My Yummy Asparagus Pastry

Oops .. I said I'd post this ages ago ...

This was so easy.

I just got out a piece of puff pastry, laid it out on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper.
To the top, I added :
Chopped Spring Onions
Chopped Garlic Shoots
Chopped Asparagus
Pine Nuts
Kalamata Olives
Feta Cheese

I think I drizzled with olive oil.

Baked in oven til pastry was cooked.

Easy.

Yummy.

Rory said it was even better for leftovers the next day.

Orzo Veg Salad

I got the original recipe for this from
"Moosewood Restaurants Low Fat Favorites"
... a cookbook I'd love to own.

I've modified the recipe and am posting that modified recipe here.
(if you want the original ... get the book !)

1 package of Orzo pasta (called Rissoni in Australia)
1 tble sesame oil
1 cup chopped red bell peppers (red capsicum)
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
grape or cherry tomatoes
mushrooms

Cook the orzo, til al dente. Drain. Rince with cold water. Toss with sesame oil and set aside. (I've just realized I didn't do that !! -- oops)

Chop all the veggies and add to the salad.

Top with this dressing :

3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese chili paste (I used Korean chili paste as I didn't have Chinese)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root (I used the stuff out of a jar)
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced (again, I used the stuff out of a jar)
salt and ground pepper to taste

Serve hot or cold. Delicious both ways !!!

Pollo Wrap

You may have figured out by now that we like to put leftovers in flour tortillas and toast them in our sandwich press !!

The Pollo Guisado con Papas leftovers were perfect for this ! Uh, yeah, we're not afraid of carbs around here. Probably shouldn't eat as many as we do but we're not going to talk about that right now !

If you find yourself with leftovers of this amazingly delicious dish and want to try it a different way, get out your sandwich press, fill a flour tortilla with the leftovers ... yep, even the rice. Wrap 'em. Toast 'em. Eat 'em !!

You could even add a bit of cheese ... like Rory and the kids did !

What's for Lunch ?

My kids like a bit of Spaghetti with their Parmesan Cheese for lunch ...

Soy Yaki Udon

Yaki means 'fried' in Japanese.
Udon noodle is thick noodle with flour.

- Olive oil ( Cooking oil )
- Soy sauce 2 big spoon
- Sugar 2 small spoon
- Minced Ginger 1/2 small spoon
- Garlic (optional)
-2 packs of Udon Noodle

At Woolworth, I buy one packet of 100g Udon Noodle with only 1 Australian Dollar.

I'm not sure that Udon Noodle can be easily found in the States.

'Soy Yaki Udon' is affordable and easy to cook.

All you need to do is throwing soy sauce,sugar,ginger and olive oil and Udon on a fly pan.

Bonnie Makes The Pollo

Has anyone besides me made this yet ?

IT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD !

... and easy to make.

Try it.

You'll like it !

Pollo Guisado con Papas

Menu Plan Monday - Bonnie - Edition 31

Monday:
Sushi

Tuesday:
Falafals & McClaine Potato Salad

And that, my friends, is as far as I got this week.
Not a good week for menu planning !!

But next week ... next week, I've got a surprise for you.

But you'll have to come back next week ...
because I can't share it before then !!

Pop over to I'm An Organizing Junkie for more menu planning ideas.

Menu Plan Monday - Bonnie - Edition 30

Monday:
Eggs on Toast

Tuesday:
Pollo Guisado Con Papas

Wednesday:
Sushi

Thursday:
Falafals & McClaine Potato Salad

Friday:
Pizza

Saturday:
To friend's place for dinner

Sunday:
Chinese Orzo and Veg Salad

** Pop over to I'm An Organizing Junkie for more menu planning ideas ...

Menu Plan Monday

This is my first time planning for the week, much less posting it, so thanks for not mentioning the fact that it's now Wednesday.

Monday-Burritos at a friend's (with this awesome guacamole...)
Tuesday- Thai chicken soup
Wednesday- we eat at church, it'll be a surprise
Thursday- Chicken fried steak (a girl from church is coming to our house and teaching us how.)
Friday- Steak with olives (I'm excited about this new recipe. If it's good, I'll post it.)
Saturday- Cabbage Chicken Salad (with leftover steak instead of chicken)
Sunday- Green enchiladas at another friends.

It's a big week for eating with other people. Should be fun.

