I am not sure how anyone with a mac lives without these 2 tools. Quicksilver and geektool…
If anyone reads this and asks for how I will post it 
Marianne and I have a new obsession. Vegan baking! See, Lent started less than a month after Christmas this year which is far far too early! not enough cheesecake, not enough tiramisu, not enough real chocolate icecream….ehm! sorry! mouth watering there a bit….
So, she made some vegan peanut butter cookies…and I am responding with macaroons, which she might be careful trying because last time I checked, my brother HATED coconut flakes (weirdo!)
So….this is a modified version of this recipe. Yes, I rarely use a recipe as is because life doesn’t work that way 
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of sweetened coconut flakes
2/3 cups of sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 almond slivers
2 tbsp applesauce
Turn up the oven at 350!
First, I toasted the almonds in a little saucepan on low heat then went at them with a knife….a nice semi fine chop
Then, in my mixing bowl, I mixed the coconut with the sugar..cute white flakes!
Vanilla extract (real! not imitation..yesI I listen to Ina!) added to the applesauce first. Because I am all about even distribution.
And it all comes together!!
I’ll spare you the gross details but I went at the mix by hands and that was the end result
Finally, I scooped the mix using my ice cream scooper. And because my scooper is not the lever kind, that was also messy.
Please ignore my cookie sheet’s condition. An empanada incident caused some battle scars.
By now the oven should be nice and warm, I popped the cookie sheet in there and set my timer for 10 minutes. Which was enough time to upload pics and cleanup. Or, if I was already in my new apartment, just enough tine to load the dishwasher….
So…first lesson, I should get parchment paper..that’s probably why I am not gonna have nice pictures of the cookies in a plate.
Second lesson, the cookies need some serious watching….you want them toasted but not burnt on the bottom which is very easy to happen….
But hey! Vegan macaroon with some good soy chai tea? not too bad!
UPDATE!
AFter the 10 minutes the cookies were still too soft. I placed them on a greased foil paper and put that for another 20 minutes in my toaster oven at 350. THAT did the trick. The result was twice baked macaroons that were very crunchy on the outside…yum!
This is probably gonna be the best way to get my veggies from now on..
This is a twist on this recipe. I started cooking before I could find it again and I ended up doing without some ingredients….
The cast:
- 2 eggplants..medium sized
- 1 package ground turkey, lean
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp butter (I use butter alternative…great taste nowhere near the calories)
- 2 handful grape tomatoes
- Crumbled feta cheese
- Spices: salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, all spice, garam masala, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme
Start by halving the eggplants lengthwise….scoop out the middle and dice that…
Turn on the oven…375 degrees
In a large skillet, heat the butter, then add the onions.
Let the onions soften for a couple of minutes then add the garlic
After about another minute, add the diced eggplant hearts….
after yet another minute (see the pattern?) add the ground meat…..break it up with the spoon…..add the spices and leave on medium high heat for a bit…
Get the eggplants ready by putting aluminum foil in a baking dish and spraying some olive oil in there…..set the eggplant halves
Wash and half the grape tomatoes…by now the meat mixture should have some liquid in there…add in the tomato paste and mix….then add the grape tomatoes..
Let it all cook until the liquid is all gone..
Spoon the filling in the eggplants, and top with the feta cheese…
Put it all in the oven till the cheese has browned a bit and the eggplant shells are soft…
Place in plate….bring a spoon and a knife….enjoy!!!!
PS: I’m gonna miss experiments like this when Lent starts and all I have to play with is lentils, veggies and….beans…..sigh….
Tomorrow, I plan beef straganoff in the crock pot…we’ll see if it’ll be worth a post
Just made this…and I am stuffed!…
It is a variation on Tyler Florence’s recipe found here
No cheese, a bit of scallion and some tomato paste…
Who said vegan had to be boring?
For a person who used to disagree with her mom all the time, I sure cook a lot of her recipes.
This is an oldie that I used to refuse to eat until I cooked it myself (i.e.: made my own twist). I am a very finicky tomato sauce maker. I have to have the right ratio of onions to garlic, the garlic HAS to be freshly chopped (none of that powder stuff for my tomato sauce!) and a little more freshly ground black pepper than most people use. And a bit of red wine wouldn’t hurt it either!
