Best Oatmeal

1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 cup Water
1 Apple - Peeled, Cored and Shredded (or 1 cup Apple Sauce)
1/4 cup Milk
1 tbs Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon


Cook oats, apple and water in microwave for 3 minutes (if you use apple sauce, do not put it in until after you cook the oats and water). Remove from oven and mix in milk, cinnamon and sugar. Eat!

This is my little girls favorite breakfast :}}

Chicken and Tomatoes

Tonight I didnt know what in the world to make. I rummaged around to see what we have... not much! But we are over loaded with garden tomatoes and its the last of them... so what could I make? hmmm... I decided on a sort of tomato sauce with bits of chicken. While cooking it I wasnt sure if would be very good... but oooooh!! Its so good I think I could have eaten it all ^^

wow... my photos are truly sucking lately >< trust me... even tho it looks like puke, it was very good!!

Story Version -

I hauled out the chicken and set it on the counter wondering what in the world I should do with it. Then I remembered that we have scads of tomatoes from our garden and its the last of them so I decided to make a sort of sauce. I picked out 4 medium tomatoes and peeled and chopped them up and put them in a deep fry pan over medium heat. Then I thought... this needs onion! So I took out a left over half onion and diced that real small and threw that in. Then I took two withering cherry peppers and sliced those in there, too.

Hmm... onion and tomatoes. It needs more stuff doesnt it? What can I toss in? Oh! hey, left over taco sauce! Yes! And that delicious, super duper hot sauce... /tastes wow, dang, thats hot... I like it but Mad wont, what can I put in to cool it off now? I wish I had yogurt... but I guess a little half and half might work. /taste hmm... not so hot now but the flavor is diluted. How to remedy! /peeks in the spice cabinet... cumin! /taste still need more of something... Oh! I forgot we have fresh herbs in here in little pots. I stiffed them and decided they might be interesting in it. /taste hmmm its good but needs somethign else. Lemon! Yes Lemon! /cut squeeze taste Perfect!

/nomnomnomnomnom :}}}}}}}}}

Short Version -

2 chicken breasts, diced (can you dice chicken??)
4 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and cut up (1 inch chunks or abouts)
1 small onion, diced very small
2 red cherry peppers, seeded and sliced (id have put lots more but I wasnt sure my little girl would eat them)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp hells kitchen hot sauce
1 tsp cumin
3 tbsp taco sauce
juice from half a lemon
1/2 cup half and half (plain yogurt would be better!)
a sprig each of thyme and rosemary
salt to taste
rice (i like jasmine best)

First get your rice cookin! Then peel, deseed and chop the toms, chop the onion, pepper and garlic. mix together and put in a saucepan (or deep fry pan or wok. what ever!) on medium temp. While thats stewing, chop up your chicken and then toss that in. While its cooking and youre stirring it around, toss in the rest of the ingredients. Taste alot while you do it and add more or less to your taste. Mine was a bit soupy so I added about a cup of rice to the mix. I cooked, uncovered for about 20 minutes. If yours is drying out, cover it and cook instead. I only left the cover off to try to cook off some liquid. When the chicken is nice and cooked, serve with rice and eat a big glass of ayran! :D

Booger Pillows

Booger Pillows? Whats that you ask? Its Portuguese Fried Bread ;}} While making these for the first time my 3 year old daughter thought, while I was shaping them in to little squares, they looked like pillows. And then the dough was sooo gooey and sticky we giggled about it being like boogers. So now these little yums are called Booger Pillows! <3

I think this recipe is very forgiving because they turned out SO good even though I didnt know where my measuring spoons were so I guessed at the amounts.We used a recipe we found here. Weve made it twice now and I have many ideas for variations! But here is the basic recipe -

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 quart vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add milk, and mix well. Divide dough into balls. Pat out on a flat, floured surface to 1/2 inch thick.
2. Fry in 1/2 inch hot oil, browning both sides. Serve warm.

Mad liked them with powdered suger on hers, I like mine with butter. The bread is VERY good with tuna! I think I will use this recipe if Im out of bread sometime! :}

The second time we made them I experimented with shapes. I made one big, flat one to use as a sandwich later and I made a whole bunch of tiny nuggets. Grape sized. Mad still prefered hers with pwdered sugar, but I was craving lemons so I made a lemon glaze for mine.

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Booger Nuggets ;}

Use the recipe above, but roll the dough in to bite sized bits, balls and blobs. Dip in to the glaze when done or roll them in it or arrange on a plate and dribble the glaze on them all. Or just put a bunch of nuggets in a bowl with gobs of glaze and eat them with a big spoon!

