Pumpkins Like You've Never Seen!

Now, if you enjoy arts and crafts like the way I do....
you will LOVE these snacks!
Everyone has had the simple cheese and crackers so
let's cultivate the cheese and crackers.

I took a block of Cracker Barrel Cheddar Cheese.

And trimmed the block into 1/4 inch slices. I then took the 1/4 inch slices and 

cut those into  4 pieces. I smushed each square with the palm of my hand to 

make it easier for  molding. 

The cheddar pumpkins can be rolled into balls with your hands and then 

you can take a toothpick and just press in to make an indentation around 

the ball to make it look like the lines in pumpkins. 

My ingredients were little pretzel sticks broken in half (for the pumpkin stem), 

cilantro leaves for the pumpkin leaves (you can use parsley as well)

and liquid cheese as a gluing agent for the pumpkin seeds on the 

everything flavored pretzel chips. 

It just seemed right to lay the cheddar pumpkins on pumpkin seeds. 

Ya know what I mean?

Matzo Ball Soup

Have you ever gone to a Jewish Deli and ordered Matzo Ball soup?
Just like anything in life- especially when it comes to food-
once you know how or what it is, making it can become a lot simpler.
You start off with a "mirepoix"  aka Holy Trinity
in French cooking of celery, carrots and onions.

I like to use chicken broth as my soup base. As far as the Matzo balls, you can simply
purchase a box of Matzo Ball Mix.

The directions on the back of the box is quite simple-  but it's basically adding eggs and oil.
After you mix the mix around with a fork- it is important to put it in the refrigerator for at least

10-15 minutes. (by doing this- it starts to slightly harden the matzo balls
which makes for easier molding). As the mix is chilling in the refrigerator-
you can be boiling your broth of mirepoix.
I like to Asian Fusion it up and add a few drops of Soy Sauce instead of adding salt.
(noodles are optional but I like to add some noodles-
I usually boil the noodles separately or first in the pot before the mirepoix.
(celery, carrot & onions) Once the matzo ball mix is ready-
you can mold them like the way you would meatballs.
Toss them gently into the already boiling pot.
1 packet of mix usually gives me about 5 matzo balls.
The key and tip with cooking the matzo balls all the way through
is to put a lid on your pot and let them cook in the hot steaming broth  for 12-15 minutes!
(no more than 20 minutes) Matzo Ball soup has become a comfort soup for me.
Yum.Matzo Ball Soup

Tomato Jam....Well....Tomato Spread

Heirloom tomatoes and diced onions. Add a little salt, a drizzle of Agave Syrup
(or any sugar substitute), any chopped herb and..................................... that's it!
All you have to do is let your diced onions sweat until golden brown, add your tomatoes
and herb (I used Rosemary) and once it has broken down- take a potato masher and mash the
tomatoes taking out the skins of the tomatoes if you'd like and then your tomato
jam is ready to be spread on any bread.  I used an Italian loaf and spread a little goat cheese
and then the tomato jam for a snack.

Back To The Roots....yo

As a kid, I didn't really enjoy mushrooms. They were kind of

squishy and they didn't taste so good.  But, like many things,

as we grow older and try things over again... we become aware,

and start to enjoy things that we might not have as a child.

I didn't enjoy sushi, Indian food and mussels to name just a few- as a kid either

but, I now enjoy these food items....  maybe too much.

(I always think it's mostly psychological anyway)

So, I came across this mushroom growing kit and reminiscing about my childhood

and having multiple veggie gardens- I thought it would be so much fun to grow

mushrooms out of the box. Yay!  So I purchased this "Back to the Roots"  mushroom

growing kit.  I followed the directions of soaking it, and spraying it and babying it... etc

and on day 7-ish.... this is what started to grow!

Inside the Oyster mushroom growing bag is coffee grinds which is kind of interesting.
Because of my excitement... I babied the mushrooms. Days later more did grow....

Unfortunately, my mushrooms only grew to this extent rather than the full opening of the box
that it was supposed to- along with the other side as a second batch- but, there must of been
something I did wrong...?  My excitement wore off quickly and I decided even though oyster
mushrooms are more expensive than regular button mushrooms- buying already grown
mushrooms are the way to go rather than the very expensive "Back to the Roots" box.
Thanks for the experience Back to the Roots and the Groupon  I got it through!

