Wo ist mein G-g-g-g-grittibänz?!

Last week I returned from a mega fein trip in Switzerland. Being the big food lover I am, I ate double portions of every new thing in my path. I'm sure Switzerland's Cheese, Chocolate, and Bakery industries had slight profit increases during my stay there. From day one, as soon as I settle down after arriving from the airport, I was told to remember the word "Grittibänz"... Good thing I remembered the word because I had Grittibänz almost every day I was there!!

Grittibänz is a cute little bread-dude which is suppose to be an effigy of good ol' Saint Nicholas. In order to commemorate Nic's death on December 6th, these little guys o' yeast are sold EVERYWHERE in Europe. There wasn't a single store or bakery that didn't have an army of Grittibänz. So it was my mission to try all the G-bänz I could in order to find the best one. When I got back in the states... it dawned on me that instead of looking for the golden G-bänz I can just make one myself!! With that said, here is the simple recipe I used to make some homemade Grittibänz!!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/6 cup of sugar
• 1/6 cup of butter
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 egg
• 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
• 1 tbsp anise seed
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground allspice

DIRECTIONS:
As you can see the ingredients are pretty simple and much like any other kind of bread. The sugar and spices give it that extra Christmas flavor. I experimented with whole wheat flour this time which gives the bread a heavier feel to it, but really you can use whatever flour you like! So mix the ingredients, let the dough rise, and you're ready to make some Grittibänz! The difficult part was molding the dough into little dough-men. Basically I made a ball for the head and attached it to a large oval of dough. With the large oval part, I made a small cut in the middle for the legs and two on the side for the arms. After I made the small incisions it was fairly simple to mold them into arms and legs. Next I took the remaining dough and flattened it with a rolling pin. Then I took a small knife and cut various shapes like hats, shoes, shirt buttons, and a belt. Remember this is just a recipe so you can make whateeeeeever your creative mind can think of!

And the result?!?
MMMmmmm!!! Ist super gut man!!! I used cut up figs for the eyes and mouth and decided to make one white-dude-bänz and one asian-bänz. The bread was definitely more heavy with the whole wheat but the freshly baked crispiness took me back to the small bakeries in Switzerland...

Of course I can't just eat bread without something to drink so I decided to make a little something that I thoroughly enjoyed while I was binging on food in the Christmas markets of Europe - Glühwein!! This warm Christmas wine always went down smoothly with the Swiss Roclettes and everything else I managed to stuff in my mouth. All I did was warmed up some red wine with a cinnamon stick, a couple of cardamon seeds, some whole clove seeds, lemon zest, sugar, and some ground allspice. After 20 minutes of this festive mixture simmering, my house smelt like an x-mas par-taaay! It's been rather cold outside as well so it was the perfect drink to warm up.

So with that, Gritti and I wish everyone a good holiday month filled with fattening treats, spoiled kids, and sore backs from shoveling 12 inches of snow outside after a blizzard...

ENJOY!
DPM

Bread of the Dead??? More than just a catchy rhyme!

I recently discovered that Nov. 2nd is considered the day of the dead. It's a huge day in Mexico where you celebrate the lives of those who have passed on by eating an assortment of yummy mexi-foods! Of course the first think I do is google recipes for the holiday to see what I can make! There was one thing that kept coming up... Sugar Skulls.... umm.... Sugar Skulls?!? How am I suppose to make large skulls made of sugar?!?... NEEEEEXT!!

So I decided on two things:

Numero uno: Pan de Muerto
Numero dos: Atole

So Pan de Muerto (let's call it Dead Bread) is a quasi-sweetened roll of bread that is often put into a shape of a skull. Great... so I suck at baking and I have zilch artistic skills. But as I always say, you can't stop me!! Atole is a warm and thick drink made with corn meal and sweetened with sugar and vanilla. So let's check out the recipes!!

Dead Bread Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 packet of yeast
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp anise seed
• 4 tbsp sugar (I use Truvia)

Directions: Warm up the butter, milk, and water in a sauce pan until it is warm but not boiling. In a separate bowl add 1 cup of the flour, yeast, sugar, and anise seed. In the dry mix add the warm buttermilk mix and stir until mixture is even. Add 1/2 cup of the flour and mix... and keep adding the flour 1/2 cup at a time until it is all gone. Then you'll knead that mother like you've never kneaded before, place the dough in a greased bowl, and let it rise for 1 1/2 hours. If you are favored by the dead, your dough will double in size. If you are not liked and most likely will be haunted, your dough will suck and not rise. Thank the sweet lord that mine doubled in size!!! Next you punch the air out of the dough and make whatever shapes you want! I decided to make two skull and crossbone designs and let me tell you... they were sad looking!! For sure I would have several mexis rolling in their graves if they saw my sad skull faces. So after you shape the dough, cover them up, pre-heat the oven to 350, and then cremate that Dead Bread for 35 minutes.

