Kesari Bath

When we lived in South India, this was a favorite treat at tea shops for breakfast or as a sweet served after a spicy meal at large gatherings. It is super easy to make in under 20 minutes. Sooji is sold in the same section with flours in local shops and comes in small packets. It is very similar to cream of wheat. 

 

Kesari Bath

1/2 cup sooji
1 Tablespoon ghee (for frying)
Palmful of cashews
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
1 saffron thread or a pinch of turmeric*
Palmful of golden raisins
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1-2 Tablespoons ghee

Begin with a hot dry pan. Add sooji and switch heat to low. Stirring frequently over 5-6 minutes of low heat, you should begin to smell the toasted smell of the sooji. Remove from heat onto a plate. In the same pan, heat 1 Tbs ghee over low heat and fry cashews until golden. If you use the fruit variation below, you can fry the fruit here as well. Remove from heat into a small bowl. Into the pan add 1+1/2 cups water, sugar, saffron or the turmeric for color, and raisins. Once the sugar is dissolved, begin adding the toasted sooji into the water in batches, stirring while you pour to prevent lumps forming. Keeping the heat low, add the cashews, cardamom powder, and ghee. Stir well and cover on low for 2-3 minutes. You will know it is cooked when the sooji begins to look translucent. Serve warm. 

Fruit variation: This recipe tastes even better with finely chopped pineapple pieces. You can caramelize the pieces a little when you are frying the cashews, and then add them back into the mixture at the end. You can even use pineapple juice from canned pineapple in place of the water. 

*The turmeric is just for color and will not give the same taste as saffron. It is such a small amount that it does not impart any flavor. I don't have saffron in my pantry so this works just fine. 

One Pot Chicken Pot Pie Noodles

We've been trying lots of one-pot dishes lately to minimize clean up. My kids love this one! It's a win for the whole family, super easy, and hearty. It has the flavors of chicken pot pie without the extra work. You can check out the Life Made Simple blog for the original recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie Noodles

500g chicken breast

2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced

4-6 local celery stalks, diced with leaves

2 carrots, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups water

2 chicken stock cubes

1 cup milk

1 cup cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp ground sage*

1/4 tsp chili flakes

1/4 tsp paprika

250g pasta (small shapes)

1-2 cups frozen peas, thawed**

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Pie crust crumbles (optional)

Heat butter over medium heat in a large pot or Dutch oven. Fillet and season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken pieces in the pan until browned on both sides and cooked through. Remove from heat and allow the meat to rest 5 minutes before cutting into small pieces. Meanwhile, add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pan. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the water, stock cubes, milk, and cream and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium, then add the cut chicken pieces, garlic powder, thyme, sage, chili flakes, paprika, and pasta. Cook for 12-18 minutes on medium to low (you don't want an aggressive boil, but enough to cook the pasta). Add the peas and parsley to the pasta and cook until the pasta is tender. The sauce should be getting thicker, but not dry so you may need to cover it from time to time. As it cools, it will thicken a bit more. Top bowls of hot noodles with pie crust crumbles.

*You can substitute rosemary or extra thyme here if you don't have sage. I used 4 fresh sage leaves.

**The original recipe calls for 1 cup peas and 1 cup corn, but that's too starchy for my taste so I use double the peas.

Note: The first time I made this I didn't have any cream so I used all milk. It didn't adversely affect the flavor, but it just wasn't as creamy so you can definitely just use milk in a pinch.

Cinnamon Sugar Blondies

I originally saw these blondies from Buns in My Oven on Pinterest and wondered if they were legit--they are. These blondies are mixed and baked in under 30 minutes! They are a super quick and delicious dessert that doesn't require any special ingredients. The first time we made them they were delicious but flat. When we used more precise measurements the second time, they turned out chewy and flavorful. One big thing to be mindful of is egg sizes. A standard "large" egg is about 57 grams. I weighed a local egg (all of which are different in size), and it weighed only 30 grams. The difference is significant in a recipe so I doubled the eggs. Also my 9-year-old loved that he could do most of the work on these!

Must remember to take photos before we eat things! 

Cinnamon Sugar Blondies
113g or 1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 large egg, beaten (check the weight if possible)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
pinch of salt
5 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and flour an 8x8 baking pan. In a bowl mix together brown sugar and melted butter. Add the vanilla. Stir in the beaten egg. Add the flour and salt and stir until you have a smooth batter. It will look a lot like caramel.

