What can I tell you about a strawberry topping for oatmeal?  Using regular oatmeal and adding this homemade topping definitely beats eating the instant variety, it’s not hard to make and you can keep a small batch to last you through the week.  You could also try to make this with peaches or apples, so you can have a few different toppings to add. Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge and spoon them over hot, creamy oatmeal.   Hey, it’s good for you.

Strawberry Topping for Oatmeal

Original Recipe from The Foodies’ Kitchen
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries, sliced
2 teaspoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Procedure:

1. In a small saucepan, bring all ingredients together.
2. Cover and let them simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Spoon over oatmeal.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Don’t you love pork chops?  I usually like mine with pineapple, or with a honey-mustard marinade.  This time, I had to figure out what to do with leftover wine we had from our New Year’s celebration, so I thought about making a red wine sauce for them.  I used rosemary as the herb to infuse the sauce, since I had a fresh bunch from the market.   I used cream to complete the sauce, and ended up with a smooth, velvety, bacon-ey, sauce that complemented the pork chops wonderfully.  Now I only have to work on the presentation.

Edith and I used rosemary once (many, many…many! moons ago when we were in cooking school) on a blackberry sauce for I don’t remember what dish.. I think it was a chicken roulade, and it went terribly wrong.  The flavor of the rosemary completely overpowered the sauce, and it was ruined.  So my tip today is,  if you use dried rosemary, use it sparingly.  You can always add more.  You can be more liberal in the amount when you use fresh rosemary.

Pork Chops in Red Wine Sauce

A The Foodies’ Kitchen Original recipe
Serves 3

Ingredients:

3 pork chops
¼ cup chopped onion
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup cream
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
½ cup chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

 Procedure:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Season both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper and brown them on each side (about 4 minutes per side)
2. Remove them from the pan.
3. Return pan to the heat, and add the chopped onion, rosemary and wine, deglazing the pan. This means, scrape off any bits and pieces stuck to the bottom of the pan, that way you will incorporate all that flavor into your sauce.  Let it boil at medium heat for about 5 minutes or until it has reduced to half the amount.
4. Add the chicken stock and cream. Mix well.  Adjust the seasoning using salt and pepper.
5. Return the pork chops to the pan, cover and turn the heat to low.  Let them simmer for 10 minutes. (remember to cover your pan, or the whole sauce will evaporate!)
   Using tongs, transfer pork chop to an individual plate and spoon some of the sauce over it. We recommend you pair this with mashed potatoes.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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I have a cook-off coming up. Jake Van Ness is flying to Guatemala in a few days and we will have a pizza duel after Christmas, word around the campfire is his pizza is nothing short of amazing, so I have to find myself a good recipe so I don’t humiliate myself. This is not it.

I made these last weekend because my sister Petra was coming over to visit and I wanted to make something quick and delicious we could chow down on while we caught up on our week’s events. She certainly has a lot to tell, she’s a med student on her last year and she was hours away from running yet another marathon, she’s quite the local athlete (completely opposite to moi).

This pizza sort of made itself, I didn’t really know what I was going to end up with, I just piled stuff on. My base was pita breads, I grilled vegetables I had around with olive oil and a simple salt and pepper seasoning, used creole tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese, and at the end added a little kick with tabasco, which I love.

