Yes, these are rocks

I took Koren's good advice and did not 'over think' the project this week and success was mine. I found a great recipe online (which I modified a bit) for rocks. Now, you have to use your imagination a bit as these are cooked rocks. Yes, you read that correctly. And try to ignore the fact that the recipe is very close to the play dough recipe for kids I almost wore out about 20 years ago:

Things You'll Need:
¾ cup plain flour
¾ cup salt
1/2 tsp. essential oil
2/3 cup boiling water
Food coloring of your choice
Bowl

Step 1
In your bowl, mix the flour and salt thoroughly with a sifting spoon.
Step 2
Add your essential oil(s) and the boiling water to the dry mixture. Mix well.
Step 3
Add food coloring of choice a drop at a time until you have the desired color achieved. The color may lighten a bit after drying.
Step 4
Form into balls or "rocks" and allow to sit out and dry. Once dry, place the scented rocks into dishes or vases, or wherever you want to use them. Enjoy the appearance and scent of your new scented rock potpourri.

I used blue + red food coloring to make mauve (sorry they look grey here but then again that is more rock like) and lavender essential oil. Used disposable gloves getting the soft moist dough into the rock stage. Going to put them in my closets.

Uncle

Okay, you win Koren, I pass. I went as far as obtaining some yellow paper and downloading oragami instructions but....as Kaleb said "didn't look like it worked out". All I have are some offerings for the recycle pin. The Green Party would not be pleased with me. And I do like the towels. So... the theme for next week will be:

rock

as in rock, paper, scissors not rock n roll.

Buenos Dias

I have been feeling pretty ansty today so finding the paitence to complete this project has been the challenge. I am going to post the 1st picture now but I plan on working on this a little further this evening. I was afraid I'd run out of the energy to post so I took a picture of my progress. I was at Wal Mart the other day and saw 6 handtowels for $6. The yellow first caught my eye but the price certainly sold me. This is the first time I have done free hand embroidery and I think it went alright... the letters don't look quite right... the o looks like an a but I think I can fix it. I plan on adding some viney type things with flowers. I have some ideas for the other 5 but I have not settled on any of 'em yet. I could use some cross stitch type patterns... maybe make a Super Mario one for one of my Nintendo loving sisters. I know Gina is redoing her bathroom right now, I'll have to think of one for her too. Anywho; here's the W.I.P.
Any ideas for some good sayings for them? Can't wait to see what Mom picks for next week.

Home Tweet Home

I looked and looked today for the conectors but I couldn't locate them. But, when it is finished, it stands up and will look kinda cute. Hopefully I can update this tomorrow when I am less tired and have finished the project.

This week was for the birds

Well, I have no one to blame but myself as I was the one choosing the theme but in hindsight I could've picked something more amenable to my creativity. I struggled all week to come up with something, reviewed websites, cruised the craft sections while shopping and still nothing. When I asked Tim for suggestions he thought of roasting birds and then taxidermy so definitely no help! I considered bird feeders, bird houses, stencilling, filet crochet, cross stitch and more. Finally acknowledging to myself that something with/for birds is really hard.

So...I have settled for a craft which is just a bit of a stretch to call it new. I scrapbook for sure but this style is one which is new to me. I borrowed the pattern from an online source and modified to my taste and used it as the cover of two small albums. I searched online and printed two birds as the subjects and then started experimenting.

I have to say that I'm quite pleased with my efforts and even more pleased that I won't have to choose the theme for next week!

We're a crafty pair!

Well, after a bit of a hiatus due to lack of time and logistics of cooking in foreign environments we have consulted and decided to reinvent – if not ourselves, the blog – so here is the plan….Since we’re both pretty creative and would like to prove it - the blog will focus on crafts with the following criteria:

Has to be a small project which can be completed in a few hours ex. an evening

It’s okay to try something new even if it doesn’t work that will be part of the learning experience

Have to use materials on hand in the house, or if purchasing the materials can’t cost over $10

We will follow the same format of posting a photo and description on Sunday

The theme will allow for varied interpretations ex. tree could be something to do with the Christmas tree, shrubs in the yard, tree shapes etc.

We alternate weeks for choosing the theme – I’m starting the choosing off this week with….

birds

Sorry about taking away the vote, we were never really a democracy anyway as I'm more of a benevolent dictator. And it's kind of hard to have you vote for a favorite project as there's no blinding with the posting. So...here we go again.

