At least the bread was a hit

Picadillo
Originally uploaded by mtncyndi.

Today was another long day of negotiations with the District. We haven’t come to an agreement yet; it looks pretty far off. But everyone likes the bread. Their lawyer is a guy who likes to eat healthy, and he’s been enjoying my bread, as have Pam and Jenny. I’ll keep looking for cranberries so I can make the Double Cranberry Bread for the next time.

Since Theresa’s with some friends at the Kings hockey game, I took the opportunity to fix DH and me a dish she doesn’t like. Back in Germany about 20 years ago, Vince and Marilyn Alotta were friends of ours. Vince played football on the Rhein-Main Rockets with DH, and they had us over for dinner a few times. Marilyn is Cuban, and made Picadillo for us. She said that normally, picadillo had cinnamon and other spices in it, but she preferred hers without them. We do, too. It’s a simple, quick recipe, and we eat the whole thing.

Picadillo

3/4 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 of a medium onion (about 1/4 cup), diced
1/2 of a bell pepper (about 1/4 cup), diced
1/3 cup raisins
2 med. tomatoes, diced (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/3 cup sliced green olives (I use the stuffed ones, but it doesn’t matter)
salt and pepper to taste

Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat along with the onion and bell pepper. Add the raisins and tomatoes. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add almonds and olives; stir. Serve over hot rice. Makes 3 servings (4 if you serve smaller servings.)


I found a German food blogger! The writer of Küchenlatein emailed me to let me know that he/she had a blog that had German and other recipes on it. I visited it this evening, and saw that the most recent post is for rotkohl, the same dish I posted a few days ago. Our recipes are similar; mine is simpler and more like the Danish. His/her (I don’t really know yet!) recipe has bacon and pears added. I knew that a lot of red cabbage dishes had apples in them, but I didn’t know about pears. But they’re similar to apples, so it make sense to me. The blog is in German, but with my DH’s assistance, plus a German-English online translator, I’ll be able to check out all the recipes. I showed DH the recipe for Schwarzbrot mit Griebenschmalz, which is dark bread spread with griebenschmalz (a spread made of pig or goose fat similar to shortening, and topped with roasted onions. He used to LOVE schmalz. Of course we don’t have it here, but showing him the photo on Küchenlatein brought back memories for him. I hope to spend a lot of time at this site working on my German and getting to know the blogger.

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