Chicken kotletki

So!?  How was it???????????  :)

My Christmas was very sweet, we celebrated at Vito's mom's house as usual.  We all brought a dish over and I made a jr mistake of eating too much of my mom in law's home made salmon mouse for starters that literally I didn't have room for anything else!  I had to lamely say that I'm saving room for desserts...

I was also tasked with contributing to the holiday meal and I went all "Ukrainian Nostalgia" this year!

I made Chicken balls for starters and a Honey Cake.  Here is the recipe for the Kotletki :)  SUPER EASY!

Getting happy

Ukrainian chicken kotletki (balls)

1lb ground chicken meat
3 slices of bread (white or brown)
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 green onion chopped
1 large garlic clove finely chopped
1 table spoon of lemon juice
1 tsp dried dill (or fresh)
1 tsp dried basil
2 tbs of oil

Prepare:
Soak 3 slices of bread in the milk then squeeze out the milk from the bread.  Tear the breads into small chunks and throw into the mixing bowl.
Put the ground chicken meat into the mixing bowl.
Crack an egg into he bowl as well as the chopped onion, green onion and garlic.  Add the herbs, salt and pepper.   Mix everything together.  I just use my hands... I always liked squeezing the stuff through my fingers..

Warm up a large pan and the oil.  Make larger or smaller balls from the meat mixture and cook in batches if necessary on medium to low heat.  Few minutes on each side should do it, depending if you made larger or smaller balls.

Make smaller sized balls for starters, or larger burger sized ones and serve as main course with some potatoes and veggies.

WARNING: This is very garlicky.  If you're planning to kiss people later that day who have NOT eaten the same balls, leave out the garlic.  But then again, the balls will be so sad without the garlic.

Read more...

Peanut Butter Cookies Ice Cream Sandwiches... wow what's a mouthful!

Here is the other cutesy thing I made for the "manly" dinner.  Peanut Butter Cookies Ice Cream Sandwiches!

The recipe inspiration for the cookies came from here and the plating from here.

1 cup of peanut butter (creamy)
3/4 cup of organic brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
pine nuts for flower decoration

Mix all ingredients well.  Put a spoon-full of on the cookie sheet flatten and decorate with pine nuts. 

Bake on a cookie sheet in a warmed up over at 175C (350F) for 8 minutes.  8 minutes ONLY!  Note that cookies will still be completely soft when you take them out of the oven but they will harden in a few minutes.  Don't stick the cookies to bake longer or they'll burn.  (I burned my first batch because I'm not good with authority and decided to bake longer then 8 mins.)

For the ice cream filling I used store bought cinnamon ice cream, mixed it with a bit of pickled ginger syrup.  

Ta-da! 

Read more...

Party Planning for 8

#Menus #Calm #Greece-Turkey


It's Friday!
Tomorrow is the dinner and I haven't exactly started preparing anything except getting some of the groceries last evening.  But I'm very calm.  The more the situation calls for stress the calmer I get.  I like that about myself.  It scares the kaka out of those around me.  (I can say kaka, I'm a mom, it's normal.)   Oh, and good thing I asked if any of the guests had any allergies or food aversions etc... and turns out there will be a VEGETARIAN among us.  She seemed very nonchalant about it saying I didn't have to worry as she'll b fine eating just the sides.  It's clearly her first time to my house.  In my house all dishes served contain "man-gredient", or meat.  (Yes, men can also be vegetarian I'm just grossly stereotyping).

The theme will be "somewhere in between Greece and Turkey..."

Happy Hour  
We're starting at 6.30 pm with cocktails.  To ensure dining success I like to immediately get the guests to an advanced stage of inebriation.

• Welcome Cocktail - Kir Royale
• Cocktail 2 - Tequila...with something
• 32 bites (4 per person)- I was going to make sushi, then... I got real and decided to buy some instead.
• 8 sushi bites
• 8 pempernikle triangles with smoked salmon and sour cream
• 8 cucumber somethings....
• 8 something else....

