In the kitchen with Elise

Look how cool, I remember as I was growing up. My mother would always make the best cupcakes at any little kids birthday parties. It is so unique, fun to create and really delicious. All made and decorated with edible ingredients. Here are a few pictures of a few different cupcake ideas. So that the next time you do cupcakes or throw a little persons birthday party. Be creative with your smash hit cupcakes : - ) Take a look at some ideas you could use. There are specific candies being used in each picture but if you go to your local grocery store candy section and don't find this specific candy; I am sure that you can find something that looks similar to use in its place. Be creative with what you have... frost cupcake with white frosting then use tiny marshmallows for hair and beard ,m &m's for eyes and nose and sour strip candy for hat.  frost the very center of your cupcake and take coconut and roll it around in green food coloring to get the grass color. thr...

What I want as a huge favor from every single one of you who reads this post is as follows: I am doing this blog and trying my absolute best to help as many people as I can to learn how to cook. For many reasons because I love cooking, I really feel like everyone needs to know their basics around the kitchen, many people say i want to get married (especially the women) but don't know the first thing about cooking. What are you going to feed the poor guy? Sandwiches? kkkkk.... I hope not. I don't know how long that would last kkkk.... and for many other reasons. So, I am helping you by posting different recipes that I myself cook at home, tips and advice on how to know your way around the kitchen and my own personal experiences. But sometimes it is really nice to see if the things that are being done is even helpful to others. I get comments from some people and emails from others. But in total I want to hear from you. so this is exactly what I want.... Something super...

Look how delicious this looks. It tastes just as good as it looks. Don't let the combination fool you. When I thought of mustard and honey together. My first reaction was 'gross' but if you think about it the flavors do combine quite well. There is honey mustard sauce ( used a lot as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets or chicken tenders, there are many honey mustard flavored chips and crackers etc. Mustard is a silent great ingredient to your dish. It helps bring out more flavor, depending on how you use it. Too much mustard can be very overpowering. HOW TO MAKE IT 2 tsp olive oil 2  boneless chicken breasts 1/4 cup honey 1 tbsp mustard 2 tsp chopped parsley 1/4 cup chicken broth 1 tbsp vinegar Firstly take your chicken breast clean it (for more info on how to properly clean your chicken click here)   and then cut them in half so that they are 4 thinner pieces. Rather than 2 really thick breasts. Now VERY LIGHTLY  season your chicken  Then in a large ...

Here is a quick way to make Pastel. Pastel is a quick snack made with a dough filled with whatever you want. You can fill it with shredded chicken, shrimp, tuna or what I mainly see it filled with is ground beef. Cook your meat whatever way you want. For instance if you are doing it with ground beef. Just put a little bit of oil in a pot and chop up some onions, pepper and garlic and cook it for about 1 minute just until its browned. Then throw in your ground beef, season it with salt, all purpose seasoning ( I personally love using Lawry's all purpose seasoning) and black pepper. Cook it for about 10 minutes until cooked and if you want you can leave it just like that  for your filling or you can use just a touch of tomato sauce for it to not be so dry. Thats all - typically that is the same steps you would use to do it with chicken or anything else. ( I like it dry with no sauce. But that is totally up to you.) Then you can do one of two things. Make your own dough or bu...

Cook this in less than 10 minutes... Simply clean and thoroughly wash your chicken breast with lemon juice or vinegar and cut them into thin slices and season it your way. Lightly fry it in a frying pan and slice up some onions, pepper and mushrooms  ( I threw in a little oregano for added color and hint of flavor) sauté it well for a few quick minutes and throw it on top of your chicken. Simple dish cooked in minutes and is really good with rice goes well with almost anything else. Print Recipe From my kitchen to yours God Bless

Recently I have been trying a few new vegetables that I am not normally used to eating. Among one of these new veggies that I've tried is Leeks. I have often seen them in stores and have often heard about them but have never tried it myself until a few weeks ago. But the way that I cooked it came out really delicious; Leeks have a slight similar taste and texture to that of cabbage. I rinsed them well then I Cut them up I also chopped up a few pieces of bacon threw it in a frying pan and cooked it till golden and threw in my leeks and sautéed them together (Mixed them together) for about 5 minutes or less until my leeks were soft and a bit golden. Add some salt and pepper. Your done, serve it as a side to any meal. A greatly proportioned meal should have your meat, your starch and your veggie (leeks) Print Recipe Enjoy From my kitchen to yours

My husband and I are pretty experimental people when it comes to food. We like to taste all different sorts of food, from different cultures, different ingredients put together, things we've never seen or heard of before etc. I think thats a pretty good trait because only this way do you really find some unique foods. Also some really delicious things that you would have otherwise never tasted. A Gyro, is known a lot amongst Mediterranean cultures. But I know it to be very common in the Greek  cuisine. The other day my husband and I felt like eating out so we decided to eat something different. We searched for a Greek restaurant near by and ordered Gyro's... So delicious. I have eaten them before but this one was absolutely amazing. So amazing that a few days later we went back and ate it again : - ) Lots of Greek foods are delicious because they use all sorts of fresh ingredients such as produce herbs and spices, they use also yogurt in their foods in the place of...

