Overnight Oats and learning French…slowly

 

Blouse- &Other Stories (similar)| Shorts- Thrifted (similar)

The Penguin French Phrase Book

Photography by. Bernadette Mira

I have been trying to learn French about a year and half now…on and off. I know, that isn’t the way to actually progress, but I get bored easily. All jokes aside, I do, sincerely want to learn how to speak French fluently. My question is though, how does anyone successfully learn a new language?

I want to convince my husband by saying, “Hey honey, I think we need to take a lonnnng trip to Paris so I can finally learn French.” We all know that isn’t going to go over well. WHO even has the funds to do something like that? Maybe, some rich white, eat pray love, woman who during her down time, just lays in the pile of money that she has. I digress, I guess I just have to whip myself back into gear. I need to be putting 100% effort in everyday…when I can, whether that be slapping sticky notes on food or appliances to remember the word pomme for apple.

Speaking of food, this is making me hungry and I need to start preparing breakfast for tomorrow. I try to make meal prep as easy, and painless as possible. So, today I am sharing my recipe for overnight oats. It makes getting up in the morning a breeze and actually enjoyable. You can sit back and eat your oats while you try to learn some french…which hopefully, I’ll be doing.

 

Pear Overnight Oats

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 cup of Irish style oats

1 cup of almond milk

1/2 tsp. of honey

1/8 tsp. of turmeric

1/4 tsp. of cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

half of a pear finely diced 

 

Directions:

1. Add 1 cup of oats and seasonings to a medium size bowl or cup.
2. Then add the honey, almond milk and diced pear.
3. With a spoon stir up the oat mixture until fully incorporated.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight and enjoy the next morning!

 

 

Falling over Bagels

All I can ask is “Why?” Sometimes life sends you curve balls. Is that the saying that people say? Well, life has sent me quiet of bit of those balls and sometimes I just want to throw them in the fire. For the past month and a half, almost, I have been suffering with colitis. If you don’t know what that is, please do yourself a favor and don’t look it up, it’s terrible. You literally feel like your dying from the pain and all I can say is take care of your gut and don’t take too many antibiotics IF you can help it.

So, Christmas and the holidays were non-existent for me, because I couldn’t celebrate while kneeling over with pain. Even though the pain kept me down, there have been  days where I have felt fine. On one of those days I decided to embark on making bagels.

Now, I have never in my life made bagels and I honestly thought it would be an easy task, but as you can see some of my bagels have a unique shape. Which is fine and Julia Child would probably approve of the attempt. Yet, in future baking, I am determined to create the perfect, circular shape for a bagel.

 

Poppy Seed and Parmesan Garlic Bagels

Makes 12

Ingredients 

Poppy Seed Bagels

1 tsp. of active yeast

2/3 cup of warm water

1/2 tsp. of brown sugar

2 cups of bread flour

1 tsp. of kosher salt 

1/2 cup of water

1 tsp. of baking soda 

2 beaten eggs for egg wash

1/2- 1 cup of poppy-seeds (make ahead)

Parmesan and Garlic Bagels

1 tsp. of active yeast

2/3 cup of warm water

1/2 tsp. of granulated sugar

2 cups of bread flour

1 tsp. of kosher salt

1/2 cup of water 

1 cup of shaved parmesan (make ahead)

1/2 cup of minced garlic (make ahead)

 

Extra: flour, oil, damp dish towels, a big pot

Directions:

1. In two separate bowls add yeast, warm water and sugar. See Notes. Let both mixtures sit for 5 to 8 minutes. Then set aside.
2. In two big bowls sift flour and salt together till combined. Then create a well into the flour and add the yeast mixture.
3. Slowly mix the dough and incorporate the 1/2 cup of water for both mixtures. Then knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until elastic.
4. Then lightly oil two clean bowls. Let both of the dough mixtures rest for an hour with a damp cloth on top.
5. After resting shape the dough into bagels. By doing this, cut the two dough mixtures into halves. Then with a sharp knife cut 6 medium size balls–making 12. (6 for the poppy-seed and 6 for the garlic bagels)
6. Once you have your twelve balls, gently place your ring finger into the middle of the dough ball until your finger pokes through. Then carefully move the dough around in a circular motion with both of your hands pulling on each side as you go around. See shaping bagel video.
7. After shaping all twelve bagels, on an oiled sheet or plate let the dough rest again with a damp towel for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 F.
8. Once the bagels are done resting, create your hot water bath. In a big pot add water about half way with 1 tsp. of baking soda then bring to a simmer.
9. Once the water has start to simmer, gently with a slotted spoon add the bagels one by one. Do this in batches of twos or threes, depending on the size of your bagels. Let each bagel boil for 2 minutes on each side. Then set aside to rest on a clean plate.
10. Create your egg wash for the bagels and brush all of them till fully coated. At this point add your toppings, poppy seeds for one batch. Then, fresh minced garlic and shaved parmesan for the other. Cover the bagels completely.
11. On a baking sheet bake the bagels for 30 minutes or until lightly brown. Bake the bagels in two separate batches.

