Alright, this is a recipe to cook a delicious meal with potatoes only, and it is not mashed potatoes.
Ingredients
1000 grams / 35 oz potatoes
1 big onion
1 clove of garlic
250 ml tomato juice
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tsp salt
A pinch of black pepper
A pinch of oregano
3 bay leaves
Method
In a copper add 1.5 inches of water and place it over heat to boil. Peel and chop the potatoes in small cubes. Chop the onion and the garlic cloves in very thin slices. Wait until the water starts to boil and add the potato cubes, onion, garlic, bay leaves and salt. Boil the ingredients for 35 min and then add the tomato juice, oil, pepper and oregano. Lower heat and boil for 15 min more. That’ it! You made a filling and tasty meal.
For more taste you can add some Tabasco® 
drops or half tsp of Boukovo after the meal is cooked.
Serving proposition
You can serve this delicious dish with some slices of cheese (Greek Feta is best, but you can use any hard and salty cheese you wish, like Regato, Grana Padano etc.)
So Simple but So Delicious!
The easiest way to make Pizza
Ok then, forget dough, flour, yeast etc and all that mess. You don’t need them…
Instead, you can use your off bread loaf or sandwich slices or buns or even rusks!
Ingredients (for 4 persons)500 grams /17 oz grated cheese (any type you got)
200 ml Jim Dell’s pizza sauce* or tomato juice or ketchup
500 grams /17 oz of sliced bacon or ham or salami or pepperoni or sliced sausages (or… if you like, you can combine all these and make a mix, it depends on what you got in your refrigerator)
200 grams/ 7 oz of green peppers (or red or yellow… any type you got, non-hot) sliced in thin rings.
300 grams / 10 oz canned or fresh chopped mushrooms
A pinch of oregano
Tip: these ingredients are optional, if you prefer you can use any other ingredient such as sardines, pineapple, corn, sliced tomatoes, olives or prawns…
Method
For bread loafs: cut the loaf horizontally in 3 long slices
For sandwich buns: cut the buns horizontally in half
For rusks: wet them down lightly before you use them.
Spread Jim Dell’s Pizza Sauce or ketchup (or tomato juice with some oregano, black pepper and salt) on the sliced bread, buns, slices, rusks etc. Then, cover the sauce with the half (250 grams/ 8.5 oz) of the grated cheese. Add, all the cold meat (scattered here and there), mushrooms, pepper rings and any other stuff you like. Cover with the rest of the grated cheese. Bake for 10 min in a pre-heated oven at 420 degree F / 220 degree Celsius.
-----
* Jim Dell’s Pizza Sauce
In a small saucepan add 200 ml tomato juice, 3 tsp of oil, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 tsp black pepper, ½ tsp oregano, 15-20 drops of Tabasco®, or your tabasco-style hot sauce, or 1/3 tsp boukovo. Stir well and simmer the sauce for 10 min.
Now tell me, is there any easiest way to make pizza at home?
Rent the best movie you can find, get some cool beers and enjoy!
Pasta with tuna sauce
Well, this one is a delicious and fast made recipe and I own it to my sister's imagination. I prefer it hot, but you can cook it without much chilli powder…
Ingredients
500 grams / 17 oz pasta (any type)
500 ml /17 fl oz tomato juice
140 grams /5 oz canned tuna in water (or in oil) drained
240 grams /8.5 oz drained canned mushrooms
5 tablespoons of oil (4 for the sauce and 1 for the pasta)
3 teaspoon salt (1 for the sauce and 2 for the pasta)
½ teaspoon garlic powder (or 1 thin chopped garlic clove)
A pinch of black pepper
A pinch of chilli powder (or 1 teaspoon if you prefer it hot), or boukovo, or Tabasco sauce.
A pinch of oregano
Method
Boil the pasta according to my “Pasta boiling secret”
In a saucepan, heat well the oil and sauté the mushrooms until they get shrunk and red. Add the canned tuna, garlic, black pepper, chilli powder (or the other hot ingredient you got) and oregano. Continue sautéing the mix for 5 min, stirring. Add the tomato juice and the salt (1 teaspoon). Lower heat and simmer for 7- 9 min.
