Stuffed Peppers!

Simple and delicious.  Stuffed peppers are great for cold comfort food days.  This recipe features some green peppers of an unknown name, but it also works well with bell peppers. 

Ingredients: 

Peppers, with the top cut off and cleaned inside

3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

1/2 lb ground beef

1 1/2 cup cooked rice

1/2 cup of chopped asparagus

Salt and pepper to taste

Season with curry powder or Italian herb spices.

Cut and clean peppers.  Bring large pot of water to boil.  Add peppers and several pinches of salt and boil for 3 minutes or so, until bright and slightly softened.  Preheat oven to 350F. In small pan, fry onion and olive oil until golden and translucent. Mix onion/oil mix with hamburger, rice and chopped asparagus. Season with salt, pepper and seasons of your choice. Stuff peppers with beef mixture and bake in oven for 30-50 minutes.

B&W

Banana Coconut Chickpea Curry

Banana and coconut on curry.

It probably sound a bit strange, but give it a chance. South Africa thinks it's great, you might too. 

Ingredients: 

1 large onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 tbsp butter

1 1/4 tbsp curry

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne powder

~1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp flour

1 can of chickpeas

salt and pepper

banana and/or coconut

Cook onion and red pepper in a pan on medium heat until golden.  In a different pan, mix butter with curry, cumin and cayenne powder.  Slowly add milk and flour mixing together well to avoid lumps, you can add more milk if you want extra sauce.  Next, add chickpeas and simmer on low heat until chickpeas are cooked.  Season with salt and pepper, and top with banana and coconut to serve. 

Enjoy! 

Post Exam Sugar Cookies!

My exams are finally over. It felt so good to spend the afternoon not studying, just making the cookies pictured.  My next few days are going to be entirely devoted to gluttony and Christmas food haha.  These sugar cookies are really simple and the icing is great for decorating.

Cookies:

1½ cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tsp vanilla

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar

1-4 drops of lemon juice
1 tbsp light corn syrup
~1 tbsp milk

Cookies: Mix butter and sugar until well combined.  Add eggs, egg yolk and vanilla.  Next in a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients slowly.  Be careful not to overmix.  Now, refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Cut cookies to about 1/2 inch thickness and bake until browned around the edges (about 8-10 minutes depending on your oven)

Icing: Combine powdered sugar, corn syrup and lemon juice.  Add milk to make desired consistency of icing. 

From: Iambaker

Rocky road

Don't forget to make your own Rocky road for Christmas! It's super simple to make and delicious. Also you can variate the filling with whatever you like. You can add all from fresh raspberries to dried apricots or different kinds of nuts. If your imagination takes over why not just make several batches and your holidays are saved!

I will make mine like these:

600 grams of dark chocolate
2 bags of diced toffee sweets
2 handfuls of chopped marshmallows
1,5 cups of salted peanuts
half a cup of pistachio nuts
half a cup of dried cranberries

First thing you got to do is to melt the chocolate on low heat over a water bath.
While the chocolate is melting chop the toffee, marshmallows and peel the pistachios. When the chocolate is liquid mix it together with all the ingredients. When all of it's coated spread it evenly in a baking tray. Then put the tray in the fridge Enjoy!

(Image source: frutimotej)

Roasted Zucchini Soup

It's that time of year again, the time of year when soup makes its triumphant transition from side dish to main course.  I don't know whether it's the snow, the cold, or my textbooks' ability to crush my spirit, but soup is one of the only things I can manage to cook once December comes.  Here's a simple, delicious puree I made while avoiding my soul-sucking marketing textbook. 

2 zucchinis, chopped vertically then horizontally.

1 tbsp of crushed garlic

1/4 cup olive oil 

2 cups chicken/vegetable stock

1/4 of a jalapeño

Salt and pepper to taste

Start with chopping garlic and adding to oil.  Then, cover chopped zucchini with garlic oil mixture and put in oven at 450F until browned.  Puree together roasted zucchinis, jalapeño and 1/2 cup of chicken stock.   Move mixture to a saucepan and add the rest of the chicken stock.  Bring to a simmer, add salt and pepper and enjoy this great winter soup!

Gingerbread house

I really have got lots of Christmas feelings lately. With all of the decorations and lights around the city it feels more like winter now. Although the Madrid weather is more like a warm autumn with leaves and sunshine. During the day when the lights are not on I listen to Christmas songs as I'm missing Swedish Christmas a little bit. Will have it soon though, this time in two weeks I will be home. Decorating the tree and everything, bake again and make candy. I really want to make a gingerbread house! I haven't made one in years, I would just like to go completely overboard with it. If I'll make one I will definitely post a picture!