Welcome to Bookish Recipes, a feature on the blog where I cook or bake a recipe from a book I have loved and share the result with you. This week's recipe is inspired by Aven Ellis' latest book Surviving the Rachel. This lovely story is about a girl who after finishing college is a bit lost and the last thing she is looking for is love. But the gorgeous boy living next door is too cute to resist.
In the book, Jack, Bree's love interest, has lived in Germany and works as a German translator. He takes Bree and her friend to one of these German places for tourists and tells them what they should order to have a real German experience. He is a big fan of Spätzle and Bree ends up having and loving Gulasch with Spätzle:
Suriving the Rachel - Aven Ellis
Since I lived in London with two German roommates, I have also become a big fan of Spätzle. As Jack says, everything is better with Spätzle but my favourite way to eat them is with cheese. So I'll share with you my recipe for Käsespätzle:
1) Gather all the ingredients and preheat the oven to 180ºC. If you can't find spätzle in your supermarket, you can make them yourself. It's actually very easy. Here's a recipe to follow.
2) Boil the spätzle. Usually when they are done, they float.
3) Cut the onion and cook it. I usually caramelize it.
4) In a platter, put the boiled spätzle, the bacon and the onion. Add the creme fraiche or cream. And put as many grated cheese as you like.
5) Let it cook in the oven for about 20 minutes. And voilà:
This dish is really easy to make and goes perfectly well with a nice German beer. Enjoy!
Title: Surviving the Rachel
Author: Aven Ellis
Published: December 20th 2014 by Soul Mate Publishing
Blurb: Life after college graduation is not at all what twenty-one-year-old Bree Logan expected. Unable to find a professional communications job, dumped by the guy who was THE ONE, and stuck with a pricey city apartment she can’t afford, Bree ends up moving back home with her parents in the suburbs and working as a cocktail waitress at a posh Chicago hotel.
In a desperate attempt to get a fresh start, Bree goes to a hip salon and requests that the first available stylist chop off her long dark hair. Alarmed when the stylist suggests “The Rachel,” after the famous haircut from the show Friends, Bree is hesitant, but decides to go for it when she is assured it will be a “fresh, modern adaptation” of the infamous 90’s cut. Unfortunately for Bree, it turns out to be exactly the same cut, but with horrific heavy bangs added to it. Hideous doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Bree is convinced nothing will ever go right when she meets neighbor Jack Chelten, a twenty-five-year-old German translator. Not that Bree is looking to date anyone, but there's something quirky and intriguing about his freckle-splashed face and blue eyes. And suddenly Bree finds herself seeking out different opportunities and challenges . . . as well as the boy next door.
In her new adult life, Bree learns that sometimes you have to go through crises to get to where you need to be. And if you can survive The Rachel, you can survive anything, right?
