Posts from — February 2008

Casserole recipes are amongst my to favorites when it comes to cooking for my family. Everybody just loves them, and it is very hard for me to stop them from over eating, every time I prepare my already famous tuna casserole recipe which I learned from my grandmother.

My son likes mostly the chicken casserole recipes, while my mother prefers cheese and macaroni casserole. Recipes are not very hard to prepare, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of preparation is needed, plus the oven time, which is very important. Just keep a casserole in the oven 10-15 minutes over the due time, and you spoil it just like that. Keep it too little, and the ingredients in the casserole won’t be cooked as they should be. My best friend told me that she makes a great breakfast casserole recipe, but my opinion is than in the morning we should eat lighter things such as fruits.

The best ones I’ve ever prepared are the lamb casserole recipes, which besides the lamb meat contain white sauce, yellow cheese, herbs and spices, and sour cream for the final touch.

This is not shameless self-promotion, but when you cook so well, it is very hard to find a restaurant where they cook the casserole recipes better than you do.

I don’t know about others, but I’m getting lots of troubles with my dry skin. I always have to use a lot of skin moisturizing products, and leaving aside the fact that they cost me a lot of money, they are difficult to carry when traveling. The most annoying is that the new regulations of plane travels are very strict, limiting very much the amount of liquids somebody can take inside the plane, in the hand luggage. The big luggage, the one you check in, is restricted to 20kg weight, so it’s not too much, if we think of all the clothes, shoes and other accessories a person needs when going on a trip.

If you have a delicate skin, it is very difficult to find an appropriate skin moisturizer, because most of them will give you adverse reactions like swelling and redness. Some people say that the creams based on natural products, like Ginkgo Biloba are the best, while others claim that the extremely expensive, fashionable brands of cosmetics are much better.

Probably each skin has its particularities, so everybody should test some skin moisturizers to see which one is better for that particular type of skin, and then stick to it.

People who get out at night are usually seeking for entertainment. But not all of them understand entertainment in the same way. For some, entertainment can mean loud music, dance, crowded clubs, while for others it can mean a romantic dinner in a cozy place. Anyway, getting out at night, especially during weekends is a common way of spending some time with friends, while enjoying a good drink or a nice meal.

The moonstone lounge in San Diego is a place where one can find whatever he means by entertainment, from a romantic, quiet atmosphere, to the club, disco-bar animated life. Belonging to several venue types, such as Hotel Bars and Lounges, Cocktail Lounges, Dance Clubs and Nightclubs, Moonstone Lounge also serves food, so you can have a dinner with your friends and go dancing after that, without being obliged to change the place.

The lounge is situated at the top level of Hoard Rock Hotel in San Diego, so you’ll have the chance to see the city from above. But don’t worry, you don’t have to climb the stairs: you can always take the elevator.

I got sick during my stay in Paris. For three days, it was a stormy weather. My asthma reacted immediately. One week with fever and all the rest.

By the time I had to leave, my luggage was a mess. I was too tired to put it in order, to throw away the unnecessary thinks.

In the Airport, the machinery started to make funny noises when my bag went through. A customs officer appeared and took the bag to be checked out. Good for him, he used gloves. With the flow I had, touching my thinks by a healthy person required gloves. Few minutes later he discovered the metal objects that made the machinery sing. He took out the case I kept all the thinks needed for the nails, the eyebrows, the tooth, the ears, e.t.c. in.

It is hard to imagine the mess in there: powder all over the place, stacked on the objects, pieces of toilet paper, a rest of toothpaste, few cleaning ears sticks warped in a piece of toilet paper.

He picked all the metal objects and put them aside, one by one. Because of the stories I heard before, from lots of people whose belongings were confiscated, I got scared. I was not sure what his intentions were, so each time he took an object, I immediately defended it, with desperation: “Please, don’t take that, I need it.”

At first, he said nothing. The next objects he put aside, the same reaction from my side: “Don’t take it away, it’s important.”

Very calm and serious, the custom officer asked me: “is this important?” showing me the old tweezers.
- Very important. They don’t do this anymore. Is a present from my mother. It is very good and very important.

He realized that for me, everything from the messy case was vital.

He took out the ears sticks, looked at it and asked:
- Are those important as well?
- No, those you can take, if you feel like.
- I won’t take anything. I’m just going to put them in a bag.
- Thank you!

While the custom officer did what he said and sealed the bag, he asked me:
- What country are you from, Mrs.?
- From Romania.

Ingredients

• 600 g. spinach
• 750 g. calamari without the head
• 5 spoons of olive oil
• 3 onions
• 70 ml. of white dry wine
• 50 g. of dill
• 3 spoons of mint (cut small)
• salt, pepper

Cooking Procedure

1. Cut the calamari 1 cm. thick.
2. Cut the onions and the dill small.
3. Fry the onions for 3 min.
4. Add the dill, the mint and the calamari pieces. Salt and pepper them.
5. Fry for 5 min.
6. Add 200 ml. of hot water and cover the pot.
7. Leave it on the fire, at low temperature, for 20 min.
8. Cut the spinach small.
9. Put it in the pot with the rest of the food.
10. Add 50 ml. of water and boil for 10 min.
11. Add the wine and boil for 5 min.

