Author Archives: Jennie

On the Menu Monday: A Visit to Vienna

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I was watching Rachael Ray the other day and she did a show about food in Vienna. I’ve been dreaming about going back to Vienna, as evidenced here and here. If I can’t travel to Vienna right now, at least I can recreate this for our empty nest at home, thought I.

Image Credit

When Music Man and I visited Vienna, I kind of fell in love with schnitzel, but it’s a lot of food and not so good for my diet. People usually make it by pounding the meat flat, coating it in breading and then frying it.

Refusing to let schnitzel be the boss of me, I started with the problem of most online recipes. They are designed for a family or a party, not just for the two of us in our empty nest. Voila! I decided to go with just two perfect palm-sized pork chops.

Rather than pounding them flat I kept the thicker size so that I wouldn’t have so much breading and less oil actually hitting the surface of the chop. I coated them with flour, egg, and panko bread crumbs just as Rachael did.

I ended up serving a meal that was not only relatively healthy, it was also delicious and satisfied that pesky schnitzel craving. Be sure to try this — it’s VERY easy!

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Pork Schnitzel

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Serving Size: 1 pork chop

Pork Schnitzel

This recipe can be made with chicken, veal, or pork.

Ingredients

  • 2 pieces lean pork chops
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1 Tbsp. sweet paprika
  • A handful flat-leaf parsley, leaves chopped
  • 1 tbsp. lemon zest

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Place a baking sheet in oven to keep cooked cutlets crisp.

Trim the pork chops of any visible fat.

Arrange a station for breading: flour, beaten eggs, bread crumbs mixed with paprika, parsley and the zest of a lemon.

Heat just enough oil to coat the bottom of a large nonstick skillet over medium to medium-high heat.

Bread each chop in flour, then egg, then bread crumb mixture and cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side, and transfer to oven. Keep the cooked chops hot in the warm oven until ready to serve.

Serve with lemon wedges.

https://gotmyreservations.com/2013/01/28/on-the-menu-monday-a-visit-to-vienna-2/

For Rachael Ray’s original recipe, click here.

Of course, I couldn’t just serve the schnitzel, so then I went looking for a side dish, and boy, was I lucky to find this one.

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Krautfleckerl -- cabbage-pasta bake

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Serving Size: 1 cup

Krautfleckerl -- cabbage-pasta bake

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. egg noodles
  • 1 white cabbage head
  • 2 Tbsp. olive or vegetable oil
  • 2 onions (chopped)
  • 2 Tbsp. sugar
  • Salt, caraway seeds, ground pepper
  • 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Instructions

Wash the cabbage and remove the stalk. Cut into quarters, then cut the quarters into smaller pieces. Add salt to taste. Cut the pieces roughly into squares, bruise by hand and let stand for about 15 minutes.

Caramelize the sugar in the oil, and add the cabbage, onions and the caraway seeds. Cover, and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring regularly, until light brown in color. Season with pepper.

Boil some water and cook the noodles until soft, drain and combine with the cabbage. Add the balsamic vinegar and toss.Let stand for a few minutes. Before serving, season to taste with pepper and salt.

Notes

This recipe calls for fleckerl, a small square, flat noodle. I was not able to buy this at my grocery, so I used the thickest egg noodles I could find.

My husband hates caraway, so I made a spice mixture of cumin, dill, and fennel and ground them in my mortar. I don't think I would ever go back to the original caraway, as the sweet spice mixture was divine and went beautifully with the balsamic vinegar.

This recipe makes about six servings, and we have been enjoying the leftovers. It warms up beautifully in the microwave -- if you have any left over!

https://gotmyreservations.com/2013/01/28/on-the-menu-monday-a-visit-to-vienna-2/

For the original cabbage and pasta recipe, click here.

Combined with some edamame salad straight from the deli counter, we had a healthy and satisfying meal that reminded us of our wonderful trip to Vienna, Austria.

StoneGable
 I’m linking up with On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable. Be sure to stop by for some inspiration for your table this week!

The Sunday Review: A Summer in Europe

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I wanted to like this book; I really did. It’s about traveling in Europe and learning who one really is. The author, Marilyn Brant, is local and knows people that I know. I’m likely to run into her someday and she’s an ex-teacher — all reasons that I should have liked this book better than I did.

Gwen is a thirty-year-old woman from Dubuque who has managed to become dull. She has a dull life and a dull boyfriend. She’s paralyzed by events from her past. She’s not a likely candidate for a romantic trip around Europe, yet she decides to go when offered a free trip with her aunt and her math-geek friends. Not surprisingly, she thaws out under the magic spell of Europe and frees herself from her past.