Fun Dishes
Dishes to have on the table before the starters come out.  The starter's starter?

• Beetroot Hummus (Thanks for the inspiration Tiny Woolf!)
• Chickpea Hummus
• Pita Triangles (to go with all the Hummus overload)
• Black and Green Olives
• Bread aioli and herb butter

Main Course
• Peppers stuffed with wild rice, sausage and apples
• Lamb something... (I have not decided yet)

Side Dishes
• Little Gem, garlic olives and feta salad
• String bean salad

Dessert
• Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberries
• Grapes platter (you know for after dinner when we're reclining on our right side.)



Well, anyway, the picture is slightly less fuzzy... I'm very calm. ;)
And now JUST at this moment it struck me to consult people that know what they're talking about....

A quick search yielded the following advice from Michelle @Browneyedbaker:

What she suggest and what I actually did...

1 }  First choose your main course and work the rest of your menu around that - oops... I planned the cocktails first and worked my way up from that...
2 }  I always like to include a salad with a dinner- check!! Little Gem salad
3 }  Then add a vegetable- String bean salad, yey, so far so good
4 }  Depending on how many people you have, you may want another vegetable side dish- Caprese salad
5 }  Starchy side - Wild rice
6 }  Bread or rolls with butter - bread with aioli and herb butter7 }  Now choose your appetizers. For appetizers, the general rule of thumb is 5 servings per person per hour prior to serving a meal. - good deal! I got 4 bites per person plus humus "fun" plates

Piece of cake!

Read more...

Memories of youth.

Ensalada Russa

• carrots
• peas
• pickles
• potatoes

Cook and peel the vegetables.

Cut them into perfect little squares.

Mix with mayonase, and add freshly ground black pepper. Ok, so 1 down. It's ok, I like to leave myself something to aspire to. ;)

Read more...

Good news and Bad news.

Ok, we'll start with the good news. This is after all SemprePrimavera where bad news are not even allowed...

So.

The good news about working from home is that I get to have this in the morning while sitting down calmly at the kitchen table with my complementary Business Week.

There are bad news however...

The bad news about working from home is that... I get to be FAAAAT!!!!!! (See above diagram.)

Oh, and if yummy breakfasts (lunches, dinners) are not problematic enough, mommy, decides to definitively tip the scales over with these!!!!

And I thought she WANTED Nico to like me and carry me off to Nicoland.

Sofia Loren was a skinny toothpick and all the kids made fun of her in her native Naples. Then at about the age of 16-18, she started developing her famous curves. When asked how she gets to be so hot she always answered.

"You sink diz iz so easy and natural for me??? Oh noh!! I work very ard on diz figure! I eatalotta spaghetti every day! Grazie alle spaghetti!" (See quote if you don't believe me.)

Well, I guess I'll try the same approach when Nico asks me why I got so fat...

"Well sweetie, it's because I try really hard, this doesn't just happen naturally you know! I eat alotta cinamonyapplishious fluffy squares dusted with sugar! Grazzie alle apple squares!"

mammamia, hope it works, hey if it doesn't I'll just ask him if he'd like some more ice cream...

Read more...

SemprePrimavera explains Valentine's Day

Yeah it's way to early this Monday morning to be thinking about Valentine's Day (VD) but since I've been up for hours already, it's not too early for me to give an opinion.

Personally I think the whole concept is ridiculous! Having to be romantic on a particular day in a particular way basically negates the meaning of what Romance is!!! Romance is supposed to posses the three "S's": Sspontaneous, Ssurprising and Simply delicious! So I'm personally completely against this ridiculous thing that VD stands for.

However..!

