1 large head of Cauliflower cut into small floweretts
2 bunches of Broccoli cut into small floweretts
2 cups Water Chestnuts diced
1/2 cup Sunflower Seeds
1 pound Bacon sliced and fried crisp
1/2 cup Raisins
1/2 cup shredded Carrots (optional)
Dressing
2 cups Mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
1 small Onion finely chopped
Combine, chill and serve. This is a great salad or side. Add anything you like. Apples, dried fruit, nuts, shreaded red cabbage are just a few examples. Eat and enjoy!
Whether you are single, new to a relationship or married, dating can get expensive. If you are single, you may want to have a girls’ or guys’ night out but going to restaurants can be costly. If you are dating, of course you want to make a good impression but may be on a tight budget. If you are married and want to enjoy a night without the kids, there may not be any money left over for dinner after paying the babysitter! Take these tips into consideration the next time you want to spend an evening out:
•Stay in and cook. Who wouldn’t be impressed by a meal you prepared yourself? Not only is it sentimental because your hard-work went into it, but it also shows some personality. What you decided to cook and why it is your specialty would also be something you could talk about! If you weren’t planning a date but just wanted dinner with a few friends, invite them over! Your friends would love the change of scenery and really appreciate the meal. Plan a “girls night in” and you wouldn’t even have to leave your house!
•Go outdoors. Spending time outside and being active is a great idea. I know I love taking walks around the neighborhood, especially when I have company! You could enjoy your daily walk even more if you had someone to talk to. It would be a great way to catch-up with your friends or to get to know someone. You could even help motivate one another!
•Have a trade-off night with the neighbors. Talk with your neighbors and see about a night you can have their children over at no cost in return for a night at their house! You can plan these nights for two weekends out of the month or every other weekend. This is a great way to relax and enjoy a free night to yourselves, or you can put the money you saved on a babysitter toward a nice dinner!
It is not necessary to spend outrageous amounts of money on a babysitter or go to an expensive restaurant to have fun. It’s really the quality time you spend that matters most, not where or how much you spent.
Have other ideas for an inexpensive but fun night in or out? Post them below!
As the weather was so good last night, we decided to BBQ the salmon I had ready for our dinner last night. I was going to serve it with a salad, but I had a quick search for some new recipes to try out and came across this “Asian Salmon” dish I was keen to have a try. While Michael cooked it on the BBQ I did a quick stir-fry with yummy noodles, broccoli and sugar snap peas. We just served the salmon steaks on top of the stir fry and everyone loved it. Plus it was a very healthy and nutritious meal, which always puts a smile on my face. It’s so so simple, and makes a change from the salmon with Caesar salad and new potatoes which is my culprit standard dish when we have salmon steaks in!
Little-known fact about my job: as part of my contract, I am allowed two free graduate- (or undergraduate-, should I so desire) level classes per semester. In other words, I am allowed to take, either for credit or as an audit, two classes anywhere on campus, provided that said classes don’t conflict too heinously with my work schedule (to wit: no classes that meet across campus 5 times a week for two hours each day— obviously, this diminishes my selection pool by two or three classes at the most).
Having slagged out a 130-page thesis and graduated from Amherst College only too recently, I decided that I should probably go easy on the coarse load this semester. Nothing wrong with pursuing an intellectually rigorous education — and the price is certainly right — but I’ve had quite enough stress for one year. I would like to keep my healthy tooth enamel and my thick, well-colored head of hair, thank you very much.
That said, the two “easy” courses I selected for my fall semester are this:
…and this:
I am super excited about learning the violin. I know, I’m turning into a jack-of-all stringed instruments and master of none, but I’ve always secretly wanted to learn how to work my way around a violin/fiddle. It’s just such a pretty instrument, and even more portable than a guitar. Plus, with three instruments under my belt, I will totally be able to write my own ticket into any upstart indie band in the country, should I have a desire to play in such a group when I return to the good ol’ US of A.
But I’m getting ahead of myself: I had my very first lesson today, and my instructor was very supportive. She told me that I have excellent hands (read: long and thin-fingered) for the violin, and that my posture and technique is already pretty close to perfect—both probably carry-overs from my guitar muscle memory. I do need to work a little on properly holding and using the bow (no surprises there), but irrespective of that we seem to be moving through the material very quickly. She told me at the beginning of the lesson that my homework would simply be working on my bow technique, but by the end she had me reading and playing some very basic sheet music! She tells me that I am one of her more motivated students, a very quick learner, and a natural. I don’t know if she’s telling the complete truth or flattering me so that I’ll be more inclined to practice, but I can’t complain either way.
As for Arabic… well, I’m forgotten a lot of my vocabulary, which is a problem. Add to that that we’re learning out of a completely different book than the one I used at Amherst — meaning that I’ve got more vocabulary and grammar skills than my peers in some cases, and less in others. And as this is a foreign language class, the university does not frown upon the teacher for instructing in Turkish; the book we learn out of, meanwhile, is written for English students. This means that the class is taught half in Turkish and half in English (and partially in Arabic), and it can all get rather confusing. Thankfully, the professor is very nice, and when he finds himself forced to teach a concept in Turkish he usually pauses afterward to give me a quick synopsis in English. It’s been a difficult experience so far, but I have been able to follow along without too much trouble. With some rigorous study I should be able to catch up with the vocabulary and grammar, and at that point it will be much easier for me to keep up with the class.
Oh, and before I forget: Happy Yom Kippur to all my Jewish friends!
I am not observant, so I didn’t attend services or anything (not that there seem to be any synagogues to go to around here), but two other members of the tribe (Jamie and Kim) invited me and all the other instructors to celebrate the break-fast with a potluck. So, I threw together my go-to “specialty” entree, Nikita’s Russo-Glaswegian Apricot Chicken w/ rice, and exchanged it for access to a buffet of scrumptious Kosher delights. I was happy to see that my contribution was one of the first things devoured — though I received some spoken compliments, that was by far the best vindication of my culinary skills. If political science, comparative literature, foreign languages/diplomatic work, journalism, or musicianship doesn’t work out for me, maybe I’ll still have a future in cooking…
Provence is well known for its olives and other Mediterranean foods and here these Provençal flavours are combined to create a delicious fish dish which is superbly easy to make. Make the most of any special offers on white fish – most types will be suitable.
Preparation time 5 minutes
Cooking time 20 minutes
Calories per portion 234 Kcal
Fat per portion 8g
of which saturated 1g
Serves 2
Suitable for freezing
Olive oil spray a few bursts
Onion 1 large, peeled and chopped
Garlic 2 cloves, peeled and crushed
Chopped tomatoes 400g can, drained
Olives 50g (2oz), pitted
Thyme 2 tbsp
Cod, coley or haddock steaks 2 x 150g (5oz)
1 Preheat the grill to medium. Spray a large frying pan with oil and gently fry the onion for around 5 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, tomatoes, olives and thyme and bring to the boil. Season to taste and simmer for 10 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, grill the fish for 4 minutes on each side. Then place the fish in the frying pan and coat with the sauce. Serve immediately on individual plates with new potatoes and a rocket salad.
Cook’s tip
For really succulent fish, instead of grilling, poach in a pan of gently simmering water for around 5 minutes, turning halfway through if it is not entirely submerged.
Recipe taken from Hearty & Healthy Dairy Cookbook.
Provence is well known for its olives and other Mediterranean foods and here these Provençal flavours are combined to create a delicious fish dish which is superbly easy to make.
Fish Provencal
Make the most of any special offers on white fish – most types will be suitable.
Preparation time 5 minutes
Cooking time 20 minutes
Calories per portion 234 Kcal
Fat per portion 8g
of which saturated 1g
Serves 2
Suitable for freezing
Olive oil spray a few bursts Onion 1 large, peeled and chopped Garlic 2 cloves, peeled and crushed Chopped tomatoes 400g can, drained Olives 50g (2oz), pitted Thyme 2 tbsp Cod, coley or haddock steaks 2 x 150g (5oz)
1 Preheat the grill to medium. Spray a large frying pan with oil and gently fry the onion for around 5 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, tomatoes, olives and thyme and bring to the boil. Season to taste and simmer for 10 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, grill the fish for 4 minutes on each side. Then place the fish in the frying pan and coat with the sauce. Serve immediately on individual plates with new potatoes and a rocket salad.
Cook’s tip
For really succulent fish, instead of grilling, poach in a pan of gently simmering water for around 5 minutes, turning halfway through if it is not entirely submerged.
Recipe taken from Hearty & Healthy Dairy Cookbook.
With the recent Jewish Holiday, Rosh Hashanah, about 2 weeks ago and tonight’s celebration of Yom Kippur, I decided to make latkes in honor of my Jewish friends. My friend Paul posted a picture once of his Potato Pancake which he made from scratch, which I was quite impressed with. He tells me they are so delicious and when I get the chance, to try them. Since I am not Jewish, I know I couldn’t wait for Paul to make them for me, so I decided to do it myself. I found a recipe that called for sweet potatoes, one of my favorite things to eat. As usual, I switched things up a bit and it turned out quite delectable. They taste like they should be served along with other desserts, cause it is slightly sweet and could be dusted with powdered sugar. maple syrup or whipped cream. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. I look forward to making more and serving them to my friend Paul (who LOVES Potato Pancakes). Enjoy.