As I read this book, I kept thinking that it would make a better movie than it did a book. Brant’s imagery is luscious, and the quirky characters in the book would make a great ensemble movie like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I could see the two handsome brothers, Thoreau and Emerson, sparring with each other in a cathedral. I could see the romantic leads feeding each other pastries all over Europe. As another reviewer mentioned, Nia Vardolos could play this part — she did it before in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Should you read it? Maybe, if you like travelogues. That’s why I gave it four stars. For the plot, it’s about a two and a half because of its clichéd plot line and because I think the characters are overwritten. There’s very little subtlety in any of them, and a lot of stereotyping of the secondary characters. Still, there’s Rome and Florence and Venice and Vienna and London and Paris, and they make up for a lot in this book.

Tablescape Thursday: Celebrating Storks and Babies

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We were privileged to be a part of beautiful baby Lindsay’s baptism and celebratory party. Lindsay’s flowers and her adorable photo served as the inspiration for today’s baby shower tablescape. I tucked Lindsay’s photo from her baptism invitation into a cranberry glass box.

Of course, Lindsay’s party needed to be centered around PINK so I created a floral centerpiece in my favorite hobnailed cranberry glass bowl. Everything looks good in this vase.

When planning this centerpiece, I grabbed the wood carving that my father created for my children of a stork delivering a baby.

When my mother and father visited the Netherlands, my father became intrigued with the rooftops and chimneys in the lovely cities.

Pewter chargers laid on a cream lace tablecloth and cream and pink floral placements set the stage for the place settings.

Every hostess should own at least twenty plain white plates to use as a base for table settings. Mine are Pfaltzgraff Filigree and can go from the most formal table to an outside party on the patio.

On top of the white service plate, I layered a rimmed soup bowl (Claridge from Four Crown China); this was my mom’s china and these bowls work well for salad or soup.

We received eighteen Cristal d’Arques wine and water glasses for our wedding thirty years ago. We assumed some would break along the way — we still have all thirty-six glasses! Our swirly champagne glasses would certainly be filled with pink champagne for this event.

To add a little pink flair, each place setting is topped by a cranberry juice glass with a sparkly daisy.

Setting this table was special for me, as it features both my family heirlooms and the darling grandchild of my heart. Every time I see my dad’s stork carving, I want to visit the Netherlands and find out what inspired him. He’s not here with us any longer to tell me, so I’ll have to see it for myself.

I’m linking up today to Between Naps on the Porch. Stop by Susan’s blog to see some fabulous tablescapes to inspire you!

 

 

 

What to Wear Wednesday: Travel Edition — On the Plane

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I’ve been struggling with the dilemma of packing light for most of my life.

And yes, I know that should actually be lightly, the adverb rather than the adjective. I am being colloquial. 🙂

I’ve been following a fabulous blogger at Fifty Not Frumpy, and she posts inspiring outfits every day.  Since I’m a visual learner — I’ll bet that doesn’t come as any surprise to you — I decided to create some collections of my own to help me pack. If you click into the collection, you will be directed to my page at Polyvore, where you can find specifics about each of the items in the collection.

Travel Edition: On the Plane

Each piece in this collection will be used later in your travel, but will also be comfortable on the plane. Since overseas travel often requires me to arrive in the morning, I don’t want to look like I’m wearing my pajamas when I get to my hotel.  This collection of knits will travel well and will look fresh until you have time to change your clothes.

 Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

 

Our World Tuesday: Salzburg’s Mirabell Palace and Gardens

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Travel plus movies. Fun and funner.

As soon as we planned our trip to Austria, I knew I wanted to take the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg. Yes, I was the subject of ridicule among my friends, and Music Man barely tolerated the idea. But how could I go to Austria without seeing where Julie Andrews made cinematic history?

Today’s photo tour takes us to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens where some of the Do Re Mi sequences were filmed.

Remember these steps? I was there, too.

Remember when the children run around the garden and mimic the attitudes of the dwarves? You can do that too!

The Dwarf Garden has a bunch of interesting creatures made of white marble and they date back to the time of Archbishop Franz Anton Harrach in the early 1700s. I think I took photos of every darn dwarf — I knew I would use them someday and here we are.

We also went to Schloss Hellbrunn where the gazebo in which Liesl and Rolf sing “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” has been moved to protect it from trespassers. The interior shots were actually done on a set in Hollywood, but you can get your picture taken from the outside, as I did on a rainy day.

I enjoy seeing the movie locations when I am touring; it makes the fake world of movies seem a little bit more real. If you’re going to Salzburg, don’t let anyone talk you out of the Sound of Music tour. You’ll love it!

