Salty Seattle

Here is the next blog I wanted to feature that has taken my breath away and given me an idea I'm dying to try. This lady (don't mind her picture) ;) cooks food in a way that I could never have imagined. She combines science with her cooking and makes some of the most amazing things - I need to go buy some Sodium Alginate and Calcium Chloride now and it's all her fault :). Here is the info on her blog and who she is:

Salty Seattle: Blog address is http://www.saltyseattle.com/ and here is how she describes herself:

"Linda is a recovering Stiletto Ninja- she hung up the nunchucks in favor of her current role as resident Foodie Fashionista (but she gets to keep the Louboutins). She likes to make cheese (especially burrata), cure bacon, distill salt from the nearby ocean, and churn all manner of gelato from scratch, at home, with wine, in stilettos. She’s obsessed with cooking things sous vide, loves eggs- especially duck and quail- and hand rolls and cuts various types of pasta from gnocchi to tajarin to agnolotti at least thrice a week."

She seriously sounds like an incredibly fun lady and I would love to spend a week in her kitchen, or in Italy for that matter. In fact, my friends and I actually had plans to go to Italy for a week to take cooking classes during the day and tour in the afternoons, but our contact stopped communicating with us, and the plans sort of fizzled...but I still ache to do it :).

Golubka

When I need to entertain my mind a little from boredom, I like to read about food and cooking/baking. Last night I read through quite a few pages of a cookbook I have solely about chocolate, it's one of my favorite cookbooks. Outside of cookbooks, I daily am reading my favorite cooking blogs. I posted a few of my favorite on here before, but I found two this past week that BLOW MY MIND! They are so incredibly unique and make me think outside the box as far as food and cooking goes. I haven't been able to stop thinking about these new ways of cooking. I'll post about them both in separate posts, so here's the first one:

GOLUBKA: it means dove in Russian. The blog address is http://g0lubka.blogspot.com/ Here is how they introduced themselves:

"We here are Russian and very fond of doves. Writing this blog are Paloma's mom (me) and older (much older, 18 years older) sister, M. I will write about food, cooking, and motherhood, and the sister will write about clothing, art, and design. What I've found is that humans mostly crave food from their childhood. Memory plays tricks on us, it often puts a thick coat of sugar on that time when we were little careless hooligans. Everything tasted better back then, right? So I am hoping that in the future, instead of craving for, say, a piece of buttered toast when thinking back to her childhood, Paloma will long for something fresh - maybe papaya, or raw chocolate, or salad. Ultimately, not knowing the feeling of hunger for cooked food will allow her to stay healthier. So far, Paloma is a champion eater, she loves to eat raw and green. Now, her nanny is another story. She is a simple woman of Soviet upbringing, who thinks that one cannot survive without bread. She finds us, together with our ways of eating, absolutely nuts. "Baby can't live on grass alone," she often says, and tries to sneak some cow's milk into Paloma's bottle. But we love her very much. Meanwhile, Paloma has perfect weight, off the charts height, shiny hair, a happy attitude, and endless (sometimes I wish it would end, believe me) energy, so we do not think she is suffering too much :) "

While I am not a vegetarian, fruititarian, vegan or against cooking food, I do find it so interesting to learn from people who are. I like to find food in many forms, made many different ways. The way these ladys prepare their food simply amazes me. I can't even imagine the time, thought, effort and planning they must go through in order to have the diet the do. Yet they do it and they excell at it. I'm so excited to try some of their recipes, especially their white chocolate easter eggs!!!!!!

Mashed Potatoes - Alternatives

Mashed potatoes are lovely and satisfying. But having them on a daily basis would get a little old. So if you are a mashed potato die hard, but would like to switch things up a little, here are some interesting alternatives I found out about today:

Sweet Potato: Try adding mashed bananas, coconut milk or orange juice.

Cauliflower: Roast in an oven or steam, mash and add greek yogurt or sour cream.

Turnips: These have a more robust flavor than potatoes. Peel, wash, and quarter them. Boil 35-45 min. Drain water. For 7 large turnips, add 1 cup of milk with 2 Tbsp of Butter. Blend and add salt and pepper...actually sounds kinda yummy for a turnip!

