Monica's Milanesa

 Our daughter-in-law, Monica, is a fabulous cook.  We discovered that soon after they moved to the US when she made delicious gnocchi, hand shaped pasta made from potatoes.  Now she has started her own small business making and selling Argentine food.  

Milanesa are well seasoned, breaded chicken cutlets.  They are pounded thin, lightly breaded and cooked quickly.  Monica bakes her own bread and makes a milanesa sandwich.  

For dessert she makes a very typical cookie called alfajores.  Here is a perfect description I found of them.  'Irresistible Argentinian Alfajores are a soft, sweet and crumbly shortbread sandwich cookie filled with dulce de leche', which is caramelized milk.  It tastes a bit like caramel.

So fun to see Monica using her cooking skills while John hones his small business talents to promote and expand their reach.

During the summer they have been successfully selling once a month at their apartment clubhouse.

I am proud of them.

 

Malasadas

One thing we both fell in love with on the Big Island are the Malasadas, Portuguese donuts.  Soft puffy balls of deliciousness.  They don't have holes like traditional donuts but they are sometimes filled with various creams and all of them are liberally sprinkled with sugar.

Coconut Cream Filling

Some just have a delicious glaze.

Passion Fruit Glaze

George was addicted too!  His favorite was the chocolate filled.

One night we went to a restaurant where our dessert was 3 Malasadas with 3 syringes to add the filling ourselves....one coconut, one chocolate and one guava!  Can you say delicious?

Our favorite place to buy them was the Southern Most Bakery in the US.  It's on the way to the volcano from Kona so be sure and stop if you ever go.  You won't be sorry!

I watched this guy making them to see if I could get any hints.  Yes you can find the recipe on-line.  And yes, I may be trying to learn to make them.

Our 2nd favorite place to buy them was at Tex's Drive in which in north of Hilo.

And for the record....I lost about 2 pounds on our trip.  I don't think I can thank the Malasadas for 

that.  If I do make them at home, I must go on several 4 mile hikes with significant climbing to try and equal things out!

Chocolate Cake

We just got back from a 2 week Black Sea Cruise.  Between the two of us we have about 5000 pictures!  I promise not to share them all!

One of the best parts (and also one of the worst parts) of a cruise is all the delicious food!  Yummy but I was afraid that I'd have to buy sweat pants to wear home!

Almost every single night George had chocolate cake for dessert.  The waiter would laugh when he handed George the dessert menu and tease, "You don't really need the menu do you?"  When we got home he said that his body was craving chocolate cake every night.

I refuse to bake a chocolate cake because then I would just eat it....but I did find this little alternative for Halloween!  It helped wean G off his nightly habit!!!

Class-Cooking

My friend Kim's "Class Cooking" classes definitely teach you to cook with class!  I love all the of cooking techniques I've learned and my whole family loves the variety of recipes.

It all began during our years of living in Barcelona. As 'trailing spouses' of our Hewlett Packard husbands, we enjoyed any excuse to get together.  Kim combined her teaching experience with her culinary expertise and came up with a great plan; a group of women spending the morning cooking together under her direction, using her fabulous recipes, and then enjoying a feast for lunch!  Now home in Vancouver, Kim has expanded on this idea to create "Class-Cooking".

The first class I attended was on Indian Cooking.  The Tika Masala recipe is one of my family's favorites.  In fact every Indian restaurant since then has been judged by 'Is their Tika masala as good as Mom's?"  I'm delighted to say that the answer to that question is frequently, "NO!"  Thanks Kim!

A recent favorite was the tamale class.  I wowed my lunch book club with two flavors of homemade tamales, two salsas,  salad and even dessert tamales! Another delicious class was the Aebleskiver class!  Aebleskiver Eggs Benedict!  Fantastic!  I love the easy Hollandaise sauce so much I have to restrain myself from drinking it right out of the blender!  I've had classes on gourmet salads and sandwiches, Thai cooking, soups and this week I learned to cook Moroccan!  Now I want to go buy a tagine.