We live in a society that places some kind of importance or status on this day weather we like to admit it or not. Ignoring the day... may just arise confusion. I remember my very first Valentine's with my very first boyfriend (at sixteen). I had the idea to take the day as a joke, so I gave him silly boxers with mickey mouse and hearts on them. His reaction: "oh no! now I won't be able to show your gift to my MOM!" Apparently his mom asked what he was giving me (which was a stuffed animal - why I don't know because I never liked stuffed animals) and would be curious as to what I gave as a gift. So basically Valentine's in our society is some kind of "show and tell" about what my girlfriend/boyfriend got me.

Now that we know the rules, we can play.

So:

Explanation: VD is a day on which you publicly confirm the fact that you have a girlfriend/boyfriend.

Now that we know VD has absolutely nothing to do with the romantic feelings that you both have for each other, we can pick out the GIFT accordingly.

Figure out at what stage of the relationship you are in and what would be an appropriate gift. One that you can talk about with all the nosey relatives, co-workers or friends that are looking out for your best interest and want to make sure your man/woman is treating you correctly.

BTW have you ever wondered why flowers get delivered to the girls' office instead of bringing them to the house in the evening? Easy- so she can display them on her table in front of co workers. Duh!

And guys, as always "the bigger the better" rule applies, yes of course women compare.

In case you are wondering, yes I did follow my own advice. My gift can be easily discussed in the office, with friends AND (as I learned my lesson) with MOM also!

Made 'em myself obviously, first time too!

Read more...

Don't you just love cupcakes!

So Highcontrast and I went to Ikea the other day. I drove so, Highcon decided to thank me by feeding me all day!!!

Starting with these INCREDIBLE Red Velvet cupcakes from Amy's Bread! (photo above from NYnewsday.com) Mine disappeared too fast for picture taking!

Endless free refills of Ikea coffee is just mandatory. Then, we OBVIOUSLY had to have some Swedish meatballs with lingdonberry sauce. (Obviously!)

After that more shopping insuid, and let me tell you it is SO nice in Ikea on a Monday since there is NO ONE THERE! However the few people that were there, still afforded us with plenty of opportunities to make fun.

Even on the return trip a bit of traffic was welcomed since we were having an in depth strategy session for our next game plan... One must always have the next step in life planned. It may not happen the way you plan it, but in any case you'll be better prepared.

In the evening some spicy Jambalaya...! I'm not eating ALL day today!

Read more...

Mangez moi...mangez moi...mangez-moiiiaaaa

I was grooming the Domestic Goddess in me again yesterday... and voila'!

First time I tried them, and they came out super yummy AND it was pretty easy. (Ok, fine, the truth is that I 'smoked' my cuisineart food processor, but it was old anyway, and the smell of burned plastic only lingered in the house for a few hours... anyway I ended up having to mix the almond paste with sugar by hand!)

I know you'all going to ask for a recipe, and I'm not even going to pretend to know what I'm doing. I just used goodle and looked around a bit. I choose my recipe based on shortness and ingredient count. The shorter and the less ingredients is the one I always choose. In this case I used this recipe. I liked it because it uses NO FLOUR! (And we all know flour is devil... especially white flour.)

I'm happy to find out that Nico thinks making cookies is magic. FINALLY! Really, him and I were literally fighting for elbow space in the kitchen. I realized his "I can't cook at all" basically equals mine "I'm a cook!". CAN YOU BELIEVE!?! So there I was thinking that impressing him will be a piece of cake, but after he orchestrated a gorgeous paella velenciana I realized this was going to be no easy task!! Whatever happened to the good old days when men set in front of the tele and watched whatever while us women would do our wonders in the kitchen and they'd totally WORSHIP us for making yummy food... Since when did they get off the couch migrate into the kitchen and started making suggestions!!!!????

haha JUST KIDDING! I'm not trying to revert us back to stone age...

Though why can't men understand that while we want them spending as much time in the kitchen as we do, we still would like to receive ALL the praise and worship for being domestic goddesses!!!!!! OKAY!???? Is that so difficult!????