Kitchen Poetry Day 3

Dukkah for dinner ! Love it.

My challenge for myself for tomorrow is to get a kitchen photo that doesn't involve food !!

What's for Lunch ?

Jono and Alia love it when I put sushi in their lunches.

I usually just make them kappamaki ... cucumber rolls.

Kitchen Poetry Day 2

I snapped this while unloading and putting away my groceries ...

No, my eggs weren't open. I opened them for the sake of the photo ... :)

Pop over to Simple Sparrow for more Kitchen Poetry.

Fish sauce - Jeogal

Bonnie made a lovely Kimchi with Authentic Korean Fish sauces.

there are lots of fish sauces.

Jeotgal or jeot is a salted fermented food in Korean cuisine. It is made with various seafood, such as shrimp, oysters, shellfish, fish, fish eggs, and fish intestines.
Jeotgal is mainly used as a condiment in pickling kimchi and as a dipping sauce for pig's feet (jokbal) and blood/noodle sausage (sundae). Sometimes jeotgal, commonly saeujeot, is added to Korean style stews (jjigae) and soups (guk and tang), for flavor instead of using salt or soy sauce (ganjang).
The types of jeotgal vary depending on main ingredients, regions, and family and personal preferences. In past times, due to the limited transportation, regions near seas had more types of jeot compared to the inland areas.

- from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeotgal

My Egg dish from the other post is cooked with a shrimp saurce.

A (shortened) Menu Plan

Pam and I took a little field trip to the asian grocery store downtown and to the new low-price organic grocery store called Sprouts. Both stores were really fun! We had to stop ourselves from buying absolutely everything in sight :P

Sunday - Sushi Bowls
I found a nice sized chuck of delicious yellowfin tuna at Sprouts for $2.88!

Monday - Pasta Puttanesca
A tube of anchovy paste JUMPED into my cart at the Pacific Mercantile and all of a sudden I had to make this amazing pasta dish!

Tuesday - Chicken Vindaloo
Also making the leap into my cart was a packet of vindaloo seasoning. It just begged to be slathered all over my costco chicken. And wouldn't ya know, a box of palak paneer was on sale at Sprouts!

The rest of the week I won't be home for dinner. Fortunately my shortened menu makes up for it with sheer yuminess!

Spaghetti Aliolio

An easy, throw together, four ingredient (if you count the Parmesan cheese) meal !!

You will need garlic, Olive Oil, some form of pasta ... I like vermicelli.

Slice the garlic. We like lots.

Cook the pasta.

Fry the garlic in the Olive Oil.

Drain the pasta.

Mix in the garlic and Olive Oil.

Top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Serve with a glass of wine.

Bread and salad go nice with it but then it's not as quick and easy !

Menu Plan Monday

AHHH! Tis the soup season. We are finally getting Fall weather and there is something mysterious in the air that makes me want to make lots of SOUP!
Monday - Honey Pork Chops With baked potatoes and greens
Tuesday -Spinach Orzo Chicken soup
Wednesday - Spaghetti
Thursday - Fireside Beef Stew - I'll take a picture and post the recipe this week
Friday - TGIF's Black Bean SoupSaturday -
Saturday - Rory's Carbonara
Sunday - Leftovers

Kitchen Poetry

Toni over at Simple Sparrow, a blog I only discovered today through a new blog I've been reading called Such Things, is doing the coolest thing for the next week ! I'm going to participate. Maybe not every day but I'm sure going to try ! Here's an excerpt of what Toni said. Ok, ok (!) it's more than a excerpt, it's almost her whole post but to paraphrase it would not be near as eloquent ...

I'm going to start halfway through a thought, just because I can !

QUOTE .... got me thinking about the kitchen, about food, about how preparing nourishing and appealing meals shows so much love for your family. About how much the kitchen is the hub and heart of a home. Good smells, conversation, laughing, messes, cleaning-up. Little hands reaching to help, big hands stealing a taste, coming together to enjoy the fruit of your labor. It all takes place in the kitchen. So much of life happens in the kitchen.

Starting Monday the 3rd through Sunday the 9th I will be posting a photo a day of moments in my kitchen--and I would love for you to join me! The photos don't need to be only of food, oh no. Favorite dishes, pretty corners, rays of sunshine, little ones playing (for a time, Noah always brought his toys into the kitchen) If it's happening in the kitchen, it fits. I would really love to see photos that are not so much set up, but captured randomly as you go about your day. Just carry on as normal, but snap a few pics in the process. Think of it as kitchen journalism.