Grilled Vegetable Pizza
Yields 5 individual sized pizzas

Ingredients:
5 pita breads
1 1/2 cups creole tomato sauce
4 portobello mushrooms
1 zucchini
1 red bell pepper
1/2 red onion
2 tomatoes
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 bunch asparagus
Parmesan cheese for sprinkling
dry basil
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Start grilling.  I used my indoor griller, so I pre-heated it for 5 minutes. Follow your griller’s instructions.
2. Slice the mushrooms, zucchinis, bell pepper, onion and tomatoes. Keep each vegetable in a separate bowl as you will be grilling in batches.   Coat the vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Grill each of the vegetables and set aside.
4. Set your pita breads on two cookie sheets (3 pitas on one and 2 in the other) and spoon a good amount of tomato sauce.
5. Follow by evenly coating with equal amounts of each of the vegetables.
6. Cover with shredded mozzarella and sprinkle with enough parmesan to your liking.
7. Season with dry basil, salt and pepper and finally, top with 2 asparagus tips
8. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until cheese has completely melted.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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What would a Halloween be without cupcakes? I made a one-bowl cupcake recipe, and as the other two I’ve posted here (Grandma Lucy’s Apple Cake and Easy One Bowl Chocolate Cake) this one was a breeze to make. The only thing I added extra to the recipe was Black food coloring. Last year we used Wilton’s black coloring gel, but since we got Blueish cookies, this year we went on the look for the Americolor Black.  In the US, you can find it at your local baking shop or Amazon, and in Guate we got ours at Blossom Cakes.  We also got Halloween Sprinkles and little ghosts and bats. The black food coloring makes the batter darker and will make the cupcakes appear black. For decoration, as I didn’t want an overly sweet cupcake, I made a Cream Cheese Frosting with a little bit of orange color gel added to it, so it pops!

This recipe is definitely one that you can make with your kids, as you whisk the ingredients together, and it’s a recipe that is easy for a quick bake on a Halloween afternoon!

Black Halloween Chocolate Cupcakes
A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
black food coloring

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
2. Line 12 cups from a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cups liners.
3. In a medium bowl, sift and whisk together flour, baking powder, cocoa, sugar and salt.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract.
5. Pour in dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
6. Add the black food coloring to make it darker. It will still look brown because of the chocolate, but you’ll notice it turning darker.
7. Evenly distribute batter into prepared pans.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before frosting.

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
Enough to heavily frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
orange food coloring or red and yellow food coloring to mix

Directions

1. Sift the confectioner’s sugar.
2. Using a mixer, blend the butter and cream cheese together until well combined.
3. Gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar until fully incorporated.
4. Finally mix in the food coloring until you get the desired color. If you’re using gel, add it by bits as a little colored gel goes a long way.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Plantains are firmer and lower in sugar than regular bananas, and while bananas are usually eaten raw, plantains are mostly cooked.  You can use green plantain to make “tostones”, but the riper the fruit, the sweeter the taste of this Caribbean and Latin American cuisine staple.

In the case of Atol de Platano, use ripe plantains.  You’ll know they are ready to use when the peel turns black.  This beverage can be served at any time of day, but since it is served hot, we usually enjoy it over breakfast or late in the afternoon, especially on cold ones which will soon be here.

Atol de Platano
A Foodies’ Kitchen Recipe
Yields: About 4 servings

Ingredients:

2 ripe plantains
6 cups of water
1 allspice grain
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup sugar

Procedure:

1. Cut plantains into large chunks. (Some people leave the peel on, because it imparts more flavor…I forgot about this and peeled mine.)
2. In a medium sized pot, bring all ingredients to a boil.
3. Let it cook for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the cinammon stick and allspice.  Take out the plantain pieces and put them in the blender. (remove the peel at this point if you left it on, before blending).  And don’t discard the liquid!
5. Processs until smooth.
6. Return the pureed plantain to the pot (the water you cooked it in is still in the pot) and let it cook for about 10 minutes more.
7. Serve hot.

Note:  Some people prefer to add a little milk.  You can add it when re-heating this atole to thin it out (or add more water).

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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This is one of the simplest side dishes I know how to make. Just toss baby corn with butter, paprika (or chili powder), salt and pepper.  They are very flavorful and a great companion to steak or grilled chicken dishes.

Baby corn is available in white and yellow varieties and is usually three to four inches in length. Eaten whole, baby corn is mature corn, simply picked at an earlier stage of growth, and has a much milder flavor than full-grown corn.

