Persian Kachi !

Persian Sweets.

Growing up in a Persian family exposes you to some interesting cuisine and sweets. I personally love it all but some things, especially sweets can have an acquired taste. One ingredient used often in dessert is rose water. From my experience, many of my friends who had zero exposure to this Persian baking essential were not used to its strong flavor and fragrance. 

Kachi, or sometimes called halva is one simple sweet that usually carries a strong smell of rose water which I personally love! Below is some kachi my mom made for my sister and I. It is so sweet that honey or sugar is not even necessary in your tea. The kachi pairs perfectly with a warm tea on a blistery cold day! Something about the saffron and cardamom blends perfectly with the flavor of the black tea. 

I can't take credit for this sweet because my wonderful mother made it but here is the Kachi recipe she used. Some of the ingredients you may not have lying around but it is simple to make and delicious to pair with your tea!

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

One Bowl.

Sometimes you read those recipes that have a ton of ingredients and complicated steps like put these two ingredients together then softly let this other ingredient penetrate the other two etc. I have a solution for you. ONE BOWL chocolate cake. It is simple and easy. You throw all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix them together, the outcome is delicious. 

I found the one bowl chocolate cake recipe here and have made a few adjustments of my own.

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 2/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup hot coffee
• pinch of salt

The key differences between my recipe and the original are the apple sauce, brown sugar and coffee. The original recipe asks for white sugar, I think brown sugar tastes way better and gives it a richer color. I used apple sauce instead of oil,you can't taste the difference. Apple sauce is healthier and I think it makes the cake moister! Finally, instead of a cup of boiling water I used coffee because it makes the cake  more flavorful. The one thing about this recipe is I would suggest adding the coffee last. I also added a little bit of raw coconut! Bake these on 350 for about 20- 30 minutes. If you do cupcakes they will be ready much quicker.

I made one 9 inch round cake pan and 12 muffin sized cupcakes with this recipe!

Enjoy :) 

Leaves are in the air!

Tea Leaves & Tree Leaves

Today I awoke to what I'm calling bone chilling weather... 40 degrees! I wasn't ready for it! I went over to the kitchen and fired up the pot of water so that I can brew my anti cold, tea. As I went out I saw all these beautiful leaves blowing in the wind and I decided to lay them down beside some leaves from a different family. 

Growing up with Iranian parents means that you're surrounded by tea. I've been drinking tea since childhood! To me it has become a magical substance that helps many ailments. Here is a list of things that often are cured or helped greatly by drinking tea.

1. Having a chill: Tea is a quick way to warm you up!
2. Upset stomach: I always drink tea when my stomach isn't right, I think it does a good job of settling it
3. Stress: Depending on how caffeine affects you this may or may not work. When I'm stressed, I brew a glass of tea and the way it warms my body up truly relaxes me and rids me of my stress
4. Sadness: This one is similar to stress, the warmth of your body from the tea causes a sense of joy 
5. Pink eye (mild case): As a child whenever we had pink eye or some eye iritations we would dip a cloth into the tea and dab it on our eyes. This sounds crazy but it always worked! Perhaps the herbs in the tea do the trick. 

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor these are just my observations

Breakfast!

I really wanted to share with you what I paired my tea with this morning. Egg cups and raspberries were delicious ! I use a muffin for the egg cups and cook at 350 degrees for about 13-15 minutes. The amount of time you cook them really depends on how loose you like the yolk, once the white have cooked you can take them out anytime. 

I used turkey bacon, baby kale & spinach, salt, pepper and garlic powder to accompany the eggs. First I cooked the turkey bacon a little, cut it up into small pieces and distributed it in the muffin tin (which I put a little olive oil in). Next, crack an egg in each mold of the muffin tin. Add all the spices and top with finely chopped spinach and kale! 

Simple, quick and healthy breakfast to go with your tea! 

