Recipe for Mashed Yams

Michelle Karam looks and cooks good-right? She is expressive and all smiles showing a lovely set of teeth. Though I have not had an opportunity to taste her dishes, I am sure they must be as nice as she cooks and looks.

Today, I watched cook mashed yam as a thanksgiving recipe. Frankly speaking, I did not the westerners ate yam. I was under assumption that the yam truly belong to the Indian kitchen. How poorly educated I am!

Yam is very difficult to cook. Imagine how hard it will be to mash it on pan. Michelle did it very well. I could have told her to a few Indian spices like turmeric and tamarind.

Nevertheless, watch her cook mashed yam below.

Download:

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Shrimp Bisque

I've been searching for the perfect sauce to go with my salmon cakes, which are already perfect. Last night I tried this remoulade sauce:

1 c. French dressing

1 c. Creole mustard

2 tbsp. paprika

1 tbsp. horseradish

1 tbsp. grated or minced onion

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. celery salt

Juice of one lemon

And it looked like this:

I used to make a cucumber-dill sauce. It was ok. The above remoulade is MUCH better. But it's just not perfect. [Any suggestions?!?!] I think I will leave out the lemon next time. And cut down on both the French dressing and Creole mustard to 1/2 a cup each. But if you're serving seafood this weekend, you should try it! Cocktail shrimp are YUMMY dipped in this. Cocktail sauce is just too boring. [It's base is Ketchup, what'd expect!]

And since several people asked for it..... here is my Drewa's FAMOUS shrimp soup recipe. Ya'll.... I can seriously eat/drink/inhale this stuff until I make my self sick. It's THAT good. It might even be better than the World's Most Bestest Tomato Soup Ever...gasp!

Ingredients:
1 or 2 cups of diced shrimp [keep a couple whole to garnish with] I say 1 or 2 cups depending on how m shrimp you like. I like 1 heaping cup. One time I did 2 cups and believe it or not it was TOO MUCH shrimp.
2 cans of Campbell's Cream of Shrimp Soup
1 small container of half & half
1/2 bottle of cooking Sherry
2 tbsp of Butter

If you have fresh Gulf shrimp that you're husband caught in the Gulf [thank you Kent!], shell em and de-vein. Then drop in boiling water for 2 to 4 minutes, or until it looks like this:

You do NOT want to over cook shrimp. It gets rubbery. Yuck.

Or you can go to Wal-Mart and buy a bag of pre-cooked shrimp and de-thaw.

Chop up the shrimp in little pieces.

Secret ingredient.

Put all the ingredients in a pot. Let it boil and then simmer a while. Taste it. If you think it's a lil bland, pour some more sherry in. I end up using about half a bottle of it! [or 6ish oz]

It should look like this when you're done. All the small pieces of shrimp are hiding on the bottom of the bowl!

Yum. Yum. Yum.

What to Do With Leftover Steak

[cary, don't read this - there are pictures of rare beef]

Everytime we have steak for dinner we always have leftover steak. I used to put it in the fridge with the intention of eating it later, but lets be honest here, when you warm up the steak it just doesn't taste right because the microwave will cook it more done that you like. So here is what you MUST do next time you have left over steak. It's tried and true, and is wonderful for guests. They will be super impressed that you made strogonoff with steak! Just pretend like it's an everyday occurance.

Ingredients:

Leftover steak

Strogonoff noodles

2 cups of sour cream [you can use light, but not fat-free]

1 box of mushrooms

1 onion

dash of salt

dash of nutmeg

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 tbsp of butter

Directions:

Set you leftover steak out so it will get room temperature.

Go ahead & start your strogonoff noodles boiling in water, I used about half a bag. Just eyeball however much you think you might need.

Cut up the onion & mushroom & put in a big skillet-esq pan with the butter & olive oil. Cook on medium until the mushrooms & onions have softened.

Then put the sour cream in the pan with the salt & nutmeg & get this to simmering real good. Be sure to stir every couple of minutes.

[I used light which keep the sauce a bit thicker, if you don't care about calories, by all means use the real stuff, it will thin out the sauce a bit]

Slice the steak in skinny, short strips:

Right after your noodles are cooked & drained, toss the room-temp steak into the sour cream sauce. The steak slices will warm up super quick so serve immediately because you don't want your rare steak to end up well done [or however you like your steak, it WILL cook more if you leave it in the sauce on the stove for long]. 

Finished product:

 Most of the time we will have steak on a Friday or Saturday night, so this meal is perfect to make the following night. Yummy!

Two Pseudo Obsessions

I have zero business doing a "Fitness Friday" because I did not work out once this week. No real good excuses, but at least I can admit that. However, I ate very healthy. As a result I feel better this week than I did last week when I worked out every day, but ate poorly. Interesting, huh?

