Elements

Jalepeno and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Sheila — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:23:06 +0000

Hummus is my favorite way to eat chickpeas; it’s also Kemal’s favorite chickpea dish as well. While you can serve it as an appetizer, we enjoy it as a meal. We like to spread it on bread, sometimes with some goat cheese. It makes for a light lunch…one that will give you a lot of energy yet not make you drowsy or tired later.

We also enjoy hummus on our salads. I think it tastes a lot better than adding cold chickpeas to my salad, and it’s a much healthier alternative to using salad dressing. Or if you really like your salad dressing, use only about 1/3 the amount you normally would, substituting hummus instead of using so much dressing. Ranch and roasted pepper hummus make for an interesting mix on your veggie salads.

Jalepeno and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Ingredients:

dried chickpeas, approximately 2 cups (you can substitute with canned chickpeas)
water
2 jalepenos
1 large red pepper
2 lemons
7 garlic cloves
5 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. cumin
sea salt to taste
parsley to garnish

Instructions:

I used dried chickpeas to make my hummus, and to cook them, I just put them in a Crockpot, covered them with water, and cooked on high for about 7 hours. I never cook on high heat with my Crockpot unless I’m at home and awake. Caution: When you cook on high heat, the water level will evaporate much faster, and you need to watch your beans to see if you need to add more water. If you’re cooking them while you’re sleeping or away from the house, always cook on low heat.
Meanwhile, grease a baking dish with about 1 tsp. olive oil.
Wash the outside of the peppers.
Peel the garlic.
Put the whole peppers and the garlic cloves in a bowl, tossing them in about 2 tsp. olive oil.
Bake them on 350 degrees (uncovered) until they’re soft.
Remove from the oven and let them cool.
Juice both of your lemons, setting aside the freshly squeezed juice in the refrigerator for later use.
After your chickpeas are soft (just poke them with a fork to tell if they’re done), transfer them while they’re still warm to your blender. I added the liquid that was left in the Crockpot, but there wasn’t a lot of it. If you’re using canned chickpeas to make your hummus, just add the water from the can.
Add the peppers, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, 4 tbsp olive oil, and salt to the blender with the chickpeas.
Puree the for several minutes until you have a smooth and creamy hummus.
Transfer the hummus to a bowl.
Taste it to see if you have enough salt. If not, add a little more.
Refrigerate uncovered to let it chill.
Serve cold. You can add a teaspoon or so of olive oil to the top of the hummus and then garnish with fresh parsley if you like. Adding the olive oil to the top is optional though.
You can serve it with olives if you like, and how you eat it up to you. It’s great spread on bread, and it also makes a great chip or cracker dip.

Baked Banana Chips Dipped in Chocolate

Sheila — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:41:50 +0000

One of Kemal’s favorite snacks (and mine too) is chocolate covered banana chips. They’re sinfully delicious and super easy to make.

BakedBanana Chips Dipped in Chocolate (Recipe Source: Spark Recipes)

Ingredients:

3 firm bananas
1/4 cup tangerine juice (you can substitute with orange juice)
12 oz. bark chocolate, for melting

Note: I had extra chocolate left over, so I used the remaining chocolate to dip marshmallows. You can also use leftover chocolate to dip nuts, raisins, or pretzels.

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Pour the juice in a bowl.
Slice the bananas into thin circles.
Dip them into the juice, and then place them on the baking sheet you’ve lined with parchment paper. Leave a little space between them so they’ll dry easier.
Bake for about 2 hours until they dry out.
Remove the banana chips from the parchment paper onto a baking dish or a plate.
Let them sit out on the counter uncovered for about 8 to 9 hours so they can dry out.
Then lay some parchment paper out on your counter top or place it on a cookie sheet.
Melt the chocolate over low heat, stirring frequently.
When the chocolate has melted, individually dip each banana chip, using a toothpick to dip it into the chocolate.
Place the chocolate covered bananas chip onto the parchment paper.
After all the banana chips have been dipped, let them cool on the paper, and then you can transfer them to a glass candy jar.

