend a evening cooking recipes from a country of your choosing. If you're feeling creative, research the country and try to find a game or an activity that goes along with the country and make an evening of it! Feel free to check out the blog for our other Date Nights!

Following suit for the last three countries, I was so excited to do Russia as our country for the evening!

Tonight, it was just me and my husband for dinner. (That NEVER happens!) Given that I haven't been feeling like myself for the last few days, we decided to do it small scale tonight and just eat dinner together. No silly games, no fancy table settings, just the two of us sitting down at the kitchen table and eating together. 

For the main course, I chose Piroshki, and for dessert we had Orange Drop Cookies. 

Dinner: Piroshki

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef                                     1 cup milk
1 onion, finely chopped                                         3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt                                                     1/2 cup vegetable oil
ground black pepper to taste                                 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
dried dill weed to taste                                          1 teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast                                    4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup warm water                                              3 cups oil for frying

Directions:

1. In a medium skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef until evenly browned; drain. Stir in the onion and cook with the beef until onion is translucent. Sprinkle in salt, pepper, and dill weed to taste. Allow to cool before using
2. Dissolve the yeast in the 1/4 cup of warm water and place in a warm location until frothy, about 10 to 15 minutes. In a medium saucepan over low heat, warm the milk and whisk in the eggs, oil, sugar and salt. Remove from heat
3. Place 2 cups of the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the milk mixture. Then, add the yeast solution and the remaining 2 cups of flour and mix well. Let dough sit in a warm spot until it doubles in size.
4. Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Pinch off pieces of dough (I used...about the size of a golfball) and roll out or smash the pieces into flat circles about 3 inches. 
5. Fill each circle with a tablespoon (or more) of the cooled meat mixture. Fold the dough over and pinch the sides together to seal. Allow these to sit on a flat surface for a few minutes.
6. In a large skillet or pot, heat the oil for frying. Fry the piroshki in batches until golden brown on all sides. Remove and let drain on a plate lined with paper towels to take some of the oil off

**Make sure your oil isn't too hot! I burned the first few that I made tonight because the dough fries fast. The outside was getting dark brown and the insides were still doughy. 

But for the most part, I think they turned out pretty well

Confession time- I made these cookies on Saturday because I felt like cooking, and...my husband and I have been eating them steadily for the last two days. They are addicting! 

Dessert: Orange Drop Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup shortening                                          1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white sugar                                        1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg                                                              2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup orange juice                                       2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon orange zest                                   2 tablespoons orange juice
2 cups all-purpose flour                                  1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees celcius) and grease cookie sheets
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir 1/2 cup orange juice and 1 teaspoon orange rind into the flour mixture.
3. Cream shortening and white sugar together. Mix egg into the sugar mixture thoroughly. Slowly blend in flour mixture. Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes
5. Make the icing: Mix confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons butter together until smooth. Pour 2 teaspoons orange juice and 1 teaspoon of orange rind into the sugar and butter mixture, mix well. When the cookies have cooled, spread the icing generously over the tops of the cookies.

**MY VERSION

• I followed the ingredients on the left pretty much exactly, but then I didn't read the second column, so the cookies didn't end up with any baking soda or salt...and they were still delicious! 
• I didn't zest any more orange into the icing. I only used the powdered (confectioners) sugar, butter, and orange juice. 

Who doesn't like cookies? As far as decorations and fun activities go, like I mentioned before, I wasn't feeling like my normal self today, so I made this little card with my husband and my names on it in Russian, as well as a few cards that just say "I Love You", also in Russian and those were our table pieces for dinner tonight.

 

Because we neither one wanted to do much of anything, I suggested we watch Anastasia to go with the Russian theme, but... he had work he had to do and honestly, I didn't really feel like watching a movie tonight either.

I didn't take many pictures tonight because we didn't do anything extravagant, but we both liked the Piroshki, and as I said before the cookies are addicting.

