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I know what healthy is! Halloween feasting!

My daughter Karla drew this delightful picture of Mom, Karla and me feeding the 'trick or treaters'!

I love Halloween and although I have said this many times before, it is the only holiday in which we show kindness to strangers… or at least to the strange and unusual!

Karla feels that we should give out healthy snacks… and she offers them to the treaters, while I have passed out something more traditional. I have always enjoyed seeing the large eyes the young  get when they receive a See’s Bar! It’s something I’ve done for 25 years here and now I am starting to meet their children!

Happy Halloween!

(Karla is dressed in her ‘Samuri Warrior’ outfit and she has me in a hunting suit… and Mom… well… she is a Professor)

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you eat no meat? okay, we’ll have lamb!

Very pleased to find and pick up a great lamb for the spit! Superior Farms is always an excellent choice and worth the effort! Superior Farms produced our holiday lamb.

Opa!

'Halal' Lamb is prepared and marked as acceptable for Moslems CLICK on the picture to read more.

Here’s a nice little video on YouTube that shows one way to barbecue a lamb:

[youtube width=”440″ height=”344″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJHJfJ2xnog[/youtube]

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How to Salt and Roast your own Pistachios!

How to roast and salt your own pistachios!
There is something about roasting your own beans whether it be the green beans of coffee ( I use a popcorn popper) or the wonderful raw Pistachio nut! Adding the right amount of salt enhances the flavor of Pistachios. Want a more robust flavor then add more salt in the step-by-step process I will show you.

Click on this link or the picture above to see how we do it!

Although I will grind these for my Baklava, eating them like popcorn is a delicious experience!

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talking about food is great diet therapy

I want to prepare a leg of lamb as though I am preparing a Kokarri Lamb Shank! Will it work?

Recently, I blogged about how the Kokarri Restaurant published a cookbook recently and included one of my favorite of their many fine culinary marvels… the Lamb Shank! I think I like it so much because it is prepared in a similar way to how I prepare my ribs… ‘simmered’ ( read ‘boiled’) in some sort of version of ‘pickling spices’ (various pepper seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon, dill, ginger among other things… I’d add Juniper berries!). The simmering ‘tenderizes the meat while adding the wonderful flavors of so many interesting herbs and spices.

I am checking which pot I want to use when I ‘simmer’ the shank…. this one looks just right!

BTW, I have lost over 30 lbs now… and all of this has been great therapy to losing weight. Psychologists have said that talking about food is actually beneficial to keeping you on tract… so planning out the holiday ‘feast’ monthes in advance is not bad… therapy!

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How to Prepare Grape Leaves

Once you learn how to prepare grape leaves for the many dishes utilizing this relatively obscure ingredient, you will never go back to buying the bottled kind found in most stores! …. That is to say, IF you have your own grape vines.

There are many ways to prepare but they all involve soaking them in some sort of brine solution first… but if you don’t have your own vines, this may convince you to plant some!

How to prepare Grape leaves   for Dolmades and other great dishes.

How to Make DOLMADES!