French toast and corn flakes

When you read this title you may think I am talking about a nice breakfast of french toast and corn flakes.

But this post is only about french toast; made amazing by being dipped in corn flakes and brown sugar.

My sister and i have an obsession with french toast. We will eat it any time, anywhere. My dad makes some stuffed with cream cheese and berries. This version however was a knew kind altogether for us. After dipping the french toast in the batter, I dredged them with corn flakes and brown sugar, and fried them in butter they were absolutely delicious!

Recipe:

makes 6 pieces

2/3 cups milk (add more if there is not enough)

1/4 cup cream (optional)

3 eggs

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 slices french bread

1 cup crushed corn flakes

2 teaspoon dark brown sugar

Mix together milk, cream, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla in shallow bowl. Add the bread and let soak for 3-5 minutes. While the bread is soaking, in a separate bowl crush the cornflakes and brown sugar. Dredge the the bread in the corn flakes. fry the bread in butter until golden brown on both sides. Enjoy!

bacon salad... ohh yes

Some things go together beautifully, like popcorn and movies, or rain and hot chocolate. For me bacon, apples, blue cheese, and arugula are that way. They paint a wonderful salty, sweet, contrasting composition in your mouth. If you are one of those people who doesn't think of food like that, if there would be one word to describe this salad it would... yummy.

I made this salad for my dads birthday, we had ten people, two tables pushed together, and delicious food. My mom and I took on the challenge

of making the entree. We had kabobs (my dad grilled), and salad (yum).

Recipe: from the Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients

• 8 ounces thick-cut bacon, such as Niman Ranch
• 8 ounces baby arugula
• 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup toasted walnut halves, coarsely chopped (see note)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 6 ounces blue cheese, such as Roquefort, crumbled

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons good apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2/3 cup good olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place a baking rack on a sheet pan and lay the bacon slices on the rack. Roast the bacon for about 20 minutes, until nicely browned. Allow to cool.

In a large bowl, toss together the arugula, apple, walnuts, cranberries, and blue cheese.

For the dressing, whisk together the vinegar, orange zest, orange juice, mustard, maple syrup, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper in a bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.

Chop the bacon in large pieces and add it to the salad. Toss the salad with just enough dressing to moisten. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and toss well. Serve immediately.

note: I would half the dressing!

Snack1: Yogurt

Hey guys, I am starting a snack series. A couple of posts all about snacks, my favorite meal of the day! This post is about an amazing snack yogurt. Notjust any yogurt, homemade maple, and berry yogurt! Here is the fourth young cook,

Jackie, to tell you all about it!

I’m Jackie. I love to cook and I recently made something I want to tell you about. Yogurt! They were super yummy, and it was cool to make an

every day thing like yogurt by hand ( with the help of the yogurt maker). I made two kinds, maple syrup, and berry. The syrup turned our better that the berry but the berry still turned out well. This is how I made them; first I made the berry.

So I pored the milk in to a pot and let it come to a simmer, than I

added five tablespoons of berry jam into the warm milk. I whisked them together until it was smooth. Then I waited for it to cool, and got started with the maple syrup.

The syrup is just a little bit easier than the berry because you don’t have to warm up anything! I started by using 4-5 tablespoons of pure maple syrup to the milk. Then I wisked them together until they were incorperated.

Now, I know this might seem weird but when you’re making yogurt you have to add a little bit of already made or store bought yogurt. So I added three tablespoons of plain yogurt. So I added my already made yogurt to the syrup mixture and then let it sit while I finished my berry yogurt.

Once I was finished I put both kinds of yogurt into glass cups, and then in to our yogurt Maker

And seven hours later… yummy yogurt!

Tata for now- Jackie :)

HAPPY B-DAY ANNA

Your party was a blast. You inspire me on so many levels--- especially your desire to have everything yummy and beautiful. So, this was the prettiest appetizer i have ever made. crackers/thin jalepeno slice/ smoked tuna/ roasted tomato. (when nana arrived fresh chives from her garden were sprinkled on top)

Smoothie ubsesion!

Okay... I love smoothies...i have them all the time after school... any time at all really...yummy!

My favorite smoothie:
.Orange juice
.Strawberries
.Blueberries
. Honey
. A couple of leaves of basil

Blend everything in a blender. Garnish with basil leaf... enjoy!

Note: If you are not using frozen berries add ice. You can add as much or as little of every thing!
And don't be afraid of basil in smoothies:)

I'm alive!

