1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup water
3 fresh peaches
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp. milk
Fat

Make syrup with cup sugar and water. Peel and slice peaches with half inch thickness and cook in the sugar syrup. Add cinnamon and keep cooking for two minutes. Cool the peach syrup mixture. Sieve flour, baking powder, salt and the rest of the sugar and mix well. Add butter with pastry blender. Make a mixture of egg yolks and milk and add to the sieved flour with a fork. Take one half of the dough and roll them on a floured board as thick as a pie crust. Take large coffee cups and make circles and cut it. Place drained peach slices on the 2/3rds of the circle. Fold with the half and seal edges. Prick on the tops and deep fry till brown in 350 degrees fat. Drain the fried lanterns on paper towels and sprinkle powdered sugar if preferred.

One can also use apple for this recipe if preferred.

Serves: 12

Useful tips: In olden days people would have considered frying in fat. But todays generation it is better to use a vegetable shortening and avoid deep fry with liquid oils and they can give an oily feeling and taste.

“Laughter is brightest, in the place where the food is.”
Irish proverb

Gourmet pizza recipes with simple ingredients

Pizza is a mouth watering prospect for most Americans. It does not require much of a sales job for the family to make it to nights dinner. American pizzas are weighty with a dozen or more toppings loads of cheese and sauce. But authentic Italian Pizzerias go a little lighter on all of the ingredients. They believe in the dictum less is more. It is an equally delicious alternative to the American version.

In spite of stiffer competition we are so enamored of pizza that hops are producing the gourmet pizza recipes. Gourmet pizza comes from the new fusion cooking with in conventional ingredients and sauces that taste differently to our palate. The only common thing in to days gourmet pizza recipes is the crust.

As such you can make your own gourmet pizza recipe at home eat to your hearts contact and save money. With a bread machine it is easy to make pizza crust. While making your own pizza a crust you can add herbs to the dough to complement youre topping choices. In case you cannot spend time on it get one at the super market.

You should have seen the new off beat combinations that are standard fare at the chain pizza places. Surely, there is merit in the ham, onions and pineapple chunks combo. That which comes closer to my idea of a gourmet pizza recipe is Alfredo sauce.

If we call these new things gourmet pizza recipes it is but fitting to use gourmet ingredients. We mostly consider gourmet food costly. But pizza requires only small amount of ingredients and it is still economical when we use a couple of morels or an ounce of Parmesan.

Sweet bell pepper, not considered gourmet ingredients just a year ago, is an eligible gourmet food in my book, when a single pepper bell goes for $ 2. Red, yellow, orange and green bell peppers are eminently suitable for any pizza combination. These tasty vegetables can also be diced up and frozen in sufficient water to cover with a table spoon of lemon juice stored in a zipper bag.

A large bell pepper gives out enough material for three pizzas and hence cost is not at all a real problem. Though a jar of fire roasted red peppers cost about three dollars a small amount of it is enough for at least four gourmet pizza recipes. The cost of a jar of capers is $ 2.50. By investing just a couple of bucks every time you shop you will have a nice collection of gourmet ingredients to choose for your next creation.

More exotic mushrooms varieties are available in dried form only. They can easily be rehydrated according to requirement. Dried mushrooms have a self life of at least six months and need not be wasted. Fresh white mushrooms can be sliced and flash frozen on a cookie sheet and then stored in a zipper bag in the freezer.

Let us find out how we might improve upon the pizza shops new gourmet fusion style. Can we combine salad shrimp, morel mushrooms, diced red Spanish onion, finely sliced green onions and freshly shaved Parmesan over a base of Alfredo sauce? Additional complex flavor is brought in to the sauce by the extra Parmesan. Add to the dough a few bits of fresh dill. You will then a get a colorful pizza visually appealing and delicious without much expense. You will, thus, amaze and stun your friends and family with your creativity and gourmet skills.

