Again, I’ll try to keep this quick, but it’s been a great Turkey Day.  I’m thankful for family, good food, and my wonderful husband.

We slept in until 10:30 this morning (I’m feeling sick again, boo!) and then woke up to the world’s tastiest breakfast.

My grandma is so cool, she had Greek Gods’ Honey Greek Yogurt waiting in the fridge for me!  I had a small bowl of fruit,

and honey Greek yogurt with berries and a sliver of homemade coffee cake.

Mmmmmmn!  I was in love with this breakfast!  If it wasn’t Thanksgiving I would have gone back for another bowl!  I think I’ve got my aunt hooked on Greek yogurt now too

We went to a family friend’s house for Thanksgiving at 1, so we headed out around noon to socialize.  Look how cute my grandparents are!

I’ve gone to Thanksgiving with this family ever year I’ve been with my grandparents and it’s always so much fun.  They have the best decorations, I wish I could have gotten more pictures.

I made a small appetizer plate with pretzels, honey raspberry dip, and crackers with dirty martini dip.

And I had a light beer to drink.

As I mentioned before, I am actually not much of a Turkey Day food fan!  I didn’t even eat any turkey meat!  I tried to just take a small bit of everything.

Clockwise from the top – stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, roll, jello mold salad, cranberries.  I finished everything on my plate (except for the roll which I gave away).  I didn’t actually eat very much, but I didn’t do seconds because I knew dessert was coming.

I actually gave away that mini cake in favor of a second cookie!

It was great getting to catch up with people and Adam was definitely stuffed!  He took a fat nap before we even headed home, and hit the couch asap.  My grandmother and I wanted to take a nice walk but unfortunately it was raining.  The other disappointment was that there was nowhere for me to volunteer.  I really wanted to put in some time at a food bank or soup kitchen today but everywhere my grandma called had too many volunteers.

We ate dinner around 7, and I was actually hungry again.

Leftover sweet potato casserole,

and a yumtastic sandwich – turkey, cranberries, cream cheese.

Plus apple and celery salad on the side.

I was still a bit hungry so I went back for more salad.

We played cards after dinner.

I had a coffee with 2% and an amaretto stick,

a mini 7-up,

and a small handful of caramel corn.

We kept my grandparents up past midnight playing cards, I’d say it’s time for bed!

How was your turkey day?

Box of cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes

Yam cupcake

Pandan cupcake

Strawberry cupcake

Recently, we received an order of 170 cupcakes for Hari Guru (Teacher’s day) celebration. Our client requested for simple cupcakes. Here we introduced our new ranges: Pandan, Yam, Strawberry and Peppermint (not in the pic) cupcakes. We received really good feedbacks on these cupcakes, so why not try them To order please email at farynazwishes@gmail.com or call/msg at 8927505/8606509. Thank you.

Preferred vegetables (All cut to 1″ size and finger thickness)

Shelled peas 1/2 cup

White pumpkin 1 cup

Yellow pumpkin 2/3 cup

Potatoes 1 cup

Carrot 1 cup

Yam 1 cup

Chow chow 1 cup

Beans 1 cup

Drum stick 10 pieces

Sour curds 1-11/2  cups

Green chillies 6-7

Grated Coconut 3/4 cup

Cumin seeds

1 tsp

Raw rice 3 tsp (Soak for 30 min)

coconut oil  4 tbsp

Curry leaves 5 sprigs

Boil the vegetables in a cup of water till cooked and add salt to it.

Grind into a paste the ingredients: coconut, chillies, cumin seeds, rice  and mix them into the curds.

Add the paste to the boiled vegetable and bring to boil. Remove from flame and temper with hot coconut oil. Add the curry leaves to the hot oil.

Cooking tip: In case the curd is not sour enough add some sour cream the paste.

To avoid excess cooking of  vegetables, boil the hard vegetables (except pumpkin) for just one whistle or less and  then add the pumpkins and cook for a short time.

