Egg

I started making mayonnaise a few months ago, and as I was gathering information on how to do it, I got a lot of feedback from various people on just how finicky it can be to get it to thicken properly. They would talk about adding the ingredients in the correct order, and then drizzling in the oil slowly. And then other tricks to use if it thickens and then starts to break apart again. I tried this first in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer using the whisk attachment, and it would not turn into mayo at all. Then I tried it in my blender, and it did turn into mayo but took a very long time. Then finally I tried my hand blender and BINGO! As you'll see in this video it is almost instantaneous, and does not matter how you add the ingredients.

Bleenies were one of the first "indigenous" foods I learned to make on my year on a student exchange in Soviet Ukraine. I wish for the life of me I could recall exactly how we used to make them, but I do recall it was really easy, and not really a recipe per-se but just tossing a few things together. It almost always involved some sort of soured milk product - either something like kefir that had been intentionally soured, or milk that had gone off, which happened a lot with their shoddy milk supply chain.

This recipe is one I got from a Romanian woman who served them at a BBQ she hosted last summer. It is easy to throw together, and pretty flexible too. In fact, the "recipe" she gave me did not really list the amounts of anything except the 1 litre of milk! So I've put some solid numbers on those ingredients in the many times I've made this since then.

• 1 litre milk
• 70 to 100g sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 to 2 and 2/3 cups flour (see below)

Here is a great idea for leftover rice that I picked up the other day on one of the blogs I follow - deep fried rice balls! I know, I know, it already sounds awesome, doesn't it?

So I put the bug in my wife's ear for the big container of leftover brown rice in the fridge, and she made it her own with a little twist - in addition to the cube of cheese in the middle she also mixed grated parmesan and asiagio into the rice. Wow they were great, and the kids gobbled them right up. Recipe below.

Pancakes are an easy, wholesome, healthy breakfast to make for kid and adult alike. I usually make a double batch of these on Saturday morning, and it leaves enough leftovers for a few days of breakfasts for the boys. Like most of my recipes, this one is basically a rough guide and lets you experiment until your heart is content. Instead of milk you can use buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, or any similar milk product. For flour I generally use 2/3 whole wheat, and the other 1/3 either plain white flour, barley flour, or oat flour. But you can use all white if you like. Use any type of oil, butter or margarine that you like.