OctoberFEAST!!!! Recipes

I cooked a big German-esque feast to celebrate the upcoming Oktoberfest. I called mine OctoberFEAST!! It was so good!! I'll share the recipes as I go along. I was rather poor at getting pics for this event, this time.



The menu:
Pork ribs with sauerkraut
red cabbage
roast vegetables (Brussels sprouts and sweet potato!)
mashed potatoes
potato pancakes
pumpernickel bread
pumpkin/apple butter
apple pie


Red Cabbage


1 med. head red cabbage, shredded
2 lg tart apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 med red onion, sliced
1 1/2 c water
1 c cider vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1 T butter
1 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t cloves
1 bay leaf
2 t cornstarch
2 t cold water

Combine all ingredients except the last two in a large dutch oven. Bring to boil, reduce heat. Cover and simmer 1 1/4 hours. In a small bowl, combine 2t water and cornstarch until smooth, stir into cabbage mixture. Bring to a boil, cook and stir 1-2 minutes or until thickened.

Pork Ribs and Sauerkraut (for crock pot or pressure cooker..follow pressure cooker directions for meat)

3 lbs country style pork ribs
1 lb sauerkraut (or more if you want)
** hierarchy of store-bought sauerkraut**
#1 bags of kraut, refrigerated
#2 jars of kraut, refrigerated
#3 cans of kraut, room temp

5 slices of bacon, diced
1 c diced red onion
1T (or more) caraway seeds
1/2c brown sugar

In a large skillet brown bacon and onion together, cooking until bacon is crisp. When it's done, toss the caraway seeds in with it a minute, to get them to release their flavor, then spoon onions, bacon and most seeds into a crock pot. Leave the bacon drippings in the pan.

Add the sauerkraut to the the crock pot and set on high.
Brown the ribs in the bacon drippings, seasoning them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Brown them VERY well, deep dark brown, then move them to the crock pot. Add a cup or so of water to the skillet and deglaze the pan, then pour that broth into the crock pot as well.

Cook on high for four hours.


Potato Pancakes

Recipe HERE


Apple Pie


I don't really have a recipe for the fruit part, but I'll give it whirl.
Here's the crust. The recipe makes ONE crust, so you have to make it twice. My advice is to make the bottom, fill the pie, then make the top.

All Butter Pastry Dough
1 1/4c flour
1 stick of COLD butter cubed
1/4t salt
3-4T ice water

Cut butter into flour and salt w/a pastry blender. Add water, then stir w/ a fork to form a ball.
press together into a ball, then smoosh the butter into the flour on a floured board, until you can't see the butter anymore. Roll out to the size of your pan, put in the pan, then fill.

Apple Pie Filling.
A bunch of apples from a bag from the market, peeled, cored, cut up.
sugar, maybe 1/2c?
butter, about 2 T in several chunks
vanilla, 1t or so
nutmeg, as much as you like
cinnamon (fresh ground!!!), as much as you like
1/4 cornstarch

put all the apples in the bottom of pie crust. sprinkle sugar on top, then butter, then cornstarch, then all the rest. Top with another pie crust, sprinkle w/ sugar.
Bake at 400 about 30minutes.


Roasted Vegetables


Any vegetables, any amount (these were Brussels sprouts and sweet potato)
olive oil
sea salt
pepper
minced garlic
sliced red onion
fresh rosemary from your herb garden.

put in a pan, turn oven to 450 or so, roast until browned.


The boys got a box of surprises from their grandmother. Aldous hadn't opened his, but he got a onesie that says "I'll have a bottle of the house white" and has a wine glass with a baby bottle nipple on it. yay for new goodies!!! And I got a birthday card, too! Thanks, Lynne!



A funny!! Aldous chugging William's water!!



TEE HEE! This is what I do when Doug's out of town!!