I guess men would want the recognition for being good cooks too... but we ALREADY praise them for being: strong, smart, brave, rich....

There's the modern world for ya, both men and women are afraid to loose their spot in the world. We already don't have to talk or see each other to work, we don't have to touch each other to have children... soon we won't need to eat or breathe... we're done, we're allll soooo done!!!!

Yes, Mondays are dramatic and stressful days for me as you can see...

Read more...

Joyeux anniversaire grand-mère!!!

The weekend was absolutely fabulous and what better way to end it then a fancy-shmancy party!!! My Granmare really knows how to party it up, and what a number: EIGHTY!

The table was almost breaking underneath all kind of plates full of delicacies. There was crab salad, julienned mushrooms, roasted potatoes and a bunch of wild animals and fishes cooked to varying degrees in various sauces... OHHhhhhhh

Not to mention the cheese plates...

Drinks? There were so many drinks that if you poured them all together you could probably create a small-medium sized river, raise your sails and sail towards the sunset...

There was laughter, there was more laughter, and there was even some loud singing in a language I don't understand! (There is one like that... called Yiddish.)

Now I'm at work suffering the worst case of the "Mondays", the only consolation is that its already Tuesday!

au revoir mes petits amis!!

Read more...

I give you food! MUSIC! Don't say I don't give you anything!

The mystery of the funky european table top grilling... anraveles.... right here in front of your eyes at SEMPRE PRIMAVERA!!!

(Yes, how DID you live without me before???)

Thank you Wall Str for sending me an emergency email to inform me that we infact DO have those table top grill thingis.... We just call them differently, thanks Un Swiss Miss for pointing it out. So here are the beauties!

The one above is from Wolfgang Puck, and this one is from Cuisine Art and comes with a nifty recipe/idea book.

I guess here we call these things a "Raclette" grill.

Personally, I think if someone started a restaurant with these things, it would become so popular that they'd make a ton of money and be able to retire on the islands within a year!

Just think of how popular fondue restaurants have gotten.

And as a BONUS: I bring you another wonderful discovery from Europe...

Lilly Allen, an adorable London girl who sings (and writes) very fun songs. Yes she is young, and her songs center around experiencing a first love break-up or discovering that the world really is yucky... but I love her voice, the lyrics are clever and you can CLEARLY hear the english accent as she sings! That's just brilliant!! As usually accents are lost when people sing.

Read more...

First post of 2007!



Waw, already? Really?



I'm completely sick, what a freakin great way to start of the year... and got sick on NYE since I thought it may be ok to go outside with wet hair, sure, no problem, I'm made out of platinum!



Anyway, how shall I sum up my trip? Well first of all the first week was all about FOOD! And I'm glad because most of the next week I was sick and the nose medication completely knocked out my sense of smell so I could not taste what I was eating... so basically I didn't eat much since it would have been a waste anyway.



Well, the party season got kicked of at Nico's friends. Now I pride myself on being all knowing world traveler (etcetcetc...) but I've never seen this thing below!!!!




























Um... a table top barbecue stove??? Double deck portable grill? You can grill up various pieces of meat and make some potatoes and little omelets too... Anyway, its really popular over at Nicoland, I really wonder why we don't have it over here!?



Now for desert we had something that I am familiar with at least:





















There was plenty more food (and more and more and more and more.........) but I was too embarrassed about taking photos at family dinner... "Hey Nico... what's wrong with your girlfriend? Don't they have food back where she comes from?" So yes, I just opted for "mental" photography. Though now that I think about it, it was silly, I'm sure they would have been flatered. I really did want to appear "normal".

Read more...

Crema what!!???

I've been busting out my cookbooks out of the cupboard and actually trying some recipes. "Practicing." Trying to gain as much "bargaining power" as possible... You know, since I'm trying to get Nico to do my laundry I'll have to sweeten the deal for him too.

