Potato Pancake with Eggs and Tomatoes

Weekend mornings are perfect to experiment with new breakfast ideas. With the numerous snowed in days we've had I was bored of cereal or plain ol eggs. Using left over cooked potatoes I conjured up a potato pancake. Somehow it didn't seem enough so I dropped on a couple of fried eggs on top. That also didn't seem enough so I topped it all with some sauted tomatoes and onions. Mmmmmm it was sooooo good. Eaten with toast and a nice big glass of OJ...perfect.

Ingredients

2-3 potatoes cooked and mashed
2 large eggs
one small onion, chopped
One tomato, chopped
1 tblsp ketchup
a dash of salt, pepper and paprika
1 tblsp chopped parsley

Method
Season the mashed potatoes with salt and pepper. Form a large patty and pan fry to brown both sides. Place on a serving plate. Add oil to a pan and saute chopped onions till transparent. Add chopped tomatoes and ketchup. Season with salt and paprika. Add chopped parsley and turn off heat. Fry two eggs sunny side up till nice and well cooked with crispy edges. Place eggs on the potato pancake. Heap on spoon fulls of the tomato onion mixture on top. Serve right away. Optional: sprinkle on some grated parmesan cheese on top.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!!! Just wishing all my visitors a very happy Holiday season and a fantabulous New Year. I have so many things that i'm looking forward to in this year. There's one particular event i'm super excited about. Guess what it could be?? Well to give you a hint in a culinary sort of way: there's a bun in the oven! Oooh i've been dying for months to give that away : ) . Hope all of you make resolutions you can keep this year. Lots of Love and happiness. Take care , stay warm and EAT those buttery cookies damn it!

Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a perfect one pot meal to make for a large group of people. This cajun/creole dish is a Lousianna favorite and is similar to the spanish counterpart Paella. I made it as a main entree for our lab party. It could feed quite a few people with enough for left overs.

Ingredients

1 pound cut boneless chicken
1 andouille or chorizo sausage, I used chorizo, sliced
1 pound shrimp, raw, peeled and deveined
One large onion chopped
One large green pepper diced
4 stems of celery diced
One large can diced tomatoes
1 cup chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
3 tsp creole seasoning (I use Tony Chachere's)
1 tsp thyme
3 cups rice, washed and soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
7 cups of chicken stock
Olive oil 1 tblsp
salt to taste

Method
Season chicken and shrimp with a sprinkle of salt and creole seasoning. Brown sausage in a large bottomed pot. Remove sausage after browning and use fat from the sausage to brown chicken and then the shrimp. Shrimp should just slightly turn color but not completely cook.

Add olive oil to the pot. Add bay leaves, onions, green peppers and celery and saute till vegetables are softened. Onions, pepper and celery are known as the holy trinity of New Orleans style cooking.

Add tomatoes with juice and cook through. Add chicken and sausage back into the pot. Add salt and all seasonings. Mix well and heat through. Drain rice and add to the mixture. Mix. Then add all the chicken stock. Cover and bring to a boil on medium heat.

Once the rice starts boiling, simmer and cook covered for 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this cooking time. Once the rice is cooked and all the liquid is absorbed stir in the shrimp and half the parsley. Cook for another couple of minutes till shrimps cook completely. Garnish with left over parsley and serve hot.

Snowball Cake

What a perfect day to post this recipe. Its been one snow storm after another here...the worst they've seen in the last 20 years. Yeah, it had to happen the first winter we were here trying to forget winters in upstate NY!! The good news was we had time off from work from Thursday. We spent all the time lounging on the couch and watching movies. We finally ventured out for coffee and cupcakes today after all the snow. It was nice to see all the people out enjoying all the snow around us. Here's what it looked like from our patio.

Anyway coming back to my recipe..there are so many holiday parties going on this time of the year. For one of my work parties I made this super duper easy dessert that is so right for this time of the year. Its called a snowball cake because it looks like a snowball. This dessert is definitely not meant for the calorie conscious people. With this recipe you can make two medium sized snowball cakes or one very large one. This recipe uses store bought ingredients and requires just putting the dessert together.

Ingredients

1 tub of store bought angel food cake
1 large tub of redi whip ( or two small ones)
2 packets of gelatine
1 cup sugar
One can crushed pineapple with juice
Half a packet of sweetened coconut flakes
Red cherries


Method
Soften gelatin in 4 tblsp of cold water. Meanwhile boil 2 cups of water. Add softened gelatine to boiling water and mix well till nolumps remain. Stir in pineapple juice with crushed pineapple and sugar. Refrigerate till gelatine just starts to set. Meanwhile break the angel food cake into bite sized pieces and keep aside.Take out the mixture and fold in half the whipped cream. Line a deep large round bowl with saran wrap. Add a layer of the cool whip mixture. Then layer with angel food cake. Repeat until the bowl is full ending with the cake mixture. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning overturn the bowl on the serving plate. The cake will come out looking like a ball.

