Here are two A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Ethnic dishes I have recently made! Please see previous posts – to my Facebook business page! These were yummy good!
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the books, Not Without God: A Story of Survival and Not Without God: Hope In the Storm. She is an author, speaker, marketing and writing coach, and teacher! When Zina is not leading her weekly writing mastermind group, she enjoys cooking & baking in her free time, as well as getting in some exercise and spending time with loved ones! You can find her books on Amazon and all places where books are sold.
Don’t these look yummy?! They are, especially with a warm cup of coffee or tea. I like to have tea or hot chocolate in the evenings sometimes.☕️
Ingredients
3 cps. All purpose flour (whole wheat or white, I used wheat)
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup or more 😉 walnuts, chopped
1/2 tspn baking soda
1 tspn salt
1/2 cup, softened, butter
2-3 tblspns vegetable oil
First, mix the butter (softened, I usually melt it for 20 -30 seconds) and then add both of the sugar ingredients and the eggs all together until you have a smooth mixture.
Well – I actually just mixed everything together all at once! So you can do it that way too.
Mix all the ingredients together!
They won’t be smooth at first. You’re working with bread dough. You don’t want your butter completely melted either, the idea is for the butter to be ‘creamy.’ So don’t completely melt it. You will have to dilute the ingredient combination with water after you put it all in a bowl. I don’t recommend adding more than a cup of water – use your best judgment – also add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil (included in the list of ingredients above). This is how your cookie dough should look after you add the water to smoothen it.
As you can see, I rolled them into balls, each one about half of an inch apart. They should make at least two dozen cookies! It’s such a delicious combo with the sugar, walnuts, and flour, and they turn out great if you make them correctly.
Don’t be afraid to use your hands!!! Clean hands can take you much further than trying to beat the mixture with a machine or even with a spoon. First I used a wooden spoon, the mixture was still pretty powdery and not coming together well. Then I used my hands to mix the batter and roll them into cookie balls.
Put them in the oven at 350 F for at least 10 to 12 minutes. You want to use parchment paper or aluminum foil. If the bottoms or sides are golden brown, then they are done!
Voila! Now you can cut them into shapes. I’ll be honest. Making cookies homemade from flour is not the easiest. But the more used to it you get, the easier it becomes. Again, you can add water to smoothen the batter. Not too much though. Too much water will make them liquidy and they will not form. Here’s some more pics!
Best of luck!🤶
These turned out delicious!🤶🍪☕️🎄
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the books, Not Without God: A Story of Survival and Not Without God: Hope In the Storm. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. Zina’s written several hundred articles and has appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places.
Zina writes on faith and overcoming adversity. She also likes to write about health and science and loves to help others. Zina has created notwithoutgod.net as well as the Not Without God series/brand. She’s written articles for healthcare and she’s the creator/leader of Writing Because I Can’t Not Write – For aspiring and seasoned writers.
Each week she invites one author and hosts free masterminds for the public while showcasing bestsellers and award winners. She also teaches a free Zoom course each week to assist the public with improving their writing. Zina’s been an educator for nearly twenty years and has taught multiple subjects to thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and parts of the world.
She’s been invited to speak at the Harvard University Faculty Club’s Business Expert Forum and holds a B.A. in English with a minor in History from Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Zina says the reason she majored in English was not primarily to teach; it was to write. When Zina is not writing or teaching, she enjoys cooking, listening to music, exercising, or socializing.
One of the things I love about making this cake is that you can just combine all the ingredients at one time and mix them. It doesn’t take a lot of preparation time; you mainly have to gather all your ingredients and mix. This is my own recipe.
Pics are in order, and here’s a trick! After I buttered the cake pans, I also added sesame seeds to them. That put some nice sesame seeds on the bottom of the cakes when I flipped them over!👩🍳
Keep in mind when you follow this recipe there has to be a good balance between dough and cake. What I mean is, your batter can’t be too doughy. If it is, you are making more of a bread. Remember, this is a cake. You can add an extra quarter to a half cup of vegetable oil to smoothen out your ingredients if needed. You can also add up to a half cup of water. First I recommend the water. A little vegetable oil won’t hurt though.
