In the kitchen with Elise

A Blog Viewer named Eunice made this dish a few weeks ago and it was an absolute success. I had never tasted it before. But apparently it is big in the Mexican culture. So I had to take a picture of it and get the recipe for you. So here it is. A must try recipe. WARMING UP... first you have to warm up the tortillas (1tortilla=1 flauta)  NOTE: you can fill your flautas with cheese, mashed potatoe, chicken, or whetever you desire. If you decide to do some with mashed potatoe make sure to add salt or spices to give it a little flavor. 2. FILL... as you have the tortilla in your hand, place the food (ex. cheese) and roll it like a taco and press a little to make sure it will not unroll itself. Tip: do not overfill, otherwise the food will end up coming out either when you roll the tortilla or when you fry it. 3. FRYING... place a pan with oil of your choice and let it warm up. When it's ready, start placing the flautas in the pan and make sure t...

Just quickly wanted to share this, when I went to Holland with my husband for his book tour, A Holland native taught me that they eat mini pancakes in Holland like this and instead of putting syrup on it. They use powdered sugar instead. I tried it. It is really good.  They call it Poffertjes http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/little-dutch-pancakes-L4932.html here is an excellent recipe.

This picture was taken in the restaurant called Red Lobster. Doesn't it look so good?  This dish costs almost $20 yet is so simple to make at home and just as delicious. Ingredients Spaghetti or Linguini Pasta Crab legs Shrimp Scallops or mussels (optional) Diced Bacon Heavy Cream Cheddar Cheese paste Diced tomatoes Olive oil crushed garlic Boil your pasta. for about 10 minutes until it is 'Al Dente' and soft. Drain the pasta, rinse and  in the pot it was in put some olive oil and your crushed garlic. Cook until slightly brown. then add your pasta back to the pot and mix around so that it can have a garlic and oil flavor to it. Then place it aside. Separately in a pan cook  your bacon then add quit a bit of olive oil and sautee together your  diced tomatoes and seafood  along with the cooked bacon for just about 3 to 4 minutes until all just cooked. Add to this your cheddar cheese paste.  (A great substitution fo...

Okay don't laugh, but I had to share with you this new homemade face mask that I learned. It is so easy to make with ingredients you most likely already have at home. Face masks are for hydrating, smoothing, cleansing, toning, relieving stress, wrinkles and aging on your face. It is recommended to apply a face mask weekly on your face.  I normally apply a homemade oatmeal mask which I will share with you soon. But this one is also really, really good. All you need is: 2 tbsp Cocoa Powder 2 tbsp Coffee 1 tbsp honey 4 tbsp milk (You can substitute the milk in this recipe for: plain yogurt, 1 egg,  or even olive oil - if your face is very dry) Mix it all together in a small bowl with a spoon, until well mixed and is like a paste. Apply it to your face and neck. Let it sit on you face for about 15 minutes then wash it off with a warm wash cloth. Your face will feel so smooth and rejuvenated. You could eat it right off your face if you wanted (Literally...) It is...

Last week I made myself this quick and easy fresh sub sandwich. I bought a  baguette sub in the grocery store, placed it in the oven to cook and put mayonnaise, lettuce, turkey and cheese. Healthy, delicious and quick. You can make it how you want. Fill it with the fillings of your choice and enjoy it with chips and a drink. Your own personal sub. God Bless

This is so refreshing on a hot summer day. Like the ones we have here in Dallas. VERY HOT!!! Ready in 30 seconds All you need:  Pieces of whatever fruit you want. 1/2 tsp sugar Ice juice To make this fruit shake you just need to put into a blender a few blocks of ice a half a cup of juice, 1/2 tsp sugar and pieces of waterer fruit you want. Blend it in the blender and 30 seconds later there you go.  FYI  For this shake, the fruit I used was strawberry, banana, apple and pineapple. Your nice refreshing fruit shake From my kitchen to yours. God Bless

This is what It was supposed to look like I made a lemon and poppy seed cake just a few days ago for a picnic with a few friends but as it can happen to anyone no matter how good you are in the kitchen.  My cake fell apart into what seemed to be a million pieces. What to do. I had no more ingredients to make another one, no more time to try and bake something else and all I had was this mush. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! When this happens to you, you need to improvise. Whenever your dish turns out to be; not what you quite expected ! make something good out of it. Look around your kitchen and use creativity to fix it up. So for me instead of trying to serve a whole cake, I cut it up into carful broken slices and placed it onto a tray carefully, then used tiny muffin cups and added tiny pieces of fruit just to add color. No one would have ever known it turned out to be a disaster. From my kitchen to yours, God Bless

Hi, I know this is not about cooking, but I want to share a video with you. This is an interview that my husband and I had in France about our love life. I speak about, How I met my husband, and what were our 1,2,3 steps to dating and what we did to lead us to having a great relationship and a now happy marriage.  7 years and going strong :  ) A must watch, especially if you are still single and looking for the right person. p.s. sorry for the 2 second error in the beginning. I hope this helps you find prince charming or your  dear princess. God Bless

 Have you ever gone grocery shopping, spent so much money on food and then when you get back home you realize that you don't have all the ingredients you need to make this meal or that meal? Today I wanted to guide you through a  personal tour of a typical day in my refrigerator and cabinets.  I buy groceries every 2 weeks and make a menu before I shop of what I plan to eat each day. This is good for a few reasons. Organization, healthy eating, saves you money and avoids you forgetting to buy things. I buy enough foods for me to have a variety of choices for breakfast, and snack as well the list of foods I chose to put on my menu for lunch and my fruit for dinner. As you can see I have quite a lot of fruits and vegetables. I even bought water in order to make fresh lemonade instead of store bought juices. Some of the things on my menu for this week: Baked chicken thigh with a white mushroom sauce, rice, sautéed cabbage Baked whole lemon/pepper chi...

I learned this new recipe last week from a lady in Dallas named Annette. It is a really neat idea and serves as a great treat or quick snack for yourself or to entertain guests.  She served it with crackers but would also go well with tiny pieces of toast or with tortilla chips. All you need is Cream cheese diced olives , ham (or anything else) This dish is really nice because you can easily make it your own by adding something completely different if you want. She added ham and olives which were diced into tiny pieces. If you don't like that and choose to add something complete;y different go right ahead and try. But with these 2 ingredients it came out to be finger licking good. You just add it to the cream cheese and mix it all well until creamy. Serve it on a nice dish along with the crackers, chips or bread. From my kitchen to yours God Bless Elise

I made this cake last week Saturday,  apparently everyone loved it because in about 1 hour the entire thing was gone. There weren't even crumbs left over : ) I was surprised because a lot of people were asking me what kind of cake it was and when I mentioned, it was a lemon poppy seed cake. They had never heard of it before and didn't even know what poppy seeds were. Poppy seeds are the black dots on the cake that look like pepper and they have very little taste if not no taste at all. But when paired with the flavor of lemon, they really compliment each others flavor. (You can find poppy seeds in the store on the isle where they sale seasonings) Be bold and try this recipe. You will like it.  (And NO it is not a sour cake  :  ) Ingredients 1 cup butter 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 2 3/4 cup flour 3 tsp baking powder 1 cup milk 1 tbsp lemon extract 2 tbsp poppy seeds Preheat your oven to 350F or 170C and in a big bowl mix together your butter and suga...