Friday, July 31, 2009

Martha Stewart's June Twecipes (or Twicipes)

Braise Escarole & Broc Rabe - lb escr & rabe 4" saute .25TevOIL 4T buttr 2t garlic 4 chp scallion + greens/toss/3min/s+p srv w/lemon wedge
11:30 AM Jun 30th from HootSuite

Broccoli W Pasta Blanch lb broccoli 2" Saute T butr 2 scallion .25" 1t garlic + 2T whtwine +4T butr & .25C EVOOil Toss W lb al dente pasta
11:57 AM Jun 29th from TweetDeck

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TRY#2 BestSugarCookies beatLBbut &3Csug+2egg+tvanil& 1.5tSalt+5CFlour /into2wrap&chillRoll.25"Cut/15m@350F @Everydayfood for good recipes
1:42 PM Jun 25th from TweetDeck

Cream but+sugs+eggs+vanX sift dryingred addtowet + chocchip. Silpatonpan 2T dough 2” apart bake375F8-10min. ENJOY!
5:01 PM Jun 24th from web

Alexis's choc chip cookies 1lb unsaltbut rm tmp 3 C ltBRsug 1 C wtsug 4eggs 2 tsp vanX 3.5 C flr 1.5 tsp salt 2 tsp bksoda 1.5 C chocchip
5:00 PM Jun 24th from web

And here do Martha's twecipes end or begin... I wonder if June 24th was the official birthday of the twecipe. Martha began twittering on February 19th 10:50 pm. So it took her a bit over four months to find her "true" form. :) There is already a website and the name has been copywrited © 2009 Niall Harbison and Contrast. Twecipe is a conjunct of the words Tweet and Recipe, hence Twecipe, TWEet + rECIPE. One could derive a different spelling "twicipe" from TWItter + reCIPE. I have seen both spellings on Twitter and the internet. As of today, twecipe seems to have won the race.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Great July Recipe Tweets from Martha Stewart

Bruschetta - Toss 1/2 lb cherry tomato halved W/ 1/2C mixed fresh herbs 2t EVO S+P Serve grilled with bread.
10:40 am Jul 31st from HootSuite

Spoon Mash Spuds - Toss 1lb sm red spuds w/ 1t EVO 1t salt roast 40min @425F into bowl smash w/spoon +3T butter milk S+P.
10:05 AM Jul 30th from HootSuite

Chive Vinaigrette - Mix 1/4C minced chives 2T wht wine vin 1T Dijon 1T water 2t honey S+P whisk in 4t EVO. Toss with mixed salad and enjoy!
9:30 AM Jul 29th from HootSuite

cuke soup puree 3 cukes peeled + seeded + 1.5C ygurt & milk + 2T frsh dill + 1/2t grnd corinder + 1t lem J + 2t parsly + T mnt chill + srve
10:40 AM Jul 28th from HootSuite

CAREMELIZED CORN into pan 1T butter + 3C corn kernels +4 sliced shallots + 1/4t sugar s+p ~ cook + stir til corn lgt brown + 2T fresh thyme
10:25 AM Jul 27th from HootSuite

RACK OF LAMB rub 1 rack of lamb w/T balsamic vinegar + 2T evoil + 4 sprigs thyme ~ grill 5 min each side until 165F.
9:25 AM Jul 24th from HootSuite

ZESTED SUMMER BERRIES gently combine 2pt strawberries hulled and cut 1/2 + 1C raspberries + zest of 1 lemon & 1/2 orange
11:25 AM Jul 23rd from HootSuite

PICO de GALLO chop 4 tomato & 1/2C scallion & 3 jalapeño & 1 clove garlic & 1/2C coriander & 1t oregano + 1/4C lime juice + s+p mix
10:20 AM Jul 22nd from HootSuite

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PINA COLADA Fill blender 1/2 w/ice + C pineapple juice, ¼ C Coco Lopez (coconut cream), 1/3 C rum ~ blend til frothy.
10:25 AM Jul 21st from HootSuite

