Bone Broth Anyone?

On bitter bitter cold nights one sure way of warming up is a delicious bowl of bone broth. as the temperatures dropped so did my tolerance for the cold. So I bought a pound of beef bones from my neighborhood hunting based organic butcher.

With a friends help I set out to make bone broth. It is one of the best and easiest things to make. Besides being good for your health it becomes a great base for many soups, rice, and other dishes.

Let’s get started: a pound of bones, 2 carrots, 1 large onion, a bunch of parsley, 2 bay leaves, 5 whole all spice pieces, 2 stalks of celery, half a cup of apple cider vinegar, water to cover.

You will need a pressure cooker!!
Yes, without it you might be boiling this for days.

Roast the bones in the Owen for 30-40 minutes, then put them in the pressure cooker, coarsely chop and add the veggies and cider vinegar. Then add the spice and bay leaves. By the way you can improvise and add other spices if you like – but remember if you want to use this in cooking other meals having it plain is best. And yes… there is no salt added for the same reason.

Once you have everything in the pressure cooker add water to cover the bones. You are now ready to cook!!! it will take roughly 4-5 hours and the aroma will fill your kitchen. This will make 2 large tubs of broth and I recommend you freeze them so you can keep on using the broth without spoiling it.

You are probably wondering why vinegar?? It helps bleach the nutrients and the marrow out of the bones more easily. Helps make the broth richer. You can adjust the quantity of how much you use as long as you use some.  We watched a romantic comedy, laughed, and had couple of glasses of Champaigne while the pressure cooker did all the job! Result was just yummy and its a gift that keeps on giving on these cold cold nights. Hope you give it a try! Cheers!!

  Umm yes.. this is how we chilled the Champaigne 😉

Day trip to Sundara Spa – Dells, WI

Took a friend for a belated birthday celebration to Sundara Spa. Was a rather positive experience and here is the synopsis — if and when you find yourself in WI its a place you can go.

Grounds of the spa are peaceful and there are 37 rooms I believe for overnight guests. We had a great day trip with Express Spa services and access to full facility.

The quiet room is a bit tired looking, could use an update but comfy, cozy overlooking the outdoor pool. Yes! even at 48 deg weather it is open. The outside floor is heated, pool is heated and there is hot tub next to it too. Now this is an impressive feature – makes me want to come back when it snows.
Express Spa package is perfect for a day trip. The practitioners are so good that 35 min are well done. Normally 35 min are never enough for me; barely get relaxing in 30 min. We had massage, facial, and pedi. They use fully vegan organic nail polish, and all of their treatment products are organic.
While spa services were great and reasonably priced – the food was meh!! Had lunch in between services and lounging; neither dish had much flavor. Later when chatting with other guests we learned people drive elsewhere to eat. We now know why 😉 They can improve this, and we recalled how amazing the food at Kohler Spa and Red Door Spa is. So this was a tiny let down.

In any case… if you find yourself in WI and want a mid-level Spa experience Sundara will do great! Look at this… who can complain about huddling around an outdoor fire, cozy and brisk at the same time.

Surprise Purple salad

  Did you guess what’s inside of this? or what gives this great color to this salad?

No, it’s not food coloring! anything else, maybe something artificial no no no!

Then not sure, okay this is the red cabbage SURPRISE!

As it looks beautiful it’s delicious healthy easy recipe for who loves red cabbage will love it . It will be great for Easter table every one will ask what it is before tasting and after tasting will want the recipe it’s very original refreshing salad and will beautify more the special days tables. Well let’s make this impressive Surprissive salad :)) but please make sure you have gloves before starting or just as I do you can be happy coloring your nails not as like this salad looks pretty but really messy

1 small organic red cabbage

3 tbs organic vinegar

1 tbs sea salt

1 organic lemon juice

2 cups organic Greek yogurt

2 cloves organic garlic

Cut the cabbage in small pieces.

Add the cabbage and run the food processor until everything is finely chopped.

Mix lemon juice, mashed garlic, vinegar and salt add to the cabbage run it again until everything is well mixed.

Add yogurt mix well with a spoon.

You can put on top some dill, parsley or peppermint for garnish.

(If you don’t have food processor you can use greater or chop the cabbage very very finely).

Ta daaa! the salad is ready to impress & Surprise everyone :))

Bourak

For Sunday SURPRISE!

It’s great recipe for any time especially for tea time gatherings I can eat half of this yummm :)) and the only food I can’t resist anyway let’s make it!

500 gr. organic parsley, chard or spinach

6 yufka (special thin pastry for bourak)

200 gr. organic feta cheese

1 cup organic Greek yogurt

1 organic egg

1/2 cup organic extra virgin olive oil

1 cup mineral water

Optional ( salt, pepper and flaked red pepper)

Optional ( sesame seeds or black cumin)

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Wash and dice any green you choose.

Crumble the cheese with fork and mix it with greens.( If you will use the salt, peeper and flaked pepper add them and mix them as well)

In separate bowl mix yogurt, olive oil and egg well.

