The making of fresh veggie wraps

Dear Family & Friends

Our family is not really keen meat eaters, although we are not vegetarians yet we eat very little meat and would prefer more vegetables. Fresh Spring rolls is one of those dish I do that is packed with veggies. I find this very time consuming to make so I don't do them as much as we want. 

Veggie rolls brings joy for my family...their eyes literally sparkles as they eat this!!

Spring roll is also known as popiah or lumpia. It can be eaten fresh or deep fried. The fillings can vary with either minced meat, seafood prawns etc... but we really prefer it with veggies. Any mixture of stir fried finely shredded vegetable leaves or grated roots or seed sprouts of your choice will do. 

assortment of stir fried veggies precooked for spring roll filler

Today I cooked a big pot of shredded cabbages,sweet pepper and other root veggies on hand. Set this aside to cool down a bit before using it with the wrapper.

Home- made spring roll wrapper is 100% better than those store bought ones

Normally, you could find this wrapper sold in Asian stores...but as we don't have any in this country, I have to make my own. It's basically made of flour, cornstarch, salt and water. Mixed to a very watery consistency. Then, pan fry on non-stick pan to form a very thin crepe - one at a time till you have enough. Yes, it's time consuming to make, but it taste so much better than the store bought  ones. Nothing beats it's freshness.

When wrappers and veggie fillers are cooked, it's time to wrap and roll them one by one.

Fill the crepe and fold it from the top, and both sides to keep the fillings in.

It would be better if every one rolls their own...but normally I would roll them all so it will be ready to eat. Yes, I spoil the opportunity of giving others the skills of wrapping up their own food.

It took me hours, to do all these....but we ate it all in just a couple of minutes!

my imperfectly wrapped veggie roll ... 

If I find more time on hand...I will do this again for the love of my family...but for the moment, we will be happy to patiently look forward to the next spring roll meal - whenever it will be next!!

Having meal time with your family is always a good thing...simple or extravagant meal is not important as long as you enjoy them together: Wishing you and your family happy meal times and with all best wishes for a successful and healthy new year 2017!

Yours

Never hungry in the kitchen

Dear Family & Friends

A few weeks back, our neighbor was still pouring in more sweet pepper...I can't freeze them as our chest freezer is full to the brim by now. So, we had a lot of sweet pepper meals throughout the week and the next! Oh...no one minds...in fact, we all just love stuffed sweet pepper!

stuffed sweet pepper

I simply stuff it with cooked risotto style rice. Mix some minced meat, onion, garlic and lots of herbs. Then, stuff the cleaned and hollowed out sweet pepper. Basically, you can fill it with anything you like...I just use my imagination! Smaller sweet pepper can be filled with with scrambled egg and cheese fillings - it's YUMMY too!

Stuffed sweet pepper that is slightly pan fried and steamed, but you can just bake it in the oven too

After stuffing the sweet pepper, I put it in a frying pan to pan fry it a bit to get some burned marks , then, add a little water to further steam cook it. Or you can just bake it in the oven till the sweet pepper is cooked.

one big delicious omelet from our hens

The week was busy. So we also had a few quick meals like egg omelet which can be filled with various chopped up veggies and herbs. It's best on a hectic day.

Kohlrabi from our neighbor's garden

Our neighbor also introduced us to a root vegetable that we never had before, the kohlrabi. It taste a bit like daikon radish. You can eat it fresh as salad after peeling off the tough outer skin, but I prefer to grate it and cook it like the Jewish Latke. Use kohlrabi instead of grated potatoes, mix a bit of flour, egg, salt and pepper. Then, pan fry it like little pancakes. It is delicious.

more cabbages from the neighbor's garden - my first homemade sauerkraut

Yes, we are bombarded with so many good veggies from the next door garden!! When Boris (our neighbor) ask our girls if they like the fruits and veggies he have been passing on to us, the girls always says: 'Thank you Uncle Boris...we like them all very much'. He gets so happy and you know what will happen next...more and more fruits and veggies drops in.

Having received a lot of cabbages, I decided to try making sauerkraut. A blogger has been so gracious to post on how to make sauerkraut. You can check it out here. https://lachattegitane.blogspot.bg/2016/11/making-sauerkraut.html. I followed her guide and this year we had our own home made, healthy sauerkraut:) Yummy...they're so good and easy to make:)

Counting our many many blessings each week and we give thanks. Hope you stay blessed too:)

Yours

Restoring furniture project

Dear Family & Friends

We're trying our hands on new interest of restoring furniture.. Modern day new furniture sold are just not appealing...prices are high and we mainly see a lot of MDF furniture that's not durable. 