Maja

Carrots in Cookies??

Well, I was looking for something really different and ....I found it with the carrot cookie recipe. The only change I made from the one on allrecipes.com was to lower the oven temperature. They sound very strange but are very tasty, trust me as I've eaten enough of them in the past few hours to know. They aren't dry like some oatmeal cookies but chewy.

Peanut Butter Carrot Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream together the margarine, brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter.
Add in the egg and the milk. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and stir in. Stir in oats. Add in the carrots and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen.

We were discussing / rating the cookies at supper tonight and Crystal and Beth decided that it's sort of like when you use zucchini in cake and you don't taste it but as I mentioned "you can taste carrots when you cook and eat them separately though, zucchini are still tasteless". They both gave them a 7/10, although Crystal found them quite sweet and would've added some sort of spice. Tim obviously enjoyed them (even though he's not a fan of peanut butter cookies) gave them an 8/10 and ate 4 or 5 this afternoon. So, a definitely make these again attempt. I'm thinking they'll likely keep well with the carrot to keep them moist.

Today, I ate a hummingbird.

Yes, that is a kitchenaid mixer Maja; jealous?? I know you are that is exactly why I took the picture :) I had to bake with pineapple this week as it was discouraged from combining meat and fruit by my roomie. I also searched out a pineapple recipe that Mom might actually bake/eat. The best sounding one (and one I had all the ingredients for - bonus!) was Hummingbird Cake. Why is it named that? Why it has real bits of Hummingbird in it of course!

Ok, so there's not a small bird in this cake (or even bits of one). I mean, I went looking but thanks to the 4 inches of snow there weren't any to be found. The cake has pineapple, bananas and vanilla and when baking smells like a hawaiin blizzard from Dairy Queen. Yum!!

It ended up being just alright. I mean its good but not wow or anything. It's like a light banana bread. I think it will be even better after it sits overnight.


Los Ingredientes

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
2 cups diced bananas
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan.
2. Measure flour, sugar, soda, salt, cinnamon, oil, eggs, vanilla into mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. Stir in pineapple with juice, bananas, and pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in oven for about 70 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack or plate after cooling for 20 minutes. Cool, and ice with cream cheese icing.

So, I made some modifications. I didn't use oil instead I used apple sauce... and you could definitly use splenda and at least half whole wheat flour.... so all in all pretty healthy. There were no pecans but I think it woulda made it a little better (doesn't make or break it I wouldn't say). I used a little extra cinnamon and vanilla... but it was still lacking a little something. I think I will make a cream cheese icing to spread on it tomorrow. The vote from Noreen and Snowball (who apparently, has to test all baking) was that it was very good. I thought a little bland but the longer it sat the better it got and she said she liked it cause it was a lot lighter than banana bread.

I'd recommend making it. Maybe make a few additions to spice it up. I'd give it a 8.5 outta 10.





Picture 1) Thought it would make up for me using a kitchenaid mixer for Mom to see me making a mess in someone else's kitchen.
Picture 2) After it got out of the oven. Looking great.
Picture 3) The offical taste tester.
Picture 4) All ready to be eaten.

Pineapple = Polynesian Chicken

Well after the false start of a banana pineapple cake - the testers only gave it a 5/10 as it was 'ok but didn't taste like much' on Saturday I started over again with a main dish recipe today and this one was such a hit that I only have the under construction photo to share because the meal disappeared so quickly there wasn't time to snap a pic. It was given a 8 or 9 out of 10 by Tim who had seconds so that's as good a record as you're going to get. I combined a couple of recipes to come up with this one which was economical as I used drumsticks:

Polynesian Chicken

Chicken pieces
1 can pineapple chunks (drain and reserve juice)
1 can mushrooms
1 onion finely diced
3 cloves garlic finely diced

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp mustard (I used whole grain dijon)

2 tbsp soya sauce

1/2 cup wine or wine vinegar

1 tsp ginger

Place chicken pieces in 9 x 13 baking dish
Sprinkle pineapple, mushrooms, onion and garlic over the top
Mix last six ingredients with reserved pineapple juice and pour over top
Cover dish with foil and bake in preheated oven x 450F x 1 hr, reduce heat to 400F and bake x 1 hr, then remove foil and brown x 10 min.

