These three soups are the best comfort meal for the lunch in fall: it enegrizes, keeps you warm and boosts your taste buds. You can add lots of flavors to these soups by experimenting with herbs: basil, dill, parsley and others.

Vegetarian Pea Soup 

Vegetarian pea soup is good those days when you want a rich-creamy soup without any meat component in it. It’s a comfort food perfect right for the days when it’s chilly and drizzly outside. This recipe has simple ingredients and doesn’t require to be a skillful chef to prepare it.

All in all perfect autumn soup for the family. Read more

Pumpkin crème-soup with shrimp, cream cheese and basil.

It’s autumn and it means that it’s time for a great pumpkin soup with shrimp that I just LOVE cooking.

It doesn’t require a lot of effort but it comes out perfectly smooth, bringing in the autumn flavors and colors into your kitchen.

I tasted this soup long time ago in Europe, brought it into my kitchen and my family just loves it. Hope, you will too. Read more

 Zucchini crème-soup

This is a very simple crème soup. It takes 40 minutes to cook and your family will enjoy this meal. It’s a great summer or fall soup for your to enjoy! Simple and flavorful! It takes little effort to cook and it’s a really light  dish. It gives you energy and makes you feel good. Read more

This is one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast! because it is fast and nutritinal.

You will need :

1 egg

2-3 slices of cheese

2-3 slices of ham or Canadian bacon

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

1 bagel

2-3 slices of tomato

pickles (optional)

1 teaspoon of cooking oil

Beat up an egg and pur into the frying pan. Fry until golden brown on both sides (3 minutes). when fried on both sides put the ham and cheese slices on top and let the cheese melt a little.

Take the bagel put the egg with ham and cheese on one side , cover it with tomato and pickles and top it with another side of bagel.

ENJOY!

This is a traditional recipe for the parties and holidays in Slavic countries. No one knows where it came to former Soviet countries from,(we were a huge country with closed borders for decades), but this was the main salad of every celebration in almost every family for decades.

I cook this salad very rarely and mainly in autumn and winter, as I consider this salad too conservative and even boring to cook it very often. I always experiment with the ingredients as it’s always good to have a different  taste of the same well known dish.

Serves 4.

Cooking time 35 minutes.

Preparation time 15 minutes.

For the salad you will need:

2-3 medium potatoes boiled

1-2 eggs hard boiled

1 medium carrot boiled

7-8 cornichons

2-3 tablespoons of pickled peppers (optional)

3-4 sausages or a cup of chopped ham or chicken breast

1/4 white onion

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

2-3 tablespoons of canned peas

3 tablespoons of mayo (light)

Step 1: wash and boil the potato and carrot. Boil for 20 minutes of until cooked i.e. soft. Boil an egg until cooked.

Step 2: Peel a potato and a  carrot. Shell an egg(s)

Step 3 : Chop in small chunks potato, carrot, sausage (or any meat you plan to incorporate in a dish), egg. Finely chop the onion (1/4 of it)

Chop cornichons and pickled pepper, mix everything.

Step 4: Add salt,pepper and canned peas. Dress with mayo , you can add some dill you you like.

Serve cold.

***Tip from Helen*** The meat may also be substituted with mushrooms. canned in water or fried mushrooms, the taste will be different. Pickled peppers aren’t a must.For dressing you may combine mayo and sour cream or mayo and  ranch dressing. Don’t make the dressing too sour though.***

This recipe is very popular in European countries: in Austria it’s called schnitzel,  in the US it’s called a cutlet. We cook cutlets with beef and pork, even with fish and chicken. The main thing the fillet/ or loin has to be thin.

It’s a great dish for a weekday dinner, 5-10 minutes to cook if the meat is ready to work with (not frozen)

For the family of 4 you will need:

1 lb of thin sliced beef

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons of flour 

1 egg

 Wash  and tenderize the meat with meat tenderizer.

***Tip from Helen*** Cover the meat with the clear wrap and then use the smooth shaped side of the ”hammer” to tenderize the meat.***

Season the meat with salt and pepper, cut into medium sized slices 6-7 inch long and 2-4 inch wide. (Or if your meat was cut before then leave as it is)

Pour the flour in a disposable plate.

