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Smartphones are IT these days. We can play games, video chat, listen to music, MAKE music, etc all on the same little device. I mean, I never would have thought that when I was a kid. Oof, "thinking"? Never mind thinking, there is probably an app for that now anyway ;)

If your app hunger involves delicious mouth watering recipes that make you want to roll up your sleeves and pop into the kitchen to show off your inner chef, check out Trufflehead who came out with an awesome app for cooking. If you are like me, when seeing is believing, watch for yourself :) You won't be disappointed.

Months ago when I came back from my trip to Asia (where I ate and ate my days away in Vietnam) I was completely in withdrawal with food, Trufflehead's red Thai curry with cauliflower and tofu was the first recipe I wanted to make after weeks in cooking hiatus

...Plus, a crockpot recipe is always a plus when your day is filled with running around, just saying.... (Other than going to Chinatown for the Thai basil, everything else is available at any grocery store. If you don’t have access to Thai basil, you can just use the “other” one. All you have to do is wash, chop, pour, stir and wait. All the prepping took about 30 minutes, and cooking time is 3 hours)

So dear beloved readers, Trufflehead is giving away TWO free download for their app. This offer is good for ONE WEEK, so hurry up and email talk@trufflehead.com with Tramie's Kitchen in the subject line. The first two to do so, will get a code to download the ap.

Good luck and enjoy the freebie!!!! :)

Ginger syrup

I like ginger, in food, in tea, in candies, but I was never a fan of Ginger Ale. I find the taste is too subtle. Basically not worth my tummy space and so, it remains one of the things I never even look at in grocery stores.
Now, that's all changed. Forever. Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, Joy the Baker, who led me to discover ginger syrup.

(P.S: Thanks Joy!!! I would really love to hang out with you one day and watch you cook/bake while rambling away about your life. LOL!!!!)

I kid you not, it's frigging delicious!!!! My better half promptly declared that I have ruined store-bought ginger ale for him. And he loves ginger, not just the red-haired sexy ladies, but everything ginger, so he is pretty much the best critic there is beside myself.

No, there is nothing left for me to say but GO MAKE IT, if you are a ginger lover. I refuse to try to convince you any further. See for yourself how easy it is to make it:

Ginger Syrup:

( from Betty Fraser and Denise DeCarlo, owners of Grub)
makes 2 cups of syrup

2 cups unpeeled, washed, fresh ginger, roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
6 cups water

Process ginger chunks in a food processor or blender until finely chopped. Place in a large stock pot (I couldn't find the blade for my food processor, so I placed the roughly chopped ginger into the pot with about 2 cups of the water, and used a handheld blender to mince it) Add sugar and water to the pot and stir. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook for one hour until a rich syrup is created. Strain the syrup twice through cheese cloth or a sieve into a large jar or bottle. Refrigerate.
 
Get yourself some tonic or soda water. Pour about 2-3 Tbsp of syrup for each cup of soda, or according to your taste. Add some ice. Squeeze in some lime if you have. Add some mint if you're feeling trendy and enjoy!!!!!

See? What did I tell you??? SO. AWESOME.

Halloween party ideas

TWO WEEKS ago, I was speechless to see Halloween decorations already out in many stores and ready for purchase. It was August! Either they take them out earlier every year or I'm really in denial about how fall is near. I mean, can you really blame me? No amount of BBQ, wine tasting, wedding vow renewal parties, are ever enough. Don;t get me wrong, I love Halloween. But it's just that closer to winter is all...

Well, if you can't beat them, join them I guess.... *sigh*

The lovely Jennifer at Decorating Ideas has a page up and it is full of fun dessert ideas for your coming up Halloween parties, one of which, is yours truly; an idea that totally came from an accident. So head on over there and have some fun preparing your goodies for a scary feast.

While you wait, enjoy some of my newest creations. They are partly responsible for my absent the passed few months on here.

 

Home-made parmesan pizza crust

As I sat there having pancakes topped with sliced bananas and maple syrup this morning, a little voice whispered in my head: "Make pizza!" and that was it, I was weak and I followed the command.

It's a total mystery to me how my mind works sometimes... 

Of course, having lack of the right ingredients is part of this schizophrenic food-driven problem of mine. Fortunately, because of all the cakes and things that I make, flour is definitely always just an arm's length away. The only things I used for these pizza that I'm somewhat ashamed to admit are the hot dogs. Yes, you heard me, hot dogs (Sometimes, wrapping hot dogs in cheese and tortilla bread and baking them for a few minutes in the oven could save your sanity on a Friday night with two hyper hungry little girls. Thus, I had three leftover jumbo hot dogs)

*sigh* you're judging me... I know it! But you know what, that's okay, because these pizza were delicious!!!

D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S

Make them.