I am not a fan of vegetable oil and always cook with extra-virgin olive oil instead. However, when it comes to baking vegetable oil is sometimes needed. Be sure not to add too much water. There has to be a good balance, It will smoothen your batter out. Just make sure you are not making wheat bread!
Here’s a pic below that shows how your batter should look before the cakes are baked:
Also, keep in mind that if you have that even balance and do this right – you may even be able to add a little bit of extra whole wheat flour. It may be half of a cup to one full cup. Don’t get too carried away with extra flour because then the cake will lose its flavor. Here’s the recipe from my initial post, again: https://notwithoutgod.net/2022/07/06/assyrian-chaldean-cake%F0%9F%92%9F%E2%98%A6%EF%B8%8F/
A little extra flour will give you more cake!🥮Here are some more pictures below, and I’m going to try to add the pics that show the steps from start to finish. Refer to the recipe link I gave you in my previous post – I will also add the ingredients below. That will tell you how much of each ingredient to use in your cake. Enjoy it!🌾🥮🌰
Three cups of whole wheat flour. One and a half cups of sugar. 2 teaspoons of baking powder or baking soda. Three eggs. One cup of milk. Again, you can add up to a half cup of water to smooth it out. Also add a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Finally, don’t forget one whole cup of chopped walnuts. Very important. Again, a quarter cup of vegetable oil won’t hurt and will smoothen it.👩🍳🥮This is how your cake batter should look.🥮A nice trick is to add sesame seeds to the cake pans just after you butter them.😊Voila!Yumm!👩🍳🥮🌰🌾
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the Best-selling-book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world from many different backgrounds and parts of the world. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. Last August she created the “Writing Because I Can’t Not Write Group” meetings and workshops where aspiring and seasoned authors can network and learn together. Ask about her meetings if you are interested in attending. Zina writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also likes to write about health and diet and loves to cook and bake. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm was published last year.
This Cornish hen is a first of a first! You can see the delicious ingredients on and around it. The one ingredient you can’t see is the spinach and garlic stuffed inside of its creases. Yummy, so healthy and good. I can’t wait to dig in! And get this, I sprinkled walnuts over it. I bet you that’s the first time you’ve heard of that? Have you ever heard of anyone sprinkling walnuts over a Cornish hen? Only I. Don’t forget to sprinkle with kosher salt, some table salt, and pepper at first. I’m sure it’s going to be delicious, send me a message if you’d like the recipe,
It is fairly simple just rinse it briefly, make sure there’s nothing inside, you can stuff the inside of it with stuffing or any vegetables you’d like. Preheat to 350. Monitor, check on it, at least every 5 to 10 minutes and adjust the heat as needed. This took me almost a whole hour to cook. Oh yeah, don’t forget to put one cup of water beneath it so it doesn’t stick to the pan. Also, if you’re not using oil, use unsalted butter. I used unsalted butter cubes in and all around it.
I like butter because I think it’s much safer to cook with and even better for you than some oils.🧈🌽🍃
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book(s), Not Without God: A Story of Survival and Not Without God: Hope In the Storm. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s also been featured on The Neil Haley (media giant’s) Show, The Intuitive Edge podcast, and on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’ broadcast as well as Grace and Truth Radio World!
Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world from many different backgrounds and parts of the world. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. Last August she created the “Writing Because I Can’t Not Write Group” meetings and workshops where aspiring and seasoned authors can network and learn together.
Zina writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also likes to write about health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm was just published last year.
Last night I made a yummy Italian Sesame twist! Actually, many cultures enjoy making bread like this.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted it a little sweet or salty, so I divided it and used salt on one side and sugar on the other. I also want to share the recipe in case anyone is interested in making it.
