Old World Biscuit Rolls

Guest Blogger: Renata Toth It was my birthday recently, so we had a little celebration at work. My colleagues prepared, as always, a plentiful choice of sweets. And I just had to contribute. As I have limited time in the evening, I chose a cake that is relatively quick, a little bit special, yet traditional, delicious and can be made in various ways. The recipe itself comes from an old Hungarian cookbook under the name of biscuit rolls, but we made some modifications to better fit our taste. The basic recipe is rather classic, but we boosted it with some rum or aroma, which gave it a tasty touch. For this recipe then we use: For the pastry: 250 gr ground dry cookies or biscuits 100 gr sugar 100 gr ground walnuts 1,5 dl dark coffee 1 sachet vanilla sugar Rum / aroma as and if desired For the chocolate filling: 100 gr butter 100 gr sugar 2 tsp cocoa powder rum / flavoring as desired. If you cannot buy cookies/biscuits already ground, be sure to grind them finely. Once they are ground, mix it with the other ingredients for the pastry, knead it until you obtain a homogenous and consistent mixture and stretch it evenly into a square shape. It is easier to stretch between two sheets of foil. For the filling, mix the butter, the sugar and the cocoa powder until it is consistent and fluffy. Spread it over the pastry, roll it up and if sticky, sprinkle the pastry with some ground walnuts. Cover it in foil and leave it rest for a few hours, or overnight, in the fridge, it will be easier to cut. It can be prepared with other fillings as well, or jams, whatever you can spread well over the delicate pastry. My first time in trying this recipe and it was a great big success! Of course, the recipe still can be modified or personalised to better fit your taste. You can add dried fruits to the cream, or into the pastry maybe, or add other flavorings instead of rum, use additional ingredients, or so. Feel free to experiment and be creative with this basic recipe! And enjoy! Join 100,000 worldwide subscribers at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm BLOG Get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays and Special Occasions-2nd edition

Dessert Fit For The Prince of Persia

Guest Blogger: Renata Toth There I go experimenting again in the kitchen. After my newfound discovery of some Iranian music, I felt the sudden urge to discover some of their most famous dishes as well. And why not start with the dessert? Personally, I find the most inclined to try national desserts – much more than main dishes, although it all is interesting. So as I went through the internet on the quest of finding an exciting Iranian dessert to try in the weekend, I came through an interesting piece of culinary art. The thing is called Zoolbia and will require the following ingredients: 500 gr starch 150 gr non-skim yogurt 200 gr sugar cooking oil 2-3 sp rose water (can be acquired in special eastern or middle eastern stores; some Mediterranean food stores may also have some). Now the ingredients are few, which already imply a not very complicated dessert. This is true: although the recipe may seem a little odd at first, it is easy to prepare and will give a nice crunchy dessert of a warm Mediterranean flavour. First of all, mix the starch, 1-2 sp of sugar and water. Add yogurt and mix well until you obtain a smooth and even texture. Heat the oil in a pan, and pour the mix into the pan through a funnel to create rounded shapes of approximately 5-6 cm large in diameter. Turn down the heat to fry fully on one side, then on the other side as well. Mix the rest of the sugar, rose water and a glass of room temperature water. Bring this mixture to boil and cook until the syrup thickens. Soak the previously fried zoolbia pieces in this rosy flavoured syrup for around 5 minutes, then serve warm. Rose water is typically used in Middle Eastern cuisine. Not only is it widely used in Persian cuisine, but also in Arabic cuisine. The other most used dessert ingredient is the orange blossom water. These two additions need to be added to the dessert in small quantities, but a few drops already give a great flowery-fruity flavour to the dish. The taste is a little strange and enchanting in the same time; like a culinary travel to a different culture in your own cuisine. If you want to boost up the Persian experience, cook something Iranian as main course as well! For recipes, travel tips, join 100,000 worldwide subscribers at www.marialiberati.com/blog2 Get you copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning Book that makes any day a Special Occasion: The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition.

How To Make a T-Shirt Rug

Guest Blogger: Rachel Myers
 Sometimes projects and great ideas don’t always go as planned. In my case, I had to improvise and ended up with a different project than when I started! And it’s quite the story. First I started out making a t-shirt rug using very simple directions. The directions are as follows. First take a few shirts you don’t want anymore and cut them into 1 inch strips. You want these strips to be like little circles, not flat. For a frame, you’ll want to use a hula hoop. I used a child-size hula hoop and needed about 50 strips. Once you have the hula hoop and all your strips cut out, begin using strips to make spokes around the hoop. I used six strips, making 12 spokes. In order to get the right pattern, push two of the spokes together and keep them that way for the remainder of the project. Then, starting at any spoke, tie a strips on by looping it through itself around the spoke. Weave the strip over and under the spokes, alternating at each one. Attach another strip in the same way to the first strip and continue weaving. After three or four rows, you can begin separating the spokes and weaving in between them. When you’re all done, simply cut the spokes and tie them to prevent unraveling. Now the most important part is to not pull the strips too tight.

