Turkey On My Mind

Last year I visit some cities in Turkey. And ever since then, I have developed a strong liking for all things yoghurt or containing yoghurt--— frozen yoghurt, creamy yoghurt, yoghurt health drinks, yoghurt salad dressings, even yoghurt as a substitute for cream in my muffins.

Yesterday, I decided to have a Turkish breakfast consisting of sliced tomatoes, cucumber, slices of hard cheese, a hard boiled egg and—you guessed it, yoghurt with some honey. I would have wanted some crusty bread to go with the meal but I settled for some toast.



Nothing speaks to me better about a country than it’s food. And so with this simple breakfast fare, I am once again transported to a country that intrigued me so much.

Should you get a chance to visit Turkey, remember me when you dig your spoon into a bowl of creamy yoghurt

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What food talks Turkish to me and brings back delicious memories?

simit, a sesame-topped ring of baked dough (similar to a bagel-- but softer)



A fried fish sandwich (Balik ekmek) by the Bosphorus– just fresh fish, caught that day, fried or grilled and stuffed into a wedge of fresh bread with some tomatoes and lettuce



Apple tea – which I learned was for tourist.

A meze lunch- Stuffed vine leaves, a yoghurt or lentil-based soup, flatbread and dips, and grilled kofte kebab





Ayran- a yogurt (again) drink with salt and water. Said to give one a healthy stomach/

Pomegranate juice from a street vendor – a fruit with miraculous health properties according to some


Lokum- a gelatinous confectionary better known as Turkish Delight


Pistachios, Dates and Apricots

“Afiyet Olsun!” - “Enjoy your meal!”

My Favorite Things

Ribbons, beads, flowers and trinkets. Scissors, glue, needle and thread. These are just a few of my favorite things-- musings patterned after a song from the movie, "The Sound of Music".

To keep my mind off the sweltering summer heat, I decided to make something out of the craft materials squirreled away in several plastic containers. Out came the glue gun, empty containers, paper boxes, scraps of textiles, paper flowers and old roll of lace.



At first I did not know what I wanted to create. Then like the proverbial light blub, I got it! Containers for Easter surprises!!



I admit that I got carried away with some of my creations... I should have remembered that less is more. Oh, but I love them more.



And some creations brought back memories of weddings



and giggly debutante nights



and tender baby showers.



Like anything in life, it is not what you have but what you make of it. And most important of them all, you are happy with what you make of what you have.

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After I was done with a particular batch of tiny round containers, I arranged them in a circle and called my hubby for his comment.



"They look like cupcakes-- good enough to eat.", he said.

That was enough to make my day.

What follows is not a cupcake recipe but a muffin recipe but I like to think of it as a cupcake because it's baked in a cupcake pan. What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? hmmm.. good question. I read somewhere that cupcakes are minature versions of a cake and usually iced while muffins are considered a close relative of bread but easier and quicker to make. That's all I need to know.

The recipe below is not only easy to make but pretty to look at when it's baked. Best of all, it's yummy and baking it makes me happy!



Mocha Walnut Wonder Muffins
(adopted from 1993 Ladies Home Journal Magazine)

2 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 c packed brown sugar
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1 c butter milk or plain yoghurt or in a measuring cup put in 1 T vinegar and then add milk up to 1 cup level
3/4 c cooking oil (corn or canola)
1/2 c water mixed with 1 1/2 t instant coffee powder
3 large eggs
1 t vanilla
1 c chopped walnuts or casuy
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 regular size muffin pan with paper cups.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Set asie.
3. In a large bowl whisk buttermilk/yoghurt, oil, coffee, eggs and vanilla until blended.
4. Stir flour mixture into the buttermilk mixture just until blended.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.



6. Sprinkle the walnuts and choco chips on top of each muffin and press lightly.



Bake 20 to 25 minutes until pick inserted near centers comes out clean.