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups white all purpose flour (plain bread flour has a higher protein content but you can use all purpose too)
1 tblspn active dry yeast or 2 (1/4 oz) packets
2 tblspns white granulated sugar
1/2 tspn salt
1 cup warm milk
2 tblspn melted butter (salted or unsalted)
First, melt the butter in a pan. Heat the milk. They can both stay in their pans for now. Combine the flour, the yeast, and sugar in a separate bowl. Whisk them together. Then add in the salt. The salt helps strengthen the dough and stops it from collapsing during baking. Make sure you mix the flour and yeast in well with the sugar, then add the salt. Combine all together.
Now, make a “well” in the center of your combination. This is where you add the butter and milk. MAKE SURE THE MILK IS NOT TOO HOT OR COLD. You can do this by sprinkling the milk on your hand before you mix it in. If the milk is too hot or too cold the rising of the dough will take longer. Here are some pics:
Use a spoon to mix and combine. Scrape up the dough on the sides. Then place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and USE CLEAN HANDS TO KNEAD for about 10 minutes or until the dough comes together. Continue to knead the dough ball with hands until the dough is smooth and elastic. It does not have to be perfect, but it has to have some elasticity to it.
Brush a seperate bowl with Extra Virgin Olive oil, classic olive oil, or butter. Place the dough ball into the new bowl and cover with a tea towel for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
The dough should double in size after 45 minutes. Get out your rolling pin and stretch. Cut the dough into three “ropes.” You can twist them with your hands, they do not have to be perfect, but just make sure they look like ropes!
Then, place down parchment paper and lightly grease the parchment, make a loose “braid” with the three ropes. Pinch the ends together and tuck. You can just roll the ropes with your hand, again. Crack an egg into a dish and brush the loaf with the egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds (I toasted my sesame seeds first. Just put them on high heat in a pan for a few minutes). Sprinkle salt or sugar on top, whichever you prefer.
Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes but check on it make sure to not burn. The bread is done once it is golden-brown!
You can see I added a heart to the top of it. You can make a separate heart with the rope and seal it down with toothpicks. I hope you enjoy it!😊🥖💕
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s recently been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast! She’s also been on ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT
This is how it looks when I decide to ‘whip something up’ really quickly!😂👩🍳 I had a little family company over yesterday and planned it just the night before. All @authenticmeals #original #cooking and my very own #recipes !!! Ka’ree as the main #meal accompanied with #brownrice, of course! The main dish—and #homemadewalnutcake for dessert. This time I added #toasted #sesameseeds to the top of the #cake to add a twist! Yummy. We also had #homemadewheatchocolatechipcookies! #coffee and few other things!🍚🍛🌾🍶🍪 #mediterraneandiet #paleo #protein #keto #homemade #diet #cook #baking #entertaininginstyle #fresh #food #foodie #tomatostew #beef #protein #health ⚕️🍅🧅🥩
Finally, when a baby terrorizes your living space!💕😂👶 It’s OK.🙆♀️🙅♀️ We just cleaned it right up!😂♥️😃
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s recently been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast! She’s also been on ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT
Yesterday night I made homemade whole wheat chocolate chip walnut cookies and they are sooo delicious! Yumm! Since whole wheat is a much better alternative to white flour, I would like to share my recipe to put a health spin on baking. The next time you make homemade cookies, you may want to try whole wheat flour yourselves! It is better for you than white flour. 🍪🍪☕️
This recipe calls for:
3 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tspns baking soda
16 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white granulated sugar (optional)
3/4 tspn salt
2 eggs
2 tspns vanilla extract
8 ounces of chocolate chips
2 cups crushed walnuts
First, you whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Put in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, sugar(s), eggs, and vanilla, and these don’t need to be too well blended just combine. Oops, don’t forget to add the walnuts and chocolate chips also!
Then, add the flour mix from the separate bowl. Now that all ingredients are in one bowl, use a wooden or regular spoon to combine and mix them together.