Baby Corn
A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Serves: 3-4 people 

Ingredients:

1 pack baby corn ( probably 1 lb)
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon paprika (or chili powder)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
salt, to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat a heavy skillet.  Once it is hot, add the oil and butter until it melts. Don’t let it burn!
2. Add baby corn, sprinkle with paprika, pepper and salt.
3. Sauteé baby corn for about 4 minutes.
4. Serve immediately.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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As you know already, both my grandmothers passed the love for cooking to me, and started teaching me the ropes since I was a little girl. The first recipes that grandma Lucy taught me were her Sunday Cake (a.k.a. Magdalena) and Rum Cake (or Borracho). I remember that I was stunned when she said that she was making an Apple Cake. Usually she didn’t bake anything other than Borracho or Magdalena for our sunday family gatherings. I remember that she had someone coming over so she wanted to bake something different.

This is an amazingly easy cake to prepare- and you’ll be surprised of how fast you’ll prepare it. What takes most of the time, is peeling and dicing the apples. The batter doesn’t take much time to prepare.  I made this cake last Sunday, since my cousin and his family were coming over so I thought it would be a good dessert to have coffee with. It turned out to be a success, and when my dad wanted a piece of it… he just got crumbs! I baked a second cake on Thursday morning.   As of today (Friday) there’s only a third of the cake left! Got some good critiques from dad and my aunt saying that I made it just like Gradma Lucy! Couldn’t be happier! Hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I did.

Apple Cake

A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Servings: 16 single servings

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup flour, all-purpose
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons milk
4 apples, peeled and diced
cinnamon to taste
nutmeg to taste

Directions:

1. Grease and flour a square 8″ baking dish.
2. Mix apples with the nutmeg and cinnamon. Place on the greased 8″ baking dish.
3. Preheat oven at 350ºC
4. Sift the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
5. On a measuring cup, add the egg and the milk, whisk it until they are combined.
6. Pour the egg and milk mix over the dry ingredients, whisking constantly and then pour the butter, and whisk until combined.
7. Pour mix over apples and spread it until the apples are covered.
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. My exact timing was 47 minutes to get the  crispy crunchy top.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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I just made these for lunch. Sometimes you just feel like having something like this and not a proper chicken and rice or whatever have you type of meal. They were a great success!

Listen, no one likes to do the dishes. I used the same pan for all the steps, so choose a proper pan where you can brown the onions, grill the pineapple, sauteé your corn, and also brown your quesadillas. I used my grilling pan.

This may be a casual meal, but it has a lot of steps.  If you would’ve walked into my kitchen when I was making these, you’d think I was preparing Christmas dinner or something. If you don’t have 1 hour to spend in the kitchen preparing this, you can “do ahead”.  You can prepare steps 1 to 8 the day before so everything is ready and you just have to assemble when Quesadilla time comes.  Don’t get me wrong.  This is not hard to make, it just has a few ingredients that require preparation before assembly, so it’s a bit time consuming.

The mixture of flavors is amazing. Imagine it, grilled chicken marinated in BBQ sauce, the perfectly melted cheese, the tangy pineapple, a little cayenne, the special flavor you get from browned onions, corn kernels sauteed with balsamic vinegar and honey, the cilantro…all inside crunchy tortillas. Yum!  Aren’t you hungry yet?

Pineapple and Chicken Quesadillas
(with Balsamic Corn)

