Sweet Potato Ginger Soup
So I have another great recipe from my wonderful and favorite Scotsman Martin. I just have to say that Martin’s wife is one lucky lady to a have husband that can throw down like he can 
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Last week while chatting with Martin like I do almost everyday, he said that he planning on cooking Sweet Potato Ginger Soup for dinner, which I replied yummy send the recipe. Now I would like to share this recipe with you that I think will compliment those cold evenings we’ve been having lately …
Sweet Potato Ginger Soup
Ingredients
2 Carrots
2 Medium Onions
2 Sticks of Celery
2 Cloves of Garlic
800g of Sweet Potato
1 Good thumb sized piece of fresh Root Ginger
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 Chicken Stock Cubes
Salt and Pepper
Peel and chop carrots,celery,onions,ginger, sweet potato and garlic roughly.
Dissolve the stock cubes in 1.8 liters of boiling water. Stir until stock cubes are completely dissolved. Add stock to vegetables and give a good stir.
Bring to boil and let simmer for 10-15 minutes till sweet potato is cooked.
Use a hand blender or liquidizer and pulse soup until smooth.
Season to taste and serve.
…Mango Coconut Cheesecake – A Yummy Holiday Desert From My Scotish Friend
Right before the holidays I made myself a new friend all the way from Scotland. It’s amazing what mobile technology is cable of these days. Martin and I started chatting (and not the naughty kind ) about a common love we have for food or more so, the cooking of food. We also have a tendency of cracking daily jokes with each other … This holiday season I did not do very much cooking I must say and since most of it was spent with just Ms. Fox and myself sometimes a quick meal was in order. Nutritious meals but small and simple.
When Martin told me he made a mango coconut cheesecake for his wonderful family Christmas dinner I said no way!!!
Not only was I impressed but I was also blown away.
I begged him to send this recipe and so now I would love to share this with you my wonderful readers.
Mango Coconut Cheesecake
INGREDIENTS
250g Graham Cookiess
120g Butter
2.5fl oz Coconut Milk
10-12 Saffron Strands
500g Coconut Yogurt
60g Fine Sugar
3 Cans Mango Slices
2 X 15g Gelatine Powder
Grated Chocolate For Topping
Heat milk and add crushed saffron then set aside to infuse.
Crush graham cookies by hand or in a mixer.
Melt butter then mix together.
Coat a 9 inch cake tin (make sure it one with a removable bottom) with vegetable oil and press cookies into the base.
Place in fridge for 10 minutes to cool.
Mix yogurt, sugar and milk together.
Place 3 tablespoons of water in a teacup, sprinkle in 1 packet of gelatine and leave to become spongy. Stand the cup in a saucepan of simmering water until the gelatine is runny and clear. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
Drain the cans of mango, chopping up only one of the cans. Puree the rest of the mango and set aside.
Add to the yogurt mixture to the chopped mango and whisk the gelatine into the mix.
Pour over the cookie crushed base in the baking pan. Place in fridge for 1hr or until set.
Mix 2nd sachet of gelatine as you did above and combine with the pureed mango mixture. Pour onto cheesecake filling.
Sprinkle chocolate on top and place the cheesecake into the fidge for 2-3 hours until set!
I would really like to thank Martin Chalmers for this amazing Mango Coconut Cheesecake recipe. I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I have!!!
Cooking Healthy Meals For One
Cooking healthy meals for one can be considered a chore that most single people prefer not to attempt. Who the hell wants to cook for themselves when you can get something to go much quicker without the clean up. Plus, I hate doing dishes! Yes, I know they can be put into the dishwasher that does all the work for you but I still hate doing dishes.
I am one of those people that really don’t care to eat out often because I love the taste of my own cooking and quite honestly I haven’t found a restaurant that makes me want to eat at their establishment on a regular basis. Granted I live in Las Vegas the city of numerous amazing restaurants but I still prefer my own cooking.
I keep promising to do some video and find myself not doing it. Why? Lord alone knows …
Now I must say even though I have been single for most of this year I really haven’t cooked very much at all. With all the traveling I did this year I did end up eating out more than I cared too and sometimes it was food I had no right putting in my body but did anyways.
