Tasty Makes Happy

Taste of home sweet home- roasting peppers

2012-10-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Wild Blackberry Cobbler

2012-08-25T23:58:00.001-07:00

I got a ton of blackberries form my coworker the other day. I was looking for ideas what to make with them. I don't often make deserts so I was looking for something easy. Cobbler! It is the easiest desert to make and it is delicious.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups blackberries
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 stick of butter
1 cup milk

Wash the blackberries and drain.

Mix the dry ingredients together. Use only 1 cup of sugar for this and leave the 1/4 cup for later.

Melt the buter in the microwave and stir in. Stir in the milk as well.

Grease the pan (you can use the leftover butter on the wrapper for this), and pour in the mix.

Sprinkle blackberries on top, evenly.

Poor the remaining sugar on top.

Preheat the oven to 350F and bake for one hour.

This delicions desert is goot hot or cold and if you eat it hot, you may also add some ice cream on top.

Chick Pea Stew

2012-08-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

Did you know that India is the top producer of chick peas? It makes more than half of all the chick peas on the world! Amazing.

Ingredients

1lb can chick peas
5 Tbsp oil
1 hot pepper, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium/ large tomatoes, chopped
1/2 can tomato paste
2 cups water or broth
1.2 Tbsp salt
1.5 Tbsp ground cumin
1/2 Tbsp coriander
1/2 Tbsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 Tbsp ginger paste
cilantro to garnish

Chop up all the ingredients.

Dry roast cumin and turmeric in the frying pan then add oil. Saute the onions and the hot pepper for a couple of minutes. Stir in garlic.

Add chopped tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes. Season with the rest of te spices.

Stir in the tomato paste and water or broth. If you are using water, you can add more seasoning.

Add canned chick peas. If you are using dried chick peas, they will have to be cooked first.

Cook all together for 20-30 minutes. Serve over rice. Garnish with cilantro.

Serbian Beans/ Čorbast Pasulj

2012-07-01T01:08:00.001-07:00

Growing up, beans were my least favorite food. It was quite a sad story actually. My daycare served beans for lunch on Mondays and for this very reason I disliked Mondays too. I could never finish my meal, and as a punishment I would be sent to the kitchen to try to finish it there while other kids were playing.

Now that I am all grown up, I eat almost anything. The other day I ate Korean sea weed with dried fish that still had eyeballs. But that's another story. The point is, not only do I willingly eat beans now, but I also make them! Did you see that coming?

This recipe is what we call "Čorbast pasulj", meaning "soupy beans". These pictures were taken last time I visited home. My mom actually made these beans.

INGREDIENTS:

250-300g white beans
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 carrots, sliced
2-3 slices smoked bacon, chopped
1-2 pieces of smoked hog feet
3 bay leaves
salt, pepper and paprika
optional ingredients: bell peppers and tomato

Soak beans over night in water. You can add bay leaves in this water as all. When you are ready to cook them, decant the leftover water and pour new water to cover the beans about 1in.

Cook on the stove. When the beans boil, replace the water again. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Now cook this covered over low heat for 3-4 hours. Look occasionally if you have enough water- you never want the beans to be exposed above water level. If you are running out of water, don't be afraid to add more. If you think you have too much water, uncover the pot and let it evaporate. There is really no right or wrong way here- you can make the consistency to your own taste.

If you'd like to thicken the consistency, you can heat 1-2 Tbsp of oil in a small pan, and stir in 1 Tbsp of flour and 1 Tbsp of paprika. Stir together to achieve a homogeneous mixture, then turn off the burner and add it to your beans.

Salmon with Shitake Mushrooms

2012-06-23T01:06:00.004-07:00

Usually when I am hungry and don't have the time to indulge in cooking, I make fish. It cooks very fast, almost faster than you have put a simple sandwich together, and it's healthy. I cooked this on one such occasion and I also took some snap shots so that I could share.

Ingredients:

salmon fillet
304 shitake mushrooms sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 asparagus stalks, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar
1 cup white long grain rice

This dish is good to eat with plain white rice, so if you plan to make the rice too, its best to start that first because that will take the longest time to cook.

