Ilona’s Best Recipes Collection

Ilona’s Best Recipes Collection

by | Favorite Foods

My Best Recipes Collection

all the trimmings

The Recipe Book of Cooking and Favorite Foods

Think of this as a recipe index for the food and cooking pages made by Ilona1 online. It doesn’t matter how or where they were published, it only matters how yummy they will be once you cook them up in your kitchen.

Hungarian foods, Desserts, Christmas dinners, whatever tried and tested recipes I post on here are for you to use and enjoy and now you can find them all quickly!

The Best

Bookmark this food recipe collection for whenever you want the great recipe for Paprikash, or green tea cupcakes – that’s right, green tea cupcakes! Admittedly, they are an acquired taste, but my chocolate desserts are the best.

All recipes are what I consider the best recipes in my collection. These have come from family, friends, magazines, and favorite cookbooks over the years.

I guarantee you will love the Christmas cookie collection– those are the very “best of the best “of many recipes which I have been baking for years. Rich, buttery, and truly special.

My Favorite Cookbook – Good HouseKeeping Cookbook

Of all the cookbooks I’ve used over the years, the Good Housekeeping has been my best loved one due to the fact that the recipes always come out well, and they are excellent in providing a broad range of great flavors. It is the first cookbook I go to to find a really good recipe for something I want to make.

The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook: America's Bestselling Step-by-Step Cookbook, with More Than 1,400 Recipes The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook: America’s Bestselling Step-by-Step Cookbook, with More Than 1,400 Recipes

All the best recipes for home cooking AND company. Well illustrated and easy to follow instructions.

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Best Recipes for Great Food

Try Something New, Or With A New Twist

apricot chicken

apricot chicken

Whether you need exotic spices, or just something new to cook up- like a different way to fix chicken, here are the posts that will help you explore world cuisines, or old fashioned favorites. All you need is a good recipe, fresh, high quality ingredients, and a little time. You can improve your quality of life or your health if you choose recipes that create a tasty way to eat what is good for you! There are lots of reasons to not only go looking through good collections of recipes, but to actually try them.

Main Entrée

salmon

salmon

Desserts & Delights

Desserts are made of this

  • My Family’s Best Blueberry Blintz
    Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Breakfast & Brunch Blintzes were one of the first recipes I learned to make as a young wife and new mother. I had opened up a bank account, and banks in those days often offered gifts to new customers. In this case,.
  • The Sweet Red Cherry Elected For Presidents Day Sweet Red Cherries, Good For Your Health
    If you see fresh, ripe, sweet cherries at the market, grab them up! They are full of antioxidants for good health, and they taste sublime. After you discover more about them, try one of the recipes.
  • Cupcakes in Columbus
    Cute cupcakes which I found on my rounds through Columbus, Ohio

Celebrations

Christmas gingerbread

Christmas gingerbread

  • Potluck Party Idea: Have A Middle Eastern Hafla
    Have the Arabian Nights version of a potluck party. Serve wonderful Middle Eastern flavors in easy to serve finger foods and buffet items. Dress up the venue with a few simple rugs and screens. Voila!
  • Holiday Peanut Butter Fudge The Easiest, Best Peanut Butter Fudge
    For my family, the is the BEST, the only peanut fudge to make. Friends agree, and I bet you will like it,too. Use fresh ingredients for best results.
  • It’s a National Holiday for Tart, Red, Pie Cherries …
    Cherries are good for you. Facts on their benefits, with some great recipes, interesting trivia, and pretty cherry motifs to help celebrate one of those wacky holidays: National Cherry Dessert Day.
  • A Day for Cherry Pie
    Bet you didn’t know there was a special day just for cherry pie! I love all fruit pies, but the one celebrated on February 20 is the best. Make 2 delicious recipes with plenty of how-to tips.

