I don't really like apples. They are probably my least favourite fruit. Well, actually I don't like fruit too much. If I have a choice between vegetables and fruit, I'd definitely go for veggies. I'd rather eat a whole tomato or a cucumber than an apple or a pear. Still, not all fruit are so low on my list of favourites. I absolutely adore mangoes and I love juicy and perfectly ripe watermelon; I crave tangerines during winters and nectarines when it's warm. Apples, however, are rarely present on my kitchen counter. But I must admit, that when it comes to pies, apples are one of my favourite choices and they only come second to cherries. So, what a girl can do when she suddenly craves that apple pie taste, but has absolutely no desire to make a pie? A Baked Apple of course! Well, the "of course" part apparently is not that obvious as it turned out that some people have never even heard of such a thing as Baked Apple.

recipe for one serving

• Apple, washed and cored - 1
• Dates, pitted and chopped - 2
• Pecans, chopped - 1.5 table spoons
• Lemon juice - 1/2 lemon
• Brown sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cinnamon - 1/4 teaspoon

- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
- Pour the lemon juice inside the apple.
- Mix the dates and pecans together.
- Place the nut mixture into the apple.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle on top of the filling.
- Place the apple in an ovenproof dish.
- Bake for around 30 minutes until the apple is soft and the skin is wrinkled.

I already mentioned earlier that cookbook that I got a few months ago - "Cakes & Loaves" - and completely forgot about. Now I am trying to remedy this situation and use it more. So, I decided to make a sweet cake from the book. I am very partial to ground almond sin baking, so when I saw a recipe that combined ground almonds and matcha powder, I knew that I just had to try it. It took me a few years of hunting in Toronto to finally buy this famous Matcha Green Tea powder, but when I finally got my hands on it, I only made one dessert with the ingredient and that was it. Lately, however, I've been drinking a lot of green tea which tastes exactly like Green Tea Ice Cream and I've been craving desserts with that same flavour.

The cake turned out absolutely perfect. Ground almonds give unique texture to the cake, white chocolate is not too pronounced but still noticable and it smells and tastes like green tea. The cake stayed soft and tender even after a few days on my kitchen table.

This recipe was a little bit strange. Although, I followed the insturctions to the letter, the batter that I got was way too thin. It was more like a pancake batter, than normal cake batter, so I had to add a full cup of dry ingredients to make it into a normal cake batter consistency. I'll list my measurements here, but just in case, don't add all the dry ingredients at the same time, add them gradually to make sure that the batter is not too stiff.

recipe adapted from "Cakes & Loaves" by Ilona Chovancova

• Butter, melted - 10 tablespoons (150g)
• White chocolate, melted - 75 g
• Eggs - 3
• Sugar - 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons
• Flour - 1 cup + 1/4 cup
• Ground almonds - 1 cup + 1/4 cup
• Green tea powder (Matcha) - 3 teaspoons
• Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoons
• Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoons
• Milk - 3 tablespoons
• Salt - a pinch

- Preheat the ove to 180C (350F).
- Butter and flour a cake pan.
- Beat together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume.
- Gradually add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, baking soda, salt, milk, and melted butter. Mix until the flour is incorporated.
- Divide the batter into two equal portions.
- Fold the green tea into one portion, and fold the white chocolate into the other.
- Pour the white chocolate batter into a prepared pan and cover with the green tea batter.
- Use a fork or a metal skewer to swirl the batters for a marbled effect.
- Bake for 40-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out dry when inserted in the middle of the cake. Cover with foil if the cake is not baked through but the top begins to brown too much.
- Let cool in the pan slightly before turning out.

Comments
- Original recipe only had 3/4 cups of flour and ground almonds each and also no milk.
- It also required only 40 minutes to bake, but I found that the cake wasn't baked through after 40 minutes and it needed about an hour, but it all depends on the oven.

It's been quite a long time since my last post here. I haven't been cooking much, but I recently started to get back into the groove. I made a few things and they turned out pretty great. I also got a new camera - Nikon D700, so I am extremely excited and can't wait to start cooking and taking pictures again.

I got this book called "Cakes & Loaves" a few months ago. I fell in love with the pictures of the cakes - so simple, so bright, so inviting and delicious. Later, while browsing through the recipes I was a little bit disappointed - it seemed like there were just a couple of basic recipes and the rest were just multiple variations of the same idea, just different additions and flavourings. I thought about returning the book, but the pictures were too inspirational and I left it on my shelf. That was more than six months ago and I completely forgot about this gem until last week. I picked up the book and rediscovered all the beautiful cakes again. One of them just screamed my name. Blue Cheese, Pear and Walnuts - what a perfect  and classic combination of ingredients. Salty, spicy cheese combined with soft, sweet pear and crunchy, earthy nuts. On top of all that, the cake is very easy to make, all the ingredients just need to be combined and baked - no whipping, melting, resting, separating, etc. needed.