Phileo Yogurt

Phileo Yogurt,  located on  416 South Street, Philly-
serves fro-yo.  Some say frozen yogurt is a fad....  hmmm
is there such a term as long-term temporary?
hmmmm..... either way, Phileo serves many different flavors of frozen yogurt.

You walk into the brightly lit yogurt bar and once you receive your bowl-
you are free to roam and choose which 2 or 3 or 4 or 10 flavors you'd like.
Once you've decided on your flavors- you get to choose between toppings
of fresh-cut fruit, chocolate and sweet toppings including Captain Crunch
and mochi pieces just to name a few.  You pay by the weight- so in a way,
you choose your own price... sort of.  It's 49 cents per ounce.  I think you
you pay by the mood you are in....  whether you are having a bad day or a good day,
although for some- your bad day and good day portions are maybe the same!?

It was a "heavy on the toppings" kind of night!  Little mochi pieces are so good!

LCF's CheeseSteak @ Home

When you can't go into the City of Philadelphia to get a great
Cheese steak.... here, might be a way to make one at home.

I saw shaved Beef steak at Trader Joe's the other day...
and decided.... hmmm homemade cheese steak!

I chopped up one small onion, a quarter of a red bell pepper and a few stems of chives
(the chives I used... because I had them- I would say they are optional)
I let the veggies sweat in the pan and get golden brown before I threw the shaved beef slices
that I gave a quick chop to. (I prefer smaller pieces of meat for cheese steaks)

I then added a a small drizzle of soy sauce, yes soy sauce (for the salt part) and then
a heavy drizzle of Kraft's BBQ sauce.  Once the steak was cooked (cooking the meat
with the onions and peppers allows the meat to stay tender as well and not dry out.)
I then, took my toasted rolls I purchased from Wawa  www.wawa.com and lay some
slices of Velveeta yellow cheese and flipped it over in the pan on top of the steak and onions.

About a minute later, when the cheese melted, I flipped the cheesesteak over and
voila! Cheesesteak made at home. Now, I'm not comparing this home-made cheesesteak
to a Philly cheese steak- but it was pretty good though!

Toasting the rolls played a big part in the cheese steak as well! Try this at home...

when you can't go to Pat's, Geno's, Jim's or .... Bob's.  

Shrimp & Ginger Dimsum

Steamed shrimp and ginger dumplings. Yum.

I enjoy dumplings quite a bit and this pretty easy recipe

is my go-to recipe for steamed shrimp dumplings, aka dim sum.

Dim sum being the traditional Chinese dumpling.  Whereas

Mandu is the Korean word for dumpling... along with each countries

own dumpling, ie: Shu mai (Vietnamese), Tortellini or even ravioli (Italian),

Samosa (Indian),  Gyoza (Japanese), Pierogis (Polish), Momo (Nepalese),

and so many more... some say that the American dumpling is the

"Hot Pocket" www.hotpockets.com.  hmmmm  not really. 

First start off with some raw shrimp (cleaned and de-veined of course) 

and an equal amount of ground pork. (I tend to do 1/3 ground pork and 2/3 shrimp at times)

The rest of the filling is simply chopped cilantro, garlic and grated ginger.

(I usually leave the already peeled ginger in the freezer in a zip lock bag so

that it doesn't dry out and go bad as quickly as it seems to in the refrigerator)

When I grate ginger this way- it grates a lot better as well.

I toast the garlic in a pan. (This is the secret to bringing out the flavor in steamed shrimp
dumplings)   It is does make a HUGE difference in toasting the garlic and with just
mixing the garlic- untoasted.

Next, I usually use a hand blender and blend the shrimp down and then add the ground pork,

and mix into the bowl- the toasted garlic, chopped cilantro and grate in some ginger.

I go heavy on the ginger. (maybe an inch and half or so). I add a drizzle of soy sauce,

about 2 or 3 TBSP of Hoisin Sauce and a few drops if sesame oil.

I then fold them, and steam them in my bamboo steamer. 

I usually lay the dumplings on lettuce in the bamboo basket to prevent sticking.

After 7-9 minutes you will notice the dumplings getting a little more pliable and
almost translucent. That's when they are done!