Shrimp Kebabs

Again: An Italian chef's main ingredients include pasta, white wine, rosemary, oregano, Parmesan and tomatoes. The pastry chef works with almond, cream, blood orange and lemon. Therefore, as the base for the marinade, I used white white, oregano, rosemary and orange juice. I gave it a nice kick with: ginger preserves.
This constituted the marinade for shrimp kebabs

pinch oregano
pinch rosemary
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon ginger preserves
12 raw shrimp

skewers

1 cup pilaf
2 cups chicken broth

1/2 green beans
balsamic

1. Mix marinade ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Poke two holes in each shrimp, place in dish and pour in marinade.
3. Marinade for 30 minutes.
4. While shrimp marinates, cook pilaf and beans.
5. Skewer 4 shrimp each on 3 skewers and grill until shrimp are pink.

Coconut Lamb

Story of my life: We  didn't have some ingredients. So, I added from there, subtracted from there, did a different preparation with that, and came up with something edible. The base recipe for this lamb comes from Matt's mom's Indian cookbook, Madhur Jaffery's Indian Cooking. The original recipe, calls for chicken, but we never liked that idea. So, Matt and I decided on lamb and as stated above, this is what happened a few incarnations later..


4 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick (broken into pieces)
1 whole nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

2 cups shredded coconut

6 cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon onion relish
1 glove garlic
1-inch chunk fresh ginger
6 sprigs mint
red pepper flakes

2 pounds lamb
1/2 onion
1 can tomato paste
1 1/2 cups water
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Dry-roast spices in a skillet over medium flame until fragrant and grind in coffee grinder until fine. Place aside.
2. Toast coconut in same skillet until edges are brown. The coconut should pick-up some of the flakes from the spices.
3. Process tomatoes, onion relish, garlic, ginger, mint, red pepper flakes and 4 tablespoons water into a paste.
4. In a 12-inch saute pan, on medium-high heat, saute onions.
5. Pour Paste into onions and stir once. Reduce into medium and cook together with lamb, water, tomato paste, coconut and spices.

Central Florida

1 bag key limes
1 can sweeted condensed milk
3 egg yolks
2 oz. Ginger preserves
1 prepared pie crust
2 oz. Guava paste

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Juice all limes and add to eggs and condensed milk. Whisk all together. Set aside.
3. Spread ginger preserves on pie crust and pour in filling.
4. Bake pie for 10 mins. Meanwhile,  heat paste in saucepan until it's a liquid. Swirl  in pie with knife tip.
5. Bake pie 5 more minutes then place in fridge 1/2 hour

ANCIENT. GREEK. COOKBOOK.

Ok... It's really hard to write this. How can I express the extent of my glee? This is cooking. This is ancient. This is archaeology.This is science!

This is in German and Greek, so I'm confused.

However, this is the confused joy with which every artifact is found on-site. Whether it be in the ground, or on the internet. From what I gather, this is a record of the proceedings of a meeting at the German Academy of Sciences analyzing four fragments of ancient Greek papyri, which apparently was a rather early cookbook.

Stuffed Litchi

I come from at least three foreign service officers; both my grandpa's and my dad. My maternal grandfather was posted to my Asian countries including Korea and Japan and My dad developed a taste for South East Asia.
He was studying India at Berkley and thought a year-long course on South East Asia looked interesting. Also when he was offered a choice of position between Delhi and KL, he took Malaysia because he would get to learn a new language and have more influence.
Needless to say, we have a wide selection of artifacts from all over Asia and a pull to the food. So when Matt and I were going to make a Indonesian dish and my mom needed some other supplies,  we went to a Asian supermarket out in Virginia.
It was about lunch time, so we had lunch at the restaurant baring the same name as the market.  We were browsing the menu when a litchi appetizer caught our collective eye. They were stuffed with pork in sweet chili sauce and the combination of flavors was so refreshing,  we thought we'd make our own for Thanksgiving.

Sweet chili pork stuffed litchi:

1. Cook the pork on stove until mostly done and add cilantro,  salt, black pepper and sweet chili sauce.

2. Stuff in drained litchi.

Forme of Cury

Forme of Cury

The History of the cookbook

Huh. ok. hopefully I can find a book on this somewhere. It seems to me like cookbooks of the past are not really what we think of cookbooks today. Or at least some of them aren't because they include many home remedies and other stuff like info on merchandising or learning a trade. Cookbooks now seem to be pretty focused right? Are home remedies now for the "frugal," the "environmentalists" and people who like "alternative medicine, thus making home remedies seem inferior to some Americans?