Peel off the sran wrap and coat the cake with redi whip. Sprinkle coconut flakes on the "snowball" and garnish with red cherries. I was out of cherries and ended up using red skittles!

Fish Tacos

This is a perfect meal for a busy work night. I took the Tilapia fillets out of the freezer and put them into the fridge before I left for work this morning. When I got back I put the filling together in 10 minutes. Using store bought corn tortillas I piled up my soft tacos in no time. It was yummy and perfect.

Ingredients (makes 8 tacos)

2 tilapia fillets or any mild fish
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red chilly powder
salt to taste

Corn tortillas (preferably the thin small variety)
Fillings for taco

Lots of fresh chopped cilantro, about a cup or so
1 lime
1 large onion chopped onion
1 large tomato chopped
Store bought or my salsa recipe
Sour cream

Method:
Heat oil in a saute pan. Add onions and green peppers. Cut the fish into small pieces and add to the onions. Add all the spices and salt. Mix well together and cook till the fish is well cooked. As you cook the fish cut the fish into even smaller pieces so its easier to fill. Heat the soft corn tortilla in a pan. Spread salsa on it. Add the fish to the centre.Squeeze some lime juice on it. According to your preference add cilantro, tomato, onion and sour cream in whatever proportion you prefer. Roll and take a giant bite.

Crab Curry

What a hectic weekend this was!! I finally got all my Christmas shopping done. It was a lot easier than last year. I can't wait to go home to Boston and see my mom, my sister, my aunts and uncles. My cousin is getting married on Jan 3rd so i'm super excited about the whole wedding fun and I had to finish my shopping today. Plus I had to do the week's grocery so that i don't have to worry about dinner during the week. The grocery store this weekend was packed. I guess people are busy shopping for the holiday season...didn't seem like a recession is on there. Well the good news was that Dungeness crab was on sale for just 2.99 a pound! I love crab but i've never made it before. My mom or aunt always made it for me. My husband and i soooo badly wanted to eat crab that I decided to dive right in and do this right. The store guy even cleaned and cut the crab for me. At the end of the meal we looked at each other and gave this really satisfied smile...it was really worth it! I personally believe that crab curry should be eaten a day later, it tastes so much better. let me warn you,eating crab can be a bit messy (and that too a crab curry can be double messy) but I think that's the fun part. Just get a big napkin and dig right in.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

Dungeness crab -1 to 2 pounds
One large onion
1 cup cilantro leaves
1 cup grated coconut (buy store bought frozen)
1 pod garlic
1 large piece of ginger
3 green chillies
1 large tomato
curry leaves 5-6
1 tsp mustard seeds
salt to taste
lime juice

Method
Grind together the ginger, garlic, green chillies, cilantro and coconut with a little bit of warm water. Heat oil in a pot. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves. When mustard seeds sputter add onions and fry till golden brown. Add ground coconut mixture and chopped tomatoes. Cook till the oil releases from the mixture.

Add salt. Add in the cleaned and cut up crab.

Cover and cook on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve over steamed rice with lime juice.

Cinnamon dusted Sugar Cookies

Happy Holidays people! This is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. There are lights everywhere, people shopping, holiday parties and just an all out festive mood. Today I came home and had a tiff with my mom on the phone. I was so upset and I just wanted to feel better. What better way to give yourself a lift than having your home smell of baking cookies and cinnamon..mmmmm. Plus I can take these cookies to work tomorrow to share. So here is this super easy recipe of my favorite kind of buttery not so sweet cookies. They also make really nice gifts. Add them to a cellophane bag, tie the recipe to the bag with bright satin ribbon and a card. This recipe is also for my friend Leah. She was always into Christmas time a lot. She taught me how to cut out paper snowflakes and we would decorate our workspace with them. We also went to the outlets together to shop and it was so much fun. So here are some holiday cookies for you Leah!

Ingredients (Makes 4 dozen cookies)

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

For the dusting:
2 tblsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method
Cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla essence and beat till well blended. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix till it forms a dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. The dough will become less sticky after refrigeration. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Dust a clean working surface with generous amounts of flour. If needed dust the dough with little bit of flour as well. Take a small portion of dough and roll it out. Cut out cookies with any shaped cookie cutter. I used a sharp edged circular bowl and a duck shaped cookie cutter to cut out my cookies.

Transfer cookies to a cookie sheet. Mix sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle over cut out cookies. Bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

You can have two cookie sheets going in one after the other and the whole process will take no more than 30 minutes.