Apples and Oma

This one is a bit of a collaboration.  My mom sent the book, but MIL made it with help from my oldest while I got to enjoy putting the baby to bed.  It was a wonderful treat and the hardest part is deciding if it was better as a dessert or as breakfast the next morning :-)  This is originally a Taste of Home recipe, tweaked a bit to be able to make it here.  Enjoy!

What you need:

1 Kuchenteig - it's a bit sweeter than pizza dough, great for desserts

Apple mixture:
4 cups sliced, peeled apples (the greener, the tarter)
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon


For the cheese part:
4 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp caramel topping

For the Streusel:
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold cubed butter

Peel and slice your apples. Place in a large pan with the butter and cook over medium for 2 minutes. Combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon and mix in. Cook for 3 minutes. Reduce to low and cook until apples are tender - about 5 minutes.

Combine the cheese ingredients into a small bowl, and the streusel ones into another.  Mix the butter into the streusel with a fork until crumbly.

Roll the dough onto a cookie sheet, and pinch the edges up slightly. First spread the cheese topping, then layer the apple topping and sprinkle with the streusel.

 Bake at the temperature directed on the dough package.  Wonderful hot with a scoop of ice-cream, or also cold as breakfast - if you can save any that is.

Bring on the soups

Now that its been getting colder, I am trying to make some soups for dinner. I like them occasionally, but when I mention making one, hubby tells me it's too hot! (usually in the summer when I want soup, so I guess he's right, but shhhh :)  )

This soup was really good.  You can make it healthier if you want but since it's all we were eating, I didn't mind as much.

What you need (I also used 2 dl of Halbrahm, but forgot to include it in the photo)

2 dl Halbrahm
1 container sauer halbrahm
Cheddar cheese
50-75g butter
2.5 cups milk
green onions
8 pieces of bacon
6 medium potatoes
1/3 cup flour
salt and pepper as desired

Bake your potatoes and then peel and cut them into the size chunk you want in your soup. (You could always puree them as well if you just want a thick soup, but I like the chunks)

Cook the bacon and pat it with a paper towel.  Crumble and set aside

Shred the cheese - about 1/2 a cup to mix in and another 1/4 cup for the topping

Slice the green onions as well. Mine are in a bag since I had already sliced some for another dish.

In a large saucepan/pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour slowly with a whisk.  If your heat is too high, you'll burn the flour and have to start again.  When creamy, add the halbrahm and milk slowly, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil.

Lower the temperature to medium, add the bacon, 1/2 of the sour cream, onions, bacon, cheese and salt/pepper. Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every other minute.  It will thicken.

Put in a bowl and then top with some sour cream, cheese, bacon and onions if you have any remaining. Enjoy.