Flavor Your World!

Today we celebrate National Ketchup Day! Are you someone who loves ketchup? Or do you hate it? Or do you like it every now and then? If you’re like my 9-year-old, he likes to drown his fries, chicken nuggets, hot dogs and burgers in ketchup. However, he drowns his food in the plain ol’ boring everyday ketchup. Us adults in the house like to spice things up from time to time and we use Hela ketchup! If you were reading our blog early on, you’ll remember we made meatballs with the original Hela Curry Spice Ketchup! Those were soooo good! And if you want a refresher for the recipe or you’re new and haven’t seen it, you can find that recipe here. And just for fun, to water your mouth, some pictures from that blog post below! Muhahaha!

But hey! The Hela ketchup is not just for beef, it’s great on any grilled meat – hotdogs, steak, bratwurst and more – even pizza! Hela comes in a variety of flavors and heat! From BBQ Sweet N Zesty to Bold & Spicy Chili, there’s something for everyone to try! Hela, based in Germany since 1905, is a family owned spice company. Since 1963, they have been manufacturing delicious table sauces.

What’s great to know is this: most Hela sauces are gluten-free, lactose-free and are suitable for vegetarians (Source: Hela Website). Please refer to specific product information, depending on the sauce/ketchup. Many of their products are also Kosher. Just be sure to reference the packaging to be sure!

Hela creates some amazing flavors for your taste buds. Their special seasoning and unique taste make their products incomparable to other ketchup brands and sauces out in the market today. For instance, the Hela Bratwurst Sauce pictured above, has a fine-fruity spiciness and tastes great with more than just bratwurst! Dip your fries and other side dish items in the mouth watering tasty goodness!

Now, after trying Hela, you’re going to want to replace your regular, old, boring ketchup for this! We triple hotdog dare you, with Hela sauce on top!

Let’s Get Refreshed!

First off, we are all well and we are still here! It’s been quite a time since we posted last, but we hope to change that! We’ve had a lot of changes and projects going on over here and it’s now time to settle down a bit and come back to why we are here in the first place! To share the love of gourmet products and food your way! So let’s get REFRESHED and start this journey where we left off!

Secondly, stay tuned… soon we will have someone else helping out here with some blog posts and such! We can’t wait to keep up with everyone again and sharing what we love most – ALL THINGS GOURMET!

So without further ado, how about I share a little recipe today? The weather here in Michigan is HOT HOT HOT… like, we had winter winter cold cold and then SNAP, maybe 24 hours of spring and then we have been slapped with hot summer-like days in the face, literally! Earlier this week the car thermometer read 97°F as the outdoor temp! I don’t mind the heat, but someone please take the humidity!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now… time to get refreshed with all this heat and humidity! WE LOVE our Hero Nectar, and there is no better time to get refreshed with all natural ingredients than now in this heat!

Peach Hero Nectar Summer Spritzer

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Peach Hero Nectar
• 2 cups lemonade
• 2 cups peach flavored sparkling water

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a large glass pitcher. Place ice and fresh raspberries in a glass. Pour mixture over ice and raspberries! ENJOY! 

You can totally mix and match this recipe up and add your own flavor and twists – that’s the beauty of these recipes! AND… if you get a chance to make this recipe, please do share with us! We’d love to see your pictures or your concoctions! And tell us what you put in your recipe!

Healthy Oatmeal Bites!

As promised, it’s time to celebrate National Heart Month and I have some healthy recipes to share! Today I present to you a quick and easy, healthy snack you can make for yourself and/or loved ones! My oldest son loves these quick little bites, I love them even more because I can get him to eat some healthy things by sneaking them into this recipe!

So here we go! And we’ve got three products that we enjoy in this recipe! We have McCann’s Irish Oatmeal, Breitsamer Honey and Hachez chocolate! Are you ready? It’s super easy to make and you’ll be enjoying a healthy snack in no time!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Oatmeal Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry oatmeal
• 2/3 cup coconut flakes (toasted optional)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed meal
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (or so, I did less) chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (I used dark chocolate for this recipe)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until mixed throughly.
2. Optional: Chill first in the refrigerator for half an hour, then roll into balls.
3. OR roll into balls immediately after mixing. (Just a matter of preference, I have no issues rolling these before they are chilled.)
4. Store in airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to one week.

These are quick and simple, and provide some healthy oatmeal power! When forming the balls, you can size them any which way, the ones I had rolled were about 1 inch or so in diameter. By the way, the mini Breitsamer Honey jars are just about perfect for the amount needed for this recipe and work PERFECT! Enjoy!!

