We used to have a cat named Jack. Jack was a sly, slow-moving, long-haired Persian that would rarely come when called, but if you put out a small bowl of vanilla ice cream, out of nowhere he would magically appear. This is sort of how my dad is with meatballs. All I have to do is say, "Dad, I'm making meatballs," and he's half-way out the door on the way over. He loves these.
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Making The Most Of Your Slow Cooker
A sizzling collection of over 125 melt-in-the-mouth recipes using the simple and easy slow-cooking technique High-flavour, low-maintenance – the slow cooker combines minimum preparation with maximum taste in tender and wholesome meals How to achieve perfect results with a wonderfully wide range of recipes, all shown in 600 full colour step-by-step photographs Tasty classic dishes to suit all occasions and all tastes, from starters like Tomato and Fresh Basil Soup to main courses such as Lamb and Carrot Casserole with Barley, and dreamy desserts including Sticky Coffee and Pear Pudding A detailed introduction provides a practical guide to purchasing a slow cooker and illustrates a full range of preparation and cooking techniques to get the best results every time Includes nutritional notes on the fat, carbohydrate, salt and calorie count for each recipe to help you plan your meals with diet and health in mind.-.
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Luscious Liqueurs:
In this collection of 50 easy recipes, illustrated with gorgeous color photos, master mixologist A.J. Rathbun shows readers how to create their own liqueurs – infusions that meld liquor with fruit, herbs, and spices – for any occasion. Chapters include citrus mixes such as Limoncello and Mandarino; fruit flavors such as A Fair Pear; nutty/spicy liqueurs such as Anisetter and Basil Grappa; exotic mixtures such as Persephonia; and sweet treats such as Mocha Cream. The introduction covers all the basic rules, tips, and necessary tools, as well as information on gift-giving, storing, and packaging, and cocktail suggestions..-.
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Infused:
Infused liqueurs are the hot new ingredients for cocktails. With more than 30 infusions plus dozens of drinks to use them in, Infused combines spirits like vodka and rum with fruits, flowers, herbs, and spices to create superior liqueurs. Take the Gibson and give it a kick with Onion Vodka. Cool down with Watermelon Martinis on warm summer days, or get the heat going with Hot Mint Chocolate spiked with Mind Vodka, a perfect antidote to cold winter nights. Many infusions pair with multiple recipes: herb-infused vodkas enliven both the Rosemary Martini and the Strawberry Basil Martini. Chocolate Vodka is the indulgence in the Chocolate Martini, Brandy Alexander, and the Grasshopper. The versatility of each infusion makes giving a bottle of homemade liqueur a unique gift for any drink connoisseur. With tips on how to shake, stir, and chill, and enough recipes and ideas to reinvent any party, this colorful little book is the ultimate infusion of fun..-.
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South Wind Through The Kitchen
Elizabeth David changed the way we cook, and how we think and write about food. Her first two books, <i<Mediterranean Food and French Country Cooking, were a celebration of everything fresh, tasty, simple, and delightful, and they struck a decisive one-two punch against the mingy spirit of British postwar cooking. David's wit and love of pleasure, her appeal to the senses and the imagination–not to mention her delicious recipes–sparked an international revolution in taste: boiled carrots and canned ham suddenly gave way to olive oil and sea salt, sprigs of rosemary and whole basil leaves, seasonal produce and fresh pasta. Here was something new in the cold, gray world: a food writer who was stimulating, opinionated, informative, and funny, a wonderful companion in both the library and the kitchen..-.
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Martini:
Stir or shake like a pro. For an evening dinner party, for a special birthday gathering, or for a blazing hot summer afternoon on the patio, here are great recipes for just the right martini. With recipes and instructions to make 500 different classic cocktails, including 50 nonalcoholic Mockatinis, any celebration can have a new twist. In addition to all the favorites plus an assortment of delightful variations, Martini provides information about equipment, history and trends — and shows how to select and mix the perfect martini. Among the 500 recipes are: Dry martini Gimlet Basil beauty Mick Jagger-meister Bellini-tini Raspberry sake-tini Busy bee sting martini Strawberry ‘n’ balsamictini Cosmopolitan Vodka espresso. Dazed and infused..-.
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Summer Gatherings
Summer Gatherings offers a collection of simple, uncomplicated fare that features the best summertime ingredients. This beautiful and practical cookbook promises to make use of the tomatoes, corn, basil, peaches, and other summertime favorites that readers will find in their local farmer’s markets and roadside produce stands as well as the supermarket. With preparation time for each recipe averaging 15 minutes, and with make-ahead instructions for each dish, readers will be able to make delicious and easy meals while taking full advantage of the best ingredients and techniques that the summer season has to offer..-.
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Priced at only $ 12.95
ML Detox Organic Herbal Tea Tin
ML Detox Organic herbal tea is a luscious, detoxifying herbal infusion, highlighted by clean notes of mint, basil and a hint of licorice. A spa retreat in a cup, both warming and delicately sweet. 2….