Anyway, I made Crema Catalana... (which in fact is very sweet) and I know, I've had my issues with Barcelona but why mix politics with FOOD!? So, here is the result:




















All I have to say... I'm looking forward to lots of progress this vacation. I am not sure how ambitious I should feel, but Grandma did tell me that one can get very far with sugar.

Read more...

Yummi this, yummi that... bla bla

Finally had time to upload these pictures from the apple orchard Jaz and I went to a few weeks ago. It was gorgeous and the apples were SO GOOD. Eating of the trees for free made them even sweeter. Well you do pay $8 and they hand you a bag which you may fill up with as many apples as you can fit in. Well they obviously didn't know who they were dealing with... we ate lots of apples of the trees. The down side however was that I couldn't look at another apple for a WHILE.

Now check this out and imagine the irony; when Nico and I arrived at the hotel we were staying at, we were handed... what?... yes APPLES!!! That place had big bowls full of apples all over the lobby... that was kinda their thing. Its kinda smallish on this picture, but between the two white columns you can see one of the baskets with apples.














Anyway back to the orchard... Lovely location... and see, mountain in the background.




















Here are the beauties up close... YUM! So, like a good girl (as in, NOT like a prostitute I guess) I wanted to make all kinds of applelicious things like pies and apple tarts... and so on and so forth... well I did NON of the things! Why? No reason, laziness. Ok, ok, and because I could not look at another apple in the eye! But still - Lazy! This weekend however, I want to make pumpkin raviolies. And I'm stating it here and now so I feel accountable to EVERYONE (as in EVERYONE). There, I said it, now I HAVE to make them.

Read more...

Yumminess!!!! (did I spell that right?)

The other day went to this place... Was soooooo delicious!!!!!!!!

















You rip the big sourdough pancake and grab the different stuff on the place with it! Who said it is not proper to eat with your hands!??? In this place you must!

NYC got its good moments... Maybe next week I can go to a restaurant specializing in southeastern Tuva specialties...

Ok, just made myself hungry, lunch time!!!!

ps: omg!!! less then a week till nicoland!!!!

Read more...

Grapes + Oranges = Apples!!!

Ok, so all this talk about cooking and liking to cook and stuff, made me inspired to actually... am... cook!

I thought about the wonderful recipes I'd like to bring to life, opened my cook books and started looking. Ummm so many yummy things to make!!!! Well, all this activity made me kinda hungry so I decided to make myself a little something for energy!

I went to pick up the groceries (in my parents' fridge, where I do all my grocery pick-ups...) and saw a huge container of grapes! This gave me an idea to make a smoothie!!!! I grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl... I thought about grabbing an apple as well, but apples are complicated and involve pealing and taking the core out... too much work. So just the grapes and an orange! Perfecto!


















Then I remembered that I bought Guarana powder from this AWESOME website (www.brazilianshop.com) where you can get all kinds of brazilian stuff. Food, clothes, etc. Let me tell you, I ordered some farofa, some cheese bread mix, flip flops (yes Havaianas) and the Guarana, and the box arrived promptly on time with every item so carefully and neatly wrapped in bubble wrap. It really felt that they definitely take pride in their business and want happy customers. EXCELLENT job!!! I felt the love!


Anyway, I threw in a double doze of the powder and a few ice cubes into the blender poured into my glass... Tasted... and... It tasted like APPLES!?!???!!! Whaaat? Weird.... did I do something wrong?? How did I mess up a recepie of TWO ingredients (unless you count ice cubes and guarana powder).

Anyway, it tasted good, guarana gave me a caffeine buzz and I decided to go for a run instead of cooking anything else.

The end~

Lesson kids: To remember that even if life gives you only Grapes and Oranges, it doesn't mean you can't make a smoothie that tastes like APPLES! If only the "angry bitches" from the book could have figured that one out!

Read more...

