A Busy Saturday

It's early morning, and I am taking advantage of everyone else's sleep to have a few minutes of quiet. Writing should be done this way.

I came downstairs and found the coffee machine ready, prepared by my lovely Au Pair. She loves me very much. She loves all of us.

I think we are indeed very lucky to have her in our life. We share many things, above all the love for children and cooking.

The first time we baked together, a few weeks ago, she said: "Vanessa, this is like being back home with my Mum, on a Sunday we would always bake biscuits and cakes".

Her mother will always send us recipes to try and I am more than happy to. My mother does the same, mothers who raised children always have good tips and tricks to make life easier for younger mothers. It's like a network of knowledge and love and care that beats any physical distance. It makes us all feel together and working for a common goal.

Yesterday I was cooking all day. Well, cooking and baking!!!

So the first recipe that comes to mind is a bit of a classic in Southern Italy, Ciambelline al Vino, or Wine Donuts.


The base of the dough is made with white or red wine, and they are indeed a sweet treat for everyone to enjoy.

Ciambelline Al Vino

Ingredients:

750 Grams of Flour
250 Grams of Wine
250 Grams of Sugar, either white or brown
One sachet of Yeast, 7 Grams
200 Grams of Vegetable Oil
50 Grams of Olive Oil
A Pinch of Salt

The funny thing is, all these are staples found in every house, so to make these you don't really need to go shopping.

Mix all the ingredients together until you get a nice, soft dough:

Once done, divide in little balls and flatten them a bit

On the side, have a bowl with brown sugar ready

Make a hole in each ball and there you have a donut!

Place the donut in the sugar on one side only, and lay your creations on a baking tray lined with oven paper

Here is what you get after baking in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes.

When you pull them out they will still feel a bit soft, but they become crunchy when cold. Yum!

Egg Free Savoury Cornetti

These can be made sweet, or salty. Here is the salty variation.

Ingredients:

500 Grams of Flour
250 Grams of Milk
250 Grams of Butter or other cooking fat (olive oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil, soy spread...)
A Pinch of Salt
One Sachet of Yeast, 7 Grams

Filling of your choice

Place the flour in a bowl

Place in it the melted butter and the milk

Work the dough and then divide in 4 parts

With the rolling pin, make a circular shape out of each part of dough and divide in 8 slices

Here, I have chosen to fill them with soft cheese and cooked ham, but really, the possibilities are endless :)

Roll each cornetto starting from the outside

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes and here is what comes out!!! 

School lunchbox sorted for over a week :)

Coconut Oil... what else?

It's been a long, long, long time since I posted on my blog.

Life has been busy, the little one turned 2 years old and I have been cooking, cleaning, working and doing everything else on full throttle. Especially, being a mother. The hardest job of them all :)

A friend of mine recently told me about coconut oil. He uses it for his wonderful hair, black, curly hair, and for his skin.

I have read online for a few days and then I told him: Ok, you sold me coconut oil!

Great. In the past few days I've been experimenting with this wonder of nature. I bought two jars of coconut oil (it is, in fact, below 25 degrees Celsius, a solid, white paste).

My son has eczema quite often behind his knees. Coconut Oil!
My husband suffers from psoriasis since he was 7 years old. Coconut Oil!
My hair look a bit unhealthy and have no volume. Coconut Oil!

I've been spreading it, melting it, rubbing it... The benefits of this oil are endless.

I have been cooking biscuits and egg-free snacks at the weekend, and in the place of the butter I have used coconut oil.

It is truly marvellous. It gives a great taste to many different things and it has now earned a spot on my kitchen counter. Since it is something you can both eat and use as a cosmetic, I have placed it next to the stove and that's its spot. I never want to run out of it now that I have tried it!!!

I am also reading the book The Coconut Oil Miracle, by Bruce Fife. It is in fact a very interesting read and I also recommend reading online about the benefits of this oil.

Below is two simple recipes for the beauties in the picture: Coconut Oil Egg Free Cornetti and Coconut Oil Biscuits

On the left, Coconut Oil Biscuits

Ingredients: 

125 Grams of Coconut Oil

Melt the above in a saucepan

80 Grams of Dark Chocolate
80 Grams of Walnuts or Hazelnuts

Shred both the above in tiny pieces and add to the melted Coconut Oil

2 Eggs

Beat them and add them to the Coconut Oil and Walnuts and Chocolate mix

7 Grams or one sachet of Yeast, stir in the mixture

400 Grams of Flour

Fold into the mix above until you obtain a smooth ball of dough

Once you have the ball, start taking little pieces of it, roll them into tiny balls and flatten them a bit onto a baking tray lined with non stick paper.

Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

When you take them out, they might seem soft, but they will become nice and crunchy as soon as they are cold.

