Eating Your Way Through History with Martin Luther, Hearty Potatoes au gratin, Luther Stew, Creamy potato, onion, and cheese soup, and Luther Cake

Eating Your Way Through History with Martin Luther

On October 31, 2017 marks the anniversary of the pivotal decision of Martin Luther to evoke change in the world. This is the date, October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther intended to open a dialogue with the Catholic Church and instead wound up starting the Lutheran church, a true reformation.

In celebration of this historic anniversary, celebrating Reformation Day, we will be introducing a few culinary creations to kick off the festivities.

Hearty Potatoes au gratin

4 cups of chopped potatoes, peeled and cubed

¼ cup of milk

Minced garlic

2 Tablespoons of cream cheese or grated cheddar cheese

½ teaspoon of salt

⅛ teaspoon of pepper

Directions: cut and peel potatoes and place in a saucepan with water. Bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes, or until soft. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain the water and add milk, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper. Mash the ingredients. Serve warm.

Luther Stew

2 ½ cups of water

1 ½ pounds of cooked lamb, diced

1 teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of pepper

2 small onions, sliced

1 Turnip, diced

2 medium sized carrots, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

2 cups of cubed potatoes

Directions: Place enough water to cover meat in th pot; add onions, turnip, carrots, celery, and potatoes, and cook for 35-45 minutes. Thicken liquid with flour if necessary and serve stew with dumplings.

Dumplings

2 cups of flour

1 ¼ teaspoons of baking powder

¾ teaspoon of salt

1 Tablespoon of butter

⅔ cup of milk

Directions: Sift dry ingredients together, cut in butter, add milk to make dough soft. Roll ½ inch thick on a floured board. Cut into squares and drop into hot oil, cook 15 minutes or until dumplings are browned, makes 10 dumplings.

Creamy potato, onion and cheese soup

3 Tablespoons of butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

6 scallions, green part included, finely chopped

4 potatoes, cut into chunks

3 cups of chicken stock

Salt and pepper

⅔ cup of milk

⅔ cup of whipping cream

2 teaspoons of chopped fresh parsley, flat-leaf

¾ cup grated Cheddar cheese

Directions: heat the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion, scallions, and potatoes, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until onions are tender.

Add the stock, bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the heat. Mash the potatoes and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the milk, cream, and chopped parsley. Reheat, ladle into bowls and sprinkle with cheese and parsley.

Luther Cake

½ cup of butter

1 cup of chocolate chips

5 large eggs, separated

¾ cup of sugar

1 cup of ground almonds

⅓ cup of dried apricots, finely chopped

Directions: Melt the chocolate chips and butter together in the top of a double broiler and cool. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until they become pale yellow. Mix the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar mixture, blending in the ground nuts. Add the chopped apricots too. Next, beat the egg whites until stiff, and fold into the chocolate mixture. Place a pan of water on the bottom shelf of a pre-heated 375 degree oven. Finally, line the bottom and side of a 9-inch spring form pan with aluminum foil and place cooking spray or olive oil on the aluminum foil. Pour in the batter and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Release the sides of the pan and carefully place onto a serving plate. Peel off the foil and allow to cool completely. To serve, dust with ground almonds, powdered sugar and garnish with dried apricots.

Cowboy Cookies, A Crowd Pleaser!

Cowboy Cookies

1/2 cup of butter, one cube, melted

1/2 cup of light brown sugar

1/4 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons of cocoa, unsweetened

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1 cup of uncooked quick or old-fashioned oats

1 cup of chocolate chips, milk or semisweet

1/2 cup of raisins (optional)

1/2 cup of chopped nuts (optional)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets with cooking spray, a little bit of olive oil on a paper towel and/or butter. In a large electric mixer, add the butter, sugars add the egg and the vanilla extract; beat until fluffy. Next, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and mix, stir in melted butter, oats, chocolate chips and optional raisins and nuts. Roll into a ball and then slightly flatten, drop the Tablespoon sized balls on the cooking sheet, or roll and shape in your hand, then make sure they are about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. 

Saki's Healthy Gazpacho Soup

On a recent trip to The Vue Restaurant, Lunch at The Vue Golf Course Restaurant I ordered Gazpacho. My friend Saki said she often makes a healthy version of Gazpacho Soup.

1) Place cucumber, bell peppers (any color), radishes, spring onions (and garlic optional) in a blender and whiz until smooth, next add coconut cream (Sugar-Free), Mr. & Mrs. T's Bold and Spicy Bloody Mary mix in a blender with ice and once again whiz until smooth, add avocado slices and cooked shrimp to your gazpacho. Taste again and add any additional seasoning. Garnish with Cilantro.

California Dreaming Breakfast Parfait In a Jar Recipe & short story, by, Gina Meyers

If necessity is the mother of invention, then that's exactly what happened yesterday while in Palm Springs, California. Let me tell you a little bit more about what happened. Me and my friend Saki took a road trip together for the first time. I drove us down to Palm Springs, California and we had plenty of time to talk as the trip down to the desert takes about six hours from Fresno where we both live. (Side note, she's a graphic designer and a photographer, and I'm a publisher and a cookbook author, and we are both very entrepreneurial, so the ideas were flying). I told her about a restaurant that me and my daughter Lauren dined at in Reykjavik, Iceland last summer where our entire meal was served to us in separate jars, including the appetizer and dessert. So the idea was percolating from the beginning of the trip but didn't officially get put into practice until yesterday morning.

