Pellet Smoked Weisswurst #BBQWeek

 Tender Weisswurst is deliciously flavored using a pellet smoker in only an hour.  

Welcome to BBQ Week.......

Oktoberfest Breakfast Casserole #SundayFunday

This scrumptious Kielbasa and Pretzel casserole makes a perfect breakfast before a busy day and is hearty enough for  Brinner after a busy day.

The Sunday Funday Bloggers are celebrating Oktoberfest this week........

Won't you please #MerlotMe?

October is #MerlotMe month and I have been fortunate enough to be allowed to participate in this fun event for the past several years.  Merlot is a French wine grape originally from Bordeaux and one of the blending grapes used for that iconic wine.  

This year, as a member of our Wine Pairing Weekend group, I was provided with 3 wines that I poured tasted and paired.  I will be sharing my thoughts about these wines with you today.  I have received no monetary compensation and all writings  and opinions are strictly my own.  

A German-Style Shepherd's Pie with a French Rasteau Wine #Winophiles

This German Style Shepherds Pie known as Jager Eintopf is layer upon layer of savory flavor.  It is a warm, hearty, stick to your ribs dinner, perfect for this time of year.

I paired it for dinner one night with a bottle of French wine from Rasteau......

Celebrating St. Nicholas Day #WinePW

St. Nicholas Day is celebrated each year on December 6th.  This is a popular holiday in Europe.  They celebrate by leaving small gifts in the shoes of their loved ones.

St. Nick visited our house and left a couple of small gifts for Marissa that she found when she awoke in the morning.  That evening we celebrated with a German feast paired with some wonderful wines provided by Winesellers, Ltd.  

Roasted Pear and Grape Kuchen #BreadBakers #KitchenMatrixCookingProject

This sweet bread made with yeast is topped with a roasted grape and pear crumble before being baked.  It is perfect for breakfast as a coffee cake or as a light dessert, topped with whipped cream.

Join me and the members of Bread Bakers as we share bread recipes containing grapes......

German Pancake with Easy Fruit Compote for #BreadBakers

I am pleased to announce that I am hosting our Bread Bakers event this month.  Of all the groups to which I belong, the Bread Bakers group is the one that takes me out of my comfort zone most often. I am very grateful to Stacy of Food Lust People Love for starting this group and for allowing me to be a part of it.


#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.


I asked to host this month because we celebrate National Pancake Week during the last week of February so I thought having pancakes as a theme would give our readers plenty of time to plan their own pancake celebration.

We are also sharing this post on Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday as we call it.  Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, when Christians world wide begin 40 days of abstinence and fasting for the Lenten Season leading up to Easter Sunday.

image from Bing.com

Tradition has us using up all of our flour, sugar, butter, eggs etc. to prepare ourselves for the fast. It is celebrated in different ways in different countries but there is always lots of feasting, fat eating and gorging.

photo courtesy of Bing.com

Whether you indulge in Pancakes or Paczki or both I hope that you enjoy your celebration and wish you peace as we prepare for our Lord's death and resurrection.  

These German Pancakes, that I am sharing with you today, are perfect for National Pancake Week even if you are observing a Lenten Fast.  They are not overly sweet and they can be filled with fresh fruit rather than the compote that I am sharing with you today.

One pancake was plenty large enough for two adults and one toddler as today is also Toddler Tuesday in our household, or it would be if I were home.  As you read this, we are enjoying our final day in sunny California, visiting my brother and his family.  We leave to head home tomorrow morning.

If you abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, this would make a wonderful Valentine's Day breakfast to share with your love tomorrow morning.  

I'm really looking forward to everyone else's pancakes being shared today.  We have pancakes from all over the world.  You will find links at the bottom of this post.

German Pancake with Easy Fruit Compote

3 eggs

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. milk

pinch of salt

1/2 t. vanilla

2 T. butter

powdered sugar, if desired

1 c. frozen mixed fruit, thawed. I used a strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, mango blend

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. water

1/2  t. cinnamon

Place the eggs, flour, milk, salt and vanilla in a blender and blend until smooth.  Set aside.

Place the butter in a cast iron skillet and place it in the oven.  Preheat oven to 400*.  When oven is preheated, carefully remove skillet, using a potholder over the handle, and swirl the butter to coat the pan.  Pour the batter into the hot skillet and return to the oven.  Bake for about 15 minutes, until puffed and golden.