I’m linked up today with Our World Tuesday. Please stop by to see the travel stories of other bloggers and share the comment love!

 

On the Menu Monday: Ham and Potato Chowder

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German food may be the original comfort food.

When you think of what warms you up on a cold winter night, do you think of tacos? Or chow mein? Probably not. Do you think of a thick, savory soup filled with chunks of meat, potatoes, and veggies? I do.

When the Germans immigrated to the fledgling United States, one food item that came with them was potatoes, which were introduced in Germany in the 18th century and have become an important staple of German cuisine.

“In general, Germans emigrated to find adventure and greater prosperity. However, Germany, particularly, Bavaria, was hit by the potato famine in the mid 1800s. Some German immigrants sought political and religious freedom. In 1848 there were Germans fleeing political problems in Germany.

Although the Potato Famine in Ireland is much better known in America there was a similar problem in the Lowland countries and in Germany. In the mid 1840s a great parallel stream of immigrants from Ireland and Germany arrived on America’s shores. Bavaria, which had become very dependent on the potato, was at particularly hard hit with the failure of the potato crop. Whole villages from Bavaria, most of them traveled by carts to La Havre, Amsterdam, Hamburg, or Bremen, set sail for America. Most left from Le Havre” (maggieblanck.com).

Today’s recipe is an Americanized and lightened-up version of Kartoffelsuppe, German potato soup. Made with fat-free ingredients and lean ham, this hearty soup will fit the bill on a chilly winter evening whether you’re of German heritage or not. I’d like to think that my German ancestors, who left Germany in 1849 to build a new life in Cincinnati, would have approved of my version of German comfort food.

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On the Menu Monday: Ham and Potato Chowder

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Yield: 8 bowls of soup

Serving Size: About 1 cup

On the Menu Monday: Ham and Potato Chowder

I used this blogger's recipe as a base for my chowder, lightening it up even further. I also added ingredients from the basic German potato soup found here.

Ingredients

  • Extra-virgin olive oil ( I use garlic-infused olive oil for just about everything I cook)
  • 8 oz. ham, cubed (can also use bacon)
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
  • 5 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 medium Carrots (yellow carrots if available), diced
  • 1 stalk of celery, diced
  • 1 leek, chopped
  • 1 pound cubed peeled baking potatoes
  • 1 pound cubed Yukon gold potatoes
  • 5 cups unsalted chicken stock
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 cauliflower, cut into florets
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 cups skim milk
  • 3/4 cup chopped green onions
  • 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
  • 2 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese (about 1/2 cup)

Instructions

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Brown cubes of ham; set aside.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan; swirl to coat.

Add onion, thyme, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

Add carrots, celery, leek, potatoes, stock, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and bay leaf; bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 35 minutes or until potatoes are very tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; discard bay leaf.

While potatoes simmer, combine remaining 1 tablespoon oil, cauliflower, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper; toss to coat.

Roast at 400° for 30 minutes or until browned, turning once.

Place cauliflower mixture and milk in a blender.

Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening (to avoid splatters) and blend until smooth.

Pour cauliflower mixture into a large bowl.

Add half of potato mixture to blender; pulse 5 to 6 times or until coarsely chopped.

Pour into bowl with cauliflower mixture.

Repeat with remaining potato mixture.

Place cauliflower-potato mixture in Dutch oven over medium heat.

Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper, diced ham, 1/2 cup green onions, and sour cream; stir until sour cream melts.

Ladle soup into 8 bowls.

Top evenly with remaining green onions and grated cheese.

https://gotmyreservations.com/2013/01/21/on-the-menu-monday-ham-and-potato-chowder/

Why not take your German heritage one step further and return to your homeland?

Visit the ruins of Heidelberg Castle or take a romantic cruise on the Rhine.

Great German food is only a plane ride away — or maybe as close as your city’s German rathskeller!

Linking up this week at Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

 

The Sunday Review: The Greater Journey — Americans in Paris

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After choosing this book for our Book Club, I had high expectations. David McCullough is a wonderful storyteller and has a knack for turning even the driest factoids into a compelling story. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris is no exception to this writing style.

While listening to The Greater Journey in the car, I kept thinking back on the photos I took from the top of the Arc de Triomphe in 2010. Sometimes people skip going up into the Arc (an easy climb and short lines) and choose the Eiffel Tower instead, but I found the view from the top of the Arc to be breathtaking.

McCullough has chosen a representative group of Americans who went to Paris between 1830 and 1900, where their experiences helped to make them better statesmen, artists, musicians, and writers. He sets their very personal and sometimes mundane lives on the stage that was Paris in the 19th century, a turbulent and fascinating city.