Lovely and easy.

On the right, Egg Free Chocolate Cornetti

Ingredients:

100 Grams of Coconut Oil

Melt it in a little saucepan

125 Grams or one pot of Yogurt, I used chocolate flavour but you can use vanilla or white yogurt, they'll be just as nice

Add it to the melted Coconut Oil

250 Grams of Flour

Fold into the mixture above

1/2 Sachet or 3.5 Grams of Yeast

To be added to the mix

Once you have worked the ingredients together, divide the dough in two parts. With the rolling pin, form a circle and divide as you would do with a cake, in 8 parts diameter-wise.

Put on each part a teaspoon of your filling of choice, jam or chocolate spread, and roll them, starting from the larger side of each "slice".

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, and, as for the biscuits, they will become crunchy once they cool down.

I have been placing them in my son's lunchbox for the past week and he loves them :)

Rice Krispies "Bars"

Wondering the aisles of a supermarket, I see so many "products" ready made, full of sugar and preservatives that, inevitably, damage our bodies (and I believe our souls as well).
Having a child in school age, means everyday I must fill his snack box with... something!
I used to buy for him the puffed rice bars, more than 3 Euro for a pack of six. Money is not the issue here, but reading the ingredients label I was quite amazed. They are supposed to be made with rice krispies and chocolate, but the ingredients list goes on and on... That's not good.

So yesterday I made my own puffed rice bars. The result was very good, although I will need to increase the chocolate part so the rice can stick together.

Ingredients:
200 grams of chocolate: white, milk or black depending on your taste
50 grams of butter: it can be replaced with vegetable spread as well
125 grams of puffed rice
3 tablespoons of honey

Melt separately the butter and the chocolate.

 

To the melted chocolate, add the honey, then the butter.

 In a large bowl, mix the puffed rice with the melted mixture and make sure it is evenly distributed.

Place everything in a tray lined with oven paper and level with a spatula or a spoon. I have added some coating sugar on top, because my son loves it, but it is not essential.

Place the tray in the fridge for a few hours and then cut out the bars with a good knife.

This is what mine look like, cut and wrapped in film:

Today is test day, my son took one of them to school along with other things... Let's see if he will eat it ;)

A Busy Weekend - Cake of the Four Cups

On Thursday night, my son had a bad asthma crisis. My boy, he spent 10 weeks in the heath in Central Italy and just one week of Irish weather (quite dry, for a change) knocked him K.O. and we had to run to the doctor.

The worst has passed, but I had to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday inside the house, looking at the blue sky from the window. Well, it's always like that, whenever I am forced inside for some reason, there's nice weather.

So, instead of being depressed over my son's poor breathing, as soon as he started feeling better I marched to the kitchen and started cooking. It was a great way to spend the days at home; we have no TV, so I would be watching cartoons I've already watched beside my son, in and out of sleep the whole day... Nah, not my cup of tea!

So, to cheer him up I decided to make him a cake. He's allergic to eggs so I baked one without eggs. He liked it. Very much :)

Ingredients

1 Cup of Plain Flour

1 Cup of Corn or Potato Starch

1 Cup of Sugar

1 Cup of Milk

1 Sachet of Raising Powder for cakes

I added some chocolate pieces that I had lying around in the cupboard. You can actually add anything, raisins or other fruit chunks. The base is so simple I think it would be nice with anything.

Easy. And it actually worked for me as well, which sais a lot, because my cakes usually come out flat :)

Heat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Blend together everything :)

While it blends, butter and flour an oven safe dish. Mine is a square of about 25 centimeters and 4 centimeters deep.

 Place the mixture in it and straight into the oven.

Let cook for about 30 minutes. Then try sticking a toothpick in it. If it comes out dry, your cake is done.

I added some coating sugar on top to make it more attractive :)

Nice. No preservatives, no strange colorings, no eggs. Sick child and fussy husband enjoyed it. Give it a try. It's good for breakfast as well!

Turmeric Crackers - Love, love, love...

Yesterday I found a recipe for Turmeric Crackers on Facebook... I thought it was genius! We only eat turmeric - this wonder spice - when cooking oriental style rice dishes. It's not enough, because this spice is linked every day to new beneficial effects and, oh, it makes things taste good! Not to mention the interesting color :)
So, last night, after work and a bit of shopping my son and I made these crackers.

Ingredients

600 grams of Plain Flour
140 ml of Olive Oil
100 ml of Water
100 ml of White Wine
4 spoons of Turmeric
4 good pinches of Salt
2 pinches of Paprika

Mix everything together and you'll get something that looks like this:

Keep kneading for a few minutes until it looks like this:

Cut out a small piece and work it with your rolling pin:

Keep working until you obtain a nice thin sheet of this goodness-filled dough:

Cut as you please once on the baking paper:

Place in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes. Take them out:

With the ingredients above you'll get two of these boxes:

Total working time? About 30 minutes! They are virtually fat-free, totally yeast-free and absolutely good for you! Enjoy!!!

