Mild Temperatures are Killing Me

This week I was curious to find out which US State had the most exchange kids in Germany, as of Today, Illinois has the most with 10 kids. I believe it would be fair to say that district 6440 has the most kids per district with 4, Impressive for a tiny district in northern Chicagoland.

This up-coming week, I have 2 finals Bio and Geography. I wish my Geography class was as easy as Lakes, where the kids just learned where the countries were and then made food from that country. Now I need to learn economics of developing countries and how tourism effects a country's development/ deteriorates the culture.

I am going to die when I get back to the US. I am not saying it's super cold here because we actually had a warmer winter than Chicago, and we never received snow. Today is 14℃ (mid 40's), and to me that was T-shirt weather. I am going to die in the summer heat.

The US needs to use the metric system. It would make my life a lot easier. When everyone else in the world uses the metric system, doesn't it make sense to adopt a system that everyone uses, so that we are globally compatible. I understand the creator of "Fahrenheit based it off the human body temperature, but even he was wrong, and the human body temperature is 98.6 and not 100 like originally stated, making the Fahrenheit system invalid. But we are Amuricans, and we are the ass of everyones jokes because we are as stubborn as one.

Schnelle Küche Recipe this week: Peasant Lentil Soup

150 g. Lentils
4-5 Medium Potatoes
4-6 Strips Bacon
1/2 Medium Onion
1 Carrot
1/2 Leek
1-1 1/2 L. Chicken Broth
1/2 Tbsp. Pepper and Salt
1/4 c. Sugar
1/4 c. White Wine Vinegar
1 c. Chopped Bologna like sausage.

2 Tbsp Curry*

Dice the bacon, onion, carrot, leek, and potatoes, and then cook them in a medium pot until the bacon is crispy, and the onions are translucent. After that pour in the Chicken broth(and curry, if using), scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pot. They add flavor. Add the lentils, potatoes, and leeks and bring to boil. Turn down heat and let reduce until the lentils are plump, and the potatoes are fork tender. After add the sugar and vinegar. They are added in equal portions, so that you can play around with the combo until you find one you like. Let cook for one hour. Before serving add sliced bologna and enjoy.

*I add curry but the wasn't part of Petra's original recipe. Also this recipe is made by eyeball measurements. These are not exact but a suggestion.

Schnelle Küche

Petra's Schnelle Küche recipe this week.

Ham wrapped Endives in a Hollandaise Sauce

Servings: 4  cook time: 10-15min

Ingredients:

4 Endives
4 slices Ham or Prosciutto
2 cups (250 g.) Hollandaise Sauce
1 cup Cheese (Gouda, Mozzarella, anything that is good for melting)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 180℃ (350℉)
Cook the endives in salted boiling water until they before fork tender. Next put the four endives in a baking pan. Wrap the sliced ham around the endives, and then pour the hollandaise over. Cover with cheese and bake until brown.

-normally we eat this as a main dish, but it would also make a good side dish.

Can't wait until Summer!

Last week Petra planned our Summer Vacation. The originial plan was to go one week on a houseboat in France, and then another week in Tirol(That's Italy). We came to the conclusion, that that would be too much driving. We are now going, one week on a houseboat is middle/southern France, and one week in Western France, on the Atlantic Ocean.

This will be my first time ever seeing the Atlantic Ocean. Kind of a weird thought because I had to fly over it to get to Europe, but I was in the middle section. In Mamabear's and my opinion, we had the best seats on the plane.

It was funny, all my host brothers were excited about the house we will be staying in. It was a nice cape cod/ old English style house in Britanica, France, but I was more excited about the houseboat. Since, I was only out on my boat 3 times last year, I am looking forward to going out on a boat again.

When I saw the house boat, I said wow it's relatively new, and got funny looks because my "Relatively New" is a boat from late 1980's til 90's. I always imagined a house bought as an ugly thing from 1950, that you find on the Chain O'lakes, but this looks more like something that would come from Winthrop Harbor.

When I showed my host family our boat, my host mom asked if we could sleep on it. I laughed a little in my head because it's a tiny fishing boat, maybe 6 meters long. I called it an only fun boat, and my youngest host brother laughed, and the middle was jealous because he loves fishing more than my Dad. I guess I never realized, not everyone has a boat.

I have never been "boatless", and even the Marpert's have a canoe, so that I am still not "Boatless." If they do visit, I think my host brother, Fritz, needs to go Salmon fishing on the Bad Medicine and catch some real fish. Carp are garbage fish.

I am going to start a new thing. I am going to add one of Petra's easy recipes to the bottom of every blog, so that you can cook like a German House Wife. This week is a Dish I didn't know how to name, but Petra called it a Casserole. If you have a better name, I would love to hear it.

Zucchini Gyro Tomato Casserole

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook time: 25-30 min. Servings: 4-6 people

Ingredients

• 2 Zucchinis
• 2 c. (200g.)Grape Tomatoes (1 c. Plum)
• 1 lb. (500 g.) Gyro Meat
• 1-2 c. (100-200g.) Gouda Cheese(or Mozzarella) 
• 1/2 Tbsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Pepper

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375°F (200°C)

Start by washing the vegetables. Slice the zucchinis in half. Scoping out the insides sides (so that you only have a zucchini shell left) and saving the inside of the vegetable in a bowl. Quarter the tomatoes and put them in a small casserole dish. Sprinkle Salt and Pepper over the tomatoes. Finally lay the zucchini halves on top of that.

Cook the gyro meat according to packaged directions in a pan. When the gyro meat is cooked almost finished cooking, add in the insides to the zucchinis. Cook until the meat is finished.

When the meat is finished, stuff the meat into the zucchini halves. Layer the cheese on to zucchini/meat combination and bake until the cheese is bubble and golden brown.

*Note Originally a Weight Watchers Recipe