Italian night!

Tonight is Italian night at my house!  Two SUPER easy meals in one!  The reason I make two in one is because the homemade pizza is usually finished tonight which leaves no leftovers for lunch tomorrow, so it's actually easier for me to make both so that everyone has lunch for tomorrow too! The first of the easy meals is a homemade pizza!  I make this almost weekly because it's a quick meal that everyone loves.  I always buy the pre-made/rolled out pizza dough that Publix makes fresh daily.  All I have to do is unroll it onto my baking sheet and add the toppings I like!  It's SUPER easy!  I just use whatever veggies I have in my fridge and buy a pack of pre-shredded mozzarella cheese - it's that easy.  My daughter and I love olives, so I always make sure I have olives on the pizza, but anything else goes :)

The second of the easy meals is a pasta that I learned to make a couple of months ago.  Unfortunately, I don't remember where I got the recipe or I would provide the link, but I've interchanged it with different veggies and different types of pasta.  Tonight I used linguine with the veggies I had in the fridge (red and green peppers, onions, sun dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and some fresh basil from the garden).   All you have to do is sauté some garlic and onion in some extra virgin olive oil and butter for a few minutes, add all the veggies (the original recipe called for asparagus that you slice using a potato peeler), and a container of marscapone cheese.  I'd NEVER cooked with marscapone before trying this recipe and didn't realize how it just melts in the pan to give it a creamy sauce.  I add some lemon zest and lemon juice, some salt and pepper, and that's it!  I throw it over the pasta and shred some parmesan reggiano over it and that's it!  Again, SUPER easy!  Two meals in one!

Finished pasta!

Finished pizza!

In the mood for fish...

I was in the mood to make something quick and easy and remembered I had some fish in the freezer.  We like to buy the frozen pack of Whiting from Publix and just keep it in the freezer for quick meals and so that's what I decided to make last night.  I started looking up Whiting recipes on Pinterest, but honestly, had very little luck.  So I decided to use a recipe for another type of white, flakey, fish and try it out.  It was sooooooooo good!  I made a lemon, butter, cilantro, pan-fried fish using my Calphalon skillet!  My husband bought me the skillet because I complained that I needed something better to make pancakes on (because I'm a horrible pancake maker), but I use it for EVERYTHIGN except making pancakes on and I absolutely love it!  LOL!  It was perfect for this fish recipe.  I followed the recipe below, but like I said earlier, I used Whiting and I used cilantro instead of the parsley.  I also used a little onion powder and garlic powder to marinate my fish with. This meal was honestly, super quick and easy!  I made a pot of rice and steamed some broccoli next to it - it was perfect!

Here's the link to the recipe:
http://juliasalbum.com/2015/10/trout-with-garlic-lemon-butter-herb-sauce/


Here's what it looked like:

Completed fish put back in the sauce

Cooking fish flesh side down 

Fresh garlic, cilantro, and lemon

Pan frying skin side down

Making the sauce - as a side note, I do not cook with alcohol and so where the recipe says to deglaze with white wine, I used a little broth instead

Completed meal

Nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread!

For many, many years, baking was NOT my thing!  I didn't understand why you had to separate the "wet" and "dry" ingredients and why you couldn't just put it all in together and mix it. I also hated how precise the measurements had to be....so....needless to say, my baking never quite turned out how it was supposed to!  My mother NEVER measures anything and her food is AMAZING and I think I sort of took after that.  I love to cook, but I usually just eyeball and use a recipe as a guide, but don't necessarily use the exact measurements.  When I got married, I decided to register for a Kitchen Aid mixer (because that's what you do when you get married!) and I began to bake!