Bok Choy and Potato Dill Soup

One of my friends at church is madly in love with my roommate. The poor boy is MADLY in love with her. She is a good friend and talks to him when she sees him...thats all. But it's enough reason, I guess, for him to be absolutely impressed and madly in love with her. If I see him, on the other hand, I'll say hi and find out how he is doing...this is usually how our conversation goes:

Me: Hey buddy, nice to see you!

Him: Hi...where's your roommate?

Me: She's at home. How are you?

Him: I haven't seen her for a while...is she liking her job?

Me: She likes her job! What have you been up to?

Him: Tell her she should join Bountiful Baskets

Me: Uhhh....okay....

Him: I told her about it once. Have you noticed if she's joined yet?

Me: I'm not sure, I'll have to find out...

Him: Well tell her I said hi!

Me: Okay....I'll be sure to do that!

Well...we had this conversation last november....it was also repeated every sunday until about february. I did ask my roommated what he meant by Bountiful Baskets...I thought it was some weird way for poor people to get some cheap, wilted vegetables. Then my best friend posted a picture on her blog and on facebook of the goods she got from Bountiful Baskets and it helped me realized it was nothing I had thought it was. Instead, it was a food co-op done in Washington State, Arizona, Idaho and Utah...not something named after the town Bountiful that I live in. You pay on mondays and go on saturday mornings to your nearest location and pick up your produce...an ample supply of fruits and vegetables that is big enough to last me for two weeks...and the best part is that it is only $15.00!!!! That makes me so happy I could tinkle! ha ha

Here is what I got last week:
Actually, the first time I got my "basket" I was grinning ear to ear and wanted to cry a little...you should all know by now how food is such a big contributor to my happiness...I couldn't help but want to cry. I price-checked everything I got at the store I usually buy my produce from and found out that if I had bought all this at the store I would have spend $45.00! Please grab your neighbors hand and hold a moment of silence right now for such a beautiful thing! Then sing kum-by-a! Okay, back to how any of this relates to Bok Choy and Potato Dill Soup. You'll notice that I got an ample supply of baby bok choy...it filled up two entire bread bags full...what does one do with so much bok choy! I like stir fry, but not enough to eat it till all this is gone.
Then I remembered a soup that a friend of mine made in Ecuador while I lived there and insisted that I tasted it for her. It was a silky, creamy potato soup with some type of leafy thing in it. I was 20 years old at the time and had never seen green leaves in soup before...I had no idea at the time I was missing out on things like Zupa Toscana and a variety of other things that make my taste buds sing. But as I tried that soup I clearly remember thinking, aching, wishing...needing some Dill in her soup.

I haven't owned dry dill for years. Not because I don't like dill, on the contrary, I really like it! It's just that every year I say in my mind that I'm going to grow it in the garden, and every year, just like the year before, it dies...I've slapped my hand for it and finally just went to the store and bought some. I had some milk, potatoes and bok choy that were aching to have some dill as their companion. So here is what was created:

Bok Choy and Potato Dill Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil (my kitchen is never empty of this...if it is, I'll start to cry)

4 to 5 bunches of baby bok choy (or one regular sized bok choy), chopped

6 small red potatoes, diced

4 cups milk, plus 1/4 cup

2 Tbsp dill weed

4 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp flour

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp celery salt

salt and pepper

1 chicken boullion cube (knorr brand...it will improve your life)

Heat the oil on medium heat and add garlic. Saute till you can smell the aroma of the garlic. Add the bok choy and potatoes, turn heat down. In a large pot, add the potato and bok choy. Pour in milk (except for the 1/4 cup), add boullion, celery salt, salt and pepper and dill. Heat and boil till potatoes are soft. In a separate small saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and let heat and allow the flour to brown slightly. Add to this mix with a whisk the 1/4 cup of milk. If mixture is too thick, add more milk...you are trying to get ready to add to the soup without getting lumpy when incorporating it. Make sure it is a soft and silky liquid before adding it in. Add to large pot with the remaining ingredients. Let simmer 10 min to allow all the flavors dance around, get to know each other and have a party. Serve warm...unless for some reason you like cold soup. Enjoy!

If you are interested in being a part of the Bountiful Baskets or know someone who may be, click here!