No Bake Strawberry Pistachio Yogurt Pie

Sheila — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:48:48 +0000

Last week I mistakenly purchased a huge container of vanilla yogurt. Ooops! I meant to buy plain yogurt. So I decided to return the wrong yogurt and replace it with the right one. I went through my files and found the receipt and put it in my pocket, but I forgot to bring the vanilla yogurt with me to exchange it. Double Ooops! So I decided to just use it. And while I was using something I needed to get rid of, I decided to use a couple of more things I’ve been wanting to get rid of…a box of sugar-free pistachio pudding and a box of sugar-free strawberry gelatin.

I love the pink and green colors which remind me of watermelon and summer, and I love combination of fruit and nut flavors. I also enjoy the smooth and creamy filling and how that contrasts with the buttery and crunchy vanilla wafer crust. The result…total yumminess!!

I still have vanilla yogurt left in my fridge, but maybe I’ll make some kind of breakfast bread with it tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy this pie.

No Bake Strawberry Pistachio Yogurt Pie

Ingredients:

4 packages Dream Whip whipped topping
2 1/2 cups vanilla yogurt
1 box (.3 oz) sugar-free strawberry gelatin
1 box (1 oz) sugar-free instant pistachio pudding mix
6 oz. vanilla wafers, crushed
4 tbsp. salted butter, melted

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat together with an electric mixer 2 packages Dream Whip, the box of strawberry gelatin, and 1 cup of vanilla yogurt.
After the ingredients are combined and the mixture has thickened, refrigerate it.
Clean your beaters, and in another bowl beat together 2 packages of Dream Whip, the pistachio pudding mix, and 1 1/2 cups vanilla yogurt. It will be thicker than the strawberry mixture. Refrigerate.
Crush the vanilla wafers by putting them in a plastic bag and using your rolling pin to crush them.
Put the crushed wafers in a pie dish.
Melt 4 tbsp. butter.
Mix the butter into the crushed wafers with your hands, and then spread it evenly over the pie dish.
Spread the pistachio pudding on top of the pie crust.
Then decorate the top of the pudding with the strawberry cream. I used a decorator gun, but you can also just as easily put the cream in a plastic bag and then cut a tip at the bottom of the bag. Then you can just squeeze out the cream to decorate the top.
Freeze for several hours and serve chilled.

Tangerine Yogurt Cake Sweetened with Applesauce and Agave Nectar

Sheila — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:00:51 +0000

I was in the mood for a citrus cake but didn’t have any citrus fruit in the house. Fortunately, we had plenty of tangerine juice (Kemal’s favorite) in the refrigerator so I used some of that to make this cake which is fairly healthy as far as cakes go. There’s no butter or oil, and since agave nectar is has a low-glycemic index, it makes this cake less apt to raise your blood glucose levels than most other cakes.

I’m not saying this cake is low-carb or good for diabetics. But for someone like me who’s not diabetic, using agave nectar in baking is a way to sweeten my cakes in such a way that’s better for my body. If I can eat a cake that’s less apt to make my blood glucose level spike up, then that’s definitely a better, healthier choice for me. Also, agave nectar is sweeter than sugar so you can use less of it than sugar in baking, which lowers calories.

Agave nectar tastes wonderfully…a lot like honey. This is the first time I’ve ever tried it, and from now on I plan to use it in my cakes instead of sugar. For more information about agave nectar, read about it at Diabetes Forecast: The Healthy Living Magazine.

I was really happy with how my cake turned out. It’s a dense cake but the texture seems a little less dense when it’s straight out of the oven.

It had a lovely citrus flavor and was mildly sweet, which is exactly what I wanted. It wasn’t at all heavy on my stomach. Kemal and I both very much enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to adapting this recipe for my future cakes. For a chocolate cake, I could use cocoa powder instead of orange zest. For a cappuccino cake, I could add some coffee. There’s so many ways to change up this cake, and I certainly intend to try my hand at creating different flavored cakes by substituting the orange zest and tangerine juice with other ingredients to see what I can come up with. Hope you’ll give this one a try.