Then chop all the veggies and heat the olive oil in the frying pan.

When the oil is hot, combine mushrooms and carrots in the frying pan with frequent stirring so that they dont burn.

Mushrooms will soak up the oil. Once the pan feels dry again add the sesame oil. This will give it tons of flavor. Sesame oil is good to add to dishes even after they've been cooked. If you make fried rice and stir frys, it's a must have.

After about 5 minutes of frying, the mushrooms will start to get some color. At this point add asparagus and garlic. The reason for adding these later on is because asparagus cooks very fast and it would get mushy if cooked for a long time. As for the garlic, it can burn easily if cooked this long.

Fry with constant stirring for a couple of more minutes. Add salt, sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce. Stir one more time and transfer onto a plate.

Add more olive oil if the frying pan seems too dry. When the oil becomes hot, add salmon to the frying pan. You might want to prepare a cover for it if you dont want it to spray all over your stove. Fry for 2-3 mintues on each side, but make sure the burner is on high. Salmon is pretty tasty by itself and doesn't require much seasoning. I usually just salt it lightly and add just a tiny bit of soy sauce over it.

Strawberry Yogurt

2012-06-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

Like fruit yogurt? Why not make your own. Its simple.

Here is what you need:

1/2 cup strawberries
1 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp honey

Cut up the strawberries in the food processor, or mash them with a fork.

Mix with yogurt and honey.

Eat.

Stuffed Pepper Craze

2012-06-11T01:20:00.001-07:00

How about another batch of stuffed peppers? You can never have enough of these.

I saw some good looking peppers at the store and couldn't pass them up. To make things more interesting, I made this batch in a non conventional way. I added a lot more veggies in the stuffing, replaced ground beef with ground bison, and melted some shredded parmesan on top.

Here are the ingredients:

6 medium bell peppers
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 slices od bacon, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 lb ground bison meat
1/2 eggplant, chopped
1 small pack of mushrooms, chopped
3 spears of asparagus
1 can diced tomatoes or 3 chopped tomatoes
1 cup rice (mixed wild and white rice)
seasoning salt, paprika, chili powder, black pepper

Prepare all the ingredients. Wash the peppers and core them. Chop bacon, onions, garlic, asparagus, eggplant, mushrooms and tomatoes. Do not mix all these ingredients yet.

Start with cooking the bacon on a medium heat.

Place the eggplant in a microwave safe container inside a paper towel. Sprinkle some walk on it and mix with your hand. Microwave for 2-4 minutes. You want to precook eggplant in this way in order to avoid it absorbing all the oil if cooked with other ingredients.

While the eggplant is cooking in the microwave, add chopped onions and garlic to the bacon in the pan. When the onions become translucent, add minced bison meat. Add more oil if necessary. The amount of oil will depend on the type of pan you are using. Stir well and make sure you break up all the clumps of meat. You gotta work up that appetite.

By the time you break up all the clumps, the meat will be cooked and hopefully look like the picture below.

Add eggplant.

Add mushrooms.

In a separate pan heat 2 Tbsp oil and fry raw rice over medium heat. Stir occasionally so that it would brown evenly. Fry for about 5 minutes. The rice should be visibly brown.

Going back to the main meat/ veggie mixture- the eggplant and the mushrooms you just put in should cook down.

Find a baking dish that can facilitate your peppers. You don't want them to be too loose in the dish because they may fall over while cooking and spill.

Combine rice and meat/ veggie mixture together. Turn off the burner and allow the mixture to cool a little bit before stuffing it into the peppers.

Finally, add shopped asparagus and tomatoes.

Using a spoon, stuff the peppers with the ultimate mixture you just prepared. Add about 1 inch of water into the dish.

Cover and dish and bake at 450F for about 1.5 hours. You do not have to time this exactly. If your dish does not have a cover, use Aluminum foil.

After 1.5 hours of cooking, take the lid off and and continue to bake them for another hour.

Grate some Parmesan cheese onto the hot peppers.

