Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Gluten Free Turkey Meatloaf with Sun dried Tomatoes and Pecan Crust
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| Gluten-free turkey meatloaf with sun-dried tomatoes and pecan crust. |
A Turn Toward the New
The morning was cool and bright. It was going to be one of those quintessential Cape Cod autumn days. A day tourists swoon over. Worthy of a post card with The weather is sublime- wish you were here scrawled in black gel cursive between sips of a Hot Chocolate Sparrow latte. The sky was a cake bowl of cobalt blue with that particular pink edge to it that only painters notice, the blush that softened the tree line at the north end of the West Barnstable marsh gentling the heavy greens of the pines and oaks into a bluish, almost violet gray.
She brushed her teeth with fennel toothpaste and spit into the low slung sink, pausing to breathe. A long inhale to slow her heart. The cottage was pin drop quiet. The boys had climbed the rubber lined steps into the school bus hours ago, peanut butter and honey sandwiches bagged, milk money in their pockets. She had waved from the street and watched them navigate the bus aisle in shadow, avoiding her maternal gaze, not turning to wave back. Too risky, she understood.
The walk back up the curve of road to the rental she had found last spring felt different this morning. Not because of the air and its September clarity that sharpened the asters and the Queen Anne's Lace with impossible precision- though she felt a kinship with the acute focus the turning of the seasons always brings. That sense of realignment, a perennial return to purpose. Ironically, she always felt as if fall was the season of new beginnings. Not spring.
Fall was the season she woke up, as if from a dream.
Today was the first day of a plein air painting workshop. A post-divorce return to premarital roots, when she painted for the love of it- not the pragmatic bill-paying need of it. Painting for an income (however necessary it may be) is dangerous business. Courting the marketplace changes your work. A self consciousness slithers in and infiltrates your choices. The observer becomes observed. Judged. Rewarded for meeting expectations.
She had always been more than willing to please. To notice the cues and needs of others. It was more than habit. It was ingrained in her bones. She had an uncanny knack for it. And she hated it about herself. She hated her automatic willingness to anticipate and acquiesce. Sometimes she would hear her own words hang in the air and for a quantum, split second wonder who had just spoken. There were entire days lost to living outside herself, hovering above her left shoulder, just beyond reach.
Stepping into the tiny sunlit kitchen she stood still for a moment, tempted by the cluttered breakfast table. The sticky bowls and spoons. The allure of distraction. The comfort of routine. But it didn't take. She snatched her car keys off a hook and grabbed a canvas bag of painting gear by the door, turned the knob with her free hand and opened it wide. Three minutes later she made a right at the empty bus stop, and accelerated east down Old King's Highway.
To be continued...
Read more + get the recipe >>
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Seared Wild Scallops with Pancetta and Leeks It Only Tastes Hard to Make
The best recipes, especially ones youre making for those holiday dinner parties, are the dishes that only have a few ingredients, are simple and fast to put together, and taste like you spent all day on them. This Seared Scallops with Pancetta and Leeks video recipe I just did for About.com is one of those. It would make a great first course, or you could double the portion for a main course. The three main ingredients go together so perfectly that all youll have to do is avoid the temptation to add a bunch of other stuff. Your restraint will be rewarded.Many of the grocery stores are now selling frozen "wild" scallops. I got these at Trader Joes, and they are far superior to the "fresh" sea scallops in the fish case. Those fresh sea scallops are all soaked in a preservative brine to keep them white and prolong the self-life. Thats why they have that faint chemical aftertaste, and shrink so much when you cook them. Frozen wild scallops are not soaked in any solutions, and have a much better flavor. They are definitely worth finding and serving. Enjoy!
Click here for the transcript and ingredients.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Turkey Bacon and Brie Tart
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Turkey, Bacon and Brie Tart
Serves 61 quantity of shortcrust pastry, baked blind in a flan tin.
1 small onion, finely chopped
100g streaky bacon, chopped
Approx. 200-300g cold cooked turkey
250ml double cream
3 large eggs
100g ripe Brie
25g Parmesan, grated
zest of half a lemon
salt & freshly ground pepper
Heat the oven to 170C
1. Gently saute the onion in a little butter, add the bacon pieces and cook until golden, leave to cool.
2. Spread the onion and bacon in the base of the flan, chop the turkey into generously sized pieces and scatter over the onion and bacon.