If I was to do it again, I would:

• 1. Try not to burn the Piroshki 
• 2. Not stack the Piroshki when I was putting them together...we had some that stuck together when I went to put them in the fryer and they came apart and my husband tried to re-shape them while I was frying. (After reading the recipe again, I see that it does tell you to put them on a FLAT surface...oops! :)  )
• 3. Use a tad less Dill-Weed... it's not a spice I cook with a whole lot, and the recipe just says to add "to taste". Well, our taste is a little less than what I sprinkled in...
• 4. I might cut the recipe in half if it's just going to be two people. Two Piroshki's filled me up, and my husband was "really hungry" and he had three... so, we have lots of leftovers! 

The next country has been chosen (Sorry, it's a surprise!) but, I CAN tell you that it will have a goofy activity to be done with a group of people.

I'm sure after a few days of rest, I'll be feeling like my usual self again and the fun nights will continue! Until then, our Russian dinner night produced some pretty good food, and even though I burned part of the main dish- the cookies were amazing! I will definitely make those again! ..and I'll probably re-try my hand at Piroshki too, but maybe not for a little bit. I'm not good at deep frying things yet...


***Also, I choose the countries as I go. I only plan dinners one at a time, so if you have any country suggestions, I would love to hear them! So far, I have had Iceland and France be suggested (and will probably do both of them at some point!) Also, there is no limit to how many of these dinners we are going to do, we are just enjoying eating some new foods!

St. Louis Renaissance Fair

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

This past weekend my husband and I attended our very first Renaissance Fair. The theme of the weekend (as you can see) was Wine, Chocolate, And Romance. This theme changes weekly though, so do your research before going..you might miss out on a weekend you would really love!

We were going to go the weekend before last, October 1st, because the theme was Oktoberfest and they had a keg toss competition, a root beer chugging contest, and other fun features, but it was rainy so we decided to put it off another week.

We had been working on our costumes on and off for about two weeks, and having that extra week to prepare turned out being a good thing. We weren't by any means extravagant, but we did make a lot of the costume items by hand and I had to perfect my hair braiding for my husband's beard.

Anyways, Saturday morning we made the hour drive from our home in Illinois across the Mississippi River to Wentzville, Missouri. The town was clearly marked with signs directing you to the park, and upon our arrival shortly after 10am, parking was abundant.

(Which was something I had worried about having never been to Wentzville before)

We parked in the designated field and walked up to the ticket counter. We had coupons, so our tickets were around $31 for the both of us.

Once we had our tickets, we walked under the banner and into...a woods. But it wasn't just a trail through a line of trees, we walked into a little town! 

The smells of campfires, food vendors, and the crisp autumn air hit you like a brick and just like that, you are transported back to the Medieval Ages. 

Shops selling swords and shields, clothing vendors, musicians, soaps and beauty items, crafts, drinks, food, performers, the "town" had it all. 

 I forgot to mention that this place was pretty big. They give you a map as you come in so that you don't get lost. There is a main Street where many of the vendors lie, but then also you can take the paths to other camps, like the Gypsy camp- where they were giving dancing lessons or the German camp where they had horse riding and a blacksmith working on some chainmail armour. 

We started our fair experience by watching an escape artist perform on the St. Louis stage...

Then we wandered down to the jousting field and caught the tail end of the opening joust.

 I didn't know it then, but the show that they do throughout the day builds on the last show so that it actually tells a story. They aren't just doing the same show 3 times during the day, it's more like a 3 chapter story book. I'm sorry we had to miss the first part of the first show! 

We also watched some belly dancers while we ate lunch. I had the most DELICIOUS chicken Gyro for lunch from the "It's all Greek to me" food stand. However, I wish I had been more hungry because there were several places that I wanted to try food from! 

They offered your choice of lamb or chicken, so I got chicken and my husband got lamb so we could try both. The food was reasonably priced at $6 a Gyro. I came expecting to pay $6 for cheap food like..a hotdog and nachos. Much like what food costs at a sporting event. (Stadium food)...

So I was pleasantly surprised! The food was actually delicious and didnt cost me as much as I figured it would. 

After lunch, we wandered around by the jousting field to look in some of the little shops and just..watch people. We sat down in the Knight's pub to listen to the live music, which was very nice. I really enjoyed listening to the different bands that traded off every half hour. 