Atole
Ingredients:

• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup corn meal
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp imitation vanilla (or real vanilla beans if you have them)
• 1 tbsp vanilla pudding mix (this is my addition)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (I used splenda)

No need for directions on this one because basically you heat everything in a sauce pan over medium heat and keep stirring it until it becomes thick. The recipe I found also said you can mince 1/2 cup of strawberries and add it to the mixture after it has thickened.

Of course I needed a main mail to go along with my deceased food so after consulting with a Mexi friend I decided on making Chiles Rellenos. I've never made it before but I've stuffed various veggies like red bell peppers and onions so I figured it would be the same. I decided to stuff it with tuna and yellow mung bean (of course spiced up a little). And to garnish the chiles I made some homemade salsa with onions, tomatoes, and a tons of cilantro (That's how I like my salsa!!!)

So how did it all turn out?!?!

Although the Dead Bread has the dead laughing and pointing their bony rotting fingers at me, everything turned out really good!! I put an orange syrup over the bread for a little citrusy flavor and I made both regular Atole and Strawberry Atole. The Atole was by far my favorite! Nothing like a nice warm drink to celebrate those with cold dead skin! So there you have it! So to all those in celebration of the dead and the dead themselves, I leave you with one message...

AAAIIIIIIYAIYAIYAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

Enjoy :)
DPM

I TOLD you I'd Do It!!

I meant it when I said I will make anything someone suggests and that's exactly what I did tonight! While the Congo isn't a place I can imagine wanting to visit, I wouldn't mind trying some local cuisine native to that crazy part of the world. So I'm doing some research on Congolese recipes and unfortunately many of them had Okra as an ingredient... Now, I love me some veggies but Okra for SURE is not something I ever want in my mouth... That slimy texture mixed with a generally bad taste is enough to produce a slight projectile of vomit... Luckily I was able to find a nice chicken dish that is wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. Sounds interesting and healthy... LET'S DO IT!

There are some Vietnamese dishes I make requiring banana leaves so I good thing I already had some in stock. Only problem is I hate and will never be good at wrapping the damn things! None the less, I always put up a good fight so those banana leaves can suck it!

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 banana leaves soaked in hot water for 30 minutes
• 1/2 cup yellow mung beans soaked in hot water for 1 hour
  
• 1/2 lbs chicken cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 onion chopped (size is up to your preference)
• 1/2 peanuts
• paprika, salt, pepper, red chili pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS:

1. boil the peanuts in water for 15 minutes
2. reduce to simmer and smash peanuts using a potato masher
3. add chicken and mung bean to peanut mixture and simmer for 10 minutes
4. take two banana leaves and slightly overlap the leaves
5. sprinkle the leaves with salt and pepper
6. spoon 1/4 of meat/peanut mixture on leaves
7. sprinkle paprika and pepper flakes
8. wrap the leave much like you would a burrito and tie with string to keep closed
9. steam for 1 hour

This wrapping and tying business is no easy feat! The banana leaves can tear and trying to hold it together while you tie is no fun! But I got it done, steamed those mofos, and the result...

Meh....

It was just aaiiiiiight... nothing to recommend... If you look at the ingredients you know it's going to be bland. I was very tempted but was able to resist the urge to use more spices. The good thing was that the onions were super soft and the beans and chicken did have the banana leaf flavor which made it better.... but just .. meh...

But wait!! It didn't just stop there! Since I had to wait a full hour for it to steam, I decided to make a dessert which I picked out of the Omaha World Herald a couple of weeks ago. It sounded so good and I haven't had a chance to make it yet... so I thought this would be a perfect time. This dish turned out even better than the picture in the paper and I will have to post the recipe because it was BO------- OMB! Just to give you a looky looky at it, here's a picture I took after I took the crust out of the oven. The crust is topped with a honey cream cheese sauce, then a white wine fig caramel sauce, topped with freshly cut figs! Normally I would tell you to enjoy, but the enjoyment is all mine this time!!!
DPM

From Waleed to Habibi

Two Questions...

1. What one thing can put you in a good mood?
I think everyone has a pretty good idea of what can instantly turn a frown upside down. Personally if I'm stressed at work or just ran out of Diet Sunkist, I turn to a good old home cooked meal to calm my A down!

2. How can you show your support without actually being there?
While I'm not the best person to talk to about things on your mind, I for sure will see what I can do in the kitchen for you!

Today's blog entry is a little special in that normally, my recipes are inspired by something random like a weird holiday or child labor... you know... But today I'm making a classic recipe in my own cookbook simply in support of la meilleur amie! Weiso nicht!? You know how good friends have "their song" or "their dance"... well this recipe is considered "our recipe". It is the one thing we ALWAYS make when we get together and is always a crowd pleaser! Of course since it's a homemade recipe, I can't give accurate measurements but I'll do my best with this legendary recipe we like to call Beef Bread!!

