Chicken & Potatoes With Rosemary

After two hard hours at the gym, I only think of a nourishing meal. My friend Confettina has inspired me to cook some chicken. It is a very easy meal to prepare. And it is delicious, specially with the baked potatoes.

I happened to have some garlic spread leftovers which I love alot, specially accompanied with the chicken, so delicious. The pairing of the chicken and garlic (or Toum, in Arabic) is the best. Isn’t it right Confettina!

All you have to do is cut the chicken breasts into cubes or chunks, I used 500 g and season them with 2 tbsp salt and ground pepper, some dried rosemary and thyme, as much as you like, a squeeze of lemon, few whole peeled garlic cloves and good lug of olive oil. Mix all together. Heat a frypan then add the marinated chicken, cook until golden brown.

Now the potatoes. Wash about 250 g of small potatoes, dry them and put them on a sheet pan, season with salt and pepper, rosemary and some olive oil, rub them all together and bake in a preheated 200C oven for about 40 minutes or until a fork is easily inserted in a potato.

Serve the chicken and potatoes with some pickles and garlic spread.

Bon Appétit. Enjoy.

Cake With Oranges, Almonds & Cinnamon

I was baking a cake yesterday afternoon, when I should have been at work. Why, because of delicate political issues occuring in the country and people manifesting in the streets who decided to close roads, (in my opinion), in an uncivilized way, all the employees were given permission to leave their desks so they can reach their home safely.

I took the opportunity to bake a cake. So on my way home, I passed by the supermarket to get the stuff. I was reading few new foodblogs when I found an interesting one, with nice delicious recipes, named Menta E Liquirizia. I found a good recipe of a cake with oranges, almonds and cinnamon, favourite ingredients.

Now, writing this post, I’m enjoying a piece of this cake with a cup of coffee.

The cake is soo delicious, I shared it with the family, everyone liked it. I liked the almond flavour with a touch of cinnamon, and citrus. The cake is soft, tender and the almond’s smell is so nice and warm.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

In a few words, I will start and end this post. Do you know these morning when you wake up a bit down, well these chocolate chip cookies are here to lift your spirit up. They are chewy from the inside, this is how I like my cookies. And I have used a very dark chocolate which added a strong flavor to the cookies. Delicious with a cup of black coffee. Enjoy.

Broccoli Soup

It’s been very cold these days, raining, thunders. But I adore this refreshing, sharp cold, greyish sky, sun’s rays cutting through the clouds, glittering raindrops, rainbows. What could make these cold days, warmer, cosy, homey? a hot soup. I had in the fridge a medium head of broccoli and some blue cheese leftover.

I didn’t expect it would be so delicious, it made my body warm. Plus it’s so easy to prepare and it takes no time at all. Here’s a warm comfy recipe for your cold nights.

Awwamat Or Crisp Doughnut Balls

Today is the Epiphany. For the Eastern Christians, it is the holiday where we celebrate the baptisim of Jesus in the Jordan river. Our tradition involves, on the Epiphany Eve,  in addition to the preparation of different desserts, to knead a small piece of dough, place one or two coins in the middle, fold the edges onto the coin and leave it either in the closet, or outside the balcony, so that when Jesus “passes by” on that night, he blesses the dough to more prosperous time.

I await this time of year impatiently, why, because I love the desserts we make. At home, we prepare zalebieh, maacroun, and awwamat, in arabic it means floaters, because they float when fried and when soaked in the sugar syrup. It’s a fried small doughs, ball- shaped, made with few ingredients, flour, water, yeast and mahlab; then dipped in Qater while still hot so they absorb the syrup well. I love their sweet softness. So delicious, that the whole batch was over in just one day.