That’s all. Serve in deep plate with the sauce on top, chopsticks or fork…
Alternatives:
If you haven’t got tuna at home, you can use canned mackerel
If you haven’t got tomato juice at home you can use ketchup with water (300 ml ketchup + 200 ml water)
Another Pasta tip:
Although I know that you prefer spaghetti, I try to use pasta that has holes in it… (I mean rigatoni, penne rigate, bucatini etc) when I combine them with sauce. I do this because sauce, fills up the gaps of the pasta and turns them more delicious than they already are… Jim.
The Famous Christmas Wine
Ok, this is one of the most classic recipes for Christmas mulled wine! At this moment that I am writing this recipe, it snows outside of my window and I am watching the magnificent snow flakes falling, while nice scents are coming from my cooking top, where I have set these ingredients below in my copper…
2 bottles (1500 ml) of red dry wine (Cabernet Sauvignon is best, but you can use any type of dry red wine you got)
Peels from 1 orange and peels from ½ lemon
7 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks (2 inch each) or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
6 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of brandy or cognac or cherry liquor or whiskey!
Method 1
Mix all the ingredients above in a copper and place it over low heat. Stir well, so to be sure that all sugar is dissolved. Let the whole mixture to be heated well but don’ t let it to boil (this is very important). When it begins to steam, is ready to serve (HOT)!
Alternative Method (for more aroma and taste)
At first boil 200 ml of water with the orange and lemon peels, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Wait until the whole mix forms a syrup, while stirring well. Then add the wine and the brandy. Let the whole mixture to be heated well but don’ t let it to boil (this is very important). When it begins to steam, is ready. Serve it HOT!
Merry Christmas and don’t forget to treat Santa some of this wine… he adores it more than anything!
Feel like a real Cowboy!
Ok, this is a product of my imagination, because you see, I’ve never had the chance to be a cowboy. Nevertheless, my sister and my brother-in-law adore this hot recipe!
Ingredients
-400 gram/ 14 oz of prepared canned red kidney beans
-400 gram/ 14 oz of prepared canned corn
-400 gram/ 14 oz of sliced bacon or 12-15 strips (chop the bacon in very tiny squares of ½ inch x ½ inch)
-250 gram/ 9 oz of canned mushrooms
-250 ml of tomato juice
-1 tablespoon of boukovo or 20 ml Tabasco® sauce or 20 ml of your tabasco-style sauce… (alternatively you can chop 3-4 Thai peppers or 2 chili peppers or any hot peppers you like)
-4 tablespoons of oil
-½ tsp salt
Method
Put in nonstick frying pan the oil. After it gets heated add the well drained mushrooms and the bacon and sauté them well. Then, add the canned beans (with all their broth –this is important) and the drained corn. Stir well for 5 min. Then, add the tomato juice, salt and the HOT stuff (I mean boukovo, Tabasco or the hot peppers you got). Stir once and simmer for 10 min.
That’ it! Instead of hot coffee try cool beer and you will remember me…
Impress your love mate…
"Spinach tagliatelle with cheese cream and mushrooms"
This is one of my favorite recipes and I recommend it to impress your love mate…
Ingredients (for 2 persons)
250 gr/ 9 oz of spinach flavored tagliatelle
250 gr/ 9 oz of milk cream (low fat is better)
250 gr/ 9 oz of canned mushrooms
200 gr/ 7 oz of grated cheese (you can use any type of cheese you like!)
1.5 teasp of vegetable powder base
3 tbsp. of the oil you prefer
Method
Boil the spinach flavored tagliatelle (you can get a boiling tip here).
In a saucepan put the oil and when it gets heated put the mushrooms and dredge them with the vegetable powder. Saute the dredged mushrooms until they get red or lightly brown. Lower the heat and add immediately the milk cream while stirring well. Add the grated cheese and continue stiring for 2 min. Lid the saucepan and let the whole sauce to simmer for 10 min.
Place tagliatelle in a wide nappy and pour them with the delicious white sauce...
That’s all! Light up candles and serve some light white wine in crystal glasses…
Make your own tabasco-style sauce at home!
This was my family’s secret for yeas but now it’s time to be revealed…
Ingredients:
-3.2 pounds of red hot peppers (any type, but i would recommend chili or thai)
-21 fl oz vinegar
-2 teaspoons salt
-2 teaspoons sugar
Method:
Put on a pair of rubber gloves (and I also recommend a doctor’s mask) open the window and place the peppers in a blender with some white vinegar(1-2 oz is ok). Don't place the whole stuff in the blender. Instead, try to blend the peppers by 1 pound each time.
