January 2010
1 post
December 2009
10 posts
4 tags
Pop, Soda, Soder, Soder Pop!
Friday night the ladies and I made green curry with veggies and beef over brown rice. It was so good! We talked about what we were going to do for Christmas. The ladies are going to open presents together and then make a big turkey dinner on Christmas Day. I was very impressed. On Christmas Eve they’re going to Red Lobster for dinner and John Wayne already knows what she’s going to...
12 tags
Homemade Chai
This is my take on traditional Masala Chai. When I was in India I fell in love with chai and have been perfecting my chai recipe for two years! Masala Chai uses star anise, which is easy to come by but one day I substituted Fennel for Star Anise and it was delish. This is a powdered chai recipe that you can keep in your cupboard and use when you make a individual cups of tea or a whole batch.
Ingredients
1/4 C. ground cardamom
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 T. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. ground fennel seeds
1 tsp. cloves
Mix all the ingredients together and store in your cupboard. The flavors will mingle! Traditional chai is made with Assam black tea, 1/2-1 tsp. of spice mix to 1 tsp. of tea, depending on how strong you like it. You can steep it in milk only or mix it with a little hot water and milk.
I like to use a Tea-Sac tea filter and put 1 tsp. rooibos tea and 1 tsp. spice mix into the tea filter. Then I add about a 1/2 C. boiling water and let steep for a few minutes while I'm heating up about 1/2 C. almond milk. Then I pour the almond milk into the cup with the chai and add a tsp. of agave. Yum! Purrfect holiday drink.
Bon Appetit!
Homemade Chai
This is my take on traditional Masala Chai. When I was in India I fell in love with chai and have been perfecting my chai recipe for two years! Masala Chai uses star anise, which is easy to come by but one day I substituted Fennel for Star Anise and it was delish. This is a powdered chai recipe that you can keep in your cupboard and use when you make a individual cups of tea or a whole batch.
Ingredients
1/4 C. ground cardamom
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 T. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. ground fennel seeds
1 tsp. cloves
Mix all the ingredients together and store in your cupboard. The flavors will mingle! Traditional chai is made with Assam black tea, 1/2-1 tsp. of spice mix to 1 tsp. of tea, depending on how strong you like it. You can steep it in milk only or mix it with a little hot water and milk.
I like to use a Tea-Sac tea filter and put 1 tsp. rooibos tea and 1 tsp. spice mix into the tea filter. Then I add about a 1/2 C. boiling water and let steep for a few minutes while I'm heating up about 1/2 C. almond milk. Then I pour the almond milk into the cup with the chai and add a tsp. of agave. Yum! Purrfect holiday drink.
Bon Appetit!
1 tag
Turkey Fajitas
These super easy fajitas are made with ground turkey. Make sure you brown the turkey separately from the bell pepper mixture because turkey cooks faster than bell peppers and it will dry out if you cook them together.
Ingredients
2 lbs. ground turkey
3 yellow bell peppers
4 green onions
10 white mushrooms
6 T. olive oil
2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 T. lime juice
corn and or flour tortillas
guacamole
salsa
sour cream
Directions
Cut up bell peppers into long strips. Cut mushrooms and chop onions. Divide olive oil between two skillets. Add veggies to one skillet and turkey to the other skillet. Allow turkey to cook down and drain the water. After draining the turkey add the chili powder, cinnamon and lime juice. Mix well and continue to saute.
Keep an eye on your veggies and let them cook and soften. Once the veggies are softened and the turkey is cooked and seasoned, get another skillet and warm your tortillas.
Take a tortilla and add the turkey mixture and then the veggies. Then top with your fave guacamole, salsa and sour cream.
Bon Appetit!
8 tags
Fajitas, Sam Raimi and Saw V
It’s morning and I don’t want to be writing. I want to be snuggling in bed reading my tome. Currently, I’m reading London by Edward Rutherford. It’s over 800 pages long. I love long books and long movies. But I am not reading. I am writing.
Last night I had two new women in class to replace the two that left. I hope these two stay. It would be nice to see everyone graduate...
5 tags
Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette
I love balsamic vinaigrette. It's my favorite dressing. It's delicious and a good source of healthy fat because of the olive oil. John Wayne asked me to make it a couple of weeks ago so I've obliged. Here is my recipe for it.
Ingredients
1 clove of garlic, not too huge
1 tsp. agave or honey
1/4 C. balsamic vinegar
3/4-1 C. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Put garlic in food processor or blender and chop until fine. Add the vinegar, honey and salt and pepper. Start with a 1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper then see if you need more. Blend until mixed. While the blender or food processor is still on, slowly drizzle olive oil into the mixture until thick. Stop machine at about 3/4 C. and check it to see how thick it is. If you like it thicker, add more olive oil. Makes enough for 6 small salads or one huge salad. Bon Appetit!
