Lets gets creative ladies!!

Share your favourite recipes , be it - indian,  thai, mexican, chinese, italian etc etc

Share your favourite desserts , salads , crepes , dishes with us !!

My favorite healthy Pasta Sauce, Which you can also use as pizza sauce!

1/4 c. olive oil

8 whole tomatoes, chopped

fresh basil

chili, salt and pepper

4 cloves garlic

heat the oil, and crush the garlic and chili - chop the tomatoes, fresh basil, and cook until the tomatoes form a sauce.

I'm really into Carbonara at the moment.  It's quick and cheap, which at the moment is a bonus.  I like the fact that apart from cooking your pasta in one pan, all you have to do if fry some bacon, onion and garlic in another.  Then, after draining the pasta and returning it to the pan, crack eggs onto the hot pasta (that should cook it!!) and add some cream or I prefer creme fraiche (to make more of a sauce), and the fried bacon etc.  Mix this altogther in the large pan and serve quickly whilst still hot.  You can jazz it up with chives and parmesan.. and eat with crusty or garlic bread.  Lovely.

I confess I'm a bit of a 'handful of this' and a 'dash of this' type of cook.  Lucky enough to have been bought up by a mum that cooks really really well.  Yum.  I've never heard of this sauce in a jar??? Give me an idea of how many people .. I guess actually I could just tell you an amount for say four people……Well it's an egg person and yes.. you beat them. keep the pasta in the original pan, after draining, and keep it on a very low heat (just to make sure the eggs cook).  It's tricky with the cream/creme fraiche as it depends how saucy you like the sauce  - if you know what I mean.  Just sort of pour it in the pan as well.. and keep moving the pasta in the pan to mix it all nicely.  Does that make any sense????????  Oh and loads of salt and pepper….. Good Luck!!!!

I read it as an egg a person anyway and had to go back to see what you were talking about, LOL. Thanks for the info!

I wish I'd saw this before I went grocery shopping today and I'd have looked for it because I can't for the life of me recall the brand. I used to get it in Food Lion where the glass jars with Ragu, Classico and Paul Newman type pasta sauces are.

I've only got a Walmart close by now so I'm not sure if they've got it but will look next visit. I'd say you'd need two jars for four people if they've got healthy appetites like mine and you want a saucy sauce. I like my sauce saucy enough that it'll lie on the plate but without the pasta swimming in it. If you prefer it just to coat it and no more, you may get away with one jar or a jar and a half.

Yikes! I've done that with a kiev type ball and not only did it go all over me but it burnt my lip! Apparently you shouldn't eat them straight out of the oven but you learn that AFTER you've peeled a few layers of skin off your face LOL. One of those “first time and last time” experiences definitely. And we think the kids are messy…

This is one of my hubby's favourite dish. I learned it from a famous Malaysian chef-Chef Wan. I can't remember what it's called so I named it 'Squid by Chef Wan'.

Ingredients:

1. 500g of squids
2. 3 onions
3. 5 cloves of garlic
4. 1 tsp of ginger
5. 2 pounded lemongrass
6. 1 tsp of shrimp paste
7. 5 red chillies
8. 1 tbsp of turmeric powder
9. 2 tbsp sugar
10. a pinch of salt
11. bay leaves
12. 2 tbsp of tomato sauce
13. 1 tbsp of sweet soya bean sauce

Directions:

Clean the squid and cut them into small pieces. Blend onions, garlic, ginger, shrimp paste, red chillies and turmeric powder. Heat up the pot and add 2 tbsp of oil. Add pounded lemon grass in and the blended ingredients. Fry till it sizzles. Add squid, followed by sugar, salt, tomato sauce and sweet soya bean sauce. Lastly add the bay leaves. 

Serve with rice. Enjoy

Kay, this is how I clean a squid.

While gripping the head in one hand and the body in the other, gently pull the head of the squid. The insides will normally come along as you pull the head. In my recipe above, I don't use the squid ink but you can add this to your cooking. The ink sac will be in the innards. I do have another recipe which uses squid ink. If you are lucky, you might chance on a female squid which usually has very delicious eggs. The tentacles are edible. Cut them from the head just below the eyes. Remove the beak from the center of the tentacles. Also, remove the long, thin cuttlebone from inside the body. Wash the inside of the squid and tentacles under running water.

As for substituting scallops for squids, I'm not sure if it will taste good. I've never tried other than squids but you can always experiment if you like. That's the fun thing about cooking.  Also, if you would like to skip the hassle of cleaning a squid, you can always buy them which are already sold cleaned.

the detail on cleaning squid was awesome!  ever thought of being a technical writer?  I have never touched squid (other than to pop some calamari in my mouth) and I think with your instruction I would have no problem cleaning one!  thanks for the recipe AND the detail … off to figure out where I can pick some up now!

How exciting that would be, Nazreen!  When you open your restaurant, you'll have to let us know so we can come support your grand opening!

I have a friend that was a lawyer in NY for years.  One day a year or two ago, she decided that she no longer wanted to do that work, quit, and went to school to learn how to become a vegan chef!  She decided she was never going to “find” the right time to take classes unless she made the time, and the only way she could make the time was to quit her job at the law firm.  Now she is in Germany, learning the language and hoping to find a job as a vegan chef!!

Good luck on your dream