So, since I’ve been home for 6 weeks now from my last trip of the year it was hard getting back into the groove of things but found that I really just wanted to cook my own meals. I have a great peppered shrimp recipe that I can’t wait to share with you, my spinach dish that makes your mouth water or a new style of mash potatoes that had me eating it for 3 days.
But today I want to share my cornish hen recipe with you. It smells so good for it’s cooking in the oven while I write my blog … I’m so hungry …
Stacy’s Cornish Hen Cassarole
Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees
1 Cornish Hen
1 cup carrots (cut in 1 inch pieces)
1 cup zucchini
1 cup potatoes (cut in 1 inch pieces)
1 cup of onions (cut in 1 inch pieces)
1/2 cup of Chicken or Vegetable Stock
1/4 up of Green Seasoning for your Cornish hen
1/2 Lemon Or Lime
6 tbsp of butter (diced)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Prepare your cornish hen by taking it out of the bag and rinsing it with cold water, washing away any juices from being in the bag. Then place cornish hen in a bowl adding 1/2 a lemon or lime, green seasoning and 1/2 tsp of seasoning salts. Stir and massage the seasoning into your cornish hen.
In your baking dish pour 1 tsp of olive oil and spread around the dish. Add your cornish hen in the middle and your potatoes, carrots, zucchini and onions around the hen. Place some cubes of butter on the top of the hen and veggie. Cover and place in over to bake for 45 mins to 1hr.
OK so I just pulled it out of the oven and the smell is just heavenly …
I hope you enjoy cooking healthy meals for one as much as I am right now lol…. Bye….
Giving Thanks On Turkey Day…
I would like to give thanks to all of you who have support me and enjoyed my cooking as well as my recipes. Unfortunately, this year I am not cooking Thanksgiving Dinner that have been invited to eat at one of my dear friend’s home. It is bitter sweet for me since I have been cooking amazing Thanksgiving dinners for the past couple of years with the ex-boyfriend and his daughter. I wish them and their families a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I am very thankful for those memories and even more thankful for the path that I am now on and the people that have entered my life 
… So this Thanksgiving, I would like to give thanks to all the wonderful memories of the past but also feel tremendous excitement for all the memories yet to come. Of friends and family laughing, joking and enjoying each other. Our happy memories of eating delicious meals, licking our fingers, feeling that warmth rise within us, loving each other. Those are things that I am truly thankful for!
It’s time to put all the negative thoughts to rest for they can only provide additional negativity.
Share a favorite recipe with some you haven’t spoken to in while or better yet make it for them and send on. For as you know when we cook something we love, that love is embedded within that meal which affects the heart and soul of the person eating it. What better way to give thanks? I can’t think of any …
So, my wonderful friends and readers I would love to give thanks to all of you that have entered my life this year. Helping me grow, blossom, stay strong and fulfill a path that I was destined for. I thank you and I love for it!
Stacy Makdad
For The Love Of Butter And Julia – A Love Story
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a matinee movie with my good friend Donna Fox who is staying with me while her roommate recovers from the swine flu. So we decided that we would take in the flick Julie and Julia (the story about Julia Child told through the life of Julia Powell), since we both have the same ideals when it comes to the love of cooking, food and sharing it with others. But most of all our love for butter which we both admitted to putting on almost everything.
Julia Child was an amazing human being with a personality that I find very close to my own. It seems we share a great deal in common and I feel closer to her than I ever did growing up. I did have the opportunity of watching her cooking show when a television was present which for me growing up in Trinidad was a difficult thing but her presence did have a huge effect on my own style of cooking. One of the things that stuck with me the times I did get the opportunity to watch her was the comment “everything taste better with butter”. Hell yes it does!
When growing up everyone I knew cooked with oil, I always used butter. I would stew my chicken using butter and sugar instead of oil plus adding a tablespoon or so at the end for a beautiful creamy taste… mmmmm. Or, in my split peas soup, boil corn, on top my baked meats or fish, in my peas or bean, yes in almost everything. Funny thing was that no one ever figured out why I became the best cook in the family… simply using butter, usually hardly any sodium and using herbs growing right in my yard. They all figured that butter was the enemy and it would make you fat. UNTRUE!!!