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Have you noticed the brightly colored bell peppers in the market lately? They're glorious. Here's a quick and easy recipe for Italian peperonata, or fried peppers, with onions, fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, and basil. This is one of those "I almost ate the whole batch" dishes, only reluctantly shared with my parents who agreed they were terrific. Peperonata recipes come in many versions; some get cooked a good long time, some get cooked with potatoes, or without tomatoes. This dish is certainly open-for-improvisation. Rather than cooking the peppers until they were stew-like, we opted for a light sauté so there is still some crunch in the vegetables. A perfect side dish for chicken or fish, great on bread, and great on its own too.
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There is something special about tomatoes that you grow yourself. From your own Italian herb garden, they seem redder, tastier, plumper, and they are just perfect for any salad or recipe you need to use them for. When you see them at the supermarket, their coloring is pink. They just do not look healthy. In fact, they look sick. If you are desperate, and you need a tomato in your salad that evening, you buy it anyway. And you are always sorry you spent that money on a tomato that was not properly ripened and was too expensive.
If you do a lot of cooking, you will want to plant the herbs that you use the most. Along with your vegetables of choice, your herbs should be planted in the garden at the appropriate distance from each other, and it helps to label them, as well. Since they are going to be eaten, be sure not to add pesticides. Use an all-organic fertilizer. If you are not sure if your fertilizer is organic, you can use the soil from your backyard mixed with rabbit manure or chicken manure for best results. You can also add your own mix of various organic amendments.
For Italian cooking, you might want as numerous parsley, basil, oregano, and thyme plants as you are able to fit in one area. For Mexican cooking, some cilantro would be excellent. Try to maintain the cilantro far apart from the parsley, as they appear really a lot the same. There ought to also be a row of peppers, hot and sweet.
Dill is really a favorite among those who like to make salads and deviled eggs. It’s a delicate plant, but it’s simple to grow, even inside a cooler summer. Rosemary is fantastic on lamb and in soups. And mint is really a excellent aromatic herb for tea. Sage is also excellent for soups and stews.
In case you are fortunate sufficient to live inside a climate that brings a lengthy spring and summer to your backyard, you might grow sufficient herbs and vegetables to give to neighbors and friends, or even sell to local markets. You may also think about giving some of your herbs and create to needy food pantries.
If you live where summers are short, no worry, you can do lots of things to keep your herbs all year long. Basil may be repotted and kept in the kitchen for half the winter. It may continue to grow even longer than that. Many of the other herbs can be frozen, along with the peppers. Just pull off the stems, cut them up, and they are ready to add to meals for the rest of the year. Some hot peppers can even be strung up to hang in a decorative bunch for gifts.
You might want to keep some of your basil frozen, as well, and you should put a few drops of olive oil on it to keep the leaves separated as they freeze. They will be easier to pull apart when you need them. Sage can dry and be placed in a vase for your constant use during the rest of the year. Other herbs can be very slowly dried in a warm oven, and then bottled as they do with your seasons in the stores.
You are able to feed your loved ones wholesome, all organic foods that you simply have planted your self all 12 months lengthy. The cash you’ll save from not getting to depend on the supermarkets is going to be nicely worth getting your personal herb garden.
In spite of the oddly cool weather here in Sacramento, my tomatoes are growing swell. And there is nothing better to do with fresh home grown tomatoes on a summer day than have them in a cool, colorful salad. While most summer tomato salads rely on basil, this one uses fresh parsley and dried oregano, along with onions and avocados. It comes from my friend Michelle (we've known each other since age 13) and is one her favorite salads to bring to summer potlucks and family gatherings. Michelle comes from a large extended Italian American family that truly loves food. This salad is like a traditional Italian tomato salad, but with avocados instead of mozzarella.
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From the recipe archive, first posted last summer, reposting now because not only is it a terrific casserole, it uses up a lot of zucchini, and if your garden is in any way like mine, you have tons of it right now. ~Elise
In my garden, there lives The Beast, a 5 foot tall zucchini plant that puts out 2 full-sized zucchinis a day. Even with all the great zucchini recipes we have, it's hard for three people to consume 14 zucchini a week. (There's also a pattypan squash plant.) So around this time of year I'm always looking for ways to use up my overflowing vegetable drawer of zucchini. This is an easy-to-make strata-like breakfast casserole with grated zucchini, tomatoes, basil, ricotta, and Parmesan. (The tomatoes and basil are growing like mad now too.) Actually I'm not sure what to call it. Breakfast casserole seems to fit because of the eggs, though we ate this for lunch. You could also call it a strata. It's like a frittata but it's baked, not made on the stovetop (though I'm sure you could make a frittata out of it). The inspiration for it comes from a "cuajado", or a baked frittata popular in Sephardic cooking. This isn't a cuajado, but the flavors are there, and they're terrific together.
