Chic and Bubbly

I know it is ridiculous but I love watching Food Network  at the gym. I  fell in love with this plum cake "tatin" recipe by Ina Garten  when I was watching Food Network at the gym the other day, and baked it the same night, immedieately! Sooo easy to make and really delicious. This is how my cake looks: (Recipe by Ina Garten for Food Network. ) Thank you, Ina! Enjoy! 

    Ingredients: 2 cups Penne pasta 2 tomatoes 2 garlic cloves, crush and chop them 2 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon capers 1 tablespoon grated Pecorino Romano 10 pitted black olives, cut them in half 10 anchovies, cut them in half Crushed red pepper flakes Salt Pepper Garnishes: Grated Pecorino Romano, fresh basil sprigs     Preparation: (Makes 2 serving) Start boiling the pasta water with little bit of olive oil and salt.   In a sauce pan, sauté garlic, olives and capers in olive oil over medium heat for one minute. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat. Add anchovies, red pepper flakes, salt (lil' bit, anchovies are already very salty!) and pepper. Stir occasionally, for about 20 minutes.    Pasta's water is ready! Hurry up, add the pasta! :) Follow the directions on your pasta box for al dente. Make sure to r...

1.  My kingdom: My kitchen. 2. I love listening to music when cooking, and so this counter is where I set up my laptop and play my favorite music stations, such as Pink Martini, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Gotan Project, and Frank Sinatra on Pandora.com . 3. Some of my kitchen tools. I love my kitchen knives set by J.A. Henckels . They make cooking much more easier! If you love to cook, I would definitely recommend you to invest in a nice set of kitchen knives. 4. Cutting boards. I use different cutting boards for fruits and vegetables, raw poultry, fish and seafood, and raw meat. 5. I created a small little section where I keep olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice cooking wine, and sherry cooking wine on a round-shaped plate. 6. My microvave and oven. On top of the oven, there's my porcelain teapot with a yellow-calla-lilies, one of my favorite flowers, design.

Part 3: Traditional Turkish Sesame Pastry (Kandil Simidi) Ingredients:   2 sticks margarine 2 egg yolk (keep the egg white for topping) 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoon vinegar 3 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt ½ cup vegetable oil or olive oil 1 tsp salt 4 cups flour Topping: 2 egg white 1 cup sesame seeds Preparation: (Makes about 45 pieces)   1.       Place everything in a large bowl and knead until the dough becomes soft. 2.       Preheat the oven to 400 F. 3.       Divide the dough into two equal balls. Roll each half in to a circle, about 1/5 inch thick. Cut with a sharp knife into small balls. 4.       Place them over a parchment paper. Brush top with egg white and sprinkle some sesame seeds. Bake until the top off the pastries turn light brown color.     Afiyet Olsun!   Part 1: Whi...

Part 2: Cacik, or as our Komsu (Neighbor) calls it, “Tzatziki.” Ingredients: 320 oz. Non-fat plain  Chobani Greek Yogurt 2 cloves of garlic (press them with a garlic press) 2 medium size cucumbers ¼ cup dill, chopped 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 teaspoon salt Crushed red pepper flakes Preparation: (Makes 4 serving) This recipe is by my brother and here is how he describes the preparation: Put everything in a large bowl, mix, and serve! Bahahaha boys! :) Enjoy! Part 1: White Beans with Meat (Etli Kuru Fasulye) + My Mom’s Pilaf (Pilav) Recipes Part 3: Coming Soon!

My awesomely fast social life has officially started to slow down since Sunday (yesterday :p) when most of my great friends had left for Turkey for their summer break. Now that I have so much time on my hands, I have decided to bring myself back to the kitchen and cook again. Boy have I missed cooking! I spent my entire Sunday grocery shopping, cooking and baking, and I feel sooo good right now. (White Beans with Meat served with Pilaf and Tzatziki, and Traditional Turkish Sesame Pastry) I have made some traditional Turkish dishes as I was craving for them and I wanted to share them with you. There are four different recipes involved so I decided to divide them into 3 different posts Part 1:  White Beans with Meat (Etli Kuru Fasulye) + My Mom’s Pilaf (Pilav) Recipes Part 2: Cacik, or as our komsu (neighbor) calls it, “Tzatziki.” (Recipe by my brother.) Part 3: Traditional Turkish Sesame Pastry (Kandil Simidi) Hope you guys like them!...

I had friends coming over for dinner last Saturday so I gave it a shot to make this great seafood pasta dish, linguine with clams in seafood broth,  that I found in La Cucina Italiana Magazine. Fantastic(!) compostion of different pasta types for La Cucina Italiana's special PASTA edition! Le me planning the dinner menu: Working hard to take one decent photo of the pasta dish: Y U No zoom in? :) Anyways... so here is the recipe for this delicious and very easy to make pasta dish: Ingredients: Seafood Broth (Although I wanted to make the broth from scratch, Whole Foods was out of white fish so I had to cancel that step from preparing the dish and got their pre-made seafood broth.) 3 1/4 pounds cockles or small little neck clams, well scrubbed (Get them from Whole Foods, they scrub them for you.) 2 tablespoons cornmeal Fine sea salt 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/2 cup finely chopped fla...

