The perfect breakfast bun

Is ready in 10 minutes, just in time for your morning coffee.
Source: Improvised

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1 bun
- 1 slice of cheese (I use Jarlsberg)
- 1 tsp garlic butter (or regular butter)
- 1 egg

Directions:
1. See how to poach an egg in this post.
2. While your egg is cooking, which will take about 10 minutes total, cut the bun, spread with butter, place the cheese on one half and place both halves (cut side up) in an oven. Turn the oven on and set it to 350F. No need to preheat the oven.
3. When your egg is ready, take the bun out form the oven, place the egg over the cheese and enjoy with your morning coffee.

Afterthoughts:
It's simple, accessible, only takes 10 minutes to make, and is absolutely addictive. What's not to like? I think that's the definition of perfection.

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How to poach an egg

a story of lust and murder... the culprit: SRC
This week was supposed to be my detox week. I was all prepared to eat only fruit and veggies and then to celebrate my good behavior with the amazing cheesecake that I saw on my assigned SRC blog, Cooking with Chopin. I've been eying this cake ever since our last month's reveal, planning to make it anyway. And then imagine my joy when I saw that Cooking with Chopin was my assignment this month!

And all of a sudden, I get a reminder email that our SRC reveal was supposed to be this Monday, right in the middle of my detox. What a blow.... The cheesecake would most certainly kill any chance of a diet. So I looked for other recipes, and found this super cute poached egg, one more obsession of mine. I know that egg is not a vegetable, not even a fruit, but how many temptations can one resist in one day? It would be a small sin compared to a cheesecake. And I love poached eggs over green salads, which are healthy, right?

So I made the poached egg, but it was sooo good over that salad, that I had to have another one. This time I had my egg on a bun... My diet was painfully and steadily dying, and I could not see it suffer so much, so I ate a chocolate truffle, and officially finished off the detox.

That's the sad story of my poor diet. And I hold SRC responsible, because how can one be on a diet, staring at all this delicious food? ... and because it's easier to blame someone else than to take the responsibility yourself ;-P

Source: Cooking with Chopin

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1 egg

Directions: 
1. Fill a large saucepan with 4 inches of water and bring to a simmer (when bubbles are breaking the surface every few seconds.
2. When water is barely simmering, break 1 egg into a small bowl. (You can break it directly into the water, but putting it in a small bowl first eliminates the possibility of getting shells in the water.)
3. Gently tip the bowl, sliding the egg into water.
4. Cook until whites are set but yolks are soft, 3 to 4 minutes. (Cook 5-6 minutes for a firmer yolk.)
5. Using a slotted spoon, transfer eggs to paper towels, and drain briefly.

For green salad I used:
Romaine lettuce, dill, green onions, cucumbers and walnuts, drizzled with lemon juice and walnut oil (can use olive oil too) and sprinkled with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then top it all with your egg. I poached the egg for 4 minutes for softer yolk.

Afterthoughts:
- I also fry sunny side up eggs, but poaching is a healthier alternative, and fishing out the egg is very cute.
- Just in case you don't know yet, SRC, or the Secret Recipe Club is a group of over a hundred food bloggers, who are assigned a "secret" blog each months. Then they choose a recipe from that blog, make it and post it on their own blog on a given reveal day. Then there is a big party, where you hop from one blog to another and check what everyone's been cooking. Lots of fun! And terrible for your diet ;-) I want to thank Amanda, Jane and April for making it all possible!

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Cranberry Citrus Cookies

Perfect fall cookies with cranberries, pecans and a mild citrus flavor

Source: Vanderbilt Wife blog

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp orange zest (dried or fresh)
- 1 large egg
- 3 cups all-purpose or white whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 to 1-1/2 cups dried cranberries
Total: about 4 dozen cookies

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Cream butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy and combined. On low speed, mix in lemon juice, orange zest, and egg.
3. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add pecans and cranberries and fold to combine well.
4. Using a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. Let sit on cookie sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Afterthoughts:
- Delicious cookies, soft and moist and very simple to make.
- These cookies burn very quickly in the 375F oven, so watch them closely. The original recipe suggested 10-12 minutes baking, after about 11 minutes the cookies started to burn. Fortunately, this recipe makes quite a few batches, so I had enough "survivals" :-).
- The original recipe comes from a wonderful blog Vanderbilt Wife by Jessie. If you are not familiar with it yet, you should certainly visit. It has lots of great recipes, both savory and sweet. You will certainly find something to your liking. And as a bonus, Jessie also writes her thoughts about books she read, so you might find some food for thought there too :-).
- This was my SRC assignment. SRC, or the Secret Recipe Club is a group of over a hundred food bloggers, who are assigned a "secret" blog each months. Then they choose a recipe from that blog, make it and post it on their own blog on a given reveal day. Then there is a big party, where you hop from one blog to another and check what everyone's been cooking. Lots of fun! I want to thank Amanda, Jane and April for making it all possible!

