Category Archives: Cooking from scratch

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine -Food and Cookery Column Rewind – Easter Treats with Carol Taylor

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It is Easter weekend and I hope you all enjoy your Easter Eggs…No eggs here maybe a Lindt bunny if I can find one but I am used to that now after all this time although I could eat some thin crispy Easter egg chocolate fresh from the fridge…In my dreams…xxx

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

This week Carol Taylor shares us the recipes for two sweet Easter treats that will please all the family… and getting the children involved in the kitchen produces some creative biscuits.

Easter Time will you have sun or snow? Easter is a time for Easter egg hunts and pretty coloured eggs …For prettily iced Easter biscuits…A time for kids who just love it!

How does the rest of the world celebrate Easter…? Bermudians they make pretty coloured kites with long tails, eat codfish cakes and Hot cross buns.

In the Netherlands a favourite Easter dish is waffles drizzled with Advocaat.

For many Europeans it’s bonfires on Easter Sunday and Monday which legend tells us is to chase away the winter darkness. It is traditional to sit around the bonfire and consume copious amounts of Gin, lager for the boys and snack…No mention of Easter eggs or hot cross buns here…

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Smorgasbord Health Column – Size Matters The Sequel – #Weightloss – All the delicious foods you can eat…by Sally Cronin

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An excellent post from Sally which highlights just how much lovely food you can eat to maintain a healthy balance in your healthy eating plan…The food you love and choose is a much better option than being told what you can and can’t eat which is why so many diets fail…Have fun choosing and eating xxx

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

All the delicious foods you can eat on a weight loss programme

Most eating programmes to lose weight will emphasise all the foods that you cannot eat.

This to me is crazy as in fact they are far outweighed by the number of foods that you can eat. This is why we head into a weight loss programme already feeling deprived.

As a rule of thumb when preparing your menu for the week and a shopping list; select anything that has been taken from the ground, picked from a tree, allowed to roam free and graze naturally and comes from a cold sea environment rather than a fish farm.

Anything that is wrapped in plastic or cardboard should be treated with suspicion as should the really cheap options. Also whilst it is convenient to buy your vegetables ready chopped they will have lost up to 50% of their nutritional value…

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Smorgasbord Health Column – Cook from Scratch with Sally Cronin and Carol Taylor to prevent nutritional deficiencies – Vitamin B3 – Niacin

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Time for the next post in this series as you know over the next few months Sally and I are going to be working our way through the most essential of these nutrients and I will share the symptoms that you might experience if you are becoming deficient in the vitamin or mineral and list the foods where you can find the nutrient. We hope you both benefit nutritionally and enjoy the recipes xxx

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

In this series we look at cooking and your diet from a different perspective. Usually we emphasize the health benefits of food and how they can be incorporated into your diet. But, what happens if you do NOT include them in your diet.

We wanted to share with you what happens if your body is deprived of individual nutrients over an extended period of time.

Thankfully most of us eat reasonably well, with plenty of variety, but if you take a look at a week’s worth of meals, do you find that you are sticking to a handful of foods, all the time.

Variety is key to good health, to provide your body with as broad a spectrum of nutrients as possible that the body needs. Taking a supplement or relying on shakes and bars to provide your daily allowance of vitamins and nutrients is not in your body’s best…

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Weekly Round Up – Cathaoireacha, Cats, More Cats, Irises and Beans!

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Sally’s weekly roundup not to be missed…Rockin Robin is one of my favourite golden oldies …There is something for everyone here so pull up your comfy seat, grab a drink and prepare to be enthralled 🙂

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Welcome to the weekly round up of posts you might have missed this week. As always my thanks to those who are regular contributors and guest writers. Some wonderful posts on family, music, food and life in general.

Guest writers.

I began this blog magazine to share content with as wide a range of interest as possible. That includes showcasing other writers and if you would like a guest writing spot you can share posts that you have already written and would like to showcase again to a new audience here on Smorgasbord. It can be on any topic but I do have some younger readership so it does need to be family friendly.. Get in touch on Sally.cronin@moyhill.com with four links to your posts and I will come back to you with any further information that I need to create your post.

If you would like to see previous…

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Smorgasbord Health Column with Sally Cronin and Carol Taylor – Cook from Scratch to prevent nutritional deficiency

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A great start to this new series, Sally lots of good information and I am enjoying testing out the recipes as are the family…

I hope you enjoy this new series everyone please let us know in comments xx

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

In this series we look at cooking and your diet from a different perspective. Usually we emphasize the health benefits of food and how they can be incorporated into your diet. But, what happens if you do NOT include them in your diet.

We wanted to share with you what happens if your body is deprived of individual nutrients over an extended period of time.

Thankfully most of us eat reasonably well, with plenty of variety, but if you take a look at a week’s worth of meals, do you find that you are sticking to a handful of foods, all the time.

Variety is key to good health, to provide your body with as broad a spectrum of nutrients as possible that the body needs. Taking a supplement or relying on shakes and bars to provide your daily allowance of vitamins and nutrients is not in your body’s best…

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The Culinary Alphabet: The letter M

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carolcooks 2 culinary alphabet M

Welcome to this month’s The Culinary Alphabet my monthly guest post over @ Esme’s Salon this month it is the letter M which means I am exactly halfway through the alphabet.

Starting with Mayonnaise which is so much better made from scratch and it is also easy to do…

Mayonnaise

There is nothing like homemade mayo once you have made it you will never buy a shop made one ever again.

Ingredients:

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp of mustard
  • 240 ml of good olive oil
  • 1 tsp cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp of lemon or lime juice.

Put the egg whites in a bowl with the Cider vinegar and blend gently until they are well mixed. With the blender still going slowly start to add the olive oil starting with just a drop and increasing to a steady stream as the mayo starts to thicken. Blend well until the mayo is your desired thickness and season to your taste.

How easy is that?

Mascarpone

A silky and slightly sweet Italian cheese which is made using only two ingredients whole cream and citrus which is why it is easy to make at home. Because of its high butter content, it spoils quickly so once opened it should be used quickly. It is made using no rennet so is suitable for vegetarians. It is used to make that traditional Italian dessert of Tirasamu, to thicken soups, it can be added to mac and cheeses for a creamier sauce and makes a lovely dip when herbs are added.

Now you have had a little taster…something to tickle those taste buds you will have to pop over to Esme’s to see what else begins with the letter M…x

https://esmesalon.com/the-culinary-alphabet-the-letter-m/

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great Valentines Day xx

 

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Food and Cookery Column with Carol Taylor – St. Valentine’s Day – #Thai three course dinner

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Valentines Day..Stuck for a menu? Well look no further Saly has put one together from my recipes and it is easy to do and yummy…Thank you,Sally xxxx

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

If you are looking for a special way to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day then perhaps a romantic dinner for two, created by Carol Taylor from some of her most popular recipes from the last couple of years, incorporating wonderfully warming and spicy Thai ingredients.

Tom Yum Soup with Prawns (Tom Yum Goong)

This is one of my favourite Thai soups and the first time I made it from scratch I questioned the colour as in many restaurants it is a bright orange colour. It is because a Tom Yum paste or stock cube is used…This one is made from scratch it also doesn’t have that sharp taste but is more mellow and I think more pleasant.

Ingredients:

  • 2 litres of water
  • 4 stalks of lemongrass
  • 1 inch chunk of galangal
  • 10 kaffir lime leaves
  • 10 Thai chillies
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 500gm Prawns
  • 300 grams of oyster mushrooms
  • 2 medium…

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