Crispy Seaweed- Delicious.

Hankering for a delicious snack? that too, something crunchy but still melting in your mouth? Try this Chinese vegetarian delight: crispy seaweed. And no, do not deep fry seaweed, although the name might tempt you! use Bok Choy, the green part. Once ready, sprinkle some sliced almonds and sea salt Yum. 

Want to make the best use of that oil? try a batch of deep fried tofu- healthy. Deep fried foods can do you good, they posses Yang qualities. Just try to incorporate some Yin to balance. 

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa101899.htm

A Frilled Heart- Cheers for the 150th!

I do not blog that much these days, but my love for food and the making of it beautiful and tasty is still there. It is my 150th post, and I celebrate it with this cake I made for a wedding anniversary that happened today itself, where I was a guest too!- it was a surprise gift- well loved and eaten to the last crumb. An eggless cake, Iced with buttercream and decorated with a sugarpaste centerpiece tray filled with sugarpaste lilies, small hearts and carnations- the January flower- and the best news- it was all edible, although I advised the couple to keep it as souvenir if they wanted to! It was all thrills for frills!

A Wintry Devil's Food Cake

Recipe ripped from page 666 :) of my "Ultimate Recipe Book". Ha?
White chocolate snow flakes and a Christmas tree.....

It was gooooooooooooooood. ...

Galushte- a More Traditional Kind- Merry Christmas

 A while back I wrote about the stuffed leaves delicacy, called galushte in Moldova (galushi or sarmele as well, depending on the region). Well, I confess the way they are made there is not quite the usual way, maybe more elaborate, but not quite there. The traditional way of making them is holding the leaf (usually cabbage or grape) in hand, adding a little stuffing an rolling in in a zig-zag fashion, making sure the end is well sealed. The stuffing is usually rice and seasoning, coarse corn meal and seasoning, or both. The shape it takes is irregular, but may look like triangles a lot of times. Depending who makes them.

Galushte used to be the "crown" meal at a festive table. There is even a tradition of stuffing these dumpling and "dancing of the pot" for weddings- I promise to post that video some time, which I luckily took before my own wedding. That is fun to watch, you will at least laugh once! Unfortunately about that time the mass transition from "home-crafted weddings" to wedding hall style ones has taken place and a lot of these age old rituals, if you may, have simply dissipated in the vast ocean of globalization....Now beautiful carpeted walls have given place to floral bouquets and the wooden bar lounge-seat covered with hand made runners is replaced by the pompous foam stuffed bow-tied chair....

Here I have two kind of galushte- one with couscous and  seasoning , the other is barley and seasoning. Maybe not traditional, but certainly delicious!
And wish you a very Merry Christmas- to all of you celebrating it on January 7th!

Merry Christmas - Viva January 7th!

here is more why we still do it that way, but Merry Christmas nevertheless! Hey, I will take two Christmas-es a year, even if they are so far spaced apart (or close)...that explains my lack of verbiage....;)

Glorious Nutshells- no Need of Nutcracker

...and i can see why they don't make them anymore...at least at home. smart, those young Moldovan ladies. Who has the time to stuff nut shells when you can buy a cake from Franzeluta? Thumbs up.

Nah. Every year when I go home I bring some of my mom's cookery treasures, antiques or vintage stuff of the Old World. Some of those gizmos are nostalgically looked upon here in the US, like my manual meat mincer that has a few attachments for cookie making. So it all started somewhere.

But anyways, nostalgia aside, I dared make those and they were simply delightful. The walnuts and rose jam were brought all the way from Moldova, harvested from our very own walnut tree and rose bush....ah....

I must be nuts.... :)

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum....,

wie treu sind deine Blätter!

 And moist, nutty, fruity and simply delicious.

 The cake is eggless and dairy free, which makes it a vegan delight-

 a recipe my friend passed on to me when I visited Germany, in 2001. It uses applesauce

in lieu of sourcream and vegetable oil....hence the dense, moist texture- love it while it lasts!