7. Remove muffins to a wire rack to cool.

Vegetables: Love-Hate Relationship

When I was a little baby, my mother would boil and mash all sorts of vegetables and lovingly feed me. No complaints then. Like any innocent and hungry baby, I just gulped down all that goey stuff. But when I developed a taste of my own (maybe around the age of seven), I remember how my mother did everything in the book to force me to eat my vegetables. ("No dessert until you eat up all your vegetables") Except for corn-- the only vegetable I seemed to like because of its sweetness. The rest, well I had found many ingenious ways to make my mother think I had truly eaten them. I would excuse myself from the table with vegetables discreetly on the sides of my cheeks, proceed to the toilet to spit and flash it all down. If I had done too many visits to the comfort room, I would next pretend to wipe my mouth with the napkin. After the meal, I would bring my plate and napkin to the kitchen and efficiently dump the napkin's contents into the garbage can. And when we started to have dogs, disposing of my vegtables was a breeze.

Well, as I grew older, I started to crave for that certain clean and fresh taste only vegetables bring to the palate. This is so true for veggies in soups, salads and those lightly cooked using the least seasoning. Now why is that? Does age bring about the realization that eating ones vegtables do have merit? Or are we no longer the rebelious child nor the dare devil who was once not afraid of vessel-clogging steaks and chops?

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Whatever the reason might be, there is no better time to begin enjoying your vegetables than NOW. To help you get a headstart, below is the basic cream style soup recipe and salad vinegarette that you can apply using any vegetable or a combination of vegetables.

Cream Soup- Basic
Ingredients

1 c milk
1/2 c cream
1 chicken cube dissolved in 1 cup hot water
3 T buter
1 t salt
1/4 t white pepper
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 T dry sherry (optional)
1 c of any of the following boiled vegetables:

broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, lima beans, corn, green beans, squash, spinach, mushrooms, potatoes, leeks

Procedure:
• Cut up the vegetable of choice to make blending easier and quicker. Put all ingredients into the blender's pitcher or food processor. DO not overload your appliance-- make sure that the blender is only two-thirds full.
• Press the liquify button for 30 seconds. Stop motor and push down with spatula if necessary. Blend longer if smoother consistency is desired.
• Empty contents into a saucepan and heat gently (do not boil) until hot.
• Serve with some croutons and a dash of cayenne pepper. You can also sprinkle some parmasan cheese to your soup.

Note 1: If you don't have cream, you can increase the amount of milk to cover for the absence of the cream. And if you find the soup to thick, dilute with some water or milk. Correct the seasoning after each addition.

Note 2: You can also use non-fat milk for this recipe

Note 3: Use the liquid that you boiled your vegetable in for the water to disolve the chicken bouillon.
Cream of Squash Soup



Basic Vinegarette
Ingredients:
Vinegar
Olive Oil or any cooking oil
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Water

Start with a tablespoon each for the vinegar and the Oil and water. Add a teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper. Mix well. Adjust to your taste--- by adding more of any of the ingredients.

You may or may not heat up the vinegarette prior to adding to your favorite vegetable: carrots, salad greens, peppers, onions, tomatoes and the like.

Bitter Melon Salad (Ampalaya)



Mustard Greens Salad with Flaked Smoked Fish

In the Quiet of the Morning

I love waking up early on Saturday mornings. Carefully I leave the comforts of my cozy side of the bed so as not to wake my husband up. With a quick splash of water to wash the sleep from my eyes and a brief attempt to put my curls in order, I leave our room. At six in the morning, the house is at it's quietest. Like a thin mist, there is a gentle sense of peace that envelopes the neighborhood as the streets remain empty of the usual work and school day traffic.

I feel like I am in the twilight zone where time has stopped and I am the only living being moving about the kitchen to make some ginger tea.



With cup in hand, I unlock the French doors leading to my little veranda. Surveying my garden, my gumamela hedge as well as other bushy plants discreetly screen the garden from prying eyes. A good thing too as I would not want to startle an occasional neighbor out on a morning stroll with my "twilight look".

Soon a neighbor's cat join me. The cat keeps me company and without a sound, agree to respect the silence.



