Old blog www.giddygastronome.blogspot.com

Hello!

I trust that everyone had a fantastic New year’s eve! We were in Florida for two and a half weeks, including New Year’s Day, just hanging out with family and friends! I am always so very busy baking cookies, making homemade sausage and soaps right up to the very day we have to leave for Florida. I think that they all just look forward to all these goodies, when I visit them once a year.

I do have a couple of ” THANK- YOUS”….. to Pom Wonderful for the delicious juices that they mailed to me last year June,  ( hope you received my correspondence at that time) and Jo, ( my blogger buddy), for the exquisite china and her homegrown garlic. Jo, you know that I shall be displaying my creations on them and on the blog, I love them!

Here are two recipes I developed with that PERSNICKETY, PERFECT POM WONDERFUL!

Please use organic ingredients when possible!

An “Iced Pom Lassi”…..made with coconut & organic Greek yogurt!

recipe here on Pom Wonderful site. Please vote for me by clicking on the link!

or just go to www.pomwonderful.com and click on recipe contest ending Jan14th at the bottom of their page.

I could hardly wait to taste this delicious libation, after taking its picture! I loved it when the lemony coconut ice just barely melted into that sea of magenta heaven! Tasting that deliciously tart natural pomegranate powder on the rim of the glass and the lemony ” creme ” in the beginning  and then suddenly the fruity Pom Wonderful juice thereafter,  were so inexplicably satisfying! YUM!

And……”A Coconut Creme Caramel, Pomtized”

recipe here on Pom Wonderful. Please vote for me by clicking on the link!

These coconut creme caramels were just much more creamier and silkier made with a combination of  coconut cream and organic evaporated milk rather  than using  condensed milk. I made the caramel with the Pom Wonderful juice, instead of water and in so doing imparted a delectable and playful element of tartness cutting through the richness of the creamy custards!

Thank you and please enjoy.

Love,

Nazarina.

Hi everyone!

( old blog www.giddygastronome.blogspot.com)

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my family and friends here and more  importantly abroad, a very happy and Blessed Eid Mubarak, be it on Sunday or Monday! It is during this time that I especially miss my Mom and Grandmother who made this momentous occasion so very special! I shall never forget!

To my brother and sister in South Africa, I wish you were here to be able to celebrate with us on Sunday! “Ek mis die ou dae, toe ons klein was en presente gekry het van ons ouers!!!Meestal mis ek vir Moeder!!!!

A tea convivial

There is nothing more healing than a tea convivial with the clinking of the pretty tea cups, pinkie pointing upward, congenial chatter and not forgetting those deliriously good confections. If ever you have shared this “frivolous female fetish”  ( as my sweetie puts it)  with me, then we are obviously best buds! Nevertheless, whoever,  comes to my door, there is always a cuppa waiting for ya! As a matter of fact, I even went as far as introducing this ritual to my friends at the yearly camping get- togethers.  Now, even they  remind me of the confections and the “Rooibos tee”, please! as if I would ever  forget!

After years of soul searching, I have rationalized that these very tea ceremonies are what give me my cheery disposition! LOL!

Buttery sesame cookies embraced by dark chocolate

Sometimes, I have my ” Rooibos tee”  with a spot of milk and other times with a slice of orange or lemon.

They say that one’s character is reflected in one’s  food and here I  put my own spin on this recipe by taking   some seemingly  disparate ingredients and made it work to give you a little nutty,  orangy, crispy, creamy, buttery  cookie.

Sesame cookie Recipe: (Please use organic ingredients when possible)

1. 4 oz unsalted organic butter
2. 2/3 cup organic brown sugar less 1 tablespoon
3. 1 T organic orange marmalade
4. 1 t ground ginger
5. 1 t cinnamon
6. 1/2 t cardamom
7. pinches of ground nutmeg, clove
8. 2 organic egg yolks
9. 1 t orange zest
10. 1 t pure vanilla extract
11. 1 t pure orange extract or orange flower water( I used the latter)
12. 1 1/2 c organic all purpose flour
13. 7 pkgs  sesame snaps( picture below)
14. Lindt intense orange dark chocolate

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 225 degrees

Beat the butter, sugar, marmalade  and all the spices until creamy ( there has to be no sugar bits). Add the egg yolks and continue beating until incorporated. Add the zest and all the extracts and incorporate and lastly fold in the flour. The dough has to be  soft. Refrigerate the dough for half an hour, roll out to about quarter inch and then just use the sesame snap as a guide as I did and cut out cookies with a sharp knife. Bake the cookies on a silpat or parchment for about 12 mins, remove from the oven, top with a sesame snap. Remember to adjust the size of the cookie to the sesame snap at this point, especially since the cookie is still hot and soft. Place  back in the oven for three mins, just so that the sesame snap has fused with the cookie. When the cookies are cooled, dip in melted dark chocolate and enjoy! Yields about 25 cookies,

Thanks for stopping by!

Much love,

Nazarina.