Apple Crisp
April 28, 2006 | Filed Under Desserts/Sweets, Other, Baking | Leave a Comment
There’s nothing better than being able to make a super easy dessert — especially an easy one that tastes really good.This Apple Crisp recipe comes from celebrity chef Rachel Ray . All you need are apples, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, flour, and butter. I loved the smell of the cinnamon and nutmeg as I mixed them together with the other ingredients. I also love how I could taste the ingredients nicely blended together. The ice cream makes a nice addition.
This dessert is made especially for FoodCrazee, who celebrates his birthday today. I hope you like it! I hope everyone likes it. Happy birthday, FoodCrazee!
Happy birthday, also, to those who celebrated birthdays this month of April — Michelle and Pille. I wish you all a wonderful birthday year!
Best,
Paz
Apple Crisp straight out of the oven
Apple Crisp
6 McIntosh apples, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup flour or fine graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 stick butter
1 pint vanilla ice cream
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a 9 by 12 baking dish, combine apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.
In a small bowl, mix flour or graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and butter together using the tines of a fork and your fingers, working until even, small crumbles form.
Sprinkle topping evenly over apples and bake 15 to 20 minutes until apples are just tender and topping is golden brown.
Top dishes of apple crisp with small scoops of vanilla ice cream. YUM!
Blog Index for The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz now available!
April 26, 2006 | Filed Under Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz | Leave a Comment
Hi All:
Just in case you get that burning desire to reread certain posts like the time I burned the chocolate while making cordial cherries, or my attempt to make parathas that turned out as thick as car tires, or any of my other cooking adventures, I’ve finally managed to put together a blog index. 
You can find it in the side bar links section or here.
Best,
Paz
Bobó de Camarão - Shrimp and Creamy Cassava Sauce
April 25, 2006 | Filed Under Seafood | Leave a Comment
I decided to try the Brazilian dish called Bobó de Camarão (Shrimp and Creamy Cassava Sauce), a recipe from Karen of Kafka na Praia.The title intrigued me a bit. Creamy cassava sauce? I’ve had cassava plenty of times but not as a sauce. And, of course, I’ve eaten rice many times (It’s actually a food staple in my household). However, I’d never had the combination of rice and cassava as recommended in the recipe.
The sauce ingredients consisted of shrimp, cassava (boiled and then pureed), tomatoes, chives, parsley, onions, garlic, red bell pepper, coconut milk, cilantro (I love cilantro!!!), milk, and palm nut oil (dende oil).
While living in Africa, many of my childhood meals contained palm nut oil. I remember we even had a huge palm nut tree in our back yard. However, it is high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Especially, here in the U.S., it’s not considered a heart-happy oil, so we don’t often cook with it and try to avoid eating it. As a result, I had no palm nut oil in my kitchen cupboard. Some ethnic food markets sell the oil but I didn’t have time to go out and buy it.
Instead of palm nut oil, I used olive oil. I know there’s a big difference between the oils — from taste to appearance. However, the olive oil worked out very well.
The cassava sauce ingredients blended together very well. Everything complimented each other to bring out a delicious taste in the sauce.
My favorite part of making the meal was adding the cilantro to the sauce. Have I told you that I love cilantro? Oh, yes, I think I have. For those who don’t care for cilantro, I’m sure that you can substitute it with flat leaf parsley.
As the recipe directs, I served my cassava sauce hot with white rice.
I made one adjustment to the recipe: I added hot pepper flakes.
Onion, garlic, red bell pepper, tomatoes — waiting to be chopped
Cassava
Cassava chopped
You can find the recipe here. Obrigada! Thanks, Karen! Different and delicious!Paz
New York Monday # 21- 125th Street: Capital of Black America
April 24, 2006 | Filed Under New York Monday | Leave a Comment
*I’ve been trying to post this since early Monday morning but have been having some technical problems with Blogger. Sorry about that.
We had a rainy weekend in the city. About a month’s worth of rain fell within the past two days. Yet, the weather didn’t stop New Yorkers from coming out and doing business as usual.
Here are a few photos of 125th Street in Harlem. This two-way main street has been called the Capital of Black America. It stretches across town from the east to west side and is filled with lots of people, stores, and businesses.
The first two photos include the statute of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. A minister and politician, he was the first African American from New York elected to U.S. Congress.
The third and fourth photos are of a once famous hotel — The Hotel Theresa. Known as the Waldorf Astoria of Harlem, its patrons included Fidel Castro, Malcom X, Mohammed Ali, Josephine Baker, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix, and Duke Elington. John F. Kennedy compaigned for presidency at the hotel. Today the hotel has been turn into an office building.
The sixth photo includes the sign of the once largest department store — called Blumstein — in Harlem. It no longer exists.
You’ll see a glimpse of the Apollo theater, a venue especially popular during the Harlem Renaissance for Black entertainers. Today all types of artists perform there.
You can see a few more photos of 125th Street in the New York Monday #7 post.
Have a good week!