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tumbling…

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Aloha and welcome to a meal that wasn’t really as tasty as it sounds. It’s on page 63 of the DoC, and I think it’s main problem was that it was just too bland. Basically, you mix up some tuna, 1 egg, Ideal, salt and pepper and then put it in a pan that has been lined with pineapple pieces. Then boil up some yam, mash it and place it on top. Bake or, in my case, cook on a stovetop because the pan you are using is a skillet. I think it would have been way better if I increased the amounts of tuna and pineapple involved. Increased amounts of those would have taken away from the casserole’s overwhelming yam flavour, which on the whole is delicious but just not what you’re looking for when you are expecting something a little more tropical and Barak Obama from the recipe title. This dish (the casserole, not Obama) will go down in blah history.

Aufgrund des großen Erfolges eine weitere Ausgabe

Diesmal sind ein paar leichtere dabei…

.

.

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

.

.

.

Auflösung:

#1 Koorka

#2 Zuckerrohr

#3 Suran (Yam)

#4 Stamm der Bananenstaude (der innere Teil des Stamms wird als Gemüse verkauft)

.

.

Siehe auch:

• Gemüsequiz Teil 1
• Gemüsequiz Teil 2

i am not, typically, the most creative cook.

when B cooks, he scours our cookbooks, delving through the pages and choosing something challenging and new.

when i cook, i open the fridge and put together ingredients that are often not the most well-paired. NOT SO with this amazing soup i concocted. for reals.

i know, i know, it doesn’t look at that tasty.  a lot of brown, right?  but hold. your. horses.  this soup has it all: a little bit creamy, a spicy cumin flavor, yam, walnuts, kale, and little white navy beans for protein, it’s nutritious, tasty, hearty, and of course, perfect for FALL. 

(i love fall.)

that’s all i can say.  try it out.  and, since i wasn’t really measuring when i made it, the recipe is a little raw.  but play with it and see what you come up with!

AL’S CUMIN YAM STEW
serves many

1/4 cup EVOO
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 cup walnuts
8 cups vegetable broth
1 large yam, chopped
2 Idaho potatoes, chopped
1 can white navy beans
2 tbsp half and half or heavy whipping cream
1 bunch of purple kale, torn, sans stems
salt and pepper to taste

• Heat the oil in a large pot. Add garlic, celery, carrots, walnuts, cumin, and red pepper flakes, and sautee a few minutes, until celery is translucent.
• Add broth and bring to a boil.
• Pour gently the yams and potatoes into the broth.  Boil until the yam is soft, and can be easily pierced with a fork. Reduce to a simmer.
• Add navy beans, cream, and kale.  Stir and simmer no more than five minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.
• Enjoy!  and, let me know what you’ve changed, what you like, or if you gagged a little even just reading this post.  hah.

If it gives you any idication of when I bought this beer, Trade Route Brewing Co. was still under the name of Laughing Buddha… so, yeah… been a little while.   In fact, I don’t even know if they make this under the Trade Route name since it isn’t on the site… interesting…

Tasted just the other day… was in a porter kind of mood and this one had been eyeing me for a while.  So here it is… sits at 7.0% ABV… pours dark but not black with a nice head.  Very light on the aroma… as we head into the body, you sense high carbonation, a light roasted chocolate flavor and no vanilla… at all.    Finish is slightly bitter.  Overall couldn’t tastye the vanilla, had some normal porter roastedness and chocolate undertones, but really nothing I would write home about… or… blog home about… but I am doing it anyhow…

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

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When I saw this recipe, I didn’t look very closely at it. Plantains, yams, what could be bad. I finally had three very ripe plantains – the only way I can get ripe plantains is by buying them when they are yellow and letting them turn black on the back of my kitchen counter. Then I looked more closely at the recipe, from Cooking Light, and realized that it was a pureed dish with dates and nuts sprinkled on top. It was sort of a Thanksgiving side dish, on the sweet side – but I was more interested in something more hearty – or maybe more chewy. So I fiddled around and came up with what is essentially a roasted vegetable dish that could still be used as a side dish. Plantains roast quite well so I may experiment with them some more in the future.

