Saturday, November 7, 2015

#FoodJournals November 2015

Food Journals are updated each week for new #FoodJournals Tweets. 

There were no October Food Journals because I was simply very lazy. So, let's begin with October and move on towards November. As it is, OctoNovember is being celebrated on my planet.

OCTOBER CATCH UP

October began with Mom's birthday and I made her favorite sweet rice Zardah - a traditional Pakistani/Indian favorite. Rice are cooked in a sweet milk syrup flavored with cardamom and garnished with golden raisins.

 Sister-in-Law's birthday followed and Sara's Baked Creations invented a new flavor for the picky palettes (namely, my brother and my sister-in-law). Sara had been working hard on her fondant skills and frosting techniques, so she always kept the cake flavors traditional vanilla. Bro and SIL always picked on the vanilla! So, Sara created a magical cookies and cream filling in a rich, chocolate, fudge cake sponge.

A video posted by The Abbie (@abbiesadventures) on

I got to test a sample of the Oreos chunks cake base as a cupcake. It is always a treat to be the tester for the Head Chef.
A box of Rocky Mountain chocolate Factory's sugar-free/no sugar added chocolate assortments came to our house. It was a gift for my mother. It's always a treat to get Rocky Mountain. I always pick the one to the very left upper corner. It i the "Coffee Fan".



For Sara's birthday, we headed to Red Robin for their awesome Swiss Cheese and Mushroom burger. The original plan was to test the California Kitchen Pizza. They have whole wheat crusts! But there was a charity event going on there and the place was closed unless we wanted a free meat pizza. So we hung out at our favorite gourmet burger joint instead!

It was my turn to bake for Sara when her birthday came along! I decided to make a Fall flower basket cake to commemorate OctoNovember. We are all Fall birthday girls here. I had never done the rose piping before but I had always dreamed of making roses with pearls. The basket weave piping for completely new, even to Sara. She helped me prepare the best chocolate frosting and gave me her secret recipe for the gooey chocolate cake as well. The cake turned out gorgeous!

A video posted by The Abbie (@abbiesadventures) on

I baked sample cupcakes along with the cake for testing. A few Fall sprinkles and a perfect new serving plate created the most beautiful sample display!

A photo posted by The Abbie (@abbiesadventures) on


NOVEMBER WEEK 1

After returning from the OctoNovember Birthday Vacation I was craving veggies. Everybody had indulged in junk food and veggies had been unknown to us in our happy place. I made a mix veg stir fry with the most basic spices - nothing fancy.


A new member has added to Abbie's Cafe's audience. Gubbers, my almost 1 year old niece. I have been preparing baby food for her lately. Sweet peas are super rich in protein. I boiled them and skinned them for Gubbers.

A 7 star Chicken Karhai was discovered thanks to the National range of spices from Pakistan. I had cooked it with boneless chicken strips with real garlic and tomatoes instead of just pastes. I brought it out of the freezer and heated it to perfection. Voila! It was delicious. I almost had my audience thinking it was from a Desi food joint!

I did Mac n Cheese because we were craving the whole wheat Mediterranean pasta that we had so many times at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort Hotel in Orlando.

I wanted to cook red beans and had Rajma curry masala (MDH range, India) waiting to be tried out in my pantry. I kept the deal simple. It was MDH spice mix, tomato paste, and fried onions paste that create the Rajma magic.

Daal was Sara's request. We had seasoned rice so it became Daal Chawal (Dal with Rice). I always prepare a tomato tempering (tarka) for my Daal Makhni (buttery daal).


NOVEMBER WEEK 2 {NEXT WEEK!}

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