INGREDIENTS: (makes 8)

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• yeast (placed in 1/2 cup warm water for 5 minutes)
• 1 tbsp ricotta cheese
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp chopped basil
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1/4 lb ground beef or veal
• 1/4 cup of split mung bean (already soaked in water)
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• 6 cardamon seeds
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 3 tsp mirador (I have a hard time finding substitutes for this)
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
  
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder
• 1/2 tsp cardamon powder
• freshly ground cracked pepper
• 1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley

To make the dough, mix all ingredients above in brown. Add flour if necessary to make sure you get the right dough consistency. Place the dough in a warm place (like the microwave) for 30 minutes to allow it to rise to around double the original size. While that doughy mess is doing it's thing, it's time to make the meat mixture! Soooooo meaty.... (for you Talk Soup fans out there) All the ingredients for the meat are above in purple. Below are the steps to prepare the meat.

1. heat up olive oil in frying pan
2. add cardamon seeds and cumin seeds (this gives the oil flavor)
3. once the seeds are brown, add the chopped onion and cook until transparent
4. Add meat, split mung beans, and spices. (hold off on the parsley for now)
5. Cook and mix until the meat is fully cooked and place in separate bowl when done

By now the dough should be ready. Take the dough and split it up into balls the size of eggs. Using a rolling pin, make circular thin discs with each ball of dough. Spoon a good portion of the meat mixture on half of the circle. Finally fold the dough in half over the meat mixture and pinch the edges to close. It will look like an empanada (but will taste waaaay better! Trust me!) Oh and try not to go all crazy with the meat stuffage, as I'm sure many of you like to do, because you will just end up ripping the dough... Why do all my instructions sound so sexual??? ANYWAY.... While you are doing this for the rest of the dough heat your oven to 550 degrees. Seems super hot but you need the heat to get that darn yeast to rise even more! Once all the beef bread is done, place it on a greased pan, brush egg over the bread, and bake for 10 minutes. It should be a nice Egyptian-Pyramid-Hidden-Treasure-Golden brown. Let it cool for a bit and enjoy!!!DPM

Keeping Warm Amidst a Cold Omaha Afternoon

http://globalfoodandmusicproject.blogspot.com/2009/10/keeping-warm-amidst-cold-omaha.html
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As is a norm with Omaha weather, it seems as if we have migrated over to Winter skipping Fall completely. I don't even think the trees in my yard have had time to change color... As I sit in my cold house thinking of way to warm up I try a couple of things:

Go to the gym and get my body warmed up
Take a hot shower
Wear baggy oversized lounge clothes

Despite accomplishing all of the above, I think what my body was really in need of was a warm meal! Normally for purposes of this blog, I find strange and exotic recipes to try to make. But more often than not, I have an arsenal of recipes under my belt as well. Normally I'm not a fan of salads, especially on a cold day, but I do have warm salad I like to prepare that is derived from Mediterranean style salads using cracked wheat. Not only is the salad easy to prepare, it's nutritious and FAR from being a boring salad.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup of cracked wheat (cooked in boiling water or stock until soft)
• 1/2 yellow squash
• 1 medium carrot
• 2 radishes
• chopped cilantro
• chopped spinach
  
• ginger/garlic paste
• ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chick peas

Since I had my Oktoberfest meal a couple of days ago, I decided to chop some of my Weisswurst and place it in the salad. Basically I cook the yellow squash, chick peas and Weisswurst in a frying pan using the ginger/garlic paste and black pepper as seasoning. While it is cooking I chop the carrots, radishes, cilantro and spinach. Once everything is done, on a large plate I first place the cracked wheat, then the warm contents from the pan, then finally topped everything off with a mixture of my chopped veggies. This is definitely a recipe I recommend trying as it is easy to modify with your own spices and veggies of your choice. The warm moist cracked wheat mixed with the warm veggies and cold crisp veggies make a PERFECT combination. Don't believe me?? Look at this beauty! I have to hold back from stuffing my face. Like I said... FAR from boring. Enjoy!!


DPM

Gut, gut, super gut! Alles super gut!

http://globalfoodandmusicproject.blogspot.com/2009/10/gut-gut-super-gut-alles-super-gut.html

What better way to bring in October than a good ol' Oktoberfest meal! If anyone has ever been to an Oktoberfest celebration, you'll know that there are many yummy German dishes to be eaten. But really, what comes to your mind when you hear Oktoberfest? Unless you have an unusual fetish for fat middle-aged men playing a tuba wearing lederhosen, you're probably thinking BEER AND BRATWURST! Honestly I'm not a big fan of bratwurst, but I figured maybe I'll make them from scratch, pork casing and all, and see how they turn out. Doing some analysis and requirements gathering, I came across a Bavarian sausage recipe traditionally prepared for Oktoberfest called Münchner Weißwurst. This Munich-style White Sausage is made of veal, pork, and an interesting combination of spices and is often served with German-style cole slaw and pretzels. For sure I do not like cole slaw but I love me a buttery piece of knotted bread so I decided to also make some homemade pretzels to compliment my white wiener friends. For dessert I chose something called Hörnchen which is a strange derivation of a croissant that can be filled with sweet ooze such as jam. Of course I'm not cooking for Oktoberfest without Bavarian bier so I grabbed a bottle while gathering ingredients... sooooo let's see how things turned out!!!

