Aftermath... :)

Merhaba my dear foodies,

   I know I didn't update my blog for almost a week. We were recovering after the thanksgiving. We had a blast. It was a very nice thanksgiving dinner. Actually the most exciting part was the day before thanksgiving my mother came from Turkey. I was so happy to see her after quiet some time. It was amazing. Although she was not with us for the thanksgiving, it was wonderful to pick her up from the airport. Anyways, after the airport mom went to my sister's house, and I came back to my place, and I made the cranberry sauce and the pumpkin pies. I made the sauce with fresh cranberries, an apple, fresh squeezed orange juice, the zest of one orange, nutmeg and about a cup of -my special touch- brandy.

     

   

     The next morning I made my portobello mushroom-green bean casserole and my special andouille-shrimp-cornbread-wild rice stuffing, it is sort of my take on Louisina- French style. The stuffing was incredible, everybody loved it, green, red peppers, onions, sage, thyme, chicken broth, came out wondefully. The turkey was very tender and delicious as for the mac and cheese, thanks to T.

   Well one holiday feast is over, now getting ready for the christmass and the new years... :)

Beyond...

The Bosphorus Bridge

Merhaba,

  I know I never told you my dear friends why is it "Beyond Bosphorus" ?  The Bosphorus :




 "The Bosphorus or Bosporus (Turkish: Boğaziçi, Greek: Βόσπορος, Bosporos, Bulgarian: Босфора, Босфора), also known as the Istanbul Strait (Turkish: İstanbul Boğazı), is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles. The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea)."  That how it explains "Wiki". I was born in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. I always had a big love for Istanbul, my dream was to live in Istanbul one day, and actually it did happen, after the college I moved to Istanbul finally.  I loved every single minute of living in Istanbul, I had an apartment in Tesvikiye, one of the nicest neighborhood in Istanbul, overlooking The Bosphorus. I loved living there, but I also never forgot my roots, Ankara... the beyond... Although I love Istanbul so much, I love my beautiful city, Ankara as much...

Ankara



  

So that one is clear, let's move on to what we are planning on Thanksgiving.  We actually invited few friends over for the Thanksgiving dinner, and I am not making the turkey, good... such a relief... Obviously we are still going to be cooking, I am going to make my infamous stuffing with andouille sausage,cornbread, crimini mushroom, and wild rice, green bean casserole with portobello mushrooms, brandy infused orange-cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and my partner will be making his signature lemon-lime meringue pie, roasted root vegetables. What is that? Oh yes, I was just saying that I am not making the turkey, oh well, one of our friends will be making the turkey and the mac and cheese, thanks T... So we are going to celebrate, and be thankful for the bountiful harvest, because Thanksgiving is "traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest." says Wiki... Happy Thanksgiving to all...

 

"Bountiful Harvest" :)











Rush Rush Rush...

  

   OMG, it was such a busy week, I was on TV twice this week my friends... Yayyyy... Yep, you heard me right, I was on TV, nope it is not my show unfortunately.... yet... :) May be one day... Anyways I was in the audience for the Nate Show, "Nate Berkus", that cute, decorator guy from the Oprah Show, yes... now he has his own show, so last Tuesday we went to see his show at the studio, it was fun, I actually won the dance contest, shaking my bootie... :))) and I got a t-shirt... Yayyyyy... and then the very same night we went to see a new Broadway show. It was great, we had so much fun.

    Yesterday was the only slow paced day, so I had some time for myself. It's been a while that I was planning on making a Turkish sausage, called "Sucuk". It usually is made with beef and lamb together, lots of cumin, black pepper, garlic, lots of... lots of garlic, and definitely unrefined sea salt. So I decided to bring it to the life that "Sucuk" making process.

     I live in a neighborhood that you can easily find the "casings" for the homemade sausages in the specialty food stores around. I am not talking about the casings usually used for making the regular sausages, because "Sucuk" requires a special kind, "lamb casings", not the "hog casings", anyways, so I got my lamb casings. I have an electric meat grinder, so I bought the beef and lamb chunks with around 30% fat, and I ground the meat together, about 4,5- 5lbs, added about 20 to 25 cloves of garlic (crushed in the mortar with salt), 2-3 tbsp cumin, 2-3tbsp unrefined sea salt, 1-2 tbsp black pepper, 2tbsp mixed hot and sweet paprika, 1tsp allspice, mixed them well, got down and dirty and kneaded that mixture about an hour, seriously an hour...  after all that kneading process I let that mixture sit in the room temperature about an hour, than covered it with plastic film and refrigerate overnight. The next day I soaked the casings in the warm water, while the casings were getting ready; I took the mixture from the fridge, and kneaded another 20 minutes. After the kneading was finished, I put together the sausage attachment to the meat grinder and started filling the casings with the meat mixture.

Resting...

You have to be really careful for not the make holes in the casings, because they usually are pretty thin, and they just burst. So I stuffed my casings with the mixture, and I tied the ends with the kitchen twine. I lined the sausages on a trey on the kitchen counter, and pressed them to get the air bubbles, and burst the bubbles with a very skinny needle. Don't forget, we are not trying to make holes, just a little poke to get the air out, once the bubbles are out the sausages were ready to hang to dry. I know it is a long procedure, but hey… it is homemade, and let me tell you, nothing is tastier and more nostalgic then anything homemade. It just reminds me home...

