1-3 potatoes, diced
eggs
dill
cinnamon
tabasco® green jalapeño sauce
sea salt
white pepper
2-6 tablespoons water
1-3 tablespoons butter
cooking spray
skillet

Start by heating your skillet on medium-low. Once that is heated, put in about a tablespoon of butter per potato. Once the butter is melted add your potatoes. Now you can have some fun. You want to add the green tabasco sauce, as much as you like, dill and cinnamon. I cooked 3 potatoes and added about 1½ tablespoons of tabasco. Sascha likes extra dill so I shake on lots of it. Probably about 1 tablespoon. I add just a dash of cinnamon, which was less than ¼ teaspoon. Let the potatoes cook, stir them occasionally. Here’s a little tip. When some of them start to get a bit of a golden crust you want to add your water. It’s about 2 tablespoons per potato. The water will help soften the potato and evaporate well before they are done cooking, it helps to speed up the cooking time as well. Once the water is evaporated you can turn the heat up to medium to let the potatoes brown. Once they’re done divide them up and plate them.

I use the same skillet to cook my eggs which I like to do over easy, so the yolks are runny but the whites are done. Reduce the heat to medium low and let the skillet cool down for a min then add your egg(s). I let them cook on a lower heat so the egg whites set but they don’t burn. Once the white is mostly set I spray the top with a spritz of cooking spray and flip them over. Let them set for just a min so the yolk doesn’t set and then slide them onto the potatoes. Add a dash of sea salt and ground white pepper and voila!

Credit to this goes to Jamie, Kai’s mom. She showed me how to do this when Fumiko was born.

1 whole chicken
¼ cube butter, softened
garlic salt*
paprika
mrs. dash
smoked spanish paprika
aluminum foil
baking sheet

Preheat your oven to 420°. Cover your baking sheet with aluminum foil. So what you want to do is take some heavy kitchen sheers and cut the spine out of the chicken. Rinse it off and pat dry with paper towels. Now you want to take part of your butter and rub it all over the under side of the chicken. Now sprinkle your seasonings on liberally. I like to sprinkle on the mrs. dash, smoked spanish paprika, paprika and garlic salt in that order. Now you want to lay your chicken on the baking sheet with the seasoned under side down. Now you can butter and season the other side of the chicken. See the picture below on how it should be layed out on the baking sheet.

Bake miss chicken for 1 hour at 420°. You shall have a juice mouthwatering chicken with crisp skin. SO delish. Om nom nom. You can change the seasonings up a bit, but everyone loves this combination so that is what I always use. We eat it over Japanese rice.

* I use the garlic salt from Costco. It’s made with natural sea salt and doesn’t have any junk in it.

1⅓ cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 eggs, separated
½ cup butter, melted
1¾ cups milk

These are seriously yummy waffles. I was using a recipe previously that used oil instead of butter and didn’t whip the eggs. It made waffles so dense it was crazy. These are light and crisp on the outside. Soooo tasty. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Separate the eggs, adding the yolks to the dry ingredient mixture, and placing the whites in a small mixing bowl. Beat whites until moderately stiff; set aside. Add milk and melted butter to dry ingredient mixture and blend. Fold stiff egg whites into mixture. Ladle mixture into hot waffle iron and bake. I use a ? measuring cup to measure the batter. It seems to be the perfect amount for our waffle iron. I let the waffles cook for 5 minutes. They come out perfect!

Cookies:
¾ cup vegetable shortening
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt

Icing:
¼ cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
½ – 1½ tablespoon Almond extract (depends on how strong of an almond flavour you want)
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar
colored crystal sugar (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt together (I use a whisk) and gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Shape dough into 1-1/2″ balls. I just rolled some dough around in my hand until it was round. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. I used parchment paper and actually sprayed a little sunflower oil on it. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool after 2 minutes.

Icing/Decorating:
In a small bowl, combine the milk, butter, vanilla and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Dip the cooled cookies into the icing. Sprinkle with colored sugars if desired. Place on waxed paper until icing is set.

1½ teaspoon ginger root, chopped
¼-½ cup celery, chopped
¼-½ cup onion, chopped
¼ cup carrot, chopped
½ tamari or soy sauce
1 cup peanut oil or sesame oil
½ cup white or rice vinegar

I use ½ cup celery and onion if I’m using unrefined sesame oil. For some reason it needs it. I use ¼ with the peanut oil. I also use one of those little nutmeg type graters for the ginger and carrot, it works better and leaves the dressing smoother! I also use tamari sauce instead of soy sauce, because it’s less salty and tastes better. Just add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. It separates, as you can see in the photo, so make sure you shake it before using.

I love this dressing. There’s a little sushi place in Michigan that makes my most favourite sushi roll ever, they also have the most amazing ginger dressing! Last time I was there they gave me the list of ingredients that were in it, so I played with the quantities until it tasted the same. So hopefully you enjoy it as well!

