I’m not a dessert eater but I do like a sweet element when I cook turkey, as I did at Thanksgiving.   I made a semi-homemade cranberry orange apricot chutney.  Here’s the recipe:
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My favorite holidays are the ones where I don’t have to be anywhere.  Planning on a quiet Thanksgiving, it was the midnight before when I decided to clean the house.  I moved furniture around as I steam cleaned my floors.  I took a stool, 2 chairs and a small table to the shed. I disassembled YinYang’s “kitty city” which is a few sizes of cardboard boxes with doors and windows cut out, side by side in the living room. I moved the table out into the middle of the living room and set it for dinner.  Already the room looked larger and brighter.  I decided to chop vegetables in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner the next day, so I began with cleaning the kitchen and then washing all the cleaning cloths.    Continue reading →

I’m having turkey this Thanksgiving. I don’t always. I enjoy the ritual cooking of it but not the preparing of a whole bird. Turkey breast alone isn’t an option as I prefer dark meat. This year for the first time, I ordered a small turkey from Publix that I picked up this morning. I plan on making green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. I always keep it low fat. I’ll steam the green beans along with some red pepper strips and serve them simply with sea salt, coarse ground black pepper and a lemon squeeze, Earth Balance and gomasio.    I’ll mash the potatoes with salt and pepper, a little almond milk and coconut powder and some Earth Balance spread. The gravy I’ll make using mushrooms and an organic brown gravy mix. The stuffing will be bread crumbs, roasted mushrooms, onion, celery, apple, diced dried apricot with fresh rosemary, sage and thyme. I may add eggplant and I may stuff it into red peppers. Neither the man nor I are dessert eaters, so no pies, but the sweet/sour element will be an cranberry orange and apricot chutney made with onion, bell pepper, allspice, cayenne, cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, apple cider vinegar and fresh shaved ginger.  I usually spend holidays working but Thursday, I’m just going to relax and bask in how thankful I am for this life I’ve been blessed with.

Mix equal parts each of these dried spices:
dried ginger
marjoram
rosemary
oregano
nutmeg
thyme
sage

Add half as much black pepper.
For delicious and robust flavor on meats and in stuffing.

From http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/how-to-make-simple-salad-worth-eating-vinaigrette.html

I’m a great cook but do not have a flair for making salad dressings unless I follow a recipe to the letter.  But I’m a sucker for having a formula I can apply to tasks.  When I discovered the secret to the perfect dressing is a simple formula, my pointy little ears perked up.  I found this article by J. Kenji López-Alt, who writes: “The key to a perfect simple salad: knowing how to make a properly emulsified vinaigrette, applying just the right amount and washing and drying your greens thoroughly.  Among the techniques that take you down the path towards a perfect simple salad are an emulsified vinaigrette, dressing-to-green ratio, clean and dry leaves, and proper tossing technique. Let’s look at each of them.”  Continue reading →

Dig the texture of instant ramen noodles, but not the 17 grams of fat and 1,800 mg sodium? The instant noodles have an ingredient that, when eaten too often and built up in your tummy, will slow your digestion down to a crawl. A healthy alternative is chuka soba curly noodles. Only three minutes to cook and much better nutritionally than instant ramen. Sure, it’s 20-30 times more expensive than the instant but that’s just $2 to $3 a package. http://kame.com/japanese-curly-noodles/ I love the instant ramen noodle texture and bite but when I discovered they were pre-fried and almost plastic coated, I really dig having a healthy alternative. Once a couple of years ago, I had instant ramen for lunch and also for dinner the same day. I never used the spice packet, I always added my own sauce and spices. It was very slow to digest and felt very heavy moving through my system. I researched why and now am glad there’s a healthy alternative.

RELATED: Soba Noodles or Udon? Ramen or Rice Noodles?

Today I wanted something sweet to eat, something creamy like yogurt.  But yogurt is dairy and makes me hot flash, and I don’t really care for how dairy clogs my sinuses.  I broke down the components of what I wanted.  Something sweet but not real sugary sweet.  Something creamy but not fatty or dairy.  Something I could nibble hot or cold.  Hmmmm… I had an overripe banana in the freezer, so I thawed it to create the “creamy” part.  I chopped an apple and put in a saucepan with a half cup of water, a splash of white wine and about a 1/4 cup raisins.  I added a teaspoon of brown sugar, a pinch of sea salt, two coins of fresh ginger root, 2 drops of rice vinegar, 2 drops of vanilla extract and two shakes of ground cinnamon.  I cooked it on medium heat until the raisins got fat, the apples got soft and the sauce got thick and sticky.  I removed the ginger coins. I stirred the thawed overripe banana into it and poured into a small baking pan.  Into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.

I buy the frozen tilapia filets in 2 pound packages at WalMart and usually poach them in an Asian style fish soup.  Today I sauteed them with blackened seasoning and they were excellent, served with kale.  They are also good atop grilled zucchini, red peppers and yellow squash.  Coat 4 filets with the Blackened Spice Rub (recipe below.) Let sit for about 15 minutes in the spice coating.  Heat a saute pan on medium heat with 1-2 tbsp olive or coconut oil.  Cook on each side about 3 minutes until flesh is white and begins to flake.   Continue reading →

I love a spicy Asian soup, whether the traditional Thai tom yum, a Cantonese hot and sour soup or an Asian style fish soup.  I also love easy formulas, especially for favorite recipes.  Here’s a basic soup I make using Asian flavors.  It’s the combination of these flavors that give it that spicy Thai/Vietnamese taste.   Keep the ingredients on hand in the freezer and you can have a restaurant quality soup in less than 30 minutes.   Then I add whatever vegetables or proteins I fancy that day, often simply mushrooms, scallions or snow peas, and shrimp or a fish filet.  Dig in.  Continue reading →

This recipe is for one carton (32oz) of broth. I usually double it.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound medium shrimp – peeled and deveined (save shells and heads for stock)
12 mushrooms, halved
1 (4.5 ounce) can straw mushrooms, drained
4 cups water or chicken broth (one carton)
2 stalks of lemon grass (will remove before eating)
4 kaffir lime leaves (will remove before eating)
4 slices galangal or ginger root (will remove before eating)
1-4 chilies as hot as you like them (I use 2)
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
1- 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce  (I use 3 Crabs brand)
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp vinegar
1-3 teaspoons palm sugar to taste
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
1 tablespoon nam prik pao or tom yum soup paste
1/2 tsp light sodium soy sauce
1 giant bunch of fresh basil or cilantro for last minute adding. Continue reading →