Buckwheat Waffles Sweet and Savory

My kids love waffles - making them in a cast iron waffle-maker on the stove is very unique experience. Waffles come out very crispy outside and nice and soft inside with the earthy aroma of home ground flour.

Mediterranean Snacks for Seniors that Pack a Nutritious Punch

The Mediterranean diet is considered to be one of the world’s healthiest. Ingredients like olives, dates, whole grains, and fresh vegetables are flavorful, nutritious, and satisfying. Seniors need a healthy snack in between meals to keep their blood sugar level stable. Here are a few snack ideas that are excellent choices for seniors and their health benefits.

Roasted Spiral Root Vegetable Salad with Citrus Dressing

Earthy beets, rutabagas and slightly sweet carrots are a winning combination, especially when they are tossed with a citrus dressing with the bright flavors of orange and lemon juice. This salad is also tasty if a green apple spirals are tossed with the roasted vegetables.

Russian Monday: "Kurnik" - Chicken Pie with Mushrooms, Kasha, Eggs & Homemade Chicken Broth

This is not your everyday meal, but rather a very special occasion one. If you have invited dearest friends for dinner or perhaps you’d like to spoil your family with a great dish, this is what you need to cook! It is complicated and time consuming, but it is worth every minute of your time.

Pumpkin & Flax Seeds, Sun-dried Tomato Crackers with Roasted Beets Hummus

I have been very busy over the last few weeks, doing a lot of creative things/jobs and also watching my latest favorite cooking show - The Great British Baking Show. You probably can tell, since I bake quite a lot lately, just cannot help myself, the show is so good. I just want to bake together with the bakers and I do.

Baked Sweet Potato Roses with Fresh Thyme

If you’re run out of ideas for sweet potato appetizers/snacks/side dishes, these potato roses are a very pretty and easy to make. It takes only 25 minutes to cook it and just few ingredients.

Baked Acorn Squash with Chestnuts, Mushrooms & Quinoa, also a Story about Horse-Chestnuts!

Halved acorn squash make perfect single-serving bowls. These make a great vegetarian main course for any day, but they're also a festive accompaniment to turkey, chicken or roast duck.

(This post has many beautiful photographs - enjoy them!!!)

Luxurious Lobster Bisque & Other Unique Lobster Recipes That Are a Must Try This Summer

Are you looking for a dinner that isn't just the same beef, pork, or chicken dish? Maybe you're planning to cook a fancy dinner for you and your significant other. Lobster is a great way to take your dinner plans to the next level. But rather than going with the typical lobster tail and butter, why not consider one of the following recipes?

Carrot & Green Apple Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

Carrots and green apples, both of them crunchy and sweet, are a winning combination in this tangy salad. Serve this salad as an accompaniment to a smoked turkey sandwich or grilled chicken, shrimp or fish. Look for interesting varieties of carrots in different colors, and use a Thin Julienne Slicer to slice them perfect thin strips.

Happy Spring Gardening #OXOSpringGardening

Tucked behind a tangle of brush at the bottom of the gentle hill of our townhouse backyards is a cleared space of about a quarter of an acre. Several of our neighbors proudly refer to it as "the community garden".

Green Apple Salad with Celery, Pecans & Honey

Spring beauty comes in many forms! Enjoy your beautiful day!

Beet Tower Salad with Goat Cheese

I just love tower salads, I think they even taste better because of their unique presentation. I already have two tower salad recipes with fresh spring ingredients on my blog (Tomato Salad with Mozzarella & Avocado,  Pear Arugula Salad with Walnuts & Blue Cheese), and now I am happy to add one more to my collection. Simple but yet elegant and sophisticated, great for any occasions, from luncheon with a girlfriend to spring/summer appetizer for dinner with friends and family.

Orange-Chocolate Cake with Beets, Honey, Chia Seeds & Spelt Flour

If you love the beets as much as I do that this recipe is definitely for you. On my blog I have about twenty different recipes with beets, but there is nothing like this dessert. Chocolate and beets may sound to be a strange combination, but in fact they go very well together. This cake has an interesting texture and taste, chia seeds give it a crunch and beets chunks feel like small pieces of fruit, very sweet and colorful. Coconut oil adds an amazing aroma to this unique dessert. Try it and see for yourself, have a little culinary adventure in your kitchen. Don't forget to put a kettle on, while baking a cake-))

Sunday Brunch: Arctic Char with Tomatoes & Asparagus

Letting people serve themselves is the simplest way to host a sunday brunch. Preplanning the food table as well as the drinks makes for an event where you can actually sit down and enjoy your quests. After deciding on your menu, choose your serving platters and tools. Set up your buffet table starting with plates, utensils, and napkins, then lay out the food in the order you would like to serve it, savory dishes first, sweets and fruits at the end.

For drinks, set out glasses in a few different sizes, a bucket of ice, and selection of drinks. Have a bottle of champagne open and be sure to offer orange juice and a pitcher of water with lemon slices.

Blackened Shad Roe & Sautéed in Butter

Shad was known as elft, the eleven fish, to the early Dutch settlers. It was on the 11th day of March each year that the first shad were caught and cooked on a plank, a method the settlers learned from the Indians. Shad were so abundant in colonial days that it became quite fashionable among some of the well-to-do. Many of them ate shad on the sly, fearing others would think them unable to afford more expensive food.

Kale, Avocado, Flaxseed Oil Pesto (Dairy free, Vegan, Gluten free)

My kale pesto made with an avocado and flaxseed oil. It took me only 5 minutes to prepare this tasty sauce. If you don't have pine nuts, you may use walnuts. Also, feel free to substitute olive oil for the flaxseed oil. This pesto recipe is vegan, dairy free and gluten free.

Homemade Hummus Made with Dried Chickpeas

This dish already is thousands of years old. When I traveled through Middle East I have tried hummus from street food carts and in fancy restaurants. Each hummus master would tell you a story of his unique recipe passed from generation to generation, but he would not reveal the recipe to anyone, of course.

Winter Salad with Beans, Potato & Roasted Beets

The beets color this warm winter salad a delightful purple, but if you like to keep colors separate, add the beets last. This salads good on its own as a side dish, or as a base for pan-fried fish or chicken.

Lemon & Blueberry Cake with Poppy Seeds (no flour, no sugar)

This Lemon & Blueberry cake is doubly enriched with the juice and zest of the fresh lemon. Poppy seeds stirred into a almond batter give flavor and texture. The blueberries and honey are natural partners: the sweet flowery flavor of the honey plays up to the slightly sassy blueberries. I can only say one thing - delightful cake!

Homemade Healthy Winter Jello

Recently I had a stomach virus and I was in bed for a few days, yuck :( As soon as I started feeling a bit better I started craving a jello. I was dying to taste a fruity, berry or orange cool dessert and asked my husband to get me some as soon as possible. He rushed to the store and brought me four-pack of fruit jello. To tell you the truth, I do not buy things like desserts and puddings. You know me, I cook everything myself from scratch and use ingredients as natural and as organic as possible. But in the situation when you are sick and you want something, it does not matter what you get, because it has be now.