I realized that you HAVE to follow the measurements and the directions on how and when to mix the wet and dry ingredients.  Ever since this "realization"...LOL...my baking actually turns out good!  The Kitchen Aid mixer actually comes with a little recipe book and my husband and I wanted to bake bread and decided to give the recipe a try.  On a side note, for as long as I've known my husband, he has always liked to bake his own bread whenever he can.  He's great and kneading and rolling out the dough and then folding it to put in the pan.  He has the patience to let the dough rise and wait the right amount of time - these are qualities that I don't have when it comes to cooking.  I like to experiment and throw a little of this and a little of that, I like to be very efficient in my cooking and do lots of things at the same time, turn the heat up a little higher than it should, etc. - my husband does NOT do these things! LOL

That being said, we decided to try the recipe in the Kitchen Aid recipe book one time and realized it was super easy and tasted FABULOUS!  So yesterday, I decided to make it again. My husband was out with my eldest and his cousin at a birthday party and when I put my little one down for a nap, I decided to bake bread.  I LOVE the smell of fresh baked bread in the house!  This smell usually starts with the smell of the yeast rising!  I want to say that I always tweak what the packages of yeast say a bit by adding a teaspoon of sugar to the yeast before adding the warm water to it.  I've had yeast that doesn't rise WAY too often and have decided to always add the sugar to it!  Other than that, I follow this recipe to a T.  It's quick and easy and is all done in the Kitchen Aid mixer.

Here's the recipe from the Kitchen Aid recipe book that we use for a basic white bread:

Bread fresh out of the oven

Bread fresh out of the oven!

My husband rolling out the dough 

My husband fitting the dough into the pan

Here's the dough after it's been left to rise for an hour

MMMMMMMM.....Chocolate Cake!

After an early start with the kiddos today (doctor's appointment at 8:00am and storytime at our local library at 10:00am), both little ones went down for what my sister and I like to call "group nap" time!  I usually eat my own lunch during "group nap" and after I finished, I decided I wanted something sweet and chocolatey.  A couple of months ago I tried out a random "best chocolate cake ever" Pinterest recipe, and indeed, it was the BEST chocolate cake!  My husband and I LOVED it!  It's light and fluffy and chocolatey!  So I decided to try to make it again.  It took about 20 minutes to gather all the ingredients and actually make the batter and put it into the oven.  It all got done during "group nap"!

On a side note - I do usually like to bake when my 2 year old is awake so that she can help me and lick the spoon/bowl afterwards, but today I got a craving and chose not to wait and get it all done while they were both sleeping!

Also on a side note - if you have young kiddos and haven't been to your local library for storytime yet, you're truly missing out!  Here in Jacksonville, each public library has a set day and time each week for storytime where the librarian sings songs, teaches some sign language, plays games/riddles, reads books with a theme, teaches a letter, and then ends with a craft of some sort.  This is all FREE and lasts about 45min.  As a teacher, I think this is amazing!  It's a great enriching activity for your little one, especially if you're not the type to sing songs and do crafts at home!  As a mom, it's even more amazing because it happens during my 2 month old's nap time and so I have time to just spend with the 2 year old singing, listening, and crafting.  I also almost always bring lunch with me and try to feed my 2 year old afterwards when we go into the children's section of the library.  The local South Mandarin Branch has a great children's area with amazing books, a train table, a farm set, a tea set, and white board with magnetic letters.  She could spend hours in there, so I just try to keep it until she finishes lunch and then we head home.  There are nice, comfy chairs in there where I can feed my 2 month old while watching the other one play!  So again, if you haven't done this with your kiddo yet - go online and look up a day/time and GO!  They even have some evening and weekend dates and times for those of you who are at work during the day.


So back to the chocolate cake...I realized while making it that I didn't have any buttercream and looked up a substitute for it online....just under 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar....who knew!  So that's what I used!  I did happen to already have all of the other ingredients in my cupboard and fridge, so that worked out!  Also, I'm sure that the homemade frosting that's in this recipe is fabulous, but I decided to just go with a store bought one!  It tasted fabulous last time and I think it'll be just as good this time too! LOL

Here's the Pinterest recipe I used:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/dessert/a14316/chocolate-cake-recipe/
I did have to tweak the baking time a little. My toothpicks didn't come out dry until around 35min in the oven.  The recipe says 22-25min.


Here are some pics of what it looked like:

Our family isn't too big on frosting, so I only frosted in between and on top.

Store bought frosting!

Once poured into lined baking pans

Mixture when dry and wet ingredients are combined

Dry mixture

Lined baking pans

First time Moussaka!

While watching The Chew this morning, I got inspired to try to cook some Greek food!  They were doing a special on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (which is a repeat episode because that came out a while ago right???).  One of the things they prepared was a yogurt chicken kabob and the other was a Moussaka.  I just bought chicken and eggplant last night and had them both in the fridge, so I thought "why not?!?!?!".