Pseudo Obsession #1: Quiche

Several friends asked me for this quiche recipe. I really don't mind spending the time to make quiche because a) it's a really good source of protein & veggies and b) I have breakfast already made for the rest of the week because Kent-o doesn't eat it. Just warm a slice up in the microwave. So here it is:

Ingredients:

3 large eggs [can't use egg whites because they fall apart]

1/2 cup of WHOLE milk

1/2 cup of half & half

Pinch of Salt

Pinch of Pepper

Pinch of Thyme

Handful of chopped spinach [I used canned spinach & rinsed & squeezed it dry]

Handful of your favorite shredded cheese [swiss tastes REALLLLL good!]

Handful of mushrooms [I used canned mushrooms]

Handful of onions, tomatoes, broccoli, bell peppers, carrots, etc.

Pie Crust - I bought the regular pie crust next to the cookie dough at Kroger. Apparently you can actually make a pie crust from scratch, but I've never been witness to such a miracle!

Directions:

Set oven to 350.

Mix your all your ingredients in a big bowl and whisk away.

Ok, the most important thing is....

Bake the empty pie crust FIRST for 5-10 minutes, or until it bubbles up. Pat the bubbled up crust back down. LOTS of people make quiche and have a soggy crust [yuck!]. By baking the crust by itself and first, you will have crispy crust even on the bottom!

Immediately after you pat down the bubbles, pour your batter in the crust. Immediately.

Bake for 30 minutes. You may have to bake it longer depending on your oven's strength. You can test the middle of the quiche to see if it is runny. If so, keep it cookin!

My mom makes her quiche with diced ham, bacon & cheddar cheese [just remove ALL veggies from my above recipe]

Here is my finished product:

I will be adding tomatoes next time, but this was soooo yummy!

Pseudo Obsession #2: Tracy Anderson

I can't stop watching YouTube videos of Tracy Anderson who is Madonna & Gwyneth Paltrow's personal trainer.

At first, I was shocked at how fit and porportioned she is, but then I saw her next to Gwyneth and I felt better about myself. It looks like she is 4'10!

No wonder she looks so in shape. She has some really interesting work out styles.



Strange... but I guess it works!

Happy Friday!

Portobello Mushroom Pizza

I got this recipe from the girls that live at my parent's house. I made it last night, it's SUPER healthy and virtually carb-less. I think there are about 225 calories per "pizza". You only need to eat one to fill you up. Seriously.

Ingredients:

2 large portobello mushrooms

1 can of pizza sauce

1 bag of low-fat mozzerella cheese

1 lb of lean beef (or turkey)

2 TBItalian seasoning

1 minced garlic clove

8 spinach leaves

1/2 a diced onion

1/2 diced tomato

Start with a portobello mushroom:

Cut out the stem to make it flat.

Brown your meat and put in the italian seasoning, garlic clove and onion.

Spread the pizza sauce over the mushroom and bake for 3 to 5 minutes.

Get the mushrooms out of the oven.

Next pile on the ground meat, tomatoes, spinach, etc. [you can use whatever veggies you like here] 

Sprinkle the cheese over everything and bake for another 10 minutes!

These were so yummy! You can easily leave out the meat to make a vegetarian pizza.

*If you make this, come back and tell me what you thought!

New Recipes

I am back to work today and so grateful for the 3 day weekend! I really needed it. I felt like it was the first time since Christmas that I could actually cook, clean and get some much needed things done around the house [pictures to come!].

It was a really lazy weekend, the most unusual thing I did was cook something NEW each night for dinner! I got this new cook book from my mother-in-law [who is the queen of cooking healthy] and EVERY single recipe I have tried has been amazing. I probably would not have bought it on my own because it looks like a regular "how to" book on low-carbs, but it is actually a recipe book. If you want to start eating "good carbs" then get it!

Two low carb, good carb meals we loved [you're husband will like these too!]:

Chicken Sante Fe:

Salmon Cakes with Cucumber Dill Sauce: [upper, right hand corner,

I forgot to take a picture the night before, so this was the next day's lunch]

 Both of these were so delish.  The Chicken Sante Fe literally took 15 minutes total, while the Salmon Cakes took a good hour. Email me if you want either recipe [trust me, you do!].

This weekend [includes Friday night to Monday] I worked out 4 times [ah, bliss!] which included 2 weight lifting sessions, 1 yoga session, one step class and 5 miles.

Hope you have a happy Tuesday... Biggest Loser comes on tonight!

Mission impossible at Karisma Hotel.

My friend, who just returned from a Riviera maya family vacation, was low on confidence because her pride took a beat in Mexico.