We found a shop that sells old real wood furniture...some of which they have already restored. We bought an unrestored one...it's ugly for the moment but we can see the beautiful potential of the unit.

this ugly looking armchair got lots of potential to be a well loved, comfy chair

This armchair is just the right size for our need and it's very comfortable...for just 15 pounds we took it home for our new project. My big girl is enjoying this project in between all other things she does.

sanding wood furniture using sandpaper and hand power!

We sanded it down and will soon repaint it and reupholster it. I hope this will get us going to many more beautiful furniture projects and be successful with it.

a bed side table on the list of 'work-in-progress'.

We also got a pair of bedside tables...this too will be restored. I will show you the outcome of these projects later on. For the moment we have a lot of work on hand...as we work to make some beautiful pieces of furniture to use in our new apartment.

pan fried dumplings with chives and egg fillings, we call this 'he-zi' in Chinese

Work makes us hungry...thus, we're craving for lots of food calories. So this week, we had pan fried dumplings with egg and chives fillings. They're so good...I must make some more soon:)

unleaven crispy flat bread made of flour, a bit of salt mix with hot water, then, sprinkled with chives

My little girl is engrossed with making very crispy fried chives flat bread. She rolls the dough so thinly that it is better than any packet of crisp. I'm just as happy as she is whenever she ask me if she can make some more of this...a few times a week!!

Eating and working...or is it working and eating? Ah, life couldn't be better than this:) Hope you are also enjoying each day where you are!

Yours

Summer food in bulgaria

Dear Family & Friends

The abundance of summer is always something to look forward to. In Bulgaria, we notice that people tend to eat what is in season. So, when you go to restuarants...everyone serves the same cucumber and tomato salad in their menu. It is best to go for the seasonal salad too - for it's freshness.

A plate of summer meal

We don't normally get fresh summer salad varieties during the winter season...but comes summer, we eat nothing but these...day after day. Fresh cucumber and tomato salad, mixed with yogurt - which is an all season fare, along with the white salty feta like cheese called sirene.

A local fruit market with variety of seasonal fruits

When it comes to fresh fruits...there's also a great variety...but they mostly come in season. Every homes in the village got fruit trees in their garden....abundance and surplus are always going around...we just have to eat a lot more till we're so bloated with liquid. Not complaining at all...afterall, you must understand that we do get very hot summer's days and all these fruits and vegetables are but the best choice food to bring us comfort. Yes, eating in season is for a reason:)

Our neighbours know we also grow the typical local fruit & veggies in our garden...but now and again, bags of same fruits and veggies are passsed on to us via the garden wall/or through the gate! We just got to eat more fruits and veg...Yes! salad everyday for the moment! Wishing you a lovely and fruitful summer.

Yours

Quick chow on busy days

Dear Family & Friends

Our neighbour rears some piggies and they usually slaughter them around mid to end of winter season. The meat is canned and preserved in bottles for future use. They also process dried sausages. Recently, we received some of their homemade dried sausages. I should think they are much better than a store bought ones as they are without preservatives.

Homemade Gift from our neighbour 

The Bulgarian dried sausage reminds me of the Chinese version of dried sausage, but the Bulgarian version is salty than sweet. They come very handy when I'm running out of time to prepare meals for my forever hungry family.

I think these dried sausages are ready to eat - but I must cook them. 

The locals normally eat them as it is...but I tend to pan fry it, without any oil, just to make me accept that it is cooked. I use them as toppings to fried rice or pasta dish. Making it a good convinience food to have on hand.

Lentil patties - a high protein meatless burger imitation

As gardening activity increases, I have to come up with food that is quick and easy to cook. My homemade patties of pre-boiled lentils, mixed with lots of herbs, some flour, eggs...and pan fried in batch...is always appreciated by all.

My tea time meal prepared by my little girl...they were yummy:)

While I prepare our daily cooked lunch meals, my little girl (the beautiful teenager who's 14 today) is in charge of our supper or tea for the evening. Usually she prepares sandwiches, but when we ran out of bread for the day...she would cook something simple. Yesterday she prepared her own version of a savoury pancake...full of fresh chives, topped with a slice of salami...it was delicious:)

Our family are so easy to please when it comes to food...as long as there's veggies and herbs...there's always never a complain. Nom-nom...Yum-yum:)

Hope you have a beautiful sun shiny day to cheer you up today.

Yours

Food this week

Dear Family & Friends

If it's not gardening that takes my time, it would be food preparation. That's part of a mother's job description, I suppose. Well, it certainly all adds up excitement for our family!