3. Break off pieces of Brie and distribute evenly across the flan base.
4. Whisk the eggs, add the cream, lemon zest, seasoning and grated Parmesan, pour into the flan case.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the filling is golden brown and just set in the centre. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
This is a very rich tart and only needs a green vegetable or salad to make a meal.
What did you do with your leftovers?
Saturday, April 26, 2014
I Now Pronounce You Reader and Soup! – How to Make Italian Wedding Soup
I had a few theories. I figured the greens probably represented money, and symbolized hopes that the bride and groom would enjoy a prosperous union. The soups signature mini-meatballs were a tougher nut to crack.
How could taking large, virile, normal-size meatballs and shrinking them down to dainty little shriveled dumplings serve as a metaphor for marriage? I just dont see a connection. Well, come to find out (according to two reliable sources; Wikipedia, and my friend and fellow About.com Guide, Kyle) the name has nothing to do with people getting married.
So, the soup ended up being a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. What better choice for a first course at your Italian-American wedding reception than something called Italian Wedding Soup?
That should give you enough soup-related cocktail party conversation material for a while. Whether you fondly remember this from weddings past, or youve never had it or heard about it before, I really hope you give it a try. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 quart beef broth
1 quart chicken broth
Note: A little more or little less broth will not affect the recipe
1/3 cup pastina or other tiny pasta
1 bunch kale
salt and pepper to taste
For the meatballs:
1 1/4 pound beef
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup cream
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh black pepper
Monday, April 21, 2014
Ugadi Pachadi and Paramannam Sweet Rice pudding
- Neem Buds/Flowers for its bitterness, signifying Sadness
- Jaggery and ripe banana pieces for sweetness, signifying Happiness
- Green Chilli/Pepper for its hot taste, signifying Anger
- Salt for saltiness, signifying Fear
- Tamarind Juice for its sourness, signifying Disgust
- Unripened Mango for its tang, signifying Surprise
- Mix all the above ingrediants well to form a fine mixture
- In a pan add ghee and fry cashews and raisins to golden brown and keep aside
- Boil milk and water in a cooking bowl along with sagu.
- Add rice in above boiled milk and water and cook it to very tender.
- Melt the jaggery in water and simmer to plain syrup.
- Add jaggery syrup to cooked rice.
- Add fried cashews and raisins to rice mixture.
- Cook on medium heat until whole thing thickens and comes together.
- Add cardamom powder and mix well.
- Serve warm or cold.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Eating Drinking and Celebrity Spotting in Miami



I saw a few things in Miami that were just too beautiful not to capture:


Ham and ricotta:
Please tell me Im not the only one who uses vacations as a reason to eat delicious food? TELL ME IT!!!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
When it Rains it Pours Wine and Delicious Gourmet Food!
As a longtime resident, Ive always thought that for a city with such an incredibly rich culinary tradition, San Francisco should have its very own signature annual food and wine event. Hopefully, this event will turn out to be exactly that.San Franciscos Union Square will be home to the main tasting tent where chefs, wine makers and local farmers will feature the best in sustainable foods and local products. A long, eclectic schedule of classes and seminars will also be offered in nearby hotels and restaurants, allowing patrons to interact with chefs, vintners, distillers, ranchers, food authors, and other culinary experts.
Ill be attending the Thursday night San Francisco Chronicle "Rising Stars" Opening Reception, as well as many other events throughout the weekend. In addition to being on the lookout for standout dishes and recipes to create videos with, Ill be taking lots of pictures so you can see what promises to be some very beautiful food.
If you live in the SF/Bay Area and were looking for a great reason to go besides the food and drink, this event will be supporting four local charities; San Francisco Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, The Golden Gate Restaurant Association Scholarship Foundation, and Project Open Hand.