Roasted Yams and Plantains

Cooking Spray
2  pounds of sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 very ripe plantain peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut across in ½ inch slices
1/3  cup packed brown sugar
1/4  cup fat-free milk
1/4  cup non-fat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup pitted dates, chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds,

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Mix  sugar, milk, sour cream, and allspice in a medium bow; beat 2 minutes at the high speed of a mixer until smooth. Mix in dates. Set aside  Put yams and plantains in prepared baking pan. Spray lightly with cooking spray and toss.  Bake for one hour or until potatoes are tender. Remove from oven. Pour milk mix over  yams. Toss well. Sprinkle almonds evenly over top.  Bake for an additional 20 minutes. This makes 8 servings at about 3 grams of fat/serving.

Variation: This was pretty sweet. You could probably use less sugar.

Easy soup and really tasty. All you need is one yam and the standard Thai ingredients. Don’t put too much koriander in and go easy on the chillies. Honestly.

• 1,5 litr chicken stock
• 3 red chilies halved
• 185 ml coconut cream
• 3 stalks of lemon greass
• 10 slices of galanga (fresh laos root)
• 1 tbs Thai fish sauce
• 5-6 koriander plants (stalks and leaves)
• 1 large kumara, yam or sweet potato (peeled and chopped into chunks)

Put in a pan: stock, lemon grass, chilies, galanga, koriander roots. Bring to boil and add the chunks of yam. Boil until yam is soft (12 minutes or so). Remove lemon grass, galanga and koriander root (bin them). Leave the rest to cool a bit, then puree it. (You may need to put it through a sieve too). Add 125 ml of coconut cream and the fish sauce. Add some koriander leaves. (Garnis with cream and koriander leaves if you are into that kind of thing).

I totally lied when I said I was going right to class.  That was the plan, but I was so cold (inside my house, with the heat on) that I just couldn’t bring myself to go outside yet!  I sat on the couch and read my book.

Heat seems like it is going to rock my socks, it’s a memoir about, among other things, training as a prep chef for Mario Batali.  I am all about memoirs and food, so it seems like the perfect fit.

Once I did get off the couch and get dressed I realized I was wearing an outfit from my teaching days and the whole thing felt sort of surreal.

I don’t know if anyone read my job identity search post this morning, but the one thing I do know is that do not want to teach!  I swear I sort of have PTSD from my experience!

Also, I was super hungry so I packed myself a snack for the road -

1 oz buffalo wing pretzels with some turkey pepperoni (don’t worry mom, I only ate at lights!).

That totally did not cut it though.  After I finished printing at the library I set off in search of food.  I ended up with an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese.

Class went well, we are studying electron orbitals which I love – it’s like a puzzle!  When I got home at 9 I got right to work on dinner.  We made Curried Chicken and Cider Soup from “Everyday with Rachael Ray” (click on the name for the recipe link).

I skipped the cumin, and substituted 1C of water with 1C extra cider, but otherwise I followed the recipe.  I topped my bowl with buffalo wing pretzel nuggets for a crouton-like effect.

I don’t think I would have liked it without the added spice, it was pretty sweet, but with the addition it was perfect.

Afterwards I had this fun drink I bought a while back.

It’s not really Sangria, more like strawberry soda.  It’s from Japan and was totally cool; you had to pop the top to release a marble.

I was supposed to paint my nails tonight but it is almost 11 so it looks like I’ll be heading straight to bed.  Tomorrow I have a gym trip planned, plus tons and tons of schoolwork, and hopefully some job searching.  Sweet dreams!

Do you like buffalo wings?  I’m not a huge wings fan but I love buffalo sauce!

I didn’t know how this would turn out, I just started cutting stuff up and adding spices. Surprisingly it was really good. Jamey didn’t like it but the only way he likes squash is loaded with butter and brown sugar.

1 acorn squash peeled, seeded and into 1” cubed

1 sweet potato or yam peeled and into 1” cubed

1/2 onion cut into 1/2” pieces

4 garlic cloves finely minced

Place on sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Lightly toss

Sprinkle over the top of vegetables:

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp yellow curry powder

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

Bake in 450 preheated oven for 15-20 mins or until veggies are soft and lightly golden. Garnish with fresh parsley (opt).