Hungarian Flavor

Trinkets of Hungarian culture

Trinkets of Hungarian culture

  • Hungarian Baking: Apple Filled, Sour Cream Bundt Cake Hungarian Apple Bundt Cake
    Apple cakes are perhaps the favorite Hungarian cake recipe known by most Americans. Sometimes they are intricate and fancy affairs, like apple pite, but most of the apple cakes are delicious homebaked cakes which are loved by all. You know the…
  • More Hungarian Apple Cakes
  • Famous Hungarian Chicken Paprikash
    Make authentic Hungarian Paprikas and delight your friend and family. The underestimated cuisine that is world class deliciousness has a number of key recipes. This is one of the finest.
  • Goulash: What I Learned From Hungarian Church Cookbo…
    Food choices tell you a lot about a culture and social change. If you have paid attention to Church cookbooks you might have noticed some things.
  • Famous Hungarian Food
    I know you’re familiar with Italian and French food, but did you know that Hungary has one of the finest of world cuisines? Explore some of the great flavors and creations, delight your palate.
  • Coffee Break And Hungarian Coffee Cake
    My Grandmother loved to bake, and as a young wife I remember getting together with friends for old fashioned Coffee Klatches with a cup of coffee and a sweet morsel. What happened to those?
  • Hungarian Braided Coffee Cake -Kuglof
    Continuing to bring a little of my Grandmother’s Hungarian baking to your kitchen. This braided coffee cake is a little more advanced,. Try it for breakfast or on a holiday table. It has raisins.
  • Mother’s Favorite: Lemon Kossuth Cookies She would whip these up because they are easy and their lemony, light textured taste is a delight. I remember her pleasure when she baked these Hungarian cookie staples.
  • Kifli Cookies are another traditional Hungarian favorite. These are the ones I am partial to. I bake them only at Christmas time, but they are a special cookie for all occasions and seasons.

Collections

roasted chicken photo by Maggie Hoffman on Flickr

  • 10 Meals To Make With Roast Chicken
    First roast a chicken, it’s easy, then make any of 10 delicious delicious dishes from all sorts of fine world cuisines.
  • Ilona’s Favorite Chocolate Desserts
    Everyone seems to love chocolate desserts, including me. That is why I put together m family’s favorites: the best dessert recipes, tested through the years and found to be delicious.
  • My Best Ever Christmas Cookie Recipes
    All my family favorites packed into this one page. Guaranteed delicious, I have baked them since I was a young wife and mother more than thirty years ago. Christmas cookies must be special-these are!
  • Starring Your Favorite Spice Cookies
    The smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, allspice, mace and molasses fills the air when you bake these well loved cookies. The crunch, the chewiness, or melting softness when dunked in your coffee, it tastes like Christmas and brings memories to…

Amazing Recipes – These aren’t mine. Yet.

Organize Your Own Recipes

Eventually, the realization that a way to keep your favorites, and to pass them on to someone else will lead to organizing the collections. I like personal binders for a simple system. Find yours, there are many ways that cooks create a solution that works for them.

How About Cooking Classes?

Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home CookMartha Stewart’s Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook
Is it time to get serious about the techniques in the art of cooking and baking? You could watch a zillion videos from cooking shows or you can get lessons from a master!
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Being able to print a recipe is a major convenience when looking for recipes to try from the internet.

Food and gardening go together. Start collecting and sharing recipes that center on veggies, fruits, and herbs- you know, the things that we grow in our gardens!

Pages With Recipes Included

  • Homesteader Heirloom Apples and Real Cider
    There are wonderful varieties of apple beyond Delicious, and some of them make great cider that oldtimers remember.
  • All About Mint Tea
    From pure herbal concoctions to mint infused green teas, there are many ways to enjoy the healthful benefits of the mint plant.
  • The Moroccan Tea Glass
    The delicate glasses are beautiful without the tea, but try this staple of Moroccan hospitality for a refreshing taste of mint.
  • Red Rose Petals For Your Wedding, Food, And Crafts
    Used through the ages, follow the romance of how petals have imparted fragrance in so many sweet ways. Whether you strew aisles and tables, make jam or rosebeads, they’re delightful.
  • Lavender For Cooks
    It may be new to you, but this French cooking secret is going to add a wonderful flavor to some really delicious recipes. Try culinary lavender in your cooking today.
  • Cardamom Spice, Recipes to Warm a Heart
    Try this warm and delightful spice to add flavor and intrigue to your cooking and baking. Your family and guest will ask in wonderment:

Not an innovator I just collect good recipes that I and my family like to eat. I like Martha Stewart for many reasons… in the garden, cooking food, decorating. She’s a Renaissance woman.

Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts: 150 Recipes for Old-Fashioned and Modern Favorites The book on Pies and tarts is just one of Martha Stewarts many excellent books on culinary topics. America’s taste maven never fails to impress with the quality of the recipes (top priority in a cookbook), but also in all aspects of the presentation. Every time I use one of her recipes I get success.

They really are foolproof recipes.

Pies will always be a favorite addition to menus for all types of occasion. Make this book a gift for someone who likes to cook, or for yourself.
Martha Stewart’s New Pies and Tarts: 150 Recipes for Old-Fashioned and Modern Favorites
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Highlights

Can Mint Tea Heal You?

Can Mint Tea Heal You?