If you would like to join in, leave a link to your blog or flickr page here in the comments. Then we can all share in the kitchen poetry you've captured. Spread the word too! END QUOTE

Here's my first photo ...

PS ... I won't be posting a menu plan this week. I haven't planned a menu. Not really. I really want to eat up what's in the pantry / fridge / freezer this week so we'll see what comes of that !!

Beer Battered Fish

This was yummy. I found the recipe here ... you should go check it out.
I love the way she presented the meal !

Kevins Beer Battered Fish (she copied directly from here ... and I am copying directly from her)

Ingredients:
1 bottle beer- I used a light lager
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg (lightly beaten)
1 pound cod fillets (or halibut, or haddock, etc., cut into serving sized pieces)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup flour
oil for frying

Directions:
1. Mix the beer, flour, baking powder, salt and egg into a batter in a bowl.
2. Season the fish with salt and pepper.
3. Dredge the fish in the flour and shake off any excess.
4. Dip the fish into the batter.
5. Fry the fish in preheated 375F oil until cooked, about 4-5 minutes.

Grace's breakfast

Today I would like to invite you my breakfast table.
In Korea, meal is same word as 'rice'.

Actually, there are two different words to call rice: 'Bob' is cooked rice ,which is steamed rice.
Another is 'Ssal', which is uncooked as a grain.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner can be called 'Bob'.

Of course, Jun and Grace normally have 'Bob' three times a day with 'Bob' in Korea.
Since we live in Australia, at least one meal we try to have as we used to eat in Korea.

Saturday Breaky - I did four side dishes and Korean Miso soup.
Side dishes - Steamed Egg with fish sauce.
Fried Tofu
Steamed Broccoli with chilly sour sauce.
Nori(Seaweed, there are at least 10 different seaweeds, Korean and Japanese eat)


Side dishes are important. A bowl of rice always goes with savory dishes.
Odd number is preferable so 3,5,7,9 side dishes are served in traditional serving.

Soup helps digesting a bowl of rice.
Children easily put their rice in the soup eat with spoon.

I did mushroom , potato, Chilly Miso soup.
I will post it later how to cook.

Scrumptious Soft Pretzels

I found this recipe HERE.

I should have listened to her and tripled the recipe !! These were sooooooo good !

CUT and PASTED from the link above :

Soft Pretzels

INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil

3 tbsp baking soda
1 cup hot water (as hot as your tap can get)
Sea salt


DIRECTIONS:
Dissolve yeast into water with a pinch of sugar, let stand 10 minutes, until the mixture is creamy colored. Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, salt and canola oil, and knead until combined (a few minutes, not even 5). Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough, about 6 times. Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now). Twist it into a pretzel shape and place it on a baking sheet lined with silipat or cooking spray. Repeat with the rest of the strands.

Dissolve baking soda into hot water and stir until dissolved. Quickly dip each rolled pretzel into the mixture and place it back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle all the pretzels with sea salt, to your preference. Bake for about 8 minutes, until pretzels have browned.

Makes six medium-sized pretzels.

Pancakes

I am reposting this ... originally posted on my first blog that is now private and never used !!

~

I have NEVER been able to make good pancakes from scratch. NEVER. Until now ! Lauren at Vegan Yum Yum posted THIS recipe. Have you all been to check out her site ? Come on now, don't let the vegan part scare you off. She's got some great great great recipes ! She was also recently on the Martha Stewart show doing the cutest thing. See that clip on her blog HERE.

~

I must mention how EASY this is ! You do it all in the blender ! And you can do it the night before ! I made a batch for me and the kids last night and then when Rory got home later, I made him a batch too. Kept the leftovers in the blender in the fridge and the kids had pancakes again for breakfast this morning !!

~

I am cutting and pasting the recipe from HERE.

Easy Weekend Pancakes
Makes about 25 Silver Dollar Pancakes, enough for two people

1 1/2 Cup Soymilk (I have used normal milk too)
1 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Oil
1 Cup Spelt (or all-purpose*) Flour
1/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Extract (any flavor, I used orange, but vanilla is a no-brainer)
1-2 Tbs water, to thin batter if needed

*If using only all-purpose flour for this recipe, you may need to add more liquid. Regular flour absorbs more moisture than spelt.

