Spaetzle Maker

When I was a child I spent weekends with my grandparents, my fathers parents.  I loved them and they loved me. I can’t say that my grandmother loved or even liked to cook, she did it out of necessity more than as a way to get some enjoyment. I’m the opposite, I am happiest being in my kitchen cooking for those I love or anyone who needs a good meal, I love to nourish people and see them enjoy what I make.

The meals that my grandmother turned out were pretty basic to say the least. My grandfather was not an adventurist when it came to food and he ruled the roost at home. My favorite meals that she turned out included her pot roast and spaetzle, her “red soup” which in reality was a very basic tomato based vegetable soup, usually made with some short ribs and it had the addition of some tiny spaetzle in it too……..are you sensing a theme here? I grew up eating spaetzle and have passed my love of them onto my children and others too. I remember when I was very young my grandmother had a round plastic disc that sat over the pot of simmering water, it had holes in it that were approximately 1/4 inch round. It was placed over the pot and the spaetzle dough was then forced thru the holes into the simmering water below. They would cook in the simmering water and then rise to the top when they were cooked thru, she would then remove them from the water and place them into a shallow bowl with some butter, they would then be served with the roast and gravy. At one point my grandfather decided that he liked his spaetzles a little larger in size so the plastic pot topper disappeared and she began to place the dough into the water by small spoonfuls, in all these ensuing years I had never seen another pot topper like she had until about 3 weeks ago when I was browsing Amazon for some staples I usually order from them. Suddenly there it was!  A pot topper that looked just like the one my grandmother had all those years ago, only this one was made in stainless steel. I pushed the order button and was left alone with my memories until it arrived, such wonderful memories of a long ago simpler time when life was always sunny wrapped in my grandparents arms. Here is my grandmothers recipe for spaetzle:

1  1/2 cups unbleached white flour

2 large eggs at room temperature

2 tablespoons softened, not melted butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup whole milk

finely chopped chives…….optional

Mix batter together and press thru spaetzle maker into simmering water. When spaetzle float remove from water and place into a bowl, mix in a bit of butter to stop them from sticking together. Leftover spaetzle are wonderful re-heated by sauteing in some butter in a frying pan until they are toasty and crisp. If adding them to a soup, prepare them in a separate pot of simmering water so they don’t cloud the broth, add them to each bowl as you serve the soup.

Tonight I was finally feeling well enough to go into the kitchen and recreate one of my grandmothers meals that was one of my favorites.  Here are some pictures of it, I have to say it came out excellent and you will find my standard recipe for short ribs on this site, enter short ribs into the search area and it will bring up all those posts. I hope if you try this meal you enjoy it as much as we do. If you love spaetzle I would highly suggest that you invest in one of these pot toppers, they aren’t inexpensive but one will last you a lifetime and one of your children will probably fight the will over it.

Short Ribs and Spaetzle

Short Ribs and Spaetzle

New Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cooker

Most people get excited about getting a new car or a piece of jewelry or some take fancy vacations and that makes them happy. Me, I get overjoyed when I get something for my kitchen that allows me to cook a fantastic meal for people I love. Behold, a work of art that I just recieved. Something that really makes my heart sing! A new Kuhn Rikon 12 litre pressure cooker! It looks more like a work of art to me than a simple vessel to cook a meal in, I know most people wouldn’t get so excited to have one of these so they wouldn’t understand how I feel when I look at it, and that is ok, I am sure they have things that bring a smile to their faces too that I wouldn’t understand either, but I won’t judge them on what makes them happy and hope they won’t judge me either.

Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cooker

Taking it from the box I am reminded of why so many people love this brand of pressure cooker, people whose opinion I value. The cooker is heavy for its size, the metal shiny as a mirror, the edges smooth as glass with no rough spots, the handles on both sides are securely fastened, and I really love the smaller size of the handles instead of the usual longer one, it allows me to not have to juggle pots around on the stove to make the handles mesh with each other and not be in the way to be hit when walking past the stove. It truly is a thing of beauty and I am already anticipating cooking many, many great meals for my family in it. The NY Times once labeled it the Mercedes of pressure cookers and checking it over I can see why.

I spent the night just reading all the information in the manual and the cookbook that came with it. I am first surprised at how little liquid you are instructed to use when cooking in it so I jot an email to one of those afore mentioned friends and he says that indeed, unlike other pressure cookers you don’t need a lot of liquid in a Kuhn Rikon, this will be a great thing when it comes to having to go thru a long reduction time in order to make gravy. In my other cookers I normally have to add a lot of liquid to start with and it takes a good while to reduce that cooking liquid to concentrate the flavors later when making the gravy or sauce to go with the meal. I can tell by trying to secure the lid that this pressure cooker is indeed made to tight specs, there is no wiggle room once the lid is secured, it is tightly sealed. Some of the other cookers I use have a little play when the lid is secured but not this one!

When it arrived I wanted to cook with it immediately, unfortunately I had nothing here to try it out with so had to have a little patience, something I am not known for when it comes to trying a new kitchen treasure. Last night we went and did our grocery shopping and I picked up a large 7 pound hen so my first try with this pressure cooker will in all likelyhood be chicken and dumplings, I will post when it is done later tonight.

You may be asking yourself why I wanted or needed such a large size cooker in a house with only two people in it, after all space is at a premium around here and storage of such a large pressure cooker can be an issue. Well, if you keep in mind that I regularly cook for others too and when doing that I normally have to do two or more pots, this will cut down on that need, it will also cut down on all the clean up having to wash several pots causes. I also use an amazing amount of stocks in my cooking and much prefer home made to store bought, I can control everything that goes into the stock and that is good for hubby with his high blood pressure issues, his doctor has even commented that the more he eats meals I prepare instead of junk food his BP is in a great place compared to what it used to be. I am a soup addict, I admit it! I can eat fresh home made soups every day of the year and will often eat a whole pot by myself over the course of a few days, I eat it as a meal, I eat it as a snack instead of junk food, I just love it. Lastly, you can make a small amount in any size cooker but you can’t make a large amount in a smaller cooker, so this size will serve me the best.

I have already picked three of my other cookers to pass onto others and hope they will enjoy them too, doing that will more than give me the room to store this beauty with no problem.

So in conclusion, if you are interested in feeding yourself and your family healthy quick meals, even after a hard day at work, let me suggest you try pressure cooking for yourself. You don’t have to get this particular cooker but do get one that has good reviews on it to begin with. If you find pressure cooking works well for you then start a change jar for your own dream cooker, your time is valueable and so is your health and using a pressure cookers helps in both areas.

If you want to read up on this companys cookers go to their website at

www.KuhnRikon.com    they also have all their great gagets on there and some recipes too, enjoy!

Imported Tomato Strainer

What do you do when your new neighbor gives you a ton of plum tomatoes that are already nice and ripe? If you are me then you pull out your tomato strainer and put it to use.

Top of Strainer

I’ve had mine for about 15 or more years at this point and I love it, I got it in a little Italian import store way back then. It is still shiny and bright and is made of stainless steel. If you go looking for one of these let me suggest you get the tallest one you can find, the shorter ones make it hard to get a bowl under the places where the pulp or skins come out. This one stands at 12 inches tall and I would like one even taller if there was one. If you can’t find one in a store in your area and would really like one then give EBAY a try, I saw them on there when I did a search a few minutes ago, I always try to at least find a place for readers to get the things I put here as they often ask.

Tomato Strainer

Mine has suction on the bottom that adheres it to the counter or a table, a lot of the others have a clamp that adheres them, for me the suction is better as my counters are too thick for the clamp to hold onto well, plus the fact that if I did adhere it with a clamp to the counter top there is only one place I would be able to work and that would throw off the flow to get into and thru the kitchen area, so I would be getting interupted often.