Salad and pita bread for a starter

Our family partakes and shares the joy of everyday life. We are all one as a unit! We all share responsibility and we take pride in doing them.

My little girl baked us filo pastry that was rolled and filled with feta cheese

My little girl as always seem to want to take over my kitchen. She enjoys feeding us for some reason!! I think it's because we couldn't resist her offer either!!

Sushi of any kind always brings a lot of joy to this family

Not everyday finds me inspired in food preparation...some days are better than others. When I feel lousy, I sometimes just prepare sushi with very basic filling such as eggs etc...  The man in our house would say: WOW! we have starter meal today...what's our main course? and my response is: "I'm afraid, that's 'the' main course, dear..". Believe me, even with just sushi rolls on our table, my little family will finish them with great joy and contentment!

As always, there's the weekly homemade ricotta cheese for sandwiches

In the kitchen, there's always some staple food prepared and stored in the fridge for quick sandwich fillers and snacks such as the weekly cheese making, all done by the two girls.

Life is simple and happy...for as long as we have contentment in our hearts. Enjoy your everyday life too...because that's important:)

Yours

Home made Ricotta Cheese

Dear Family & Friends

Happy new year 2015!!

In the past, we have discovered that we can actually make our own homemade yogurt so easily. As we get fresh cow's milk delivered to our home each week, our big girl would boil them to pasturize it first. Just add a tablespoon or two of yogurt, to act as activator to your litre of warm milk. Keep it warm and let it set. That easy! you'll have new yogurt to enjoy. It's one of our joyful discovery!

Hurray for homemade Ricotta Cheese!!

Recently, we ventured with joy in making homemade cheese! We didn't realized that this is so easy to make too! Here's how:

Makes 1 cup
Active time: 10 min

4 cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons distilled vinegar, fresh lemon or lime juice

Step 1: Place the milk in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add the salt and heat over medium heat. Stir occasionally so the milk doesn't scorch. Heat milk to 180ºF to 190ºF (82ºC to 88ºC). The milk would start foaming at the sides of the pan, simmering, but not boiling.

Step 2: Remove pan from heat and add vinegar, lemon or lime juice. Stir only a couple of times. Almost immediately, curds will start to form. Make sure not to stir any more so as not to disturb the curds. Let stand for five minutes.

Step 3: Line a medium sieve with the cheesecloth and carefully pour the milk mixture into the cheesecloth, disturbing the curds as little as possible. Let drain for five to 20 minutes to the desired consistency. Draining for five minutes will give you a moist and creamy cheese. Draining for 20 minutes will give you a drier ricotta. You can drain the ricotta for longer of course, just remember that the longer it drains, the drier it'll be. Transfer the ricotta to a container and cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for up to seven days.

A very pretty hand drawn  note to accompany a delicious ricotta cheese gift for a friend:)

My little girl enjoys making Ricotta cheese...but it doesn't really last long with us! Making simple ricotta sandwiches is one of her favourite...in fact, it's everyone's favourite....This is one of those very simple things that we can make at home. Worth doing for the family's enjoyment:)

Simple things in life are best...always is for our family! Hope this week, you'll find lots of joy in everyday simple living too:) Best wishes to you for the new year 2015!

Yours

Tavuk Sote - Turkish Chicken Meal

Dear Family & Friends

We rarely go out for a meal...we're domesticated clan and enjoy home cooked food. But occassionally we find some excuse to do so. We visited our tested Turkish Restaurant and I ordered this dish called Tavuk Sote. I liked it and thought that I should try to replicate it at home for the enjoyment of the family. 

Turkish meal freshly cooked for you:)

This dish is so easy to do and this is the recipe that I followed:

Chicken Saute with Tomato
(Domatesli Tavuk Sote)

2 chicken breast, cut in cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 long green pepper, cut in small pieces
2 onions, chopped
4 tomatoes, cut in cubes
1 Tbsp of tomato paste
1 tbsp red pepper paste

1 pinch crushed red pepper (optional)

1/2 tsp oregano
Salt
Pepper
a bunch of parsley, chopped

In a medium sized pan, saute the chicken and garlic with olive oil until the garlic cloves lose their smell. Add all the remaining ingredients. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes with the lid covered. If necessary, add a little bit hot water. Enjoy this with rice salad and bread.

Tavuk Sote with side dish of pilaf and grated veggies

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas gathering with your family and friends. I also wish you a very happy and blessed new year 2015!

