Foodaholic

You know how we all have one thing that’s not a very good idea for us to be around it. That one thing that you need and when you get it you can’t leave it. For some that thing may be shopping or drinking or unsafe adventures… well for me that thing is food.

For me being around too much delicious culinary creations is like to hire an alcoholic for a barman. I’m pretty sure most of you have seen the tv series Friends, well if you have you know how Monica used to be … a little chubby and then she lost a lot of weight and became a chef. Well unfortunatly my life is a copy of hers. Althought i was never that fat, when I was a kid and pretty much when I was a teenager I was reaaaally overweight. And as you all probably know being fat as a kid is some kind of a punishment from god and all of the other kids go border line cruel on you and abuse you and all that .. stuff. Even though I didn’t put weight because of overeating (I put it on because I had medical problems and I had to take meds and eat a lot of carbs to help my organism recover) the other kids did not care about that and after so much abuse I became depressed and you know how when you are depressed sometimes the only thing that helps is food. A lot of it! … Soo you know where this is going my life became a vicious cyrcle until one day when I couldn’t take it any more. By that time I was about 15 or 16 years old. And how does a teenager loose weight? Well it’s not the healthy way for sure. So from being overweight I became almost anorexic for months. I lost about 45 or 50 pounds and I still tought I was fat. I became home schooled, I was sick all day long and I stopped eating at all.

You know may be my story is not as pleasant as Monicas. 😀 But anyway I don’t need to go in details, cause you know these kind of stories, some of them have a tragic ending and I’m so thankful that mine turned around. After some period of time I started to look at myself a different way … a healthier way. I started eating healthy foods and pulled myself together. To this day I find flaws in my figure I’m never happy with the way I look, but most of us are that way. The important thing is that now I know that my health is my priority and i know that people are always going to talk, but now I know that there is nothing wrong with me. I’m perfect in my own way. And we all are, but not everybody knows that. Every day millions of teenagers look at themselfs in the mirror and they can only thing about some imaginary flaws imposed by the society. And even tough I’m still afraid of the day when I might slip and go overboard I’ve made it my dream to become a culinary expert and find a way to help all the kids who are now where I was then and show them that there is a way and there is always hope and help them see what we all actually see: a beautiful young person who is just lost in the hate of the society. Back then I didn’t think that I will ever be interested in food or cooking but now I belive that there is not a better path I could have taken.

That post was just to show you that life can push us in the most unexpected direction and we sould just embrace it and most of all we should learn how to be good people, because sometimed we may not know that we are hurting someone with own actions.

And on a better note IT’S MY BIRTHDAY … in a few days :D. It’s on the 17th of August and I CAN NOT wait … aand no, I’ll not be telling you how old I’ll be getting but I’ll be keeping you up with that and post some pics of the party!

Carbonara spaghetti with parmigiano

Ingrediants:
300g spaghetti
1 onion
150g chopped bacon
150g mushrooms
1tbs cooking oil
2 egg yolks
100ml. cream
59g grated parmigiano
salt
black pepper
basil – dry for dusting

Preparation:
Boil and drain the spaghetti.
Heat oil and saute the finely chopped onions. Add the bacon and fry it up
Gradually add the cream and reduce the heat to keep the sauce from boiling. Under continuous stirring, add the two egg yolk and mix, then add about 50-60 mL of water.
Sprinkle with grated parmigiano salt and pepper to taste. Once the sauce is slightly thickened turn off the heat and add the spaghetti.
Mix well and dispense into plates. Serve spaghetti carbonara, sprinkled with a little basil and parmigiano.

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The food dream with capital D

The big dream.. everybody has one and I think you might already have an idea what mine is.

Well since I’ve started a blog and it’s all mine and i can write anything I want it in, I’m going to share my not so long or interesting life story and the only think I can do is to hope that you take a minute of your time and read it and probably if you know the writer you’ll enjoy the blog.

Ok, I’ve already wasted enough space with non sence… let’s beging! Oh, and also as I already said before my english may not be perfect, please ignore it if I make any mistakes

I’m going to start with the basics, as i mentioned in a previous post my name is Annie or at least that’s how I intouduce myself. My full name is Anna-Maria, I live in a almost unknown county: Bulgaria. I’m actually studying bussines and management, but my passion is cooking. My big dream is to become a chef, because cooking seems to be one of the few things I enjoy and I put all of my heart in it. I want to have my own little bacery or a family restaurant and I know I may not be chef material (yet) but everyday I try to teach myself something new. I don’t have a profesional training and to be honest I really can’t afford one, because my univercity taxes are out of this world, but it’s probably like that everywhere. Anyway I learn from my moms and my grandmas recipes and I wanted to make this blog for two main reasons: 1. To share some of those recipes with the world, because I think there are some very interesting ideas and 2. I think this is some sort of a begining for me and I’m very greatful to everyone who reads it. Also ever since I was little I always loved to write stuff, for school and my own things and I tought this blog might be a way to combine my passions. I didn’t want it to be just a web cook book, all recipes and nothing else. So prepare for a lot of short stories about my culinary and life adventures.
And I just wanted to say that I don’t expect this blog to make me famouse or to earn something throu it … couse that’s just almost cause :D. What I was really hoping for is to make some friends, to see people with the same passion for cooking as mine and to get some feedback. Aaand again I’m really greatful to everyone who spend their time to reed this and my other posts. Ok, that’s probably enough I don’t want to sound needy!

