Whole Wheat Blueberry Teddy Bear Pancakes

My Dad alway used to make me pancakes shaped like Micky Mouse.  Joe doesn't know about Micky yet but  he did like these teddy bear pancakes.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Teddy Bear Pancakes
for 4

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tbs honey
 oil for frying.
Blueberries

Mix the dry, add the wet. Heat a pan with a little oil.  Make baby sized bears by using 1/4 cup of batter for the head and 1 tsp for each of the ears.  Add blueberry eyes and nose.  Cook until the little bubbles pop flip and cook for about a min more.  Joe loved them with cream cheese.

7 Layer Olivia Salad

 Olivia a salad popular in Iran but it is from Russia where its called Olivier.  To me its like baby food mixed with mayonnaise...gross and far too rich.  A few weeks ago my mom told me about a deconstructed olivia that she was making.  It got me thinking what if Olivia was constructed as a American 7 Layer Salad?  But without the mayo because 7 Layer Salad is gross and far too rich too!

7 layer Olivia Salad
Makes on large Salad

1 kg of new potatoes boiled and sliced
2 large carrots shredded
1 cup of peas
1 cup of cooked chicken shredded
3 eggs hard boiled and sliced
2 pickels sliced
15 olives sliced
Salt and Pepper


For Dressing
1 cup Plain Yougurt
jucie from 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Mix up the yougurt dressing and season to your teast or use mayo.  Assemble the salad by layering each ingredent with 1/4 cup of the dressing between each layer of potatoes, carrots, peas and chicken.

Grated Carrot Salad

My sister is visiting us from Kansas so I've been too busy to cook. But I always have time to make grated carrot salad. It is the perfect salad for crazy days. I've been making it for years.
Grated Carrot Salad
per person
1 carrot
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Peal and grate the carrots. Dry roast the mustards seeds in a hot pan until the seeds start to pop. Pour the hot seeds on top of the carrots. Add the vinegar, oil salt and pepper. Mix and eat right away.

I like to make this salad with mustard seeds, but sometimes I make a peanut or Asian version.
For peanut salad replace the mustard seeds with warm peanuts (and olive oil with peanut oil). For Asian salad replace the mustard seeds with toasted sesame seeds, olive oil with sesame oil and salt for soy sauce. Anyway you make it grated carrots can be made into a very tasty salad.

Chocolate Coconut Pie

When I was a child if my mother did not know what to make for dinner, there was one cookbook which always had the answer. More-with-Less complied by Doris Janzen Longacre is a master price of thoughtful Mennonite cooking. The recipes come from Mennonites all over the world but my heart alway jumps when I read towns like Newton, Hesston and Hillsboro Kansas. I only wish the cook at my college opened her copy more offten!

Last year my mother and I had more fram fresh milk and eggs than we knew what to do with so we started to make a Coconut-Custard Pie from More-with-less. We changed the recipe a bit using butter not maragirne and adding chocolate. It has become a new family fav.
Chocolate Coconut Pie
makes one pie
4 eggs
6 Tbs butter(unsalted)
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup coco powder
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut

Pop everthing but the cocnut into a blender and blend. Then add the coconut and blend a few seconds. Pour everything into a pie pan. It may still look like a mess but pie will settle in the oven and make its own crust.

Bake for 50-60 min at 350f or 175c. The pie will still have some wiggle. Cool and chil in the frig for a few hours. ( You can eat it right away, but I think its better cold.)

Creamy custered with a rich chocolate crust and crispy coconut top. Yummy!

Broccoli Salad- Made with Yogurt and Dates

Broccoli Salad can be found at just about any North American BBQ or potluck. The classic recipe being a mix of broccoli, raisins, red onion, mayo, sunflower seeds and bacos. While my mom never used bacos or bacon she stayed close to the classic recipe. I love yogurt and it is no surpise that I'm using the plain stuff in place of mayo. Saeid doesn't like raisins so I'm using dates, but so many other dried or fresh fruits work well in this recipe. Try using some pomegranates in the fall it works like a treat!
Broccoli Salad- Made with Yogurt and Dates
Makes about 4 cups
1 head of broccoli, washed and chopped (use the stem too)
1/4 of a red onion chopped
1 cup of dates chopped
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
2 tsp of fresh lemon juice
1 tsp cummin
salt, pepper, hot pepper

Mix the plain yogurt with the lemon juice and spices. Add the vegs, dates and half of the sunflower seeds and mix well. Top the remaining seeds.
This salad gets better with age. Fell free to add anything you like to it but try the plain yogurt.

