Kebab is basically a kind of middle eastern meatball that is grilled or baked around a stick, or shaped kind of like a sausage without the skin.  It’s usually made of lamb or beef, but some prefer to use chicken, pork, goat, or other meat.  You can serve it with whatever kind of sauce you like, but it’s great with tahini (also called tehina) and hummus.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg. ground beef or lamb
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs or cooked millet or rice
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley or mint or a mixture
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• the juice of half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon gray salt
• a dash of black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon fenugreek
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• a slight pinch of clove
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or animal fat
• 1 bay leaf

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to about 400 F or 200 C.
2. Mash everything except the oil and bay leaf together with your fingers.
3. Grease the pan with the fat, and break the bay leaf into pieces, and spread them around in the pan.  Don’t forget to pick the pieces off after.
4. Form the meat mixture into balls or sausage shapes, and arrange them on the pan.  If you like, for fun’s sake, you can form them around popsicle sticks or skewers.
5. Bake for about half an hour or until nicely browned to your liking.

Serve with pita bread and/or vegetables.

Even though I’m all grown up now, I’ll never forget my gothic roots.  Goth is a phase a great many freethinkers pass through on their way to becoming mature meat eating heathens, and it often starts with cute little ways of acting out like mixing all available soft drinks together into something we called a “suicide”.  Indeed it did look like something no one in their right mind should swallow, but it was usually actually kind of tasty.

Many, many…many years have passed since the last time I went haywire at a soda fountain, but occasionally I still ask the lady at the juice bar for the nourishing version of this drink, or make it myself at home.  Now I will share the recipe for this magical elixer that belies its morbid name.  It’s based on the real flavors that the sodas imitate.

Ingredients:

• juice of 3 tangerines or clementines
• juice of one lime
• 3 soaked prunes
• a handfull of cherries (pits removed)
• a handfull of purple or concord grapes (seeds removed)
• 1/2 teaspoon kola nut powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dry ginger
• 1 tablespoon of honey

Instructions:

Just whizz it all together in a blender or with a hand blender.  You can freeze the grapes and add ice to it if you prefer it slushy.

Welcome to the nutritious underworld!  Muuhuhuhuhahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaah! (That’s evil laughter. XD)

http://www.nanoda.com/en/japan/furoshiki-1000-ways-to-carry-your-bento.html

For those who don’t know already, bento is a Japanese style of arranging a lunch box.  You can learn more about it at Modern Traditional’s Bento pages.  There are also links there to bento bloggers and artists.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups cooked white beans with their surrounding broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 sweet green or red bell pepper (seeds removed), chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery with the leaves
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon animal fat, ghee, or butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• a pinch of black pepper
• a dash of paprika

Instructions:

1. Heat the fat on medium, and then sweat the onion, bell pepper, and celery together.
2. When the onions are clear and just about to brown, add the garlic.
3. When the garlic is hot, add the beans and the herbs and spices.
4. Bring it to a boil, and then turn the heat down to low.
5. Let this simmer covered for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Optionally at the end, you can add some shredded cheese and/or white raisins.

Serve wrapped in tortillas (preferably home made), with a heaping of lettuce, fine julienned cucumbers, tomatoes, and whatever else you usually have with burritos.

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 +1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1+1/2 cups oat flour
• 1/4 cup unhydrogenated palm kernel oil (also called vegetable ghee) or actual ghee
• 1 teaspoon finely crushed gray salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda or cooking ash
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk

Filling:

• 1/2 cup dried fruit, preferably raisins, prunes, apricots, or gooseberries
• hot water for soaking the fruit
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• a pinch each of nutmeg and clove

Instructions:

1. The night before baking, mix the flours, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cut the ghee into the flour mixtures until it crumbly like a coarse meal.
3. Gradually pinch and press in the milk with your hands until a dough starts to form.
4. Sprinkle your counter with more oat flour.
5. Knead the dough on the floured surface until you can feel that the oat flour is starting to give up some of its sticky starch.
6. Put the ball of dough into a plastic bag, and let it ferment overnight or up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
7. The next day, soak the fruit in hot water for an hour or two until the fruit swells and becomes soft.
8. Crush your almonds well, but not so mashed that they become almond butter.
9. Drain the fruit, and then puree it with the almonds and spices with a hand blender or in the food processor.
10. Take out your dough, and divide it in half.
11. Roll both halves out on a floured surface, to about 1/4 inch or around 1/2 cm. thickness.
12. Mark square or rectangular sections on what will be the bottom side of the pocket pies.
13. Poke holes with a fork in what will be the top side.
14. Spread the fruit mixture inside the bottom sections, leaving about a centimeter around the edges.
15. Cover this with the top layer of dough, and then cut out the sections.
16. With a fork or a dough edging tool, press along the edges to be sure they’re fused together.  Do it as if you were making an incredibly big ravioli.
17. Heat your oven to about 35o degrees Farenheit.
18. Grease a large cookie sheet pan.
19. Place each pastry in the pan using a spatula, taking care not to tear the bottoms.  I like to use a piece of thin cardboard for this.  The edges should not be touching.
20. Brush each one with a little melted butter.
21. Bake them for half an hour or more if you prefer them a little more browned.
22. For “frosting”, just drizzle some honey over them, or use sesame halvah spread.

DO NOT put these in the toaster.  You can freeze them, but reheat them in the microwave for 30 seconds or in a toaster oven.