Tangerine Yogurt Cake Sweetened with Agave Nectar (Adapated from: www.smittenkitchen.com)

Ingredients for the Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 large eggs
4 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Ingredients for the glaze:

1/4 cup agave nectar
2/3 cups tangerine juice
Optional: confectioner’s sugar for garnishing the cake

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a bundt pan.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat the three eggs.
Add to the eggs the yogurt, applesauce, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix well.
In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder, mixing well.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until everything is combined.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake until the cake is golden brown. You’ll know the cake is done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.
When the cake is almost done make the glaze by cooking the tangerine juice and agave nectar on medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly. The glaze will thicken a little but it will have a thin consistency.
When the cake is done, remove it from the oven, inverting it onto your serving dish.
Use a fork to poke holes in the cake.
Take a spoon and spread the glaze over the cake, letting it soak inside it. I used about 2/3 of the glaze that I made for the cake. The other 1/3 I saved, putting it in a glass jar and then refrigerator it for later use. (It will be good for when we make baklava again.)
Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.
Serve warm or cold.

Rosemary Sesame Seed Rolls

Sheila — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:59:49 +0000

I absolutely love rosemary bread, and so do Kemal and my Mom. The sesame seeds add a wonderful nutty texture while the rosemary has a beautiful aroma and flavor. They’re best fresh from the oven smothered in butter.

Rosemary Sesame Seed Rolls

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 pkg. dry active yeast
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sesame seeds
dried rosemary
olive oil

Instructions:

Combine yeast, 1/4 cup water, and sugar in a coffee cup. Stir it and then set aside so it can rise up.
Mix the flours and salt.
Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast and remaining water.
Mix and knead.
Oil a large mixing bowl with olive oil.
Place the dough in the oiled bowl, and then spread oil over the dough.
Cover the dough with plastic and then with a towel.
Let it rise (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours) in a warm place.
After the dough has doubled in bulk, punch the air out.
Grease a baking dish with olive oil.
Knead in the sesame seeds and rosemary.
Pinch off pieces of dough to make your rolls, placing them on the oiled baking dish.
Cover with plastic and let them rise.
Optional: Brush the rolls with milk and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake at 375 degrees until the rolls are golden brown. You’ll know they’re done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Kemal’s Eggplant Salad

Sheila — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:47:46 +0000

Kemal and I love eggplant, and if you do too, you’re going to really enjoy his eggplant salad. It’s healthy, nutritious, and full of flavor. It’s a beautiful salad, but it also makes a wonderful meal. It goes great with a loaf of French bread.

Kemal’s Eggplant Salad

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant
30 garlic cloves
large onion, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes
olive oil
Italian dressing to taste (can substitute with oil and vinegar)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a baking dish with a little olive oil
Slice the eggplant in half and place the halves skin side up on the baking dish.
Bake until the eggplant becomes soft.
After the eggplant has cooled a little, remove the skins and discard. (Or leave them on if you prefer)
Cut the eggplant into small pieces.
Fry the garlic cloves in olive oil until they become soft and browned.
When the garlic is done, add the onions and tomatoes and cook for about 2 minutes. The onions will still be crunchy.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, toss the eggplant, garlic, onions, and tomatoes with Italian dressing to taste. Don’t drain the oil. Keep it in the salad because it will add flavor.
Chill and serve cold.

Irish Cream Meringue Cookies

Sheila — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:40:40 +0000

Kemal and I love meringue cookies, and I made them for the first time last night. What’s funny is I always thought these cookies would be harder to make than regular cookies, and since I suck at making regular cookies, I was surprised that my meringue cookies turned out perfectly! I’m so happy I finally had cookie success! YAY!!!

I’m looking forward to making them vanilla flavored, espresso flavored, and I might even try some lemon flavored ones as well.

