My Kitchen, My World - Cooking in the USA!

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Make some food from the USA for this month's challenge. Until I started thinking that the things we think of as American foods hail from other shores. I consulted with some of my Twitter buddies who helped me see that the melting pot that is the USA makes virtually all foods American. But I tried to make a meal from ingredients that would have been here when Native Americans called this their land. Fresh salmon on the grill, a salad of baby lettuce, herbs, asparagus, tomatoes and corn, dressed with lemon and olive oil. OK, maybe olive oil wasn't here yet but it made a great salad. I had planned to make brownies, too, but the month just got away from me.

My Kitchen, My World is a wonderful group where the host picks a country for the month and if you want to participate, you cook from that country's cuisine and put a link to your post on the MKMW site. You can find it here, along with links to everyone who participated this month. It's a lot of fun, discovering foods from cuisines you may not be so familiar with. This month is the exception, but who knows where we'll go next month...

New Group: My Kitchen, My World Goes to India

This post is evidence that it is possible for one's arm to be twisted remotely. I absolutely, positively had no intention of joining anther cooking or baking group (well, I'm waiting for one to become official, but other than that). But my blogging and Twitter friend Kayte invited me to cook along with her on two Indian recipes she was making for My Kitchen, My World. We LOVE Indian food, so I gladly joined her for making hara shorva (a green soup) and chicken in a red pepper sauce. Both recipes can be found in Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.


The soup starts with a base of potatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, peas, chile and spices which is cooked and then pureed in the blender before being finished with cream. It was very easy and delicious. You can find the recipe here.


The chicken and red peppers uses a cooked pureed spice and vegetable mixture like many curries do, to which cubed chicken is added (along with some water) and then simmered until the chicken is done. It was delicious and could easily take a place in the rotation here. Check out the recipe here.


My Kitchen, My World has a monthly recipe assignment based on a country selected by the month's host (this time, our host was another Twitter buddy, Margaret of Tea & Scones). Honestly, I don't think any other cuisine could have gotten me to join another group!