I’ve learned from what I’ve read online, that latkes are potato pancakes made from grated potatoes mixed with eggs, onions, and flour, then fried in vegetable oil. The texture is crispy on the outside and tender within. They’re served hot and often dipped in apple sauce or sour cream. The Maccabbee soliders ate latkes made from cheese, vegetables, or fruits which were brought to them on the battlefields. However, they didn’t eat potato latkes, as potatoes weren’t available until the 16th century.
• 2 Medium Sized Sweet Potatoes, Peeled and Shredded.
• 2 Eggs, Lightly Beaten
• 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Spice
• 2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 1/4 Vegetable Oil for Frying
Preparing the Potatoes:
Peel and cut the potatoes into small to medium pieces.
Shred potatoes using a food processor with the grader attachment in place.
Remove shredded potatoes and rinse well in colander.
Place shredded potatoes into a large bowl and add water to cover potatoes.
Let potatoes soak for about 10. ★ Soaking the potatoes help remove as much of the starch as possible. It fries better with less starch. Water should look frothy and dirty.
Place potatoes back into the colander, drain and rinse again.
Repeat step 3 and soak for another 10 minutes.
Again, place potatoes into the colander, drain and rinse. Drain as much water out of the potatoes as much as possible. The less water the less the oil will splatter.
Using your freshly washed hands, squeeze potatoes to remove excess water.
Let stand, in colander, in the sink while preparing the batter.
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine eggs, brown sugar, flour, cloves, pumpkin spice and cinnamon; mix well.
Heat oil in a large heavy skillet to 375° degrees. Keep the flame medium-high.
Using your clean hands, add shredded sweet potatoes and mix well.
Form mixture into small pancake sized cakes. ★ I recommend forming all the pancakes first before frying. Your hands will get messy.
Gently place pancakes into the hot oil and fry.
Flip each pancake after frying for about 4 to 5 minutes (pancakes should be brown on the bottom).
Make sure you cook them until they are really brown and look slightly burnt around the edges.
Carefully remove pancakes with a slotted spatula, letting excess oil drip back into the pan before moving pancakes to paper towel.
Drain a layers of paper towels that are on a dinner plate.
I finally got around to seeing the movie Julie and Julia and thoroughly enjoyed Meryl Streep’s affectionate portrayal of Julia Child. Meryl Streep was amazing, but the other star was Julia Child’s kitchen, the one on display at the Smithsonian. It’s so organized, efficient and cozy — all the things I hope my kitchen will be one day.
Also, I have to confess . . . I first learned about Julia Child through that Dan Akroyd skit on Saturday Night Live in the 70s (I was 4). Thankfully, Julia Child adored the skit as well and was said to play the tape to guests.
Here’s a clip from the David Letterman show in 1987 where he actually makes reference to that skit. It also highlights the charm and humor of Julia’s personality.
David: Have you ever cooked something Julia that just turned out awful?
I have heard many good things about Rajat Parr for many years. One of the cool things about real wine people is they keep up the wine work regardless how skilled or knowledgeable. Many people aspire to become top sommeliers and very few choose to stay in the restaurants. Becoming a top sommelier means automatic job opportunities at corporate America. A nice desk job with everything that should come with the package. Restaurant work is too unpredictable and many throw the towel in on the first chance out. That leaves a vaccum of bona fide professionals and it is always good to see some stay in the ring. The winemaker is the best person to speak to about the wine also. Should be a great tasting.
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Created by: Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Time: 4:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Where: Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant
One Ferry Building, Shop 23
San Francisco, CA
Rajat Parr, of Parr Selections and the Mina Group. We are thrilled to have this very special guest and dear friend join us at our Wine Bar for an evening of great wines personally produced by this heralded expert. Raj, as his friends call him, was a trained chef before beginning his wine career in San Francisco as an apprentice to Larry Stone at Rubicon. He soon blossomed, taking over the wine list at Fifth Floor, earning a Grand Award there, and then joining Michael Mina as Wine Director of the star chef’s burgeoning empire of stellar restaurants, including Michael Mina and their latest superstar, RN74. He has since branched out to start his own wine company, producing wines to his refined taste from various regions. Tonight we will feature two Chardonnays, two Pinot Noirs, and a lovely Syrah. Don’t miss it!
We know you won’t want to miss this opportunity to taste a wonderful range of delicious wines with this wine star and quiz him about all aspect of wine, from his favorites to his selction methods. Learn from a famous sommelier. So come down and help us welcome this charming wine czar, Rajat Parr to Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant.
****AS A SPECIAL FEATURE ALL WINES SERVED ON PRODUCER FLIGHT NIGHT WILL BE ON SALE FOR THAT NIGHT ONLY AT A 15% DISCOUNT TO THOSE WHO PURCHASE A FLIGHT!!!
The featured wines are served as two ounce glasses. If you would like a full glass just ask your bartender. The wines will also be available for retail purchase while supplies last.
The cost of the flight will be $30 and will feature the following wines:
2007 Parr Chardonnay, Sanford & Benedict, Santa Rita Hills, Santa Barbara County
Retail $45, 5oz. glass $14.50
2007 Parr Chardonnay, Solomon Hills, Santa Rita Hills, Santa Barbara County
Retail $45, 5oz. glass $14.50
2007 Parr Pinot Noir, Presidio Vineyard, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County
Retail $60, 5oz. glass $18.25
Return and archean season are eager present to change the schedule and allow any new meats. In popular, gamy includes cervid, coney, unbroken swine, score, antelope and to the writer exotic ant-eater, aviation fox, squirrels or still bats (eg. bat soup is a sustenance in Cambodia) which can be popular in both countries.
When I was slight, my dad used to pass in the camp as logging hand in East Malaysia. Apiece abstraction when he went to work in the camp for a period of few life to a hebdomad, he would commonly proceed rearward with untamed games same deer, manic boar or ant feeder.
Mum victimised to modify them and the intractable games required slightly polar preparation and cooking methods as they lean to bonk a unequalled and stronger perception or odour.
Few unbroken gritty cooking tips that you power use : It is great that you infuse mettlesome meat, it module not only develops many savor, but tenderizes the meat. You can easily steep mettlesome from 24 hours up to quaternary days in the refrigerator.
You should not overcook mettlesome meats. It is historic to stay a superior eye on the meat as it cooks because gritty is rattling lean and can transform dry if overdone too daylong. For most grouping, it is best to foster the meat when it is a sound inside and noneffervescent sexy.
Informal ingredients else to brave meats are achromatic flavourer, colorful and alcohol which are really assistive to alter the innate sensation of these unplanted animals. The type of vino that you use is myrmecophilous on what you are cookery and what you like. For umteen people, white intoxicant is for writer meat and red vino is physiologist with illumination meat. This is an old ascendence they same with whatsoever cut of meat they suchlike. It is a best interchange.
Another way to take spirited is to navigator in herbal soup. Several games are suitable for much activity method as their hump healthful properties and can amend amend convinced addicted ailments if compounded with chinese herbs. Delay with your Localized Asiatic Scrutiny Author on the herbs required or instruction if you are nearer one.
Impose a building that assist occupation meats to try out whatsoever the dishes. Reason out which way of preparation garment your perceptiveness buds. You can communicate to the chef and hear out what his or her dearie frantic line cooking tips and re00003FACcipes are.
Another reputable maker to see unrestrained scheme cookery tips is by doing an online examine. It is optimal to narrowing your look land to the peculiar identify of gamey that you are fascinated in. You testament comprehend that there are galore sites now addressable that plow the various structure of preparing job meats. Galore of these sites wage practiced advice from retentive time
First, I apologize for the lack of pictures. I am blogging from my BlackBerry. I think it is cool that there is a WordPress Application for BlackBerry. It is really easy to use, but I’d much rather blog from a computer! Hopefully, we will have a new computer soon. Fingers crossed!
On to the reason for today’s post- lentil soup! Although, you may call it stew. I would, but soup sounds more elegant and appetising than stew. You expect bad, unidentifiable things in stews. Lentil soup is so ridiculously cheap to make! And while it does take a little time, it doesn’t need much petting. This recipe makes a lot of soup! You’ll want to cut it in half (or fourth) or prepare for lots of leftovers if you aren’t feeding several very hungry people!
The Ingredients:
1 small yellow onion, chopped
Half a bunch of parsley, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 T of butter (or whatever you want to use to sautee your celery and onion)
1 bag of dried lentils
2 quarts vegetable broth
As much bacon as you want (If you want, you can omit the bacon and you’ve got a hearty vegetarian meal.)
Small pasta (I actually just use whatever dry pasta I have leftover. I’ll break up leftover spaghetti or put in those half containers of macaroni or penne.)
First, you’ll want to soak your lentils overnight. It’s really no big deal to do so. Just put your lentils in a stockpot. I generally sift through them a bit to make sure there is nothing odd in there. Put plenty of water over the lentils and cover. If you don’t want to soak your lentils, or if you forget, it isn’t a huge deal. It will just make your cook time longer. (An hour or so longer.)
Strain your lentils. Remove all the water from your stock pot. Pour both quarts of vegetable broth and cook over mediumish heat. Add salt and black pepper to your taste. You want to get it up to a boil, then simmer. In my experience, you’ll cook them for about 30 minutes if you soaked them or about an hour and a half if you forgot. While the lentils are cooking in the broth, chop up your veggies. In a separate pan, sautee the onion and celery with the butter (you can also use olive oil if you prefer). Once your veggies are tender, dump them into the stock pot with the lentils and broth. Check and see if your lentils are done (eat one). When they are done, toss your small pasta in the broth to cook. While your pasta is cooking in the soup, cook the bacon if you’re putting it in. (I bake mine in the oven. Just lay it flat on a baking sheet and into a 400 degree oven it goes. My mom microwaves hers. You do it your way.) Add the parsley to the soup just before serving! I add the bacon to each person’s bowl before putting it on the table. (That way if someone wants none, fine. If someone wants lots, okay.) That is it. Enjoy! It really is good, just ask the Pastor.