Pork Tenderloin with Honey and Peaches

I hopped on my bike monday afternoon to leave work and head to the library. I've been meaning to read a book called No Impact Man by Colin Bevan. I watched the documentary and fell for it...I connected with the message and have already been living my life in a lot of the ways that were mentioned in the movie, but wanted to dig deeper and really see how Colin did things. He is a man who wanted to make no impact to the earth or environment for a year. It might sound boring and another "going green" thing, but I am totally and completely interested in it. Needless to say, I was very excited to find out my library had a copy of the book. I peddled my little heart out to get there, thinking it would be gone by the time I arrived...I just like to assume it's a raging hit with everyone. I put it in my backpack and pedaled home, with just as much speed...(believe me, it wasn't very fast...I'm a wimp on the bike). I got home, planning on ignoring dinner all together. I would simply read the entire night away. BUT....that didn't happen. Yes, I did read for several hours, but I went to go grab a glass of water and caught a waft of the peaches I'd gotten from the food co-op and they were getting old fast. The book disappeared right then and there....all from the smell of peaches. I can't help it. I don't know what my problem is, but the second I realize something needs to be used, my brain automatically starts rolling...playing connect the dots with all the other ingredients I have in the kitchen...mixing them together in my mind until I've figured out the perfect dish! Sometimes I make the dish up....other times I resort to Google. Google lead me to this recipe and before I knew what I got myself into, I was eating Pork Tenderloins with Honey and Peaches along with Cornbread on the side. Here are the recipes:

Pork Tenderloins with Honey and Peaches (from http://www.cooks.com/)

4 med. sized peaches
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. salad oil
1/2 tsp. salt
Honey
4 pork loin, blade, rib, or sirloin chops, each 1 inch thick
Parsley sprigs for garnish

About 45 minutes before serving: Peel, pit, and chop 2 peaches. Peel, halve, and pit remaining 2 peaches; set aside.

In 1 quart saucepan over medium high heat, heat chopped peaches, mustard, salad oil, salt, and 2 tablespoons honey to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes. Remove cover and cook 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Preheat broiler if manufacturer directs. Arrange pork chops and peach halves, cut side down, on rack in broiling pan. Spoon half of cooked peach mixture over pork chops; brush peach halves with some honey.

Place pan in broiler at closest position to source of heat; broil 10 minutes. Turn pork chops and peach halves; spoon remaining peach mixture over pork chops and brush cut sides of peaches with honey. Broil 8 minutes longer or until chops are fork tender.

With pancake turner, remove broiled peaches to cutting board. Cut peach halves into fans; starting close to stem end, cut each peach half lengthwise into 7 or 8 thin slices. Spread slices to form open fan, being careful to keep peach halves intact.

Arrange pork chops and peach fans on platter; garnish with parsley sprigs. Makes 4 main dish servings.

Cornbread
¼ cups Plus 2 Tablespoons Shortening
1 cup Yellow Corn Meal
½ cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Buttermilk
½ cups Milk
1 whole Egg
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat shortening in an iron skillet, muffin pan, or other baking pan. Combine corn meal, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, milk, and egg. Add baking powder and baking soda. Stir. Add ¼ cup melted shortening, stirring constantly. Pour into hot pan, smoothing surface with spatula. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Curry Soup

Today I was supposed to go horseback riding with a friend after work. Then one thing lead to another and I ended up at home this afternoon waiting...and waiting.... and when I wait I'm usually pacing around the house, straightening things up as quickly as I can, priding myself in the amount of things I can accomplish while waiting. As I was moving about the house like this, I noticed my coconut sitting on the kitchen counter. I had gotten it three weeks ago from the farmers co-op I've joined. So out of boredom I started hacking at it - not sure what I was going to do with it, besides milk it. I just knew if I didn't do something it would go bad. I didn't realize that my 6:00 coconut time would turn into a full-blown meal that would finally be eaten at 9:00...but I should realize things like this...because they happen all the time. Thus this recipe was created for you to enjoy. Try it and this soup will never leave your memory!

