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Tuesday, March 5, 2013Another Italian Adventure
A few weeks ago I finally had my new baby! My sister came to watch my preschooler for a bit. While she was here we celebrated her birthday. She wanted Italian and I knew just where to turn: my favorite Italian cooking website, Rustico Cooking.
It was such a delicious dinner.    Finish it off with tiramisu. Oh, it was good! Monday, February 18, 2013Carne Asada
This recipe for carne asada has a very easy yet jazzy marinade. I'd like to thank my sister for teaching me how to make these tasty things. They've become a family favorite.
  Add olive oil and chopped cilantro.  Chop chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and add garlic.  
Let steak marinate in a bag for a few hours.
  Friday, October 12, 2012Paneer from cottage cheese first attempt...for saag paneer
I read on another blog you can use cottage cheese to make a faux paneer. Since I couldn't find paneer at the store and really wanted saag paneer I decided to try making some. Original post: http://elekhni.com/2008/06/the-easy-way-make-paneer-from-cottage-cheese/
 Perhaps my mistake was in the heating step. Should I try again another time?  Yum! Looks odd, tastes great.   Tuesday, October 9, 2012Making Spanish Paella
For European night last week I found an easy and delicious version of Paella on allrecipes. Researching it, I learned there are different versions of paella. Some are heavier on seafood than others. Just depends what part of Spain. The seasonings are pretty important though.
If you are a fan of Cajun or Creole Jambalaya, you might find the different flavors but somewhat similar construction of Paella an interesting change. It makes for an easy, family, one-pot meal.  Tuesday, October 2, 2012Cuban: Ropa Vieja in the Crockpot
Yesterday was a busy day for us, and I had the perfect meal planned. In the morning I volunteered at the homeschool group, after lunch was a doctor appointment, and in the evening was swimming. The crock pot called.
So I made an easy family-friendly Cuban meal: Ropa Vieja. It's simple, and flavorful. I've made it for a while and can't remember where I found the recipe in the first place. The whole family tends to love it. Although last night my 3.5 year old decided there was something funny about the large slices of onion. Next time I'll slice them smaller. Friday, September 28, 2012Curried Peas, and my little sweet pea
I don't often make peas because well, my husband finds most recipes with peas boring. Last night was Asian night in our house and I tried a curried peas and tomatoes recipe to go along with our main Indian dish. Oh, yum! My husband even had more than one serving. He said "this is actually an interesting dish" so I'll definitely be making them again.
Oh, in case you're wondering about my Asian night comment. Now that I'm well in my second trimester (yes, I'm expecting my own little sweet pea this winter!) and not relying on giant crockpots full of doubled and tripled recipes to freeze in order to feed the family each night I'm back to cooking most days each week, which means back to making international food more often. How much more? Well, I'm experimenting with a new way to menu plan. Each day of the week minus one is assigned a continent. If I need to plan a meal for that day of the week I can think of recipes from that continent (or the oceans if you wanted to add a just fish night). Monday: North America Tuesday: South America Wednesday: Europe Thursday: Asia Friday: Oceania One day on the Weekend: Africa We'll see how this strategy goes. So far so good. It has certainly streamlined menu planning. Thursday, July 12, 2012Nigerian Adventure: A Delicious Dinner
We moved. Again. But things are slowly getting unpacked including most of my kitchen.
I'll have to work off memory to tell you about our Nigerian culinary adventure. Oh, the memories are wonderful. In fact, sitting here typing this I'm wondering to myself, "why haven't you made it again yet?!" Yes, it was that good.
We enjoyed a meat dish and a salad. The salad was made of layers. Much as an American seven layer salad is made. The ingredients were a little different though. Slivers of cabbage, cucumber, and carrot are mixed together. A can of peas (apparently fresh isn't an option here) is poured over, followed by a layer of canned (not fresh or frozen again) corn. This is topped with slices of hard cooked egg. So far not too odd. Here's where the salad really shows its foreign side. The last two steps are to sprinkle the salad with a can each of baked beans and tuna! How odd! The layers are repeated. After chilling it's served with salad cream.