Irish Cream Meringue Cookies (Adapted from: www.thekitchn.com)

Ingredients:

3 egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. Irish cream cocoa powder (you can substitute with regular cocoa powder)
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Instructions:

Separate your eggs, putting the whites in a stainless steel bowl.
Leave the egg whites out on the counter to come to room temperature. You’ll have more success with your meringues if they’re at room temperature instead of cold.
After the egg whites have come to room temperature, preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Measure out the other ingredients and set them on the counter.
Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until they become foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and whip on high speed.
After the egg whites stiffen up some, start adding the sugar a little at a time, continuing to beat on high speed.
After all the sugar has been added in, sprinkle the cocoa powder over the egg whites and beat on high speed until the cocoa powder has been incorporated into the egg whites.
The egg whites should look glossy and have peaks that stand straight up. If you take a spoon of your meringue and hold it upside down the meringue should stick to the spoon and not fall.
Reduce the heat of your oven 250 degrees.
Now you are ready to bake them. You can take a spoon and place small spoonfuls of the meringue onto the parchment paper. Or if you have a piping bag or decorating tips, you can use that to make a nice “kiss” or “star” shape.
You don’t have to worry about leaving too much space between the cookies because they won’t rise up or spread out. How big you make them is up to you. If you make them bigger, they’ll take longer to dry out.
Put them in the oven and make sure you don’t open the oven door for the first 30 minutes. I read somewhere that if you do, your cookies will crack.
Bake for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours until they’re completely dry and crunchy. If you want a softer center similar to that of a marshmallow while keeping the outside of the cookie crisp, bake less.
Remove the cookies and let them cool.

Store in an airtight container. If you want to serve them to guests, put them in pretty glass parfait dishes on your coffee table when you’re enjoying coffee after dinner. I doubt they’ll last long.

Raspberry Jam Roll

Sheila — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:03:17 +0000

Kemal was in the mood for something with raspberries yesterday, so he made this quick and easy jam roll last night.

It only took him a few minutes to make, and it turned out great! If you like something sweet for breakfast, you’ll love this. It’s a really more of a dessert for us though because we don’t like sweets for breakfast. No matter what time of day you decide to nibble on this, you’ll enjoy every bite!

Raspberry Jam Roll

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets (Each package contains 2 sheets. We used 1 sheet for this dessert.)
raspberry jam
1 tsp. vegetable oil
confectioner’s sugar (for garnishing)

Instructions:

Remove the pastry sheets from the freezer and let it thaw out.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease your baking sheet with oil.
When the pastry sheet has thawed out, unroll it and spread raspberry jam all over it.
Start at one end and roll the sheet up so you have a log-shaped jelly roll.
Bake until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let it cool down.
Slice when cool.
Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar if you like.

Blueberry Vanilla Fluff

Sheila — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:57:12 +0000

We had some blueberries and whipping cream in the fridge that needed to be used up, so Kemal and I threw this together last night after we made veggie pizza. It’s a quick and easy dessert because you can just purchase the pastry sheets and pudding to have on-hand in your kitchen and use them when you don’t have time to make a cake from scratch. I love making cakes from scratch, but sometimes when we’re feeling rushed or if we’re really tired, it’s nice to be able to make a cake quickly, on short notice, and without a lot of effort.

The cake is only mildly sweet which is the way we like our cakes to be, and every bite is pure joy!

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Blueberry Vanilla Fluff

Ingredients:

2 pkgs. Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets (Each package contains 2 sheets. I used 3 sheets for this dessert)
2 pkgs. vanilla pudding (not instant)
2 lemons
4 cups milk
16 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 pints fresh blueberries
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp. vanilla

Instructions:

Take the pastry sheets out of the freezer a couple of hours before making this dessert.
Butter two large jelly roll pans.
After the pastry sheets have thawed out, remove them from the package and cut them into squares, placing them on the greased pans, side-by-side.
Cut the lemons and then squeeze lemon juice over the pastry squares.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
When the oven has warmed up, bake the cut pastry sheets uncovered until they’re golden brown.
Remove them from the oven to cool.
In the meantime, make the pudding according to the package instructions. (I made mine by whisking together the 2 pudding mixes, 12 tbsp. sugar, and 4 cups cold milk. Then I heated the mixture on medium heat until it thickened up.)
When the pudding has thickened, put it in the refrigerator to thicken up a little more and to cool down.
Next, make whipped cream by mixing the whipping cream, 4 tbsp. sugar, and vanilla, beating it with an electric mixer until it gets thick and creamy.
Chill the whipped cream when it’s done.
Wash the blueberries.
After everything has cooled down some, take the baked pastry squares and arrange them in the bottom of a square pan. I used a 10-inch Springform pan.
Spread vanilla pudding over the pastry squares.
Then sprinkle blueberries over the pudding.
Place pastry squares and place them on top of the blueberries.
Spread more vanilla pudding on top of the pastry squares.
Sprinkle more blueberries.
Add another layer of pastry shells on top of the blueberries.
Decorate the top with whipped cream.
Refrigerate for for several hours so it can harden and set.
Cut and serve.

