Cooking Chinese food at home has always seemed to send everyone running away from their stoves and to their corner Chinese takeout place. The sheer multitude of ethnic ingredients can put anyone into a wild screaming frenzy. I personally used to run to PF Changs and order up their Mongolian Beef and Fried Rice. Unfortunately, this became a very unhealthy and frankly embarrassing custom. How could I, a trained chef, not be able to make a simple beef dish? So I decided to create a recipe that can stand up to any Chinese restaurant! Finally I found a nice combination of sweet and salty flavors and was able to keep it simple! So next time your stomach is grumbling at you for some Chinese food don’t reach for the takeout menu but instead grab your wok!

Mongolian Beef

2 pounds of flank steak, sliced against the grain in about 3/4 inch slices
6 large green onions, sliced on the bias
1 cup of low sodium soy sauce
1 cup of water
1 tbsp of minced ginger
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup of corn starch
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
Vegetable oil for frying

*use a micro planer to finely mince garlic and ginger

1. Toss the sliced beef in a large bowl with corn starch, carefully making sure all the pieces are covered. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
2. Add vegetable oil into a sauce pan and add garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes.
3. Allow to sautee quickly for 2-3 minutes making sure not to add any color on it.
4. Add the soy sauce, water and sugar to the saucepan and boil for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.
5. Pour 1 inch of oil into a sautee pan or a wok and heat up until hot but not smoking.
6. Add in the beef in batches making sure not to crowd the pan. Sautee for 4 minutes and remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat until all the batches are done.
7. Wipe out pan of all the oil and add in beef, sauce and scallions. Toss everything together until evenly coated and increase heat to a boil.
8. Cook for 1 minute until sauce thickens. Garnish with scallions and serve with fried rice.

Brown Basmati Fried Rice

4 cups cooked basmati brown rice
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup corn
1 Spanish onion, sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 tsp sesame oil
3 egg whites
Oil for cooking

1. Heat up 1 tbsp oil in a large pan or wok.
2. Add onions and cook until slightly browned but still crunchy, about 3-4 minutes.
3. Add in garlic and ginger, careful not to brown.
4. Add in rice and toss with garlic and onion mixture.
5. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add egg. Allow to coagulate and break up through the mixture.
6. Add frozen peas, corn, soy sauce and sesame oil. Toss to combine.
7. Taste for seasoning and plate.

* if the dishes are too salty add a bit of sugar in them to balance then out

Recently, with the introduction of my newborn my life has become a bit hectic. Nonetheless, I still have the desire to jump in the kitchen and make something that fills my house with delicious smells and our bellies with warm goodness. Nothing fills up the house with delicious smells as a chicken roasting away in the oven. For many years I attempted perfecting the art of the Greek chicken. I used every method I learned in culinary school but none did the chicken justice. A couple of years ago I worked with a Greek woman who taught me her family’s Greek chicken recipe. It was one of the first times of many that I learned sometimes the best kept secrets to recipes is the concept of simplicity. This dish satisfies the appetite and best of all is a breeze to clean up after. To this day this recipe is one of the recipes I keep in my artillery.

1 fryer chicken, cut up into pieces
2 whole lemons, zested and juiced
3 tablespoons of fresh oregano, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
5 russet potaoes, peeled and cut into quarters
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

1. Pour olive oil in the bottom of a baking pan to prevent chicken and potatoes from sticking.
*I used a foil pan so that clean up was a breeze! You also want to make sure that the pan is big enough to give the potatoes room. They should not be crowded, or else they will not develop the right flavors.*
2. Place the potatoes and chicken pieces in the pan and cover them well with all the zest, lemon juice and oregano. I also threw in the zested and juiced lemons in there. They make for a great presentation when they get caramalized in the oven.
3. Let the chicken and potatoes stand for at least 1 hour, just so the flavors get a chance to develop in the chicken.

4. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
5. Place chicken and potatoes in the oven for 30 minutes. This will allow a nice crust to form on the chicken and give the potatoes a chance to brown up.
6. After the 30 minutes, turn down the temperature to 375 degrees and pour in the chicken stock and let it go nice and slow. You may need to rotate the potatoes once in awhile to make sure that they are browning up and softening up on all sides.
*The point of the chicken stock is to partially braise the potatoes. The stock should come up about half-way up the potatoes. You want them to have a golden color, but still be nice and soft in the middle. If some of the liquid has evaporated, feel free to add more stock or water.*
7. The chicken will be done when the juices run clear. The potatoes sometimes take longer than the chicken. I took my chicken out after about an hour, the potatoes still cooked for 20 more minutes, just until they could easily be broken with a fork.
*The potatoes should look golden brown on the outside and when you break them in half they will be white in the center, and golden yellow all around the center! The yellow comes from the lemon and chicken juices. Sometimes when I really want to impress the guests, I add a bit of turmeric to the cooking liquid, it turns them a nice bright yellow and is a great trick for rice as well. People will think it’s saffron!”

One of my greatest childhood memories of New Years is watching my grandmother make this delectable tort. With a few ingredients and a lot of love she created a sweet delight to enjoy with our warm cups of tea and to chase down shots of vodka. The two stars of this cake are specific waffles that create the actual tort layer and sweetened condensed milk that creates the cream. The waffles can be purchased in specialty Russian or Polish stores, for about $2 a pack. The condensed milk is boiled for several hours to allow the sugars to caramalize, essentially creating a dulce de leche cream. There are many variations for this cake, some add dry fruit or chocolate. I stick to the recipe my grandmother passed on to me… The one she swore by… The one she learned from her mother… The one that put countless of smiles on people’s faces. Happy New Year Everyone! May yours be as sweet as this tort!

Waffle Torte

2 packages Waffles
4 cans condensed sweetened milk
1/2 cup walnuts-roughly chopped
3 tablespoons cognac
1/2 pound of butter, melted

1. Remove all the labels from the cans of condensed milk.
2. Place the cans in a large pot and cover with water. Boil the cans for 3 hours, making sure to refill the water in the pot as it boils out.
3. Carefully open the cans as they are under pressure and can explode.
4. Add the butter, cognac and all but 2 tablespoons of the nuts to the condensed cream.
5. Combine all the ingredients together with a whisk.
6. Alternate waffle layers with the condensed milk. Sprinkle the reserved walnuts on the top of the cake.
7. Allow to stand for at least 6 hours at room temperature before serving.

Having just had a baby, cooking had unfortunately become a necessity for me rather than a pleasure. My newborn gives me about 20 minutes before she wants to be in my arms again. So this calls for some quick prep work and a fast shove in a hot oven. Grouper happens to be a fish I did not use very often for reasons I have yet to remember. I bought a couple of filets recently because they smelled ocean fresh and were coincidentally on sale.
I combined several of my favorite ingredients, Parmesan, lemon and garlic and had an incredible dinner in 30 minutes! I served this up with some simple steamed broccoli and garlic chili oil. Easy, fresh and delicious!!!! Now if you will excuse me… My newborn needs my attention!

Parmesan Crusted Grouper

2 Pounds of Grouper, filleted and skinned
2 Cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp lemon and pepper spice
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesanno Reggiano
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
1/2 a lemon juiced and zested
Olive oil for frying

1. Preheat oven to 450-degrees. Heat olive oil in a thick bottomed pan.
2. Combine flour, salt, lemon pepper and toss to combine.
3. Dip each grouper fillet into flour mixture and gently place into hot oil. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan. Fry for 4-5 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
4. Place onto a foil covered baking pan. (foil makes this a breeze to clean up. And I need all the help I can get right now!)
5. Combine Parmesan, lemon zest and parsley. Sprinkle mixture over each fillet and drizzle with reserved lemon juice.
6. Place into oven for 5-7 minutes or until cheese is golden brown and fish is cooked through.

I have a convection oven so my cooking time is significantly less than in a conventional oven. For a conventional oven you cook the fillets for about 10-12 minutes

“All is quiet in my house, nothing stirs…not even a mouse” only the quiet hum of the aquarium filter can be heard…I am the only one awake…playing with the little “Ded Maroz” (Father Frost) under our New Year’s “yolachka” (Christmas Tree)trying to conceal the excitement bubbling out of my 40 pound body for the night ahead. It’s the only night when even children are allowed to stay up with the adults and enjoy the festivities of the coming year.
It’s December 31st 1988 on a usually snowy day in my homeland…Russia. The streets are bustling with people getting last minute treats for their elaborate New Year’s Eve feasts…traffic roars down busy streets as people rush home for their naps. That is precisely what was happening at my house. All the adults were fast asleep getting their much needed sleep in preparation for a night filled with laughter, drinking and celebration. Much like our dinners New Year’s eve has become a marathon of food and drink. Memories, tales and shots are shared much into the early mornings…until all the crumbs from the dining room tables are cleared and replaced with steaming cups of tea and coffee and plates of freshly made omelettes with butter. After a 12 hour marathon the survivors return to their homes to freshen themselves up for Day 2 of celebration: New Year’s Eve; a repeat of Day 1…more memories, more tales, more food, more vodka.

In Russia New Year’s Eve is as big as Christmas is in the states. Christmas and God Forbid, Hannakuh were not to be found on any calander. Instead, New Year’s Eve was lavishously celebrated. Houses displayed their sparkling and tinsle-wrapped yolachka’s, our version of Christmas Trees, in their windows proudly. Everyone gives each other presents and goes to see New Year’s Eve plays featuring our non-controversial version of Santa Claus, Ded Maroz or Father Frost and his usually much younger sexy, scantilly clad assistant “Snegurachka”.

I still remember our beautiful “yolachka”. A real tree, that still smelled of pine cones and frost. We had the most gorgeous ornaments that were hand-made and each one had its own personality. My dad and I would decorate the tree together, my favorite part was spreading the cotton “snow” under the tree bottom. We laid “Ded Maroz” and “Snegurachka” figurines into the “snow” along with tinsle, toy trains, presents and all the other ornaments that never made it onto the tree. Countless hours were spent playing under that tree, wondering which presents were for me, dreading the moment we would have to put the tree away.

My mom would race around putting her last touches on her lipstick and her napoleaon cake. I would run right behind her, reluctant to miss any of the New Year’s preparation. My dad, always the last to wake up from his nap, would walk around lazly trying to find his missing tie, annoying my mother with his constant requests to help him find yet another mysteriously missing article of clothing.

Somehow at the end of the night everything settled down…a decadant spread of appetizers, meats and desserts awaited us. A feast to fuel the busy night ahead of games, skits, songs and dancing. A night that Russians feel united in their love for celebration and food; for laughter and stories; for a good tale over a cold shot.

As an adult, I try and recreate that magic that I felt as a kid on New Year’s Eve. But alas, that tingle in the stomach is unique to a child’s soul and cannot be re-created but instead will hopefully be reincarnated…a wish for my own future children…a hope that they will enjoy this amazing holiday as I once did…and that my little ones will tail me around the house as I crazily rush around putting the finishing touches on my lipstick and desserts. In the meantime, I will go and drink my cold shot and laugh over memories with my friends.

A Happy and Healthy New Year to Everyone!!!

My favorite time of the year is finally upon us!  A time for family, food and stories from lands afar!  Holidays should be fun and warm, not stressful and hectic! When I was a child, I watched my mother and grandmother prep for holidays for 2 days. Then when I got older and started doing my own holidays, I saw why my mom did everything up to two days before! Indeed it is a lot of work. Being Russian, we naturally have more of everything. More food, more courses, more liquor and more dessert. I have always looked at Russian style eating it as more of a marathon than a sprint, eating is done over several hours to enjoy all the bites and morsels, all the tales and anecdotes.  In my many years of watching my mother prepare her holiday tables I learned a couple of details about creating a successful Russian holiday:

1. There must always be plenty of liquor on the table (vodka, tequila, cognac and wine…a bit of everything to please every one’s tastes)…
2. There must always be pickled veggie and sometimes fruit on the table.
3. There must be an abundance of food…good, filling food. (To absorb all that liquor of course!)  Food, spread through many hours… cold appetizer course, hot appetizer course, entrée course and dessert course.

As far as the food goes, I feel that if it is my house then I get to control the entire menu with no input from my guests.  The food has to be done my way or else I just do not feel it is quite right. This unfortunately is hard to do without hurting a relative or two’s feeling.  So I usually tell my guests to bring items to the party that are store bought or that I know is their particular specialty. A tip I learned early on is to tell people what you need or want them to bring instead of asking them what they want to bring.  This way it is ensured that you will be getting exactly what is needed instead of 20 different potato dishes from 20 different relatives!

In my attempt to enjoy as much time as possible with my guests I always do my prep work ahead of time. It saves me a ton of time as well as headaches on the day of the party. All the chopping, marinating, baking and table set-up happens the day or 2 before.  My very first Thanksgiving I had 18 people at my house and I was done cooking and setting up by 3pm. My turkey was oven ready by 4pm. All my guests started coming in at about 6pm and by that time everything was warming nicely in the oven.  In the event that there are any food emergencies, there is always that time cushion to do damage control!

My family get togethers are intense. My family is loud and my husband’s family is even louder. So when we all get together it is like one big tone deaf choir, all talking fast and loud in different pitches and tones. Everyone always crowds around in the kitchen trying to peak into all my bubbling pots and warming ovens.  This lasts all of 10 minutes until I politely push them all out into the dining room. My nieces and nephews run around and squeal at the top of their lungs trying to catch my poor cat. And my husband…well he always finds this as the perfect time to hop into the shower, leaving me to handle the family all by myself.  The worst part of having a large get together is that half of our guests are usually late and start straggling in at all hours of the night.  I learned my lesson my very first holiday and now I tell people to come over about 30-40 minutes before the time I plan to serve. It gives everyone a chance to gather and relax before we sit down for our meal and it gives me a chance to wind down.

When I was growing up the large family gatherings were always my chance to stand alongside my mom and watch her create simple looking foods into masterpieces that would warm everyone’s hearts and bellies.  While she would cook, I would poke my finger into everything to get a bit of a preview of what is to come for dinner. The family would get together and we would all eat, drink and celebrate each other. When my mom passed, the holidays were hard to enjoy for a very long time. It was hard to crack a smile when everyone was missing her so much. So when my husband and I bought our home, I vowed that I would do my best to get the family together on all the holidays and create new and wonderful memories for us to share. Once again, the house is full of laughter, chatter and the occasional squeal from the kids. There is something so wonderful and special about seeing my new, growing family around my dining room table, eating and sharing their stories. Every once in awhile, I swear I can hear my mom’s laughter at the table; and for me, that makes it all worthwhile.

My perfect turkey recipe can be found in a previous blog entry right here! 

As seen in Russian Chicago Magazine

Turkey…A Thanksgiving must!  However, it has always amazed me that such a simple bird can yield such unpredictable results.  Overcooked, undercooked, dry, I have seen it all with my clients.  So when my client asked me how to make a full-proof turkey I vowed to find an easy and guaranteed method.  Brining came out as the winner.  The process of brining makes meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, via the process of osmosis. I kept the flavors simple with lots of citrus and herbs just to enhance the flavors of the turkey meat.  Based on all the cooking that I did in professional kitchens there is only one way to go in terms of a cooking method: start on a high temperature then turn it low. Time after time this recipe has proven to be reliable and easy.  My client created this turkey for his family and had everyone thinking it was catered!

Perfect Citrus Turkey

Brine
14 to 16 pound frozen young turkey
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
zest of 2 oranges
zest of 2 lemons
3 tablespoons chopped rosemary
2 tablespoons chopped thyme
2 tablespoons chopped sage
1 cup orange juice
2 gallons heavily iced water

1.Combine all the ingredients in a large plastic bag, I used a garbage bag.
2.Place the thawed turkey breast side down in brine. I used a pot for this turkey, because it was small enough.
3. Cover the turkey and refrigerate for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining. I used my garage as a storage space since it is so cold out now.

Turkey
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 tablespoons chopped tyme
1 tablespoon chopped sage
zest and juice of one orange
zest and juice of one lemon
2 cups of chicken stock

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

1. The next day, remove the turkey out of the brine and rinse it inside and out with water.
2. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and place on a roasting rack on top of a sheet pan or roasting pan.
3.Combine all the ingredients, except the water and brush on the oil and herb mixture. Make sure you get the breastside as well as the underside. Get into all those little nooks and crannies, you want every piece of this turkey to taste wonderful!
4. Fill the cavity with the oranges and lemons that were juiced and zested.

5. Before placing it in the oven, take a piece of foil and measure it on the bird into a little triangle. You want it to just cover the breast. Place the triangle to the side, it will be used a bit later on.
6. Place the turkey onto the lowest rack in the oven and let it roast for 30 minutes and 500 degrees. NO PEEKING! Because it is roasting on such a high temperature, all the juices that fall into your roasting pan may evaporate off and start to burn. During this time you want to add in your chicken stock just a bit at a time, so that your bits don’t burn. This can be done throughout the entire cooking process to prevent the bits from burning and leaving perfect pan juices for a gravy.
*One of the easiest way to make an roast perfect is an internal probe thermometer. Especially one that you can set the temperature alarm on. It makes life simple and your roast moist! All you have to do is stick in the thermometer and wait for the alarm to go off!*
7. After the first half hour, take out the turkey and cover the breast with your pre-measured foil.

8. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
9. Set your probe thermometer alarm to 151 degrees F and walk away. (A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting.)
10. Once it’s done, remove it from the oven and let it rest for about 15-20 minutes, covered with foil.
11. Carve and serve!
*I always carve my turkey before I serve it to the guests. This actually enables me to make the turkey hours before they get there. That way, I can carve it, stick it into a sheet pan, cover with foil and reheat in the oven right before the guests get there. In case anyone wants to see what my turkey looks like before I cut it, I take pictures for proof! Alton Brown has an awesome video here on how to properly carve a turkey. By carving the breast this way, you get a much moister turkey breast.*

Now, the gravy. The pan drippings from this turkey were really wonderful so the gravy is really simple. Just make a rough with a bit of the fat from the pan drippings and some flour. Slowly pour in some white wine and the turkey juices (no fat). Add in seasoning and some chopped fresh herbs. Heat up when ready to serve and you’re done!

Last week a client of mine wanted to learn how to make their favorite restaurant soup, French Onion Soup.   The simple concoction of sweet onions in a flavorful broth make this favorite a great go-to dish for an ailing nose or a gourmet dinner party!  Legend has it that King Louis XV created the recipe one night when he had nothing but onions, Champagne and broth in his fridge. Whether this story is true or not, the reality is people were poor and onions were plentiful. Soups were easy, cost effective and warm, both to the body and to the soul. It was the natural route to take.
I have played with many recipes for this soup, changing ingredients here or there. However, there is only one key element to this soup: the onions. The flavor of this soup comes mostly from how well onions are caramelized. Caramelizing onions is a very slow and delicate process. It takes time and love but it is well worth the process. Using sweet onions such as Vidalia onions, will ensure for a much sweeter and richer flavor.  My client and I opted to do a separate piece of whole grain toast with a bit of Parmesan cheese on it, instead of doing a crouton inside the soup. Pair this meal with a delicious glass of red wine and the night is yours.

French Onion Soup

*Here is a huge hint for this soup. Stick your onions in the freezer for about an hour before making this soup. The cold will slow down the chemical reaction of the sulfuric acid and you will not shed one tear!*

4 Sweet Onions, Thinly Sliced
2 Cloves of Garlic, Finely Minced
3 Sprigs of Thyme, Removed From Stem
1/2 Cup Cognac
1/4 Cup Sherry
5 Cups of Beef Broth
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Olive Oil for Cooking
2 Slices of Gruyere Cheese

1. Pour oil in a large pot and turn to medium heat. (I prefer to saute the onions in a large saute pan first and transfer to my pot later. They cover more surface area that way and cook evenly and faster.)
2. Place sliced onions, garlic and thyme into pan and season with salt and pepper. You do not want them to cook too quickly. This entire process can take about 30 minutes just to get the flavor out of the onions. But I promise it will be worth it! They will be sweet and tender. Stir them about every 5 minutes to make sure that they are getting color evenly. If you see them starting to burn or get crispy, turn down the flame.

3. Once they have reached a nice medium brown color, pour in your Sherry and Cognac. This is the fun part, it will “flambe” but be careful. Once the flame stops add in your stock and cook slowly and gently at a low simmer. Taste your soup frequently. Sometimes it needs a bit more Cognac or Sherry to cut through the sweetness a bit. It all depends on your tastes.
4. Once the soup reaches a taste you are happy with, ladle some into an oven proof bowl or crock and top with Gruyere. Stick under broiler until cheese browns and bubbles.

Plov is actually the Russian pronounciation of the word common to all of the Caucas, Turkmenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan and India. “Plov” seems to be first seen in Samarkand when Alexander the Great of Macedonia asked his cooks to create a dish that could be used for him to entertain “company”. “Plov” recipes were handed down not from parent to child but instead from merchant to merchant, from traveler to traveler on the Great Silk Road. Although several changes were made due to local available ingredients and tastes, it has remained in some shape or form as a popular dish among all eastern cultures from China to Azerbaijan.

Today “plov” is known as the most popular and common dish to Uzbekistan. Natives of this country claim that there are more than 50 varities of this dish. It is used when a friend comes over, as the main dish at a wedding and even funerals. Some use different meats, nuts, dried fruits, spice etc, but the technique remains the same. However, the classical “plov” recipe remains the same for over 1000 years. There are certain traditions that must remain the same when cooking a classic “plov”.

1. You have to use a heavy bottomed pot which they call a “kazan” to cook the “plov”. Cast-iron works the best. “Plov” cooks on a very high temperature, therefore you need a something that is going to be a good insulator of heat and cast iron proves to be one of the best.
2. Rice must be washed throughly and preferably steeped in water before adding it to the “kazan”.
3. Plenty of carrots must be used. In fact, they even state that the carrots to use are light orange in color not the deep orange-red that I have here. *Unfortunately, that’s all I could find and my “plov” still tastes amazing, so I would not worry too much about it.*

4.The rice is VERY important. The combination of the rice and the cooking method are what give “plov” its distinct quality. The rice seperates perfectly from one grain to the next and NEVER clumps! Clumping is pretty much the tell tale sign that the “plov” was a failure. There is a certain rice that is used native to the area. The closest that I found was “Enriched Parboiled Long Grain Rice“. It is easy to find and works best for this dish.

5. Lastly, only a man cooks the “plov”. This is the one rule that I must break. I believe traditionally it was because the “kazans” were so heavy that only men would be able to work with them or prehaps it was a very sexist society. Either way, I break this rule.

One thing I must mention, this is not a dish that I recommend making on a whim. It is time intensive and a bit labor intensive. It requires a LOT of carrots cut into matchsticks by hand. For this reason, I prepare everything the night before and all my cutting is done for me once I am ready to cook. I am always excited to cook this dish, ALWAYS. It is one of those dishes that for me is very therapeutic. It does take some time, but the end result is something that you will be proud of. As simple as it is, the end product will reflect the hard work and time you put into the dish and I promise people will be impressed. ***Update I have started to use my food processor on the shredder blade and it works out great!***

I will also admit that I learned the actual recipe very recently. About 3 months ago to be exact. I had attempted making this dish many times, cooking it the way a culinary graduate would, in accordance to French culinary laws. However, this could not have been farther away from the actual recipe and technique. I used brown basmati rice to make it healthier, which we know now is not right. I cooked it for only an hour instead of the necessary 3. My best friend, Marina, would always say to me,
“My mother-in-law says that it takes all day to prepare this dish.”
To that I would respond with,
“Oh that’s because she is slow, my culinary skills and techniques allow me to do it in less than half the time.”
Well I was wrong! My rice was never the way it should be. When I read about the way the rice should fall from one grain to the next , I knew I was in the wrong.
It wasn’t until one night when I was at my friend Kate’s house that I saw exactly what I needed to do. She explained the whole process to me as was told to her by an Uzbek (and Uzbekistan native). Wow! It opened my eyes to a whole new method. Completely different than any I have ever seen, but it worked perfectly.

And so I pass this on to you folks, who will hopefully take the time to cook this dish and taste why it has withstood 1000′s of years and remained unchanged.