With sips from my cup, in the quiet of the morning, I hear the beating of my heart and am grateful to be alive. Looking up as the sun lights up the sky, in the quiet of the morning, I am moved to reaffirm my faith in all that is good and beautiful. And during times when I am troubled, in the quiet of the morning, the bleakness of the night before is quickly banished.

Suddenly, a cheery note breaks the silence from some birds that are nesting in a tree nearby. The cat dares a meow and a dog starts to bark. A phone rings somewhere in the neighborhood and someone turns on a radio.

The quiet is over but there will always be another Saturday morning.


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Saturdays are when I prepare a big breakfast for the family. There is more time to linger on the dining table specially when treated to a delicious spread of breakfast favorites. No western breakfast but rather a hearty meal of eggs, fried or made into an omelette; some tapa (sun-dried seasoned beef or pork or fish); garlic fried rice; and, some hot native chocolate to start the weekend with a big smile. So let me get on with the recipes.

Tapas are best prepared a day or two ahead as there is need to sun dry the dish so as for it to soak up the marinate.

You will need:

500 grams of pork or beef (thinly sliced and pounded upon using the back of a knife--this is to tenderize the meat)
or fish (makarel or milkfisH that has been slit from the back and butterflied)



Marinate:
1/2 head of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 - 3 tablespoons of vinegar (depending on how sour you want your tapa to be)
1-3 teaspoons of soy sauce (optional)
some peppercorns (optional; maybe smashed or not-- a matter of preference)
salt and pepper to season (a matter of preference on how much or how little to add)

Mix marinate into the pork, beef or fish. Set meat or fish on a plate or wire rack and place under a sunny spot. I just find one inside the house so as to avoid any attention from flies or pets. Usually, I leave under the sun for about 4-5 hours so that the meat or fish is no longer moist but has soaked up the marinate. Once done, I pack in plastic containers and freeze until it's time to cook it.

For the meat, before cooking, I usually cut the meat up into strips. There is no need to do the same for the fish.

To cook, just heat some oil in a frying pan and place the meat or fish in. Do not over crowd the pan. Since the meat has been sliced thinly, it should be cooked fairly quickly. Serve with eggs and garlic fried rice. If you have having the fish, don't forget to have chop some tomatoes and onions as a side dish. Lastly, don't forget to have some vinegar for dipping the meat or fish into. Yum!!!

BEEF TAPA



PORK TAPA



FISH TAPA

Kitchen Treasures

Last weekend, I went thru my drawer of recipes I keep in the kitchen. Gosh, you should have seen the amount of "treasure" I had in that drawer. I would make any pack rat proud of the horde that I have amassed-- newspaper & magazine clippings; labels from soup cans, juice cans and food packages. This is not to count the recipe cards and printed recipes I came across on the net.

To achieve some order, I did the following:
• I had on hand the following:

Cheap Clear books
Bond Paper
Scissors
Paste & tape
Garbage Can

• I brought out every bit of paper and spread them out on my dining table.
• I then went thru each and every recipe and piled them according to:

meat
seafood
noodle/rice
vegetable
dessert
whatnots

• I threw the ones that were clearly going to remain deep, deep dreams;
• And neatly cut the torn-up clippings I liked. For short recipes, I stuck
them to bond paper.
• Once done, I move on to inserting them in the clear books.

This is my cheap way of coming up with my very own personalized recipe reference book. Every now and then, I will open this drawer to fish out one particular recipe; then put on my apron and cook up a dream.

=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=

I will keep my chit-chat short today and give to you a recipe I recently used and found worth passing along. You can then make copies of this recipe and promptly deposit it in your own recipe drawer of dreams.