Ok, maybe a lot of people are doing this, but up until Iceland I never really thought about it much, putting foods in a jar. Sure, baby food comes in a jar, jam, and so do my favorite Cara Mia Artichokes. But that was the extent to it.

So this morning, I decided to get creative in the kitchen and to whip up... wait for it, California Dreaming Breakfast Parfait In a Jar, a healthy breakfast composed of fresh spinach, sliced tomatoes, hard boiled egg, bacon all layered with Parmesan, Romano and cheddar cheese.

And remember, forget lunch being in the bag, you've got breakfast, lunch, and even dinner in the jar!

California Dreaming Breakfast Parfait In a Jar
Fresh spinach
1 hard boiled egg
2-3 strips of lean bacon (or turkey bacon)
1/2 of a small roma tomato
1 cheddar cheese stick (cut into bite sized pieces)
Romano, and Parmesan cheese, shredded (optional)

Directions:  in a small saute pan, add about 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and two large handfuls of spinach. With a wooden spoon,  slightly saute the spinach until it wilts. Keep an eye on the spinach, it cooks quickly.  On medium heat, once the spinach is cooked, set aside. In a small to medium sized pot, place water, 3/4ths of the way full and place an egg or two in the cold water. Heat the water on medium-high heat and cook the eggs for 8-10 minutes. The water will be boiling, if needed you may place a lid on the pot. Next, on a microwave safe plate, place two to three strips of bacon and cover with a paper towel. Microwave for two minutes and check, sopping up any excess bacon grease with the paper towel. Cook for another 1 to 2 minutes as needed for taste preference and crispiness. Once your egg has cooled, crack and discard the shell. If in a hurry, place your hot hard boiled egg in an ice bath of ice and cold water, this will make it cool down quicker.
On a cutting board, with a knife, cut bacon into bite sized pieces, dice up the hard-boiled egg, and dice the tomato into bite sized pieces. Layer the spinach, bacon, tomato, cheese and hard boiled egg in the jar. Can make the night before, just add the tomato in the morning. Can take your California Dreaming Breakfast Parfait in the car, on the go!

For a super quick breakfast, try The California Dreaming Breakfast Parfait In a Jar Express. Simply place two eggs in the Mason Jar and mix with a fork, add a little shredded cheddar cheese and spinach and place lid and shake. If needed, add a little milk a Tablespoon. Remove lid and place in microwave for 1 to 2 minutes or until eggs are fully cooked and fluffy.

Introducing The Breakfast Parfait In a Jar
On the go, no time to have a real meal. Take it with you. Health is important, don't jeopardize your health by not eating right. For these and other meal ideas, check out Gina's cookbooks, http://www.ginameyers.com

If you are ever in Iceland, check out Icelandic Tapas at: SmakkBarinn Food In a Jar Restaurant

Bewitching Beginning, short story about my first "magazine signing" at Barnes & Noble, by, Gina Meyers

“Write what you know”. That was what her writing instructor at the Community Adult Class said back in 1994 in an old musty smelling classroom at Clovis High School in Clovis, California. She had already been writing what she knew and what she knew a lot about was the television show Bewitched. How was that going to make her known? Or rather how was that going to make her money? Skinny, perky Gina, an entrepreneur at heart felt out of place in the writing class. She felt the intellectuals glaring at her cause she was young, well, 23, and they were concerned about grammatical errors and when to use a hyperbole in a sentence and all she cared about was the fact that her marketing and entrepreneurial zeal actually was resonating with others, fans, and moguls in the television industry.

 

Me at my first "magazine signing" at Barnes & Noble in Fresno, California with fans of The Bewitched TV Show. Note: I am holding a pen, it looks like a cigarette. Another note: All ages attended the signing. In the background, the Community Relations Manager.

By this time, Gina had already convinced Barnes & Noble to host a Bewitched Trivia night, now mind you Gina didn’t even have a book to sell, just a tiny scrawny cookbook that was printed off at Kinkos the night before per her cousin Paulette Grilli’s suggestion. And her mother too, she was there to help. She did have a magazine article, a Darrin Trivia Guide of sorts, the exact title was "Social Darrinism", a.k.a. Mangled Monikers and she served as a consultant for all things Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in the Collectible Nick at Nite Magazine, with a young John Travolta (From his Welcome Back Kotter Days) emblazoned on the cover. Further convincing was in order. Gina worked for a subsidiary of Xerox and worked at California Business Furnishings off of Brawley and Shaw in Northwest Fresno. The techy guys liked Gina and worked along side her cubicle upstairs in the more narrow than anything upstairs kind of long room. Her idea, put Elizabeth Montgomery’s face, aka Samantha Stephens from Bewitched on $100,000 fake colored bills. The graphic designers loved the idea and ran with it and Gina had plenty of Bewitched Bucks to hand out for the correct trivia answers during the evening festivities. She religiously met with the Barnes and Noble CRM (Community Relations Manager) and they cooked up a Halloween Costume Contest too, plus upstairs at the large and spacious Barnes & Noble there was a cafe of which it had been decided, Bewitched Blackberry Italian Sodas and a Tabitha Banana Latte would be on the Bewitching menu.

Further adding to the fun, The Fresno Bee decided to publicize the event in the Life Section and have Gina on the front cover. That involved runs downtown to The Fresno Bee for a photo shoot, and a couple of meetups with reporter Rob Vaneski. Answering Rob’s questions were interesting, her first taste of the news media had started to percolate and Gina kind of knew that publicity would be one of the most important features of sharing her love of the television show Bewitched.