GUACAMOLE Mix juice 1 lime, 4t crushed garlic, 5 chop scallion, 1C chop cilantro, 1 mince jalapeño + 3 ripe avocado.
8:25 AM Jul 20th from HootSuite

TOMATO RED ONION BASIL SALAD slice 5 tomato .5" + 2 red onion thin drizzle 1/2C balsamic vinegar + 1/4ev oil s+p +basil leaves.
8:20 AM Jul 17th from HootSuite

Blueberry Crisp - Mix 3/4C Flour 1/2C Sugar 1/2t cinnamon 6T butter until crumbly sprinkle over 5C blueberries in baking dish 20 min 375F.
9:30 AM Jul 16th from HootSuite

Slaw - Combine 4C shredded cabbage julienned 1red+1yellow pepper 2T chop dill T dillseed 1/2C mayo S+P Serves 4.
11:30 AM Jul 15th from HootSuite

Crab Cakes - Mix T flour 2 egg lb crab 3 slicd scallin C frsh breadcrmbs T chop parsley&dill s+p melt 7T but/frm cakes cook 4min each side.
10:25 AM Jul 14th from HootSuite

Stewed Rhubard - Cut lb rhubarb 1/2" +3/4 C sug/simmer 15 min + T corriander &grated orange rind + 2T buttr serve w/creme fraiche
10:05 AM Jul 13th from HootSuite

Endive + Walnut salad - Slice endive .25" strips heat 3T walnut oil + toast 1/4C walnut pieces stir in 1.5T balsamic pour over endive/s+p
12:45 AM Jul 10th from HootSuite

Grill Leeks + Red Onions - Simmer 6 sm leeks w/2T but &1t salt & 1Cwater 10 min Grill leeks + 2 red onion quartered Brush w/herb buttr 5 min
11:40 AM Jul 9th from HootSuite

Grill Veal Chops - Mix 4T soft butt 1.5T Dijon 1T chop shallot & parsly & tarragn&chive 2 chops on hot grill/turn+brush w/herb but til done
10:35 AM Jul 8th from HootSuite

Vanilla Ice Cream Sambuca - Scoop Ice Crm into serving dishes pour 2T Sambuca over each serv. Dust w/instant espresso Serve w/amaretti
10:05 AM Jul 6th from HootSuite

EasyGarlicBread - SliceCrustyBread 1" Rub both sides w slicedgrlic cloves brush w/4T EvOil 350F/turn once till crispy also can be grilled
10:20 AM Jul 2nd from HootSuite

Tetou Aioli - Food process egg 6clv roastedgarlic lg pinch saffron 1/2t cayenne&salt slowly + 3/4C Evo until thick stir in 1/2C mash potato
11:51 AM Jul 1st from web

Follow Martha on Twitter yourself!

Martha Stewart's June Twecipes (or Twicipes)

Friday, July 24, 2009

Kohlrabi with Herbs and Cheese

The roadside stand up the road has fresh kohlrabi at the moment and it reminded me that I haven't eaten kohlrabi since I have moved to the States. I called my mom and asked her for the recipe she always used on her garden home grown kohlrabi.

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1.5 lb kohlrabi with leaves
1.5 tbsp butter
1-1.5 tbsp flour
1 cup water
salt
pepper
nutmeg
1/2 cup cream
4 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Peel the kohlrabi thinly, cut in thin slices or grate it and boil in hot lightly salted water for 15 to 20 minutes. Save the 1 cup of the cooking water.
Saute flour in hot butter, add the cooking water and season.
Pour cream slowly to the roux and add 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese and parsley. Bring to a quick boil.
Add the kohlrabi and pour into a greased gratin dish. Sprinkle the 2 remaining tbsp Parmesan cheese on top. Put the casserole in the oven for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Garnish with a few kohlrabi leaves.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