I am especially proud of myself for managing to take all these pics while cooking and cooking while starving. Nothing makes a girl hungry like an hour long Developers’ meeting
So, Here goes. (forgive the shaky pictures. I was THAT hungry)
-
- yummmm
Ingredients:
1 diced onion
1 diced thin garlic clove
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can tomato sauce
salt, pepper. Spices you like in a tomato sauce
2 fillets of catfish
1-1/2 cup of small grain wheat
Saute the oil, onions, and garlic in a sauce pan for a few minutes till they get tender. Dump on the tomato sauce. once it starts to boil, lower it to a simmer. Add salt, pepper and spices to taste (adding a splash of red wine won’t hurt) and let all simmer for a few minutes.
While the sauce cooks, wash the wheat grains thoroughly and spread in an oven-safe dish. lay the catfish fillets on top and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Once the sauce is cooked, pour that over the fish and wheat. Cover the whole thing with foil and put into a preheated oven at 350 degree.
It should not cook for long. In about 20 minutes, you end up with beautiful cooked grains and nice flaky fish 
Whoever said you have to have white wine with fish is mean and controlling. I used in the sauce a Beujoulais wine which is a french burgundy wine. It’s a little tart but not overly dry at all. Thanks to my dear brother for introducing me to it.
I got into this discussion today on the phone with my Mom that we have not had in a while.
It started out with her asking me if I wanted anything from Egypt as she, my Dad and my Brother are visiting Egypt in a week, and quickly turned into a discussion of my general disdain towards anything Egyptian.
I make no secret of my malcontent with the Egyptian culture. Despite the nervous stares that gets me from Mom’s friends at church and angry comments from some family members, I still hold the opinion that the Egyptian people as a whole will never advance beyond being a third world country and will always be those people who sing about the past and look only at their feet and borrow money from most of the world while internally holding a self righteous feeling of superiority.
I could go on for a while about things I don’t like in the Egyptian culture, but it all really hit me when hearing about how my aunt was refused admission to a handful of hospital, got driven around in an ambulance till she died in the ambulance because non of the hospitals wanted to ‘take the risk’ of her dying in their hands.
So…no…I feel no loyalty, no sense of belong and no respect for the country that finds it acceptable to do such a thing….it just happens to be a piece of land where my extended family has to live.
Yup…many many bits of fish head and marrow…look at that!
Ingredients:
- 1 large fish head. I used cod. Catfish works too
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, diced
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 1 can of tomato sauce
- 1/3 cup of flour
- Spices: salt, pepper, all spice, cumin, cumin, cayenne
There are two ways to cook this:
Easy: in the slow cooker. Just dump everything but the flour in and cook on low for 5-7 hours.
Little more complicated: In a large pot, on medium high heat, saute onions for two minutes, then add garlic. After another couple of minutes, add the tomatoes (both kinds) and once all is boiling, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add spices, the fish head and cook for another hour. Finally sprinkle the flour and stir quickly..
Serve with nice crusty bread like this…
This is Pugliese bread that I got fresh from costco. It is yeasty and slightly salty and heats up very nicely in the toaster oven….mmmm
It is not for the faint of heart. Like my husband who decided to add insane amounts of cayenne and cumin and squeeze lemons. Needless to say his bowl met an unhappy end.
I, on the other hand, was just fine with a bowl of the tomato, fish marrow-filled goodness along with a couple of pugliese bread slices. YUM-E
Will post pics and the recipe tomorrow.
Yup. So long Blogger, hello WordPress.
I am no advanced blogger. In fact, I am having a hard time keeping this alive. And I partially blame Blogger for that. Despite how very useful a lot of other Google products are, blogger seems like the black sheep. Really Google? No iPhone app? It seems almost archaic to ask me to blog via email/SMS when I am carrying with me a portal to the biggest AppStore in the mobile market.
So here I am. The move was generally simple, the built-in theme gallery seems adequate. Although I am not sure how long I will be ok with NOT having the full use of other online themes just because I am not a paid user. This might be the one thing I’ll miss in blogger.
But the iPhone App? Oh it is great!! I am using it right now! And it is completely worth me actually moving my blog to WordPress.
Take a hint Google
This is a public service announcement. If you were one of those people who were still dancing to 80′s pop into 1992, or still have an Atari in a box with pacman, space invaders and missile command. Or if the words Zelda, mafia wars, or assasin creed do not remind you of bedtime stories or gangs, you have to watch Chuck.
First season is all on thewb.com and season 2, which SO much better, is on hulu.com
you can thank me later
