My introduction to halva came in the seventies while I was living in San Francisco. One great thing about living in a big city is access to wonderful international treats. San Francisco provided the opportunity to find and enjoy excellent halva.

Halva is a middle eastern treat that can be made with many different flavors, depending on what you put in it. Cardamom, coffee, saffron, and vanilla are popular additives as well as nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit. The halva that I’ve tried most often was dry and crumbly - this type is called ’sesame halva’. There’s another type that is gelatinous, called ’semolina halva’.

Here’s a simple recipe for semolina halva:

Combine two cups of sugar, eight cups of water, and a teaspoon full of saffron. Leave this sitting, uncooked, for half an hour. Put 12 ounces of unsalted butter in a large pot and melt on very low heat. Slowly add 2 cups of wheat flour, stirring constantly. Continue until the color of the flour is caramel colored.

Then slowly pour the water/sugar/saffron mixture into the pot, stirring constantly until the entire mixture is like a sauce, then add a tablespoon of rose water and stir again. (If you have no rose water, try vanilla.)

Pour the mixture into a flat serving dish and let it cool. When cool, you can sprinkle cinnamon on top.

And now for a recipe for sesame halva:

Boil one and one-half cups of sugar with one-half cup of water, and the juice of half a lemon. Add flavoring which could be saffron, chocolate, vanilla, or whatever you like. When the mixture gets to the ’soft ball’ stage, let the syrup cool for a few minutes. Do not stir; instead, warm the tahini to about 120 degrees fahrenheit, stir it well, then add it to the sugar syrup, stirring vigorously. Next knead the concoction until it begins to set to help form sugar crystals. Then place it in an oiled rectangular baking pan, and cool. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

My grandmother made rice pudding for us when I was a child. Back then, we looked forward to it… but I rarely hear about anyone eating it these days. Here’s a simple recipe for delicious rice pudding:

Boil one cup of already-cooked rice with two cups of milk. As soon as it boils, turn down the heat! Then add half a cup of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. Some people might want to add a beaten egg yolk at this point however I don’t do that. Cook it over a very low flame, stirring constantly so it won’t burn. After it is quite thick, remove it from the heat. At this point egg-users can whip the egg white into a froth and fold it in. Add half a teaspoon of vanilla or lemon juice. If you like, before serving you might want to add some raisins or canned peaches, or some other type of fruit.

I tried something new this week: Dreyers Fruit Bars, made with natural fruit. I bought a strawberry bar and it was so delicious, I had to tell you about it.

[Note: I am not being paid for this post. I don't do pay-per-post blogging.]

Normally I’d go for an ice cream bar instead but my boyfriend and I need to lose weight and he pointed out to me that the fruit bar would be better for us. It was not only better, it was outstanding.

Ingredients are: water, strawberries, sugar, carob bean gum, natural flavors, guar gum, citric acid, color from beet juice extract and tumeric, and ascorbic acid. I don’t see much there to complain about though one could cite the sugar… though it is hard to get completely away from in this civilization. There were only 120 calories and of course, there’s lots of Vitamin C as strawberries are known for that.

Do you ever like to visit food sites to see what’s there? I love looking them up. Dreyers has a section of their site devoted to their Fruit Bars… on the front page of the site it says “Fruit Bars: Taste what everyone’s talking about…” and here I am, talking about them. Hmmm…

It says these fruit bars are winners of the ‘Best Taste Award’ by the American Culinary ChefsBest. I don’t doubt it. The flavor I tried is truly delicious.

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I was inspired to write this by JulieZS’s post, Food, Glorious Food at Create A Connection.

Submitted to The Vegetarian Blog Carnival.