There are many advantages to using a K-Cup to brew your coffee. A K-Cup is a single serving packet of coffee that is used with a Keurig coffee machine. Ground coffee is packed inside the cup along with a filter. A foil lid is placed on top of the K-Cup. When the cup is placed into the coffee machine, the foil is punctured and hot water is forced through the cup and the coffee is brewed directly into a mug. Each K-Cup makes one cup of coffee.
There are many different manufacturers who make K-Cups for Keurig machines, and coffee drinkers have a wide variety of coffees to choose from. There are also K-Cups for teas and hot cocoas, making K-Cups versatile.
What are the advantages to using a K-Cup over traditional coffee?
K-Cups are very simple to use. It is virtually impossible to make a bad cup of coffee with a K-Cup, unless you choose the wrong blend to make. K-Cups brew a quick, delicious cup of coffee. No need to measure coffee from a bag and make a mess. Just pour in water, place the K-Cup in, and put your mug under.
K-Cups also make a fast cup of coffee. Most machines that use K-Cups brew in one to two minutes. No more waiting 10 minutes for an entire pot to brew. You can enjoy multiple brew sizes with the K-Cup system as well. Each K-Cup machine allows users to set the brew size. For a stronger, more potent cup of coffee, a user can select a smaller brew size. For a larger, mellower cup of coffee, a user can select a larger brew size.
Coffee house quality at a fraction of the price basically sums up the K-Cup experience. One of the reasons many people chose to get their coffee from a coffee house each morning instead of from their own kitchen is because the quality tends to be better. With K-Cups, the quality is perfect each time. While K-Cups may be a bit more expensive than traditional coffee, they are far less expensive than a cup from the coffee house each day. If you replace your coffee house coffee each morning with a K-Cup brewer, the brewer will eventually pay for itself in savings. Over time, you will see significant savings.
Utilizing a Keurig coffee machine and K-Cups gives you the exact coffee you want each time. With traditional coffee makers, everyone drinks what has been brewed. With K-Cups, each coffee drinker gets the type and flavor coffee he or she wants.
K-Cups offer an easy system for brewing coffee. There are no beans to grind yet the coffee is always at its freshest because each K-Cup is airtight. There are also no filters to buy or clean, and no glass carafes to break. Since the K-Cup brews directly into a mug there is no glass carafe that will break and be next to impossible to replace. Glass carafes can get stained and grungy looking. No carafe means no cleaning a carafe. In many cases coffee can be saved as well. Sometimes you brew more than you need and end up pouring half a pot down the sink. With K-Cups, you make only as much as you’ll drink.
Organic or fair trade coffee is available for use with K-Cups as well. K-Cups are one of the few single brewing options that offer these green and responsible choices of coffee. K-Cups are a very easy clean up too. They are dry when taken out of the machine and can be thrown in the trash without leaving a messy, drippy trail.
While individual packs of K-Cups from the grocery store might be a bit expensive, there are many online sellers that offer a discount and many K-Cup coffee clubs that regularly send K-Cups at a discount. In fact, Keurig has its own coffee club with many discounts and benefits.
There are also a variety of K-Cup machines available, from heavy duty machines to small machines that can be kept directly on your desk. Since only one cup at a time is brewed, you don’t have to worry about having a hot carafe of coffee waiting to spill or burn.
One more thing you might want to know about K-Cups. Not just anyone can manufacture them. Green Mountain Coffee owns Keurig and the right to license out the making of K-Cups. That means that they need to approve any manufacturer that wants to put its product in K-Cup. This helps to assure quality, because Green Mountain Coffee is committed to making sure their product produces the best cup of coffee drinkers can have.
Most people who have a K-Cup brewing machine rave about the machine and the coffee it makes. Having a perfect cup of coffee, brewed just the way you like it in fewer than two minutes certainly is something to rave about.
About the Author:
Mike Cole is a freelance writer who writes about food and beverages, often discussing specific brands such as Keurig.
The weather is starting to change here so I’m here to help you out. A little black bean soup never hurt anyone unless you remember the Great Black Bean Wars of 1340……so many lost…..so many
Equipment:
Stock pot
Ingredients:
4 cups black beans
1 gallon chicken stock
2 tbsp. lard (The Swinery)
1/2 white onion, medium diced
Celery, medium diced
1 yellow bell pepper
5 or 6 pimentos……….from my front yard…….that makes it hard for you to make……….oh well!
1 cup tomato sauce
Cilantro
Marjoram
Paprika
Cumin
Coriander
Thyme
Salt and Black Pepper to taste
Sour cream
Rum
Procedure:
In large stock pot heat up lard and sweat onions
Add celery, yellow bell pepper, and pimentos then sweat them too!
Deglaze with rum!
Add tomato sauce and spices then reduce mixture by 1/4 then add chicken stock
Today is my mom’s birthday! She’s definitely the best mom on this planet. I really, really couldn’t imagine my life without her. She’s not only my mom but also my friend (although sometimes she mixes those two roles up a bit too much). I know when she’s around nothing can go wrong. She is the reason why I am able to take risks, because I know she is my safety net. I couldn’t have gone on that long journey without her help and her visit in Costa Rica was definitely the most special time on that trip. She is my rock.
I’ll never be able to give back all the things she’s doing for me, but I try. Every year on her birthday my sister and I cook a lot of special food for her party. Last year one of the dishes was Jamie Oliver’s Spicy Pork Ribs. I don’t eat meat, so I didn’t taste it, but everyone was completely smitten. The mixture of orange juice, lemon juice, spices and honey seems to be a blast. For today I am looking for an equally amazing dish. I am not quite sure yet, but maybe I am going to make some Roastbeef? Anyone having any suggestions? It has to be something that doesn’t need to marinate all night long and a cooking time less than four hours. Thanks for helping a girl out!
It’s rather bland by itself, so I added a little honey to sweeten.
And for fun I added 1/2 a banana, 1/2 a juicy peach, and a sprinkle of unsweetened coconut flakes. I topped it off with 2% milk.
Then, I headed off to work. Above is a picture of the gardens that I take care of with my mom. I’ve been working there for about five years. The picture above is only part of it… They are huge =)
For the past few days the weather has been diabolical, gale force winds and everybody’s favourite – horizontal rain! Apart from the ducks, all the creatures here at Garybuie – including the humans – have been taking cover. As you can see, Wallace has discovered the perfect wet weather occupation, the sheltering hens outside getting no sympathy whatsoever from the comfy cat!
Wet weather solution!
Appetizing bird!
One highlight however during the soggy weekend, was our Sunday roast chicken. Quite a few of our birds sport yellow legs and along with those, a delicately coordinated skin colour. This week’s specimen however had a skin colour almost as dark as the legs and looked lovely – almost good enough to eat BEFORE he was cooked!
Yesterday, the weather was slightly improved and so as the forecast for the next few days is fairly grim, I decided that I’d have to get out anyway and do some serious garden tidying. The combination of going away for the wedding and wild weather conditions have given the veg patch a fairly neglected appearance, so it was on with waterproofs and wellies to do something about it! The main task was to take down the pea and bean supports, along with the weather beaten plants. Fennel isn’t something that we’ve ever eaten a lot of, but this year I fancied growing something new and fennel fit the bill. Giving the plot a good sorting out yesterday revealed just what a lovely crop we have!
A good crop
Last week we tried some for the first time using a recipe from Rick Stein’s French Odyssey cookbook. For the two of us, I sliced 2 medium fennel bulbs lengthways into 5mm thick slices. I microwaved them for the appropriate length of time then mixed them with about 80ml creme fraiche, salt and pepper. This was then spread in an even layer in a well buttered shallow dish, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and put under the grill until golden and bubbling. Mmmm… It was delicious with trout.
Any left-overs?
On the subject of food, one of our youngest chickens, a cockerel, spends a large part of his days in the pig pen. He’s discovered that pigs are great pals to have! Not only do they leave a few oats scattered around at mealtimes, but when they go on a digging exercise – an important occupation for pigs – they unearth all kinds of goodies attractive to passing poultry! And the pigs don’t seem to mind sharing with their feathered friend!
Made these muffins today and they are SO good! I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, my favorite recipe source, but changed it a bit based on reviewer comments. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Enjoy!
Apple Strudel Muffins
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 t. vanilla
1 c. chopped apples
1 c. grated apples
Topping
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1 T. all-purpose flour
1/8 t. cinnamon
1 T. butter
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, then gradually add in flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tin.
For topping, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of batter in muffin pan.
Bake 20 min. in preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool 5 min. before removing from pan. Cool on a wire rack.
Lazy Git first, no excuses, but I just seem to be the laziest git when it comes to motivational things, fine when I get started, (well sometimes anyway), but the flimsiest of reasons and I’m procrastinating again. And writing gets the worst end of my laziness, can’t remember the last time I blogged, could check I suppose, but I’m here now and can’t be bothered, Lazy Git.