Was driving around Geylang area on Sun with my mum to look for the acupuncturist her friend was recommending and we decided to have Bak Kut Teh (Pork Ribs Soup) for lunch. So I drove to this pretty good Bak Kut Teh place which not many people know, so maybe I thought I should feature them here.

The coffeeshop is located at the end of Lor 27 Geylang, on the left side. Right side is the famous You Tiao Wang place. Manage to find a parking lot near the coffeeshop (which is rare) and so mummy and I sat down to order a bowl of soup each. We were asked if we wanna order a side dish of Braised Pork Leg as well, so I told the man I only want lean ones. And we ordered yam rice as well to go with the soup. The food came and to our surprise, the soup was fish soup and not pork ribs! Then I realised that the pork ribs stall only opens at 5pm… AARRRRGGGHHHHH… but after peering into the bowl of fish soup, it looks really tasty so we didn’t mind hehe…

Da place

View from across the road

Yummy looking fish soup... clear soup type

Wah a lot of ingredients... Even comes with fish maw! Woot!

Braised Pork Leg... Very nicely braised with all the sauce soaked inside the meat... yummy!!!

Yam rice... very nice... really very nice... with lumps of yam, pork belly meat, chinese mushroom. Very good.

Rating: 5/5

Taste: Batang fish is very fresh and not fishy smell, soup is boiled from fish bones, very nice. Pork leg and yam rice rounds up a very satisfying lunch outing. Really a must-try!

Portion: Adequate for all items

Price: Fish soup $4.00. Yam rice $1.00. Braised Pork Leg $5.00. Plain rice $0.50.

RTE (Return To Eat): Confirm + Chop + Sign + Seal with a kiss

Location: End of Lorong 27A Geylang. Try to find parking before you reach the end. If not then try either Lor 27 or Lor 29 and the cut through the back alleys.

A healthy side dish containing yams and apples is a nice addition to the plate for my favourite season. Adding in the apples gives a sweet taste, which eliminates the need for any butter or sugar. (Although, with yams, you hardly need sugar in the first place as they’re already so sweet!) Here’s my basic recipe for some mashed yams. Enjoy!

This recipe makes 2 large servings, or 2 medium servings with some left over for lunch the next day.

MASHED YAMS & APPLES

Ingredients:

• 1 medium to large yam
• 1 apple
• cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper to taste (for this serving, I used about 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cayenne)

Method:

• peel the yam, wash, and cut into cubes.
• place yam cubes in a pot filled with enough water to cover the yams fully, and boil until cubes are tender. The time varies, so check one of the cubes after 10 minutes, and then every 5 minutes after. You want them to be soft enough for a spoon to be able to mash them.
• drain the yams, and set aside in a bowl.
• peel the apple, core, and cut into small pieces.
• place apple pieces in a pot filled with enough water to cover the apple pieces fully, and boil until apple pieces are tender. As with the yams, check every few minutes (less time is needed to boil the apple) until the apple pieces are soft enough to mash with a spoon.
• drain the apples, and add to the bowl with the yams.
• add in the cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper.
• mash all ingredients together either by hand, or with an electric mixer.
• Serve warm alongside whatever you like! This also tastes great cold.

Ingredients for an autumn salad

My outlook on cooking has totally changed now that we have grown some of our own successfully this year.  We’ve had some amazing marrow (squash) and courgette (zucchini) and some creamy little potatoes too.  Only a few of our tomatoes survived the blight…  But oh my!  Its been an adventure!

My man’s parents also grow their own and we often get produce from them or from like-minded friends of theirs.  We’ve also gone to this awesome place called Millets Farm where you can pick your own produce.  Their shop is filled with information on where they’ve sourced their produce from – very helpful stuff.  We were able to buy everything local and fresh – it was great!

Mashed potatoes and yams - scrumptious

There’s something in knowing where your food comes from that gives you a greater sense of its value and nature…  I am hoping to be able to grow a winter salady crop so that we can keep our spirits up during the short, dark months before spring.  If you haven’t tried growing your own – I would definitely recommend it!  A little pot of chives will last years and you just trim when you want some with your jacket potato…

For U.S. manufacturers as well as ordinary citizens, World War II meant shortages and rationing of many staple goods, including sugar. Citizens were encouraged to substitute honey and syrup in their home cooking. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture began to encourage the development of substitutes for sugar that would satisfy the nation’s demand for candy.