OpenOffice 3 - The Free Alternative to MS-Office


Have you heard of OpenOffice 3? OpenOffice 3 is a software suite comparable to Microsoft's Office. It has evolved tremendously during the past few years to where it can easily keep up with commercial software packages. Below are three compelling reasons why you should try it for yourself:

Great Software
OpenOffice.org 3 is the result of over twenty years' software engineering. Designed from the start as a single piece of software, it has a consistency other products cannot match. A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: OpenOffice.org 3 does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to. Oh, and a nice side feature... OpenOffice.org 3 let's you save your document as a .pdf file without having to purchase an additional extension. Mac and Linux users don't worry, OpenOffice.org 3 comes in many flavors: Windows, Linux RPM, Linux DEB, Linux 64 RPM, Linux 64 DEB, Linux IA64 RPM, Solaris x86, Solaris SPARC, Mac OSX Intel and Mac OSX PPC.

Easy to use
OpenOffice.org 3 is easy to learn, and if you're already using another office software package, you'll take to OpenOffice.org 3 straight away. The world-wide native-language community means that OpenOffice.org 3 is probably available and supported in your own language. And if you already have files from another office package - OpenOffice.org 3 will probably read them with no difficulty.

...and it's free!
Best of all, OpenOffice.org 3 can be downloaded and used entirely free of any licence fees. OpenOffice.org 3 is released under the LGPL licence. This means you may use it for any purpose - domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees - anyone you like.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Book Lovers Beware... A Bargain Might Bite!

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Do you love to read? Of course, the most inexpensive way to get your hands on books is still visiting your local library.
However, if you are like me and always in need of books for gifts www.bookcloseouts.com is for you. I have many toddler aged nephews and nieces and books are one of my favorite gifts. They have a great selection of educational children books. I also buy arts and crafts and cooking books for a fraction of the original price. They make for a fantastic give-away for my small business.
For our wedding, I purchased 50 copies of a travel guide which featured our wedding location and added them to our wedding invitations. All books are at least 50% discounted. Some of the books are marked down 90%.
My philosophy always is, why pay full price if you can get it for half? And by the end of the day, nobody knows what you actually paid.


BookCloseouts.com – Books at Blowout Prices

Monday, July 20, 2009

New Jersey Blueberry Bunch



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I guess I have been in a cooking mood lately because I have mostly been blogging recipes... I have a couple of themes already in my mind but I guess the beautiful weather inspires me to eat.
The blueberry is New Jersey's official state fruit even though Maine is the leader of lowbush blueberry production in the United States and Michigan is the leader in highbush production. Go figure.

This is a recipe my grand mother always used to make with cherries but it can be beautifully adapted to blueberries. It cooks quickly (about 15 minutes).

2 lb blueberries
1 dash salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp butter

Mix blueberries, salt and sugar. Let the juice develop by simmering with low heat in a covered pot. Knead butter and flour together and add to the blueberries while stirring constantly, boil briefly.

Serve while still warm with Spaetzle (Tradtional German Egg Noodles)!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Basic 1/2 Whole Wheat Bread -- No Perservatives Added!



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Indulge yourself with the invigorating scent of freshly baked bread! Sure, it may not be as cheap as some of the 99 cent wonder breads available in your local grocery store but definitely more inexpensive than freshly baked partisan bread.
The nicest side benefit may very well be that you know at least the ingredients that you added... and guess what, you can even read them out loud without twisting your tongue in some chemical "kauderwelsch."

I started making my own bread when my husband gave me a breadmaker for Christmas. Ever since I have been baking religiously once a week. I don't like stale bread so when the bread is done, I place it on a cooling rack and let it sit for an hour. Then I sliced it, put it into a large ZipLoc bag and put it in the freezer. As the week goes by my family takes the slices of bread they need out of the freezer and quickly defrost them for 40 seconds in the microwave. Voila, always crispy, fresh home-baked bread at hand.