She used to have her ways around restaurants in the hotels all over the world and get the chef divulge the secret ingredients of the food she liked.

My friend who is a well known author of rare recipes of the world prides herself with sweet talking techniques in hotel kitchens.

During her recent stay at one of the top resorts in Karisma Hotels in Riviera Maya, she happened to eat the Mexican dish ‘Fajita’. (See image) She immediately liked it so much that she ordered it for five consecutive days at the restaurant.

Her ploy was to impress the chef and somehow get the recipe from him. But, to her disappointment, the chef didn’t budge.

This mission took so much of her time that she was not able to enjoy the other luxuries offered at Azul Blue resort such as the low-carb lobsters, tequila and non-motorized water sports.

May be she can think of applying for a job at Karisma Hotels?

The Best Tomato Soup Ever

Let me start off my saying I do NOT like tomato soup. But this is the yummiest stuff ever! My grandparents were at Lake Tahoe years ago and were served tomato soup. The chef would not give them the recipe so they went home determined to get it just right. And they did!  It is delicious. It's actually a bit more bisque-esq, which I like. Also, Kent has asked SEVERAL times if we can make this. The boy does not like soup. Hopefully that gives you a clue as to how amazing this stuff is.

Lake Tahoe Tomato Soup

Recipe:

1 large can of Campbell's tomato soup

1 small carton of half & half

1/4 cup cooking sherry (or real sherry if you have it!)

1 carton of fresh mushrooms

Directions:

1. Chop up mushrooms (small if your not a mushroom fan or halves if you are a fan).
2. Put all the ingredients together & set on medium heat, stir occansionally, let it come to a boil & then turn down the heat to simmer.
3. Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese
4. Enjoy!

Excellent vegetarian recipes.

I found myself drawn to a recipe blog for the past two days. There are some new recipes that I have never heard of. The author of the blog Finger Licking Food is Namratha, an Indian settled in the U.S. I thought she misspelled her name which could be Narmatha. (how dare I )

I think she is originally from Karnataka state in India. Her recipes for a change looked cookable. I mean the ingredients are all familiar to me. There are hundreds of recipe blogs and sites that mention ingredients which they seem to get from Mars.

Two recipes that I intend to try out this week are:
Curd Kodubale
Bombay Kojju

The pictures of food in her blog also seemed to be taken from her kitchen.

Thank you Namratha.

Can’t I dress it up differently?

Dressing it up differently, the corn based meal tasted ok of course but my husband ridiculed at my own certificate. “Malathy, a southerner should say whether your cornbread dressing is ok or not”. Yes, I too have read that the authors of cornbread recipe are from the southern part of America and Texas comes to my mind first among them.

Let me tell you how I made it differently. Instead of the usual celery, I used a few basil leaves and a generous dose of spinach. And I avoided garlic and onion totally.

I must agree that the buttermilk had gone slightly sour but I thought that will give a different taste to the dish.

I still vouch that it tasted different.

Meatloaf Recipe

A request was made for my meatloaf recipe. Kent is a meat and potatoes kind of a guy sooo.... I have a low-calorie meatloaf that really is good. There are only 1,000 calories in the entire meatloaf, with five large servings at 200 calories a piece - not bad! So here here it is:

1 lb of ground turkey, make sure it is 93/7 fat percentage

1 medium onion, chopped

put turkey & onion in skillet and brown

Chili Sauce is the secret!
in a large mixing bowl put:

put 3/4 bottle of chili sauce

4 or 5 pieces of crumbled bread with a low calorie count

several shakes of low-sodium soy sauce

2 squirts of ketchup

1 tea spoon of pepper

1 tea spoon of paprika

1 tea spoon of cumin

1 egg whitesspray meatloaf pan with Pam

put 2 pieces of bread on bottom of pan to soak up extra grease

(you don't have to eat this part... but it sure is good!)

mix meat & onions into large mixing bowl put into meatloaf pan

pour remaining 1/4 bottle of chili sauce on top

sprinkle a little splenda brown sugar on topbake at 350 for 20 minutes!

I am hungry for a carrot cake.

I should blame Yahoo! for making me hungry for a carrot cake. That appetising and salivating picture of carrot cake made me hear the rumbles in my stomach.

This is the first time I am hearing about a cake made of carrot. We use carrot only in salad. Of course my son loves carrot juice.

This carrot cake picture is given below.













For the recipe of this carrot cake, you should read Yahoo! food. Oh, the recipe is all fine but the mention of egg in it makes me to have second thought. How can I eat a cake with egg as one of the ingredient?

No, I am going to compromise for once and prepare the cake. God, please pardon me once, just this once. If not, why else you made me look at this carrot cake?