Follow our family and try some Easter European inspired recipes
If you are looking for an appetizer idea this is a great option. It’s easy to make and you can prepare in advance, who doesn’t like that? Also, it’s a one pot dish (if you exclude the strainer) so in my mom of 3 world this would be a perfect dish – minimum effort, no dishes to clean and tastes great.
Don’t worry this recipe does not involve any frying, this is how my mother taught me to cook refried beans and it’s the recipe she has been using for years with our family, there might be other recipes out there that actually involve frying but not this one. I tried to name this dish differently however, to resonate with the readers, we will stay with refried beans name. This is a staple dish of the Romanian cuisine ‘Fasole Batuta’ and especially served during lent, there are probably hundreds of recipes of this dish and each house has its own, needless to say that I find this the most delicious so give it a try.
It can be served as a meal, a dip or side dish; works great with sausage and some pickles.
More on my zucchini mania – I just love this vegetable, it’s so versatile you can include it in both sweet and savory meals. It will be as tasty in a soup as it would be in a zucchini bread or my delicious zucchini doughnuts. I love including them in different dishes this time of year because we start getting our own zucchini in the garden or buy local grown zucchini from the farmer’s market and they are so delicious.
Yesterday I went to the farmer’s market and I got 6 fresh local zucchini. I absolutely love zucchini and my favorite way to eat them is to slice and sautée them with garlic. However, since I got 6 I though I would try both sweet and savory dishes so I used 2 for our potato and zucchini soup for lunch today, 2 went into our zucchini and feta cheese fritters (recipe coming next) and I am saving the last 2 to make zucchini doughtnuts tomorrow.
A great idea for dinner or lunch these Baked Salmon Patties are delicious. You can serve them as an appetizer, over salad or in a bun. I made a yogurt – garlic – dill dipping sauce to go with the patties and they were a great success at the table. The fresh salmon can be substituted with canned salmon or even leftover salmon (already cooked)
It’s been almost a week since Thanksgiving and so far I did not have to cook anything, we have been living from leftovers for the past few days. I clearly over-prepared and we ended up with a lot of leftovers, especially a lot of Turkey since everyone was almost full by the time we got to the Turkey.
Has anyone started thinking about their Thanksgiving menu? This salad is the perfect addition. It’s just a handful of simple ingredients but the sweet roasted butternut squash goes so well with the kale and the pomegranate seeds.
One of my favorite dips and this was a good dish for my youngest (2 years old) to eat a good amount of garlic at the start of the cold season.
My grandmother used to make this dish pretty often, especially during lent. As a child I was not too found of it but now I like it and, to my surprise, my kids also enjoy eating cabbage and noodles, especially my three year old daughter.
Still looking for the perfect side dish? Rice pilaf is the one and what a versatile food you can add any vegetables you have in the house, add cheese, walnuts, anything you have on hand and it’s great.