Just as a side note, one of the reasons it's easier for me to cook with the 2 kiddos is because when I buy meat, I season it all right away and then put it in separate ziploc bags in the freezer.  In the West Indies they make something called a "Green Seasoning". Although lots of people make this fresh, many (especially those living abroad) buy it from a West Indian grocery store already made in big glass jar.  We have a decent herb garden here in Jax and so we tend to make our own!  I usually make a big batch and season all of my chicken with it at one time and then separate it into batches that I would likely cook with.  This makes cooking MUCH easier on a regular day because all I have to do is pull out a bag and thaw the meat.

So back to the Greek recipes.....I decided to not use Greek seasoning on one of my batches of chicken and instead, marinated it using the yogurt chicken recipe on The Chew today.  I decided not to cook this today and am saving it for another day, but now it's already made and all I have to do is thaw it!
 Here's the yogurt chicken recipe from The Chew today:
http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/yogurt-marinated-chicken-kebobs-daphne-oz

What I did decide to make today was the Moussaka.  I am Egyptian and we make something that we think is similar called "Macarona bil bechamel" or Macaroni in a Bechamel sauce, but I've never made Moussaka.  I did my best and tried to follow today's recipe!  My husband is on an "eat less meat" sort of thing and so I skipped adding the lamb and only made a tomato sauce to go with it. Here's the link to the recipe and some pictures of how I put it together today!

http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/moussaka-michael-symon


Here's how my Moussaka turned out:

The complete Moussaka hot out of the oven!

Moussaka before going in the oven with the Bechamel on top

Layering the Moussaka with the peppers and onion

Salting and sweating the eggplant to get rid of any bitterness

Bechamel sauce

Tomato sauce

Frying the eggplant

After a 5 hour drive from Miami....

Our fam decided to take an impromptu weekend trip to Miami this weekend!  It was WONDERFUL and we're sooooo happy that we went - even with 2 kids! It was our 2 month old's first trip and she did a great job!  Just FYI - I've added some things to the bottom of things we did with the kiddos while in Miami for anyone with young kids!

Over the last year or so, every time I see something on a food show about Miami, I try to make a note so that the next time I go, I will check it out.  My husband and I have had horrible food experiences in Miami over the years and always look out for better places to eat.  Again, we're spoiled because of our NYC experience and realize not everyone thinks the food in Miami sucks, but we do! LOL

Anyways, on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, I saw an episode about a Haitian restaurant called Tap, Tap.  It has very mixed reviews online and on Yelp, but I saw it on Food Network and wanted to check it out.  We're so glad we did!  We had the fried Boniato, the Shrimp in coconut, and the Mango Salad!  All three were fabulous and we would eat there again!  However, the inside was old and shabby looking, it could really use a makeover, but as far as the food - definitely try it!

Here's the info on Tap Tap from Food Network:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/fl/miami-beach/tap-tap-haitian-restaurant-restaurant.html

The original reason we went down to Miami was for the 1st annual Grenada Day festival being held there and so of course, we had to get some West Indian food.  We were told about a place called Joy's Roti Shop near the festival grounds and decided to check it out.  The place was PACKED, the line was out the door, soca was playing, there was no air conditioning - the perfect experience.  We took it to go because of the 2 girls and it was around 9pm and we were all exhausted, but it was REALLY GOOD!  My husband had the chicken roti and I had the shrimp buss-up-shut (it's called this because it looks like a "busted up shirt"....lol).  We got some doubles for breakfast the next morning and they did not disappoint!  If you're ever in the Fort Lauderdale area, go check out Joy's!!!!

Here's the link to Joy's:
http://www.joysrotidelight.com/

Now, all that being said, we decided to drive back from Miami around 6am Monday morning and got home around 11am.  After a 5 hour drive in the car with 2 kiddos, we were tired and HUNGRY.  A friend of ours had brought over frozen Alaskan Pollock burgers last weekend and we hadn't tried them yet, so we decided that would be our quick meal when we got home.  My husband had visions of it on a nice bun and a memory of a really good Asian slaw he had once and so I looked one up on Pinterest and made that to top our burgers with.

