Food Keeps Body and Soul Together

“Mmmmmmh, it smells delicious here” or “Ooooooh that looks wonderful” I sometimes hear here on the farm. Whether at breakfast, preparing our farm products, or simply at our own meals, one thing always holds true:

Food keeps body and soul together!

My special concern here is not only that it’s made with valuable ingredients, tastes and smells good, but also looks beautiful. So the guest breakfast is decorated with loving touches from the garden, so our guests can also enjoy the breakfast table with their eyes.

Now and then I’m asked for recipes, so guests can take a bit of the holiday home with them. But that’s not so simple with us farm women. Because most recipes aren’t written down with measurements, but were passed on orally from Mama and mother-in-law, following the motto: Practice makes perfect and just watch!

But today’s farm woman doesn’t want to cook only with Grandma’s recipes, but also try something new and keep learning. I especially love learning new things about herbs, smoking, and special cooking techniques.

And because cooking and working in the kitchen is something very special to me and brings me so much joy, I’d like to share one recipe or another from the cooking seminars I’ve attended with my readers. Of course not just any recipe, but always something that we in the family really love to eat or drink ourselves and that’s been tried and tested.

Now in autumn I’m fortunately finding more time to bake a bit of snack pastries. A nice change from the homemade sourdough bread we always have. A particular favorite of our children are the “Salzstangerl” (though I always make at least double the amount for our household :-)

Ingredients (makes about 15 pieces)

500 g wheat flour
1/2 cup sour cream
20 g yeast
1/4 liter milk
70 g fat
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bread spice
Caraway seeds and salt or poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc.
1 egg for brushing

Put flour and bread spices into a bowl, along with the nicely warm butter, sour cream, place the salt at the outer edge of the dough, make a small well in the middle of the bowl and put in the yeast and the lukewarm milk. Then mix well and ideally knead on a board. The dough doesn’t need to rise. Continue on – divide the dough into three parts, roll out into circles, cut like a cake into 8 pieces and then roll up the individual pieces from the wide side. If you like, you can now roll individual sticks with ham and cheese. Brush with water and let rise for 15 minutes. Then brush twice with egg, sprinkle with salt or caraway, poppy seeds, sesame, or nothing at all. Let rise for 5 minutes.

Bake the Salzstangerl at 220 degrees for about 20 minutes until they’re nicely golden brown and crispy. Then take them off the baking sheet and place on a rack so they can steam off nicely. If you want the Salzstangerl savory, I add a good farm ham and a flavorful cheese as filling in the sticks and simply roll it in. Tastes wonderful with fresh salad or with a spread.

But it’s not only baking and making something good to eat, there’s also something fine to drink. Especially in winter it’s important to keep the body fit and healthy. Ginger punch helps with that. Gladly drunk by everyone, keeps you fit and is super long-lasting!

Ingredients

100 g fresh ginger, sliced or grated
Sage blossoms
100 ml lemon juice
200 g raw cane sugar
100 ml water

Bring everything to a boil and set aside. Add lemon sage, lemon verbena, or another nice-smelling herb, lemon balm, etc.Strain and let cool a bit.Pour into a clean bottle and put in the refrigerator. You then add a splash of it to hot water; you can also pour the punch base with hot apple juice, tastes wonderful and warms you up! If you like, add a shot of rum too :-)

I wish you lots of fun trying and baking these and look forward to photos of your creations!

Your Katharina