Three Bean Salad

I'd like to start with saying I resent the reference to Bean Salad in a slightly derogatory way in the earlier post by my co-blog-writer a.k.a Maja. But she went looking for a challenge this week and I stuck with something I knew I'd like but hadn't made before.
This Bean Salad was nothing like the one our Port Saxonite friend makes but, its super simple and it will suffice until I get home and plan a pot luck (I'm thinking October 4th - mark it on your calendars).

This is all you'll need:
1 (15 ounce) can green beans
1 pound wax beans
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, sliced into thin rings
3/4 cup white sugar
2/3 cup distilled white vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seed

I didn't use the celery seed... although I am POSITIVE there is some in this house as there is every other baking/cooking ingredient, implement and book in this new place I now call home. It has been chilling in the refrigerator since yesterday and although I am too stuffed right now (and leaving to go out to supper in 40 mins) I have tested it at least 5 times and it seems to be getting better with time. I think balsamic vinegar would make a good change to this recipe of course since I am my fathers daughter I added some garlic. Oh, and of course I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and not as much sugar as called for, less that a 1/2 c. I'd say and some people commented that they had used splenda and that it turned out good too.
Noreen approves as well and that says a lot as she tried to take over a few times while I was in the kitchen. I am sure she would have done it much differently but she too agreed it was "pretty tasty". It'll be going with me everyday to work this week as it made a fair bit.

Until next week!

Saturday night beans

Well we're slipping up in the posting and voting department....ahem Daja are you listening? as someone (that would NOT be the Maja) has had a social life lately. So I chose the ingredient of the week as kidney beans because I had some and I like them. So it turned out we had beans on Saturday night and that's kind of funny in this house because there are two reasons why Tim and I are still together after 35 years and that would be because we both don't like horses or care to eat baked beans. Well maybe there are other reasons too, but those are the main ones. But I digress.

I looked for a recipe that would not be chili or bean salad and a bit different and I think I've found it after I modified it somewhat:

Bean and Broccoli Casserole

1 1/2 cups cooked rice

2 heads broccoli (steamed or microwaved 2 minutes)
19 oz. can kidney beans (drained)

8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (reserve 1/2 cup)

Mix tomato sauce, seasonings and beans together in a bowl

Layer 1/2 of rice, then sauce mixture, broccoli, then cheese and repeat

Bake at 350 F for 30 - 40 minutes, then sprinkle remaining cheese and let set until melted

It's a good vegetarian dish (don't tell the carnivores in my house) and nutritious (don't tell them that either) with added fiber, dairy, veggies and I used brown rice.

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven

The taste testers gave it good marks. Tim judged it "6 or 7 out of 10" and Kaleb as you can see with his score card said "7.1, oh that's 71 lbs on my lobster slip today" They both voted for having it again.

Corn Salsa

I do not have a picture of the delecacy as I write to you from a computer that doesn't read camera chips. However, I am able to post this highly recommended recipie. I made this last Thursday and ate it for three days. I think it should be halfed for anything other than a potluck supper with many many guests. I used fresh tomatoes, only green onions not the red and no red pepper and it was AWESOME. Best recipie I have made thus far and one I will make again and again and again. Without further ado....

1 (15 ounce) can yellow corn, drained
1 (15 ounce) can white corn, drained
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, drained
1 bunch finely chopped cilantro
5 green onions, finely sliced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced
2 tablespoons olive oil, or to taste

DIRECTIONS
Stir the yellow and white corn, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, green onion, red onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a large bowl. Gently mix in the lime juice and avocado. Drizzle with olive oil to serve.

I ate it with chips one night, had it as filling for quesadillas the next and then baked it with chicken and cheese to make el ultimo nachos. This is definitly one you can alter to your own tastes... think I'd add hot sauce next time.

Until next week.....

Creamed corn but not

Well, I was searching for something simple and good and I think I found it in this recipe which is for creamed corn but not the usual type you'd think of. And although the spaghetti corn pie recipe sounded interesting, Tim gave this a 7 out of 10 and was relieved to not have to test the other.

Creamed Corn

4 oz. package of cream cheese softened

1/4 cup milk

1/2 onion minced

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 can niblets corn drained

Melt cream cheese in a pot over low heat, stir in milk, seasonings and then add corn and heat up. Serves 4.

It's hard to see in the photo as it looks just like canned cream corn but it's really rich. I used low fat cream cheese and skim milk as well to reduce the guilt factor. We ate it as a side dish to the first BBQ steaks of the season. Yum.