Add soymilk to your blender. Add remaining ingredients except the water and blend for a few seconds until combined. Scrape down any dry flour stuck to the side of the jar and blend again. Place the top on the blender and refrigerate overnight. You can also use the batter immediately.

In the morning, place the blender back on the base and add 1-2 Tbs of water, blend to mix. This re-thins the batter that had thickened overnight.

Pouring BatterPreheat oven to 200º F, or the lowest setting, and put an oven-safe plate on the middle rack. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat for a few minutes. Pour the batter directly into the center of the UNgreased heated pan. I like silver dollar sized pancakes, 2 1/2 to 3″ in diameter, but you can make any size you want. This batter should create fairly thin pancakes.

After a few minutes of cooking, you’ll see the bubbles form and set on the uncooked side of the pancake. The batter will start to set, and it will change color from white to dull yellow. This is when you should flip. If your pancake isn’t brown by this time, turn your heat up. If it is overly brown, your heat is too high.While cooking the pancakes, place the finished ones directly into the oven on the plate. Stack the pancakes as you go. This will keep the whole stack warm while you’re cooking them.

THESE PHOTOS ARE MINE >>>

Now, isn't that a good lookin' pancake ?!

With some blueberries for the photo ...

And how I really eat pancakes. Sickly sweet ... not usually my forte. I'm more of a savory/salty girl but when it comes to pancakes and french toast, I want butter, powdered sugar and maple syrup ! The combination is divine. Add bacon to the mix and I might just jump for joy ! ( not very high though if it's AFTER I eat !! )

Banana Muffins

1 cup softened but not melted butter
1.5 cups of sugar
7 ripe bananas ... you know, the black ones that have been in the freezer for months !
4 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven ... 200C ( 375F)

Mix butter and sugar ... til light and fluffy. Add bananas, egg. Mix some more. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda. Add. Mix. Dump the mixture into your muffin tins. Bake 20 minutes.

Easy and delicious !!

Tortillas

Here is my sister's recipe for tortillas. I've had these quite a few times at her house over the years and I don't know why I've never tried to make them. They are wonderful!

Tortillas
Recipe is from a family friend and my sister has adapted it over the years.

Ingredients:
3 C. whole wheat flour
1 C. white flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 C. nonfat dry milk powder (optional--I don't usually use this much)

1 1/4 C. (warm) water
6 Tbs cooking oil

Directions:
Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Measure the water into a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Add oil. Stir quickly and pour into flour mixture.

Stir with a fork until mostly mixed. Dump onto countertop and knead a few times. (Slighty moist dough is way easier to roll out than dry, tough dough.) Divide into 16 balls. Place the balls close together on the countertop and cover with the inverted bowl (put the fork in the way to make it easier to open and shut the bowl) to prevent drying out while you roll them.

Roll each ball into a 9" circle, with a consistently thin layer of flour (to prevent sticking and "folding") on the countertop. Cook in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat for thirty seconds on each side. (When bubbles form, it's time to flip.) I use a double-wide pancake skillet turned to 350 degrees so I can keep a continuous supply going. It takes about 30 seconds for me to roll the next one. Patting the dough balls into a flat starting pancake is a good job for a little kid, and can speed the process up. These are labor-intensive, but it's what I'm used to now. Don't expect your first ones to be perfect! (i.e. don't get discouraged and never make them again)

Number Of Servings:16 9-inch tortillas

Preparation Time:longer than I'd like (about 25+ minutes)

What's for Lunch ?

My kiddos love Equadorian Quinoa Vegetable Soup !!

I top it with a bit of cheese, add some corn chips and a spoon. Easy, yummy, healthy lunch !

I think next winter I will get them thermoses that can go in their lunch boxes so they can have their soups warm !

Beef and Guinness Pie

2 tbsp olive oil
one onion
1.5 cups mushrooms, halved
600g beef ( I used rump steak ), chopped into one inch cubes
2 tbls wholemeal flour
3 tbls sunflower oil
1.25 cups Guinness Beer
1.25 cups nice beef stock
two sheets of puff pastry
beaten egg, to glaze
Salt and Pepper

Saute onion and mushrooms in heavy bottom pan.

