Just A Few of My Favorite Recipes from Others, Fall 2010- Fall 2011

Every now and then I'll attempt to update my recipe collection and remember all kinds of great finds that I've discovered or that have been passed on to me.  Unfortunately, I've been slacking on this lately, thinking "Oh, I'm never going to forget about THIS recipe."  Then I eventually forget and the blog entry might get deleted by its author and after remembering and frantically searching for the lost recipe my tastebuds begin to cry.

I'll always remember you, tasty noodles with peanut sauce recipe...

So anyway, here are just a few recipes that I'm entering into my files today.  Maybe you'll find something you like as well in this list:

Roasted Red Pepper Pita Pizzas - When I actually buy pita bread, this is part of a quick and fantastic meal.  The best part is the sauce.  I <3 this sauce!  It is sooooooo good.

Arnabeet Mekleh (Fried Cauliflower) Salad Recipe: My Open Sesame Re-creation

My favorite salad.  If you haven't had this before, you are most likely wrinkling your nose at the lowly cauliflower.  Just like I did.  

Whenever we visit Southern California, the restaurant that is always at the top of our must-eat list is Open Sesame, which is located in Long Beach's Belmont Shore.  This restaurant opened up on 2nd Street when I was in college and it was always fun to check in on them and see the rave reviews slooowly appear on the walls and eventually take over.  As word eventually got out, it became harder and harder to grab a quick dinner there, but it was always worth the wait.

Recipe: Snowballs! Most Certainly Not Just for Winter!

One August, about ten years ago, I traveled up north to visit my aunties and their families as well as my grandmother in the state of Washington. My trips up north were always so refreshing. I loved experiencing gardening and having fields of berries at my fingertips. Except for that one time that I dropped an entire flat of hand-picked raspberries in the dirt and wound up acting like a crybaby.  For the most part I loved the slower-paced lifestyle while gazing at the snow-capped Cascade mountains off in the distance. It was always a nice breather for me to get away and experience something a little different than the smog-filled, cement-covered place I called home. It was up there that I first learned about composting, and I think that was the first and only place I ever got to mow a lawn with a riding mower. Never mind the fact that I hit a tree and for years that immature fir tree grew at an 80 degree angle, compared to his other companions. (The tree is fine now, finally.  It seems I had some real coordination issues, doesn't it?)

On that particular trip up north, my aunts and I made our way over to a magical piece of land where someone had once planted and ran a U-pick blueberry farm. The man had since passed away and his heirs were not choosing to maintain it, leaving a delicious, antioxidant-filled gift for those who stumbled across it on their morning walk.  Of course, finding a bit of land such as this was unusual for this Los Angeles girl.

Smelly...in a Good Way! (A Chai Tea Syrup Recipe)

I stumbled upon an adorable Chai Tea Syrup Recipe this morning and instantly thought it would be the perfect recipe for today's project. While we are not regular coffee drinkers (I think coffee beans are magically delicious, but I hate singing this song after I drink the stuff), chai tea has become JJ's favorite afternoon pick-me-up. We've had a pretty good relationship with Oregon Chai for the last fifteen years or so, but after purchasing Tazo's Chai Tea Concentrate 3-pack from Costco, we both fell in love with its blend. Now I refuse to buy Oregon Chai, especially since the last box I bought tasted like the company forgot to add important ingredients like black tea to their mix!

Not yet having made this month's Costco trip and after just relabeling the contents of my spice rack yesterday, I knew I had everything I needed on hand. As I got started, well, I kind of got a little crazy and completely strayed from the recipe of inspiration. I knew that JJ would reprimand me for doing this and so I created two different batches of Chai Tea Concentrate, creating my own version and also sticking (mostly) to Lucy's recipe. Sorry, JJ. Lucy's recipe is good, but was a little too sweet for me (I should have followed her warning). The only modification that I made was after adding one tablespoon of the recommended three tablespoons of vanilla extract. I stopped at one tablespoon.

Outdone By a Vegan! Sorry Ree.

After cooking up a fierce and fattening storm for JJ's birthday, I was on a roll, and decided to keep on trucking this week. In our house I usually switch between feast and famine mode. I think that this has to do with the fact that the stuff I love to cook is really, really bad for you. I use lots of butter, cream, and cheese. Unfortunately. So usually I try to make all other stuff I make super healthy, but this was still technically a birthday week...so I picked four new recipes to work into our weekly plan.

First up, I decided to make Ree Drummond's Cinnamon Rolls. I have had great success with a few of her recipes (Migas, Olive Cheese Bread, and her favorite sandwich, which is now one of my favorites as well), but I've noticed that Ree's desserts aren't necessarily my cup of tea. The one exception are the semi-delicious Apple Dumplings. I've made a lot of these for youth people we have around. It's a really fast and relatively cheap dessert to make. I've found that kids love these things, especially after I tell them the dessert has had Mountain Dew poured over the whole thing before being baked. "Oooooh yeeeeahhh...I can TOTALLY taste it!" (You really can't.) While the Apple Dumplings recipe is still slightly too sweet for me I know that other people like their desserts that way, so it's worth keeping in my Tastebook for now.