As McCullough says in his author interview on youtube.com, Americans in Paris is a kind of guidebook to Paris and the history of Americans in the City of Light. It’s an accessible and intimate look at a different set of American roots.

The audiobook on The Greater Journey is voiced by Edward Herrman and is easy to listen to, but I also ended up buying a book as there were many photos and references I wanted to come back to. I’m struggling with whether to keep this one in my library or to pass it on to Paris-loving friends!

 

 

If you are interested in getting out of your reading chair and actually visiting the City of Light, please feel free to contact me to help you with your travel plans.

Travel Diary: Vienna 2003

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I just sent in my passport for renewal. I can’t believe it’s been ten years.

I got a new passport photo taken, of course. My contact lenses are long gone, replaced by my sassy hipster frames or my sparkly dress-up glasses. My hair’s still brown, albeit a little redder and a lot shorter because it’s easier to care for. I’m working on getting my weight down, but let’s just say my sturdy German girl frame fit right in among the Austrians — and I had a lot of layers on under that coat because it was March and it was cold in Austria.

We visited a family friend who was studying in Vienna while we were there.

The world was a lot different in 2003.

The United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland had joined with the United States to invade Iraq just before we were scheduled to visit in March 2003 during my spring break. The rest of the world was not as supportive and we were warned not to take any clothing displaying American flags or blatant patriotic sayings. We were supposed to blend in. Apparently the Viennese were not happy with our choice, as we found out with this display on a museum plaza. I think we were successful at blending in, as we were sometimes asked for directions by other tourists…

Both of my children had been to Europe three times by the time I actually got there myself.

For a woman who had visited almost every state in the Union, as well as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Canada, I was woefully under-traveled when it came to Europe. As a small-town girl from Ohio with a modest upbringing by my educator parents, I didn’t get to take the school trip with the band. There wasn’t one. I didn’t do junior year abroad, although some people at Miami University were able to study abroad at the University Center in Luxembourg. Not me. I needed to get my degree finished so that I could get on with life and my parents could not have afforded it anyway.

That first trip through Heathrow was a revelation. The center lounge with rows and rows of armchairs where travelers of every persuasion melded together in a huge melting pot was amazing to me. Going from shop to shop, comparing magazines, books, travel items, and even candy, took the sting out of our long layover. I was actually waiting to change planes in London, England!

Our visit to Vienna was the beginning of a travel odyssey that I hope we will continue for many years.

As I walked up to the post office today, I was thinking that in another ten years, I’ll be ten years older, too. We’ll still be traveling, unless something dreadful happens to us, but we will be different travelers by then. We probably won’t stride into the Vienna train station, confident that we can drag our own bags onto public transportation and get to the airport. We’ll probably take more cruises and do less driving.

But we’ll still be traveling.

A Viking River Cruise will someday take us back to Vienna; there are five cruises for us to choose from. We could even go during the Christmas markets in December.

The charming Hotel Beethoven is still alive and well and helping tourists to learn about Vienna. They still offer a comprehensive breakfast buffet and small-hotel ambiance and service.

Some things change and some things don’t.

I’m sure Vienna isn’t the city that we visited ten years ago; most likely, it is a better city. Globalization has changed the way we eat — I’m sure there are even more interesting restaurants to try. The fabulous museums are probably even more fabulous, as curatorial processes and styles have grown along with the advancement of digital imaging and modern historical preservation techniques.

Yet, I imagine that much about Vienna is the same. I’m sure that people still honor crosswalks and are polite. The Viennese probably still speak enough English to be helpful to tourists (unlike us who only know how to use cognates to read signs). The vitality of this centuries-old city is most likely still there, waiting to be discovered by another visitor.

When are you going to Vienna?

Contact me at jennie@gotmyreservations dot com if you would like me to help you plan a trip to this marvelous city!

 

Tablescape Thursday: A Nice Italian Red

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The phrase “setting the table” has different meanings for different people.

When my kids were little, it was their job to set the table. Needless to say, it wasn’t this formal for everyday. It still isn’t in our house for our empty nest meals.

For me, setting the table means to create a tablescape with my collection of tableware.

I love having my table set with a pretty seasonal display, so that if I have unexpected visitors, the dining room always looks nice. I also enjoy setting a pretty table when we have dinner guests. I’ve always told my friends that setting my table is a pleasurable hobby for me, and I’m just as comfortable in their houses with paper plates. No pressure, folks.

Setting a pretty table is just part of me, and I’m not ashamed of my little secret.

