personal experiences on international cooking, health and overall search for fitness and good food of a latina living in this world

It seems like with me joining Steeped Tea I have gotten off track with interntional recipes.  I definitely will continue cooking around the world but lately I have gotten requests from my customers to provide some recipes for either baking with tea or treats for a tea party.  In my search to find a chocolate cake that I would enjoy, that is, not too sweet or with a lot of bells and whistles, I came across a blog called Whipped and an AMAZING chocolate cake recipe. Not too difficult and very good! Read on »

Having a love of tea makes it difficult for me to control myself arond anything tea related.  I guess it’s not a bad addiction to have, tea is, after all, very healthy! And it’s the best thing to have around when company shows up. Like the great quote from Gladstone goes:  ”If you are cold, tea will warm you.  If you are too heated, it will cool you.  If you are depressed, it will cheer you.  If you are excited, it will calm you.”  So, when I came across the tea review blog’s tea swap (http://www.teareviewblog.com/?page_id=1706) I jumped at the chance to share my tea love with others around the world.  This was a great idea! Read on »

I wanted to share the recipes from my lovely 2010 calendar.  All of the recipes are vegetarian and most of the ingredients are very easy to find.  If the recipe calls for something unusual it also gives you a simple substitution.  I love it!  Here’s the recipe for January… Ethiopia.

Read on »

Nepal is the one other place that my dad wanted to go and never got to.  It is definitely one of the places to visit on my bucket list.

Nepal is officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a country is South Asia and the world’s youngest republic. It is ordered to the north by the People’s Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India. Kathmandu is the nation’s capital and the country’s largest metropolitan city. Read on »

It’s no secret, I love tea! I would be a bonafide TEA NUT if my place (an my funds) weren’t so small.  But whenever I get a chance to I like to look up new tea reviews and articles and try new, or old favourite, types of teas.  Most of my loose tea comes from on-line or catalogue orders but I do venture out once in a while to one of the only 3 places in this city that have loose tea in bulk.  When I lived in Vancouver I had my favourite teas from different stores so now I sometimes have my sisters send me some or I pick some up when I visit. I can never have too much tea!  So when I found out about a company that has tea parties (think Tupperware parties) I jumped at the oportunity. I quickly had my own tea party to start and am now waiting for my starter kit, I became a consultant for Steeped Loose Tea and Accesories. I’m very excited to start on this venture and to share my love of tea with others in my area (and around the world of course!), I will try to write about any interesting tea parties that I attend, especially if these parties include global tea traditions or tea treat recipes.

I have found that tea lovers all have their favourite tea cup, tea pot and other tea accesories that they use and are quick to give their opinions on so I also have a small collection of tea accesories that have moved around with me for years. I’m always interested in how different cultures drink their tea, or what types of tea they drink.  Read on »

I think my favourite part about ringing in a new year is choosing my new calendar. No, I don’t think, I know! Yes, there’s always the sense of “possibility” that comes with the start of new year, but for me the best way to see those possibilites is with a new calendar. I used to go a little overboard: 2 for home, 2 for work and sometimes 2 daytimers. Of course I really didn’t use them all but it was nice to look at the pictures every month. Now I look around for the ones that really catch my eye. This year I played it smart, I scoped out my choices before Christmas and went on Boxing day (December 26) to buy them at 50% off. So I was able to get 2 calendars for the price of one! Last year I tried going te 2nd week of January, when they were at 75% off, but all the good choices were gone. So… I did good this time around. I got a nice Tea calendar from Brush Fire for work and found THE BEST EVER calendar for home… it’s called “The World in Your Kitchen”.

It’s like someone read my mind! The calendar is published by New Internationalist Publications, it features a beautiful full colour illustration of a different country each month AND, the best part, a vegetarian recipe from that country.

Isn’t it pretty? The illustrator is Alana McCarthy and every single picture represents the colours and the “essence” of the country she’s depicting. I can almost feel the country from he illustration, she does and amazing job at bringing you into the culture. I absolutely adore it! AND it gives me another international recipe to try each month Yay! So, now I know that this year will definitely bring deliciousness, that’s one possibility that just became a reality!