The best part, as I say with any recipe, you can tweak this recipe to your own tastes and likes! I like adding the spices in to give these oatmeal bites some more pizzaz! Try them out and adjust them to your preference!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

Horsein’ Around With Soup.

If you were not aware, January is National Soup Month. I love a good potato soup recipe and to celebrate National Soup Month, I thought I’d go looking for a new-to-me recipe. I found this Potato Soup with Horseradish from the Hengstenberg website. The ingredients on the list didn’t seem too far-fetched or crazy, the recipe is fairly simple. Perhaps the only complicated part of this recipe may be the conversion of grams and liters and what nots. So I had some side notes of what I thought were the correct converted versions, but I’ll let you all covert your own (it’s quite easy when one can Google and find an answer!) – there was some guessing involved in some, or I should say, estimation approximations.

You can easily download or print the recipe from the Hensgenberg website and have it handy for when you’re in the kitchen. There is some prep work to do – cutting of potatoes, an onion and a little bit of cauliflower. Eventually the onions and the potatoes make their way into a pot with butter to fry up a bit. Then comes vegetable stock to the onions and potoatoes, they get happy happy for a while.

While that’s simmering, the bits of cauliflower are tossed into the oven on parchment paper, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper to taste. The cauliflower gets happy happy in the oven for about 12 minutes. Once that is done, it can sit out and cool off.

At this time you can fry up some bacon to be used later for garnish. Also, you will want to mix the sour cream and Hengstenberg Hot & Spicy Horseradish in a bowl until well combined. That mixture can be set aside.

Once the potatoes, onions and veggie stock have simmered for approximately 25 minutes or so, you’ll add the horseradish and sour cream mixture to the pot, remove from heat and then use a hand blender to purée.

My family has been interested in a hand blender for cooking and food preparation, so this was an excellent opportunity to get one and try it out for ourselves. I picked up this Kitchen Aid Hand Blender to try out. It was not very expensive at all. There are some brands and models that can get up in price, but if you’re just starting out, stay in a lower price range!

Once the mixture has been blended and puréed, the soup is almost ready! Place in a bowl, garnish with the roasted cauliflower and bacon and some parsley. Our soup that we made did NOT have parsley added to it, only because I couldn’t find fresh parsley at the one quick store stop that I made earlier today.

Below is our finished soup. Our soup is much darker in color than what is shown in the Hengstenberg recipe. We think we may just have darker vegetable soup stock here than what they had on hand and/or maybe we didn’t have enough potatoes added in the mix. Maybe we added TOO much vegetable stock? We aren’t sure, but it did taste delicious! We did have to add a little extra salt and pepper for taste. What’s fun about trying these recipes out is that you can tweak it and make it your own! Mine may not look as pretty as what was presented with the recipe, but it turned out great! Next time we try this recipe, we may add in a little more seasoning and play with some other ideas. Try this recipe and tell us how yours turned out!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Getting Saucy.

What better way to celebrate National Spaghetti Day than to introduce to you all a recipe for some homemade pasta sauce? I am getting tired of the same old watered down, store-bought, flavorless pasta sauces. Making your own homemade sauce is the most simple thing to do and it’s not very time-consuming at all. I have to admit, when I did pull this recipe, I didn’t realize that the sauce DOES need to simmer for about 2 hours, but it turned out fine – my husband and I weren’t quite hungry at the time I was making the sauce, and the kids wanted something else besides spaghetti, so we fed them and patiently waited for our sauce to simmer. And it was WELL. WORTH. THE. WAIT!

The following recipe was taken from AllRecipes.com and I have adapted it just a bit. I used Italian sausage instead of using ground beef. I figure, go big or go home. Spice up your life a little bit! And I’d like to introduce to you Oro Di Parma Tomato Paste. I used this tomato paste with the recipe below.

This tomato paste comes four different ways: triple concentrated, seasoned with vegetables, seaonsed with basil and spicy hot. I also used Oro Di Parma Chopped Tomatoes for my chopped tomatoes required for the recipe. So without further delay, I will provide the following recipe with my changes!

Easy Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces spaghetti
• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
• 2 1/2 cups Oro Di Parma Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 1/3 cans (6 ounces) Oro Di Parma Tomato Paste (these tubes are 7.02 ounces, it’s triple concentrated, so I used about 4 ounces, just over half a tube)
• 1 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms (I actually used a full 8 ounce can!)

