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A Tribute To My Heritage

I turned 40 on January 6 and wanted to do something special for myself so I decided to get a tattoo of the 7 symbols on my Latvian ring. Each day of the week has its own symbol and meaning. The tattoo is a reminder of my heritage and the meanings are special to me.
Here is a link to the meanings of the symbols: http://krikisjewelry.com/KrikisJewelryBellInfo.html

Mashed Cauliflower

The other night Bob and I made a turkey tenderloin and I wanted to do something different with the head of cauliflower we had. I remembered mashed cauliflower being all the rage when no-carb diets became popular so I made my own recipe, incorporating a few potatoes for a smoother texture. You would never know the main ingredient is cauliflower in this dish. Remember, I never really measure anything so you can adjust the recipe to suit your taste. Mashed Cauliflower 1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets 4 small Yukon gold potatoes, about golf-ball sized, scrubbed and cut in half 2 cloves garlic, peeled about a handful of fresh grated Parmesan cheese 2 TB butter salt (I used some truffle salt, yummy!) pepper In. A large stockpot, boil the cauliflower, potatoes and garlic until soft. Drain and add the rest of the ingredients into a food processor or mash by hand. This was delicious and I even took leftovers to work and I Never eat leftovers.

Spices, Cookies And My Apparently Inherited Need To Make Too Much

The other day I went to a local health foods store to purchase some spices. I can buy spices in bulk and only purchase what I need without having to spend a lot of money. I bought Cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamom, allspice, cloves, everything I needed to make a ras el hanout spice blend. I found a recipe here http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/raselhanout.html

Smelling all the wonderful spices made me think of Latvian pepper cookies, called Piparkukas which I looked up a recipe for. The recipes I came across and thought of being as authentic as possible all called for a large amount of ingredients. One pound of butter, 5 pounds of flour, one pound sugar, enormous amounts of ingredients. Every recipe for the cookies was the same with each having large amounts of ingredients, so I determined that making too much food is something that was passed down to me by my ancestors.
Here is a recipe for Piparkukas from ChristmasJoy.net:

Christmas Recipes from Latvia

Recipe Name: My Granny's Piparkukas

1 lb butter

16 oz dark Karo syrup; one bottle

16 oz molasses

1 lb brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp cloves

2 tsp coriander

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp ginger

5 lbs flour; Wondra brand

4 egg yolks

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

Place butter, Karo syrup, and 1/2 the sugars in a large pot. Heat to boiling. When it starts boiling, add the ground spices. Remove from heat.

Gradually add 1/2 the flour, stirring constantly to avoid lumping. Continue stirring until the mixture no longer sticks to the sides of the pot. Let cool until cool enough to touch.

Beat the egg yolks and the remaining sugar together slightly. Dissolve the baking powder and baking soda in about 1 Tbsp water. Add the egg yolks and sugar to the batter. Add the baking powder and baking soda to the batter. Gradually add the remaining flour, and knead the batter dough until it is smooth, shiny and hard.

Roll the dough out (in portions) to a thickness of 1/16". Cut out the cookie shapes, place on a cookie par, and bake in a 350 degree F oven for about 10 minutes. Watch carefully - they burn easily.

Baked cookies are lightly brown, crisp, crumbly, piquant, very tasty. These are the favourite cookies in our family for Christmas. This kind of cookie (piparkukas - "pepper" + "cakes") is very popular in Latvia. And every housewife has her own recipe - family's recipe.

iPad Test Post

I am trying out the Blogger app to see how it works. I don't like the keyboard and wish it was the Apple keyboard.
Below is a comic I made using an app. I spelled "pancakes" wrong but you get the idea.