An Introduction To My Favorite Tea

Tea "Connoisseur"

I'm a self proclaimed tea connoisseur but I was raised  drinking one type of tea - black tea. There are many types of black tea but generally speaking the tea my family bought was a mix of early grey and Ceylon leaves. One goal of my blog is to try new teas and let my readers know what I think...I have some exciting teas lined up :)

Tonight's tea (pictured below)  has a rich mahogany color and an incredible fragrance. A fragrance that is entirely hard to explain but when I smell it, I feel instant happiness. To me, it almost has a woodsy smell, very solid and strong. 

Loose Leaf Only

I'm pro- loose leaf and anti - tea bags. Unless you are in an absolute rush I wouldn't ever want to resort to tea bags. The leaves are so flavorful and deserve to be brewed, not crushed and bagged! Check out a picture of the tea I drank tonight. I buy this from Yekta, a local Iranian super market to my area but if you don't have a store near you online is always an option! Here are some links below to some of the teas I have enjoyed over the years.

1. "Best Tea" - This brand name always makes me chuckle but also warms my belly the BEST. This is the brand my mother & I have been stuck on for a while!

2. Top Tea - Woah, are these teas full of themselves or what?! This is my second favorite. Although I like best tea's flavor slightly better, this tea has the best fragrance I have ever experienced

3. Sadaf Special Blend- This is one of the more popular brands of tea and it is good but doesn't measure up to the previous teas, in my humble tea connoisseur opinion :)

If you live in Maryland, check out Yekta market on Rockville pike! 

* The Best Cookies *

Pecans & Mini Chocolate Chips & Egg less, edible batter

Are you looking for a simple cookie recipe? This is my personal favorite. These are technically pecan sandies with chocolate chips but are much softer as opposed to the classic shortbread consistency of pecan sandies! Below is the recipe I used which I adopted from here

• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Basically you add all these ingredients together and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes but I have a few suggestions.

1. Cream the sugar first because it makes for a more even tasting cookie 
2. One cup of pecans & one cup of mini chocolate chips is an estimate. I usually pour some, mix it in and keep pouring until I think the batter is pecan and chocolate chip filled 
3. TASTE THE BATTER! There are no eggs and therefore no risk! 

P.s. When I made this batch I tried a sprinkle of cinnamon in the batter and if you're into that I would suggest it, great hint of flavor!

How do you like to drink your tea?

Believe it or not tea can be enjoyed in many ways. Cultures from around the world brew and drink tea in different styles. Here is how I enjoyed my tea this morning and how I do most mornings! Comment below about how you like to prepare and drink yours!

Glass. 

Drinking tea out of glass is one of the most important differences in how I enjoy tea best and how you usually see it marketed. Call me crazy but I can actually taste the difference when I drink tea out of a mug versus out of a tea glass. Growing up with an Iranian family exposed me to the tea glass and that's what I've stuck with. Don't get me wrong, around Christmas time I enjoy using my santa and penguin mugs to get into the holiday spirit but glass is always #1 for me. The main effect on the taste is the thickness of what you're drinking out of. A thick rimmed mug leaves little transference of flavor while glass or a thin bone china mug allow the flavor to be released. If you study how cultures from around the world drink tea, most use glass or bone china! 

My mom & sister gifted me my tea glasses but you can find them online anywhere! check out these that have a similar shape to the one in my picture: Tea Glasses on Amazon

Honey.

Bless you bees! I'm not sure what I would do without this sweet nectar  you create for my tea! SAVE THE BEES. The way I was raised to sweeten tea was with sugar cubes, my friends used to often wonder why I had so many sugar cubes. Are you doing some kind of science project?? Nope, just making my tea super sweet! So you take a sugar cube and hold it in your mouth, as you drink the tea the hot liquid softens the sugar and each sip becomes sweet. It's quite effective! As I've grown older and tried to be healthier I have shifted towards honey. Although honey is still very sweet I feel better about putting that in my body versus lots of sugar cubes. Honey definitely has a different taste with the tea versus pure sugar but it is one I have grown to love.  Honey is expensive and I would suggest buying in bulk but if you want to treat yourself check out the link below with my personal favorite brand!