Israeli Food

Last week I gave you the low-down on our round-the-world cooking project (which you can read about here) and it's about time I shared one of my favourite countries so far - Israel.  I loved the seasoning on the meat and the crisp bright salad and best of all was the fresh bread my son baked.  Here's what we had:

SEARED LAMB WITH ISRAELI COUSCOUS We adapted a recipe from here and added some spices from other Google searches.  We hoped it was authentic, but even if it wasn't it sure tasted fantastic.    We also added a chicken breast because certain husbands don't like to eat cute little lambs.

Ingredients for the Seared Lamb (and Chicken): 2 tsp tumeric 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp paprika 1 onion  1 clove garlic 1 skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks 1 lamb chop, bone taken out and cut into chunks 2 tablespoons of olive oil salt and pepper to taste water as needed
Method: 1.  Mix the tumeric, cinnamon, paprika together and coat the meat. 2.  Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes.  Add the meat and cook until the meat is no longer pink in the centre.  Add water as needed so there is a little sauce in the pan.

ISRAELI COUSCOUS
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups couscous 2 1/2 cups water 2 tsp bouillon pinch saffron 1/2 cup raisins (or apricots) Method: 1.  Stir in the bouillon, saffron, couscous, and raisins/apricots to the water.  Bring to a boil then cover and remove from heat.  Set aside for 5 minutes. 2.  Fluff the couscous with a fork.

ISRAELI SALAD Two words best describe this salad - colourful and delicious!  I had the leftovers the next day in my lunch and it was even better, if that is even possible.  We adapted the recipe from here.
Ingredients: 4 tomatoes, diced 4 mini cucumbers, diced 1 orange pepper, seeded and diced 3 green onions, sliced 1 clove garlic sliced (so it could be removed before eating) 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/2 cup olive oil (or was it 1/4 cup - I'd start with 1/4 and add more if needed) 1 tbsp lemon juice salt and pepper to taste
Method: Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Mix together and refrigerate.

CHALLAH BREAD After mixing the dough and letting it rise, William divided the dough into three parts and braided them together.

He then coated the top of the dough with egg white and sprinkled it with sesame seeds and he made a beautiful loaf that looked like this.  It was as delicious as it looked.

I'm finally getting some of our cooking project posts done.  You can read about Egypt here and Persia and Pakistan are coming soon.

What I've Been Up To

Hello friends. I'm just checking in to let you know what I've been up to.  Here goes.
Did you know that my husband has been in Edinburgh since January 2nd doing research for his book?  Did you know that we are planning on going to a Robbie Burns dinner (Scotland's favourite poet) on January 24th just hours after Jonathan gets back from Edinburgh?  Fingers crossed that he isn't overcome with jet lag so we can go.  Anyway, in honour of both of those Scottish events I have been dressing our bed in some plaid pillow cases I got last year at the thrift shop.  I got two that match and one single one so I just wrapped it around a throw pillow - simple and it makes me happy.

I've also been working on a photo book of our son's wedding - yep the son that got married a year-and-a-half ago.  I had never got around to making a book or printing off any photos so I put it on my New Year's resolution list for this year to motivate me.  Here's a screen shot of how I'm doing.  I'm trying to decide if words like 'The Reception' are a good addition or not.  Have you ever made a photo book?  I have used Kodak in the past, but this is my first time using Shutterfly and there are a lot of options for backgrounds and stickers and things that make it fun somewhat overwhelming.  I set myself a goal of finishing the book by the time Jonathan gets back from Edinburgh and it is basically done and ready for final edits so I'm right on track.

And I've booked airline tickets, hotel, and bought opera tickets for New York for the March Break.  We take each of our children to New York city when they are finished high school as a fun way to have a special time together with them.  Since Jonathan has used up all his holiday time, I get to take William to New York.  Then it occurred to us that my parents had never been to New York City so we invited them to go as well.  The four of us will be in New York during the last part of the March Break - can't wait!
And did you know that I've been enjoying a beautiful photograph taken by my friend Kat from Low Tide High Style Art.  She gave me the photo for some help I gave her setting up her online shop.  Thanks so much Kat.  We love it!  I have it hanging in the dining room right now and am enjoying how the blue colour of the door looks so pretty with the pink flowers that my mother left me when they went to Florida.  I'm going to do a better post (and take better non-backlit photos) when I include the photo in the gallery wall-to-be.