Yields: 5 Quesadillas
An Original Recipe from The Foodies’ Kitchen

Ingredients
1 medium white onion, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
10 flour tortillas
1 ½ cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
2 boneless chicken breasts
BBQ Sauce, to marinate (use your favorite brand)
chopped fresh cilantro
½ medium sized pineapple
1 yellow corn
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
Cayenne Pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Prepare your chicken breasts by cutting them open and marinating them in BBQ sauce. You can do this 1 hour ahead of time, to get a more intense flavor. I didn’t marinate mine to make this recipe, so you can do it either way.
2. Cut up your pineapple, into strips as shown on the photograph. (Cut it down the middle, then cut that half into another half – lengthwise-, and that one into another half-lengthwise as well- cut off the peel, and start forming your strips)
3. Heat water to boil and cook the corn. It should be cooked in 8 minutes. Once it has cooked cut the corn kernels off and set aside.
4. While the corn cooks and boils, heat a grilling pan or a medium sized pan. You will use the same pan for all the cooking steps, so you don’t have to wash up a lot of stuff. Choose the right pan.
5. Start to cook the onion slices in the hot pan, with 1 tablespoon butter until they are browned. It should take about 5-7 minutes. Be careful not to burn them. Remove from the pan and set aside.
6. Now (in the same pan)  place your pineapple strips, let them brown for about 4 minutes on each side.  Remove from the pan and set aside.
7. Next, add a little bit of butter to the pan (don’t let it burn! Your pan will be pretty hot at this point), add the corn kernels, balsamic vinegar and honey. Salt and pepper to taste. Let it cook for about 5 minutes.  Remove from the pan and set aside.
8. Finally, add your chicken. Let is cook for 4 minutes on each side, until it’s nice and brown. Set aside.

Now we come to the cutting part:

1. Cut the pineapple strips into slices. Cut the chicken into slices as well.

To assemble:

1. Place a flour tortilla on a plate, add shredded cheese try to coat the entire tortilla with the cheese, then chicken, then pineapple, then onions and corn.
2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and a little cayenne pepper if you want an extra kick. Sprinkle with cilantro. Cover with the second tortilla.
3. Transfer to your hot pan (still using the same one) with a spatula. Let is cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Serve immediately.

Note: You can serve this with some sour cream on the side, or a serving of homemade creole tomato sauce.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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As we previewed on our Facebook page, we have been dabbling with new ingredients that Kitty brought from Williams-Sonoma’s Albany, NY Store (which is amazing, by the way): Tahitian Vanilla and dried French Lavender.

The first recipe I tried out are these lavender cookies which I made for my mother’s birthday earlier this month. This is a basic cookie dough with Tahitian Vanilla and dried French Lavender mixed into it. For the icing, instead of water I used lavender infused water.  I wanted a really subtle lavender color for the icing, so I added red and blue food coloring drop by drop until I got the hue I wanted.

When I was browsing around looking for recipes with lavender in them, I found out some really useful tips.  Dried lavender has a stronger taste than fresh lavender, therefore if a recipe calls for fresh lavender, use half of the amount (of dried lavender).

I was worried that my cookies would end up tasting like a floral kitchen cleaner, so I only added 1 tablespoon of dried lavender to my dough.  Feel free to use 2 or 2 1/2 tablespoons. The flavor is very subtle. The same goes for the icing.  I used only about a teaspoon to infuse 1/2 cup of water. I’ll definitely use more than that next time.

What I could definitely taste, was the Tahitian Vanilla.  See the tiny little dots  in the photograph of the baked cookies?  That’s the vanilla.  If you can get your hand on this, I definitely recommend it. Use is as you would use vanilla extract.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find lavender in Guatemala.  We have to rely on friends and/or family traveling to the USA and beg them to visit Williams-Sonoma or Whole Foods for our gourmet stash of spices, rubs and ingredients.  The good news is that new gourmet stores are opening their doors, hopefully they’ll stock up on varied and gourmet products like these.

Lavender-Vanilla Cookies

A Foodies’ Kitchen Original Recipe
Yields: 18-20 medium sized cookies

Ingredients:
 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Tahitian Vanilla powder (or vanilla extract)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon chopped dried lavender

For the Lavender Icing:
2 cups confectioners’ (powdered or icing) sugar
3 tablespoons  meringue powder
1/2  water
1 teaspoon dried lavender

Cookies Procedure:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the chopped lavender, flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/2 an inch thick, at least. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter.
3. Bake 11-13 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. You’ll know they are done when they begin to turn golden brown in the edges.

