BUSY WEEK and COLORFUL RICE

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Yesterday has been a week since I was on the net! This was one hecktic looooooooooong week! Yesterday, I first checked FoodBuzz and buzzed off all the yummy creations I missed through the week and boy, was there some pretty tasty, wonderful food to admire! Just to mention few that really intrigued my taste buds: Warm and Cheesy Gnochi Salad @Welcome to Sandra's Easy Cooking , Chocolate Panna Cotta @The Cultural Dish , Ceviche @Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves , Skirt Steak with Stout Pan Sauce @The Cultural Dish , and my personal winner KEY LIME PIE @Cherry Tea Cakes ! Love it!!!
Now about the recipe. We cook rise pretty often (I always choose rice over potatoes), although potato is the most loved starch as far as my family is concerned! They could eat "any way" potato three times a day! Rice as rice, all white on the plate is not that inviting, so I always try to add some color to it: sometimes just by adding a dash of turmeric that will turned it light yellow, or some browned vermicelli pasta to give it some movement, but mostly I add colorful veggies that really bring the rice to life. And as far as the flavor busting, well: "Spices to the rescue!"


Colorful Rice

COLORFUL RICE (feeds 6 – 8)(for the printable recipe click here)
Ingredients:5 medium carrots, diced1 tbsp Vegeta (or Dafinka)1 ½ cup water1 ½ cup frozen green peas1 cup frozen sweet corn3 medium potatoes, peeled, diced, and fried1 small onion, finely chopped5 garlic cloves, finely chopped¼ cup crushed tomatoes2 cups long grain rice, soaked in lukewarm water for 15 minutes5 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp for veggies + 3 tbsp for rice2 tsp salt½ tsp ground turmeric½ tsp black pepper¼ tsp crushed chili peppers½ tsp cumin1 tsp jerk spice1 cup golden raisins, washed and dried2 tbsp vegetable oil ½ cup walnuts, chopped
Directions:Cook carrots in 1 ½ cup of water with 1 tbsp Vegeta (or Dafinka) for 5 minutes after it comes to a boil. Add frozen green peas and sweet corn, turns the heat off, cover, and let it stand for at least 10 minutes before draining. Peas and corn will become soft, but will still be bright in color. Do not discard the veggie “water”, preserve it for rice cooking. You will need 3 cups of liquid for cooking the rice. So, go ahead and add as much of hot water as needed to the veggie “water” to obtain 3 cups of liquid. If you like you can also use chicken, beef, or veggie stock or broth. It is up to you.
Heat a skillet over medium heat, pour in 2 tbsp of olive oil, add onions, garlic and sweat a bit with pinch of salt and dash of black pepper. Add crushed tomatoes and spices (crushed chili peppers, cumin, jerk spice, black pepper). Stir and add veggies too. Let everything simmer over very low heat for about 5 minutes. Set aside. Fry your diced potatoes.
Into a pot over medium heat, put the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tsp of salt, and ½ tsp ground turmeric. Add the drained rice, stir, and sweat for 5 minutes. Rice will absorb the oil, become yellow in color, and shiny. Turn the heat to high, add 3 cups of liquid, and bring to a furious boil. Turn the heat down to medium high, cover the pot tightly, and let the rice cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to minimum and continue to cook for additional 5 minutes. Turn the heat down, fluff the rice with a fork, cover, and let the rice rest for 10 minutes.
While the rice is cooking, it is time to prepare raisins. In a small skillet over medium heat, put the remaining 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Let it become really hot. Add raisins and wait until they plump out. It won’t take long! Remove them from oil and immediately stir into the veggies. If you let fried raisins stand in the air for too long, they will become hard as a rock and inedible. Add walnuts, too! Stir and set aside.
Now it is time to mix all together. I usually layer rice, veggies with raisins and walnuts, and potato into a serving plate, and than carefully fold all together. Dish can be served as is with a side of salad, or you can cook your favorite meat, chicken, or fish, and serve it with this rice.
Bon appétit!

