A Place for My Brother

When I was growing up my brother and I were in a love hate relationship. My brother loved to tease me and I hated it. Now so many years later, we are the best of friends. My brother recently moved away and I only get to visit him once in a while and we try to talk when we can. The one thing my brother and I have in common is a love for food. Every time we talk, we talk about food. We always want to know what each other ate and we frequently discuss new recipes we've tried. Some of the best times we have had are in the kitchen. We never get in each other's way and we always know what the other person is thinking. I miss my brother, but I am saving a place for him at the table and keeping the light on for him. Till we cook again.....

Amazing Pantry

I have been following the "show us your pantry" weekly showoff on Friday's on the www.theperfectpantry.com for the past couple of weeks. I love to see how other people organize and decorate their houses. I'm weird that way, I love to clean and organize. It's a weird thing to do, but it's like doing yoga for me. So out the posts I'd have to say this is my favorite one. It's the most amazing pantry I have ever seen and when I grow up this is exactly what I want. Hint, hint.......

Here is what the writer says:

Since the doors are very open and it is easy to see inside, we made it more of a decorative pantry by exhibiting some of our crystal on the shelves directly facing the swinging bar doors. These are glass shelves to allow for better lighting. It is nice that as one walks into our kitchen one can easily see into our pantry and see the swinging white bar doors, decorative lights and white ceiling fan. We made the room all white because it makes the room feel cooler and it goes with our white picket fence!

The shelves holding the crystal have accent lights which can be dimmed to 3 settings, depending on how much I want to show off the room during wine gatherings at home.

Additionally, to the right of the room and to the left are custom-made kitchen cabinets which have coaster wheels. These were made by one of my uncles. These rolling kitchen cabinets are used for when I host dinners to hold the serving trays and drinks.

Recipe for Garbanzo Bean and Kale Soup with Pasta

Another one of my loves is garbanzo beans. I love homemade hummus, pasta fiagoli, garbanzo bean curry and garbanzo beans tossed in soups and salads. I usually have a couple of cans stocked in the pantry to have on hand. We went to Clyde's today and had this delicious soup and I had to come home and copy it. I found the recipe on My Recipes and tweaked it accordingly. It's a heart-healthy and delicious soup that's easy to customize. Just add or delete ingredients to suit you own tastes. "

Garbanzo Bean and Kale Soup with Pasta

INGREDIENTS:

16 ounces whole-wheat pasta shells
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 slices of bacon
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
3 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth
3/4 cup water
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup tomato paste
2 cups roughly chopped kale
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in the pasta, and return to a boil. Boil, stirring occasionally, until cooked through but still firm to the bite, about 12-15 minutes. Drain well.
Heat olive oil in a large soup pot; add bacon, onion, and garlic. Cook over medium heat until meat browns and onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in sage and rosemary and cook for about 1 minute, do not allow herbs to brown. Pour the broth and water into the pot along with the garbanzo beans and tomato paste. Bring to a boil and add kale. Simmer until kale softens, about 5 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper.

To serve, place a serving of cooked pasta in the bottom of a soup bowl and ladle hot soup over.

Recipe for Green Chili Stew

Here is another recipe that I got from Cooking Light. I love the heat contrasted with the sweetness of the sweet potato and the corn. Every bite is a mystery, you never know what combination is going to end up on your spoon.

Green Chili Stew

1 lb. ground beef, pork or turkey
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 red onion, diced
2 heaping cups chopped roasted Hatch chiles
1 large or 2 smaller sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 ears of fresh sweet corn, cut off the cob
1 14-oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
3 cups broth, or so- as needed
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Sea salt and ground pepper, to taste
1-2 fresh limes
A pinch of sugar, if needed

For serving:

Sliced avocado
Sour cream
Fresh cilantro or mint, chopped

Preperation:

Brown the ground meat in a large skillet and pour off the fat. Dump the meat into the slow cooker or Crock Pot. Add the olive oil, garlic, onion, roasted Hatch chiles, sweet potato, corn and tomatoes. Stir together. Pour enough broth over the ingredients to cover for a light brothy effect. Slow cook for 3 hours.

Soup's On! Recipe for Baked Potato Soup

It's that time of the year where I go soup crazy. We just finished the soups I had in the freezer before summer started and it's time to make more. I made lentil soup the other day and Sunday we defrosted a wonderful batch of my father's vegetable soup. I LOVE soup. I love to make it and I love to eat it. I love opening my windows on a cool crisp fall day while a pot of soup is simmering on my stove. I love that I can add what I want and eliminate my not so favorites. I love it when my whole house smells like soup and the kids come home from school and they are happy because they know they are having soup for dinner. Over the summer , tortilla soup was a weekly meal.

I am highlighting one of my family's favorite soup. My mom gave me a Cooking Light Best Recipes cookbook last Christmas and I found this great recipe for Baked Potato Soup. It was called their "best soup ever." The potatoes are baked before being added to the soup, creating a wonderful texture. The end result is a soup that tastes exactly like a baked potato in a bowl. Sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onions, and bacon provide the delicious flavor. Is it really the best potato soup ever? Make it and find out. I usually serve this with buffalo wings.

