Dairy

Strawberry Shortcakes

Strawberry Shortcakes (Desserts | American)

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French Toast

French toast is my choice of breakfast when I want to treat myself to something awesome. Something Amazing something great. It is one of the quickest things to put together requiring only a few ingredients that you can find almost in every standard household. Usually made with stale bread, but now I don't really wait fro bread to go stale. I just go for it. And so will you. Before we get to that though, we need to learn about its history. Origins etc. It is been a while that we felt with historic facts in this blog but, we are back to it. You missed it?

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Winter Dish: Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream

This is a very simple dish… Well simple in the flavor and tones that it has, but not so much in the process. The star is again the gallus domesticus aka chicken. It is a hear warming dish that combines three basic cooking skills and techniques to make a unique dish. A dish that can be easily moded changed and reinvented. Chicken with mashed potatoes and cream sauce. Three items that are independent from each other and the real trick is how to bond them. You want them from a trio they are, to make them sing like a chorus. So this post is an attempt to show you how three items can be brought together under the same flavor roof.

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Masticha Cheesecake

The cheesecake is indeed an american classic. I never considered myself american or even close to the culture it represents till the moment my oven rolled out one of these beauties! It is a desert that sums up the american spirit. Many reasons for that. First of all it has a bunch of american ingredients, cream cheese, Graham cookies and butter. The all american cooking fat. Also the idea of a cake that has a base that can be tailored to anything sweet and savory it is an all american classic. An all american classic. But most of all it is the basic custard filling that is the heart and soul of the american country desert cooking.

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Dulce de Leche – Milk Jam

Dulce de Leche is one more fine contribution to my culinary education from the south of the border school. It is fine sauce and since the previous post was about cheesecake, the finest dairy concoction, I thought of staying in the same mood. Diary stuff. Dulce de leche was a way of preserving milk in a similar way that jams and preserves are to preserve fruit. I assume that this is the way dulce was envisioned and started. It probably originated rom the la lecheda, a warm sugar and milk beverage, drunk in Argentina. As a sauce dulce de leche resembles caramel but since the major sweetness comes from lactose, the  milk sugar, it is not as overwhelming and the flavor is a little more delicate. 

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Blueberry Mufins

Blueberry season around the corner and here in Florida the local farms have started the pick-your-own extravaganza. And as an adopted floridian I could help but jump in the train and do some picking on my own. Interesting fruit the blueberry. We call it blueberry where it is actually purple. It is one of the fine contributions to the new world to the americas.

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Ntakos… No It’s not Tacos

here are only few things that can initiate reactions that smell home. There smells, sounds and tastes that when combined properly they can take you all the way back to your childhood. One of the is the dished featured here today. All the way from the island of Crete, the island whose velvety soil, I felt for first time under my feet.The island were I had my first steps in life (and secretly wish to have my last steps). It is a simple dish with simple and humble ingredients as everything in life. Some bread some olive oil tomatoes and cheese, all bind together by the universal greek herb of oregano.

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Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate one way or the other, is the one thing I love – I LOVE – that has not yet made it in the blog. This is quite astonishing. I don ‘t even know why. But this is all history now. Last Valentine s after watching a million shows on the history of chocolate the temptation was too much not to give in and make something chocolaty. The only think available was the bitter chocolate that I used when I was making the mudslide cookies. Well then after all I had talked about chocolate… but it is never enough for chocolate.

And although usually you...

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Family Ties: Carrot Slaw

Although it is more suitable for the summer since it is a cold dish with punchy flavor this slaw can be definitely a compliment to any holiday dish, since its sweetness and flavor can back up everything, from casseroles to steaks and from veggies to fish. It is as simple as it gets, not only in regards to the ingredients but also i regards to the technique and process.

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Seasonal Cream Cheese Spread

Cream cheese is the top choice spread for bagels. It is a great way to add, energy and nutritional value to the bagel. And I am not joking; bagels contain a substantial number of carbohydrates, fiber and some vitamins, but they lack in fat and protein. Cream cheese can full-fill both aspects and on top add the calcium. So it is in deed highly nutritious. The cream cheese is not really a cheese as it has more common with the yogurt, than the cheese we all know. According to the USA FDA it should have 33% at least milk fat, up to 55% water and acidic pH 4.4 to 4.9. It is not naturally maturing (aging) similarly to yogurt. It is different than yogurt though since it utilizes salt as flavoring where yogurt does not. According to Kraft, the first American creme cheese was made in 1872 by William Lawrence, and I say american since similar types of cheeses were made in various part of the world. 

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