Steaks stuffed with bacon then wrapped with more bacon

2012-05-29T00:39:00.002-07:00

Bacon brings the best flavors in any food. Everything wrapped in bacon tastes good, and if it already tasted good before, it tastes batter.

I made this loooong time ago, before Tasty Makes Happy even born. I never posted this so far, but since I didn't get +1 by Filip for my kale salad because it lacked meat, I thought I needed to make up for it with this very meaty dish.

I was at home one day and I was wondering what to do. I had some bacon and some stakes, and the idea of stuffing the steaks with bacon, then wrapping them in bacon came quickly to my mind.

Here is what you need:

4 thin steaks

a package of thin cut smoked bacon

seasoning salt, ground black pepper

toothpicks

If the steaks are not thin enough, you might have to pound them more Try not to make any holes, but keep in mind that it doesn't matter all that much. Once you wrap them in bacon, it will be good, no matter what.

Sprinkle seasoning salt and pepper on both sides of the steaks.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Put a couple of slices of bacon in the middle of each steak, and roll them along the longer side. Wrap with bacon covering all of the surface. You can use as much bacon as you want. Use toothpicks to hold the rolls together.

Place in the open safe baking dish and cover with lid. If your dish doesn't have a lid use some Tin foil. No need to grease the pan- remember you are cooking with excessive amounts of bacon. Bake covered for about 30-45 minutes then uncover and bake until the top side becomes crispy. Turn the rolls over and allow the other side to get crispy as well.

After taking this dish out of the oven, allow it to cool. Then remove the toothpicks and slice into cross sections and serve. You may even garnish the plate with some non meat food items such as salad greens, tomato slices or parsley.

I took this dish to a friend's house for a moving showing. It was quite popular and it didn't last long.

Here is another bacon wrapped recipe: Stuffed with Cheese Rolled with Bacon

Kale Salad

2012-05-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

I had a kale salad at a restaurant once and it was amazing. I never thought something called kale could taste so good. When I went back to the same restaurant, specifically to eat this salad again, they did't have it on the menu anymore. Instead, they had something that closely resembled cat food. It even came in the shape of a can, flipped strait from the can onto my plate. I didn't know any other restaurants that served kale salad, and it was obvious that if I wanted to get my kale salad fix, I was gonna have to make it myself.

There are different kinds of kale. You can pick any kind, just try to get younger leaves (thinner and softer) because kale tends to be tough. After trying different kinds of kale for this salad, I concluded that Russian kale works the best. Any supermarket sells kale. Natural food stores will have more kale verities than regular supermarkets. I would avoid buying already cut kale in a bag, because it tends to be really tough, even for cooking.

Kale is from the cabbage family, and everything from the cabbage family is extremely healthy. Not only that kale salad provides many nutritional benefits, it is also low in cholesterol, fresh, natural, easy and quick to prepare.

INGREDIENTS:

4 kale leaves

1 ripe tomato, sliced

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 cut chopped cucumber

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp honey

salt and pepper to taste

Step 1- MASSAGING THE KALE

Wash kale leaves and shake them dry. Pull the stems out. Pull or cut the leaves into smaller pieces. In a salad bowl, mix vinegar, salt, pepper and honey. Mix in the chopped kale leaves and makes sure they all get coated with this dressing. use your hands to massage the dressing into the leaves. This will help tenderize them. Leave them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to rest.

Step 2- PUTTING IT TOGETHER

While the massaged kale is resting, chop up the rest of the ingredients. You can put anything you normally eat in a salad. The other day I made a kale salad with avocado and tomatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients together with olive oil to the salad bowl and mix it all together. Serve cold with dinner.

Another Batch of Stuffed Peppers

2012-05-22T00:36:00.001-07:00

Yummy! Just got it done. Lunch tomorrow. No recipe this time, just pictures becuase I already posted about this 3 times, but they looked so good I had to put them on a photo shoot.