What about home economics? Didn't mom take that and she had to learn to sow? Do some places still do that? What about these books on domesticity? Have they disappeared because of woman's right's issues?

Georgian Vodka

This vodka actually came into being because I wanted to combine my Dad's favorite flavors. He was born in Germany and has neven been to Georgia. So why are his favorite flavors the pride of this state?

1 ball jar
1 peach, cut into cubes
5 pecans
1 cinnamon stick
Vodka

1. Put the ingredients in jar, top with vodka, close tightly.
2. Place in fridge, shake twice a day for as many days as you want depending on how intense you want the flavors.
3. Drink and by merry.

4. Make a Georgia crumble with about the same ingerdients.

A trend

Yes, at the end of this gastrovist I would like to write a book or two. I have always wanted to write books- for the past few years it's been non-fiction, but I did take a writing workshop in 10th grade. My story was more of a soap opera than a novel- which should give you a sense of why I haven't written anything. I don't like having to fill in all the details,  edit, proofread, make sure it makes sense.  It's the reluctance of sticking with the long-term goal.
I think I touch on ADD in a post. And most stories.

Skip here: I've been noticing many trends in turn-of-the-cenutry cookbooks, one of which is the inclusion of recipes for the sick. I have not taken any folklore classes, but I have taken anthropology ones and anyway friend who did told me what it was. Thus, a folkloric part of my brain wonders what happened.  Am I missing current versions of this or, as I suspect,  are we just too used to popping pills we don't notice or care?

There has been a backlash though,  you can get a fair amount of literature on our dependency on pills. Some of my friends have tried to decrease their drug intake. Then there's Eastern/ Alternative medicine.

On Saturday, Matt made a home remedy for headaches. I was shocked and awed, I thought it was really cool. I can't remember the last time I used a home remedy.  I have, however,  been using a lot of alternative techniques. But, we're talking about American folk home remedies through, and the only one I can think of is honey and lemon for a sore throat..

My mom has several home remedy books that I keep meaning to read. The problem is that pills can be much quicker and, lets face it, never rely on a disgusting concoction. 

Actually,  using chemicals might be more effective,  but at what cost? Yes, I do hear my environmentalist voice talking, but it applies to drugs in our bodies too. It takes time to mix up remedies of your house or your body,  but its always time vs money..or health. Some home remedies cost more, some cost less.  I also think that it says something about our society,like so many other things pushing us to go more and more a long the path of a individualistic society. 

Homemade Rav a la Matt and Babs

So, one night we decided to make fresh pasta. I really think that's the full story. We'll be putting up more soon-Matt made a really good soup, I just have to get the rights.

 Shrimp mix:
5 shrimp
1/2 cup ricotta
1 teaspoon dill

Pork mix:
Pork sausage
ball pepper
1 teaspoon rosemary

1. Prep pasta, shrimp, and pork mixtures.

To prep pasta dough: Divide pasta dough in fourths. Use two fourths at a time, one lump for the bottom sheet and one for the top, roll it out into 1/8 inch of roll it in a professional pasta roller.

To prep shrimp mixture:Cook and chop shrimp, crumble ricotta and crush fresh dill.

To prep pork mixture: Crop peppers and rosemary, mix mix sausage using oil, cook.

2.Scoop shrimp mix in 1/2 teaspoonfuls about 1/2 inch apart on bottom sheet, cover with top sheet.
3. Repeat with Pork mix.
4. place 2-3 rav in boiling water at  a time in order not to crowd. They aren't done until they rise to the top.

Ginger Lemon Kefir

2 cups plain yogurt
2 tablespoons lemon curd
2 tablespoons ginger preserves

1. Your standup mixer, combine all ingredients and whisk until drinkable.
2. Enjoy!

Grapefruit's Bite

The other day on Howcast got a tip about making fresh juice.  Apparently, to get more juice out of your citrus fruit, put it in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes after removing it from the fridge.I couldn't believe it! I went the bartending school! Why didn't they teach us this?

But, that resulted in this great twist on a Gin & Ginger. 

1. In a rocks glass add 1 oz. gin and 1 oz. fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
2. Fill rest of glass with ginger ale
3. Drop in a squeeze of ginger puree and serve.