And I've been feasting every weekend on the best lunch EVER!  Malcolm made me some raisin bread for Christmas (which tastes so delicious).

Which I toast and slather with peanut butter and a smidge of honey (okay, maybe a bit more than a smidge).

And drink with the world's best hot chocolate.  Here's how I make it - microwave a cup full of milk on high for two minutes and then stir in one heaping tablespoonful of the hot chocolate mix (they say to use four, but I find one tastes great and has fewer calories) and stir, stir, stir.

And before you know it you are left with this.

And finally, I'm working on decluttering and sorting out the house (aren't we all?). I tidied up my desk as the first step to organizing myself.  As my desk goes, so goes my state of being ... and i'm hoping for a calm, happy, organized state of being.  So far I've kept it tidy. I'm also going to aim to get rid of 365 things this year.  I have a couple of bags of things waiting to go to the thrift store so I'm on my way.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'll be back in a day or so with a post about one of the yummiest country food we have cooked so far - Israel. Did you catch Egypt's meal because it was pretty darn good too.

Egyptian Food

William has inspired me to resume our round-the-world cooking project and over the past six weeks we have cooked food from Egypt, Israel, Persia, and Pakistan.  
I haven't talked about our family project for quite awhile, so if you are new let me bring you up to speed. About four (or possibly even five) years ago I decided to expand our culinary horizons.  We were stuck in a dinnertime rut of eating the same things over and over again. I decided to mix things up by cooking our way around the world - and you know it has worked as I have added many new fantastic recipes to our family favourites   Not only have we found new recipes we like, but everyone has enjoyed learning what foods and recipes are made in other countries.  
Here's how it works. I decided we would start in Ireland and work our way from one country to the next around the world.  We have cooked our way through northern Europe, over to Russia, back through central and southern Europe and then across northern Africa.  I search for traditional recipes on Google from the country we are in and then make them for dinner. I also try to set the table using something that reminds me of the country (not that it is always possible, but I just have fun picking a colour or pattern that reminds me of the area).
We were doing well and sampling a new country every few months when we hit Libya.  Right after I cooked Libyan food the country exploded into civil war.  I was posting the recipes I made on the blog as we did them, but I just couldn't post about something so frivolous as cooking food when people were dying in Libya.  It rather took the wind out of my sails and I didn't cook any more countries for well over a year.  William mentioned this fall that we really should keep going ... and so we did.  Now William Googles the recipes and helps me cook them which makes it much easier.  He has even decided he wants to try and make some bread from each country too.  Oh, and he has also decided we are doing cultural groups not countries (did you notice Persia listed above?).  It's all fine with me as the fun for me is trying new recipes.
A few weeks ago we made Egyptian food (well I hope it is pretty authentic anyway).  I have been to Egypt, but when we were there we mostly ate chicken and falafels and shawarmas.  One of the dishes that was frequently mentioned when we Googled traditional Egyptian food was koshary so that is what we made.  It is a lentil and rice dish with several yummy toppings (I adapted the recipe from here).  We also made two kinds of salads and some Egyptian bread.  

KOSHARY

Ingredients:
16 oz package of ditalini pasta
1 1/2 cups short-grained rice, rinsed
1 1/2 cups brown lentils 
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp butter
 3 cups chicken stock

Method:
1.  Cook the pasta according to directions on the package, drain and set aside.
2.  Combine lentils with enough water to cover and season with salt and pepper.  Boil for about 45 minutes. Drain
3.  Cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil until translucent (about 5 to 7 minutes).  Add the crushed tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook.
4.  Melt butter in a pan.  Add the rice to the butter and cook over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes stirring constantly.  Pour the chicken stock over the rice, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and cook until rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed (about 20 minutes).
5.  Mix the rice and lentils together on a large serving platter.  Spread the cooked pasta over the rice and lentils.  Spread the tomato mixture over top.  Serve with seasoned chick peas and caramelized onions.

Seasoned Chick Peas
1 14.5 oz can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Method:
Combine ingredients, cover, and store in refrigerator while preparing the rest of the dish.