I'm not a huge meat eater. This particular meat was delectable. Stick meat. Beef is coated with spices like bouillon, garlic, curry, and adobo powder and allowed to sit and "sweat" a while. Water is added And the meat boiled for half an hour. You remove the meat, heat oil until it smokes and make the sauce. Then you bake the meat. So this meat gets boiled and baked. The meat is tossed with the sauce and eaten with toothpicks. So yummy!
Monday, April 30, 2012Market Day: Nigeria.JPG) .JPG) and a side dish for our Nigerian adventure. Dish 1 used: Adobo seasoning, oil, tomato, onion, garlic, peppers, curry powder, bouillon Dish 2 used: Carrot, cucumber, peas, corn, eggs, tuna, baked beans, cabbage, and salad cream So what did we enjoy? (And yes, we really enjoyed it!) Monday, April 23, 2012Avocadoes Stuffed with Fish & Eggs
This would make such a great summer lunch!
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It's a plate full of avocados stuffed with fish and egg. Sounds different, tastes yummy. If you like tuna salad stuffed in a tomato, you'll probably enjoy this.
 
When your eggs are cooked and cooled, remove the yolks and mash them up. Mix the yolks with sugar, lime, oils, milk. You want it to be smooth as a pudding.
Chop up the egg white and add i
It's a pleasant and healthy meal. You can find the recipe here.
Friday, April 20, 2012Planning Day: Nigerian Culinary Adventure
If you're waiting on my final entry for Ghana, it's coming. I am looking forward to sharing our main dish with you. It's simple, easy to prepare, and perfect for warm weather. Very appropriate as the weather continues to warm!
Right now I'm in overload concerning what I want to make for our Nigerian adventure. I'm very tempted to try a breakfast recipe. Crepes or a bean pancake with a custard on the side. Problem is finding custard powder, which is according to my brief web search slightly different from our instant pudding mix. Now that I live in a largish city I hope I can track some down...breakfast like that would be fun! Then there's the stews! Very meaty and several carry the warning "very spicy". It seems like everything is served with "white yam" or plantains too. Oh, and they have the most interesting salads. There's also a dish that reminds me of scotch eggs, one that reminds me of doughnuts...just so much from which to choose.
As I said what's particularly tempting is embarking on more than one adventure here. We'll see. There are several African restaurants in town, if I want to try something cooked by someone who knows how after I'm done with this particular adventure!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012Culinary adventure to Ghana! part 1: Plantains
For dessert I mixed pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, plantains, olive oil, and salt and made fried plantains! Now, this recipe certainly wasn't nearly as tasty as I'd had at a certain restaurant, but still they weren't bad. Next time though I think I'd try a different recipe.
This is what I dipped the plantains in. Nothing sweet at all about the dessert.
Saturday, April 14, 2012Market Day: Ghana
The ingredients for dessert. Plantains, garlic, ginger, onion, red pepper, olive oil, and salt. Yes, it did have a bit of a kick!
Thursday, March 29, 2012Planning Day: Ghana
Searching out foods on the west coast of the Africsn continent is a little trickier than I imagined. More often than not I come across generic an "west African " recipes. It seems there is a lot of overlap.
One of the more interesting resources I've found so far is A Washington Post article on west African cuisine. The foods are savory and starchy. One ingredient in particular caught my eye: plantains. Yum! African Cooking Guide has a great chart listing the most commonly used ingredients.
Oh, and often it uses one pot cooking. Love that!
Thursday, March 22, 2012Week 11: An Algerian Pudding  &   It will thicken rapidly! Serve with your choice of toppings, including raisins, coconut, and cinnamon. Wonderfully quick, easy, and silky. 
You can find the recipe I used for this delicate creamy pudding called Sahlab here.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012Market Day: AlgeriaOnce again my pantry is my market. How I love it when this happens. The ingredients for our Algerian dessert adventure were few and common. It should be considerably cheaper than the other dessert I was leaning towards making. This particular dish requires corn starch to thicken it up and is served with some optional chopped toppings. Can you guess what we're having? Water, milk, cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon, raisins, coconut 
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