recipe adapted from "Cakes & Loaves" by Ilona Chovancova

• Blue cheese, crumbled (such as Roquefort) - 125 g
• Pear, peeled and chopped into 1x1cm cubes - 1 
• Walnuts, coarsely chopped - 60 g
• Eggs - 3
• Milk - 100 ml
• Walnut oil - 3 tablespoons
• Olive oil - 3 tablespoons
• Flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Baking powder - 1 tablespoon
• Sugar - 2 teaspoons
• Mild Cheddar, grated - 100 g
• Salt, pepper

- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
- Butter and flour the cake pan.
- In a big bowl mix together eggs, milk and both oils.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix just until it all comes together and no flour is visible. make sure that the filling is evenly distributed through the batter.
- Transfer the batter into the cake pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean with no crumbs.
- Cool the cake in the pan.

Comments
- You may omit the sugar, I just like the combination of salty and sweet and I think the batter becomes to plain without it.
- Blue cheese should be strong since there are so many other ingredients in the cake. Milk blue cheese would be lost in it.
- This cake goes amazingly well with Strong Cider.

I really love mussels, but somehow I rarely order them in the restaurants. They just seem like a bad idea to order, not substantial enough for a main course and too much for an appetizer. So, with all my love for this product I don't remember the last time I ate them. I think I first tried them when I was 12 years old and visited Canada for the first time. They were exotic, different, something I've never tried and seen before in Russia. Then when I was 14 years old my dad and my grandma spent 10 days driving around in Europe and we made a very short stop in Amsterdam. I don't remember much about that city which I so want to visit again. I just remember really cute houses that reminded me of doll houses, I remember a few very long hours spent in the famous Van Gogh Museum - oh, how I want to go back there and explore that museum now when I love and appreciate that amazing artist - and I remember a dinner that we had at a small restaurant. Each of us had a huge pot of succulent, steaming mussels swimming in luscious broth. I don't think I've ever had so many mussels since then or maybe it's just the memory of a 14 year old when everything looked bigger and tasted better.

So, finally I decided to try making mussels on my own and they turned out amazing and really easy. I am sure I'll be cooking with mussels more from now on. This recipe is really great and the broth is absolutely amazing. There's a lot of broth, so you may want to reduce the amount of wine, but I think the broth is the best part in this recipe. Dunk some fresh crusty bread in the broth or serve it with some cooked pasta as the author of the recipe suggests.

recipe adapted from Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten

for about 3 medium portions

• Mussels - 2.5 pounds
• Butter - 2 tablespoons
• Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
• Onion, finely chopped - 1 medium
• Garlic, finely chopped -  5 cloves
• Canned plum tomatoes, chopped - 1/3 cup (2 tomatoes from a can)
• Flat Italian parsley, finely chopped - 1/2 cup
• Thyme, dried - 1 teaspoon
• White buttery wine such as Chardonnay - 1 cup
• Salt - 3/4 teaspoon
• Pepper - 1/4 teaspoon

- Clean the mussels. Remove the "beard" and scrub them under running water with a brush to remove any sand. Discard the mussels whose shells are not tightly shut.
- In a large pot, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes until it's soft.
- Add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir a few times to keep the garlic from burning.
- Add the tomatoes, parsley, thyme, wine, salt and pepper. Bring to boil.
- Add the mussels, stir well to coat them in the sauce, cover the pot and cook for 8-10 minutes over medium heat.
- Shake the pot a few times with the lid on to make sure that the mussels do not burn on the bottom.
- Pour the mussels and the broth into bowls and serve with crusty bread or over cooked pasta.
- Discard any mussels that are closed.

Cabbage Rolls are a very typical Russian dish, although there are a lot of variations of it in different countries like Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. I don't remember having them at home when I was a child, but I had them at my friends' houses and restaurants. It's not an easy food to make. Well, it's not difficult, but really tedious. First, the cabbage leaves need to be separated, then they need to be boiled for a couple of minutes until they are soft and pliable, but not too mushy. That process takes time since the leaves can only be boiled a few at a time. A filling needs to be made out of ground meat and cooled par-boiled rice. Then the rolls are assembled and baked in creamy tomato sauce. You see, it's a long process which I never attempted, although I really love Cabbage Rolls. So, when I saw a recipe for "Lazy Cabbage Rolls", I was intrigued. It was indeed very lazy - cabbage is shredded and mixed with ground meat and uncooked rice, then the meatballs are formed and baked - easy. The result was great, I really loved the simplicity and the taste. I'll make these again and again for sure.

recipe from carina-forum

for about 4 servings (16 meatballs)