Chicken Pastel



If you like chicken, you will find this delicious. This is adapted from a reciped I printed out from femalenetwork.com

Filling

1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup bacon or ham, chopped
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, crushed
1 kilo deboned chicken meat,cut in cubes
2 medium carrots, medium dice
2 large potatoes, medium dice
1 1/3 cups soup stock
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup Vienna sausages, cut in 1" cubes
1 cup green olives (optional)
1/4 cup pimiento, cut in strips (optional)
2 large eggs, hard-boiled, quartered
1 piece chorizo, sliced diagonally (optional)
2-3 teaspoon cornstarch

Glazing
1 small egg, slightly beaten

Procedure:

Filling
1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Heat the oil in a large pan. Saute the bacon until slightly crisp and fat renders out. (If using ham, no need to crisp). Add the garlic and onions. Cook until soft.
3. Add the chicken meat and stir until slightly pink.
4. Stir in the raw carrots and potatoes. Add the soup stock. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the Vienna sausage, olives, chorizo and pimiento. Thicken sauce by spooning out some of the liquid. Then add 1-3 teaspoons (if very watery add more; if not, add less) of cornstarch to the liquid. Stir and add to the simmering pot.
5. Spread the chicken mixture on a Pyrex dish or ceramic dish.
6. Cool slightly. Lay out the quartered eggs on top.



Crust
( for a large rectagular pyrex dish (like in Lasagna); half the recipe if you are using a 9 inch pie plate or deep dish.)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Crisco, or margarine
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using margarine)
1/4 cup cold water

Crust Procedure
1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the Crisco or margarine. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the cold water and pat lightly to form a ball. Do not knead the dough or the crust will become tough.



2. Roll out the pastry dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper until 1/4 inch thick. Make sure the crust is bigger than the dish you will put chicken pastel in. Allow 1 1/2 inches around the sides of the dish.



Assemble:

Lay the crust on top of the mixture and seal the edges. Make a decorative rim if you wish. Brush the crust with egg. Bake in 350°F oven for about 30 minutes or so until the crust is golden. Serves 8.

Note: I boil the chicken so that I can easily remove the meat from the bone. I used the resulting stock for the recipe.

Easy does it tip:
Don't want to go thru the trouble of making the crust? No worries. You can serve the filling as is with crusty bread. Or, prepare bread cups by pressing into a cupcake pan sliced bread. Toast in the oven and when done, spoon some of the filling in--- similar to chicken ala king.

Good Morning Sunshine!

I used to be a night person. Like an owl, my energy level peaks the later the hour. I remember how productive I was when the clock stuck five. Reports and charts seemed faster to do later in the day. And when I got home from work, I'ld check on the kids' homework and still have the energy to bake up a batch of cookies to take to the office the next day. Then there were all those "midnight madness" shopping expeditions at the malls with friends. And let's not forget the "I could have danced all night" chapter of my life. Like Dracula, I would rather sleep in late than wake up with the roosters. It was torture having to get ready for work in the mornings.

It's funny how ten years ago,while on a night out with friends, I would be disappointed when one of the more "senior" member in the party would start yawning. And it was only 10 o'clock!!

Now I can say that I still have the samba moves that could heat up a dance floor and the skill to whip up something interesting in the kitchen. But all, I find, are better done way, way before the clock strikes the Cinderella hour.

Where I used to love the burst of energy and excitement that the evening brought, I now find myself drawn to the freshness of the morning light. Sleep is eagerly sought in anticipation of what the morning will bring. What new wonder will greet me? What new thought, what new idea? The mornings signal so much possibilities up ahead in the day.

Where before I gave thanks for surviving another day, I now give thanks for being given another day.

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Need an energy boost to start your day? Try my sunshine packed breakfast drink that will surely see you glow and go.

Have ready:
1 cup chopped fruit (may consist of a ripe banana or strawberries or mangoes or papaya or melon or a mix of these fruits to make 1 cup)
2 heaping tablespoon of raw oatmeal ( quick cooking, instant or rolled)
1/2 to 2/3 cup water
some sugar or honey (optional)




Procedure:



Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend away until smooth.

Find a relaxing spot to leisurely enjoy the resulting drink.



Pointers:
*You may use cold water and add some ice cubes.
*If using bananas only, I find that two will do.
*When combining fruits, choose the ones that are known to combine well-- bananas usually pair off well with strawberries or mangoes.
*You could also add some cinnamon to add some interest to it.
*Remember that the drink tends to firm up because of the oatmeal. So it is best to drink this as soon as it's ready. Otherwise, just add water if the drink thickens too quickly for you.