Chicken and capers are really heavenly matched. En elegant, colorful and delectable gourmet pizza recipe is made through a thin coating of white sauce, topped with diced chicken cooked and browned, a sprinkling of capers and a few diced red Spanish onions. Try the gourmet chicken sausages at the meat counter in the place of usual standard sausages. They are fresh and home made with unusual seasonings and additions like apples for increasing the taste.

The more you strain your brain for new and creative gourmet pizza recipes the more your instincts will work. Add ingredients you like and surely it will taste good. Follow a seasoning guide or book online. This will prevent you from choosing herbs that do not match or agree with your ingredient mix.

Gradually a person in the household will realize that the pizzas are recipes you have made up. Then ever one will attempt at his own gourmet pizza recipe. You will be surely
honored and appreciated as the Creator of this excellent fun.

This Hawaiian cake will prompt you to think about the warmer places during winter. Move to a hot place from this chilly winter and enjoy the warmth of this Hawaiian cake.

1 stick butter or margarine
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt

Mix butter and sugar till it becomes like a cream. Beat eggs thoroughly and mix it with this cream. Now add the flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well to make a good batter. Grease and flour a cake pan. Pour the batter and put it to bake. Bake till it is done.

Useful tips: Butter and margarine can be used alternatively while baking a cake. Although butter gives a better flavor many people use margarine as it contains less fat and is good for health. Never use a whipped or low calorie butter/ margarine. It may have air in it due to which the cake is not properly baked.

Topping:

Drained pineapple
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
1 cup pecans
Let the drained pineapple be laid out in a pan. Beat eggs thoroughly. Add sugar, coconut and the said nuts. Now scatter evenly the pineapple pieces. Put it in a preheated oven and bake it at 350degrees for half an hour. The pineapple topping is ready.

Facts In ancient times sugar was so costly that it was preserved to be used only for wine and medicines.

“The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star.”
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Ginger Bread Cookies - Many Functions

Christmas tide is noted not only for opening of gifts but for baking also. Delicious dishes galore are so many that you could spend days together in the kitchen. Your excitement will soar for the dessert when your family is ready over supper. Your selection of baked goods is so wonderful that the guests are amazed at your talent and delicate taste. It is real fix to exhibit your baking power and also to have some one to assist you in baking ginger Bread cookies are one of the most popular baked goods during the Christmas season. They are useful in many ways and are of excellent taste.

For festive delicacies shape the dough into little men called ginger bread men. After baking get your friends and families to decorate their own cookie with different colors of icing and many other little sweets. The group will have a great activity together and can also join them to decorate the cookies. It will elicit true laughter. You can also put them in packages and present them to your friends and relatives as an inexpensive but thoughtful holiday gift.

Another function of the gingerbread soon after baking is to make gingerbread houses similar to gingerbread men but more intricate and executed by a whole group. Icing and other candies still be used to decorate but you require a large number as you have to beautify a little gingerbread house. After decorating the house you can complete the decoration of the front and back yards of the house. This great pastime engages all.

Gingerbreads are very tasty with a hot chocolate or a big glass of milk. The taste of gingerbread can never be other than delicious. Any ones mouth will begin to water at the sight of a nice big plate of gingerbread cookies with hot chocolate and hot apple cider on the side.

Promise to yourself that during the next Christmas season to make at least one Christmas dessert. Surely you will not be disappointed and you will go in search of gingerbread cookies recipes of old generations. It is easy and fun to cook when you are baking with some one whom you like and enjoy splash of flour sent the away and a funny little food fight in the kitchen will heighten the taste of your food product in a better way.

Here is an awe-inspiring recipe that blends chocolate with mint and is one of my favorites!

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 cup sugar
2 squares chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp. peppermint flavoring
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup shredded almonds

Mix margarine, sugar and eggs whisk them well. Add the peppermint flavor and chocolate. Mix them well till it blends. Add nuts and flour to the batter and mix them well. Take nine inch square pan grease and flour it. Pour the batter and bake it at 350 degrees for half an hour.

