Free Weekend Getaway with Chef Bonnie
Most of the schools in US have closed down for summer and people are frantic planning their family vacations as the heat turns up in Sunny California! For those of you who have not yet experienced the sunny shores and the cool waters of the Pacific, here's something that could get you closer to a romantic Southern California getaway, which also includes a surprise package for food-lovers like me! As the economy vacillates between good and not-so-good forecasts, everyone is looking for a way...br/ br/ Please Click the Title for the Full Postdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?a=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?a=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?a=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?i=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?a=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?i=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?a=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?a=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FunAndFood?i=idGOIVoUuQI:PPfjQ9R0wRQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FunAndFood/~4/idGOIVoUuQI" height="1" width="1"/

Purim: Mohn Candy | Submitted By: Janice
Cook sugar, honey, tahini, poppy seeds and almonds to make a scrumptious homemade candy. Tahini, the sesame-seed paste common to Middle Eastern cooking, can be found in grocery or specialty stores.

Almost Irish Stew
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fAF34z20Vsw/Sb6NDcg5UDI/AAAAAAAAAjs/ysYriiDZnAE/s1600-h/Irish+Stew+1a.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313839700677054514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 225px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fAF34z20Vsw/Sb6NDcg5UDI/AAAAAAAAAjs/ysYriiDZnAE/s320/Irish+Stew+1a.jpg" border="0" //abr /divIt’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, so I decided to make “Almost Irish Stew” from emFresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker/em. It’s one of those basic “comfort food” stews that is perfect on a cold rainy day. I used baby carrots (halved lengthwise) but you can use sliced regular carrots, if you prefer, and any kind of white potatoes work well — just make sure they’re cut uniformly so everything gets done at the same time. I included diced seitan in my stew, but you could use white beans instead — it tastes great either way.br /br /When I want extra flavor, I sauté the onion in a skillet first, but this time I skipped that step and it still tasted great. You can also sauté your seitan before adding it to the slow cooker, if you like it nice and browned. Again, it’s a personal choice./divbr /divTo celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I wanted to boost the Irish factor with a touch of green, so I added some fresh baby spinach (blanched first and then added close to serving time). Kale or cabbage would be good, too, but I especially like how the bright green spinach, orange carrots, and white potatoes show the colors of the Irish flag!br /br /strongAlmost Irish Stew/strongbr /With the slow cooker doing all the work, it will give you time to make a loaf of Irish soda bread. Adapted from a href="http://www.globalvegankitchen.com/"Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker/a. emVariation/em: Substitute cooked white beans for the seitan. Instead of spinach or kale, you can substitute cabbage which can be added raw to the slow cooker when you add the carrots and potatoes.br /br /1 yellow onion, choppedbr /2 cups baby carrots, halved lengthwisebr /5 small white potatoes, halved or quarteredbr /2 garlic cloves, mincedbr /2 cups vegetable stockbr /1 bay leafbr /1/4 cup dry white winebr /2 tablespoons tamaribr /1 teaspoon dried thymebr /Salt and freshly ground black pepperbr /2 cups blanched spinach or kalebr /8 ounces seitan, dicedbr /br /Place the chopped onion in the bottom of a slow cooker. Add the carrots, potatoes, garlic, stock, bay leaf, wine, tamari, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, add the spinach and seitan. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve hot.br /br /Serves 4 /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Check out my other posts at a href="http://veganplanet.blogspot.com"Robin's Vegan Planet blog/a a name="top"/aimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8947277095635982390-3635266441753561083?l=veganplanet.blogspot.com'//divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:Jwdi1b3fU3Q"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=Jwdi1b3fU3Q" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=WZGiS3PEl2Q:jDMGmSCGM_Y:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/gmob/~4/WZGiS3PEl2Q" height="1" width="1"/

Apricot Berry Cobbler
a href="http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/apricot_berry_cobbler/" title="Apricot Berry Cobbler"img src="http://simplyrecipes.com/photos/apricot-berry-cobbler.jpg" alt="Apricot Berry Cobbler" //a pMy friend Suzanne has been coming over a lot recently, helping my mother and me raid my next door neighbor Pat's a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/16/FDGQU74T961.DTL"Blenheim/a apricot tree (with Pat's blessing of course). Suzanne has 3 growing teenagers to feed, so she can put those apricots to work! This week she walked me through her steps of making a fruit cobbler, using blackberries and Pat's apricots. What I love about cobbler recipes is that they are so forgiving. If they end up runny, that's okay because you aren't trying to contain them in a pie shell. If they're a little too tart, just serve them with some vanilla ice cream. Cobblers travel well for potlucks and you just serve them with a spoon. Best of all, they're a wonderful way to enjoy the fruit of the season./p a href="http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/apricot_berry_cobbler/" class="new"p class="extended"Continue reading "Apricot Berry Cobbler" »/a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8b0woW6rR0bIfW9bumFJIXVSXCs/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8b0woW6rR0bIfW9bumFJIXVSXCs/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8b0woW6rR0bIfW9bumFJIXVSXCs/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/8b0woW6rR0bIfW9bumFJIXVSXCs/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?a=Y5eLxjr_MJ4:SPcYE0YgeS8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?a=Y5eLxjr_MJ4:SPcYE0YgeS8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?i=Y5eLxjr_MJ4:SPcYE0YgeS8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?a=Y5eLxjr_MJ4:SPcYE0YgeS8:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?a=Y5eLxjr_MJ4:SPcYE0YgeS8:I9og5sOYxJI"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/elise/simplyrecipes?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/elise/simplyrecipes/~4/Y5eLxjr_MJ4" height="1" width="1"/

