Eating the Yard

This tree puts out the biggest bunches
I've ever seen! 70lbs for the last bunch!

When the Air Force moved my family and I to a small base in Germany, I jokingly said to my wife that it would be really nice to have a cherry tree in the yard since I had one as a kid and always loved eating them by the handfull. Our realtor showed us some terrifying houses--one of which had hundreds of stuffed birds mounted on the walls (HUNDREDS!!!). But then she showed us one in the small, small town of Niederscheidweiler. The icing on the cake for us was the irony of the cherry tree in the yard.
So when the Air Force moved us to the beautiful island of Guam, we were shown many houses that were okay, but just not for us. Funny enough, one even had a dead bird in it (just one though, not hundreds). But finally, our realtor showed us an awesome house. There wasn't a cherry tree in the yard, but there were 3 banana trees, a papaya tree and a calamansi tree that hangs over the fence for sharing.
Our banana trees are currently producing about 150lbs of bananas each. Our papaya tree is producing the largest papayas I've ever seen and our newly found calamansi tree is giving us tons of of fruit that we know nothing about but are very excited to experiment with.

Calamansis hanging over the fence.

One problem--with my wife and 2/3 of our kids in Hawaii, it's just me and my oldest son, Jacob. We simply cannot eat 450lbs of bananas, we both hate the taste of papayas and there are so many calamanis that are completely new to us and we have no idea what to do with them.
Now at this point you might be wondering why I am complaining about the near orchard-like properties our yard offers. Well, I highlight these issues to showcase the attitude surplus that my son and I are about to attempt. It would be nice to be able to utilize all of this food, but I'm pretty sure banana-induced potassium poisoning isn't very pleasant. But we simply can't consume it all, so as soon as all these things are ripe and ready to come off the tree, we are going to start sharing within the community. 
When we were in Germany, I remember stopping at a bakery in Lutzerath on the way home from work and seeing a transaction between the butcher who worked across the street and the owner of the bakery. The butcher handed the baker a package of meats and the baker handed the baker an weeks worth of baked goods. It was a community exchange where no money was needed. It was amazing to me to see how even the owner of the town's hotel provided rooms for visiting family in exchange for breads and meats for the hotel restaurant. It was a completely self-reliant community. A self-licking ice cream cone, if you will. That moment will always stick with me. But how can we replicate this in our small community? That's the million-dollar question. Well, I'll keep you all updated as we try to figure out what to do with all of this fruit we have been blessed with this season.

Banana flowers peeking out.
They're great in salads.

Papayas as big as your head!

More bananas than we
know what to do with.

Coconuts!!!

Zorak stares at me every time I
photograph his fruit.

German and Belgian Cuisine: Josh and Mike Come to Visit

It's safe to say that when I leave Germany in May of next year, I will remember a lot of places, adventures and people. But what I will remember most is the food. I have seriously eaten myself sick in this place. We have visited tons of places to include castles, some important statues, some places that were important in some place in time, but all I can remember is the food. After referring to iPhoto, I remember that the amazing place was Brussels, Belgium. The statue was the Mannekin Pis, and the important place was the Porta Nigra. But the food, I can name off the top of my head. The one trip where I think I ate more than I ever had before was the time my friends Mike and Josh came from their respective homes of Abilene, TX and Travis AFB, CA.
My wife had given them to me as a Christmas gift and is to this day the best gift I've ever received (aside from life, thanks Mom). While they were here, we didn't have much time so we hit a lot of awesome places that were within a close proximity of our undisclosed location in Germany. I was just reminiscing and thought I'd share some of the memories.

Our first meal out was in Cochem is an awesome little city my the Mosel River. From the main street of the city, you can see dozens or vineyards, a castle, the Mosel River, ferries, architecture and lots of little shops that make Cochem great. There is a restaurant there called La Baia. They serve Italian food that is pretty decent, but their pizza is what I like.  We each had an entire pizza and I don't think there was any left over. 

Belgium is another mecca of amazing food. We headed into Brussels, Belgium because we knew that there was seafood, chocolate and, of course, Belgian waffles. 

While visiting the Mannekin Pis, we found a street vendor who was serving up escargot. In retrospect, eating snails from a guy with a cart in a foreign land seems like a bad idea, but they were delicious! He served it from a kettle filled with celery, broth and onions...I think. It was good enough to go back for seconds.

It might seem strange, but on a cold day, steaming hot snails really hit the spot.

Here's a before and after picture of my son, Jacob, eating snails. He ate them because we paid him off. He didn't really like the texture of it (as you can tell), but he did ask for more. How many kids can say that they've eaten snails...on purpose?

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cologne (a little American, I know). It was the worst meal we had while they were here. The food wasn't bad, but burgers and fries seem so non-European.

Beer is European though! There are a lot of shops like this around Belgium. They sell a single bottle of beer for anywhere from 3-12 Euro per bottle. It's a tourist's price, but the beer is still amazing.

Belgium is also known for the awesome chocolate they produce. The candy shops are too numerous to recall, but they all seem to have their own style. It's a good place to visit if you need to gain 15lbs. 

We did save the best for last. In a little town near Fliegerhorst Büchel, lays the town of Lutzerath. Every town has a hotel/restaurant that defines the village. The Hotel Maas is such a place. The owner, Stefan Maas has served the town for many years just as his mother and father did. The Maas' kitchen lead, Chef Sascha Saxler is a master of German food and loves to impress guests and tourists with his unique style. My guests were not disappointed. We ordered lambmedalions and the restaurant special, The Fuhre Mist. Lambmedalions consist of small, 2oz lamb medallions wrapped in thick bacon and cooked to medium. There is a red wine sauce drizzled over and minced grape leaves in oil around the edge of the plate. It is made from all local meats and produce and is simply amazing.

The Fuhre Mist is a wheelbarrow full of food--literally, it comes in a wheel barrow. The Fuhre Mist has a little bit of everything the Maas has to offer. Pork steaks, chops, potatoes, green beans, fries (pommes),  and three types of sausages. It can feed a family of four with no problem.

It was a great visit and I love showing off Germany and the surrounding countries with friends and family. Only a year+ left here and all I can think about is how much food I haven't eaten yet!

Lemons to Lemonade/Stuffed Pork Chop

In the past, I have voiced my opinions concerning the Air Force Recipe system and it's shortfalls and frustrations. Recently in the Dining Facility that I manage we have been playing with the recipes a bit. The recipe is the same but the method gets twisted a little...okay, a lot. We tossed the method out the window and made our own! We took the lemon methods and made lemonade by substituting our own. We hold true to the ingredients, but make it in a way that people like--not scoff at.
The whole idea is that we take a recipe that doesn't sell and find a way to make it sell. Normally, our stuffed pork chop just doesn't sell. The AF method wants us to take a colorless, flavorless baked pork chop and place an ice cream scoop worth of stove top stuffing on top of it. The customers usually look at it then order a cheeseburger from the grill. But not today, my friends!  Keep in mind that this recipe is for what we have in an AF kitchen. I do recommend making your own dressing/stuffing. And I do recommend straying from the methods of the AF Recipe system, but even though I like to make a mockery of the AF method, we still try to stay close. So please play with this recipe. It's YOUR food, play with it!

Stuffed Pork Chop

Ingredients

• 4 Thick Cut (1"-1.5" cut) BONELESS Pork Chops
• Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder--Seasoned to taste on pork chops
• 2 Cups Balsamic Vinegar
• Box of Stovetop Stuffing (Chicken or Pork Flavor, if you can find it)
• 2/3 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Small Yellow Onion, minced
• 1 Green Apple, julienned
• 1 Red Apple, julienned
• Juice from 1 Lemon (mix with water to cover julienned apples in a bowl to prevent browning)

Method

1.  Make Stovetop Stuffing by using directions on the box.
2. Season Pork Chops with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Rub seasonings into meat. Toss into a medium heat frying pan. Cook chops to medium well.
3. Pour Balsamic Vinegar into a sauce pan and bring to an almost boil. Add diced onions. Add sugar as you stir. Keep the sauce moving as it starts to simmer. It will begin to thicken.
4. After chops rest for about 3-5 minutes, fillet chops down the middle, 3/4 of the way through long ways (it should look like an alligator mouth, not a clam)
5. Grab a small palm full of stuffing and roll loosely into a ball. Flap open pork chop and place the ball into the mouth of the gator. Place chops on a baking pan and into the a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes. This will give the ball of stuffing a crisp element as well as curl the top of the chop just a little for visual pleasure.
6.  By now, the sauce should be thickening nicely. Be careful to not let it burn or you will have to start all over with the sauce. Take it off the stove and let it air cool on the counter top or an empty burner. 
7. Julienne your apples. A julienne is a complicated way of saying that you cut it to look like baby french fries. If you are still confused, check out this link (Julienning). This is best done with a slicer with a julienne attachment, but most people don't have one just sitting around so another option is to use a cheese grater. Use the big holes, not the small ones. As you julienne them, place them in your lemon/water mixture. The acid in the lemon juice will prevent the apples from browning plus it will add another element of tartness. Make sure you use a tart green apple and a sweet red apple. This will create a nice mixture of flavors that will enhance your chops!
8. Place your sauce in a squirt bottle (ketchup style if you have it). If you don't have one, a spoon will do nicely. Get a small plate, drizzle the sauce on the plate in any design you'd like. Swirls, zig-zag, Jackson Pollock, etc.
9. Pull Pork chops from the oven and place in the center of the plate.
10. Garnish with a large pinch of julienned apples.
11. Enjoy!

Please excuse the sloppy saucing.  A warped tray and  time constraints are to blame ;)

Usually we produce about 16 pork chops for our small facility and maybe 3 of them sell based on looks alone. But this day, we produced 16 and sold 14 of them. It just goes to show that people eat with their eyes way before they eat with their mouths.