 When it came to dressing the part, it was about 50-50. There were lots of people that did dress up, but then there were also plenty of people that didn't.

As you can see, our costumes weren't extravagant

Some of the costumes made us laugh, and some of them were really interesting. 

And apparently the costumes were not limited to Medieval theme. There was a guy dressed from head to toe in a purple wizard costume, someone dressed as an Ewok from Star wars, we saw some Dr. Who costumes, several Links from Legend of Zelda, Fairies, and a really cool Medieval Doctor costume!

When 2 o'clock rolled around, we headed back over for the 2nd chapter of the jousting. We were seated on the purple knight's side, who was apparently the 'bad knight' and our slogan they told the crowd to cheer was "cheat to win". 

Unfortunately after the second jousting was over, we had to leave because I had been in the woods long enough (I have severe tree allergies) and the benadryl I took had kicked in and I was pretty drowsy. Guess I'll never know who won! But if I had to guess, I'd bet it was the "good knight" because how many times does the bad guy win? Am I right?

We also had to miss seeing the chocolate pie eating contest and the wooing contest, which were happening later in the afternoon. We did get to SEE the chocolate pies they made for the contest though..and they looked amazing!

On our way out, we stopped at the axe throwing booth and my husband and my brohter-in-law's girlfriend went head to head to see who was the better axe thrower.

My husband got two of his five axes to stick and he ended up winning, since she only got one. 

I will admit, I was on the fence about going to this festival. I had heard about it, and in years past I had remembered some of our friends going but I never saw any pictures or really talked to them to ask how they liked it. And for $31 entry ($16 a person with a coupon) it was a little bit of a gamble for us with my husband back in college full time and having only one income. 

But... I'm so glad we went now. We ended up spending around $30 inside the festival, and that was buying lunch for two people, two drinks, and paying $3 to throw the axes. We spent almost 6 hours at the fair and it was such a neat experience I would gladly go back. 

If you are in the mindset that I was, having never been and thinking about going...DO IT.  Yes, my husband and I spent about $60 that day, but you know, a nice dinner out would have cost us around $50.. and for an extra $10 we got to experience a place we had never been before!

Take your time and watch the shows (there are a ton and they go on constantly, with most shows being 30-45 minutes long and there are...5? different stages) listen to the music, watch the people, drink some Mead and enjoy a day outside. 

With all the trees there is plenty of shade and with all the activities there is always something to see. 

Dates Around the World: England Date Night

Last night was our English Dinner Night!

I'm thinking about changing the name from Date Night to Dinner Night because, while I will admit- I started the idea off thinking that it would be a dinner for my husband and I, It's so much more fun to have a group of people participate. And I'm excited to say that so far we have added people every country we have done. Granted, this is only the third dinner, but every time we have had more people come over than the last one. So, I guess word is spreading! (PS- I have three un-used spots at the table still! :) ) I'm excited- I still get to eat all these new recipes AND I get to spend time with family. It's really a win-win.

I also apologize, I didn't take many pictures last night, I was more concerned with getting dinner made and then talking. We were joined for dinner last night by my sister-in-law and 6 month old niece, then after dinner we were joined by Lindsey and her puppy, Finn.

I was a little nervous about the menu I had chosen for England Dinner Night, for the main dish I made an 'English Cottage Pie' - or comparable to what most Americans would call a Shepherd's Pie. My mother made Shepherd's Pie when I was growing up, and it was pretty good- but I hadn't made it myself but maybe once or twice in my life. I happy to report that this recipe was pretty good, and there isn't much left today as leftovers. In my true fashion, I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but here is a photo of it below in case you would want to, and my version is below.