Baked Potato Soup

Cooking Light

Ingredients:

4 baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces)
6 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 cup (4 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extrasharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
Cracked black pepper (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400°.
Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake at 400° for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes; coarsely mash.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour in a large Dutch oven; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.
Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Ladle 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 8 bowls. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon. Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.

Pesto Marinated Chicken

Marinated chicken is one of my favorite ways to eat chicken. I always leave the skin and the bone on if I'm baking the chicken. You can take them off once they are cooked, but leaving the skin and bone attached makes them full of flavor and very tender. There are two ways I like to marinate my chicken. One is to marinate in olive oil, rosemary and lemon. The other is to marinate in basil pesto. The recipe follows:

Basil Pesto Chicken

4 chicken breasts
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 cups basil leaves
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic


Add olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and basil leaves to a food processor and pulse till smooth. Add parmesan cheese and pulse until blended. Add pesto to chicken and marinate overnight if possible. Brown chicken breasts for a few minutes and cook in dutch oven until done.

Sugar Free and Happy

Our newest venture in sugar free eating is Russell Stover Peanut Butter Cups and anything else that is chocolate and sugar free. We went to Wal Mart today and stocked up on anything we could get our hands on. These little nuggets are really good! We also tried the sugar free Klondike Crunch bars. Yummy! We even served it for dessert the other night and it ended up being a big winner. A word of warning though, these are not low calorie foods. So don't fool yourself thinking they are low in fat and calories like I did.

I went to the doctor's today and had my blood work done so that I can measure the difference in a year. My blood pressure was excellent, 113 over 69 and my weight has only increased by 3 lbs in 3 years, which isn't too bad. I'm not really happy about it, but everything changes in time.

Last night for dinner I made teriyaki chicken over sauteed cabbage. The colors were horribly bland and even worse it was a depressing meal. After my daughter left the table dissapointed and my husband said "Please don't do that again" I realized that the cabbage was not a great idea. Everyone is on board with the new eating low carb and we will just have to learn by trial and error. Tonight I am making Stuffed Pork Loin with spinach, sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts, cauliflower mash and green beans. I'll post the cauliflower mash recipe tomorrow and my family's reaction.

Las Vegas Roll

Prior to Steven finding out that is sugar levels were high, we splurged on dinner one night at Aoba in Sterling. This used to be my favorite sushi restaurant before I discovered Akira. I mentioned to him that at the end of the week, on Friday night, I would order the Salmon dinner and have it delivered. I couldn't wait for Friday night and sitting there with a bottle of wine and eating dinner made all the stresses of the week melt away. I do believe I was hinting that I wanted to go out for sushi and being the wonderful husband he is, took the hint and made it a reality.

The restaurant is really good, but I wouldn't say as good as Akira. Their salmon is buttery and rich and has a good amount of marbling that it melts in your mouth. I usually order the Salmon dinner which is 5 pieces of salmon sashimi, 5 pieces of salmon nigiri and an alaskan roll. I like the alaskan roll, but it is isn't good as the one I get at Konami in Tysons Corner which as tempura flakes in it. It's slightly crunchy and spicy with a nice balance of salmon. Can you tell I like salmon????

The service that night was really poor and we had to ask several times where our appetizer was. Steven's food arrived before mine and my dinner was nowhere in sight. Finally the Las Vegas Roll arrived and Steven and I lit up like a Christmas tree. It was the prettiest roll I have ever seen in my life. As you can see from the picture it was topped with four different colors of roe, black, yellow, red and green. The flavors were perfectly balanced and it was well worth the wait.
We are hoping the slow service was an exception to the rule, because we want to go back and try some of the other rolls. We'll just meditate on being patient before we go.

Adventures in Low Carb Cooking

Stepping out of the conventional way of cooking with carb laden meals does not look like it's going to be hard at all. I am devoting some time to doing research so that I can incorporate a low carb cooking approach for the health of my husband. Yesterday, we experimented and cut out sugar and tried a low carb diet. His sugar levels have been close to 300 lately and yesterday his sugar level was 157.

I am assuming eating out will be the hardest because our mentality is to have a starch at every meal. We took the girls out to Sweetwater for dinner and instead of eating a hamburger last night with the bun, he had a filet with steamed veggies and a salad. I had a chicken sandwich without the bread and a side of steamed veggies. We both commented later that we felt much better by eating that way.

My husband LOVES pizza and so do my children, so I went online to see if I could find a low carb way of making pizza. I found this recipe on a website for low carb cooking. It looks fantastic. The recipe is below.

You Won't Believe it's Cauliflower Pizza Crust

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower*
1 egg
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp fennel
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp parsley
**pizza or alfredo sauce
toppings (make sure meats are cooked)mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. In a medium bowl, combine cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Press evenly on the pan. Sprinkle evenly with fennel, oregano and parsley. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes (15-20 minutes if you double the recipe). Remove the pan from the oven. To the crust, add sauce, then toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler (grill for the Europeans) at high heat just until cheese is melted.