INGREDIENTS (for six links)

• 300 g lean veal meat
• 150 g lean pork meat
• 200g bacon
• 18 g salt (It seems like a lot, but don't be scurrred)
• 2 g fresh ground black pepper
  
• 1/2 g dried lemon peel
• pinch of dried ginger
• pinch of ground cardamon
• pinch of ground mace
• 1 medium onion
• 20g chopped parsley
• yucky slimy pork casing (you'll need around a half a meter)

As you can tell, the origins of this recipe are not that of America by the use of the metric system. All I know is, I'm glad my measuring tools also use the metric system... otherwise I would have made some interesting wieners. Basically the directions are simple. Grind all the meat, add spices, and throw in the chopped onions and parsley. I happen to have a baby-sized food processor so this actually took several steps. After the sausage mixture is complete, the fun begins - taking the slimy, used-condom material called pork casing and stuff it with wiener meat!! As I am a virgin to stuffing sausage, I don't own a devise that will stuff the meat in the casing. I was able to find something online briefly explaining how to stuff by hand. I figured that so far I've made everything from scratch, so why not do this on my own!

I'm not going to point fingers or anything... but that website is complete BS!! There is seriously no way to stuff those gross intestines with meat by hand!! If using my already greasy hands to hold the casing wasn't bad enough, forcing meat into the casing little by little can be compared to red bloods cells trying to get through a clogged artery that's been exposed to a little too much Long John Silvers... Frustrated and defeated I gave up and stared at the mess I made... As I'm drinking my Bavarian Bier, I asked myself...

"What would MacGyver do??"

Granted I don't have a soft and fluffy mullet, but there's got to be something around my house that I could use to stuff that GD casing!! As I scan through the kitchen, there were some candidates...

funnel - nah... too narrow
bubble tea straw - better.. but still too narrow
St. Bernard - as I'm scanning the room for items my dog was scanning the kitchen for food

Then, like a ray of light, my miracle stuffing tool was waiting to assist me in my quest to finish an Oktoberfest meal. A 1-liter pet bottle that was previously filled with strawberry flavored sparkling water. I cut that thing in half before it had a chance for a final prayer, put the end of the casing around the opening, and stuffed stuffed STUFFED! By now I've finished around 63% of my bier so the actual stuffing process seemed amusing at the time and I started giggling to myself like Hansel when Gretel got candy stuck in her hair... Here is a picture of my beautiful contraption that saved the meal!! It did take a while to get the meat through but it was worth it!! And the results....

Look at these wieners! Don't you just want to shove one down your mouth?!??

After the casing incident, I placed the lucky links into a pot of 175 degree water and added some largely chopped onions for flavor. While this was cooking I made the pretzels and Hörnchen and before I knew it....

HAPPY OKTOBERFEST!!

Even though the water fully cooked the Weißwurst, I decided to pan fry the plump meat rods with some asparagus and onions. The end result? I LOVED LOVED LOVED the Weißwurst!! WAY better than anything you'll buy at the store! Not only was it less greasy, the flavor was out of this world and definitely worth the manual pork case stuffing!! This just goes to show that any German food with an Eszett AND Umlaut in the name equates to pure yumminess!
For those of you celebrating Oktoberfest, try something new this year and bring a little piece of Germany into your own kitchen! And with that, I leave you with one of the most provocative and emotion inducing music videos from Germany... enjoy!!



DPM

Happy National Pancake Day!!

Before I start I just wanted to let all the Facebook people know that, my blog doesn't show up on Facebook very well and the videos don't post at all. So it's best to just go to the actual link to check out my blog.

http://globalfoodandmusicproject.blogspot.com/

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So I was doing a search online for "strange holidays" and I happen to come across a small article that talked about National Pancake Day. Unlike the more popular IHOP Pancake Day, this celebration is supposedly more celebrated in your own kitchen. Who comes up with these?!? Never the less, I love a good obscure reason to make some food. I'm actually glad it is National Pancake day because this week I happen to go to a local restaurant called Amato's Cafe, which is featured on the Food Network as a good place to eat. Reading reviews, everyone mentioned the Ricotta Cheese Pancakes. I thought it sounded interesting and despite the numerous greasy Italian sandwiches that were available on the menu, I opted for these legendary pancakes. All I can say was... YUM!! It was a little different than I imagined, but basically it was two thick slabs of fluffy pancake infested with gooey blueberries and random chunks of Ricotta Cheese. Having eaten this type of flapjack phenomenon for the first time, it inspired me to try this at home. And what better day to do this than NPD!!!

