River Cruising Water Cooler

[notamermaid]

3 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Looks good reminds me of another type of cake, name defeats me at the moment. CA

I do not think you meant that but it always reminds me of Panettone.

 

Makes me feel like baking a cake, have not done so for a while. Perhaps next week. Will look through my books to find a nice and easy one.

 

notamermaid

 

[jpalbny]

I will be on the hunt for ingredients to make a tarte flambée (Flammeküche) later today. Will post pix if successful! 

[Canal archive]

I made a Sherry Trifle earlier today an indulgence I know but, hey ho! CA

[jpalbny]

Not bad for a first attempt. I read a bunch of recipes. Toppings were similar in all: crème fraîche mixed with fromage blanc, seasoned with salt and pepper and a touch of nutmeg, then top with bacon and thinly-sliced onions.

 

The recipes for the crust ran the gamut. Some were a yeast dough like pizza dough and some not. Some add egg, some add rye flour. 

 

I didn't have time to let a yeast dough proof fully so I went with Gabriel Kreuther's recipe. And I couldn't find fromage blanc so I used Neufchâtel. More about that later...

 

I had never tried real crème fraîche before so I didn't realize how decadent and rich it was, compared to sour cream. That was an eye-opener! I licked the spoon and it was like licking a stick of soft butter.

 

So I made the dough (flour, water, egg yolk, oil, baking powder, salt), rolled it out, and spread the crème-cheese-spice mixture. 

 

 

I had bought some thick-cut smoked bacon and cut it into lardons. I cooked them a bit and then softened the onions in the rendered fat. They went on next.

 

 

I cooked it on parchment paper, on a pizza stone which had been heating in a 400F oven. Just under 15 minutes was enough. 

 

 

Looking nice and well-browned.

 

 

I had some Alsatian beer that I'd found in our local beer shop, as well as some Alsatian Gewürztraminer so I did a taste test. The wine was better.

 

 

The crust was nice and it tasted almost authentic. It satisfied our craving. 

 

 

So. After one try what would I do differently? The Neufchâtel was way too rich and thick to mix with crème fraîche. I'll try Greek yogurt as a substitute for fromage blanc next time. And precooking the onions took away some of their sharpness so I'll skip that step. Maybe I need a mandoline to slice them thin enough. 

 

I will try a yeast dough too, just to see the difference. Easy enough as I make my own pizza dough. This no-yeast version was not bad at all though, and way faster.

 

More to come! I will leave you with a picture of one that we enjoyed in Strasbourg, while on a Rhine cruise 7 years ago.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by jpalbny

[Lois R]

Hi JP🙂 the food looks delicious and hope you and Chris are doing well.

[Ritabob]

Happy Mother's Day to  everyone who is a mother, grandmother, godmother, stepmother, or has or had a mother, grandmother, godmother, stepmother.!

 

RB 

[notamermaid]

@jpalbny It may just be the angle but your tarte flambée looks more delectable and the real thing than - the real thing in the second photo. Wish I could have one, alas, I will have to wait a while till outdoor dining is back.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

19 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I made a Sherry Trifle earlier today an indulgence I know but, hey ho! CA

I love a good trifle. Yesterday I talked to a very dear person about English breakfast. That would be great to have, I really miss that: fried bread, bacon and Cumberland sausage in an old inn in the North. I never order the black pudding 😉.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

I’m with you full _ _ _ _ _ _ _ cooked breakfast, Cumberland sausage, Wiltshire bacon and according to the men in my family Avimore (award winning) black pudding and free range eggs all washed down with English breakfast tea. CA

 

[notamermaid]

Oh yes, tea. I drink coffee in the morning here but with English Breakfast tea is better. And a glass of orange juice I always have.

 

I wonder if there is a hotel in Germany that does proper English breakfast, that would be a place to go to in Summer. I cannot go to England before a couple of dear people here at home have had a first jab and I want one first, too. So a trip to England will be out of the question before end of July. By that time I will be back at work and bound to certain days in the office, so a longer trip looks unlikely before mid September.

 

It has been a splendidly warm day here for all mothers. Many cyclists about and people with ice-cream cones from the local ice cream parlours ambling in towns and villages. Oddly, I went through a village where some local guys were having a socially distanced drinking game of sorts in the street. I think they must have got the day wrong - father's day is this coming Thursday in Germany.

