Saturday, October 30, 2010

Wow! I need to get cooking...

Honestly I have been cooking every single day! But I have been so busy trying to catch up with everything.
First of all I took my son out of preschool, he was not happy at all and neither was I, so we decided it was best to keep him home this year, I am very excited to start homeschooling him, I have ordered my first curriculum from SONLIGHT and cannot wait to open that box filled with learning materials, I will of course share with my friends what it's like to homeschool having 3 little ones, I am curious myself if I can make it all work.


Photography has been keeping me busy, with Holidays coming up I have a lot of work scheduled ahead of me, that makes me extremely happy though! to know that people want me to capture those special times with their families, I truly love what I do, I have so much to plan for next year, but everything is keeping me excited and all this excitement just gives me energy to go on.

I have some cooking projects in mind to share with all of you soon, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, sorry I have not been that active on my blog, it is not easy keeping up with all of it sometimes.

Well I must go on to yet another Halloween party, this just tells me that on Monday I must strictly diet to loose all the extra weight I am going to gain this weekend haha, it feels like I have been party hoping since Friday, its only Saturday afternoon, 1 more party today and 2 more tomorrow, the kids are happy and having a blast, so am I!

HUGS!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Green Linguini with turkey meatballs

I made this dish because I wanted my kids to eat broccoli and since they don't like it whole I made a sauce out of it, they LOVED IT and didn't even know it was broccoli, so they ate all their pasta with their veggies, I decided to include some protein by making turkey meatballs, it truly is an easy meal to prepare and your kids can help along the way.

INGREDIENTS:

For the pasta:
- 1 box of pasta, any kind I like linguini
- 2-3 bunches of fresh brocolli
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2-3 tablespoons of butter
- salt and pepper to taste

For the meatballs:

- 1lb of ground turkey
- 2 shredded carrots
- 1 slice of bread
- 1/8 cup of milk
- 1 tablespoon of italian seasoning
- salt and pepper to taste

PASTA:

Bring water to a boil, cook your pasta until al dente, set aside.




Chop your broccoli as big or small as you want, you will make a puree out of it so it won't matter!
Preheat some olive oil about 2 tablespoons, in a pan, add the broccoli on medium heat. Cook for a few minutes.

My 4 year old peeled the garlic for me, you can chop it or add it whole after you smash it to release the juices ;) Add to the pan, season the whole thing with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook for a few minutes, when the broccoli is tender, remove and let it cool for a few minutes, now add the whole thing to a blender to make a puree, I used my magic bullet :) If you need more liquid you can add some water, chicken stock or even olive oil.
Once you have the puree ready add it to the linguini, return pasta to the heat and add the butter, cook pasta with puree for a few minutes to incorporate everything together, remove from heat and serve hot.


Let's make the meatballs now.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Shred your carrots.

Dip your bread in the milk, make sure the bread absorbs all the milk.

Good, now add all the ingredients in a bowl with the ground turkey and spices, mix gently.

Form the balls and place on a tray, you may drizzle olive oil or use wax paper and place them on it.
Cook in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.

Now serve the pasta with the meatballs, sprinkle some parmessan cheese and eat hot!


Enjoy!
Delfi

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Soup: La Ribolita

Ohhh this is so good! The weather is finally starting to cool down a bit in FL so this ment, soup time in our house, I have never made this soup and I must say it was very comforting and filling! and the entire house smelled so good.





INGREDIENTS:

- 1 large carrot, chopped
- 1 large zucchini, chopped
- 1/4 of a head of cabbage, chopped very thin
- 2 bunches of green onions, chopped (or you may use 1 spanish onion instead)
-1 can of cannelini beans
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 cup of tomato sauce
- 3/4 cups of red wine
- 4 cups of chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons of fresh chilli or dried chilli (if you are using spicy chilli reduce to 1 teaspoon)
- a couple of slices of fresh country bread (optional I did not use it, this will make your soup more chunky)

Chop your onions.

Preheat some olive oil in a large pot, add the onions.

While the onions cook for a few minutes on medium-low heat chop the rest of your ingredients, my daughter decided to help me and since she can't cut with a real knife she decided to shred the carrots ;)

Chop carrots, garlic, zucchini, and cabbage



Now add the carrots to the pot and cook for a few minutes, until tender.

Now add the garlic

Now add your zucchini, cabbage, spices mix and cook for about 5 minutes

Now add your beans, I always wash my canned beans before cooking them.

Add your tomato sauce


Mix and add your wine and chicken stock


That's it! mix, cover, lower the heat and cook for about 40-45 minutes, serve hot with crunchy fresh bread and sprinkle some parmessan cheese :)))))

Note: if you want to add the bread now would be the time, right after the wine.


Enjoy!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Cake Decorating

I wanted to share with you some of the cakes I have decorated, ever since my son was born (4 now) I wanted to learn to decorate cakes, because I knew that we had many birthdays ahead of us and I like the traditional taste of the cakes we eat in Argentina, I wanted to combine everything together and be able to do whatever cake they want for their birthdays; when my daughter was born I decided I needed to go ahead and take the course, I took all Wilton decorating courses and I absolutely loved every single one of them, it taught me to use buttercream, fondant, sugar flowers, gumpaste, etc. Really wonderful tricks.

For those of you who are thinking about decorating I highly recommend you go and take those courses! you will be glad you did!

And for wonderful recipes and great great support visit http://www.cakecentral.com this has become one of my favorite communities and source of recipes for my cakes!

Enough talking now here are some of my cakes.