Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Milanesas de carne

I made chicken Milanesas a while back, this is the meat version of it. I like these better, goes great with fresh veggies, mashed potatoes or tasty rice!

Ingredients:

Any meat you have...really anything works, try  using a lean cut.
Bread crumbs
2-3 eggs
Mozzarella cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

This is what im using, forgot what the cut is called. Perhaps you can recognize it once you see it.

I slice my meat into about 1 inch circles

Then I place them on my chopping board, cover them up with some plastic wrap and I pound them till they are half as thin or more, I like them thin, so I pound them a lot.

This is what mine look like, they have doubled in size.
I beat my eggs in a bowl.

I place one piece of meat at a time in my egg mixture

Then place your meat into the bread crumbs, make sure you coat both sides really well.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Drizzle a plan with some olive oil, not much, place your Milanesas and drizzle a little more oil on top.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes on each side, if you want cheese then bake for 12 minutes turn your milanesas over, top off with cheese and sprinkle some oregano on top, bake until cheese is melted.
Today I chose to serve this with raw veggies, I usually serve with mashed potatoes and a salad but we wanted something fresh.

Hope you enjoy this dish!!!!

LOVE
Delfi

Monday, June 28, 2010

Cuernitos Materos

What's mate? you may ask, here is a short explanation, for more just google it and you will find more :)

"Mate is as tea-like beverage consumed mainly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It is brewed from the dried leaves and stemlets of the perennial tree Ilex paraguarensis ("Yerba Mate"). The name "Mate" derives from the quichua word "matí" that names the gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris) that is traditionally used to drink the infusion."


We drink mate in the morning and afternoon mostly and any time throughout the day to spend time with friends and have a good laugh. Mate goes great with this cuernitos, crunchy on the outside soft in the inside and of course with our traditional "facturas" which is sort of pastries, I will be talking more about those later!

Now let's get to the recipe

500 g of flour
15g of salt
1 stick of butter at room temperature, not too soft
15g of yeast, I buy it in a block, you need 15g of whatever yeast you have
200ml of lukewarm water

On your working surface or a bowl mix flour and salt.


Form a crown and add rest of the ingredients

Incorporate ingredients together until a dough is formed, these are my two helpers, a 4 year old and a 2 year old.

Work your dough until a soft ball is formed.

Dust your working surface with flour, roll your though to a rectangle

Sprinkle some flour on top of it

Fold your dough in half

Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Now after you let it sit for 10 minutes you must repeat this step 8-10 times. Roll dough, sprinkle flour, fold in half and let it rest for 10 minutes, the more you do it the better it is!

Once you are done, roll your dough, cut rectangles, I cut them too big but you may cut them smaller to get more cuernitos out of this.


Take a rectangle, it should feel thin, if its not roll it out a bit, take both edges and stretch your though, dont pull it so hard that it will break though.

I fold each edge like this


then i roll one side half way

then the other side till they meet in the middle.

Now twist them and overlap them with each other, and place them in a pan that has been previously brushed with soft butter.

Brush your cuernitos with water and let them sit for 25 minutes, this will make them raise even more. When you are ready bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until lightly brown.

When they are out, call your friends, have some mate, eat them warm or wait till they cool down, they are SUPER yummy either way!

Love you guys!
Delfi

Friday, June 25, 2010

Delfina K Photography

Hey everyone! I have been busy updating my photography website, please click on the name below if you would like to check it out :)

 



And of course I have been doing a lot of cooking and documenting everything to share with all of you, I just have not had the chance to post it on the blog but HOPEFULLY (fingers crossed) I can update my cooking blog as well in the next few days, in the mean time have fun checking out my Photography site if you are into photography at all!

Hugs to all!
Delfi

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Bugs!

I bought the kids the bug kits, to do research ;) I am not a huge fan of bugs at all but I thought they would have a blast catching them (with my help) and studying them.

So we got 3 spiders, a crab spider which is hiding on the top so you can't see her, but I did get a photo of it while she was free, don't worry we plan on letting them go in the next couple of days.