Curry Soup
1 coconut (or make your life simpler and buy a can of coconut milk!)
2 pork tenderloins
8 small red yukon potatoes (yellow in the middle, red skin...I'm in love with these potatoes)
3 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil (if you dare, you can use other oil, but it will ruin your life...I'm just sayin'!)
Salt and Pepper
2 Tomatoes, gutted and diced
2 small red bell peppers, gutted and diced
2 cups chicken broth (or 2 cups of water and 2 bullion cubes...knorr brand preferably...they will never ruin your life...just sayin')
1 to 2 tsp celery salt
1 Tbsp curry powder

Crack open your coconut (you will use an old, meaning brown, coconut...not a soft, meaning green, one). Drain the clear liquid. You won't use it in this recipe, so I drank it, just like that! Start shredding your coconut. If you are smart, you will find a bench to sit on with a coconut shredder nailed to the bottom of it and you can just run the coconut over the shredder...5 min later, you're done!....but since most people don't have one of those...see the picture below for what my shredder looks like.

It will take you all night, as that is how this recipe was invented, just a forewarning....but maybe it's just my weak hands...who knows.

While you are shredding your coconut heat a large pot on the stove on medium high to high heat. Heat the olive oil and butter till melted. Throw in two large pork chops that have been thawed. Give them a nice shake of salt and pepper. Brown on both sides.

Chop potatoes into medium large chunks, like you would for a tin-foil dinner.

Cut tomatoe in half than in fourths. Take a spoon and gut all the seeds and juice out. If you are in love with tomatoes like me, you can save the guts and use them for an omlette in the morning for breakfast. If you don't love them, leave them out of the entire recipe if you want. Dice once gutted.

Gut and dice the red bell peppers.

Once pork is browned till real crispy on both sides, leave heat on, but remove the pork to a plate. Add to the pan the chicken broth and let it deglaze (remove the crispy meat flakes from the bottom of the pan). Throw in, chuck in, whatever you like better, the potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. Add celery salt, salt and pepper, and curry powder. Let boil till sauce is reduced and potatoes are soft. While this is cooking cube the pork. You still have a while, so go back to your now grated coconut. Fill a medium sized bowl with hot tap water. Heat in microwave for 3 minutes. Dump coconut shreds into hot water. Let sit for a few minutes until cool enough, yet still hot, to dare stick your hands in. Grap an empty medium sized bowl and have next to the bowl now containing hot water and the coconut shreds you slaved over. These time consuming babies are about to become painful....stick your hands in the water grabbing as much coconut as you can in your fist without squeezing. Lift it up out of the water, let it drain a little, then holding it over the empty bowl, squeeze the life out of it. Dump the now dry coconut in a third empty bowl (I guess I should have told you about that one too, huh). Repeat until all of the coconut has been squeezed, or milked. Place the dry coconut back into the hot water and do it all over again. You can generally squeeze the milk out of the coconut like this up to 3 or 4 times or until there is no more milk coming out of it. Throw away the remaining dry coconut.

Now that you have just milked a coconut, put a smile on your face and make your facebook status state how amazing you are...or not. Strain the milk to remove any possible extra coconuts that possibly escaped your fists while milking. Add the pork and the coconut milk to the pot and simmer for 15 to 20 min...or not at all, depending on how long you want to draw this out.

Dish up a bowl and enjoy.
(I saw you gag at my picture....just remember, an ugly picture does not equal nasty food...just means I'm a bad photographer, and I don't care either).

My favorite cooking websites

One of my friends asked me for the links to my favorite cooking websites. A lot of my inspiration for my own recipes comes from reading what other people are cooking, what they are putting in their recipes and eventually what I do is pull all of the combined ideas together into my own recipes. Here are my top 10 favorites:

1) http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ I go here daily! I love her sense of humor, her stories and her recipes

2) http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/ Created by the pioneer woman, this site has user submitted recipes that are to good to be true - look them up if you don't believe me!

3) http://allrecipes.com/ I go to this website when I am pantry cooking (meaning I don't have all the ingredients I need to make what I usually make and need to get creative, or go to the store - I'd rather get creative). The reason the website is helpful for pantry cooking is because you can search by ingredients - if you are out of eggs, but need to make a cake, you can search for recipes to accommidate what you are looking for.

4)http://www.nutritiondata.com/ I haven't used this site as much but it has recipes PLUS information on what you are eating - giving you nutrition labels for single ingredients - making your cooking educational. You can also store your recipes here.

5) http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/ This is some random guy in a tiny kitchen who cooks his little heart out with adventure....er, well - I mean with unique ideas and tasty ingredients. If you are looking to explore new ingredients or new ways of combining them, check this guy out!

