Shirazi Salad with Green Pepper and Apple:

This recipe is inspired by my friend, Paiyz, and her creatively appetizing salads. Shirazi Salad with green pepper & apple is a great lunch. Serve it with Pita bread, hummus or feta cheese.

Shirazi means from Shiraz: a city located in southwest Iran, where, among many of its attractions, Shiraz wine is originated. Depending on where one is from, I guess, Shirazi Salad changes its name to Israeli Salad. Also there is a Greek version of this salad. The trick for a good Shirazi salad is in its finely chopped vegetables. But for this recipe I like to chop the greens a little bit larger than usual.




(4-6 Servings)

Ingredients:

1 Green Apple: chopped. To prevent discoloring: put the chopped apples in a plastic bag and add some lemon juice to it. Mix well and let it stay for about 1 min. (I like green apple for this salad because of its sourness. But you can use any kind you like.) Do Not Peel the apple!
3 Cucumbers: average size or 1 and a half if it is large: peeled and chopped. (If I use organic cucumber, I either don’t peal or I peel the cucumber in stripes.)
3 Tomatoes: average size, chopped the juicier the tomato is the better the salad becomes.
1 Green Pepper: chopped
½ Onion: average size, finely chopped (optional)

Spices:

1 tbs. Olive Oil
1 tbs. Lemon Juice
½ tsp. Lime Juice: (optional)
1 to 2 tbs. Dried Mint: (you can replace it with 2 tbs. of finely chopped fresh mint)
A dash of Salt and Black Pepper

Directions:

1- Mix the chopped vegetables: Apple, Tomato, Cucumber and Green pepper. Note: if you don’t want discolored apples use the lemon juice trick. Let the mixture stay for about 15 minutes; the tomato’s juice can get into the other ingredients. After that you can add the onion.

2- Add the spices before serving and mix well.

نوش جان
(Noushe Jan)
Bon Appetit!

Coffee Shops Across America:

While riding our Honda Fit, Fandough (Hazelnut), across the country, from Princeton NJ to Berkeley CA, we stopped at many different coffee shops in different cities just to caffeinate ourselves with hot tea and sometimes coffee.

Here are three of those memorable coffee shops. Some are already known and some are isolated, but all three have a good tea collection and a nice ambiance to work. Keep them in mind when you pass these cities, especially if you are in the habit of working in coffee shops as I am.

Grounded Specialty Coffee
308, Main St. La Crosse, WI

Their Dark Chocolate Muffins are great. Add to it their nice owners, I guess a husband and wife and an ultra clean restroom (crucial factor for me!) They are famous for their double-shot espressos.

Trout River Coffee Bar
211 W. Front St. Downtown Missoula, MT

Everything is great in Trout River; especially it is a very good place to work. Not too cold, not too warm enough light and no loud music.

Michelangelo’s Coffee House
114 State St. Madison, WI

They make a great coffee and cappuccino. The owner is a warm and intelligent Lebanese-Mexican and obviously an admirer of Michelangelo.

Michelangelo's Coffee House, Madison, 2007

Fresh Pear Cake

Fresh Pear Cake

Baking time: 1-hour10 minutes
10” Bund Cake pan
Oven temperature: 325º F













Ingredients

4cup pealed, cored & chopped fresh Pears
2cup white sugar
2/3cup Oil (Canola) (use nonstick cooking spray for greasing your pan)

2 eggs ( I use two whole eggs but you can use 4 egg white)

3cup all-purpose flour
1tsp salt
1½ tsp baking soda
1tsp ground nutmeg
1tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves

1cup chopped walnut (Only if you like nuts, I don’t)

Directions:

1- Preheat the oven to325º F and spray the pan


2- Mix chopped pears and sugar and let it stay for about 1 hour. At the end of the hour you will have a juicy mixture.





3- Beat the eggs and add oil and the pear mix to it (you can add walnuts in this stage if you like or wait and add them at the end of the mixing process).



4- Stir flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves separately and then add them to the pear mix. (Add the nuts if you want)

5- Put the batter in the oven. Your Fresh Pear Cake is ready after 70 minutes. Use a toothpick to be sure the cake is evenly baked.

نوش جان
(Noushe Jan)Bon Appetit!

General Tips for Baking Cakes:

Tips for Baking Cakes:

1- Prepare all the ingredients you need for a recipe: You can add new things to a recipe or eliminate something you do not like: I usually eliminate nuts if there are any in the recipe and for that I bare Alpez’s harsh disapproval: If you like nuts you can always add them to the batter.

2- I usually measure the ingredients (based on the recipe) a head of time and put them in small bowls so I can add them to the batter when I need them.

3- Always preheat the oven to the required temperature. Turn on the oven 10-15 minutes before you plan to use it. Make sure the oven’s rack is in the center.

4- Have all the ingredients at room temperature.

5- To avoid lumps and swellings try to mix and sift dry ingredients (Flour, Baking soda, Baking powder, and spices) together and separately mix non-dry ingredients (Oil, Egg, Milk, Sugar, butter). Note that Sugar is considered non-dry. At the end add the two mixtures together.

6- While mixing use your spatula to scrape sides and the bottom of the mixing bowl.

7- Add nuts and other dried fruits at the end to your batter.

8- Grease your baking pan with vegetable oil (I spray Canola Oil). For most cakes Olive oil is a big NO. Use a brush for greasing the pan evenly unless you are using a spray.

9- To make sure that your cake is done use a toothpick or a thin wooden stick and insert it in the middle of the cake if it comes out clean. You are done. If not let the cake be for some more time.

10- After the baking is done and before removing your cake from the pan let the cake to stay in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Then with a spatula loosen the edge and turn the pan over. Also wait for the cake to cool down before serving.

10+1- This one only applies to me: Don’t bother with Tiramisu. You will always ruin it as you did in the past.

Bonaparte Breads, A French bakery in Baltimore, 2006