Paz
Weekend Herb Blogging #29 - Daffodils
April 22, 2006 | Filed Under Weekend Herb Blogging | Leave a Comment
I’ve been seeing a lot of daffodils (botanic name Narcissus) around the city. That’s because it flowers mainly during Spring time. However, certain Narcissus bloom in autumn.
These cheerful looking flowers are poisonous. If eaten, the consequences can be fatal. To read more about daffodils, look here.
Paz
*One can blog about herbs, plants, vegetables, or flowers for Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB). To see the list of other interesting WHB posts, go to Kalyn’s Kitchen, Sunday afternoon.
Uova e Pomarola - Eggs in Tomato Sauce
April 19, 2006 | Filed Under Eggs | Leave a Comment
There have been a number of foods that I never liked… until I started to cook and learned to prepare them. The tomato is one of those foods. Lately, I’ve been finding a lot of good tomato recipes on other foodblogs.
Ilva of Lucullian Delights posted a wonderful and simple recipe — Uova e Pomarola/Eggs in Tomato Sauce — that caught my eye the other day. I had all the ingredients and was in the mood for eggs and tomatoes. So, I gave it a try. Very pleased with the recipe, I’ve made it more than once.
The first time, I used cherry tomatoes but didn’t have enough. I ended up with more onions than tomatoes and an egg. However, the dish still tasted really good.
First time — More onions than tomatoes
The second time I made this recipe, I used regular-sized tomatoes. The instructions warn against making a watery sauce before adding the egg to the tomatoes. However, my sauce had turned watery. I’m not sure why. Can anyone tell me? Is it because I did not seed the tomatoes before cooking them? At one point, I had to take the pan off the stove and pour out the excess liquid.
My Uova e Pomarola/Eggs in Tomato Sauce still tasted divine. I plan on continuing to make it till I get it right. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, you really have to see Ilva’s photo of the dish. It is so enticing. Look here! Thanks Ilva for the tasty recipe and beautiful photo.
Paz
Uova e Pomarola or Eggs in Tomato Sauce
1 egg
8-10 cherry tomatoes or 250 gr ripe fresh tomatoes
½ onion
½ clove of garlic
½ peperoncino or some other type of chili pepper
Salt
Olive oil
- Chop the onion and the garlic. Put that and the crumbled peperoncino in a pan (of a size that suits the number of servings you are preparing) and fry it gently in some olive oil.
- Chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan. Add salt and some sugar as well if the tomatoes need to be sweeter.
- Let it simmer until the sauce has thickened, it is important that it isn’t watery when you break the egg into it.
- Make a little pit, break the egg (is it called like this??!!) and slip it into the pit. Cover the pan and let it cook until the egg is ready.
-Serve and enjoy!
New York Monday #20 - On the Streets
April 17, 2006 | Filed Under New York Monday | Leave a Comment
On the streets….
Have a great week, everyone!
Paz
Blessed Easter! Joyous Passover! Happy Spring!
April 16, 2006 | Filed Under Spring, Passover, Easter, Holidays | Leave a Comment
Roast Chicken with Peppers
April 11, 2006 | Filed Under Poultry | Leave a Comment
The recent Around the World meme, asks what recipes I’ve bookmarked while reading other foodblogs. Here is an example of one of the many recipes that I’ve noted — a Roast Chicken with Peppers recipe from CJ’s Food Fantasy.
I love that it’s a filling, tasty, healthy, colorful (I like colorful meals), and easy recipe to prepare. According to the recipe, you roast the chicken for 15 minutes before adding the peppers and onions. However, I let the chicken roast a lot longer before adding them. It worked out better for me that way.
Thanks, Tin! You’ll find her recipe below.
Paz
Straight from the roasting pan
Roast Chicken With Peppers
1 cut-up chicken (3 to 31/2 pounds) but I prefer to use chicken thighs
3 tbsp. olive oli, divided
1 1/2 tbsp. chopped rosemary or 1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp. salt, divided
3/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, divided
3 bell peppers (preferably 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 green)
1 medium onion
*Heat oven to 375F.
Rinse chicken in a cold water; pat dry with paper towel.
Place on shallow roasting pan.
Combine 2 tbsp. of the oil, rosemary and lemon juice; brush over chicken.
Sprinkle 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper over chicken.
Roast 15 minutes.
*Cut bell peppers lengthwise into 1/2 -inch thick strips. Slice onion into thin wedges. Toss vegatables with remaining 1 tbsp. oil, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper.
Spoon vegetables around chicken; roast until vegetables are tender and chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.
New York Monday #19 - A Spring Day in the City
April 10, 2006 | Filed Under New York Monday | Leave a Comment
A spring day in the city.
Have a wonderful week!
Paz
ED NOTE: Thanks to The Chocolate Lady’s clarification, the white flowers in the first photo are from the Callery Pear. I did not post a close up, but the second two photos are of big tulip-shaped pink and white flowers. These are Magnolias. They are not to be confused with Japanese cherry blossoms, which are soft, pink and puffy and have an unusual horizontal grain of bark. The last photo of a yellow bush is a Forsythia.
