Fatayer Cheese balls

I always had a thing for Fatayer, especially they way they smell while in the oven baking, to me I always wanted my house to smell like Fatayer, might sound wierd really but it gives the house a very warm, fun and inviting felling! it truley does:)

Those cheesy warm fatayer balls are to die for. They are perfect with tea after a good evening nap :)
This dough reciepe is the same one that i have previously posted for the "Arugla Pizza"

Ingredients:

1 Kilo brown flour
8 tablespoons powder milk
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons yeast
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup water

Cheese spread:
Feta Cheese
Tomato
mint
zatar

mash the feta cheese with the rest froming a spread

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the flour, powder milk, salt, white sugar, yeast, baking powder, and water; stir well to combine. Knead the dough with your hands pushing and folding. Knead just long enough for the dough to take in a little more flour, and until it no longer sticking to your hands.Cover and rise until doubled in volume, at least 8 hours in a warm room, for best results leave over night.
Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out, place the feta cheese mix in the middle and close it forming a round ball, place it in an oven plate brush egg yolk on the top of the balls and sprinkle seasme seeds on the top of the balls.

Preheat the oven, place the dish in the oven for 35min until the balls have golden color



very simple onceyou have the right dough you can do all the differant stuffings and shapes :)

enjoy a good dough recipe, as i have said in an older post, you can fridge the dough for 1 week.

Sahuaro: Mexican Cuisine @ your Steps

Time for some Mariachi!

Sahuaro ... authentic Mexican cuisine in town! and I am not talking about nachos and burritos here.. I'm talking about enchiladas, mole, ceviche.... if you are not really familiar with Mexican cuisine this would be the right place to start!

Fortunately enough I came across this amazing team of Mexican ladies known as Sahuaro.Saguaro or Sahuaro is a majestic species of cactus most commonly found in the “Sonoran dessert” which includes the state of Baja California and state of Sonora in Mexico and in the U S States of California and Arizona.

Ive tried them personally and its a must!!! but word of advice make sure you specify how spicy you want your food because those jalapeno's are deadly!!!

Enjoy and ARRIBA ARRIBA !!!!

Visit them @: http://www.sahuarokw.com

Baked eggplant with a hint of pesto sauce.

As a guest writer I try to learn as much as possible form "Cook with Me Q8" and let me tell yo that my cooking skills have improved in deed!!!

Tnnnxxx.. here we go another one on trial.






Ingredients

Cherry Tomatoes
5 baby Eggplants
Home Made Pesto Sauce (check older post Pesto)
Home Made Pasta Sauce (or again.. i prefer Ragu when Im on a hurry)
Salt & Pepper
Oregano
Parmesan Cheese (i prefer Almarai Mozzarella shredded cheese )

Method

Wash eggplants and cut into slices Cut the tomatoes into slices Brush the baking tray with a small portion of Olive oil, not more than a tea spoon. (The pesto sauce will make it oily). Place the sliced Eggplants into rows, add a tea spoon of pasta sauce and pesto sauce to each. Top it up with the sliced tomatoes.
Let it bake for over 10 minutes, on low fire. Before we are done.. you should add the cheese on top and change the oven to bake from the top level until the cheese becomes golden .
We are done... place them on a flat plate and enjoy our mini eggplants with pesto sauce.

They are a must and it wont take you more than 12 minutes :) great for appetizers as well.

Regards ... S.B

Question from a Blogger

HELP !!!! I need a good easy quick healthy vegetarian meal!!!

Hi .. I'm trying to have healthier choices at home.. therefore vegetables and fruits are my new main ingredients. My first attempt was roasted veggies: green beans, mushroom and tomatoes ... I placed them on a baking tray with some olive oil and garlic... however it turned out not to be so "Dietetic" as I would of liked. Do you have nay suggestions on how to truly have a Dietetic vegetarian meal, or snacks too with fruits if possible?



Thank you

Garlic Bread

A bowl of spaghetti is just perfect while watching a movie, but I always feel that it is missing a crunch. A garlicy, moist, crisp crunch to bite whith every mouthful spaghetti... Garlic bread just completes it all dont you think? As my friend once said Spaghetti seems lonely without garlic bread! It's so easy to make, so there is no trouble in having it on the side!

There are a lot of ways making garlic bread, the easiest way that I do:

crush a couple cloves of garlic, mix it with softened butter, add salt and pepper, I usually add chili flakes and parsley and form a spread. Spread it over slices of French bread, wrap it with foil and heat in the oven for 10-15min depending how you like it either toasty or soft. I like to wrap it with foil and toast it cuz it makes the bread moist with the garlic spread when removeing the foil later I add the parmesan cheese then put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes for the cheese to slightly melt, and crisp golden color.

Garlic Bread Recipe

1 French bread

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

4 large cloves of garlic, smashed

1 tablespoon of chopped parsley

grated parmesan cheese

Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients

2 carrots diced

2 onions chopped

2 cloves of crushed garlic

2 sticks celery diced

10 chopped tomatoes

3 tabelspoons of tomato paste

2 bay leaves

1 tabelspoon cumin powder

1 tabelspoon mixed spices for meat

1 tabelspoon oregano
250ml beef stock
large glass water

worcester sauce
tabasco sauce
salt and pepper
olive oil
grated parmesan cheese.

Directions

Heat a large saucepan and add the minced meat. Brown the meat then drain off excess fat.
Add olive oil to cover the base of the pan, low fire add the onions, for a few minutes until they are golden brown. Add the celery and garlic, Season it with salt and pepper, spices and bay leaves. return the drained meat to the pan, add the oregano and water.

