Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

You will need for one batch of 250 ml. of Sauce Béarnaise:

W e always need to eat something sweet after any meal how ever light it may be. So join me for some cookies.....

When tomatoes, and generally vegetable prices are low, basically during summer, it is a good idea to make a large batch of your favourite sauce and jar it in well sterilized jars for quick access. It also helps if you have basil and other herbs growing in your veranda. Ingredients: Fresh tomatoes puréed.  Multi coloured bell peppers thinly sliced Onions cubed. Garlic passed through the press. Couple of handfuls of fresh basil, torn by hand. Salt, pepper, chili powder, smoked paprika, chili. Some sugar to offset the tomato acidity. Extra virgin olive oil. Method: Heat oil, stir fry onion till soft. Add garlic and stir till you smell that delicious aroma . Add pepper and stir fry till soft. Add tomato purée. Add sugar. Add spices. Boil, turn down heat to a very slow simmer stirring frequently for one hour. Add water if required but not too much. You need a thick sauce. Turn off heat when time is up. Fill hot sterilized jars with stil...

T his morning I felt like cooking. I had bought some red sweet peppers (not bell peppers) from the market the other day which told me (the red peppers did) "make a sauce out of us". This is a sauce which can be used hot or cold, on pasta, meat, fish, or even Quinoa, Cracked Buckwheat, or Millet for those who wish low glycemic index foods.

For the sauce Mornay:

Sauce Brune: Brown Sauce.

Sauce Au Poivre Vert: Green Pepper Sauce.

Sauce au Curry: Curry Sauce.

Sauce Moutarde: Mustard Sauce: - ½ liter of fresh cream 35%. - 5-8 Tblsp. Dijon Mustard (the one with the mustard grains) called A L'Anciènne.

Sauce Basilique: Not to be mistaken for the pesto.

Sauce Piperade: A sauce typical of the Basque area far-most southwest of France on the border with Spain below the Atlantic Pyrenees.

Meat Sauce: Meat Sauce Simmering To Reduce Juices And Cook. Method:

T his typically Sicilian sauce for spaghetti has taken its name after the person who first made it. Sicily is very much like Greece. The Island of Sicily is now part of Italy countrywise but the rest of Italy still considers Sicily as part of Africa.  During The Greek Period   (8th Century B.C.) Sicily belonged to Greece. It is therefore not strange that the culture and cuisine of Sicily much resembles that of south Greece. The use of black olives, oregano, tomato sauce, chili pepper is very common in both cuisines. To prepare this sauce which basically goes with any kind of pasta, you will need:

Y esterday was one heck of a day for all of us and nobody had the time to cook anything. We never call for home delivery such as Pizza, Burgers, etc. (although I personally would loooooooove it) but Maria and Barbara refuse to eat non home made junk food!! So it was either stay without lunch and starve (I would) or think of something.

T here are some very nice quick and easy dishes you can make when alone at home and you want to prop your feet up, eat and watch TV!!

 Big Flat Leafed Basil P esto is a sauce which can be used in many preparations because it contains all the ingredients you would use anyway when cooking. It contains basil, garlic, salt, olive oil, parmezan and pecorino cheese and pine nuts. So by adding some pesto you are done.

H ow  easy or difficult is it to make a mayonnaise?

O ne thing is for sure in cooking, nothing goes to waist. Everything is used in one way or another. Yesterday's recipe "meat torpedos with garlic and mint" refrigerated (not frozen)  left over uncooked ground beef was used this morning to make a very nice sauce for "Farfalle" pasta using mushrooms, dill and cream. We had a tomato and lettuce salad on the side and it was delicious. I would love to share it with you, maybe you would find it as good as we all did.

F irst of all I would like to congratulate all the women in the world for today is their day!  With their cleverness,  patience, kindness, hard work, perseverance and their sixth sense, women have excelled, and may I say, even more than men. Now, this spaghetti recipe is dedicated to these special women who have the oldest profession in the world.

A lthough the Chinese invented spaghetti, the Italians really know how to eat it in all styles and ways! The simplest way and I really mean the simplest is with just plain good, unsalted fresh butter and freshly grated parmezan, if you wish. Pasta can be eaten without parmezan you know. Parmesan or any other grated cheese is not a prerequisite for pasta. You can eat pasta without chesse. It is all a matter of taste. As they say in French: "Les goûts et les clouleurs ne se discutent pas".   (look under g). So, one evening you have absolutely nothing in your pantry or fridge to make a sauce with then you can use fresh butter as follows: