With the delayed spring this year we ended up having more winter than we needed or expected. Luckily, here at the west coast, there is no snowfall at least so we are spared from shoveling our driveways; however, the rain and the grim whether is just unbearable and keeps you feel kind of depressed sometime.

I love spring. As the matter of fact I love it to the extent that I would not mind if spring lasts forever. No wonder that I am getting so angry and frustrated because the winter has made itself so comfortable this year and is hesitating to leave.

The fragile spring, on the other hand, is trying hard to put its foot in so it helped the bulbs to sprout everywhere and blossom to bloom in most trees, but the old grumpy winter just does not want to give in. With the snow in some parts of the country, and the rain and grim whether elsewhere you cannot help it but hear the winter say: “ I got lazy this year so I will be sticking around for few more…”. Let’s hope that the winter wants to say “few more days”, so we will finally start enjoying the beautiful spring and all those plenty colors it brings along.

Wishing the spring a warm welcome, yesterday I made this Meringue Berry Cake. It reminds me on my childhood and beautiful, sunny and colorful springs I experienced with my siblings and the meringue cookies that my mother used to make for us at spring time. She did not have a hand mixer (and the standing ones were not even around at that time), or fancy kitchen gadgets, but with her jumbo whisk and few other modest utensils she made her cookies and cakes stand out and “be the talk of the neighborhood”.

Meringues are pretty easy to make and have very few ingredients, but the key to succeed with the meringue mixture is to have the egg whites at room temperature, and to make sure that the bowl and whisk are completely dry and free of any grease.

So if you ever get into a mood to make this cake you will need:

1. 8 egg whites
2. 4 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3. 1 tablespoon lemon extract
4. 1 pound of mixed berries
5. 2 packages of desert whip

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Flour three separate baking sheets.
2. In a glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer. Sprinkle in sugar a little at a time, while continuing to whip at medium speed. Add lemon extract. When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like satin, stop mixing, and divide the mixture in three separate bowls and color the mixture to your preference. Transfer the mixture to a large pastry bags. Pipe three large meringues out onto the prepared baking sheets using a large round star tip.
3. Place the meringue sheets in the oven (both racks) and place a wooden spoon handle in the door to keep it from closing all the way. Bake for 3 hours, or until the meringues are dry, and can easily be removed from the pan.
4. Allow cookies to cool completely before assembling the cake. Prepare the dessert whip according to the package directions. Top each meringue sheet with a layer of dessert whip and berries and finish with a meringue sheet.

Hope that spring will feel more welcomed now, so we will soon start experiencing warmer weather and more sunshine.

Thank you for reading.
Besa

Are you searching for healthy, pretty looking and most importantly quick and easy diner ideas? Well you just found one. This asparagus side dish is all of the above.

I love asparagus and since I tried many ways to prepare this lovely vegetable, I also started creating my own recipes.

One of my original asparagus recipes that I am featuring in this post is crunchy baked asparagus topped with fresh tomato and mint salsa. It is a very simple, quick and easy recipe and this is why I love, so I wanted to share it with you. You will find that all of the ingredients needed to execute this recipe you may already have in your fridge or pantry, and if you decide to have this side dish with fish, your dinner will be ready in less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

Bunch of asparagus
1 large tomato
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
5-7 leaves of fresh mint
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese
Dash of dried basil

Method:

Cut tomato into small pieces. Add oil, sugar, salt, garlic, mint and set aside. Let the mixture stand for few minutes for flavors to incorporate. In the mean time turn you oven to 400 F, rinse asparagus, line a baking pan with baking paper and spread asparagus in the pan. Top the asparagus with tomato salsa reserving the juice of the salsa. Sprinkle the asparagus tops with the salsa juice for flavor. Sprinkle over the grated mozzarella and basil.

Bake for 15 minutes and then broil for 5 minutes. At this point in the higher rack of your oven you can broil few slices of bread which after taking them out of the oven you can top them with salsa from the baked asparagus. This way you will have some bruschettas aside.

While your asparagus releases the yummy aromas from the oven you can cook fish of your choice and make your favorite salad.

If you decide to try this recipe I would love to hear from you and see how you rate it.

Thank you for reading.

Besa

This used to be a very popular cake in my hometown back home during 70’s. My sister and I used to make this cake for almost every occasion.

At that time in Kosova bananas and kiwi fruit were not available all year around, and if there was a supply of these fruits you could not have them as often as they were quite pricy. The economy was run by the state government (Former Republic of Yugoslavia) and Kosova was the most neglected province by this government. The neglect was so severe to the point that amounted to discrimination. So, as one would expect, the likelihood of Kosovans being regularly supplied with exotic fruit was not in the government’s priority list. Therefore, whenever bananas hit the grocery stores there was a reason for us to make up an occasion and serve this cake.

