New Adventures

My first and favorite obsession is food. Not just any food but really good tasting food. My blog will focus on my love of food while trying to encourage others to be adventurous with new flavors and cuisines. Maybe my readers will become more confident in making wonderful flavor combinations or have the confidence to try something new. Or maybe readers will learn a helpful technique or cooking tip to save time and money. Sharing what I know and learning new things about the world of food is the journey I want to share. So this blog is for you.

Perfectly Posh!!!

I am so excited! I just signed up to be a Perfectly Posh independent consultant! Perfectly Posh offers pampering products: bath bombs,lotion bars, body slather, healing balm,everything you could want to pamper yourself or someone special. You can find an online catalog here: www.perfectlyposh.us/aija

A Tribute To My Heritage

I turned 40 on January 6 and wanted to do something special for myself so I decided to get a tattoo of the 7 symbols on my Latvian ring. Each day of the week has its own symbol and meaning. The tattoo is a reminder of my heritage and the meanings are special to me.
Here is a link to the meanings of the symbols: http://krikisjewelry.com/KrikisJewelryBellInfo.html

Mashed Cauliflower

The other night Bob and I made a turkey tenderloin and I wanted to do something different with the head of cauliflower we had. I remembered mashed cauliflower being all the rage when no-carb diets became popular so I made my own recipe, incorporating a few potatoes for a smoother texture. You would never know the main ingredient is cauliflower in this dish. Remember, I never really measure anything so you can adjust the recipe to suit your taste. Mashed Cauliflower 1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets 4 small Yukon gold potatoes, about golf-ball sized, scrubbed and cut in half 2 cloves garlic, peeled about a handful of fresh grated Parmesan cheese 2 TB butter salt (I used some truffle salt, yummy!) pepper In. A large stockpot, boil the cauliflower, potatoes and garlic until soft. Drain and add the rest of the ingredients into a food processor or mash by hand. This was delicious and I even took leftovers to work and I Never eat leftovers.

Spices, Cookies And My Apparently Inherited Need To Make Too Much

The other day I went to a local health foods store to purchase some spices. I can buy spices in bulk and only purchase what I need without having to spend a lot of money. I bought Cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamom, allspice, cloves, everything I needed to make a ras el hanout spice blend. I found a recipe here http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/raselhanout.html

Smelling all the wonderful spices made me think of Latvian pepper cookies, called Piparkukas which I looked up a recipe for. The recipes I came across and thought of being as authentic as possible all called for a large amount of ingredients. One pound of butter, 5 pounds of flour, one pound sugar, enormous amounts of ingredients. Every recipe for the cookies was the same with each having large amounts of ingredients, so I determined that making too much food is something that was passed down to me by my ancestors.
Here is a recipe for Piparkukas from ChristmasJoy.net:

Christmas Recipes from Latvia

Recipe Name: My Granny's Piparkukas

1 lb butter

16 oz dark Karo syrup; one bottle

16 oz molasses

1 lb brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp cloves

2 tsp coriander

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp ginger

5 lbs flour; Wondra brand

4 egg yolks

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

Place butter, Karo syrup, and 1/2 the sugars in a large pot. Heat to boiling. When it starts boiling, add the ground spices. Remove from heat.

Gradually add 1/2 the flour, stirring constantly to avoid lumping. Continue stirring until the mixture no longer sticks to the sides of the pot. Let cool until cool enough to touch.

Beat the egg yolks and the remaining sugar together slightly. Dissolve the baking powder and baking soda in about 1 Tbsp water. Add the egg yolks and sugar to the batter. Add the baking powder and baking soda to the batter. Gradually add the remaining flour, and knead the batter dough until it is smooth, shiny and hard.

Roll the dough out (in portions) to a thickness of 1/16". Cut out the cookie shapes, place on a cookie par, and bake in a 350 degree F oven for about 10 minutes. Watch carefully - they burn easily.

Baked cookies are lightly brown, crisp, crumbly, piquant, very tasty. These are the favourite cookies in our family for Christmas. This kind of cookie (piparkukas - "pepper" + "cakes") is very popular in Latvia. And every housewife has her own recipe - family's recipe.

iPad Test Post

I am trying out the Blogger app to see how it works. I don't like the keyboard and wish it was the Apple keyboard.
Below is a comic I made using an app. I spelled "pancakes" wrong but you get the idea.

Pumpkin Spice Cake Cups

It's fall.  There is no denying it.  Cold, windy, rainy.  Michigan gets cold early, and cold weather, especially fall, makes me think of apples, cider and pumpkins.  I have never been a fan of pumpkin but made some cake cups using only a cake mix, some pumpkin and water.  I call them cake cups because they are a cake mix in a cup form.  Shouldn't that be the proper name anyways?  Cupcake is a good name, but I decided cake cup is a more appropriate name for my creation.
This recipe uses no eggs or oil, so you can save your fat allowance for the frosting :)

Pumpkin Spice Cake Cups

• 1 box (15.25 oz) spice cake mix
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin (not the pie filling, just plain pumpkin)
• 2 TB water

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix cake mix, pumpkin and water.  Stir well, it will be very thick.
Put a good-sized tablespoon of the batter into cupcake cups.  I used the foil cups because they will stand on their own and you don't need a muffin pan if you use them.
Bake for 20 minutes, give or take a few minutes until they are done.
Frost with cream cheese frosting, dust with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Next time I will make my own cream cheese frosting.  I bought the canned frosting and it is full of crappy chemicals that I can't pronounce, therefore should not be eating.