Plov

3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into bite-size pieces
*Traditionally lamb or mutton was used, however I really dislike lamb, so I use beef.*
2 large onions, thinly sliced
8-10 large carrots, cut into matchsticks
3 cups of Enriched Parboiled Long Grain Rice, steeped in water
3-4 heads of garlic, with tops cut off
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
salt to taste
vegetable oil for frying
*I usually use olive oil for general cooking. However, for this, you need the oil to have a high smoke point (the point that it burns) and olive oil has a fairly low one. Vegetable oil has a high one, so you can get the pan screaming hot before your oil begins to burn.*

1. In a cast-iron pot, pour in about 1/2 an inch of oil, be generous with it. Turn up the heat all the way. When you see your pan smoking, add your meat. *Do not over crowd your pot. If you happen to do so and you accumulate a large amount of liquid from the meat, pour out the liquid and reserve it for later, when you add water to the carrots. This way your meat will be able to brown nicely.*

2. Once your beef has browned on all sides, about 10 minutes, add in your sliced onions.

3.Saute’ for 15 minutes, until the onions are nicely browned.

4. At this point add in your matchstick carrots and saute for about 15 minutes. *Here I have demonstrated how to properly and quickly cut your carrots.*

5. Now add in your garlic and nestle it into the mixture. Just cut off the tops and take some of the loose “paper” off the garlic.

Take BOILING water and add it to your garlic, carrots, meat and onions. Only add enough water to just cover the mixture. Add in your herbs and spices, taste the liquid and ensure that there is enough salt and spice in there to compensate for the rice you will be putting in later. NOW you may turn your heat down to low. *You want to use boiling water because otherwise you would stop the cooking time. At this time, if you can also add any leftover liquid from the meat.*
GO AWAY. PLEASE PLEASE Please whatever you do DO NOT STIR! You will disrupt the wonderful magic that is about to happen! Go talk on the phone, watch half a movie, drink some wine…whatever you want…just do not touch this for 45 minutes.
6.Once this time has passed crank up the heat. Remember that rice you had steeping in the water? Now is the time to drain it and prepare for its final resting place. Once drained, lay the rice CAREFULLY over your carrot, meat and onion mixture. Pretend you are gently “blanketing” the mixture with your rice. Again, take BOILING water and SLOWLY cover the rice just about 1/2 of an inch above the rice. See all that beautiful brown goodness come up to the top? That’s your flavor right there, that’s what you did all that work for. Now just get the rice done and you will have a complete success.

Let the rice cook on HIGH heat until there is no more liquid. If you see liquid still bubbling up from the top, it isn’t done. If you see liquid bubbling up at the bottom, it isn’t done. Only when it is completely dry is it done.

Once it is completely dry, turn off the heat and cover with the lid for about 30-60 minutes. Only after this time passes can you mix the mixture. Serve with garlic cloves on top.
And there you have it!

Surprisingly Simple : Adventures with Crème Brulee

*as seen in Russian Chicago Magazine

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine asked me to teach him a few simple recipes that would impress his friends.  I went on a mission to create a scrumptious gourmet yet simple menu. Everything was going smoothly until I came down to dessert. I could not think of anything that would really be simple but completely impressive. So I asked my friend, “Name one dessert you would love to learn how to make?” He paused and then replied, “Creme Brulee!”

I put a dumb smile on my face and gleefully replied “Oh sure those are easy!”

However, in my mind, the words creme brulee did not equal easy…until I looked at a long lost recipe that lay crumpled up in one of my culinary books.  It actually was quite simple!

Filled with fresh cream and vanilla beans a memorable crème brulee is easy to make and hard to forget.  The vanilla bean is the one ingredient that no crème brulee can be made without.  Since little gourmet stores have popped up all over suburban neighborhoods most gourmet foods have become as easy to find as dark chocolate.  The best part of using the vanilla bean in a creme brulee is when you get to the bottom of the ramekins you see the little black dots from the vanilla bean…and everyone starts asking what it is!

I served some really simple macerated berries alongside the creme brulee and we had an amazing simple and delicious dessert that left my friend looking like Jacques Pepin!

White Chocolate Creme Brulee

6 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
4 oz white chocolate chips
12 teaspoons raw or cane sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325-degrees.
2. Scrape the vanilla bean seeds out of the bean and make sure you get every last bit!
3. Over medium heat combine the heavy whipping cream, vanilla seeds and the vanilla bean; bring to a simmer.
4. In a separate bowl combine the sugar with the egg yolks and whisk to combine.
5. Once the cream mixture comes to a heavy simmer, begin tempering the eggs: with a ladle add in some of the cream mixture into the eggs and whisk. Do this 2 more times. This will allow for the eggs to reach temperature slowly and not curdle. Once tempered, add the mixture back into the pot. (this is called tempering)
6. Add the white chocolate to the pot and over low heat, slowly whisk the mixture, making sure the chocolate melts.
7. Pour mixture into a measuring cup through a strainer to catch the vanilla bean and any pieces of egg that may have curdled.
8. Arrange ramekins in a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Pour enough hot water into pan to come halfway up sides of dishes.
9. Pour custard into each ramekin and divide equally.
10. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until set in center.
11. Refrigerate for a couple of hours or until ready to serve, at least 1 hour.
12. If you have a flame torch, like myself this makes for an exciting activity for the guests to do. Just sprinkle the raw sugar on top of the creme brulee right before service and flame them! If you do not have a flame torch, (you should invest in one, they are very impressive and not that expensive!) then just stick them under the broiler with the sugar sprinkled on top until nice and golden brown!

Macerated Berries

1 pint strawberries
1 pint blackberries
1 pint blueberries
1 pint blackberries
1/4 cup Amaretto Disarrono
1/4 cup sugar

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss to combine. Let rest for at least an hour and serve with your favorite dessert!

On a rainy Friday night, I opened my fridge with the wild thought of making my husband’s request for the night;” make me something crispy, gooey and cheesy.”  Quite the combination to ask for on the night when the fridge is running low on pretty much everything except condiments and leftovers, (some of which are questionable). I had a little bit of roasted chicken breast left, some random herbs and a pantry full of miscellaneous items. The perfect concoction popped into my head once I saw my Costco size bottle of BBQ sauce…. Flatbread Pizzas!!!! Crispy… Cheesy…. Gooey…. Perfect combo not to mention super easy! This recipe literally took me all of 30 minutes to make and really put a smile on the hubby’s face. I thought this was very close to the BBQ Chicken Pizza at another famous pizza restaurant we frequent; and therefore patted myself on the back for a job well done.
The BBQ sauce plays a very crucial role in this dish. I strayed from my usual Sweet Baby Ray’s and chose to go with Masterpiece BBQ sauce, it was both tangy and spicy, and precisely what I wanted for the pizza. Gooey, Cheesey, Tangy, Crispy…Perfect for our Friday night on the couch.  While our fridge may have been quite empty, our bellys were full and happy.

BBQ Chicken Flatbread Pizza

The flatbreaf recipe is an oldie but a goodie that I used 2 years ago in one of my other recipes. You can find some of my other recipes that I made with them here .

Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 as an entree

Flatbreads

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
*Preheat oven to 450°F with a heavy baking sheet on rack in middle. I used a pizza stone instead.

2 Cooked Chicken Breasts, Shredded, tossed in 1/2 a cup of BBQ Sauce of Choice *I had left over chicken breasts, use whatever kind you have on hand, or just roast some up with salt and pepper and olive oil in the oven*
1 Cup Good BBQ Sauce
1 Red Onion, Sliced
2 Cups of Shredded Cheese * I used a Pepperjack Cheddar Mix, Italian blend would work well too*
1 Bunch Cilantro, Roughly Chopped

1. Stir together flour, chopped herbs of choice, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Make a well in center, then add water and oil and gradually stir into flour with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Knead dough gently on a floured work surface a few times.
3. Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll out 1 piece on a sheet of parchment paper into a 10-inch round. Make sure you cover the others with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out.
4. Lightly brush top with additional oil and scatter small clusters of rosemary leaves on top, pressing in slightly. Sprinkle with sea salt. Slide round with parchment paper onto preheated baking sheet and bake until it is a pale golden color, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer flat bread to a rack to cool, then make 2 more rounds (1 at a time) on fresh parchment.
5.Since I was making them right away with my toppings…I took out one of my oven racks ahead of time and used that as my cooling rack. That way, I could just assemble flat bread and stick them back in the oven.
*Flatbread can be made 2 days ahead. Just cool it completely, and keep it in an air tight container at room temperature.*
6. Once flatbreads are cooked and cool to handle you can assemble the flatbreads. Shmear BBQ sauce on the flatbreads with a pastry brush. A nice layer to cover all the bubbling nooks and crannies will do.
7. Sprinkle 1/3 of shredded chicken, 1/3 cheese and (yup you guessed it) 1/3 of the sliced red onions on the already shmeared flatbread.
8. With a spoon, drizzle a bit more BBQ Sauce on the flatbread (hey they don’t call it BBQ Pizza for nothin’)

9. Place into the preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until cracklin and bubblin!
10. Sprinkle with plenty of cilantro and serve!

It’s fair to say that everyone has their comfort food.  The one food you crave when suffering from never ending sniffles, heart break blues and other less fortunate moments in our lives when we need something to help us make another step.  When I was growing up my mother always comforted me with lots of love, chicken soup and potatoes.  In times when I needed healing, carbs where not the enemy nor the concern.

Perhaps because I grew up in a Slavic country my comfort food has remained the ever magnificent and uber starchy potato!  Mashed, boiled, roasted, grilled or fried…any variety has a home in my belly.  At my house, no dinner or BBQ is complete without this magnificent tuber!  One of the most popular in the Russian culture is”zharinaya kartoshka” literally translated into fried potatoes or as it is called in the US “home fries”.  Traditionally, this dish was made by hand cutting russet potatoes and pan frying them in butter and vegetable oil until golden brown.  As always, it is the simplest of dishes that require the most practice.  Technically speaking, when I am making this dish for 3-4 people it is a fairly simple task.  However, having 3-4 people over at my house for dinner is quite rare.  In most cases, I feed an army of mildly to extremely intoxicated guests who eat in rather gargantuan proportions.   So what’s a girl to do?  Set up 5 frying pans so that the potatoes all get evenly cooked and browned?  Gosh no!  I have enough things to worry about… like ensuring that all my guests are well entertained and looked after by my husband’s many anecdotes and inappropriate comments.

It took me awhile to concoct a method that lead to spuds with crispy interiors and crunchy exteriors.  And while some use science to put men on Mars I used science to help me develop a fool-proof method of the perfect fried potato.  I needed something that would allow me to stick my potatoes in the oven and forget about them.  While this method sounds promising it also produced a different type of potato: roasted.  Delicious nonetheless, but not what I had in mind.  I needed a creamy middle and a crispy outside.  Enter the parboil method.  Parboiling is a technique where any food, typically vegetables, is partially cooked in boiling water to speed up the cooking process.  Now we are getting somewhere!  I read that creating an uneven texture on the potato will allow for better browning and a crispier outside.  Aha!  Now I got it!  I need the outside to cook quicker and more uneven than the inside.  I scratched my head for awhile…because while this sounded fairly simple, I had no clue how to get this delicate science experience to work.  So I decided to use my old friend Google!  It turns out that when creating an alkaline environment for the little spuds it speeds up the breakdown process of the outsides while leaving the insides raw.  Brilliant!  This was it!  I had finally figured out a method for easy home fries… an alkaline environment would be created by baking soda…  Parboil, bake and enjoy…sounded fairly simple.  And by golly!  IT WORKED!

I realize that the mad scientist in me has rambled on… and all are probably wondering…where does the “Brave Potato” come into play?  Well…on with the story!

One of my clients requested that I make a fun potato dish that can be eaten hot or cold for a very last minute BBQ.

“I’m in the mood for something Spanish.”  That was all the direction I got.  So when I thought potato and something Spanish, I instantly thought Patatas Bravas!  Literally translated into “brave potatoes” these tantalizing spicy cubes of delight are perfect as a side dish, appetizer or snack!  Traditionally found in almost any tapas bar in Spain, they come in a multitude of different recipes!  Some tangy, some sweeter, some deep fried, some oven fried…but all are spicy, brave and oh so very delicious!  Usually served with a homemade aioli, (garlic mayo) to mellow out the heat, these little tators go fast!  I combined a couple of different recipes to get the flavor that I wanted and put a huge smile on my clients’ face.

Serve these for a crowd or for one…they will go fast either way!

Patatas Bravas

3 1/2 Pounds of russet potatoes cut up into approximately 1 inch cubes

1/2 tsp baking soda

10 cups water

Kosher Salt and black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

3 shallots, sliced

4 chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)

1/2 cup tomato puree

2 tbsp sherry vinagar

2 tbsp sugar

3 cloves glaric

3 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp smoky Spanish paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 500-degrees F.  Place baking sheet to be used for potatoes into oven.

2. Bring 10 cups of water to a boil in a pot over high heat.  Add potatoes and baking soda once water boils.  Cook for 1 minute.  Drain potatoes.  Return the potatoes to pot and place over low heat.  Shake the pot until any surface moisture has evaporated, 2-3 minutes.

3.  Add salt, pepper and olive oil to pot and stir to combine until potatoes are covered with a thick, starchy, paste.

4.  Remove from heat and place onto the large baking sheet heating up in the oven.  Spread potatoes into thin layer on baking sheet.   *I typically use the disposable large foil pans.  Clean up is a cinch and they are lighter when you need to grab the pan and shake the potatoes around. 

5.  Roast until potatoes are golden brown and cooked all the way through.  *You may have to shake the pan on occasion to brown the potatoes on all sides.     

6. While the potatoes are roasting, in a separate sautee pan, combine olive oil and 3 shallots over medium heat.  Cook until shallots are sweated through and are translucent; about 15 minutes.

7.  Add tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic, cayenne, paprika, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar.  Cook for 15 minutes on medium-high heat or until mixture has come together.

8.  Taste for seasoning.  If it is too spicy add a bit of water, if not spicy enough add more cayenne.

9.  Once desired flavor has been achieved, use a stick blender or a food processor to puree the mixture.

10.  Pour over roasted potatoes and toss to combine evenly.

*The sauce can be made ahead of time and even frozen for another day! 

Aioli

1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 egg, at room temperature

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 1/2 cups fruity olive oil

1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, to taste

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1. In a food processor or blender, combine egg yolk, garlic, dijon mustard, salt and pepper.  Process to break up the garlic.

2.  With processor or blender running, stream in olive oil in a slow, steady stream.  If the mixture begins to separate add a couple of drops of water at a time and it will bring it together.   *The dijon mustard does not only serve as a flavoring element but it also brings the aioli together into a smoother consistency   

3. Serve as a side dish with the potatoes.

 Recently, I was lounging lazily on my couch paging through an old, tomato sauce stained copy of “Bon Appetite” magazine, when a recipe fell out on my lap.  I obviously stashed it away for safe keeping and as usual had forgotten about its existence.  This recipe was coincidentally one that my husband has been begging me to make since we first met.  I have been putting it off because of the sheer sinfulness of the dish.  There is minimal caloric value in it and even less nutritional value.  That being said, whenever I am around my fellow chef friends and they are asked what their last meal would be, a good majority say that roasted marrow on crusty bread would do the trick before they kicked the bucket for good.  While my husband is not a chef, I am sure he would agree that this belly warming delight is on his top 5 foods to eat before he..ahem…well you know.  

I am a bit ashamed that it has taken me so long to make this extremely simple dish for my beloved.  The truth of the matter is this dish involves minimal talent and a a bit of really great fresh ingredients.  Needless to say, the story ends with me getting off the couch, driving to the butcher for some fresh veal bones and surprising my husband with a devilish treat for dinner.  Needless to say… it was sinfully delicious.

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetite Magazine 

Roasted Marrow Bones with Parsley Salad

• 8 3″-4″-long pieces veal marrow bones (Veal bones tend to have a more delicate and sweeter flavor)
• 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 2 small shallots, thinly sliced 
• 2 tablespoons fruity and fragrant extra-virgin olive oil + 1 tbsp for brushing bread
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 1/2″-thick slices rustic white bread, toasted

Last weekend a couple of friends invited my husband and me over for a very last minute BBQ.  Considering I am usually the one who invites people to gatherings at my house, I was thrilled to be a guest and gratefully accepted.  Upon entering the house I was ushered into the kitchen by my friends and told to unwrap a “package”.  The salty, fresh ocean smell that travelled into my nose as I opened the package immediately intrigued me.  Inside the package were several large pieces of fleshy, white Chilean Sea Bass.  My friends both looked at me with hope in their eyes and said, “Can you do something with this?  We wanted a good piece of fish for dinner but when we brought it home we had no clue what to do with it.”  I smiled, accepted the offer and escorted them out of the kitchen so that I could create our dinner.

As a side note, Chilean Sea Bass is not sea bass at all, its correct name is Patagonian Tooth Fish and it lives in the cold waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific.  It ranks as one of the higher priced fishes but the flavor payoff is well worth the extra bucks.

With a fish this beautiful I find that using simple flavors that enhance the fish’s natural sweetness and texture is the only way to go.  I decided to pan roast the fish because it combines the best of both worlds: the pan sear allows for a crispy and brown exterior and the oven finishes it off quickly while sealing in all the juices.  A simple marinade and a quick pan sauce put smiles on my friends’ faces and left them asking for the recipe…so here it is, my fish tale of a Chilean sort.

Pan Roasted Chilean Sea Bass with a Citrus Butter Sauce

2 Pounds of Chilean Sea Bass cut in 1½ -2 inch pieces

2 Garlic Cloves, Minced

¼ Cup Fragrant Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Juice of 1 Lemon

3 tbsp Butter

¼ Cup Dry White Wine

1.  Combine olive oil, garlic, and half of the lemon juice with salt and pepper.  Whisk to combine.
2. Make 2-3 slices on the skin of the fish to allow fish to crisp up when cooking.  Place fish into marinade and let stand for 30-60 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 450-degrees.
4. Pour some of the marinade into an oven proof pan on medium high heat.
5. Once the oil heats up, place the fish into the HOT pan skin side down and allow to cook for five minutes.  Turn over onto the other side and cook for 4 minutes.
6. Place pan into the preheated oven for 5 minutes.
7. Remove pan from the oven and place fish on a serving plate.  Pour off  half of the olive oil and turn the heat to medium high.
8. Pour in white wine and remaining lemon juice and deglaze the bottom of the pan by scrubbing all the browned bits with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
9. Whisk in the butter and taste for seasoning, adjust as necessary.  Spoon sauce over fish and serve immediately!

In the summer months when the weather is hot and the produce is fresh, I love to buy wild fish from local super markets.  Whole fish tends to be the freshest and also has some of the best sale specials.  My fish mongers will always fillet my fish for me so I do not have to deal with any carcasses, scales or internals at home.  Recently I came across some beautiful skate wings on sale.  Skate are really beautiful fish that are almost a cross between a sting ray and a fish.  However, in actuality they are sharks with pectoral fins so large they are referred to as “wings.”  It has a very sweet and mild flavor and aids itself perfectly to pan frying.  The flesh is quite easily so it is perfect for a quick and healthy dinner.

For this recipe, I conjured up my French Culinary roots.  The skate wings were very simply dredged in corn meal and seasoned with salt and pepper. I served it up with a simple gremolade sauce made of shallots, garlic, parsley and lemon juice.  Pair up with your favorite veggie side dish and a crisp glass of white wine and enjoy!

Pan-Fried Skate with Shallots, Garlic and Lemon Juice

1 lb Skate, yielding two fillets
Corn Flour for Breading
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil for Frying

2 Shallots, diced
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
Juice of half a Lemon
3 Tablespoons Parsley
3 Tablespoons Butter

1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan.
2. Season the corn flour with salt and pepper and dredge skate making sure to cover all surfaces.
3. Once the oil is preheated, pan-fry the skate about 3-4 minutes per side or until golden brown. *Remember the second side always takes a bit less time. This is a very delicate fish so try not to overcook it or it will be rubbery*
4. Once complete, place fish on paper towels to absorb some of the excess oil. Wipe out pan.
5. Add the butter, shallots and garlic to the pan over medium heat. Let this sweat a little bit, you want them to be tender not caramelized.
6. Turn off the heat and add lemon juice, parsley and remaining butter. Once butter melts, immediately spoon sauce over fish and serve!

*In case anyone is interested, for the veggies, I just sauteed some sliced red peppers with garlic and some frozen Trader Joe’s French Green Beans I had. It’s a simple and healthy side dish for almost anything.*

*As seen in the Chicago Russian Magazine

One of my favorite cuisines is middle-eastern. From the complex spices to the vegetarian platters, it is a crowd pleaser for all. Kefta Kebob is a long-time favorite of mine and my family’s.  The Persians call it “Koubideh” and the Iranians and Lebanese call it “Kefta;  either way it is just a ground  kebob with spices, perfectly char-grilled on an open fire. The rice accompanying this dish is a typical Basmati rice that requires a unique cooking method. This method is a bit different and takes a bit longer than the regular rice cooking we are all used to. However, from it comes the signature fragrant, individual rice grains that are so distinct in this part of the world.  Fire up your grills!

Kefta Kebob

2 Lb. Ground Beef 15% fat

2 Handfuls parsley

2 Onions

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. sumac

1 tsp. 7 spices

1.  In a food processor, shred parsley and onion together until it is smooth.

2.  Add to ground beef along with all spices, mix well to incorporate

3.  Shape into long sausage shapes around thick skewers.  *If thin skewers are used the meat will fall off the skewers.*

4.  Place skewers into refrigerator for  30-60 minutes to allow them to marinate and cool.  If the meat does not cool, it has a higher risk of falling off the skewers while cooking.

5.  While the skewers are cooling, preheat your grill.  The ideal grill to use is one with charcoals, however if one is not available a gas grill is just fine. In the winter times I use a hot 450-degree oven and it works out great as well.

6.  Place skewers on grill, careful to rotate every 5 minutes until meat reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees F.  Serve on top of rice with your choice of grilled vegetables.

Rice

3 cups white basmati rice

1 bag (12 oz.) frozen baby green lima beans (fava beans are preferred but they are harder to find)

2 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup fresh chopped dill, or more to taste

1.   Rinse and sort the rice for a minute in the colander with cold water. Pour the rice into a medium mixing bowl and cover it with 2 inches of cold water. Let the rice soak for 90 minutes.

2. Drain the rice in a colander and rinse again with cold water, shake out the excess water. Rinse and dry the mixing bowl and set aside.

3. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a 5 quart  pot

4. Pour in the rice, beans, and salt. Stir. Bring the water back to a boil. Let the mixture boil uncovered on medium high for 8 minutes. Stir the rice periodically during cooking.

5. After 8 minutes of boiling, pour the rice into a colander and rinse with lukewarm water, then drain. Rinse and dry the pot and put it back on the stove. Stir the fresh chopped dill into the rice in the colander, making sure it is well mixed throughout the rice.

6.  Make a hole in the center of the volcano with the handle of a wooden spoon, pushing it almost to the bottom of the pot. Place a thin kitchen towel over the top of the pot. Place the lid tightly over the top of the towel. Turn on the heat to medium and let the rice steam for 10 minutes.

8. After 10 minutes, remove the towel and lid from the pot.  Replace the towel and lid. Turn heat to low. Let the mixture steam for 45-50 minutes longer.  Move the pot to a cool surface and let it rest for 5 minutes.

As Seen In Chicago Russian Magazine

As we embark on the warmer summer months, I find myself craving less heavy and creamy foods and more lighter fare.  This winning combination of ingredients is a sure fire way to get your taste buds tingling and your guests singing!  A simple combination of fresh ingredients and bright flavors makes this recipe a favorite of mine for al fresco dinners and indoor late night bites!  The best part is the versatility of this recipe!  Out of crab meat? Substitute some salmon, lobster, tilapia, shrimp or even scallops!  The possibilities are endless and the flavors are legendry!  Bite, dip and savor!

The rest of the story…

I am not a seafood eater. In fact, I can’t stand the stuff! When it comes to seafood I only eat fish, scallops and calamari. All those other underwater creatures that people eat (i.e shrimp, lobster, crabs etc) I consider underwater insects, YUCK! However, my fiancee and everyone else I know loves the stuff! So I started to enjoy cooking it, not eating it, just cooking it. My fiancee went out and decided to buy himself some lump crab cake and told me to “be creative with it.”