1 lb ground Turkey
2 green Bell Peppers, chopped
½ Vidalia Onion, chopped
2-28 oz cans diced Tomatoes
2-15 oz cans petite diced Tomatoes
27 oz can Kidney Beans
15 oz can Black Beans
15 oz can Pinto Beans
15 oz can Garbanzo Beans
27 oz Water
2.5 oz jar Penzey’s Original Chili Seasoning
Shredded Cheese for garnish!
a giant pot & a skillet

First off, I love using Penzey’s spices. Their chili seasoning has amazing flavour! Now, first cook up the ground turkey, sprinkle a little bit of the chili seasoning on it. While that is cooking you can begin adding your tomatoes, onion, bell peppers, and beans to your pot! Save the 27 oz can to add one can of water to the pot. I like a variety of beans and flavour in my chili, so that’s why I have 4 different beans in the mix. Once the turkey is done cooking, add it to the pot. Now the fun part. I like alot of flavour as I said before, so I use alot of the chili seasoning, especially with such a large amount of chili. I use pretty much almost all of the 2.5 oz jar of chili seasoning. There’s maybe ½ an inch left at the bottom. I cook this on med to med-high heat, about a 6 for those with numbers on the dials, for about 30 min, then I turn the heat down to lowish or in between 3-4 for about 2-3 hours. After about 2-3 hours, I take it off the heat, let it cool then put it in the fridge overnight. Keep in mind you’ll want to let the chili set over night after it’s done cooking, this allows the flavour of the seasoning to soak into the beans. Trust me, it always tastes better the next day! It’s a super easy way to have yummy chili. If you want more meat, less beans by all means add more meat. I’m not a huge meat eater, so I prefer less.

I made this concoction for sleep, because I was having a very hard time sleeping. It worked great for me, not only for sleep but for menstrual cramping. It’s one of well it’s pretty much the only thing that eased up my cramping. Other women have used it and found it helped their menstrual cramping a great deal. Some don’t find it too tasty, but it’s not bad.

1 teaspoon Chamomile Flowers
1 teaspoon Spearmint Leaf
½ teaspoon Hops Flowers
½ teaspoon Lemon Balm Leaf (Melissa)
¼ teaspoon Life Everlasting Flowers (Helichrysum)
¼ teaspoon Skullcap Herb

Put all the ingredients in a mesh tea ball, and let it steep in the coffee pot for about 20 min. It’s best if you drink it warm.
All the herbs I use for my teas can be purchased from Frontier Co-Op. That’s who we get all of our bulk herbs from.

This is yummy hot or iced! It’s one of my most favourite tea concoctions. And I have lots! This is one of the teas that Sascha really likes. it’s great because it keeps him away from fruit juices or worse, sodas. Ick. So this is a great one for kids!

1 teaspoon dried Hibiscus Flowers
1 teaspoon dried Rosehips
3-5 green Cardamon pods
10-12 whole Black Peppercorns
1-2 pinches Cinnamon powder -OR-
1 small piece of Cinnamon Stick

Put all the ingredients in a mesh tea ball. I don’t have a teapot, so I use my coffee pot instead. I just put the tea ball in the coffee pot and let the water run through and brew for about 20 mins. This is a very tangy tea! I use agave nectar to sweeten my teas. This tea is tastey hot or iced. I made some for Kim while she was here and she loved it. Agave Nectar is a wonderful alternative to sugar, or other sugar free sweeteners. it’s very low on the glycemic index. It’s safe for diabetics. And it tastes like liquid sugar, so there are no funny after tastes! And best of all it’s all natural and there are no side effects! Oh! It won’t make your kids hyper either.

A Crock Pot
6 Red & Orange Bell Peppers, tops cut off and seeds out
1-2 lbs. Ground Buffalo, or Beef & Turkey
4-6 Fresh Roma Tomatoes
2 12oz. cans Tomato Paste
13oz. Crushed Tomatoes
1-2 packets Beefy Lipton Onion Soup Mix
2 Teaspoons Paprika or Cayenne
4 large cloves of fresh Garlic
½ of a fresh Onion Sliced and sautéed
2 Eggs
½-1 cup of Japanese sweet rice
1-2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2-3 teaspoons powdered Beef Broth
Basil, fresh or dried

1.) You can easily mix this by hand, but I prefer to use a food processor. Cut up one of the tomatoes, throw it in the food processor, add the 4 cloves of garlic, beefy lipton onion soup mix, 1 teaspoon of paprika/cayenne, 2 eggs, rice, worcestershire sauce and mix it up. After this is thoroughly mixed begin adding your meat. I normally use a mix of 1 pound lean beef and 1 pound turkey, but I sometimes use just ground buffalo. Once it’s all mixed up set it aside. By now you should have your onion sautéed. I add a few pieces of onion to the bottom of each bell pepper, then stuff the rest with the meat, it’s okay if you over stuff them. You’ll most likely have some meat left over unless you’ve decided to do a few more bell peppers. I usually make the left over meat into a ball and put it in the middle of the peppers. Sascha doesn’t like bell peppers much. Once all the peppers are stuffed place them in your crock pot.

2.) Now that you’re done with the meat, and have washed out your food processor, you can start the sauce! I personally like a thick sauce that cooks up nice, if you prefer a thinner sauce add more fresh tomatoes. Cut your remaining roma tomatoes and put them in the food processor, add both cans of tomato paste, the crushed tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of paprika/cayenne, powdered beef broth and basil. Mix this up until you have a consistency you’re happy with.

3.) Spoon the sauce over the peppers, spoon any extra sauce around them. Cover and set your time! Normally I cook them for around 4-5 hours on high depending on how many I am cooking. If for some reason I need to cook them over night I usually put them on low just before I go to bed, then turn off the crock pot in the morning when I wake up. I find that cooking them for a longer period of time on low, makes the flavour much better.

*Pictures to come later!