Spicy Coconut Noodles
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fAF34z20Vsw/SfhYvfjH76I/AAAAAAAAAk0/HqIeoH7TGeo/s1600-h/Coconut+Noodles+1c.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330107731938897826" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 225px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fAF34z20Vsw/SfhYvfjH76I/AAAAAAAAAk0/HqIeoH7TGeo/s320/Coconut+Noodles+1c.jpg" border="0" //abr /divA busy day with no time to cook prompted me to make a recipe from a href="http://www.globalvegankitchen.com/"Quick-Fix Vegetarian /aeven quicker. I adapted the recipe for coconut rice noodles, using leftover cooked linguine instead of preparing rice noodles and added extra coconut milk to make it more saucy and help the noodles heat up more quickly. I tossed in some thawed frozen peas, although the addition of some leftover cooked veggies such as broccoli would have been nice as well, or if you have time, you can sauté other veggies of choice, such as red bell pepper.br /br /A generous sprinkling of cilantro (or parsley, if you’re out of cilantro like I was) and a squeeze of lime added sparkle, with some cashews on top to add a bit of crunch. Well, I had planned to use cashews, but at the last minute I noticed some fried rice noodles in the cupboard, so I used them instead for a nice change. I thought the dish might need some extra heat, so I brought the Sriracha sauce to the table, but it turned out the red pepper flakes provided just the right amount, more as a background of heat rather than being in the forefront. (of course, if you don't like heat, you can leave it out or use less.) Start to finish, this easy and versatile dinner was ready in about 15 minutes. Now that’s a quick fix!br /br /strongSpicy Coconut Noodles/strongbr //divdivAdapted from a href="http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Fix-Vegetarian-Healthy-Home-Cooked-Minutes/dp/0740763741"Quick-Fix Vegetarian/a./divdivbr /1 tablespoon neutral vegetable oilbr /8 ounces extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch dicebr /3 green onions, choppedbr /1 1/2 teaspoons grated gingerbr /1 can unsweetened coconut milkbr /3 tablespoons soy saucebr /2 teaspoons light brown sugarbr /1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to tastebr /Salt and freshly ground black pepperbr /8 ounces cooked rice noodles or linguinebr /1/2 cup thawed frozen peasbr /1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro or parsleybr /Lime wedges, for garnishbr /Crushed cashews, for garnishbr //divbr /divHeat the oil in a skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add the tofu and stir-fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the green onions and ginger and stir-fry another 30 seconds. Reduce heat to low and stir in the coconut milk, soy sauce, sugar, and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooked noodles and peas and toss gently to combine until heated through, about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more soy sauce or sugar if needed, to balance the flavors. Serve sprinkled with the cilantro and garnished with lime wedges and cashews./divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"Check out my other posts at a href="http://veganplanet.blogspot.com"Robin's Vegan Planet blog/a a name="top"/aimg width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8947277095635982390-442358155476935954?l=veganplanet.blogspot.com'//divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:63t7Ie-LG7Y"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=63t7Ie-LG7Y" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:dnMXMwOfBR0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:TzevzKxY174"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=TzevzKxY174" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:KwTdNBX3Jqk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?i=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:KwTdNBX3Jqk" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:Jwdi1b3fU3Q"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=Jwdi1b3fU3Q" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?a=IEkMQl78mdA:f43hFJUEnsg:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/gmob?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/gmob/~4/IEkMQl78mdA" height="1" width="1"/

Events and Gatherings: Grape Leaves Aleppo | Submitted By: Robert Shagawat
The best way to prepare delicious grape leaves, or yeb'r't in Arabic, as handed down by my grandmother from Aleppo, Syria as brought to the US in 1912.

Low Glycemic Impact Recipes: A Very Intense Fruit Smoothie | Submitted By: Diane
Frozen berries and peaches are blended to make a delicious and healthy fruit smoothie.