cheese buttons | 365clevercookbooks

Did you miss any of my posts from the last week? Never fear, as I will give you quick links to them and you too can make some fun family meals this week. My top three would be the Death by Chocolate (for special occasions), cheese buttons (because they remind me of my childhood) and Bean dip (because it is creamy and easy to make). Asking my kids they would add the french toast into the best of the week. Enjoy the weekend and time with your loved ones!

To Joyful, Simplified Living,

MS. Simplicity

MS. Simplicity, also known as Melissa Schmalenberger operates her business as I Did it with MS. Simplicity. She is a Professional Organizer based out of Fargo, ND and her website can be found here. Need to contact MS. Simplicity privately, you can email her at melissa@ididit-fargo.com

Some of the best cookbooks I own are the ones that churches compile. The problem is that you only have a couple of weeks to buy the cookbook and if you miss your chance, too bad, so sad. Well when I stumbled across this cookbook I was thrilled. You can still buy it! Plus it is full of great family recipes from the Rock Roof Inn, a bed and breakfast in Western North Dakota. Margaret and her daughters have collected the best from the bed and breakfast along with great family meals plus more desserts but then also some great recipes from their heritage.

Some of their heritage is my heritage, Germans from Russia. When I found the recipe for “Kaseknepfle”, or cheese buttons, I had to make them. My maternal grandma from Hebron, ND would make these for me….and they were the best. I have probably not had these in over 30 years. Oh, that may be a lie as I was in Hebron, ND this summer and tried some, but I think they were served with saurkraut…..gross! But these were just like a remembered. I loved finding this gem of a recipe. I shared with my three boys how my grandma use to make them for me. Memories like this are priceless. I did make mine different from my grandma’s….I used Panko bread crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs)….let’s just say that these are not your grandma’s breadcrumbs! This is the note for the recipe “Leave it to the Germans from Russia to not only make cheese-filled dumplings, but then to fry them in buttered breadcrumbs”. This is an important step that is not included in the original recipe…..I toast the breadcrumb in butter first and then when the cheese buttons come out of the water I drain them and fry them up in a bit more butter….kind of like a potsticker. Then you sprinkle them with the breadcrumb mixture. For the leftover bits of dough I simply boiled them without a filling then fried them up…..very tasty. All the kids loved this….what is not to love…..cheese….noddles….butter! If you have never heard of Dry curd cottage cheese, you find it next to the cottage cheese. If you can’t find the dry curd, try straining it and letting it sit in a strainer for an hour or two to help some of the liquid leave the curd.

Margaret and her daughters are a group of accomplished home bakers and entertainers. I know one of Margaret’s daughters and she is what I call a local celebrity. Tammy Swift is one of my favorite writers for The Fargo Forum. She will take on those news stories that nobody else will touch. She will tackle the hard news reporting but she balance with the story of the “Cherpumple”, the dessert of making several pies inside of several layers of cake. This is the type of news that I love to read. She should be on the front page every day with her sense of humor and unique take on life!

Next up is the “Fleischkuechle” on page 257…..I need to stop blogging and cook some more recipes out of this cookbook. If you would like to purchase this cookbook you can visit the Rock Roof Inn website, or if you are in Fargo, you can purchase it at Eco Chic. This is one of those hidden gems of the cookbook world and you will treasure every recipe.

Kaseknepfle, page 258

Ingredients:

Dough:

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
3 egg whites (reserve the yolks)
2/3 cup cold water

Filling:

2 cups cottage cheese, dry curd
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. salt
pinch of pepper

Directions:

Mix dough ingredients in large bow; form into ball and let it rest for 10 minutes. Roll into 2 large circle on lightly floured surface, about 1/8 inch thick. Cut dough into 3-4 inch squares.
Mix filling ingredients in medium bowl and put 1 to 2 teaspoons of filling in the center of each dough square. Fold dough into triangle; seal sides securely (the tines of a fork work well for this).
Drop cheese buttons carefully into a kettle of water (about 2 quarts); bring to a boil and add salt. Boil about 10 minutes. The buttons should not be dough, brown some bread crumbs in butter and pour over drained buttons.