Liebster Blog Award

Yesterday I received a wonderful surprise from Stephanie http://www.rodeobucket.com/.

First of all I want to thank you for including my blog in your favorites.

This is my first nomination and award and it really made my day. Thank you so much.

Liebster is German and translates to the English word“dearest”or” favorite”.

 It’s meant for up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.”

Here are the rules
•Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
•Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
•Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
•Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve
to be noticed. (Some say just 3 or more blogs of less than 200 followers each).
•Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

  

One of the responsibilities that goes with accepting the Liebster Blog Award is an amazingly difficult one, that of choosing five blogs to nominate for the Award, in turn.

After much head-scratching, I finally narrowed it down to five blogs to pass the honors on to. In no particular order:

Discovering in the Kitchen - http://my-greek-cooking.blogspot.com/

The Saucy Gourmet - http://www.thesaucygourmet.net/

Una Semplice Passione - http://unasemplicepassione.blogspot.com/

Simple Cookery - http://simplecookery.blogspot.com/

Mumsfilibaba - http://mumsfilibaba-mumsfilibaba.blogspot.com/

The hardest part was to choose only 5!


Please visit Stephanie's blog http://www.rodeobucket.com/.

Thank you for the award!

Manitou's Cake - Caramel Cake

We had an Alaskan Malamute and every time my mom made this cake Manitou was present. When she caramelized the sugar he showed up and he didn’t leave the kitchen until the cake was done. He knew that smell, he knew something good is cooking, and I think he knew the recipe J. He watched my mom making this cake, he wouldn’t leave the kitchen for a second. This was his favorite dessert, and because we don’t know the name of this cake, we named it Manitou’s cake. Now he is watching us from heaven, and every time I make this cake I know he is there with me, waiting for a little piece. I loved him with all my heart.

You can make icing for this cake, we like it with a cup of milk and this is how Manitou would like it too ;-)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water (to stop the caramelization process)

Put sugar in a small saucepan, with tall sides, and cook over medium heat until it is dark amber.
When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water.

Whisk over medium heat, for about 10 minutes, until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky.

Set aside, let it cool.

1 cup sugar

100 g oil (I used sun flower oil)

2 cups flour

5 eggs

He is Manitou. Look at that big smile :-)
He loved to play in the snow.

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup walnuts + 1 teaspoon flour

Preheat oven at 350F.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add the sugar and the egg yolks, and mix until thick, fluffy and forms a ribbon. Add caramel syrup, flour, oil and the baking powder to the egg yolk mixture, little by little mixing well.

Beat egg whites in a separate bowl and then fold it in very gently in the mixture.

Pour it in a lined baking sheet. In a small bowl add the walnuts and 1 teaspoon of flour, and shake it well until the walnuts are coated. Shake off excess flour. This will keep the walnuts on top of the cake.

Bake it in a preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes (when cooked a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean).

Note: If you want the cake to be super moist, reserve about 3-4 tablespoon of syrup and when the cake is baked make some holes in the cake with a toothpick, and pour the caramel syrup with a spoon over the cake.

Tags: Caramel Cake recipe, Caramelized Sugar Cake recipe, prajitura cu zahar ars recipe

Creamed Spinach

I could eat this every day, it is one of my favorites. If I don't have time to cook I just take a box of frozen spinach from the freezer and in 10 minutes I have a great lunch or dinner. I always have frozen spinach, eggs and milk at home. You can use cream or milk for this recipe, I usually make it with milk.

Ingredients:

1 lb fresh spinach cooked, well drained and chopped or 1 box frozen spinach

2 tablespoons oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup milk

Directions:

Heat oil in a small saucepan over low heat; add the crushed garlic and sauté garlic in butter for about 1 minute. Do not let garlic burn or it will be bitter.

Add the flour to make a roux.

Add salt and pepper and heat until mixture bubbles, stirring constantly.

Gradually add the milk stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth and thick.

Add the chopped spinach into sauce and season with extra salt or pepper if needed, or add more crushed garlic.

Serve with eggs and fresh bread.

Tags: creamed spinach recipe, hungarian creamed spinach recipe, spenot recipe, spenot recipes, spanac recipe

Mushroom Stew - Hungarian

We love mushroom stew over polenta or mashed potatoes. So easy to make and super cheap, you have to try it. You can make it without sour cream, but I think that the sour cream makes the sauce super creamy and tasty. This is a hungarian recipe my mom used to make a lot.