PEACH MELON SMOOTHIE

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First a thank you is in order: It is already a week since Zen @RAWk Me! honored me with an award! Official thanks are on my MY AWARDS page! Second, I would like you all to check Angela's blog @This is what I eat. Angela is amazing for reaching all the goals she set for hersefl. Please do read her latest post Resolution Round Up February; maybe you will be inspired, I surly was!!!

This is a one step glass of simple deliciousness that can be served as a dessert, or breakfast too!
We all love smoothies! This one is a very cold smoothie for those long hot summer days! As far as smoothies go, the possibilities are endless. I usually freeze my fruits, fresh strawberries, bananas, peaches, melons, blueberries, ........, but this time I went with half&half for we are still in the winter! Even those who are not so keen of fruits, will gladly have one of this rolling down into their tummies! And the smoothies are so easy to make, all one needs is a blender and some fruit and some juice.

Peach Melon Smoothie

PEACH MELON SMOOTHIE (4 glasses)(for printable recipe click here)
Ingredients:3 cups honeydew melon, cubed and frozen2 ½ cups sliced peaches1 cup orange juice1 cup peach juice (or pineapple, if you don’t have peach juice on hands) 1 tbsp honey
Directions:Put all the ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth. Fill into glasses and indulge!

TOMATO BARLEY SOUP

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How to make kids eat more grains? Put them into their favorite soup and they will gulp them down as if they won a first prize! And this soup is so easy to prepare yet so delicious and eye appealing with that dollop of sour cream and soup crackers on the top...who can possibly resist to dig in?

Tomato Barley Soup

TOMATO BARLEY SOUP(for printable recipe click here)
Ingredients:¾ cup barley4 cups veggie stock2 8 oz. cans tomato sauce3 tbsp tomato paste1 small onion, chopped3 garlic cloves, chopped1 potato, diced3 carrots, diced2 tbsp olive oilsaltblack pepper½ tsp sugar
Directions:Add barley to lightly salted boiling water and cook over medium heat until soft, about 30 minutes. Set aside.
Cook potatoes and carrots in veggie stock until juts tender. Set aside.
Into a big enough pot over medium heat, put olive oil, onion, and garlic, and sauté with a pinch of salt and a dash of black pepper until soft. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, and sugar. Stir and cook until it starts to bubble. Add veggie stock with potato and carrots and cooked barley. Stir and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste, add salt if needed, and serve with soup crackers and a dollop of sour cream.

INDULGING LIFE'S 100's POST and PEACH CHEESECAKE

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It's my 100's post and I decided to celebrate it with Peach Cheesecake! Thank you all so much for all support, incouriging comments, and friendship!!!!!


Peach Cheesecake- My 100's Blog Post

PEACH CHEESECAKE(for printable recipe click here)
Ingredients for 1 9’’ sponge cake:½ cup all-purpose flour1 tsp baking powderpinch of salt3 extra large eggs, separated1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sugar3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Directions:Preheat oven to 350*F and butter 9’’ spring form. In a small bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking powder. Beat egg whites into egg white fluff together with 2 tbsp of sugar. Beat together egg yolks and sugar until white. With hand whisk, mix in flour and melted butter. Gradually add egg whites fluff and spoon batter into baking form. Bake for no more than 10 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.
Ingredients for cheesecake batter:2 cups frozen yellow peaches, thawed2 tbsp sugar (or more, to satisfy your taste)1 tsp lemon juice1 tbsp corn starch2 8oz. packets Neufchatel cheese, softened at room temperature1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk1 tbsp water3 eggs
Directions:In a blender or food processor, combine thawed peaches, sugar, and corn starch. Process until smooth. Pour into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Set aside 2/3 cup of peach sauce and let it cool completely. Cover and refrigerate remaining sauce for serving.

In a bowl, beat Neufchatel cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk. Add lemon juice and water, mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined.Pour half of the Neufchatel cheese mixture over the sponge cake. Drop 1/3 cup of peach sauce by ½ tsp onto the Neufchatel cheese layer. Carefully spoon remaining Neufchatel cheese mixture over sauce. Drop remaining 1/3 cup of peach sauce on the top. With a knife or toothpick swirl peach sauce dropped on the top.


Bake in 300*F preheated oven for 45 – 50 minutes or until center is almost set.Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, take out from the baking pan, and cool for another hour.


