For the Love of Food

This is the second meal that I have prepared at home from what I learned in my Turkish cooking class. It is really really good and the Güvec is my son’s favorite!

Somehow my Güvec didn’t come out as dark as the one we made in class, maybe because I used less meat (she used 1 lb more than her recipe calls for) and my soup was a bit thicker, but really yummy. Continue Reading »

Gay at A scientist in the kitchen has started a wonderful idea of writing about ones local market(s). I thought this was an excellent chance to tell you a little about where I call home and to show you the wonderful people who are part of my every day food life. Continue Reading »

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I’m not big on celebrating Valentine’s day, but since last year it’s a very special day. My son was born 1 hour and 8 minutes before Valentines day….so his birthday is on February 13th, but we can celebrate for two days

As luck would have it my little guy has the flu and isn’t really celebrating at all, hopefully he’s be better by the weekend when he can have cake for the first time..or any sweet for that matter other than fruit. I am still using fruit sugar though…

Ok, so, now to the petits fours… Continue Reading »

I was surfing the internets/tubes the other day when I happened upon a recipe for Churrasco with Chimichurri Sauce – never heard of it, but being a visual eater, it looked delicious.

I plan all my meals ahead of time for 1 whole week so that I know what’s going on in life and I have time to do things like blog once the little one is asleep. This meal was planned for Sunday so that I could take some great pictures with some natural light. But, my little guy got sick and friends of ours took care of us for dinner…and that was that, this meal got pushed back until Tuesday. While he was napping I had time to take the pictures of the spices for the marinades, but then I had to let it marinade..and well, we got around to eating at 19:30. I hate eating late.  Oh, and did I mention that my lens is broken????!!!!  It’s stuck on 18mm…so all those wide shots are me standing really really far away…so annoying.

Anyways, it was a really simple recipe to make. Yes, it contains cilantro…and even though I grew up my whole life HATING cilantro, because it was only in the marinade, I can deal with it and it was actually good.

Having never been to Brazil and not being familiar with how the recipe was supposed to be, I followed it to a “T” – trust me, that’s really really hard for me. Next time I will adjust. In Colombia (where I still have lots of family) meat is tenderized with “limon”…also really known as lime even though it would translate into lemon. The vinegar gave it too over powering of a flavor when it really just needed a kick of tanggieness. So, if you make this, I highly recommend using lime instead of vinegar….but it’s your choice. Maybe if there’s a Brazilian blogger out there reading this you would be willing to share what is actually used. Continue Reading »

Last night I was really excited. I was going to make fried chicken, biscuits, and coleslaw, and I was going to be whisked away back to my childhood having a pick nick at the beach (I grew-up in Miami). I made the biscuits, the coleslaw, and go to get the chicken out of the refrigerator…no chicken?? Where could it have gone? Raw chicken doesn’t just get up and go…hmm. It seems that on my trip to the butcher last week I either never got the chicken or I left it there. I will find out on Monday when I go back. Anyways, nothing here is open for grocery shopping on Sundays, so I pulled out some frozen calamari from the freezer and we had calamari with aioli, coleslaw, and biscuits. Funny…yes, very funny. I really wanted fried chicken…

Anyways, the biscuits were good, but in my haze of trying to get everything cooked while holding a sick baby in arm, I didn’t add enough butter, and while there were soft, I knew they could be much better. I so I made them again, just 15 minutes ago. Wow, the right amount of butter and it sure makes a whole world of difference. I used a really really simple and quick recipe from Homesick Texan. I did however find that her recipe was lacking in salt. I would add 1 teaspoon instead of 1/2 a teaspoon next time. She also mentioned that traditional Texan biscuits have sourdough started and lard in them. Next time I will make some of those and compare the difference. Even though I spent about 5 years in Texas the only person I came across that made heavenly homemade biscuits would not tell me the recipe…a family secret. Oh well, thanks to the internets/tubes I can find one myself. Continue Reading »

This is another great Better Homes & Gardens recipe. I’d really LOVE to work in their test kitchen. I love everything they come up with.

They have this great spread of 10 different versions of macaroni & Cheese: herbed, Italian, harvest, smoky, new england, pizza, Denver, south of the border, Greek, and garden. I think they all look good, but I had to star somewhere, so we went with harvest. Continue Reading »

Nothing like some good ol’ burgers with fries. I’d love it even more if I could eat ketchup. Yeah, I know I can make it, but I was just too lazy this time around…

These burgers came out great. I bought some “Mega” American burger buns from a grocery store in town, and sprayed them with olive oil on both sides and toasted them for 1 minute on each side (cut in half). This kept them from crumbling apart like most German “American” burger buns usually do.

It was a lazy day…the fries were store bought…nothing fancy. I just but them on a backing sheet, baked them, them sprinkled some paprika, salt. and parsley over them. Continue Reading »

The other day Jaden from Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen blogged about her food porn room and she asked us to show her ours. Well, here’s mine…kind of.

Ok, I have a lot of explaining to do. Continue Reading »

One day, a while back, was it September?, my husband came home from work and told me about how excited he was that his one Muslim coworker decided to celebrate Biram with them. He said there were so many delicious dishes. He couldn’t describe them, she just told me that I had to learn…and he had a very serious look on his face. So, I told him to ask his coworker for the recipes and I could make them. Hasan, his coworker, thought it would be best if I just took a cooking class offered in Nürnberg at the club where his mom was head. I had originally wanted to go in the Fall, but I was in the US. So, I am taking a class now…I already have 2 classes behind me.

Turkish food is very very flavorful, and to that effect, surprisingly uses very few, but intense ingredients.

The class is structured in the way that we all cook one meal together and then sit down and eat together. I write a lot on the recipe print outs that I get because her, Güla’s, recipes leave a lot of room for interpretation and personal touch. She once told me that she had a really hard time writing the recipes out for us b/c (translated from German to English while throwing your hands in the air) “I just cook”.

I have decided to take it upon myself to recreate each dish that we make in class shortly after so that by the time the next class roles around I can ask any questions and clarify any discrepancies.

Bellow I will give you the recipes the way I have interpreted them. I will also show you the pictures I took of the meal we prepared in class and the one I prepared at home to compare the differences (the top picture will be the one from class and the bottom one will be from home). Continue Reading »

While I was visiting my mom in the US she mentioned how my aunt makes these rolled chickens. Eh??? How do you roll a chicken? Well, it’s quite easy, kind of.

My aunt stuffs them with various ingredients. One in particular that I would like to try is black beans a rice. Unfortunately for me none of the shops that sell black beans are currently receiving them in their deliveries even though they’ve ordered them – trust me, I’ve asked.

Anyways, so I decided to stuff my chicken with herbed feta and baby spinach.

Wow. I will never look at chicken the same way again. It was so tasty and succulent. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

I’ve never seen my aunt de-bone a chicken – I got a description on the phone….and let me just tell you how much of a visual learner I am. I thought I was going to have 10 pieces of chicken instead of one big one! But, it all worked out just fine.   Now that I’ve done it once, I’ll try to video myself the next time so you can see. Continue Reading »