Zucchini!

I really like tempura zucchini at Sisho (japanese restaurant here = awesome). So when I came across this recipie I knew I had to try it out. It wasn't perfect but you can change it to your own tastes, improve as you go along. I love anything fried so I knew it was no fail :)
It was a little heavier than what I`d like for a batter but it was different and I ate it all up. I halfed the recipie as I only bought one zucchini.

INGREDIENTS
2 zucchini, quartered and sliced
1 onion, sliced into rings
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup vegetable oil for frying
DIRECTIONS
Place zucchini and onions in a medium bowl and mix together.
In a small bowl mix flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Pour dry mixture over zucchini/onion mixture, cover bowl and shake well. Let mixture sit for about 30 minutes; a batter will form on the vegetables.
In a medium skillet heat oil over medium heat. When oil is hot add breaded vegetables and fry, turning to brown evenly.

DELISH!!
I think I will try it with different vegtables next. But I am now hooked on Zucchini! I know Mom and Dad will like this one.... even Kaleb would give it a 8.7/10.

Corny but good

Well, since I know that Koren is off to see the dinosaurs today in Drumheller and I'm not, I'll make sure at least that I'm the first one posting. Since we were using cornmeal I tried a couple of recipes (the other was an apple crisp but there wasn't enough icecream in the house to assist the dryness of the crisp) so the keeper is this one which I added blueberries to:


Susan's cornmeal pancakes
Published by Chatelaine on 1/1/1995


Cooking time 4 minutes Preparation time 10 minutes
Makes 4 to 6 servings


Ingredients
· 1 cup ( 250 mL) cornmeal
· 1/4 cup ( 50 mL) all-purpose flour
· 1-1/2 tsp ( 7 mL) baking powder
· 1 tsp ( 5 mL) sugar
· 1/2 tsp ( 2 mL) salt
· 1/2 tsp ( 2 mL) baking soda
· 3 eggs, lightly beaten
· 1-1/2 cups ( 375 mL) buttermilk
· 2 tbsp ( 30 mL) melted butter


In a large bowl, using a fork, stir cornmeal with flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Make a well in centre of flour mixture.

In another bowl, whisk eggs with buttermilk. Pour into centre of flour mixture along with melted butter. Stir just until a smooth batter forms.

Set a large frying pan over medium heat. (We often use 2 pans simultaneously to speed up production.) Lightly brush with oil, additional melted butter or coat with cooking spray.

Pour a 1/4 cup (50 mL) measure full of batter onto a heated pan. Cook until underside is golden brown and bubbles appear on the top, about 2 minutes. Turn pancake and continue cooking until underside is golden brown, about 2 more minutes.


Keep warm, uncovered, on a buttered platter in a preheated 200F (100C) oven while continuing to make more. Serve right away.

As you can see this is one of those look bad, taste great creations. I think you could likely halve this recipe if you weren't cooking for a crowd as I've gotten at least 3 breakfasts out of them already. The only caution I have is that they are a challenge to flip (and this coming from an experienced flapjack maker) as they're softer than the usual flour pancake recipe, but by the third one I got them to at least be in one piece. I used a smaller frying pan and dropped the frozen blueberries in as soon as the bubbles started to show.

I had a real bout of nostalgia (when enjoying these with syrup all by myself this morning) for the days when Kara used to love cooked cereal such as cornmeal or cream of wheat "just like Little House on the Praire" which she was obsessed with as a little girl. Enjoy!

Mom beat me to posting today (that's an egg joke)

Today's recipe is brought to you by the letter "C". The "C" is for Columbia where this recipe was created. It doesn't seem very Colombian, I will warn you. But my roommates talk about making this all the time and I thought well it will work for this week as I have all the ingredients and its pretty easy. Annnnnnnnnd it turned out to be pretty delicious. If you are familiar with potato salad then this recipe really won't really throw you a difficult curve ball.

Colombian Potato Salad

Get your regular potato salad ingredients together... boiled eggs, potatoes and mayo.
You'll also need a can of tuna, sunflower seeds, green onions, fresh cilantro, fresh or dried parsley and you can throw some veggies in there if you like too - chopped up spinach or broccoli.