6)http://www.cheekykitchen.com/ if you want a good dessert with a mouth watering picture of it, you must come here. I love looking at food pictures and these are AMAZING!

7) http://www.laraferroni.com/category/cookandeat/ this one has puurrrty pictures on it and makes my mouth water. I love to torture myself by staring at purty pictures all day and having my stomach grumbling until I can go make one of the recipes on here. :)

8) http://www.supercook.com/ Extremely helpful for pantry cooking again - you simply enter in the ingredients you are looking to use or get rid of and it will search lots of different websites to find you a recipe suited to what you are looking for - pure genious!

9) http://rouxbe.com/ gives you cooking lessons, you need a paid membership to access everything, but they offer many things for free as well. Its worth looking at!

10) http://www.epicurious.com/ People rave about this website, but my favorite will always be the Pioneer Woman!

Spanish Grilled Corn and Chicken

Ingredients:

3 tsp. Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 cup onion, diced
1 chicken breast, cubed
1/2 bag frozen corn (or better yet, 1 or 2 grilled corn on the cobs, with corn sliced off)
1 or 2 can tomatoes, strained
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 tsp taco seasoning
Cilantro (if you like it)
Cooked rice
Tortillas

Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Add chopped garlic. Once the garlic and oil have had time to magically become one, add the onion, letting it join in on the fun. Next, add the chicken, and once it's almost cooked through add corn (preferrably it would be grilled in my mind, but since I don't have a grill or corn on the cob, this is my sad way of "grilling" the corn, ha ha - by heating it up with the chicken). Once cooked, add one can strained tomatoes. Add spices. Remove from heat. (I like to add the tomatoes without straining them, then boiling the mix till it's to a perfect unrunny thickness).

To serve, heat up tortillas in a pan with butter till they are nice and warm, put chicken mix on top with rice and freshly chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!

For dessert, try putting honey onto one of your warm and buttery tortillas, it's like magic in your mouth.

Creamy Chicken Taco Soup

Throw into Crockpot:
3 chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic
½ bag frozen corn
½ jar salsa
1 can tomatoes
½ a pkg taco seasoning
1 can cream of chicken soup
Random spices: celery salt, seasoning salt, and chili powder
1 can chopped green chili peppers

Let cook overnight
Next day, sauté one onion in butter, add to soup. Take chicken out of soup and shred or chop, put back in.

Serve soup with tons of shredded cheddar cheese and crushed tortilla chips. Top with Cilantro or green onions if that floats your boat (it does mine).

Die and go to heaven only to find out they eat this on a daily basis up there.

The end

Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing

Growing up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by gravel roads and miles away from our closest neighbors, it was a long trip to a regular grocery store. So grocery shopping was something we did very infrequently and when done, we stocked up on the necessities. Now that I like in a town with several grocery stores withing a mile from me, I've become accostume to making a quick trip the second I start craving something or have the urge to whip up a newly discovered recipe, so I've been finding myself trying new things that I normally wouldn't have had access to while living out in the boonies. One of these things is Buttermilk - it's such a mysterious ingredient. My memory of buttermilk is from back when I was a teenager and in wanting to make buttermilk pancakes discovered that the word "Buttermilk" didn't mean that there were butter and milk in the recipe, but that it literally called for something called buttermilk...shows how little I knew! So, without internet, I used the "handy help" guide in the back of a cookbook that said you could make your own buttermilk by putting vinegar in milk and letting it sit for a bit. Sounded horrible and turns out, it tasted horrible too...it turned me off to the whole buttermilk idea for years. Years later, I'm finally getting to know this ingredient and am realizing that it isn't so bad, I think. I made chocolate sheet cake today (recipe to come soon) which called for a bit of buttermilk and now I have half a carton staring at me in the fridge. Every time I open the door I think it's speaking to me, daring me to use it, try something new with it. It's like it's trying to prove to me that it is useful. I finally gave in, made a salad and searched the internet for buttermilk and cilantro (I had left overs of that from my BBQ Chicken pizza, recipe coming soon too) and found a recipe that turned out to tast similar to Cafe Rio's dressing, without the tomatillo's. It's good, just don't put miracle whip in it, you will regret it, I do....

Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup mayonnaise (not miracle whip)
1/8 tsp sugar
3 drops hot pepper sauce

Blend all ingredients together in food processor. Simple as that!

Ready to Roll!

