"All In!" Summer Fresh Salad

Ingredients:
Romaine Lettuce Chopped   1 head
Dried Cranberries  1/4 cup
Dried Blue Berries  1/4 cup
Walnuts Chopped   1/2 cup
Onions fined diced  3 tbs
Red, Yellow Green Bell Peppers diced 1/4 cup total
Cucumbers diced 1/4 cup
Tomatoes diced 1/4 cup
Vinaigrette of your choice 1/2 cup

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss until combined.
Serve and enjoy!

Serves 4

Simply Delicious "Chicken and Mushroom Soup"

Ingredients:

Button Mushrooms - 8oz sliced
Onion - 1 large diced
Garlic Cloves - 3 minced
Cooked Chicken Breast - 1 cubed
Chicken Stock (low sodium) - 3 cups
Butter - 2 tbs
Salt/Pepper - to taste

Flour - 4 tbs
Cold Water - 4 tbs

Steps:

In a medium sauce pan melt butter over medium heat. Sweat butter for 2 minutes and then add garlic. Cook for 1 minute before adding mushroom. Saute mushrooms until soft. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add chicken. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. While simmering combine flour and cold water in a small bowl. Combine until smooth. No flour lumps. Set aside. Return heat to medium. Spoon two heaping spoons of liquid from the soup and add it to the flour mixture. This is to make the flour mixture the same temperature as the liquid in the pot. Once the temperature in bowl is hot add the flour mixture to the pot slowly stirring simultaneously. This will thicken the soup. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes to allow soup to thicken.

Serve and enjoy!

New Year's Day Lunch

I decided to let someone else do the cooking. It's my first week back in Rwanda and I decided to visit a familiar restaurant on New Year's Day. It's Bourbon Coffee. It's an African Coffee House and Restaurant. They sell the most delicious coffee. Their food is good too. There are two in the United States. My favorite is the one at the MTN Center in Nyarutarama (Kigali, Rwanda). The special for today was a spicy chicken cooked "grandmother style", which is slow cooked with vegetables. For a starter, it was accompanied with a leek and chicken soup with a fresh buttery role. The spicy chicken was served with basmati rice. It was great.

Chicken is not eaten often in Rwanda. Most people eat beef if they can afford it. Beef costs much less than chicken or fish, which seems strange to me, but it's normal here. I've yet to see a turkey, but when I do I'll let you know. Vegetables are in abundance and very cheap. Rice and beans is a staple meal here. It's commonly eaten alone, but I'm about to take the rice and beans to another level. This week I'll be doing the cooking and it will be all vegetarian.

Happy New Year!

A Bahamian Holiday

The month of December is a very exciting time in Nassau. There is more than enough food to eat. Every where you go there is someone offering you a bite to eat. It's only the 11th day of December and I already feel like I've gained a couple of pounds. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but as we would we say "I've been eating like food going out of style!"

Today I baked a spiral ham along with mushroom baked pollock, jasmine rice and steamed cabbage. We started with an apple, raisin and mixed nut salad drizzled with sweet balsamic vinaigrette. We washed that down with Bahamian fruit punch, which is really a Bahama Mama without the alcohol. The icing on the cake was chocolate cake with raspberry filling and vanilla ice cream. That's just today. Yesterday I attended a party and there was unlimited food and an open bar. Wow wee! Friday night, out for "real" Bahama Mamas while listening a fabulous band. Fish Fry was the night before with conch fritters, conch salad and sky juice. Like I said, the month has just started and I don't know how much more my jaws can take. There's more food and fun to come!

Pork? Noodles? In a soup!

As the temperature drops soup just sounds like something good to eat. Now I know it's not really cold here in the Bahamas, but it is cooler than it was in the summer. Yesterday I wanted to make chicken souse, but I didn't have any chicken. So I made a noodle soup with diced picnic pork shoulder. It was so good! Lucky for you I got a picture before we all dug in.

Pork Noodle Soup

Recipe:
2 tbs of vegetable oil
1/2 lb of diced picnic pork shoulder

1/4 cup of chopped onions

2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup of white wine
4 cups of water
3 tbs of lime juice
12 oz package of tri-color pasta
2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Season pork with salt and pepper. Heat saucepan and then add oil to hot pan. Add pork. Cook pork allowing it to brown lightly before turning on other side to brown. Once pork has browned on both sides add onions. Allow onions to become translucent and then add garlic. Stir to ensure onions and garlic do not burn. Deglaze pan with white wine. Then add 4 cups of water and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. Allow mixture to come to a boil. Once boiling add pasta. Allow pasta to cook for 8-10 minutes. Then add mixed vegetables allow to cook for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Quick & Easy Pumpkin Soup

Winter is approaching and nothing says winter better than a great soup. This pumpkin soup is sweet and tangy at the same time. It will keep you warm and satisfied. 

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

1/2 of small onion (minced)

2 tsp butter

1 tsp garlic (minced)

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp ginger powder

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 1/2-2 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Mince onion and garlic. Set aside. Heat pan. Once pan is hot add butter to hot pan. Then add onions. Cook onions for one minute. Then add minced garlic, curry powder and garlic powder. Cook for two minutes, while stirring. Add pumpkin puree and water. Stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow soup to come to a boil. Then simmer for 15 minutes on low heat.

Serves 6

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's official! My favorite cookie is chocolate chip. After searching and tweaking recipes I finally have the one that I absolutely love. Now that I've keep it to myself for a few days I'm willing to share it with you. 


Enjoy!

Ingredients


2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cups semisweet chocolate chunks
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 - 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies