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Cook and Tell: Basic Belgian Waffles

19 Jul

Last week was an extremely busy week, and I am very happy that I am finally able to check back here. Last week was my birthday, but since I spent the entire day at work, it wasn’t much of a celebration. However, it was all made better when a couple of friends gave me a gift that will certainly keep on giving. And not just anything, it will keep on giving fabulous and delicious Belgian waffles. I couldn’t wait to take this puppy for a “spin”.

I started out simply by pulling out the manual, which doubles as a recipe book. For the first time I decided to keep it simple and try out a basic Belgian waffle recipe, nothing fancy. I didn’t really have that many ingredients to play with. I used my last two eggs for these puppies, just shows how prepared I was.

Basic Waffles
Ingredients
6 cups of unbleached all-purpose flower
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups of reduced-fat milk
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation
Preheat the waffle maker. Mix all ingredients in the order they appear. Pour approximately 2 cups of batter on to the middle of the waffle griddle (this may vary based on the type of waffle maker you have). Close the waffle maker, cook until you hear a tone from the waffle maker (this may vary based on your waffle maker). Open waffle maker, remove waffles carefully with a heat proof spatula. The recipe makes approximately 16 waffles.

I halved the recipe, and used non-fat milk. I ended up with 8 delicious waffles. They may be over 300 calories per waffle, but do you really think about that when you’re enjoying this deliciousness with jam, maple syrup, or whatever else you put on your waffles?

Thank you L & L for this awesome gift!!! I can’t wait to try out all different types of waffles!

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Cook and Tell: Sour Cream Blini

09 Apr

Have I mentioned that I am a big fan of anything that includes carbs? Well, I do. Pasta, breads, waffles, baked goods, anything in the pancake family. Like these blini that I decided to spoil myself and the hubby with.

Sour Cream Blini

I learned how to make blini from my Mom. She showed me how to turn leftover sour milk, kefir or sour cream into delicious blini. The great thing is that they are so easy and quick to make, and they magically fill my carb cravings. This time around I decided to make blini using sour cream as the base.

Sour Cream Blini
Ingredients:
16oz Low-Fat Sour Cream
2 large Eggs
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Powder
Vegetable Oil, for frying

Mix all the ingredients, except for vegetable oil, together. Heat vegetable oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Using a tablespoon (I used a regular soup spoon), scoop spoon fulls of blini mixture and place on the frying pan. Cook blini until golden brown on each side. The number of blinis will depend on how much mixture you use for each one.

Enjoy the blini warm or cold. I prefer my blini with raspberry or strawberry preserves.

Sour Cream Blini

How do you like your blini?

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Cook and Tell: Matzo Babka

29 Mar

I know that Passover isn’t for a couple of weeks. But why wait for a holiday to use matzo?

I tend to have random urges to cook (or more like realizations that something needs to be made for dinner), so I look for dishes that use ingredients that I can easily find at home. One of these dishes is a Matzo Babka. It’s easy to make, and it is one of those dishes that can last for a couple of days. The other positive is that this dish can be made to be savory or sweet, and you can get creative with the ingredients. My Mom makes this dish all the time around Passover time with different ingredients. Sometimes she makes it with chicken and dill, sometimes with raisins.

I usually try to make a sweet matzo babka (it’s not bad with maple syrup). However, this time around I decided to make a savory version. To make it my own, I decided to include some dried dill weed and some garlic powder.

Passover Matzo Babka

Matzo Babka

Ingredients:
3 sheets of regular egg matzo (this would make a thin babka, add more matzo for a thicker version)
1 egg
Dried dill weed (to taste)
Garlic powder (to taste)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Pam cooking spray

Preparation:
Place matzo sheets in a large bowl and fill with water until matzo is covered. Let the matzo soak in the water. Drain the water once matzos are completely soft. In the same bowl, break up the matzo sheets with a wooden spoon. Mix in the egg, dried dill weed, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Coat a medium frying pan with cooking spray. Spread the matzo mixture in the frying pan to fill the pan completely, so that the matzo mixture takes on the shape of the pan. Cook in the pan until babka is golden and is lose in the pan. Gently remove the babka from the pan onto a cutting board, cooked side down. Flip the cutting board on to the pan, so that the uncooked side is on the bottom. Cook until the uncooked side is golden and is lose in the pan.

Cut babka into slices. Serve warm or cold.

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Cook and Tell: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread with Walnuts

12 Mar

A while ago I found a recipe for zucchini bread with walnuts. The recipe looked intriguing and I decided to try it out. Everything went well, until I realized that I put too much dough mixture into the loaf pan. The result was a minor disaster, it consisted of an oven filled with overflowing dough, which rose outside the borders of the loaf pan. I was thoroughly disappointed that I made such a rookie mistake. Thankfully, what was left in the loaf pan was still salvageable, and surprisingly was pretty tasty.

Recently I decided to try the bread again. However, I couldn’t find the original recipe (hence, I am currently working on organizing all of my recipes). Therefore, I had to start my search from scratch.