In a separate deep dish beat the egg. (you may add 1 tablespoon of water for it to be beaten better and evenly). Season the egg mix with salt and pepper.

Run the cutlet through the flour, then egg and then put on a hot frying pan (add the cooking oil just before putting your cutlets to fry).

Fry the cutlets on each side until golden brown.

Serve warm with mashed potato, rice or grilled vegetables.

Enjoy!

There’s really no tricks about cooking this… eggs and bacon or eggs and sausage are awesome for Sunday breakfast/ brunch, to add a twist to this dish add some herbs: basil, lemon basil or parsley and dill. Anyways it can’t be spoiled:-)

Enjoy! Have a Happy Sunday!

So this is my favorite Saturday morning breakfast/brunch meal.

It’s very fast to cook and you can add pretty much any vegetable you like and it will be gorgeous.

For this one I added:

3-4 slices of snow white squash you can use zucchini);

½ of white onion;

4 eggs;

½ tomato;

Lemon basil leaves;

Pinch of salt;

Pinch of pepper;

At first peel, wash and finely chop onion.

Wash and cut in slices, then chop squash (zucchini)

Preheat at medium heat and add cooking oil, start frying onion with squash, until soft, but still crunchy. Add the eggs and fry until cooked (5—7 min @ medium heat).

To all this beauty add tomato cut in slices (or chopped, you choose) and then add basil leaves. Fry for 2 min (so that tomatoes will be slightly soft, but not braised).

You can add cheese on top of your omelet.

And enjoy!

***Tip from Helen*** you can also add bacon or ham with squash, mushroom, it will be delicious***

This pie was invented some time ago it’s fast and simple to cook, and filling can be pretty much anything: mushrooms, braised cabbage, spinach, eggs and herbs, meat… you name it.

For the batter:

1 cup of cultured buttermilk;

1 teaspoon baking soda;

1, 5 cups of self-rising flour;

1 egg;

Pinch of salt.

Filling: anything you want /have in your kitchen, refrigerator

(BTW it’s not as good with sweet filling: fruit or berries. I don’t know why)

Mix buttermilk, baking soda, egg and salt. Add flour. Mix very well. There should be no flour balls (when the flour isn’t mixed properly). You should be able to pour the batter into the baking dish (it should be liquid, same consistency as my apricot and apple pie batter).

Preheat you oven at 350F. Put a baking dish inside for 5 min. Take it out, grease the dish with butter, so that your pie wouldn’t stick. Pour the batter into your baking dish; add your filling on top. I used: braised cabbage and 2 boiled eggs. When it was almost ready (2-5 min before taking it out) I added tomato and lemon basil.

Set to bake for 15-20 min. (or when ready, depends on the oven)

When the pie is ready it should have golden brown crust.

Enjoy!

The pie is good warm and cold!

This recipe is as simple as 1-2-3!

You can make it with pasta from a store but it’s more tender and delish if you cook it yourself. The detailed recipe for the homemade pasta may be found here.

The alternative brief recipe is here:

2-3 eggs;

1/3 melted butter;

1 cup of flour;

1/3 cup of lemon basil finely chopped;

Melt the butter, cool it off. Whisk the eggs and butter, then add lemon basil and flour.

Knead the dough for 10-15 min. Split your dough into two parts. Cover the table surface where you will roll out your dough with some flour. Using a dough roller roll out a thin layer of dough (don’t forget to cover the table surface with flour before rolling out your dough layer. Fold your thin sheet of dough 3-4 times into a roll (remember you should have enough flour inside the roll, so that your pasta wouldn’t stick)

Cut your dough into the thin pasta strips.  Aerate your pasta. Give it some air! See the pic here

Repeat with the second half of dough (don’t forget, the dough layer for your pasta should be thin);

Filling:

1/3 lbs. minced pork meat;

1/3 lbs. minced beef meat;

1 carrot;

½ white onion;

Pinch of salt;

Pinch of black pepper;

1 clove of garlic;

2 tablespoons of cooking oil;

1/3 cup of basil, lemon basil

Shred your carrot and finely chop the onion. Press the clove of garlic. Mix the meats with the carrot and onion; add the pinch of salt and black pepper.