Well before I told him to shove it, I realized that it was Sunday morning and it was cold outside and I really had nothing better to do…so my crabcakes were born!
I was at a party once and they had these yummy little salmon cakes that were bound with basmati rice. I had some left over risotto in my fridge and figured this would be a perfect opportunity to use it! They really did come out perfect! The risotto adds a different type of texture to it and the variety of colors of veggies looked like confetti inside!

Crab Cakes

2 cups of lump crab meat
1 cup of cooked risotto
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, finely chopped
1 handful of cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup of mayo (I used fat free)
juice and zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Panko bread crumbs for breading
olive oil for frying

1. In a bowl combine all ingredients together and taste for seasoning.
2. Place some Panko bread crumbs into a plate and bread the crabcakes evenly on each side.

3. Once breaded place them in the cooler for an hour so they can chill.
*I did not do this because my man was in such a hurry to eat! However, because of that I had a very hard time keeping them together when they were cooking. Cooling them helps them keep their shape.*
4. Heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan and sautee them up on each side, just until golden brown.

Garlic Aioli

1/2 cup mayo
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp minced garlic
a couple of squirts of Tabasco
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and place on top of crabcakes.

As Seen In Chicago Russian Magazine

“What would you like me to bring to dinner tonight?”

“Some dessert would be great!”

“Anything in particular?”

“Oh I don’t know, surprise me!”

This is the typical conversation I have with my friends when they invite me over to their house.  It’s always a mystery of what to bring to the party…what everyone likes and most importantly what people aren’t tired of.

Unfortunately, these dinner parties typically occur last minute when I am scrambling to get my last thought together and barely have enough time to fit a coherent sentence together, let alone whip up some artful dessert for everyone to “oooh and ahhh” over.   With less than 1.5 hours to spare and minimum ingredients to use, including flour and 2 cooked cans of sweetened condensed milk, I pulled some old recipes and found an oldie but a very goodie.  A recipe that was very dear to my heart…

10 years ago my brother and sister-in-law had the most amazing wedding…and like all fabulous Russian weddings with it came an incredible sweet table. I remember all the guests attacking each other…women pushing each other aside, men stepping on the tales of long gowns’ just to get to the lavish and perfectly decorated desserts.  One dessert caught my eye…and it had my name on it:  colorful peaches that fit into my palm.  I swiftly battled through the crowds attacking the truffles and tarts and grabbed a handful of my precious cookies.  They were moist and crumbly all at the same time and inside instead of a pit, I found a smooth, velvety cream that made my palate cry out with glee.  It was a sad moment when I realized I was licking off the crumbs off my hands.  Due to the guests’ massive attack on the sweets table, the bride and groom never tasted these delectable delights.  Feeling incredibly guilty that I got the chance to savor them, I vowed to recreate my own version, at the very least so that my brother and sister in law could have a taste.  After multiple test recipes and many failed attempts, I finally struck gold!  They tasted exactly like I remembered at the wedding…crumbly, moist and creamy!  The look on everyones’ faces when they saw those little imitations was priceless and my brother and sister-in-law finally got a chance to eat one of their most beloved wedding desserts.

Peach Shaped Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 Stick of butter, softened
2 Tablespoons Sour Cream
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (You may have to keep adding flour until the dough is firm enough)
1 hazlenut for each whole cookie made
2 Cans of Dulce de Leche
*If the store does not have Dulce de Leche, go ahead and use sweetened condensed milk and boil in its cans for 2 hours.*

For the dying of the cookies:
2 bowls of milk, one colored with red food coloring, the other with yellow.
1 bowl of sugar (abour 1/2 a cup)

Directions
1. Heat your oven to 350°.
2. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
3. Mix together the sugar, eggs and butter. Add flour and baking powder.
4. Form 1″ balls by rolling them in your hand and placing on the cookie sheet. Make sure the balls are a bit flat on the bottom where the rest on the cookie sheet.
5. Bake until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

6. While they are still warm, with a knife, scoop out the inside of each cookie and save the crumbs.
7. Combine sweetened condensed milk with the reserved crumbs and the 2 tablespoons of Cognac.
8. With a teaspoon, fill a half with the filling and one hazlenut. Take another half and smoosh together to make one whole peach. (The hazlenut adds for a surprise on the inside)
9. Dip each whole peach into the red food coloring first, then the yellow. Let them dry for about 10 minutes and then roll in the sugar.

Voila beautiful peach cookies! The more you practice the more beautiful they will get!

As a culinary student majority of my education was based on French cuisine, food history and techniques. I fell in love with French food the first time that I made Tomato Concasse. Literally it means the process of removing the skin and seeds off of a tomato, we then turned it into a delicate tomato sauce with shallots, garlic and wine. The smell of butter and shallots quickly became my favorite smell in the world. And so my love with French food continued. For me the simpler the dish, the better. I fell in love with delicious roasts, simple stews and creamy soups. My French chef’s always cooked with such emotion and love that it was contagious. They taught us everything from Duck Confit (duck slowly cooked in its own fat for a long period of time) to Pomme Frittes (delicious, delicate little shoestring fries). Figure friendly it was not, but hey I was in culinary school, I needed to taste and savour every bite!

The best French food funny enough, was originally peasant food. For instance, seafood was peasant food at one time. People tried to use what was fresh and available to them and especially in the region of Provence, seafood was readily available. Most of the time peasants did not get the favorable part of an animal and so they had to figure out ways to enjoy it and make it taste really good. Alas, short ribs enter the picture. At one point short ribs were so cheap butchers could not give them away! Even as recent as the early 1990′s, no body wanted short ribs. They wanted filet Mignon, NY Strip, rib eye, but who would want short ribs. There were very few who understood the short rib…who would want a pathetic looking rib with a little bit of meat on it and tough meat at that? Well, what most people did not understand was that when you cook the meat for a long period of time that meat becomes tender and succulent. For home cooks it was too daunting and restaurant owners were not sure if their clientele was ready for this. It was not until the early 90′s that a restaurant in New York started making braised short ribs and the prices for short ribs sky rocketed.
My short ribs were a combination of simple and bold flavors. I wanted to pair it with something that could absorb the sauce and polenta proved to be perfect for it. Believe it or not, polenta is actually eaten in Provence as well due to the proximity to Italy right across the Mediterranean.

So turn on some French music pour yourself a glass of Bourdeaux and enjoy.

Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Parmesan Polenta

3 Pounds of Beef Short Ribs
3 Stalks of Celery, cut into large chunks
4 Carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 Large Onions, cut into large chunks
1 Whole Garlic Head, with the top removed
4 Sprigs of Rosemary
4 Sprigs of Thyme
Handful of Parsley Stems
1 Bay Leaf
2 Cups of Good Red Wine
1 Cup of Chicken Broth/Stock (if you have beef broth, go ahead and use it)
1 28 Oz Can of Tomato Puree
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

1. In a heavy pan, heat olive oil until it smokes.
2. Season short ribs generously with salt and pepper and gently add to the hot oil. Continue cooking until nicely browned on each side. *Please make sure that you take the time to do this and do not overcrowd the pan. The flavor will come from the caramalization of the meat.*
3. Remove the short ribs and lower the heat to medium. Add in all your vegetables.
4. Sautee until softened and slightly browned, about 10 minutes.
5. Turn up the heat and add in your wine. Carefully scrape the bottom of the pan making sure you pick up all the browned bits on the bottom. Let reduce by half.
6. Turn off the heat and place your short ribs in your crockpot. Add in your vegetables and wine on top. Cover with chicken or beef stock until fully submerged. Turn the crockpot on high and cook covered, for 3-4 hours until meat is tender and pulls away from the bone.
*If you are not doing this in a crockpot, you can do the same steps and finish it in the oven at 300 degrees for about 3-4 hours or until the meat is tender enough.*

7. Once you the meat is done, remove the meat and reduce the sauce until flavor concentrates a bit. Making sure to season as necessary. Skim the fat off the top and serve!

Creamy Parmesan Polenta

1 Cup of Instant Polenta
3 Cups of Chicken Stock
1/4 Cup of Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Cup of Half and Half

1. Let the chicken stock come to a boil.
2. Add in the polenta and stir with a wooden spoon until there are no lumps, about 5 minutes.
3. Add in parmesan cheese and half and hlaf. Stir to combine and serve.

As Seen In Chicago Russian Magazine 

When I am not inventing new recipes in the kitchen, I find my favorite way to enjoy an evening is to get together with close friends and family over a warm meal.  As most hosts will say, a lavish dinner is not an easy task to accomplish.  The host must be organized, focused and gracious.  Upon their arrival the guests stare in awe as the seemingly relaxed host puts their finishing touches with a sprinkle of this, a dab of that and refills everyone’s emptying glasses.   Any host knows that to have a successful dinner party, one must have an artillery of weapons at their side to prepare for this perfect evening.  One of the most important weapons is THE recipe.  The recipe that makes the host shine out like a star and leaves their guests salivating for more.  Forget the chicken, forget the tenderloin; ladies and gentlemen I would like to present to you the star of our show : Lamb.

Somewhere in the past few years lamb received a scolding and people turned away their taste buds from it.  Lamb is actually quite healthy and can usually be found from an extremely reputable purveyor.  Several companies offer organic and grass fed cuts of lamb, making it much healthier and finger licking good.  Most cuts of lamb are not only fantastic sources of lean protein but are also packed with zinc, vitamin B and iron.  Cuts of lamb such as the leg, loin and shank are 95% fat free.  Unlike beef cuts, lamb tends to have significantly less marbling in the meat (marbling is the beautiful specs of white that are spread throughout the muscle.  They add tenderness, flavor and calories!) therefore, once the lamb is trimmed the meat is quite lean.

Many of my friends and clients are terrified of making lamb.  The hefty per pound price tag will intimidate any food lover and make them question if they are worthy of cooking such a beautiful cut of meat.  The bottom line is, yes, you are worthy and no, it is not difficult to make.  Today’s recipe is a one pan roast that is a true crowd pleaser.  The simplicity of this recipe truly allows the sweet gamey flavor of the lamb to come alive on the palette.  The aromas that fill the kitchen will truly make anyone’s mouths water.  And while that lamb is in the oven you can even enjoy a delicious glass of wine…go on do it, you deserve it!!!

Roasted Lamb with Yukon Gold Potatoes

1  8-10 Pound Boneless Leg of Lamb

10 Cloves of Garlic

8 Sprigs of Rosemary, Stems Removed

2 Pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes

2 Spanish Onions

Kosher Salt

A Bottle of Good Olive Oil

A Bottle of Dry White Wine

Butchers Twine

1. Take the lamb and butterfly it so it lays flat and open.  Remove all large pieces of visible fat.
2. In a blender or food processor , combine the garlic, rosemary 2 large pinches of salt and 1/3 cup of olive oil.  Puree it until it is a fine paste.
3. Pour ½ of the garlic and rosemary mixture onto the lamb.  Massage the mixture into the lamb.  Treat the lamb nicely and it will treat you nicely.  Massage it thoroughly making sure to cover the entire piece with the mixture and working it into each tender fiber.
4. Once the meat has been massaged, start folding the pieces back to their original shape.
5. With butcher twine, tie the lamb so it is one large piece.
6. Sprinkle generously with salt and use ½ of the remaining mixture to slather onto the lamb’s outside.  Massage until the meat is completely covered with deliciousness.
7. Cut the potatoes into quarters and lay them on a roasting pan.
8. Slice the onions and add to the potatoes, toss to combine.
9. Use the remaining rosemary mixture to coat the potatoes and onions.
10. Toss vegetables together and place lamb roast over the vegetables.  Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
11. Once the lamb has marinated, preheat the oven to 450-degrees.
12. Add the wine to the bottom of the roasting pan.
13. Place lamb in the oven for 20 minutes.  Baste the lamb, turn it on its other side and flip the veggies so they do not burn.  Repeat until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees for medium rare or 150 degrees for medium.
14. Remove from pan and place on a cutting board.  Cover the roast with foil and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.  *You want any roast to rest so that all the juices distribute evenly.  While resting the internal temperature will increase anywhere from 5-10 degrees depending on the size of the roast)
15. Remove the string, slice the roast and serve over gorgeously browned potatoes.

A New Twist on a Classic - Salat Olivier

As Seen In Russian Chicago Magazine

Potatoes and carrots were boiling, the peas were draining and knives were chopping away; my mom and grandmother were preparing for another holiday and the staple dish was in preparation…olivye. A Russian party without olivye is like dinner without dessert; or Thanksgiving without turkey…it’s just not enough, something is missing. Because of this my mother and grandmother slaved away in the kitchen, using their dull knives to cut perfect cubes of potatoes and carrots, ensuring that each piece was carefully covered in mayonnaise. Each time the salad was exactly the same, perfectly cubed, perfectly seasoned and left everyone asking for more. Everyone loved my mother’s olivye…but let’s be honest everyone loves their mother’s olivye and each mother’s olivye is different. My mother always used chicken in her olivye, other mothers used a Russian Bolgna. Every woman puts her own spin on olivye and in their eyes THAT is the only way to make olivye. Everyone is extremely particular about their olivye.

The truth is there is not only one way to make olivye. There are hundreds of different combinations! The first olivye was made by Chef Lucien Olivier in the 1960’s in his Parisian Style restaurant, Hermitage in Moscow. His Parisian version of the recipe was not at all what we know it as today. It was an intricate combination of gourmet ingredients like black caviar, wild bird game, capers, crayfish and other delicatessens that married together in a jellied mold, similar to holodets. Garnishing that mold were little sour-sweet pickles known as gherkins, a hard-boiled egg and a beautifully carved potato. These perfect marriages of flavors were to be enjoyed slowly, savoring each bite. Instead, the chef noticed that his Russian customers would mix everything together and turn it into a gray blob that was later lifted into their mouths with a spoon. He could not understand their need to mix everything together like a child mixed their finger paints. Regardless of the customer’s requests, Chef Lucien never changed his recipe and never told anyone exactly what was in it. He took it to his grave with him forever stealing away the original recipe.

After his death, his sous chef attempted to recreate the salad. It deemed to be nearly impossible to acquire the lavish ingredients as people grew poorer. The chef knew he had to change the dish to fill his customer’s grumbling bellies without emptying all their pockets. So the chef changed the recipe a bit by omitting the caviar, adding in more potatoes, eggs and marinated pickles. He exchanged the expensive imported capers for affordable cans of green peas and swapped out the wild game for bolgna. The carrot was added for a bit of color. He finished it off with mayonnaise and a bit of sour cream and made what we know as salat Olivier today.

Many mothers and grandmothers make this salad this way to this day. While I am a believer of living within tradition and keeping our ancestor’s recipes alive, I also believe that my waist line should remain the same size before and after dinner. Unfortunately, the amount of mayonnaise and sausage in this salad would scare my jeans right off of me! So in an effort to remain a true Russian I wanted to salat Olivier that could be enjoyed by everyone…and almost guilt free. I replaced the heavy mayonnaise with a much lighter and healthier ingredient: Fat free Greek yogurt. Most people do not know how similar Greek Yogurt can be to mayonnaise in recipes. I have replaced mayo with Greek yogurt in several recipes and my guests never had a clue. Greek yogurt packs a huge protein punch in each serving, it is extremely low in carbohydrates and the fat free version has zero fat. It’ssignificantly thicker than regular yogurt which makes it the perfect binding agent for any salad. This salad brings the comfort from your childhood past and a crisp freshness of the present. It’s perfect with the classic slice of black bread or on crackers. And with less than half the calories there is nothing guilty about it!

Salat Olivier (A bit Healthier)

5 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs

2 Medium Carrots

2 Large Potatos

½ Cup Canned Peas

6 Marinated Pickles (I used theIsraeli kind, they have the perfect flavor)

5 Hard Boiled Eggs

1 Large Granny Smith Apple,Peeled, Cored and cut into small dice

1 16 Ounce Container Fat FreeGreek Yogurt

1/2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Boil potatoes, chickenand carrots in water until fork tender. The chicken will take about 10 minutes once the water comes to aboil. Remove the chicken and cool. (Do not peel the vegetables before cooking them. Cook the vegetables in their peelsso they retain their texture).

2. In a separate pot,combine water and whole eggs. Bring to aboil, cover with lid and let stand for 12 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Peel and reserve. (With this method you will have perfect hard boiled eggs every time)

3. Once the chicken has cooled, shred the chicken with your hands, carefully breaking apart any larger pieces.

4. Once all the vegetables are cooked and cooled, carefully dice them. Next dice the hardboiled eggs, the pickles and the apple.

5. Carefully combine all your ingredients in a bowl and toss with mustard, seasoning and yogurt. Taste for seasoning and adjust asnecessary.

6. Let stand in refrigerator for at least 6 hours, overnight is best. Serve and enjoy!

Dicing Your Vegetables

1. Slice the pickle/cucumber/potato/apple lengthwise. 

2. Next, cut your slices into long matchsticks.  And dice!  Voila!  Perfect dices!

I have been truly blessed
I was recently chosen by “Russian Chicago Magazine” as their cover girl!
They did a cover story on me and asked me to submit an article based on my life experience. You can find the article here in all it’s glory! Below is the story as submitted by me:

Mila Furman “I am not a superwoman; I am the first aid to every woman, precisely what the doctor ordered”

Translated into Russian and Adapted by
Victoria Bulakhov

Our heroine Mila Furman, an excellent cook, an expert on cooking healthy meals and private organizer of various events, sits down and speaks with us about her three main passions in life. She loves to cook. She loves to share her knowledge from the sphere of cooking with others. And she loves her husband, Mark. As this issue goes to press, she is basking in the sun on the coast of Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, and cannot wait to go back home, where she will continue to grow her business and her website skyeventplanner.com. In the new website format she will include all her cooking classes, cooking tips and stories through her blog, “In the Skytchen” and continue to share not only the secrets of cooking healthy meals, but also recipes from Grandma’s piggy bank. As to how Madame Furman came to her love for cooking? Here is her story in her own words.

Cook from your heart and your food will always taste good. If your heart isn’t in it then it’s not worth the effort.” My mom used to say to me as I stood by her side when she made our family meals, peering into every boiling and bubbling pot on the stove. At a young age I would stand by my mother and watch her knowing hands put a little touch of this in one pot, a sprinkle of that in another and finish with a splash of something in a third pan…and with that method she would create the most delicious, soul-warming foods for the family. It was at this early age that I knew I wanted to be like my mother, to be the soul of the home and the family…to provide warmth with my spirit, love and my food. I have sweet memories of my grandmother and mother slaving in the kitchen all days for various holidays…hand making 100’s of little Russian dumplings, rolling out paper thin napoleon cake layers, grinding pounds of chicken liver through the meat grinder. My mom had shared the kitchen with her mom for years, it was the way of life; she learned how to cook from her mom, who learned it from her mom, who learned it from her mom through generations and generations…this was the way we connected from one generation to the next…through tragedy and happiness, through laughter and tears, through sickness and health, the smells and sounds rising from the kitchen lifted our spirits just a bit and reminded us of a sweeter place in life.

Ironically, my love for cooking did not translate into a love of food. I refused to eat as a child, food was simply not a priority in my life and my scrawny body showed it. My mom stopped trying to force feed me as a very young child…she knew when her child was hungry she would eventually ask… and I did ask. But the only food I ever wanted was classic Jewish Bouillion, with a piece of chicken from the soup with the skin on. I hate to admit it…but my mother hand fed me this meal and many others until the age of 16…everyone would probably agree that food tastes better from your mom’s hands. My mother and maternal grandmother would constantly have to be cooking up something fresh for me…I did not do leftovers…my meals had to be made fresh…and I knew when they weren’t. Generally speaking I was an extremely picky eater with multiple special requests…considering that most Russian children obeyed their parents and ate whatever was put in front of them…I was the minority in this instance and ate to my own likings…regardless of the multiple screams and threats from my mother, brother, grandmother and doctors. I was set in my eating ways and no one was going to change it.
At the age of ,7 I was ripped from the home I knew and my parents and I set out on our 4 month voyage to America. We were moving from my hometown of Kishineiv Moldova to Chicago…America a land far away with many opportunities, a completely different culture and worst of all new cuisine. My parents packed all they could…a lifetime was now packed into a huge wooden crate…we said good-bye to our family and friends and set out on this strange trip on September 1st 1989…the day of my 7th birthday. For me the entire trip seems dream-like…occurring many life times ago, in a different time and land…proving its reality and existence occasionally in pictures from photo albums and glimpses of memories mainly from the foods I consumed along the way.

Austria was our first destination.
In Austria, we lived in an incredible hotel outside of Vienna. A unique little village that reminded me of every fairy tale my grandmother ever read to me, complete with cobble stone roads, smiling pedestrians and colorful little houses that served as homes and businesses to the town. My brother and I helped the work staff clean tables and in return we were given a couple of coins to get ourselves some ice cream. Each afternoon my brother and I would run and get our milky ice cream and share it with our grandmother and parents. Still, I have never found an ice cream that tastes as delicious as that ice cream had…a simple popsicle enveloped in a colorful wrapper with a picture of a smiling cow…it was creamy and sweet…just what our little tummies needed to help us feel like ourselves in a new and strange world. One of the quant houses was a chocolate confectionary…Mine and my brother’s candy of choice was a unique little chocolate egg called “Kinder Surprise”. Inside hid a toy… a little Pink Panther toy. We used to collect the little Pink Panthers and would save them to remind us of the special time we had in Austria…Unfortunately, our unique collection of chocolate stained pink panthers was left behind in Austria…forgotten at the last moment.
On our train ride from Austria to Italy my parents bought us sandwiches to nibble on in the train…I still taste that sandwich…It was made on fresh brioche…a bread that was a tad bit sweet and a bit salty…with plenty of freshly made Mortadella sausage on top. It was a simple inexpensive pleasure that we relished in our train cabin…we all commented how delicious this sandwich was and even today my whole family remembers those sandwiches. This moment seemed to be a way we connected with each other going forward…sharing a simple pleasure in life…engaging in a conversation that reminded us of a happier and less threatening time…an escape to something old and familiar…a warm meal in a cold and stiff belly.

Passoscuro Italy was a town close to the Mediterranean Sea in between Rome and Ladispoli. My first experience with Italian food was pasta. Our first dinner in Italy consisted of tiny pinwheel pasta dressed simply in a freshly made marinara sauce. Knowing what a poor eater I normally was, my mother was shocked to see that I ate my whole plate and was sneakily picking off my brother’s plate. Almost every other day my father made the 6 hour tedious trip to the market to buy us fresh produce so my mother could cook us a meal. Never have I tasted poultry as fresh as I did in Italy. With the limited ingredients my mom had, she created the most amazing soups and stews…it was in Italy at the age of 7 that I learned the most simple of ingredients of the best qualities combine to make the most memorable meals. The food aside, Italy was breathtaking! Beautiful views, passionate people and incredible history were forever engraved into my memories.

After 3.5 months our Italian Siesta was over and we were finally headed to our new home : Chicago. We arrived to Chicago on a particularly freezing day only days before Thanksgiving. My aunt greeted us with a feast that reminded us exactly how far we were from home. A table full of “Russian treats, to help us feel more at home. I ingested my food quietly, afraid to interrupt this perfect moment of chewing and chatting. We had not seen my aunt in 2 years and I had never met my older cousin and uncle. My uncle, I later found out would be my guide to the American cuisine. Later that week he had taken me and my family to “Omni” a large grocery store chain similar to “Jewel” or “Dominick’s”. My eyes lit up as I saw all the colorful packages, vegetables and fruits. My mother was alarmed by the fact that there were tomatoes in the winter! I walked around the store with my mother, wide eyed and confused at the ridiculous amount of food on display…while my mother tried to figure out how we would afford all this variety. My uncle then decided that I needed to live the “American Food Dream”. We took one trip after another to McDonald’s, hot dog stands and more grocery stores. I was introduced to chips, chocolate candy bars and other fattening foods that I would later regret meeting.

