Raclette...um...what is that?

So my birthday was last week. We have an exchange student. She is from Belgium. Apparently Raclette is something she really enjoys. She gives me a Raclette grill for my birthday. My response....interesting looking!

She is trying to describe to me how it works. I am sort of getting it...but not completely. I look online. I decided that I wasn't sure if the kids and Cory would like it so I thought I better have LOTS of options for the food so that I could make sure everyone was happy. It turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL table (I love it when that happens!)

As you can see, I tried to put the grill where everyone could reach it and then spread the food options out. I admit it. I offered way more than the traditional Raclette meal. BUT....I wanted everyone happy!

We had baked potato pieces, plain french bread and Italian garic and herb french bread, cheese, meat and green beans as well as the traditional gherkin pickles available.

For the cheese there is a Raclette cheese but we didn't have any so we just grabbed a variety of cheeses from the store. Now, I am a cheese chicken. Some soft cheeses bother my digestive system so I tend to stick with what I KNOW works. But we tried something new....we had Provolone, Cheddar, Applewood smoked Gouda, Muenster, fresh mozzarella, and my new favorite Havarti which melts PERFECTLY for this meal and our exchange student said it is pretty close in flavor and texture to the traditional Raclette meal.

We let her start, since she knew what she was doing! And this is what hers looked like. If you look closely you can see the potatoes on her plate and a pile of goo beside it. That pile of goo is her first tray of cheese and meat (I think it was Gouda) and she is showing the cheese and meats she is about to put UNDER the grill. The bigger stuff goes on top and the little trays all fit under and cook from the top.

She doesn't like pickles so that is not on her plate. Online they recommend fresh ground pepper and paprika on it but we forgot to put that out and honestly didn't miss it. We were just enjoying the blends of flavors you could create. We did have onions, peppers and olives out with the meats and cheeses.

For meats we had tiny diced ham, lunch meat type ham and turkey, thicker sliced ham that was WONDERFUL grilled on the top but I imagine would not have been good in the trays and of course, bacon. You can see in the picture to the left that my hubby even got into it and was grilling bacon and green beans (those were frozen from my garden this summer and we just mostly thawed them for this meal) on the top of the grill.

Overall I took lots of pictures (and I didn't post them all! Even if I wanted to!) and we had a lot of laughter. My mother-in-law came over for this meal and had a blast. The only person who didn't seem to enjoy it was my 3 year old and he has been fighting a virus and didn't eat much of anything last night so I am assuming it was more sickness and less lack of enjoyment of the meal than anything!

We decided that we could reduce the cheeses offered now that we know what cheeses our family likes. We can also put out fewer meats. My personal favorite was the tiny diced ham, my hubby the bacon and most of the kids liked the turkey lunch meat on it! But the cool thing was everyone could have their favorite things! Like I could load mine with onions and my kids could avoid them! My hubby used the bread to make a sandwich out of his cheese/meat mixture, others ate it open faced and then others preferred the potatoes as a base for theirs.

However you eat it, I can see it being a fun larger gathering meal. Set it and the food options up on the buffet and let everyone fix their own while you sit at the table and play games or watch a movie or something. But I do have one last word of caution! Be careful! The trays are teflon (we don't cook with that so I am not used to it at all!) and they come with little personal scrapers for each one so I ASSUMED (silly me) that the cheese would stick some. I reached out, grabbed my first cooked one and PLOP! Right into my freshly poured glass of juice! Um! Okay, Raclette covered in juice is NOT quite so tasty! But it does make the entire table laugh and be twice as careful! And me move my glass!

This one was cheddar cheese, onions and diced ham on a couple of baked potato slices in case you care.

Has anyone else ever tried Raclette? Ever heard of it even? Care to share your experiences or thoughts? If you live locally and think it looks like fun...let me know! We can party!

Homemade Personal Pizzas

Okay. I admit it.Every day I struggle to figure out what I am going to blog about and I think ramblings must be an appropriate title.  I see other blogs that have certain topics on certain days and I realize...that is not me! I sit down on a Sunday and I think of topics for the week and I can't think of one week yet when I actually stuck to that schedule!

So, here is a recipe for homemade personal pizzas that is always a hit with my family and with my Super Random, God-Filled, Crazy People group!

I am going to give you the dough recipe but be aware...I NEVER make this small of a batch! There are just too many of us! :-)

Ingredients:

1 Cup warm water...not too hot, not too cold!
1 package yeast or 2 1/4 tsp of yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons veggie oil, olive oil, whatever you use
1 1/4 Cup flour
2 Cups flour (yes, in addition to the 1 1/4 cup!)

Mix water and yeast in a large bowl. Let sit until dissolved.

Add sugar, salt, oil and first part of flour and mix well. When smooth, add additional flour to make stiff dough.

Knead until elastic (about 5 minutes) then place in greased bowl and let rise until double, or in our house, until you remember, until you need it, until you have time to deal with it, etc. Um...it says it takes 45 minutes...I REGULARLY let it go a couple of hours because for me, I can make the dough when James is down for a nap and then we just use it for dinner!

Form into small pizzas...here is the kicker...on the Reynold's wrap, non-stick aluminum foil. Okay. You don't HAVE to...but man! When you are rolling out your dough (which the kids LOVE to do), it sticks where you put it, but after it bakes, it slides right off! Like, be careful taking it out of the oven because it will slide off the tray! It doesn't stick, it doesn't burn. It is great! Besides, when doing a LOT of pizzas, like on a youth group night. They can all write their names on the foil, make the pizza the way THEY want it and then I don't have to try to remember who made what pizza, it is written right there!

Okay, back to the recipe!

After you have the dough pressed out into whatever shape you want...be creative, have fun! Make animal shapes! Mickey Mouse, whatever!

Spoon onto it however much pizza sauce you want. Now...I have used all kinds. Store bought, homemade, etc. You do whatever works for you! Here is one recipe that I intend to try next time! Crock Pot Pizza Sauce

Because I make personal pizzas. We do this with a bunch of bowls in the middle of the table containing all sorts of toppings. Our favorites seem to be olives, mushrooms, mini-pepperoni, cooked ground beef, pineapple, ham, bacon, onions, and of course, cheese!

I like to put all the toppings on then top with cheese, the kids like to put on the cheese then put on the toppings in some design. It really doesn't matter!

Bake at about 350...ish....whatever you crank the oven to! For about 12-15 minutes...or until the crust and cheese are looking golden and it is sliding around on the nonstick foil! If you have a thick crust you will want to go a bit longer. If you have a thin crust it won't take as long. Being personal pizzas you have to really watch each one.

Now, you CAN make this as one big round pizza, but our family thinks that is boring and likes the ability to choose their own toppings! Even the 2 year old gets to do his own!

ENJOY!