The secret ingredient is: Alex's Aioli!
(I just looked aioli up and its garlic and mayo.. but I think it sounds classy anyways)
You'll need: a bunch of fresh cilantro, a few green onions, a tomatoes, a couple cloves of garlic and olive oil.
In a food processor put everything but the olive oil. Put the ground up ingredients in a jar and add enough oil to keep the ingredients moist. Add salt to taste. Keep in fridge.

So put everything but mayo and sunflower seeds in a bowl. Spoon a couple generous tablespoons of the cilantro aioli over your ingredients, mix up and let sit in the fridge for an hour or so. Add a few tablespoons of mayo and sunflower seeds and let sit another hour or so (or until dinner's ready :) The tuna was the part that threw me for a loop but it was pretty tasty.

And voila! So, the prep and time for the aioli takes a little extra effort but since Mariluz and Alex had copious amounts already in the fridge it worked out perfectly! I now put it on everything. I am going to check with Alex to see if there is an exact recipe... although I wrote what he told me. :)

I certainly didn't use as many eggs as Mom did but I am glad I used this often-recommended-to-me recipe :) I can't get the picture from my camera as I have packed the cord and didn't have the chip in at the time. But, let's be honest you know what it looks like and it's not really a gorgeous picture.

Great to be back at the blog! Be sure to vote for next week's ingredient!

Back on track with....eggs

Well, we've had a bit of a break here in the recipe blog front as Koren had technical difficulties and I had a wonderful vacation where eating (not my own cooking) was the focus. So to start things off again we decided on cooking with eggs as this is the Easter weekend and all. I found two recipes to try (one was a dud where Kaleb - who hadn't eaten for 24 hrs and eats ANYTHING gave it only a 6/10) so I'm going to share the successful one. This was one listed by the Iowa Egg Marketing Board and since our summer neighbours come from there and are great cooks it sounded like a good place to start. That and it was listed under very easy.

Eggchilada

2 eggs
1 large flour tortilla
2 tablespoons salsa
2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese

Beat eggs and pour into a non-stick skillet over medium heat. As eggs begin to set, gently draw a pancake turner across the bottom of the skillet forming large soft curds. Cook until eggs are thickened, but still moist. Fold in salsa and cheese. Spread egg mixture down center of tortilla. Roll tortilla around eggs. Garnish with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

This was a definite hit with the entire family and all the taste testers gave it a 10/10. I only managed to grab a photo of the ingredients (and yes they do look like an advertisement for convenience foods) and of Kara putting the last one away. Very easy, moist and tasty and includes all the food groups too. Enjoy!

I LOVE SWEET POTATOES!!

Since I know Koren is having technical difficulties and may not be able to post until tomorrow I'll start things off. I had trouble choosing a recipe for this week's ingredient because....I loved them all. This means I have several to try for dessert recipes as well but since I only bought two large tubers this was the I tried. I've made sweet potato fries before but with this one there's more than just the shape of the potatoes which make them different. They're sweet with a bit of heat which even I can handle. Tim gave them a 9 out of 10 which is really quite amazing as he marks like those figure skating judges! He also rated them in the 'make them regularly category' and ate most of them. The best part is that they're simple enough to make for a weeknight supper.

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potatoes

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Place the sweet potato chunks into a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle the brown sugar, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, chili powder, and cayenne pepper overtop. Toss until the potatoes are evenly coated with the seasoning. Spread onto a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then turn the potatoes over with a spatula, and continue baking until the sweet potatoes are golden and tender, 10 to 15 minutes more.

Here the photos show the 1,2, 3 of peeled and chunked sweet potatoes, then oiled and tossed with spices and finally baked to a yummy finish. Enjoy!

The battle is on!!

SWEET POTATO!!! :)
Just loved this pic to the right, had to use it!

I went on a date with a Hedgehog!

So after my appetizer a la bacon, I made cookies named after an animals. And I have to say when the coconut browns, it looks quite a bit like a hedgehog.

They are really simple, like recipe numero uno but I think if I was to make them again I would make a few adjustments. I mean don't get me wrong I'll eat them all but they lack a little something, good thing I halved the recipe.

Hedgehogs

2 c. walnuts
1 c. dates
2 c. coconut
2 eggs

Grind the walnuts and dates up together. Mix in 1 1/2 of the coconut and then the eggs.

Roll the mixture into teaspoon sized balls and roll in the remaining coconut.

Bake in oven @ 350 for 10-15 mins till the fur er, I mean coconut browns.