Stuffed Peppers ala Zorana

Stuffed Peppers ala Svetlana

And some more details

Quinoa Salad

2012-05-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

I was trying to get a quick lunch at a supermarket the other day and I decided to get some quinoa salad in addition to my bread and brie. I haven't had it in a while, and what I really liked about it is that it was minty. I don't usually use mint in food, but suddenly this seemed like a great idea. So, I decided to add mint in my next quinoa salad. Quinoa has some great nutritional benefits, but in all honesty it is plain and tasteless. I made a different kind of quinoa salad a couple of years ago, and described some of the nutritional features. You won't lure hungry customers into your restaurant with quinoa salad for sure, but it makes a great healthy side to a good meal.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup quinoa
1.5 cups water
1 medium size tomato
1 cup chopped cucumber
2 green onions, chopped
radish, chopped
4-6 stalks of parsley, chopped
10 mint leaves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
optional ingredients: bell or banana peppers, dried cranberries

In a small to medium cooking put combine quinoa and water. Bring to boil, then turn the hear down and continue to cook covered for 15 minutes. Check on it occasionally. The water should be completely absorbed when finished.

While quinoa is cooking, chop up the veggies. I like to cut them into small pieces so that it would mix well and I can get many different flavors in one bite, but you can cut them however you like.

When chopping parsley, I use the leaves only and discard the stems. Stems are OK to use as well, just a little more crunchy.

Combines all the chopped veggies and herbs in a dish large enough to accommodate your quinoa in addition to veggies and herbs. Add olive oil, salt and pepper and mix.

When quinoa is done cooking, let it cook for a while. You can mix it with a spoon to allow it to cool faster. When quinoa has cooled down to room temperature, add it to the bowl and mix well.

Serve cold as a side dis, appetizer or a salad.

Stuffed Peppers Details

2012-05-08T17:49:00.003-07:00

This post is dedicated to my friend who had some questions about stuffed pepper recipe. He expressed his concerns in a comment form, however Blogger didn't let me use enough characters to reply, so I had to make a whole new post.

First, this is the recipe we are talking about here:
http://tastymakeshappy.blogspot.com/2011/02/stuffed-peppers-ala-zorana-serbian.html?showComment=1336547385866#c3172060264751186235

Hi Z!

***Hello back to you my dear friend.***

I once again used your recipe to prepare some stuffed pepper. They are now happily baking in the oven.
***Making stuffed peppers at 1AM?! That’s dedication.***

That said, I actually have some time to report a few bugs in the recipe. It's not exactly anything wrong with the recipe itself, rather with the way I read it, and possibly how others may read it.

***Thanks for the very scientific approach to this. I am having to write very detailed step by work instructions at work, but I have to admit, I am not a very precise cook. One of the reason for it is that I am usually starving when I come home from work and I need to cook quick. That’s why I try to save the time by cutting up while cooking rather than preparing everything beforehand. If I could, I would have trained my cats to prepare all the ingredients for me before I come home, but they have not expressed any interested in cooking so far. Perhaps that’s because they prefer a raw diet. Also, their food comes in bite size pieces strait out of a bag and they never had to deal with these kind of issues. That’s too bad since they already have built in tools for shredding and cutting, and also have plenty of time on their paws. Having said this, I am having to do it all by myself while my stomach is growling and this is the best solution I could come up with.
Nevertheless, I will take it into the consider that not all cooks out there are Stavin’ Marvins, so I will try to be more detailed in my procedures from now on.***

Here goes.

The recipe text begins with "...heat the oil in a pan and add cut up bacon pieces."

Wait, that means I should have cut the bacon up in pieces before I started? It would be good for the recipe to say what I need to do before I start cooking. So I can read and do, like on a checklist.

***If you need more time to cut the bacon, I suggest you prepare it before you start heating the oil. You don’t want the oil to start burning. Seriously, it can catch on fire. For me, the time it takes the oil to heat is enough to cut the bacon (assumption: starting with bacon slices and not a live pig).***

"When meat look cooked, add rice. Mix together for a couple of minutes. While this is cooking, core the peppers". But, the meat and rice are almost done at this point; and I have yet to core the peppers. How much actual time do I have to core peppers now? Maybe it's better to do it beforehand? The recipe doesn't say.