Especially now that I know there’s a whole subculture of people who like to set their tables for fun and then put the photos on their blogs. I’m linking up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday; please be sure to click in and enjoy all the beautiful inspiration to be found among the bloggers’ links! I’ve spent way too much happy time looking at tablescapes from bloggers’ archives, especially the amazingly talented Alycia Nichols (this one is going to make Music Man VERY nervous).

This tablescape started with this Pinterest photo from 2011.

Image via Pinterest; original source unknown

Once I figured out where to find fake lemons and limes (the dollar store), I couldn’t resist making the display, even though it was after Christmas. Next time I’ll try layering the pieces, but this worked (except for the red glitter all over the kitchen).

What’s not to like?

So, today’s my inaugural entry into the tablescape world. I wasn’t quite ready to give up the last of my Christmas decorations, and I’m showing my last hurrah before I bow to the Christmas decoration police. And since I see Italy in my table setting, my linens, and my colors, this tablescape had to have an Italian theme.

We probably all could do with a nice Italian red in our lives.

 Buon Viaggio!

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The Sunday Review: I Want to Dance with the Man Who Danced with the Girl Who Danced with the Prince of Wales

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Somehow I just can’t get enough of “the 20th century’s greatest love story,” which is apparently what Madonna called the romance of the man who was on his way to being king and his American girlfriend.

You probably already know the story about how the future king of England fell in love with the already-divorced-American who was still married to her second husband. Despite which film-maker’s version of the story you accept, it’s fact that Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor became Edward VIII with the death of his father and eleven months later abdicated his throne in order to be able to marry Wallis Simpson. His brother Bertie became George VI and was the father of Britain’s current monarch, Elizabeth II.

I was excited when Netflix finally had Madonna’s film, W/E, available for streaming. I missed it in the theater (perhaps because it was here and gone in a box-office failure flash), but really wanted to see it. Madonna chose to tell Wallis and Edward’s romance as a story-in-a-story with a modern-day heroine providing opportunity for flashbacks to a companion story about the Windsors. It was only somewhat successful, as reviewed here and here, but I loved the costume drama elements and it piqued my appetite for more about Wally and David.

When the Netflix gods found out I was interested in Wallis and David’s story, they started sending me suggested movies as companion pieces to W/E, and from there comes today’s Sunday Review post. I got hooked on watching a seven-part imagination of the lives of Wallis, David, and the people around them. Whoever wrote these scripts wasn’t quite as sure about “the 20th century’s greatest love story.”

As this article from The Guardian states,

If you want a less sugar-coated take on it all, try Edward and Mrs Simpson, the classic Thames TV series from 1978. The seven-parter offers a fascinating look at an extraordinary chapter in British history. Even if we do know how it all ended, it still makes for compelling drama. Love? Barely mentioned. Ambition, duty, jealousy, selfishness? Got them in droves.

Once I started watching the hour-long segments, I couldn’t stop, and they increased my understanding of a situation that I knew only as a person fascinated with human behavior and its historical impact.  Armed with my greater knowledge, I fully intend to watch W/E again,  and last night I watched The King’s Speech (also available on Netflix) again.

In The King’s Speech, we see Colin Firth’s take on Bertie and the struggle to become king (while having a speech impediment) in the wake of his brother’s romantic tidal wave. Firth won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of George VI.

And then there’s Hyde Park on Hudson, the newest entry into the Bertie-on-film category. This film brings George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Hyde Park in New York state, where the two discuss the United States’s possible support of Britain in World War II. (That’s a simplified version of the issue, but you get the point.) The story’s not really about Bertie, but is written cleverly and is reminiscent of Downton Abbey and the social clashes between American and British ways in the early 20th century. Although not well-reviewed, I fully enjoyed it and so did my viewing partners. This photo is the only one I could find that showed the main cast, because the film is a tour-de-force for Bill Murray as Roosevelt, although he was denied an Oscar nomination AGAIN.

If you are intrigued by this story, I encourage you to put these movies in your instant queue and settle down for a historical love fest. And, if you’re desperate for even more, here are IMDb’s lists of portrayals of Edward VIII and George VI in film versions. Ahhhh… Thank goodness I’m retired.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to revel in the charms of Maggie Smith and the rest of the rascals at Downton Abbey. Just in case you were wondering, it wasn’t just in English country homes where dinner jackets were considered to be inappropriate for a formal evening. You’ll find the bit about the wearing of a dinner jacket over tails to be part of the wry humor of Hyde Park on Hudson, too.

P.S. The theme song for Edward and Mrs. Simpson is a popular tune from 1927 and you will not be able to get it out of your head. I’m just warning you.

 

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