When I was talking with Dad earlier he said it was a good recipe to add to. Dried cranberries, candied cherries etc etc. I agree, I think cranberries would be great and some vanilla wouldn't hurt either. Maybe a little cinnamon. I like the lack of flour and butter and many many steps though so I may just tinker with this one and I'll let you know how it goes.

I did a stupid thing today, went grocery shopping while hungry. My grocery bags must have ended up weighing 40 lbs, cause wow they were heavy! And it was really easy trudging through the snow with my luggage er, I mean groceries. Oh well, got a lot of savings by taking the trip to the Great Canadian Super Store so it worked out alright.

Tomorrow I will be making a chicken soup as I have a bag of bones in the freezer and some veggies now to add to it! I will also be making a little treat known as Oreo Truffles. Oreo Truffles are cream cheese and oreos beat together, rolled into balls and coated in chocolate. I don't think I'll sleep tonight as I am pretty excited!!

Thanks for checking out our dates!! Can't wait to see what'll be the ingredient next week!

I have two dates today!

I have to post the first date before 10pm AST so, I will start with this soon to be Tim Nickerson fave.

Bacon Wrapped Dates

As easy as the recipe title sounds...

The ingredients you'll need:

Dates

Bacon

Almonds

Put an almond inside the date and wrap a 1/3 peice of bacon around each date. Bake in oven on 400 degrees until bacon crisps up, between 10 and 20 mins.

Results:

Delicious!!! So easy and pretty tasty. On the website I got it from a lot of people said about making them for parties and that you could make them ahead of time but cook them when the guests arrive.

I am moving on to my next recipe right now. You'll have to read about that in the morning Mom :)

It was a date!

This week the ingredient of dates was an opportunity to time travel for me. Dad LOVED dates and Mom often made date squares and other sweets. I remember a date pie from years ago that I tried to revisit with a custard date pie recipe someone gave me but it was too…. custardy. This one I found online is this one I remember as the old-fashioned version. Yum. And it’s easy too. If you should have a purchased (Mom wouldn’t be impressed I’m sure) piecrust to bake it takes only a few moments to make the filling. It is sweet though – isn’t that what desserts are supposed to be?

Date Pie

1 pound dates, pitted
water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
1 egg, well beaten
1 baked pastry shell, 9-inch
Whipped Cream

Cut dates into quarters. Place in saucepan, cover with water, and simmer, covered, until tender. Mix together milk, sugar, salt, and flour; add to date mixture, then add beaten egg. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Cool and pour into pastry shell . When firm, cover date pie with Whipped Cream Topping.Above are the naked and dressed with whipped cream shots. I didn’t get any photos of Tim tasting the pie as I couldn’t figure out the high speed setting on my camera but he did say, “ummm, you win this week” when he was wolfing it down. I have explained to him several times the premise of this foodie blog but the competitive streak that he has does not allow for anything but win/lose options. His other pearl of wisdom was that “you’d really have to like dates” but I feel that would go without saying if you were choosing to eat date pie! The perishable nature of the pie and whipped topping will not be an issue I’m guessing. Until next weekend.

Come back on March 7th - It's a date!

The secret ingredient for this week is.... dates!!!

I already have a recipe in mind (and no, it's not date squares :)

The Vote

Since I took my sweet-slothlike-time in getting the poll up this week I will let the results pour in for an extra day. So get your votes in, looks like it's a fruit battle this week :)

Hummus, I got the hummus!

Hummus (Arabic: حمّص‎; also spelled hamos, houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos, hummous or humus). If you are looking for something entertaining to do this evening I would highly recommend researching hummus on wikipedia (or most any subject on wikipedia for that matter). Most informative. I also learned that Humus is a psychedelic band from Mexico which has been active since the late 1980s. I am sorry I have not posted until now, Tuesday evening, not a good start considering it's only week #2 but you will be well rewarded for waiting on the edge of your seats.

So if you haven't already guessed this week's recipe contains red pepper and clearly, mashed up chickpeas. This week I found another recipe I loved and will certainly be making again. 1) Cause I have copious amounts of all needed ingredients on hand pretty much all the time and b) cause it was super easy to make (and if I had only known that before I woulda been making my very own hummus this whole time, there is like no way to mess it up!). You can make all kinds of modifications based on your personal tastes or ingredients on hand. Mom, I think everyone at the house would enjoy this one if you just omitted the red pepper.

