Wonderfully Golden Crunchy & Crispy Homemade French Fries (from scratch)

I love french fries! and when I was living in Belgium I was able to get fries often in the many Friteries all around town. But since moving back, getting fries means going to Mc Donalds, Burger King or buying oven fries at one of the grocery stores.  I am not a really picky eater so I can eat all this fries, but there is nothing better than actual fries made from scratch.  

So, I ventured to make my own fries after calling my mom as she used to make them for us when I was growing up.   After a very simple few steps, I ended up with these amazing fries! seriously they were really delicious. 

Ingredients:                                                          

-Potatoes (I like gold potatoes)         

-Vegetable oil                                                         

-Salt                       

-Water

-Mayonaise, Ketchup, any other sauce

Ingredients

How to:
1. Pour oil in a small pan (fill about about half the pan) and heat in medium high heat.
2. Cut all potatoes into long strips
3. Submerge them in water with lots of salt for 20 minutes
3.  Dry the potatoes with kitchen paper towels.  (very important, because otherwise the fries will absorb the oil and end up soggy instead of crispy and crunchy.)
4.  Lay small batches of potatoes in oil and fry until golden, about 10 minutes each batch.

5.  Add salt to the fries as soon as you take them out of the pan so that the oil help the salt to stick to them.

6.  Enjoy the fries with mayonaise

Submerge potatoes slices in salted water

Dry potatoes thorougly

I love to eat them with Mayo instead of ketchup!

Granola: The most original Hostess Gift

A couple of weeks ago we had some friends over for a visit.  It was nothing special just a weekend with friends we hadn't seen in a few months.   We were not expecting our guest to bring anything, but both couples actually did.  One of them brought a swing for the two kids, and the other a very interesting homemade granola. 

That morning when we called one of them to ask at what time they expected to arrive (they had a 2 hour journey), they told us that they were about to leave but they hadn't yet because they were waiting for our gift to "cool down".  We didn't think much of it except that maybe they were bringing some sort of cake or dessert.

Well, you can imagine our surprise when our hostess gift was giftwrapped and still a little warm.  It was also heavy and obviously inside some sort of jar.  I was so curious, and when I opened it, to my surprise, I saw granola on a simple but beautifully looking airtight canister that had a decorative tulip napkin on top.  Wow! that was a totally different, original, unexpected, and as we later realized, delicious hostess gift. 

So my homemade granola is about to be finished off as we have it for breakfast all the time but I can't go back to store bought granola anymore.  The homemade version was just too good, besides I really want to give it a go in trying to make my own.  I still have to search a few recipes, give it a few trials and adapted it to suit me and my family, but once I have it all figured out I'll post the recipe here.  I can't wait!

PS:  It will definetely be oatmeal based

Healthier Carrot Cake with Chocolate Chips

So, this is my first post. I want to share my carrot cake recipe with you. For the past 9 months I have been perfecting my recipe as I have being baking carrot cakes once or twice a month. Initially I tried 3 different recipes, they were all good, but  I had an issue with the amount of sugar and oil all these recipes called for.  I am sure you can relate; I did not want to spend the time baking just to feel guilty when eating it. So I did some research, and came up with this carrot cake variation, hope you enjoy!

Healthier Carrot Cake with Chocolate Chips

Time: 1 hr and 15 minutes

Servings: 12 slices

Ingredients:

- 4 eggs

- 1 cup apple sauce

-1/4 cup vegetable oil

- 1 cup sugar

- 2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

- 2 cups flour

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 2 teaspoons baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 2 teaspoons cinnamon

- 1 lb fresh carrots

- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease a 9"x13" pan with olive oil

Peel and grate the carrots, you will get approximately 3 cups.

In a large bowl beat the eggs, apple sauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla in low speed for 30 seconds, or until blended. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, blend again for 30 seconds. Add the grated carrots with a spatula. Slowly pour mix into pan. Add chocolate chips to the top of the mix.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes.