Milen Gala

Tortilla Soup

November 16, 2012 By Milen Gala

Over the past decade tortilla soup has become a popular dish on restaurant menus and dinner tables all across America…and while there may be hundreds of variations of the recipe, virtually every one uses most of the same simple yet flavorful ingredients.

This soup we have now been making for years, after several attempts, having finally found the perfect balance between the tomatoes, tortilla and veggies… The aromatic spices and warmth of this soup make it a wonderful dish to transition from late fall into winter.

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Pear, Apple and Cranberry Crisp

November 13, 2012 By Milen Gala

Nothing heralds the start of the holiday season like the scent of cinnamon in the air. Crisps, pies, tarts, brown betty’s, and gallettes all provide the perfect medium by which to feature this most comforting and soulful of spices. Our winter desserts always seem to involve cinnamon, its faithful running mate, nutmeg and some combination of apples, pears, cranberries and sometimes pumpkin.

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Vegetarian or Vegan? To be or not to be…..

November 10, 2012 By Milen Gala

It’s 7am in Seattle. We’re doing a little house addition….basically adding on a mud room and changing some doors. I’m sitting on the deck drinking tea and watching the sun come up over Lake Washington. The construction guys are hammering away downstairs and both kids are fast asleep up top. In anticipation of the early start I naturally wake up 2 hours earlier…. for some reason on these mornings I just can’t seem to sleep. With the hours of early morning peace and serenity, my mind becomes preoccupied with thoughts of the blog. We’ve started putting up some of our favorite recipes. Friends and family have started trying many of them with great success but for some reason I still feel like something is missing…. So, here comes the stream of consciousness…

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Beet, Kale and Swiss Chard Quesadillas

November 8, 2012 By Milen Gala

Ballard is one of our favorite neighborhoods in the city. The streets are lined with funky clothing, toy and book shops, coffee houses, tea stalls and many of the city’s famously popular restaurants. It was at a farmers market in Ballard, when we first moved to Seattle, that we first tasted this delectable quesadilla…

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Truffle and Fall Vegetable Tagliatelle

November 5, 2012 By Milen Gala

This weekend was the last of our fall farmers market. As per our usual Sunday afternoon we walked out the front door and down the five blocks to the center of town… Autumn was in the air. Brightly colored leaves intermixed with evergreens, the smell of pine cones just washed down from the Pacific Northwest rains. The street was filled with people riding bikes, scooters, walking dogs and wearing North Face fleece jackets, all amongst the backdrop of beautiful Lake Washington. It was the quintessential fall day in Seattle…

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Blueberry Boy Bait

November 1, 2012 By Milen Gala

There is a boy in this house that can not live without blueberries…. he craves them in the summer, he craves them in the winter… he craves them for breakfast, he craves them for dessert… loves them in oatmeal, pancakes, coffee cake, pies, crisps, tarts… in any way, shape or form… and anytime just on their own…

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Roman Style Kati Roll (aka Paneer Pizza)

October 29, 2012 By Milen Gala

The first time I had a paneer pizza was at pizza hut… yes, pizza hut… in Calcutta. I can’t quite remember but I think it was almost 12 years ago. From that point on I was hooked. This was so ingenious… the marrying of two of my all time favorite foods, paneer, in any form, and pizza… After coming home, for the next several years, every time I ate pizza it was all I could think about… but the paneer-topped labor of love was nowhere to be found. Back then making homemade pizza was not that common, especially in our house. So I just had to wait… till the next 22 hr plane ride…

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Thai Style Sweet And Spicy Tofu With Red Cabbage

October 26, 2012 By Milen Gala

It’s getting cold in Seattle….. Our winter has finally set in after a spectacularly long and beautiful summer. This cold, damp, weather calls for some warm spicy food….

On Tuesday our usual weekly local produce delivery box came. I was emptying the contents and moving stuff into the fridge… Tomatoes, avocado, lime, 2 different types of apples, garlic, leeks, squash, zucchini…. and then out came a giant red cabbage. Now this was not part of our usual assortment of produce. At first I kinda just stared at it… Holding this giant bowling ball of a vegetable in my hand, awed by the beautiful purplish reddish color, it’s super glossy, almost silky, outer layer…..If I could just replicate this color onto bedsheets for our master bedroom, or an accent wall I thought….

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Easy Avocado Pasta

October 24, 2012 By Milen Gala

Ok, so I’ve seen this recipe on ohsheglows.com a few times and I finally had the chance to make it. I kid you not, it is delicious. If you like guacamole, and you like pesto…and you like pasta… you will LOVE this!

After you put the pasta on the stove to boil, it takes about 5 minutes to make the sauce…. I WILL definitely be making this again.

I think what I love about this pasta the most is that it is a great way to get kids to eat healthy fat. Avocados are also a great source of fiber, potassium, and vitamins C,K, folate, and B6. The fat in avocados are so good for kids brains… and not to mention how great they are for our skin.

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Chocolate Banana Marble Bread

October 23, 2012 By Milen Gala

Simaya and I were in the kitchen today and on the counter were 3 very ripe bananas…..ok, so this happens at our house (and I’m sure yours) all the time. Usually if we have the energy we get out the mixer and make banana bread. Today we decided to try something different. Browsing through the internet we came across a chocolate banana marble loaf recipe. Since Simi (Simaya’s nickname) usually does not like nuts and LOVES chocolate we decided to give it a go. Boy, was it a good decision…….

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