Note: You don’t have to assemble the cut pastry squares to make a whole cake the way I did. If you prefer, you can make individual cakes not putting the cut pastry squares side-by-side. If you have a large serving dish, you can place the squares on the dish, leaving room in between each square. Then just spread pudding, sprinkle berries, add another pastry, spread more pudding, sprinkle more berries, add the top pastry square, and then decorate each individual piece with whipped topping and/or berries. Or you can assemble the cake on a plate or parfait dish.

However you decide to assemble it and serve it, you and your guests are gonna love it!

Our Bathroom

Sheila — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:24:34 +0000

I love our bathroom which has bright splashes of yellow, orange, magenta, green, and blue. It’s fun, whimsical, and definitely the cheeriest room in our little apartment.

The beautiful painting on the wall, which my photo doesn’t do justice, was painted by my mother 20 or 30 years ago. I’m always reminded of the Gulf of Mexico every time I look at it.

Kemal, who’s not only a photographer but also a 3D artist, made this beautiful 3D painting of Greece which we have framed and hanging on one of our bathroom walls. It was one of his first Bryce renders:

Kemal also ventured into abstract when he made this piece of 3D art for me many, many years ago…another one of his first pieces which was basically just a “doodle” he was playing around with:

It used to be framed and hanging on our wall, but the print got messed up by the humidity so we took it down. Hmmmm….I think it’s time for him to print me another one so I can hang it again.

In our bathroom is a small painting of a multi-colored bird, as well as a photo of a lorikeet that Kemal took several years ago. Here’s the cropped banner version; we have the uncropped version printed, framed, and hanging on our wall:

We also have the cutest bearded lizard who’s our bathroom mascot:

There are also memories in our bathroom:

The candle was given to me by one of my best pals at work, Tammy Baldwin. She gave it to me a few days before she moved out of state, and I’ve never burned it because I want to always look at it so I remember her. The framed photo on the back of the commode is a picture that Angie, another co-worker, took of me and Kemal after we had been dating only a couple of months. It was taken at the zoo at our company picnic, and it’s one of my favorite pictures of us. The vase…well…I just love daisies and when I found the vase in the Goodwill a few summers ago, I just to have it. Eventually I’ll find some flowers for it.

I love to take pictures in the bathroom, and over the years, I’ve taken a good number of them in there. The room has a lot of energy, and the bright colors seem to always lift, especially in the winter when I’m craving warm weather and sunshine. I mostly like to make abstract photos in my bathroom, and here’s one I made a few years ago. It’s a long exposure of our towels that were hanging over the shower curtain. I did a little camera movement during the exposure, and while the picture is a little weird, I kind of like it.

Yesterday I took a picture of one of the silk flowers in my vase in the bathroom. Instead of focusing on the flower, I defocused. I also shot it hand-held during a long exposure to get some additional blur. I also changed it from yellow/green to orange/red. It’s Kemal’s favorite:

Here’s the same picture but blue and white instead of red. It’s my favorite because it makes me think of summer:

I have another one in darker blues and purples. I can have them in every color in the rainbow! LOL!

Here’s another picture I made yesterday…another close-up of that same flower in my bathroom. Kemal really likes this one:

I’ve done many other long exposures in the bathroom, but I still haven’t gotten around to trying any “toileygraphs” which are done by an artist who inspires me greatly. Adrian Rodriguez puts colored dyes in his toilet and photographs the swirls of color while they’re being flushed down the commode. I think his prints are incredibly beautiful, and I’m so inspired by his bathroom photography!

Kemal and I have also taken so many silly pictures of each other in our bathroom…just playing around and havin’ fun. Here’s one I took several years ago when we were goofin’ off.

So that’s basically it…that’s our bathroom…kinda silly…just like us.