I could write a few paragraphs about why i have been MIA- so tempting to whine- but i will spare you and instead send a huge thank you to Anna for being the motivator of this blog. The last few times I have seen you, Anna, I have felt like Kona when her tail is curled between her back legs.

The prize for most memorable San Francisco meal, since I moved, would have to be Grant's abalone which he risked his life in open water to nourish us. The animal was beautiful, the slicing was an art that the whole family gathered around to witness, and the eating was a taste and texture extravaganza.
The shell was our first and only house warming gift. Thank you.

At Farmers' Market

Here we are at the market on a sunny cool day in the fall!

Happy because we're together and near food!

The blog meeting in disguise

If you saw my grandmother my aunt and I driving down the road you would have guessed we were having an ordinary conversation, but no our topic was extraordinary...today it was official, we had our first blog meeting, in the car.

The meeting was started by the many emails being sent between us consisting of one simple sentence, "we need to post more", and as I think all of us can agree this statement is correct. Okay lets face it people last year we were LAME, like the kind of lame that Sharpay says to Gabriella, ohh yes... that lame. But this week being our anniversary we are doing every thing in our power to counteract this strong lame energy for this year. We have made some blog amendments:

1. always spell check!

2. put less pictures, but bigger pictures!

3. longer post with more detail (Margi cough cough)

4. each person pick a book and do a few recipes out of that book!

5. and last but most importantly... each person post every other week!

lalalalalalalalalal

bibibibibibibibibi

Discoveries

Hello my dear readers,

This week has been a week of discoveries, about blogs, life, and food! The long list starts here:

1. I have discovered that food can bring people together:

Okay lets face it what cant food do... any way, this week I had a fabulous week with my family, all of us together, at the beach, relaxing. But I feel as though I owe the success of this week to the food and the meals bring us all together. And of course with the food comes the laborers, farmers, shoppers, cooks, and consumers(most of all!!), so a huge thank you and imaginary round of applause for them!!! We had many wonderful conversations that not only were funny and random, but meaningful and interesting! Thanks food!!

2. I have discovered that our blog only has four followers (two of which being me, hey its okay to love yourself):

I suppose that's our fault for only posting 39 posts this year. This bring up to other subject first of which being... Phylis!!! A huge thank you to Phylis for being the only non family member follower and giving us the inspiration to start this blog!! Phylis has an amazing blog about food called dash and Bella!! It is super lovely, and cool, and amazing, and yummy. She is a fab author and photographer!!! So lets also give an imaginary round of applause to Phylis !!!!

The second point I was going to get to is that this is our blog anniversary, or... blogaversary (that was also Phyllis's idea,thanks) . Since this is a new blog year I am going to make a new years resolution: I, Anna, will post every other weekend, about awesome stuff!

( so much for a long list!!!)

bibibibibi

Bulgar, Kale, Mustard Green, Gratin

On a foggy, cold, wet day in Sf ( Whats up with this weather), there is nothing better for me than to take a quick walk over to my grandparents house, with my dog (of course), and have a peaceful experimental time cooking with my Nana!

Its especially fun on Thursdays, one of my favorite days (Mostly because at Swim team it is kicking day), and go to a lovely restaurant called Spruce to pick up a box of Organic Veggies from County Line Harvest. On the car ride home I always read the list of veggies and find that I don't know of at least 1/3 of the names (Its summer,gosh). Anyway, With the box they always give Two recipes, and this is where we found our next wonderful recipe:

We started chopping tons of greens, grating cheese, making bread crumbs,and after 45 minutes of cold hard cooking ingenious.... Finished and excellent!

It was a wonderful veggie, cheesy, success!!!! ( and even my brother like :0 (omg) )

I hope you guys enjoy the recipe; here it is:Bulgar-Greens Gratin www.countylineharvest.com

1/2 c. coarse bulgur

1 bunch kale

1 bunch mustard greens

6 lg. garlic cloves, minced

3 TBSP olive oil

1/4 c. grated Parmesan

6 oz. chilled mozzarella or Monterey Jack

1/2 c. fine bread crumbs

1 TBSP olive oil

In a heat proof bowl pour enough boiling water over bulgur to cover by 1 inch. Cover bowl with plate to trap steam and let stand 20 minutes. Drain bulgur in a large, fine sieve, pressing out excess liquid, and transfer to a bowl. Tear greens into bite-size pieces, discard stems and wash thoroughly, being careful to keep kale and mustards separate. Put kale in the large pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally until wilted, about 4 min. Add mustards and cover until wilted, about 3-4 min. Drain greens in colander, pressing out excess liquid. In a large heavy skillet cook garlic in oil over medium heat until softened but not golden. Stir in the greens and bulgur and season generously with salt and pepper. Stir in Parmesan and remove from heat. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and lightly oil a shallow baking dish. Spread half of greens mixture in dish and sprinkle evenly with mozzarella. Spread remaining greens mixture over mozzarella and smooth top with a spatula. Gratin may be prepared up to this point 8 hours, covered and chilled. In a small bowl with a fork stir together bread crumbs and oil until crumbs are evenly moistened. Sprinkle topping over greens mixture and bake in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until bubbling and top is browned lightly.