***It takes about 30 seconds to core the peppers (snip snip), and the meat and rice won’t go anywhere. The sautéing time does not need to be exact because they will get plenty of more cooing I the oven.***

You should probably emphasize that one should not try to save time by stuffing peppers while the mix is still hot.

***I stuff the peppers while the mix is hot strait from the frying pan. The peppers have thick walls and are pretty good insulators while still raw.***

Then it says: "when bacon starts to cook, add onion, garlic and carrot". Wait, that means I should have already cleaned and cut them?

***I work on cutting those while the bacon is cooking. Perhaps not everyone is in starving condition when they cook, and may not want to rush as much as I do. You are right, I should add the prep list of specific form factors each ingredient needs to be in.***

Then you say "separate the bay leaves". How do I do that, if they fall apart while mixing? Maybe a tip about bay leaf preservation and fishing would be useful.

***Bay leaves shouldn’t fall apart when cooking. You can fish them out with a fork or a spoon. Fishing hooks and bate are not necessary in most cases. ***

"Close peppers with the tomato slices you cut out earlier" Oh, I was supposed to cut out tomato slices earlier? Oops...

***It says in the list of ingredients: “1 tomato, sliced”. How would you stuff peppers with the whole tomato anyways? You can also view cooking as an art for where you can express yourself and add your own touch to this recipe. Note how I closed the peppers in the picture above with their own tops. Now, they are not topless.***

"Please the peppers in a oven safe deep dish." I hope they were pleased. :)
***I hope too!***

***"Cast iron baking dishes are especially good..." Wait, I actually needed to have an iron baking dish all the while? Oh, shucks...
No, you don’t actually need one, I just said they are especially good, but any oven safe baking dish will do the job. However, the peppers may not be as pleased as much as they would have been if they were cooked in the cast iron dish.***

"De glaze the pan whit wine and water." Ummm, what does it mean to 'de glaze'? I kind of figured out that it's basically 'washing' the pan using wine, water and tomato paste, but would be cool to mention it for those of us who (obviously) don't have a first clue about cooking.

***Here is a Wikipedia link on deglazing a pan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deglazing_(cooking)
I agree. I should have added detailed instructions on how to properly deglaze a pan. Actually, I know how you feel. I have a similar experience. When I was little, my parents bought me an origami book which I had been wanting for a long time and I was super excited to finally have it and start making all these awesome things out of paper. I flipped through the pages and found the first thing I wanted to make. I was ready with my very own piece of paper to make this masterpiece. I started to read the first line of the instructions with much anticipation. It said: “start with the XYZ fold…” I was disappointed, I did not know what the XYZ fold was. I did not give up. I wanted to make something. I flipped through pages again and found another interesting origami I was going to turn into a masterpiece. Again the first line instructed to me to “start with a LMN fold”. I was obviously not advanced enough for this book, and had to stick to making paper frogs and stupid hats and airplanes that don’t fly, and never became an origami master.
I know it sucks to be kept in the dark about such a crucial step in the process. But, if you haven’t burned your house from hot oil that caught on fire while you were cutting bacon, if your meat and rice didn't get away while you weren’t looking because you were focusing of carving art sculptures out of those peppers with a professional pepper carving tool set (I’m sure it exists), if you didn’t burn your hands from stuffing them with a hot mix and if you pleased your peppers well enough, then I am sure that not deglazing the pan properly won’t make a significant impact on the final product.***

So there. It's how I saw the recipe. Note, as I said before, this is nothing to say about your recipe or approach. It's just a perspective of a person who is a cooking newbie (or even lower), and gets easily confused.

On the other hand, adjusting the recipe to take into account the dumbasses like me who are trying to cook is what makes a difference between a good, and a great recipe. Making a good recipe seems to be more than just jotting down thoughts as they come.

Keep up the good work. The hungry await more recipes.

