Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

To meet his friends, Roasted red pepper and Spinach!

Day 124/365

We recently purchased Casual Gourmet's chicken sausage. It is full of flavor and not greasy. I am not a big chicken fan - I don't hate it, but I don't love it - but I really like this.  As a result, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the weekend to purchase more.

Bug made dinner. I ate.

Day 124/365

He created a tasty sausage and cabbage dish  -- some olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper -- with yellow wax beans on the side. I look forward to eating this dish again!

- Cassaendra

Sausage Fest

In October, our meeting with Michael and Bill was scheduled to take place at MoJoe's in German Village, an historic district within Columbus that lies in the shadow of technological behemoth Nationwide Children's Hospital.

A few weeks prior to our meeting, Bug researched places where we could meet. It was at this time he recalled our last meeting and stumbled upon Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant in German Village.

Featured in a Food Network television program, Man vs Food, the take home message from the show was to check out their German Autobahn buffet, and try their Bahama Mama sausages and gigantic cream puffs.

Bahama Mamas!

After a few wrong turns along the narrow brick alleys in the tightly woven fabric of European-style brick apartments, we stumbled upon a small parking lot that appeared out of place. It was then that we noticed several Schmidt's signs. The dashboard clock read 11:04 a.m.

A quiet neighborhood -- Schmidt's Fudge

The lot was almost full, with 3 spaces to spare after we parked. Several Schmidt's signs directed us in different directions. Without a flashing waypoint directing us, we set out toward the most logical direction - forward.

Restaurant entrance

It was 11:07 when we walked into the restaurant. The place was bustling with the hum of diners' conversations and silverware clinking on platters, as if it had been open for hours as servers walked briskly to and fro.

Before shuffling to the hostess' podium, sausages and desserts in cold display cases were a delicious distraction, oh, the desserts! Beautiful cream puffs lined neatly in a row, ready to march into my belly. I wanted to point to one and say, "You're mine." Bug interrupted my skit and pushed me forward. We were greeted with a warm smile and seated immediately.

Desserts and sausages galore

Scanning the restaurant, it was already 1/3 full and the bar was starting to fill up all within 7 minutes of opening their doors.

In addition to salt, pepper, and sugar packets, each table was supplied with large glass jars of spicy brown mustard and horseradish (pictured here). Bug was overjoyed.

Bug uncharacteristically threw caution to the wind and did not check the price of the buffet. The siren song of all-you-can-eat German sausages must have called to him. I quickly ordered iced tea, then we marched over to the buffet area.

The central buffet offered German potato salad, creamy macaroni and cheese, corned beef and cabbage, sauerkraut, red cabbage sauerkraut, green beans and spätzle (spaetzle), bratwurst, Bahama Mama sausages (regular and spicy), sausage stew, and two other pans (pictured in the bottom right) of which I unfortunately do not recall their contents; perhaps they were cabbage and noodles and another type of sausage.

The main spread

The cold table (not pictured) held fresh salads, pickled vegetables and salads, cole slaw, and apple sauce, a necessity to balance all that meat. Adjacent to the salad was a pot of fantastic chicken and dumpling soup.

It may have just been the lighting, but I thought I saw tears of joy streaming down Bug's cheeks as he ate his meal.

Bug patiently waiting to attack his plate

I loved the snap of each juicy bite of every sausage. The bratwurst was delicious but, compared with the smoky spiciness of the Bahama Mama, was a bit too meaty tasting for me.

The large pan of sausage stew intrigued me as I have never had "sausage stew." I've had sausage with pasta, sausage with sauerkraut, sausage with eggs, sausage in pizza, sausage in fried rice, sausage in gumbo, sausage in jambalaya...okay, maybe sausage stew isn't all that weird. I haven't had it in the same manner as it is served here -- spicy, peppery, and smoky with a slightly sweet edge, reminiscent of baked beans and rather addictive.

Sausage stew

German potato salad can be hit and miss with me: too sour, oniony, bland, overcooked or undercooked potatoes, metallic flavored. Red cabbage sauerkraut has never done it for me, for similar reasons. When I returned for a second trip, I revisited the macaroni and cheese, red cabbage sauerkraut, Bahama Mama sausage, German potato salad, and cucumbers. The sauerkraut was mildly sweet and not overbearingly sour, with a slight crunch, not that too often mushy texture. The potato salad was perfectly cooked, appropriately applied vinegar and a touch smoky.

It was around 11:30 when we began hearing names announced for seating for the approximately ten people crowded near the front door.

I was not leaving without having the vanilla cream puff ($2.95 with buffet) so I stopped after my second trip, already feeling sated. Other temptations on their dessert menu were apple strüdel (strudel / struedel), banana, coconut, and chocolate cream pies, and German chocolate cake.

