VEGETARIAN
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BALSAMIC STRAWBERRIES WITH WHIPPED MASCARPONE
“You have to ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Strawberry season is setting in here. Yes, it’s winter & still quite cold, but this is when we begin to see strawberries entering the market. Steeply priced, but far too tempting to turn away from, I bought a box to see what I could do with them. I also stumbled upon some locally made mascarpone cheese & my heart skipped a beat. You see most mascarpone we get here is imported & exorbitantly priced. I was thrilled to find a local variety & bought 2 tubs. Bought some goat cheese & fresh mozzarella too.…
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CRACKERS WITH CREAM CHEESE…& a bit on BLOGGER AID
“The Super Bowl is the No. 1 snack food consumption day of the year” Frito Lays Made these super easy snacks the other day … great as finger food, & they disappeared as fast as I made them. You can flavour them as creatively as you like, choosing different toppings. The ones I made had a sour cream & onion flavoured topping. I think buttermilk ranch dressing might add an interesting twang to them as well. You can also substitute the cream cheese for finely grated cheddar. Or, if you are lucky to get the brown sugar or honey butter variety, pipe on some peanut butter, or cream cheese topped…
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WARMING UP TO SOUP…TOMATO & ZUCCHINI with BAKED HERBED CROUTONS
“Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day, and awakens and refines the appetite.” Auguste Escoffier Just when we thought that winter was finally on it’s way out, it snowed in the hills up North, & the temperatures here in the plains plummeted. Shiver me timbers…brrrrrrrr…so back it was to slurping hot soup & being bundled into duvets again! The daughter will NOT touch soup in any avatar, but the son loves a hearty tomato soup & I make it often. This time I tried a different one because I had zucchini & wondered how the zucchini would feel to…
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CANDIED GINGER & TANGERINE SHORTBREAD
“I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought cookies one can find.” James Beard Mmmmmmmmmm shortbread! Think shortbread – think crisp, think buttery, think an indulgent cookie… Add some crystallised ginger & tangerine peel to it & you give this traditional favourite a delicious twist. Go a step further, dip it into dark chocolate, & you reach dangerously delicious shortbread nirvana! Yes, that is what I did!It all began with the David Levobitz’s post on candied ginger. I made a whole bunch of it, with candied tangerine peel as well, & have had a great time experimenting with my crystallised ginger &…
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HERB CREAM CHEESE CRACKERS…there’s more to buckwheat than meets the eye!!
“Much Virtue in Herbs, little in Men.” Benjamin Franklin Couldn’t resist adding that quote…sorry guys! …I’m beginning to have more fun in the kitchen. That bag of buckwheat flour has done me a world of good. It keeps beckoning to me from the shelf. Was back to Heidi @ 101 Cookbooks to drool over some delicious looking Swedish Rye Cookies, when a note in the middle of her post grabbed my attention. She had let loose some pearls of wisdom about trying the Swedish Cookies in a savoury avatar. Fancy that? Of course I did, & the feet found themselves moving towards the kitchen with a strange sense of excitement.…
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NIBBLY BUCKWHEAT CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIES…& BUCKWHEAT CONNECTIONS!
“The unexpected connection is more powerful than one that is obvious.”Heraclitus My connection to buckwheat goes back many many years. It was in the year 1996 when the daughter was 6 months old that I had my first encounter with the grain. Didn’t know it existed before that. We were visiting friends in Moscow (the same ones we were with in Sydney last month), & Meher was just beginning to eat semi-solids. We had landed in Moscow airport on a grey, rainy day, the place full of strapping tall Russians with stern expressions & a ‘cold world’ charm. The city was like it was out of a film…babushkas lined up…