Coming soon: Frozen pizza that will rock your world - or knock your pants off! Sandwiches, Zupa Tuscana, Ginata'ang Calabasa (my favorite Filipino dish), Zucchini Muffins, Salmon and more...I restocked my spice rack and I am ready to roll! Sorry for the long break, but I will be back in kitchen heaven again soon. Oh...anybody have a favorite rhubarb recipe...my rhubarb is demanding that I use it.

Oat Bran

I was driving to school. The light turned from green, to yellow, to red. I stopped. The box of cereal sitting next to me tumbled to the car floor - lucky charms and all their marshmallowey goodness flew in the air, falling to the car floor, and rolled into the hidden spaces and crevices of the passenger side, where they will rest for a few months until a marshmallow decides to crawl out to give you a surprise one morning. That's when I ended my relationship with cold cereal. I realized I was using it as a dry snack to eat as I raced to school in the morning. It was a bad excuse of a breakfast. I decided that if I couldn't even spare some time for breakfast, I needed to wake up earlier and make myself a good meal. I was majoring in Health Promotion - every one of my classes talked about the importance of this very meal, yet I was ignoring it. I made the change and now life is bliss. No more boxes to worry for and no more starved mornings.

This, my friends, is Oat Bran. Do you know what it is? It's happiness in a measuring cup. It's better than oatmeal because it doesn't make a yucky slime when it sits in a bowl. And it's better for you, just look:
Nutritional Value: Oatmeal___ Oat Bran
Carbohydrates_____ 27 grams____ 25 grams
Fiber_____________4 grams_____ 6 grams
Soluble Fiber_______ 2 grams_____ 3 grams
Protein___________ 5 grams_____ 7 grams
Calcium__________ 0 %________ 2 %
Iron____________ 10 %_______ 20 %
Thiamin__________ 2 %_______ 25 %
Phosphorus________ 0 %______ 25 %
Riboflavin_________ 2 %_______ 6 %
Magnesium________ 0 %______ 20 %
Zinc______________ 0 %______ 10 %


Put 1/3 Cup in 1 Cup of boiling water.

Boil till thick.

You can add almond butter, peanut butter or whatever you like. I like to add honey

and milk. Then I eat it up cause it's real good!

My Favorite Breakfast Smoothie

My friend told me about this amazing smoothie she has been whipping up for the past few years every morning for breakfast. I loved getting her little educational lesson on why each ingredient is important, especially for womens health:


Ingredients: 100% Pure Cranberry Juice (or whatever you can find), Flax, Soy Milk, Echinacea, Blackberries, Banana, Orange, Frozen Strawberries or any type of frozen berry. Ooh, and plain yogurt - I was all!

The banana is for potassium which regulates water balance, regulates levels of acidity, and blood pressure. The adequate intake for potassium for adults is 4700 milligrams per day. Normally you probably get around 2000 to 3000 milligrams per day, unless you are on a very low-calorie diet or are an athlete who exercises heavily, then it is even lower. So eat your bananas. You can also get potassium in kidney beans, yogurt, orange juice, zucchini, baked potatoes, tomatoes and cantaloupe. Interesting fact: kidney beans and winter squash actually have more potassium than bananas.

Bananas also contain vitamin B6, along with Salmon, baked potatoes, and avocados. It's important for metabolism, immunity because it helps white blood cells and oxygen in the blood. I think i'll have salmon for lunch tomorrow!

The orange is for vitamin C. Most animals can physically create their own vitamin C just by being alive. We on the other hand are unable to do so on our own. It is necessary for protein collagen which is what makes up most of our connective tissue, bone, teeth, tendons and blood vessels. So it would help your wounds heal and prevent your skin from dripping off your body. I'm reading a book right now called "Napoleons Buttons" and it goes into detail on the sea voyages and the sufferings of those who had scurvy. Basically, it sucked for them - their teeth feel out, bones became soft and it sounded pretty gory. No wonder why pirates always have that sickly look to them. Anyways...back to the vitamin C: has antioxidants properties which helps prevent the formation of cancer and prevents cataracts in the eyes. If you are low on iron it also increases iron absorption and builds your immunity. You can also get vitamin C in Brussels sprouts, strawberries, red peppers, and kiwis.

Notice this handy orange peeler - you don't get your hands all messy and it makes it so easy to peel an orange.