Pâte à choux is my favorite pastry and vanilla is my favorite dessert flavor. Three cream puff flavors are offered, vanilla, chocolate, and peanut butter. I was tempted to order the peanut butter filling, but I went with vanilla. Feeling a tinge gluttonous, I rather reluctantly shared the cream puff stuffed with thick pastry cream with Bug even though I knew it was impossible for me finish the whole plate myself.

Weighing in at 1/2 lb in the dessert corner, Schmidt's Vanilla Cream Puff

When the check arrived, I picked up the check, glanced at the total, placed it back down, then picked the check up again to register the total. For two buffets, dessert, iced tea, plus tax, the check came to a nominal $25!

As busy as this restaurant was, our server was always cordial, our water and iced tea glasses were never under half-filled, and empty plates were not on our table for long.

We left the restaurant around 11:45, dodged the large crowd of people waiting at the front door and outside, and stopped to smell the flowers for a few seconds in a garden alcove between Schmidt's Fudge Haus and Gifts and the restaurant. Bug was already planning our return trip to the restaurant.

A quiet moment

Near the fudge counter pictured, there is a display that shows how fudge is made. We walked out with a pound of pumpkin spice fudge and a couple of cherry cordials and peanut butter cups.

Fudgepalooza, because everything is somethingpalooza

Michael called wondering where we were. If we walked, we would have arrived at our meeting spot in 5 minutes, but the roads are unkind to strangers with handheld GPS units when driving more than 10 mph, so we circled around the same quarter mile radius for 10 minutes. Every turn we made was met by a recalculation, every straightaway we took was another recalculation.

Recalculating...

Recalculating...

Recalculating...

- Cassaendra

Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant
240 E Kossuth St
Columbus, OH 43206
Tel: (614) 444-6808

Hours of Operation:
Sun - Mon: 11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Tue - Thu: 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Fri - Sat: 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Buffet available from open until close
Closed Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas

Schmidt's Fudge House
240 E Kossuth St
Columbus, OH 43206
Tel: (614) 444-2222

Wie gehts?

We've been to Das Schnitzel Haus 3-4 times in the past 5 years and had some excellent dishes like their beefy and tender goulash, springy spaetzle, and crisp schnitzel.

A few weeks ago, we noticed a banner advertising their buffet weekdays from 12:00 - 15:00 for $7.99. Yeah, yeah, buffet, heckle, yuck, ptoo.

I happen to enjoy checking out buffets, especially ethnic buffets. Since I took a day off work, we decided to check out their buffet offerings. On the way there, I prayed for their beef goulash which I've enjoyed each time I've eaten there. Their goulash is served as a luxuriant, concentrated gravy with beef chunks. The beef is tender and probably slow cooked to achieve that flavor.

We strolled in optimistically at 12:05. I was disappointed to see a 6-7 feet long buffet table and thought it wasn't promising. Bug mumbled, "That's it?" Of course, the buffet was not ready.

Instead of walking out, we stuck it out (obviously). After ordering our drinks, we walked up and discovered that the space was utilized well. Instead of placing a large pan of a single item in each vertical slot, there were 2-6 horizontal containers in each pan slot.

Cold offerings from my rather spotty recollection were:
- a salad bowl of iceberg lettuce and 2 salad dressings, ranch and a vinaigrette
- pickles: cauliflower, cucumber, peppers, and another
- mixed salads: bean salad, a creamy salad, potato salad, coleslaw, and another

While we ate our salad, the hot dishes were brought in. The pickled cauliflower packed a vinegary punch while the cucumber was subtle.

Chicken dumpling soup was being served by our server along with bread baked on the premises. The soup tasted like homemade chicken noodle soup. The addition of well made dumplings to (almost) any soup makes a great soup exceptional. Along with fresh baked bread, this could have been my entire meal.

We returned for our entree. The pans were covered so it was fun discovering what surprises were under each hood.

In the warm section:
Starch
- wide egg noodles
- mashed potatoes
- kartoffel küchle

Meat
- kraut wickeln
- schnitzel
- beef goulash (hooray!)

Vegetable
- sauerkraut
- green beans with bacon and other stuff

Bug's plate (schnitzel, goulash, cabbage wrap, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut)

Bug was a little disappointed that spätzle was not available and scooped some mashed potatoes. I raked some of the creamy mashed potatoes from his platter, ooh'ed over them, and quickly reached for more, but stopped short of swiping more. It wasn't because I was afraid of his scowl. I could have easily inhaled a tub of the buttery goodness in 5 minutes but I am limited to 1200 cal per day.

We've had Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cabbage rolls before but kraut wickeln (cabbage wrap) was new to us. While it looked like a cabbage roll on steroids, it wasn't quite as simple as that. Both of us loved the smoky, peppery, and garlicky meat stuffing and whispered back and forth what we thought this dish comprised of. According to their menu, the filling is made of beef, pork, bacon, and rice with paprika and garlic, and wrapped in pickled cabbage leaves.