From pure herbal concoctions to mint infused green teas, there are many ways to enjoy the healthful benefits of the mint plant.

Sweet Red Cherries, Good For Your Health Sweet Red Cherries, Good For Your Health

If you see fresh, ripe, sweet cherries at the market, grab them up! They are full of antioxidants for good health, and they taste sublime. After you discover more about them, try one of the recipes.

Big Bellydance Index of Articles

Big Bellydance Index of Articles

by | Belly Dance Topics, Sharing Meals

Everything You Wanted to Learn of Bellydance…but didn’t know to ask

Not just movement, but context and culture, a whole array of topics that took off on a magic carpet ride of writing.

The Challenge

Could blogposts derive from one single theme to involve a large number of related articles? I don’t know if I succeeded combining thirty related posts in numerous categories that will all revolved around the topic of bellydance, but this is the result of my efforts …

Presented now for you:

Explore the spectrum of “Bellydance” from the Middle East, Africa, and its forms throughout the world.This group spans the articles posted on several sites, which were originally published on Squidoo as a group that centered on many aspects of one topic.

The Dance: Baladi, Gypsy, Etc.

Gypsy inspired belly dance outfits

Gypsy inspired belly dance outfits

The entire genre of dance was once, and sometimes still is, called by the French term ‘danse du ventre’ or what we translated into English, the “belly dance”. In Arabic it is called “Raqs sharqi” which describes the performance of a solo dancer, or “Raqs baladi” which is the “dance of the country”. The latter is what we usually refer to as a “folklore dance”, common people dancing for a festive occasion in a regional style. There are a number of styles of belly dance, and related genres of dance, as well. These include Gypsy, Flamenco, and Baladi of the Middle East.  Blogposts cover the range of this group of dances, to give an idea of how they relate to one another. Although the origination of the Danse du Ventre Vol is lost in time, it is the Gypsy culture which carried this form of dance to many regions. It was then adopted  into the surrounding culture and itself influenced by regional styles of folk dance. Gypsy performers often kept it alive by providing festive dance and music during times when authorities clamped down and discouraged dance performances. Ethnic Expressions of a Danceform: Ethnic Expression, Exercise, Dance! Gypsy and Flamenco, music and outfits may not make obvious the connection, but movements and an overview bring out a pattern of cultural influence. It makes an opportunity to explore gift ideas, too.

The Costumes

festival performance costume

Festival performance costume

Dressing the Part

As with any theatrical performance, there is stage makeup, costumes, and footwear, as well as props to think about. That is probably one of the most entertaining aspects of learning to belly dance: creating the fun costumes. And for those who just want to dress up, it isn’t hard to create your own costume, if you know the right components.These lenses cover the dress-up part of the belly dance world.

Costuming

On Hubpages, this overview of the different costume styles ranges from demure Baladi, to the classic Egyptian. You can choose authentic details for your chosen style of dance, gain tips on accessorizing or even make your own apparel items. You Can Bellydance Don’t doubt that you can learn how to do the basic moves and even advanced techniques from online sources or classes. Learn how. DIY Costumes for a Bellydancer Up the ante on your fitness program by exploring what this form of exercise has to offer.  

Mideast Wares for Belly Dancers

Just to add an exotic note to your wardrobe, or accessorize a performance. Fringed and beaded scarves, dangly earrings, tribal necklaces and more, are items on wishlists of a bellydancer. Come to the Casbah online to seek your own treasures. The jewelry is a distinctive folkloric style that often comes into fashion. It creates a Bohemian artistic touch no matter when it is invoked for a special occasion.  

Dance Performance Ready

Arabic makeup for eyes

Arabic makeup for eyes

The art of decorating your face and body when dressing up to perform bellydance is part of the fun.

Tattoos

You don’t really have to dance to enjoy the practice of using makeup techniques to enhance your eyes or use henna tattoo designs. Or learn about tattoos. Sometimes it is just something you want to do 🙂 Pretty Feet Pretty feet and hands are something every woman can relate to, but are part of the performer’s whole look. Learn how to give yourself a pedicure.

Makeup

Kim Kardashian popularized this look for many years, but it is a classic eye makeup for important Middle eastern events. Weddings, ance performances, anytime a truly dramatic effect is desired.

Near Eastern Music

Bellydance Instruments and Music Some of the instruments include:
  • The Arabic flute: ney
  • The middle eastern violin: rebab, rababa, rabab
  • The oud, Arabic lute
  • The oriental piano:  qanoun
  • Drums: bendir, deff and tar
  • Mizmar, zurna
  • Tar, dutar, sitar, shashtar, tambour
  • Santoor
stringed instrument

Stringed Instrument

Read more about many of them, here.  