So, I ate all my recipe and could post a picture of the plastic container all but licked out... but I think I'll just add on a pic that looks quite a bit like my final product. instead. I guess that's a good sign about how it turned out but I will try to capture my hard work the next time, roasting the red pepper was quite the photo opportunity (in addition to setting off the smoke alarm). Without further ado....


Spiced Sweet Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

the ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, 1/2 drained
1 (4 ounce) jar roasted red peppers or 1 large fresh roasted red pepper
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini (I don't find this a key ingredient a little olive oil'll do fine)
1 clove garlic, minced (I probably used 3, just as Dad would :)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

How it's done: Blend it up real good. A blender or a little food processor works great. Chill for a bit and then chow down!

This is pretty much what mine looked like (minus the plastic container I keep all my food in :)

D.I.Y.O.D.S. (Do It Your Own Damn Self) Roasted Peppers: So easy!! Throw the whole pepper right in the oven on broil and flip it a few times as it gets blackened on all sides. Take it out (before setting off the smoke detector preferably) and then put it in a paper bag. Wait 15 mins or so and you can just peel and de-seed it without any effort. So delish! I will eat all red peppers like this from now on.

Looking forward to next week!

<3>

Red Peppers?

Well, I might as well share right up front that I have limited experience with red peppers and after today’s culinary challenge I’m not planning on changing that. To begin with, I’m not a big fan of them so this experiment was going to be just that – to be administered on the taste-testing panel. So those of you, who are already pepper experts, please bear with me.

First off, the recipes and websites I found weren’t specific as to how to remove the outer skin of the pepper but it did sound as if this was required. So I made an emergency call to a friend to ask how this was best accomplished and she suggested boiling, blanching, peeling as the easiest. Easy is a relative term I discovered when actually following her directions but I digress. I put the three peppers in a large pot full of water and quickly found that…. they float. Now what to do? Another call to my friend who suggested either putting a bowl over them to hold them down in the water or just use less water, cover and sort of steam them.

Blanching-hot to cold ...........................Peeling what a lot of work!

Onions sauteed & all simmered..............Cooling to blend to puree

I cooked (boiled, steamed whatever), blanched and peeled the three peppers. After a fashion, taking about 20 minutes, with a lot of muttering and only a little pile of pepper ‘flesh’ as a result. Definitely in the more work than I’m willing to invest column. Adding the onions, sautéing, adding broth all were straightforward. And yes, I did remember the rule of NOT putting hot soup to be pureed in the blender so cooled, blended and reheated the soup.

The judges gave this soup a 'give the leftovers to the dog rather than save it' rating. Kaleb says "a 4 out of 10" and Tim says "it was ok but nothing special" instead of a thumbs up. Tamara did her best to not make a comment and sipped some and of course to me it tasted too much like red peppers so I opted out - well duh, it is red pepper soup. Clearly it is a one off attempt for me. The reminder of the ingredient list doesn't include anything I'd rather not eat so it's clear sailing from here. And perhaps if you're a red pepper addict, with lots of time on your hands this would be the dish for you.

RED PEPPER SOUP
3 lg. red bell peppers

2 med. onions

3½ chicken broth

1 tbsp. butter

Sprigs of fresh parsley

Boil the peppers long enough so skin can be removed easily. Cut pepper and onions into strips or thin slices and brown them in butter, using a large skillet. Add chicken broth and let simmer 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before putting through blender. If desired, add 1 or 2 drops of red food coloring for true red appearance. Serve warm with fresh parsley on top. Serves 4.

http://www.cooks.com/

And the winner is...

Red Pepper!!

With an astounding 40% of the vote, Red Pepper won this week's battle.

As I have the three hour time delay/advantage and do not need to be at work until 10 a.m. tomorrow, I now have a head start on research for a soon-to-be-tried recipe. I would love to do a Kara favourite - stuffed peppers but I have a few others in mind that look tasty.

I was hoping to have to find a recipe containing all five ingredients in the event of a tie. Yum, something that contains shrimp, red peppers, ginger, cocoa powder and bananas... what a treat? On that delicious note, I will sign off but not before reminding you to check back on Sunday for some red pepper recipes and reviews!

-Koren

Getting Curryous!