Work this year has been a bit disastrous, weaving between bugger all and a faint trickle, forced to take on the little tasks I hate the most, but chipping away at those slowly, (rather too slowly, Lazy Git). And in between putting everything else off, I’ve actually managed to get something worthwhile moving with the book, Bangkok to BC, now being punted around town in the pubs, and Carats café over the lock gates on Southwick beach, all for just a donation to the RNLI. So if any of you reading this would like a copy, then get your selves down to either the Bridge, Waterside, or Buckingham Arms pubs in Shoreham By Sea.
We had a Shoreham Herald photo shoot yesterday, myself and two of Shoreham’s Lifeboat crew, Ben Coe, and Dave Tanner, outside the Waterside pub on Shoreham Beach, so hopefully that will raise awareness and shift copies, thus filling the RNLI coffers a little more. It all went well, but unfortunately put me a tad behind for our Waltons with swearing Monday night dinner, and as a result I was transformed into the Stressed Git mode, and in no short amount of time, Stroppy Git, and almost Ramsey style ‘F’ word lunacy, in fact a fekkin eejot, but I survived, dribbling, deranged mess though I may have appeared. Everyone politely claimed it was all fine, perhaps worried I might otherwise go and boil the goldfish by sticking my overheated head in the pond to cool down.
All of that I put down to the copious amounts necked over the weekend, Drunken Git, which always puts a demented twist to my outlook, at least until Tuesday, by which time the poison has been driven out and sense returns along with a degree of feeling human again. Also swimming a kilometre each morning goes some way to sorting me out, me and the Old Man have been back on that for a month now after a five year absence, Fit Git, (ISH!), and Old Git (not bad for 82).
I’ve also been made aware that old mates are checking up on this site from afar, and not impressed that I’ve been in Lazy Git mode for so long. Shirl, in Spain, Ben, in Oz, Nick, in not so far away Goring, plus a few gentle prods while out in town. That’s the problem with aspiring to be thought of as a writer, people expect to see something they can read every now and again, this is where Pressured Git starts to feel hemmed in just before transforming back into Lazy Git.
Well Lazy Git is about to be tested, because a couple of potential loft conversions have just appeared over the horizon, so me and Beau will be in ‘price mode’, which means lots of poring over drawings, making cutting lists, getting prices, organising trades, and then just hoping our prices are acceptable so that the work wasn’t for nought!! And of course should we get the jobs, then it’s full on Grafting Git mode for the short term foreseeable future, which I love, and can’t wait to get back into, (hopefully!!).
Right now I seem to have achieved calmness, so perhaps Contented Git is the current mode, just had an FB message from one of my old ‘Homies’ Row, his world seems to be coming good for him and his little fella, so, “word up to you nigga n your fellow ‘hoodsters’ from the Southwick ghettoes, keepin’ it real”.
I know there were other things I wanted to tackle in this blog, but this’ll do for a start to get back in the swing, but Hi to all of you that do bother to read these scribes, be you on FB, Twitter, or following me on wolf-e-boy.com . Please donate for a book, or get someone else to, the RNLI is a great cause, especially for us beach dwellers.
Blogging off
Git
P.S:- on the off chance that a certain person (N) is reading this, please do get in touch.
Tuna is such an awesome food, Omega 3’s lots of fatty acids, just plain healthy for skin and mind…. But how oh how can you jazz tuna up. It pretty much always tastes like Tuna, and buying tuna steaks is expensive. So here we go I’ve created the ultimate Tune salad for a sandwich – guess what – tis actually a salad.
You Need
2 cups spinach
1 can tuna
2 tablespoon light miracle whip
2 tablespoon honey or spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
1 apple chopped into small pieces
1 tomato chopped
1\4 cup red onion chopped
dash of salt n pepper.
Pretty much mix everything together but the Spinach, add that last, put on some yummy wheat bread – my friends you’ve got yourself almost a serving of veggies on your sandwich. This can reasonably serve 3 on small slices of bread. And the apples add delicious sweetness and crunch. If you have no bread, add some crumbled ritz crackers… out of this world good!
friends have expressed absolute delight about the advent of fall. in Colorado, i hike on paths, where the sun shines brightly on golden aspen leaves, quaking in a light wind. in Washington, i paddle on a glassy lake, where the reflection of a majestic peak mirrors its distant counterpart. ordinarily, it’s my favorite season. but this year, i’m simply not ready for summer to end. clinging to the vestiges of heirloom tomatoes and sweet corn, i’m going down kicking and screaming. that firmly stated, last weekend i acquiesced to my mother’s request to make something with northwest-grown butternut squash. and since the nearly two-pound fruit had tumbled out of the ‘frig and hit her squarely on the foot, i felt obligated to make something of substance. hence, my reluctant foray into fall.
regardless of the time of year—or state of mind—this recipe is phenomenal. i serve it with a small spinach salad, splashed with vinaigrette.
Butternut Squash Lasagna
variation on a recipe from Giada De Laurentis/Food Network
i’d encourage you to explore the original recipe to determine your own butternut squash true north. you can find mine here. the preparation is a bit of a process, so consider setting aside enough time to devote to it. the result is entirely worth the effort!
INGREDIENTS
1 (1 1/2- to 2-pound) butternut squash, seeded
sunflower oil
salt and pepper
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup unbleached organic flour
3 1/2 cups whole milk
dash of nutmeg
some chopped fresh thyme or fresh sage leaves
6 lasagna noodles
2 1/2 cups shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parrano (or Parmesan) cheese
DIRECTIONS
preheat oven to 350F.
cut squash lengthwise and remove seeds.
brush surface of each half with sunflower oil.
cover cookie sheet with non-stick foil, and place squash on the cookie sheet pulp side down.
bake for about 1 hour, 10 minutes or until the squash is soft.
after the squash has cooled, remove pulp and transfer into a food processor.
puree the squash, adding salt and pepper to taste. set aside.
boil some water, and cook/drain lasagna noodles.
at the same time, melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat.
add the flour and whisk for 1 minute.
gradually whisk in the milk.
whisking frequently, bring the mixture (aka bechamel sauce) to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium heat and let the sauce thicken. keep whisking!
whisk in the nutmeg and chopped, fresh thyme or sage.
add salt and pepper to taste.
lightly butter a 13 x 9 x 2 glass baking dish.
prepare your assembly line of ingredients: sauce, lasagna, pureed squash, grated mozzarella, Parrano.
spread 1/2 of the bechamel sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.
arrange three of the lasagna noodles on top of the sauce.
smear 1/2 of the squash over the noodles.
sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella over the squash.
sprinkle 1/4 cup Parrano over the mozzarella.
repeat the process with the remaining ingredients.
tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake your lasagna for 45 minutes.
carefully remove the foil and pop back in the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the top is golden.
Witness the re-birth of SENS. A new generation of restaurants taking over San Francisco. Large commercial landlords with properties impossible to lease. The alternative: Open your own restaurant. The details of this new restaurant are very good and business maybe seasonal but will survive. Warfield and Golden Gate Theater will have spurts of crowds to fill the bar. Dining I don’t know. Did you know the concept of Prefix menu was invented so theater-goers could eat in a fixed period of time and make it to the show? Will there be two or three hour dining if the guests are from the theater or the zoo next door? I wish them best luck. Do remember the location is Market street but the streets in every direction are some of the worst, in SF, to walk through. And that is daytime. What time do they close for dinner? At sundown? Bart? Parking? The idea is great in many ways but one thing for sure its was the brainchild of no restaurateur. Will it survive? ABSOLUTELY. Remember the good old SENS. It has survived. What do we learn from its history:
1. Foreign Cinema, at this location, better be ready for unusual restaurant problems
2. An unlimited number of Shillers will be needed. Anyway, this location is done there will be consistent complaints because of the outside experiences will not be unheard.
3. Here is one occasion when an account at YELP will be worth gold. YELP is your friend. Citysearch is no good but will lock your account so nobody can write reviews. Worked for SENS. Two years and not one review on Citysearch. How to get the publicity? Yelp loves you. Need a merchant account though.
4. They may just be rumors but in case, if you want to copy SENS’ success(???), you need someone (someway) to repell the unfriendly media. Only friendly media may approach or there goes the three floors.
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Mid-Market: Just in time for the sunny weekend comes a neighborhood newsbomb that sees the Foreign Cinema team planning a huge new, three-story, 255-seat restaurant on the stretch of Market Street that the BizTimes describes only as “troubled.”
Read Post http://sf.eater.com/archives/2009/09/18/boom_foreign_cinema_plans_huge_midmarket_restaurant.php
Zojirushi rice cookers are the best rice cookers you can get if you can afford the price. Most of the rice cookers are design with advance cooking technology such as fuzzy logic, neuro fuzzy logic and induction heating. I have review almost all the best zojirushi rice cookers you can buy in the market and I like to compile all of them here in this post.
Zojirushi Rice Cooker Reviews – All :
Zojirushi Rice Cookers – All Zojirushi Rice Cooker Reviews
Of course my top recommendation is Zojirushi Neuro NS-ZCC10 rice cooker; it is constantly being award as the best rice cooker or best advanced rice cooker in the consumer report, cooking magazine and more. But there are other models that might meet your need better such as the basic rice cooker series (very affordable), or the latest induction heating model (top of the line). Anyway, the most well know series are the fuzzy logic (very popular) and neuro fuzzy logic rice cooker models (best value).
Anyway yesterday I made Rustic Chocolate Truffles. I found the recipe on Tasty Kitchen. An awesome website, if you have not been to it yet you need to go.
This is what they looked like while I was removing them from this container before you roll them in cocoa powder. They are delicious.
