Cool n Refreshing Minty Iced Tea

There is no better beverage to enjoy during the hot summer months than fresh brewed iced tea. I can't even tell you how long I have been enjoying this beverage but I can tell you its been a long time. My mother has always had mint growing in her yard, which she got from my grandmother who in turn always had mint growing in her yard, so the mint we had been using over the past 20 years or so came all from one small plant transplanted from my grandmother's garden. Now I have my own yard, but the mint I am using was already here when I bought the house and looks much different than the kind that I was used to seeing, it is frilly and large leafed and very pretty to look at!

Spearmint on the right Peppermint on the left

Now, you might be wondering what kind of mint to use right (and if you are not wondering then here is the time to start!)? I personally like spearmint in iced tea (Think Orbitz Sweet Mint Gum) and if I don't have enough in the yard then I would use peppermint of which I also have a ton! I like spearmint though because it has a sweeter flavor while peppermint is, like its name suggests, more peppery but cooling. Anyways, use whatever you have as long as it is fresh, do not try to use dried mint. If you are lucky to have a yard, buy only one small plant from a local farm and plant it someplace where it can be contained so that you too can be blessed with this lovely herb year after year, but please keep in mind that it can end up being an invasive weed if not properly contained.

Now onto the tea! I use regular black and sometimes green tea, but really you can use anything you like, as long as its not strongly flavored with fruits or spices, you can be as simple as a few lipton tea bags too, its that easy!

Here is how I do it:

4-6 Tea bags
1 bunch of spearmint, leaves and stems lightly crushed

Brew the tea bags in some warm or hot water in a large pitcher, doesn't have to be boiled, about 5 minutes. Add the mint and some water to fill to the top. The tea will continue brewing and the mint will permeate throughout the tea yummm. I would say after a full day if you still have tea leftover, remove the leaves as they can start to rot.

Thats it, that is all there is to it! As you see, I didn't add any sweetener, but you can add as much or as little as you want and I will leave it at that, just dissolve it in warm water first so you aren't chewing your tea.

One of the saddest moments of the year is when my mint withers to the ground, but it does give me something refreshing to look forward to in the spring. If only I could grow a pot of this indoors....hmmm..

Enjoy over ice!

The Slimcado: Not Your Average Avocado

I love Avocados. Their creamy, lightly flavored meat is so versatile I don't even think we realize it. We can eat it raw (the best!), on salads, soups, make into a sauce, dip or even fry it. A few things about avocado that may keep us from consuming them on a regular basis is price, right? I mean, one Hass avocado can cost up to $2 at one of the cheaper grocery stores and is the most readily available. That is a lot of money, even though it is so worth it once in a while.

Just a few days ago though, I went into Shaws after work looking for cheese and some other ingredients to make meatballs, but the second I walked in I was hit with a huge display of lovely, large green smooth skinned "Florida" avocados prices at 2 for $3. I couldn't believe it, that is a steal compared to the size of these babies. But wait....what the heck is a Florida Avocado, why is it so large and why are they promoting it as being "healthier" than the common Hass?

After a couple of days researching this large avocado, I found out that it is actually called the "Slimcado" because it is 30% lower in calories and about 50% less fat than the original avocado. Ok so what's the catch? I just cut mine open and the inside looks the same, smells the same however the flavor was slightly different. It was a little less creamy and a little sweeter, but was actually really delicious!

If you see them in the store, try it. If they are rock hard, use my ripening trick and all will be rewarded with delicious avocado.

Ripening trick: Place the avocado in a brown paper bag with a tomato or an apple. It should ripen within a day, MAYBE two days.

The Book Closest To Me

So, I just saw that a friend had posted this on facebook:


"It's National Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you. Go to page 56. Copy the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the book. Post these rules as part of your status."


My answer: "Brown all the chicken pieces this way."