For ticket and schedule information please check out the SF Chefs. Food. Wine. website.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Quinoa Salad with Pineapple Broccoli and Mint
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| Pineapple quinoa salad with broccoli. Fresh and healthy. |
Spring is beckoning. I can feel it. And my winter-stiff body is aching to stretch and move and shed the yearly inertia that descends like a bear with the shrinking daylight. My brain is flickering awake. My taste buds are tiring of the heavy, creamy comfort foods that sustained me (thank you, lovely spuds, lasagna, and mac and cheese, I love you with all my heart).
I'm craving lighter, cleaner tastes.
Not to mention, missing my warm weather jeans. You know the ones. That stack in the back of the closet you haven't fit into since December, when you began wondering if the laundromat medium heat setting was shrinking your favorite Levi's. The jeans you have to lay down to zip, doing your best imitation of Jane Fonda's pelvic tilt
So here's what I'm thinking. Quinoa to the rescue.
Vegan. Versatile. Easy. Fresh. Light. This new quinoa salad with pineapple and broccoli and fresh mint is all of the above. And maybe, just maybe, it'll be the first step to fitting into those skinny jeans.
Read more + get the recipe >>
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Bye Bye North Carolina and Hello Minessota

Monday, April 7, 2014
Free online recipes for all fruits vegetables meat and food
One thing everyone can certainly relate is food. Eat after an amazing thing in addition to air and water, is directly food routes. I personally enjoy a good meal, preferably a good home cooked meal. Indeed, one of the beautiful things about the work is out there in more calories that match to take more food to eat. Another advantage of the work, specially weight training, is that you build the more muscles more calories that you alone to burn. Well, lets stick to foods for this discussion.
Because of the Internet, recipe-s are fairly easy to come today, especially free recipe. This is a good thing for all of you whether your a professional culinary artist or just a beginner cooks.Get online, enter s free recipe into your favorite search engine and presto, all comes types of Sorten.Sie must now to eternity to cook more than enough food and then some.
Some of these free recipe sites have thousands of recipe-s, salads, meat, fruit dishes, deserts, vegetarian, wild game started and the list goes on I believe. Fortunately you would be to for the search engine features and well-organized sites otherwise literally days if not weeks required by all the desired recipe-s online and offline a life long to navigate.
Well, there are some specialty sites where only recipe-s just to be a food court, category, but it others single food on every conceivable a currency category have.Mouth becomes water just by you alle.Ich even prefer the healthy after all only a body, you could and kümmern.Ja, once in a while desert is called for each, but that can also healthy sein.Aber because people are going to want to eat you anyways, you want to do what.
Talk about food, try these free simple recipes on for size with Easy time recipes.
Author Ron Legarski is a business consultant for professional agencies.
http://www.solveforce.com
Friday, April 4, 2014
SIMPLE AND EASY PASTA
I prepared this pasta dish in just 15 minutes after a long day out. We wanted to have something simple and tasty and I was not in the mood to cut any vegetables. I just cooked some pasta and tossed it with some sauces and lots of cilantro and it was absolutely delicious. Adding cilantro adds a nice subtle flavor to the dish. Again any type of vegetables can be added here for additional taste and nutrition.
INGREDIENTS
- Any whole wheat pasta around ½ a packet.
- Onion- 1.
- Chopped cilantro, 1 cup.
- Ground pepper according to taste.
- Low-sodium soy sauce, 2 tablespoons.
- Chili sauce, 1 teaspoon (optional).
- Salt to taste.
PREPARATION
Cook the pasta to al-dente, drain the water, and let it cool. Meanwhile dice the onion finely. Add some oil to a pan or wok and when the oil is hot enough, add the onions and half of the chopped cilantro and sauté everything until the onion turns translucent. Then add the sauces, salt, pepper, and the cooked pasta and mix everything well. Mix in the remaining of the chopped cilantro at the end and serve hot.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Zucchini with Beef and Garbanzo Beans Kabak Bastırması

I saw this recipe in a Turkish food blog, chez Ayşenur, and immediately decided to make it. Garbanzo beans and zucchini: how could it be bad? It certainly is delicious. Ayşenur says that this is a local recipe from Kilis, a city in Turkey near the Turkish-Syrian border.
