O Almoco hoje esta atrasado

O Almoco hoje esta atrasado- Lunch today is late

First recipe to go up! Good for a late lunch,early dinner.You may be able to expand this recipe for a get together.

Substitutions for food sensitivities or allergies are included in green type.

To provide some background, I lived in NY for a while and got used to the sorts of street food you can get, at least in Mnhtn. Specifically, I lived in BK where there is a community of folks from the islands and as folk tend to bring their food traditions with them, you would be hard pressed, at least where I was living, to go more than 10-15 minutes without seeing a corner shop,bakery etc...without foodstuff from the Carribbean.

I cooked up a health,hearty 'gyro' of sorts and as I take stock of what all I put in it, you could say it is an homage to caribbean flavors served up in the style of gyros you get from food carts and spiced by the type of hot sauce used on B American soul food.I added in some avocado to the recipe here.

{*} Garlic Butter
       * Melt some butter in a frying pan at a low tempature/simmer and add fresh
          garlic to suit your taste.Let this cook at a low heat while preparing other ingredients.

{1} Plantain
       * These could be described as a huge bananna and with a darker texture.I usually buy the
           yellowish ones.There is a darker black color at the 'seams'.If there are foodies out there that
           can hip me to the right term for the 'seams' please feel free to comment.

       * In order to slice the plantain, I cut off a small piece of the top and bottom, take a knife and cut
          at the seams,strip off the outside and cut it into pieces. I've made them by cutting longer strips,
          or also cut on the bias (slant) to have a nice oval shape for the sake of presentation.

{1} Tomato diced

{1} Onion diced
       * This depends on how many people you are servivg, how much onion you like etc..
          For this recipe I didn't cook them I just sliced long, pieces of varying widths.

{1} Pack of flatbread (I don't remember the exact brand)

{1} Chikpeas

       A substitution may be corn,if you have a sensitivty or allergy to corn,you might be able to
       use pieces of baked squash.

{*} Rice
       * I don't think I did an exact measurement here, safe bet may be to follow portion instructions
          given on the packaging of the rice you buy according to the number of people you are cooking
          for.I cooked the chickpeas in the same pot as the rice.If you choose this method, you can add
          them before the rice has absorbed all of the water.

{1} Avacado
        * Make sure the avacado doesn't give too much.I press down slightly with one finger to test the
           firmness.

{*} Vegetable Oil
       * Use as much as it takes to have the bottom of the pan covered by a thin layer.Unless you are
          frying or using another cooking technique...
       
        If you have a sensitivity or allergy to oil you can also boil plantains although I myself have 
        never used this method



Set up your garlic butter 

Chop up your ingredients

Drizzle some of the garlic butter onto the flatbread with a spoon and set a few pieces of the flatbread in the oven with the temperatire set to warm or the lowest level you have while you prepare the rice.

Cook your rice and add in the chickpeas before rice has absorbed all the water (repeat from above)

Cook the plantains in a frying pan, cast iron skillet or whichever pan you
choose.

Season as you choose. I used some hot sauce and peppercorn ranch dressing.

Enjoy!

     

Home Ownership Education

Washington,DC based Neighbor Works has information available regarding home ownership. They have a rural initiative as well a listing of Home Ownership Centers.FYI The centers are not only in the Washington,DC metro area.There is also the Neighborworks Training Institute including online learning options.
http://nw.org/network/neighborworksProgs/ownership/default.asp

Food Heritage

Recently, I started doing some research so that I could put up some information about the food heritage of the Eastern Shore.I found some information about Smith Island Cake,now the official state dessert of Maryland actually!

Also, I found a video about making scrapple.


I never knew exactly what scrapple was made of beyond just a general sense that it was different parts of the hog.I can remember having it by itself or with some mustard,I used to like mine a little crispy.Now that I am researching food heritage, I am finding information about the larger cultural heritage in the Delmarva (Deleware/Maryland/Virgina) area and already I can see that I set quite a task for myself here.

My general impression based on what I have read of my own family history reminds me in some ways of the cultural history of Jamaica in that people of African descent as well as people from what is now the United Kingdom created a distinct culture.I'm starting to move beyond those general impressions to gain more of a thourough understanding of the forces that shaped Delmarva culture in general and the culture of the Eastern Shore specifically.

The population of Maryland is not quite six million people.I'm not sure how much smaller that number gets when you narrow that down to the population of the Eastern Shore. I want to play some part in keeping the history and traditions going so I'll be posting up info and recipes from the Eastern Shore in The Fifty Co-Op Kitchen from time to time.


Digitizing Delmarva Heritage and Traditions initiative

http://www.delmarvaheritageandtraditions.org/video/

https://video.salisbury.edu/mediaserver/View.aspx?i=10161

Resources in the State of Georgia-Housing

Georgia State Trade Association of Non Profit Developers
http://www.gstand.org/

This organization has an online learning resource as well as information about organizations that work around concerns regarding affordable housing.You could save yourself some time and effort by visiting this impressive list of G-STAND members as reach out directly to those in your area or otherwise.

G-STAND is listed as one of the National Low Income Housing Coalition's partners in the state of Georgia.

Housing Resources in Illinois

The organization Housing Action Illinois has a stunning amount of information available on their website.I don't know if I can really do it justice so I'll put up a few points here.

They provide training for Housing Counselors and you can find a schedule at this link.Their listing of Community Housing Development organizations can be found here.Also, some resources about Employer Assisted Housing including REACH (a statewide incentive program) can be found here.

http://www.housingactionil.org/

Helping Us Help Each Other

For readers who came to cakeharmonic via http://thefiftycoop.blogspot.com/ ,The Fifty Co-Op has come to closure.Moving forward,for housing assistance information,please see the Housing Assistance tag where I will be posting information about various projects and organizations.

I'm happy to take the opportunity to shout out community initiatives in rural areas.This link is a story about a family who lost their home and was able to move forward with the support of the Southern Mutual Help Association.

http://www.southernmutualhelp.org/

Welcome

Welcome to cakeharmonic!

This blog grew out of The Fifty Co-Op Kitchen and will incorporate information about food heritage and more specifically, the food heritage of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Music sugesstions to come...