8 tags
John Wayne Goes Pro
I had my third class with the ladies last night. It ended up very lovely and started out a bit of a shocker. I only had two students, John Wayne and Little Bird. When I walked in they both began to explain to me that Mama was meeting with her sponsor, Tough Chick had decided to move to another group home so that she could be closer to her kids and Blondie took off because she didn’t want to...
November 2009
11 posts
6 tags
Fall Sucotash (when you don't have fresh veggies)
This is my take on this quintessential summer dish. The trifecta that makes up sucotash is usually some form of squash, tomatoes and corn but I have seen lovely and simple combinations of lima beans and tomatoes called sucotash too.
My recipe calls for canned veggies which sort of breaks tradition with the original idea of sucotash but is an homage to The Ladies. Serves 6.
Ingredients:
6 fresh zucchini, tips removed and diced
1 large can of tomatoes, quartered
2 cans of sweet corn, drained
2 T. olive oil
salt to taste
Directions:
Heat up olive oil in skillet and add the zucchini. Saute zucchini on med/low until it is soft about 10 minutes. Add your tomatoes and corn and continue to cook another 10-15 minutes allowing the vegetables to stew. Add some of the tomato juice from the can to the mix if it dries out. Sucotash is made very simply, allowing the juices of the veggies to mingle. Add salt to taste. Serve.
Bon Appetit!
12 tags
Black Friday House Party
Last night was my second class with the ladies. It was a struggle to rally because I was really tired from a very long Thanksgiving Day. I showed up at the house and everyone else was in the same mood. Mama was laying on the couch, in a Snuggie watching tv. She actually looked very comfortable in her Snuggie. I have scoffed at Snuggies in the passed but now I am rethinking my elite attitude and...
ryansinger:
I send my love out to all of you! Happy Thanksgiving!!! Love, Ryan
9 tags
Personal Pizzas on the Grill
Usually I don't eat wheat or grains because I follow a Paleo Zone diet. So most of the recipes you will find here will be grain-free, opting, where it calls for wheat flour to use almond flour or coconut flour instead. Soon I will be experimenting with almond flour pizza but for now this recipe is an ode to my gals at the Mary Magdalene Project.
Ingredients:
Ready made pizza dough from Trader Joe's
8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 onion, diced
1 pkge ground beef
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 jalapenos, sliced
6 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated
Liberal amounts of olive oil
flour for dusting the pizza dough
Remove the pizza dough from the package and set in a bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and keep at room temp while you are preparing the other ingredients. This is so the pizza dough will be exposed to the warm air in your kitchen. The warm air will activate the yeast in the dough and cause the dough to expand to make your pizzas more fluffy rather than bread-like.
Combine diced onion and tomato sauce in a sauce pan and simmer till hot stirring occasionally.
Put about 2T(tablespoons) of Olive Oil in a saute pan and let it heat up a bit. Then add your ground beef and let it cook down for a few minutes. You may have to drain extra water from the pan. Add the crushed garlic and saute with the ground beef.
Saute your mushrooms and jalapenos, either together or separately in a little olive oil.
Heat up a stove top grill pan(add a little olive oil to the grill pan so the pizzas don't stick) or your outside grill.
Now you're ready for the dough. Pull apart the dough into 3-4 smaller pieces. Take each piece and roll it in flour and begin to pull it into the shape of a circle, like a small pizza disc. Or you can experiment and make any shape you want to make.
Now grill only one side of your pizzas. Keep them on the grill a few minutes until the tops begin to slightly bubble and the underside is golden brown like a waffle.
Take the pizzas off the grill and flip them over on plates so that the uncooked side is on the bottom. Top your pizzas with the tomato and onion sauce, ground beef mixture, mushrooms, jalapenos and lastly the cheese.
Put the pizzas back on the grill/grill pan, uncooked side down and cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
Take them off the grill and eat!
Bon Appetit!
15 tags
It All Started...
last week when I began reading the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It’s a book about resistance and how resistance stands in the way of getting anything done and how to beat down resistance into a bloody pulp. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it.
Anyway, I started reading it and it’s like my body was just waiting for me to pick up this book because after...
“Ok, and shoes. This blog will also be about shoes. And anything else I...”
– Coppelia Pique’s Lace Stilettos to End the World
Why I Came Here...
This is a blog about what happens when you decide, in the words of Karen Armstrong, to dethrone yourself from the center of your own Universe and put another there. And it’s about food. I love food. So you’ll see a lot of recipes here. And pix of food.
I started cooking when I was five and through my life food became my sworn enemy, my best friend, my confidant, my escape, my dream,...
Technology. Entertainment. Design. →
Have your mind blown. Everyday.
“If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you. I came to...”
– Emil Zola