Smooth the batter into the square pan. In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle the mixture over the top of the batter. Bake in a preheated oven for 22 minutes. Allow to cool a few minutes before cutting into these delicious little bars.

Note: The base recipe (minus sugar and cinnamon) makes a perfect chewy blondie. You could mix in chocolate chips, a little peanut butter, or other toppings to make different varieties. 

Ham and Cheese Sliders

The slider craze is everywhere in the US now. They are mini-burgers and sandwiches with various fillings and toppings. When I was last in the US, I had these delicious Ham and Cheese Sliders and recreated them here very easily. This recipe is based on this one from Dinner at the Zoo.

Ham and Cheese Sliders
1-2 long baguettes, cut into small sandwich sizes of your choice*
300 grams ham or enough to stuff each small sandwich
Thin cheese slices**, enough to stuff each small sandwich
2 teaspoons mustard (Dijon, Honey, or Spicy Brown)
2 teaspoons poppy seeds (optional)
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
6 Tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 170C. In a small bowl, combine the ingredients from mustard through melted butter and stir until well blended. Lay the bottoms of each sandwich across the bottom of a greased baking dish. Add ham and cheese to each sandwich, and then top with the remaining bread tops. Using a brush or spoon, apply the glaze over the top of each sandwich. It will also drip down the sides. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil from the top and put the pan back into the oven for 3-5 more minutes until the tops of the sandwiches are brown and toasty.

Enjoy your delicious sliders warm!

* You could also cut the bread in a few long lengths that go all the way across your baking pan and slice them into smaller sandwiches after baking.

** I think any cheese that pairs well with mustard would work here. I used sliced processed cheese, but I think the local cheese or something like brie would also work beautifully.

Also, I'm not sure what the point of poppy seeds is other than looks, and don't think the recipe would be missing anything if you didn't have them.

Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese - Like Velveeta Shells and Cheese

Full disclosure...this one is not a health food by any stretch. It's pure comfort food that I discovered by accident. Really, it's not much of a recipe, but a quick how to if you're single parenting and have hungry children. I think it might also appeal to singles who don't have the energy to prepare dinner and have some cooked pasta around. I don't have bigger scaled quantities worked out, but this will make a single serving bowlful.

Tastes very similar to Velveeta Shells and Cheese...the totally fake mac and cheese

Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese
1-1.5 cups cooked macaroni noodles or small pasta shells
2 slices Amul processed cheese, torn into smaller pieces (the kind in the plastic sheets)
1-2 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a microwave-safe bowl, add all the ingredients except the salt and pepper. Microwave in 1 minute bursts, stirring between each minute until the cheese is melted and you have a relatively creamy white base. Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

You can tweak the amounts a bit, but the key thing is to have enough milk to work as the sauce base without having so much milk you thin the cheese too much. You could probably also do this on the stove top if you work over low heat and keep a close eye on the milk.

This was a HUGE hit with my 10-year-old mac and cheese lover!

Awesome Chinese Stirfry Sauce

This is less of a personal recipe and more of a rave about something that I have loved for about 2 years. It's seriously good stuff!

Nagi at RecipeTinEats lets you in on a Chinese takeout secret--a good all-purpose sauce. This one is awesome, and here you'll find 10 ways to use the sauce.

In order to make this locally, you do need to substitute at least one ingredient. I buy Kikkoman soy sauce for the dark, Tiger brand light soy sauce, and Korean soju for the Chinese wine. The Korean rice wine is available at Uttam.  

Korean Chamisul soju available here

Breakfast So Easy a 5-Year-Old Can Do It!

The title of this post is not an exaggeration, and this recipe has become one of my 5-year-old's weeknight chores a couple days a week. He loves that he can contribute a meal all by himself.

Both of my kids love oatmeal, but this time of year it just feels wrong to eat hot cereal for breakfast. Enter this easy, cold oatmeal breakfast that you can make in under 5 minutes. I have been using the Finish rolled oats that are being packaged locally, and they work great for this recipe. The quantity here is enough to feed my two kids breakfast for two mornings.

Overnight Oatmeal
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup milk
1 cup yogurt (sweetened variety)
2 mashed bananas
Other flavorings to taste: 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp cinnamon, or 1-2 Tbs chocolate milk powder

Pour all the ingredients into a plastic tub and mix together. Add optional flavorings according to what you like. Refrigerate overnight and serve cold in the morning.