• Ground meat - 500 g
• Cabbage, finely shredded and cut into short pieces - 500 g
• Rice - 1/2 cup
• Onion, finelly chopped - 1 medium
• Eggs - 2
• Salt, pepper to taste

For the sauce

• Sour cream - 1/2 cup
• Tomato sauce or simple ketchup - 1/4 cup
• Salt, pepper

• sour cream for serving

- First step is optional: saute the onion in a little bit of oil until the onion is soft and caramelized; alternatively, for an even lazier version, raw onion can be used.
- Mix the ground meat, shredded cabbage, uncooked rice, onion and eggs together.
- Add salt and pepper to the meatball mixture.
- Form the meatballs with your hands and place them in a baking dish.
- Bake for about 35 minutes at 375F.
- Make the sauce by mixing the sour cream with the tomato sauce (or ketchup) and pour the sauce of the meatballs. Bake for another 20 minutes.
- Serve with sour cream.

Comments
- By mistake I put all the sauce in the beginning of the baking and it got absorbed into the meatballs, so I covered each meatball with a dollop of sour cream about 10 minutes before the end of the baking.
- I think you can use your favourite tomato sauce here instead of this version and you might want to use more of it.
- The cabbage in the meatballs makes them flavourful and juicy.

When I first got interested in food, it wasn't cooking that intrigued me - it was baking. I didn't even like to cook, but baking on the other hand was my passion. It was magic that pulled me in. How do those simple ingredients like eggs, butter and flour mixed together create various beautiful cakes? And what about flourless cakes - sugar, butter and chocolate - how does this mixture create luscious desserts? I still consider it magical!

I was so interested in baking that I actually went to college for baking. I took 10 courses to qualify for a Bakery Arts Certificate (I still have to apply to get it, although I have all the correct courses). It was great and I learned a lot about baking and I am really not afraid of any type of baking now: be it yeasty breads, delicate pastries or flaky tarts.

But the cake recipe that I am about to introduce here goes against everything I learned. It's really not a right way to make a cake batter, but it works and it works beautifully! It's my mom's cake, she used to make it often when I was a child and this is baking magic at its best. One of my favourite things about this cake is the crust, somehow about 3 times out of 5 the crust really become meringue-like and tastes similar to macaroons. I cannot really explain why that happens.

Here it's made with pitted cherries, but my favourite is with apples, pecans and cinnamon. I also tried it with peaches and cardamom and plums and almonds. I'm sure it will be great with almost any fruit that you can put in a pie filling.

For baking form 20x20cm

• Eggs - 3
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Flour - 1 cup
• Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
• Fruit - 2 cups or enough to cover the baking dish or more if mixed with the batter
• Butter for the baking dish

And now for the magical part

- Preheat the over to 350F (180C).
- Butter the baking dish.
- In a big bowl whisk together the eggs and the sugar just until it all comes together, about 30 seconds, no more.
- Add the flour (and baking powder if using) and wisk together just until the flour disappears and there are no more lumps, about 45 seconds, no more.
- The batter will be quite thick and there won't be a lot of it.
- Cover the baking dish with the fruit and spread the batter over. It will barely cover the fruit and it'll look like it's not enough, but it will be great. ALternatively you can mix the fruit with the batter.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes depending on your oven. A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean when the cake is ready.
- Cool and enjoy with a glass of cold milk.

Various fillings:

- Pitted sour cherries.
- Apples cut into peaces with pecans and cinnamon.
- Halved plums with almonds inserted into each half.
- Sliced peaches with cinnamon or cardamom.

When I was little I didn't really like cookies. Most likely because we rarely had them in my family. Cookies weren't that popular in Russia. The most popular sweet was candy. We had many different types of candies, each of them wrapped in a colourful paper. Those types of candies are not popular here at all. In North America it's all about big candy bars, whereas in Russia we had tiny morsels of sweet goodness. We had our version of truffles, just much denser and harder than the French truffles. We had little souffle candy dipped in chocolate, they were about 1 inch by 1/2 inch rectangles and only 1/4 inch thickness - perfect size for a little pick me up sweet; my favourite was pineapple flavour, and we also had vanilla, chocolate and orange. There were also a lot of different candies with layers of wafers and chocolate cream fillings. There was something magical about those sweets, I think it was the wrapping, not the typical plastic-like glossy thin paper that we get here around Snickers or Mars bars, no. Each little candy was first wrapped in the thinnest layer of wax paper, then came the silver foil and then the colourful paper wrapping with a picture. Back in USSR we used to collect those paper wrappings much like people collect post stamps here.

So, all my childhood I had those candies. There were of course cookies, but they weren't as popular and I don't really remember my mom baking cookies except for a few times. It took me quite a few years of living in Canada to fall in love with cookies, but not I absolutely love them whereas my mom is still not a fan.