Ingredients:

2 lb mushrooms, sliced

1 large onion

2 large tomatoes, chopped

2 teaspoon paprika

4 tablespoon oil

2-3 cloves garlic

1 cup sour cream

salt

black pepper

2 tablespoon flour

chopped parsley

Directions:

Pour oil into a large pan and sautee onions on a low heat until soft and translucent.

Add paprika and chopped tomatoes and stir well.

Add the mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes.

Season with salt and black pepper and than cover the mushrooms with water.

Cook on low heat with cover for about 30 minutes.

In a small bowl mix the flour with a little water, until smooth, add the sour cream and mix well.

Pour the mixture into the mushroom stew, add the crushed garlic and cook for a few minutes.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with mashed potatoes and meat, or with polenta.

Tags: Mushroom Stew, hungarian Mushroom Stew recipe, Mushroom Stew recipe, gombaporkolt recipe, tocanita de ciuperci recipe, tejfolos gombaporkolt recipe

Arugula Apple Pomegranate Salad

This salad is super easy to make and it's ready in no time. Sometimes I put all the ingredients on the table and we make our own salad at the table, it's a lot of fun.
Delicious and refreshing salad, and soooo pretty.

Ingredients:

1 apple, thinly sliced (Gala, Jonagold, etc)

baby arugula

pomegranate seeds
feta cheese or blue cheese

roasted almonds

raspberry vinaigrette

Directions:

Arrange baby arugula on a large plate, transfer the apple slices on the plate, sprinkle pomegranate seeds on top, crumble feta or blue cheese on top and drizzle with raspberry vinaigrette. Toss to combine.

Enjoy it.

Tags: Arugula Apple Pomegranate Salad recipe, Arugula Apple Pomegranate Salad recipes, Baby Arugula Apple Pomegranate Salad with almonds and cheese, arugula salad with pomegranate, apple, feta and almonds

Hungarian Cabbage Salad

My mama used to make this salad for us a lot. It goes well with any meat and potato dish. I love it and it's a very simple and cheap salad.
This makes 2 servings.

Ingredients:

1 medium cabbage, shredded

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoon white vinegar

pinch of caraway seeds, (optional)

salt, black pepper to taste

Directions:

Put shredded cabbage in a large strainer, sprinkle salt, let stand. When cabbage softens drain out the liquid.
In a large salad bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix until sugar is dissolved and put the cabbage in the salad bowl over the vinegar mixture. Add black pepper and caraway seeds
Mix well, taste for seasoning, and leave it in the fridge for a few hours before tossing again and serving.

Note:
You can add more or less vinegar, or more sugar, make your dressing tangy or sweet, add garlic to it, go crazy. Perfect salad to go with meat and mashed potatoes.

Tags: hungarian cabbage salad recipe, cabbage salad with vinegar recipe, white cabbage salad recipe

Cream Cheese Penguins

Here is one of the appetizers I made for Christmas. I invited some friends to join us for dinner and when I put the penguins on my table they started to laugh and to take photos to post them on facebook, it was a big hit. The only problem is that nobody wanted to eat them because they are too adorable.

Jumbo or large black olives, pitted

Small black olives

1/2  package cream cheese (4 ounce), room temperature

1 large carrot

With a sharp knife cut a slit from top to bottom, lengthwise, into the side of each jumbo/large olive.

Using a teaspoon carefully insert cream cheese into each olive. Smooth the surface with wet finger.

Slice the carrot into eighteen 1/4 inch thick rounds. Cut a small triangle out of each carrot slice. Insert the carrot triangle in a small olive to make the beak

Cut a small notch out of each carrot slice to form feet. Save the cut out piece and press into center of small olive to form the beak. If necessary cut a small slit into each olive before inserting the beak.

Set the stuffed olive, large hole side down, onto a carrot slice.

Set the small olive with the beak onto the large olive.

Secure with a toothpick.

They are super cute, easy to make and a lot of fun. It takes maybe 20-30 minutes first time, after that it's a piece of cake. 

Note:

You can make scarf from roasted bell pepper if you still have patience :-) just cut long strips or pepper and put them around the neck. 

Use goat cheese or add herbs or garlic salt to the cream cheese if you want more flavor.

Tags: Cream Cheese Penguins recipe, Cream Cheese Penguins appetizer, Cream Cheese Penguin recipe, Cream Cheese Penguin recipes, Cheese Penguins recipe

Merry Christmas!



Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Well, this is Santa’s big day. He’s leaving the North Pole for his journey around the world bringing gifts to everyone who has been good this year.

There are a lot of gifts under our Christmas tree this year.