Useful tip: Despite the fact that double boiler is the best for melting chocolate what should one do in its absence? A small metal bowl can be placed in a bigger pan of water. Care should be taken that the small bowl sits on the larger pan. One can even microwave the chocolate for melting but without burning it. Time should be set short the chocolate should be mixed regularly.

Frosting:

3 tbsp. margarine
1 tbsp. cream
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. peppermint flavoring
1 square chocolate

Mix cream with two tablespoons of margarine. Then add sugar and peppermint flavor. Spread the mixture over the cookie layer and leave aside. Wait till it sets. Soften the remaining margarine with chocolate and spread evenly on the first frosting. Freeze it. Cut them into bars.

Serves: 4 dozen strips

Facts: Half the worlds production of chocolate is consumed by the Americans. Their intake is 3 billion pounds of chocolate every year. This accounts to 10 pounds of chocolate per individual.

If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony.
Fernand Point

The most versatile and Healthful Garden Salad Recipe

It is patent that most of us do not get our five to eight servings of fruits and vegetables every day. There are very expensive and so it is not possible to eat them in large quantities. No doubt, these foods are highly beneficial, full of anti oxidants, vitamins, trace minerals, fiber, and anti ageing effects, but the thought of five to eight servings in a three meal days, quite alarming and unmanageable.

Our health will be better if we take these foods regularly. It is a miracle if you can make your child eat green beans. You have to think of ways and means to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in your family. A garden salad recipe is the answer and that is your own creation.

You can hide up a few of the five to eight servings, masterfully by serving a garden salad every night with dinner with a few all through the week in the lunch box. The problem with produce prices is that much of its wasted. You make a garden salad to night with Romaine Hearts, tomatoes and a cucumber and then totally forget these choice ingredients. Tomorrow it is green beans and the next day it is corn. Therefore you dont move towards the fish produce stand as you feel guilty and cannot afford to waste.

This is the sneaky way to force your menus with those healthful plant companions along with your regular meals. Let the garden salad recipe a daily feature at the dining table. It can be small but tasty. The salad is not a whole some dish as to effect eating the main dish you can probably add a few canned or frozen green beans or corn with the attractive meat loaf.

The greatness of garden salad is that it requires no recipe. Any ingredient is suitable an by changing them daily you can use up leftovers, add a couple of sliced mushrooms or a can of sliced olives with a mix of the weeks produce. The only constant in the garden salad is the greens. In the place of iceberg better have garden salad recipes with different textures and types of greens- choose them according to season for their value, nutrition, and cost?

Use tomatoes and green onions when they are at the peak of freshness. Wash and crisp your greens soon after you return from the store putting them in paper towels inside a zip plastic bag to keep them fresh and crisp. You can use these when the fresh produce is exhausted. That small bit of broccoli or three bean salad can go with a few shavings of parmesan and croutons for a brand new garden salad recipe.

Let your garden salad be an appetizer every night. Soon you will find your kid and family expect this addition in your menus. Dont waste, be satisfied and healthy.

Different people use a fruit juice diet plan for different purposes. Most of them use it to lose weight while some other use it for detoxing. Some people go on a fruit juice diet plan to rejuvenate. Each person has his or her own reason to go in for a fruit juice diet plan and has their favorite fruit juice diet plan as well. Some prefer general fruit whereas other prefer grape fruit juice diet plan.

Citrus fruit juice diet plans are highly recommended for detoxing. You can follow a fruit juice diet plan between one to five days. There are two groups who believe in two different things with regards to fruit juice diet plan. One believes that detoxing is the most vital factor and weight loss is not an issue whereas others believe that this can take place only with juice fasting to lose weight.

The Positive and Negative Aspects

Fruit juice diet plan is something very simple to follow since you are just going to be having fruit that is nutrient rich and healthy. You can also lose weight on a rapid pace and a good fruit juice diet plan removes all the toxins from your body thus leaving you feeling energized.

On the negative side, a fruit juice diet plan leaves you feeling weak because of the low calorie intake.