Enjoy!

 

Notes: For the poppy-seed bagels mix the brown sugar into the yeast/water mixture.

 

Photography by. Bernadette Mira

Purple and Sweet Potato Egg Hash

 

Photography by. Unknown(Left) and Bernadette Mira(Right)

Model: Daphne Selfe

This particular image kept on coming back to me for some reason. It struck me, because (obviously) the woman who is modeling in the picture looked significantly older (NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT ALL) than the pictures I normally post on here. I thought to myself, “Damn! This woman is rocking this suit!” I was curious and I wanted to find out more about this power house of a woman.

‘Daphne Selfe’ immediately popped up as soon as I copied the image into the Google search bar. I’d never heard of her before, but I continued to see words appear like ‘Oldest’, ‘Professional’, ‘Beautiful’, the list went on and on.  She has been modeling since 1949, which if I do the math correctly is 68 years…is that right?! That’s insane! Which, honestly, makes sense since she is the World’s Oldest Professional Model.

Her resume of work impressed me. I’m not going to sit here and write everything down about her and her accomplishments, but take a moment and just sit with yourself for a while. Women are amazing right?! I feel like it’s easy for women to forget how impressive and how impactful we have been to this place we call Earth. Even if we feel like we have zero importance in this world, we certainly do and we can certainly accomplish ANYTHING that we want to.

So, ladies and gents, take a moment and realize how special we’re as humans. I know this is turning into some type of ramble, but I think it’s important that we take those moments when we have time to and give ourselves a pat on our backs. We can do anything we set our minds to. If someone can work their butt off till their 87, then anyone can!

Purple and Sweet Potato Egg Hash

Serves 1-2

Ingredients

1-2 small purple potatoes

1 small sweet potato

1-2 eggs

2 tbsp. of olive oil 

sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper

1 tsp. of garlic powder

1/2 tsp. of white pepper 

Extra:

Cast Iron Skillet

Spatula 

Directions:

1. Cut the potatoes in small cubes and toss in the cast iron skillet on medium heat with olive oil.
2. Then add the following seasonings. Sea salt, black pepper, garlic, and white pepper.
3. Sautee the potatoes for 6 minutes. Then crack the eggs and add them to the cast iron skillet with the potatoes creating a circle around them. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
4. Cook/Sautee for another 3-4 minutes. Once the sides of the eggs start to turn a crispy brown, take the cast iron off the heat and serve at once.
5. Enjoy for breakfast or a snack!

Photos by. Bernadette Mira

Tropical Swirl Smoothie Bowl

Photography by. Nick Hudson(Left) and Bernadette Mira(Right)

Model: Ajak Deng

While I sit here listening to Pandora on the African Radio station, I can’t help but wish that I could travel to a different land. I think that’s what I enjoy most about cooking/baking and learning new techniques from different cultures. I can automatically transport myself to a different place by trying to recreate a dish from somewhere far off.

Today was my day off, so I opted for something simple and refreshing before I take on the evening at kickboxing class tonight. I wanted to add a squeeze of lime to the dish, because the sad, shriveled lime that was left in the back of the fridge was calling to be used. This dish may transport you from cold, slushy, snowy NYC to a tropical island. Where you can hear howler monkeys off in the distance and then watch the sun slowly fade behind the ocean range.

Tropical Swirl Smoothie Bowl

Serves 1

Ingredients

Bottom part

2 ripe bananas

1/3 cup of Greek yogurt(optional)

1 juice from half of a lime

3-4 ice cubes

1/3-1/2 cup of coconut water

Top Part

5-6 Frozen strawberries

3 ice cubes

1/3 cup of chopped frozen pineapple

1/3-1/2 cup of coconut water

Toppings

Chia Seeds

Grated Milk Chocolate 

Directions:

1. Gather your ingredients and blend the bottom layer first in a blender or food processor.
2. Add the bottom layer first to your bowl of your choosing. Then blend together the top layer till smooth.
3. Once the top layer is smooth, add it to the bottom layer and swirl together.
4. Add toppings of your choosing. I used chia seeds for protein and milk chocolate by Nathan Miller.

