How Cute Are These?

Trail Mix!

For Dogs!

Teeny tiny milk bones, square beefy chews and sweet potato chewy rounds.

Adorbs!

And my dogs love em.

http://www.milkbone.com/

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My Attempt At Making The Ellusive Crystal Clear Ice Ball.

So, the "in" thing right now in bartending is these giant ice balls or spheres. 

Simple you think? All you need is water and a mold right?

Welllll, not really.

The trick is to make them CRYSTAL CLEAR, with no cloudy ice bubbles in them....

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Grow Your Own Tea

 

Black Tea, Green Tea, and White Tea, all come from ONE plant.

 The Camellia Sinensis plant.

I bought the Camellia above 6 years ago, it should have been 5 times its original size but Camellias are hardy to Zone 7 and I was living in Zone 6 at the time I bought it (Climate Change has now put me in zone 7A) I was told to bring it indoors every winter which every winter caused half of its leaves to fall off and half the plant to die and need to be pruned back by half, the past 2 winters I threw caution to the wind and left it outside and it thrived and grew...

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Oh Sooooo Pretty Garden Salad

 

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Philly Phood And Philm Trip

So I had wanted real French Macarons, I called nearby Aux Petits Delices and their 3 flavors didnt interest me, so I Googled "Macarons Philly" and I found out that a bakery on 17th Street sold all the flavors I wanted (or most of them) So I got in my SUV and drove out there....

It was a great day to drive to 17th Street, as they are filming a movie between 16th and 18th on Walnut Street, so I brought my good camera...

Just in case...

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Marmite, Love It Or Hate It! The Tutorial.

 

This is a jar of the infamous Marmite from the UK.

Marmite is the spent yeast left over from British Beer manufacturing with salt added.

Basically it is liquid Brewers Yeast.

It is high in B-Vitamins. 

People discovered it was yummy on toast, and an instant classic was born...

On to the tutorial....

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Chicken Apple Salad With A Creamy Honey Ginger Dressing

 

Chicken Apple Salad With A Creamy Honey Ginger Dressing

This is a recipe I have been making for YEARS, I invented it when I was on a diet and I didn't like the chicken salad recipe I was supposed to eat on it so I created this. If it is too sweet for you, replace the vanilla yogurt with plain. Like sushi, I can eat this every day for life...

Dressing

1 4 ounce container Vanilla Yogurt

2-4 Tablespoons minced Gari (Pickled Sushi Ginger)

2 Tablespoons Honey

Whisk the dressing, pour it over the following:

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 diced Granny Smith Apple

1 diced Gala Apple

1/3 cup Roasted Whole Almonds

Mix and eat.

YUMMMMMY!!

For Gari without Aspartame (most have it unfortunately) buy this brand:

Roland Gari

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Baked Caprese

I created this years ago when I had extra stuff left over from making lasagne.

Baked Caprese Salad
This serves 6 as a light appetizer

2 big fat juicy Tomatoes
Any tomato or smooth spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese
1 "ball" fresh Mozzarella
1 Egg
2 heaping Tablespoons Parmesan
Just a speck of Garlic Powder
Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper
Fresh Basil
Olive Oil Pam Spray

Balsamic Glaze (not shown in pic)


Spray each of a six non-stick muffin pan (or heat proof ceramic or glass cups)

Cut 6 1/4 inch slices of tomatoes from the fattest part of the
tomatoes and put one slice in each of the
six. Mix the Ricotta cheese, the egg, the Parmesan and the salt and pepper in a small bowl and divide it up onto each tomato, top with a teaspoon of the sauce. Top with a slice of Mozzarella.
Bake in a 325 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until
they're bubbly and have "risen" a bit from the egg, let cool til lukewarm. Invert each onto a small saucer,
serve with a Chiffonade of Fresh Basil and a drizzle of Balsamic Glaze.

You can get Balsamic Glaze at Wegmans stores

http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=669323

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Trader Joe's Favorites Number 1 Cioppino

Run, not walk to Trader Joe's and buy this frozen Cioppino!

 Cioppino is a spicy tomato based seafood stew, and Trader Joe's has big chunks of Sea Bass, Scallops, Mussels and Shrimp.

Stock up! Buy 10! It is that good!

It says it serves 2, but don't share!

Eat it with a hunk of crusty Italian bread

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Trader Joe's Lunch

Yummy!

Trader Joe's Chicken Won Ton Soup with tons of veggies and yummy broth and Won Tons!

Try it....

http://www.traderjoes.com/

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Food Funnies

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Italian Salami and Fennel Salad

Italian Salami and Fennel Salad           

1 pound Sliced Salami, julienned

1 large Bulb Fennel sliced almost paper thin

1 Red Pepper julienned thin

1 Yellow Pepper julienned thin

1 Orange Pepper, julienned thin

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2-3  tablespoons red wine vinegar

Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

Put it all together, toss, and eat  ! Yummmmm!

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The World Famous Preesi Burger

(no, these aren't for dieters)

 

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Cool Sandwich Ideas

Cool Sandwich Ideas

I wrote these all in 1998, most have become commonplace at restaurants nationwide, but I just wanted to post them this AM for a giggle....

1) Prepare a nice simple salad (lettuce,diced tomatoes,paperthin

onion rings) dress it lightly with your favorite dressing and

stuff your sandwiches with it!

2) One of the best parts of summer is fresh veggies! One of the

simplest brightest flavors is a warm, buttery, Veggie Du Jour sandwich!

steam up some fresh veggies of your choice (I love broccoli) stuff a

roll with some and pour on some butter or cheese sauce and eat!

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Cool Salad Ideas

Cool Salad Ideas

I wrote these all in 1998, most have become commonplace at salad bars nationwide, but I just wanted to post them this AM for a giggle....