And I say that’s very important because that’s what I did and it didn’t end so well. If you pull the strips too tight, it creates too much tension and will pull the rug up into a bowl-like shape. So now that I had this bowl, I didn’t know what to do and I considered throwing it out and starting over. But that would be a waste. So when you’ve got a project that went awry and can’t be used for its original purpose, find another purpose for it!

My idea was a stretch but, was confirmed by my ever-honest nephew. When I showed him the “rug” he said plainly, “It’s a basket!” So that’s what I made it: A basket. But I still had the problem of how to make it keep its shape. Although the weaving was tight it was still too top heavy. I thought I could find a bowl to glue it to, but that didn’t seem practical. Then I had an idea that worked: Mod Podge. I had always used it to glue, but you can use it on fabrics too! To glue on fabrics, all you need to do it water it down. I made my mixture to be about 2 parts water to one part glue. Make sure the fabric is completely soaked by the glue mixture, and then let the excess drip off. Since my project was going to be a basket, I let it dry over a metal bowl that can be easily removed and washed. If you going to try this method know that it takes a very long time to dry. My basket took about a day and a half. Also, to help keep the shape you can untie the spoke one at a time and pull them to tighten up the project.

So even if your project doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would, that’s no reason to throw it out. Make something new! For great recipes get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays &Special Occasions-2nd edition

To Eat or Not To Eat

Guest Blogger: Chris Manganaro How often do you try something new? When you go out to a restaurant, do you order the same thing each time? When we are children, we start to develop the type of appetite for foods we will eat our entire lives. It simultaneously becomes harder and easier to eat new things as we grow older. Our appetite changes and things we used to hate become our favorite things in adulthood. It is hard to determine what factors have the most sway over what we eat and what we will not eat, but it all comes down to having a sense of adventure. Jerry Hopkins' book, Extreme Cuisine: The Weird & Wonderful Foods That People Eat, is all about the human appetite. Humans have the capacity to eat most anything they can get their hands on. Hopkins' book goes into detail on how everything is prepared and just what people had to go through to acquire certain "foods" and make them edible. This ranges from Fugu fish to poisonous plants. Even things that are hard to catch like flies are hunted down and trapped in rather ingenious ways. It is rather surprising just how far people will go to eat everything they can. Humanity needs food to survive, which is why there are so many things in the world that are considered food in the first place. It all depends on where we are located, just what we eat. Supermarkets nowadays are adding more exotic foods to their offerings and people are opening up to all new foods when they visit restaurants. The world is changing everyday yet this book still manages to bring up things that most could never see taking hold of the mainstream. It is rather fascinating to read about the history of each food mentioned and find out just what has gone into making something out of everything. Animals, plants, insects, and things we see every day, from worms to birds can be eaten if we so desire. Just like life, food is what we make of it. If we decide to eat something, it is likely we can find a way to prepare it. All we need is the courage to try it. For great recipes get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning Book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition in print or Exclusively on Kindle

Erasing the Line Between Food and Fiction

Guest Blogger:Chris Manganaro What we eat on a regular basis tends to be normal to us based on the simple fact that we are used to it. Just as we might eat a hamburger once a week or so, in other places it may be normal to have eaten larvae or snake. Of course, it is still hard to believe that there is anywhere in the world where blood is consumed regularly, yet there likely is. The word "food" means something different to everyone. What one finds appetizing might come off as unappetizing to someone else based off of any number of things, from taste to culture. Extreme is a word that is used when describing something in the highest degree, something at its peak. In some ways, this is what Jerry Hopkins book titled Extreme Cuisine: The Weird & Wonderful Foods That People Eat is all about. It takes the word food and brings it to the very edge of reason. It is a book which can boggle the mind simply by telling us things we may already know yet in greater detail. Most people have heard about at least some of the foods in this book, yet how much do we actually believe it? People eat dogs and cats. This is a fact, but any pet lover would be too appalled to even think that there is history and reasoning behind this. It is just too extreme a thought. Jerry Hopkins wrote this book to express his passion for food. He has tried many of the foods he has mentioned and even enjoys them. He writes facts as well as personal stories which range from humorous to stomach turning. It is a very humanizing way of presenting somewhat disturbing information. Not everyone is bound to take this book the same way, of course. Hopkins tries to make the book as appealing as possible to all readers by adding his human touch but he does not hold back so as not to take away from the experiences he is trying to convey. He is noticeably biased yet he knows he cannot change his reader's minds. If the descriptions are not enough to make you queasy, there are also recipes and pictures to add that extra little bit of tantalizing terror for the reader. Many readers will find themselves gagging on the words throughout the book, but the recipes and pictures will only make the book itself feel icky. Full color photos bring certain parts of the book to life, for better or worse. Recipes only bring the idea of everything as food to light all the more. It is quite humbling. This book is not for the faint of heart or those just about to eat. Or for that matter, those who have just eaten. Of course, for people like Hopkins, perhaps it might cause some salivating. Needless to say it takes a healthy appetite, whether for food or information, to get through this book. It is an intriguing read for many reasons, as long as you find the right time to read it. For Great Recipes get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning Book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition

Leftover Christmas Bulge

Guest Blogger: Renata Toth If you are like me, you gain weight in December, even though you’ve been counting calories, counting carbs, counting fat and counting your steps and the minutes you spend with working out. Now Christmas is over and spring is coming, although slowly – it’s time now to get back to shape and lose that excess we gained during this period. A simple diet plan came to my mind when I was trying to figure how to lose weight effectively. I hate starving and hate depriving myself of the food I like, therefore I chose a few day-long diet that allows for some goodies even though strictly limitedly. You can do it for 3, 4 or 5 days, but do not do less than 3 in order to get the effect, and do not do more than 5 to prevent your body from switching to “emergency mood” and start living off of much less calories than usual. The first day is usually all right. The breakfast is an orange and around 100 grams of sour cream. For lunch, you can have a slice of bread with a small amount of meat and a lot of veggies: lettuce, carrot, tomato, cabbage – but raw, and not cooked! For dinner, eat another orange and another 100 grams of sour cream. If you are very hungry during the day, you may have some reduced fat-content snack: a cereal bar, a biscuit, an apple – but avoid chocolate and fat. And also do not forget to drink 2 litres of water per day! For the other days, the rule is as follows: you may exchange the sour cream with the same amount of unflavored yogurt and the orange with another fruit, preferably apple, mandarin, kiwi, or maybe a smaller pear. For lunch, you would want to diversify the meat you eat: once chicken, once beef, once pork. Always add raw veggies without sauce. Also, you can add 1 or 2 eggs to one of your meals. If you do this for 4 days and eat normally for the other 3, and repeat it twice, you should lose those extra pounds! How to Make Gluten Free Amaretti Cookies (The Basic Art of Italian Cooking)

A Wild Recipe for Special Occasions

Guest Blogger: Renata Toth Around Christmas, everybody is busy with cooking and baking. I usually spend more time in the kitchen than out, cooking for family. Although we have a few classic meals we like to prepare, from time to time it feels good to bring a little adventure to Holiday cooking and try something new. The wonderful piece of tender deer meat offered recently by a family friend was an exciting choice to change the traditional and well-known line of Christmas meals. Being my first time of preparing venison, I was thankfully wise enough not to chose the most difficult recipe and go for a delicate, exciting, but not very complicated dish, and still make it a powerful pre-Christmas main course. The quick preparation time also adds to the attractiveness of this recipe in the overcharged Christmas period, filled with cooking and shopping and cleaning and cooking again. Ingredients for 4: 4 bigger but thin slices or venison (or 8 small ones) salt and nutmeg (or use spice mix) 1 egg 40 gr flour 50 gr cleaned and sliced natural (not salted) almonds 200 gr sour cherry 30 gr butter 3 cl cognac Preparation: spice the meat mix flour and almonds beat the egg cover the meat in egg, then the flour and almond mix, and fry in hot oil for 5 minutes on both sides. melt the butter and boil the cherries in the butter for around 10 minutes, or until the sauce mostly disappears. add the cognac to the cherry, and light it. It should burn down in a few seconds. Serve hot. as side dish, prepare rice, mashed potatoes, oven-baked potatoes, or croquettes. The combination of deer, cherry and cognac gives a wonderfully warm, wintery and forest-like impression which is the best with potato croquettes that increase this feeling. Accompanied by a beautiful advent wreath as a classy centrepiece on the dining table, especially with cinnamon and orange scented candles and decorated by dried orange slices and nut shells, complete the cozy mood of a pre-Christmas dinner in family. For more great recipes get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning Book Series The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions=2nd edition