Smiley Crabby the kids named it. This is it when she was free.

and poor smiley crabby probably no longer smiley now she is in here, at the very top right.

along with 2 black widows who have become very good friends.

We need to feed them right? well I guess those little black beetles we caught last night weren't tasty enough for them, so today my brother helped the kids catch a fly, very fat and disgusting in my opinion if you think about where it's been....

Who knows it might be good dinner tonight. And he helped get 4 HUGE ants...red and fat and well not very pretty, but perhaps tasty. My kids sat for a long time waiting for the spiders to attack but I believe they eat at night? not sure...we have done research online to find out about all the insects in our little bug house, good stuff there!

Oh yes and in the kitchen we have a glass jar filled with caterpillars, hoping they will get fat and chunky and turn into butterflies and not something else...like a moth of some sort ;) more on that later....

Get out catch a bug and teach your kids all about it!

L.O.V.E
Delfi

Busy Busy

Life has been super busy these past couple of days, with us going out of town, then coming home and celebrating my daughter's first birthday and fathers day, photo sessions and of course everything else that we do! I have not been able to keep up with my blog on a daily basis. I am sure I will be getting back to my cooking soon so I can continue to share recipes with all my friends! Thanks for checking back!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all the daddy's out there. Hope you get spoiled today.
Don't forget to give your dad a big hug, a kiss and remind him how much you love him!
I love my dad, he is so very special to me and I wouldn't change him for the world. He makes the best tomato sauce!

Te quiero mucho Pa!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Chimichurri sauce, my version.

Chimichurri sauce is a very traditional sauce we use in Argentina to pour over grilled meat, it is absolutely delicious and super easy to make, this is just my version, I know there are many different ways of making it out there.

Ingredients:

1 cup of water
1 tablespoon  of salt
1/2 cup of vinager
1/2 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of ground red pepper (sweet kind)
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley
2 tablespoons of fresh oregano or dry
2 basil leaves

I prepare all my ingredients.

And im using the fast way here. I use my Magic Bullet, you can just chop and mix everything by hand :) you will avoid some of the foam that is formed when blending.

 So I add all my dry ingredients in the blender.

Water
Oil
Vinegar
Ready, set go, blend!
Put Chimichurri sauce in a container with a lid, keep it on the counter at room temperature for a few hours, then keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. See? mine is foamy from blending, if you mix by hand you will avoid this, I just did not have the chance to chop everything small today :)

Try it on some real steaks!
Hugs
Delfi

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Pw's Mac and Cheese

I have to say this is one of the best Mac and Cheese dishes I have made, everyone loves it, I made it on special request from my 4 year old.



Check out her recipe!                                RIGHT HERE!

Okay by the way I have these guys all over my yard, I wonder if they are harmful to humans or plants? anyone know?



HUGS!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Back home.

I was out of town and I am happy to say that I am Home Sweet Home :).

I missed cooking and missed my house, and my garden, my veggies, my roses and everything around it.

I am happy to report that my rose bush has 13 roses about to bloom any day now! My rose tree has about 6 buds, I am so excited! I will have fresh roses on my table this week. This is what its looking like.


This morning I got 7 jalapenos out of my garden, and I counted 12 little flowers that Im hoping they will turn into actual jalapenos. My kids are just showing a couple of them, my husband ate the rest.

Ok. This is so amazing, last Wednesday night I planted some seeds to put on my kitchen window, lettuce and cilantro, look at this guys, it hasn't even been a week and they are going crazy.

My kids are loving this whole gardening thing, and I am too, the amount of birds in our yard has multiplied in the last couple of weeks, we have at least 6-8 different species coming to our backyard, I know it's not exactly a good thing if they are eating my seeds, or blueberries or anything else they can find, but it is absolutely beautiful to watch, and my kids get so excited, we are learning all the breeds and how they live. I have not had a chance to get them on camera but this week I will get some of them.

Please give this whole gardening thing a try, it is well worth it, even if you don't get fruits! you will have a chance to explore nature in so many new ways you never even imagined!

Stay green!
Delfi