***Eat well, or stay hungry! Never resort to packaged and over processed food. You might just as well eat your shorts. It is probably more nutritious.***

-Tasty Makes Happy

Simple Paella

2012-04-26T23:47:00.001-07:00

Paella is a good dish to make if you have friends coming over because you can make it in large quantities. Also, you don't have to cook too many side dishes- paella has it all: meat, rice, vegetables.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup oil

1/2 chorizo package

1 cup rice

1 onion

1 jalapeno

2 garlic cloves

1 can tomatoes

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup mixed seafood medley

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp seasoning salt

salt and peppter to taste

You can really make paella with any kind of meet. I've made it with chicken in he past and its quite good. This time I tried chorizo and seafood medley.

Start with heating the oil in the pan at medium heat. Then stir in chorizo. When it softens, add rice. Stir constantly to prevent sticking to the pan.

The rice will start changing the color to yellow and then add chopped onions, garlic and jalapeno. Stir all together for another 3-5 minutes or untill onions become soft and translucent. At this point you can season with salt, pepper, chilli powder or your favorite seasoning salt. But don't overdo it, you can always add more later.

Stir your seasoning well, and add canned tomatoes all together with the juice. When the mixture boils again, add the broth, lower the hear and cover. Let it cook for about 20 minutes. Do a taste test to see if you added enough salt and seasoning. Don't wait till the end because you don't want to stir up your paella at the end. When the liquids are almost gone, stir in seafood medley and cover again to allow it to cook for another 5 minutes.

Pick your paella pan:

Mahi Mahi with vegetables

2012-04-22T01:12:00.000-07:00

Most nutritionists agree that there are numerous health benefits of eating seafood. Although some fish can be contaminated with toxins such as mercury or PCBs, scientists agree that the benefits outweigh the risk. Seafood contains Omega-3 fatty acids which helps prevent immune system, protects against hearth disease, prevents the spread of some cancers, help relieve inflammatory diseases and help improve skin condition.

The intake of Omega-3 fatty acids is important for restoring the balance in our bodies. Our modern diet consists of foods that are rich in Omega-6 fatty acids which results in overproduction of prostaglandins and leukotrienes that cause many diseases. Most western diets have Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio of 1 to 10, and in many cases as high as 1 to 30. Research shows that excess Omega-6 fatty acids are a serious health risk as they lead to many common diseases. The ideal ratio should be 1 to 4.

It seems that this is an easy problem to fix- eat more fish. It is recommended to eat 2 servings of fish per week.

INGREDIENTS:

1 mahi mahi fillet

2 small tomatoes

5-6 asparagus spears

3 slices red bell pepper

3 onion slices

salt and pepper

3-4 Tbsp soy sauce

4 Tbsp olive oil

Cooking fish is not time consuming. The tricky part is not to overcook it, because that will make it dry. However you decide to prepare your fish (grilling, baking or frying), it would only take a couple of minutes per side, of course depending of the size of the fillet, steak or fish you are trying to make.

Fish doesn't need much seasoning. Mildly season both sides of the fillet with salt and pepper and soy sauce. Let the fish marinate while you cut up the veggies. Separate asparagus in a bowl and steam it or cook in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Heat the oil in the frying pan and fry the fish about 2 minutes per side for small fillet and 3 minutes per side for a medium fillet, keeping it covered. Take the fish out and put it on the plate. Saute the vegetables in the same oil for 3-5 minutes and spread them over the fillet. You've got a perfect healthy meal in less than 30 minutes.

Happy Easter!

2012-04-15T11:24:00.001-07:00

Tilapia with Brussels Sprouts

2012-04-01T23:50:00.011-07:00

INGREDIENTS:
1lb tilapia fillet
2 small garlic cloves, minced
salt, pepper
parsley, chopped
2 tbsp butter
juice from 1/2 lemon

for Brussels sprouts:
approximately 1/2 lb of brussels sprouts
1 tbsp butter
seasoning salt
1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 400F. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of tilapia fillet. Place minced garlic and chopped parsley on top of the filet. Squeeze lemon over it and cover with butter. Bake covered for 10 minutes and uncovered for 5-10 minutes. The fish should be flaky when done.

