Homemade Meals

  Walnut cookies (Bulgarian- Style Recipe) It may seem strange, but growing up in Bulgaria, we didn't have chocolate chip cookies or oatmeal cookies, which are so famous here in America. We had different type of cookies, and the walnut ones were probably my favorite. So that's why I decided to share :)  P.S. The Bulgarian name is Orehovki (Oreh means walnut) Ingredients:  3 egg whites (or 1/4 cup if you are using a carton of egg whites) 1 1/4 cup walnuts  1 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract a few dark chocolate baking ships (less than 1/4 cup). The baking chips are optional, and if using, use a little less than 1 cup of sugar. Preparation: 1. Finely chop/grind the walnuts- I use a mortar to grind them because I like some walnut pieces, but you can use a spice/coffee grinder if you prefer the walnuts finely grinded 2. I place a cooking pan with water on the stove, medium- low heat. I place a smaller size pan with the egg whites. Using a hand mixer, when t...

Yummy! I try to eat healthy, so I always prefer baked meals to fried food. This chicken recipe is so delicious, you won't try another :) You can also use smaller chicken wings, and prepare them when you have friends over. Ingredients (for 2 people) 2 pounds of chicken drumsticks  1 2/3 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp turmeric (if you prefer you can use fresh turmeric) 1/2 tsp sugar 1- 2" fresh ginger, finely grated 2 cloves garlic, finely grated Preparation: 1. Combine in a bowl the salt, pepper, turmeric and sugar and rub the chicken with the spice mix. 3. Sprinkle ginger and garlic evenly over the chicken. Cover and chill the chicken for minimum of 1 hour (I chill it overnight) 4. Place the chicken on a greased foil-lined rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle oil on top of the chicken. 5. Bake at 425F for about 25 min (until golden brown)  6. Using tongs, turn the chicken over and continue to cook for additional 20-25 min. (until skin is crisp) 7. Enjoy!

If you would like to try a Bulgarian meal, I highly recommend Banitza. My mom used to bake it for breakfast (we eat bread and dough-based meals for breakfast). Banitza is also part of the New Year’s Eve tradition- we insert a coin and handwritten whishes to see our luck and fortune for the next year. Since banitza is part of out tradition, everybody loves it, and every household has its own recipe based on people’s taste. I love my banitza crispy with a lot of cheese. Some people like it more greasy, and with less cheese. I am going to share my aunt’s recipe- it is very easy to make- I hope you love it!  Ingredients: ½ package frozen Fillo Dough (I buy the Fillo Factory brand from Whole Foods) 2 eggs 1 cup yogurt ½ tsp baking soda Crumbled Bulgarian feta cheese (approx. 1 cup) Melted butter  Steps:  1) Thaw the fillo dough, so it is easy to work with and it doesn’t break  2) Preheat oven to 350F 3) Combine the yogurt with the baking soda and add the 2 e...

  Pork Chili Verde Prepared in an Instant Pot Ingredients: 3 lb. boneless sirloin roast 4 Carrots 1 onion 4 minced garlic cloves 28 Oz (1 can) enchilada sauce ¼ cup water 2 jalapeno pepper 1 cup minced fresh cilantro   I haven’t cooked this type of dish before; I’ve always made beef tacos whenever I am craving some Mexican food. I saw this recipe in a book, and I decided to try something different; plus it seemed easy to make. It turned out delicious, however it wasn’t as spicy as I expected. So I had to put some Tapatio sauce on my tacos. I hope you guys enjoy it 😊 1.      Select Sauté on the Instant Pot (high heat). Heat 3 tbs of oil and  sauté,  in batches, the pork,  onion, carrots and garlic until browned. 2.        Add enchilada sauce, water, jalapenos, and cilantro          3.  Lock the lid and pressure cook on Manual setting for 30 min. When finish cookin...

  Chocolate Chip cookies They are simply delicious! I love dark chocolate, so for this recipe I use dark chocolate (63% cacao) baking chips. Ingredients: 2 cups dark or semi-sweet chocolate baking chips (340g) 3/4 cup sugar,  1/2 tsp. salt 6 tbsp. butter at room temperature 2 eggs at room temperature 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour mixed with 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) Preparation: 1)      Preheat oven to 375F Degrees. 2)     If you like more chocolate chips in your cookies, you can melt 1 cups of chips instead of 1 ½ cup.  Set aside. 3)   Cream the following ingredients in a large bowl until light       4) Add the following to the mix                                5)    Add the melted Chocolate, 1 ¼ cup all-purpose fl...

Italian wedding soup Prepared with love from “Chef” Desi on March 8 th , 2021 Since beginning of Covid-19, I end up spending more time at home. Due to the restaurant closure, I started preparing more home meals. I never liked to cook, and I didn’t know which recipes to prepare, so I subscribed to several cooking magazines and I bought cookbooks. This week I received the latest issue of All recipes- this soup recipe looked easy, so I decided to try it. It turned out very delicious, so that’s why I am sharing it with you. If you end up preparing it, let me know how you like it! Mahalo! 1)    Mix the following ingredients together, add salt and black pepper to taste    2 )    Form meat balls by hand 3)    Bring 6 cups of chicken broth to boil and carefully add the meat balls to the broth one by one 4)    Add 4 cups chopped spinach, ½ cup orzo pasta and 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest (salt and pepper to taste, optional) 5)    ...