If you know me, even a smidgen, you know that I don't own any books that normal people read. The only books I have in my collection are cook books. Indian, Thai, Scandinavian, Russian, Italian, Puerto Rican, Arabic....pretty much 90% of the world's cuisine lies in my living room in the form of a cookbook.


A lot of people can't quite understand that I do read cookbooks, not just the recipes or the pretty pictures but many of my books have short stories, or like one of my favorite middle eastern book, its basically one long story of recipes, which I find to be the most interesting. Yes, I do love reading how every Sunday in Syria, so and so's grandfather would go to the market to pick out the most perfect chicken to be eaten that day and then read about how the women would prepare it from what they wore to how it was served. This kind of detail is what makes a truly great reading book (in my opinion) and the fact that it comes with a family recipe, even better!


So in the end, it is no coincidence that the closest book to me was a cookbook.


Any guesses as to which book my quote comes from (not the book below)??

Hand-Me-Down Heirloom Tomatoes!

I like tomatoes, a lot. I grow tomatoes too, but not just any tomatoes. My favorite are the oddly shaped, oddly colored heirlooms which usually sell for about $5/lb, for no good reason when they are so easy to grow!

 Anyways, this past spring Dawn and I had one of our old lady days. The day, in our older age, consists of having tea, scones and lunch at a lovely old lady tea farmhouse in Northborough, MA called Special Teas. After that, I really wanted to go to one of the local farms out in Marlborough (or vicinity) to get some plants for my new garden. When I saw the rows and rows of tomatoes they had I almost peed myself. Then when I saw how many varieties of heirloom tomatoes they had I actually did pee myself! I told the staff that was helping me that I don't want to waste my time or theirs on the reds, just take me to the heirlooms, and on we went!

"Green zebra? Its green when ripe, and very neat to look at!'" - YES!
"Pink so and so? (cant remember). These are the best tasting" - YES! (could be pink brandywine)
"Yellow cherry tomatoes? VERY flavorful" - YES!
"Old German.." - YES! (I cut them off mid sentence as this one is the prettiest)
"Purple cherokee" - YES!

So basically, I got everything I hoped for and more and I am sure being blessed with globes of color popping up in my garden each day. The cherry tomatoes are the most abundant, and I've already gotten a few pink ones and I think 2 purple (which are actually a brownish red the sliced one in the pic!), and 2 green ones, which when ripe, remain green but their stripes are yellowish!

We recently just had a big rainfall, which means tomatoes and more tomatoes! I came home from work today and picked even more cherries and about 3 more larger ones. I remembered one thing, I had mozzarella in the fridge! What a perfect pair, tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and fresh basil (also from the garden).

African Chicken in Spicy Red Sauce

I love going out for Ethiopian food in Boston. There is a great place called Addis Red Sea on Tremont St. which is fairly small but the best part is eating from a straw table, with your hands while sitting on small stools. It is such a fun experience, and its something that you can actually recreate at home too. When I tasted this dish I wanted to cry, that is how amazing all of the flavors were, they all came together in such a harmonious manner. 

If you've never had African food, you don't even know what you are missing! You might think "what the heck do they eat in Africa?" Well this recipe that I tried out is actually an Ethiopian chicken in a tomato sauce, actually it is a "wot" or a thick stew, similar to the Indian curry. The spice mix, the aroma and the flavors of this dish are amazing. It looks a bit like an Indian curry,  but there is something a little different about this dish.

In Indian dishes there are a lot of 'masalas' or spice mixtures to use, and in Ethiopian cooking there are lots of combinations, however, they seem to use a mix called 'berbere' quite often. It is a warm and spicy mixture of red pepper (chili powder), cinnamon, ginger and cloves. If you are skeeved out by the thought of cinnamon in a savory dish, trust me, you won't taste just cinnamon, it works together with all of the other spices to create something awesome!

Ingredients
2 lbs boneless chicken breast
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion (2 medium)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
4 lemon wedge

Berbere 
2 tablespoons ground red pepper
1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions
Berbere:.
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Yields 1/4 cup. Serving size is 1 teaspoons.