Photo by. Bernadette Mira

Banana Coffee Cake with Miranda Kerr

Photography by. Gritty Pretty(Left) and Bernadette Mira(Right)

Today’s inspiration is none other than the amazing, Miranda Kerr. The first time I heard of Miranda was actually pretty recently. I was browsing through YouTube and was endlessly watching the British Vogue Channel. My favorite segment from the British Vogue Channel is the ‘Inside the Wardrobe.’ Miranda’s was the first one to pop up and I was immediately enamored by her sense of style and of course, her wardrobe. Her style is a bit ready to wear with a flash of  vintage, which is the best of both worlds. Be sure to check the video out when you have a chance.

The beautiful, 33-year-old, Australian model, who is also a mom, rose to fame as a Victoria’s Secret Angel back in 2007. Ever since then, she has launched an organic facial line called Kora Organics and has recently gotten engaged!  Her photo above, taken by Gritty Pretty, inspired me to create a dish that you can enjoy in bed. Where you can settle down on a cloudy day, partake in a cup of coffee or tea and lounge around while enjoying something sweet and delicious. So, enough talk, here is today’s recipe…

Banana Coffee Cake

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of flour

dash of salt

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup of brown sugar(Domino)

3/4 cup of vegetable oil

(save 1 1/2 cup for crumb top)

3-4 ripe bananas

1 egg

2 tbsp of plain yogurt

1/2 cup of buttermilk

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

Bake at 350 F for 45-60 minutes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, cinnamon, sugars and vegetable oil until it creates a crumble like mixture.
3. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of the crumble mixture in a small bowl to use for the topping.
4. In a standing mixer or hand held mixer(with bowl) add egg, bananas, yogurt, buttermilk, baking soda and baking powder to the dry mixture and combine until creamy.
5. Butter or spray a 9 by 11 cake pan and pour in the coffee cake mixture.
6. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of the crumble mixture on top and spread out evenly to cover.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes.
8. Check with a knife or toothpick to check if done. (It’s done when the toothpick or knife comes out clean.)

Photo by. Bernadette Mira

Chilled Oatmeal for the Summer

Featuring Veronique Branquinho’s  Resort Collection 2017

Photography by. Ronald Stoops(Left)Credit to Veronique’s Collection and Bernadette Mira(right)

I happened to stubble upon Veronique’s page while perusing the Vogue website late at night. I was immediately stunned by her clothing designs and her way of using vibrant patterns, while incorporating comfort. Her designs give off a sense of effortlessness, but are trendy and chic. Pairing denim designs along with hanging tassels that are enveloped with tawny colored beads are definitely hitting the street styles. Veronique is Belgium born and raised. By 1978 she was already presenting her fashion designs to the world. Her most recent Resort Collection, inspired me to create a dish that brings comfort to the senses and a hint of surprise.

So, today I present a breakfast dish that will be great for those summer days…

Chilled Oatmeal

topped with walnuts

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup of rolled oats

1 banana

2 pitted dates

2-4 cups of cold water (add more if needed)

1 tsp. of ground ginger

1 tsp. of agave

Toppings

handful of walnuts

1 sprig of mint (optional)

1 tsp. of nutmeg

Extra

raisins

cinnamon

maple syrup

(Anything that you enjoy on top of oatmeal dishes)

A high power food processor

bowl or glass pitcher covered (to store oatmeal)

Directions:

1. In a food processor, process rolled oats and water till it forms a liquid consistency.
2. Next, add banana, dates, ginger, and agave. Mix on high till completely blended together.
3. Once blended, pour the mixture into a bowl or glass pitcher. Then cover with plastic wrap to store in the fridge till the next morning.
4. Next morning, add your toppings and enjoy while sitting outside on your porch. (I like to imagine that I’m sitting on a porch somewhere, while birds chirp in the background.)

Enjoy!!!

Photo by. Bernadette Mira

Featured by Jenny Mustard

 Photo by. Jenny and David Mustard

I was recently featured on Jenny and David’s YouTube channel. It was such a lovely birthday surprise. Thank you Jenny and David for being such wonderful people and being such an inspiration for me. Check out their Sunday Breakfast and be sure to subscribe to their channel! I am featured in their Creative Corner at 7 minutes. Enjoy!