Off on a wing and a prayer!

You may notice the old blog has a spruced up appearance, because very soon, we will be winging our way to Europe! We leave on Tuesday evening and are SO excited. Our travel partners (and guest bloggers, though they don't know it yet ;-)) are Steve and Darla Schrock. [The first picture is us trying to find cheap plane tickets, and the second is Steve and Darla dressed as each other for Halloween :-).]


Half the fun is waiting and planning :-) We decided that even though we'd definitely take a free trip to Europe leaving the next day, it would still be a little disappointing, because you wouldn't have the waiting excitement :-) While this is not an ideal time to be leaving the country (weak dollar, I'm job hunting, Darla and I are/were students, etc.), we had been talking about taking this trip for EVER. So, we decided last summer that now is the time. If we don't do it now, who knows how many other reasons we'll come up with for not going.

So, after much planning (through all things Rick Steves -public radio/TV travel guru), discussion, and homemade ice cream, we are getting the final details ready for our adventure. One of those details includes letting our friends and family know they can follow our journey through Europe with 1) the itinerary below, 2) this blog (where I'm thinking we'll rotate who posts each day), and 3) our pictures on Steve's Picasa album. [You will need to have a free Google OR Gmail account to view them though... Sorry.] We'll likely post 1 or 2 photo highlights from the day on the blog as well.

So here we go!

Schrock-Shetler European Sampler Platter Itinerary

July 13 (Tues) - Depart PHX at 7:25 PM, British Air
July 14 (Wed) - Arrive London 1:10 pm local
July 15 (Thurs) - London
July 16 (Fri) - London-->Paris
July 17 (Sat) - Paris
July 18 (Sun) - Paris-->Interlaken, Switzerland-->Gimmelwald, Switzerland
July 19 (Mon) - Gimmelwald, Switzerland
July 20 (Tues) - Gimmelwald, Switzerland
July 21 (Wed) -Gimmelwald, Switzerland-->Interlaken, Switzerland-->Venice
July 22 (Thurs) - Venice
July 23 (Fri) - Venice
July 24 (Sat) - Venice-->Barcelona
July 25 (Sun) - Barcelona
July 26 (Mon) - Barcelona
July 27 (Tues) - Depart Barcelona 11AM, British Air Flight 479 to London. Depart London 2:35 PM on British Air 289, arrive at PHX 5:10 PM.

Super Summer Salad Dressing

Since it's summer, here in the super-crazy-beastly hot Valley of the Sun, I aim to make cool foods. (Also because my ridiculous gas oven pours heat out as if it were trying to boil me alive in my own house--and this before I even open the oven door.) Tonight, I decided to try a dressing recipe from a Taste of Home cookbook (always fantastic) that I got from my Grandma Harder for Christmas. If you are not familiar with Taste of Home, get familiar. I love these cookbooks.

Pretty much all of the salad dressings I prefer are mayonnaise-based. I have a GIANT ranch tooth and when I want to pretend I'm eating healthy, I have a salad with fruit on it and poppy seed dressing. (I'm not a big oil and vinegar type fan.) However, today, I discovered that there actually are some healthier, yummier salad dressings out there :-) This dressing made me eat more salad for dessert. Try it out!

[I'm writing this recipe as I made it, with other possible options.]

Stawberry Salad Dressing with Spinach Salad

6-8 large frozen strawberries, thawed
1/4 c. water
1 1/2 T. apple cider vinegar (or other sweet/mild vinegar)
1 T. honey
1 t. vegetable oil
1/2 t. soy sauce
1/8 t. salt
1/8 t. dried thyme or 1/4 t. fresh thyme
1/8 t. pepper
1 bunch spinach or lettuce, chopped
1/3 c. sunflower seeds (or other chopped/roasted nuts)
1/2 c. dried cranberries (or other dried or fresh fruit)
Blend first 9 ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth. Combine salad ingredients and serve with dressing.

Yield: approx. 1 1/2 c. dressing

(By the way, you should also try this Rhubarb Cake with Vanilla Sauce recipe, that I made with rhubarb Grandma sent me :-))

Goat cheese makes everything better :-)

Things I love: cheese. It's fantastically salty and yummy and makes everything better. Things I don't love: cheese product (a.k.a Velveeta. I do harbor a guilty pleasure though for Cheez Whiz and cheez in a can :-)) As a kid, I'd spend hours reading on our greenish recliner eating Ritz crackers and Land O'Lakes cheese. My grandma still gives me Land O'Lakes cheese for Christmas (at my request!) My sister recently introduced me to the goodness of the tiny little soft cheese wheels, which accompanied me on many lunches to school. And my new favorite is goat cheese. Feta cheese it good and super tangy, but goat cheese is so smooth and just a little salty. On a recent trip to Vegas (see pic below), I had a FABULOUS pizza that I'm going to try this week with just thin crust, pizza sauce, sweet onion slices, a little bit of sausage and goat cheese. It was amazing!