Season the flour ( I used garlic salt and pepper ) and toss the meat in it.

Remove onion and mushrooms from pan. Brown the steak on high heat to seal in the juices.

Add the onion and mushrooms back to the pan. Pour in the beer and stock.

Bring to the boil. Reduce heat, simmer, one hour or until meat is tender.

Pour into pie dish. Cover and let it cool.

If you have planned far enough in advance, leave this over night as the flavour only gets better !

When ready to bake ... Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Cut pasty in the shape of the dish. Also cut a strip (about 1 inch thick ) from around the pastry.

Put that on the rim of the pie dish and press it on.

Brush with beaten egg then put the round piece on top of it !

IS THIS MAKING SENSE !?

I then cut the remaining piece of pastry into four long strips. I folded each one lengthwise ... twice.

I used that those strips to go around the outside of the pastry to make a pretty pie crust border !

Brush the whole thing with beaten egg.

Stab the middle of the pie with a knife so the steam can escape while it cooks.

Chill 15 minutes in fridge. Gotta rest the pastry !

Bake 30-40 minutes ... until the pasty is a nice golden brown.

I served with mashed potatoes/turnips, and sauteed greens.

Whole Wheat Bread Maker Bread

I found this recipe at bread-maker.net ... a fantastic site full of bread maker recipes.
I plan to try a bunch of them !! If you have a bread maker, I'd recommend checking the site out !

This one was really really nice !! I'm cutting and pasting the recipe ...

Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients for a 2-lb (1kg) loaf:
1 1/3 cups milk
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons honey or sugar
4 teaspoons margarine or butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 active dry yeast

Directions:
Add ingredients according to manufacturer's instructions. Select Basic cycle. When baking cycle has ended, let cool to room temperature before slicing.

Menu Plan Monday - Bonnie - Edition 29

Friday - home made pizza.














Saturday - beer battered fish ... recipe to follow in the week.

We also had homemade chips, onion rings and calamari. We figured we might as well go the whole hog while we had the deep fryer out. HOG is the right word too ... we felt disgusting afterwards. If we ever make this fish again, it will be accompanied by a large green salad !!

Sunday - I didn't eat. I had a sore throat and just drank a soothing coke ! Nearly stayed up all night as a result !! I think Rory made himself an egg.

Monday - tonight. We're having Beef and Guinness Pie. It's a new recipe for us. I cooked the insides yesterday and just have to top with pastry and bake for dinner tonight. I'll be making potato and turnip patties to go with it ... unless I become very lazy, then it will be potato and turnip mash !!

Tuesday - we will be trying Beth's Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos ! I will also be trying to make my own flour tortillas. Has anyone reading this made them before ? I'd love to have a link to a good recipe ... I'm just picking one at random to try !!

Wednesday - Inspired by the Denver contingent's Belgian Waffles, I am going to make Pancakes. I love pancakes for dinner. I will be posting this recipe during the week too. In my search for the link, I discovered that I hadn't posted this to the beans blog but actually to my other blog that is private and I don't post to anymore ! A lot of good it's doing there !!

Come back later in the week ... this recipe is one you don't want to miss !!

A few more recipes that I've tried out this week and will post soon ...

Whole Wheat Bread in my breadmaker. Easy and yummy.



















Soft Pretzels.
SOOOOO YUMMY !!
We all loved them !!



















Made these today.

DELiCiOUS !!

Stop by Orgjunkie.com for more Menu Plan Monday !!

And don't forget November starts our month of Spanish cooking !!!

Foods of The World - Potluck

This is a savory dish, wonderfully complemented by sweet amarillos, the recipe for which also follows. It may seem a little strange--rice and potatoes?!--so let me just say, a Puerto Rican diet is not for the faint of heart, or for those watching their carbs! But trust me, once you get a whiff of this while it's cooking, you won't care how many calories or carbs are in it. If you feel the need to assuage any guilt, though, serve it with a salad.