Eating: A Social Event

Guest Blogger: Chris Manganaro Eating is a social event. Some people believe that food even tastes better when eaten in good company. Eating is an experience best shared in one way or another. If you cannot express your enjoyment to others, the experience of food decreases quite a bit. Sharing a compliment with the chef or telling your companion to have a bite add just the right flavor to any meal. If you made it yourself then seeing others enjoy it is what ends up mattering to you all the more than your own enjoyment. Food helps us to understand one another. In Alice, Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater by Calvin Trillin, we learn about Alice and Calvin as a couple through their experiences with food. Calvin is a food enthusiast, a foodie, a gourmand. Whatever you want to call him, his love of food is more than obvious and sometimes leans towards ridiculous. Alice is also a lover of food, but not exactly in the same vein as Calvin. Throughout the book one can see the differences between the two yet food still brings them together quite often. The book is simply set up in chapters which often revolve around one topic. Each chapter's topic is in some way related to food, of course. Calvin Trillin would not have it any other way. What makes this interesting is that the way each chapter addresses food is not always direct. Each exploit is rather silly and rarely serious. This makes the book move by at a leisurely pace. It is an easy read that is likely to make you chuckle along with your rumbling stomach. Due to Calvin's eccentricities, you may just be laughing at times because his love of food likely outdoes yours. He will eat most anything. For great recipes and food info and tips join 100,000 worldwides subscribers at http://www.marialiberati.com Get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning Book The Basoc Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition at www.marialiberati.com or on Amazon

Wine Soup? Who Knew

Guest Blogger: Renata Toth What characterizes this cold season? Wild animals, mushrooms, orange, grapes and wine are typical to the fall and winter months. The soup I find interesting is a nice warm wine soup in which the flavours of fall and winter are combined with the bitter sweetness of dry white wine. To make this soup for 4, you'll need: • 1 cup dry white wine • 2/3 cup water • 1 egg yolk • 4 egg whites • a few cloves • orange skin • lemon skin • approx 3 tsps sugar • approx 2 tsps of flour First, pour the wine into a pot and start boiling it. Add a few stripes or orange skin and lemon skin and the cloves (5-6 for this amount), and bring it to boil. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until you obtain a thick and hard cream. Mix the egg yolk with the sugar with a little water, and the rest of the water with the flour. When the wine is boiling, take it off the fire, and add the egg yolk-sugar mix while mixing continuously, and the water-flour mix, while still mixing it continuously in order to avoid the creation of lumps. Bring it to boil once more. When boiling, add the egg whites and mix with a hand whisk until you obtain a smooth and creamy texture. Serve hot in pretty bowls. This soup is fast and delicious, ready in approximately 30 minutes, so it is best to prepare it freshly before the dinner so that it remains hot. Although it keeps its alcoholic and' winey' taste, it practically won't contain any alcohol after boiling, so it is a safe dish for those who plan to drive after dinner. Enjoy! For more great recipes join 100,000 worldwide subscribers at http://www.marialiberati.com Get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition

Easy Lemon Jam

Guest Blogger: Renata Toth If you have read my previous post on the chocolate-lemon jam muffin, this one will come in handy, as for the jam itself. Its wonderfully lemony flavour is not only for cakes, though. You can use it as a jam on a slice of buttered bread, on biscuits, on in a pancake as filling. This is a totally home-made receipe as done by my mother and nowadays by myself as well. It does not need a lot of thinking or preparation, and it is a really low-budget treat to prepare. The ingredients for a dose are: • 1 kg white squash (not to be mistaken with the sport), grated • 3 bigger whole lemons, grated (all included) • Powdered sugar You just take the grated squash and cook it on a medium-high fire in its own juice until tender and the sauce evaporates a little. Then, add the grated lemons and cook together. When ready, distribute it into smaller or bigger bottles. You may want to wash the bottles with cold water before you do it, and only add a small amount of the hot jam, otherwise the bottle may crack or even break because of the sudden temperature increase. When the bottles are filled, put a good amount of powdered sugar ont he top to preserve the jam, put the top on tightly, and place them in a basket upside down. Cover them until they cool to avoid a quick cooling that wouldn’t do good to the jam itself. Without opening the bottle, you can keep the jam for years; if the bottle is open, then you need to keep it in the fridge and finish it relatively soon! A great breakfast idea would be to eat some jam with a home-made croissant and either a big mug of coffee or a nice fresh orange juice! Enjoy! For recipes, cooking how to's. join 100,000 worldwide subscribers at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm BLOG at www.marialiberati.com Or get the new booklet The Basic Art of Christmas Dinner at www.marialiberati.com