Pumpkin Spice Cake Cups

It's fall.  There is no denying it.  Cold, windy, rainy.  Michigan gets cold early, and cold weather, especially fall, makes me think of apples, cider and pumpkins.  I have never been a fan of pumpkin but made some cake cups using only a cake mix, some pumpkin and water.  I call them cake cups because they are a cake mix in a cup form.  Shouldn't that be the proper name anyways?  Cupcake is a good name, but I decided cake cup is a more appropriate name for my creation.
This recipe uses no eggs or oil, so you can save your fat allowance for the frosting :)

Pumpkin Spice Cake Cups

• 1 box (15.25 oz) spice cake mix
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin (not the pie filling, just plain pumpkin)
• 2 TB water

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix cake mix, pumpkin and water.  Stir well, it will be very thick.
Put a good-sized tablespoon of the batter into cupcake cups.  I used the foil cups because they will stand on their own and you don't need a muffin pan if you use them.
Bake for 20 minutes, give or take a few minutes until they are done.
Frost with cream cheese frosting, dust with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Next time I will make my own cream cheese frosting.  I bought the canned frosting and it is full of crappy chemicals that I can't pronounce, therefore should not be eating.

First Football Sunday

Today is the first day of the official football season, and that meas Bob will be glued in front of the television most of the day.  I don't really mind because it gives me a chance to cook some great food, do a little shopping and just relax and prepare for the week ahead.
For the kickoff of football season, I made pulled pork in the crockpot.  That baby was in the crockpot at 6:30 a.m.!!  Rubbed with some spices, it cooked on low all day.  About halfway through the cook time I had to take out a lot of water and fat that accumulated because I wanted the pork to roast and not simmer.  I don't really have a recipe for the pork, just put the pork shoulder in a crockpot with about 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup white vinegar, rub in some spices like cumin, paprika, onion powder, dry mustard, salt and pepper.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

I did make an awesome Carolina mustard sauce to go with the pork.  I never had mustard sauce on my pulled pork sandwich but he other other week I got to try it for the first time.  Bob and I discovered a local bar, Retro Rocks, started serving food and what great food it is!!!  In addition to their already great martinis, they started offering things like chicken tandoori skewers, pork stay skewers, great burgers, lamb burgers, homemade crab cheese, oh my!!  Anyways, one thing they offer is pulled pork sliders with your choice of sauces, one choice of which was Carolina mustard.  Being in Michigan and mustard sauce not being a popular thing, I tried it and loved it.  There was a recipe I had saved online for the mustard sauce before I tried it at Retro's, and I decided to tweak a few different recipes I found to make the sauce my own.
I am notorious for not really following or even having a recipe, but below is the closest I can come to giving you my recipe for Carolina Mustard Sauce.  I had a bottled raspberry chiplote sauce we could choose to put on the sliders as well. (pictured left) Of course the coleslaw needed to be on there too!!!  I found some great Hawaiian-style dinner rolls at the store and they were a perfect oval shape for the sliders.

Carolina Mustard Sauce
1 1/2 cups yellow mustard
1/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 TB crushed red pepper flakes
1 TB ground black pepper
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
2 TB butter
2 TB liquid smoke

In a saucepan, combine everything except the butter and liquid smoke.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and add butter and liquid smoke.
Notes:  You can add more sugar as you like.  I ended up using about one cup of brown sugar.  Also, the red pepper flakes can be omitted if you don't like a little kick.  Remember every measurement is approximate with me so add  things to taste.

Before the pork was ready to be pulled, I went bouncing around to shops in my area and came across the best book bargain ever!!  For $1.99, I got this:

It is a selection of headlines from the Weekly World News.  How could I pass this bargain book up?  It makes a great coffee table book.  I am still wondering who believes the stories in this publication.  "Scientists Discover earth's Core is Actually Made of Candy!" and if you read the article beyond the screaming headline, you will find out it's not just any candy but a jawbreaker.  My favorite headline is this one:

Who knew??  The people at Weekly World News, that's who!!!!!!  And Bat Boy is quite a popular subject, he escapes, drives down the freeway, helps capture Sadam, and will run for President in 2028.  Every "picture" of Bat Boy makes him look like he is shouting some nonsense, but isn't that what most politicians do anyways?  Bay Boy for President!!  (joking)