This recipe is published on RecipeNewZ - your recipe sharing community:

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Baked Potato Skins

Comfort food...

Source: The Pajama Chef

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 3 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 3 large baking potatoes
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped green onion
- 2 pepperoni sausages or pieces bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- sour cream
- salt
- pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub potatoes and pat dry. Pierce holes in each potato and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake for 60-75 minutes or until cooked through. Let cool for at least 15 minutes [important!].
2. After potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice in half lengthwise. Use a steak knife to cut potato flesh away from the skin, leaving a thick layer of flesh next to skin so the skins do not fall apart. Use a spoon to scoop away about 65-70% of the potato. Save potato for mashed potatoes or a snack or breakfast… :)
3. Turn on the broiler in the oven. Place a cooling rack in a baking dish [or use a roaster with a rack].
4. Brush melted butter over the outside of the potato skin, season with salt and pepper and place on top of the rack. Broil for about 3-4 minutes or until outside skin is starting to get crispy. Remove from oven and use tongs to flip skins so that the flesh is visible. Brush inside with melted butter, and season with salt and pepper. Return to broiler for another 3-4 minutes, remove and then top with cheese and pepperoni pieces. Return [again!] to broiler for another 2-3 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and melted, watching carefully so it does not burn.
5. Serve with sour cream and green onions, and allow to cool for a minute or two before enjoying so you don’t burn your mouth.

Afterthoughts
- The only change I made to the original recipe was using pepperoni instead of bacon. Other than that, I followed all the instructions to a tee, which is not at all characteristic of me. The process ended up quite time consuming for such a “simple” dish, but the result was delicious. The potatoes were soft and perfectly baked with crispy skins. And the toppings are just meant for them, as we all know.
- This recipe is from The Pajama Chef. It’s a wonderful website with many more yummy recipes. Check it out and say hi to Sarah :-).
- This was my SRC assignment. SRC, or the Secret Recipe Club is a group of over a hundred food bloggers, who are assigned a "secret" blog each months. Then they choose a recipe from that blog, make it and post it on their own blog on a given reveal day. Then there is a big party, where you hop from one blog to another and check what everyone's been cooking. Lots of fun! I want to thank Amanda, Jane and April for making it all possible!

This recipe is published on http:RecipeNewZ.com:

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Mango Banana Smoothie

Wonderful, healthy and refreshing

Source: The Slow Roasted Italian

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1 banana, peeled
- 1 mango
- 1 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
- 1 tbsp honey
Total: 2 servings

Directions
Mix the ingredients in a blender and serve.

Afterthoughts
- This is a wonderful drink, refreshing and filling and is a dessert in itself.
- This recipe is from The Slow Roaster Italian blog, an amazing website, with lots and lots of great recipes. This was my SRC assignment (see below) and I had a very long list of potential recipes to try. But having too many choices often leads to anxiety and inability to choose, as proven in a variety of behavioral psychology studies (see an overview here). And that's what happened to me: I could not decide almost up until the reveal date, and then I just put together the simplest recipe from the blog. In fact, I did not even prepare it, it was my bf. I hope it's not considered cheating by SRC guidelines :-).
- And last but not least, a word about SRC - the Secret Recipe Club. It's a group of over a hundred food bloggers, who are assigned a "secret" blog each months. Then they choose a recipe from that blog, make it and post it on their own blog on a given reveal day. Then there is a big party, where you hop form one blog to another and check what everyone's been cooking. Lots of fun! I want to thank Amanda, Jane and April for making it all possible!

This recipe is published on http:RecipeNewZ.com:

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Whole Farro Wheat Bread

Dense, rich and earthy whole grain bread! Perfect with anything savory. I suppose it's also healthy, but that's not why I love it.