The mixture may seem a little dough like and hard to combine at first. Here’s the trick: add up to a half cup of water (as much as needed but not too much!) to moisten the combination of all the ingredients. Use your hand to knead. Put the mixture into cookie dough form.
You can even add extra flour and extra water to the combo mix to make more cookies. I added 2-3 cups extra flour and a little more water! It came out to 43 cookies!
Scoop the cookie dough (1-2 tablespoon sizes) onto oven trays covered with parchment paper, and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 F. Then move the trays around to rotate cookies, bake for an additional 8-10 minutes. The edges should be golden brown!🍪👩🍳
Then let them cool on oven racks for at least an hour. Refrigerate. You can even freeze them for up to a month!🍪☕️🌰
Mixture of the second bowl.All ingredients combined.After adding water and kneading.Cookie dough!Voila! Me while baking last night!👩🍳☕️🍪
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s recently been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast! She’s also been on ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT
Baking has always been a favorite past time since I was a kid. At home they’d call me ‘Betty Crocker.’ As an adult I’ve grown more into the baking art and really enjoy embracing my ethnic side with the foods I make!🫒
They said it couldn’t be done, but I did it. Homemade wheat walnut cake from scratch! It’s never been done without white flour as far as I know. Mom was proud. I altered this traditional recipe to make it healthier. It is delicious! Even more delicious than the all-purpose flour version.
I have to be original and think of healthier methods. I hope I see posts from people in the future who have swapped the all purpose white or self rising flour for whole wheat cakes.
I altered the recipe a bit. Since it’s a foreign food, I was able to locate a few people who made this and one even attached a video. I didn’t follow the exact measurements. The better you get with baking the more you just know what to do.
Here is my own recipe:
It contains 3 and a 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, 3 eggs, two teaspoons of baking powder, crushed walnuts (as many as you’d like :), a cup of whole milk, a cup and a half of sugar, a cup of butter, a tablespoon of vanilla extract, and I add a little water to make it more of a liquid form. You don’t want the cake mix to seem like dough. You are not making bread, you are making a cake. That’s why I add about a half cup or less of water. You basically mix them all together. I add a little extra flour (about a cup or two) to make two cakes each time. You can slice and freeze the cakes for up to a month. You bake at 350 F for a minimum of 30 minutes. Baking time can take up to an hour. Once your toothpick comes clean you’ll know it’s done.😊🥮☕️
Oh, and it might not be a bad idea to add about a 1/2 cup of vegetable oil into the mix.☺️ It will help the cake to keep that liquid form.
Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s recently been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast! She’s also been on ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT
These cakes were fun to make today! Homemade walnut cakes made with all purpose flour (3 cups), baking soda (2 tspns), vanilla extract (1 tblspn), walnuts (chopped up) 1 cup or more, white granulated sugar (1 1/2 cups), milk (1 cup), three eggs, and a bit of water (the water was my trick to keep it cake like and not in a dough form).
I’ve wanted to make this cake for years. It’s a cake I often had while growing up and visiting relatives houses with my parents or with their friends. This cake is almost always accompanied with ‘Tchai,’ or tea. It’s a social dessert, comforting, and yummy all at the same time!
I found this recipe from a girl in New Jersey who posted it online. She had the accent.😄 Nonetheless, it wasn’t until I was two thirds of the way into making it that I realized something was missing. The mix was not liquid like enough, and then I realized I forgot to add the milk!🥛🥛🥛
Voila! There goes that. I also remembered (by watching mom for so many years making bread), that I could add a little water to increase the amount of cake! I also added a little flour. All of a sudden, I had two cakes!! I tried to make walnut topping designs, as you can see here!
Oh, and here’s a little secret. I didn’t use one of those fancy cake mixers! (Ssshhh!) I never liked those anyway. I used my hand to knead. My hands were clean. I wash throughout cooking and baking multiple times! That is the REAL way to bake. Bakin’ the ol’ school way!🥮😂🥮
Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s just been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast! She’s also been on ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT
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