Moroccan Decor

Bring the luxurious feel of a Moroccan hideaway into your home. Create a complete interior or just add some touches of exotica with ideas for a Moroccan bathroom or bedroom.

Moroccan Bedroom Oasis

It isn’t just one color scheme or look, but it is gorgeous. Soft textures, rich colors, delirious array of fascinating pattern and fabrics combine in a way that makes you feel pampered.

The Moroccan Bath

moroccan bathExtending the invitation to relax and indulge yourself, this styling of one of your most important rooms of self-care is full of beautiful tile looks, rich detail, and simple comfort.

Serving Mint Tea in Moroccan Glasses

These jewel like tea glasses are perfect for serving Mint tea, but what other uses may they have? Beautiful for weddings, for home decor, and because they delight the eye. A sampling of colors and types and more recipes for refreshing tea. Orientalism in Art Media

The Middle Eastern Culture – Exotic Sounds, Smells, and Flavors

Loving the food and spices of this region. The Hafla is a “get together” that combines music, food, and dancing- just for the sheer joy of it. I include some recipes in that article.  

Mint Tea, Ubiquitous Hospitality

Everywhere throughout the Arab world, mint tea is a sign of hospitality. If you ever wanted to make it authentically, and serve it with panache, this post is for you.

Chicken Tonight Recipes

A wide range of recipes using roast chicken including delicious regional fare from this part of the world. 10 meal possibilities, Middle Eastern Roast Chicken Variation – unique Moroccan flavor  

Have A Middle-Eastern Hafla Event

This page on Hubpages, has recipes and ideas for throwing a memorable potluck party. Extend your repertoire with an exceptional cookbook. The flavors are glorious and cooking this way is easier than you think. Middle Eastern Cookbook One of the joys of this region is its spices, and the distinctive cuisines. It is gaining popularity and is very often a healthy choice. Whether you get a complete cookbook or simply try one of my favorite recipes, do try to sample this style of cooking.

Cardamom

You may not be familiar with this warming spice, but if you are I bet it is a favorite. Discover more about this ingredient in many exotic cuisines.

Turmeric For Health

By now almost everyone is discovering the health secrets of this golden spice.
turmeric and other spices

turmeric and other spices

If you are holding a Hafla event, you may want to stock on some of these baskets to display Belly dance videos, or present your stock of zills. Perhaps use a basket for holding thank you gifts for your guests. Or as a bread basket for rolls.

Belly Dance Videos!

– Illustrating the many facets of belly dance Each blogpost has a number of videos to illustrate Middle Eastern dance and culture. there is also a feature of Hollywood vignettes from films. In the Movies It went to the movies and highlighted some favorite films of the past. It has had its own popularity in the Middle East. Make Your Workouts Fun Loads of workouts featuring this style of dance are available from all sorts of experts. Find online videos or purchase those you love for in-home workouts. Great alternative to taking classes, if that’s what you prefer.

Halloween Costumes

halloween outfit

Typical halloween outfit for women.

Everyone likes to dress up, that is one of the perks of belly dancing. So it isn’t surprising that a favorite Halloween costume would be one with an Arabian Nights theme. The costuming articles listed in this index are mainly about creating authentic belly dance costumes: the type that real Oriental dance performers actually use. In completing a Squidoo quest for a Halloween costume lens, I made this one which conforms to the theme of Middle Eastern topics.
Caveat: But remember that Halloween costumes are necessarily much more simple to make, or if purchased, are much less expensive in terms of time and materials and workmanship.
The price will reflect that and I wouldn’t recommend these costumes for the rigors of a belly dance performance, but they sure are fun for a costume party! They are less expensive by far and made of less expensive materials and workmanship- like any other Halloween dress-up purchase. You can get the best of both better quality and cost savings by following the DIY ideas. The large number of men’s costume ideas in the Halloween lens will serve to costume the male guests at Hafla events, etc. 1001 Arabian Nights Halloween Costumes Johnny Depp as a pirateWhat do Johnny Depp’s Pirate look and the Arabian Nights have in common? Find out and get some fabulous costume ideas for the next Halloween Party.ideas How to put the look together, D-I-Y costume pattern links and pictures, costumes for different characters including both male and female versions of Arabian Nights inspired looks. Makeup  ideas and accessory inspirations for a complete guide to creating your own star performance .

Musical Marrakesh Adventure

Listen to these intriguing sounds and immerse in the exotic sight before you travel on your magic carpet.

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