Refrigerate over night. Remove side pan and serve with peach sauce.

Pie Party ~ Chocolate Pie

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Today over 1000 bakers are having a Pie Party. This started last week spontaneously on Facebook and Twitter -- talking about pie. A group of people were talking about how much we like pie, how we like making it, and how sad it makes us that people are too afraid of pie crust to make pie. So we're baking pies. And if you are one of those people who are afraid of pie crust, do try out the recipe I used today. It's simple, never-fail and made in a food processor. How easy is that?


The pie I'm offering today is a combination of OLD and NEW.

I have always loved making and been known for my pie crust. While my sister is the cake baker in our family, I am the pie baker. Recently I ran across a pie dough recipe that is made in the food processor and makes enough so that you can freeze it in portions to have ready to use another time. That is the crust I am using today. It's NEW!

Now what kind of filling? I looked through lots of my recipes and finally decided on a family recipe for Chocolate Meringue Pie. I can remember sitting at my great-great aunt's table eating a piece of this pie along with a glass of cold milk after playing the piano for her. (As an aside, she left her piano to me. It is a Cable-Nelson Upright Grand that was made around 1906. The piano has lived with me since she crossed in 1974, but just this last Christmas I passed it on to Abbey.)

Although I've had this recipe forever, I have never actually made the pie before. Chocolate is not my favourite flavour, you know. But my family loves chocolate, so it was high time for me to give this a try. The filling is the same recipe that my great-grandmother used to make chocolate pudding. So I'm guessing this was probably my great-great-grandmother's recipe. It's OLD!

Old recipes oftentimes do not give a specific oven temperature. That's because they were originally developed back when people cooked on woodstoves and there wasn't any really accurate way to know the temperature. Our OLD pie recipe says to bake in Slow Oven. A Slow Oven is normally considered to be 300°F. I made note of that in the recipe.

First we'll make the pie dough.

That's a duck egg from my CSA and whole wheat local pastry flour. The container of white stuff in the centre is rendered leaf lard. Leaf lard is not what you buy at the market in a box on a shelf. Leaf lard is the fat that surrounds the pig’s kidneys. It is extremely high quality and really is the gold standard for fat in pie dough. When rendered it makes the flakiest and best tasting pie crusts. There are several mail order and internet sources. I have always gotten mine from Dietrich's Meats. (Did I mention that I have won 1st place in Pie Competitions at our Parish Fairs using good lard for the crust?)

I know many people may be leery of using lard, but did you know it is probably the healthiest fat you can use for baking? It is lower in saturated fat and cholesterol and higher in unsaturated fat than butter, and it has none of the transfats of the hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated man-made solid fats. Nor does it have any of the additives used in those. Leaf lard has little to no pork flavour, so it won't compete with the flavour of your filling.

Dry ingredients and lard in processor:

Leaf lard needs to be used right out of the refrigerator at its coldest temperature.

Liquid ingredients:


Dough divided into portions with five bags to go in the freezer:


Last portion rolled to use today:


Fitted in pie baker:


Ingredients for filling:


Filling getting mixed for cooking:
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Cooked and poured into crust:


Meringue on pie:


Baked to a beautiful golden brown and sitting to cool:


Sliced and plated to serve on Fiesta:

Chocolate Pie 1 unbaked 10" pie crust filling: 4 large eggs, separated 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar 4 Tbsp cocoa 4 Tbsp flour 1/4 tsp kosher salt 2 cups milk 2 tsp good vanilla meringue: 1/2 tsp cream of tartar pinch salt 2 Tbsp sugar Blind bake the pie crust: Preheat oven to 450°F. Place dough in 10" pie pan and shape to fit. Line with parchment or foil. If desired, add beans or pie weights. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove parchment and weights. Prick the bottom with a fork (aka docking) and bake another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. While crust is baking, make the filling and meringue. Filling: Beat egg yolks lightly. Mix sugar with cocoa, flour and salt. Gradually stir in the milk, then the egg yolks. Cook until thick, stirring constantly, and add vanilla. Pour into crust. meringue: Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks. Slowly add sugar and beat until stiff. Put over pie and bake a 300°F for about 15 minutes or until meringue is golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit until pie comes to room temperature. Store in refrigerator. Notes: The original recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar in the filling. That is too sweet for us, but if you like a sweeter filling, use the full amount.