You can buy one from you local pampered chef lady for under a dollar and it's like having a piece of heaven in your kitchen.

Frozen Berries - make the smoothie cold, as a smoothie should be.

Strawberries contain vitamin C and flavanoids, which are known for their antioxidant activity.

Blackberries contain vitamin C, fiber, vitamin K and folic acid. Vitamin K helps your blood to clot and folic acid produces DNA and can also be found in Sunflower seeds and green veggies. Fiber....well let's just say this adds bulk to the brown stuff.

Flax is for omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid, which is an essential fatty acid. You can also get this in salmon and other fish, walnuts, mussels, crab, shrimp and canola and soybean oils. This fatty acid lowers your risk for heart attacks and helps your heart rhythm, lowers your triglyceride levels, and helps for those in pain from the inflammation that happens with rheumatoid arthritis. If you are using flax, you need to grind it up, because if not it will just go in one end and come out the other, not giving you any benefits. I use a coffee grinder to grind it up real good and put in about 2 tablespoons.

I have been adding two capsules of Echinacea since I have been fighting a cold this week. I just open the little capsules and dump in the powdery goodness. This stimulates the immune system and prevents and treats colds. It's just a mild affect, but if I'm fighting a cold, I will take what I can get.

Cranberry juice is for the prevention of UTI's. Cranberries have phytochemicals which help the cardiovascular and immune systems and may be an anti-cancer agent. They also prevent tooth decay and help with gingivitis.

Soy Milk is for possible protection from cancer and contains antioxidants. I'm beginning to think that this isn't really a big necessity in my smoothie as most of the health benefits contained in soy milk are found in larger quantities in my 2 small tablespoons of flax seed. Sorry, I just couldn't find enough research and information that justifies the supposed health benefits of soy milk - although I do think it is tasty!

Next is the poor yogurt that I left out because I used it all up! The plain yogurt is for potassium, calcium, riboflavin, vitamin B6 and B12. Be sure that your yogurt has L. Acidophilus in it to help your tummy. Riboflavin acts as an antioxidant and aids metabolism. Vitamin B12 helps metabolism and aids nerve function.

Put all of this in a blender and blend away - and there you have it, the amazing breakfast smoothie. As for the measurements, put in however much you want - have fun with it! After making a few of them for a few days in a row, you will get down pat what suits you!

Here's the recipe:

Breakfast Smoothie

1/2 cup cranberry juice

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup yogurt

1 orange

1/2 banana

1 Tbsp wheat germ

1 Tbsp flax

Any other frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries)

Blend

Drink

Smile

golden threads

The mystery food is: (drum roll.....) Foithong "Golden Threads". It's a Thai dessert made from beaten egg yolks which are gently cooked in a syrup of water and sugar. Here is a video showing how to make it. If you are a custard fan, you would like this. Maybe next time we will have some winners!

Contest - deadline is thanksgiving day!

This was given to me by one of my friends a few months ago. Initially I was a little scared, but it was very tasty. The contest is - What do you think it is!?!?!!!!!! You have till Thanksgiving day to let me know your final guess. I will mail or give to the winner a prize. Good luck!

Pomegranates

Pomegranate: Latin for Pomum (apple) and Granatis (seeded)

It's Fall now, my favorite season! There are so many reason why it's so great: Halloween is in the fall - there is only one day a year where everybody and their dog can dress however they want and not get funny looks. I mean, if I could wear black and green stripped tights everyday, I probably would, but I can't, so I save them for Halloween.
The leaves turn different colors, there is still sunshine but the air is crisper, you can wear your summer and winter clothes, the large amounts of cash you can win in the pumpkin carving contests and best of all: The FOOD! Pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, squash, soups, stews! Life suddenly becomes great during the fall. Pomegranates are one of my favorite things to eat right now, because it's the only time I can buy them in the stores and I go crazy about it.


I love you pomegranate!!

I recently come up with an amazing idea - I've always said that pomegranates are like raspberry flavored corn...so it hit me: we should sell pomegranates in movie theaters. They taste like popcorn and candy at the same time, so all your movie watching needs would be taken care of in one single mouth tingling bite!