I received a lot of gifts already, I got a Kitchen Aid stand mixer this year, I call it "my Sous chef" " :-), I received a butcher block last week so I think I received my gifts already. Let's see if there are more under the tree.

I hope you all baked some good cookies for Santa, you know he loves them. Oh yeah don't forget the carrot for Rudolph :-)

Merry Christmas!

Ham and Mushroom Stuffed Turkey Breast

I make this dish often, not only for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We love it, it is sooo good. Sometimes I use chicken breast or turkey, you can add cranberries or sausage into the stuffing. Serve it with roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, just use your imagination.

Ingredients:

1 turkey breast, removed from the bone, about 2-3 pounds

12-15 slices bacon

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice

½ lb mushrooms, whole

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup dry white wine

Thyme bundle

Kosher salt

Black pepper

For the stuffing:

2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup ham, diced

1 cup small button mushrooms, diced or cut in quarters

6-7 sage leaves, finely chopped

½ teaspoon fresh thyme

2 cups bread crumbs

2 eggs

1/2 cup water

Directions:

Add oil in a large sautee pan, add chopped onion, salt and sautee on medium heat until they are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Add ham, mushrooms, black pepper, sage and thyme and cook until mushrooms are nicely browned.

Turn off the heat

.

Add the seasoned stuffing and water or chicken broth. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Set aside and let it cool. When the mixture is cool add 2 eggs and mix well.

While the mixture is cooling prepare the turkey breast.

Remove bones and skin and place it onto a cutting board. Butterfly each half. Season with salt and black pepper. Set aside.

Lay about 5-6 pieces of butcher twine on your cutting board. Lay bacon slices on top of them, slightly overlapping. Arrange the turkey breast on top of the bacon. Lay the stuffing mixture in the middle of the flatten turkey breast and lift the 2 sides of the breast to form a log. Wrap the bacon slices around the meat and tie with the twine.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Put the stuffed turkey breast, seam side down, into the skillet and sear until the bacon is crisp and the turkey is lightly browned, about 4 minutes on each side.

Transfer the turkey breast to a baking sheet.

In the same skillet sautee a medium onion, 2 carrots and 2-3 stalk of celery until nice and soft, about 7-8 minutes. Season with salt. Put the vegetables around the turkey breast in the baking sheet.

Arrange the whole mushrooms around the stuffed turkey breast. Add the thyme bundle, chicken stock and the whine and put it in the oven.

Roast the stuffed turkey breast for about 1 hour or until the turkey is cooked through and the internal temperature register 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. The cooking time depends on how big is the turkey breast. Baste with the chicken stock and wine mixture every 20 minutes.

Place the turkey breast onto a cutting board, cover with aluminum foil and let it rest for about 15 minutes before slicing.

Remove the twine and slice into medallions. Arrange on a serving platter and serve with roasted vegetables or mashed potatoes. Drizzle with the juice from the pan.

Tags: Ham and Mushroom Stuffed Turkey Breast recipe, Ham and Mushroom Stuffed Turkey Breast, Stuffed Turkey Breast recipe, turkey recipes, turkey roulade recipe, turkey roulade recipe for thanksgiving, christmas recipes

Stewie Salad

I posted this recipe a long time ago. I will post it again, just because I think this deserves a separate post. Just look at that face. It makes me laugh when I see it.
I have this oval baking dish and every time I use it I think "this lookes like Stewie's head", so this is how the idea was born. I made this beef salad and decorated with 2 slices of potatoe, peas and pickles. The result is awesome.
You can make it with anything as long as you have an oval serving or baking dish. It's even funnier if it has handles. So next time you make potato salad, chicken salad, pasta salad or tuna salad... maybe you will see Stewie in your dish :-)

Ingredients:

4-5 potatoes

2-3 carrots

1 parsley root

1 can green peas

2 pickles

1/2 lb poultry breast or beef sirloin

½ cup mayo

1 tablespoon mustard

Salt

Black pepper

Directions:
Boil the vegetables with the meat in a large pot. When cool enough to handle, cube the meat, potatoes, pickles and all other vegetables. Place all in a bowl, add the peas and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix mayo and mustard. Season with salt and black pepper. Add 3/4 of the mayo mixture to the meat and vegetables and mix well. Arrange on a serving platter.

Smooth with a knife and then cover with the rest of the mayo mixture. (optional)
Serve on a slice of fresh bread.




Tags: salata de boeuf recipe, boeuf salata recipe, beef salad recipe, french salad recipe, boeuf salata recipes, stewie salad, stewie recipe, stewie griffin face food, recipe with pictures, cartoon face food recipe