American Dinner

Today I hosted another Thursday night dinner, this time with an American theme! Since I was missing the deliciousness that is a good burger, I decided it was time to make burgers for Thursday night dinner.

Before everyone arrived, I opened up the baked bean and was going to just throw them in the oven, until I realized that baked beans in Austria are not quite the same as in America. I tried to fix it and give it some flavor, but really it needed barbeque sauce, which I just didn't have. They ended up kind of sweet, and ok, but what I wanted. But my appetizer turned out wonderfully! I made Mac and Cheese bites, with the leftovers turned into baked mac and cheese for dinner. They were adorable and cute and so good!

This is my much larger recipe for Mac and Cheese Bites adapted a recipe from Food & Wine:

Ingredients

1 pound elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons butter, plus more for brushing

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups milk

3 packed cups of cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Cook the macaroni in boiling water until al dente, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and spread butter on top the parchment paper. Take 1/2 cup of parmesan and sprinkle 12-20 circles onto the baking sheets, spread out enough so that you can create small balls of your desired size. This size recipe yields 2-3 baking sheets.

3. In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour over moderate heat for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk and cooking, constantly stirring, until boiling, about 5 minutes. Add the cheddar cheese and whisk until melted. Remove from heat and fold in the macaroni.

4. Spoon rounded balls of macaroni onto the baking sheet, packing them gently. Sprinkle the remaining Parmigiano on top.

5. Bake the Mac and Cheese Bites for about 10 minutes or until golden and sizzling. Let cool, transfer to a platter and serve.

Abe and Jane took care of the inside-out-burgers, which were filled with swiss cheese. Abby made the mushrooms and I started the caramelized onions, which she then finished. Then I baked an apple pie, which didn't quite turn out as expected, cause the pan was giant and I am not quite sure if I actually bought shortening or not, but it was still pretty yummy. Claire took care of the french fries and picked up some ketchup for us. As for the rest of the meal, everyone contributed to the making of the salad and lots of chopping for the other projects was also involved.

As always, we enjoyed the meal and each other's company, but I think I am going to take a week off next week, maybe do a smaller one, but nothing this large again for a while.

Last Day of Gelato

Today is Vienna's last day of Gelato. A sad and depressing day, yes, but this also means that anytime I see a gelato place that is still open today - especially if it has a "Letzter Tag" sign - then I am totally allowed to buy a cone. I have reached a count of three today: cookies, pistazie, and pralinetta.

The Viennese tradition of gelato is actually Italian, but the Viennese have fully embraced this amazing art form. Stand gelato is very good if you are passing by, but if you are seeking gelato, my two favorites are Eissalon an Schwedenplatz and Zanoni and Zanoni. Zanoni has very traditional gelato, more ice like, and Eissalon has extremely creamy gelato, more like ice cream.

Zanoni is open all year, but Eissalon is closing today! So Jessica and Jane are going to pick up a liter on the way home for our Mexican Thursday dinner tonight. My only consolation for the disappearing of the gelato is that means tomorrow is the first day of heat! No more wear coats in class!

Update: Us eating our gelato later in the week!

Italian Dinner

Tonight I had about 10 friends overs for Italian dinner! In honor of our trip to Italy, and also just because I wanted to try the ravioli that are sold in the Naschmarkt and at about 2 Euro a pop, these handmade giant ravioli were the best investment I've ever made. I bought some spinach-ricotta cheese filled ravioli and made a butter sage sauce to go overtop, the idea I got from a restaurant we went to last week. I also whipped up a quick pesto, using my mortar and pestle, when I realized more people were coming than I thought. Anna also prepared this really yummy tuna sauce, for which I need to get the recipe.

I made some easy sage wrapped pears for an appetizer, which is really simple, but tasty and they look fancy!

Ingredients

1 ripe medium sized pears

8 large leaves of fresh sage

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Core and slice the pear into 8ths. Wrap on leaf around each individual slice. Butter a baking sheet and place the wraps onto the sheet.

2. Bake until the leaves are crisp and the pears are golden brown. About 10 minutes. Remove and transfer to a platter. Let cool and serve.

Post-meal, we hung out for a while, drinking the better than bad wine that Abe brought and enjoying just being able to see each other, which surprisingly doesn't happen very often. At the end of the meal, we decided that this needs to become a weekly thing! Can't wait for Mexican Dinner next week!