Homemade Rootbeer

It is always a pleasure to meet another person from your home country. When you live far from home like I do, meeting another American is like meeting a person you've got lots in common with- even if that is just being American.

We had the pleasure of getting to know some friends better over the weekend and they shared with us the fact that they make their own root-beer. First of all I was surprised, it had never occurred to me to even consider making any. You can't get it here in Latvia, but I haven't missed it and so I just lived on in that state until now.

Our friends made us some rootbeer and gave me a bottle of rootbeer extract. I was excited to try it out and now that the weather is extremely hot I thought I'd give a whirl.

I decided to deviate from the recipe on the bottle a bit after theirs had turned out flat. We make our own fruit syrups every year and they make a nice sparkling juice when you add them to sparkling water.

So I decided to make my rootbeer syrup and only add it to each glass as it was served. The results were delightful and delicious and very much a taste of home :)

The recipe on the bottle says to make one quart you need 1/2 T. extract, and 8 tablespoons sugar, and enough water to make 1 quart. I decided to make a double portion for my 2 liter bottle of carbonated water.

My recipe version :

1 T. extract
12 T. sugar
1/4-1/3 c. boiling water.

I then stirred this over a low heat until the sugar was dissolved and then let it cool . To serve add a couple of tablespoons or more (to taste) to each glass, add the fizzy water and stir. Add ice and serve.
Delicious, and refreshing.


Best of all you kind find this cheap on Amazon :) Yay!


Thanks to new friends for new ideas!

Chocolate Mousse Cake

So if you have never had or made a mousse cake you SHOULD try this one. My friend told me about a cake in France and I had a hunch it was a mousse cake. I scoured the internet and found this recipe and since then I have made this MANY times. Everyone loves it.

It is rich, and light and so chocolately!

DELISH! Thanks Brown-Eyed Baker for another great recipe!

A litte bit of France- Repost

There is not many people who could resist a freshly baked crossiant, and by request of Julija we made these one lovely evening. Wow, were they fantastic. Just look at all those layers!

Here is a recipe, not sure if it is the one we used, but it looks good. (I tried this recipe today before reposting this it IS a winner.) You can never go wrong with a warm crossiant. YUM!

We also whipped up some French onion soup and I made some French Macarons to complete our evening with a French theme. 

American Pancakes

Pancakes are a BIG deal to my kids. They LOVE them, I mean, really LOVE them. We usually only eat them on Saturdays- they are the special weekend treat.

My husband makes some really good Latvian pancakes, and he makes some amazing onion pancakes. Let me tell you, that man can make some amazing pancakes.

But you know what, mine aren't bad either :) Now and again I want so really American pancakes and some maple syrup- at least the fake stuff which I make myself with my maple flavoring. So here is the recipe we made the other day, and this time it wasn't Saturday because my boy said he wanted so pancakes, even it was only Tuesday :)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1 T. sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 T. oil

Method:

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately. Then combine and stir VERY lightly, just until combined. DO NOT over stir. That is the secret to fluffy American pancakes. Bake on hot, oiled pan. Makes 8 - 4 inch pancakes.

I doubled that recipe.

Chicago Style Pizza

Ever since we were in Chicago and I had the amazing deep dish pizza there; I have known that  I needed to try my hand at making it myself.

I finally looked up a recipe and thanks to The Brown Eyed Baker the girls and I made it Sunday. We were all in LOVE. It is so different than traditional pizza- and so yummy!

Cinnamon Rolls and their friends :)

Everyone loves cinnamon rolls. But how about some new fillings in those doughs? Today we made the good old fashioned cinnamon rolls and two other variations: 

I made a half a batch of this dough recipe and it was still enough for 4 pans of rolls. 

Quark and Chocolate: 

 Mix some quark (biezpiens) aka farmer's cheese or curd cheese, with sugar and a little sour cream if it is very dry. Spread and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. Roll, cut, let rise and bake. YUMMY! 

Pizza Rolls:

Roll dough, spread with a light coating of tomato sauce. Sprinkle with pizza spices (oregeno, basil), top with a good amount of grated cheese and some chopped meat (I used pepperoni sausage). Roll, and slice. Let rise and bake. A great appetizer or snack for kids. 

Other variations: 

caramelized milk and chopped nuts

quark and berries

vanilla pudding, topped with glaze and coconut

 

Biezpiens-Quark-Farmer's Cheese

Here I have lived in Latvia for 8 years and spent a whole lifetime in the States before that and I have been totally sure that there is no such thing as "biezpiens" in the USA. A few times now I have seen the word translated as "quark". Finally, I remembered to look up the subject and as it turns out this type of cheese is widely spread throughout the world.

Quark is made by warming soured milk . . . you can read about it online if you are interested. 

Sometimes it gets translated as cottage cheese- but the cheese we think of in the States for cottage cheese is not like this. This is typically dry, crumbly and not creamy- though it comes in a wide selection here as well. It is eaten both as a sweet dish and salty dish. My kids love it mixed with sour-cream to make it creamy, sprinkled with sugar or with jelly or jam. That is a popular breakfast here in our home.

In the USA it is known as farmer's cheese. I must say that I personally never saw nor ate it when I was growing up in the States- but it does me good to know it does exist there:)

So next time you are living in the States and want to make a Latvian recipe or recipe from another country that calls for quark or biezpiens you will know you can find it, or something similar.