Pollo Guisado con Papas
Stewed Chicken with Potatoes

6 chicken pieces (I use boneless, skinless thighs, but it's your preference)
2 or 3 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large sweet onion, cubed
6 - 12 cloves garlic, minced (depends how much you like garlic!); can substitute minced garlic you buy in a jar
12 green olives (you can always pick them out if you don't like them, but cook with them for flavor)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 Cup white cooking wine
1 Cup olive oil (if you're concerned about the amount, you can reduce it, but I wouldn't go less than 1/2 a Cup)
1/4 Cup white vinegar
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt

Combine everything in a large pot, stirring to coat the chicken and vegetables with the sauce mixture. Push the chicken down, covering it with the vegetables, to keep it tender and ensure it cooks through.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium high. Keep at a steady boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and stir, ensuring the chicken is covered again. Cook 30 more minutes. Check potatoes for tenderness; if necessary, cook an additional 15 minutes. If you don't serve it immediately, reduce heat to low and cover.

Serve over white rice with amarillos on the side.

Amarillos
Fried Plantains

These sweet, fried plantains (platanos) are called amarillos in Puerto Rico, and maduros in Cuba. Amarillo means yellow in Spanish, and maduro means mature or ripe, so they're both apt names for the ripe, yellow plantains used to make them!

Ripe plantains (also known as green bananas), 1 plantain per 2 people should be enough
Olive oil (or vegetable oil, if you prefer)

Allow plantains to ripen at room temperature until yellow with black spotting, to the point where they almost look spoiled. Depending on how green they are when you buy them, this could take a week or more, so plan accordingly. You can speed the ripening process by storing the plantains in a brown paper bag with a small apple. Just be sure to keep a close watch on them to prevent spoiling! This is what they should look like.

Using a very sharp knife, cut off the ends of the plantain and split the skin down the length of it. The fruit inside should be pinkish-yellow. Carefully peel. A plantain's skin is thinner than a banana's, and it adheres a bit more to the fruit when it's ripe, so it's not as easily peeled as a banana. Cut off any bruised spots.

Pour oil into a shallow frying pan, about 3/4 inch deep. Heat oil over medium heat. While the oil is heating up, slice plantains into wedges, about 1/4 inch thick.

Place plantain wedges in oil but do not overlap them.

Fry, turning once, until deep golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Serve and eat together. The two flavors mixing and melting in your mouth...heaven!

You can reheat leftover pollo guisado in the microwave or on the stove top, but I recommend reheating amarillos on a lightly greased or foil-covered baking sheet in the oven or toaster oven at about 300 degrees for just a few minutes.

I hope you enjoy this meal as much as I do. ¡Buen provecho!

What to do with that big ole cabbage ?

This is an easy-peasy-throw-a-meal-together-without-thinking dish that is always a hit here.
It also came in handy last week when I needed to use an entire cabbage !

All you need is:
Cabbage
Onion
Polish Sausage
Rice
Soy Sauce

All you do is:
Cook your rice ... in your rice cooker, if you have one !
Brown the chopped up sausage, add the onion and cabbage.
Add a bit of soy sauce.
Cook ' til the veggies are the softness you like.

Serve the veg/sausage mixture on top of the rice.

World Foods - Potluck

Belgian Waffles:

Aunt Kathy got a new toy...a WONDERFUL flippy Belgian waffle maker. We decided that it must be tried out immediately! When we tried to find a recipe, we discovered that there are a wide range of recipes for this particular food. We were a bit overwhelmed at first, but our need for waffles helped us overcome our confusion! We thought we'd share the recipe we discovered...as it was SOO YUMMY!!

2 cups flour (we used un-enriched flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs (separated)

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 1/2 cups milk (we used whole cause that's what we keep in the house)

1/2 cup sparkling water (we ended up using sparkling water that had a hint of lemon flavor and it turned out fine...gave the milk a slight buttermilky flavor)

non-sick cooking spray

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions (we found that halfway between medium and high produced the done-ness that we liked).

In a medium bowl, mix together (I think I used a fork) flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a second bowl, use a wooden spoon to beat together egg yolks and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved and the eggs have turned a pale yellow. Add the vanilla extract, melted butter, milk and sparkling water. Whisk to combine. Combine the egg-milk mixture with the flour mixture and whisk just until blended. Do not over mix.

In a third bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form (about 1 minute). Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the waffle batter. Do not overmix!!!

On to the cooking!!

Here's Pam coating the waffle iron with pam. :-) Pour enough batter to just cover the waffle grid. Close and cook.

Our nifty new toy is the flippy kind...

Look at that YUMMY waffle!!



We topped our waffles with our homemade plumb preserves and plenty of whipped cream. It was a huge success!