Ale's yummy lunch

In the honor of all good and yummy and all the education that I have received from the one and only original monzyummylunch! I bring you my very own yummy lunch!!! Oh the crispness of the bacon in the chicken BLT wrap was simply perfect, and the tomatoes... and the many mustard packets I've infused it with... was just AWESOME! Yeeeeaaah!

For those of you that always look for DEEPER meaning in my posts... there is one here as well! Do you see that big thing on my arm! Guess who gave it to me!!!!??? I so love it! And its cotton candy pink color!! I was actually concerned since it so happens I loose jewelry pieces all the time. I have lost every single piece that any guy has ever given me. Then I thought, its so HUGE! How can I lose it!!! :)

Oh pst... check out the NEW COUNTER ON THE BOTTOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read more...

The Brooklyn Diet!

How delicious does that look!??????? Believe it or not, but these wonderful delights can be found in good ol Brooklyn, on Emmons Ave.



















My friend Dulce was brave enough to order the chocolate mousse pyramid while I was delusional enough to think that ONE single piece of baklava would be enough for me.. yeah... NO! We so ended up sharing the wonderful pyramid that held a treasure inside (white chocolate mousse!) .

All I know I want these tables for my pattio!!!
Like NOW!

Read more...

ATTENZIONE! Attenzione! New pizzaiolo in the neighborhood... wait no, shhhhh... if the all the Italian pizzerias on Staten Island find out I'll have Joeys and Vinnys knocking on my door to collect "fees" and such. Of course they will all have to drive in from New Jersey since that's where the real "boys" have migrated to, nevertheless they'll be here to collect. Shhhh...

Ha, look at me feeding the stereotypes... bad girl! But what I'm trying to say that this as delicious as it is lovely creation of my own hands is definitely worthy of a drive across the bridge. And if the pizza doesn't fill you up, I'll serve you a heaping portion of narcism for a complete experience! (Again kids, repeat after me- self praise is only a healthy exercise in being truthful... its a good thing!)


And here we are trying to be artistic and capture the sun in a wine glass (with water... ) Eww.. the glass has my greasy fingerprints all over, no wonder the sun didn't want to go in.

Well there you have it! Another lavish production of haute couture of cuisine Ale style.

Note to self: pick up some Chianty on the way home.

Read more...

you know i love my food shots!

Read more...

I am a culinary genius!

The other day I was helping WallStr to house sit for her folks who are having a lovely vacation involving a pool and a hot tubs... nice! Well, we decided to take over the kitchen and make some noise... I mean FOOD.

We thought to crack open a Moroccan recipes book I got for my birthday and make some yummy chicken with apricots and pine nuts. No problem! I always say: If you can read, you can cook! But I find that with my friends, some alcohol to encaurage them to brave the kitchen, usually what does the trick...

So armed with a bottle of white wine from Mendoza, Argentina we got started:

So you see the book version of the dish... hmmm.. piece of cake! (Well... more like pieces of chicken.)


As Emrill would say: "These apricots are getting happy!" Well yeah, with all that sugar and cinnamon!!!!

Lightly roasted pine nuts!!!!!



The dogs however didn't share our enthusiasm much... were kinda bored...




As I sat on the bar stool reading the cookbook out loud... WallStr very expertly gathered all the ingredients, stirred the apricot sauce, browned the chicken... ammm... yeah... well basically did everything... What did I do you ask? Well the MOST important job! Made sure our wine glasses (goblets) were replenished at all times!!

The cat had an attitude problem... kinda gave us dirty looks the whole time...

But inspite of complete lack of support from the animal kingdom, we (Wallstr) put together a pretty sexy lookin' dish!

In the words of Rachel Ray: YUM-O!

I think real, flavourfull food is so sexy!!

You see how the sauce is artistically framing the presentation!?! Yeaaah baby!!!!

Now di you enjoy that? Well, good, because visual feast is as far as you'll get with me. If you want something real to sink your teeth into you should just go and Stuff Your Peppers! There you'll get some real recipes all I can help you do is read the cookbook.

Read more...