I decided to be adventurous and make my own recipe. Since I never measure anything when I make things myself, I'll give you a description of what I did:

First I made the batter by taking whole wheat organic pancake mix (the cheapo version), fat free half and half, egg beater, pumpkin spice, allspice, walnuts and some sliced prunes and raspberries. While the frying pan was heating I took some fat free Ricotta Cheese, which I ALWAYS have on stock, and mixed some sugar free white chocolate pudding mix with the cheese to sweeten it and give it a more firm texture. Then I placed the batter on the fry pan and immediately put chunks of the white chocolate ricotta cheese into the batter. While this was cooking I made some homemade syrup using sugar free syrup, some more white chocolate pudding mix power and skim milk. Btw my homemade syrups are bomb! What! So after the pancake was done, I garnished it with some raspberries and prunes, poured the syrup, and voila!!


So how did it taste? While I did like the pancake I had at Amato's Cafe... I am afraid to admit I LOVED mine!! The pockets of sweet ricotta cheese with the prunes and raspberries made a perfect combination!! And the syrup gave it that extra creamy sweetness. So when with the Food Network be at my house is all I have to say!!!

HAPPY NATIONAL PANCAKE DAY EVERYONE!

DPM

Eid-Ul-Fitr

I'm not Muslim nor have I partaken in Ramadan before. For those of you who know me, I can't stop eating and I'm afraid I wouldn't last long with fasting! However, since I do love to cook I will find any reason to try something new and I thought the end of Ramadan, otherwise known as Eid-Ul-Fitr, would be a perfect opportunity to try out (or horribly botch up) some traditional foods eaten during good ol' Eid!

I outsourced some brainstorming and recipe searching to my good friend N who is Egyptian and who's mom makes the BEST homemade Egyptian food! I was able to get my hands on a recipe for Fattah, yummy layers of lamb, rice, and bread... only one problem....

The recipe was in German!

You see, my friend is from Switzerland and so her mom e-mailed her the recipe in German. Equipped with basic German skills, I told my friend that I will translate the recipe myself and try it out. Well let's just say I couldn't translate it all so I looked up another recipe for Fattah creating a strange hybrid of both recipes. I wanted to also make some thing sweet so I found two more recipes. One is called Arcia Mahshia-Bil-Goz (for simplicity sake let's call this Walnut stuffed prunes) and Sheer Korma, which is typically eaten in the Asian-Muslim countries like India.

Want to hear something amusing? I was telling someone about my cooking obsession which eventually translated into this blog. He asked me who I eat all my meals with and I just paused and laughed because I make these big feasts, but I'm the only one that eats them!! Of course I don't make tons of food, but I'm definitely selfish and need to share the wealth! So how did the food turn out??!? Since there are three different recipes I will post the ingredients and cooking steps in other posts. But here are my reviews:


1. Fattah - A little bland but yummy! The rice was really good since it was cooked in broth of the lamb-cardamon-onion stew. I'm pretty sure the recipe was nothing like how my friend's mom makes it so once I get the correct recipe I will definitely try this one again!!

2. Walnut Stuffed Prunes - MMMMMMM!!! I was worried that soaking the prunes in strong black tea would take away the sweetness, but with the combination of nut flavor and the cream to dip it in... Mmm Mmmm Mmmm!

3. Sheer Korma - Three words...
DI... SA.... STER! Let me throw in another word.... gross!!
Ok it is not the fault of the recipe, but more the cook! For some reason the recipe didn't say how much vermicelli to use. Thinking I'm the best chef ever I decided to eyeball it... unfortunately this sweet soup like dessert basically turned into mush... like when you cook pasta too long... like that mush. And the flavor not sweet and I could only taste the vermicelli instead of all the yummy things I put inside. I'm actually not even going to post the recipe for this because I would never want anyone to mimic this monstrosity I created!! In order to hide the grossness I placed cardamon seeds in the shape of a cute star :)


And what's Ramadan without some Arabic music?!?! Here is a video from Nancy Ajram. When I was in Egypt I saw lots of her music videos and here is one of my fave songs! Enjoy and kudos to all you faithful Ramadaners out there!!!


DPM

Reuse - Recycle - We are the World

I'm green... I mean, I use those 99 cent reusable bags when I go grocery shopping. It's the same when it comes to forgotten treasures lost in the back section of my fridge. Going through my fridge today I came across two items I wanted to recycle and renew into a new glorious form of culinary delight... provided I don't botch it up...

First is Japanese beef curry. For those of you unfamiliar with the difference, Jap-cur does not use coconut milk and can be prepared to be more viscous than its Indian or Thai cousins. Usually I make a big batch of it and eat it throughout the week... BORING! So I decided to combine two of my favorite things into a new hybrid creation that I will call Curry Rollup! When I make curry I also make homemade naan. So for this creation, I made the dough for naan, flattened and cut it out to make a nice rectangle, pasted curry on the dough, rolled it up, and baked it for 30 minutes. Of course I didn't want the naan to get out of control so I didn't use yeast so the thickness of the naan remained constant. Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS (yields two fatty Curry Rollups)
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 5 tbsp minced garlic (I always make garlic naan to keep the vampires away...)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup plain yorgurt
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- left over curry (I'll save this recipe for another time!)