While pancake is baking, place the fruit, sugar, water and cinnamon in a small skillet. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened.  Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Remove pancake from oven and transfer to a plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.  Serve with compote, fresh fruit or extra powdered sugar and lemon wedges.  Print Recipe

More Perfect Pancakes

• Aebleskivers by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Apam Balik by I Camp in My Kitchen
• Blueberry Lemon Dutch Baby Pancake by Spill the Spices
• Brazilian Tapioca Pancakes by Herbivore Cucina
• Chocolate Buckwheat Pancakes by Ambrosia
• Eggless Chocolate Chip Pancake by Seduce Your Tastebuds
• German Pancake with Easy Fruit Compote by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gluten Free Aebleskiver by Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Hoppers by Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Hotteok by Sara's Tasty Buds
• Instant Multigrain Dosa by Sizzling Tastebuds
• Japanese Pancakes by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Kuih Dadar - Bujang Dalam Selimut - Asian Stuffed Pandan Pancakes by The Schizo Chef
• Moo Shu Pancakes by Food Lust People Love
• Soft and Spongy Poha Dosas by Sneha's Recipe
• Swedish Pancakes by Hostess At Heart
• Syrniki by The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Vegan Red Velvet Pancakes by Cook’s Hideout

Countdown to 2018; Breakfasts

Welcome to Day 2 of our Countdown where we are sharing our favorite recipes from categories chosen by Sarah of Fantastical Sharing of Recipes.  

Sarah hosts this party each year and we all look forward to not only reviewing our own recipes but finding out whether our favorites that our friends posted make the list.

Today we are talking breakfast.........

Cherry Cheese Braid

Breakfast Burrito

Steak and Egg Skillet

Apfelpfannkuchen

Beet Shakshuka

Mixed Berry Crepes with Homemade Blueberry Syrup

These breakfasts were all amazing and well received.  My personal favorite was the Shakshuka.  I have made it twice more and can't get enough of it.

Here are the others favorite Breakfasts

An InLinkz Link-up

Bierocks: Celebrating Oktoberfest with #FoodieExtravaganza

This month the bloggers over at Foodie Extravaganza are celebrating Oktoberfest.  This party is being hosted by Sue of Palatable Pastime who invited us saying:

"September is the month for the Munich Oktoberfest. Let's celebrate by sharing our favorite Biergarten and German Cuisine inspired recipes!"

Foodie Extravaganza is a fun group that gets together each month to celebrate Food Holidays. Sometimes they are popular holidays like Oktoberfest or Thanksgiving or popular foods like chocolate in February or cookies in December.  However,  sometimes they are very obscure holidays, like World Gin Day.  Yep, I made a cocktail but not the kind you are thinking of.......stop on by and see my Shrimp Martini.

Back to this month's theme.  I love German foods and wasn't sure what  I was going to share having already posted Wiener Schnitzel, Sweet and Sour Cabbage , Fondue, Lebkuchen, Bratwurst Salad, to name a few.

Then I remembered my friend Paula, of Smidgens, Snippets & Bits, often had Bierocks on her Weekly Menu.  When I asked her about them she sent me a link to this recipe from Allrecipes.com.  I had never heard of these meat and cabbage stuffed rolls from Germany but I must be the only one because the website was full of recipes.  I read them all, and noted that they are similar to dumplings or hand pies.  They remind me a bit of Pasties that we enjoy here in Michigan.

They can be as easy or as difficult to make as you want.  You will need bread dough for making the rolls.  You can use my recipe for dinner rolls and use on half, freezing the other half for next time, use your own favorite recipe or buy some frozen bread or dinner roll dough at your local grocers.

Mix together some burger, onion and cabbage.  Season with salt and pepper and let it cook, stirring occasionally for a half an hour or so.  Then set it aside and let it cool while your dough makes it's first rise.

Punch down the dough and divide it into 20 pieces.  I made a full recipe of the filling but only took out 8 frozen dinner rolls to use in this recipe.  I will be making another recipe with the remaining filling and sharing it with you at a later time.  

Roll out each piece and place 2 Tablespoons of the cooled filling into the center of each.  Gather the corners together and seal the edges.

Place seam side down onto a baking sheet that has been treated with cooking spray.  Cover and let rise for another hour. 

Bake in a preheated 350* oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and brush immediately with melted butter.

Bierocks

Freshly made bread dough or frozen dough, thawed

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1/2 med. cabbage, cored and shredded

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 stick butter, melted

Bring the dough through a first rise.  While the dough is rising, cook the ground beef in a large skillet with the onions and cabbage,stirring occasionally, until the beef is browned and the veggies are tender.  Set aside and let cool until dough is ready.

Divide the dough into 20 equal pieces.  Roll each piece out and place 2 Tablespoons of the meat/veggie filling onto the center.  Gather the corners together and seal the edges.  Place, seam side down, onto a baking sheet that has been treated with cooking spray.

Bake in a preheated 350* oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.  Remove from oven and immediately brush with melted butter. Print Recipe

More Oktoberfest Fun Foods

• Autumn Crockpot Apple Sauerkraut by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Bierocks by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Braised Red Cabbage with Apples by Caroline’s Cooking
• Brombeere-Butterkuchen – Blackberry German Butter Cake by Food Lust People Love
• Chicken Schnitzel with Dunkelweizen Sauce by Palatable Pastime
• Chicken Schnitzel With Garlic Mayo by Sneha’s Recipe
• German meatballs with spaetzle by Cookaholic Wife
• Nusskämme (German Hazelnut Combs) by Tara’s Multicultural Table