2/3 cups of garbanzo beans
1/2 pound stew beef (I preferred beef but y0u can also use lamb)
2 zucchinis, medium size cut in half-rounds
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 banana peppers or 1 bell pepper, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp spicy pepper paste
3 cloves of garlic, minced
juice of one lemon
1 tbsp dried mint flakes
-Soak garbanzo beans overnight. The next day cook garbanzo beans and stew beef in a pressure cooker with 5-6 cups of water for 45 minutes. If you dont have a pressure cooker, then you should cook them for at least an hour or until the garbanzos are soft. Or if you want to use canned garbanzo beans then cook them for approximately 30 minutes (until the beef is cooked). Take the garbanzos and beef out and keep the water; do not throw it away.
-In a big pot heat the oil and add onions and pepper. Stir until theyre soft.
-Add the tomato and spicy pepper paste, stir for a couple of minutes. (if you cannot find spicy pepper paste, just use tomato paste and pepper flakes)
-Now its time to add garbanzos, beef, and zucchini. Add 3-4 cups of the water you saved from garbanzos and stew beef. Salt to your taste. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until zucchini is tender on low.
-Mix minced garlic and lemon juice and stir in when zucchini is cooked. Simmer for 2-3 minutes and turn it off. Sprinkle dried mint , cover, and let it sit for 10 minutes before you serve. You wont believe how tender the beef will be.
Ayşenur suggests that it should be served with bulgur pilaf. I have a bulgur pilaf recipe, but it would be too flavorful for this. You can also serve it with white rice. But if you want to try it with bulgur, heres how to make a simple bulgur pilaf: Heat 2 tbsp butter in a pot. Add bulgur and stir a minute (the ratio of bulgur you will use to water should be 1:2). Add 1 tbsp tomato paste (or more) stir for another minute. Add water and salt, bring to a boil, and then cover and cook on low until bulgur soaks the water.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Spiced Lamb and Vegetable Pasta Recipe
I enjoyed eating this wonderful dish so much that I had to go back for a second serving.
The spiced seasoning paste I use for this tasty pasta recipe is absolutely delicious and aromatic.
If you love vegetables and lamb then this dish is for you, it is perfectly spiced and the combination of pasta being stirred through the dish is fantastic.
I used Buckwheat pasta spirals but you can use any pasta of your choice. This recipe is gluten free if using buckwheat pasta and also dairy free as there is no need to add cheese to this perfect pasta dish.
Considering this dish uses little oil, lean lamb, buckwheat pasta, herbs, spices and a combination of zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts and fresh spinach leaves....then this is one scrumptious very healthy recipe to cook.
Ingredients for Spiced Lamb and Vegetable Pasta
1 Zucchini (diced)
2-3 Handfuls Brussels Sprouts (sliced)
1 Red Pepper/Capsicum (diced)
1 Green Pepper/Capsicum (diced)
1-2 Large flat Mushroom (diced)
1/4 Cup Water
Rapeseed oil
1 Pack Lean Minced Lamb
2-3 Handfuls Fresh Spinach Leaves
2-3 Handfuls Buckwheat Pasta Spirals
1/4 Cup Water
For the Seasoning
1 Tbsp Tomato Puree/Paste
1 Tbsp Garlic Paste
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 - 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 tsp Dried Chives
1 tsp Dried Thyme
1 Tbsp Rapeseed oil
Pinch Salt
Picture of Jeenas Spice Paste.
Picture of fresh vegetables.
Picture of cooked buckwheat pasta spirals.
How to make Jeenas Kitchen Spiced Lamb and Vegetable Pasta Recipe
Heat a large frying pan drizzle some oil and add zucchinis on a medium heat.
Chop at the mince using a spatula cook for a few minutes.
Add the spice paste, stir well.
If you use wheat pasta you may need to cook the pasta for slightly longer as buckwheat pasta is quick to cook.
When the Brussels have softened add the buckwheat pasta and gently stir well.
Simmer with a lid on for another 10 minutes.
Once the pasta is fully cooked stir well and sprinkle the spinach leaves on top of the pan, place the lid on a let the spinach cook for a minute or two.
Would you like to spoon some of this tasty lamb pasta onto your plate?