Before I knew it, I had to go to school. Never having been to school before, I was terrified. Equipped with a backpack, a boy’s haircut and one word of English I was sent to my first day in the first grade. I hated it. My teacher was amazing but the kids were cruel. I never understood why they were so mean to me. I came home in tears on a daily basis. I ran to the nurses’ office and begged them to call my mom to come pick me up. My mom would come shaking and in tears only to be greeted by the same terrified look on her daughter’s face. The culture shock was jolting to me…and for six months I went mute. I did not speak Russian or Yiddish let alone English. I cried every day and I sat in the lunch room alone…as my tears fell on my cold pastrami sandwich. It was miserable…I think about it now and still feel like the same scared little girl worried to speak the wrong word. All through this, I ran home at the end of each day and turned to my mom’s cooking for comfort. Home for me still meant where my mom was…it was by my mother’s side that I felt the safest. And so after school on my mom’s days off we would learn English together. We would turn on Channel 11 and watch “Great Chef’s of the World”. While other children were watching Bugs Bunny and Friends I was watching Julia Child and her friends. And so with each sautee and each whisk my mom and I were brought together by our desire to fit in with this culture and our love for food.

I learned what it meant to be a “haziyaka” ( the Russian word for home maker) from my mom. She was everything and everywhere in our family. She was the true matriarch of our family…she enriched our lives with her laughter, her love and her food. I knew this was what I wanted to be when I grew up. My mom was my hero and I set out to be exactly like her.

I went through all the stages that most children go through…I wanted to be a doctor because I loved making my family feel better when they had the flu. I wanted to be a lawyer because I liked arguing with everyone. I wanted to be a veterinarian because I loved fluffy animals. But when I went to high school I realized the only thing I wanted to do in school was cook. In high school, I took every available cooking class. By my junior year, I had completed all the cooking classes that were offered and the teacher created a special curriculum based on 3 cooking classes for me. I came home each day and told my mom about the amazing techniques I had learned and tried to teach HER something new in the kitchen. I was always astonished at how little I could teach my mom…she was mostly self taught, her skills coming only from years of cooking for her family and a natural instinct for food that she fortunately passed on to me. We always talked about opening up a café together. One where we would serve our homemade food and fulfill other people’s bellies with her cooking like she had done with for our family for years.

In my senior year of high school I finally got the opportunity to visit my dream college, Kendall College in Evanston, at the time the number 2 culinary school in the country. Upon entering the school I was astonished to see the military like discipline each student seemed to possess. They were like little white-clad armies…stirring to the same rhythm…chopping to a similar beat…performing a symphony that would later create the perfect meal. I was terrified. This was too much to take in! So much responsibility! And of course being the rebel that I was…I could never conform to this military type of education. My mother was disappointed but nonetheless she said I needed to do what would make me happy. And so upon graduating high school, I abandoned my dream of becoming a chef and went to business school.

A year later, I was introduced to the man, Mark who would become my husband. A Ukrainian Jew, who loved food and family as much as I did. My over protective mother approved of my handsome new prince and wished us well as we rode away on one of our first dates on his metal horse, his motorcycle. We bonded almost immediately and for some reason our conversations frequently turned to food, reminiscing our favorite Russian foods. Many a nights we would run to his house and he would make us an omelet at 3am, carefully choosing his ingredients out of his fridge, knowing that I would quietly pick out anything I did not like in the omelet. To this day, those are some of the happiest times that we shared together. The foundation of our relationship was built on the simple pleasure of sharing a warm meal together over a quiet conversation.

Sadly, with so much happiness, sadness had to strike. Shortly after meeting Mark, my mother passed away. A chill was sent through our family that no blanket could ever cover. The warmness and love that had once been so freely given out to us by our mother was taken away, with only our memories left to hold on to. With tears in his eyes, my father came up to me the day of the funeral and said that my mom’s dying words for me, were that I had to go to culinary school. As if she knew my innermost thoughts…she told my dad that I had follow my dream it was the only way to my happiness and eventual success. As soon as the mourning period was over, I put on my chef whites, rolled up my sleeves and enrolled in my first semester at Kendall College.
Kendall was a dream and a nightmare all in one. The hardest part was living my dream without being able to turn to my mother with all the exciting new stories. My now husband however was more than willing to listen and to eat all of my new findings. A perfect combination: I loved to cook and he loved to eat; my husband gained 15 pounds my first year in culinary school. I came home every day with a new cut or a new burn; I was only too happy to show off the battle wounds I received in my kitchen adventures. While the first quarter in school was full of excitement my second quarter in school was anything but. Due to the course work we were to be in class at 4:30am in order to prepare breakfast for the school. After a 15 minute break we were to go back into class and start cooking lunch for the class. After an exhausting day in the kitchen I had to sit in a regular classroom and take basic classes for 3 more hours. I would come home at 7pm watch an hour of television and go to sleep in order to wake up at 4am. It was brutal. My body could not get used to the schedule and my heart was fighting the loss of my mother. It was tough…to this day I say those 3 months were the hardest times of my life.

My first summer in culinary school I worked full time at the biggest catering company on the North Shore. At any given time there were 65 male non-English speaking Hispanics in the over sized kitchen. My only hope to communicate with them was to speak their language. So I rambled off all the broken Spanish I knew and over 6 months I was speaking Spanish fluently, a skill I later found out was indispensible in this field. It was at this catering company that I learned how to prepare meals for hundreds. It was then that I discovered I wanted to go into event planning and coordinate large functions. With my goal in hand I graduated culinary school. And 2 years later I graduated with a Bachlor’s Degree in Hospitality and Restaurant Management. For the next 4 years I worked at numerous jobs that paid close to nothing. In return however, I got the amazing opportunity to plan lavish affairs up to a million dollars. I planned weddings at the luxurious Drake Hotel, corporate meetings at the Sheraton, private dinner functions for the VP of Ferrari and a huge Men’s Health Urbanathalon Race at Grant Park for over 10,000 attendees. Through this all my heart strings still pulled at me and my need to get back in the kitchen grew stronger and stronger. On occasion I would throw private dinner parties at some of my clients’ homes and would create bountiful bites for them and their friends to devour. Some of the housewives would ask me to teach them tips and tricks on how to cook meals faster and through this I suddenly found my urge to share my knowledge and my passion for food and entertaining with the world. With this idea I created Sky Events. I needed to share my food stories and tip with the world. And so I started to write. On a cold winter night, right before my first Thanksgiving dinner, I opened up my blog and never stopped writing.
During the day I would work my crazy corporate job where I planned events, at night I would come home and cook my heart out and write all about it on my blog. My weekends were full of weddings and private functions that I got to design and execute. Through it all my dying goal was to be the woman my mother was. My mom always wanted me to be the perfect wife and mother but to always have the ability to stand on my own two feet in this world.
Today, my life has finally taken a turn into the direction that I have willed it to go. I took all the tools that my mother and my education gave me and I paved my own way. My career and my family mean everything to me. I consider myself a modern day homemaker and my goal is to be able to share with the world what my mother has shared with me- to teach other little girls what my mother taught me: that the feeling of sharing a warm soup with your child will never leave them; that memories are made in the kitchen where pots boil over and messes are frequent. Young women who emigrated to this country like me were so quick to adapt to their environment in America they forgot what it really means to come from the culture we came from. To me it has always been a combination of food and laughter, of an old story shared with a close friend over a warm meal, of a house breaking at the seams from laughter and love. Every woman can do what I do…A common house wife has more will in her then they believe…and I am there to show them precisely how easy that is to harness. A way to bring a little something special into a woman’s heart, a place that a woman escapes to her own being and creates something straight from the heart. A way to taking something women are afraid of and making it something they control. Food healed me in the most primitive of ways. When I felt lonely or depressed, I invited friends over for some gossip and some food. Through those nights I found my voice…I found my calling and I finally found my mom within me. My friends call me a “superwoman” but I think that I am the first aid to any woman, precisely what the doctor ordered…

On my first day I saw a guy chopping mushrooms super fast, like a machine! I told the sous chef that I wanted to learn how to do that. He threw a 5 pound box of criminis at me and said, “I guarantee you by the end of the day you will be able to chop like that.” That was at 8am, by 5pm and the end of my day, I knew how to chop like that. I ran up to my sous chef before I left and I said,
“Hey! How did you know I would be able to do that by the end of the day?”
“Easy,” he said, “When you need to get something done, your body and mind will automatically figure out the fastest and most efficient way to do it! Tommorrow, we start on small dicing onions.”

That 6 month experience was what put me ahead of everyone else in my class when it came to knife speed. My speed was always there unfortunately, my precision sucked! I had a chef that would take out a ruler and measure my small dice (brunois) and matchsticks (battonets), out of a 10 I usually got a 6, and I was very happy with that! My thought process was that you don’t need to have perfect cubes if no one is really looking at them, it’s not like my goal was to work at a French 6 star restaurant. I just needed speed and to get my veggies to the right size, not the right shape.

At my culinary internship, I learned several tips to help my knife skills. There are a few rules that one should do by in order to make their knife work for them.

1. Make sure your knife feels like a continuation of your hand. Your knife should feel very comfortable in your hand. If it is too long or too heavy it is not your knife. I am 5 foot 4 and I have realitively long limbs, but still my chef’s knife is only 8 inches. It feels light and comfortable in my hands, the way a knife should feel.
2. Your knife does NOT have to be expensive, just comfortable and SHARP! Having a sharp knife is the best thing you can do for yourself. Belive me I have cut myself with a dull knife and a sharp knife, dull cuts hurt much more. A sharp knife will make your cutting fast, precise and easy. * I will say that I am a bit of a knife snob. But that is only because I bought my knives as an investment. They were a gift to myself when I graduated school and after 4 years they are still in perfect condition. I prefer to use Global Knives. They are very light and are made out of one piece instead of 2 (one for the handle and one for the blade). They stay sharp very long because of the special angle on the blade. *
3. GO SLOW. Learn the proper hand positioning and rocking motion of the knife first. Start practicing on onions and potatoes. Then move on to carrots and celery. All these veggies are cheap and always in need in your recipes! After that you can move onto other vegetables. The key is to really use your knife skills whenever possible. The more you use them, the more comfortable you will be with your knife. In the beginning it was very difficult for me to hold my knife right. It felt wrong and very uncomfortable. But over time I got used to it and now it is second nature. Just be patient with yourself. It can take months to get used to it. But be patient and practice often!

I’ve made a decision…. Anyone who makes one of my recipes and sends me pictures as proof will get their own blog post. My best friend Elina has made 2 recipes already… My rugelach cookies and my double chocolate cookie!!! Apologies Elina, for not recognizing your baking talents earlier.

Elina is the kind of friend that everyone dreams of, few people meet and a handful get to keep. She is the friend that quieted my sobs over the phone and endlessly laughed with me on her couch. The only friend who to this day I can have as good a time watching reality tv as I could in the hottest nightclub. She has been the one person who supports me in everything I do and yet at the same time can tell me the truth about everything!

So in short, Elina deserves a lot more than a post… But at this point that’s what she gets and it comes from the warmest, gooeyist, place in my heart…. Warm and gooey kinda like these cookies

She has recently started baking and was looking for a new cookie recipe. I told her to make my Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate Chips. She is the kind of cook everyone can only hope for because she follows directions to a T. At 5:38 today my phone rang…. Elina was in a frantic panic… She was short a package of chocolate chips!!! I ran from work and picked her up a bag of chocolate chips; I was greeted by her sniffling toe head toddler, Emma. (more on this pile of adorableness in another post)
She finished baking the cookies, even with multiple sniffle interruptions from the toddler. 15 cookies and a generous serving of guilt later… I found myself sitting on the couch licking off the last crumbs off of my lips. Those cookies were as I had remembered them… Elina you are my hero… Sniffle monster and all!

A blazing sun shines brigtly through the curtains, neighbors greet each other as they put their finishing touches on their Christmas lights, children race to their homes to catch a glimpse of their Christmas presents…a beautiful vision, stifled by my non-stop sneezing and sniffling. A miserable Christmas day ensued for me, that I was sure of. After 4 hopeless days of lying on the couch with my husband I craved homemade soup. Unfortunately, due to our contagious colds my husband and I were quarantined in the house, completely out of touch with anyone who could bring us homemade comfort food. We suffered with take out food…ok suffered is a bit dramatic…settled is more like it…oh who I am kidding! We relished each bit of sushi, pizza, gyros, burgers…that is until the fourth day…by the fourth day I was done. I wanted…I DEMANDED homemade food. I nudged my husband and looked as pitiful as possible…useless I thought…he does not know how to make comfort food…So we sat on the couch and continued to pig out on the last bits and bites of pizza and found comfort only in Afrin.

By the fifth day of laying on the couch, I had somehow gotten some energy back and decided that my body needed soup…chicken soup cures all sniffles. I needed chicken soup…chicken soup with a kick. All ethnicity have their version of a chicken soup, I am personally a huge fan of this one. It’s simple and has a great kick that will blow through any sniffles. Two bowls of soup and one box of tissues later, I felt renewed. I walked away from my stove feeling a lot better and a little bit prouder…sniffle, sniffle, sniffle.

Caldo de Pollo…My Way

1.5 Pounds of Chicken Drum Sticks
5 Carrots, Sliced into Half-Moons
1/2 Large Onion, Diced
3 Stalks Celery, Sliced
5 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1 Jalapeno, Seeded and Diced
3 Large Red Potatoes, Diced
1 Bunch of Cilantro, Roughly Chopped
4 Knorr’s Caldo de Pollo Cubes *This is the secret to this soup. Every Mexican woman who I had worked with, told me that every good Mexican housewife keeps this in the back of her cupboard as her secret weapon. Be careful it they are high in sodium so make sure to taste the soup to ensure that it’s not getting too salty*
1 Tsp Better Than Bouillion
1 Tsp Turmeric *This is MY secret weapon…it gives the soup a healthy yellow color without much flavor. People will think your soup was cooking for days after they see the gorgeous golden color.*
4 Whole Wheat Tortillas
Olive Oil for Brushing or A Misto Spray
8 cups Water

1. Place chicken into a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then immediately lower to a slow simmer. Skim off all the skum off the top.

2. Once the soup is clear, add in all the vegetables and flavorings; everything except the cilantro, that comes into play later. Turn the soup down to a medium low and let it simmer, very, very gently. Taste the soup for proper flavor as it cooks and adjust as see fit. Simmer, for about 45 minutes or until desired flavor is achieved.
3. Preheat the oven to 450-degrees.
4. Place the tortilla rounds on a sheet pan. With a pastry brush, rub some olive oil onto them.
5. Place in the oven until golden brown and crispy.

6. Garnish soup with chopped cilantro. Serve soup with tortilla toasts, avocado, limes and diced fresh onion. Slurp. Enjoy. Repeat.

The most common tales speak of hungry cowboys with not much meat or desirable meat parts to spare. Being so close to the southern border plenty of spices and chiles were available to cook down the stringy and scarce meets down to a delicious and hearty stew. The name chili came from the use of different chilis used as flavorings in the beanless stew. That’s right…beanless…a true Texan chili is without beans or tomatoes. In fact it’s essentially a spicy stew…and by the way did you know that the national state food of Texas is chili? So do not go around Texas hoping to find yourself a nice bowl of chili with beans and tomatoes…most likely you will be laughed at by a cowboy hat clad Texan and gently ushered out of the state.

No one really knows – while there are a lot of controversial stories – of where and when the beans came into the picture, I will loudly proclaim (Texans please spare me) that I love a nice chili with BEANS! That being said…I have spent years trying out a variety of chili recipes…with peppers and without…with tomato sauce and without…with searing the meat and without…you will notice that this is the first and only chili recipe I have posted – with darn good reason. I never found a recipe before that I wanted to stamp my name on. Until my most recent attempt. Being a hard core proteinarian these days I need to shove as much healthy protein into my shrinking body as possible. (More on this in another post). So I started looking for a way to pack more protein and flavor punch into my chili…

I came across thousands of chili recipes on the net and in all my cookbooks, none of which really excited me. I wanted a chili that I would crave day after day…I wanted a chili that made me cry out “ye-haw!’ while waving my cowboy hat in the air! (yes I have one…don’t judge) And by some streak of dumb luck and laziness…I did it…I created the perfect chili for me. It was healthy, it had a killer protein punch and it was delicous. The perfect combination of flavors in this chili is thanks to the use of both chicken and turkey (get it- turchicken chili?) With tons of lean mean and beans this chili will prove to be the perfect dinner for any health nut… or rural cowboy. So get the crockpots out…put on your cowboy hats and scream “YAHAWWWWWW” this chili is here to stay!

Turchicken Chili

1 Pound of 97% Lean Ground Turkey
1/2 Pound Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
1 15 Oz Can Diced Tomatoes with Jalapeno, Oregano and Onion (or similar)
1 15 Oz Can Diced Tomatoes with Italian Seasoning
1 15 Oz Can Chili Style Beans
1 15 Oz Can Kidney Beans, rinced and drained
1 Spanish Onion, Diced
1 Jalapeno, Seeded, Minced
4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1 Packet of Chili or Taco Seasoning
Sour cream, sliced scallions and shredded cheese to be used for garnish
Olive Oil

1. Coat a pan with olive oil and sear the ground turkey until golden brown; about 10 minutes. *While turkey is cooking chop up your onions, jalapeno and garlic.*
2. Add all the ingredients and HALF of the seasoning packet into a crockpot. Cook on low for 6 hours.
3. After the first 2 hours, remove the chicken thighs and shred with two forks. Add back into the crockpot and continue to cook.
4. Taste for seasoning; if need more seasoning add in the remaining seasoning packet, tasting as you go as to not to over season.

Very few things in life give me as much pleasure as putting a smile on people’s faces with my food. Particularly, my husband’s face Those days that he is down and out and needs a pick me up…I know the shortest distance is to his stomach! 90% of the time this remedy calls for seafood; my husband’s favorite food of all time. I was on the phone with my husband shopping at my favorite grocery store when I noticed that he was not in a particularly pleasant mood. I knew this called for an arsenal of seafood!
This particular dish I made on a warm September afternoon. I wanted to make him something healthy yet still allow him to feel like he indulged. The dishes’ simple flavors combine and form an incredible broth perfect for dipping a whole wheat crostini into.

Tuscan Mussels and Shrimp
* Like all seafood mussels can be extremely dangerous if they are not fresh. Sorting through them is crucial. Stick them under cold running water and pick through, discarding any shells that refuse to close. If they are open then they are already dead. Scrub the remaining ones with a sponge to remove any access dirt. They all have a grassy looking “beard” attached to their shells, tear that off as well.*

1 Pound of Mussels, Washed and Sorted
6 Large Shrimp; Shells and Veins Removed
4 Large Garlic Cloves; Minced
1 Shallot Diced Finely
Juice of Half a Lemon
3 Scallions Sliced on the Bias
2 Tablespoons Chopped Parsley
1 Cup of Wine
1/2 Cup Canned Diced Tomatoes
1 Pinch Red Pepper Flakes
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Pieces of Whole Wheat Bread, Toasted, Rubbed Down with Garlic Cloves
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. In a wide and deep pot combine olive oil, shallots, garlic and red pepper flakes. Allow to sweat for a couple of minutes until fragrant and transparent, but not brown.
2. Add in shrimp and sautee for two minutes.
3. Add in mussels, white wine, tomatoes, lemon juice and scallions; toss everything to combine. Cover with tight fitting lid and allow to cook for 4 minutes untouched.
4. Remove lid and move everything around, if all the mussels are opened, poor into a deep bowl, sprinkle with parsley and serve with toasted bread!
Dip, slurp and enjoy!

I admit…I CAN bake…it’s just I do not always want to…But there is that one dessert that I make that is truly MY dessert. Everyone asks for MY recipe…Everyone doubles over in delight after eating MY creation…Everyone gains about 2 pounds after eating MY dessert.

This is how this magical dessert was born…
I was unemployed…depressed and bored. I was sitting on the couch, doing nothing more than watching the Food Network. Ina Garten comes on screen and starts making these amazing little cookies. My ears perked up and my mouth started salivating. “I can do this,” I thought. Reluctant to fail, I followed the recipe to a T. However, when the dough was not ending up quite how I like it, I tweaked it a bit. And they ended up AMAZING! I ate ten myself and I decided these posed a major threat to my figure! I passed the delicious little love handle makers to my husband and told him to take them to work the very next day.
At 10am the next day I get a phone call from a crazed best friend. She said her husband told her he had eaten the most amazing cookies that my husband brought into work and that I must make more! So I made more and invited her over. She drove over in an hour and was eating them still hot. The sweetest thing she said was, “It’s like you put something in them that makes them absolutely irresistible! I cannot stop eating them.” The following day her father-in-law tasted them…and chaos ensued! They all literally sat with their hands folded at the table and waited for my fresh batch of cookies for hours and immediately devoured them!
So now I finally pass them on I use the recipe below as more of a guide than anything else. Most rugelach look like little crescents. I shape mine a little differently because it’s easier to cut them.
As far as the preserves goes, I have used everything from apricot, to strawberry to cherry. I personally enjoyed the strawberry, but in my kitchen everyone is a critic and the vast majority prefer the apricot.
The beauty of these little cookies is how versatile they are. Make them as I do or make them yours…whatever it is share them…it’s a sin not to…

Rugelach

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2-pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar plus 9 tablespoons
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup apricot preserves, pureed in a food processor
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash

*You can double this recipe and save the dough in the fridge for a week for a rainy day*

Directions
Cream the cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light. Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the salt, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball in quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour. *I have also used a food processor to make the dough and it worked great.*
To make the filling, combine 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the raisins, and walnuts.

On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle. Spread the dough with 2 tablespoons apricot preserves and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling lightly into the dough.

Roll up the dough carefully like a jelly roll, making sure to tuck the corners under.

Cut into 2 inch pieces and place face up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. *Make sure you use parchment paper, when the jam boils out it creates a sticky mess*
Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush each cookie with the egg wash. Combine 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on the cookies. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.
*Sometimes it takes longer for the cookies to bake. Just monitor them carefully.*

I thought long and hard about what I should have as my first recipe after my long hiatis. I needed it to be something easy, comforting, delicious and most importantly healthy.
My mother-in-law initially introduced a version of this dish to me. While it was delicious I still felt it needed some more flavors to really make it a star. This dish is truly a perfect explosion of flavor on the palette. It’s spicey, sweet, tangy and most importantly delicious. Pair it with a super easy whole grain cous-cous and you are on your way to a wonderful dish inspired by all the flavors of the Middle East.
As the cooler weather threatens to sneak up on us at any moment…I find myself going back to my plethora of recipes and reaching for things that are ooey gooey and warming. Naturally, those are the typical recipes that also add some unnecessary layers of fat to our warmth-hungry bodies. And so this is where my fight for the healthy and the comforting begins. I want to reach for my pasta pot and create a mind blowing concoction of pasta, pancetta, cream and chicken…but that is reserved for special occasions when the calories disappear for just one meal. For now, we need something that will warm our souls and feed our grumbling stomachs. For now, we remember that food is there to nourish us not solve our problems. For now we sit down at the table with our families, friends and loved ones and share a scrumptious meal that inspires stories and tales of other worlds, distant travels and happy endings…at least that’s what I hope for with every meal.

Moroccan Chicken

2 Pounds of Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs or Chicken Breast; Cut into Large Pieces
¾ Cup Dried Apricots, Roughly Sliced
¾ Cup Dried Prunes, Roughly Sliced
1 Spanish Onion, Diced
3 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Cilantro, Roughly Chopped
Juice of One Lemon
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
3 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1 One-Inch Piece of Ginger, Minced
1 Tablespoon Smokey Paprika
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/8 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Cumin
1.5 Tablespoons Turmeric *The turmeric gives this dish its distinct yellow color*
½ Teaspoon Sumac (optional)
½ Tablespoon Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes

-Preheat oven to 450-degrees F. Spray down a casserole pan of choice.
-While the oven is preheating combine chicken thighs with turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, cinnamon, paprika, cumin, ginger, garlic, salt pepper, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and cilantro. Toss in a bowl to combine and let stand for at least 20-30 minutes or even overnight.
-In a separate pan, combine onions, red pepper flakes with olive oil and sauté until golden; about 10 minutes.
-Add in dried fruit and mix to combine. Let cook for 10 minutes.
-Place chicken mixture and onion mixture into oiled casserole dish. Mix well to combine and distribute evenly.
-Cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes or until meat is tender and cooked through.