Directions:

1. Brown Italian sausage over medium heat. Drain off fat.
2. In a large pot, combine Italian sausage, salt, sugar, oregano, pepper, garlic powder, onion flakes, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and mushrooms. Simmer at a low heat setting for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. Cook pasta accordingly to package directions. Drain. Serve sauce over spaghetti.
4. Enjoy and Happy National spaghetti Day!

 

As with all sauces, at least when it comes to pasta dishes, the longer it sits, the better it tastes. I made this the other night and I had leftovers and the sauce was even better the next day! Use this sauce for making lasagna as well! And as with all sauces, it will take time to tweak it and make it your own. While this tomato sauce came out excellent, there are a few things I’d maybe change-up for next time. I might add some fresh chopped garlic, more fresh items and what not, but delicious!

 

German New Year’s Traditions.

We are almost to the New Year, we are about to ring in 2018! With that, I thought I would look into some German New Year’s traditions to share with you all. There are actually several things that popped up in my search, so here are just a few of them that I thought I would pass your way! Interesting stuff! For instance, Germans called New Year, “Silvester“.

Cast Some Lead.
Say what now? Yes. Go melt some lead. Many people will melt a small piece of lead or tin over candlelight in a spoon or small pot. After being melted, the lead is then immediately cooled in cold water. As the shape sets quickly, people will interpret the shapes and symbols to predict how the New Year will be predicted for that person.

“Dinner for One”.
Known for its line, “The same procedure as every year, James!”, this is a British Cabernet sketch that has become a cult classic in Germany. It’s a short skit about a tipsy butler and Miss Sophie, a woman celebrating her 90th birthday. The guest list includes imaginary friends, all of those who have died off. If you are interested in watching it, here you go, all in German:

Fireworks.
Grab some fireworks and go make some noise! A LOT OF NOISE! Send the old year out and bring the new one in with lots of noise in the form of fireworks! In traditional days before fireworks, bringing the noise would mean bring your drums and maracas out!

New Year’s Cards.
In Germany, and many European countries, sending a New Year’s card is done to wish your friends and family a Happy New Year. This is called Neujahrskarte. A lot of times these cards are used to tell friends and family about the past events in the last year. Germans prefer to send a Neujahrskarte over a Christmas card.

Fondue.
Get your cheese melt on and dip meats, veggies, breads and what not in some oozy gooey hot melted cheese! Germans will enjoy a nice traditional pot of fondue to celebrate the New Year.

Have a Beverage.
Several types of beverages served during this time of year can be the Feuerzangenbowle (aka “flaming fire tongs punch”), as seen below that we did earlier this fall, and then Glühwein, or hot mulled wine. Grab a glass of Sekt (German sparkling wine/champagne), beer or wine.

So no matter where you are, we hope you are going to have a safe and happy New Year’s celebration! What are some of your favorite traditions? Share with us!

Thank you to the following sources for the information:

• Alumniportal Deutschland
• The Local de
• The German Way & More
• Pixabay (photos)

Festive Fun in the Freezer!

Time to get creative and time to add a little fun to the holiday festivities this year! Are you planning a holiday punch or trying out a new cocktail recipe for your adult beverages? Why not add a little fun to your drinks by adding a little splash of flavor and, well, a little shape?

To help me out with this post, a little friend that’s been hanging out from time to time on Instagram, the one and only, #InTheKnowMan, was in my kitchen as my assistant. I think he was also there to make sure I was doing things properly and not goofing off. But uh, I think really it was *he* who was goofing off! In case you aren’t aware, #InTheKnowMan is all the way from the chocolate factory of Riegelein (located in Germany) and is helping Gourmet International out with some holiday tips and advice.

In the past few years, silicone baking molds have become super popular in kitchens across the globe. They are super easy to use, super easy to clean, and most of all – super easy to pop out the molded items that have been set inside! These silicone molds have been used for cupcakes, brownies, ice cubes, candy – and for myself, I actually use these silicone molds to make homemade soaps! Last Christmas I tried to make little gingerbread soaps – but these guys are pretty small, so I gave up the mold to be used for ice cubes or candies.

Soo… speaking of ice cubes. I had an idea. Helllllloooo Hero Nectars! Why not freeze that nectar in a cute, festive, holiday silicone mold and add it to my favorite beverage? A peach flavored gingerbread man would be great in prosecco or champagne.

