savory dishes: summertime & nelly’s bbq spare ribs

It’s funny how the seasons tend to remind us of the things we used to do while growing up. Each season rekindles a particular memory that we like to keep in the cobwebs of our mind. These memories are what we hold dear and will treasure when our bodies can no longer keep up with the follies of our younger years. Who wouldn’t love spring and summer? I would always be nudged from slumber by the animated chirping of birds outside my window. From the moment I opened my eyes I would already anticipate and look forward to what awaited for the rest of the day. I didn’t even mind the gentle buzz of the neighbor’s lawnmower. Nothing compares to the smell of freshly mowed grass in the morning. I was in charge of checking the PH balance of the water in our pool, cleaning the filter, and adding a... Read the Rest →

 

savory dishes: southern fried chicken & a beautiful ride

Have you ever gotten up and realized it was just too beautiful a day to waste doing your everyday routine? As a cool breeze gently made its way into my windows I woke up to song birds and the smell of magnolias. I thought I might still be dreaming, but I wasn’t. I heard my children get up for school, teenagers now, who don’t need my help. I lingered in bed, the sheets that perfect temperature, not too hot, not too cold. I’ve come to call that feeling PST (perfect sheet temperature). I did not want to leave my bed, but when opened my eyes I knew I had to get up and enjoy this wonderful June day. With my boys off to school and my husband and I off from work. (Truly, we did not call in “sick”!) it was meant to be that we did something special with... Read the Rest →

 

savory dishes: taking the bull by the horns & an open faced roast beef sandwich

Six weeks ago, Camille and I were both faced with a health scare, like two sisters, we are so connected that we are the epitome of two peas in a pod. After that scare I had with the tummy issue I have flashbacks in my head like a 60’s video reel playing memories of the worst kind: camera down my throat and the choking feeling when I would eat something because my esophagus was dealing with too much acid. I had a slight fever so I just didn’t know what caused that choking feeling every time I ate. Did I swallow something bad or was it the way I was eating? What is the bad bento that I had the day before, or was it that I was just eating way too fast. It seemed like a perfect epitome for psychedelic hallucinations. If only it were a hallucination. The problem... Read the Rest →

 

tastily touring: visiting barbados with a salted cod fish cake recipe

Having researched a few Caribbean Islands since we began Tastily Touring (previously Worldly Wednesday) we have discovered that the Arawak Indians were the original inhabitants of many Caribbean Islands. Around 1200 the Caribs, coming from Venezuela, conquered the Arawak population on the island of Barbados. By the 1500’s the island of Barbados would be uninhabited due to frequent slave trading raids led by the Spanish. The Caribs were either taken as slaves or fled to other islands. The island of Barbados is located most easterly of the Caribbean Island chain, northeast of Venezuela. Barbados gets its name from the Portuguese as they sailed to Brazil. Los Barbados, or bearded-ones, was chosen by the Portuguese explorer Pedro a Campos. The island had many fig trees, which had a beard-like appearance. Despite the frequent visits by the Spanish, Barbados was first settled by the British in 1627. On May 14th 1625 Captain... Read the Rest →

 

news: arrested by facebook

Have you heard of the term “Facebook fatigue”? If not, then you are probably a smart cookie for not being too intimately involved with Facebook. We have not only heard of this term, but are currently experiencing it. We have Facebook fatigue. We just got arrested by Facebook, and are contained for Seven days. Facebook for most bloggers and online businesses is a must. It is, in our opinion, a necessary evil. Don’t get us wrong, we love the idea of social networking. Staying connected with friends and family is difficult when you live hundreds or thousands of miles away from them so we are very much aware of the benefits of social networking. But, it is difficult to keep up with the amount of changes taking place on Facebook. Unless you live and breathe Facebook, which some people do and we call them addicts, then it is quite difficult... Read the Rest →

 

savory dishes & taste of home recipes: fried lotus root and eclectic grilled chicken