Cut Brussels sprouts in halves. Heat butter in the frying pan over medium heat. Add Brussels sprouts in melted butter and then sprinkle seasoning salt and mix. When the edges start to get brown, add water and continue to cook until the water is evaporated, about 10 minutes.

Or just buy this 2 in one fish figurine made out of Brussels sprouts:

What to farm your own tilapia? Here is how:

Okra and Eggplant Stew

2012-03-12T20:23:00.012-07:00

You don't see okra dishes every day. I realized that I only have okra when I go to Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants, and I even had it once in Jamaica. Being such a healthy vegetable, I decided to make an effort and prepare it myself with ingredients and spices to my liking.

I am not sure if this is because okra is not so popular, or because everyone rushed to buy it that day, but there was very little left at the store. So, I also bought one eggplant to put in the stew in addition to the okra.

Amongst its many nutrition benefits, okra is a great choice of food if you are watching your weight or cholesterol. It is also a good source of dietary fiber, protein and many vitamins and minerals.

INGREDIENTS:

1lb okra
1 eggplant
2 large onions
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans diced tomatoes
4 Tbsp tomato paste
3 Tbsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tsp ground black pepper
2-3 bay leaves
2 cups of chicken broth
1-2 cup of water
salt to taste
4-6 Tbsp olive oil
cilantro or parsley to garnish

Heat the oil in a large cooking pot. Chop onions and garlic and saute them in oil.

When the onions become translucent, add canned tomatoes and bring to boil. Add bay leaves and spices.

Cut up eggplant into about 1in cubes. Trim the crowns on the okra and then chop each one up into 2-3 pieces.

Combine them with tomatoes and onions in the cooking pot.

Mix well and add brother and water. Add more water if necessary for the desired consistency.

Cover and cook for about an hour.

Serve over rice or bread.

This dish makes great leftovers for lunch the next day.

Asparagus Pesto with Blue Cheese

2012-03-08T22:08:00.009-08:00

Asparagus has a ton of health benefits. Here is one way to take advantage of them.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb fresh asparagus

1/4 cup almonds

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup blue cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Cut asparagus ends off and discard. Then cut asparagus in half and cook it in water for 5-10 minutes until soft. Drain and set aside.

While the asparagus is cooking, roast almonds in a pan.

Combine coked asparagus, roasted almonds, grated Parmesan cheese and garlic in the food processor and blend together.

Add olive oil and blue cheese.

Serve over hot pasta.

It looks like asparagus is also used in beauty products:

There is even asparagus tea:

Twisted Pizza Sticks

2012-03-08T01:03:00.010-08:00

These pizza sticks are the best thing since sliced bread!

Pizza sticks make great party food, especially for kids parties. You can make these in large quantities and serve them to your guests as snacks or appetizers. Or just instead of bread- add a twist to the regular sliced bread.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough:
1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp flax seeds (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast

pan or oil

1 Tbsp butter

1tsp coarse salt

Parmesan cheese

garlic powder

dried oregano

Start with my favorite pizza dough recipe. Split the dough in 6 parts and roll them out into sticks like on the picture below. Preheat the over to 450F at this point.

Wrap them around skewers for grilling kebabs. Oil the pan and place pizza stick skewers on it.

Melt butter in a separate dish.

Use a brush to spread it over the pizza sticks.

They should look shiny like this.

Sprinkle salt, garlic powder, Parmesan cheese and oregano on top.

Bake at 450F for about 15 minutes.

Serve with marinara dip on the side (maybe not such a great idea if you are making those for kids party).

Potstickers

2012-02-20T01:39:00.000-08:00

INGREDIENTS:

Dough for potstickers

1lb ground pork

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 small bok choy, chopped

1 carrot

2 tbsp minced ginger

cilantro

green onions

hot chili sauce

salt

oil

Sauce:

soy sauce

vinegar

Cut up garlic, carrot, bok choy and sauté in oil. Add meat and stir until completely cooked. Ad salt and chili paste. Turn off the stove burner and then add chopped green onions and cilantro.

