broth

Vegetable Broth

February 10, 2018 by Ariel Leave a Comment

I keep a lot of food scraps in my freezer.

Most of them are vegetables, fresh herbs and egg shells because there’s so much you can do with those and it’s almost a blasphemy to throw them out when you spent your hard earned money buying them. It also goes with my “no waste” and “everything should be make from scratch” mentality because it’s very rewarding to create basic staple foods instead of buying them at the grocery. This vegetable broth is a great example of “food recycling” and I really hope you’ll get the chance to try it and make it your own.

Plus, who doesn’t like to know that every pennies spent on veggies will go that much further and you’ll end up having a delicious and personalized broth ready to use in your future creations.

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Uncontrollable cough an itchy throat? Here’s a few homemade remedies that might do the trick.

November 3, 2013 by Ariel 2 Comments

The Cold & Flu fairy came to see me about a week ago and brought an amazing gift witch resulted in me being sick for the past week! What started like just a little bug that I thought was going to last a day, ended up becoming an uncontrollable cough that wakes me up at night and bothers me in my daily routine. I can even say that I started a resistance to the DayQuill and NyQuill because even when taking those meds, my dry and itchy throat is still there and there is not much I can do….

…or is there?

Taking a ton of medication is not my thing. I will, if it’s absolutely necessary, but even taking an Advil or anything of the sort when I have a headache annoys me. I’m all about simple and natural remedies but I do understand that real chemicals are sometimes required. Although today, I’m gonna be your guinea pig and test out a few hopefully delicious homemade remedies. I hope you’ll find this post entertaining, interesting and informative.

Remedy 1 – Honey, Lemon, Cinnamon and Cloves tea.

This is actually the first thing that worked the best for my dry cough around the forth and fifth day of sickness. I always keep a cup close to me and drink it when I need it. The benefit effects of honey, cinnamon, cloves and lemon for the flu symptoms have been proven many times, so obviously this has to work. You can buy a “all prepared” version at the pharmacy but personally, I find they always taste weird so instead I created my own. Here’s my recipe… in a big tall cup I add:

2 big cloves

1 tablespoon of non pasteurized honey

1 stick of cinnamon, slightly scratch with a knife or a fork

1 tablespoon of lemon juice (not from concentrate)

2 cups of hot water hot water

Remedy 2 – My homemade Spiced tea blend.

For the past few weeks, this homemade blend has replaced my daily soy latte chai tea. It’s DELICIOUS and i’m addicted to it… In bonus, it help relieve some symptoms of the cold and flu! In the early days of my sickness, this was my saver… Just make sure to add a bit of honey in your cup to help bring out all the delicious and spicy flavors while suiting your throat.

1 tablespoon of rooibos tea

1/2 teaspoon of Schezuan peppercorns, coarsely crushed

1 teaspoon of black peppercorns, coarsely crushed

1 teaspoon of whole cloves, coarsely crushed

2 cinnamon sticks, coarsely crushed

1 teaspoon of dried sprearmint leaves

1/2 teaspoon of whole green cardamom pods, coarsely crushed

1 teaspoon of chamomile flowers

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Fish Broth #01

July 27, 2013 by Ariel 1 Comment

I knew I did good to keep all those shrimps shells in my freezer from past recipes. I had two medium bags full so I thought this could be the right time to use them. What’s fun and so easy about making your own broth is that you can make it with pretty much everything: shells, bones, even the head and the tail of the fish you previously cooked. Keep everything in the freezer and you’ll be happy you did once you try this recipe or create your own. Homemade broth is so much better than the store version because you are 100% sure of everything in it, you’ll be able to customize it and control the salt quantities.

Ok this one is going in to the kitchen basics section because even if it’s sort of a recipe, I find making broth is part of the basic of cooking. There is so many different ways to make broth, like I’ve said, and this is why I wrote this one as #01.

Now be adventurous and try to customize your broth by adding different ingredients. You can modify it to better match the final recipe you have in mind and this could be the difference between a good meal and an awesome one. I created this broth for a fish soup/dinner I made few weeks ago when I had some friends over. The soup came out amazing and it’s in big part because of this broth. The recipe will be on the blog shortly so stay tuned and enjoy this one 🙂

This recipe will give you one full regular size masson jar and a bit more that you will be able to keep in the fridge. Since the recipe is custom, I don’t suggest you try to can it but maybe with a pressure canner it would become safe enough for shelf storage but I haven’t tried. I kept my masson jar in the fridge and almost used the entire thing when I made my soup….