To marry ingredients from every continent in the world does not make a continental dish, rather an eclectic one. Your senses will surely be receiving an explosion of flavor, and you simply won’t know what hit you. Grilled chicken is always considered a healthy dish to prepare. But if you don’t use your imagination, it can be bland and totally not worth the calories that you might as well eat cardboard. Eating smart and healthy need not mean you have to sacrifice taste. In fact, creating the perfectly healthy and delicious dish should always be your end goal. Chicken breast is the leanest part of the chicken. It has a tendency to get dry if not cooked properly. My secret ingredient to keep the chicken breast moist is to season it with fig sauce as well as to seal in the juices with potato starch. I serve the grilled chicken... Read the Rest →

 

savory dishes & taste of home recipes: fried lotus root and eclectic grilled chicken

To marry ingredients from every continent in the world does not make a continental dish, rather an eclectic one. Your senses will surely be receiving an explosion of flavor, and you simply won’t know what hit you. Grilled chicken is always considered a healthy dish to prepare. But if you don’t use your imagination, it can be bland and totally not worth the calories that you might as well eat cardboard. Eating smart and healthy need not mean you have to sacrifice taste. In fact, creating the perfectly healthy and delicious dish should always be your end goal. Chicken breast is the leanest part of the chicken. It has a tendency to get dry if not cooked properly. My secret ingredient to keep the chicken breast moist is to season it with fig sauce as well as to seal in the juices with potato starch. I serve the grilled chicken... Read the Rest →

 

savory dishes & recipes: quick pacific chicken with kimchi

Most Asian dishes pair off really well with each other. Whether you use a Japanese sauce for your meat and a Korean vegetable side dish, the play of flavors in your mouth is an explosion of savory goodness. This dish is something that we’d like to make because chicken breast is something that we serve often. It is a healthy cut of meat, rather lean and mean, it’s our buff making machine (we couldn’t help the pun). As with a lot of the leaner cuts of meat, a lot of people have issues with it not being moist enough. What we have found as a useful tip in making the chicken breast become moist is… are you ready for this? (This is an ingenious tip that will save you calories and still having a juicy piece of chicken) You can lightly coat your chicken breast in potato starch. When we... Read the Rest →

 

savory dishes & recipes: quick pacific chicken with kimchi

Most Asian dishes pair off really well with each other. Whether you use a Japanese sauce for your meat and a Korean vegetable side dish, the play of flavors in your mouth is an explosion of savory goodness. This dish is something that we’d like to make because chicken breast is something that we serve often. It is a healthy cut of meat, rather lean and mean, it’s our buff making machine (we couldn’t help the pun). As with a lot of the leaner cuts of meat, a lot of people have issues with it not being moist enough. What we have found as a useful tip in making the chicken breast become moist is… are you ready for this? (This is an ingenious tip that will save you calories and still having a juicy piece of chicken) You can lightly coat your chicken breast in potato starch. When we... Read the Rest →

 

worldly wednesdays: albania a perpeq recipe

Bordered by Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece the Republic of Albania enjoys a rich food history with Mediterranean and Balkan influences. The foods of Albania are pleasantly spiced comfort foods. How could it not be with the many influences of the Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Empire? When searching for a recipe we stumbled upon a site called Retro Housewife. A recipe spoke out to us that might not be a reflection of the above paragraph. What we found was a dish that whispered of grandmothers in kitchens that may not have had the fortune to use expensive spices and ingredients. An image of older women, simple kitchens, vegetable gardens, pens with goats and a coop with egg laying hens played in our heads. All that these Albanian women needed were the wonderfully fresh ingredients that they had at their fingertips. Perpeq. It is considered a dessert, but... Read the Rest →

 

worldly wednesdays: afghanistan osh pyozee (stuffed onions)

Welcome to Worldly Wednesdays where we will explore foods from every country on earth. We have decided to tackle this task by going alphabetically through a list found on a fantastic website called One World-Nations Online. According to OWNO “there are now 195 independent sovereign states in the world plus about 60 dependent areas, and five disputed territories” We are committed to this project and want to include everyone. As our families pointed out, that will take about 260 weeks! We think it is a worthwhile venture in order to bring us closer together. Alphabetically, our first country is a sovereign state and has been in the news quite a bit for us Americans. Afghanistan: a country torn by war for decades. It is a severely beautiful, mountainous, arid country that is land locked on the South/Central Asian continent. It took a while to decide on the right dish to... Read the Rest →