It's incredibly easy to make steamed mussels. The only difficult and time consuming part is: debearding and cleaning the mussels... Ingredients 6 pounds mussels 1 cup dry white whine 3 shallots, minced 1 clove garlic, minced and then crushed with the side of the knife (optional) Pinch of chopped fresh or dried thyme (optional) 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley 4 tablespoons butter (optional) Preparation (Makes 4 first-course servings) 1. Brush the mussels under cold running water. 2. Place the scrubbed ones in a bowl full of ice to prevent them from openning. ...Extra...Extra...Extra... I found an awesome YouTube video on "How to debeard, clean and store mussels" by GoodFishBook: ...Extra...Extra...Extra... 3. Combine the wine, shallots, garlic, and thyme in a large pot, cover, bring to a simmer over low heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the mussels all at once, cover the pot, raise the hea...

Did you know that plural for "bruschetta" is "bruschette"? Thai Bruschette have a very light and refreshing taste. They make great appetizers on their own or as part of an antipasto platter.  Ingredients 1 long English cucumber, peeled 1 teaspoon sugar 2 dried chipotle chilies, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes to soften, seeded and chopped (I used fresh Jalapeño peppers instead of dried chipotle chilies.) 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded (squeeze tomatoes gently after seeding to discard the juice)  and chopped 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce (In my opinion, 1 tbs made the "salsa" taste a bit too fishy. So I added 1 teaspoon  of red wine vinegar to ease the fishy taste.) 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro 24 1/4-inch-thick baguette slices, toasted 24 cilantro leaves Preparation (Makes 24 Bruschette) Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Pat dry the cucumber halves with paper towel. Slice and chop them in a...

  1. Cut off the greens and the hairy root end. Rinse with water. 2. Cut the white in half lengthwise. Rinse under running water. As you rinse, leaf through the membranes to release any sand. 3. Slice or julienne leeks. From "COOKING" book by James Peterson .

  Ingredients 1 small Yukon Gold potato, peeled and thinly sliced 3 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced. Tips on how to prepare leeks . 1 quart milk, water or chicken broth 1 1/2 pounds fresh crimini mushrooms, coarsely chopped or sliced 6 slices dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1/2 cup warm water for 30 minutes 1/2 cup heavy cream Salt Pepper Soup Croutons Preparation (Makes 4 first-course servings) 1. Combine the potato, leeks, and milk in a pot, bring to a gentle simmer, and simmer about 25 minutes. 2. Add the fresh mushrooms to the soup. Lift the porcini out and squeeze them, releasing the liquid into the bowl. Pour the soaking liquid into the soup, leaving any grit behind in the bowl. Add the porcini to the pot and simmer for about 7 minutes. 3. Purée the soup with a blender and strain it into a clean pot. Add the heavy cream, bring to a simmer, and season with salt and pepper. 4. Ladle the soup into soup bowls. Garnish with the croutons. Bon appétit! Recipe b...

Ingredients 5 pounds of red Bermuda type onions, sliced as thinly as possible 3 tablespoons butter 1 cup dry sherry 1 cup water 1 quart brown chicken broth Salt Pepper 6 slices dense-crumb white bread, remove the crusts and cut into 3/4-inch cubes 2 cups grated hard cheese such as Gruyère, Gouda or Fontina Preparation (Makes 6 cups) 1. In a heavy-bottomed large pot, cook the onions in 3 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Stir for about 10 minutes, or until they release some of their liquid. 2. Raise the heat to high and cook the onions, stirring often, for about 30 minutes, or until the liquid runs dry and caramalizes on the bottom of the pot. 3. Add the sherry and water, and bring to a boil, and cook, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to dissolve the browned-on juices, until the liquid is reduced by about half. Add the chicken broth, season with salt and pepper to taste, and simmer. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 ° F. Spread the bread cubes on a ...

Two of my new year's resolutions for 2012: Cook More + Eat More Fruits and Vegetables! I will try to bring my own lunch to work as much as possible this year. 1. Celery sticks. 2. Sliced cheddar cheese. 3. Sourdough bread. 4. Tuna Salad with celery, red onions, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, mayonnaise, salt, and pepper. I will try to have more healthy snacks. 5. Fresh strawberries. Have a wonderful 2012!

 Ingredients 6 pounds of drumsticks 1 large onion, root end trimmed and quartered without peeling 3 carrots, unpeeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced 1 stalk celery, sliced 3 quarts cold water or more as needed to cover Bouquet garni (Cradle sprigs of fresh thyme, parsley stems and bay leaves in a washed leek green. Tie with kitchen string to secure the bundle.) Preparation (Makes 2 1/2 quarts) 1. Place the chicken parts and all the vegetables in a heavy-bottomed roasting pan, just large enough to hold them in a single layer. Put the pan into the oven and turn the oven to 400 ° F. 2. Stir the chicken and vegetables a few times to brown them, for about 1 1/2 hours. 3. Transfer the chicken and vegetables into a tall pot. Pour about 2 cups of water into the roasting pan, bring to a boil and deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned-on juices with a wooden spoon. 4. Pour the liquid from the pan into the tall pot. Add enough water to the pot to co...

High-end fashion designers adore thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing their brands, which is tremendously reflected on their runway shows, fashion ads and websites. Sometimes they create jobs which make sense to everyone, and sometimes they go totally bananas and leave many questions in people’s minds. However, they all do this to stand out in the crowded fashion market, gain their signature and eventually create a great buzz. In this post, I will share my thoughts on the ever evolving fashion industry, how big brands stay on top of their games during difficult economic times, and the hidden message behind the Versace for H&M Commercial. Designer Collaboration Is the New Black! High-end designer collaborations with mass retailers are very popular and have become the new black in the fast evolving fashion industry. A capsule collection is a great example for these fashion collaborations, where retailers offer high fashion designs at lower prices to their customers...