Day 57: Living Out Our Chef Dreams

Today involved another store run, some relaxing, and organized chaos in the kitchen…

We got up and had some breakfast while enjoying the fact it had cooled down from yesterday. Rain had moved in overnight, and it was still a bit damp through early afternoon. Thankfully, the temperatures stayed pleasant once the sun came out :)

Today, Brandon and I were in charge of dinner for us, Alina and Peter, and the next-door neighbors, Frank and Cathrin. Per yesterday’s post, I went with Alina and Peter to get most of the necessary ingredients already, but today, we needed a few additional items I had forgotten…plus fresh bread. The menu for dinner was to be homemade lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. We took the Straßenbahn to Hattingen Mitte, which backs up to the parking lot of Rewe, one of the local grocery chains. We wandered over to the store and grabbed some veggies for the salad and a VERY BIG ciabatta loaf. We originally planned to use a baguette for the garlic bread, but the ciabatta just looked too good and was definitely calling out to me, so we went with that instead :)

We returned back to the house and set everything in an *initial* prep spot, but it was far too early to start anything, so things just sat. We had a small lunch and played some cards for a while. Then we went downstairs to chill and watched a little TV. Brandon took a small power nap and I played on my phone before going back upstairs to get some of the baking dishes, pots, and pans out so we were ready to go at the time we decided to start cooking!

Four o’clock rolled around and it was off to the races! I got the lasagna noodles cooking and the meat sauce underway. The cheese mixture for both lasagnas got mixed. Veggies were cut, garlic butter was made, lasagnas were formed (eventually, and with much argument from the noodles that decided to all STICK TOGETHER *grr*). Then, it was into the oven with the lasagnas! We finished preparing the garlic butter for the ciabatta and took a break. When the lasagnas were done their foil-topped cooking period, Brandon got to work putting the salad together. By the time that was nearly ready, the garlic bread had been baked and was resting, as were the lasagnas. And, right on schedule, Frank and Cathrin arrived! … I forgot to mention that in between things, we also set the table. Oh, and we had made “sun” tea (there wasn’t much sun today) that turned out quite good (if I do say so myself)!

With everything at the table, we all dug in to all the food :) I was hoping the lasagnas turned out okay flavor wise, and I was told many times throughout the evening they were very good! The garlic bread was PERFECTION! Brandon’s salad was also very very delicious :) After dinner, we relaxed a bit before Alina brought out the Apfelkuchen she made for Brandon’s birthday. We had some strawberries and cream ice cream to go along with the cake, and I think they were perfect complements to one another! Bellies full, we spent the next couple hours chatting about a variety of things, and then it was time to turn in for the night. Peter and Alina are “on call” as Alicia comes back from her week-long trip to Hastings tonight (sometime).

We’ve got plans to make an outing to a Star Wars thing tomorrow, so stay tuned!!