It was hard not eating all of them as I was doing this. But I told myself that not only that I dont need to eat all of them, but I needed to share with the rest of the family.
I also made some pumpkin bread and chocolate cake. You can find the recipe for the chocolate cake I made here.
This is not a very good photo but it does the job. I however switched up the recipe some and added some mint chips to it so now it tastes like a thin mint cookie. I love thin mint cookies they are my favorite Girl Scout cookie.
The bonus to this chocolate cake is that it has silken tofu in it! Yes I know that it sounds weird, and I was skeptical myself but then I found the nerve to try it and it tastes just like a normal chocolate cake. But has the added protein to it, which is always a good thing when it comes to sweets!
I would show you a picture of the pumpkin bread, but heres a fun fact I cant smell anything at all. Yes I can taste, just cant smell. Have never been able to I dont know why either.
So back to the story I set my timer and when it went off it needed about 5-8 more minutes…. well I lost tract of time and oh 25 mins latter I remembered that I should probably go check on the bread! Well the bread was a bit burnt. Not all of it and if I showed you a picture of the top and sides it looks fine, but the bottom is another story it was black, so so sad! but at least it doesnt taste too bad.
Oh well I guess that happens sometimes.
By the way Blaine did call me last night they havent gotten anything and will be home late tonight!
Hope everyone had a great Friday. And remember to enter the photo contest
If you are a regular reader, you know how much I love chocolate. When New Jersey Wedding Ceremony Officiant and Minister Celia Milton suggested that chocolate could be a part of a wedding ceremony, I asked her to share more details. Thanks, Celia, for these great ideas!
***
Many couples include unity rituals in their wedding ceremonies to signify the joining of each partner into a relationship that brings them to fullness, allowing them to grow as a couple even as they grow as individuals.
Elements like unity candles and sand ceremonies are fairly well known. But if you’re designing your ceremony to reflect your personal histories and future, why not include something that is especially significant to your relationship. That’s where the fun begins! I’ve had couples who shared Tequila; couples who’ve braided colored cords, couples who have planted tree saplings together, and couples who have fed each other sushi, but my favorite new unity ritual is a chocolate sharing.
I first created a chocolate sharing ceremony for a couple I married last year. The groom is a chocolate sommelier who creates tastings and walking tours throughout New York City. The bride met him at an event she attended with several of her friends. Since chocolate figured so prominently in their first encounter, and then became a star player in their reception, (of course, they had a chocolate wedding cake…) it only made delicious sense that we include it in the ceremony itself!
I asked the groom to supply two of the same truffles they tasted during their first meeting, They were displayed on a crystal platter for the ceremony. During the “love story” part of their wedding ceremony, I talked about how they met, and made were several other references to chocolate. Then they fed each other.
The actual chocolate sharing was placed after the vows and the ring ceremony. (My idea here is that the “formal” vows should come before any informal, “common law” promises like handfastings, wine sharings, or the chocolate.) It created a nice contrast and made it easy for their photographer to capture each other.
I began with a reading before the actual “sharing”. Here are two for you to consider.
1. “Chocolate has long been considered the food of the gods; been used as a metaphor of life. A simple box of chocolates is the perfect representation of what life is like as a married couple. Sometimes you are given sweet moments, so perfect they overwhelm your senses, your emotions. Other times you are given dark and bitter moments, a start contrast to the sweet ones. There will be times that one of you will need to be strong for the other, to nourish the others spirit, and at other times, you will both share joys that will take you above the clouds. Now, you will use the sweetness of chocolate to nourish each other, for chocolate is one of the few foods that feeds, not only the body, but the heart and soul.” (This is courtesy of my colleague Kelly Hunt, from Heartfelt Wedding Ceremonies in Wisconsin.)
Chocolate Ceremony #2 “Now, sometimes, at this point in a wedding ceremony, we might light a unity candle, or pour different colors of sand into a family vessel, but since John and Alicia are such a unique couple, we wanted to celebrate this moment of sharing in a completely unique way. With two delightful pieces of dark chocolate from the rain forests of Brazil.
Chocolate is a delightful metaphor for love and life! The possible flavors and textures of chocolate are endless. Each truffle, each sliver, or kiss promises the discovery of new treat for the palette. For a chocolate lover, navigating the world of chocolate is as exciting as a lone explorer discovering new and uncharted territory. So too, should be your relationship with each other. Your uncharted territory is the coming years that lie ahead, years that will present so many opportunities to learn and grow, to challenge each other and comfort each other, to revel in the new and find comfort in your history, a history you create every minute of every day.
Your life together will certainly mirror the experience of tasting chocolate. There will be times that are sweet, filled with cream and honey, and times that are dark and bittersweet. And probably some times that are really nutty! But every experience will nourish your body, heart and soul. By sharing this chocolate with each other, you promise to always be present for each other, in darkness and light, in sweet and bitter, in dismal and delicious.”
I encourage all my couples to think outside the box (even if it is a heart shaped, satin covered one!), and work with their officiant to wedding ceremonies that reflect their personalities and tastes! And if you love chocolate (is there anyone who doesn’t?) , this may be just the perfect sweet note for you. . You could even have all your guests share in the moment! (But no milk chocolate please; we don’t want any fingerprints on the wedding gown!)
Gosh, I really love to hunt, harvest, and cook, AND EAT wild turkey! Mmm, sooo good! Dish me up first, will ya’?
To me, the wild turkey represents one of the finest, healthiest wild game entrees that exist in Nebraska as well as the nation! It’s no secret that with wild turkeys, what you’re eating is all-natural, not some frozen food that’s been raised for mass consumption. This free-ranging, lean bird feeds on vitamin-rich, organic materials of high nutritional value in the Nebraska countryside– acorns, grains, seeds, small insects and wild berries. This bird is a celebrated prize at the dinner table!
Now, I realize that there are probably more than a thousand different recipes out there on how to cook wild turkeys, but fall turkey hunters; I want you to try this simple, but very tasty recipe provided by my friend and fellow outdoor writer Rick Windham of North Platte, NE (www.RickWindhamOutdoors.com). This is a unique twist on preparing North America’s largest upland game bird for the table. My staff and I enjoyed wild turkey salad on bread and crackers for lunch today at the Game and Parks Commission’s Omaha Office. See the pics below. Try the recipe and share nature’s bounty with your family and friends!
Wild Turkey Salad
Just in case you’re still wondering, there is no whiskey involved in this recipe, ha. It doesn’t matter what size of turkey you bag on your fall hunting trip in Nebraska, hen, jenny, tom or jake this recipe will make it taste great!
Ingredients:
1 Wild turkey or 2 wild turkey breasts
1 Bottle of Miracle Whip salad dressing
1 Small bottle of yellow mustard
1 Small bottle of sweet pickle relish
Directions:
Cook the turkey in your favorite manner. Remove all the meat from the bones. Slice, dice, chop the turkey into ¼ inch pieces, or less. Then for every pound of turkey mix in one cup of Miracle Whip, one tablespoon of mustard and one cup of relish. Mix thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve on bread for a quick on-the-go sandwich or crackers for a great tasting snack. It’s perfect for football tailgating. I think you’ll like this recipe!
Everything laid out and ready to go. I grilled the breasts of the two turkeys from the first picture last night.
This is the easiest and most delicious risotto in the world, taken from BBC Food Magazine. Ignore all those pasty chefs who tell you to keep stirring for 20 minutes – nonsense!
Ingredients:
1 onion
For meaties, 6 rashers chopped streaky bacon
For veggies, some broad beans, red peppers, anything delicious
300g risotto rice
1l hot vegetable stock
100g frozen peas
Method:
Finely chop the onion.
Heat 2TB of olive oil and a knob of butter in a pan, add the onion and fry until lightly grown, about 7 minutes. (Meat-eaters would add the bacon now, and fry for a further 5 minutes until it starts to crisp.)
Add the rice and stock and bring to the boil. Stir well, reduce the heat and cook, covered, for 15-20 minutes until the rice is almost tender.
Stir in the peas (and in our case some red pepper and/or broad beans too), add a little salt and pepper and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Serve sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan (or mature Gruyere is just as nice) and black pepper.
Sascha made me a red velvet with pink icing...yummm
When you have a grandma who bakes, you’re a lucky grandchild. Trust me, I know from experience. When I was little, my grandma Mommy Nana–also known as Ruth Davis–always baked. She made a mean Banana Pudding (with real custard folks, no yucky vanilla pudding) buttery pound cakes and a yellow cake (the kind with a can of 7Up in the mix, whatchu know about that!??!?!) with chocolate frosting. So my mom’s love, my love and now my daughter’s love for desserts runs deep.
My mom and I own Sukari Desserts, a dessert catering company, so there’s always something cooking. Sascha knows how to make her own eggs in the morning–as long as I handle the hot pan–make waffle/pancake mix from scratch, and bakes a cake with her grandma every week without fail. Red Velvet is her favorite, but she’s also made very messy molded chocolates, drop cookies and every color frosting you can imagine.
Today was different though, she made the Red Velvet cake in the picture above at grandma’s house all by herself, with some guidance on the more difficult parts. A baker is born!!
What better time than now to announce the launch of My Baby Cooks, our very own cooking show featuring none other than Sascha, with brief appearance by grandma and yours truly. Look for it here in October.
reached home the earliest i’ve ever reached on a normal school day this year. it was like. only 3.10pm hahaha.
missed CG (when am i ever going to get to CG ?!?!) cos of cramps and other womanly reasons(this sounds funny haha) :/
i didn’t eat lunch but i’m not hungry LOL i think i saved a lot of money this week wth LOL with sarah’s cookies and teehx stocking the jar with STRAWBERRY and chocolate pocky and famous amos.