Never Fail Processor Pastry Makes enough pastry for 3 double-crust pies or 3½ dozen muffin-size tart shells. 5 cups pastry flour 1 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder 1 lb leaf lard, use very cold - right out of refrigerator 2 tsp white vinegar 1 egg, slightly beaten Water Mix together flour, salt and baking powder in food processor. Cut in leaf lard until crumbly. Do not overmix as you don’t want the lard to get too hot and melt. Add water to vinegar and egg to make 1 cup of liquid. Add liquid to dry ingredients and process just to mix. Remove from processor and shape into six balls. At this point you can place each ball in a Ziploc bag, press out air, seal and freeze. OR refrigerate for about an hour before rolling and using. Roll out on a floured board. Crust can be rolled nearly paper thin and not fall apart. Let frozen pastry thaw overnight in fridge before using.

Besides the pie party, with this recipe I'm joining:
Michael Lee's Foodie Friday @ Designs By Gollum
Friday's Favourites by Sandi & Bill @ Whistlestop Cafe Cooking

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy your pie.

namasté,

Mamah's Potato Salad

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The majority of my family recipes are from my Mom's side of the family, but this one came to me from my Papa's mother. And she got it from her mother. I really didn't have a lot of her recipes written down, so when I was first married and lived in Dallas, I would drive over to Fort Worth several days a week to spend time with Mamah and Aunt Jean. We went through lots and lots of family recipes and as I would write them down, I'd get her to actually measure. Because she would say things like, "Oh put in about half a handful." Everybody's hands are different, n'est pas? So she would measure into her hand and then we'd put it in a measuring cup. Sometimes we'd actually make the recipes with me watching and if she said, "Put in enough until it looks/feels right", I could measure that amount also. I am so glad I spent the time doing this, otherwise many of her recipes would be lost to us now.

A funny story. A few years ago I was making one of those recipes and my Aunt Sissy (Mamah's youngest daughter) was over here visiting. She said, "Mama never made the scalloped potatoes like that." And I said she must've changed how she did it, because I wrote it down as we made it. And we agreed that most of us will change up recipes as the mood or ingredients change.



From the first time I made it for him, this became The Guy's favourite potato salad. We have it often when we are barbequing during the summer. And always for the 4th of July. I never get out the recipe and measure anything when making this, I just use enough of the ingredients until it looks right. LOL. But in the recipe I listed the amounts my grandmother told me and the way we made it one long ago day in Fort Worth. Really you can adjust any of the ingredient amounts to suit your own taste.

Collected ingredients:


Potatoes cooking:


Put everything in a large bowl:

Look at the bright orange gold of the organically-grown free-range egg yolks.

This potato masher belonged to Mamah's mother. It is one of the few kitchen utensils I inherited from my Papa's family, and in my opinion is the best potato masher design ever. I'm guessing it has been mashing potato salad for somewhere around 100 years.


Mashed, stirred and served in a marigold Fiesta nappy:

Mamah's Potato Salad Make early in the day or the day before you want to serve to give the flavours time to meld. 2½ quarts peeled, cubed potatoes salt 4 hard cooked eggs 2 Tbsp chopped pimientos ½ cup chopped sweet pickle 2 Tbsp or so dill pickle juice or vinegar 1 cup good mayonnaise, approximately Put potatoes in 3 qt. pot, salt and cover with water. Boil till tender, but not mushy. Chop eggs. Mash the potatoes slightly, leaving some lumps. Stir together the potatoes, eggs, pimiento, sweet pickle and some pickle juice. Fold in the mayonnaise. Adjust salt, mayonnaise and pickle juice to desired seasoning and consistency. Notes: 1. Mamah always said that if you made this ahead of time you could bury a quarter of an onion in the middle of the salad and take it out before serving or you could stir in some chopped green onions. That's what her mother always did. 2. Sometimes I vary the recipe by adding mustard. The Guy's current favourite is a jalapeño flavoured one. 3. Adding fresh chopped dill is good, too.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

namasté,