Whole Wheat Cous Cous

I always buys Trader Joes Cous Cous and just follow the package instructions.

I got a new toy!!!! I was at my brother’s house this weekend with my grandmother and noticed that my sister-in-law was making paninis. I was very intrigued by this gadget and that’s when she showed all the bells and whistles of this thing! You could take out the grill plates and replace them with flat plates…with this you could make an entire breakfast! Plus the paninis I could make with this thing are endless! So my grandmother insisted that she get one for me and herself.
Look how pretty and shiny it is! Hypnotizing isn’t it?

Well I have already made breakfast and several paninis! Today I decided to make a really easy chicken recipe on the panini grill! These chicken thighs were so simple, healthy and pretty…I forgot how good grill marks look!

Herb Chicken Thighs

3 Pounds Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs-All Fat Removed
1/2 a Lemon, Juiced and Zested
1/4 Cup White Wine
2 Tablespoons Parsley
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Tablespoon Sour Cream
Salt and Pepper

1. Combine all ingredients, except chicken, in a blender or food processor until pureed.
2. Place chicken in a ziplock bag and pour in marinade. Let sit for a minimum of four hours.
3. Preheat your grill and cook for 5 minutes on each side.

Latin Inspired Quinoa

1 Cup Quinoa-Rinsed
2 Cups Water
1/2 Tomato, Chopped
1/2 Red Onion, Diced
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Cilantro, Chopped

1. Sweat onions and garlic until translucent in a bit of oil.
2. Add quinoa and coat with garlic and onions.
3. Pour in water and tomatoes and bring up to a boil.
4. Lower to a simmer and cover. Cook for 20 minutes.
5. Add in cilantro and fluff with a fork.

Every once in awhile, a certain dish comes around that is so simple and so delicious that no alterations need be made. Usually these are the dishes that have been around for ages, the ones that grandmothers and mothers make, that fill up our houses with incredible aromas and fill our hearts with memories. “Zharkoya” or the Russian word for pot roast (or stew) is one of those classic recipes that I have unfortunately tried to change. I added wines, root veggies, herbs, cognac, etc. However, the original recipe only calls for 3 or 4 ingredients and is outstanding! It wasn’t until my friend called me and said, “You know I’ve tried all your crockpot recipes for pot roast, but this one is still the best!” I hated to admit that she was right, but she was.

This classic dish consist of beef, lots of onions, salt, pepper, garlic and potatoes; that’s it! The sweetness of the onions permeates every bit of the meat and potatoes and gives it a flavor you will never forget! There is a certain magic that happens when you combine all the simple ingredients in this dish. When I decided to make it today and I was barely able to let it finish cooking before I had 2 servings!!! It was exactly how I remembered it to be: tender, sweet and delicious!
I promise once you try this recipe you will never go back to any other complicated pot roast recipes!

Perfect Crockpot Pot Roast

3-4 Pounds Beef Pot Roast
4 Onions, Sliced
4 Garlic Cloves, cut in half
2.5 Pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into quarters
1 Tablespoon Salt
1/2 Tablespoon Pepper
Olive Oil

1. Cut meat into large chunks and season with salt and pepper.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, sear your beef until it has a nice brown color.
3. Remove meat and reserve; add in onions into the same pan and cook over medium heat until nicely caramalized, about 20 minutes.
4. Add in 1 cup of water to the onion mixture to deglaze the bottom of the pan.
5. Layer half the onions on the bottom of a crockpot, then add in the beef, seasonings, potatoes and garlic. Toss everything together.
6. Layer the remaining onions on top of the beef and cover with enough water to submerge potatoes and meat.

7. Cook for 6 hours on high, or until beef and potatoes are fork tender.
8. Enjoy!!!!

Now I know…I know…this cake sounds REALLY evil but I made it for a good cause…It was Passover last week and I had to bring dessert. I thought of making creme brulee again, but it’s not that easy to make individual desserts for 18 people. So I decided to actually bake. Now I think I have made it clear that I do not bake. Oddly enough, recently I developed a liking to baking; in fact I really enjoy it! So I decided to make something with simple flavors but that will please all different pa lattes! CHOCOLATE! I find it hard to believe that there is anyone out there that does not like chocolate; so it was a pretty easy choice. I found a recipe I used in culinary school and added a very magical ingredient to it: NUTELLA! Nutella, the delicious hazelnut and chocolate spread is fluffy, creamy goodness. The addition of the Nutella and a touch of coffee was a perfect compliment to this chocolaty goodness!

Flourless Chocolate Nutella Cake
*Just an FYI, this cake is so dense that it could probably feed more like 20-25 people.*

Cake
6 large eggs- separated
1 Tsp Instant Coffee
1 stick soft unsalted butter
1 jar of Nutella
1 tablespoon Kahlua
1 Cup finely ground hazelnuts
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

Ganache Topping
1/4 cup crushed hazelnuts
1 cup heavy cream
4 oz bittersweet chocolate

*Preheat oven to 325 degrees and butter a 9-inch spring form pan.

1. Melt your chocolate over steam or in a double broiler.
2. Place the jar of nutella in the microwave for 30 seconds to loosen it up a bit.
3. In a mixer, combine butter, coffee, Kahlua and Nutella…make sure to scrape out every bit of that goodness!
4. With the mixer on low, add in the egg yolks one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next.
5. Add in the melted chocolate and combine.
6. In another mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Slowly fold in the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
7. Pour into the pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes or until top has set.
8. While the cake is baking, make the ganache by bringing the cream up to a high simmer.
9. Turn off the heat and stir in the chocolate until melted.
10. Once the cake is ready, let it cool for 10 minutes. Then remove from pan and let cool completely on a cooling rack.
11. Once cooled pour the ganache on the cake and smooth out. Sprinkle with hazelnuts and slice yourself a piece!

On a cold and miserable Friday night I opened up the fridge and noticed in the very back of the fridge…concealed by a number of other dishes I made…that I had some pork chops left that I forgot to make. Completely uninspired by my empty pantry, I stood and stared at the onions, apple juice and flour. Hmmm what can I make with this? Well I can caramalize some onions and make a roux…and make a delicous thick sauce for my porkchops!!!!

To say this was easy is an understatement! The sticky gravy was delicious, more of a marmalade than a gravy actually. We actually just had the pork chop and a huge green salad for dinner…MMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Smothered Pork Chops

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons apple juice
1 cup broth
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder to season
4 thin bone-in chops (each about 12 ounces)

1. Season the pork chops with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
2. Sear both sides of the pork chops until they are golden brown. Because the pork chops are so thin, they will be practically done by this point.
3. Remove the chops and reserve.
4. Add onions and turn down the heat to medium low. Slowly caramalize the onions for about 10 minutes.
5. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and toss to coat. Add all the liquids to the pan and whisk, this will ensure the flour previously added does not clump.
6. After whisking in the flour, add in the pork chops and turn the heat on high; cover with a lid. *Now this is my new trick for a quicker caramalized onion. With the heat on high and the pan covered, the onions quickly absorb all the juices and flavors. The steam trapped in there softens the onions.
7. After 3 minutes, turn off the heat, add in parsley and dig in!

Yesterday, I really wanted something fulfilling and full of greens for dinner. So while watching LOST (yes I’m a lostee) I made myself this really healthy and filling soup. It’s a healthy twist on an Italian classic. I used nice, lean ground turkey to make the little meatballs and homemade chicken broth I had frozen from some leftover chicken soup. It was delicious, hearty and really healthy!

White Bean and Escarole Soup with Meatballs

Meatballs

1 Pound Lean Ground Turkey
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons Chopped Parsley
2 Minced Garlic Cloves (On my microplaner of coarse)
1/4 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesano Reggiano
Salt and Pepper

Soup

6 Cups of Chicken Stock, homemade or boxed
2 Cups Chopped Escarole
1 Can Cannelini Beans
1 Diced Onion
Juice of 1 Lemon
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Rice

1. For the meatballs: Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and roll into little balls; reserve.
2. Add olive oil to a pot and sweat the onions. You do not want them to get brown, just nice and translucent.
3. Add chicken stock to the pot and bring to s simmer.
4. Once the soup simmers add in the meatballs and rice. Simmer for 20 minutes and add in beans, escarole and lemon juice.
5. Serve with freshly grated cheese of your choice!

I love pasta and like most people I like it with a delicious creamy sauce. Which of coarse translates to dreamy love handles I have been trying to create a healthier cream sauce. And after many failed attempts…I finally got it! The key is ricotta. When the ricotta is pureed with a touch of milk, you get an amazing, delicious, creamy and thick sauce!

This pasta dish in particular is simple with a lot of complex flavors. It uses three pork products, pancetta, prociutto and bacon! Now while the ricotta makes the sauce a bit healthier, the pork products certainly does not…however once in awhile one has to be bad The added sweetness from red onions balances out the dish beautifully. I still have a taste in my mouth from this incredible pasta!

Smokey Pasta with Chicken and Escarole

1 pound whole wheat rigatoni or penne pasta
2 oz Prociutto, thinly sliced
2 oz Pancetta, thinly sliced
2 oz Smoked Bacon, thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 cups escarole, thinly sliced
2 scallions, sliced
1 cup of ricotta
2 tablespoons of milk
2 garlic cloves
1/2 a cup Parmesano Reggiano
1 tsp of olive oil
freshly cracked black pepper

1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water for use later.
2. Add the tsp of olive oil to a pan and add in the prociutto, pancetta and bacon.
Sautee the bacons until nice and crispy. Remove from pan.
3. Add in red onions and scallions and cook over medium heat until tender.
4. In a blender, food processor or Magic Bullet, combine the ricotta with the milk, parmesan cheese and garlic until smooth.
5. Lower the heat and add in ricotta mixture and pork products. Add pasta and escarole and toss to coat. The escarole will wilt nicely from the heat of the pasta. * If the sauce is too thick add a bit of pasta water to thin it out.
6. Serve with a few cracks of freshly cracked pepper.

A couple of weeks ago my fiance bought me some apples. Cute and little they were, but their flavor was more reminiscent of cardboard than apples. So instead of throwing them out, I decided to make some baked goods with them. I have recently run into quite a bit of free time and have decided to give baking another shot. It seems like it’s that time of the year again where I will bake frantically for 2 or 3 weeks straight and then vow to never do it again!

I found a nice and easy upside down apple cake recipe. It was extremely easy to put together and actually quite impressive looking! It does require making a quick caramel and some coring and slicing of apples. I tweaked the recipe a bit to add some more zing to it and it turned out fabulous! I was quite proud of myself. I will add this though: make sure you take the caramel to that perfect amber stage. Thinking that the residual heat will finish it in the pan, I turned it off and it turned out a bit too light. The next time I make this, I will be sure to take the caramel to a darker stage.

*I found that because the cake uses caramel and there is sugar in the batter, that it was a bit too sweet. In the recipe below I have adjusted the amount of sugar so that it is not that sweet.*

Ingredients
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the dish
1 1/4 Large Apples, Peeled and Sliced
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup sour cream
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Generously butter a 9-inch glass pie dish and arrange the apples in the dish.

3. Combine 1 cup of the granulated sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it turns a warm amber color, making sure the entire time you DO NOT stir the caramel, this will cause crystallization.
4. Pour evenly over the apple slices.
5. Cream the 6 tablespoons of butter and the remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy.
6. Lower the speed and beat in the eggs 1 at a time.
7. Add the sour cream, zest, and vanilla and mix until combined.
8. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix only until combined.
9. Pour the cake batter evenly over the apple slices and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
10. Cool for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto a flat plate. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.

*I actually ran out of regular granulated sugar and ended up using raw cane sugar in the batter instead. The batter still came out great! *

Whenever I have a larger party to prep for I always do all my leg work ahead of time. It saves me a ton of time as well as headaches on the day of the party. All the chopping, marinading, baking and setting the table usually happens the day or 2 before (with a few exceptions). I never have to worry about the little things going wrong and I get to actually enjoy myself when people start coming over. On Thanksgiving I had 18 people at my house and I was done cooking and setting up by 3pm! My turkey was even ready by 4pm! All my guests started coming in at about 6pm and by that time everything was warming nicely in the oven.

Holidays should be fun and warm, not stressful and hectic! When I was a kid, I watched my mom and grandma prep for holidays for 2 days. I never understood why! Then when I got older and started doing my own holidays, I saw why my mom did everything up to two days before! It’s a LOT of work to do a big party! It’s even MORE work to do a party when you are Russian. Russians, have more of EVERYTHING! More food, more courses, more liquor and more dessert. You see, with Russian style eating it is more of a marathon than a sprint. Eating must be done over several hours and the key is to pace oneself…otherwise you will be out on the couch before the second course even hits with people calling you a wussy!

Our family get togethers are intense! My family is loud and my fiance’s family is even louder! So when we all get together it is like one big tone deaf choir, all talking fast and loud in different pitches and tones! I always tell new guests to bring a pair of ear plugs with them, just in case. They all ALWAYS crowd around in the kitchen and naturally get in my way and try to taste a bit of everything, eventually I push them all out into the dining room. My nieces and nephews run around and squeal at the top of their lungs trying to catch my poor cat. And my fiancee…well he always finds this as the perfect time to hop in the shower, leaving me to handle the family all by myself! Half of the guests are always late the only exceptions being, my brother and sister-in-law, my fiance’s parents and my brother’s in-laws. After that the countdown begins…about 15 minutes AFTER we scheduled the together my aunt and uncle stroll in…15 minutes after that my fiance’s brother and wife come with their kids and the final arrival is by my cousin and her husband crossing the line at an astounding 45-60 minutes after the scheduled time! I learned my lesson the first time and this is why now I tell people to come over about 30-40 minutes before the time I plan to serve. It gives everyone a chance to chill out, smoke and gather before we sit down.

Now on to the food. I am a control freak when it comes to the holidays! The food has to be done my way or else I know it will be screwed up! So I usually tell people to bring stuff that I don’t want to make or that they can buy. For instance, I told my cousin to bring her usual Knorr’s spinach dip (It is delicious, simple and not even the cooking challenged can mess this one up) and homemade cranberry sauce. My sister-in-law brought me Spanokopita, delicious little filo triangles with feta and spinach inside, store bought and delicious! (FYI, Cosco has the best ones and they are extremely affordable!) My fiance’s mother is the baker. I always tell her to bring one dessert and she always brings 4! She also brought these amazing golden potatoes that everyone loved! (I may be making them tonight and if I do, I will definitely post the recipe!)

I really love our holidays together because I get to play around with the menus! For instance, for Thanksgiving there will of coarse be a turkey with some sort of potatoes and veggies, but that’s pretty much the only constraints for food I have to stay with. Generally there are really 3 rules to a Russian dinner, no matter what the holiday is:

1. There must always be plenty of liquor on the table (vodka, tequila, cognac and wine…a bit of everything to please every one’s tastes)…
2. There must always be pickled veggie and sometimes fruit on the table.
(This year we had my grandmother famous pickled tomatoes! I am still working on getting the recipe from her! We also had pickled watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew. Trust me, I am a picky eater but this is just sooo darn good! Don’t knock it till you tried it!)
3. There must be an abundance of food…good, filling food. (To absorb all that liquor of coarse!)

The first course is always almost like an antipasti course. Really yummy deli meats and cheeses, pickled veggies, little compound salads, deviled eggs, pate, caviar and for the first time this year I did roasted garlic cloves to be used as a spread on rolls instead of butter! It’s almost like little Amuse Bouches , just enough to get the taste buds going. The second course is hot appetizers. This year I went a bit heavy on the appetizers! My fiance’s mom warned me, “On Thanksgiving, don’t do a lot of hot appetizers no one will eat the turkey…” But she was wrong! Once the appetizers started coming out…the guests eyes started widening…first came my Secret Stuffed Mushrooms, then those Golden Potatoes, then the Spanokopita, then Eggplant Rolls (stuffed with ricotta and marinara) then a Wild Mushroom and Potato Augratin. After this everyone kinda looked at me and said, “Are we eating the turkey tommorrow? Because no more food can fit.” So they took a break. When they came back there was a new spread on the table: the Turkey, with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, Not so Green Green Beans and this amazing Russian rice dish called Plov (I will provide the recipe once I decide to make it again). Everyone freaked out when they saw the spread. But they ate! They ate a LOT! I don’t think my family has ever eaten quite so much food! I never thought I would say this: they were full, very happy and a bit inibriated: the perfect combination! (By the way, this was the first time I ever cooked a turkey at home! I freaked out a bit and started planning the turkey recipe a month out. It was worth it! Everyone raved and said it was the best turkey the ever had!)

Once dessert hits, people kind of grab something off of the table and go stroll around the house and join in random conversations. My friends usually stroll in around this time after their family gatherings and nibble on leftovers. On Thanksgiving we had an inticing game of “Catch Phrase” after dinner.

I really love the holidays. When I was growing up I truely loved them as well because my mom would keep busy cooking and I would get the chance to stick my nose in every pot. The family would get together and we would all laugh and chat and have a great time. Once my mom passed, the holidays kinda lost their special meanings. It was hard to crack a smile when everyone was missing her so much. So when my fiancee and I bought our home, I vowed that I would do my best to get the family together on all the holidays and create new and wonderful memories for us to share. Once again, the house was full of laughter, chatting and the occasional squeal from the kids. There is something so wonderful and special about seeing my new, growing family around my dining room table, eating and sharing their stories. Every once in awhile, I swear I can hear my mom’s laughter at the table; and for me, that makes it all worthwhile.

A Very Warm and Happy Holiday To Everyone

I made this tonight, on one of the coldest nights we have had yet and while I had only a taste of both, (I am ATTEMPTING to watch my diet) my fiancee consumed every morsel on his plate and asked for more! It is a perfect meal for these cold nights in the winter when all you want to do is eat something yummy and go sip tea or hot chocolate on the couch.

Rosemary Meatloaf

5 pounds ground beef (I used lean chuck)
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
5 ribs of celery, finely diced
3 medium sized carrots, finely diced
3 tablespoons rosemary, chopped finely
1/2 cup ketchup
2/3 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil to sautee

Preheat your oven to 375-degrees

*It is very important that you chop up these veggies finely. You want them to be seen but you also want them to melt into the meat. The only way to achieve that is to get a very fine dice. I will be posting soon on how to easily dice your most popular veggies.*
1. Combine all veggies in a sautee pan with a bit of salt and pepper and sautee until softened, about 8-10 minutes. You do not want them to brown just soften.

2 Add ketchup, sour cream, rosemary and seasonings to meat. Combine.
3. Add cooked veggies to the meat mixture and combine. *You can cool the veggie mixture so that it is easier to handle. I used rubber gloves and combine everything by hand while hot.*
4. Oil a pan that has a drip pan on the bottom, you almost want to roast the meatloaf. The perfect crust will only be achieved if there is no moisture surrounding the loaf, otherwise it will steam in its own juices and will not get a crust (trust me, I did this the first time around).
5. Place meat on the pan and shape it into a loaf shape. It does not have to be perfect. Just make sure that there are no cracks on the surface and that it is smooth.
6. Put it in the oven for 1 hour or until an internal thermometer reads 155-degrees.
7. Once it is done cooking, let it rest for at least 15 minutes.
*If your top did not crust up, just put the loaf under the broiler for 10-15 minutes and it will develop a beautiful crust.

The Perfect Gravy

I’ll be honest, unless it’s a holiday, I don’t make gravy. But you have to with this dish, it practically screams for it! It looked naked without it!
Now I did not measure anything because I made it on a whim. But I will tell you what I put in it and you can make this without any measurements, it’s not like we’re baking anything!
I started out with the juices from the meatloaf. I poured some of those off into a sauce pan and added about 3 tablespoons of flour. Then I whisked vigorously to get rid of all the lumps. Into there I poured in some white wine, some beef base. It started getting kinda thick so I added in some chicken stock and whisked some more until it coated the back of a spoon. At the last minute I added in some freshly chopped rosemary and that was it! I promise it’s just a bit of thickening and thinning, nothing else! If it gets too thick just add stock and if it’s not thick enough add a bit more flour. That’s the magic to a good gravy! Just be careful to add the flour a little at a time and remember it only gets thickened once it boils.

Creamy, Dreamy Mashed Potatoes

5 pounds potatoes, peeled, cut and washed
1 stick of butter
1 cup of half and half
3/4 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to season

1. Boil potatoes until they are fork tender.
2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the half and half on a low flame; keep warm.
3. Strain the potatoes so that there is not water left.
4. For the actual mashing process, I have found that using a food mill is by far the most effective way to get the creamiest mashed potatoes, with minimal effort. If you do not have a food mill then use a smasher or a mixer if you have it.

5. Add all the sour cream and half of the butter mixture to the potatoes. Combine and see the consistancy. Add in more butter and half and half if necessary. I like mine super creamy so I added it all in. Just add it in a bit at a time so the potatoes get a chance to absorb the liquids.

6. Taste for seasonings. Place a generous amount on a plate, load up with a few slices of meatloaf and drizzle some gravy on top!
That’s it…NOW EAT!

Today, my mother isn’t around anymore to make me my own batch of chicken soup but every time I make my own, it still soothes my soul and makes me feel like she is in the kitchen with me.

Now please note this chicken soup is not that goopy canned condensed gross stuff. No this is the stuff that real Jewish grandmothers have passed down for generations. This is liquid gold. It is a golden broth, filled with minimal toppings but plenty of flavors! Mostly popular with the Ashkenazi Jews, this is the stuff that has been labeled the Jewish Penicillin. The cure all to heartbreaks and tummyaches; fevers and chest colds or just your run of the mill bad day. I don’t even have to eat the soup, just the smell of it and the process of making it, makes me feel better!

On high holidays I usually serve it up with my fluffy matzoballs and everyone gobbles them up. On other days I serve with pieces of meat from the soup and some diced, cooked carrots, celery and onions.

It not only is the cure-all for all human ailments but also for animals. When my dog was a puppy, she got an upset tummy. The doctor told us to feed her rice. But my mom felt bad and gave her chicken soup with the rice instead. The dog felt better almost immediately. The past few days she hasn’t been quite herself either. I gave her some chicken soup and the next day she was a totally different dog, keep in mind, she is 14 years old!

Honestly, no words can explain how important this soup is to me. It may sound silly, but in many ways it is the tie that I have to my mother. No matter what age or what season I gobbled it up and always asked for seconds. I always felt the amount of love that my mom put in her soup. She always told me, “Cook only when you want to and no matter what you add, a piece of you must always be in it. Your food will always taste great.” Her chicken soup was always hers. It tasted different than when my grandmother made it. Prehaps that was why it made me feel better. My mom’s chicken soup can never be duplicated because she won’t make it, but there are certainly ways to come close and that’s the best I can do.

On Sunday, it was cold..AGAIN and STILL…so I needed a pick me up and I love when the house smells like chicken soup. It just makes me feel whole again.

My Chicken Soup (based on my mom’s original recipe)

1 whole chicken or cut up chicken pieces (with skin-on)
6 or 7 large carrots, peeled and cut in half
2 large onions, peeled and cut in half
5 celery stalks, cut in half
1 bunch dill, washed
1 bunch parsley, washed
1 parsley root, peeled and cut in half
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
Kosher Salt
*I’m sure you noticed there is no chicken base in this soup. Well if you do as the recipe says and you let the soup cook for awhile, you will never need any base in this soup. My mom never used it in this soup and neither will I.*

If there was one thing that my mother taught me about cooking it was to use the best products you can. This recipe is no different. Try and get an Amish or Free Range chicken. They even look different, you will notice they have a more yellow tint to them, due to the difference in their diet.

In Russia, when I was growing up, we didn’t have any pesticides or horemones in our food, so it tasted like food should taste: REAL. For a long time when my mom made the soup here, it just didn’t taste right. Then one year she bought an Amish chicken. OMG! It was like a taste of the old country in a bowl! Finally we found the secret! It made a huge difference and we never went back to the regular chickens. So please, spend the extra few bucks and buy a nice bird, for soup’s sake!

Now the pot. You want a nice big stock pot. Mine is an 8 qt.