It’s now 2010!  This past year felt like a short moment to me, and New Year’s Eve was like a blur. I usually get nostalgic on New Year’s, right after midnight hits. I think of times gone by and times yet to come and about all of the things I miss most. I was surprised that this year I didn’t feel like that at all, even though I didn’t have any family around me and I went out to a *gasp* bar to celebrate with friends. Maybe the reason why those nostalgic feelings didn’t come to me this year was because it didn’t really feel like New Year’s, or maybe it’s because I was too busy trying not to get pummeled to the ground by the drunk chick partying it up at the table next to us, but the point is that I felt “normal”.  It’s a new year, and a start of a new decade people! And I feel optimistic.  I don’t make resolutions anymore but I make life choices… I want to cook more and write more, I want to dance it up as much as I can and learn new dances, I want to meet new people, hopefully meet that special someone as well, I want to study yoga, maybe even teach it someday.  In a nutshell… I want to LIVE!  I don’t want to be stuck in the what ifs and the what-could-have-beens. I want to be alive, and that’s what I inted to do. Read on »

I thought I would take a short hiatus in following my international recipe dictionary and instead of going on to Nepal, next on my list of recipes to try, I want to add an entry about cookies. After all, this is the one season of the whole year when the most amount of cookies are consumed, in my opinion anyway.   My favourite treat from El Salvador are peperechas, a type of thin sandwich cookie filled with pineapple jam and panela sugar so I searched for the recipe and finally found it! I wanted to make them as gifts for my sisters who love them and some friends who’ve never tried them but have always heard me talk about them… Read on »

Everytime I look for a new recipe to make I am blown away by the differences and similarities of the cultures out there. The internet has been a relentless ally in this venture, a food lover’s encyclopedia! To be honest I really can’t imagine living without my computer now. I really didn’t want to be one of those people who couldn’t be disconnected from the world for a second but it looks like I have succumbed to that fever. I supposed that there are worse things out there to be addicted to.

I had a difficult time deciding what to make for Morocco. All their food looked amazing! So I just made the decision based on what I had in my pantry. Chicken, limes, spices… check, all I had to go out an buy were the olives and really, you can’t go wrong with chicken (or prawns in my opinion!) . So here is the delicious Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon by The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen… Read on »

Lebanon, or The Republic of Lebanon, is situated in Western Asia on the Eastern Shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s bordered by Syria and Israel. Lebanon’s capital and largest city is Beirut.

Interesting Facts:
- Lebanon has astonishing beaches as well as high mountains and skiing. Lebanon’s geography makes it easy to go from the city to the slopes in a matter of just 1–2 hours.
- Evidence of the earliest known settlements in Lebanon was found in Byblos, which is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and date back to earlier than 5000 BC.

Why did I choose Lebanon? While I was searching for interesting recipes I realized that a lot of the foods that I like originate from there… Gyros, Shawarma, Tabouli, Hummus… I want to try a few of them but for now, because it is the time of year for entertaining, I wanted to make an appetizer, something to share either for a potluck or as a starter before dinner:

Recipe: Baba Ghannouj or Mtabbal Bathinjan (eggplant dip)
1 large round eggplant (aubergine)
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
4 tbs. tahini
4 tbs. lemon juice
salt, chili sauce
olive oil
chopped parsley
slices of red bell pepper to garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously oil rimmed baking sheet. Place eggplant halves, cut side down, on sheet. 

Roast until eggplant is very soft, about 45 minutes. When it is well cooked through and the skin is blackened,Cool slightly.

Using spoon, scoop out pulp from eggplant into strainer set over bowl. Let stand 30 minutes, allowing excess liquid to drain from eggplant. 

eggplant in strainer

Transfer eggplant pulp to processor. Add 1/4 cup oil, tahini, lemon juice, and the garlic; process until almost smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving. Serve with pita wedges.

Verdict: Another easy and straight forward recipe. It’s very important to chill, I found that it tasted better after letting it chill and serving it later.  Pita wedges are the best, but you can also dip plain potato chips or pretzels. I actually used it as a spread on my veggie sandwich. I found that it was very versatile and really not difficult to make at all. Enjoy it!