The sauerkraut was made in my favorite way, a little smokey, slightly sweet, sour, and not very crunchy. It was definitely not plopped from a bag or can.

Schnitzel is left in smaller amounts, I believe perhaps optimistically, to control the quality. Each time I've had their schnitzel, it's crispy and crunchy, whether they were made to order or in the buffet line.

My plate (cabbage wrap, potato pancakes, schnitzel, goulash)

The crisp kartoffel küchle (potato pancakes) were a touch garlicky and peppery. I could not work there, at least not during the lunch buffet. It would be agonizing not being able to graze on those medallions every time I passed them.

I was sated at this point. Bug went up for another serving and brought back mashed potatoes, egg noodles, goulash, kraut wickeln, and schnitzel. His eyes were bigger than his belly but he managed to finish his plate.

The server was peppy and came around to refill our drinks before they ran out. This is the kind of food that fills you up quickly and keeps you filled until the next day.

I'm taking a couple of days off in the near future. You know where I'll be come lunchtime!

- Cassaendra

Das Schnitzel Haus
5728 Pearl Rd
Cleveland, OH 44129-2850
Tel: (440) 886-5050

Soup's On!

On Tuesday, I was beginning to feel a touch under the weather. By Thursday, I felt awful, sitting in meetings for the majority of the day with nearly full-blown symptoms of a cold, frequently scurrying to the bathroom from guzzling water, cranberry juice, and jasmine earl grey green tea throughout the day. Saturday came quickly as I slept through most of Friday.

Bug made a scrumptious batch of potato-asparagus-corn chowder while he was still well on Saturday.

Chowdah with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Ingredients:
1 lb bacon
5 lb russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
water
2/3 lb asparagus, chopped (1-2" long)
2-3 c corn
5 c whole milk
salt
pepper

Directions:
1. Prepare several layers of paper napkins on a plate to absorb grease from cooked bacon.
2. Fry bacon. Lay cooked bacon strips flat on paper napkins and set ~1/4 c bacon grease aside.
2. Place potatoes in a soup pot, then add enough water so it is level with the potatoes.
3. When the water boils, reduce to a simmer until potatoes are cooked, then remove from heat.
4. Meanwhile, blanch asparagus. Set aside.
5. Separate 1/4 of the cooked potatoes and 1-2 c of liquid from the soup pot. Transfer to blender and puree.
6. Pour potato puree in to soup pot with the remaining cooked potatoes. Return soup to simmer.
7. Add corn, asparagus, and milk to soup pot. Stir.
8. Add bacon grease (1/4 c). Salt and pepper to taste.
9. Simmer until soup is at desired temperature, few minutes.
10. Ladle soup in bowls and add several pieces of bacon to each bowl.

Garnish with cheese, croutons, or whatever you prefer. I prefer extra black pepper and cayenne pepper.

The sweet, plump, and crisp corn brightened the soup. Of course, the bacon added a crunch, as well as a smoked meaty flavor. We enjoyed it so much, the pot of soup lasted just 1 day between the two of us.

If pfeffernüsse, a nutty, spiced cookie, were available all year, it would be one of our top guilty pleasures. We prefer Bahlsen, but Trader Joe's seemingly drier version was the only one available this year. As much as we adore pfeffernüsse, we have never attempted to make them ourselves. Their scarcity is a good thing!

Pfeffernüsse with some ice cream

I don't recall which grocery store we walked in to a week ago, but they had Edy's ice cream on sale so we were suckers took advantage of the reduced price and picked up orange sherbet, caramel cone crunch, spumoni, and French vanilla. The ice cream tends to be a little fluffy, but for the price, they are good.

- Cassaendra

Bier Maidens and Blue Angels

This weekend has been a rather busy one, and it's only Saturday of a 3-day Labor Day weekend. I have a feeling with all the excitement, we're probably going to be hermits Sunday and Monday.

Oktoberfest
Held at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, where almost everything was out in the open I felt apprehensive about going when I saw the sky turn green and the clouds converge atop the fairgrounds pretty quickly.

When we paid our $8/person admission, there was a deluge of rain beating down on us. It hurt for me to open my eyes and the place flooded up within minutes. We were completely soaked and didn't really know where to go - it's hard when you're walking around in torrential raid with your eyes closed! My feet were slipping out of my leather slip-on shoes and filling with mud.

We finally found some shelter. Great. Only beer and polka. We wait a few minutes and returned to the rain which was only pouring half as hard and went the wrong way (the way we came from) in search of food, turned around, and then headed to some individual tents serving mostly German food and 1 Polish stand.

By the time we got our food, the rain had stopped. We walked over to some benches under a tent, but the music was just waaaaay too shrill and loud so I told Bug, "NO WAY AM I SITTING IN THIS TENT TO EAT OUR FOOD!!" He responded, "WHAT?!" I walked out with my potato pancakes. He followed.