With the movie Julie and Julia what even striked me as amazing is the love and patience that their spouses provided, something I pray to have from the man I spend the rest of my life with. I could only imagine the things I could cook up supported by the amazing love of my man. For love is the essence of our cooking creativity. Love allows us to bring smiles, joy and happiness to faces of the people that eat our meals.
When love is lacking in our world our appetites and our hearts are in turmoil preventing us from experiencing that warmth that courses through your body. I guess that is why it had been so hard for me to really cook and share this year with you. I had a hard time connecting with love. Now, even though there isn’t a man present as of yet , I have found my passion again and my love for cooking is truly infinite.
So, the movie is ending and I look over at Donna and see the tears in her eyes while wiping the tears from mine with my butter plastered napkin and we both started laughing. We left the movie theater and headed to the supermarket where we picked up produce for Donna’s Chicken Cacciatore. We both sat in my living room later on that evening eating a wonderful, delicious dinner, drinking a glass of cab watching the Wedding Singer. A splendid end to a spectacular day!
Today I ask that you share your love with someone special. Cook for your son, daughter, spouse, partner, friend, sister, brother, mother, father or even a stranger a meal infused with your love. Believe me they will feel it and pass it on to others.
I want to bring back the love and togetherness! Will you join me doing so?
Willie Crawford Launches Great Cookbook Giveaway Today!
It’s been a very busy weekend for me which is good since it keeps me from getting into trouble. The more idle I am the more trouble I get myself into sometimes, so I’ve keep myself busy. I wanted to make sure with all the changes I made to my site that in was consistant with everything else, like my sales page for my cook book, my email, etc. I love having uniformity plus it helps with branding …
But more than anything I wanted to be ready for Willie Crawford’s “Great Cookbook Giveaway”. It starts today so I suggest you check it out for all the great cooking idea’s it will provide.
Willie has been one of the inspirations for me doing this site and spreading the word about how I feel about food and cooking, plus sharing it with the people you care about. And, as you know my goal in this is to really bring people together through the joy of cooking and sharing.
You know as a young 20 year old in Trinidad I had a passion for feeding kids and so every Sunday I would cook these huge meals, macaroni pie, callaloo, potato salads, garden salads, my special rice, red beans, sliced beets and dasheen along with some type of meat or fish. What a spread right?
So I would invite all the kids that parents were either on drugs or gone all the time for a big plate of food or I would pack them containers and take it to them. The funny thing is, not only the kids would come by but some of the adults as well and my house was know as the place to go to for the best meal in town … Let tell you they were pretty disappointed when they heard I was leaving to come to the US.
Willie is sharing some amazing recipes with you for free so I hope you go forth and share it with others. Cook and share the love!
I’m Back And Ready To Cook Up Storm
As you can see, I totally neglected you and my blog this year. More than anything I’m sorry I neglected you! I hope you are not mad at me but I’ve have had a very busy and life changing year. With great lost and sadness but gaining tons of achievements and goals. I parted ways with the man I taught I was going to spend the rest of my life with due to alcoholism. I almost lost a sister to cocaine, and my favorite aunt is dying of cancer. Plus, this year I really didn’t cook many meals for myself much less my friends. I spent a lot of time eating out. Mostly sushi …
The reason being is that I have a tendency of immersing myself either in my work or my head when my life seems to be falling around me. Most of the time I choose work! So, since January I have been working and traveling all across the country as well as overseas. I have travelled to 16 cites and 5 countries. Some of it work, most of it play (had to find a way to get rid of the anger and stress).
I will say my travels did provide me with the opportunity of experiencing some very delicious meals that totally allowed me to step away from what was going on in my head. I had the privilege of meeting some amazing people as well who were there for me when I was feeling down. But enough about all the sad stuff. Let’s talk about food!