Let the sauce heat then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, worcester sauce and tabasco, after a couple of minutes add the stock and the carrots, stir well and let the sauce cook for 1 hour and a half, covered and on a low heat.

Boil the spaghetti according to the instructions on the box, when ready add the spaghetti quickly to the saucepan, drizzle of olive oil to the spaghetti.

serve with grated parmesan cheese.

yuuummm! 3awafiiiiii

BEST FALAFEL RECIPE FROM SCRATCH !!! MUST SEE FALAFEL RECEIPE

falafel try-outs!

Its been exactly 5 days of the try outs and i have tried everything but cant seem to get it right!!

I have tried 3 different batches
1 adding flour to the mixture of veggies, spices and chickpeas, and other with baking soda, baking powder, and the last trial was mixed with sesame spread, Tahini "harda" and surprisingly that was the only one that didn't break into tiny little pieces when fried (meaning just 2pieces were in a good round crunchy condition ;p)

Ive literally tried everything, freezing, refrigerating, letting it rest before frying. cant seem to get it right ;(

Ingredients:
1 cup chickpeas
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons flour
Salt
Pepper

Preperation:

Combine chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper in bowl, and add flour. Mash all ingredients or use a food processor. Result should be a thick paste

Form the mixture into small balls, then flatten.

Fry until golden brown (5-7 minutes).




anyone knows the secret for homemade falafel?

strawberry smoothie :)

10 strawberries fresh or frozen
2 low fat yogourt
One orange
Honey
A blender!
Ice cubes

How?
Squeeze the orange juice and mix it with the honey. Throw in the strawberries, the two yogourts, ice cubes and the orange with honey juice. Blend till it becomes "smooth". ( If not sweet enough just add a spoon of vanilla estract or honey - no sugar)

Presentation

I prefer short glasses, either small short glasses or even modern estiqanas!

a true refreshing salad!

I jut reached home starving from a long day at work, so hungry and the heat is just unbearable! I bet a lot of people know exactly what mean.

I was planning to have my salad first, because I had to wait longer for the family lunch, so I was expecting a basic, one of the daily salads.

and to my surprise! I felt so special, it was a salad that I have taught my house helper a while ago and its just perfect, absolutely a taste that fulfilled every sense, its simply:

Ingredients:

Arugula
1 orange
2 tablespoons orange zest
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 handful of fresh walnuts


Method

mix the washed arugula with orange juice, olive oil, salt&pepper, and orange zest, top it with crushed walnuts


I guarantee you a refreshing feeling after that bowl of salad! it was absolutely yummy!

and for those who hate mixing fruits with veggies.... your missing out BIG time!

Surprise! out of the box ;)

White Cake cupcakes.


Betty Crocker White Cake Mix
1/2 Water
1/3 Vegetable Oil
3 Egg Whites
mix it all .....


Frosing
Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting


Just mix the ingredients as the pack says, once they are done just wait for about 20 minutes to spread the icing & the end just sprinkle some "flake chocolate" on them to make them look like on TV...

For those who like it simple, those cupcakes look Yuuuuum!
Thank you for sharing S.B :)

nana banana fun

Banana Octopuses
by Curtis Rist

Give a banana a deep-sea life of its own with one of the simplest creations of artist/coauthor Saxton Freymann ("Play with Your Food").
Ingredients
FOR EACH OCTOPUS:
Banana
Toothpick
2 black-eyed peas
Plastic knife

Instructions
Cut the stem off the banana. "It doesn't have to be an especially ripe banana; any banana will do," says Freymann. Then peel it halfway down from the top, in 4 sections.



Eat the top half of the banana. "After all, you'll need that extra energy to finish your task," says Freymann. Leave the bottom half of the banana in its peel.

To create 8 arms, use a plastic knife (or a real knife with parental supervision) to split each of the 4 sections of the peel in half. "You can also do this without a knife, just by separating the peels with your fingers," says Freymann.



For the face, choose the flattest side of the banana. Make the eyes by pushing a toothpick into the skin and wiggling it around to create 2 holes, then insert a black-eyed pea into each hole

I personally tried it with my daughter and it was absolutly very simple and fun to do together, give it a try!

Thank you for sharing this idea :)

World Cup Fever

The World Cup starts today! A big event for everybody!

Fun food and easy recipes is whats needed while watching the games. Snacks and Nibbles, thats what i like to call it. I will be sharing and posting what i will be preparing to eat while we watch the games. So, if you have any ideas, recipes, suggestions or any fun take out experience go ahead and share!

Write it up, snap a picture and email it to cookwithmeq8@gmail.com

my mud pots

In Srilanka they don't use the normal pots in cooking, they use the mud ones, whether for the oven or on the fire they have two types.
When i first saw them it was in the hotel for breakfast they serve all the food in the mud pots and i fell in love with them immediately! they were perfect!

So the 2 nights that we stayed in Colombo that was the only thing that i wanted to find so while driving and exploring we found the place that sells them in all their shapes and sizes

It was a must buy!!! we wrapped and packed them and i just couldn't wait to reach home to start using them!

I love them :)

Im back!

This has been one long break! Due to my trip to srilanka and comming back and facing technical difficulties with home internet connection and laptop ;( i finally managed to get everything under control and start blogging again! so hello to you all! i have missed posting and sharing those simple meals :)