HAHA we don’t even need to step out of the classroom to fill our stomach loh.
i am going to BAKE no matter what.
i mean, bake successfully. (:
i tried to use the toaster to “bake” my cookies HAHA and it ended up like.
this
and this. no kidding.
the whole kitchen was full of the chaoda smell HAHA my mum asked me if i was trying to give the whole family cancer with the cookies LOL.
anyway it’s not my fault that the cookies turned out like this!
the toaster’s light was like orange, then i couldn’t see what colour the cookies were and so, i took it out a bit too late.
AND i used a toaster not an oven.
can you just leave me alone and just let me delude myself that it’s not me but the toaster?!
aha and ytd i was watching mingzhong and my mum went to heat up some stuff and asked me to turn off the gas in 3minutes.
and i watched till 25minutes then i rmbed.
i was wondering what the neighbours were bbq-ing outside and how bad their bbq skills were, throughout the whole show.
I mean, seriously i forgot about the thing.
and today once i reached home, my mum didn’t even care about my ingrown toenail(it’s freaking painful!) and cramps and asked me to go scrape out the burnt black stuff at the bottom of the pan. ):
does smelling the burnt stuff give you cancer as well as eating it? if so i’m at 99% risk of getting cancer.
argh my house doesn’t have baking powder, or even vinegar can you believe it?!
they’re supposed to get rid of the burnt marks cos they’re acidic!
what kind of house don’t even have vinegar?! O.o
okay actually idk what vinegar does, but it’s so common! i think.
i can’t stand hearing the scraping sound as i use the spoon to scrape off the black burns, it’s like fingernails on chalkboard.
okay i’m going crazy here i know this is sudden but i don’t have anything to say already
We found ourselves returning from the mountains of North Carolina with this large basket, brimming with locally grown cornfield beans and tomatoes. What to do with it all?
I decided to pull out the tomatoes and see how many it had. It looked like there weren’t too many, maybe 10?
Yeah, try 42!! Turns out the basket was almost all tomatoes, with some pole beans on top.
We decided to use them to make a nice tomato sauce – the kind that simmers all day and develops a wonderfully rich flavor and thick texture.
Helped by the discovery of a tomato press we found hidden in the pantry, we crosshatched the tomatoes, blanched them, and then squeezed them up into the mill. Cranking the mill was the most fun part of the whole process – the peel and seeds was separated from the pulp, which we added to the sauce!
I started the base of the sauce by sauteeing some chopped veggies: 2 onions, 8 carrots, 2 zucchini and 1 red bell pepper, garlic.
For other flavors: olive oil, italian seasoning, 2 bay leaves, and a handful of fresh basil.
This is our basil growing out in the garden. We’ve also planted collards, spinach, mesclun greens and chives, which should be coming up soon!
Using the tomato press/mill was so much fun! Although wearing a white t-shirt seemed like a horrible idea, I was able to avoid red splashes The counter and nearby surfaces were not so lucky.
We filled 2 large pots of sauce, and let them cook down for 8 hours until they had reduced by 50% and could be combined into one pot. The seasoning seemed perfect and required little changes at the end (I must be a master chef after all!).
After cooling over night, we poured the sauce into 4 containers, ready for the freezer!
Then we called in our faithful clean up crew to take care of the sauce-covered bowls
Lots of people want to know, what’s life in Perth really like? Is it all blue skies, suntan cream and sandy beaches? Is everyone as ‘happy as Bruce’ and do the kangaroos all smile and wave you on your way as you speed off to work your 5 hour day?
In a word, and a very short one at that, NO.
Despite popular misconception, it does get cold here – Perth has long winters with not much sun and alot of rain. Everyone isn’t happy all of the time, and kangaroos don’t really smile. I’d say if anything it’s more of a smirk.
Some people, understandably, given how many burning hoops they have to leap through to get a visa, want to believe that Perth is the answer to all problems on earth – and the very opposite of evil old England. Yes it’s a nice and place to live and the lifestyle is so laid back that many have trouble getting upright again, but like every country, it’s far from perfect and therefore might not be the answer to all of your prayers.
Some migrants, fresh from the plane and still marveling at the vastness of the sky, the millions of stars on view at night and the wide open beaches will tell you that ‘Perth is as good as it gets’. And that, I think, can be very misleading to those trying to decide whether to make the move over. Why? Well firstly because the reality of life overseas (once the initial excitement has worn off, whether that takes a week, a month or ever a year) can sometimes be a disappointment. And secondly because one persons idea of ‘as good as it gets’ can be completely opposite to another’s.
A massive 40% of those who move over from the UK go back again. That’s an awful lot of people making an extremely costly and difficult decision to return – a decision no one would ever take lightly, or do without good reason. Moving your life around the world is a big enough upheaval in the first place, moving back and starting again is an even bigger one.
Perhaps these 40% who returned just didn’t want to spend their weekends surfing, hiking, fishing, camping and drinking beer around a BBQ. Or maybe once they’d had a year of cooking sausages in Kings Park, eating fish & chips at Hillarys and trying to spot animals at Perth Zoo the novelty of it all simply wore off. Who knows, maybe the reality of life here simply never lived up to the hype.
So if you’re heading south in search of perfection, then it might be quite a good idea to remove any rose tinted sunnies before your feet touch down on the dusty ground. This way you won’t ever be surprised, disappointed or disillusioned by what you find. Maybe instead you’ll be ready to start your new life Down Under, will love it all and never look back.
To quickly go back to the original question of what’s it like to live in Perth, here’s my answer:
Today I got woken up early by the radio. It was grey, wet and cold outside and drone of the irritating DJ’s put me back to sleep – until the dog barked mere millimetres away from my ear. I dragged two children from their beds and fed them breakfast. I made my own breakfast and then watched it conceal into concrete as I hunted for last nights homework sheet. I stepped on the dogs tail as he rushed past me to the backdoor. It was still pouring with rain, so as the school bell goes in the distance I throw the kids into the car.
I returned from the school run, cleared up breakfast, emptied the dishwasher, put on the washing machine, swept half the garden off the kitchen floor. I then rounded up my son, his water cup and his potty and headed out to the supermarket. We navigated the aisles with a renegade trolley while I fed him pancakes to keep him quiet and contained. I loaded the car, filled up with petrol and unloaded the car – all in the rain.
Next came lunch, as requested by my son. I watched him push it around his plate so I gave up, ate it myself and cleared up. He got all his toys out just to see what would take his fancy. We played with Lego, blocks and trains. The school bell sounded, so we set off with dog in tow. We ran to the park so dog can have a run, and then stood under a tree in the downpour. I supervised homework, cleared up the house, cooked dinner for kids and remembered the washing in the machine from this morning. Shoved it all in the tumble drier as it was still raining.
Fed both kids their dinner – felt my blood pressure rise. Cleared up the mess. Supervised their bath time – felt my blood pressure rise further. Overcame a toddler meltdown when Tellytubbies said ‘Goodbye’. Shoehorned two kids into bed and then cleared up the house. Again. Started dinner. Again. Husband arrived home. We both collapsed infront of TV – exhausted. The dog barked at next doors cat and woke me up at 1am. I lay there staring at the clock and waiting to go back to sleep again. I started to panic when I couldn’t fall asleep. Then I suddenly remembered I’d forgotten to turn the tumble drier on. I went to sleep convinced I could already smell the washing going mouldy.
I got woken up early by the radio….
Point made? Living in Perth is like living anywhere – 5% sunshine and light, 95% reality of your day-to-day life.
yes thats right!!! home sweet home.. that’s where I’ve been in the past 2 months.
I’ve enjoyed sooo much in the past 2 months .. We were planning for an India Trip in August. So once my contract (job) was finished, I didnt bother looking for a new one. I decided I will look for one once I get back from India. So I had no stress or tension thinking about the “unemployment” phase. I sat around, watched tv, stupid sitcoms, movies, read books, cooking experiments,visited my family in east coast, shopping && soooo many more stuff..
Then here comes the best part… 1 month in Kerala… god’s ownnnnnn country … I cant explain how much we loved our stay. One month went sooo fastttttt . First week, we took a 1 week road trip w/ my inlaws. The main aim was a theerthadanam ( basically a food”adanam”). The taste of kottayam fish curry, kozhikodu biriyani… hmm I dont think I will ever like my cooking again …
Some Restaurant suggestions for foodies like us : Kozhikodu Sagar (try the old sagar), Al-Bake , Alapuzha Brother’s (its a small crowded hotel , but their fish curry meals & chicken curry — just superb) , TVM (Tharavattil, Rajadhani (just ok), Zam Zam, Sindoor, & sooo many more)
For those who love beaches, but dont like to go crazy if people are around : try the private beaches in Kovalam. Somatheeram, Thapovan, Coconut Bay Beach Resort etc etc,… there are sooo many of them.
After looooooong 9 yrs, I got to spend Onam in Kerala. Eventhough, my amma made a big sadya every year & we went to all the onam celebs in US, it can’t be compared with the Onam in Kerala. I think its the feeling of being around w/ the family.. not just parents… but the whole big extended family… I just love that … & ofcoz the sadhya w/ adapradhaman, paalada etc.