Source: Improvised, inspired by Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Dayand the German Seed Bread - Dreikernebrot

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 2 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 3 cups of whey (or water or buttermilk)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
- 3 cups of white flour
- 3 cups of dark rye flour
- 1 cup of ground oats (I grind rolled oats with Magic Bullet)
- 2 tbsp ground caraway seeds
- 1 cup whole Farro wheat
- 1 1/2 tbsp salt
Total: 2 loaves

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients, in whichever order you like (better not to put salt and yeast right after each other, salt tends to kill yeast). You can mix all the ingredients by hand or using a stand mixer, such as my beloved KitchenAid mixer. not using the mixer, it’s best to mix the ingredients in a large bowl with a lid (4 gallon ice cream bucket is perfect for this quantity).
2. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
3. Then transfer the dough to the refrigerator and refrigerate overnight or up to 5 days, to help the flavors develop.
4. On the baking day, line two 9 x 4 inch loaf pans with parchment paper (otherwise it will be very difficult to extract the bread from them).
5. With wet hands, to prevent the dough from sticking, divide the dough in half, shape leach half loosely into loaf shape and place into the baking pan. The dough is more like a cookie dough, rather than bread, it is not stretchy at all, but don’t worry, the bread will be dense and will not be falling apart.
6. Cover the pans with wet kitchen towels or thick wet paper towels and let them rise at room temperature for an hour. After an hour start preheating the oven to 450F. It should take about 30 more minutes.
7. After 90 minutes of rising, when your oven is hot the bread is ready to go in. It might have risen or might not have. Don’t worry, it should rise more in the oven. If you have a baking stone, cover the loaf pans with more parchment paper and place the baking stone on top. This way the loafs with be denser and squarer and your sandwiches will be more uniform. I think I saw this trick on a Julia Child’s show, but I am not sure.
8. Place the loaves with or without the stone on the them into the oven. Place a small bowl with about 1 cup of hot water in the oven to keep the moisture up. Close the oven door and bake for 45 minutes.
9. Be careful when removing the pans with the hot stone from the oven. Let the bread cool on wire racks to room temperature before slicing and eating.

Afterthoughts
- I absolutely love this bread. I bake 2 loaves, slice them and freeze them, and then I take out one or 2 slices at a time and heat them in a toaster.
- The good thing is that this bread is so thick that you can easily cut it into very thin slices, so it lasts very long and you eat less calories.
- This bread is perfect with anything savory. Some of my favorite combinations are: coconut oil (or butter) and Jarlsberg cheese, farmers’ cheese and smoked salmon with dill and green onions, with green salad and sunny side up egg, with lentil soup, etc.

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Mascarpone Peach Cake

Perfect summer cake: moist, not too sweet and simply beautiful. Can also be made with apricots or nectarines.

Source: Slightly adapted from Apricot Mascarpone Cake @ Apron and Sneakers

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 2 (out of 5 - the most difficult parts: beating eggs if you don’t have a stand mixer and slicing peaches ;-) )

Ingredients:
- 125 g all-purpose flour
- 125 g mascarpone cheese
- 2 eggs
- 75 g white sugar
- 2 medium peaches for the cake + 1 for garnish
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup icing sugar for dusting
- 2 tbsp rose petal (or other liquid jam)
- mint leaves for garnish
Total: one 8-inch cake

Directions
1. Beat eggs with sugar and salt until they double in volume and become light and fluffy. This is best done with stand mixer. In the meantime you can peel and finely chop 2 peaches.
2. In another bowl stir the mascarpone until it softens a little.
3. Add 1/4 of the beaten eggs into the mascarpone and mix to loosen the mascarpone. Then gently fold in the remaining eggs.
4. Add the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and mix in gently.
5. Gently mix in the diced peaches.
6. Pour the mixture into an 8 inch greased baking pan and bake at 350F for about an hour. After 30 minutes in the oven, cover the cake loosely with aluminum foil, so that the top does not burn.
7. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before removing it from the pan. Waiting for the cake to cool is also extremely difficult :-)
8. Remove the cake from the pan. Slice the remaining peach into thin slices and arrange them on top of the cake. Heat the jam in microwave for 20 seconds until it melts, and brush over the peaches. Sprinkle the cake with icing sugar and decorate with mint.