Here's the Pinterest recipe I used for the Asian slaw:
http://www.feastingathome.com/thai-turkey-burgers/

It was actually VERY good, but I felt like it was missing something and ended up adding my "special sauce" on the bun!  Every time I make something with this "special sauce", people love it. The secret is Marie's Cole Slaw dressing!  There's a picture of it below.  It's amazing stuff!  Here's what our meal ended up looking like:

Homemade Asian Slaw (We used regular cabbage instead of purple because we didn't have any in our fridge, used sesame oil instead of olive oil because we didn't have any, and added some cilantro because we like it!)

Pollock Burger with Asian slaw

This is the "Creamy Ranch" dressing,  but the "Coleslaw" one is the BEST!!!

Here are the burgers our friend got us - not sure what store he bought them from, but they were good!

Miami with kiddos!

First of all, we went to the BEACH.  We're fans of South Beach (especially before we had kids!!!).  We used to love to walk around and people watch, but now it's a different experience with kids! LOL.  Our 2 year old absolutely LOVES the water and sand and we realize, it doesn't matter where she gets the water and sand, as long as she has it, so we still go to South Beach!  The clear, blue water is spectacular and was as warm as bathwater!  There are also showers there (even though there was a line to use them).

http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/places-to-see/south-beach-art-deco-district

Next, we like to walk, so we walked to the Bayside Marketplace.  This place is like an outdoor mall on the water!  There was sooooo much going on there!  Our 2 year old loved the guys with the parrots, the ice cream, the rides, and all the action.  There are lots of nice stores to shop in, restaurants to eat at, and even a live band/karaoke.  We ended up getting some amazing popsicles made with all natural ingredients and just walking around for a while!

https://www.baysidemarketplace.com/en/visit.html?intcmp=bayside-marketplace-events;globalnav;visit

Our 2 year old also loves anything to do with transportation and we were lucky enough to be staying with my husband's cousin who lives on one of the canals on the 42nd floor.  She could have spent hours watching the boats go back and forth, the bridge go up and down, the mono rail train go back and forth, the airplanes flying overhead, and the cars just driving through traffic!  It was a great added bonus for us!

Finally, we spent the last day at the pool.  Again, our 2 year old is a fish and LOVES the water.  We just let her be in the water and play while one of us stayed in the shade with the 2 month old.  It was great!

Dinner tonight!

So for my birthday, a friend of mine decided to make me a very cool gift basket that she made and filled with different types of pastas and pasta sauce.  It was a great gift, but its been sitting on my counter for about a month now and I decided that tonight was the night I was going to try it out!

I do want to say that I haven't actually had to cook much this week because my mom was in town and I had plenty of leftovers and then yesterday was Eid!  We did some of my favorites yesterday - Panera for breakfast and Zoe's for dinner!  I do want to say that I don't go out to eat very often here in Jacksonville mostly because I hate being disappointed when I pay money to eat somewhere (yes, I'm a food snob! NYC will do that to you if you let it!!!).  The other reason is simply because Jacksonville just has a ton of big chain restaurants and not the mom and pop places I was so spoiled with when I was living in NYC.  That being said, my husband discovered Zoe's a few months ago, and I actually love it! I think the food is simple and fresh and love the shrimp kabobs and their hummus - so that's what we did for Eid dinner last night!

***I do have a few FAVORITE places to eat in Jax that I'll probably share in another blog, but for now, here are some of my faves: Casbah (middle eastern), Black Sheep (American), Moxie (American), Hawkers (Asian Street Food), and a recent favorite, Picasso (Italian).

So back to dinner tonight....

I decided to try a new pasta that was in my gift basket and the sauce that was also in there.  Everything was written in Italian and I didn't really understand any of it, so I just made pasta the way I know how!  15 minutes after making the sauce, I realized I HATED it....just had a bad taste to it...so I dumped it out and just did my own thing.  I'm not a fan of canned sauces and never usually use them, I prefer to make my own using herbs, olive oil, and crushed tomatoes, but thought I'd give it a try - bad decision.

So instead, I went out into my garden and grabbed some herbs, blended it with some onion and garlic powder in some olive oil and voila - sauce for the cool new pasta.  I threw in some sun dried tomatoes and cut up some basil from my garden and then shredded some parmesan over it - perfect!  Made a big, green salad to go with it and my homemade greek salad dressing (check a previous post for the recipe) and that's all!  Here are some pics!