This is a very easy and tasty recipe for oatmeal cookies. They keep fresh for at least a weak in an airtight container and they have this perfect balance of sugar, so that they are not overly sweet, but sweet enough. I made 1/3 of the recipe plain, 1/3 with chocolate chips and 1/3 with raisins. I like the raisin cookies most, then the plain and then the chocolate.

recipe from sonulya.livejournal.com

for 4-5 dozens depending on the size of the cookies

• Butter, room temperature - 200 g
• Brown sugar, packed - 1 cup
• White surgar - 1/2 cup
• Eggs - 2
• Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
• Flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
• Cinnamon powder - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - a pinch
• Oats (rolled or quick oats) - 3 cups
• Raisins - 1 cup (optional)
• Pecans or Chocolate Chips - 1 cup (optional)

- Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
- In a big bowl using a mixer mix togher butter and both sugars until it's light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time mixing well between each addition. Add vanilla extract.
- Add flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and mix until the flour disappears from the mixture.
- Add oats and raisins and pecans if using and mix. Do not overmix.
- Place tablespoons of dough on baking sheet leaving 1 inch space between them.
- Bakie for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on top.
- Leave the cookies to cool for a minute on a baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

It's the middle of July and we still haven't had a good summer weather here. Yes, we had a couple of hot days here and there, but overall it doesn't feel like summer yet. But still, when the weather is above 24C (75F) and it's humid, I don't feel like cooking. So, I've been having a lot of sandwiches and... soups. Yes, soups, just cold soups. Actually, just one cold soup in particular. I discovered it last summer and spent a few months eating it practically every day, the combination of ingredients might sound weird to you, but the taste is phenomenal! I am not sure about the origin of this recipe, some say it's Russian, some say it's Lithuanian or Latvian, but regardless of where it came from, it's amazingly tasty, filling and refreshing.The recipe is really versatile and the ingredients can be added, increased, decreased or omitted according to taste, I've been known to exclude beets all together and added radishes. I've heard that it's really good with piping hot boiled potatoes on the side. It's a perfect easy summer soup!

recipe adapted from carina-forum

• Beets, boiled or baked, grated - 1 large or 2 small
• Cucumbers, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes - 2 small
• Eggs, boiled, chopped - 4
• Dill, finely chopped - 4 tablespoons or more to taste
• Green onion, chopped - 2 (optional)
• Radishes, chopped - 5 (optional)
• Lots of salt
• Kefir - 700 ml or more if you'd like a thinner soup

- Mix all the ingredients together and season to taste! It's that easy!

Comments
- Sometimes I am asked about the taste of this concoction. How does it taste? Well, all those ingredients without kefir make a pretty good salad, so it's sort of like a salad with lots of dressing, a.k.a kefir. Try it, it's great!!!

It's been a month since I came back from the International Food Styling and Photography Conference in Boston. And it's been a month since I wrote something here, in my blog. Somehow every time I sat down to write, it just didn't seem right. In the beginning I was so overwhelmed by the conference, that I needed about a week to get my bearings. Then all those wonderful posts about the conference started to show up and I didn't know if I can keep up with them. I cannot take journalistic  photos and I cannot write as well as those guys. So, yes, it took me a month, but I am finally writing this, although not too detailed.

The conference was amazing!! I was inspired in so many ways that I cannot describe it. I met wonderful people who I could not ever meet here. I heard countless inspirational stories and I felt so much "at home" when I knew that most people there shared my obsession with food.

But I actually had two different opinions about the conference. On one hand I absolutely loved it, but on the other hand I was a little bit disappointed with some of the talks. Some of the presenters just showed us their portfolio and that's it. It felt a bit strange paying a large sum of money just to see the same pictures that are on their websites.

No matter what my feelings were about the conference, the last day made up for everything. We went to Francine Zaslow Studio and it was an experience of a lifetime!!! How can I describe it? Beautiful big kitchen with countless of dishes, plates, bowls, forks and glasses. Large windows, amazing equipment and absolutely wonderful talented photographers, food stylists and assitants. I spent most of my time observing Deborah Jones who worked with natural light.

I came home absolutely amazed with the things that I saw and heard. I still feel a little bit out of my element. Wow, was I there? Was I at the conference?  I think it'll take me a few more weeks to realize that yes, it actually happened and it wasn't a dream, but for now I'm going to keep dreaming about it.

I am very excited and scared at the same time. I am going to the International Food Styling and Photography Conference in Boston this weekend. I don't really know what to expect and I don't know anyone there. I am new to the food blogging community and know any of the wonderful food bloggers yet. I know of them of course!! I know their blogs, their delicious recipes, their amazing pictures, but I don't know them any closer than that and they don't know me. So, it's a bit nerve racking going away by myself, but I am super excited to learn from the best and to meet new people.

I'll be back next week with pictures and stories