Curried Chicken

*can be curried veggies, pork, beef or whatever you like :)

What you'll need

1lb Boneless Chicken (or preferred substitute)

2 tbsp Olive Oil

1 large Onion

2 cloves Garlic

1 cup Coconut Milk

1/2 cup Plain Yogurt

1 tbsp fresh grated Ginger

2 tsp Curry Powder

Salt & Pepper to taste

Sliced almonds or toasted coconut

Cooked rice to serve 4

How it's done

1. Rinse chicken, pat dry and cut into 1 inch pieces.

2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half the onion and saute until tender. Add chicken and saute 5 minutes or until slightly browned. Transfer chicken to bowl.

3. Add remaining the rest of the oil to the pan. Add the rest of the onion and garlic. Cook until onion is tender.

4. Add coconut milk, yogurt, ginger, curry, salt & pepper to the pan. Bring to soft boil and lower to heat. Add chicken and let simmer at least 10 minutes.

5. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with almonds or coconut if desired. Serve with the rice.

How it turned out

I don't think I have cooked with curry before and have probably only eaten it two or three times. As I like to be adventurous from time to time, I was happy to have a "new to me" ingredient to try out. I am glad I did, because I loved it! This was the perfect recipe for me (not very time consuming, pretty simple ingredients and something that can be taken to work the next day) and I know I will make it again. I certainly will be cooking with curry from now on. 1)cause it's quite tasty and 2) well, I have a 140g pkg of it now!

I cooked this dish last night. I was pretty sure I had chicken thighs here at the house but as it turned out, I didn't. I did have boneless pork chops and they worked just fine although I would have probably preferred chicken as it is my favourite. The sauce isn't very spicy at all and can certainly be adjusted to your personal tastes. With the rest of the yogurt I bought (only could buy a large container and only needed a 1/2 cup for the recipe) I decided to make tzatziki. I made up my own recipe threw a half cucumber and a small piece of onion in a food processor gadget, added some fresh garlic, s & p and the yogurt. It turned out delish! Served the meal with pita bread and it was a real international experience! And the fresh cool taste of the tzatziki went really well with the curry sauce.

The picture I took won't be showing up in any foodie magazines but I had forgot to take a pic until it was transferred into Tupperware. I just had it this evening for a snack and I think it was even better after sitting there overnight, kinda like a stew. I would definitely recommend this recipe. I will definitely be trying out the Curry Soup Mom posted. If Kaleb gives it a 7/10 then it must be good, I mean, what hasn't he eaten??

Curry Soup

Well, the Maja part of this team is writing first and that’s not hard for me to be an early poster as I’m located in the Atlantic Daylight Savings time zone. Hope you like the design of the page – can’t take any of the credit as the junior member of the team did the setup and naming – creative daughter that she is. We’re hoping you’ll participate with us, as it’s a fun project.

Using the ingredient curry which was randomly selected from the list here is my initial offering. First my version of the recipe, and the link where I found the original I modified, then a brief summary:

Curried Apple and Onion Soup

1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 small onion chopped
3/4 cup diced potatoes
2 apples -- peeled, cored and chopped
3 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup plain yogurt

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in curry powder and cook 1 minute. Stir in onion, potato and apples and cook 5 minutes. Pour in broth and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
2. Puree in a blender or food processor, or using an immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper and serve with a swirl of yogurt.

My recommendation would be to use an immersion blender for pureeing or…remember your basic physics and not put the cover on the blender with hot soup inside then turn it on! The resulting first-degree burns will remind me temporarily.

Now I’m not sure of your audience of critics but I have to tell you that father and son here lapped up this first course and the review from Tim the well dressed/coiffed food critic on the left here was “this tastes like something I’d eat at Charlotte Lane Café” so that is hard to top. Kaleb gave it a 7/10 but said it was a good 7. So an all round success. Let us know how you make out if you try it or what modifications you made. Have fun.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Curried-Apple-and-Leek-Soup/Detail.aspx

In the beginning...

Laurel and Koren have been searching for a project to do together. Taking into account our distance apart, time required vs. actual free time available, and our individual interests we finally decided on a recipe blog (involving my two favourite things: food and getting my opinion out there). So here's how it works... every week we will each cook with a new recipe using the same ingredient. On Sundays we will post our recipe and a blurb about how it all worked out.
We will have a poll here on the blog where you can vote for next week's ingredient and the one with the most votes on Wednesday evening will be the one we'll be trying out and writing about the next Sunday! Make sure to check in each week!

This week's ingredient: Curry!

Watch tomorrow for the success stories :)

<3 Koren