When you buy a pomegranate, you find the best one if you get a feel for how heavy they are. A smaller pomegranate might be heavier then a bigger one and that would mean it has more juice in it - pick the heavy ones. Don't let the shiney, bright colored ones confuse you either - the fruit that has been on the tree longer will be darker, probably uglier than the bright colored ones. Give it a squeeze as well, if it is hard it won't be juicy - but don't pick the very squishy ones either - aim for somewhere in the middle. Check as well to be sure there is no mold on the crown. It would be a pity to buy a bad pomegranate.
To cut it open, cut of the crown like in the picture. You can see the different sections in the pomegranate - cut it into quarters following the sections.


You don't have to cut through the entire fruit, just a slice into the outer flesh and it should break open. Now pop a few of those in your mouth, I know you can't wait any longer.

An easy way to remove the arils (that's what those little guys are called) is to place the sections in a bowl of cold water for a minute. Then rub them off with your fingers, the pulp will float and can easily be skimmed off when you drain the water.

When you have finished and drained the arils, you then hold in your hand a piece of heaven. It's good for your body too: Pomegranates contain more antioxidants than green tea and red wine. They also contain Vitamin C, B5, Potassium, and Fiber. They reduce your risk for heart disease, lower your blood pressure, may inhibit viral infections and may have antibacterial effects against dental plaque! They are also doing research now on their effect against proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro.

I usually just grab a handful and eat away, but if you would like some variety in your pomegranate eating habits, throw them in some plain yogurt.

If this post did not satisfy all of your needs for pomegranate knowledge and enlightenment, don't worry, there is a pomegranate website: http://www.pomegranates.org/home.shtml

p.s. Thank you to Matt for teaching me everything I know about how get this pomegranate goodness into me as fast as possible. He told me about the water idea.

Strawberry Whipped Sensation (a.k.a. Strawberry Ice-cream Cake)

You may have noticed that this blog was a little more than boring this summer since there were never any posts. It's because me and my roommate were so busy whipping up some amazing creations in the kitchen, there was just no time to post them all. Okay, so maybe that was a lie, but we did make a few things and this was one of them. My strawberries finally had an amazing year and produced a lot of fruit (sometimes more than I could pick). This recipe came in handy. Hope you enjoy it!
Cast of Characters: Strawberries, Sweetened Condensed Milk, Lemon Juice, Cool Whip, Oreos and Butter!
Line the inside of an 8x4-inch loaf pan with foil.
Mash two cups of strawberries in a large bowl. Yum!
Pour in one can of sweetened condensed milk and 1/4 cup of lemon juice.

Stir! Mix it all together.
Add two cups of cool whip............
and stir again.
Take 8 oreo cookies and finely chop them.
Combine the oreos with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

Take your foil lined pan and pour in the strawberry mixture.
Spoon the oreos over the top of the pan.
Press the cookie mixture into the strawberry mixture to form a nice crust.
If the spoon doesn't cut it for ya, just use your hands, who cares! (Thanks, Shauna, for being my hand model!)
Fold the ends of the foil over the dessert and cover entirely with another piece of foil. Place it in the freezer. It will take about 6 hours to freeze (hopefully you weren't needing it anytime soon).
Once frozen, unwrap the top of the dessert. Once the top is unwrapped, place upside-down on a platter and remove the rest of the foil.
At this point you can frost the entire cake with cool whip with strawberries on top. There were only two of us to eat this so we cut a few pieces off.......
Yum!
Your final product!!!! Its great, nice and cool, yummy and full of strawberry goodness. Enjoy!

Strawberry Whipped Sensation

4 cups fresh strawberries, divided

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 to 2 tubs of cool whip

8 oreo's

1 Tbsp. butter, melted

Shape foil onto outside of 8x4-inch loaf pan. Line inside of pan with shaped foil, with ends extending over sides of pan. Mash 2 cups of the strawberries in large bowl. Stir in condensed milk and juice. Stir 2 cups of the whipped topping into strawberry mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Finely chop cookies. Combine cookies and butter. Spoon over whipped topping mixture in pan. Cover cookie mixture with ends of foil and gently press cookie mixture into whipped topping mixture. Freeze 6 hours or until firm. Invert dessert onto serving plate when ready to serve; remove pan and foil. Spread remaining whipped topping onto top and sides of dessert. Slice remaining 2 cups strawberries; arrange on dessert. Store leftovers in freezer. Makes 12 servings.