Chicken:.
Place chicken in a shallow dish; drizzle with juice, and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add onion and garlic; cook 5 minutes (do not brown), stirring frequently.

Add 2 tsp Berbere, remaining 1/4 tsp salt, butter, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom, cook 1 minute.

Add wine, broth, and tomato paste; stir until well blended.

Add chicken mixture; bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 50 minutes or until chicken is tender, turning chicken occasionally.

You will want to serve this with rice, and if you are feeling up to it, make some easy Injera bread!

Breakfast Fit For a King or Two

I will admit, I am not a huge breakfast person. I mean, don't get me wrong I love breakfast foods (except french toast), you know, like the heavy stuff; sausage, bacon, pancakes, eggs etc. However, my daily breakfast lately consists of sprouted bread with a spreadable herbed goat cheese and cucumbers. That will come later.

However, the past holiday Johann's family stayed with us for the weekend, and we just happened to have a 'plate' large enough to fit breakfast for four! I didn't cook it, but I loved the way it looked so I thought I should share.

Also, when I do eat a big breakfast like this, which is once every few months, I love to get good bacon and sausage. I don't mean good brands, but hidden secrets like the amazing breakfast sausage that Dawn introduced me to. It is highly flavored and contains chopped bacon within. Omg is all I can say to that. She discovered it at a restaurant near her where she lives and now, if I am in the market for breakfast sausage then I will get it as take out. Oh yes, they give you like 10 balls of this heavenly meat uncooked. Anyways...this post isn't about that particular sausage! And the bacon...I really love smoked bacon and I really love smoked bacon from Karl's Sausage Kitchen yummmmm. But this post isn't about that either.

Just look below to see what I am talking about, good old fashioned, hearty (heart stopping) breakfast which includes english muffins, sausage, bacon, home fries and scrambled eggs with cheese.

Cool n Creamy Cucumber Salad

Its summer and now is the perfect time to try something new like this cucumber salad I am about to share with you. But first, let me carry on a bit about where this came from. Now, we know I love Germany, and I love Germans, especially Dana, the lovely lady who made this for me for the very first time a couple of years ago. Actually, when I first saw this sitting in the dish, it looked a little scary at first, but once you taste how delicious and refreshing this is, you may start bringing this salad to all of your summer BBQs. Actually, funny thing is I first tried this in the dead of winter and it was still amazing.

If you have a garden or access to a good farmer's market then this salad will be your friend. You really only need 2 ingredients from the garden or, if you are like me and sometimes just can't wait, then you can easily buy them in the grocery store. I always use one of the very long english cucumbers, the kind without the seeds. This one has a really nice, thin skin and doesn't require peeling....so don't peel it!

The next thing you will need is a bunch of fresh dill. You know, the stuff that looks like a feathery weed from heaven (hence the name dill weed har har). Anyway, you COULD use dried, but don't. Really, trust me. Here is a tip. I buy a few bunches from the farmers markets, wash them and let them dry. Then chop into a million pieces, put them in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer. Voila, fresh dill all year round!

So here are the deets:

1 long english cucumber, sliced thin
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp sugar
1-2 tbsp fresh chopped dill

You can use a mandolin slicer for perfect cucumber rounds, otherwise just use a sharp knife and try to cut uniform shapes. Mix the sour cream, sugar and dill together in a bowl and then add the cucumber slices and gently toss. You can eat it right away, but I like to let the dill permeate throughout the dressing for an hour or so. Also, as this happens the dressing becomes very thin, and this is perfectly ok! Its just the water coming out of the cucumber, no need to drain it.

This salad goes perfectly with grilled fare or really is just a really nice, refreshing snack on a hot day! Try it, trust me.

Oh and one last tip, leave out the sugar and add a 1/2 cup of mayonnaise and you have yourself a lovely savory dill dip!

Dressing first and THEN cucumbers