DIRECTIONS
1. mix above ingredients, sans curry, and form dough.
2. once dough has a nice consistency, use a rolling pin to flatten, cut into rectangle
The dough should be as thin as you can make it without it falling apart - try for 1 cm thick
The rectangle size can be up to you but I made it 3in x 9in (do you like how I switch up measuring units?!?)
3. take the left over curry (should be cold and thick) and paste it onto top of the rectangle dough. Be careful not to use too much curry or it will come out the sides. Also, leave room at the end of the rectangle with no curry because it will be oozing toward the end as you roll.
4. carefully roll the dough going the long way making sure you don't push out the curry
5. place on a greased cooking pan, with the end of the rectangle side face down, and bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes

The second item I had were pitted dates. I bought them a while ago for a snack to eat at work. Unfortunately these naturally sugar snacks became a bit of an addition, so I took it home to take the temptation away from my work desk! Since I already had the flour out and the oven on, I decided to bake something. I looked up some recipes and found an African recipe called Banana and Date Squares. Here is the recipe with my modified twist :)

INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups of whole grain flour
- 2 eggs (or 1/2 cup of egg beater)
- 1 1/2 cup butter (I use fat free butter because I'm allergic to normal fat...)
- 2 tbsp of Sugar-Free vanilla pudding mix
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar (I don't like things too sweet so add as much as you'd like!)
- 3 ripe bananas
- 12 pitted dates

DIRECTIONS
1. mix all ingredients except for banana and dates. The texture should be runny like your nose when you get level 7 Thai food.
2. peel and cut bananas into 1/2 in cubes or slices
3. mince the dates into little pieces
4. pour half the mixture into a 9x9 greased pan
5. spread chopped banana and dates evenly over mixture
6. pour the remaining mixture over bananas and dates so they are no longer in sight
7. bake this African craziness in 250 degrees for 25 minutes
8. Just for fun, I took Sugar-Free Banana Creme pudding mix and mixed it with Sugar-Free syrup to make a nice banana syrup to go over the B&D Squares.




I must say that both dishes turned out great and I really need to recycle a lot more things in my fridge!! I wonder what I can do with molding leftover Chinese take-out....




Of course food isn't the only thing you can reuse! One thing I really like when musicians do is when they take old music and incorporate it into something new. One example of this that I really enjoy is a Japanese singer who took a symphonic piece called Jupiter and made a song of it. Jupiter is part of a seven-movement composition called The Planets written by Gustav Holst back during World War I. The entire piece is really good but by far Jupiter is the most recognized movement of the seven. So Hirahara Ayaka decided to take this classic, puts some words to it, and sing as as her debut single. Turns out she was right on track because it was a hit and instantly put her on top the Jap charts for a good chunk of time. Enjoy and go Captain Planet!!



DPM

Define Labor...

So today is Labor Day which normally equates to a three day weekend for most of us. But for all you cooking fanatics out there I'm sure it was an excuse to make some good food! Now I'm fully aware that Labor Day is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers, but I know there are many more hard working people... or dare I say children out there. After a little research I was able to find the country with the highest percent child workforce. While it may sound insensitive to make a special culinary tribute to 4-16 year old children around the world, at least I am being aware of the problem instead of pretending it doesn't exist. So the winning country with a whopping 60% child employment rate goes to....

CHAD!

Chad??? Yeah that's what I was asking myself too. With all my garments and electronics carrying a label of "Made in <insert Asian country here>", their numbers pale in comparison to this interesting country in Central Africa. Looking up Chadian recipes, I was afraid there wasn't going to be too many, but I was surprised to find several appetizing recipes to try out. Since 60% equates to a lot of kids, I decided to make two dishes. The first being a meat dish cooked in a peanut sauce and then a dessert that uses millet. Apparently millet is the "mashed potato" in many regions of Africa and each country has very different recipes using ground millet. Chadians have an interesting snack made of millet which I decided to try. So how did things go?? Let's go over the recipes first!


Peanut Sauce Meat (I couldn't find the real name to this so if anyone knows, help a brotha out!)

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 lb beef cubes (1/2 inch - 1 inch cubes)
- 1 cup whole grain flour
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tbsp chili powder
- 2 medium onions chopped (size is up to you)
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 3/8 cup tomato paste
- 2 cups water
- red pepper flakes (You can be a wuss or put your mouth on fire... up to you!)
- 1/4 cup peanut butter (natural or freshly ground is best)
- cooked rice of your choice

DIRECTIONS
1. take beef cubes and roll in whole grain flour
2. heat oil in large skillet and add beef cubes
3. as beef is cooking add nutmeg and chili powder
4. after meat has browned add garlic, onions, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, and water
let this simmer for 30+ minutes. (the longer you simmer, the more tender the meat will be)
5. heat peanut butter with 1 tbsp oil and mix
6. add peanut butter/oil mixture to the beef cube mixture, stir, and let simmer for 20 minutes

So what did I think? Making this dish was fairly simple and just by looking at the ingredients you can tell this dish will be on the bland side. Luckily, I LOVE peanut butter and would eat it every meal if I could. It really made this dish worth making!! When you first take a bite, the peanut sauce is the first flavor detected by your taste receptors. Once you bite into the meat, you start to taste the subtle hint of chili steak. The peanut sauce is far less overwhelming like peanut butter chicken over at Hong Kong Cafe, which makes the dish all the more enjoyable. So while I don't imagine myself making this dish too often, I would recommend it and even make it for other people to try. Now on to the millet snack...