Note: cheese and bread crumbs cam make anything taste good :)

Note, note: Add about a 1/2 cup more greens than the recipe states!

Its the vegetarian cooking pork again

Here is an excellent recipe that I've been making off and on for 45 years; it comes from a Sunset Mexican Cook Book of Simplified Techniques published in 1969. (Rick Bayless was probably just a babe in diapers at that point in time.)

It is my tradition to write comments in the book margins beside the recipes. Here is a sampling:

7/87 - Good, again! Before Tandy Beal and to Tahoe.

9/22/97 - with Grant and Heidi who was 8 mo. pregnant. Grant says: use smaller pieces of pork!

12/89 - needs jalapenos! (Ah, our palates are getting sophisticated, or wrecked!)

12/12/'08 - for Bob's 76th. All enjoyed.

Grant and Heidi say that their guests like the dish so well that they serve it often.

So here is the recipe adding some heat; serve it with white rice, sour cream, and hot flour tortillas. Make this recipe more simple by having the butcher or an assistant cut off the fat and cube the meat!

PORK STEW with TOMATILLOS

2 1/2 # lean boneless port butt

2 Tbsp. oil

1 lg. onion, chopped

2-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 c. chopped tomatillos, fresh or canned (drained) (I've never used canned.)

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 can (7 oz) CA chopped green chiles

1 tsp. marjoram leaves

salt to taste

1/4 c. lightly packed chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 c. water

1. Trim and discard fat and cut pork intp 3/4 to 1 inch cubes. Brown meat (about 1/3 at a time) in oil over medium-high heat in wide frying pan or dutch oven. Remove all meat from pan and cook onion until limp.

2. Stir in garlic, tomatillos, chiles, marjoram, salt, coriander, and water. Return meat to pan, cover and simmer until meat is fork tender, about 1 hour. Skim off fat, if necessary.

3. Serve over rice and pass sour cream, tortillas and extra cilantro. Makes 4-6 servings.

Simply Happy Baker

Best part of making cupcakes with Nana.

beautiful or too pumped up?

What to do when you grate more carrots than needed for carrot cake!

Anna and I had a wonderful day together after her conference with teacher and parents. After lunch at Greens, where Anna had never been and has declared that it is her favorite restaurant, we made carrot cupcakes. (We didn't peel the carrots so that they were more nutritious. Anna scrubbed them well!)

We didn't know how to estimate the number of carrots we'd need and ended up with 5 cups instead of the 4 as required by the recipe. We covered the extra cup and refrigerated it.

After the PBS News Hour, I got a brilliant idea--had to be clever because I've not been to the grocery store for 5 days--and decided to make a salad that we used to make in the 50s and 60s: grated carrot raisin salad! I had a little mayo with lemon already mixed and put some oil and lemon juice in, too. Suddenly our salad was substantual in that I had a half of avocado and 3 radishes in the frig.

Do you see some little pea pods on the plate? I just picked those from my garden at 6 PM. Sweet and delicious--raw.

Squash & apple soup

About 2 weeks ago the youngest and oldest cooks met to make a master piece squash and apple soup.Now we will do a post with both of us. Ready set post!:)Anna=A Nana=N: Anna came to my house and we assembled all of the equipment and ingredients needed for our project. we

had a recipe but didn't really need one.

A: We took butter ( I love butter) and put it in a pan with some curry powder and onions( Shhh don't tell Wyatt) and let it cook together.

N:Cutting the

squash was the most dangerous, and challenging part of the project. (I still remember having to go to the ER 35 years ago from squash cutting on thanksgiving day!) so we were very careful.

A: I was definitely a watcher. Nana did all of the dirty work! Then we cubed the squash and apples and put them in with the onions we also added about three cup of chicken broth and let it simmer for 30 minutes until the squash and apples were soft. N: Pureeing was a fun in our new blender from Margi and Michael. I didn't eve

n have to swear about soup running out of the bottom. A: After the soup was liquified ( that is such a fun word to say) we added a can of light coconut milk. To get a f=good consistency we added milk when serving.

Peace love and pandas- Anna & Nana

lobster

LOBSTER ROLLS

Justine and Co. came to town, and Lobster Rolls came to mind. My first Lobster Roll was from Pearl on Cornelia street, about 13 years ago when Justine, Robert, Michael and I used to play euchre. Now, I am a full expert after scouring both Long Island and Cape Cod, in search of the perfect LR.
On a massively blustery day, I rode my bike to Chelsea Market where I picked up our preordered buns from Amy's (I swore we could use any cheap hot dog buns, but MC knew about Amy's special rolls), lobster from the Lobster Co. and some Gus's pickles.
I got it all home it tact and we chopped the lobster, put in a heap of mayo, lemon and a scoop of some herbs in oil that we had in the fridge. When dinner finally rolled around, we slathered butter in the cast iron to get a perfect toast and heaped on the salad. Fin tried to hog the lobster salad AND the roll.

Check out Anna's new blog about cupcakes @ limelightCTE.blogspot.com

Ideas for Using Protein Rich Tofu

Here are two suggestions for adding protein to your diet.

First: a very simple salad.

Cut the size piece of soft or medium/soft tofu you'd like to serve. Remove the extra water from it by pressing on paper towel or a cloth. Put it on a colored plate and drizzle it with olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Garnish with fresh chopped chives or parsley. I didn't have either, so I hopscotched out to my pots on the deck and cut some arugula for the garnish and peppery flavor.

Second: vegetable soup enriched with a slice of tofu.

Heat soup bowls and soup. Slice a piece of tofu and remove the extra water. Put the tofu in the warmed bowl and pour steaming soup on top. Serve immediately, enjoy and build your muscles!

sticky to the classic

hi: i don't know why this is underlined... anyway, Michael and i decided to make maldon salted peanut brittle with agave nectar. it was so so sticky that i was sure i was going to have a belly full of my fillings. we re-did it using the joy of cooking, sweetened with corn syrup and it was gu-ud. i had memories of making candy (taffy?) with you mom and feeling like it took FOREVER to get to hard ball!

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMm

Yum yum yum. This is a very fast breakfast that will only take about five words.

1. Greek yogurt
2. corn flakes
3.honey
4. almond
5. mix
6.enjoy :)
( again about five words)

Gravy madness

This is a very belated Thanksgiving post about gravy!!! to be continued......

Malasadas

On are Christmas break my family and i went to Hawaii. At the beautiful place we were staying they had a super fantabulas little donut called malasadas we ate them for breakfast and wrapped some in napkins for later. When we got home I looked up a recipe and thanks to the Internet made them. I had them before school a lot of days that week. They are incredible especially if you roll them in sugar ( duh)- baby bear

Malasadas

Bon Appétit | September 2000

Tex Drive In, HI


yield: Makes 24
These Portuguese-style raised doughnuts are super-popular in Hawaii. This version is from Tex Drive In on the Big Island.
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Ingredients

* 3 large eggs, room temperature
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 5 1/2 cups (or more) all purpose flour
* 2 envelopes quick-rising dry yeast
* 1 cup hot water (110°F to 120°F)
* 1/3 cup evaporated milk
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract


* Vegetable oil (for deep-frying)


* Additional sugar

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Preparation

Combine 1 egg, 3/4 cup sugar, butter and salt in bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with dough hook attachment; beat until blended. Add 5 cups flour and yeast; beat 1 minute. Add 1 cup hot water, milk and vanilla and beat until well blended. Beat in remaining 2 eggs, then 1/2 cup flour. Beat until dough is smooth, soft and slightly sticky but begins to come away from sides of bowl, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if very sticky, about 10 minutes. Scrape down dough from sides of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Punch down dough. Cut into 2 equal pieces. Roll out 1 piece on lightly floured surface to 12x16-inch rectangle. Cut lengthwise into 3 strips and crosswise into 4 strips, making twelve 4-inch squares. Repeat with remaining dough.

Pour enough oil into large saucepan to reach depth of 1 1/2 inches. Attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 350°F. Fry 2 or 3 malasadas until puffed and golden brown, turning once, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer malasadas to paper towels and drain. Repeat frying with remaining dough squares, heating oil to 350°F for each batch.

Generously sprinkle warm malasadas with additional sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

P.S. If you like you can use as much dough as you like and then put it in the fridge for as long as you like.
P.S.S do not over beat or they will definently become tough.