Now enjoy a little less stress in your morning!

I'm Back with Boiled Eggs!

Well....it's been a while (insert sheepish grin here). Life happens, doesn't it? Like a whole year of life! It's time for me to get back on the horse and begin sharing recipes that work well or adapt well for the kitchen here. I'll set the bar low with a couple recipes a month, and if I do more, then bravo!

Let's start with something so simple that I have found to be a game changer--boiled eggs! I like boiled eggs. I find them to be an easy breakfast if I've precooked some and stashed them in the fridge. One of my children also likes them, but those darn yolks can be so dry that you feel like you're choking them down. We've discovered that boiling them just under hard boiled (no jiggly stuff for me!) is the perfect happy medium. Now, I'm going to throw you a curve ball. Enter the pressure cooker. Perfectly boiled eggs that are easy to peel no matter how fresh the egg. What more could you want? Did I mention that perfectly cooked boiled eggs don't have that sulfury smell either? Yeah...that's a bonus.

Pressure Cooker Boiled Eggs

You'll need:
Eggs
1 cup water
Pressure Cooker
Steamer basket, rack, or folded tea towel
Timer

First, you'll need to put your steamer basket, rack, or folded tea towel into the bottom of your pressure cooker. This is to keep the eggs off the direct heat. I'm not sure what would happen if you didn't, but I saw this somewhere so I use one of those collapsible steamer baskets. Place your eggs on top of the rack. Avoid any eggs with fine cracks as pressure cooking tends to break those open. Pour 1 cup water into the bottom of the cooker. If you're using a tea towel, add enough so that you've got at least 1-2 inches of water standing once the towel absorbs some. Lock down the cooker lid.

Turn on the heat to high. Once you reach full pressure (indicated by the big whistle here), switch the heat to low and set your timer as follows:

3 minutes - soft boiled
5 minutes - medium boiled (ideal, in my opinion)
6 minutes - hard boiled

When the timer rings, for soft or medium boiled you want to do the quick release method by running the pressure cooker under cold water and getting the eggs out immediately. For hard boiled, remove the cooker from the heat and allow the pressure to release naturally over 5 minutes then open. Rinse eggs under cold water or place in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.

Enjoy your perfectly cooked eggs! I like to mark mine with an X when I put them in the fridge so there's no mixing them up with raw eggs.

One Pot Farmer's Market Pasta

I stumbled across this recipe recently while looking through a list of "one pot meals." I am often skeptical of one pot dishes. Usually one pot spaghetti dishes leave me feeling like something was not quite right, but this one does not disappoint. I pared it down considerably from the original from The View From Great Island just because I did not have access to all the vegetables, but this was incredibly easy and pretty delicious! And truly a one pot meal on top of it all--very "set it and forget it" as those infomercials would say. It is definitely worth giving a try with whatever vegetables are available in your neighborhood. Have a look at the original if you want to add some more veggies, too, but they do suggest you do not leave out the tomatoes or the cheese as they form the bulk of the “sauce” part. Another dinner—20 minutes or less—that is totally possible here. 

One Pot Farmer’s Market Pasta
12 oz spaghetti, broken in half
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 cups small local tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 handfuls leafy greens, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 ½ cups water (or vegetable/chicken stock)
1 stock cube (omit if using stock as liquid)
1 Tablespoon vinegar (white/red wine, cider)
1 cup hard salty cheese, grated (parmesan, aged local variety)

Put all the ingredients except the cheese into the pot. Stir just to combine everything. Cover and bring the pot up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, uncover and stir again. Allow the pot to boil uncovered for 7-9 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Stir the pasta occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once the pasta is al dente, remove the pasta from heat. There should still be a little liquid in the bottom of the pan. If there is too much, let it boil off for another minute or so. Add the cheese and stir until it melts. Serve with some fresh tomatoes or herbs sprinkled on top. 

Note: The vinegar in this recipe may dull the color of certain leafy greens. If that bothers you, try omitting the vinegar until the very end of cooking. 

1-2-3-4 Soup

I stumbled across this recipe recently through a link to Ciao from Debbie and loved the simplicity of it. When I first moved here, someone shared a similar recipe with me—more of a rough guide—that you could adapt for most kinds of vegetables. This one is incredibly versatile, and the original posting has some interesting flavor suggestions. So far we have made cream of broccoli-potato, zucchini, and spinach-potato varieties. If you start with uncooked starch, reduce the amount to ¾ cup and add some additional liquid to keep the soup from becoming stew.