Afterthoughts:
- This cake tastes absolutely delicious, it’s packed with peaches, it’s very delicate and not too sweet, in one word: perfect!
- The original recipe on Apron and Sneakers used apricots. I am sure nectarines would also be great in this cake. The quantities mentioned here are ½ of the original quantities. In fact, I made 2 8-inch cakes, which is exactly equal volume-wise to one 11-inch cake. Pick your size :-).
- This cake was love of first site: I was looking for a dessert to make for a party, and I was looking for a recipe to use my homemade mascarpone, and then I saw this beautiful cake, orange and shiny (and I am always attracted to anything orange). So I knew I was meant to make this cake. And it turned out as good as it looked on Rowena’s photo, and even my photo turned out decent. So I even decided to post this.
- By the way, if you don’t know Rowena’s blog, you should certainly check it out. Not only does it have delicious recipes, you can also find equally mouth-watering photos of Italy. See for yourselves.

This recipe is published on http:RecipeNewZ.com: 

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Cherry Clafoutis and Blog Awards

Clafoutis = custard-like texture, great flavor, quick preparation, no butter and very few calories. The recipe and new winners of food blogging awards below....

Last year in early June I woke up one happy day to discover that a wonderful blogger, Giulietta, the author of Alterkitchen, had passed my way a whole collection of awards.

I was extremely honored, and to celebrate the occasion I immediately prepared Cherry clafoutis, just as it appeared in Giulietta's award-passing post. The clafoutis turned out delicious, even my picture turned out decent, and I was all ready to publish my own post and to announce the new recipient of the awards, when I ... got stuck. When you pass on the awards you are supposed to mention 7 things about yourself. I came up with 6, and simply could not think of anything for the 7th point.

So time went on, I had to publish other posts for cooking clubs I was a member of, and so it happened that my cherry clafoutis post remained in it's unborn draft stage. Days went by, summer became winter, winter spring, and a new summer came. And with a new cherry season I remembered Giulietta's delicious clafoutis and my unfinished post. So now with only a year's delay (what's a year in the grand scheme of things ;-) ) it's finally being resurrected.

And it so happens that I have the 7th thing to add to the list of things about me. So here is my list:

1. I really love berry picking.
2. I lived without a TV for 7-8 years, and it was pretty good. Now that I have one, my default channel is the food network – surprise!
3. I recently (now a year ago) saw my first grizzly bear from up close, and he/she was very cute. Do you know that bears eat up to 35000 calories per day? And then they sleep for half a year! I want to be a bear..
4. As a kid I hated zucchini and eggplants, and did not even bother to know which was which: why bother if I would not eat either? So I called them the green ones and the purple ones.
5. Then I liked a dish that I was served in a restaurant. I thought it was a mushroom dish that I had ordered but it turned out to be an on-the-house eggplant salad. That’s how I was converted to eating eggplants.
6. I just had my second flamenco class today (this was written a year ago ;-) )– fun! Should I now make paella to celebrate???
     And the 7th point that delayed this post for a year, drums rolling...

7. When I started food blogging I discovered that there are lots of wonderful communities and sites where bloggers can share recipes. My favorites were recipe galleries. Unfortunately, many of my posts were rejected due to the photo quality. I felt quite frustrated about that: why should publishing a post be one person's decision? Why not accept all recipes and let all the visitors choose which ones they like better? And then the more popular posts can get better positions to make browsing more enjoyable.
I could not find a site like that, so I decided to build one. And now it's live. It's called RecipeNewZ http://recipenewz.com. And you can see it for yourselves.

And now that I'm finally done with my 7 things (phew...), the fun part - passing on the awards!
Actually, choosing a handful of blogs to pass on the awards to is also a very difficult task: there are just way too many amazing food bloggers out there, and if I could have my way, I'd have a hundred blogs on the list. So to simplify the decision making, and because my life now revolves around RecipeNewZ, I decided to choose blogs that have shared some of their delicious recipes there.