Who doesn't like pizza? Most  of the people I know love it. But have you ever tried making a 4 minute pizza using regular bread,big texas toast bread or even garlic bread? try it and make your pizza unique by adding pepperoni, chicken, mushrooms or any of your favorite pizza toppings. Here I used pepperoni and feta cheese as well as mozzarella My sister gave me this idea and I absolutely loved it. For myself I made it on garlic bread but my extremely healthy husband decided he wanted his on wheat bread. I made it the same way and they both came out extremely delicious.  Simply take your bread and put 1 tablespoon of tomato sauce onto the bread. Then sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top of the tomato sauce and add in your toppings. Then sprinkle just a hint more of cheese on top  and bake it in the oven for about 5 minutes or less on 400F/ 200C until you see your cheese nicely melted. Just a tip: If you choose to use garlic bread. This takes a litt...

Ingredients 2 cups hominy corn 1/2 cup evaporated milk 1 1/2 cups coconut milk 1/2 cup water 3/4 cup condensed milk 1/2 cup cornstarch 1/2 tsp nutmeg 2 tsp vanilla extract pinch salt How to make it: Soak hominy corn in water for a few hours or preferably overnight (If you are making this in a rush and don't have time to presoak your hominy corn. No problem it will just take a little longer to cook because soaking softens the corn.) Put your hominy corn in a pot with about 2 1/2 to 3 cups water and boil on medium high heat for about 30 minutes or until they are very soft that you can cut it with a knife or poke it with a fork. and the water is nearly gone Lower your heat to medium low and take half of your coconut milk and mix in the cornstarch to it until smooth. Put that in the pot as well as the rest of your coconut milk. It will automatically thicken your hominy corn mixture now add in nutmeg, vanilla evaporated milk and condensed milk. Bring to a light boil and...

Have you ever tasted a fork tender, melt in your mouth roast beef. Every bite juicy yet full of labor and very delicious? Here is how. I love this recipe because it requires no work on your end. the oven does all the work. Instructions 1 pack beef (top side or bottom side rump roast) 1/2 lemon seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic powder 1/2 pepper 1/2 onion olive oil tomato sauce Preheat your oven to 350F 165C. Cut off all beef fat. Wash beef well with lemon juice then rinse well in water. Poke holes in beef with knife; season it with pepper, salt and garlic powder. Seperately prepare a pyrex with olive oil. Slice your onions and peppers and place it in the pyrex with oil. Sit your seasoned beef on top and cover tight with aluminum foil. Place in the oven and bake on 350F for 3 hours. The longer you cook beef in the oven, the more tender/soft it becomes. Here we are baking it for 3 whole hours. Just leave it there to cook and go about your business. After 3 hours. Take ...

This shake is extremely quick to make, it is jam packed and an excellent source of protein and nutrients and is excellent in the place of a breakfast or snack time meal.  All you need to do is throw into a blender 1 cup regular milk or Soymilk 2 tbsp raw oatmeal 1 tbsp peanut butter 1/2 tsp sugar 1 banana 1 cup ice 1/2 avocado optional and blend until smooth, this is so refreshing on a hot day and is really delicious just to drink. I had it for breakfast on Thursday morning as I was in a rush to leave the house. I stayed full for hours and it was so delicious. My husband who really enjoys exercising, loves making this as soon as he finishes exercising as it is great to help with your muscles and gives you the energy and nutrients you need after a hard workout. Try it for yourself From my kitchen to yours God Bless

* Take a Whole watermelon, cut both sides leaving a basket handle in the middle. I drew lines where I should cut. I drew on the watermelon *cut and scoop out the center *get a melon scoop and scoop the melon that you took out into little ice cream balls. Then place in the watermelon basket. * buy another melon too like honey dew melon. To give a contrast on different fruits. Also something else to throw in your  fruit basket like cherries or strawberries or something else. The more colors the better. *slice oranges and decorate the basket handle, pinning it in with a tooth pick. Break the tooth pick and use it as a pin to pin the fruits on the basket handle as you do to pin your hair in place with a hair pin. It's the same concept. Use this idea or any other in order to use creative ways to have your fruit displayed. Here is another idea My sister is really creative when it comes to doing different fruit designs. This was one of...

Do you know about Nutella? Have you ever experienced it? I say experience because it really is an EXPERIENCE... If you are anywhere as crazy of a chocolate lover like myself you will know how serious it is to have to try nutella... It is like pure chocolate haven in a bottle. the delicious smoothness of milk chocolate in a spreadable, yet not overly sweet butter form. You can use it on anything. I've eaten it on bread, pancakes, just out of the jar, on cakes, cookies, fruit. I mean just about anything. Be creative with nutella, you can find it in just about any grocery store on the section where they sell peanut butter, jelly or any jar products. It is inexpensive as well. But Oh... So... Good.                                         Its as good as chocolate gets and is not that bad for you because its made with cocoa and hazelnuts. can't be that bad right? well for chocolate ...

Mommy Grandma Here is my beautiful mother and my grandmother both of whom I love dearly. Oh, yes. And look at my darling twin sister. My mirror, my look alike. which one am I? Do you know? Well my mom and grandma were  both born in Furna - Brava, Cape Verde also known for its portuguese name as CaboVerde. A portuguese speaking Island off of the coast of West Africa. Me in CapeVerde In CapeVerde just like in any other Country there are many traditional dishes such as 2 of the main ones. Cuscus - a breakfast bread and Cachupa- a heavy soup for lunch. These are 2 of my favorite Capeverdian foods along with others such as funginho, gigacida, and the list goes on. Cuscus is a breakfast food. For those of you who don't know what it is, its similar to a corn muffin or a corn type of bread. It is made fresh and eaten whilst hot off of the stove spread with loads of butter to melt nicely on top. I love eating this with my favorite rasberry tea. Some of you might hate i...