1) Buy a boxed hard taco meal and fixins, crush the shells,

prepare the meat, chop a few tomatoes, shred a head of romaine

lettuce. put the meat, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, shells in a

large bowl mix some hot taco sauce with some vinegar and pour

over salad. toss, eat.

2) Any bottled sauce can be converted into a salad dressing,

just thin out with a little oil and vinegar, and depending on

the fat content of the sauce you may want to adjust how much

oil you use.

Read More....

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Lavender Apple Sauce

Several years ago there was this Gossip columnist named Rona Barrett. At the last stage of her career she started going into charity work and thru her love of Lavender she started a business selling Lavender scented and flavored products...

One of these products was Lavender flavored apple sauce.

I never got to taste hers, but I have made Lavender flavored apple sauce myself and its a favorite of mine.

All you need to do is peel, core nd chop a few apples, simmer them in water until soft, drain, smash (I like to leave a few chunks for texture) add sugar and powdered dried Lavender flowers to taste....

Very Simple!

If you want yours to be a pretty lavender hue, perhaps for a luncheon buffet, add a few drops of natural purple food coloring (query Amazon)

Its such a welcome change from Cinnamon...

Try it!

If you get to like Lavender as a flavoring, try it in Lavender DRY SODA

http://drysoda.com/

PS, only buy Food Grade Lavender as other lavenders can have chemicals and pesticides that can make you sick

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Pretty Authentic Gyros

People who know me, know I try to make Ethnic Foods as close to authentic as possible.

If I can I will import ingredients from overseas just to make a recipe authentic.

Gyros are no exception. But I do make them slightly different.

1) Real Gyros are made of sliced meat roasted on a tall upright spit, a spit I do not have nor need so I do make the Greek American Gyro Loaf.

2) Since I can get whole wheat pocketless Gyro Pita Bread I will use it.

My last post was about spices...

Since they stopped selling the dry Gyro mix at the grocery store I wanted to make my own dry mix so when the mood struck me I could make Gyros on the fly...

This is the dry mix I created

    1 Cup Bread Crumbs

    4 T Onion Powder

    2 T Garlic Powder

    2 t rosemary

    2 t oregano

    2 t cumin

    2 t black pepper

    2 t Salt

    2 t marjoram

    2 t thyme

I used 1/4th of this dry mix to mix into 1 pound of lean ground beef and 1/3rd a cup warm water. I put it in a loaf pan and baked it in a 375 f oven  till it registered an internal temp of 150. I then let it rest and cool and sliced it thin and put 3/4th of it in individual vacuum bags for the freezer and ate the rest on gyro bread with Tzazaki sauce, sliced tomatoes and sliced onions sprinkled with ground Penzeys Sumac (the authentic part)

Sumac is a sour berry that is used in Greek and Middle eastern cooking to add sourness.

You can buy it here :

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyssumac.html

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On The Fly Fish Taco

So occasionally when I stop at Assi Plaza International Market in Noth Wales, Pa Ill buy a tray of Korean Fried Pollack Filets and Ill have some left over the next day and Ill make a yummy giant fish taco with fresh guac, lettuce and a tiny bit of sour cream. SOO GOOD

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Spreadable Cookies!

So about 3 months ago I was at Trader Joes and while I was checking out I saw this at the check out

SPECULOOS?!

SPECULOOS!?

What in the fuck is SPECULOOS!?

I bought it and brought it home to investigate.

The bar itself was non descript and frankly tasteless, BUT after Googling I discovered that SPECULOOS was basically SPREADABLE COOKIES!

Namely spreadable Biscoff cookies that are a delightful European Gingerbread cookie.

AN if that wasnt enough, I found out that you can buy Speculoos in a JAR for spreading on toast or dipping bananas in!!!!!!!!

ZOMG!!!!!!!!!!

LOOK!

I am IN LOVE with this stuff!

SO decadent!

You cannot put the jar down!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Being the Food Whore I am (shamelessly so) I then set out to create other cookie spreads!

I immediately thought of OREOS!

How yummy would SPREADABLE OREOS BE?

So armed with my Vitamix, Nabisco Chocolate Wafers, Confectioners Sugar and Spectrum Brand

Organic Shortening I got to work.

I pulverized the wafers in the Vitamix, sifted them, and then added 1 cup of confectioners sugar and enough Spectrum Shortening to make a DECADENT spreadable OREO cookie!

I then went crazy and made 3 others, Strawberry Shortbread Cookie Spread, Lemon Dare Cookie Spread, and Oatmeal Cookie Spread...

Here they are

If you wanna make them yourself, I have some tips

1) Pulverize the cookies in handfuls.

2) Use the Spectrum brand shortening NOT CRISCO

3) if using sandwich cookies scrape the creme out and only pulverize the cookie, you can re-incorporate the creme later.

4) Only use dry hard cookies, not chewy style or jam filled.

5) If you want fruit flavored cookie spread pulverize cookies first then pulverize freeze dried fruit then add .

6) Only use confectioners sugar, or you wont get a smooth spread.

7) Add Protein powder to make this more nutritional.

8) Less is more with the shortening, you an add but you cant take away.

9) This is not a DIET recipe!

Also good on cupcakes!

Have FUN!

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Nabe Dinner

Yummy! I made a simple Chicken Nabe with Chicken, Chinese Okra, Green Gourd, Mushrooms, Onion, Carrots, Spinach, Konnyaku and Tofu Puffs. I ate it with a side order of rice and KimChee.
The Chinese Okra is actually a young Luffa (Yes, the kind you wash with!) It was good!
I made a Kabocha "cake" but it isnt done yet...
MMMMMMMMMMMMM!

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