So I can make....."Tagine of Chicken, Preserved Lemons and Olives"

                                           "Spice Lentil and Butternut Squash Tagine" 

And "Romaine, Orange and Date Salad with Cinnamon Orange Dressing"

Kim's classes are professionally done yet she explains and demonstrates everything so well that I always leave knowing I CAN do what she has taught us.  The classes are 'hands on'....if you want to eat you have to help!  She teaches all kinds of easy shortcuts and has many recommendations for buying ingredients that might not be available at your local grocery store.  Anyone who has an interest in cooking and wants a fun morning out, should check out http://class-cooking.com.

Thanksgiving 2011

One of our favorite things to do while living in Spain was to share our "American Thanksgiving" meal with our Spanish friends. This year we introduced our friend from India to turkey, mashed potatoes and gravey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie! I think he liked it all!

Matt and Scott drove over from Boise and seemed to enjoy Mom's cooking too. We missed Johnny and Mary and Mark. I'm sure as time goes on it will be harder and harder to get all four of our children home for the holidays. We are so thankful for family and friends and the chances to be together!

Now let the Christmas craziness begin!

Volt

Here's a post for our 'foodie' Scott!

We had the chance to have lunch at Volt, Chef Bryan Voltaggio's restaurant in Frederick, Maryland.

I admit I hadn't heard of him before but he was on Top Chef on Bravo TV. The food was excellent! I'll also admit that there were many words on the menu that I didn't know! The extremely attentive waiter explained the dishes to us and everyone was delighted with their choices!

composition of market vegetables maroon carrots, fennel, upland cress, petite herbs, banyuls vinaigrette

yellowfin tuna tartare jasmine rice, chili oil, petite cilantro, wasabi whitefish roe

sheep’s milk cavatelli country ham, broccoli rabe, parmesan

“spring garden” beets, carrots in timothy hay, radish, coffee soil, cherry glen farm chevre

mahi mahi maroon carrot, black forbidden rice, radish, soy air

marinated hanger steak rick’s yukon gold potatoes, chive pudding, maitake mushrooms, applewood smoked bacon

I think we look as full and content as we felt! I'm not even going to mention the desserts but lets just say they were almost, but not quite, too pretty to eat!

A 'Wicked' Evening

Mary organized a group of twenty of her friends for a fondue dinner and 'Wicked' at the Kennedy Center.

I didn't waste time taking pictures of the cheese fondue, just the yummy chocolate! The "Yin and Yang' dark and white chocolate creation was pretty but my favorite was the less photogenic, "Flaming Turtle"!

And to dip in all this yummy goodness - fresh strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, Rice Krispie Treats, marshmallows, pound cake and brownies.! My personal favorites were the pound cake and the bananas.

After dinner we all enjoyed the amazing play "Wicked". The 'behind the scenes' story or the real story of the Wizard of Oz was revealed through wonderfully clever music and dialogue! An unforgettable evening thanks to my daughter!

More food....and drinks too!

Almost 25 years ago when my cousin Bill was at the Jerusalem Center this was a favorite of the BYU students.

It's still there....same oven, same baker, and the BYU students still come here to enjoy pizza.

Not only does he bake pizza, he bakes bread for most of the neighborhood, including some of the bakeries. Not all homes or bakeries have ovens so the dough is brought here and then is baked in his large oven. Sounds like a good system to me!

It's a pretty traditional cheese pizza, except that it has egg in addition to the cheese. It wasn't my favorite....give me a falafel anyday!!

Good marketing idea here....Cana Wedding wine! Does it turn to water?

Jerusalem's answer to Starbucks....a mobile coffee shop! I'm told that in the hot summer he sometimes carries lemonade instead of coffee!

Middle Eastern Fast Food

Although there are McDonalds in Israel, even Kosher McDonalds, the most common 'fast food' seems to be falafel. Falafel are deep fried balls of ground chickpeas and delicious spices.

