Have you ever had a Shirley Temple? It was a popular kid’s drink in the seventies and eighties made up of ginger ale and grenadine and usually the bright red dyed kind. To make things healthier I made us a homemade dye free grenadine for our pomagritas cocktail. It is so versatile and easier than you think! Use it for Tequila Sunrises, Shirley Temples (kids love it), Rum and Cokes, martinis, anything really. It takes 20 minutes to make without any of the corn syrup, dyes or preservatives like the bottled stuff and stores for over a month in the fridge.
Archives for 2015
Chocolate Peppermint Bark
Dark Chocolate Truffles
A possible, just maybe, Christmas week scenario: It’s Christmas week and you still have last minute gifts you need to give but you want to make them homemade because you don’t know what your dear ones would like or want because they are more of an acquaintance from work, or your hair dresser, or your super or the mailman (who always makes sure you get your packages from Amazon safely and securely); and who wants to go to the mall and look for parking for an hour when you have too many things to do before Christmas, so you search for a quick and easy food gift that doesn’t look quick and easy and all without baking a single thing because you baked enough cookies and are cookie-ed out. With that, we also need to make it gluten free, dairy free, grain free, nut free and vegan to cover all your allergen bases.
Grain Free Almond Joy Cookies
I heard about the 5th Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap back in October, on a blog somewhere – I can’t remember – where bloggers are given three names to send each a dozen cookies and also receive cookies in exchange, all through the mail. This caught my interest for obvious reasons and the idea of raising money for charity.
Grain Free Pumpkin Butter Waffles with Maple Cinnamon Glaze
Even though we are all well past pumpkin, I’m boldly (gasp) reprising its role despite all the gingerbread and eggnog in the air.
My love of waffles is obvious – gingerbread, pumpkin spice, vanilla bacon, (posted so long ago using my iPhone 4 (yes, really) to which the photos don’t do any justice), and savory cornbread ones with fried chicken (another vintage recipe), it’s no wonder I’m inspired to try new waffle recipes.
Jelly Doughnuts
Coming from first-generation Russian Sephardic Jew immigrant family, we didn’t have homemade fried Israeli-style “sufganiyot” jelly doughnuts. Then again, we weren’t a very traditional “Jewish-food” kind of family. Eating Russian food like plov (lamb and rice pilaf with carrots) and a savory cabbage stuffed with ground beef, instead of brisket with sweet glazed carrots was the norm at the family holiday gatherings. But I do remember my Mom buying ponchiki (Russian for doughnuts and a close cousin to the Israeli version) from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Underfilled (never enough filling) with cherry jam or vanilla creme, is how I remember them – and usually coated with sugar. Albeit untraditional with our Chanukah table, doughnuts always made their way to the table.
Chicken pot pie with Chanukah flair
Hope you got to spend some quality time with loved ones and enjoyed good eats on Thanksgiving as we did. It was just last week yet feels like it was eons ago, doesn’t it? We completely stuffed ourselves with roast turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, butternut squash puree with homemade marshmallow fluff topping, roasted root vegetables, brussels sprouts, roasted green beans, cornbread, dinner rolls, salad, cranberry sauce and my favorite – stuffing – also cranberry pear and pumpkin pies. If that wasn’t enough, also made peppermint brookies, for the weekend to go with hot cocoa. I dug into my plate full speed and stuffed myself so quickly that halfway through I had to take a moment of pause.
Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad with Persimmon, Jicama, and Coconut Chips
With Thanksgiving days away, I have been thinking about all the things I’m grateful for. Grateful for my family, friends, health, and you, my cyber friends for keeping my life colorful, constant and memorable – blessings I cherish. And, I don’t care how cheesy this sounds, but I want to say THANK YOU, my dear blog friends! YOU make this little hobby of mine so much fun! Seriously, something that started out as a way to journal new recipes on a new journey of food became more than I would have ever thought.
Cranberry Pear Pie with caramel
Hey there, I’m back with another pie brimming with cranberries and pears!
Cranberries are burst of color in the late fall and could not come at a better time of year. It’s one of my favorite ingredients this time of year. Just when produce is beginning to pale in color, lo and behold, the festive cranberry for cakes, cookies, muffins, jams, dressings, and of course, the iconic sauce on Thanksgiving…and pie…SO good in pie.
Pumpkin Sweet Potato Pie with Maple
Thanksgiving is almost here! You didn’t think I forgot about the most important part, did you? Never. I’m usually thinking about pies before anything else. Gosh, do I have a major crush on pie as you can tell looking through my dessert recipes. If you love pie as much as I do and have a soft spot for pumpkin, in particular, then goodness is this going to make you squeal with delight.