In January I went on the Internet Marketer’s Cruise (so bloody amazing especially the food and it was my first cruise). The after the cruise I went to Trinidad and between the two gained a good 20 pounds. My Trinidadian friends and family had never seen me with that much weight . They never taught it was possible, but how could I resist the food after not being home for 6yrs. Really I had no choice …
Callaloo, boiled corn with coconut milk, roti, pelou, bake n shark and you know I could go on and on. Plus, a neighbour brought over a big bag of mangoes which I proceed to eat half the bag in one day! Then eating at some great restaurants throughout my numerous travels, mostly the local best.
So, after all my travels I’m re-inspired to cook now for YOU!
I want to share my wonderful joy of cooking and food with YOU. I hope that’s OK .
Happy Thanksgiving My Friends :-)…
I would just like to wish all of you a very wonderful Thanksgiving …
I do plan to cook a wonderful dinner with my well seasoned 20lbs turkey, a smoked turkey, roast garlic mashed potatoes, my cream corn recipe, homemade stuffing, collard greens with salted pork and coconut milk (requested by my other half), cranberry bread (my wonderful friend Rony recipe) along with her Grandmother’s cranberry mould, candied yams and pecan pie. Sounds delicious doesn’t it 
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YUMMY!!! Is all I have to say…. I will have some pictures for you to enjoy soon …
HAPPY THANKSGIVING YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE !!!!!!
Eating Raw :-)…
I love eating vegetable most of all I love eating the good kind of vegetables … I’m especially a big fan of the red ones like red cabbage (I sometimes fry this up in sesame oil, yum yum), red pepper (love to roast as well with olive oil), red onions (I put in almost everything) and oh, do I love beets … I just really love beets … I’m having one with dinner tonight …
I know quite a few of you love these veggies as well, so here is my “Red Slaw” recipe for you to enjoy….
Red Slaw
1cup red cabbage (finely grated)
1cup carrots (finely grated)
1/2 cup red onions (finely chopped)
1/2 cup beets (uncooked and finely shredded)
1/4 cup red peppers (finely chopped)
1 grain garlic finely diced
1 tablespoon cilantro finely chopped
1 stalk of chive finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup mayonnaise
pinch of grated ginger
salt and pepper to taste
Throw everything together in a bowl and mix well! Serve on your favorite sandwich, on the side of a good home cooked meal, by itself or whit anything you think it taste good with … Every time I make coleslaw it never last, it always the first thing to go …
Try it, share it and let me know what you think!
The Benefits Of Cooking With Herbs
Cooking with herbs is becoming more and more popular every day, and for a good reason. Herbs have practical value and serve a purpose. As far as I can remember herbs were always a big part of my family. They grew wildly in our yards and were used in almost every meal.
Cilantro (aka shadow benny) is one the most popular herb used along with garlic (my favorite . Garlic is used in just about every meal as well, I could not image cooking without it, plus the health benefits for cholesterol and blood pressure cannot be denied. Cilantro greatly increases our ability to clear up recurring infections, both viral and bacterial especially when eaten with omega-3 enriched foods such as nuts.
Here is a marinade that can be used with anything you so choose to use it with …
My Green Seasoning Marinade:
1 tablespoon of fresh Rosemary
¼ cup each of coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, chives, celery, thyme, basil and ginger
1 clove of garlic (separated and peeled)
1 small onion
½ of 1 small red pepper
½ of a habanero (lower half and optional)
Methods:
- Blend everything together in your food processor. Place in a jar or plastic container and store in your refrigerator until all used up …
When using with fish make sure to squeeze the juice of 1 lemon or lime, and it will intensify the flavors giving you a watering mouth taste …
You should also try creating your own variations to suit your taste buds and the recipe you are preparing. Find this marinade and many delicacious recipes in my cookbook ” Recipes From A Sweet Trini Girl“.
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Recipes From A Sweet Trini Girl Aren't You Tired Of Eating The Same Old Crap Everyday? I love to eat and I don't have an eating disorder :-)... I love good food and even more I love sharing it with good people, so I have decided that sharing some of my delicious recipes with you will make YOU want to share them with your friends and family. |