We went back to the biergarten gobbled up our food from Der Braumeister. I got the spaetzle with Hungarian goulash. The goulash was peppery and I enjoyed the large clumps of spaetzle. Bug didn't care for it as much. He prefers Das Schnitzelhaus' goulash and spaetzle. Bug ordered sauerkraut, sausage, applesauce, and German potato salad. We split an order of potato pancakes. It was pretty tasty. I tend to forget that potato pancakes aren't always the same as latke. When I order a potato pancake and get a...potato pancake - a smooth battered pancake - I let out a half-second disappointed sigh in my head...then partake. I didn't care much for Bug's dish at all. Bug didn't say anything either.

We walked around for 10 minutes after our meal and drove home. It was nice to have finally gone to one here in Cleveland, where there is a sizable German and Polish population. I can't say I was very impressed. The Oktoberfest that I went to in Hawaii was 100x better. While it didn't have the rowdy attitude because it was held at the Ala Moana Hotel, it was just as jovial and served harder drinks like schnapps as well as imported German beers. The food in Hawaii was a lot more expensive, but you got more than your usual carnival food. This was where I tried and fell in love with schweinknuckeln. It was heavenly! I just hope that the Oktoberfest is still celebrated in such a grand fashion to catch it once again.

Cleveland National Air Show
Bug set the alarm clock for 7:30 so I'd wake up in time for us to head to the air show at opening (9:00). I got hungry at 8:45 and made myself a bowl of ramen after hearing that food could cost upwards of $6 for hot dogs and water for $3. We ended up at the gates at 9:45 both of us carrying in bottles of water. I never said I wasn't cheap.

We didn't park at Burke Lakefront Airport because we'd never gone there before and just hit the first garage that said they had parking. We were parked about 1/2 mile away from the venue. That wasn't the bad part.

Bug paid $21/person for us to get in, plus we paid $10 to park, and walked into the admitting area, but were stuck behind a couple who took forever (not sure why). So a kid to the left of us ripped our tickets in half. When we got to the guy who was to have ripped our tickets, he asked why were giving him half torn tickets. We looked at the kid who said nothing. My husband points to the kid and told the guy that he ripped the tickets. The kid said nothing but smiled.

The guy continued to harass Bug about the half torn ticket. The kid continued to say nothing. Finally, a lady behind the kid said, "Yes, they just got their ticket torn." The guy finally asked if we wanted our hands stamped to gain re-entry. The kid stood there and smiled with the stamper in his hand.

That kid must have been retarded or something. I wanted to kick him in the frigging throat. Bug was |--| close to blowing up. $42 paid + parking to not even get in? Yeah, that would have gotten really ugly.

So with that behind us, but with Bug stewing over that incident for 2 hours, we walked in and out of a C-5 Galaxy, saw the MetroHealth LifeFlight helicopters, saw some other planes and helicopters, then sat down on the cement and waited for the show. I was nursing a blister forming on my foot because I was wearing the same wet leather slip-ons.

Programs were sold everywhere. There wasn't a free schedule to be found, so we really didn't know what to expect. My expectation was blocks of shows followed by gaps of free time. Bug's expectation was a block of shows that would repeat throughout the day, but different shows over each day.

At 10:00, there was a competition of radio controlled monoplanes, jets, and biplanes. It was pretty amazing how big, the complexity of maneuvers, and how high they could fly.

The show was like a race downhill on ice after that...one show after another quickly followed until 15:30 where there was a 15 minute break. Monoplanes, gliders, jets, biplanes, paratroopers, more jets, helicopters, even more jets, one after another, ending with the Blue Angels. The historic flybys were very special, where the modern jets would fly with the WWII planes.

I didn't realize how loud these jets could get. When the first jet, an F15 Eagle, came out and hit its afterburners in front of us, I screamed and covered my ears. Every jet performance after that I covered my ears when they'd fly by.

It was amazing to see the Eagle nearly hit the sound barrier and actually see the ringed air formation billow around the jet right before me...twice! I have never witnessed anything quite so cool!

The F16 Falcon's maneuverability with it's tight turns was awesome.

By 13:00, Bug looked like a cooked lobster and he was writhing in pain from the sunburns over his face, neck, arms, and legs. He looked pretty sickly all right. Fortunately, he wore a cap so at least 1/3 of his face wasn't scalded. His burns were pretty bad and he probably should go to the hospital. Because he didn't go to sleep last night, he's able to sleep as I type this entry...after dousing himself with alcohol.

The Blue Angels were exquisite. I found myself screaming at Bug, "OMG THAT WAS AMAZING!" every time the group and the 2 solo pilots flew by. I definitely want to see them again!!

Next time, I'll bring ear plugs and Bug will bring sun block.

- Cassaendra