Yours

The Gone By October Month

Dear Family & Friends

October has just gone, but I still want to post these memories in before November comes in full swing! Then, I will start posting to share with you about our recent holiday trip to Germany next:)

From www.nipponnin.com/2014/10/waffled.html, we learned how to use our wafflemaker to make simple but fantastic looking sandwich! This is just two slices of bread with cheese and jam fillings which my two girls snapped into the waffle maker machine for a minute or two! No sandwich maker?...a waffle maker will work just as well!! 

After lending a hand to our neighbour, we ended up with a bag of big apples!..This is probably the biggest apple we had for this year! There's always kindness going around in our village.

Clay pots are my preference for planters but they are pricey! There's lots of cheap plastic planters but they are not really ideal as they get brittle under the sun in no time! Recently, I found an olive shop whom I offered to buy some of their emptied olive tin cans to make planters...although they will rust in time but they would look natural with a Mediterranean  feel about them for our garden...

So here goes, I bang some nail holes at the bottom of the olive cans, filled it up with compost, and planted my pelargoniums/geranium in! These plants will not survive winter outside the garden, so they have to be potted up and brought indoors for the coming few months.

This is our autumn flower garden... There's still a lot of flowers: chrysanthemums, marigolds, lavender, cosmos to name a few. Butterflies and bees are having their last go gathering flower nectar. I'm glad this year's garden flowers have been so generous and abundant for them.

Very soon I have to tidy up our garden...it's getting cold and most plants will die down for the winter...some will come back up as soon as weather warms up again, while others have already produced their seeds for next year's new plants. I always don't know when to start tidying up the garden...I always battle with saying goodbyes to these plants that gave us lots of pleasure... autumn sometimes is a sad season for me...

Hoping for a better and cheerful sunny autumn days! Wishing you a nice day:)

Yours

Word of Mouth Recipe for Old Courgette

Dear Family & Friends

My big girl came back home after her cycling routine with a "word of mouth recipe" from a grandmother. I don't even know this grandmother according to my big girl because I rarely get out pass our gate... and she lives near the village train station:( But village grandmother wants to share this recipe with me because she had it for breakfast and it was delicious!

Sweetly baked old courgette

At this time, we're not as vigilant with our courgette/zuchinni growing in the garden anymore...and so we end up with enormous fruit...with it's skin getting tough and seeds ripening within.... most of them goes to chicken these days...

This is what our overdue and overgrown old courgette harvest looks like

So the word of mouth recipe from the village grandmother came very handy indeed. I tried what she said. Peeled the outer skin, take off the seeds out, slice the flesh part and bake it in the oven with a bit of sugar. 

This simple recipe was enjoyed by all...I will have to do some more of it. A good solution to my present courgette glut...sparing the misery of our chickens too (They're actually getting fed up with my throwing them courgette ;P)

Don't you think it was nice for the village grandmother to send me her recipe? I do appreciate teachings of older women...they hold more knowledge and there's always something to learn from them.

May you have a great day today:)

Yours

Greek Tomatokeftedes

Dear Family & Friends

Although we didn't have as many tomatoes as we had last year, yet there is always enough. We gather here and there, as most of our tomatoes this year are mere volunteers found in flower beds and compost heap. Next year I will be more organized. I will grow and label them to get 'the' tomato variety that we want. Some tomatoes are nice for fresh salad while others are good for cooking. I mix different tomatoes for cooking. It gives more interesting flavour. Here's a Greek recipe for tomatokeftedes.  

Tomatokeftedes - a greek dish

1/12 cup of tomatoes (3-4 tomatoes), finely chopped

100g feta cheese, smashed (3.5 ounces)

1/2 of a cup red onion (1 large onion), grated

1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

1 tbsps fresh spearmint, finely chopped 

1 tsp dried oregano 

1/2 cup flour 

1 tsp baking powder 

salt and freshly ground paper 

oil for frying

I had my tomatokeftedes with a dallop of plain yogurt...it's delish!

1. Cut the tomatoes into 4 pieces, and with a spoon remove the flesh. Chop the flesh of the tomatoes, into small cubes and place in a colander with some salt. Leave them for 30 minutes.
2. Combine the chopped tomatoes, the onions and mix with a spoon; add the herbs, and the feta cheese. Add the flour and baking powder to the tomato mixture, until the ingredients are combined and firm enough to make the balls. Add a little more flour if needed. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. In a pan add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, and heat the oil into medium-high heat. Fry the tomatokeftedes for about 2-3 minutes on each side, until nicely colored. Place them on paper towel, to absorb the extra olive oil.