Juice fasting cannot be considered a weight loss program on a long-term basis, and very often you gain back all that you have lost during those five days. You might experience symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, fatigue, and irritability. These are because of the detoxing process.

2/3 cup soft shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda

Take a 13 x 9 inch pan and fit in a same size waxed paper and keep aside. Mix shortening and sugar to forma good cream. Add eggs one by one and beat them well. Add in the melted chocolate. Fold in flour, salt, baking soda and buttermilk alternatively. Pour the batter into the 13 x 9 pan which is kept ready. Pre heat the oven and bake the cake at 350 degrees for 40 45 minutes. When the cake is ready turn it out and remove the waxed paper. The cake is ready.

Useful Tip: Always use fresh items when you bake a cake for a good end product. Baking powder and baking soda used should always be fresh. Never use an old one. To make sure that the baking soda used is new mix it with some vinegar. Similarly mix the baking powder with some warm water. You can see many bubbles coming from the mixture. When there are no bubbles it is understood that the baking soda or baking powder is stale.

Icing:

3 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 tbsp. butter
1 pkg. powdered sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
7 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup cut marshmallows

Sieve sugar and salt into a bowl and keep aside. In a double boiler melt butter and chocolate. Add milk and vanilla essence to the sifted sugar and mix well. Then add the boiled chocolate and butter. Add nuts and pour marshmallows on the cake. Then add the icing on the top of it.
Facts Powdered sugar or Icing sugar also known as the confectioners sugar in UK is a fine powder of white granulated sugar. The mixture consists of cornstarch or calcium phosphate which keeps he powder from becoming solid.

Food can look beautiful, taste exquisite, smell wonderful, make people feel good, bring them together, inspire romantic feelings At its most basic, it is fuel for a hungry machine.
Rosamond Richardson

Fruits cleanse your body and rejuvenate your body. So, a fruit juice detox diet heals your body by cleaning it. Fruits provide minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients for your body. When the fruit juice detox diet starts working on your body, it removes all the harmful chemicals and toxins in the body.

Antioxidants cling on to the toxins and remove them from your body system completely. Fruit juices are considered to be the living fuel for your body and it takes in very little energy to be absorbed. Therefore, the metabolic energy is used for detoxing and cleansing the body. When you go on a fruit juice detox diet, you supply nutrients that are low in calories to your body. Thus the process of weight loss is started.

You can Gain Back Good Health With This diet

There are different kinds of fruits that are used for a fruit juice detox diet. The fruits include melons, peaches, pineapples, apples, grapes, pears, plums, cherries and apricots. Citrus fruits such as limes, lemons, as well as grapefruit also work well. A combination of all these fruits can also work well in a fruit juice detox diet.

Avoid using processed fruits and only use fresh fruits for the diet. You must not store the juice for future use because it begins oxidizing and is of no value then. Juice can be diluted with water.

Many people go on a fruit juice detox diet to get healthier or they do it to heal an illness. Some go on a fruit juice detox diet for long periods of time, however, you must start of on a week at first to see how your body reacts.

1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
3 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cup ground raisins
1/2 cup water
1 cup nuts

Make a cream of one cup white sugar, one cup brown sugar and butter. Add well beaten eggs and blend them well. Sift flour, salt and baking soda and add to make a smooth batter. Add rest of the ingredients and cook till it thickens. Add nuts and cool. Now divide the dough into many parts. Roll our each part with half inch thickness. Spread the filling and roll them again. Freeze them overnight. Next day make thin slices out of it. Bake them for fifteen minutes at 350 degrees.

Serves: 5-6 dozen

Useful tip: Always use a sharp knife to slice the cookies. Keep turning and tossing the dough so that they do not flatten on one side.

Facts: California is the worlds leading producer of raisins which was chanced event. In 1873 a very hot climate made all the grapes in the vine to wither and dry off. A clever grocer propagated those dry grapes as Peruvian Delicacies. And thus was invented todays popular raisins.

C is for cookie, its good enough for me; oh cookie cookie cookie starts with C.
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