Dinner:
English Shepherd's Pie (My Version)

2 pounds ground beef
1/2 an onion
2 big carrots (There were 3 but I ate the third one...)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
1 tablespoon parsley
1 cup water with 1 beef bullion cube (didn't have beef broth)
1 8oz can tomato sauce with pinch of sugar (didn't have tomato paste)
8 potatoes peeled and sliced
"Some" butter - probably... 3 teaspoons?
"Some" milk - probably... 1/4-1/3 cup?
Salt and pepper to taste
3 handfulls cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400
• Place a large pot over medium heat, Crumble in ground beef and saute. Add the onion and carrots in, then continue to cook until meat is no longer pink. Drain the meat, then put back in the pot and add in the flour, cinnamon, parsley, and italian seasoning
• In a small bowl, combine the "beef broth" and tomato sauce. Mix them together then add to your meat mixture. Add some salt and pepper to taste and let the whole thing simmer for about 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, peel and cut your potatoes. Boil them until tender. 
• Once cooked, mash the potatoes until smooth and add in your butter and milk. Add salt and pepper to your taste. 
• Spoon the meat mixture into a 9x13 pan, then cover with the mashed potatoes. Add on the cheddar cheese and bake for 25 minutes or until the top is browned and the cheese is bubbly.
  

As I said, I was a little nervous serving dishes I've never made to more than just my husband, who has to eat whatever I cook, but I think it turned out alright! No one complained and everyone ate some of it

Dessert: Basic British Scones

This recipe, I actually did follow pretty closely

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1/4 cup butter

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 (I just put them in with the shepherd's pie, so mine was at 400)
• Sift flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt into a bowl
• Rub in the butter until the mixture is crumbly
• Sir in the sugar and milk ( you might have to use more than a 1/2 cup, depending how dry it is) Your dough should be soft and not super sticky
• Turn onto a floured surface, knead lightly a few times and roll out the dough into 3/4 inch thickness. (Or...until it looks good..)
• Cut into two inch rounds and place on the baking sheet 
• Bake for 10 minutes and let them cool before serving

It says to serve these with honey, butter, or jam. We did honey and jelly because that's what we had in the cabinet and they were really good! Micah said I needed to make these and keep them in a container in the kitchen so he can grab them for breakfast as he is leaving every day. 

I am a little sad, I put a Welcome To England sign and a British Flag on our kitchen door..along with instructions to choose a Shakespearean name...and my phone was dumb and the picture I took didn't save :(

**Edit: my phone updated! Here is the lost picture! 

My Shakespearean name for the evening was Cordelia, and I was going to have us all do a little activity with them, but I didn't get it made up in time before dinner. 

Instead, we played a love poem game! 

I made up 6 bags with 60 words and 2 blank spaces for you to write in two words yourself. The instructions said:

Using the words provided, write your own Shakespearean poem to your love! You get two wildcard words, which are the two blank pieces of paper. We all had 10 minutes, and we were writing the poem for the person sitting on our right.

A few of us took it seriously and composed real poems, (Micah and Shala) I was a mixture of serious and funny, and the rest of them were just funny.

This was my poem, written to Kourtney 

It reads: 

"My lovely Fair Lady

You hath the best looks of a companion

Thou art like fine food

Thee mind is strong but better silent

Thy beauty hurts me

I sought for you"

This was Kourtney's poem, written to Noah:

It reads:

"The sweetest companion looks most like food

Therefore a man who hath a whole pie is lovely"

I didn't get pictures of everyone's poems, but it was fun to hear what everyone came up with since each bag had the same 60 words to choose from.

I didn't feel as prepared for this dinner as I was for the last one, as far as getting the kitchen decorated how I wanted, getting some little activities together, or taking any good pictures, but I am glad that everyone was able to join in and maybe for the next country I'll get back on the organized side of things. This is still fun, and I have yet to make a recipe that I wouldn't make again, so the plan of expanding my recipe box is totally working! 

And like I said before, we keep growing in people the more countries we do, so that's exciting as well! 

We had 3 for Egypt Night, 4 for Germany Night and now 5 for England dinner. (6 for the activity after dinner) 

I think I'm most excited for the challenge of our next country. I want to start expanding and getting a little more outside of our boxes so this next country that I have in mind will certainly do that...ah! you'll find out soon! 

Let me know if you have any country suggestions, I'm having fun researching recipes from the countries I am choosing!