Find a large bottle, able to contain aprox. 1,30 gallons and fill it with the “red hot pulp” you' ve just created, using a funnel. Fill the one third of the bottle. Fill the rest of the bottle with the rest white vinegar and leave a space of 2 inches from the bottle’s mouth (for 3 pounds of peppers you need 21 ounces of vinegar). 
Add salt and sugar.
Seal the bottle with wax and place it in dark, dry place at least for 2 years (I recommend to stick a label with the production date on it, so that you will know when you are going to open it.
Straining the hot stuff (2 years later...)
Use an alight candle to melt the wax seal and open the cap. Use a metal strainer to strain the pulp in a jug or jar. Do not try to strain it in another bottle at once, because the pulp is too thick and the thin red liquid will overflow the bottle externally. Ok, now you' ve got the HOT sauce you dreamed off.
Tip:
Do not throw away the strained pulp. You can keep it in a jar in your refrigerator to spice any food you prefer hot. It's very hot, so be careful with the quantities.
Cheers!
Spicy Chicken with rice
This is a very simple recipe and takes just half an hour to prepare a delicious, filling and impressive meal. A nonstick frying pan is essential.
Ingredients (for 2 persons)
2 chicken breasts
1 cup of parboiled rice
1 tablespoon of olive oil (or any oil you commonly use)
Salt, pepper, oregano and boukovo
Method for the Chicken
Chop each chicken breast in 4 slices so that you got 8 slices in total.
Salt and pepper the slices. Add a pinch of oregano and a teaspoon of boukovo.
Put a tablespoon of oil into the nonstick pan and wait for 3-4 min to get heated. Wiggle lightly the pan so that the oil to cover the whole pan surface.
Place the slices in the pan
--Tip1: when placing each slice, try to dip it in a small amount of oil that already is in the pan surface
Fry the chicken from both sides using a wooden ladle and after 15 to 20 minutes it will be ready.
--Tip 2: to make the meat getting a nice red color you can pour 1.5 ounce of water while the frying the chicken. This will cause steam to rise and will give instantly a nice red color to the chicken.
Method for the rice
Use a sauce pan and ad 22 ounces of water. Wait until it reaches the boiling point. Add a teaspoon of chicken (or vegetable) powder base or 1 chicken (or vegetable) cube base (alternatively you can you a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper and a pinch of curry powder (if you got some). Put the rice inside and boil it for 20 min. (You can prepare this cooking at the time you place the chicken in the pan, and so you will have the rice ready at the same time with the chicken)
You can serve it as I suggest you in the photo above…
Good appetite… yum-yum…
What is “Boukovo”?
Boukovo (perhaps the origin of the name is Bulgarian) is the spicy, very hot, flake powder made from hot red peppers (usually hot Thai peppers that Greeks call “tsuska”, but you can use any type of red HOT pepper). Boukovo is very popular in the Balkan countries and people there use it very often to spice soups, sausages, meat and casserole dishes.
How to make your own Boukovo if you cannot find it at the spice/herb store
First of all you will need 4 to 5 pounds of well dried red hot peppers. You can dry the peppers by placing them in thread chain. Take a needle with thread and sew the peppers one by one from the calyx (or the area between the calyx and the pedicle). Pass about 40 to 50 pieces in each chain. Then, hang the chains in place with a lot of sunlight and fresh air. After two months you’ll get a lot of well dried peppers.
Put on a pair of rubber gloves (and I also recommend a doctor’s mask) open the window and place the dried peppers in a plastic bag. Then start to crumble them in small flakes as I show you in the photo above.
That’s it! Remove the calices and the pedicles and place the “red hot snow” in jar with an airtight cap.
Good Hunting!
Make your Tabasco style sauce at home
The “Magic Ladle”
Did you know that wooden ladles are the magic wands of cookery?
Yes there is great magic in them, because an old wooden ladle can make casserole food more tasteful! This occurs because the wood absorbs smell and flavors from previous cooking. I know this information from my grandmother who, when she was watching me cooking at my teenage years she always advised me to use the “old ladle”. The truth is that I didn’t like to use such an old ladle because I had the false impression that was full of bacteria etc. But now, I know the truth and I use my mother’s old ladle. My dishes are more delicious than ever! Try it… Buy as a present a new luxurious ladle for your mother -or grand mother- and ask politely their old one…
Jim.