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Oh the joys of summer! On the top of the list is fresh, ripe tomatoes, garden cucumbers, and basil that the more you cut, the more it grows. (Ever notice that basil is like a hydra? Cut one stem and two grow in its place.) And the tomatoes. Beefsteak tomatoes, early girls, heirlooms, plum tomatoes, not to mention the little ones like sun golds. Anyway, the heat has come, the garden has finally started to act like summer, and this classic Tuscan bread salad is a perfect thing to make with the bounty. According to Hank who made this salad for us the other day, panzanella at its core is really a way to use up crusty bread that has gotten hard and to celebrate perfect summer tomatoes. It is a cooling summertime salad that relies on the bread as the “filler” to soak up the juices of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as the olive oil you pour over everything.
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Organic bread does have many benefits. The quality of bread has dropped over the years. Bread makers are usually more interested in the convenience of their trade, and therefore have taken shortcuts that are not at all in the favor of consumers. The baking time of ‘modern’ bread has been reduced by the use of additives, but at the expense of nutrients and bread texture. Organic bread takes longer to make, but it tastes much better and it certainly benefits health.
Some organic bread manufacturers use yeast to make the bread rise while others let it rise gradually, without any other addition. Yeast-free bread is healthier because it contains lactobacillus. Depending on the recipe, oat bran may also be added to organic bread. Such products digest better and they have a reputation for reducing cholesterol.
It may sound ironic but organic bread is not soft but firm even when very fresh. So, if you want to use organic bread, you’d better not expect soft texture from it. Preservatives and additives are the substances that make bread soft. Real, natural bread cannot be like that. Plus, it cannot stay soft for days. Consider these aspects when you go shopping for organic bread.
As for ingredients, organic bread can be made from multi-grain, white wheat or whole wheat. Most bakers provide a variety of presentation forms from regular loaves and rolls to baguettes and even toast. We should also mention specialty breads that contain some ingredients meant to add a special flavor. Olives, walnuts, basil, cheese, tomatoes, sun flower seeds and so many others can be added to bread.
There are lots of health stores that sell organic bread. However, some people prefer to get all the organic ingredients and take them at home to make their own bread. There are automatic bread makers you can use at home, and there are certainly lots of recipes to choose from. Anyone who has tried organic home bread once, will want to get more.
Make it at home, order it on the Internet or buy it from a local bakery! There are lots of health benefits deriving from the regular use of organic food in your diet. You’ll enjoy a better overall body condition and a lot more vitality. Lots of people have learned this on their own. You can be one of them!
The heat has finally arrived in Northern California, and with it, the need for some cooling pasta salads. Here's a simple and easy shrimp pasta salad made with those little pink shrimp that you can find in the freezer section of almost any grocery store. While our gulf shrimp fisheries are suffering at the moment, these little shrimp come from sustainable fisheries in the cold, sub-Arctic oceans, either Atlantic or Pacific. They're called boreal shrimp, Maine shrimp, or just "pink shrimp" because they're pink even when they're raw. But you won't buy them raw. Pink shrimp come already cleaned, processed, and cooked, ready to eat. We've made this salad a couple of times already, most recently for a potluck where it was a big hit. Fresh basil, red bell peppers, red onions, and a lemon and olive oil dressing with just a sprinkle of red chili pepper flakes dance well with the shrimp and pasta. We think you'll like it.
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Start with Fried Noodles
A little while ago, I blogged about a favourite dish of mine known as noodles in a gravy (rat naa). Well, nowadays? I want to introduce you to its twin! Usually, if a food stall is cooking rat naa, they will also cook noodles fried in soy sauce (pad see-eel). You could say that this is the dry version. The noodles here are the wide ones called sen yai, although you could use the small ones such as sen lek. It is quite simple to cook. showtime fry some garlic until golden brown. Then add pork or chicken and fry until it is almost cooked. Add the noodles together with some dark soy sauce, then kale (Chinese broccoli) and one egg. You then season with soy sauce, sugar, salt and white vinegar. As usual, I have a video of one of my local food shops cooking this dish. There is also a new video of rat naa being cooked by this same shop. The videos are numbers 22 and 23 on the list.
Next, Noodles in Fish Curry Sauce
These distinctive white noodles are almost spaghetti like. They are made from rice flour
In the above picture you can see the sauces for three soups that go with khanom jeen noodles. The bigger one on the right is “nam ya ga ti” which is sometimes shortened to just “nam yaa”. It is the famous version for the central region. In the top left is “nam ya ba” and bottom left is “nam ngiaw”. The missing soup is “nam prik”. The first two I mentioned have fish balls (look chin pla) but nam ngiaw is served with chicken pieces.
The fish curry sauce is made with fish, ginger, garlic, shrimp paste, shallots, galangal, lemon grass, peppers, coconut milk and fish sauce.
This curry is made with garlic, red curry paste, yellow bean sauce, diced tomatoes, turmeric, fish sauce, spring onion and coriander. You can use either chicken (as in the picture) or pork ribs.
The sauce is poured on top of the noodles. You then have a selection of vegetables which you eat with it. These include: basil, quail eggs, pickled mustard greens, shredded cabbage and beansprouts.
