TWENTY-FIVE EXCITING YEARS

 Last Sunday, March 6th, Donna and I celebrated the “Silver” Anniversary of our marriage.

25 roses for Donna

I met Donna in fall 1976 in Pinehurst NC, we starting dating in 19 77 and been inseparable partners ever since. We lived together for 2 years in Pinehurst, 2 years in Jupiter Florida, 2 years in Fort Pierce Florida and 3 years in Lake Arrowhead California and finally decided to get married in March 1986.

                         Like every other couple we had ups and downs, building our relationship stronger and stronger. We also raised Windy and later on Daniel, who became very successful in their lives. We are
very proud of them.

Windy helping Donna rearrange the rose`s because my handy

Job was not acceptable

                          On many occasions we not only lived together we also worked in the same place. When I met Donna, she was a very talented Garde Manger, a chef organizing and overseeing all aspects of the cold kitchen and training cooks in preparation of elaborated buffets and incredible decorations. I believe this helped her to understand and tolerate the long hours and all the holidays I always had to work.

Home made Truffles and Chocolate Stangeli

for the occasion

                           Later on in California she decided that one of us had to spend more time with the family and she enrolled in to a college in San Bernardino California. After that it took her no time to get a Job as office manager when we moved to St Louis.

                            In 1995 we had the opportunity to work on Mackinac Island, Michigan at Mission Point Resort, where we advanced to the highlight of our career, Donna ending up being the Director of human
resources and me, after 5 years working as executive chef advancing to Director of food and beverage.

Happy as always

Celebrating with Bacardi and Dom

                            As you all see, we had an exciting life so far and hopefully, if god will, many, many more years to enjoy together.

SCHWEIZER ZOPF

                          I got requests for this recipe from my brother Heinz who is living part time in the Canary Island and is not able to purchase this  particular bread there. It is readily available in every bakery in
Switzerland and one of his favorite.

                          It is simple to make, but you have to follow the instruction exactly to get a constant quality product.

Here it is:

Your ingredients

              ( Fur Heinz in deutsch)                      (For everybody else)




                        1 kg Mehl                                                                   36 oz flour

                        4 dl Milch (23 grad)                                                    14 oz milk (75 degree)

                        40 gr Hefe dry                                                             1.5 oz dry yeast

                        50 gr Zucker                                                                2 oz sugar

                        200 gr Butter                                                                7 oz butter

                          2 Eier                                                                         2 eggs

                         50 gr Rahm                                                                 2 oz heavy cream

                             ------                                                                        -------

                                                            1 egg for egg wash



                         1. Place flour in a large bowl and make a hole in the middle of the flour. Mix milk, sugar and yeast together and pour in the flour hole. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the mixture so it is covered and let
stand for 15 minutes.

                         2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon and then use your hands to knead until it comes off the bowl and forms a dough. Remove from bowl and continue kneading on your work table until dough is smooth. This takes about 5 to 6 minutes of hard work. Place dough back in the bowl, cover with a moist towel, and let rise in a warm place until double the size.

                         3. Remove from bowl and work over again and cut into 4 pieces. Roll two pieces into long strings with leaving the middle thicker and getting thinner towards the end. Bread the two pieces to form the Zopf. Place on buttered sheet pan and let rise again.

                         4. Carefully egg wash the Bread and place in refrigerator for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit (210 degree Celsius). Bake for 20 to 22 minutes .Remove from oven and place on rack to cool.

Schweizer Zopf

Rolls

         Tip:

                       Heat the milk to about 75 degree F (23 degree Celsius), all other ingredient should be room temperature. Place a container with a little bit of water in the bottom of the oven and do not open the oven door for the first 15 minutes.

                      With the two remaining pieces of dough you can make a second Zopf or cut 2.5 oz to 3 oz pieces and form rolls. You can also cut the recipe in half.

Next project

"The perfect pizza"

Let me know if anybody is interested?

THE BEGINNING OF 2011

                        First of all, we had the best winter ever in St. Louis since I moved here. Lots of snow and more predicted to come and I love it. So far I have gotten pretty good exercise shoveling snow for the past few weeks.

The view from our garage

Hard at work with my little helper

Very enjoyable work in this weather

Just about done

Other exciting things have happened already this year, like Donna`s Birthday, the Australian Open, the Super Bowl, baby-sitting Nitro, and the main event, Tony and Amy’s visit all the way from Panama City Beach.

I love to feed the birds when it snows

Close-up



Regrettably, not everything went my way, I was very disappointed when my boy Roger Federer lost to the joker in the semi-final, and also, my favorite, Steelers had to take a loss against the Packers. Well, I guess I have to live with it.

Jacob and myself still had hopes for the Steelers at this time

Even Luke started to get in to the game

Brian was stressed out for nothing, his Packers finally won

Luke lost interest in the game and put the final touch to his wolf sculpture

Everything else went great. Tony and Amy arrived on Wednesday night, the day before Donna`s Birthday. They woke up to 11 inches of freshly fallen snow. I believe shoveling snow was the last thing on Tony’s mind, but he helped me and ended up doing most of the work.

Amy and Tony's welcome platter

Good looking fruit for being in the middle of winter

Donna took off from work and we celebrated her birthday with good food, drinks and in good company with Daniel and Eric. Gina (prior engagement), Karla, (work), and Brian and family were missing the party. By the way, we did not see Brian all of January, being busy plowing streets and parking lots for his snow removal company.

Great conversation between two super ladys

Except a tiny trip to a local bar for 3 hours we spent the next 3 days at home, eating, drinking, dancing, playing cards, playing the wii and taking care of the dogs. Great Fun!! Times like that pass really fast and sadly Tony and Amy left us Monday morning. Can't wait for our next reunion.

Let the card game begin

Russian rummy

Happy winners

The score keeper

The dancing begins

Dancing queen

Good time

Tony got in on the action

It can`t get much better

Amy relaxing with Lola and Tahyo

Tony looks content

Tahyo and myself needed some rest

Beginning February Gina and Daniel spent a week vacation in Acapulco and we spent that time baby-sitting Nitro.

Nitro never rests around me

but is an angel with Donna

Nitro

I believe he had a real good time over here, roaming free and tasting some gourmet table food! I saw a tear in his eye when he had to leave to go back home.