Grease the pan with oil take 1 yufka and spread it over the pan the pan should be smaller than yufka I used rectangle pan you can use round or and form you like just make sure it’s smaller than the yufka.

Spread over the yufka from yogurt mixture with help of brush.

Spread 2 more yufka’s  by wrinkling them and again for each one spread the yogurt mixture over.

Now spread all the feta and green filling all over the yufkas.

Repeat the yufka and yogurt spread by wrinkling the yufkas when you complete this take the corners of the bottom yufka and fold it over the top.

Cut the bourak in pieces if you still have yogurt mixture pour it all over the top.

Gradually pour the mineral water all over the top of the bourak.

Sprinkle cumin seeds or sesame seeds.

Bake it 30 min. or until golden brown on top.

ENJOY it warm or cold !

Vegan Reddish bean & Avocado

    

Last week I realized for very long time I didn’t use my dried beans and that wasn’t good because always when I was thinking to make them but the long time to prepare them causes easily to giving up without even thinking further. One day while I was thinking how to solve this dried bean problem a great idea light up immediately to rescue! Yessss, Soaking! boiling! and freezing! dried beans.

While soaking the reddish beans to save energy and time I diced to soak all of the dried beans, chickpeas and green lentils I didn’t boil the chickpeas and green lentils ( but if you like you can) just drain them well and freeze them but I boiled the reddish beans and beans they are  super short-cut to your meal after long working/tired day. Just de-freeze how much you need and boil them with little water and salt about 5-10 min.

Enjoy  it over your salad, in mazza or main dishes.

Let’s start up to something quicker&healthier!

1 medium organic onion thinly sliced

1 cup cooked organic reddish beans

1 small organic avocado

1-2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp sumac

1 tbs pomegranate sour or lemon juice

2 tbs of finely diced organic parsley (optional)

Soak reddish beans in 4-5 cups boiled water over night

Rinse them well

Cook them 30-40 min. or more or less until you can taste to mash them with back of spoon on a plate easily this shows they are done.

Drain them if there is excess water.

Add half tsp of salt and mix the beans.

Mix half tsp of salt and sumac with diced onions.

Mix onions, beans and parsley add pomegranate sour and olive oil.

Put it into one side of serving plate.

With help of spoon remove the skin of avocado and cut into chunks.

Put it beside the beans.

Enjoy this delicious healthy dish over special dried bread called baqisma or tacos or favorite choice of your bread.

Traditional Aprakh (Wraps)

Before we start to this traditional family recipe I want to give you a great tip that I learned it from my aunt during summer I collect the fresh grape leaves and just line them on top of each other then wrap them with aluminum foil and put them in freezer bag and freeze them when I took them from freezer I have to be very careful because when they freeze they are very fragile so when you touch them you have to be very careful! and after you de-freeze them they are ready to use &  enjoy sunny summer taste!

 Are you ready to enjoy?

Organic grape leaves

1 cup organic rice

1/2 cup organic coarsely ground wheat

1 or 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tbs organic butter or ghee or olive oil
1 tsp pressed organic garlic
1 tsp sea salt
2-3 cups boiling water (you will need more or less water it depends of what type of rice and leaves you use)
For Top ( for 1 person)

1 large organic egg (optional)

1 tbs organic butter, ghee or olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup water

2 tbs fresh green garlic leaves diced very thin I don’t have fresh green garlic leaves so I used normal garlic cloves crushed.

You can use just rice or just wheat or as I do you can mix them.

Rinse rice and wheat.

Mix melted butter, yogurt, garlic and salt to rice and wheat mix them well.( I didn’t have enough yogurt at home so my mixture looks dry but normally should be runny and wet yogurt gives special flavor and character which is the specialty of this recipe.

Then as below you see the photos put some rice and wrap the leaves.

Line up them in pot the closure side should be faced down.

When you reach the last row if you have left over leaves you can cover the top of wraps or if you don’t have that’s fine.

Put pot on high heat.

Very slowly add boiling water.

Cover the lid bring to boil 20-30 min. or until the rice and wheat cooked well.
If you are using very big leaves yo can dived them into 2 pieces or just make big wraps my leaves were very small.

Now our Aprakh is ready carefully take each Aprakh and line it in plate.

For top
Put butter in pan until heated pour scrambled egg and stir fry put the crushed garlic and salt stir-fry then add boiling water boil it 1-2 min. it should be little water left when you put it over the
aprakh wraps.

Okay I know its worth it but isn’t it enough we wait… aaawww it smells garlicious!
Give me a moment please! I have to eat and sweep this I stand to much.

Honey bee Quince

My mother told me a lot about how they were happy when they had a chance to get a quince from the tree; they were putting it in their wardrobes between their clothes to give nice smell to their clothes at that times when they did not have perfumes. I can imagine quince scented wardrobes it was very nice, safe and healthy way to smell good…. and she adds those time the quinces and all fruits were smelling really good but now days unfortunately and sadly they didn’t…  and after it begins to getting ripe in the wardrobe they took it and made it into a dessert like this — during those days nothing was to throw but to use it use it reuse it! When she prepare this dessert always as I use to ask her what were they doing that times it’s always nice to hear old quality stories especially during long winter nights.