There are 2 secrets to make a really great stock or soup.
#1. Start with cold water, ALWAYS.
#2. Add only Kosher Salt to the water, it clarifys the stock and makes it less cloudy.
That’s it. Other than that it is just patience.
Add in your chicken and 2 tablespoons kosher salt, cover completely with water and let it simmer. Once the scum comes up, (it’s really just coagulated blood) skim with a slotted spoon.

Continue to skim the soup until no scum comes up. Turn down the soup to a simmer and add in all your veggies and black peppercorns. Let the soup cook for about another 2-3 hours or until desired taste is achieved. Sometimes I take out my meat and just let the soup go for even longer to develop the sweetness and golden color in the soup. The carrots will achieve that beautiful golden color and sweetness that you want.
*When the chicken was done, I could not help myself but taking a piece out of the soup. I ate it just the way my mama fed it to me: I took a piece of bread, (whole grain) ripped off a piece of meat with it (with the skin) and ate it. I savored every bite, it really did take me back to my childhood.*

Once the soup is done place it in the cooler for at least 5 hours, overnight is best.
You want the fat to come to the surface. Once it has been refridgerated, take out all the big pieces of veggies that you can grab.

Then strain it through a double layer of cheese cloth. You can secure the cheese cloth with clips that you use to close your bags of potato chips, this will keep the cheesecloth from falling into the container you are straining into.

Once it is strained, you just add some of the carrots, onions and pasley root from the soup, throw in some cooked noodles or vermecelli and enjoy!

You can also pour some off into ziplock bags and freeze in until a rainy day!

In the midst of all my healthy cooking, I started to crave one of my favorite comfort foods, Spaghetti and Meatballs. However, since I am trying to eat lighter and spend less time in the kitchen, I wanted to see how I can make this recipe healthier and quick. The answer: Turkey Sausage! In any market today there are a variety of gourmet chicken and turkey sausages. Cosco has an assortment of chicken sausages including feta and spinach, sun-dried tomato and artichoke and garlic pesto. With all the different types of sausages available the recipe creations are infinite!

I noticed that my grocery store had Italian turkey sausage on sale. So I thought to myself, “hmmmm why not make meatballs out of sausage???” It makes perfect sense! All the flavors are already in there, all I have to do is remove the casing and roll out little meatballs. With a few additions to the sausage I created an extremely quick and lip smacking good meal!

Whole Wheat Spaghetti and Turkey Sausageballs

1 Package Hot Italian Turkey Sausage (about 6 links)
1 Jar of Trader Joes Organic Marinara
1 Package Whole Wheat Pasta
1/4 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Onion Finely Diced
2 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley, Finely Chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, Minced
5 Basil Leaves, Chiffonade

1. Take the sausages out of their casings by making a slit down the middle of them, lengthwise. Place a pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.
2. Add Parmesan, onion, parsley and mix well with hands to combine.
3. Create little meatballs and place on an oiled baking sheet.

4. Bake at 450-degrees in a convection oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown on the outside.
5. While the meatballs bake, cook the pasta and warm up the sauce with the garlic and basil in a saucepan.
6. Once the meatballs are a beautiful golden brown, add them to the sauce to finish cooking.
7. When the pasta is al dente, drain, toss with the sauce and add meatballs. Garnish with more Parmesan cheese and enjoy… Bellisimo!

Generally speaking, soups are a major staple in the Russian diet. They were inexpensive to make, full of nutrients and kept the people warm through the long, cold winters. Borscht…is to Russian culture as hamburgers and fries are to American culture. It’s a dish that is so quintessential Russian that when I tell people I’m Russian, they say, “So did you eat a lot of Borscht when you were growing up?” and unfortunately my answer is, “No.”
*Now technically I am not from Russia, I am from the republic of Moldova, a country next to Romania. And even more technically, my maternal grandparents were both born in Romania, so I guess that makes me half Romanian. But no one really has heard of Moldova and since they were once all part of the USSR, I just keep it simple and tell them that I am Russian.*
In fact, growing up I hated the stuff! Its bright purple color scared me and its ingredients were never my cup of tea. I hated beets and cabbage as a child and considering those are the 2 main ingredients, I was not going near it!
My fiance is Ukrainian. Now if there is one part of the former USSR that can make borscht it’s the Ukrainians. My fiance’s father makes the BEST borscht. When we first started dating,his parents were shocked that I never ate at their house. I was not a fan of anyone else’s Russian cooking other than my mother’s, so I did not eat anyone else’s Russian cooking. Now please do not judge me, that is the one issue I struggled with my whole life! Sue me! Everyone has them!
One day his father made borscht and as usual, offered it to me. I scrunched up my nose and politely declined. My fiance looked at me and quietly said, “It’s rude to never eat at my house! You are insulting my family!” After this guilt trip, how could I not try it, after all I was planning on becoming the perfect daughter in law; and perfect daughter in laws do not scrunch up their noses at perfectly good food.
So I asked for a small, teeny portion of borscht. In my fiance’s family, that means enough to feed me for a week! I sat there, traumatized, looking at this steaming bowl of purple liquid. I started my usual ritual: I peered over it and smelled it, then I stared at it a bit more, envisioning how it would feel and taste in my mouth; until my fiance finally broke down and said, “Just eat it! Here put some sour cream in it and EAT IT! It’s just borscht!”
“Ohhh” I thought, “Sour cream sounds like a good idea, it will dilute the flavor I’m sure!” I took a nice big spoonful and placed it in my mouth. I did not want to taste it, I just wanted to chew, swallow, breathe and repeat until the entire bowl was clean. But then…an amazing thing happened…something I never thought could have happened…I accidentally forgot to hold my breath while chewing and I tasted it! And OH MY GOSH…it was AMAZING! I started eating it so fast that both my fiance and his dad looked at me with wide open eyes. His dad turned to me and said, “Well, how did you like that?” To that my only response was, “Can I have some more?!?” Lesson learned: Do not be afraid to try things that you are unfamiliar with.
Now I can promise you that if you like beets you will LOVE this soup. It is very filling and satisfying. I luckily made this the week that I got sick with bronchitis and it truly was the one thing that I could keep down. It’s very nutritious and with this recipe, very low fat.
Please do not be like me and have a closed mind about this dish. Most Americans who try a good homemade borscht beg for the recipe. So here it is ladies and gentleman, my fiance’s father’s borscht!

Real Ukrainian Borscht

3 Beef Shanks
1 Small Head of Cabbage, Shredded
2 Large Beets, Shredded
5 Carrots, Shredded
1 Large Onion, Shredded
3/4 Cup Tomato Puree
1 Lemon, Juiced
2 Tablespoons of Sugar
6 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
3 Large Potatoes, Peeled and Cut into Chunks

*I place the cabbage, beets, carrots and onions through my food processor with the shredder attachment. It makes this dish a LOT easier.*

1. Remove all the meet from the shanks and cut into large pieces.

2. Place meat into a large pot and cover with cold water 3/4 of the way up.
3. Bring the liquid to a simmer and skim the top to remove all the scum.
*Do not let this liquid boil. If it boils then the scum will break up and it will be very difficult to clean the soup.*
4. Once no more scum is coming out of the meat, add in the cabbage and potatoes. Let this cook over med-low heat for about 15 minutes, just giving it time to soften.
5. Add in all the other ingredients and season with salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer on low for about 30-35 minutes or until proper flavor develops. The soup should be just a bit tart and a bit sweet.
6. Let the soup rest before serving with a nice dollop of sour cream. Typically, the soup tastes even better the next day!

So my fridge is STOCKED with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, there was a sale that I could not resist and I intend to use everything in my freezer before I go out and buy any more meat. I love using these chicken thighs because they are so tender and moist, plus they are extremely versatile. Not to mention, if you trim up all the fat, they are very healthy and nutritious.

Last night I decided to experiment with a few ideas. I love veggies but wanted to make everything on the grill. I had a few portobellos, perfect for grilling and some fresh broccoli. Now I have never grilled broccoli, but something told me it would be delicious. And sure enough the broccoli was incredible! I could have probably eaten a pound all on my own! I cut the broccoli into huge florets and seasoned them and the Portobellos with just salt and olive oil. There was no fuss and extremely easy clean-up! The broccoli retained its gorgeous green color and had this incredible smokey flavor.

As for the chi ken…it was tender…sweet…tangy…woodsy and delicious! Please enjoy! (Sorry about this….but for some reason the pictures did not come out very clear )

6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tsp Brown Sugar
1/2 a Lemon, juiced
3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
2 Shallots, Minced (I used my microplaner for mincing the shallots as well)
2 Sticks Rosemary, Chopped

1. Combine all the ingredients except the chicken into a microwave safe container. Place into the microwave for 30 seconds…just enough for the sugar to melt.
2. Pour marinade onto chicken and marinade for at least 30 minutes. Grill on high for 5 minutes per side and enjoy!

*I wanted to include nutritional information in my recipes from now on for anyone who is health concious like me

Nutrition Facts

6 Servings

Amount Per Serving 1 Thigh

Calories 97.1

Total Fat 2.7 g

Saturated Fat 0.7 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g

Monounsaturated Fat 0.8 g

Cholesterol 57.3 mg

Sodium 513.7 mg

Potassium 194.5 mg

Total Carbohydrate 3.2 g

Dietary Fiber 0.1 g

Sugars 0.1 g

Protein 14.2 g

I always love having homemade soup in the house because it goes well as a quick lunch or dinner, paired up with a salad or a small salad it is perfect. In the summers I like to make vegetable soups without any meat. I find them to be lighter in the summers and yet still comforting. This soup reminded me of a Provencal soup I used to make in culinary school. It has great simple flavors in it and can be made with chicken stock, vegetable stock or even water!

1 quart Stock or Water
1 Large Parsnip, Diced
1 Large Leek, Using only the Light Green and White Parts, Washed Well
1 Medium Onion, Diced
2 Carrots, Sliced
2 Small Turnips
2 Handfuls Frozen Peas
2 Stems of Fresh Thyme
2 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

1. Preheat a pot to medium high heat. While chopping the veggies, drop them into the pot to make everything go faster.
2. Let all the veggies, except the sweet peas, sweat together for 10-15 minutes or until tender and very aromatic. *If you are using water try and sautee the veggies for longer to extract as much flavor as possible from them.*
3. Add cooking liquid of choice and simmer on medium heat for 30-45 minutes, or until desired flavor is achieved.
4. Finish off with the peas when the heat is turned off.

I will admit it…I was a camping virgin! So over July 4th Weekend we decided to pop my camping cherry and go for it! A friend of ours’ client graciously offered up his tiny cabin and 64 acres of land for us to use! The cabin had a full size refridgerator and 3 bunk beds for the little kids to use. We were 6.5 hours away from our homes, surrounded by nothing other than 64 acres of forest! Our nearest neighbor was 5 miles away and it was acres and acres of hay!!!

It was a blessing in disguise that our phones had no reception in that area…we really got to experience the great outdoors (and I mean OUTDOORS…an outhouse and everything) and finally clear our minds and think of nothing but the roaring fire and the relaxing enviornment… The boys fished and chopped wood…the girls tanned…we all ate non-stop…and partied at night!

As Russians normally do…we brought an ABUNDANCE of food! All day…all night…we ate! Breakfasts were grilled panini sandwiches with havarti and swiss cheeses and BACON! Lunches were usually hot dogs or sandwiches…and dinners usually lasted the longest and were the best!

One of the nights we had incredible Georgian Shish Ka Bob, cooked over hot embers until beautifully caramalized and tender!

On another day we had a huge burger extravaganza! Sirloin burgers (from Cosco) were grilled on a tri-stand over the fire.

My cousin’s hubby grilled up some BBQ and hot sauced applewood smoked bacon for us…I made sweet caramalized onions deglazed with Crown Royale…there was a variety of cheeses, from Cheddar, Havarti to Swiss to All American! Sliced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sliced red onions, guacomole and the typical condiments finished off the burger toppings. And so with this…I give you the BURGER FEST!

This was my Cheddar Bacon Bacon Burger!

The DOUBLE EXTRA MAYO BACON BURGER…OR THE MAMA BURGER!

Overall this was probablly the most fun I have had in a really long time! We slept well, laughed a lot and cleared our minds…I could not have asked for a better time…I am already planning our next camping trip for Labor Day Weekend…I will however be bringing my own portable toliet

Every Eastern European country has their own way of making stuffed cabbage. My mother used to make it the Moldovian/Romanian way, with lots of greenery like parsley, dill, scallions and cubes of beef and she incorporate a bit of the middle eastern influence and used grape leaves and cabbage leaves to wrap the filling in. When I started dating my fiance, I realized how different the food was even though we spoke the same language. His parents made the “Galuptsi” using only cabbage leaves and stuffed it with ground pork, a bit of rice, cooked carrots and onions. Whereas my mother’s galuptsi fell apart when you cut into them, my fiance’s parents’ were one big oval shaped ball, but they were so tender and delicious! Completely different but sooo good! Since my fiance grew up on this food I decided to please his palate and make them for him this way.

Many times when I tried to keep it healthier, I did substitute brown rice instead of white and used ground turkey instead of ground pork. BUT the result is not quite the same. I actually put my recipe into a calorie evaluator and it turns out each roll has about 145 calories. So honestly, it really was not that much of a difference when it came down to it in calories…but a HUGE difference in flavor!

I know the recipe may seem a bit daunting…but I promise it really is easy once you get the hang of things. Not to mention filling and delicious! Serve them with a dollop of sour cream, some crusty bread and a simple cucumber, tomato and red onion salad and I promise you will be asking for more!

“Galuptsi” Ukranian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

1.5 Pounds Ground Pork
1/2 Cup Rice
6 Large Carrots
2 Large Onions
1/2 Cup Tomato Puree
1 Head of Cabbage
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. Place cabbage in a pot of water over medium heat and allow to parboil for about an hour. You want the entire head to be covered, if necessary weigh it down with a plate. *This can be done 1 day ahead of time and stored in the fridge until ready to use*
2.Once cabbage leaves have cooled enough to handle, separate the leaves, making sure to cut the center core out of each one.
3.Add all the carrots and the onion into the food processor using the shredder attachment. *This can be done by a box grater of coarse, but I find the result is the same in the food processor and is so much faster.*
4.On medium heat, add olive oil to a saute or frying pan and cook the veggies with salt and pepper until they give off their juices, about 15-20 minutes. You do not want them to brown. Just sweat them nice and slow so all the flavors come out.
5.Place the pork, rice and 1/2 of the cooked veggies into a bowl. I usually put rubber gloves on and start combining this mixture by hand.
6.Lay out the cabbage leaves and place about 3 tablespoons of the mixture into each leaf. Roll it up like a burrito. *The amount of mixture you place in each leaf will depend on the size of your leaves, just use your best judgement on how much to place into it when in doubt. Make sure that the leaf covers all of the mixture and none of it is peaking out.*
7.On the bottom of a heavy bottomed pot, pour in half of the tomato puree and sprinkle in half of the remaining veggies. Layer the rolls on top of this and continue to layer the tomato puree and veggies until all the rolls are done. I usually have one big layer because I have a huge pot.

8.Cover with enough boiling water to reach almost the top, as pictured above.
9. Place in a 325-degree oven and cook for 1.5-2 hours or until meat is nice and tender!

In the summer months when evenings are longer and the weather is nicer, I try and get out of the house as much as possible to enjoy those few warm months we are blessed with in Chicago. Therefore, my meals tend to be quicker and less fuss.
I always found that slaws can be easily made with minimal work and maximum flavor and vitamins. Salmon is always a good go to fish for something nice and quick.

I came up with this meal last week when I came home late from being outdoors all day! The fish only took 30 minutes to marinate and during the time that it marinated I made my slaw.

Happy Summer everybody I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

Soy Citrus Salmon and Thai Peanut Slaw

Soy Citrus Salmon

1.5 Pounds Fresh Salmon (preferablly wild) sliced into desirable portions
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1 Tsp Sesame Oil
1 Orange, Juiced and Zested
1 Lemon, Juiced and Zested
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
Black Sesame Seeds to Sprinkle for Presentation

1. Combine all ingredients in a ziplock plastic bag and let stand for 30-60 minutes. (Any longer than this and the acidity in the citrus may start cooking the fish, much like in a ceviche)
2. Place in a 450-degree oven for 15 minutes, or until center is flaky and pink.

Thai Peanut Slaw

1/2 a Head Red Cabbage, Cored and Thinly Shredded
1 Head Napa Cabage, Thinly Shredded
1/2 a Red Pepper, Thinly Sliced
4 Scallions, Thinly Sliced on a Bias
2 Tablespoons Cilantro, Finely Chopped

Spicy Peanut Dressing for Slaw

1/4 Cup Peanut Butter
3 Tablespoons of Water (use as much as needed to get a thin consistancy)
2 Teaspoons Seasame Oil
2 Garlic Cloves, Minced
1 tsp Siracha Hot Chili Garlic Paste

1. Combine all in a blender until smooth and creamy. Toss with slaw veggies just enough to coat.

*This slaw is meant to be crunchy and fresh, do NOT over dress or you will end up with a soggy mess! Save remaing dressing for another meal!

Back in high school, every day for breakfast, I would go to the school cafeteria and have 3 amazing warm, gooey chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. It was the the highlight of my day, every day. Do you remember those days when you could eat whatever you want and not gain an ounce? I had this way of stuffing anything into my body and still retaining a perfect, perky figure, wish I had it that easy today To this day I never found a recipe for cookies that tasted like those did. Today, as I was folding laundry, I caught an episode of Barefoot Contessa. She was reminiscing all her favorite chocolate recipes…and there they were… my beloved White Chocolate Chunk Chocolate Cookies! (Now I am sure that the ones at school were made from some frozen mystery cookie dough) I was instantly inspired and made them this evening. I didn’t have any chocolate chunks, but I did have some white chocolate chips, so I just used 12 oz of those.

Now I will be honest…I have NEVER been good at baking cookies. I ALWAYS over baked them because I thought they were still raw inside, turns out they just had to cool
I followed Ina’s instructions exactly and they were PERFECT! I ate three of them on my own! (Diet? What diet…) I am going to bring them to my fiance’s work tomorrow so they can enjoy them as much as I did! (And so that I can get those tempting little devils out of my house!)

Here is Ina’s recipe:

Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Dampen your hands and flatten the dough slightly. Bake for exactly 15 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

PROOF!

Lately, I have been trying to cook much lighter and healthier. My fiance’and I are both trying to modify all our favorite recipes to be less caloric. I love creamy soups and one of my favorites is cream of broccoli. The creamy factor of the soup is obviously the most important and can be achieved by blending or pureeing the soup the right way. The soup had tons of flavor and a really great texture! The best part…not one touch of cream or butter was in this soup!

Creamy Broccoli Soup

1.5 Pounds of Broccoli with Stems
1 Onion Chopped
1 Carrot Chopped
1 Celery Stalk, Chopped
2 Shallots Chopped
2 Garlic Cloves Chopped
3 Slices of Canadian Bacon
5 Cups Chicken Stock
1/4 Cup of Milk
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Olive Oil

1. In a little bit of olive oil, crisp up the Canadian Bacon.
2. Remove the bacon and turn down the heat.
3. Sweat out the onion, carrots, celery, shallots and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Sweating the veggies really brings out the flavor more. Keep the heat nice and low and keep the lid closed.
4. Add all the broccoli into the pot and sweat them for about 5 minutes. Until they have softened a bit.
5. Pour in all the chicken stock and bring to a simmer.
6. Add all the broccoli and some of the liquid into a blender or food processor. Play around with the amount of liquid being poured in, since it will be put through a sieve it will lose some of its volume, it is important to not put all the liquid in.
7. Put the mixture through a sieve and finish of with just the splash of milk to add some creaminess to it.
8. Put some blanched broccoli florets on the bottom with the crispy Canadian Bacon. Ladle in the soup and enjoy!

1 Pound Shrimp (I used shrimp with their heads because my fiance’ loves it)
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Black Pepper
1/2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tsp Siracho (Thai Chili Garlic Paste)
1 Lime Juiced
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1. Throw all the ingredients in a plastic bag and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
2. Place all ingredients in a pan and sautee for five minutes or until shrimp are fiery red and tender.

Chicken Marsala

1.5 Pounds Chicken Cutlets
1 10 Oz Package of Crimini Mushrooms
1 Shallot, Chopped Small
1/2 Cup Sherry Wine (or Marsala of course)
1/2 Cup Dry White Wine
1/4 Cup Chicken Stock
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

1. Season chicken cutlets liberally with salt and pepper.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan until it is hot.
3. Sear chicken on both sides until it develops a nice crust.
*Traditionally, the chicken cutlets are dredged in flour and then seared. However, I am trying to stick to a healthier diet. If you get the pan hot enough and let the chicken brown, you will not miss the flour at all.*
4. Remove the chicken to another plate.
5. Reduce heat to medium high and add shallots, add olive oil if necessary. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and scrape up the bottom to remove all the yummy bits.
6. Add the mushrooms and continue sauteeing until nice and rich in color, about 15 minutes.

7. Pour in wine and sherry. Let reduce by half and add chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Add in chicken and finish cooking; about 5 minutes.
*If the sauce is too thin, mix in some flour so that it thickens.*

Yesterday my fiance’ was feeling really icky still and I know that there is nothing better than a filling breakfast! So I went a bit crazy! Thanks to Pam from For The Love of Cooking, I have developed a sudden love for making muffins. I had several vanilla yogurts left over so I decided to make some muffins! Pam’s recipe really was delicious!
I made a cranberry orange muffin and a banana walnut muffin. Both equally delicious and moist!

I also made some nice spicy breakfast potatos to clear up his sinuses! I added 2 fried eggs on top and he was thrilled!

As for the 2 dozen muffins…I put them in a platic bag and gave them to my in-laws.

Spicy Breakfast Potatos

4 Large Red Potatos, Diced
1/2 Green Pepper, Diced
1/2 Spanish Onion, Diced
1/2 Jalapeno, Diced
1/4 Pound Canadian Bacon or Ham, Diced
2 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
2 Tsp Garlic Powder
2 Tsp Onion Powder
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper (Use less if you want it mild or you can leave it out)
2 Tsp Smoky Paprika
4 Eggs
1/4 Cup of Parmesan
Olive Oil

1. Place onions, peppers, Canadian bacon or ham and garlic into a pan with olive oil.
Saute on medium high until everything begins to caramalize.
2. Add potatos and all the spices. Cook for about 15 minutes until potatos are tender.
3. In the meantime, prepare 4 eggs and cook them to your liking.
4. Sprinkle the parmesan over the veggies and top with eggs!

Cranberry Orange Muffins
*This is based on Pam’s recipe..please check out her blog as it is one of my favorites!*

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of low fat yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Orange zest
1 Dried cranberries

1. Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl with the cranberries.
2. Combine all the wet ingredients in another bowl.
3. Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just to combine.
4. Spray down a muffin pan with oil spray and bake muffins at 325-degrees for 22-25 minutes!

*I used Pam’s exact recipe for my banana walnut muffins, except I subbed out a cup of walnuts instead of chocolate chips.*

I needed something extremely quick an simple for dinner one night. I had some chicken quarters that I wanted to use up. I stuck them in the marinade in the morning and it was ready to go for me in the evening. The sugar in the balsamic vinegar caused the skin to roast and crisp up beautifully! This was the closest that I have ever gotten to the flavor and texture of a rotissire chicken. I honestly think it had to do with the marinade as well as the roasting process. My fiancee could not stop raving about the chicken. I served it up with some whole wheat orzo with garlic, basil and tomatos. Later in the week I used one of the leftover chicken breasts in a simple garbage salad. Nothing more to say here, this dish was simple and delicious.

1 Whole Chicken, Cut up into Wuarters
2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Basil
2 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon Onion Powder
Salt and Pepper to Season
1 Plastic Bag

1. Place all ingredients into plastic bag. For at least 12 hours.
2. Set oven to “ROAST” at 450-degrees.
3. Place chicken parts on a roasting pan on the middle rack in the oven. Roast for about 25-30 minutes or until juices run clear.