In my new search, I came upon a different zucchini bread recipe. This one was from Paula Deen, her Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread recipe.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread I followed the recipe as is. Except, (there it is again), I used mostly walnuts as opposed to pecans. Not sure why, but I am more favorable to walnuts over pecans. The bread turned out fantastically. Although it took about an hour for it to bake through, as opposed to 50 minutes (at least in my oven). Hubby really enjoyed it.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread What type of sweet bread do you like to bake?

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Cook and Tell – Three Cheese Lasagna

15 Dec

If you are a busy body, chances are you are always looking for ideas for nightly dinners for the family. Most likely you want a lot of bang for the time you spend cooking. Meaning, you want to get as many nightly dinners covered as possible for the time you spend preparing the meal.

I am sure this is no grand discovery for many of you but the biggest bang for the time involved is….drum roll please…. lasagna. It takes a little bit of effort, but once it’s all done, you’ve got at least 4 days of dinners. This just means that you’ve carved out 4 evenings of free time to be taken up by some other errands.

Now for the recipe of this time-saver dish. The Three Cheese Lasagna recipe came to me courtesy of Epicurious.com. Knowing me, you’re probably wondering, “how did she alter this recipe?”. I do confess, for some odd reason I couldn’t find the right kind of carrots when I was shopping for the required ingredients. What does one do in this situation? Well, I don’t know what one does, but I just left them out. The taste is still amazing, and every time I serve it, the hubby gives praises.

I serve it with a leafy greens salad, either on the bed of or on the side. In case you are curious, I mix the leafy greens with tomatoes, cucumbers, a bit of red onions and walnuts, tossed with either fat free balsamic vinaigrette or salt, black pepper and a little bit of vegetable oil. Now I present you, with a square of Three Cheese Lasagna on the bed of leafy greens salad (tossed with vegetable oil).

Three Cheese Lasagna

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Cook and Tell – Raspberry Clafoutis

07 Dec

You’re probably wondering whether I always make new dishes. Well, I want to let you know that I repeat the successful dishes over and over. One of the favorites that has made its return is the clafoutis. You might remember that a few months ago I shared the Plum Clafoutis I prepared.

This time around I decided to recreate the clafoutis based on the original recipe, with no alternations (as I like to do all the time). So this time I made Raspberry Clafoutis just as the Food & Wine Magazine recipe says.

One tip, butter the dish well, so it’s easy to take the clafoutis out when serving. Sounds familiar? That’s because I completely forgot to butter the baking dish originally, and even though I buttered it this time, it was still sticking just a bit. But in the end even though I had to add some extra muscle to get the slice out, it still tasted awesome!

Raspberry Clafoutis

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Plum Clafoutis

14 Sep

In the recent past plums have been everywhere. While my husband was on a business trip, my parents, concerned for my nutrient intake, shared an overly generous amount of plums with me. I put a very conscious effort into eating all the plums. I took two with me to work every day, and yet the supply didn’t seem to diminish at all. That seemingly small, brown lunch bag felt like a bottomless pit of plums.

Realizing that it would be virtually impossible for me to eat all these plums before they spoil, I decided to put them to good use. While unsuccessfully searching for a recipe of an upside down plum cake, which I distinctly remember seeing in my overstuffed drawer of recipes, (I of course found it after the fact), I came across a very appetizing raspberry clafoutis recipes in one of my Food and Wine magazines. Being that the purposes of baking that day was to use up the plums that were haunting me, I made the executive decision to substitute the raspberries with plums.

I followed the recipe (mentioned above) completely, other than substituting raspberries with plums, and confession, forgetting to butter the baking dish. In my opinion the clafoutis turned out very tasty, and I believe others that tasted it agreed with my opinion (hope they weren’t just being nice ).

Bottom line…here is the final result

Plum Calfoutis

If you make this clafoutis, please do leave a comment here to let me know how it turned out. And of course, remember to butter the baking dish!

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In the Kitchen with…Lyuba (a.k.a. Lead Hot Chick with a Skillet)

23 Aug

You probably remember the first time I mentioned Hot Chicks with Skillets.

Chicks

Today, I’d like to introduce you to the Lead Hot Chick with a skillet, Lyuba. Lyuba shared with me some very delicious crab cakes, and I will share them with all of you.

To start, the following ingredients will be needed:
Eggs
Bread Crumbs
Mayonnaise
Canned Crab Meat
Coarse Ground Dijon Mustard
Ground Red Pepper
Ground Black Pepper
Fresh Parsley
Worcestershire sauce
Vegetable oil (for frying)

Ingredients

To make the the crab cakes, you’ll need to add the crab meat to a mixing bowl

Crab Meat

Add approximately a cup of bread crumbs to the crab meat

Bread Crumbs

Add a table spoon of mustard, approximately one and a half table spoons of mayonnaise, ground red pepper and worcestershire sauce to the crab meat and bread crumbs

Mustard, Mayonnaise, red pepper, worcestershire sauce

Chop and add parsley to the mix

Parsley

Add one raw egg

Egg

Mix all the ingredients together

Mix Ingredients

Add ground black pepper, and mix again

Add Black Pepper

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and spread additional bread crumbs on a baking sheet

Oil and Bread crumbs

Form the crab mixture into palm sized balls, roll the balls in bread crumbs and place in the frying pan. Slightly flatten the balls in the frying pan and fry, turning occasionally, until the crab cakes become golden brown.

