Taste of Home - Grandma's Meatballs

You know those dishes, that you just smell and they immediately bring you back to childhood? Well, my grandma's food is exactly that. Her mayonnaise salad, her little schnitzels, the stuffed vine leaves... But most of all - her meatballs with sauce. Since I don't eat meat anymore, I can't enjoy the taste, but the smell is enough to send me back to age 6 or 7.

Seven years ago, after I gave birth for the very first time, my grandma (who was 70 something at the time) flew all the way to Shanghai, just to hug and kids her first great-grandson (and me!). There, in Shanghai, in my Chinese kitchen, she first taught me how to make those meatballs. I just stood there, next to her, while she cooked, and wrote everything she did. I used this recipe so many times since that day. Want a proof? Well, I guess in this case a picture IS worth a thousand words...

Here's the English version -

Meatballs ingredients

1 medium onion, grated

500 g (1.1 lbs) minced beef (you can mix with either chicked or turkey)

1 egg

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp baharat (a typical middle eastern spice mixture). If you can't find or make it, just add another 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbs bread crumbs

salt & pepper

For the sauce

1 tsp. Canola oil

1 medium onion, grated

1/2 cup tomato paste

1/2 cup ketchup
2 cups boiled water

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp baharat

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

salt & pepper

Combine all meatballs ingredients together.

In a large pot saute onion in oil, 3-4 min.

Add tomato paste, ketchup and boiled water.

Add cumin, baharat, cinnamon, salt & pepper.
Use the meatball mixture to form meatballs about 1" in diameter.
Add the meatballs to the sauce. Make sure the meatballs are covered in sauce. If not, add some water.
Cover and cook on low-medium heat 1/2 hour.

These meatballs are great with rice, mashed potatoes or spaghetti.

Day 5. Far East Influences. Fried Rice Recipe

When we just arrived to Taiwan, about a thousand years ago (at least that's how it feels), we found out we can't speak Chinese. Sounds weird, I know, but considering the fact that we spent the 2 years prior to our arrival studying Chinese at the university, we were quite surprised (today I already know that you can't really learn Chinese when you're not in a Chinese speaking environment), and we also found out that the Taiwanese can't speak English (or Hebrew for that matter). Those 2 facts caused us embarrassing, funny and wearying situations, especially those involving food. Really, imagine trying to explain to this guy standing in front of you that you don't want any little unidentified creatures on your plate, when all you can say is "hello", "don't want" and "don't understand". Luckily, the Chinese we learned did help with basic communication and as time went by we actually managed to communicate with those around us. But during the first two months, the only place that managed to understand what we wanted was the fried rice street stall next to the hostel where we stayed. We found ourselves eating there lunch and dinner every day. As long as we knew what was on our plate, we were happy.
Generally speaking, I didn't like the Taiwanese food, but the taste of this street stall is still with me up to this day, almost 12 years later.
True, I'll never be able to imitate the taste of that stall, but the fried rice I make is easy to make, delicious and always reminds me of those first days in the Far East.

Ingredients (serves 4):
1 cup rice
1 1/4 cups water
150 g (0.3 lb.) tofu cut into small cubes / chicken breast cut into strips
1 egg
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 potato, diced
1/4 cup peas (can use canned or frozen)
1/4 cup green beans (frozen is fine)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
handful of Chinese sprouts
4 stems scallions, just the green part, cut into 2-3 cm (0.8-1.2 inch) strips
3-4 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp. date syrup concentrate / sugar
salt & pepper
oil for frying


First, we cook the rice. use any recipe to cook it, as long as you end up with white rice. I fry the dry rice in a little oil for 2-3 minutes, then add water, salt and pepper and bring to boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat, cover and cook exactly 18 minutes. Then remove from heat, leave it covered for 5 minutes, then open and stir with a fork.
At the same time, cook the carrot and potato cubes in water for 5-10 minutes. They don't have to be completely soft, just a little bit.
In a wok, pour some oil then make a scrambled egg. When ready, put it aside in a bowl.
Add some more oil and stir fry tofu / chicken 5 minutes. Move it to the bowl with the scrambled egg.
Add more oil and start stir fry the veggies, wait 2 minutes before you add the next one - onion, carrot, potato, green beans and peas.
Add the minced garlic and ginger and stir fry 1-2 min.
Add tofu / chicken.
Add soy sauce, sesame oil, date syrup or sugar, salt and pepper and stir fry another 3-5 minutes.
If the food begins to stick to the wok, add a little water.
Add Chinese sprouts and scallions and stir fry another minute.
Remove from heat, serve (with chopsticks, of course...) and fantasize about the Far East :)

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Corn Fritters - Super Easy Recipe

Fact: Kids love corn.
It might be the sweetness, it might be this color that you just can't ignore or maybe it's because of those little grains. Anyhow, no matter what I make, as long as it has corn inside, I know the kids would love it - pasta with corn, fried rice with corn or even just corn on the cob with salt and butter. But the favorite corn dish in our house has got to be the corn fritters. Just add veggies on the side and maybe some cheese as well, and you have a successful dinner.

