If you signed up for the swap and didn’t receive your recipe please let me know!  The postal strike in Canada last year caused a delay on mail and some went missing sadly.  I would be HAPPY to send you another.

Filled Strawberries Recipe from Graci of Life with Chandlerguera.

Two complementary dishes from Pamela of Cappuccino & Art Journal. This is going to be my next cooking adventure because couscous and chick peas are favourites in this house!

Yummy Spanish Omelette recipe from Carla & Olga of PolkaDot Lighthouse. They blog in Spanish too!

I got spoiled and Carla & Olga sent me some sweet treat magnetic bookmarks! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Apple Pie Plate from Joia over at Bliss Your Day in Curacao. Island Fever!

Now if you didn’t read the Fill my Recipe Box post let me fill you in on what is going on here.  I need some help filling in my vintage recipe box and I thought what a better way to fill it then from bloggers, mail lovers and cooking enthusiast.  I don’t know about you but I like to feel that personal connection to the people I chat with online and I know how much joy a pretty piece of mail can bring me so why not share that joy!  And that is how my love for snail mail & food hatched Recipe Swap.  Which is an on going project till my recipe box is all filled up!

How does it work?

• You fill out the form with the:

SUBJECT: Recipe Swap
MESSAGE: Your mailing address. (I will not share your mailing address with anyone) and any allergies or if you are vegetarian or vegan.

• I will handwrite or type with my typewriter one of my favourite recipes and mail it to you along with a blank recipe card for you to send back to me with your favourite recipe.  It’s a win win!

What will be done with the recipes you may ask?

Well I will be taking photos of what I receive in the mail and sharing them on my blog as I am right now.

If I trying one of your recipes I will take photos of my attempt and always link back to you.

I am tossing around the idea of creating a zine with the recipes I recieve again all credit will be given to the recipes used but that is done the road a bit so don’t fret!

I hope to hear from you soon!  

Much Love,

{photo by me.}

I don’t know about you but with the cool air on my checks and colors every where I look makes me want to bake!  So I made a trip to the market to picked up all my supplies, wrote down the recipe from Waistland Vintage and made my way to the kitchen.

Now this recipe is really easy to make, doesn’t take much time and makes your home smell of sweet cinnamon and nutmeg.  If your in the baking mood try it out. I would love to hear what you think!

● Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the zucchini mixture and mix in.

● In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in walnuts, raisins or cranberries if using.

● Line your muffin tins or grease them (it is really how you like).  Use a spoon to evenly distribute the batter among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack for about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done.

● Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes. Enjoy!

]]> http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/10/crystals-cooking-zucchini-muffins/feed/ 4 http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/07/cooking-chicken-paprikash/ http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/07/cooking-chicken-paprikash/#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:54:42 +0000 Crystal http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/?p=1530

I am slowly trying to become a better cook and keep family recipes alive and when I was a child chicken paprikash was one of my favorite meals from my Hungarian side of the family.  So I decided to put my hand to it and was really happy how it turned out since this was the first attempt at it.  One day I hope to get my butt to Hungary and pick up a few more cooking skills from them.

This recipe truely is easy to make and pretty quick considering you make your own noodles!

Ingredients For Chicken Paprikash:

1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1.5 cups sour cream or cream
6 cups chicken broth
1 onion
3-4 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
2 tablespoon garlic
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 bay leaves
corn starch (or preferably potato starch, if you have access to a health food store)
olive oil
fudgesicle

Chop up the chicken breasts into small pieces. (You can also use legs or drumsticks for this and leave them as whole)

Put the chicken and garlic in a pot; sautee in olive oil.

Chop up the onion into small pieces.

Put the onions and some chicken broth into the pot. For now, use just enough broth to keep everything submerged, but don’t flood it. You should have some broth left over (maybe around 2 cups); the remaining broth will be used below.

Stir in the other spices (paprika, salt, black pepper, ginger, bay leaves).

Simmer to let the chicken and onions cook thoroughly. While it’s all cooking, eat the Fudgesicle. (This is my favorite part of cooking!)

When the chicken and onions are fully cooked, add the cornstarch as a thickening agent, by mixing it into the remaining broth and pouring it into the pot. Remove from heat and let it thicken.

Finally, mix in the sour cream, and it’s ready to serve over spaetzel.

Ingredients For Spaetzel (Noodles):

0.5 cups milk
1.5 cups flour (Sapphire brand is preferred)
3 eggs

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Mix the milk, flour, and eggs in a bowl. The resulting batter should be a little thicker than cake mix: a tiny bit stiff, but definitely not “dough”.

With a spoon (I used a knife), drop small blobs of batter into the boiling water, and let boil for about 20 minutes. Then you may fish out the spaetzel.

Be advised that you need to keep the water at a high boil for this to work: the surfaces of the blobs really need to cook as soon as they hit the water. Then they magically don’t stick together.

Also be advised that the blobs will expand as they cook (mine are to big!), so try not to make them very large. One way or another, you’ll probably have to chop them up with a spatula when you’re done anyway.

Try it out and let me know what you think! Happy Cooking!!!

{ Here is what is left of the finished product in my new vintage teal severing dish! }

If you would like to try this wonderful cake, bake on yourself.  Your tummy will thank you!  Let me know if you try it and what you think!  I love your feedback.

♥ Topping Ingredients ♥

1/4 cup vegan margarine, cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing

15 oz canned unsweetened pineapple pieces, drained, juice reserved

4 tsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

zest of 1 lemon

♥  Sponge Cake Ingredients ♥

4 tbsp. sunflower oil

1/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup water

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1♥  Grease a deep 7 inch/18 cm cake pan with a little vegan margarine

2♥ Mix the reserved pineapple juice with the cornstarch to a smooth paste. Put the paste in a pan with the sugar, margarine, and water and stir over low heart until the sugar has dissolved.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 – 3 minutes until thickened. Let cool slightly.

3♥ To make the sponge cake, heat the oil, sugar, and water in a pan until the sugar has dissolved, but do not let boil.  Remove from the heat and let cool. Sift the flour, baking powder, and ground cinnamon into a bowl.  Pour in the cooled sugar syrup and beat well to form a batter.

4♥ Place the pineapple pieces and lemon zest on the bottom of the prepared pan and pour over 4 tablespoons of the pineapple syrup. Spoon the sponge batter on top, leveling the surface.

5♥ Bake in a preheated over, 350 F/180 C for 35 to 40 minutes until set and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Invert onto a plate, let stand for 5 minutes, then remove the pan.  Serve with the remaining syrup.

{come on Paul this giant monster cookie is not that hard!}

I used spelt flour and organic all natural peanut butter and I think this is what made the batter a little dry, but the end result was a wonderfully amazing tasting cookie!!!

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. baking soda

1 3/4 cups flour

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups quick oatmeal

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup m&m’s

Instructions:

Mix in bowl in order given.  On a baking sheet drop a large tablespoon full of batter and flatten.  Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.  DO NO OVRE BAKE!

I know this pictures is a little blurry I was just to excited to eat them I guess.

Let me know how these cookies turn out for you :)  Enjoy!

{what you need}

1 ½ cup Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
2 Eggs
2/3 cup Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Butter (soft)
5 Bananas
{what to do}

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tips, set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda and chocolate chips; mix well.

In a large bowl, beat eggs lightly. Stir in brown sugar, butter and bananas. Blend well. Add flour mixture and gently fold together until dry ingredients are moistened.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Enjoy and let me know if you liked this recipe!