Lavender Icing Procedure:

1. In a small pot, bring 1/2 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of dried lavender to a boil. Let it boil for about 3 min.  Remove from the heat and let it steep for 5-8 minutes.  Strain and reserve the infused water.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder until combined.  Measure your lavender infused water to 1/4 cup, add the water and beat on medium to high speed until very glossy and stiff peaks form (5 to 7 minutes).
3. If necessary, to get the right consistency, add more powdered sugar or water. To cover or ‘flood’ the entire surface of the cookie with icing, the proper consistency is when you lift the beater, the ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface of the icing for a few seconds before disappearing.

The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

Separate your icing into as many bowls as you need, depending on what colors you want to use. Add the food coloring with a toothpick, a little bit goes a long way.

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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I remember when I was a kid, my grandma Lucy would make this delicious Italian Meringue. I was only allowed to help at first, and then just watch from a distance, that’s when she would heat the sugar and honey to soft-ball stage. Then came the fun part. Grandma didn’t make it often, as it took plenty of time to prepare… and she would make two recipes: We all loved it!

Italian meringue is prepared by the addition of sugar syrup made by heating sugar and water (and sometimes the addition of glucose or corn syrup to stabilize the crystal structure) to the soft-ball stage (240 °F) to egg whites whipped to soft peaks. The sugar syrup cooks the egg whites, heating them well past the 140 °F needed to kill salmonella and any other potentially harmful bacteria. The syrup and egg white mixture is then whipped until cooled to around 100 °F.

The vanilla cake I prepared is a variation of the Lemon Cake I posted back in April. I have to say that between that frosting and this one, I take this one a thousand times over. The other one is meant to be eaten that same day, as this one can last a few days… and a little extra tip, the left over frosting, place it in a bowl and put it in the fridge with some cinnamon sprinkled on top. You won’t resist the temptation to grab a spoonful of it!

Classic Vanilla Cake

Yield: 16 Servings
Recipe by Martha Stewart

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup low-fat buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-by-2-inch cake pans, tapping out excess flour. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
3. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined.
4. Divide batter between pans; smooth tops. Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.
5. Place one cake, bottom side up, on a cake stand. Tuck strips of parchment paper underneath. Using an offset-spatula or table knife, spread top with Whipped Frosting. Top with remaining cake; frost top, then sides.

Cook’s Note: Reserve the egg whites left over from the cake for the frosting. If you don’t have buttermilk, substitute plain yogurt or sour cream (not fat-free).

Italian Meringue Frosting

A Foodies’ Kitchen Original recipe
Enough to heavily frost a 2 layer 8-2 inch cake

Ingredients:

5 egg whites
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of honey
1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
*You’ll need a Candy Thermometer

Directions:

1. First, lets set our workspace and tools: Make sure your mixer bowl is clean and dry, no drop of water on it so the egg whites can form their soft peaks. Next,. move your mixer next to the stove. It will be much more easier for you to add the hot syrup to the egg whites mix bit by bit.
2. Bring sugar, water, and honey to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook, undisturbed, until syrup registers 240 °F (soft-ball stage) on a candy thermometer. The sugar syrup cooks the egg whites, heating them well past the 140 °F needed to kill salmonella and any other potentially harmful bacteria.
3. Meanwhile, whisk whites with a mixer until soft peaks form, about 10 minutes. This depends on your mixer. The best way to test it is to remove the bowl from the mixer and tilt it to the side slowly, and if the egg whites hold their place they are ready to use.
4. Check on your syrup and make sure it stays under the softball stage. For this, I just leave the saucepan on the stove and reheat it when needed.
5. Reduce speed to low, and add hot syrup to your egg whites by the spoonful. I use a small ladle. Make sure that each spoonful gets mixed before adding the next. Clean up the sides of the bowl from time to time. Do this until all the syrup has been mixed with the egg whites. The amount of meringue will rise, so if you want to make two recipes, make it one at the time.
6. Let it cool for about 5-6 minutes, since it will be warm (you’ll be able to feel it from the bowl) before you start using it on your cake.
7. After it cooled down a bit, frost your cake!

© 2011, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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