Ingredients
canned corn (we tried once to use corn right from the cob. Unfortunately the kids didn't like it, although we did...)
4 eggs
4 tbsp. bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
bundle of parsley and cilantro (optional), thinly chopped
salt & pepper
You can also add 2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese.
Butter / oil for frying


Combine all ingredients together.
Heat butter or oil in a pan.
Use a spoon to drop spoonfuls of the batter into the pan. Fry until golden.

For grown-ups you can serve with yogurt and chive dip.


Don't forget, if you have any recipes (or crafts & DIY's) of your own that you'd like to share (and maybe get featured), pin them to our Pinterest group board (follow me on Pinterest then comment here or on any of my pins, and I'll send you an invite).

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Princes & Princesses Birthday Party

My boy had his 5th birthday. Well, actually not yet, but the celebrations have already started a month and a half before the official date, I guess that's what happens when you're born on summer vacation... Here's the cake I made for the party at his preschool

So he wanted to invite his friends to a party at our house and then added: but mommy, if we want the boys and the girls to have fun, why don't we make the boys princes and the girls princesses?

Short pause. Mom tries to quickly find an excuse to get away with it, then understands it impossible. Mom agrees and even says: "What a great idea!"

And that's how it all started. Before we begin, I'd like to apologize for the quality of the pictures - most of them were taken during the party, which was crazy, so they're either blurred or out of focus. Sorry about that (even the only picture I took of the cake came out blurred...)

So let's begin with the invitations. They were designed together with the birthday boy as a scroll with burned edges, tied with a red ribbon. But for some reason I don't have a picture of them...

We decorated our backyard with balloons, ribbons, tissue paper pom poms and 'royal' banners.

When they arrived, each child got a red cape (although most of them didn't want to put them on...).

The main attraction was a castle I made from 3 cardboard boxes. The kids just loved it! Every single free second they had, they ran to play there.

While we waited for all the kids to arrive, we prepared a table with crayons and coloring pages. The table was actually empty most of the time, because the kids prefered the castle, but some did sit and color. Btw, the faces of some of the kids are hidden in order to protect their privacy.

Then we divided the kids into 5 groups. Each participated in a different activity, and we switched between the groups every 10 minutes or so. One activity was making a dragon out of an empty toilet paper roll. Here's the birthday boy working on his:

And the dragons

In another activity they decorated cookies in different shapes like crowns and dresses, that I made beforehand. We put icing, ganache and lots of colorful candies on the table.

Then we had a Kiss the Frog game.

Another activity was to decortate crowns. They were supposed to make wands as well, but the crowns took a while to make, so the wands will wait for next year.

But the most popular activity by far was a game that the swedish cousins had tought us - the kids got a fishing rod and tried to fish. They throw the rod over a wall, where my husband hid and connected different objects, like a shoe or a sock, to the rod. They kept on trying until they fished their prize. It was so hard to make them leave this activity - long live Sweden!

After that we all played together Pass the Package. The prize was a treasure chest full with chocolate coins.

And of course we had a snacks table, with the traditional snacks, vegetables with Hummus, Tahini and cheese dip and flower shaped melon and watermelon (again no picture, but the I got the idea at Edible Crafts, a great website, btw!)

The birthday boy asked for a castle cake.

I also made cake pops, but it was a disaster - it was very hard to keep them on the stick... I made some cupcakes as well. Btw, the cupcake stand is a DIY one, I'll post about it later.

Oh, and Marshmallow dipped in chocolate and covered with candies

Dinner included pizza and corn. At the end we also gave them little home-made mini popsicles, that I made in ice trays.

Each child got a favor bag with all the things they made plus a few small prizes.

That's it! The birthday boy was excited and happy, which is obviously the most important thing, and we can rest at least till the litlle one's birthday.

We woudn't be able to arrange this party without the great help that we got from family and friends - so thank you all!