1-2-3-4 Soup

1 cup onions, diced

2 cups cooked starch (potatoes, rice, beans, etc.)

3 cups vegetables, diced (broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini)

4 cups liquid (4 cups water + 2 stock cubes)

Oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Milk or Cream, to taste

Cheese, grated (optional)

Heat a small amount of oil over medium heat. Sauté onions in oil until translucent. Add in the cooked starch, vegetables, and liquid. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low until vegetables are tender. At this point you can either leave the soup chunky, puree the whole thing, or puree part of the soup. Stir in some cream or milk and heat through. Cream will thicken the soup so it may need to be thinned to your liking.

Super simple! If you can count to 4, you can probably make this soup work for you. It’s a great way to use up leftover potatoes or rice hanging out in the fridge—just make sure they're not growing anything first.

Chickpea Salad

Salads....I love that a salad can really be just about anything you want it to be. I especially appreciate salads that you can make when good lettuce is either not available or not in your house that day. This chickpea salad is really not much of a recipe, but hopefully it will be an inspiration to you. This salad works well as the protein for a vegetarian meal. You can make it as simple or deluxe as you like, but here are the basics of what I do. You can use dried chickpeas or canned ones that you've rinsed and drained. You just need to add more salt if you've started from dried chickpeas.

Chickpea Salad
2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
1 cup tomatoes, diced or chopped
1 cup red onion, sliced thinly
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 Tablespoons vinegar (cider, red wine, or balsamic)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Optional add-ons:
1-2 cups fresh rocket/arugula
1 teaspoon dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary)
Crumbled cheese (feta, paneer, or even parmesan)
Fresh herbs (mint or basil)
Cucumber, chopped

Toss everything into a bowl. Adjust seasonings, vinegar, and oil to taste. Allow to chill and marinate at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Veggie Pancakes

I've been searching for more ways to incorporate vegetables in our diet. Sometimes I feel like I go through days where I hardly eat any vegetables other than tomatoes and legumes, which feels pretty ridiculous and bad for me. I had the thought, "I wonder if you could make a savory pancake out of vegetables?" Turns out that you can, and they taste pretty good. Since there is only a little flour in these, you could easily make them gluten free by substituting something like chickpea flour or another gluten free blend in place of the white flour. This recipe is a mishmash of a lot of ideas I find on the internet and can be customized with whatever vegetables you want. I used finely chopped cauliflower and leafy greens, but broccoli, cabbage, peppers, and even green beans would probably also work if you really chop them finely.

Sometimes white plates are good. Sometimes they're just not. Sorry!

Vegetable Pancakes
1/2 cup flour (white, wheat, chickpea, whatever)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup carrots, grated
1 cup mixed vegetables, finely

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients, including vegetables, in another bowl. Add the wet to the dry. Using a non-stick or well greased skillet, fry as you would normal pancakes, but using only a heaping tablespoons or so of batter at a time. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the batter some so the vegetables cook through. Cook over medium-low heat, flipping once the first side is browned and browning the other side.

You can eat these plain, with gravy, or with cheese sauce. We opted for a cheesy bechamel, and it was a fun savory twist on sweet pancakes.

Miso Noodle Bowl

I'm back after a long silence! Although our weather has alternated between hot/summery and rainy, something about monsoon rain makes me want that occasional bowl of soup--even when I'm sweating. This soup, inspired by a recipe from Mushrooms Canada, can be made in under 15 minutes so it's a definite winner for easy weeknight meals. If you want it to be extra special, soak some dried black/Shitake/Chinese mushrooms in the morning to give you delicious natural mushroom broth in the evening. Just make sure you don't pour in the dredges from the bottom as they may contain grit.

Miso Noodle Bowl
1 Tablespoon oil
2 small onions, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
3 Tablespoons miso paste
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
4 cups water + 2 vegetable bouillon cubes or mushroom broth
2 cups mixed mushrooms or bok choy, chopped
2 scallions, chopped finely
200g noodles (soba, ramen, or chowmein)
Sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar, to taste

Heat oil over medium low heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and ginger, cooking until fragrant, about 1 minute, but do not let them brown. Stir in the miso paste and soy sauce, making sure the onions are coated with the mixture. Pour in the broth (water + bouillon) and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the vegetables, cooking over medium heat just until they are al dente or the greens are wilted. Add the noodles and cook another 4-7 minutes until they are also al dente. Remove from heat. Ladle into bowls, top with chopped scallions, and sprinkle over sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar to taste.