These strainers are very simple to use. You either take whole or cut plum tomatoes and put them into the hopper at the top and turn the handle, a few turns and you get one bowl of tomato pulp and another bowl filled with the skins and seeds from those tomatoes. When fresh tomatoes are in season and very ripe you get an amazingly fresh tomato sauce with the addition of some fresh herbs and a bit of onion and garlic and a quick cook to thicken it up a little. I make a little sauce as soon as I finish processing the tomatoes and then freeze the rest of the pulp for later use. You just can’t beat a nice fresh tomato sauce, and having the rest in the freezer all ready to go into sauces or soups is really handy and tastes so good in the middle of a cold winter spell.

Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper

See this little smiley faced gadget? I love this thing!  It is made by one of my favorite kitchen gadget makers, Kuhn Rikon, and makes getting that wonderful fresh corn off the cob with no problems or struggle. Really, just pull this along the cob and it removes the corn beautifully. If you get some great corn but aren’t going to use it right away then get yourself one of these and remove the kernels, bag them up in freezer bags and freeze them. Or make yourself some nice corn chowder. Right now sweet corn is plentiful and cheap so I will be putting this little guy thru his paces. As I go thru the gadgets and things in my kitchen I am noticing something, many of my favorite most used and well made gadgets are made by this company, I never paid much attention before but now it seems to just stand out, they make some really useful things and the quality has held up on the ones I have and use a lot. I have good knife skills and can cut the corn off the cob with a sharp knife but this little guy actually makes that job more fun and I am all for a little fun in the kitchen. Seriously if you like fresh corn off the cob get yourself one of these little guys.

Here’s a little secret……..I have a jar that I throw all my change into that hubby doesn’t know about!  I have it because I am saving up to get one of Kuhn Rikons pressure cookers someday. I have wanted one forever it seems.  I know that they are very expensive but based on the opinions of some people, whose opinions I greatly respect on the pressure cooker list I belong to I know my saving will eventually pay off in my getting the best pressure cooker out there and no one can deny that that cooker is a Kuhn Rikon. I also picked that brand because as I have said before, when I look at all the kitchen gagets I have bought over the years, the ones that get used most often and have stood the test of time in my kitchen wether here at home or in my kitchen at work (when I was working) are from Kuhn Rikon. You can ask hubby, you know the guy who thinks my kitchen is over run with my treasures, he will tell you that I have almost everything the company makes and he never hears me complain about any of it, also I never have to replace any of it due to it breaking or having shoddy workmanship………heck, even our three boys could not destroy any of their products and that says a lot! Those boys could tear up anything when they got in the kitchen! If you have the need to make quick wholesome meals for yourself and family, and not a lot of time to be able to do that, let me suggest you start a change jar too, get yourself the best, because you deserve it!

Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper

Meat Tenderizers

I thought I would start going through all the gadgets I have collected in my 40 years of playing in the kitchen and listing some of my favorites and tossing those that don’t perform well enough to earn the space they take up. First up are the tenderizers I use with meats and poultry, the three in the picture are my all time favorites, at the top is my Jacquard circa 1996, back then it cost me over $50 but it has repaid that well over the years. Next on the right side is a triangular mallet type, it has one side with fine spikes, one with bigger triangular spikes and one flat side, this one allows you to use the weight of the mallet more than the stregnth of your arm to do its job, it does its job very well indeed, you can flatten steaks into see thru scallops in seconds. The third at the bottom is the flat mallet, it is stainless steel and works well but not as well as the triangular one on the right, it has a large flat area but I think it has more to do with the leverage you have with the other smaller one that does the job better. This larger flat one is good for chicken breasts, you can hit the whole suface area of a breast in one hit. I threw out all the others I ahve had over the years, they more tore up the meats and poultry than flattened it, it I had to only chose one of the above I would keep the white handled triangular one, it is just an all around great gadget and gets the job done quickly with no arm fatique, I have this in a large size too, I remember I paid $12.99 for it at TJMaxx years ago but have seen them there recently too.