Millet Snack

INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup ground millet
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg

DIRECTIONS
1. mix millet, wheat flour, and melted butter
2. blend sugar with egg
3. add sugar/egg mix to flour, mix, and kneed
4. cut into ribbons and fry in peanut or sesame oil

So the directions look pretty simple right??? Well I will let you know that I am horrible when it comes to any kind of bread recipe as I can NEVER get a good consistency of dough when following recipes... So I did everything the recipe stated below and instead of dough I had batter... like I wanted to take my beef cubes, dip them in my new batter and fry them.... NOT GOOD! So I decided to add more millet. I thought why not? If the Africans love them I will too...

Still runny...

I add more of millet....

Still runny...

I get a little tired of adding millet so I add more wheat flour...

I'm starting to not like this...

more millet...

fml...

After several iterations (because you never want to go overboard with dough) I finally got the right dough consistency. I probably added an extra cup of millet and an extra half cup of wheat flour. After my endless battle with the dough, the rest was simple. The directions said to cut it into ribbons... I'm not an arts and crafty person so I translated into "cut dough into 1 inch wide strips of dough". I guess ribbons makes it sound more cool? I opted for sesame oil as I feel it has more flavor and the final result???

Average

Yeah... just average. I liked the crispiness and subtle sweetness but I felt like it needed a little more. I actually dipped it in the peanut sauce from the meat dish and that was good! I actually made a lot more than I should have so I'm going to add a cinnamon/sugar mixture to it and bring it to work tomorrow. Anything fried goes over well where I work :)

So there you have it! If you're ever in need of some Chadian cuisine try these two recipes (and make sure to double the dry ingredient portion for the Millet Snack!!!) And with that, I leave you with a song from a Brazilian band called Marina Gasolina. What does Brazil have to do with Chad you ask? Well in the song they say something like Africa Africa... so it works. And the video is so weird it makes me giggle like a Japanese school girl eating a Hello Kitty cupcake. Enjoy and Happy Labor Day!!



DPM

Un Jour, un Enfant, un bagel!

On my team at work, Fridays always start with breakfast provided by someone on the team. Because I like to stick with my normal eating schedule, I don't indulge myself in this weekly tradition. This week's breakfast was the standard assortment of bagels and donuts. I did the normal "I want a donut but I don't want one" ritual and ended up cutting 2/7 piece and eating it. (Yes I am THAT person...) I'm a big fan of asiago cheese bagels, but I decided to take the multi-grain bagel and store it for later. Work was pretty busy that day with not too much time to eat so I decided I would save the bagel for the next day. Of course the next day being Saturday and me having some time in the morning I refuse to have just a normal bagel. So I decided to create my own recipe I like to call Scrambled French Bagel.

Disclaimer time!! If someone has made this dish before and you think I'm copying you...
1. you don't know me! take a seat!
2. mine was probably waaaaaay better. sorry!!
Oh and as a second disclaimer you will soon learn that I'm a nutcase when it comes to fat-free (FF) and sugar-free(SF) items which I know isn't good... but if you have already forgot please refer to #1 above :)

Ingredients
- one bagel (day-old stale works well)
- 1 egg (I usually use egg beaters)
- 1/8 cup half and half (FF)
- 1/8 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
- 1 tbsp vanilla pudding powder mix (SF/FF)
- 1 tbsp peanut butter powder (or real PB)
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp brown sugar (Splenda version)
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- 1/4 cup of pecan pieces

Directions
1. Cut the bagel in half, and then into 1/2 - 1 inch cubes
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl
3. Let the bagel soak up the mixture for 30 minutes (bagels take longer to soak than bread)
4. Heat up a skillet and fry mixture
5. Garnish with some whip cream (FF), fruit, or whatever you'd like

This was my first attempt at this and although it was a fairly safe mixture of ingredients it turned out really good! I don't like to use a lot of sugar or butter because I think it makes meals too heavy and sweet. This was a very subtle and light breakfast that is fairly simple to make at home!

Of course you cannot have Scrambled French Bagel without some french music!
I stumbled upon this song because a friend of mine was explaining Eurovision to me and how it's a music competition with mostly horrible singers that is held every year in Europe. I was interested in hearing how bad these performers are so I downloaded a list of Eurovision winners for each year starting in 1956. As I listened to the recent winners my friend was right in that you wonder how they could have possibly won a music competition. As I started going down the list and listening to older songs, they got better and better. BY FAR the best Eurovision song that I listed to was the 1969 winner from France, Frida Boccara. She sand a song called Un Jour, Un Enfant (A Day, A Child) and it's really really good! I'll post the video for it and you just have to keep in mind this is old. One thing you'll enjoy is how she flips her hair in order to emphasize the climax of the melody. Enjoy!