Basic 1/2 Whole Wheat Bread (Makes a 2 lb. loaf)

Use the basic bread setting (approximately 3 hours)
1.5 cups warm water
2 table spoons olive oil
2 cups whole wheat white flour
2 cups white unbleached flour
1.5 teaspoon salt
2.5 teaspoon active dry yeast

For immediate baking:
Add all ingredients as listed above, choose the basic bread setting (approximately 3 hours) and turn on the machine.

For timed baking:
Add all the liquid ingredients and the salt. Then add the flour, and at the end add the active dry yeast. Make sure that the yeast doesn't come into contact with the salt because this will cause the yeast to start reacting immediately.

Of course, I can never help it... I always have to cut off one of the ends immediately and spread butter with honey on the warm bread as soon as it comes out of the breadmaker. Delicious!

Tip:
If you are not scared you can obtain a breadmaker very inexpensively four a couple of dollars from your local 2nd hand store. Just clean it very thoroughly.

No More Mondays!



I woke up this morning and realized, that tomorrow will be Monday yet again. :( Then I remembered that I recently read No More Mondays: Fire Yourself -- and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work by Dan Miller and the sunshine and hope came back to my heart.

Ever since I have discovered Dan Miller and his work, I've been a follower and listener to his radio show.

The old traditional work place is disappearing. Over are the days where a Big Brother company took care of you. This book is a true encouragement of becoming who we are and actually enjoying everything we do.

All his work is a great and inspiring read and it is helping me setting up my own business on the side so I can hopefully move away from my day job soon and work from home full-time. You can sign up for his weekly newsletter and be informed about his activities and his new topics during his podcast radio show. Anybody can submit questions. In fact, in this weeks newsletter Dan Miller made a proposition. He recently purchased 5000 copies of the Spanish edition of 48 Days to the Work You Love and he is looking for new ways of thinking to sell those 5000 books with a profit. For more information check his blog http://48daysblog.wordpress.com/

Additional Dan Miller resources can be found at http://www.48days.net/ which was born out of his concern that people would talk about new ideas and opportunities – and yet he would see them two years later and nothing had changed in their lives.

Have a happy and enlightening day!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Arugula, Tomatoes, Goat Cheese and Rotini Pasta






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During these hot, humid and summery days we have a tendency of eating lighter. Living in Southern New Jersey I buy all my produce during the summer months from road side stands. There is nothing more tastier, than eating corn or a salad that was just cut earlier the same day.

Here is a quick recipe that combines all ingredients of the summer in one dish. It's as nice for the eyes as for the stomach:

Aruguala, Tomatoes, Goat Cheese and Rotini Pasta
Serves 4
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Total Cooking Time: 25 minutes

2 clothes minced garlic (remove greenish core before mincing)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated sea salt
5 1/2 ounces crumbled creamy goat cheese (or feta cheese)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 bushel arugula
2 tomatoes
1 package multi-grain rotini pasta (14.5 oz)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Wash, drain, chop arugula coarsely, cut the tomatoes into small pieces and add to bowl.
Cook pasta al dente in lightly salted water (10-12 min.). Drain, add, toss everything. Serve immediately.

In my picture you'll see the dish with penne. I use whole-grain pasta when I cook, it's more filling. Personally, I prefer rotini (spirals) but I didn't have any in the house...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Make Your Own Salad Dressing



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Instead of buying these salad dressing that don't even taste that great, how about making your own? I also recommend buying a full salad head rather than the pre-prepared stuff. You probably get three times the amount for half the price.

First wash the salad very carefully, drain well and cut it into bite seize pieces. Add sliced tomatoes and whatever else you have kicking around. I usually make the dressing directly into the salad bowl.

Here is a simple recipe for Italian dressing:

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 pinch salt
1 pinch freshly grated pepper
1 pinch Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk all ingredients together for a couple of minutes.
Add the salad and tomatoes and toss.