Even if you only have hot dogs. In fact, make them margherita pizza for that matter! Obviously, I was lucky to have frozen a small tub of tomato sauce just days ago, so that helped the situation.

But really! MAKE THEM! It's so fast if you have these essentials on hand. So, if you have a yummy tomato sauce and some shredded cheese sitting in the fridge, here is the recipe for the pizza crust

Perfect Parmesan Pizza Dough, courtesy of Kraft
(makes four 12" crust)

• 5 cups flour, divided
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. quick-rise instant yeast (1 1/4 tsp and 1 tsp of sugar if you only have active dry yeast)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups cold water
• 1/4 cup olive oil 

***If you only have active dry yeast, take 1/4 cup of the water and heat it in a small bowl in the microwave for about 15 seconds, or until 100*F, then mix in the yeast and the sugar. Use that in place of the yeast listed in the instruction.

Mix 4 cups flour, parmesan, yeast and salt in large bowl. Add water and oil; stir until soft dough forms. Knead dough about 5 min. or until smooth and elastic then slowly add remaining flour .

Cut dough into 4 pieces. Spray each piece with cooking spray if you have, I just left them as is. Cover the dough pieces loosely with plastic wrap let stand 15 min. or so.

Once everything is ready, heat the oven to 450*F. Stretch each piece of dough out to fit a 12" pizza pan (or just free style it like I did LOL!) Top with your favorite tomato sauce and toppings and bake for about 18 minutes.

Then, devour. Like we did.

I topped all of them, but only baked two and I froze the rest, well wrapped. For rainy days, they will come in handy... That is, if we can resist them until then ;)

Beef & potato curry

I realize that for a couple of times a year, I disappear from this blog for a while. This is usually due to a trip which is always closely followed  by a travel withdrawal. It takes a little bit of time before I can break that bubble and come back to "real" life.

When real life is -20 to -30 degrees celsius, it's very hard to want to get back to.... *sigh*

Anyhow, cold weather calls for comfort food, and I've been cooking curry a lot lately because it's easy, fast and I can make a big batch for the whole week.

Beef curry

(serves 8-10)

• few dashes of olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 3 Tbsp grated ginger
• 3 Tbsp curry powder
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp curry paste
• about 1 kilo or more of stewing beef cubes.
• 3 big potatoes, cubed
• about 2-3 Cups of beef broth
• a couple pinches of salt

Heat the oil in a 5L pot over medium low and throw in the onions & garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes, then throw in the cumin and coriander until fragrant.

Mix in the ginger, curry powder, turmeric powder, paprika and curry paste, stir all to blend well .

Turn heat to medium high and toss in the meat and potatoes. Stir everything around to coat, followed by the broth. Cook until bubble, then turn heat down to low, put on the lid and let simmer for about an hour or until beef is tender.

Serve with rice or naan bread if available.

Pumpkin pie pots and one week before the giveaway

We had our first snow storm today *sigh*
...
Don't get me wrong, fluffy white snow floating in the air is cute, but when they are flying at 300 km/hour and hitting your face at full speed? NOT so fluffy, and especially NOT so cute...

With the cold weather comes the face stuffing. This is the time most of us try to stay healthy and some of us fail miserably towards the end of the path. I mean, can you really blame us? "Jolly" and "holiday season" go side by side! Nonetheless, if you ARE trying to find healthier alternative, here is one option for a yummy no crust pumpkin pie. It was made just like my usual pumpkin pie, just slightly one and a half more time of pumpkin puree. The sole reason was because I wanted to eat more and have even more of a pumpkin taste to the dessert.

Pumpkin pie pots (serves about 8-10)

• 2 eggs
• 15 - 25 oz pureed pumpkin
• 1 can 12-oz evaporated milk (I used fat-free)
• 1 tsp. brandy (I used rum, and a couple tsp more...)
• 1 C packed brown sugar (I thought it was perfect but you might prefer it to be sweeter)
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

 Heat oven to 350F. Prepare a bain-marie by placing ramekins in a baking pan.

Combine eggs, pumpkin, evaporated milk and rum in a pot over medium low heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 5-7 minutes.

Put brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a mixing bowl and add the pumpkin mixture. Pour everything into ramekins, pour hot water into the baking pan, just about to midway of the ramekins. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until set.

Cooled for about 1 hour. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

As the holidays come creeping up on us, it would be a great time for you to give your loved ones, who love to cook and bake, a copy of Foodista Best Of Food Blogs Cookbook (in which, yours truly is featured on page 158)

picture courtesy of my awesome boyfriend

So as a reminder, for those on the Canadian side of the blogosphere who are interested in getting your hands on one of these, come leave me a comment and the draw will be on Sunday December 12th :) Have fun and good luck!!!

I have just used random.org and the winner is Jessica!!!!!! Congratulations Jessica and thank you for participating. I hope you enjoy the book :)