Favorite winter dessert!

I’m always getting very exited when doing this veryyy simple but amazing dessert. The smell, the taste, the look Oh my GOD it’s terrific!

This is why honey bees like it :)))

First you need fire if you have fire place or stove like me you are very lucky you just have to wait until the log is turn to a nice fire it’s relaxing to sit in front and watch for a while.

Come on get up it’s time to take one nice smelled organic quince wash it well.

I wish I had a tree.

Wrap it with aluminium foil like this

Put it on top of the fire-coals. I remember my mom was covering it with fire-coals as well you can do the same or turn it every 10 min. to cook every part of it.

I check it out. It wasn’t cooked yet it wasn’t soft and the skin should be burned. Cover the foil again put on fire-coals to wait more.

It should be burned more than the picture more than half of it should be burned. This takes 40 min. with me because I didn’t have enough coals and the quince was big.  If you have enough coal and to cover it with them maybe this will take 15 or 20 min. I think.

Remove it from foil cut it in half first.

Peel the burned skin. Remove the seeds from the pits. It smells amazing.

Put 1 tsp of honey in each half of quince cut nice slices. If you like more honey drizzle over more honey or you can serve it with scoop of ice cream.

This is for 2 person but I ate all of it veryyummmmyyyy.

The end…. happily!

Nothing left behind sorry.

organic abu-annuch

This eggplant recipe was made a day after when I made eggplant mazza so you can grill your eggplants a day before but as you can see they get brown this time because I didn’t soak them in lemon juice and use them immediately anyway the taste is same just the color is darker. If as me you like to eat it simply with bread and yogurt with fresh mint or you can eat it with meat or rice as how you like. Just use your creativity!

What you need to get started is

1/2 cup organic eggplant (2 small or 1 big)

1 egg (optional)

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp sea salt

some parsley to decorate

Prepare the eggplants as same as eggplant mazza but don’t soak them into lemon juice use them directly.

Dice them finely or mash them (sometimes I like to cut them in small cubes you can do if you like).

If you use the egg first scramble the egg.

Heat the olive oil.

Put the eggs when they start to take shape stir them to create  small  pieces of eggs. (Like stir fried eggs)

Add eggplants cook them for 5 min.

Add salt and garlic cook 5 min. more.

That’s it it’s ready! it’s easy and quick for a delicious dish isn’t it?

Give it a nice shape decorate it with some parsley or herbs and enjoy!

Eggplant Mazza

This easy-tasty hors d’oeuvres  it’s vegan with simple ingredients you can serve it on top of toasted bread or with crispy sticks or crackers.

This recipe is for summer for your health use all veggies at their season please!

Okay let’s get started

1/2 cup organic eggplant (2 small eggplants or 1 big)

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp organic sea salt

1 tbs organic lemon juice

2-3 cloves organic garlic (optional but tasty)

Grill the eggplants on top of grill fire or in the oven

Before doing this please use knife  or use a fork just to make holes in eggplants this will help to stem escape and not exploding while you grill them.

After you grill them immediately remove them from oven and start to peel them for that you can hold them from their stalk if your fingers burning then just divide the eggplant lengthwise and remove the eggplants with spoon.

Immediately add the lemon juice this process will help them stay whiter and prevent them becoming brown.

After you peel them dice them finely or mash them and let them cool completely.

Put salt, and garlic.

Shape it.

Put some scallions or parsley on top drizzle with olive oil.

Vegan Warm Salad

This is great for winter!

If you will ask is this salad really served warm?? Yes it is, it’s different and especially for winter time it’s warming and always nice to try something unusual isn’t it this is the way to learn end explore more.

While you are recycling every part of the food you are creating delicious, healthy dish!

When I’m buying veggies as today I did I removed all unused and old leafs or sometimes peels of vegetables as well you can use all kind of veggies like carrot peels beet leafs etc… but please be sure they are not poisonous or harmful for your health today the salad made from winter veggies. 

And please don’t forget to soak the veggies 1 hour in vinegar water before you use them!

You can reduce or add more it depend on how much old and unused leafs and parts you have.

3 red cabbage leafs

2  cabbage leafs

roots and leafs of broccoli

roots and leafs of cauliflower

2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp of salt

2-3 cloves of garlic diced (optional)

1 lemon juice

1/2 cup of boiling water

Cut all of the vegetables as you like

I like to cut them into thin stripes

add olive oil if you will use garlic add it with olive oil

add the veggies

start to stir them for 2-3 minutes

add boiling water

cover with lid cook for 2-3 minutes more or if you like them softer cook them 5 to 6 min.

Add the salt stir

At the end when you serve your warm salad add the lemon juice and stir.

Enjoy winter beauty with winter veggies!