Homemade Hamburgers!

The Patties! A 50/50 mixture of pork and beef with onions, garlic, oats, raw egg, olive oil, salt, oregano and pepper.

The home fries! Nice quality potatoes cut into wedges, drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Uh oh! Our hamburgers turned into cheese burgers. Oh well we'll eat them anyway.

The toasted buns! Very important.....

The fresh tomato.

The finished product! As you can see we added fresh red leaf lettuce and ketchup. I also like a little mustard under my burger and some mayo on the upper bun. Remember a couple paper towels per person this is going to get messy.

Beans, Beans! They make you healthy.

I have always loved beans. For me they make me feel at home wherever I am. I can remember eating beans when I was a small child. My grandmother would serve me up a big bowl of beans and sometimes two. And as a fast growing youngster I would stay full for hours. They just make my body feel good!

Washing the beans. We used pinto beans, black beans and garbanzo beans.

Soaking the beans. This should be started the evening before .

Just starting to cook the beans. This usually takes about 6 hours. Notice the bay leaves floating on top.

Skimming the foam off the beans. An important part of making them taste really good.

         

The carefully prepped ingredients!

Adding the caramelized garlic, onions and celery. The carrots were added raw, we added cooked corn, two cans of quality diced tomatoes, salt, pepper and cayenne powder.

A heaping cup of red/white quinoa will add that nutty flavor. The mixture then needs to be cooked for about 45 minutes.

Ready to eat! The only thing I was missing was the fresh, black skillet, corn bread. Maybe next time.

Pancakes! Pancakes!

For me it starts with good quality eggs meaning yellow yolks and nice thick shells. Then I add milk, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla.

Next is the dry; Organic whole wheat flour + a little organic white flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt.

Then gently mix wet and dry, and drop in lumps of banana. I mix the bananas into the batter to prevent them from burning.

Next I add butter to a hot skillet and let it get to the point of bubbling in the pan.

Add the pancake batter in round medallions.

I watch for the small holes to develop on the top side of the pancakes and I also check the browness on the underside.

These were just ready to be put on a warm plate.

This is a version with maple syrup and a little yogurt. The biggest challenge was to keep the pan at the right temperature and get some for myself.

Here was my favorite with yogurt, maple syrup, and black currant jam.  Yum!

Cookies (oat, ground Hazel nut)

Cookies are always fun!

basically, they are;

2 parts flour

2 parts sugar

1 part butter

of course, you can always play around with this and add other ingredients to make other cookies.

Today, i will make oat, Ground Hazel nut cookies

Ingredients:

I am also adding oats but you know what they look like ;)

so in place of half the flour, i use ground hazel nut (flour?) and basic oats

Hazel nut flour:

mixing:

needs more butter!

looks about right

forming into balls:

in the oven

done!

let them cool

.... and enjoy!

Maybe I will make you some other cookies at another time ;)

Pasta!

For making Pasta you need basic ingredients basic ingredients:

Most Pasta is made from at least flour and some kind of liquid. Italian Pasta is usually flour and egg, maybe also Olive oil ... Other oils can also be used or ... moistened crushed Flax seed in place of egg if you want Vegan. Also, any kind of oil can be used. If you want to flavor your pasta ... go ahead, be creative ... tomato, basil, black squid ink! ... anything can be used ;)


mixing:

The Traditional Italian method to make Pasta is to make a mound of flour on a board and then make a bowl in the middle for the egg and oil. This liquid would then be slowely mixed into the flour until it is all mixed in. If it is too dry you can add some water, oil or other edible liquid. If it is to moist ... more flour will do the trick.

mixing on a board:

it comes together

At this stage, it is usually allowed to rest. You can wrap it in cling wrap and put it in the fridge. This way it can even be saved (pre-made in advance) and then rolled out in a couple of days. Eventually, it will dry out and not be useable anymore though, so don`t wait too long. Don`t wait more than a week, but a couple of hours is more than enough time for it just to rest, or even half an hour! If I am in a hurry, I don`t let it rest at all! ;)

let it rest, then roll it out:

Unless you are a perfectionist ... it does not matter what shape comes out when you roll it. It will require many, many folds and re-roll outs till it is smooth. With some practice, you can get it to come out even but do not expect it your first time. ... or second, third, forth ... time ;)

fold more

with more flour ;)

The edges start to tell you a story ;)

you will probably have to much for one board so cut it in half or more managable pieces

when you have it flat as you want it you can roll it and cut it. If you use a machine, it will have a cutting section as well as many levels of thinness. If you are wanting to loose weight ... roll it out by hand! ;)

looks interesting! ;)

Here you can cut it as thick or thin as you want ... fat noodles, Fettuccine, spagetti, angel hair ... up to you and your patience.

spread some flour on it so it sticks to itself less

loosen it all up or you will have lumps when it comes out of the pot! or even cooked rolls of pasta ;)

Pasta!!!

now for a sauce ...

start with some garlic and onion

i always mince my garlic by hand

onions!

mushrooms and sausage, actually any vegetable even carrots or pumpkin can be good! If you like meat ... any meat can be used as well, just makes sure that it will be cooked through in the cooking process. That means either to precook it or cook the sauce for a long time.

here are the onions, if you want it sweeter, caramelize them (meaning brown the onions)

adding meat in this case sausage

mushrooms

if the pan browns use some wine to demi-glaze, or take some of that and make it into flavor for the sauce

here is a white wine I used in this case, red ... rose or even sparkling can be used ... as well as any alcohol. If you want to be adventurous ... Anisette, whiskey, vodka? It all depends on what flavors you like.

i am making a tomato based sauce but you could use pesto or any kind of milk product (yoghurt, cream, milk, fresh cheese?) or make a rue ... a flour cream sauce!

fresh pasta cooks very quickly so wait till you sauce is almost ready to cook them

that pasta should be boiling ...

here it is plated ... looks so yummy!!! ;)

with some cheese and wine ... although ... red wine is usually served with a red sauce ... You do not have to follow the rules if you do not want to ... experiment and do what tastes best to you. I always have fun experimenting! If you do not like the wine, it can be used for cooking or at worst ... make it into vinegar! All you have to do in that case ... is let it sit out ... well, caped but previously opened. Sometime a wine will turn to vinegar under the wrong (right) conditions :)

Have fun and enjoy!!!