Keep the beans moving so they don't burn.

For the past 7 years I have been roasting our household coffee in the wood oven , and while I don’t claim to be an expert, I have now roasted over 300 times and you can’t help but learn a few things along the way.

First thing , Why bother ? Well, by buying green beans you will find it a whole lot cheaper than at the gourmet coffee store . I can buy organic, shade tree, fair trade , ethical coffee, in bulk delivered to my door in the Canadian outback for $4 a lb. That very same stuff roasted can cost you from $12 -$16. You can get regular non organic Brazilian for much, much less. (more…)

For 4 serves you only need 2 medium size papaya or 1 larger one, 250g of yogurt (I use natural or vanilla yogurt), 2 big table spoons of honey and 1 table spoon of lemon juice. How to do this, cut the papaya into smaller cubes and place into the bigger bowl, in separate bowl mix together yogurt, honey and lemon juice (for this I use hand mixer as it makes the yogurt mix smoother and distributes the honey evenly). Pour the yogurt mixture onto the papaya and mix, decorate with mint leaves if you wish. Enjoy! (more…)

Walnuts dipped in honey are so yummy.

Last night I made a second jar but this time I added in few pieces of orange skin with walnuts. This is a very simple task, all that is required is to pack well some small glass jar full with walnuts and then to pour honey in. The honey leaked in between the walnuts very slowly (air bubbles take their time to travel towards the top through thick honey) so it’s better doing so in stages instead of standing there and wait. At the end close the lid tight and that’s it.

The one on the picture I made in my mother’s place while I was in Europe last time. She always keeps at home this almost black color honey European bees collect in their local pine forests. That forest honey tastes so great and is also very aromatic. The guy who keeps the bees does not heat up his honey nor process it in any way. (more…)

Duck grease instead of lard fat.

Fat or grease and gelatin can be produced, collected and stored from roasting organic ducks and other poultry like turkey, goose or chicken. What do you do if you don’t eat pork(?), and as on purpose right the recipe you found calls for lard. Or you might want to eat a better fat stuff (in those rare occasions really.) Can you satisfy yourself? Like with the pecan pie recipe. Well, you can make your own lard and such that tastes much better.

If I can do it, you can do it easy. (more…)

my Pecan pie. Ever since I learned, that my friend Mark baked pecan pie I wanted to try to bake one myself. I found one recipe in a magazine from our local library and then gradually I tried to make it perfect. For some weeks I baked this pie when we had friends coming over, every time adjusting the recipe a bit. So here is another TNT (Tried N Tested) pecan tart recipe. If I can do it, you can do it easy.

Pecans are very healthy for our heart actually! I almost wrote “for our hearth” which would be true too. (more…)

But first, where do we get hold of salmon and other fish we cook in our kitchen? Every second weekend we leave home early in the morning to buy fresh produce from farmers’ market here in Rockley. After having a cappa there we shop for: veggies, fruit, fish, eggs, meats, honey, dip for night time movies or chess or rummy game, cut flowers, flour, nuts, spices, herbs sometimes, soap, you name it. And every other Saturday morning we go to get supply of groceries. We do our shopping fast now and buy all the stuff quite economically.

Usual size of the cleaned salmon fillet piece we buy is large (more…)

Welcome to TO articles, it’s like a simple blog.

This is first post in “Food” category.

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