And talk about easy to do… just place your silicone mold on a flat surface. I suggest placing it on a cookie sheet so that it will be easier to transfer and place into the freezer. Pour the Hero nectar in a smaller Pyrex measuring cup so it’s easier to pour into the molds. Take care while pouring into the mold cavities, try not to overfill.
Once they are all filled, stick them in the freezer and let them FREEZE!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As you can see below, #InTheKnowMan was more than happy to help me pop the tray into one his favorite places in my kitchen, the freezer!

*insert a few hours of wait time here*

And finally we can take the tray out of the freezer! The nectar is all shiny and pretty! Check out the frozen little fellas in my glass!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So I don’t have an exact recipe to provide for you, but here are some ideas… you don’t need ice cubes, since you have your nectar cubes. You have the flavor already, packed in those little cubes of fun. Think of your favorite beverages and how you can ratio your cubes of flavor to alcohol and mixer content. This may require some trial and error. And… well, there’s no harm in that, just be safe and responsible. If you are not home and you drove yourself somewhere and are sharing this fun idea, we please ask you to call a cab, Über or find a designated driver to help you home. Please do not drink and drive.

You do not need to have any alcohol added to your beverage at all, you can easily make a fun punch for the kids, yourself, or for those who do not drink. Silicone molds come in all shapes and sizes, and also range in holiday decor, so make your non-alocoholic punch your own! Use smaller molds for ice cubes or use larger molds for larger pieces that you would perhaps normally use as a ring mold for a classic punch. Play around with the molds and the different flavored Hero nectar! If you come up with an awesome recipe, please share with us and we will make sure to share it here and spread the word! ENJOY!

Curious About What An Instant Pot Can Do?

Do you have an Instant Pot, known as the “electric pressure cooker”? An Instant Pot can cook food that would normally take a long time and cut that time in half or even less! My husband bought an Instant Pot maybe over a year ago or so and he loves it. It’s awesome when you’re cooking rice – we use it as a rice cooker. But wait! There’s more! We’ve even slow cooked ribs, made a pot roast and cooked some chicken. This post comes at a perfect time because today is National Comfort Food Day!

The other night I wanted to make a casserole or a homemade “burger helper” type meal, you know a type of comfort food, and I had the Bechtle Broad Egg Noodles on hand for such a meal. When my husband came home, he had different plans and made beef stroganoff instead! (Beef stroganoff is up there on my comfort food lists!)

So I we are sharing the following recipe he found online for Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff. We want to make sure we properly give credit to Ashley of www.idonthavetimeforthat.com for this recipe that is quick and easy to prepare!

The recipe does state for you to start with the beef on the sauté setting on the Instant Pot, which my husband did start with, but then he also put the beef on a pan on the stove as he was getting other things prepped. I also think he wanted to make sure the beef was cooked evenly, as it was a little difficult with the Instant Pot, but maybe his settings were to high or not hot enough, he likes to manage how the beef is cooked from the start. Later it was all added back into the Instant Pot.

Check out the steam rising from the Instant Pot as onions and garlic are added to the mix! You can see the Instant Pot has a lot of depth to it, so I think this is another reason why my husband choose to cook a bit of the beef in another pan for the time being.

Our advice is to wait as long as you can before cooking your Bechtle Broad Egg Noodles, that way they are fresh from the boiling water and drained and ready for the stroganoff topping! So cook your noodles last-minute and then prepare to enjoy this meal!

And here is the final product! So delicious and super quick and easy. It tastes really great as leftovers the next day as well!

The Doctor Is In… With Mousse!

This post is about two things: Dr. Oetker Mousse stuffed into Kane Candy Party Cups! Well, maybe three… It’s National Mousse Day (thanks again to Foodimentary.com)! Time to make ourselves an extravagant and simple treat to celebrate! And since the holidays are upon us, I thought it would be a great day and special way to perhaps show what we can do with some of these products to make our holiday season more festive! And maybe it’s actually about a fourth thing… I do think a doctor also needs to help ME with my decorating skills, at least my holiday decorating skills! As you’ll see in this post, I had high hopes, but I had a great attempt!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Who doesn’t love a good chocolate mousse and who doesn’t love a chocolate candy cup? Put the two together and it’s a party in your mouth! Party, party my people! My youngest helped me prepare the mousse, which is super simple and easy! Just add one cup of cold milk to the Dr. Oetker mix and blend away with an electric mixer for about 3-5 minutes. I find the best way to fill the Kane Candy Cups is to just fill a pastry bag with the mousse and then fill from there. I also leave the Kane Candy Cups in their tray they were packaged in, it helps to keep everything secure while trying to add the filling!

 

What’s perfect about this combination is that the mousse is four servings and you get four cups. Perfect! So fill those chocolate cups to the top and decorate! This treat took less than ten minutes to pull together, so if you find yourself in a rush to make something, put two and two together and you’ve four! Four servings of chocolate bliss! And what’s even cool about the Kane Candy Cups is that this particular package, the Dark Chocolate Party Cups, come with chocolate shavings included – so if you were last minute on prepping the dessert to begin with, they’ve also got you covered in the decorating area as well! What a bonus!

My best work came by just using the shavings that came with the package:

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And if you want to see my holiday attempt, here you go! I tried to do a reindeer, but it looks like a sad form of bunny rabbit. I think I will need to use the mini-sized candy canes. The larger ones I think are too bulky, heavy and large for this size cup! So here we go, and feel free to laugh at my reindeer attempt, because I did!

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

If you find yourself making a fun dessert or treat with Kane Candy Cups or with Dr. Oetker, share your photos and recipes with us! Share here in WordPress or feel free to drop us a photo in Facebook, or tag us in Instagram, or Twitter… post in Pinterest or wherever! We want to see what other people are creating around the world!

And by the way, just in case you were wondering… how did it taste? DELICIOUS! Nom nom nom! I am ashamed to say I had one for breakfast!! Well, no, I should say I ENJOYED one for breakfast as I celebrated NATIONAL MOUSSE DAY!! 🙂

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

German Holiday Tradition.

When you are given the opportunity to soak a sugar cone in 151 proof rum and then light it on fire, you do not object! That is, unless you are afraid of fire and flames! But I am the type of person who enjoys a little adventure, as long as some safety precautions are put in place, and maybe a fire extinguisher is close at hand…!

 

But what the heck am I talking about? Well, let’s talk about the Feuerzangenbowle. Loose translation: fire punch (fire tongs punch)! Oftentimes a part of New Year’s Eve celebrations or Christmas gatherings, Feuerzangenbowle is a traditional German alcoholic drink for which a rum-soaked sugarloaf is set on fire and drips into mulled wine.

Please be sure if you do prepare this, that you use the correct fire-proof punch bowl, tongs and take safety precautions! We did a little improvisation with our “punch bowl”, however, we had precautions in place and took care of how we proceeded with this recipe.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To further enhance this experience, we did create a video for you!

Feuerzangenbowle Recipe (from GermanDeli.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 Bottles of Merlot or Burgundy win (a dry red white might be too bitter)
• 4 thin slices of orange
• 4 thin slices of lemon
• Juice of 2 fresh oranges
• Juice of 2 fresh lemons
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh orange rind
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon rind
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 sugar cone a.k.a. Zuckerhut, or sugar-loaf
• 1 cup (approximately) of Rum (must be 151 proof rum or it won’t flame)

Equipment Needed:

• 1 heat and flame-proof punch bowl (ideally glass)
• 1 stainless steel bridge, if not already part of your punch bowl set
• Long match or lighter

Directions:

1. In a large pot add both bottles of wine and all the ingredients except the sugar cone and the rum.
2. Simmer the wine and fruit and spices over low heat for about 15 minutes. DO NOT BOIL the wine. Wine should be hot, but not scalding.
3. IF you are using flame/heat-proof glass punch bowl, carefully add the hot wine (with fruit, cinnamon, etc.) to the punch bowl.
4. As guests gather around, place punch bowl or pot in a dimly lit room. Light the candle below the punch bowl to help keep the wine warm.
5. IF you are NOT using the punchbowl, leave the pot on the stove on low heat.
6. Place the stainless steel bridge across the top of punch bowl or pot.
7. Unwrap the sugar cone and place it on the bridge. Slowly pour the 151-proof rum onto the cone, rotating the cone until it is soaked with the rum.
8. Light the sugar cone with a match or lighter. The sugar cone will dissolve as the burning rum heats up the cone. The carmelized sugar will drop into the punch to sweeten it and the rum will enhance the flavor.

And that is the basic recipe and preparation for this fun and toasty tradition! This recipe was taken from our friends at GermanDeli.com. We love the video GermanDeli.com has made, and we thought we would try it ourselves in our own unique way! Thank you for being inspiration!

It was my mother’s 70th birthday celebration and we enjoyed creating this fun and festive vibe for her. Although she had Latvian parents, my mother was born in Nürnberg, Germany. We thought it would be fitting to have a little German tradition for her this evening!