In Alabama, the Agricultural Research Station at Auburn began experimenting with a local crop, the sweet potato, sometimes also called the yam. After some mixing and melting and molding and such, they came up with something promising. In naming the new candy they melted together the state of its invention and the name of the now exalted tuber. They called it: Alayam.

Alayam was described as “a cocoanut brittle made with sweet potatoes.” The candy had potential. Some people liked it. In consumer acceptance tests, researchers determined that “40 percent of the nation’s consumers like this new product as well as or better than the candies they are currently buying or eating” and that “more than a third… would buy the product if it were available on the market.” A little luke-warm as endorsements go, but the point is, they didn’t spit it out.

Of course, neither the Alabama Station nor the U.S.D.A. was equipped to bring such a candy to the consumer market. Sugar rationing having been lifted in 1947, candy manufacturers were not so eager to experiment with marketing strange candy substances. And so Alayam never came to be.

It was perhaps an idea before its time. In today’s climate of concern about what goes into the food that goes into our bodies, maybe a sweet potato candy is just what we need.

Source: “Candy from Sweet Potatoes May Become Popular,” Confectioners Journal May 1950, p. 43.

This recipe is an Oldie but Goodie. My son Mitchell’s favorite, this moist bundt cake covered in a thickly drizzled maple flavor icing is beautiful on the cake plate and delicious. It is the perfect dairy-free desert for autumn occasions, from Rosh Hashanah, to Thanksgiving, to Chanukah.

Cake

2 cups of mashed Garnet yam

2 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 & 3/4 teaspoons powdered ginger

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 extra large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Margarine or non stick spray for greasing the pan                                                 

12 cup Bundt pan

Icing

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup Rich’s dairy-free whip

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted margarine

1/2 teaspoon vanilla  extract

Wash the Garnet yams and bake in a preheated 400º oven for 2 hours. I choose the fattest, unblemished yams I can find and place them in an aluminum foil tin to catch the oozing sugar droppings from the yams as they bake.  2 to 4 large yams will yield the 2 cups of yam needed for the recipe. You can just eat any left over with dinner. Cool the yams and scoop out the bright orange pulp. Measure the yam and mash with your gloved hands or a potato masher. Place the yams in the bowl of your mixer.

Preheat oven to 325º and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Combine the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.  Place the mixing bowl in the mixer and beat yams until smooth on medium low speed. Next, add the sugar and oil to the yams, and starting on the lowest setting, beat until smooth.  Add the eggs 2 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and blend on low speed until just combined. Stir in the vanilla.

Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan, making sure to get the grease into every nook and cranny of the design for an easy release. Fill the prepared pan only 2/3 full. If your Bundt pan is less than 12 cups, (many of the newer designs are not 12 cups) and you have left over batter, you can grease and fill individual small loaf pans with the extra batter. Bake cake until a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 5 minutes or less if your pan is smaller. Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Invert and turn cake out onto the rack to finish cooling.

At this point, you can wrap the cake well and freeze it for up to two weeks, then defrost and ice just before your occasion. For the icing, sift the powdered sugar into medium bowl. Stir the brown sugar, Riche’s Whip, and margarine in a small heavy bottomed saucepan over medium low heat until margarine melts and the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium high and bring brown sugar mix to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer 3 minutes, occasionally stirring and swirling pan. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour the brown sugar syrup over the powdered sugar. Whisk icing until smooth and lightened in color. It will be very liquid. Cool the icing until luke warm, whisking occasionally. It will thicken as it cools. When the icing is not quite cold and  falls like thick ribbons from a spoon,  slowly pour it over the top of the cake very thickly. The icing will drip down the sides in thick rivers. I pour directly from the mixing bowl in a back and forth motion slowly rotating the cake as I go. Let the iced cake stand for at least one hour before serving.  It keeps refrigerated for two days.