Persian Food - Khoreshte Bademjan (Eggplant Stew)

Letting the eggplant 'sweat'.

YUM...onions and turmeric...

I grill the eggplant on my pancake griddle without a drop of oil - the eggplant is perfect and the food isn't greasy - as eggplant can act as a bit of a sponge.

The finished food - delicious.

If you want our recipe, let me know. We probably make it a bit differently as foods can vary by family and city of birth apparently. We make it like Mano's mom. Here is a link to a great Persian food blog, and also a link to a fabulous Persian recipe book that we use a lot! Mooshe jan! (Enjoy!)

http://turmericsaffron.blogspot.ca/2009/03/eggplant-stew-khoresh-bademjan.html

http://www.amazon.ca/Food-Life-Ancient-Persian-Ceremonies/dp/193382347X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359420184&sr=8-1

Overnight Waffles

This post is for Jen O - we all (Jen, Linda, and I) talked about food a lot in out hotel room and I promised to post this recipe. It is the one we always use - the grandchildren love them, they are creamy on the inside and crispy on the outside:

Overnight Waffles
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Start the night before - no more work than other waffles but you have to plan the night before.

1/2 tsp. yeast
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
8 Tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs

Before going to bed, combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in the milk, butter and vanilla. the mixture will be loose. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside overnight at room temperature.

Brush waffle iron with oil (I don't do this - my waffle iron doesn't need it), an preheat it.

Separate egg white from yolks. Add yolks to waffle mix; stir. Beat egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Fold them into the waffle batter, gently.

I use a 1 cup ladle to drop the batter onto hot waffle iron - and cook 4 - 4 1/2 minutes - that depends on your iron. I have the Kitchen Aid double waffle iron - it takes about 4 + minutes on mine.

Enjoy:)

So Far, So Good

So far my (not) resolutions are going great...shelf-by-shelf: check. Write every day: check. Exercise daily: ummm, will do today still, I have 10 more hours!

I have cleared out, in the last few days, my bedside table (Mano too, without a single prompt from me - trust me though, he didn't throw much away, I know this without even looking or asking. He's a pack rat.), a kitchen drawer, the refrigerator, and I cleared off my dresser. It feels good; only 999 more shelves, drawers, cubbies, surfaces, to go.

Writing has been easy - I just sit down to do it, and bam, it's done. I'm on a roll. I think to tweak that goal, I'll add a word count. For now 500 words/day. I'll have to use the computer more to know that, right now I write in a notebook, which I do like, but will have to learn how many 'inches' of my handwriting equal 500 words. I can do that, and will let you know.

What else did I say I would do? I'll have to go back and look. Those are the two that stand out....well the exercising stands out, but I really did wait til the actual 1st to do this one. I will, I will! I couldn't do it last night because  had 17 recordings of Coronation Street to get through:)

Oh, think more...yes, I've thought much today! I really have, I had a quiet day, with nary a sound in the house, for much thinking.

Crafting...I mended something yesterday that was in great need of mending, and saved myself $86 on an article that was expensive, but unwearable with out the mending. So that was good; hardly a craft, but it was good. I also got out a book on painting that I've been reading, not exactly like painting, but still I learned a lot, and I was inspired!

I found a great recipe I am going to try on marthastewart.com for Moroccan Meatball Carrot and Sweet Potato stew. Here's the link - I'm making it today:

http://www.marthastewart.com/959289/moroccan-meatball-soup-sweet-potato#ooid=hpamRyNzqUtjX9WkShNSFDeZv3XASidk

This blog post is (was, before I started writing this sentence!)  344 words. That's going to be too easy - but I'll stick with it for awhile to make sure that's it's doable. Till next time!

Mano

It's Manochehr's birthday today, in Canada, and though he doesn't enjoy getting older, he does enjoy being loved and fussed over a little:)) I decked him out in a new suit for church, as my gift. Lucky us; he made Okra Khoresht for dinner, and instead of cake, which he doesn't have any great love for, I made home-made cream puffs, something he actually does have a great love for. When we go to Iran, he always chooses a cream puff from the bakery over everything else. It turns out that they are a snap to make, and here is the proof:

Keep Guacamole Fresh & Wheat Belly

OK, so this is a random post on guacamole, which we have been eating liberally this week. What is the bane of guacamole? It's very difficult to store for later...so I looked it up and found this solution at: http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Guacamole-Fresh

But I'll just tell you b/c it's so easy!