Adas Polow (Rice and Lentils): The Cheater's Recipe

Adas Polow or Rice and Lentils is the best comfort food in the world. I love making this dish so much that I will be posting the long way in my next post. But this if for cheaters!!!!

Adas Polow : The Cheater's Recipe
serves 4
2 cups of basmati or long gain rice
1 cup of lentil (I like the small French and Saeid likes the large green)
3 cups and 1 Tbs of water
1 tsp of oil
1/2 tsp of salt

Wash the rice and lentil. Place into a rice maker or pot with the water, oil and salt. If using a rice maker turn it on and let it cook. If using a pot bring the water to a boil over a high heat, cover and lower the heat. Cook for 25min or until the rice and lentils are soft.

My whole family loves this dish (even my little brothers). I love it on its own but its also great toped with fried onions and Greek yogurt.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

After my Mom read my Peanut Butter and Sesame Seed Cookies post she sent me a bag of Kisses. Thanks Mom!
I used the same recipe as last time but topped each cookie with chocolate.
I had some fair trade dark chocolate and I topped some of the cookies with that, but the Kiss Cookies where the best.

Stuffed Pizza

Love pizza toppings? Stuffed pizza is packed with way more toppings than a normal slice could dream of holding. This pizza needs a knife and fork!
Make one batch of my Homemade Pizza Dough and split the dough into one large (about 2/3 of the dough) and one small ball (1/3). The large ball will be the bottom and small the top.
Oil and line a deep dish pizza pan or spring formed pan. Push the large dough ball into the pan and using your fingers press up the sides. No need to roll the dough, just get your fingers dirty. Then roll out the smaller ball the the size of the pan. Fill the pizza. If using cheese lay that down first. Then any cooked toppings finishing out with a tiny bit of crushed tomatoes or sauce. Place the rolled top on the stuffed pizza and pinch the sides to seal. Cut a steam whole in the top if you like and bake at 220c (430f) for 25-30 min or until the crust in brown.

Let the pizza sit for a few min after you take it out, it will be hot inside!

I filled this one with ground beef, onions, red pepper and fennel and used 1/3 whole wheat flour in the dough.

Peanut Butter and Sesame Seed Cookies

The only thing that can improve peanut butter cookies is Hershey Kiss, sadly there are no chocolate kisses in Ireland. I wanted to try something new so I replaced some of the PB with tahini and rolled the cookies in sesame seeds.
I started out with the Betty Crocker's classic Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe but 1/4 cup of trans-fat had to go!!! I replaced shorting with coconut oil, but I think just butter would work as well.

Peanut Butter Sesame Seed Cookies
Makes 24 yummy cookies (plus a few bits of raw dough if you dare)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup - 1 Tbs peanut butter
1 Tbs tahini
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt (leave out if using salted butter)

Cream the sugar with the butter and coconut oil. Mix in the PB and tahini. Add in the egg. Mix. Then add the flour baking soda and powder.

The Betty Crocker recipe calls for the dough to rest for 2 hours, but its really cold here and my dough never got very warm. So really its up to you. (My mom would never ever let cookies dough rest, maybe because we would eat the dough if she did.)

Shape the dough into balls. I split the dough in 1/2 and then 1/2 agian so I only had to 3 cookies at a time that way they were all the same size. Roll the balls in semame seed, place on a cookie sheet and push down with a fork.

Cook for 10 min in a pre-heated oven at 190c or 375f.

Homemade cookies! Yummy!

Snow Bbq with Ramen Coleslaw

Ireland does get snow but it melts right away. Since New Years Eve the whole island has been white. We had a Bbq before it turned back to green.

How do you start a Bbq in snow? With the help of a blow dryer!

Saeid's Hamburgers
2 pounds Irish Beef
1 Irish onion grated
salt and pepper
Mix and shape into 6 burgers. These 1/3 pounds were tasty.
I made my mom's Roman Coleslaw, but as it was 6am in Kansas I had to make it from memory.
Roman Coleslaw
1/2 small white cabbage
2 carrots
1 inch ginger
1 package of Roman
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seed oil
1 tsp lemon jucie
1/4 hot pepper
2 Tbs toasted sesame seed

Finely chop the cabbage, grate the carrots and ginger. Mix with 1/4 of the roman spice package, soy sauce, sesame seed oil, lemon juice and hot pepper. Check the taste. Top with sesame seed and 1/2 the package of broken Roman.

Update: My mom uses some of the seasoning package from the Ramen in the salad.  Make sure to check how much salt your adding!!!

I think the snow made everything taste better!

Irish Lamb Meatloaf

What makes this meatloaf Irish? Its not just the lamb, but also the brown bread. Irish brown bread is a course, heavy soda bread. I hate soda bread so I make my brown bread with yeast. But any healthy stale bread would work in this recipe.

