24 hour pickles

Pickles
Originally uploaded by Adventuress Heart

Easy Garlic and Dill Pickles
inspired by Grace Parisi in Food and Wine

Recipe fills a one quart jar of pickles

What You Need
1 quart mason jar with lid
12 ounces of kirby cucumbers (about 6 small cucumbers)
3 cloves garlic
8 sprigs fresh dill
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
2/3 cup white vinegar
1 cup water

What To Do

1 Wash the mason jar and lid in hot soapy water, rinse, and let air dry.

2 Quarter the cucumbers into four slices each, lengthwise. Cut the garlic cloves in half.

3 In an extra mason jar or covered container, combine 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt and 2/3 cup white vinegar. Tightly close the lid and shake vigorously until the sugar and salt dissolve. Add 1 cup water to the mixture.

4 In the clean mason jar, tightly pack the sliced cucumbers, sliced garlic, and 8 sprigs of fresh dill.

5 Pour the brine mixture over the cucumbers. Tap the jar on the counter to release any air bubbles and top off the jar with extra water if any cucumbers are exposed.

6 Place the lid on the jar and screw on the ring until it is tight. Leave the jar in the fridge for 24 hours before tasting. The pickles last up to one month refrigerated (but they won’t stick around that long in our house).

http://www.acouplecooks.com/2010/08/easy-garlic-dill-pickles/

Chocolate cupcake

I now know I'm better at eating cupcakes than decorating them! This recipe is so wonderful though and easy. I baked them for 17 minutes at 320-325 and they were perfect and moist!

Recipe

The swiss butter cream recipe is the one I used for my carrot cake too!

~ Watermelon jelly ~

The other day I came across a beautiful thing: WATERMELON JAM

Or jelly... it just sounded very foreign and unheard of and since I had a ton of watermelon on my hands I figured why not give it a try. Preserving is not my thing, I've honestly never done it and am just not in my mind frame to learn how to do it right now, perhaps sometime in the future so any recipe I come across that does not involve actual canning I'm in!

Bought the pectin and decided to go for it, first time it actual did not turn into a jelly and that was because I let it come to a strong boil but wasn't sure if it was 220 degrees as the recipe mentioned, the problem seemed to have been that the watermelon was frozen and thus there was a lot of extra water in there so upon emptying out the jars again and reboiling it with a good candy thermometer clipped to the side of the pot it seemed to work. Took quite a while to reach the right temperature and was more like a syrup.
I added more pectin and it turned into a jelly in the jars while cooling on the counter!

Here I figured the beautiful jam on some feta and watermelon with a little mint, my twist on the classic mint-feta-watermelon combination. The flavours are all very complementary!

This jar is for my little sister who adores anything and everything watermelon, her love of the melon inspired me to make the jam!

Recipe

Gözleme

These turkish snacks are absolutely delicious, I couldn't believe how delectable the dough was, tender and soft to work with, and the best part is that it's cooked in a skillet for just a few minutes!

Gozleme Dough

Ingredients

3 cups plain flour
2 tsp salt
7 g sachet dried yeast (3 tsp yeast)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water

Mix the wet ingredients and let them proof 5 minutes until bubbly, add in mixed dry ingredients and knead until it's a nice smooth dough (10 mins in kitchen aid on 2 is good)

Divide in 8 portions and knead into a nice smooth ball, let them proof in an oiled dish covered until they spring back (can put them in the fridge overnight and let them come to room temp before rolling out)

Roll the dough out in a very thin rectangle and add your filling then fold over and seal sides rolling over.

Cook in an oiled skillet for 2-3 mins on each side. Serve with lemon wedges.

Recipe

Night shots - Toronto!

Bargain - Can never have too many bags these days..

Maybe my biggest bargain yet.

$28.99 Canadian Dollar from Indigo - $2 on clearance.

Comes in a little cotton pouch with draw string.


http://www.envirosax.ca/

When life gives you lemons .... Preserve them!

Been wanting to do this for years now but today I gave it a go after finding a really simple recipe...

* 4 large (about 6 ounces each) lemons (preferably thin-skinned), scrubbed

* 2/3 cup coarse salt

* 1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 5 large lemons)

* olive oil

Preparation

Dry lemons well and cut each into 8 wedges. In a bowl toss wedges with salt and transfer to a glass jar (about 6-cup capacity). Add lemon juice and cover jar with a tight-fitting glass lid or plastic-coated lid. Let lemons stand at room temperature 7 days, shaking jar each day to redistribute salt and juice. Add oil to cover lemons and store, covered and chilled, up to 6 months.

You just use the peels, not the pulp, after the lemons are cured.

So... I'll see how they look in a few weeks

BREAD!

The smell, taste and feel of fresh baked bread is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world. Like so many people I ADORE bread but try to keep my obsession under control or I'll look like a balloon .. since my early teens I've tried to bake bread but had no success. Flat breads were ok but I could never do a loaf or even a rustic style bread other than a christmas sweet bread sort of thing which my mother made from time to time.

Today I've had some success which I'm just ecstatic about!

What could have made me attempt this? I've got no idea!! I think the fact that I had some stew and was tired of rice, pasta and couscous and just thought some bread would be nice... and after visiting the supermarket almost three times this week I wasn't about to go back to pickup some bread so there was little to lose in giving this a try.

The recipe from the bread baker's apprentice seemed easy enough interpreted through another blog

Don't have a pizza stone so I used my metal tray and spritzing the oven with water seems important.

Hooray!

Eid Mubarak!

Eid celebrations were fun!! We exchanged gifts... beautiful cards after attending the Eid prayers.







Headed to a halal Chinese restaurant with grandma to enjoy yummy szechuan cuisine!













My sister baked some yummy goodies for everyone!

Tropical sort of day

Maybe it's all the rain we're getting these days, one minute it's sunny and the next clouds roll over and a quick shower pours over the city. It's kind of nice in it's own way..

Banana chocolate chip pancakes

Fried rice in a pineapple boat

Peppercorn stir fried beef