Preheat the frying pan at medium heat. Add oil and the meat with veggies mix. Fry the meat for 5-10 minutes occasionally stirring.

***Tip from Helen*** you can also add the red bell pepper to you meat, it will be more flavorful ***

Set the 3-4 quart pan half full of water, when the water start boiling, add a pinch of salt and boil your pasta for 3-5 minutes.

When pasta is soft, drain the water and add your pasta to the frying pan with meat and veggies. Stir your pasta very well, so that it would mix with meat and all the juices.

Add herbs: lemon basil, Italian seasoning!

Your pasta is ready!

Enjoy!

Fish and Potato salad “Mimosa”

This salad is more winter salad than summer, but sometimes,my family loves to eat it for lunch because it’s nutritious, delicious and healthy.
(You may use light mayo for less calories)

So for this salad you will need:

¼ of medium onion;

1 egg;

1 medium potato;

1-2 medium carrots;

1 can of light tuna in water;

1 teaspoon of salt;

1 teaspoon of pepper;

1 tablespoon of parsley;

3 tablespoons of mayo; (light)

2 tablespoons of American cheese (shredded) (not necessary, maybe excluded from the recipe);

Carefully wash and boil potato and carrots. (Boil for 20 min or until cooked). Boil 1 egg. Take off the heat drain the water and let the ingredients cool.

Meanwhile, take the tuna, open and drain, put in a separate bowl, add 1 tablespoon of mayo, add salt, pepper and stir very well.

Peel the cooled off carrots and potato, finely chop the 1/4  of onion.

Take the bowl for the salad and now we’ll create the layers of the salad. (BTW this salad shouldn’t be stirred).

Layers:

1 layer: onion and a little bit of salt (I use saltshaker to carefully salt every layer. This also helps me not to use too much salt in my dish).

2 layer: shred carrot (one or half, depending on how many carrots you did boil) salt and pepper this layer a little bit.

3 layer: take your tuna mixed with mayo, put it as a next layer (no salt or pepper)

4 layer: (if you want to add cheese this is time for it: shred the American cheese, so that a fine layer would form) If you don’t use the cheese,- grate the other half of carrot/ or the second carrot. (Salt and pepper,
don’t get too excited with salt and pepper, add just a bit!)

5 layer: grate the potato, add salt, pepper and cover it with mayo.

Now we do the decoration. In Slavic countries this salad is
called: mimosa, because the salad is decorated with grated egg yolk that reminds mimosa flowers (see the pic). Honestly it’s not necessary to decorate this salad with egg yolk. A leave of parsley will do just fine, but if you want your salad to look like this exotic Georgian flower you definitely should decorate it with egg yolk.

One more detail: in Slavic countries we don’t use tuna in this salad – we use canned pilchards/sardines in oil, but, as they contain too many calories I substituted sardines with tuna.

Fast apple and apricot pie.

This pie disappears in your family members’ mouths as fast, as you cooked it.

Preparation of the dough for this pie takes 5-10 minutes, baking: 20 more minutes. Simple, fast and delicious. 

The main problem is that in another 30 minutes it may vanish completely out of the plate.:-))

So for this pie you’ll need:

2 medium apples;

2-3 apricots;

3 eggs;

1 cup of sugar;

1 cup of flour; (I recommend using self-rising flour)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar;

Blend in a food processor: 3 eggs add gradually 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar, then add gradually 1 cup of flour.

Aerate (if you have this option in your food processor/blender). Let it stay.

Turn on your oven and preheat to 350F

Meanwhile: wash and cut the apples. Split in halves apricots.

Grease the baking dish. Cover it with apples and then on top put the halves of apricots.

Aerate you dough again (or just blend it again for minute or so). Pour the dough into you baking dish.

Put into the oven for 15-20 min.

Enjoy your pie! I surely enjoy mine! BTW: apricot is a secret ingredient. BUT you may cook this pie with any stuffing you like:-) Sorry didn’t get a chance to picture the whole pie: IT VANISHED!