Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Okay it is totally unrelated topic, but have you ever tried home made Buttermilk Ranch Dressing? well it is delicious. I have follow the girls of Our Best Bites and I love all their recipes and besides the fact that they are ady and actually taste good their recipes have simple everyday ingredients. I love cooking and besides crafts books I buy recipe books. I got the Rachel Ray ones and I had to donate them they are great recipes unfortunately no one recipe I found that I could have some or all the ingredients plus some of the ingredients I did not even know where to buy them. Anyway visit this blog is great and the ranch is to die for.

Have a great Monday!
Erika

Vanilla Extract

Picture from here

I have been quite busy this summer and right now we are enjoying Monika and her family visiting us. Lots of Japanese cooking (she is half Japanese) I learn a lot and talking to her she shared a way to make my own vanilla extract, so I thought to share it here.
This is according to her friend Sarah F. K.
Vanilla is way easy to make. You just need vodka (at least 40%) and vanilla beans. I ordered bourbon Madagascar beans from amazon, and have not been disappointed! I've found different recipes say different numbers of beans, so I just used 15 beans, cut them in thirds and put them in the vodka bottle. Dump a little out first so the beans have room. Put somewbere relatively dark or wrap the bottle up and let it do it's thing for at least 2 months, shaking the bottle a couple times a week. Use a coffee filter when you pour it (into smaller bottles if you want) because of the vanilla seeds. And the same as they say wine gets better with age, so does vanilla. :)
So here you have it if you already new it sorry, if not You learn something new today!
Cheers!
Erika

More about vanilla here

Oriental Lettus Wraps

Some time ago I post this recipe in my other blog in Spanish, but on Friday my step daughter post it on her blog in English, pop there for a fun delicious recipe!

Hace algun tiempo publique en mi otro blog en Espanol la receta, pero el Viernes pasado hijastra ( eso se oye feo) mi hija lo puso en su blog en Ingles, disfruten la receta!

Happy Monday

Canning Time!

This is the busiest time of the year for me, we are harvesting almost everything we planted and it is lots of work. The reward is to know that my family will eat organic food and made by me.

I've been canning pears, peaches as you know, some tomato prep for all Mexican dishes like red rice, pickles, and green salsa. here some pics:

Canning is not that difficult and a tip for assuring that the bottles are sealed is to put them upside down, right after taking them out of the cannery pot. Let it cool and then you will find all of them sealed!

For now

Happy Canning!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Since we have a lot of zucchinis from the garden. I have been looking on my recipe book for some recipes to use this wonderful vegetable. A couple of years ago a friend gave me the recipe for this delicious cake. You won't regret trying it.

Ingredients:
2 ½ c Flour
½ c cocoa
2 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¾ c soft butter of margarine
2 c sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded zucchini
½ c milk
1 c chopped nuts

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, set aside. Beat butter and sugar until smooth, Add eggs one at a time, beating after each one, add vanilla and zucchini. Alternately stir in dry ingredients and milk. Add nuts.
Pour into greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake at 350˚ F, (180˚C) for 1 hour. Cool in pan for 15 minutes; turn out on wire rack to cool. Drizzle glaze over cake.

Glaze
1 c powdered sugar
1 ½ - 2 Tbsp milk
½ tsp vanilla
Mix well; add milk until smooth.

Enjoy
Erika

Grandma's soup

One of my best memories of visiting my grandma Gracia during the summer was to enjoy her cooking. It was nothing fancy but she is a wonderful cook. I enjoyed all her food, and one of those recipes I learn stay with me and I now make it. I do not know what it's called I guess she called garden soup, but she lives in an apartment building in the middle of Mexico City, I am not sure. I found myself calling it Grandma's Garden Soup because I have all ingredients in my garden.


Ingredients:
2 slices of bacon finely chopped
1/2 medium onion
2 Tbs butter
1 clove of garlic
salt
pepper
2 1/2 cups of chopped zucchini (about 3 medium or 2 large ones)
2 medium tomatoes chopped
3/4 cup of corn

1 cube chicken broth

On a sauce pan fry bacon, onion, and garlic. Add the butter to help the vegetables to cook. add salt and pepper. When the onion and garlic are translucent add the zuchinni tomatoes and corn. add chichen broth cube. Let it cook on low for 10 minutes.

It serves about 4
Enjoy!

Erika

Uno de mis mejores recuerdos que tengo al visitar a mi abuelita Gracia durante de los veranos era el disfrutar de su comida. No es que fuese muy laboriosa pero ella cocina muy bien tiene muy buen sazón. Disfruto mucho de su comida y la extraño pero uno de sus mejores recetas la sigo conservando. La aprendí viéndola cocinar y a veces ayudando. No se bien como la llamaba creo que es sopa jardinera pero no estoy segura para mi así se llama pues casi todos los ingredientes los tengo en mi jardín.

Ingredientes:
2 pedazos de tocino picado
½ cebolla mediana picada finamente
2 cucharadas de mantequilla
1 diente de ajo bien picado o exprimido
Sal
Pimienta
2 ½ tazas de calabacita bien picada (mas o menos 3 medianas o 2 largas)
2 jitomates medianos picados
¾ de taza de granos de maíz
1 cubo de consomé de pollo

En una olla poner a freír el tocino con la cebolla y el ajo, agregar la mantequilla para que la cebolla y el ajo se sofrían bien. Agregar sal y pimienta. Cuando estas estén transparentes agregar el resto de las verduras, agregar el consomé de pollo. Déjelo cocinar a lumbre baja por 10 minutos.
Sirve más o menos 4 porciones.
Disfrútenlo

Erika