Few days before the trip, I had a small tension coz this was the first & longest time I was going to stay w/ my inlaws since wedding….. It was totally a great experience… I never knew inlaws could spoil you more than your own parents… and I experienced that…. and hats off to them for dealing with me … lol … & on the way back we got free upgrade to business class … So, overall it was a greaaaaat trip. It’s been more than a week since we got back and I’m still talking about the trip lol..
Now back to reality… back to job hunt .. back to “my” cooking & housekeeping …
Preparation 1. Boil the milk
2. When milk is boiling mix the sugar in it. Taste it, taste of sugar shall be little strong.
3. Separate one cup milk from the total milk and mix Custard Powder in it.
4. Shut down the stove or remove the pan from stove.
5. Put mixture of milk and custard in whole milk. Don’t put it atonce. Put the mixture in continuous flow (like flow of water from jug into glass) and stir the milk continuously.
6. Cool the mixture for some time and put it in refrigerator.
Experiments 1. Make the Jelly. Cut Jelly into cubes. In some pot, put first layer of custard, 2nd layer of jelly, 3rd layer of custard and then last layer of some fruits or jelly.
2. Prepare the simple cake. Recipe can be found at
Make layer of Cake and then fill the pan with custard. Now at the top of custard garnish it with chopped almonds and / or coconut powder.
3. In some pot, put first layer of custard, 2nd layer of fruits pieces (Any combination: Banana, Apple, Pineapple, Cherry, Grapes, Strawberry, Sweet Mango), and 3rd layer of custard. Place the heavy cream and sugar into a mixer and whip until you form soft peaks. Now at the top of custard put cream and then garnish it with chopped almonds and / or coconut powder OR with some fruits.
I’ve given it some thought, and I think Meryl Streep should play me in the movie. That said, let me get started.
This morning, as I drove my boys back home to be punished by their sisters rather than enjoy buying a rake at Home Depot, I thought to myself: I’d like to read about some real family situations. I’d like to hear from someone who does not say, “My daughter is my best friend!” I am sick of seeing moms get hugs from their kids when they pick them up from school. And I am certainly tired of those looks from others: “Can’t she control her children?” Because, Reader, I cannot. And I have collected seen of them over the years, with varying degrees of issues. All of which I will tell you about right now…
fall is (almost) here! And with fall comes… pumpkin. Which is great! Here comes a very simple recipe which is great for weeknight dinners, but also, maybe with a roast or some other meat dish, fancy enough for Sunday night when the in-laws come for dinner. It requires very few ingredients, and doesn’t take long. So, without further ado:
Ingredients:
serves 3-4
pumpkin, washed, cleaned and cut into cubes; I used one small hokkaido, approx. 1.5 pounds
feta cheese, cut into cubes; I used greek feta, approx. 0.5 pound
salt, pepper, thyme
Directions:
In a pot, bring water to a boil; add salt. Put in the pumpkin cubes, and let boil for 3-4 mins., not longer. Take out, drain, and transfer into a baking dish. Season with salt and pepper.
Preheat your oven to 350° F.
Cover the pumpkin cubes with feta cubes, sprinkle with thyme.
Bake for approx. 30 mins., until the feta starts to turn very light brown. Enjoy!
Easy, right?! We ate ours with cooked, sliced beetroot and a fresh green salad.
Ah, I love fall. In fact, I’ll take a nice long walk right now.
Good bye for now! Eat well!
xoxo, F.
This was my mantra Wednesday night and again on Thursday. After our fun yet exhausting weekend in Big Sur with J&N (still working on that blog post) and a board meeting at work lasting until after 8pm Tuesday night. Wednesday felt like my first real time at home in the month of September. If I was logical, responsible, prepared person I would have taken this time to start packing my things for this weekend’s move to our new apartment. But instead I decided it was high time I made that fig jam Will and I have been talking about before the figs go bad.
After doing a brief search online we decided on a recipe featured in the September 2009 issue of Bon Appetit. The recipe sounded a little strange to me what with the garlic and shallots and all , but Will was excited about it so we gave it awhirl. We tried to follow the recipe as closely as possible, but made the following changes based on what we had in our kitchen: shallots were replaced with leeks which we have an abundance of from our garden. The Agran oil was replaced with walnut oil. I couldn’t find the Moroccan oil at Whole Foods and did not feel like going on a city wide search for a market that might carry it at 8pm on Wednesday night. The process was very easy, although the 25 minutes the recipe quotes is a bit of an understatement. I cooked and stirred ours for at least an hour. This might be partially due to the fact that I doubled the recipe and had much more water to cook off. By the time it was done it was late and I had already brushed my teeth for bed so I did not even try it. Will had little taste though and said he liked it a lot. Though if he did it again he said he would leave out the regular sugar b/c it was pretty sweet and he is more into tart and sour things. I am looking forward to spreading this on some crusty bread and topping it with a little goat cheese and prosciutto, but until I do try it I am going to admire it in the jars because I think it is quite pretty.
While I was busy gathering ingredients and stirring jam Will made a yummy dinner with the recent harvest of leeks and tomatoes from Wattles. The ragu recipe from Fine Cooking magazine is unfortunately not available online, but I can tell you that it includes leeks, tomato, sausage, and spices. We included the Summer Savory Gina gave us from the garden. It adds a great zest when cooking Italian meals. I do not have a photo of the awesome plate of pasta Will whipped up because I was soooo eager to eat it that I forgot to photo graph it.
Thursday night was filled with more jam distractions instead of packing for the weekend move. I made my third bath of Rhubarb-Strawberry jam and kept with my round two ammendment of using only 5 cups of sugar instead of 6. Will chopped about half the rhubarb in our fridge (8 cups) and soaked it in 2 1/2 cups sugar. I then finished off the jam making process when I got home by crushing 4 cups of strawberries, adding the other half of the sugar and simmering for what felt like hours. We are out of canning jars, so it is just sitting in the giant pot I cooked it in until I pick some up after work tonight. A tough lesson was learned while I did the non-stop stirring – wear long sleeves. It is so hot with the stove on that I was in a tank top, but the bubbly jam pops and usually gets my floor sticky. Last night one of the bursts found its way onto my forearm and gave me a nasty little burn. So from now on, long sleeves it is. I don’t want any more jam related scars or injuries on my body.
Once again while I was doing up the jam, Will made another fine garden centric meal of sauted leeks, green beans and 3 kinds of peppers – Jimmy Nardello, Aconcagua, and Anaheim doused in a little hoisen sauce at the end, as well as our new found favorite way to eat tofu – sliced, cooked in a mix of sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, water, sugar, ginger & chili flakes. The simple meal has become a regular in our kitchen this summer with the overwhelming number of garden veggies and our attempts to keep it healthy with the tofu.
Stickmess Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Fun, 1 Player, Action, Flash, Stick, Fighting, Infomation: As the story is told you need to push keys to get the character out of a jam quickly. Can you do it? How to play: Use arrow keys to interact.
Free Play at ht83.com
Girl Makeover 32 Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Girl, Grooming, 1 Player, Dress Up, Flash, Infomation: Click on her hair and shirt to make her look pretty. Don’t forget to use lipstick, dress her with necklaces. How to play: Use mouse to interact.
Free Play at ht83.com
Athalina RPG Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Unrated games, Adventure, 1 Player, Flash, Role Playing, Infomation: Flash RPG with 46 equipable items, 10+ enemy types, 20+ quests, and much much more. If you enjoy games like Diablo II or WOW then you’ll like this. How to play: Arrow keys or WASD move, 1-4 melee attacks, mouse is used for magic attacks
Free Play at ht83.com
Mater Al Rescate Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Car, 1 Player, Flash, Infomation: Pick your angle and power to throw the tow line to the stuck car just right. How to play: Use Spacebar to control your angle and power.
Free Play at ht83.com
Wedgie Toss 2 Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Throwing, 1 Player, Flash, Flying, Infomation: Launch the man as far as possible by giving him the best wedgie you can. How to play: Use Spacebar or Mouse to interact.
Free Play at ht83.com
Jungle Jiggy Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Dancing, Animal, 1 Player, Flash, Music, Monkey, Infomation: Get perfect hits in a row to win combos. How to play: Press the corresponding Arrow Keys when they reach the sweet spot.
Free Play at ht83.com
Bottle Capper Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Flash, Fun, 1 Player, Shooting, Mouse Skill, Infomation: Open the bottle without breaking the bottle. How to play: Use mouse to interact.
Free Play at ht83.com
Sextreme Catapult Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Girl, Throwing, Boy, 1 Player, Flash, Infomation: This catapult’s extreme! Fling yourself as far as you can. But try not to land on any unpleasant surprises. How to play: Left/Right Arrow keys- To increase or decrease the power of the catapult. Up/Down Arrow keys- To select the angle. Space bar- To launch.
Free Play at ht83.com
Freaky Football Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Football, Collecting Games, 1 Player, Action, Flash, Sports, Evade, Infomation: Pick up all the beans for energy and try and dodge the defenders as you head for the end-zone to sco. How to play: Use arrow keys to move. Space bar to jump.
Free Play at ht83.com
Hollie Hobby and Friends Tags: ht83 games, y8 games, Coloring, Decorate, Fruit, Cooking, 1 Player, Flash, Kids, Infomation: Help Holly Hobbie and her friends run their lemonade stand by completing 3 levels of fun. Earn a coloring page for each level you complete. Get points and complete tasks to unlock items to decorate your coloring pages How to play: Use mouse to interact.