Tomatokeftedes is nice eaten with a dallop of plain yogurt and some crusty bread. It's a good way to use up the abundance of tomatoes in season too:)

For now, I have to get back to my research on Rhineland Palatinate in preparation for our coming family holiday. We're building our excitement for the autumn break. The girls would be able to see some German culture and have the opportunity to speak German:)... as for me, it's too late to brush up my language...so I'll settle and rely on my little interpreters if need be:)

Wishing you a lovely day today:)

Yours

Crispy Sage Leaves Snack Recipe

Dear Family & Friends

The sage plant in the herb garden have been giving us lots of leaves.We use it to flavour cooked meals and make herbal tea drinks too. Then, I searched for more ways that we can use them and found this recipe.

Crispy Sage Snack

Ingredients: (adapted from www.cookingwithpatty.com)

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. cold water
10-12 big sage leaves or about 30 small ones
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil for frying
sea salt

Instructions:

1. Wash the leaves and dry them on a kitchen towel.
2. Whisk the water into sifted flour and mix until the batter becomes smooth.
3. Warm up the oil in a nonstick skillet. Dip the leaves in the batter and let the extra batter drip off.
4. Fry the sage leaves on one side until crispy and light golden and then fry them on the other side.
5. Place them on a paper towel and sprinkle them with a little bit of salt. Serve warm. 

These are good...but I find it a bit fiddly...time consuming thing to do. I'm not very keen on deep frying food either, but it's worth a try!

Sage leaves got strong flavour to it.

Yes, the sage tempura didn't last long on the plate. After all, who wouldn't love a crispy tasty snack?

Hope you have a lovely day.

Yours

A Tea Cup For Loose Herbal Tea

Dear Family & Friends

We had a lot of rain drizzles...typical spring time! There's not much I could do in a wet garden. Cooler days like these mean.. time for a nice warm herbal tea. This particular tea cup does it's service well.

With the lid on, it can brew and keep your tea warm. It also got a removable porcelain strainer.

We have been growing our own herbs in the garden for this purpose. Homemade herbal tea means you have a way of knowing exactly what was mixed in your tea drink. With loose herbs, you would need a strainer so you won't be drinking bits with your tea.

Various herbs blend makes a very interesting tea flavour. Today, my cup of tea was with Chrysanthemum flower, berries, orange peels, and rock sugar. It taste wonderful:) I simple lift the porcelain strainer within, sit it on top of the upside down lid, and I have my delicious tea drink!

This is definitely a very handy type of tea cup for homemade loose herbal tea. Do you have any favourite tea cups? or tea mix?

I hope you had a wonderful Easter celebration. We enjoyed ours with some friends over at our place. They also brought me a big tray of various herbs seedlings from their garden...Oh...I'm so happy and grateful! So, there will be lots of herbal tea ingredients to look forward to:)

Yours

Homemade Butter - a special treat

Dear Family & Friends

Our big girl who is in charge of processing the family's weekly milk provision, that is: from waking up early to collect the local milk delivery, to boiling the milk to kill all bacteria, then cool and store them for our use. Recently, she decided that she will turn a portion of the milk product into butter for our enjoyment too:)

homemade unsalted butter

We're so blessed with this teenager who got the patience to shake n shake the milk till it turn into butter! Then, she treats us by spreading it into our homemade fresh bread with some jam to really spoil us. Some days, it's just butter with bread...but even that, I can tell you that it taste sooooo goooood!

Our special treat...homemade bread with some homemade butter and jam:)

Yes, life can be so simple yet so good. Wishing you a nice day too:)

Yours

Mackerel with Sweet Sauce Recipe

Dear Family & Friends

Remember we had a fish dish for the recent Chinese New year celebration? Although we like eating fish because it's good for you....but it makes the whole house stink! I'm also very limited with ideas on how to cook them. Recently, I've learned a new way and I'm keeping this recipe because it is good and easy.

Here's the recipe, which I read from a newspaper article....sorry forgot exactly which one.

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sake or dry (fino) sherry
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
5 or 6 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
3 or 4 crushed garlic cloves
4 mackerel fillets, about 1 pound total, skin on
Cooked white rice for serving
Chopped scallions for garnish

1. In a 12-inch skillet with a cover, mix together all ingredients except fish, rice and scallions. Add 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes, uncovered.

2. Add fish skin-side down and simmer until cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. (You can hasten cooking a bit by covering pan, but it is not necessary.) Spoon a fillet and some sauce onto a mound of white rice; garnish and serve.

Hope you can enjoy this too:)

Yours