Fried filled zucchini. Right now, the most important part of this are the banana slices. Who ever said that you should not put bananas into the refrigerator. Ahh yes, “Chiquita Banana” a commercial made by Disney in the ’40s (can see it on youtube.com. I had remembered or only heard part of the jingle with the 4 to 7 no, no, nos about the refrigerator and thought it meant never, while the original commercial went to great lengths to indicate that the banana would not ripen in the refrigerator. And here all these years I thought that it was “never ever”. Like in most things, we go around making decisions on only half knowledge. I found this half banana which had been in there at least 4 days and it was as good as the day it arrived (ripened). Back to the zucchini. Inside is a mixture of burger, hotdog (all vegetarian) mixed with blue cheese. Everything including the rice was boiled together and then separated to fulfill its separate functions. Remember that the filling has to stand taste wise on its own because the zucchini is not going to be of much help. These were fried with the filling inside. To eat, just cut around the inside of the zucchini shell and lift it off.  Very good. Note: See mushroom warning at beginning of page.

Leftover rice, flour, egg patty. The bun I wanted to put with it would have overpowered the plate. So you see the solution while the rest of it cools it in the kitchen while I eat. The slices are a little more brown on the other side than I wanted. Did I say burned? Not everything is as perfect as it seems. And we can only thank our lucky stars that that’s true. I get two dishes out of this one.  Those are the ones I like. Cuts my time in half.

This is sauteed mushroom soup with butter, milk, not much flour, and a lot of very expensive cheese. It is written katchcabal in a foreign language, but I cannot find it on the web so am unable to tell you what it would be in English. All I can say is, the better the cheese, the better the soup.  And this one is great. Note: See mushroom warning at beginning of page.

I had a hard time saving half of the mushroom and cheese soup for this dish. But one thing I learned from my neighborhood French restaurant, always put a layer of sauce at the bottom, for obvious reasons.  The other topping – stir fried burger and tomatoes. And you will notice the new bowl. The old one had a crack in it as you may have seen. But I have not thrown him out. Just retired him to the refrigerator where he sits holding my leftovers. That’s not a place that I would like to be retired to, but each to his own.  On with the spaghetti sauce. The secret is in the spices. I will get back to you on those. After all my own cooking and not using them, I have begun to appreciate why the spice trade was always so lucrative. 

This proves my point. Two of them actually. First, I walked into the kitchen this morning and could not think of anything new to make, so I said to myself  (I do a lot of that) “I’m hungry so I’ll just make a pancake and be done with it”. That may be one reason that the picture is not as clear as some of the others. I was too hungry to hold the camera steady. And the point being? Just start something you want to do and with an open mind it will always lead somewhere.  And that is my second point. While it was panning or whatever pancakes do, I decided to put some flax on – stuff that gives us Omega-3 which we don’t make for ourselves and if you don’t eat the foods that do give it to you, this is the highest source of it – way over salmon, walnuts and the rest. Then, I saw the sunflower seeds and said to myself  “no, that won’t do”. And two minutes later, they were browning in butter beside the pancake. Always leave all the options open. Then I had it on the plate and the flax really does not look too good – sort of like a blight on the horizon. So I got out some cinnamon and mixed it with brown sugar. This was quite good and with the seeds, it was great. And for those of you who can’t think of pancakes without syrup – syrup. Why not? So just start something and you may be surprised what it can lead to – absolute failure or just the same old stuff if you do not keep an open mind, or you don’t even start, or it can be a great success. One other thing, there will always be those who will cheer you on. 

I started out making my mix with raisins/dried apricot / cashews / instantwholeoats / sunflowerseeds and a bit of some store bought mix someone gave me. You see it there. Then I decided half way through to make mix balls fried in oil. Well, it didn’t go the way I expected. You see the rejects here.  Then I finally got it together by making the dough thicker than pancake batter but less then dough for rolling and put the mix in, and with bite size amounts rolled in dry flour and into the pan. This is not deep fry. I didn’t want to waste all that oil. So I put in about half an inch and had to stand there and turn. The results:  Really great – especially after sitting in the frig for awhile. With all those ingredients, how can it not be healthy – except for the oil of course. But that is extra fine olive oil. And I still had a lot left over for My Mix. 

These are the rejects from above. Tasted just as good as the round one. Go figure.

You can also see this recipe on http://tsingle.info.
Burgher’s delight
With my ideas and a real chef I could open up a restaurant to which droves of New Yorkers would come. And I don’t live anywhere close to New York. That’s how famous we would be. This is a rice cake made with egg and flour and rice with burger covered in sweet and sour sauce. The rice is mixed with instant vegetable soup with non-instant fried mushrooms, together with cheese croutons (I thinks you would call these crouts because they are larger) made from broken up tops of a sweet bread loaf.

You can see this recipe also on http://tsingle.info.
Roman Arch Cheese Thing. I outdid myself on this one. Fried cabbage, with can’t remember the name of the spice. You’re right. Why couldn’t I remember that? And you thought this wasn’t an interactive site. And the sweet bread roll with three-kinds-of-cheese sauce  made with Rosemary. No, I was alone. End pieces underneath to Roman arch it.  Avocado with olive oil, vinegar and za’atar that Middle Eastern spice (also zaatar, zatar, zattar or zahatar with dried thyme, toasted white sesame seeds, and salt. Some sources also include savory, hyssop, oregano, cumin, and fennel seed from wikipedia.org) which makes everyone smarter. I just wonder when it’s going to start working for me.

The Wild West sheriff and his gal Nutcake (actually the brains behind the organization), and his posse with, right to left from sheriff’s left, Stalwart, Softy (showing his tender side), Oneeye, Insideman (why he is not as tan as the others), and krusty (doesn’t like the letter “c”) around a pool of black gold (in this case maple). For those cold morning when there is no way you want leftover-rice unless it’s with raisins and cashews rolled in flour and fried. I normally do not give links here, but thought this was a good one about nuts. http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ftmar04.htm Food Reflections 

This is a serious contender for the best I’ve done so far. I was so into that sentence that I forgot what the contender is.  So often we lose the point that we are trying to make by becoming entranced by our own word constructions. As it turns out, I do remember. These are three Lasagna pastas boiled until almost done. Fully done and you probably would not be able to do this. They were then rolled by hand with a mixture of cooked minced burger (vegetarian), blue cheese, katchkabal cheese, spices inside, and fried until it looks like the picture, and then covered with tomato sauce (in this case canned tomato sauce, tomato paste, and spices (cumin and garlic probably). In this case, the canned tomatoes were made for what is called Shakshuka in Israel. Which is what I had for supper but did not photograph. Too hungry.

This is a baked apple cake dessert made with my now famous panCAKE without the sugar inside and a baked apple on top which is not visible because I sort of went overboard with whipped milk (without sugar so it would whip, but added liberally before I ate), and chocolate. I think that I am not gaining weight because it is very cold here and burn a lot of calories by shivering.  Would not suggest it as a diet plan.

Was not going to photograph this morning. It’s late and I just wanted to have breakfast. But then, with all of the things that should start off your morning on one plate, I could not resist.  For starters is the peanut butter heated in the skillet with butter which give
vitamin E, niacin, folate, protein and manganese Full Disclosure On Peanut Butter, then the cashews which give copper and magnesium among others things Full Disclosure On Cashews, and mixed in with the mush where you can’t see it, but it’s there, is flax seed for Omega-3 for and all of its prevention and benefits Omega-3 the low down. Added to that is fruit – raisins and apricots. And on top of that whole grain oats and seeds, and whatever the bun is made out of. I feel better already.