Place about 1 spoon of filling per dumpling. Use water to seal the edges. Press with fingers and set aside. Repeat this process for each dumpling. This is a tedious job as you have to make them one by one, and it takes a while. It is a good idea to have a "dumpling party" and have your friends over to make a large batch. It will go fasted with more people, and it will also give you an opportunity to bond and tell each other how your day went. Then you can freeze them uncooked and use them later.

Fry in hot oil on both sides.

You can also try a healthier option and steam then or cook them in water.

Serve with the sauce you prepared by mixing soy sauce and vinegar in equal proportions.

Grilled Potato and Onion Side Dish

2012-01-29T01:34:00.000-08:00

When you are turning on your grill to cook a chunk of meet, why not also grill your side dish.

INGREDIENTS:

1 potato

1/2 onion

1 Tbsp butter

Seasoning: salt, pepper, basil, thyme, oregano, dill.

Aluminum foil

(1 potato measure is good for one person. Multiply these measures for however many people are you cooking for)

Cut the potato and the half onion into 1/8 inch slices.

Place on the Aluminum foil and arrange the onions slices in between the potato slices.

Season.

Place butter on top.

Wrap the Aluminum foil tight. Fold the ends so that the butter and seasoning don't leak out.

Cook on the grill for about 30 minutes.

This dish is so simple to make, I could not possibly come up with any more words to write. But if you are still not sure you can do it, I found this book that might help you overcome your fear of grilling potatoes. You will need Kindle though:

ACTION POTATO- If you are obsessed with potatoes but you can't eat any more, here is a game you can play.

ActionPotato is a fun game that involves catching fresh potatoes to make potato stew. Tap pots to jump and catch potatoes thrown from the right side. If you catch a rotten potato, you lose the pot. But if you catch a heart item, a pot comes back.

Product Features

Catch fresh potatoes to make potato stew
Avoid rotten potatoes or you'll lost the pot
See how high you can score

There are some pretty great potato products out there:

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

2012-01-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

I saw this picture this morning and couldn't stop laughing. I don't have a recipe for this, but I thought I'd post something funny for a change.

From Daily Afternoon Randomness:

http://thechive.com/2011/07/18/daily-afternoon-randomness-47-photos-25/dar-monday-33-3/

Fruit Skulls by Steve Kimbel

2011-12-06T23:59:00.000-08:00

When my kids were growing up, I hollowed-out and carved a scary head from a cantaloupe, using grapes for eyes and to fill the empty head. Since this was near Halloween, the kids were at first shocked, then delighted to open the refrigerator to find breakfast, and instead to find a melon-head staring out at them. My oldest daughter has since graduated from college and has been working in industry the past 5 years, yet she remembered still the fruit head, so she asked me to carve some fruit skulls for a work Halloween party. Attached are the results. The honeydew mellow was nearly perfectly round, so Charlie Brown seemed a natural selection.

Steve

Turkish Spread

2011-11-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

INGREDIENTS:

1 eggplant, medium size

3-4 garlic cloves

1 lemon

1 cup yogurt

1-2 Tbsp mayo

1 Tsp ketchup

1 Tsp dijon mustard

1 Tsp olive oil

salt, pepper taste

black olives to decorate

3 cups water

Peel eggplant and cut it into 1/2 in squares. Chop garlic into large pieces. Squeeze lemon into water. Boil the water and cook the eggplant and garlic. Drain the water and discard it. Press with spoon to force all water out. Mash the eggplant and garlic together.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Put in a nice serving dish and decorate with black olives. You can also decorate with other colorful herbs or veggies, such as cherry tomatoes and chives.

Featured Christmas Kitchenware:

Dried Pepper Spread

2011-11-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

INGREDIENTS:

10 dried red peppers

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

150g finely ground walnuts

1/3 cup oil

salt to taste

2 Tbsp oil to spread over the top

1 radish to decorate

Cook dried red peppers until they become soft (about 30 minutes). Discard all the seeds. Use a sharp knife to scrape all the meat from the skin. Discard the skins. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Once in a serving dish, spread more oil over to top to create a shine surface.

Decorate with a radish. You can use a grater to cut a radish into a thin strip all around, then form it into a flower.