Irish Lamb Meatloaf
Serves 4
500 gram (about a pound) of Irish minced lamb (or any lamb/beef or turkey)
2 cups of brown bread
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 handful fresh parsley
1 egg
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp really spicy English mustard
1 tsp cumin
pepper
1 Tbs ketchup
1 tsp hot pepper.

Heat an oven to 180c or 350f.
Put the brown bread, onion, garlic and parsley in the food processor and blend into a crumb. Mix with the mince, egg, soy sauce, mustard, cumin and pepper. Fill a loaf pan with the meatloaf. Mix the ketchup with hot pepper and top the meatloaf with it.
Bake for an hour.

We enjoyed ours with bake sweet potatoes and peas.

Turkey Sandwich on Challah

This is not a left-over turkey sandwich but bite size holiday in your mouth. Any bread would do, but my family loves my sisters Challah rolls. Over the last year my sister and I have been writing our own Challah recipe, but she lost it! I guess I'll have to start all again.
Makes 1 Sandwich
1 Challah Roll
1 slice Roast Turkey
1 tsp Cranberry Chutney
If you want to try your hand at Challah try this Bread Machine Challah Recipe. Its a bit to sweet for me. I'll be sure to post our family recipe (once its found or recreated).

Chicken and Biscuits

Whats better than chicken soup and fresh hot bread on a cold rainy night? Chicken and biscuits! A thick and creamy sauce topped with rich biscuits. Yummy!

Serves 4
1 pound of chicken
1 stock cube or 3 cups of stock
1 onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 large potato chopped
1 tsp oil
1 cup frozen peas
2 tsp butter or oil + 2 tsp more for biscuits
2 tsp flour
1 tsp mustard
1 cup Irish soda bread mix or biscuit mix
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp fresh tarragon (optional)
Salt and Pepper

Chicken and Veg
Bring the chicken to a boil in stock, cover and lower the heat. Cook for an hour. Remove the chicken, de-bone, shred and put in an oven safe pan. Keep the stock for the sauce, but put 1/2 cup of the stock in the frig to cool for the biscuits.

Brown the onion, carrots and potato in the oil. Add to the chicken.

2 tsp of butter or oil in a empty veg pan with 2 tsp of flour stir together and slowly add the hot stock (about 1 1/2 cups) mixing all the time. Add the mustard and herbs. Pour over the chicken and veg add the frozen peas and mix. Check the taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Biscuits
Cut 2 tsp of butter in with Irish soda bread mix, add the cool stock a few drops at a time.
If using biscuit mix use the recipe on the box, but use the cool stock as the liquid. Should be a wet dough.
Spoon on top the the chicken and bake the whole thing at 185c or 365f for 30 min.

Enjoy while its hot!

2 Pies

For dinner last night I made 2 different pies. Both are versions of my mothers.

A few times a year my mom makes shepherds pie. Last year my brother walked in on her before she started and asked to have just meat loaf and mash. When she went to take the meat loaf out of the oven it had turned its back into shepherds pie! She forgot that she was making meat loaf! Afraid of what may happen I made a Shepherdess pie.
1 chopped onion
2 chopped carrots
12 chopped mushrooms
Cook on med high heat with 1tsp oil, thyme, two bay leaves salt and pepper for about 10 min, until the mushrooms have stopped giving off liquid and the carrots are soft.
Fill a baking pan. Then top with 1 cup corn (fresh, frozen, or canned) and 1 cup peas (I used soy beans). Cover the with the mash. (I cooked four potatoes, left on their skin and mashed with 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup yogurt, 2 tsp butter, 1 tsp chives, 1/4 cup cheese, salt and pepper.) Finish with paprika.
Bake for 30 min at 150c, until the top is crusty.

My mom does not like to make pie dough, she does make a really good crisp. She never uses a recipe (from what I can tell) so when I started to recreate her crisp I may have gone too far from her original.

The first major difference between our crisp is that I always leave the skin on the apples. I'm not just that I'm lazy, but it healthier therefore you can eat a second piece of pie.

Mix
4 cored and sliced apples
zest of one lemon and half its juice
1 tsp vanilla
a few shakes each of:
cinnamon
nutmeg
garam masala (A great addition, I sneak it into all of my moms pies)
dash of salt

Fill the pie pan and in the dirty bowl mix the crisp:
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup ground linseed
1/2 cup brown sugar
a shake of each of the pie spices
2 TBS butter
Mix and top pie.
Bake at 150c for 30 min.

The apples were so good, the crisp needed oatmeal (which I was out of) and it was too sweet. Maybe my mom with give me her recipe.