Sooo, yeaah…. Enjoy, my new friends!

xoxo

Annie

Watermelon Carving

Hey, I wanted to show you some carving techniques with which you can get impressive results. I hope you find it interesting and useful. First, I’ll show you a carving of a watermelon. This principle is one of the hardest techniques, but I tried to make it in the easiest possible way.

Watermelon juice

This is not so much a recipe as a fresh idea for the summer you will not need anything special. Try it you will love it!

Ingrediants:

• half a watermelon
• 500ml water
• a few tablespoons of sugar to taste
• 2-3 tablespoons lime juice

Preparation:
Just blend the watermelon in a blender. Strain the juice to remove seeds and other bits and add all the other products. Before you pour the juice mix it well. Optionally, you can replace the water with sparkling water or add rum or liquor of choice. Cool it well before drinkinf it. Enjoy! :]

Biscuit salami

Ingrediants:

• 3 egg yolks
• 7tbs. sugar
• 7tbs, cocoa
• 300g butter
• 500g biscuits
• 100g walnuts
• 1tbs rum

Preparation:
Crumble the biscuits to not very finely pieces and blend with the cocoa. Cut the walnuts finely and add them to the buscuit mixture. Beat the egg yolks, add the sugar, butter  and rum, and mix until a uniform mixture. Baffle everything together very well. Verticaly put the mixture on cellophane or foil, then wrap well at both ends so as to expel the air. The aim is to obtain the form of salami. Leave it to tighten a few hours in the freezer.

Mushrooms with cheese

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 20 field mushrooms
• 100g cheese
• 100g white cheese
• 50g butter
• white wine if desired
• parsley or dill for sprinkling

Preparation:
Wash and clean mushrooms. Panchetata Brush the insides of the mushrooms with butter . In each mushroom put a piece of white cheese and a little grated cheese. Grease a baking dish with butter and arrange the mushrooms. Optionally, you can water the mushrooms with a little white wine. Over medium heat roast the mushrooms.

Chicken with tomato souce

Ingrediants:

• chtickens white meat
• pikantina
• 1 jar of tomato paste
• 1tbs flour
• paprika
• 2 cups hot water
• 1 pinch of rosemary
• salt to taste

Preparation: Cut chicken into cubes srinkle it with salt and put half spoon pikantina. Fry it until almost done. In a saucepan fry the tomato paste and put 1 tablespoon flour and half tsp paprika. Then add in 2 cup of hot water to create a homogeneous mixture. Pour the chicken in the tomato sauce and put 1 pinch of rosemary salted to taste. Optionally, you can add chopped parsley.
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Snow white salad with cucumber and tomato sauce

This is a typical bulgarian salad with a little bit of a twist and imagination.

Ingrediants:

• 1 large cucumber
• 1 tomato
• 1 onion
• 2 pickles
• dill chopped
• half cup yogurt
• inch, oil, olive oil to taste

Preparation:

Cut the cucumber into thin fringe (cut using a peeler along the length of cucumber).
Cut the tomatoes very finely. Grate the onion grater, mix half the onion with the tomatoes and add salt and olive oil to taste.
For the Snow White salad, cut the pickles very finely, mix with remaining onions and dill. Add the yogurt.
Arrange strips of cucumber at the end of every place a little from the  Snow White mixture and roll them. The bottom of the dish arrange peaces cucumbers in the middle arrange the cucumber rolls and on the sides with a spoon arrange the tomatoes. So I did as you can see in the photo, but you can pick your own arrangement.

Mushroom cream soup

Here’s an original recipe from my mother which she made me when i was a little kid, and i love it since.

• 1l. water
• 3tbs. flour
• 4 large field mushrooms
• 20g butter
• 20ml. milk
• a few sprigs of dill

Put the water to boil. Cut the mushrooms into small pieces and put them in the water. Once the soup boils, beat the flour into a bowl with a little water and add it to the soup. Wait 5-10 minutes and add the butter, milk and dill. You can also add a few drops of lemon juice. Wait another 15-20 minutes to boil.