Caramelized Onions
3 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tbsp oil (or more if needed)
pinch of sugar
Method:
Cook in oil for 25 minutes stirring often.

My son made some Egyptian Garlic Yogurt Cucumber Salad (adapted from this recipe) which was fantastic (even better the next day).

Egyptian Garlic Yogurt Cucumber Salad

Ingredients:

4 oz plain yogurt

1/2 cucumber, grated finely

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp dill

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Combine ingredients, cover, store in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

William made some ancient Egyptian bread using this recipe.  It tasted great and was perfect for dipping into the yummy yogurt cucumber salad.

And finally, I made this Egyptian Salad. Although it looked great and tasted fine, I made too much and we preferred the koshary and the cucumber salad.  

And here is the whole shebang on my plate.  It was hard to get many photos as everyone was hungry and wanted to eat. The koshary was a big hit, as was the cucumber salad and the Egyptian bread.

I like to record the recipes we have tried (and especially if we have enjoyed them) here on my blog as I find it an easy way to locate them again.  I'll try and get the other countries posted soon.  We are now in India and that will take us awhile as William is keen on sampling many of the foods from the varied cultural groups in India.
Also in case you were interested in some of the other foods we have cooked, here is a list (although the list is not complete because some of the countries were cooked in my pre-blog days):
Ireland - Colcannon Norway - Fiskesuppe Italy - several dishes (not our favourites) France - Salade Nicoise and Seafood Stuffed Crepes Spain - Paella Morocco - Casablanca Couscous and Moroccan Chicken with Apricots

Winterscapes Around the House

With Christmas gone it was time to add some winterscapes around the house. Winter decorations on the sideboard and mantel and shelves ... hmmm, let's see.
Wintery wallpaper to cover the flower art.  Check!
Snowballs and pinecones.  Check!

Giant paper star.  Check!

Brass Owl.  Check!

Silvery and glittery trees.  Check!

Blue and White on the kitchen shelves.  Check!

Silver and white on the mantel.  Check!

Some hits of orange on the mantel so we don't get lost in a world of neutrals.  Check!  (Oh, and if you want to know how I made those oranges you can read about them here).

I think that will do.  Winter is only here for another two months so this will be gentle on the eye for the next little while.
Have you winterscaped your home?

Linked to Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now,
SNS at Funky Junk Interiors,
Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill

A Rainbow of Kitchen Islands

A few days ago I wrote a post about what different countertop colours work best in white kitchens (you can read about it here).  Since I adore white kitchens, one post just didn't seem to be enough and seriously it was so much fun to spend hours and hours pouring over beautiful white kitchens that I had to write another post. The more I Googled and ogled over all the lovely white kitchens, the more I became interested in the kitchen islands - more particularly the colours they were painted. 

I took my job seriously and did some old-fashioned counting to see how many kitchen islands were white versus a contrasting colour.  I found that 75% of white kitchens also had white islands to match the cabinets, like in the photo below.

Country Living

And any colour in the kitchen was added through accessories rather than the colour of the island.

Midwest Living

The white-on-white unified look is beautiful without a doubt.  However about 25% of the kitchens were willing to change things up a bit and paint the island a contrasting colour.  Neutrals were by far the most popular choice, but some bold souls went all out and chose pretty much any colour you could imagine.  I loved the wild abandon of colour in some of the kitchens and hope I might be that brave if I ever have a kitchen island.  

I set myself a challenge to try and find kitchen islands in every colour of the rainbow and I think I passed the challenge.  Have a look and see what you think.  Let's start with the neutrals (from light to dark) and then work our way through the rainbow of colours, shall we?

NEUTRALS

BHG

Houzz

Margot Austin

Paper blog

A RAINBOW OF COLOURS

Harvey Jones

House to Home

Colorado Homes

Houzz

Kitchen Designs

Appliance in Home

BHG

BHG

Country Living

House Beautiful

BHG

BHG

House to Home

Houzz

We've come to the end of the rainbow - unless we include all the colours that is.  

Digsdigs

What did you think?  Are you an all-white sort or would you go with the minority and paint your kitchen island a colour?  Would it be a wild colour or a neutral?