Old Fashioned Cookie

Ingredients

• 3 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter (8 oz)
• 1 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons wheat/corn starch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Take large bowl and put butter (in room temperature), granulated sugar, sugar, starch and vanilla extract. Knead them until butter become soft. Then add the flour slowly while you are kneading. After you add the last cup of flour, kneading will be more difficult. But keep going until it become a dough. 

Take one piece of dough and start rolling on a cutting board or counter.If the dough do not stick at all, you can add a little bit of plain yogurt, it will help sticking. 

With the help of a fork, draw lines on the surface of the roll. 

Cut the roll diagonally into equal pieces with the help of a knife. 

Put them on a cooking pan and bake about 25 minutes in a preheated 325 F oven.

Enjoy!

Chicken Kiev

Chicken Kiev is known as an Ukrainian dish, but there are also arguments that it was originated from Russia in early 20th century.

Note: This recipe is for only one person

Ingredients

• 1 boneless chicken breast
• 1/8 stick butter
• 1/4 cup of chicken bread
• Parsley
• Garlic
• Vegetable/canola oil
• Salt
• Black pepper

Preparation

Cut chicken breast into thin slices and salt them on both sides. 

Place chopped parsley, garlic,black pepper and sliced butter on the chicken breasts. 

Roll the slices and tie them with a string. 

Keep rolls in the fridge for 10 minutes. In the mean time scramble eggs in a bowl and put some chicken bread on a separate plate. Take a pan and put very little oil and heat it. Dip chicken first into the scrambled egg, then to the chicken bread and fry it on the pan. 

Enjoy!

Simple Walnut Cake

This recipe is very easy to do and does not need too much time to prepare.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup of crushed walnuts
• 3-4 tablespoons wheat/corn starch
• 1 dessertspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup of vegetable/canola oil
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Take a large bowl, put sugar and eggs into it, stir them with the help of a whisk (or you can use a mixer if you wish, but I personally do not prefer). Add milk and oil while stirring. Then add lemon juice and vanilla extract, stir again and add starch and walnuts. Lastly combine baking powder and flour in a strainer and add them to the mixture through it. This step is important for the cake rise nicely. Take any kind of a baking pan and apply butter or oil all over it and pour the mixture. I personally prefer a round baking pan for this kind of cake.

Bake the cake in  350 F preheated oven for 30 minutes. You can check if it is baked with the help of a toothpick. Stick the toothpick to the cake, if it is clean your cake is baked well, if it has still dough on it you need to bake the cake more.

Enjoy!

Green Beans

Today I want to share a green bean appetizer recipe with olive oil.

Ingredients

• 1 lb green beans (I bought from farmers market)
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 tomato
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 3/4 cup of hot water
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste (optional)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Black pepper
• Fresh dill/parsley for decoration

Preparation

First get rid of the edges of green beans, then cut them into two or three pieces depending on the size. I also cut the bigger ones vertically, as they are cooked better in that way. 

Chop onions and fry them in olive oil until they change color.

Then add the beans and sugar, close the lid and cook them on low heat until beans change color. This part is important, because if you boil them before cooking first, they will not be cooked well.

Add tomato, hot water, black pepper and tomato paste and cook them together for another 15 minutes. If you think you have added enough tomato, you may not use tomato paste. Add salt at the very end.

Because this is an appetizer cooked with olive oil, you would prefer to eat it cold and keep in a glass bowl. You can decorate with fresh dill or parsley.

Dango

Dango is a Japanese desert made with rice flour. It has various types such as An, Mitarashi, Kinako, Nori and Goma. I will share recipe for mitarashi dango with soy sauce.

Ingredients

For the dango

• 1 1/3 cup of rice flour
• 3/4 cup of hot water

For the sauce

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2/3 cup of water
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 dessertspoons corn or wheat starch

Preparation

Put rice flour in a large bowl and add water slowly while kneading it. You can use a spatula at first if it is too hot to touch. Knead it until you get one piece of dough. 

Take small pieces from the dough and make small balls out of them. 

Boil water in a streamer and then cook dumplings in it about 10 minutes. 

Take them from the streamer and put them on skewers. I did not have skewer so I have used toothpick instead. 

If you like them crispy you can grill them on a frying pan about 10 minutes. 

To prepare the sauce put all the ingredients into a sauce pan and cook on medium heat. Constantly stir until it boils, after that lower the heat and cook them about ten minutes. Spread sauce over dumplings while serving. You can serve dumplings with different kinds of sauces such as chocolate, honey, strawberry...

Enjoy!

Home-made Veggie Patch

Today I want to share an easy vegetarian recipe. I prefer to eat it with plain yogurt, but you can also use it to make veggie burger or sandwich.

Ingredients

• 3 squashes
• 1 potato
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 onion
• 1 green onion
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup of wheat flour or bread crumbs 
• 1/2 cup of grated mozzerella 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Black pepper
• Cumin
• Parsley
• Fresh dill
• 1/2 cup of olive oil (if you will bake)

Preparation

Peel and grate squashes, potato, carrot and onion and mix them in a large bowl. Then add chopped parsley, green onion and fresh dill and mix them all together.

Lastly add eggs, mozzarella, flour, salt cumin and black pepper and mix.

If you prefer to fry it you do not need to add oil, you can take small pieces from it with the help of a spoon and fry.

I prefer to bake so I add olive oil to the mixture and put it into a glass baking pan.

Bake it about 40 minutes in 350 F preheated oven.

Carrot Balls with Chocolate

Ingredients

• 4-5 carrots
• 3/4 pack of Petit Beurre biscuits  (about 16 biscuits)
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of crushed walnuts
• Coconut
• 1/2 bar of dark chocolate
• 1/2 bar of milk chocolate
• 1/2 cup of whipping cream
• Water

Preparation

Grate carrots, put into a pan, add 1/2 cup of water and place pan on  medium heat. After couple of minutes add sugar and wait until carrots become very soft. 

Then add crushed walnuts and continue cooking on low heat. 

Crumble the biscuits and add them to the mixture.Cook until it gets very soft.

Take it form the heat and wait until it gets cold. In the mean time, to prepare chocolate sauce put whipping cream in a pot and boil it, when it is boiled add dark and milk chocolate in small pieces. If the sauce is very thick you can add water or milk. After chocolate melts, take it into a bowl. 

Take a piece from carrot mixture and give it a ball shape with your hands. 

Then with the help of a toothpick, You can dip them to only coconut, only chocolate or both.