Threw in a few black olives too!

Garden salad with some added chick peas and parmesan!

When you're too busy...

One of my favorite, go to, quick meals is dumplings!  Like I said in an earlier post, my 2 year old LOVES Asian flavors and most especially, spring rolls and dumplings.  When we lived in nyc, the hubby and I went on a date night to an Asian restaurant (can't remember the name) after buying a groupon for a dumpling making class!  It was FABULOUS and actually was one of our favorite date nights!  Now, this was LONG before we got married and had kiddos and I actually had time to make dumplings from scratch! LOL!  Also while living in nyc, we discovered Trader Joe's dumplings and fell in LOVE with them!  They've got great flavors and seasoning and aren't bland, rubbery, or mushy like some of the other frozen ones I've tried from various grocery stores.

Now that we are married with 2 kids, one of my go to meals, is frozen Trader Joe's dumplings!  We always have several bags of these in the freezer just for these kinds of days.  Below you'll find pics of the two kinds we like best (Cilantro Chicken and Veggies and Shrimp).  I always pan fry these as per the directions on the back and I also ALWAYS make my own dipping sauce.  I've tried various pinterest recipes for my dipping sauce but tend to always revert back to the sauce part of the broccoli and shrimp recipe below (Feel free to also use this recipe another day because it is AMAZING and is also one of my go to, easy recipes!!!).  For the dipping sauce however, I do not add the cornstarch to it like the recipe says, I only do that when I'm actually making the broccoli and shrimp recipe.

These are the shrimp dumplings

Here's the recipe for the dipping sauce:
http://damndelicious.net/2015/01/16/easy-shrimp-broccoli-stir-fry/

My homemade dipping sauce

These are the chicken and cilantro ones

Here are what the two bags of frozen dumplings look like!

Sorry for the sideways photo!!!!

Eid Cookies!

It's that time of year again......Eid Cookie making!  My fondest memories of spending family time come during this time of the year...using the Lunar Calendar of course. It comes near the end of the Holy month of Ramadan where all the women in my immediate family and my extended family get together in Oakville, Canada and make a MILLION Eid cookies together.

For those of you that don't know, the Holy month of Ramadan (Ramadan being the name of the month in the Lunar Calendar in Arabic) is when muslims all over the world fast from sunrise to sunset for an entire month!  Fasting firstly from all food and drink, but more importantly, a large effort to be a good person, reflect on yourself, your life, your goals, your relationship with God, not lie or swear, and pray and pray and pray.

Now back to the cookie making....

So each year before the end of Ramadan we all gather at Nahla's house and have a "Kahk Convention" - Kahk is the name of one of the types of cookies that is made for Eid.  It is my least favorite and now that I make cookies on my own, I don't have a picture below of it, because I didn't make it....lol.   All the aunties and kids (me and my grown cousins being the "kids") all gather in Nahla's kitchen where she busts out her mother's old cookie recipes and so begins the process.  Each mom/auntie knowing their role of which part of the cookie making their good at and each kid also knowing their role and how to follow Nahla's directions.  This usually takes and entire day or evening and we're usually up all night laughing and talking and eating.  It's amazing and has become a tradition that I want to continue with my own family, especially when we can't make it up to Canada for it.

And so this year, once again, I wasn't able to make it to Canada and did it on my own!  I was lucky to have my mom in town to help me with the cookies and the girls and we also had the hubby and a friend come and join us.  So here are the pics of the amazing cookies we made all day yesterday!

One thing I realized while writing captions to these photos is the importance of sharing!  The reason why we make a MILLION cookies, is because it is also customary to share them with your friends, family, and neighbors!  We have already set containers aside to share with some of friends and neighbors!

The completed table of Eid Cookies!  The long sticks on the left are called Pitonsalee and they are for dipping in your tea in the morning.  Also more of a biscuit taste but made with cumin seeds.

Me and my daughter making Petit Fore cookies!

These are my family's most favorite.  They are called Uruss and they are more of biscuit stuffed with dates.

These are the finished Petit Fore stuffed with Apricot Jam and then rolled in sprinkles.

More completed Petit Fore

Petit Fore ready to go in the oven.

Petit Fore before the jam and sprinkles