You want to work in Lybia?!?!

An acquaintance of mine, who shall be called R, has decided to pursue a career in Libya. As I am half way across the country from R, I cannot tell her in person how excited I am that she has chosen this path. Instead, I decided to show my support by cooking a Libyan dish. The taste of the dish will decide the fate of R...

After looking through several online recipes, and looking through my fridge to see what I have available, I decided to make Fish Kofta in Tomato Basil sauce. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kofta, it is part of the meatball family and mainly prepared in the Mediterranean and middle eastern countries. I have made different variations of Kofta and it is interesting to see how different regions make their version of Kofta. I have never seen a Kofta recipe made with ground fish so I thank the Libyans for being creative and trying something other than beef and lamb!

Since this is my first cooking post I will make the disclaimer now that I am NOT a chef and haven't had any training. In fact I've made some pretty heinous dishes and have learned from my mistakes!

Below is the recipe I found off of RecipeZaar.com:

INGREDIENTS
KOFTA
- 1lb of white fish (of your choice)
- 2 eggs
- 2 slices of white bread soaked in water then water squeezed out
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1/4 cup of fresh parsley
- 1/4 tsp tarragon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- flour
- 1/4 cup oil
- hot pepper flakes, salt, pepper (at your discretion)
SAUCE
- 1lb tomato diced
- 1/4 cup of fresh basil chopped
- 2 tbsp of tomato paste
- hot pepper flakes and black pepper (at your discretion)

DIRECTIONS
1. In a food processor, mix all KOFTA ingredients except for flour and oil
2. Once KOFTA ingredients are finely processed, make egg sized balls and dredge in flour
3. Heat oil in skillet and brown all sides of KOFTA
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
5. In food processor, mix all SAUCE ingredients until a tomato paste is formed
6. Place KOFTA in pan and pour SAUCE over and back for 30-35 minutes

Of course no home recipe is unique unless you make your own slight modifications!

1. I thought I had enough fish in my freezer but I didn't so I used a mixture of fish and scallops. It all comes from the same place people!

2. Tarragon.... hmmm.... Tarragon... ??? WTF is Tarragon?!? (I told you I'm not a cook!) I had to google Tarragon only to find it is one of the four sacred spices in French cuisine (probably should make do that next). Since I'm lazy and didn't want to go to the store I also googled Tarragon substitutes and Marjoram, which I do have, was listed... done!

Other than that everything was followed per the original recipe!
So how did it turn out? Will R's career path be forever ruined by my feeble attempt at Libyan cuisine?!?

It looks like R will be living it UP in Libya!! As soon as I open the oven, I'm greeted by a seafoodesque basil smell! I decided to garnish the dish with some chopped spinach and kim-chee and voila! It is hard to describe the flavor as it is not fishy, but definitely not meaty either. The texture is soft and fluffy and every bite has a subtle hint of herbs. I went a little too far with the red pepper flakes but it was still very flavorful and delicious. I give myself two thumbs up and highly recommend this recipe to anyone looking to make some balls of seafood yumminess!!

DPM

New Blog!!

I've been meaning to create a blog for some time now, but never knew exactly what I wanted to blog about...

Today at work a co-worker asked me what I was doing for labor day weekend. I explained to them that I am a complete hermit and have no plans and want to keep it that way! She paused and tilted her head with a look of confusion much like when you talk to dogs knowing they don't understand. She then proceded to tell me that it must be boring sitting at home all day. Of course I don't just sit and stare at the wall all day long but you might be wondering what a hermit like me does??? I can basically sum it into two categories:

1. food
2. music

Allow me to elaborate.

I LOVE to cook and even more than that I love to eat. A couple of years ago my cooking style was limited to cooking rice, limited Asian style meat preparation and little to no vegetables... Fast forwarding to today, I've made it a hobby to try preparing foods from all around the world and I'm loving it! Not only is it fun to find recipes and use strange and sometimes questionable ingredients, I've also started eating more balanced meals which has actually helped me shed some unwanted body fat. In this blog I will be logging my culinary endeavors complete with recipes, where I found them, and my review of the food. Of course there will be failures which I have no shame in admitting! If anything they will make for a more interesting blog.

You might think this strange but a lot of my time at home revolves around music. I am a pianist so I spend a couple of hours either practicing pieces I am aspiring to play or simply playing anything I randomly select from my music library. If I'm not playing music, I'm searching for new music. I think there is a whole world of music out there and I'm determined to discover songs that trigger my musical fancy. The other purpose of this blog will be to share with the world my discoveries. I do have a strange sense in musical preference, but open to anything and everything!

I'm excited to get started and see how this goes!
DPM