1. Put the remaining guacamole in the smallest bowl possible that it will fit while leaving a small lip.
2. Smooth it out flat as possible with a spoon.
3. Carefully smooth out a layer of sour cream on top, sealing up the edges to the bowl. No guacamole should be visible. (I used a thin later).
4. Cover with plastic wrap, starting at the middle and smoothing out to the edges...try to seal out all the air you can.
5. Put in the fridge.

We pulled this out of the fridge later to perfect guacamole!

I could post all the day about what I've been learning about wheat and gluten, if you are interested two of the books I have been reading are Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis and Living Gluten-Free for Dummies by Danna Korn, both of which are easy reading and SUPER interesting.

There is a blog by Dr. Davis here: http://www.wheatbellyblog.com and another amazingly helpful blog on gluten-free recipes/living here: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.ca.

There are compelling reasons, according to my reading, for learning about gluten and wheat even if you do not have Celiac disease, or wheat sensitivities - all laid out in the books mentioned here. There can be affects on joints, allergies, fibromyalgia (my interest), chubby bellies (also my interest:), blood sugar (!), cholesterol, and other areas, for example ADD and Autism. Read the books and decide for yourself.

It's been about a week or two so far, and I am finding it pretty easy, though I still need to work on cutting out the wheat free food that is still not healthy, such as the half a pint of Ben & Jerry's that Jared forced me and Mano to eat the other night - at least we shared it :) The reason I find it easy is that there is no hunger, or counting of calories, or weighing of foods, etc. Basically you eat from this list of foods:

Vegetables
Fruits
Meats
Dairy (for me - some with actual Celiac may be intolerant)(Ice Cream is included in this list!)
Nuts
Non-Wheat Grains/Starches (rice, potato, corn, buckwheat, beans, quinoa, etc.)
Fish
Legumes
Poultry
Seafood
Eggs

I haven't been hungry in any way shape or form, and I don't miss the wheat hardly at all. The biggest trick is to find it all, as it 'hides' in some things in the form of wheat starch, wheat malt (malt flavouring, malt vinegar), wheat germ,  wheat bran, etc.

What is off-limits?

Wheat (includes durum, semolina, flour, bulgur, kamut, graham, farina, spelt, einkorn, and others ).
Barley
Rye
Triticale
Oats (b/c of cross contamination - you can by oats that are not contaminated, search on the web.) I don't know at this early stage if this matter that much to me or not.

Breakfast this morning (plain Greek yoghurt, blueberries, almonds, pecans):

Let me know if you decide to learn more...we can commiserate!

Smoothies and VitaMix

Hah, so I have been eying this blender for a while, waiting for it to show up at Costco which it did this last week, and I've been experimenting with it for the last few days. Here is what I whipped up just now:

frozen blueberries

frozen strawberries

1/2 frozen banana (I prefer the smoothie not to be overpowering banana!)

drizzle Manuka™ honey

dash flax seed

1/4 tomato

almond milk

heaping spoon of plain yoghurt.

Blend...yum.

Yesterday:

frozen banana (1/2)

frozen grapes

frozen mango

1/4 carrot

5-7 spinach leaves

lots of ice

water

Blend...makes 'ice cream'.

According to Urban Spoon:

There are the restaurants in Edmonton that critics and bloggers are talking about:

Duchess Bake Shop photo by Erika I'm going to start at the bottom and work my way up, and I'll let you know what I think along the way. I am fed up with chains; I'm going to patronize the local eateries only for one year, beginning Nov. 1, 2010.

Duchess Bake Shop Korean BBQ House Twisted Fork The Dish & The Runaway Spoon Cora Breakfast & Lunch Wildflower Grill The Three Amigos Authentic Mexican Restaurant Cafe de Ville Furusato Japanese Restaurant Culina Mill Creek

Ash e Jo (Persian Barley Soup)

I was checking on line this morning for a recipe for Veal Scallopini, and found that Ash e Jo is the Recipe of the Day at allrecipes.com. Must be their way of showing support for Iran:-)

Check it out; this soup is delicious!