What really makes them yummy are the tomatoes, cucumbers, hummus and tahini sauce that are also put in the pita!

Lynda, who lived in Jerusalem, took us to the 'best falafel stand in the city', which was just outside Damascas Gate.. It is what my mother would have called a 'hole in the wall'. There are no places to sit, you just order and take it with you. I think what made these especially good were the super good hummus and tahini sauces. They put just the right amount in so that they weren't soggy but deliciously moist.

If George liked falafel, I'd learn how to make them.

Meat lover George much prefers the other Middle Eastern fast food, Shawarma.

Shawarma is thin sliced meat, usually lamb but occasionally turkey or beef, also stuffed into pita with sauces and veggies.

Our tour group was about equally divided between the falafel fans and the Shawarma fans.

Majdal Shams

Majdal Shams, a little Druze village on the Golan Heights, was in the news recently because of violent border protests that resulted in 20+ deaths. Well, we had lunch there a few days before that! I'll always remember the unusual food. As you can see the women prepare these large flat breads by shaping them on a pillow and then baking them quickly on a perfectly shaped oven.

I don't know what they are called but when you spread on the locally made cream cheese and dribble on some olive oil, they are delicious!

Wedding Catering

Our friends Anne and John's son got married on Friday. I flew to Boise on Wednesday to help with the food and attend the wedding. Gail and I made lots & lots of chicken salad!

The bride and groom looked so happy.

The food looked amazing and tasted great. Gail and I are both southerners so we made pimiento cheese sandwiches. I'm shocked that some people said they'd never heard of them. They are missing a yummy treat! I ate way too many.

Do we almost look professional?

Towards the end of the night we got a little silly!

I love my friends and I love making memories with them.

Bali

After almost two years I've gotten the pictures from our trip to China and Bali on my computer instead of just on George's so I've been looking through them and savoring the great memories! One of the many highlights for me was our extension to Bali. That was the most unique place I have ever visited.

This is a home with many altars in the front yard. See what I mean by unique?

A highlight for me was my "Balinese Cooking Class". The day started early with a 6:30 a.m. pick up at the hotel. Our first stop was the market where "Mama Bali" shops. The chef scared me to death when he announced that each of us needed to pick one of the chickens to be butchered for our lunch. I thought this whole experience might be a little too authentic for me!

After one was picked, he showed us how they hypnotize a chicken before chopping its head off. I was cringing the whole time waiting for the 'ax to fall'.

Pretty weird seeing the chicken all laid out on the chopping block calmly waiting! Lucky for me, this chicken lived to see another group of shoppers, since the chef finally admitted that our chickens were in the fridge back in the restaurant!

We got to learn about all the exotic spices and how they were used. He assured us that the same spices would be readily available in our local grocery stores! Really????

Next we learned how to make banana leaf rice holders for cooking rice. Cool! Not particularly useful since our local Albertsons's doesn't stock banana leaves!! I was later told kale leaves work well but I haven't tried it!

Then it was back in the van to go to the fish market. Boats from Java and Sumatra! What an exotic mix of color! I loved it. The black and white cloth covered statue in the picture is another altar! The Balinese are a religious people.

Here you could buy

Shrimp

Crab

Squid

And of course fish!

This little beauty peeped out at me from under one of the boats! Wonder where she is from and what her life is like?

At the restaurant this lovely breakfast awaited us.

Then we started cooking!!! All kitchens in Bali are outside since it is so warm. They don't have ovens either. The chef was an excellent teacher and got us all involved.

So much fun and such a varied and interesting group! An Indian couple who now lived in Boston, a gorgeous couple with a British man and his French wife who currently live in Switzerland, two couples from Australia, a newlywed couple from Taiwan, and another American whose girlfriend didn't want to learn to cook, she just wanted to sleep in!

This is what we prepared! Want to come over for Balinese food? I still remember a few things!