To add more protein content to the meal, you could also drop in cubed tofu toward the end of the cooking process.

Monkey Breakfast Cookies

I don't know what these cookies should be called, but being loaded with bananas for my little monkeys made me think they should be called Monkey Cookies. These are seriously some of the easiest cookies to make ever! Only 4 ingredients. These are something I can feel good about giving to my kids for breakfast or any other time of day for that matter. Use up those ugly bananas sitting on your counter to make these cookies from The Sweet Life. These are completely safe to eat raw, too, if you're starving while you're making them!

Monkey Breakfast Cookies
1 cup ripe mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/3 cup peanut butter (try them with crunchy!)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Combine the bananas, oats, and peanut butter in a bowl. Once the batter is roughly uniform, fold in the chocolate chips. Preheat oven to 170C/350F. Drop cookies by the tablespoon onto the pan, flattening just slightly to help the centers cook more evenly. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool and enjoy!

Note: If you are gluten-free, you should buy oats specifically marked as "gluten free" and not assume that locally packaged oats are. 

Rolled Biscuits

This will be a quick post because this recipe is so ridiculously easy. In a hurry? Need a bread for the breakfast or dinner table? Biscuits to the rescue! Pull out your homemade baking mix, and get going.

Fancied up with a sausage patty and cheddar cheese!

Rolled Biscuits
2 1/4 cups baking mix
1 cup cold milk

Mix the two ingredients together, pat into a large lump with your hands. Try not to get the mixture too warm with your hands, or you'll get flat biscuits. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until they are about the thickness of the first joint of your pointer finger (3/4 - 1 inch). Using a drinking glass, cut out circles from the dough and place them on a baking sheet. Continue to re-roll the scraps until you get as many biscuits as you can out of the dough. Bake in a 220C/425F oven for 12-15 minutes or until tops are golden. Eat while they're warm!

To make scones, the process is the same, but you might want to apply an egg wash or some milk to the tops to allow for more browning.

Peanut Butter Bites

Picture this: You've got dinner guests coming over in a few hours, and you forgot to plan a dessert. Only now the power is off and will be until after they arrive. Yes, you could skip dessert, but who wants to?! In walk these delicious little beauties to your no bake repertoire. You can make them sweeter or saltier according to your taste by interchanging the kind of biscuit you use. That's my own twist on the original recipe from Spoonful. These even work with the local unsweetened peanut butter if you're trying to pinch your pennies. Just a quick note on the chocolate though. Don't try this with the little packets of chocolate chips, as they do not melt easily. Go for one of the generic blocks of "dark compound" chocolate. Your results will be much better!

Peanut Butter Bites
6 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy, creamy, whatever)
1 cup digestive biscuits or salted "Ritz" type crackers
1 cup powdered/icing sugar
1 cup chocolate for melting

Heat the peanut butter and butter together over low heat until melted. Crush your biscuits or crackers in a plastic zip bag with a rolling pin. A few chunks are okay. To the peanut butter mixture, add the crushed biscuits and powdered sugar. It should be nice and thick. Press the mixture into a greased 8x8 or 7x11 pan. I line mine with greaseproof (waxed) paper to make lifting them out easier. Melt the chocolate (adding about a teaspoon of oil for shine) and spread over the top of the peanut butter mixture. Refrigerate for about an hour or pop in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Take out about 10 minutes prior to serving to make slicing easier.

Notes: Don't fork out your $$ on Ritz crackers unless you need a very specific flavor. Brands like Monaco and Time Pass salted biscuits work just the same in recipes like this for a fraction of the cost.

Herb and Pomegranate Salad

I promised this little Mediterranean salad back when I posted the Moroccan Chickpea Stew, but I never got around to posting it. If you have a very narrow definition of what constitutes a salad, this may not be for you, but I found it to be so refreshing alongside a Mediterranean-spiced main. This recipe first caught my eye while I was reading BBC Good Food (Oct. 2013, Asian ed.), my favorite magazine, over the holidays. It was part of the front page picture, and it looked gorgeous. Having given it a try with a few tweaks, I think it's a winner. Vary the amounts of herbs according to your taste to get something that works for those at your dinner table.