Spiced Gin Pucker

I had just been introduced to Gin and Ginger and was serving it up at a party, when my mom wanted a gin and bitter lemon. My boyfriend at the time took me to a international food store we love, I saw the bitter lemon and said I had to get it for my mom. He also got me some great ginger and lemon gummies. Following my taste buds and what we had in stock, I simply combined these ideas.

In a rocks glass combine:

1 oz. Gin
Equal parts Ginger Ale and Bitter Lemon

Dessert

Recently, my boyfriend told me about a potluck where the theme was dessert. As a result, the dishes were all full of fat and sugar, which was horrible because this monthly potluck occurred during lunch. Most Americans seem to think of desserts as cookies, cakes and pies; all of which have a lot of fat in them. However, desserts are not always overly sweet- if one delves into ethnic cuisines he/she will find a plethora of flavor and nutrients. Desserts such as mince pies from England consist mainly of spiced fruit, marscopone cheese desserts for Italy such as tiramisu, desserts which are not overly sweet such as baklava from Greece and Turkey, desserts with red bean from Japan, and ABC from Malaysia which incorporates red beans and corn.

Sex in the Orchard

1 cup dried apricots
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dark rum
1 stick cold butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt

1.In two separate bowls place chopped apricots and cover with rum, and dried cranberries covered with orange juice. Set aside.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking soda and ginger together in a large bowl.
3. In stand-up mixer bowl with paddle attachment, blend butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
4. Add to mixer bowl egg and dried fruit.
5. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
6. Drop dough onto cookie sheets in heaping 2 tablespoonfuls.
7. Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes, switching cookies between top and bottom oven racks about half-way through.

Arugula and Brie

I made this particular salad for a boyfriend of mine on New Years. I wanted a perfect blend of the ingredients he loved and it turned out really well!

1/2 pound arugula
5 oz. Brie (without rind)
2 grapefruits
Tangerine juice
balsamic
fig jam

1. Remove rind and crumble brie and section grapefruit.
2. In blender, blend balsamic, tangerine juice and fig jam.
3. In large salad bowl, toss all ingredients together until all is covered by balsamic mixture.

Sex in the Caribbean

One of my favorite drinks is Sex on the Beach. I called this Sex in the Caribbean because the alcohol in the cabinet was rum. Of course, I am also partial to rum. I have been a pirate for a halloween's,the latest being a Zombie pirate this past halloween, taken a pirate class where the last class was spent drinking grog and singing seashanties, and spent hours building a LEGO pirate ship.


1 ounce golden rum
1.5 ounces orange juice
1.5 ounces cranberry juice

1. In shot glass pour first rum then orange juice, then cranberry juice.
2. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Pistachio Crusted Chicken

1 cup crushed pistachios
3 chicken breasts
Cardamom
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil


1. Mix all spices and pistachios in a large bowl.
2. Cover chicken breasts in oil and roll in spices until you are a crust is formed.
3. Grill on medium high heat. Cook on each side respectively until moisture is seen on surface.

This Morning's eggs

In case you haven't noticed, I am quite the fan of Italy. I love the landscape and the history, but mostly the food. When we went to Switzerland, I was just a little bit too excited about crossing the boarder to Italy, even if just for a brief moment.


 3 large eggs
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
table salt
1/3 cup milk
1/2 sweet bell pepper finely chopped
2 slices deli sliced ham chopped
1 oz. crumbled goat cheese
Leaves of a sprig of fresh rosemary

1. Whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper together in small bowl.
2. Scramble eggs in frying pan over medium heat.
3. Add remaining ingredients when eggs are half way done.

BLC

One day, my mom was making BLT's for her and my dad. I don't like tomatoes. Therefore, CHEESE. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH CHEESE (adapted from one of Julia's lines in Julie and Julia) CHEESE IS ALSO A RELIGION (adapted from a Who's Line is it Anyway? Three-headed Broadway star sketch), and (from a t-shirt playing on EurythmicS lyrics)  SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF CHEESE.

4 strips bacon
1 big lettuce leaf
2 oz. cheddar cheese
2 slices of bread

1. Fry bacon.
2. Place cheese on bread, oven on 350 and oven rack near the top.
3. Broil to make grilled cheese.
4. Place bacon horizontally on grilled cheese, then lettuce and top slice of bread.