Beans

I've been trying to empty out the fridge so I can create some space for the ThanksGiving madness.
We reached a point that seemed that there was nothing in the fridge to eat besides a frozen bag of shrimp, a bag of dry beans that I brought from our farm in Portugal, and couple lost leaves of organic baby spinach. Well, the meal was done right there, I combined all of the ingredients (after boiling the beans for almost 1 hour and a half, since they were dry and I haven't soak them), on a skillet where I cooked a tomato base with onions and garlic in olive oil. It would have been lovely with a touch of hot sauce but was afraid that would be too much for my toddler assistant. Nonetheless it came out delicious.

Pear and walnut squares

This past week I went to Costco and they had some very attractive and juicy-looking pears. They were ripped to perfection and it reminded me of the pictures I see on the Harry & David catalogs, so I couldn't resist. I bought a whole box of pears. After me and Diogo ate couple pears, I just had to figure out something to do with the ripe pears before they go bad. So I looked up online and found this recipe of Pear and walnut squares. The walnuts make them crunchy while the pears make them smooth and moist. The dough underneath is buttery and sweet, and a hint of cinnamon makes it a comforting, and perfect fall desert, an afternoon snack, or a nutritious breakfast bar.
Hungry Dad gave his approval and said this is definitely a repeat.

Chicken with feta and raisins.

So before I go ahead, let me first introduce my assistant. He has an acquired taste and is an expert at mixing and pouring. He's also extremely hands on when it's time for washing the dishes, or doing anything related with water. Most importantly, he keeps the high spirits around the kitchen and doesn't allow for a dull moment.

Although I do not intend on posting here every night's dinner, I would like to share one of my few invented dishes - Chicken with feta and raisins. Nothing too fancy, yet it's one of those dishes that looks attractive on the plate, has interesting taste, can be eaten by a toddler, a hungry dad, and a weight-conscient mom, and is very simple and fast to cook. Therefore this is a winner at our house and what I do whenever I don't know what to do with chicken breasts. The dish can be fancier or simpler depending on my mood and who am I cooking for.
I start by letting some onions cook on butter (or sometimes Olive oil, depending on the mood or what I have around) and then add thinly sliced chicken breast, to which I add salt and pepper. After the chicken is cooked, I add either some water or white wine or milk or heavy cream, depending how thick or tasty or dull I want my sauce to be. And after I let the sauce cook for a bit I add on top raisins and feta cheese (In our house we believe "everything's betta with feta!") and whatever herbs I have around - parsley or rosemary, thyme or fresh oreganos. If you want an extra crunch add sliced almonds or walnuts to the mix. Done. It cooks in less than 15 minutes. And I can serve with either rice, mash potatoes or pasta and whatever vegetable on the side.

Sharing my cooking

I have been kicking around the idea of starting a food blog for about some time now. I love cooking, reading food blogs is entertaining to me, I get excited when I buy fresh produce, and worst of all, I have always enjoyed eating. I grew up with saturday and sunday afternoons spent around the table and today I believe a happy get together with friends and family has to involve food.
I was really not so interested in cooking while growing up. In fact, I was a bit of a tom-boy kinda girl that loved going camping, hiking with her friends, and could eat dirt for dinner that I wouldn't care. But one way or another, when I look back today, I almost always ate home made food. Even for those camping trips. We would buy potatoes and eggs on the local market, cut the potatoes in half, make a little hole in the middle and put the raw eggs in it, close the potatoes back with aluminum paper and roast them on the fire. They were simple, delicious, nutritious, healthy, and home-made. And that seems to be exactly how I like to cook today. I get lost and bored with complicated recipes and easily loose the patience if I need to mix or knead or refrigerate things for too long. I like to use the same philosophy on my cooking as I was taught on those advertising 101 classes I took in Art School - KISS: "Keep It Simple and Stupid" (or is it "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"?). Anyway, I never became that good at advertising (I'm an awful BSer!) but might let my old professor know how his theory applies great into my cooking. I'm sure he'll be proud!

I don't think of myself as a great cook. In fact, I think I'm still far from it, but I'd love to be as great of a cook as my mom always was. I admire her dedication to the kitchen and her passion for cooking, but most importantly, I truly admire her spontaneity, sense of improvising, and confidence that she has when she is in the kitchen.
This blog will be more of a personal journal for me. A gathering of recipes I like, notes and comments of things that I tried and the results. It's not a resource for original recipes, since aside from one or two dishes, I never invented anything. But I do improvise, modify, and experiment enough to keep things interesting, I hope.