Changes in Cooking

My husband has had a recent spike in his blood sugar, so we are going on a sugar free, low carbohydrate style of eating. I hate the word dieting, so lifestyle change is more appropriate. I ventured onto the Splenda site to find out how we can accomplish this. I made my first sugar free banana bread, which turned out better than the one with real sugar. It was more dense and moist. I really don't think it will be bad at all. Their website it http://www.splenda.com/. They have a lot of recipes on the website and good tips which I have highlighted below.

What form of SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener is easiest to use for cooking and baking?

Both the Granulated and packet forms of SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener can be used in cooking and baking. However, SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated measures and pours just like sugar, so it is easy to use: 1 cup of SPLENDA® Granulated is equal in sweetness to 1 cup of sugar. SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener can also be purchased in packets to sweeten coffee or tea or to sprinkle on cereal or fruit.

If a recipe also includes other sweeteners, such as brown sugar, corn syrup, molasses, maple syrup or others, can you substitute SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated for all of the sweeteners?

Sweeteners do more than just provide a sweet taste. Some sweeteners also lend color, texture, or flavor and prevent moisture loss. SPLENDA® Granulated works best in recipes where sugar mainly plays a sweetening role, such as fruit fillings, cheesecakes, custards, sauces, and marinades. In these recipes, you can feel comfortable substituting SPLENDA® Granulated for other sweeteners. In some recipes, such as cakes, cookies, and muffins, you can make a few changes in the recipe to have great results. Find out more in Cooking and Baking Tips. Or you can use new SPLENDA® Sugar Blend, which delivers the sweetness, volume and moistness you expect in your baked goods, but allows you to use half of the sugar you would ordinarily use. When making your favorite recipes, a half-cup of SPLENDA® Sugar Blend replaces a full-cup of pure sugar, with a 50% reduction in sugars and carbohydrates from sugar. SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend, a blend of brown sugar and SPLENDA® Brand Sweetener can be used in sprinkling, cooking and baking.

Can SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener be used in microwave cooking?

Yes. SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener retains its sweet taste in the wide variety of temperatures and cooking times used in microwave cooking.

Can SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener be used in frozen desserts?

Yes. SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener works well in frozen desserts, particularly fruit sorbet. However, the texture may not be as creamy as you may be used to. SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener will freeze the same as sugar in an ice cream.

Can SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener be used in high altitude baking?

Yes, it can be used in high altitude baking. Keep in mind that higher altitudes (3000 feet and above) usually necessitate minor changes when baking. High altitude baking guidelines generally suggest less sugar and leavening and more liquid.

Uncle Danny's Pasta Fagioli

Another blessing has come my way. My Aunt and Uncle came to visit from Pittsburgh, PA over the past couple of days, and as usual, it was a 5 day feast of eating wonderful foods and fellowship. Yesterday, I asked my Uncle to come over and teach me how to make his fabulous Pasta Fagioli. It's a big hit in our family and my Uncle makes it simple with a few ingredients. The way the flavors marry, you would think that is was filled with different seasonings. The kids love it and he made us a big pot yesterday which we will eat this all week with a big smile on our faces. Thanks, Uncle Danny!!

Recipe for Pasta Fagioli
Serves a lot

Ingedients:

1/2 box of ditalini pasta, cooked al dente
1 28 oz can of Hunts tomato sauce
1 15 oz can of Hunts tomato sauce
2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed
2 medium onions, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T canola oil

Fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Saute garlic in oil until it is fragant. Add chopped onions and celery until cooked.
Add tomato sauce with one can of water from small can. Let simmer 15 minutes.
Add cooked ditalini and chick peas and simmer slowly for another 15 minutes.
Season to taste and add fresh basil.

The key here is not to overcook the pasta. This is one of those dishes that are best the next day.

Döner Bistro

Some people consider winning the lottery as being lucky. I beg to differ. I believe being lucky is when you are overtaken by an experience that creates a wonderful feeling of being alive. Don't get me wrong, I've been lucky with money and it's been great but there are times in life you can't put a price tag on an experience and finding this little jewel in Leesburg was mine and Steven's day of good fortune.

Döner Bistro features the most popular sandwich in Germany - The Döner Kebab and other German foods, such as bratwurst, wiener schnitzel, jager schnitzel. Most dishes come with a side of pommes, which are german french fries. The Döner is the number one hand held German food, and with good reason. They take carved beef or chicken and stuff it into a crispy flat bread and top it off with lettuce, tomato, cucumber salad, onions and a yogurt cucumber sauce that drips down your arm when eating it. The flavors marry and complement each other well. My husband got the wiener schnitzel which was a breaded veal cutlet with brown sauce and mushrooms. Both were delicious.

The restaurant is located at 202- A Harrison Street, SE in Leesburg, VA. The hours of operation are from 11:00 a.m - 9:00 p.m on Sunday and Monday, 11:00 a.m - 10:00 p.m.. Tuesday - Thursday, 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday. There is a small seating area inside and a fun beer garden on the deck to sit. They have German beer on tap and recently added EKU 28 beer. Every Friday and Saturday they have live music starting at 7:00 p.m. An Oktoberfest is scheduled for mid-October.

For more information visit their blog at http://www.doenerusa.blogspot.com/.