*See…I told you it was simple

Green Chicken Soup

1/2 a Pound of Chicken Tenders
5 Cups Chicken Stock (this would be one of the only soups I recommend using homemade)
1 Bunch Dill, Chopped
1 Bunch Parsley, Chopped
1 Leek, Chopped (Do not use the tough green parts)
1 Bunch Scallions, Chopped
1/2 an Onion, Chopped
1 Bunch Kale or Spinach, Chopped
1 Tbsp of Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. Take all veggies and put in a collander and wash thouroughly, they all have a TON of dirt on them.
2. Heat chicken stock and bring to a nice slow simmer. Add chicken tenders and all veggies.
3. Let everything simmer nice and slow for 30 minutes. Remove chicken tenders once they are finished cooking.
4. Shred chicken tenders with a fork and add back into the soup.
5. Add lemon juice and serve!

*This is very tasty and you can put any greens you want into it. In Russia, sorrell leaves were plentiful and cheap and we added them to this soup. Here, they are hard to come by and very pricey, so use any greens you want and just add a bit of lemon juice for the tanginess!

There are probablly as many recipes for Minestrone soup as there are for chocolate chip cookies. Minestrone literally translates to “Big Soup.” It’s a very simple dish, typically containing vegetables in season, meats on hand, beans and rice or pastas. Several years ago I worked at a really great Italian restaurant. They had the best minestrone soup…THE BEST! It wasn’t only the flavor that was so unique but the texture. There was a unique technique that they used to thicken the soup which also changed the color. I was so excited when I finally learned how to duplicate the sou from the restaurant! The minestrone was filling and low cal, a perfect combination!

1 Large Onion, Chopped
2 Medium Carrots, Chopped into Half Moons
2 Stalks of Celery, Sliced
1 Yellow Squash, Cut into Half Moons
5 Stewed Tomatoes and 1/4 Cup of its Juice
1 Can of Cannolinni Beans
3 Cloves of Garlic, Thinly Sliced
3 Pieces Smoky Bacon, Sliced
1/8 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
5 Quarts Chicken Stock
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive Oil

1.In a heavy bottomed pan, pour 1 tsp olive oil and add in the bacon. On medium heat, sweat out the bacon so all the oils come out.
2. After the fat has sweated out of the bacon, add in the onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Toss to coat with the bacon.
3. Add in the chopped tomatoes and the tomato juice.
4. Add in your chicken stock and bring to a boil.
5. Take 1/4 of the beans and place in a blender or food processor. With a ladle, pour in about one cup of the soup and the veggies into the blender. Blend until a smooth puree. Stir in the mixture slowly into the soup, this will thicken the soup slightly.
6. Add in the rest of the beans, squash and red pepper flakes. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
7. Season to your liking and enjoy!!!

It’s cold in Chicago (naturally) and soup is always my favorite lunch and dinner! It always manages to warm me all over and fill my tummy up! I added a little extra heat to this particular soup with jalapenos and tasted great! I made it with some really lean chicken breast that I roasted off instead of just poaching it. I find that roasting it gives a nicer flavor. Finish it off with a squeeze of lime and fresh scallions and avocado give it the perfect bite. Simple, warm and delicious!

Mexican Chicken Soup

Roasted Chicken Breast

2 Lean Chicken Breasts
Sprinkle with Mexican Spice Rub
Dry Rub
2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Cayenne
1 Tbsp Cumin
2 Tbsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1/2 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp Dry Oregano

1. Roast in a 450-degree oven until juices run clear.
2. Let rest until cool to handle and shred with a fork.
*Chicken can be made a day ahead of time or you can use rotisserie chicken to make life a little easier.*

Soup

1 Green Pepper, Diced
1 Red Pepper, Diced
1 Onion, Diced
2 Carrots, Half Moons
2 Celery Stalks, Chopped
3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Jalapeno, Finely Diced (if you like it mild just remove the seeds)
1 Handful Cilantro, Chopped
1/4 Cup Tomato Puree
1/2 Cup Frozen Corn
1 Qt Chicken Stock
Olive Oil

1. In a large pot, sweat all veggies together in olive oil, leaving out the corn.
2. Once all the veggies are fragrant, pour in the chicken stock and tomato puree and bring to a boil.
3. Let simmer on low for 30 minutes.
4. Taste for seasoning and add corn and shredded chicken once the soup is done. Serve with diced avocado, cilantro and fresh scallions.

It’s Latin Week! Yeay! I wanted to cook with some really fresh and vibrant flavors. My chicken breast combines citrus, garlic and cilantro to create a nice and simple chicken dish that is extremely versatile. Combined with Spanish Rice and you have a great complete meal for any day of the week!

Citrus Cilantro Chicken
6 Chicken Breasts, Cleaned and Trimmed of Fat
1 Lemon, Juiced and Zested
1 Orange, Juiced and Zested
Handful of Cilantro, Roughly Chopped
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Tbsp Salt
1/2 Tbsp Pepper
1 Tsp Cumin
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 Large Plastic Ziplock Bag

1. Place chicken breasts into plastic bag.
2. Combine juice and zest of lemon and orange. Add seasonings and olive oil. Stir to combine.
3. Place in refridgerator for at least 5 hours, over night is best.
4. Preheat oven to 450-degrees.
5. Place chicken breasts in a baking dish and cook for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and juices run clear.

Spanish Rice

2 Cups of Long Grain Par Boiled Rice
4 1/4 Cups Water
2 Packets of Goya Tomato and Chicken Boullion
1 Large Tomato
1/2 Red Pepper Diced
1/2 Green Pepper Diced
1 Red Onion, Diced
1 Jalapeno Pepper, Sliced
2 Garlic Cloves , Minced
1 Tsp Turmeric
Olive Oil

1. Add enough olive oil into a pot to cover the bottom.
2. Turn the heat to medium and add jalapenos. Let jalapenos sweat out so the heat and flavor infuses the oil.
3. Cut the tomato in half and squeeze out the juices of it, this will allow you to cut the tomato nicely and you can use the juice for the rice as well.
4. After about five minutes, remove the jalapeno with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil in the pot.
5. Add in the rest of the vegetables and let them sweat for 5-10 minutes, until soft and fragarent.
6. Add in the rice and combine with veggies.
7. Pour in water, tomato pulp and juice, turmeric and the Goya Packets.
*I was very against using the Goya packets, however, they add a really great authentic flavor without any extra fat. The turmeric adds a really beautiful yellow color to the rice*

8. Bring the rice up to a boil and then cover and let cook for 25 minutes on low heat, covered.
9. Fluff with a fork and serve piping hot.

Spaghetti and meatballs is a classic Italian American favorite. I have my own recipe that I have posted on here . It actually has taken me a long time to perfect this recipe and I am finally quite happy with it.
Now I am a HUGE Ina Garten fan and there has not been a dish yet that I made that I wasn’t happy with. However, this dish, I feel is more American than it is Italian. I was very determined to see what the difference in my recipe and Ina’s was, so therefore, I followed the recipe exactly. (I did run out of red wine so I had to substitute with white wine. I also substituted whole wheat pasta instead of regular pasta) The combination of the 2 different types of breadcrumbs definitely created a different texture, more spongy than anything else. Now I do not think that this is necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not what I am used to for meatballs. The three different meats did not change much of the flavor for me. I would rather stick to lean ground meat and save on the calories. The sauce was actually quite delicious, but again not traditional marinara.
All in all I have to say…I was very pleased with the dish…but I will stick to my recipe…Sorry Ina

Ingredients
For the meatballs:

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

Heheheh I love this pic!

Alright…I will admit it…I don’t do football…I’m not even sure I know most of the rules…In fact, I didn’t even know what teams were playing this year. OK there is your shock value for the year…I am just here for the Super Bowl parties! Yup I am a Super Bowl party whore! Sorry:) Whenever there is some big game on, I always volunteer our house as the party house! I love serving the game munchies and drinking and chatting. Last year we had over 30 people for the game! It was exhausting! Our kitchen table quickly turned into a local liquor store, complete with Tequila, Vodka and every variety of beer you can imagine! There was an abundant amount of food and unfortunately at the end of the night, an enormous amount of clean-up for me I decided from there on out…I limit game night to 15 people!

Initially, my fiance wanted to have a small gathering of “just the guys” at the house, because apparently “the girls just wait for the commercials anyhow and interrupt our game experience with their constant gossip!” I, however, was not about to endure this whole Super Bowl thing without my girls! So I invited all the guys and their significant others and by the beginning of last week we had 15 people RSVP. Perfect I thought. Unfortunately, by mid-week that happy fifteen had dwindled down to a pathetic 4, 2 of whom were me and my fiance.

Naturally, at that point I decided on just getting wings and pizza from Cosco and cathcing a movie with the girls while the boys gamed, burped and scratched.

Come Sunday morning we had some more RSVP’s and I knew I would need to do some cooking! So I looked into my fridge and saw what I could conjure up last minute. I had some ground beef and I was making Cuban Pork Carnitas for the week (it’s Latin Week!)…hmmmmm…my little menu plans went to work!

Quickly, I ran to the grocery store, grabbed some tortillas and King’s Hawiian Dinner Rolls. My fiance picked up some DiGiorno Pizza and some delish Tyson Honey BBQ Wings from Cosco. What am I going to do with all these wacky ingredients you ask??? Simple: Sliders with Caramelized Onion and Zesty Aioli on Hawaiian Kings Bread and Cuban Pork Quesadillas with Avocado! GOOOO TEAM!

Surprisingly…I actually watched the game…well not all of it…but definitely all of the commercials! There ended up being 6 of us…and I could not have been happier with that number! The boys decided that they were going to get trashed and my friend Kate and I decided to join them just for the heck of it.

Sliders on Hawaiian Bread Rolls

Makes 12 Sliders

1 1/3 Pound Ground Chuck
1/4 Onion, Grated
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and Pepper To Taste
1 Tbsp. Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp. Onion Powder
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
12 King’s Hawaiian Bread Dinner Rolls
3 Pieces Gouda Cut, Each Slice Cut into 4 Pieces
2 Homemade Caramelized Onions (See French Onion Recipe)

1. Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
2. Make 12 little sliders, ensuring that the edges are thicker than the middle.
3. Coat a grill pan (or your outside grill) with spray oil.
4. Sear on both sides and let rest until ready to serve. Add smoked Gouda slices, and finish them off right before serving in a 450-degree oven for about 5-7 minutes, until pink in the middle and cheese is melty.

5. Cut rolls in half and smear zesty aioli sauce (see below) on the top buns. Place burger onto bun, layer up some caramelized onions and top off with the top bun!

Zesty Aioli

1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Garlic Clove, Minced
1 Tsp Garlic Chilli Paste
1 Tsp Good Hot Sauce
1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/2 Tsp Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. Combine all ingredients and use as a shmear on anything from burgers to panninis!

Cuban Carnita Quesadillas

1 Onion Sliced
1 Bay Leaf
3 Pounds Pork Butt or Any Tough Pork Meat
5 Cups of Chicken or Beef Stock
3 Tortillas (Large)
1 Avocado

Dry Rub
2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Cayenne
2 Tbsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Garlic Powder
2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1/2 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp Dry Oregano

1. Combine all ingredients of your dry rub and pat onto the pork. Making sure to cover all surface ares. *This will make more than you need for this recipe. But it is a great spice mixture to use on anything!* Cover and let stand in refridgerator for at least 3 hours, best if kept overnight.

2. Remove from fridge and sear meat on all sides until a beautiful golden crust is formed.

3. Place into your favorite crockpot, add in onions and bay lead abd cover with enough stock to submerge pork. Cook for 4-5 hours or until meat shreds easily. *When storing, make sure you store with some of the cooking liquid so that the meat remains moist.*

4. Spray down a large 14″ frying pan with oil spray.
5. Place tortilla down and layer on a bit of Carnitas meat, diced avocado and Chihuhah Cheese.

6. Fold over and squish the ends together so the cheese melts and act like a glue.

7. Turn over and cook on other side. Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.
Serve alongside some homemade Pico de Gallo and sour cream!

I had a bunch of Labne yogurt leftover and was reminded of this chicken recipe. I used to make this chicken in the summertime on the grill all the time. The mild tanginess of the yogurt and the sweetness of the ketchup creates a flavor profile that is hard to resist. Finish it off with some spicy herb potatoes and a perfect dinner awaits you!

“The recipe originally called for chicken breast, however, I found some beautiful boneless, skinless chicken thighs on sale this week and used those instead. They were moist and even more flavorful than the chicken breasts.”

Shish Tawook

1.5 pounds Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Thighs
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs ketsup
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika

1. Trim fat and excess membranes from chicken thighs.
2. Cut chicken into 1/2 inch cubes and place in a plastic bag.
3. Place all ingredients into the plastic bag and shake to combine, making sure chicken is covered.
4. Let marinate in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
5. If grilling outdoors, skewer onto metal skewers and grill about 5 minutes on each side, rotating so that they do not burn. Otherwise preheat oven to 450-degrees and cook for 10-15 minutes on a greased pan.

Batata Harra

2.5 Pounds Red Potatoes, Washed, Dried and Cut into Cubes
1 Handful Chopped Parsley
1 Handful Chopped Cilantro
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1 Tsp Salt
8 Cloves Minced Garlic
1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1. Lay potatoes out on foil sheet pan and toss lightly in 2 tbsp olive oil. Place in a 450-degree oven until potatoes are done, 30 minutes.
2. Add the remaining olive oil to a pan along with the remaining ingredients.
3. Cook on medium heat fro 10 minutes, make sure not burn the herbs and garlic.
4. Remove the potatoes from the oven and pour the herb garlic mixture over them.

Serve this dish with a nice Middle Eastern salad.

I stumbled upon Avesta’s wonderful blog accidentally and discovered some of her awesome Middle Eastern recipes. One of which reminded me of a dish my mother used to make. Dolmades, traditionally are grape leaves filled with a rice and vegetable mixture. My mom used to make them with the Russian influence, a dish similar to the traditional Ukrainian stuffed cabbage rolls, “Golubtsi”. Instead of the usual rice and pork mixture, she added in parsley, dill, diced tomatos, tomato paste, scallions and diced beef. My mom then stuffed them into grape leaves and cabbage and they were poached in a broth and devoured almost immediately!

Avesta’s recipe was very similar and it inspired me to make them during my Middle Eastern week. I combined ground lamb, herbs, rice and a variety of spices to make these delectable rolls. I myself had 2 immediately after cooking them! Use your own creativity to combine limitless flavors! On Avesta’s site she demonstrates several different vegetables that can be used to stuff! Thanks Avesta for this wonderful recipe!
*Please view Avesta’s site for this wonderful recipe!

Here is how they look as you wrap them!

One of the reasons that I love Sundays so much is because I do not feel guilty about having a nice breakfast at noon! I love waking up later on Sundays and cooking a nice filling breakfast. A good warm cup of coffee with a filling breakfast always puts a smile on my face and my fiance’s!

Anyone who has ever gone out and partied too late, has a favorite greasy food to help them absorb the surplus of alcohol. My friends and I used to go to a Greek diner that was always better at 4am than it was at 4pm I always ordered one thing, “The Gypsy Skillet”. A skillet filled with sauteed peppers, onions, ham potatoes and smothered in deliciously evil liquid cheese. As if that was not enough, they covered it with two eggs, cooked to your liking, my choice was always over easy.
Yes this was the perfect 4am, after clubbing treat. While, this meal would have had no effect on my weight 5 years ago, now I have to think of it a bit differently. I clearly cut out the liquidy cheese concoction (who knows what’s in that anyhow!) and changed two eggs into 1. All in all an extremely delicious breakfast that prepared me for a night of Super Bowl drinking

My Gypsy Skillet

*This recipe fed both my fiance and myself, however I did take a much smaller portion for myself, since I am trying to watch my weight. My portion is pictured in the picture below for anyone who is interested.*

3 eggs
1/2 A Large Onion, Chopped
1/2 A Green Pepper, Chopped
1/2 A Red Pepper, Chopped
1 Scallion, Sliced
1/4 Pound Canadian Bacon, Diced
4 Medium Red Potato’s, Diced
2 Slices Swiss Cheese
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

1. Saute potato in olive oil for ten minutes.
2. Add in onion and peppers. Continue cooking for 10 more minutes.
3. Add Canadian bacon and cook until potatoes are cooked.
4. In another non-stick pan, cook 3 eggs to your liking.
5. Top the veggie skillet with 2 slices of cheese and melt. Top off plate with eggs and take a sip of your coffee! Enjoy!

*Sometimes this is the perfect dinner for me as well!*

Chicken, in my opinion, is probably the easiest to cook…and can also be the blandest. I wanted to make a very flavorful chicken with simple ingredients. I made a similar version to this dish once in culinary school and it was so perfect. I have been doing different variations of this dish ever since, this recipe is by far my favorite so far. Some shallots, pancetta and a whole lot of garlic make this dish absolutely irresistible!
The potatos were super simple. I cut up a bunch of Yukon Golds and roasted them with olive oil, fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Easy and perfect!

1 Whole Fryer Chicken Cut Up
2 Shallots, Diced
4 Oz Pancetta, Diced (You can use regular bacon, but I had Pancetta in the house)
4 Sprigs of Thyme
20 Cloves of Garlic
1 Cup of White Wine
1 Cup of Chicken Stock (or enough to cover the chicken 1/2 way up)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to Season

1. Heat a heavy bottom pan to smoking point with the olive oil in it.
2. Season chicken heavily with salt and pepper.
3. Add to pan, skin side down and brown on each side. Make sure you get a nice crust on the chicken. It will add a lot of flavor to the sauce.
4. Remove the chicken from the pan and lower the heat to medium.
5. Sweat the shallots, pancetta, thyme and garlic together. The pancetta should begin to brown nicely. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom well to pick up all the brown bits. Let the wine reduce by half.

7. Add in your chicken and pour in chicken stock. Making sure your chicken is covered half-way up.
8. Continue cooking this on low, just barely simmering for 45 minutes. Make sure to turn the chicken over half way through.
9. Once the chicken is done, remove it from the pan. Boil the sauce and reduce to a thicker consistency. Tasts for seasoning and pour over chicken.

I found salmon at a really great price this week and wanted to do something simple and tasty. Salmon is one of those really forgivable fishes, it takes on practically any flavor and even overcooked it tastes alright. Being French week and all, I wanted to do something inspired by the French. “En Papillote” seemed like the perfect idea. En Papillote is a gentle method where the fish cooks in an enclosed packet, typically made of parchment paper. It steams in its own moisture and creates its own sauce of natural juices.
I love cooking En Papillote for a small crowd. They each get to have their own little package and as they unwrap it, a strong aroma escapes from it and invites them to dig in.
My mother used to bake her fish in the oven like this. She only used simple aromatics to blend with the juices of the fish and create a nice delicate sauce.
I unfortunately ran out of Parchment paper so I used the next best thing, foil.
The result was perfect…nice, light and extremely flavorful! I paired it up with some steamed broccoli with garlic oil.

Salmon En Papillote

1 Fillet of Salmon
1/2 a Red Onion, sliced
1/2 a Red Pepper, sliced
1/2 a Lemon, Sliced
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Lay out fish on parchment paper or foil and season with salt and pepper.
*If serving individual portion, just up the salmon into pieces and serve in individual packages*
2. Nicely place all the veggies on the salmon fillet.
3. Finish off with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice.
4. Place in a 450-degree oven for 15-20 minutes.
5. Serve immediately in its packaging!

This ladies and gentleman I present to you is the Russian meatloaf…or maybe the Russian “mama-burger”…OK what it really is, is ground meat combined with onions and seasoning, fried to perfection to create little patties of goodness. Moist and delicious, this recipe definitely takes me back to eating at my paternal grandmother’s house as a kid. There, no ounce of fat was spared. My grandmother would fry them in butter and sunflower oil, until they were perfectly brown and delicious. My mother on the other hand, used ground chicken or turkey instead of beef and fried them in as little sunflower oil as possible. I grew up and I made them the way my mother used to because that’s the only way I knew how. Don’t get me wrong they were delicious, just not traditional. I wouldn’t dare try anyone else’s “kotleti” because they weren’t my mom’s. That is until last year. My best friend, Marina, calls me up and tells me that her mother-in-law Vera, taught her how to make perfect “kotleti”. She says,
“You know Mila, real “kotleti” not the kind you make.”
Naturally, I had to try these, she down right offended me!
I did try them and they were AMAZING! Just like babushka (grandma) used to make! Fattening little suckers they are, but hey just one won’t hurt.
This is the only recipe I ever use to make “kotleti” (thanks Vera!) I just try and pair it up with something healthy and eat just one (sometimes). The only thing I did change was that I finish them up in the oven instead of frying them on the pan the entire time. It saves me time and lightens up the fat. This time, I served it up a nice healthy side of buckwheat, a Russian staple, and a light salad of tomato, cucumber and red onion. Enjoy!

Kotleti
5 pounds of ground beef (I used 85% lean and they turned out great)
2 onions, pureed in a food processor until finely minced
3 pieces of bread, soaked in water
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients well by hand. Make sure you squeeze out the water from the bread so that your force meat won’t be soggy.
2. Form little oval patties with your hands. Try not to work them too much, you want them to remain nice and fluffy.
3. Fry them up on each side until they are a nice golden brown. Lay them out on paper towels to suck up the oil a bit.

4. Pour all the oil out of the pan and finish them up in a 500 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes, until juices run clear.

Enjoy!

Sometimes you need something simple, really simple. Something that is comforting and delicious. For me it was always roast chicken. No matter what age I was, roast chicken always did it for me. For starters, it will always fill up your home with the most delicious smells! I always told my friends that if they were expecting a boy to come over and they wanted to impress them…just stick a chicken in the oven and they will be floored!

A few weeks ago, as I was skimming Peter’s Blog, I noticed the Greek chicken he did over potatoes. I was inspired! I used to do this all the time because I didn’t have a roasting pan, so I just made a one dish meal and made my life easy.

My in-laws were coming over and because of traffic I only had an hour to make dinner. This was perfect. I threw a bunch of Yukon golds on the bottom of the pan then placed the chicken on top. The skin on the chicken was crispy and inside it was so very tender! The potatos were probablly some of the best I had had from the oven! And my house smelled like goodness for the next few days! I paired with a nice salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions (my favorite) and toasted whole wheat bread. Unfortunately, the in-laws could not make it because of the bad weather. But my fiance’ and I feasted like kings, he even gnawed on the bone a little…

Rosemary Chicken and Roasted Potatoes

1 Whole Chicken
5 Pounds of Yukon Gold Potatoes, Cut Into Bite-Size Pieces
5 Cloves of Garlic, (Mince 4 of Them)
5 Sprigs of Rosemary (4 Sprigs Chopped)
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 a lemon, juiced
1 Tbsp of Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper

Preheat Oven to 450-degrees

1. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, seasonings, and chopped rosemary.
2. Place the potatoes on the bottom of a pan with sides and toss it in half the olive oil mixture. Add minced garlic to the potatoes.
3. Place chicken directly on top of the potatos and rub the oil mixture on it. Then sprinkle with garlic powder. Fill cavity with remaining garlic clove, rosemary sprig and the juiced lemon.
4. Place in the oven for 35-45 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken, or until juices run clear.
5. Remove chicken from the pan and pour access juices from the cavity onto the potatos, stir potatoes gently to combine with all the juices. *My potatoes required just a bit longer cooking than the chicken. So at this point I stuck them back into the oven for about 15 minutes until they were soft on the inside.*

These potatoes really were incredible! It’s amazing how sweet and tangy they were at the same time! I will definitley be going back to this next time I need a quick fix!

Pickling, canning and preserving has been a staple of the Russian way of life for generations. Ordinarily people would pickle, cure and salt their foods to preserve them for the winter. My grandmother and mother would spend days canning everything from jams to pickled watermelon! (Now, before you cringe, pickled watermelon is actually quite delicious. You just have to eat it with your eyes closed because your eyes cannot believe that watermelon and salty would go together, but it does and it’s awesome!)
I grew up in Moldova, a country next to Romania, where we had plenty of seasonal fruits, vegetables and great wine, at least that’s what the area was known for. The one beauty of growing up there was that everything that I ate was always in its peak season, so it always tasted as it should. When I tasted a tomato in Chicago for the first time, I didn’t know what it was. It just did not have the same aroma or flavor. In fact, it took me quite some time to get used to the taste of meat and fresh produce here.