And now without further ado, the awards go to:

1. Julie of Mommie Cooks - she has wonderful, simple and elegant family-style recipes. And she submitted the very first post to RecipeNewZ and made me very happy!
2. Violetta of Fun and Taste - she has beautiful and very originally presented Polish (and other) recipes. And she submitted recipe #1,000 to RecipeNewZ (in just a little over a month we have had more than 1,000 recipes).
3. Barbara of Barbara Bakes - as her blog title implies, Barbara is an amazing baker: if you are looking for breads, cakes, cookies, etc, look no further! But on top of that she has a great collection of main dishes, sandwiches and sides. Barbara was also one of our early contributors and she was the first to provide RecipeNewZ with user feedback, which we value very highly because we are in beta testing.
4. Nava of Nava-K Your Lifestyle Blog - in addition to delicious Malaysian recipes she also has posts on fashion, travel and entertainment. Nava has given us extensive feedback on user experience and thus helped with troubleshooting technical issues on the site, and we really appreciate that.
5. Ann of Thibeault's Table - posts great recipes for day-to-day cooking. She has another site too, where you can find her beautiful maple cutting boards. Ann was kind enough to mention RecipeNewZ on a forum, which was a very pleasant surprise and brought quite a few new users our way.
6. Nancy of Spicie Foodie - has a blog abounding with amazing food photography. In addition, she has great photography tutorials and she hosts a monthly YBR (Your Best Recipe) event, where everyone is invited to submit one's best recipe of the month. Nancy also mentioned RecipeNewZ in one of her photography tutorials during our very first days.
    And last, but not least:
7. Christi of Mom, What's For Dinner?- she publishes delicious gluten-free recipes that have been extremely popular on RecipeNewZ. Her Cheesy Cauliflower bread quickly became and still is the most popular recipe on the site, so far generating over two thousand clicks. But it does not stop there: Christi has submitted over 50 recipes and almost each and every one of them is a hit.

Thank you for reading so far. The winners are now invited to pass on the awards (but don't forget the 7 things :-) ). And we can move on to the delicious Cherry Clafoutis recipe from Giulietta!

Cherry Clafoutis

Taste: 5 (out of 5)

Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Source: Alterkitchen blog

Ingredients
- 600 g cherries, washed, stem removed (380 cal)
- 3 large eggs (210 cal)
- 100 g sugar (390 cal)
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (10 cal)
- 200 ml milk (100 cal)
- 2 tbsp Brandy, Kirsch o Rum (70 cal)
- 90 g all-purpose flour (330 cal)
- butter (to grease)
Total 16 individual 1 cup ramekins, 1490 cal, 95 cal

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Lightly butter and sprinkle with sugar a low edged cake mold or 16 individual low 1-cup ramekins.
2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and with sugar using an electric whisk, until mixture is fluffy and doubles its volume. Add the vanilla essence and flour, incorporating continue beating until incorporated. Then gradually add the milk and the liqueur.
3. Take cherries and arrange them evenly at the bottom of the cake mold or the ramekins; then pour the batter over them.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the clafoutis is soft and golden brown.
5. Remove the clafoutis from the oven, sprinkle it with sugar or powdered sugar and serve warm.

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Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Rosemary roasted potatoes - need I say more?

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: adapted from Grumpy's Honeybunch.

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1 lb Russet potatoes
- 2 stalks fresh rosemary
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
 Total: 4 servings

Directions:
1. Wash and cut potatoes into wedges.
2.  Coat with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped leaves from two stalks of fresh rosemary.
3. Cook on high power in microwave for 5 minutes.
4. Preheat over to 450F and roast for 20-30 minutes or until done.

Afterthoughts: 
- This is a perfect, simple and delicious recipe. If you love potatoes, you can't go wrong with it.
- This was my SRC assignment for May. I had visited the Shelby's Grumpy's Honeybunch blog before - it has lots of great recipes. Unfortunately, this month is just way way too busy for me, so I was looking for a very quick recipe, and I found it. And ti turned out yummy! Check out Grumpy's Honeybunch for many more goodies!
- And last but not least, a word about SRC - the Secret Recipe Club. It's a group of over a hundred food bloggers, who are assigned a "secret" blog each months. Then they choose a recipe from that blog, make it and post it on their own blog on a given reveal day. Then there is a big party, where you hop form one blog to another and check what everyone's been cooking. Lots of fun! I want to thank Amanda, Jane and April for making it all possible!

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Blackberry Orange Smoothie

Ready in seconds and perfect

This recipe is featured on RecipeNewZ

Source: Improvised

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup frozen blackberries
- 3/4 cup orange juice
Total: 1 serving

Directions:
- Process in a blender until smooth.

Afterthoughts:
- It's something I make all the time - refreshing, really easy, healthy and full of vitamins.

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