Cute postcards straight from Switzerland arrived in the mail to invite us to a Swiss Dinner Night!
Kristy and Judith were the lucky travelers and scored some great ideas while in Switzerland that they brought back to share with us at Gourmet night.
Their cute nieces were dressed the part in darling get ups and served us for the evening.
The had pictures from their trip strung above the appetizer table and it was fun to see all the sites and beauty they enjoyed through their photos.
The appetizer table had fun greetings an facts in German. The table cloth was darling!
Appetizers resembled a common practice when dining at a restaurant there. They order a salad plate and it usually will come with a taste of 4-5 different salads all unique and different.
We got to try Rotkohl (red cabbage), Kartoffel Salat (potato salad), Spatzle (noodle salad) and Cucumber salad.
There were two round tables set up and another large photo banner hanging.
The tables were decorated cute.
They had daisies in drink bottles they had saved from all around from their trip and brought home in their luggage!
Each table had a Raclette grill in the center for our Main dish. It was going to be a hands on evening.
Each place setting had a darling Swiss paper place mat. Perfect for their theme.
They had all the special utensils and goods we needed for the real deal.
Menus were printed and pasted on a neat fabric type paper. Really unique texture.
Name tags were hand written and hung with a German phrase the read, "Guten Appetit" (good appetite).
We moved to the tables for the main course and they brought out a plate chuck full of colorful veggies and one with thin cuts of flap steak and chicken breast. Then we each got a dinner plate with steamed red potatoes, a pickle and Raclette cheese.
Raclette for dinner it was and we got started on grilling away! Kinda fun to cook while we chatted for a change.
There was a neat little tray underneath the grill where you placed your block of cheese to get nice and melty so you could spread it all over your yummy meat and veggies!
Dessert time came and they brought out a fondu pot of Swiss Chocolate They were speaking right to our souls!
Our dessert plates had a homemade Bratseli cookie and delicious fresh fruit for us to dip to our hearts content. Oh and we did. Dip, dunk, whatever you fancy!
These gals gave us a great Swiss evening!
We missed Michelle in our picture as she had snuck out early, but had a great evening with everyone there!
Take homes were all our recipes and a Swiss chocolate bar for later!
Thanks ladies for a fun evening in the Alps!
Rotkohl (Red Cabbage)
4 cups shredded red cabbage
2 small onions sliced thinly
1 medium apple chopped
2 Tbls vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 Tbls oil
Combine cabbage, onion, and apple in small amount of boiling salted water. Simmer until tender. Drain. Combine with remaining ingredients.
Kartoffel Salat (Potato Salad)
“Bacon adds flavor to this potato salad with a vinegar-based dressing.
There are usually no leftovers, but if there are, they don’t last long!”
-from allrecipes.com (4 servings)
Ingredients:
3 cups diced peeled potatoes (yukon gold; boil with skins on, then peel after)
4 slices bacon
1 small onion, *Optional: You can do 1/2 cup green onions(not cooked?) instead of the small onion
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
*Optional:1 tablespoon prepared mustard, or 1 tablespoon mustard seed
Directions:
1. Place the potatoes into a pot, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork. Drain, and set aside to cool.
2. Place the bacon in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Fry until browned and crisp, turning as needed. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Add onion to the bacon grease, and cook over medium heat until browned. Add the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper to the pan. Bring to a boil, then add the potatoes and parsley. Crumble in half of the bacon. Heat through, then transfer to a serving dish. Crumble the remaining bacon over the top, and serve warm.
Note: 1 pound potatoes = about 2 cups diced potatoes.
Spaetzli
2 eggs beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tsbp butter
1 bullion cube
Combine eggs, water, flour and salt. Add bullion cube to 6 cups boiling water. Use Spaetzli grater and grate mixture over boiling water. When noodles rise to the top get them out of the water (approx. 10 seconds)
Lightly toss with butter, salt and cheese to taste.
Cucumber Salad
How to Make Cucumber Salad
This dish, which is known as gurkensalat in Switzerland, is easy to prepare and it has a cool, refreshing flavor. If you like sour cream and you want to serve a creamy side dish with your delicious marinated steak, this one might be perfect.
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
2 cucumbers
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
How to make it:
Slice the cucumbers very thinly, then sprinkle the vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar over them. Let the slices marinate for twenty minutes, then drain them and toss with the sour cream. Sprinkle the parsley over the top and serve.
Bratseli cookies
½ lb sweet cream butter (unsalted)
2 ¼ cups sugar
4 eggs slightly beaten
4 ¼ cups flour
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ lemon (plus a few drops)
Pinch of salt added to eggs
Cream sugar and butter in rather large bowl. Add slightly beaten eggs with salt added. Add grated rind & lemon juice. Mix well. Add flour, one cup at a time, and mix well until forms a large ball. Cover & place in refrigerator overnight or at least for 3 to 4 hours.
Flour hands well before rolling dough into small balls, a tad larger than the size of a marble. Flour hands often as necessary to avoid sticking to hands.
Preheat iron about 10 – 15 minutes & begin baking 4 balls at a time, placing one in each design section. Close iron and press handles together very slightly. Count to 21 (no more than 25 depending on iron) and about the rate your heart beats. Remove light, golden-brown cookies from iron with table knife or wooden spatula provided with iron. Repeat until all are baked.
Cool well then store in air-tight container. These Swiss cookies improve with age and will keep up to three weeks without tasting stale. Recipe makes 14 – 15 dozen cookies.
Trick: When I bake the cookies, I lay out two cookie sheets next to iron. When they come out hot, I place on one cookie sheet. As the cool, I move them to second cookie sheet to make room for the next batch on the first cookie sheet. When they completely cool, I stack them on the end of the second cookie sheet, still leaving room to the rotation of semi-cool cookies. I suggest you have a helper the first or second time you bake these. Mom and I used to make them together and I remember the fun we had. Now, I do them by myself and it takes about an hour to bake them all. Another trick is to make the balls small enough that they come out pretty. Mom always made them too big and we’d have to trim the edges to make them pretty.
Chocolate Fondu
1/2 cream to 5 bars Swiss chocolate (1 semi sweet and 4 milk chocolate)
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