Crab cakes

Of course I can’t finish this post without presenting to you the lovely chef and her fabulous crab cakes…

Chef and finished crab cakes

Lyuba, thank you for sharing your recipe for crab cakes. They were delicious, and I had a great time capturing the cooking process!

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In the Kitchen with…Anna (a.k.a. Hot Chick with a Skillet #1)

28 Jul

No, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth. I did, on the other hand, finally get a chance to share another installment of “In the Kitchen with…” This time it’s a two parter, and it’s also known as “Hot Chicks with Skillets”. I got together with a couple of ladies and we (really they) cooked up two dishes in one day.

Today we’ll start with Anna’s quiche, and the second part will be crab cakes by the lead of the Hot Chicks with Skillets, Lyuba.

For the Quiche recipe you will need the following ingredients (the proportions will depend on the size of the quiche you will be preparing):
Red onion
Eggs
Mushrooms
Red Bell Peppers
Oil and butter (for cooking)
Shredded cheese (Anna used a blend of four cheeses)
Pillsbury crescent roll

mushrooms, eggs, red bell peppers, onions, pillsbury crescent roll, shredded cheese, oil, eggs, cream cheese

First thing is to cut up the onion, add butter and oil to a heated skillet, and add the cut up onion to the skillet

Saute the onions on the skillet, while the onions are sauteing, chop up the mushrooms and add the mushrooms to the skillet with the cut up onion. Continue sauteing the onion and mushrooms until both are softened.

While the mushrooms and onions are sauteing, add eggs and cream cheese to a mixing bowl and mix until well blended, add shredded cheese and mix until well combined.

Chop up the red bell pepper and add the pepper as well as the cooked mushrooms and onion mixture to the egg and cheese mixture. Mix all the ingredients until well combined

Unroll the Pillsbury crescent roll dough and line a baking dish (in our case it was a glass, oven-safe bowl
). Fill the baking dish with the quiche mixture and place in the oven. Bake the quiche at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the quiche.

Finally, here is the hard working chef with her final creation!

The quiche was delish!

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Olivie

20 Apr

Ask anyone from the former Soviet republics what their favorite meal was as a child, and you might be surprised to find out that it wasn’t dessert, but a salad. Yes, you saw correctly, a salad. This salad is called Olivie and it was a staple dish at any table during a festive gathering. It is still a favorite of my and for my husband it’s not a holiday dinner, if Olivie is not on the table.

Intrigued? Well, you’ll be happy to know that it’s actually not that hard to make. There are many different variations of this salad out there, and everyone’s got their version. There is even a version of it in Spain (Ensalada Rusa), which includes tuna. But I stick to the version my Mom has always made, and I love it (and so far only heard positive feedback).

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

6 large potatoes (russet)
10 eggs
1 carrot
1/2 white or red onion
1 fresh cucumber
1 small pack of bologna
3 to 4 scallions
3 to 4 medium sized pickles
1 can of sweet peas
mayonnaise (1 and 1/2 large tablespoons)
salt and pepper to taste
A sprinkle of dried dill weed (or chopped fresh dill)

Boil the eggs, potatoes and carrot. Eggs should be hard boiled and potatoes and the carrot should be fully cooked through and soft (but not overcooked). As far as utensils, you’ll need a sharp knife, a cutting board, a large mixing bowl, and a peeler (if that’s how you prefer to peel your vegetables).

Once the eggs, potatoes and carrot are cooked. Peel the eggs, the potatoes and the carrot, chop all the aforementioned and place in the prepared bowl. Continue to peel and chop the onions, scallions, and cucumber and placing them in the same bowl. Chop the pickles and the bologna and add to the bowl. Finally, drain the can of peas and empty it out into the bowl.

Mix all the ingredients in the bowl, add salt and pepper to taste and mix. Add dried dill weed (if desired) and mix the ingredients again. Finally, add the mayonnaise, and mix all the ingredients until the mayonnaise is evenly distributed and all the ingredients are well combined.

So what does all this mixing get you? Take a look for yourself.

Russian Potato Salad, Olivie, Ensalada Russa

I haven’t heard of anyone walking away disappointed. A word of warning, the proportions I used will result in a very big salad, but feel free to pare it down. Just decrease the number of ingredients proportionally.

P.S. I received some commentary on this blog post with additional variations to this salad, so I wanted to add these variations here. Instead of mayonnaise some people use sour cream and for the meat component, instead of bologna some use chicken. Sometimes the carrot and onions are omitted.

Feel free to experiment with all these ingredients and see what tickles your taste buds.

Russian Salad Olivier (Russian Winter Salad)