"Drunk" Potatoes
Have you got a beer?
Ok, then you can make this delicious, fast and filling recipe...
Ingredients
1. 2.2 pounds of potatoes
2. a can or 1 and 1/2 glass of beer
3. some olive oil (or the oil you commonly use)
4. salt, pepper and oregano
Method
Peel the potatoes and cut them in thick (half an inch) slices
Coat any griddle you got with 2-3 tablespoons of oil
Put some salt, pepper and oregano on the potatoes
Place the slices in the griddle
Pour on the beer
Bake them in the oven for 45 min at 360 degrees F.
And guess which the most suitable drink for this meal is…
Pasta "Inferna"
Well this is one of my favourites "made-easy" recipes and my family loves it. It's very hot though, so it's recomended only for the bold ones...
Ingredients
-Any type of pasta
-Fresh pepper or/and onion (Chopped in thin slices)
-Fresh hot (green or red) pepper (any type) or Boukovo (?) (Boukovo is the result of crumbling dried red hot peppers)
-500 gr. Tomato juice, or minced tomatoes or at least ketchup...
-400 gr. Fresh mushrooms (chopped in thin slices) or 240 gr (drained) canned ones
-Salt, pepper and oregano
Alternative
If you haven't got any mushrooms or even onion or fresh peppers you can use sliced ham, or bacon to give extra taste to the sauce!
Method
1. Put some funy/joyful music on your stereo system! Remember Cooking means to have FUN!
2. Cook any type of pasta (spaghettini, linguini, penne, farfale, pennette, fusilli, rigatoni etc) in the way I advise you in the blog entry "Boiling Pasta Secret"
3. In a saucepan, saute the chopped onions, fresh (non-hot) peppers, fresh hot peppers and mushrooms, until they get shrinked and red (not black which means that they are carbonized he he..)
4. Pour the tomato juice or minced tomatoes (or 200 gr of Ketchup with 200 gr water)
5. Add Boukovo (1 spoonful) or 1 teaspoonful of Tabasco sauce, 1 spf of salt, some black pepper and oregano.
6. Boil the sauce for 15 min.
AND THAT' S ALL! Good appetite and Fun!
Anything you shall need already exists in your Kitchen!
First of all, know that you can use anything from your refrigerator. I mean salami, any type of cheese, sausages, ham, bacon, tomatoes, eggs, Tabasco sauce, mustard, ketchup, carrots, bear, wine, parsley, peppers, celery, soy sauce, mayonnaise, cream, milk...
Then you can use any vegetable outside your refrigerator such as potatoes, onions, garlic etc
And finally you can use anything from your sideboards such as canned tuna fish, canned mushrooms, canned beans, canned corn, flour, salt, black pepper, oregano, chilli peppers, tomato juice etc...
So don't get frustrated... anytime you can be a great cook using anything available in your kitchen...
Relax, and enjoy the following recipes...
Jim
The Pasta Boiling Secret
Well, let's begin with pasta...
the basic advise for the pasta is to boil them in plenty of water in which you add salt and a tablespoonful of oil.
No matter if you prefer them "al dente" or well boiled, or you are going to cook the half (250 gr.) or the whole packet (500 gr.) you have to fill up the copper with water, leaving a space of 2 inches from the copper's mouth.
Adding salt in the water (a teaspoonful for 250 gr and two teaspoonfuls for 500 gr of pasta) makes them more tasteful, no matter the sauce you are going to use.
Adding oil helps you avoiding the phenomenon in which pasta get sticky and become a thick mass...
Do not forget to stir them frequently in the first 3-4 minutes. Boil without covering the copper!
To find out if they are cooked enough for your taste there is only one trick: pick a piece of pasta with a fork and taste it (to avoid any tongue burns, you can flush it with cool water)
To strain the pasta there is another useful tip:
Before emptying the water from the boiled pasta, place the copper under the tap. Then fill the copper with cold water until it reaches the mouth. Now you can strain your pasta using the colander, emptying the water little by little first and after that, the whole mass of pasta. Pour some cold water on them but not flush your delicious food.
Place the strained paste back to the copper and place it on cool cooker's plate.
The basic elements...
The most basic elements in easy cooking are pasta, tomato sauce, onions, peppers, milk cream, chilli peppers, salt, pepper, oregano, olive oil, mushrooms and IMAGINATION!
The nexus of pipes on the net