Hummus and Co.

My mother was diagnosed with osteoporosis last week, so I spent a lot of time lately researching on the internet the best foods that could help her, along with the medication she will need to start taking soon.


I found a lot of useful information and passed them on to her, and she appreciated it very much. Living away means every single event in my parents' life makes me worry tenfold, and I don't like to worry. So I thought the best thing I could do to help from here, was to gather information and then try to scare my mother enough to make her think about what she eats and drinks on a daily basis.


The mission was successful, I must say. And in fact yesterday when she came on the phone she already had at hand a notebook and a pen to take notes ;)


I gave her a recipe for hummus. It is a perfect combination for her condition, in fact both sesame seeds and chickpeas contain a lot of calcium. Plus, the raw olive oil is just as good as it can be for your body, and the lemon juice adds that bit of vitamin C to lift everyone's mood.


I have to say, when I found the recipe, it called for tahini. I didn't know what tahini was. So I searched more and found how to make that too.


Ingredients for Tahini:


2 cups of sesame seeds
1/4 cup of olive oil


I toasted the sesame seeds in a pan, stirring them occasionally and keeping the heat quite low, so I wouldn't burn anything.
Once the seeds were toasted, I placed them in the blender's jug and added the olive oil. I blended all together and place all of it in a glass jar and in the fridge. It will keep I suppose for quite a while, the olive oil will preserve it well.


Ingredients for Hummus:


2 cups of chickpeas, cooked in salt and garlic
3 teaspoons of Tahini
3 teaspoons of Lemon Juice
2 Garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon of Cumin
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
Salt to taste


All the ingredients are processed in the blender. Easy peasy, or, better, easy Chickpeasy :)


Reserve some of the chickpeas cooking water in case you need to thin the hummus, and enjoy!

The Crazy Cook !

It was the Easter weekend, and I went mental in the kitchen. I loved every single moment of it! Especially the one when my son, seated at the table, will say :"I like it! Mamma will you make it again?"

That is the best compliment I can receive. It makes my heart melt into butter :)

Many of the plans we had for the long weekend went out the window, as usual, and again, the good thing was being together and having fun.

During the weekend I cooked quite a lot, I really enjoyed the noises in the house, the guests coming and going, the dog waiting by the kitchen press for something to fall off my hands...

I had found during the past week, a recipe for roasted chickpeas. I really like chickpeas, they taste like childhood and they never fail to fill you up!

The recipe called for a Moroccan Spice mix, which I did not have at hand and had no intention to look for in the shops. So I just used what I had:

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked Chickpeas (boiled with some salt and garlic)

Olive Oil

1/2 teaspoon of Curry Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper

1/2 teaspoon of Cumin Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Ginger Powder

Salt to taste

I cooked the chickpeas, after soaking them overnight, with just a bit of salt and a clove of garlic. Then I drained them and pat them dry with a kitchen towel. I placed them in a roasting dish and heated the oven to 120 degrees Celsius.

Over the chickpeas I poured a bit of olive oil to make them sticky, I sprinkled all the spices and the the salt and mixed them well, to make sure all the chickpeas were coated.

I threw the dish in the oven and let them roast for about 30 minutes, always checking they were not getting too hard.

Here are the chickpeas once out of the oven:

They were very nice, a different snack for our Easter table. Highly recommended as they keep for a few days and are so good eaten cold :)

Spanish Croquettes

Last night going home from work I was thinking about dinner... The pasta sauce with meatballs finished the other day so I was wondering what to put in our plates.

I remembered I had a pesto sauce jar that needed to be used and by adding some fresh cream I had the pasta dilemma sorted. However, the milk in the fridge needed to be used, but I didn't feel like making any biscuits... So then, Spanish Croquettes came to my mind. My good friend and neighbor showed me how to make them last summer, so I gave it a try.

Now, the recipe calls for:

Milk

Flour

Ham pieces

Olive Oil

Bread crumbs

A bit of Salt

Frying oil

Now, the point is to make a very thick besciamella sauce, by heating up olive oil and adding flour and milk. When the sauce is thick enough to be rolled in to small balls or "sausages", add the ham pieces and cover them with bread crumbs.

Once the rollies were done, I heated up the frying oil and fried them until they turned brownish.

Once ready I placed the croquettes on a napkin to make sure the frying oil would drain out of them.

My son appreciated the croquettes, and needless to say they were ready in less than 15 minutes :)

This recipe will work with soy milk and substituting ham with peas or corn for vegan and vegetarians.