Lemon Glaze -

powdered sugar
butter
lemon juice

mix about a cup of sugar with about 2 tbs softened butter and then add some lemon juice till u get something yummy and dribbly.

Paprika Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

Another Almost Turkish recipe.....
Here is the recipe I started with :}

I made this recipe just the way it says to the first time. It was good, but I had to fiddle ;} I dont like oven bags...I like pans! heehee

 

I love my pink colander <3

 

My favorite knife!

 

mmmm onion! /weeps

There was very little lemon juice left in the bottle and I had no lemons, so I added some water. Had about a half cup of liquid. Poured that over the thighs in a big bowl. Threw on some salt and pepper, lots of paprika and some fresh, minced garlic. Stirred it up and left it in the frige for an hour.

Yea...looks yummy...NOT!

 

 Mushrooms may be the prettiest things I ever eat ^^

Yep...they are  /NOMS

I had a sweet potato in the frige and decided that would work in it because we had no other taters. I sliced that up, peeled, and put it in the bottom of the pan. I also cut up an onion cause I likes dem. And tossed in the last of my mushrooms, whole.

 

orangey!

 

I really really really like this picture...

Then I laid out the thighs on top of all that and poured on the marinade. I put more paprika on the tops of the thighs (I like it!) and a little coarse salt over the whole thing.

 

All ready for cooking :}

I covered the pan and cooked it for um....40 minutes? on 350. Then took the top off for about 20 minutes to get the skin nice and crunchy.

Absolutely fabulous......


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6 chicken thighs
1 sweet potato (or more, if you like), sliced, peeled
1 onion, chopped
some mushrooms (as many/few as you like), whole
1/4c lemons juice
1/4c water
3 tbs paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 large clove garlic, minced
more paprika
little salt (or celery salt)

put chicken in a big bowl, cover with lemon and water, add paprika, salt, pepper, garlic. stir. let marinade in fridge for an hour.

in a large, deep oven pan, place sliced potatoes, onion and mudrooms in a single layer (each) on the bottom. Place the chicken on top. pour the marinade over the top. sprinkle the top of the chicken with more paprika and a little salt. cover.

bake at 350 for about 40 mins (till chicken is cooked and potatoes are soft). then uncover and cook for another 20 minutes.

eat!!

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EDIT

Ive made this thing about 30 times now and i vary it loads and it still comes out good. The one thing that you really need to do, though, is make sure that at no time does the liquid in the bottom of the dish touched the chicken. It will make the chicken in to a horrible gummy texture that is just the worst! So watch the level! Make it real low, the veggies wont burn, theyll roast nicely.

Also, sometimes I add a little olive oil or butter if im feeling like a little more heaviness. It makes everything more moist (I just dribble a bit on the chicken after everything is in the pan, before the paprika get sprinkled on).

The cooking time is very flexible. Ive gone and forgotten the thing cooking for ages! The covered cooking time...well, Ive forgotten it and it cooked for over an hour that way. And Ive forgotten it uncovered for several hours, too. Youd think that would make it all dry and bad, but it didnt. the skin and everything keeps it nice. I almost always use my big toaster oven to cook it, too!

I made it once with beer instead of water and lemon juice because I had none. Was totally different, but tasty!

To keep the skins nice and crunchy after you take it out of the oven - place all your thighs on a plate and carefully remove the skins and place them on a separate plate. Cover the thighs with plastic wrap or foil to keep them warm. After everything is ready to serve, place the skins back on the thighs JUST before serving. They will be cool, but wicked tasty and crunchy! OMG NOMS!

Nohut

 Here is the recipe I used :}

While on my trip to Turkey, I ate something like this (almost exactly) in Bursa. It was served with rice (pilav). It reminded me of food my Granny makes. mm mm mm!

I made this two days ago and it was very good!! Even my little girl liked it. I didnt get a picture of it though. But I have left overs...maybe I can still get a good pic....

On my first try making a recipe I like to do it just the way it says. I didnt use any meat, but I can imagine it with nice stew meat or some shredded chicken. Yum! I didnt put any spices in except pepper and salt. Next time I may add a LITTLE garlic...not much. And maybe something to give it a little heat. A chili or something. And, of course, next time I will use dry beans. Canned is ok, but real is always better!

I made Jasmine rice to go with it. Jasmine is my favorite! And a few pieces of soujouk and some cheese. Mad ate almost all my rice and soujouk! heehee

MMMMMmmmmmm

Haha...Im bored and have decided to make a blog about my love of food and cooking and recipes and travel and all that good stuff. I dont know if anyone but my close friends will ever read this, but I guess it doesnt matter. I feel like writing about food. So here it is! :}}}}}}}}}