Another high-class paper plate dinner

Herb and Pomegranate Salad
1 cucumber, deseeded and finely chopped
Arils of 1 pomegranate
3 medium tomatoes, diced finely
1 small bunch of each fresh parsley, mint, and dill
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar or pomegranate molasses
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp sugar or honey

In the bottom of the salad bowl, combine the lemon juice and zest, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and sugar. Whisk until you get a loose emulsion. Here you can also add a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. To this mixture, add all the other salad ingredients and toss until the dressing coats everything. Taste again to adjust seasoning. If it does not taste like much, increase the salt to bring out the other flavors more.

Note: I thought the dill might overpower my salad so I only used parsley and mint. You can experiment to see what you like.

Dirty Rice

Sounds delicious, right? In the Southern U.S., in the state of Louisiana, there is a creole style of food know as Cajun food that blends flavors from different cultures. While this recipe may not be 100% out-of-the-bayou authentic, it's a tasty take on the original dirty rice that would have been made with livers. For this recipe, you can use just about any kind of smokey sausage, but recently we have really enjoyed the kielbasa made by a Polish couple living in our city. On our long family camping trip, the days we ate this were morale boosting days. If you're looking for a little change in your week, give this one a try. It's a great one pot meal for a week night.

Had to capture the pot quick before the food disappeared!

Dirty Rice
1 1/2 cups rice
3 cups water
1 1/2 chicken broth cubes
1 package sausage or 1 long link, sliced into rounds
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/4 cups chopped celery (less if stalks are thin)
2 green peppers, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme (2 teaspoons fresh)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Chili powder, to taste

Fry sausage in a pan over medium heat without oil until the sausage begins to brown. Remove the sausage and set aside. If there is not a lot of fat in the bottom of the pan, add about a teaspoon of oil and fry the onions, celery, and peppers until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the rice and stir until it is nicely coated with the oil and vegetables. This helps keep the grains separated after cooking. Pour in the water and drop in the broth cubes. Bring to a boil, stirring to make sure the cube is dissolved. Reduce the heat to low then add the salt, chili powder, thyme, and sausage. Cover and simmer until all the water is absorbed (10-15 minutes). Turn off the heat and leave covered about 10 minutes prior to serving. Top with sour cream if desired.

Eggnog

Eggnog is one of my husband's favorite Christmas drinks. I can remember seeing him drink it straight from the carton in front of the fridge on many an occasion when we lived in the U.S. With Christmas approaching, I was excited to hear last week of a local dairy making eggnog for Christmas, only to find out Friday that I had likely missed the last chance to order. After some research, I realized making my own pasteurized eggnog was not as hard as I'd imagined. Now you can try it, too! It also doubles as a delicious coffee creamer. Freeze the egg whites in ice cube trays for the next time you need just whites.

Eggnog
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar plus 1 Tablespoon
2 cups milk (pasteurized and cooled)
1 small box (or 1 cup) fresh cream (heavy cream)
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan off the heat, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar until the yolks turn a lighter yellow color. Into the mixture, add 1 cup of cold milk and the nutmeg. Over low heat, begin heating the mixture without boiling it until the temperature throughout is 160F/71C. Keep at this temperature for about 30 seconds. This is the temperature just before small bubbles would begin to form. Switch off the heat and chill immediately over an ice bath or in the freezer. Once cooled, use a whisk to stir in the remaining 1 cup of milk and the box of cream until smooth. Keep in the fridge once the eggnog is finished and enjoy!

Note: Some recipes call for the addition of whipped egg whites to the final mixture, but since I can't guarantee the safety of raw eggs here, I would not advise it. Also, if you'd like a thinner eggnog, heat the cream with the milk and the mixture will not thicken as much.

Fireside Coffee Mix

My sister-in-law Natalie makes this coffee mix around the holiday season for gifts, and it's perfect for a cozy afternoon drink that feels slightly more grown up than hot chocolate. It uses hot chocolate as its base with a kick of coffee and a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. Dress it up in a pretty glass jar with a ribbon, and you've got a great hostess gift if you're into that sort of thing. Enjoy!

Fireside Coffee Mix
1 cup hot cocoa mix
1 cup powdered creamer or whitener (like Everyday)
1/2 cup instant coffee
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or more!)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix all the powdered ingredients in an airtight container or jar. Start with 2 teaspoons per cup of hot water and adjust to taste.