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

On 5/8/2021 at 3:27 PM, Canal archive said:

I made a Sherry Trifle earlier today an indulgence I know but, hey ho! CA

DW makes a delicious trifle that started with a Sherry Trifle recipe but she substitutes Amaretto for the Sherry, which makes it even more delicious!  It's good the first day, but gets better and better on day 2.  I don't how it tastes on day 3, because it's never lasted that long 🤣

[Canal archive]

Yes good swap and if you use cherries as the fruit try Baileys ‘oh yum’. CA

Edited May 10, 2021 by Canal archive

[Daisi]

We make a "trifle" using chocolate brownies, raspberries and brandy....not one for the traditional one, so I played around to get something that worked.

[Canal archive]

Sounds good to me. Just be careful if my brother in law is around he’s well known to have a bottomless pit of a stomach where trifle is concerned. CA

[Lois R]

56 minutes ago, Daisi said:

We make a "trifle" using chocolate brownies, raspberries and brandy....not one for the traditional one, so I played around to get something that worked.

Sounds delicious to me🙂

[acwmom]

On 5/8/2021 at 6:04 PM, jpalbny said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So. After one try what would I do differently? The Neufchâtel was way too rich and thick to mix with crème fraîche. I'll try Greek yogurt as a substitute for fromage blanc next time. And precooking the onions took away some of their sharpness so I'll skip that step. Maybe I need a mandoline to slice them thin enough. 

 

 

 

 

You can add this to your list of recipes. But it looks fantastic!

 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/homemade-fromage-blanc-3645530

[jpalbny]

56 minutes ago, acwmom said:

You can add this to your list of recipes. But it looks fantastic!

 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/homemade-fromage-blanc-3645530

 

Thanks Robin! Have not tried making cheese yet but I should some day.

 

We had friends over last night so I made another batch of these for a snack. Yeast dough this time, and I used drained Greek yogurt to sub for fromage blanc.

 

All around, even better. More like what I remember in Alsace.

[Canal archive]

Report from TUI on the BBC on Sky it’s reported slightly differently as in because our government is being cautious about green lighting countries the Germans are booking all the holidays. Who do we believe? CA
 

TUI says summer holiday season can be saved https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56768270

[notamermaid]

TUI is optimistic, you are right. As I wrote elsewhere, we will meet the British at the Algarve. By July, many German health care workers and other personnel will have had a second jab and countries will be eager to offer tourism also for guests with negative tests. The countries we have "green lighted" include some popular destinations and as Turkey is off that list (has a strong warning), more people will choose other places from where they do not need to return to quarantine at home.

 

Here is an article: https://www.thelocal.de/20210512/german-tourism-giant-tui-predicts-significantly-better-summer/

 

Not for me thanks, I would hate to walk around Roman ruins in 35 Celsius and I get bored and aggravated on the beach, especially when I have to share it with a thousand other people. Give me a half pint in a pub in Northumberland any time. May skip that this summer for a glass of wine in Würzburg or Alsace, though. I received an email from the Logis de France hotel chain yesterday. Oh, the small hotels, oh the vineyards, oh the hills, oh the castles! Why does the company torture me with photos that cause longing? 😉 

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Regardless of where we are I’ll raise a glass with you. CA

[notamermaid]

41 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Regardless of where we are I’ll raise a glass with you. CA

Lovely. Big virtual meet-up in Würzburg is still on, be assured of that, people. ☺️ 🥂 

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The weekend is fast approaching and it will be another one without me working at my standard hours. And I feel like not working at my computer. So I roam around DW and YouTube. Others may call it procrastination, I call it familiarizing myself with towns in my country and doing some marketing on CC.

 

I enjoyed this short flying guide over some beautiful old towns. For river cruisers, Bamberg is a familiar one, the others may be lesser known. I highly recommend Lübeck and Quedlinburg is high on my list of places to visit. Courtesy of Deutsche Welle: 

https://youtu.be/Azqoes_wZCM

 

 

notamermaid

 

[Ritabob]

I am enjoying  the links everyone is suggesting  about locations we will visit in the future, the history of places we have been, and the things we wish we had known before visiting some places.

Something else to occupy our down time...

radio.garden

is a website that will link you up to radio stations all over the world, so you can listen to places you dream of visiting.  Not every station is there, but it is fun to spin the globe and enlarge the area/ country to find something to listen to or work on your foreign language skills.

RB 

 

[Canal archive]

It’s fascinating sitting in the wilds of Wiltshire listening to the police chases in the USA especially when you’ve actually driven down the roads they are reporting about. Oh the things that keep one occupied during a pandemic. Hey ho. CA

[notamermaid]

Most of us know about the azulejos tiles of Portugal, but here is a short video with perhaps some interesting aspects you may not be familiar with: https://youtu.be/OFdnVeMnt70

 

 

notamermaid