Interestingly, few years before the war erupted in Former Yugoslavia, the government policy on economics changed a bit so there were plenty of private trade companies which emerged almost overnight, and guess what, bananas were everywhere, and the prices dropped so low so people were buying boxes of bananas to get over that craving they were missing for years.

With the influx of bananas and other exotic fruit in the market, this cake ceased to be as popular as it used to, but my sister and I still used to make it occasionally. However, I have not made this cake for over 10 years and have almost forgotten this recipe. The other day I was searching through my old recipe book for a corn bread recipe and came across to “once famous Banana & Kiwi Fruit Cake” recipe, and struck by nostalgia I made this cake few days ago. So here is the recipe below.

Prep Time: 2 hrs
Cook Time: 30-45 minutes
Difficulty: Medium
Serving: 12

The Sponge:

9 tablespoons all purpose flour
9 tablespoons grated walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
250 gram sugar
5 eggs at room temperature
9 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla

The Filling:

1 liter milk
8 tablespoons corn starch mixed with 8 tablespoons milk
250 gram butter
300 gram powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 big or 4 small bananas
5 kiwi fruit

To make the sponge:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 15 X 12 inch pan with parchment paper.

Combine flour, grated walnuts, baking powder in a large bowl. Separate eggs.

In e separate bowl beat egg yolks and sugar on high speed and vanilla. Pour the egg yolk mixture over the flour and grated walnuts and mix with spatula.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form.

Fold the egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and spread to even out the surface.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn sponge onto flat surface lined with a dish towel, remove the parchment paper and allow cooling.

Cut the sponge into two pieces with the following dimensions: 6 x 12 and 9×12 inches.

To make the filling:

Bring the milk to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and add the mixture of corn starch and milk stirring vigorously to avoid clumping. Reduce the heat to a medium or low and continue to cook for about 5-10 minutes stirring continuously. Allow the mixture to completely cool at a room temperature, stirring it occasionally.

In e separate bowl whip the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add and stir the corn starch mixture (cooled to a room temperature) into the butter, one spoon at a time, and continue whipping. Add vanilla.

Layering the cake:

Spread an inch thick layer of filling onto a small sponge rectangle. Place lengthwise a row of bananas. Spread another inch of filling over bananas. Place lengthwise a row of peeled kiwi fruits in the centre. Spread another one inch thick layer of filling over kiwi fruits. Cover the cake with the remaining piece of sponge cake, and decorate with the remaining filling and chocolate or white chocolate mousse.

If you happen to try this recipe I would love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading.

Besa

This winter I was very much into a soup mood, so I tried various recipes and created some of my own too.

Even though it is already spring I continue to cook a pot of soup whenever it is rainy or grim day like today. Sweet potato and celery cream soup is one of my own recipes and I would like to share it with you as this soup recipe turned out to be very tasty. I just made a pot of this soup today and can’t wait to have a bowl or two.

When I made this soup for the first time I only had one big sweet potato, two carrots and 6 stalks of celery in my fridge, so this is how this recipe was born. I also used a small onion and two cloves of garlic and spices such a dash of white pepper, freshly ground black pepper, nutmeg and most importantly 2 teaspoon turmeric.

Since I have learned about the health benefits of turmeric I use every opportunity to incorporate this spice into my recipes.

Few years back I have never used turmeric in my cooking, but after learning how healthy this spice is I became a real turmeric fan.

Some may find turmeric powder bitter or otherwise off-putting, but when a teaspoon or two is added to a pot of soup or stew, the flavor disperses and adds a subtle depth and complexity that most people may find appealing.

Turmeric is an orange-colored spice imported from India and is part of the ginger family. It has been a staple in Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian cooking for thousands of years.

Recent research reveals that this herb is a powerful healer due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties and it has proved to be beneficial in the treatment of many different health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.
For more about turmeric health benefits you may visit http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/the-amazing-health-benefits-of-turmeric and/or http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/20-health-benefits-of-turmeric.html

Now back to the soup recipe.

Ingredients:

1 big sweet potato peeled and chopped in big chunks
6-8 celery stalks – chopped coarsely
2 medium carrots – chopped in big chunks
1 small onion – diced
2 cloves of garlic- diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt to taste
5 cups of vegetable broth (or 5 cups of water and 1 cube of veggie bullion)
2 teaspoon turmeric
Dash of white pepper, freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup grated cheese of your choice (I used cheddar)

Method:

In a medium sized sauce pan cook onion and garlic in olive until golden brown. Add chopped vegetables, salt and broth and cook for 30 minutes or until potato is softened.
Remove the pot from the stove and puree the vegetables using the stick blender. After the pureeing is done add spices, salt, butter, milk and cheese. Return the pot to the stove and cook for few more minutes.
Note: After pureeing more water or milk may be added to dilute the soup to the desired thickness.

If you try this recipe I would love to know how you would rate it in a scale of 1 to 5.

Thank you for reading.
Besa