Russian recipes have stayed the same for generations. There have definitely been times when I wanted to lighten up recipes and change them. However, it never turned out quite right. I realized that although Russian food can be very fattening, (for example, one of the best things that Russians eat is something called “salo” which is the equivalent of Italian “lardo”. Basically it is bacon, but with a little less meat and a bit more fat…mmmm I can almost feel the pounds piling up on my thighs!) sometimes a little bit is all you need. Russian food, is ultimate comfort food and we all need a little bit of that fromt time to time. Originally food was meant to keep energy and spirits up in the winter and that it certainly does!

It has come to my understanding that most people do not know the vast number of countries that influence this part of the world. When the Mongols took over they left their imprint on the region with dumplings known as “pelmeni”, noodles and smoked sturgeon. When Peter the Great took over he introduced trade with France and therefore a bit of classical French cuisine and preparation techniques were evident, especially with royalty. Elegant desserts and elaborate buffets were all part of this time era and still remain as a cultural staple. Tea was introduced in the 18th century by the China trade. Southern Russia, which is located next to the Caspian Sea, is the producer of some of the world’s greatest caviar, Osetra. Ukraine (where my fiance’ is from) popularized breads and grains and introduced the first recipe of Borscht, the traditional Russian beet soup. Lastly and my personal favorite is the Caucus region. Countries like Georgia and Armenia, introduced spices such as saffron, pepper, cumin, and coriander and my favorite meat of all, Shashlyk: large cuts of meat cooked on an open flame over natural wood and served with fresh onions.

Most Russian food I love for its simplicity of flavors and preparation methods. It’s a shame that people do not know about Russian culture or its cuisine because I gotta tell you, once the vodka starts pouring and the food starts coming, the party isn’t ending!

For as long as I can remember my family went to Reza’s. I always had this gitty feeling when I knew we were going to there. I would day dream about it in school and look forward to it all day. The food was always great, inexpensive and filling. They have HUGE portions…HUGE! Mostly everyone at our table always left most of the meal on their plates…except my dad, my uncle and myself, we put away the entire meal! My mom warned me each time to stop, that I will feel sick …but I never listened and every time I would slouch on the chair, slowly making my way under the table to take a much-needed nap, growning from my full tummy. My mom would say, “Why would you do that? Look at your stomach, look!! This is more food than you have eaten all month! You cannot do this to yourself.” I would look up at her, with a miserable smile and say, “But once I start, I cannot stop. I have to eat it all. How would dad and my uncle look at me if I didn’t eat it all?” My mom would throw her hands in the air and say that one day I would learn. I can still put away an entire plate of food today but I choose not to and instead take it home. To this day I still crave to go there and get excited about eating their food.

I have duplicated almost every recipe they have at the restaurant, except one. Their soup. It’s this delicious lentil and tomato soup that I absolutely love. It’s totally vegetarian and has a ton of flavor in it. It has that unique combination of eccentric spices known to the middle eastern world.

I made it yesterday in an attempt to continue my vegetarian style diet. (I say style, because I am eating meat, just not every day.) It was almost identical to the one in Reza’s. My fiance’ was very against tasting it because I told him that it was vegetarian. I put it out for him when I went upstairs to blog last night. I came down…the bowl was licked clean!
“I liked, even better than Reza’s!” He said.
Ahhh music to my ears, my recipe is better than Reza’s brilliant!

I based it off of a recipe I found on recipezaar.com, funny enough a woman was looking for the same soup recipe. The recipe definitely needed a bit of tweaking. I added a lot of my own spices that I know are traditionally used in Persian and middle eastern cuisine in general. It was filling and absolutely delicious!
I placed a dollop of middle eastern yogurt on top and it finished it of nicely.

*You can find the original recipe here *

Persian Lentil and Tomato Soup

1 cup lentils, rinsed
7 cups vegetable stock (I used Trader Joes, which was very flavorful)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups stewed tomatoes, crushed
2 teaspoons salt
1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 tsp sumac
3 tsp 7-spice
1/4 cup brown basmati rice, uncooked
juice of 1 lemon

*If you have never seen sumac, I recommend that you try using it in all your middle eastern recipes. It is regularly used in that region of the world. It has a tart flavor to it and was originally used in food before the Romans introduced lemons. It goes well with chicken, beef, hummus almost anything. In fact, you will usually see it sitting on tables next to the salt in pepper in most good middle eastern restaurants. 7-Spice is also very popular and frequently used. It’s a spice blend with cumin, ground coriander, paprika, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamon. It really gives that middle eastern flare to the dish.*

1. Add lentils to stock and bring up to a boil. Cover and continue cooking on medium low for 25 minutes.
2. Sautee onions and garlic together and let them sweat. You do not want any color.
3. Add tomatoes, parsley and all seasoning and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add onion mixture and rice to the lentils and stock. Turn down the heat and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes on medium heat, until the lentils and rice are tender. At this point, add lemon juice.
5. Pour into a bowl and add a dollop of middle eastern yogurt called “Labne”.

*I think next time I do this dish I may do it a bit differently. It came out a bit chunky which is OK, but I am going to puree the tomatoes and onions next time and then add it to the soup. The color actually looks nicer that way and you get a more homogeneous consistency.*

I love broiling the fritatta because it gets perfectly cooked on top and the cheese gets all melty and gooey.

Clean Out the Fridge Frittata

2 eggs
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 onion, chopped
2 large pieces grilled eggplant (or any other leftover veggies)
2 scallions, sliced
4 pieces of turkey bacon, rouchly diced
2 slices of Swiss Cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a non-stick pan pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom.
2. Add in all your vegetables and turkey bacon and saute on medium to high heat, until slight color develops, about 10 minutes.
3. While veggies are cooking, whip together eggs, sour cream and salt and pepper in a blender or mixer; blend for about 45 seconds or until frothy.
4. Add in eggs to the vegetable mix and turn off heat. Top with cheese.
5. Place under broiler until top has melted and all of the eggs are cooked.
Enjoy!

For the past few nights, this has been my dinner. I spread this salad/spread on a few pieces of toasted whole grain bread. Sometimes when I am being really bad, I will do it on good Russian “grey bread” or the American equivalent, sourdough bread.
Those simple flavors are sometimes all that I need…

Roasted Eggplant Spread

3 large eggplants
1 tomato
1/2 an onion
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Wash and dry your eggplants well. Place them on a baking sheet or roasting pan.
3. Poke some holes in the eggplants with a fork to give the steam somewhere to go.
4. Pour some oil on top of the eggplants so that they don’t dry up in the oven.
5. Place in the oven and roast for about 45 minutes. Or until they look deflated, like the above picture.
6. Place them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap so that they can “steam”. This process will make the removal of the skin much easier.
7. If you have time, let the eggplants cool, it will be easier to handle them while removing the skin. If you are like me and you don’t have time, then just put on some rubber gloves and work fast!
8. Remove the skin and cut of the top stem. Drop the cleaned eggplants into a colander and leave to drain for about 10 minutes. Usually, if I haven’t had time to cool them, I place a bowl underneath the colander and stick it in the freezer. That way it drains and cools at the same time!
9. Place the eggplants on a large cutting board and run your chefs knife through it a couple times. Just rock your knife back and forth to create a paste. Place in a bowl and smash up a bit more with a spoon, just so that it’s one “paste”.
10. Chop up your tomato and onion finely. Add to the eggplant mixture along with salt, pepper and good extra virgin olive oil.
11. Spread on some good bread or even crackers and enjoy!

After a long New Year’s Eve and day of eating and drinking, I had some some severe tummy issues. Clearly it was not happy with me and my consumption in the previous few days. Not to mention my pet allergies were running wild that day! Sneeze after sneeze can definitley wear a person out! I literally spent all day Friday on the couch watching the food channel. Inspired by all the great food but with no physical energy to make any, my worst nightmare.

At night I decided that I had just enough energy to make a quick dinner for me and my fiancee. I had some meatloaf and some of my homemade chicken soup leftover in the freezer. So I decided to do something fun with it. There is no recipe here it was just some quick add-ins to leftovers.

I heated some soup in a pot. In another pot, I sweated out one onion, several chopped baby carrots and 2 stalks of celery. I added fresh thyme and seasoning to that. Once it sweated out nicely and the flavors had developed, I added it to the chicken soup and stirred to combine. Then I threw in some angel hair pasta just to give it a bit of caloric value.

With the meatloaf I decided to make a meatloaf melt. I caramalized 1/2 an onion in a saute pan. Then I toasted up 2 slices of bread so they were good and crusty. I placed the meatloaf onto the bread, topped with the onions and added a slice of Swiss cheese; under the broiler it went. It came out beautifully crusty and melty on the inside. I just had a bite of the sandwich but my fiancee said that, “It hit the spot,” which works for me

This pasta was creamy, lemony and very filling! It was one of our saddest days when they took it off the menu. So being the only cook out of all my friends, I decided to duplicate it. About 6 years ago I did it, I replicated the recipe. But it wasn’t exactly the quickest thing in the world. Today, with the help of my favorite friend, Trader Joe, I was able to make a very quick and satisfying meal. With a few fresh ingredients I am able to wake up the flavors and make the sauce my own. Unfortunately, it’s not the most diet friendly, so I threw in some whole grain pasta with flax seed to make up for the sauce.

*Ruth from Presto Pasta Nights will be hosting this recipe on her site! Check it out!*

Lemon Tuscan Pasta

1/2 pound spaghette or angel hair pasta
1 jar Trader Joes Alfredo Sauce (you can also use homemade if you have it)
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 an onion, finely diced
1/4 cup good Parmasan Cheese
zest off of 1/2 a lemon
juice of 1 lemon

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for pasta.
2. Once the water has come to a boil, start the sauce. On a very low flame add butter to a deep saute pan. Once butter melts add garlic and onion. Close lid and let the onion and garic “sweat” in the butter. You do not want any color on it. It needs to go very slow and just develop the flavors. *The smell of butter cooking with onions and garlic, has to be the best smell in the world! When my fiance’ walked into the house and got a whif he was instantly excited about dinner!*
3. Once garlic and onions are translucent and very fragrant, add in your sauce and lemon zest. Scrape every bit of the sauce in, it tends to get stuck in the jar. Let it simmer just enough to get thick. At the very end add in the cheese and lemon juice. *Be very careful with the lemon juice! Do not add any acidity to a cream sauce while it is boiling. It will seperate and you will have a big globby mess! Add it in slowly, at the end.*
4. Once the pasta is done, add it to the sauce with tongs. Don’t worry about the water from the pasta, it will combine nicely with the sauce.
5. Serve with a twist of lemon and a sprinkle of Parmasan Cheese on top.

Herb Crusted Chicken

2 lbs of chicken breast
seasoned Italian bread crumbs
1 egg
1 handful of Italian Parsley, finely chopped
zest off of 1 lemon
Olive oil to fry

1. Remove fat from chicken breasts. Cut the chicken breast in half horizontally. I hate pounding out chicken breasts, it scares my cat and frankly just makes too much noise. Instead, I just cut it in half and they get thin that way at the same time they make more portions.
2. In a plate, combine breadcrumbs with parsley and lemon zest.
3. In another plate scramble one egg with 1 tablespoon of water.
4. Preheat the pan on high and pour enough oil in the pan to come up about half way on the chicken.
5. Dip the chicken in egg and then in the breadcrumbs.
6. Fry until golden brown on each side. Lay out on paper towels to drain the fat.
7. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley.

Everyone loves potatoes in our family! EVERYONE! I can have 15 different potato side dishes and they will all get eaten! Every year I look for something different when it comes to potatoes. Earlier this year, my fiance’s mother made these amazing little potatoes. When she initially placed them on the table, they looked like little pastry puffs more than anything else. No one even knew that they were potatoes. That’s the beauty about them they are super easy to make but impress all!

Now I will be honest, I don’t have a recipe. But this is super easy!
You want to peel the potatoes and make sure they are no smaller than a golf ball and no bigger than a tennis ball. (Obviously they shouldn’t be round but at least this can give you an idea of how big they should be). I usually figure about 4-5 potatoes per person, they go FAST. Place the potatoes in a pot full of water and for every gallon of water use 1 tablespoon of Kosher Salt. *The salt is why the potatoes brown so beautifully in the oven , so make sure you put it in*
Take out two of your racks out of the oven and preheat it to 450-degrees. As soon as the potatoes reach a boil, dump them onto a collander and then line them up on the racks. (This was the reason you don’t want them too small, because they will fall through the racks.) Stick it into the oven for about 15-20 minutes. You will know that they are done once you see the beautiful golden brown color! Serve immediately to the table.
*Please note, if you are making these ahead of time, just take them out of the oven once they are ready and let them stay on the racks. Right before service, stick them back in the oven and allow them to crisp up again and they will be ready for you!*

I served these up with a very simple butter mixture. I took some melted butter and combined it with freshly grated garlic, salt and pepper. Serve it in a seperate bowl and tell your guests to crack open the potato with a fork and then drizzle the buttery goodness all over the potato!
That’s it! Easy and all your guests will think this took you hours to make!

Not So Green, Green Beans

1 Bag of Trader Joes Frozen Green Beans
7 shallots, sliced
8 slice of bacon, cut into small pieces
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

1. Place bacon pieces into pan and sautee to render fat.
2. Once fat has rendered, remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and add in shallots. Sautee on medium high heat, until golden brown and soft, about 10 minutes.
3. Add green beans and cooked bacon pieces. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
*If you are making this ahead of time like I did. Do steps 1 and 2 and then put it in the fridge. Once you are ready, throw them in the pan, add green beans and they will taste like you have been slaving at them all day!*

I love bread pudding! I always have! It’s comforting, easy and always a crowd pleaser. At least it always was with my clients. This was the first time that I made bread pudding for my family and friends. My God, the faces I got when I started serving this up to them! They looked at me and we’re all like, “Umm no thanks, we’ll pass on that.” I was like, “No, this is good, try it.” They all waived their heads “no” in unison. So I shoved a spoonful into my best friend Marina’s, mouth, and she was like, “Oh my God! This is amazing…wow!” And then they all joined in!

I don’t remember where I got this recipe but I tweeked it a lot. To the point where now, it really is my recipe. I served it up with plain whip cream out of the bottle. I forgot to buy whipping cream so I had no time to make my own. I also just had some last night and I put it together with vanilla ice cream. It was delicious!

White and Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding

1 loaf of Hawiian Bread
6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 ounces imported white chocolate, chopped
4 large eggs
1/2 cup plus 4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup whole milk
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

1. Combine bread, chocolate, and white chocolate in large bowl and toss to blend.
2. A hand whisk, beat eggs, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and vanilla in another large bowl to blend. Gradually beat in 1 1/2 cups cream and milk.
3. Add cream mixture to bread mixture; stir to combine. Let stand 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray.
5. Transfer bread mixture to prepared dish, spreading evenly. Drizzle with remaining 1/2 cup cream. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
6. Bake the pudding until edges are golden and custard is set in center, about 1 hour. Cool pudding slightly.
*I actually cooked the bread pudding for 30 minutes the night before. Then on the day of the party I stuck it into the oven while we were having dinner. By the time we were ready to eat dessert, the chocolate was all gooey and melted!*

It was actually very easy to eat this without feeling guilty! Typically I won’t eat lasagna because it is loaded with fat and calories. But with this one, I did not put a thick coat of cheese on top and there was more veggies than pasta. I did use a lot of ricotta but that’s a whey protein which is actually very good for you! It’s also a really great way to get picky kids or a picky fiance’, who doesn’t like veggies, to eat plenty of vegetables, without them knowing it!
I gave it to him for lunch the next day and he called me up and said,
“Look babe, I expect a lot out of you with your cooking, but this was top notch! Restaurant quality! I don’t even like lasagna! But this yum!”

To that I replied, “Well good, I’m glad that my $50,000 education didn’t go to waste and I could still make restaurant quality lasagna!”

Roasted Veggie Lasagna

1 red onion, cut into large wedges
1 yellow pepper, cut into large chunks
1 red pepper, cut into large chunks
1/2 a package of Trader Joe’s Grigliato Misto, or roast your own eggplant and zucchini
10 oz package of frozen spinach, defrosted
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chiffonade
lasagna noodles
1 jar of marinara, store bought or homemade
12 oz ricotta cheese
1 bag of shredded cheese, about 2 cups
1 table spoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place cut up onion and peppers onto a sheet pan coated with olive oil and seasoning. Roast at 450 degrees until lightly brown in color, about 20-25 minutes.

2. Take vegetables out of oven and place in the freezer to cool them quickly. You don’t need them cold, just cool enough to handle with your hands.
3. Cut up the roasted veggies into small pieces, including zucchini and eggplant. This is no place to get exact with your knife skills, just run your knife quickly through all the veggies.
4. Toss all roasted veggies with garlic and basil and preheat your oven to 350-degrees.
5. Take a 9X9 pan and coat it with pan spray.
6. Coat the bottom with a layer of marinara sauce.
7. Put a layer of lasagna noodles on the bottom. *A lot of stores now carry the lasagna noodles that don’t need to be precooked in water. They are much easier to handle when they are not cooked and make it a much faster process.*
8. Place a layer of ricotta on top of the noodles. It does not need to be perfect, just use your hands to crumble it up, it will melt in the oven anyhow.
9. Place a nice layer of roasted veggies and spinach on top of ricotta. Don’t be shy with the veggies.
10. Sprinkle an even layer of shredded cheese on top.
11. Repeat this until you get to the top.
12. Place in the oven, until the top gets brown in color, about 45 minutes.
*This lasagna is unique because of the crust formed on top from the cheese combination. Most other lasagnas tend to be gooey on top. This one has a really great combination of both gooey in the middle and crispy on top*

Then one day, I was shopping at a Linen’s n Things that was going out of business and one fell off of a shelf on me. It literally dropped out of the sky! I figured this was a sign from above (or maybe a clumsy sales assistant) and therefore I must immediately purchase it. And why not, for $26.95 it was a sin not to!

My culinary adventures began immediately with the crockpot. I had a huge pork butt sitting in my freezer just waiting to have something done to it. So I figured, BBQ pulled pork! I was so impatient that I threw the whole frozen thing of meat in the crock pot, added some bbq sauce and some seasonings. I set the thing on low and kept an eye on it. Absolutely nothing happened for the first hour…I barely saw bubbles after the second hour….But then suddenly it was on a full roaring simmer…I let it go until the wee hours of the morning. When I woke up, the house smelled of BBQ, as if I was cooking all day! Then I took the pork out. It was absolutely perfect. Fell apartand shredded beautifully. All I did now was pour the cooking liquid into a smaller container and reduced it to a thicker consistancy. We had pulled pork sandwiches…pulled pork wraps…you name it I did it!!!!
After that I had no boundaries! Stews and roasts and soups went in there! To this day there is no chili quite as amazing as my crock-pot chilli!!!
I suggest that everyone who has a crock-pot attempts at least one dish in it. You will be changed for life! And if you don’t have one, I hear many Linen’s N Things are going out of business; and if you’re lucky maybe one will just fall on your head.

Now for the second secret to a crust…Parmesan cheese. Everyone loves Parmasan cheese on their pasta, but it also does wonders for crusts. It caramalizes and gives a little bit of a crust! MMMMMM Yummy!

I have to say, I really, enjoyed this recipe! It was easy and the flavors were amazing. The mustard and sweetness of the juice and honey really worked well with the pork. It was tender and super flavorful! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Now onto the recipe!

-3 Pounds of Pork Chops *(I used sirloin bone-in chops)
-1/2 cup Honey Mustard *(I had already prepared honey mustard, but you can make your own with just good Dijon mustard and a couple squirts of honey)
-1/2 tbsp Garlic Powder *(If you use regular crushed garlic, it will burn because of the high temperature.)
-2 tpsp apple juice
-1/2 tbsp Onion Powder
-1 tbsp Fresh Rosemary, chopped finely
-1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese *(Just enough to sprinkle on top)
-Salt and Pepper to taste
*Preheat oven to 425-degrees

1. Lay out the pork chops on an oiled baking sheet, with another pan below it. This is done so that the pork can actually roast and the fat will drip down to the bottom. Otherwise it would cook in its own juices and not get color.
2. Season them with salt and pepper on both sides.
3. Combine apple juice, all the seasoning and herbs with the honey mustard and mix to combine.
4. With a pastry brush, smear your honey mustard mix on ONE side of the chops.

5. Sprinkle with a bit of Parmesan cheese and place in the oven for 10 minutes.
*Please keep in mind, that cooking times will vary based on your oven, convection cooking and the thickness of the chops. If in doubt, just place a meat thermometer in the middle of the chop, making sure not to touch the bone until it reads 155-degrees. This will ensure juicy chops every time!*
6.After ten minutes, flip your chops over and smear and sprinkle the other side. Place back in the oven for another 7 minutes.
7. There now it’s done!
*If your oven cooks really fast like mine does, the second side may not brown up as much as you would like. In that case, turn on your broiler for about 3-4 minutes and they will brown up nicely for you!*

Basil Scented Orzo

I love orzo! And now that they came out with whole wheat orzo, I am guilt free, YEAY!!! I wanted to do something really simple with lots of classic flavors with this pork chop. I was craving pasta but I just wanted something on the lighter side. So this dish was perfect! The tomatos just pop in your mouth and the white wine adds a very clean flavor to the dish.

-1 cup of un-cooked whole wheat orzo (you can use plain orzo too)
-1/2 pint of cherry or frape tomatos, sliced in half
-7 basil leaves in a chiffonade
-1/2 a red onion, finely diced
-1/2 cup of white wine
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
-Olive oil to cook
-Salt and Pepper to season

1.Cook the orzo in a pot of boiling water with salt.
2.In the meantime prepare all your ingredients.
*The chiffonade of basil is just a very fancy French way of saying slice for herbs. First, stack your herbs one on top of each other and roll them up like a cigar. Then slice. That’s it!

3.Sautee your onions in olive oil on a medium to low flame, you just want them to be tender, no color. Add in your tomatoes, garlic and wine. Let wine reduce.
4. Strain the orzo and toss with onion tomato mixture. *(If it’s too dry, add a touch of broth)
5.Add the basil, salt and pepper. Toss to combine and serve with pork.
Bon Appetite!

I have been waiting to start a blog for longer than I can remember! My passion for food encourages me to share that passion with others…and since none of my friends are as crazy about cooking as I am…I am sharing it with everyone else that wants to read!

Food…mmmmmmm….where do I begin??? Well as I venture into my childhood, I only remember that I hated food and refused to eat…so where this sudden onset of food came about is still a mystery to me. I was born in Russia where good food and vodka were the staples of any great party! Both my mother and grandmother were wonderful cooks. I can still remember standing next to my mother as a little girl, watching her cook all the Russian classics.

Once we emigrated to America, my family quickly and willingly forgot their former Aethist and Communist ways and suddenly new foods had found their way into our kitchen. On high holidays, my aunt made brisket with roasted potatoes and matzo ball soup…and just like that I discovered the wonderful warmth of Jewish soul food. What could be better than a plate full of tender brisket and roasted aromatic veggies and potatos? I remember those butterflies in my stomach as I anticipated each holiday dinner…some feel them when they fall in love…I felt them when I heard the word “brisket”…

I was probablly the only 10-year old I knew that hurried home after school to watch “World Chef’s”. While other kids were sitting on their couches in front of the tv in a chocolate chip cookie induced trance, I would cuddle up next to my mom on our couch and watch the amazing delights that the World Chef’s would prepare. Although my mom never made most of the things she saw them prepare, it was nice for both of us to escape into their kitchens for that hour.

I think that my mother was probablly the reason that my soul craves good, simple, food when I’m down or sick. Simple things always tasted better from her hands and made me feel better. My friends and I still recall her simple turkey breast sandwich; one piece of fresh bread, smothered in cream cheese layered with smoked Butterball turkey and 2 slices of tomato to finish it off. Ahh the simple pleasure and tastes in life sometimes truely are what you need.

I went to culinary school to continue the dream that my mother and I always shared: to open up a deli or cafe somewhere and call it our own. Whether that cafe will ever open is still up in the air…but my cooking and my love for food I owe to my mother…and in a way this blog is dedicated to her…I only hope that I can inspire other women with this blog the way my mother inspired me…