They are hanging around... :)))

    Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, the second time I was on TV, actually was this morning on Wendy Williams Show, it was so good and juicy with all that gossip and the cast from the Logo TV show A-List, fun fun fun..., as she says " How you doin?"
    Have a wonderful week my dear friends... :)

Goooooooood Morrnnninnngggg Foodies... :)



White Quinoa

Red Quinoa

  It's Saturday morning, woke up pretty early, did the dishes from last night. It's not like I cook lavish dinners or meals everyday you know my dear friends. Sometimes I just put some easy stuff together, just pan-sear the fish, make some salad and may be add another side dish to that, and voila the din din is ready. Last night was one of those nights. Our cable box died, so we cannot watch the TV in the living room till Tuesday, that's when our cable service provider gave us the appointment to exchange the DVR box, anyways, so I decided to make a movie night, and watching the "SATC2" movie for the 12th time... :)))

Crab Cakes

   We just had pan-seared, panko coated trout, the arugula salad. I also made the red and white quinoa with the vegetable melange, and the store bought crab cakes. I bought the crab cakes frozen, and they were fantastic. Quinoa " is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds" as the Wiki defines, and I love that grain-like crop :), it is very healthy, and a great source of fiber. I always keep it in my "pantry", it is very easy to cook too. I just add some grilled vegetables to that. The din din was fantastic, light and healthy and it went great with my girls, the girls from my favorite movie SATC2.

  I am so hoping that my cable will be fixed soon, though I love my movies I don't like to watch my reality shows in the bedroom... :)

  

It is time for me to go to the gym now... :)

 Have a wonderful Saturday my dear foodies...

Red & White Quinoa with vegetable melange



"Lentil Torpedoes"... :)

    Merhaba... Hello my dear friends, I started today's writing with a Turkish greeting, which means "hello". How is everyone doing? I am doing pretty good, lately I have a little more time than usual in my hands so I am creating more new dishes.
    Today actually I was thinking without going to the grocery store if I can make something good, delicious and healthy at the same time.You guys should see my pantry, I am always telling my friends, if anything happens, like aliens attack... :))), we, I and my partner, would definitely survive few more months than the other people. I also tell them ( my friends), if you don't have anything to eat just come to our home, we sure have more than enough food always for everyone. So clearing that part, my pantry is always packed with dry beans,white rice, brown rice, all kinds of grains, pastas, sauces, spices and herbs, canned goods, although I am not a  big fan of canned goods, I usually stock some tuna fish, salmon, anchovies.

"Lentil Torpedoes"

    Anyways, I opened my pantry and I saw packs of lentils, I mean all kinds of lentils, D and I, we love lentils, so we have all different kinds of lentils, the green ones, yellow ones, red ones, little ones, big ones... I just remembered, back home, in Turkey we used to make lentil balls " mercimek koftesi", traditionally it is made with red lentils, bulgur ( cracked wheat), onions, tomato paste and spices. I didn't have enough of red lentils, so I mixed the red lentils with yellow ones, and I boiled them in a large pot, and let them simmer about 30 to 45 minutes and turned it off, they were totally soft and a little watery, I add the bulgur and simmer another 10 minutes, than saute the onions in another small pan with couple of tablespoons of olive oil and add them to that mixture, cumin, tomato paste, cayenne pepper, some paprika and salt, pepper mix them all together, and form them into those torpedo shape lentil balls, and serve them with green onions and chopped parsley. They were good... :)

It actually is made by my partner, he's a great cook too... :)

OMG, is this a fabulous "Lemon-Lime Meringue Pie" or what...? :))

Here I am again...

I know it's been a while my dear foodies. It was pretty hectic, and busy last week. I managed to survive anyways, lol... :) Well, now since I am back with my cooking and discovering new adventures, I just created a new muffin that I call " Holiday Muffin". I am sure we all keep some frozen veggies in our freezers. I personally prefer the frozen vegetables or fruits to the canned ones. Those canned veggies or fruits have so much preservatives in them.

Anyways, I had a box of frozen squash sitting in my freezer for a while, and I was keep asking my self that what could I do with that?  I just didn't want to come up with a traditional squash puree with chicken or turkey. So I decided to cook the squash with some honey, butter, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, nutmeg and a little bit of cayenne pepper... I know... :) but just a little shake... Anyways, I cooked that for about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally, and then I add some whole wheat flour to it, and about 2 cups of oatmeal, flax seeds, some nuts ( whatever is available, I used some pecans...) and about a tsp of arrowroot ( I mentioned the arrowroot in previous posts) a tsp of baking powder and some stevia leaves. I spooned the mixture to a muffin sheet and baked about 45 minutes... Voila... The result was quite amazing...

"Holiday Spiced Squash Muffin"

I love creating new things all the time, but I guess it is not as exciting for my partner as it is for me... :) He usually things that I am using him as a guinea pig...

LOL... :) Have a wonderful day my dear foodie friends... :)