If you still don’t know how to cook calamari, you’d better go have dinner to your favorite sea food restaurant.

Lamb can be a delicious meal, if properly cooked. Moreover, if you can’t eat everything at one meal, you can use the rest for preparing some great leftover ham recipes. This is only a matter of creativity, to combine leftovers with fresh food, in order to create original meals. Ham is a great ingredient in such cases, as it helps a lot.

Ingredients

• 800 g. lamb pulp
• 150 g. butter
• 2 lemons
• 5 spoons of olive oil
• 500 g. of small potatoes
• salt, pepper

Cooking Procedure

1. Cut the meat big. Salt and pepper the pieces.
2. Fry them in hot olive oil, for 10 min, on each side.
3. Take the pot off the fire.
4. Squeeze the lemons.
5. Pour the lemon juice over the meat.
6. Cover the pot and leave it for 5 min. like this.
7. Add ¼ l. of water.
8. Put the pot on the fire, at low temperature, for 30 min.
9. Cut the potatoes in cubes. Salt and pepper them.
10. Fry them for 5 min. and put them in the pot with the meat for the last 15-min.

Ingredients:

• 600 g. pork pulp
• 4 onions
• flour
• semoline
• 2 eggs
• paprika
• tomato juice
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

Cooking Procedure

1. Cut the meat in medium pieces.
2. Cut the onions small.
3. Fry them for 3 min., than add 1 cup with hot water.
4. Stir from time to time until the water evaporates.
5. Salt and pepper the meat and the onions.
6. Add 50 ml. of vegetable oil.
7. Continue to fry for 3 min.
8. Add 500 g. of hot water.
9. Leave the food, at medium temperature, for 10 min.
10. During this time, scramble the eggs. Salt them.
11. Add, bit by bit, flour and semoline (equal shares) and stir until you obtain a thick cream.
12. Boil 400 g. of water.
13. Put, spoon by spoon, the cream in it.
14. Don’t stir.
15. Wait for the cream to become hard.
16. Boil it for 5 min.
17. Take them out and put it in the meat and onion sauce.
18. Add the paprika.
19. Put the food in the oven, at medium temperature, for 10 min.
20. Add the tomato sauce and put the food back in the oven for 5 min.

If you want, you can replace the pulp with bone-in pork chops, thus creating original pork chops recipes for your dinner guests.

Ingredients

• 1 kg. of green salad
• 100 g. of rice
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 3 eggs
• 50 g. of vinegar
• olive oil
• salt

Cooking Procedure

1. Grate the carrots and the onion. Salt them.
2. Fry them with the rice for 5 min., adding few spoons with hot water.
3. Boil 2 l of water.
4. Put the mixture in them and boil it, at medium temperature, for 10 min.
5. Cut the salad.
6. Put it in the soup. Add salt.
7. Continue to boil for 10 min.
8. Scramble the eggs.
9. Pour them in the soup throw the fork’s teeth.
10. Continue to boil for 10 min.
11. Add the vinegar.

This is it. If you didn’t know yet, please find out that you can successfully use vinegar for heartburn. Try it and see for yourself.

This cauliflower soup recipe is the favourite of my brother. I personally prefer the cauliflower recipes based on roasted or mashed cauliflower. That’s because I’m not so much of a soup eater. However, I still think this recipe is worth sharing with you, especially that it belongs to my heart healthy cooking recipes. We all have to take care of our heart and avoid too much of the bad cholesterol which causes so many troubles.

Cauliflower Soup Ingredients

• 1 vegetable marrow
• 200 g. of potatoes
• 4 carrots
• 2 onions
• 100 g. of cauliflower
• 50 g. of cabbage
• 3 tomatoes
• 200 g. of cream
• 50 g. of dill
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

Cooking Procedure

1. Cut the potatoes in medium cubes.
2. Boil them for 5 min. and throw away the water.
3. Grate the vegetable marrow, the carrots, and the onions. Salt and pepper them.
4. Fry them, at medium temperature, for 3 min.
5. Put them in 2 l. of hot water and boil them for 20 min, with the cauliflower bouquets, the grated cabbage and the potatoes.
6. Cut the tomatoes in small cubes.
7. Add them in the soup and boil for 5 min.
8. Cut the dill small.
9. Leave the soup to chill up for 10 min. and add the dill and the cream.

Serve the cauliflower soup with sower cream and garlic toast. If you want to show your creativity in the kitchen, you can prepare as the second course a nice roasted cauliflower, which will have a totally different taste if you add some curry at the end of the roasting process.

Ingredients

• 400 g. of spiral pasta
• 100 g. of sugar
• 450 g. of nuts

Cooking Procedure

1. Boil the pasta until they are ready.
2. Cover the pot and leave it for 30 min.
3. Smash the nuts heart very small (powder like).
4. Mix it up with the sugar.
5. Strain the pasta and sprinkle it up with cold water.
6. Mix it up with the nuts and the sugar.
7. Put it in the oven, at low temperature, for 10 min.
8. Stir from time to time.

You can serve it hot or cold.
Good either way.