Coconut Macaroons

In honour of Rosh Hashanah, here is a recipe for Coconut Macaroons.



You'll need:

2 cups sweetened coconut
½ cup icing sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 of a lemon lemon (zested)

Preheat the oven to 350F

The most time consuming part of this recipe is zesting half the lemon.


Beat the sugar and lemon zest on high speed until it disolves.



Add the coconut and beat on low until combined


Until it looks like this


Use a 1/2 tsp measure and form little balls and place on baking sheet


Bake about 10 minutes or until golden.
Cool on a rack.

Super easy, and quick.

Classic Basil Pesto

This is the time of year when The Mister cleans up the backyard garden and I'm bombarded with sweet smelling herbs placed on the kitchen counter.

Here's something I do with the basil he grows for me.
Pesto freezes beautifully, and this bowl of basil yielded me 3 packets of pesto for later.

You'll need:
* 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 1/2 cup Olive oil
* 3 tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts
* 3 garlic cloves, finely minced


Wash the basil and take the leaves off the stems.


Stuff all the ingredients into your little chopper.


Work the chopper on pulse speed until it's pureed.


Store in sandwich bags...


Seal in sandwich bags, and store in the freezer for later use.

Lazy Dinner

This is one of those dinners that you just layer stuff in a pan, and stick it in the oven, and forgeddaboutit about for about an hour.
It's really easy and it's really good.

You'll need meat (Chicken or pork)
One onion
One green pepper
One red or yellow pepper
seasoning salt
BBQ Sauce



In a pan, lay out your meat.
Season with seasoning salt.
Slice onions, green and red peppers and lay on top of meat.
Sprinkle a little more seasoning salt over the top.


Drizzle with BBQ Sauce.


Cover with tin foil, and bake for about 45 minutes covered.


Take the foil off and broil for about 10 minutes to carmelize.
It falls off the bone.

Serve with rice or potatoes, or whatever you like.

Cod Fish Balls & Mango Sour

This is a great spicy starter.
People often ask for it, if we're coming over and asked to bring something.



You'll need:

One bag Salted Cod (Boned)
3 potatoes
2 or 3 scotch bonnet peppers (minced fine)
2 large onions (minced)
Fresh Thyme, chopped fine
Bread Crumbs
1 egg
sugar
Baking powder
a little marjoram
a pinch of salt



Mango Sour:
2 ripe Mangoes
1 onion
a little vinegar
a little salt
Olive oil

Make the Mango Sour first, because it's preferably cool when used as a dip.


Blend the mango and onion until smooth (separately).

Heat oil in small saucepan, and add onions. Cook until soft.
Add mango, and stir on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.
Add a little salt and vinegar, and taste.
Does it have a pleasant sweet and sour taste?

Remove from heat and let it cool.

Back to the Fish Balls...

Rinse and boil the cod fish, and peel and cut the potatoes and boil them with some salt.
Not the cod, the cod is salty enough.

Chop the onions and scotch bonnet together, chop the thyme until fine, and set aside in a bowl, that you will continue to add to.


Drain the cod, and mince using a hand mixer or fork.
For this recipe, my hand mixer gets a work out.


Drain and mash the potatoes.


Add it to the bowl you set aside.
Add the rest of the ingredients: baking powder, egg, marjoram, sugar (about a tablespoon)
Mix everything together with a spoon before you add the egg and bread crumbs.
Kneed it together, adding more bread crumbs until it holds together in a solid way, and feels "moldable" like clay.


Using a tablespoon for measurning, take a tablespoon of mixture and roll into a ball.
If you don't get too much film on your hand/glove then it's probably ok. I learned the hard way that not enough bread crumbs will make it fall apart during frying.
Not just fall apart, disintegrate.


Roll all of the mixture into 1 tbsp balls, and fry in hot oil, until golden brown.

Serve with Mango Sour

Cevapcici (Chevaps)

Chevaps are a Serbian institution.
Next to lamb on a spit, this is will be on the grill.
I love them, my Stepson loves them, The Mister...not so much.
So, I don't make them that often. But, when I do...I make a right pig of myself.



You'll need:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb each of ground lamb and ground pork
1 egg white
lots of minced garlic (like 4 cloves or more)

In a small bowl mix together the spices for even distribution:
1 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 or two tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp baking soda


Mix all ingredients together well.
I use gloves because I can't stand the feeling, but it's also more sanitary.


Form the chevaps into finger sized pieces


Put them on the grill until done...NOT EVER in the oven.

It's traditionally served with pita bread and chopped onions, but I've served it more often with pita bread and Tzadziki sauce.

The Secret of Shake n' Bake

No secret my friends...



Clean your chicken with lemon.
In a plastic or paper bag, put bread crumbs (better yet; use blended flavoured croutons and don't add any spice), and the spice of your choice..I used seasoning salt, but Cajun spice or Greek spice..any preprepared spice will do.
Shake chicken pieces in the bag and put them in a pan.
Bake at 375F until they're done, and save yourself 2 bucks.