Marinated Feta

One of my friends marinates his own feta and it is so tasty, so I had to copy him.
Prepare:
-1 package of feta, chopped in chunks and placed in a plastic vessel
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
-1 chili pepper, chopped
-Mix the above together and cover with a nice extra-virgin olive oil
-Leave for at least a week (it's okay unrefrigerated)
-Enjoy, of course

Tips:
-Keep the olive oil and use it either as an even-tastier oil for pastas or salads or just keep it for the next batch of feta.

Sesame Noodle with Steamed Veggies and Egg

I was hankering for a nice sesame-sauced noodle dish. I googled around and saw that there is a lot of different ways to make sesame sauce. I tried to synthesize my own.
Prepare Sauce:
-Roughly chop a couple hot chilies, 3 cloves of garlic, and a bit of ginger
-Prepare 1 tsp each of olive oil, sesame oil, Chinese 5-Spice, black pepper, red wine, honey, and fresh chives-Prepare about 3 heaping tablespoons of good unsweetened peanut butter and another tablespoon or two of tahini
-Mix all the above in a food processor with about 1/4 cup of warm water
Prepare Dish:
-Soak any sort of noodles that you like in some water or cook them until they are just ready
-Chop/prepare any vegetables that you like steamed. I used broccoli, cauliflower, and bok choy
-Toast a tbsp of sesame seeds on a pan
-Roughly chop some cilantro and chives
-Ready a couple eggs

Cook Dish:
-Steam vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower take longer than bok choy)
-Crack 2 eggs on a warmed pan with olive oil over medium heat, after 1 minute of frying, roughly mix together

-Once vegetables are steamed, mix noodles through and leave for a couple minutes

-Mix in eggs and sauce, sprinkle with cilantro, chives, and sesame seeds

Tips:
-You can change this sauce anyway you see fit. I put in 3 chilies and it had a lovely amount of heat to it. I think next time I may add a bunch of cilantro to the sauce itself to give it a bit of that nice flavour.
-Substituting eggs with tofu or chicken would be a very welcome addition.

Citrus & Ginger Cordial

My friend Ben recently gave me a large sack of different fruits. I feared early spoilage, what with limited refrigerator space and only myself to feed, and so set about on ways to utilize at least some of the fruits. Glancing around the net implanted some ideas in my head for a citrus cordial - a syrup mixer for creating drinks. I just made up my own ratios of fruit - I think it would be difficult to mess it up.
Prepare:
-Cut several citrus fruits in half, zest some of them as well. I used 2 oranges, 2 small mandarins, and 5 limes of various sizes-Peel and roughly chop a good amount of ginger
-Measure out about 2 1/2 cups of sugar (I used caster or icing sugar)
Cook:
-Juice the fruit-Mix the fruit juice with the sugar, ginger, zest in a medium pot-On medium-high heat, bring to a boil; lower and let it simmer healthily for a while
-Once it has reduced a bit and started getting more syrupy and viscous, turn off heat-Let cool and then filter out the ginger/zest.
-Store in an airtight bottle and enjoy as you wish
Tips:
-The cordial is quite sweet and so you would only use it mixed with soda water and not anything else sweetened like tonic water. I imagine it will go quite well with alcohol as well. I already used a teaspoon mixed with some boiling water and it resulted in a very nice hot lemon "tea"

"Light" Caraway Rye

I love caraway rye bread. I specifically love light, white, airy rye bread with lots of caraway seeds. I did a lot of searching and wasn't able to find what I wanted. This recipe looked good and promising so I gave it a shot. I won't include the recipe here since I copied the recipe almost exactly as the post mentioned (I didn't have molasses so I substituted with brown sugar and some lemon juice). The bread turned out nice but not exactly what I wanted. Not rye-y enough, and a bit sweet. Quite tasty as a bread but didn't come out how I wanted (I want something like this). Oh well. No worries.

Focaccia-based pizza

So I was making my delicious focaccia again and decided to freeze one of them, to see how it would turn out. I took it out of the freezer and waited about 2 hours and then set about making a dynamite pizza. With an easy tasty sauce.
Prepare Sauce:
-In a food processor, mix 3-4tbsp of tomato puree, 1/2 small can of whole peeled tomatoes (with some of the juice), 2 peeled cloves of garlic, a little bit of onion, 1 tsp each of white sugar, dried basil, salt, and oregano.
Prepare Pizza:
-Spread the newly made sauce on the focaccia base
-Put on top your favorite toppings: I think its sinful to have pizza without onion, broccoli, or olives. I also put on zucchini, fresh tomato, and mushroom
-Cover with some freshly shredded cheeses: mozarella and light cheddar work well, I also added a bit of parmesanCook Pizza:
-Preheat oven to around 400F/200C
-Place pizza on a thin pan and put in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until crust gets crispy (depends on thickness of the crust)
-Bon apetit

Dessert Burrito!

I was hankering for something amazing this morning. No, I wasn't hungover, just craving. I thought that a dessert/breakfast burrito would be the best thing:
Prepare:
-Warm a tortilla in the microwave for 15 seconds
-Spread a good amount of nice peanut butter and Nutella down the middle of the tortilla
-Slice 1 banana down the middle and arrange on the tortilla, fold/wrap upCook:
-Heat a large flat pan on medium heat
-Place folded burrito on the pan and place a plate on top for seal and pressure, cook for 4 minutes (if it starts smoking, take it off!) and then flip over.
-Enjoy!Tips:
-This is pretty perfect on its own... you could add caramel or marshmellow fluff for a bit more of heaven.

Spicy Garlicky Pumpkin Seeds

I found this little recipe from a spicy-foods cookbook called Red Hot. I had huge hopes for it when I saw the ingredients... it came out fine, but not as special as I'd hoped
Prepare:
-1 cup pumpkin seeds
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 tsp dried chili flakes
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp caster/icing sugar
Cook:
-In a fry pan on medium heat, cook the pumpkin seeds for a couple minutes till they swell and brown a little bit-Add garlic and cook for a couple minutes more-Add red pepper flakes and salt and cook for 1 or 2 more minutes
-Turn off heat, sprinkle with sugar
Tips:
-The book also states that you can sprinkle lime juice on it and eat right away; otherwise, store in an airtight jar