Free Play at ht83.com
Today didn’t get off to a great start. I turned on my computer only to find that during the night it had decided to lose all it’s settings and had reverted back to accessing the old (redundant and almost empty) hard drive. Bugger. I tried all the usual things to get it to work: shout at it; shout at it louder; bang the desk; swear at it; tell it it’s a stupid bloody computer and it was working fine at midnight last night; tell it it’s a lovely computer and pretty please would it just work and I promise to love it forever; turn it off and on repeatedly whilst crossing fingers that this time it might work seeing as I pressed the “on” button ever so gently this time; hit random keys on the keyboard in the hope that one of them might be the magic one; curse loudly again and stomp off to school with baffled children in tow.
A brisk walk to school and back made me see sense so I texted Mr Computer Man Who Put The New Hard Disk In (who happens to be my friend’s husband). An hour or so later he arrived on his white horse (silver Skoda actually), turned the computer on, pressed delete repeatedly until a blue screen with lots of computer jargon came up, whizzed around with the mouse, clicked a few times, and hey presto it was fixed! He was here no more than five minutes, and what did he have in payment? Half a dozen eggs. Bring back bartering I say.
The rest of the day went by in a more relaxed fashion. I made seven more jars of damson jam (and still it doesn’t look like I’ve picked any fruit from the tree); froze the last of the runner beans from the plants that my five year old little Mutterer grew; went for a walk around the churchyard next door with Mr Mutterer and took some photos with my new camera; and I had two extra little ones come to play after school. And to top it all off, the three big ducks: Daisy, Maisy and Puddle had already gone into their house when we went out to put them to bed. I think we’ve cracked it!
A small Tortoiseshell butterfly in my garden
Our VERY noisy cat telling us exactly what she thought about us going off for a walk without her!
I picked a few wild rosehips from the hedgerows. I was going to make a syrup but changed my mind and made jam instead.
Rosehips are quite sweet and full of little pips. There isn’t really that much flesh to them either so I find you need quite a few to make a decent amount of jam. I didn’t follow a traditional recipe. Straining with jelly bags etc is too fiddly for me and I think it’s a waste. I press mine through a sieve. Rather the cloudy jam than wasted in the bin! So here’s how I did it;
No weight is given for fruit because afterall you don’t weigh it as you pick it, so just wing it with whatever you have and work out the sugar after you have your pulp.
Ok, so take off any stalks and cut off the hairy little ends. Get rid of any bad or nasty looking ones with holes in them.
Weigh then wash them and put into a pan. For each pound you have, you will probably need about 1/2 pint water, maybe a little more but that depends on how hard you boil them! Cover the pan with a lid and stew until they are a bit soft.
Squash them with a potato masher. Press through a sieve then throw the seeds away. For each pint of juice should be 1 pound of sugar as the general rule goes. I find this jam very sweet and you may want to reduce the sugar a little. It’s a matter of personal taste really.
For the apples. Again, use what you have to hand. I try to use similar amounts of both rosehip and apple but it doesn’t really matter. Peel and chop, stew them in a little water then mash with a masher.
Measure the pulp then add the rosehip juice and mushed apples to a large pan. Add a blob of butter and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice.
Put some clean jars and a heatproof jug in the oven to around 100 deg C.
Bring to the boil and reduce heat. Cook for about 5 mins then test. Pot as usual.
This is usually a nice smooth jam and I think it’s rather nice in a sandwich cake.
I love the winter when it’s all crispy outside and bringing out a pot of jam for the memories and tastes of summer. I hope you enjoy it the same way as I do
If you have questions or comments about anything I have made please do leave them or email me. I will always try to answer and help in any way I can. My name is dragon but that doesn’t mean that I am one!
What They’re Feeding Me is designed to be the progressive chef’s take on what is going on in the world of Journalism. Do you know many cooks? I’m what a lot of people wish liberals could be: straightforward. I’ll tell you how I feel about issues in the news with the cutting intellect one can only acquire after years of using a knife professionally. I dabble in stand-up comedy, so expect quite a few atrocious puns or at least a few one-liners, but I am a Chef by trade, and this blog is to serve as my cutting board: I’ll lay it all out for you, dice it up, and prepare it for you in a way that is more suitable for human consumption.
What They’re Feeding Me was originally conceived as an all-inclusive “zine” in photocopy format when I was 16 years old. To be honest, I think I only put together that first issue to impress a girl. But regardless, I started writing and publishing my own work at 16. Before that, I’d been programming computers since I was .. uh.. longer than I could remember. I was bred into the electronic era, and the “perils” of the death of traditional journalism elude me. I can’t seen anything better happening to the world than the complete decentralization of awareness that’s been brought about by the internet.
I tend to use a free-flowing narrative style which sometimes includes the refusal to capitalize my “I” (self referential). If I’m really angry, I won’t capitalize the beginning of any sentence and my spelling and punctuation will plummet. I sometimes like to preserve those moments of angst and despair leaping out of my fingers at the keyboard by saving those posts “as-is,” even if they’re embarrassing. Sometimes, the chef puts something out that’s a little bit exotic. Entertain yourself with the unusual spices.
1 onion (medium)
2 carrots
1 celery (1 stick)
½ kilo peeled tomatoes
250 g textured soy protein granules
½ glass red wine
salt
olive oil
Add two glass of hot water to the soy granules and mix. Chop the onions, the carrots and the celery in not too small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and fry for about 6 minutes or until tender. Add the soy granules and let fry for 10 minutes and then add the red wine. Let it cooks for 20 minutes and then add the peeled tomatoes (chopped) and salt. Let the sauce cook for at least 1 hour.
AUBERGINE PARMIGIANA (4/5 people)
1 kilo aubergines
800 g tomato peeled tomatoes
300 g mozzarella (cheddar cheese or any cow cheese)
100 g Parmesan cheese
basil
garlic
salt
olive oil
Skin 2 garlic cloves. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and fry for about 6 minutes. Add the peeled tomatoes (chopped). Let it cook until it get thick. Add the basil and let the sauce cool. Meanwhile chop the aubergines in thin round pieces. Roast the aubergine slices in a large frying pan (no oil) until they get brown on both sides. Put some olive oil in a terrine and spread it all over the surface. Make the first layer with the roasted aubergine, then cover it with some of the tomato sauce and then some of the sliced mozzarella on top (cheese slices). Make other equal layers on top until you finish the aubergine. The last layer has to be covered with parmesan cheese instead of the mozzarella. Cook it in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 cº.
Behold, I cook! Actually, I am pretty good in the kitchen. I get it from my mother. Desserts are my favorite to make, though I enjoy putting together other dishes. Today I made a pasta dish.
First, I browned some meat and added some Italian spices. Then I diced some green onions and tomatoes, and I threw them into the mix with some mushrooms.
Bowtie noodles are my favorite, so I decided to use them today.
While the noodles finished boiling, I added red sauce and a few more spices.
Finally, I drained the noodles and mixed it all together. Fabulous!
1 pack Signature Range fresh spinach and cheese tortellini
1 x pot of fresh Delmaine Carbonara sauce
1 large tomato
1/2 yellow capsicum / bell pepper
6 mushrooms
1 zucchini
1 head broccoli
garlic to taste
Sautee zucchini, mushrooms, bell pepper and garlic in a tablespoon of EVOO. I had a couple of leftover lamb sausages so I chopped these up and threw them in as well.
Exactly 14 years ago today, September 7, 1995, I made this relish for the first time, making a big batch so I could use up some more of the tomatoes and cucumbers my husband was continually hauling into the house from the garden in a big oversized wicker basket. We had to leave our big garden behind over 8 years ago when my husband was very ill with Alzheimer’s and he passed away 5 years ago. So, today on the anniversary of the first try at this recipe, I made a quart of this relish for myself and for my daughter when she visits. We especially like it served alongside grilled pork tenderloin. The recipe is from the book, The Forgotten Art of Making Old Fashioned Pickles.
HARVEST RELISH (One Quart)
2 cups cucumber, peeled, seeded and ground
2 cups tomato, peeled and chopped (prefer Roma)
1 cup onion, chopped
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups white vinegar
1-1/2 tsp. Chinese mustard
1-1/4 Tblsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
Place cucumber, tomato and onion in a large pot. Add sugar and vinegar, stir to blend and cook until vegetables are tender – 20-25 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix together the mustard, flour and turmeric. Stir into the cooked vegetable mixture, reduce heat to low and simmer for 25-30 minutes until mixture has thickened.
Add salt and pepper, mixing well. Pour into sterilized jars, cap and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes (for pint and half-pint jars).
Presentando el novedoso… VAMPIRO. Bueno, quizá no tan novedoso. ^^ Se trata de una bebida que probé en Querétaro, bueno, la original la probó un amigo, me pasó la receta, la hicimos en casa… en fin que a mí me gustó mucho, y aunque seguramente sea algo muy conocido, para mí no lo era ^^ así que lo incluyo aquí de todos modos. No es nada difícil, sólo que no sé donde comprar paletas naturales de limón en Madrid… pero supongo que se puede sustituir por alguna casera. A mí me da pereza y uso Fanta de Limón con mucho hielo. ^^ Podéis usar tanto sangría como tinto de verano, que al fin y al cabo da lo mismo, sólo que la original no tiene alcohol, pero si os gusta… allá vosotros. XD Y ya está, si eso, básicamente, mezclar limón, hielo, y sangría… pero mucho limón, para que al final quede de un color casi café, que es como a nosotros nos gusta. Bueno, sólo era eso, una pequeña nota sobre mi nuevo descubrimiento, que seguramente os estará causando mucha risa. OH well.