Recently, I discovered that goat cheese, which is generally fairly expensive is definitely cheaper at Costco in bulk. So I got some and have been enjoying it in lots of fun recipes. This last week, I attempted a Goat Cheese Souffle with Thyme, which I thought was awesome. Ben informed me that he's pretty sure he doesn't like anything with cooked eggs (souffle, quiche, egg bake, etc.) Either way, I thought it was yummy (and pretty!). It's from my favorite "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" cookbook.

Goat Cheese Souffle with Thyme

Butter/2 T. Parmesan Cheese
1 1/4 c. milk or cream
1 bay leaf, several thyme sprigs, 2 thin onion slices
3 T. butter
3 T. flour
salt and pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
4 egg yolks
1 c. crumbled goat cheese (4 oz)
6 egg whitesseveral thyme sprigs (leaves only)

1. Preheat oven to 400. Butter a 2 qt dish and coat with Parmesan cheese. Heat the milk with the aromatics until it boils. Set it aside to steep for 15 minutes, then strain.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan. When foamy, stir in the flour and cook over low heat for several minutes. Whisk in the milk all at once and stir for a minute or so as it thickens. Then add 3/4 t. salt, pepper, and cayenne. Remove from heat. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time until well blended, then stir in the cheese. Don't worry about getting it too smooth.
3. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form firm peaks, then stir a quarter of them into the base to lighten the mixture. Fold in the rest, transfer to the prepared dish, then put in the center of the oven and lower the heat to 375. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and just a bit wobbly in the center. Remove, scatter thyme over the top and serve immediately.

Cinnamon makes everything better!

When I think of cinnamon, I think of my dad. Growing up, we never had a large enough container of cinnamon sugar to suit him. One time, mom had him stop at the food co-op to get some things, including cinnamon. He came home with a seemingly giant bag of cinnamon. (Maybe it wasn't that big, but it seemed big at the time. Mom has reminded me that I occasionally exaggerate my childhood :-).) He said that the woman who had scooped it out for him asked if it was enough, to which he said, "More!" She scooped some more in, and asked if it was enough, and he said, "More!" And so on. Or so the story goes, according to dad :-)

So anyway, in honor of dad on Father's Day, Ben's dad and a few others came over for dinner. I made a lentil curry to go over this fantastic Coconut Rice, from the classic More With Less cookbook (also home to my favorite Oatmeal Bread recipe). Hope you like it!

Coconut Rice

2 T. oil or butter
1/2 c. chopped onion
2-3 whole cloves (or 1/4 tsp. ground cloves)
2-3 cinnamon sticks
2-3 bay leaves
1/4 t. turmeric
1/4 t. salt
1 c. rice
2 c. coconut milk (1 can)Heat oil in saucepan. Add onion, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves. Fry until onions are lightly browned. Add turmeric and salt. Fry a few seconds. Add rice and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, or until rice is cooked. If desired, whole spices may be removed before serving. Optional: add raisins, cashews or walnuts after rice is cooked.

Note: I found canned coconut milk in the Asian food section and it wasn't too expensive.

Then, in the evening on Father's Day we went rock climbing, as pictured below :-) It turns out to be a lot of fun! I'd highly recommend it! Everyone who did it, loved it, from ages 10-58. :-)

I thought this was a joke...

I thought this was a joke from SNL, but this is actually real. Jean diapers. So funny :-)

Deep-Dish Focaccia

Since school is FINALLY over (180 days have never taken so long!!), I've had lots of time to bake, especially things that take ages to make. So, this week, I decided to make a focaccia recipe I have that rises 3 times! It's so thick, but SOOO good. I haven't tried it, but it'd probably make an incredible sandwich or pizza.

I got the recipe from a pizza cookbook that I gave to my brother and sister-in-law, which I can't remember the name of, unfortunately, but the deep-pan focaccia is fantastic! Make this when you'll be around the house for a while. I should say that I "dumbed down" the ingredients for the standard home cook (read: non-pastry chef). [I'll put up pictures that I took as soon as I find the cable to connect the camera and computer!!]

Deep Pan Focaccia

6 1/3 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 pkg yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 3/4 to 2 c. warm water
sea salt
fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add yeast. Pour in 6 T. olive oil, then rub in the yeast until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Pour in the warm water and mix together with your hands until the dough comes together.

Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. The dough should be very soft (almost too soft to handle) but don't worry about it too much at this stage.

Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Uncover the dough, punch out the air and divide into 2. Shape each piece into a round ball on a lightly floured surface and roll out 2 10 inch circles and place in lightly oiled 10 inch cake, pie or pizza pans. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400.

After the second rising, dimple dough with fingers. Drizzle with olive oil. Top with rosemary and salt. Cover and let rise again for 30 minutes.

Spray the focaccias with water and bake for 20-25 minutes until rise and golden. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Eat on the same day or let cool, then wrap up and freeze.

To reheat: thaw, and then wrap in aluminum foil and reheat in hot oven for 5 minutes.

Push!!

Check out this commercial my awesome sister was in recently! One look at this, and you can see why she just got into the American Music and Dance Academy in New York City!