Posted in Recipes

Yesterday Shelley Fowler, a summer intern who worked with our team came for lunch before going back to the states. As usual, I tried out a new recipe. This one was for dessert and was absolutely scrumptious! It was a coconut flan. I don't really like flan that much and the only recipe I like was one given me by a Cuban woman. No other flan I've ever eaten comes close - till this. It's very similar to my Cuban recipe which is why I liked it so well. It's definitely a keeper. Enjoy!


Coconut Flan

1 cup granulated sugar
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup canned coconut milk
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 cup toasted coconut

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Place sugar in a medium size heavy bottomed saucepan and pour 1/2 cup water over it. Stir to dissolve. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, without stirring, for about 10 minutes until amber colored. Pour into a 9-inch glass pie plate; swirl to coat bottom.
3. Blend condensed and coconut milks, eggs, vanilla and coconut extracts in a blender, Piur into prepared pie plate.
4. Place pie plate in large roasting pan. Add enough hot water to come halfway up side of plate. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes, until custard is just set.  Transfer to wire rack; let cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled, 4 hours or overnight.
5. To serve, run a sharp knife around edge of custard. Invert onto a large plate, letting caramel run over top.  Garnish with toasted coconut.

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A few weeks ago we had a volunteer group here. One of the things they brought me was a bunch of old "Taste of Home" magazines. I love that magazine! The recipes inside are always good. I went through them to cut out all the recipes I wanted to try (don't have room for all the magazines).  I ended up with 75 recipes! I decided that I am going to work my way through them. We've had a good bit of company lately and I've had the chance to try out several of the recipes.

On Tuesday of this week  I tried out three recipes in one meal. One was a bust, but the other two were keepers. I've been trying to do more with salads in an attempt to add more fresh veggies to our diet. The salad that I tried out was from Betty Lamb in Orem, Utah. She shares this about the salad.

When a friend shared this recipe, it had a fancy French name. Our children can never remember it, so they say, "Mom, please make 'that good salad'."

It was good and my husband raved over it. He never does that! I think it's the dressing he liked so much. The salad didn't seem that out of the ordinary to me. However, there wasn't but a spoonful left so I guess he wasn't the only one to like it! So, without further ado, here's the recipe for "That Good Salad."


"That Good Salad"

Dressing
3/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

Salad
2 bunches (1 lb. each) romaine lettuce, torn
2 c. chopped tomatoes (I did mine in thin wedges)
1 c. shredded Swiss cheese (We don't get that here so I used small cubes of Mozarella)
2/3 c. slivered almonds, toasted (I didn't see the word toasted so I didn't do that)
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
8 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 c. Caesar salad croutons (the garlic/cheese ones looked better so I bought those)

Basically, just make the dressing, make the salad, pour some dressing on the salad and mix well adding in the croutons at the last minute before serving.

The only thing I did differently was to put the cut tomatoes, mozarella cheese, and bacon in the bowl, pour on a little of the dressing and let it marinate until it was time to put in the lettuce, Parmesan cheese, almonds, and croutons right before serving.

Enjoy!

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A friend recently left me some English Women's Magazines and while browsing through them I came across several recipes I wanted to try. So yesterday I made one called Pork with Quinoa Pilaf. I've been trying to do more with Quinoa since it's such a good-for-you food. It's a good rice substitute. This recipe is a very healthy recipe and it turned out really good. Even dh had seconds which is rare! I actually took a picture of it to show you what it looked like. It wasn't exactly like the picture in the magazine but close.  We had this with Waldorf Salad. Enjoy!




Pork with Quinoa Pilaf
1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin
3/4 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning (I was much more generous than this!)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium sized red onion chopped
1 medium sized Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups chicken broth
2 medium sized carrots, peeled and shredded
3/4 cup dried cranberries (don't have those here so I left them out)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (I left this out, it didn't sound so good to me)

1. Season pork tenderloin with 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon-pepper seasoning and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Heat oil in a 12-inch non stick skillet (I used stainless steel since I've quit using teflon pans) over medium-high heat. Brown pork 4 minutes, turning until golden. Remove from pan.

2.  In the same skillet, reduce heat to medium. Saute onion and apple for 5 minutes or until tender. Add quinoa; cook, stirring, 1 minute to toast. Add broth, carrots, cranberries and remaining 1/4 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning and 1/4 teaspoon salt; mix well.

3. Place pork on top of quinoa mixture in skillet. Cover; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low; simmer about 15 minutes until pork registers 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, liquied is absorbed and quinoa is tender. Remove pork from skillet; let quinoa mixture sit for 2 minutes. Thinly slice pork. Stir walnuts and feta cheese into quinoa mixture. Place 3/4 cup quinoa pilaf onto each plate; fan sliced pork on top.

And for those who want this kind of info (per serving):
430 calories; 18 g fat (4 g sat); 32 g protein; 37 g carbohydrate; 4 g fiber; 594 mg sodium; 80 mg cholesterol.

The only thing I did different in making this was to cook the quinoa longer. After the 15 minutes I took the pork off, but the quinoa mixture was still very liquidy. I let it cook with the top off for another 20 minutes or so until the liquid was all absorbed.

One other tidbit- I have never bought quinoa in the States. Here, it is like rice- you have to pick out the little black things in it before cooking it!

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Last week I saw a can of Comstock Cherry Pie Filling that had been imported at the grocery store near my home.  I haven't had anything cherry in a really l-o-n-g time so I bought it. Yesterday I made my first cheesecake to go under the cherry pie filling. It was so-o-o delicious.

I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. There were lots of tips and alterations in the  comment section and so I decided to post the recipe as I found it and post the alterations that I used below. I don't have a spring form pan (at least I don't think I do) and so I bought an imported ready made graham cracker crust being sold next to the cherry pie filling. I only made half the recipe since a spring form pan is bigger than the ready made crusts. The whole family loved this cheesecake and my ds is begging for another one. So I guess this one's a keeper! Enjoy!

CHEESECAKE SUPREME

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 5 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 5 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup of the white sugar, and the melted butter together. Press mixture into the bottom of one 9 or 10 inch springform pan.
3. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, eggs and egg yolks; mix until smooth. Add the remaining 1 3/4 cups white sugar, the flour and the heavy cream. Blend until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 10 minutes, then turn oven temperature down to 200 degrees F (100 degrees C) and continue baking for 1 hour, or until filling is set. Let cheesecake cool, then refrigerate.

Cheesecake recipe adjustments: Do not cook at 400 at all! Do NOT preheat oven. Prepare according to recipe and put in springform pan. Put pan in oven. (I also put in a water bath, which I understand to be a pan of water below the pie pan) Now turn oven on to 200. Cook for ~3 hours & 10 minutes. (give or take 10 minutes). Should be a little firm when you turn the oven off, but not real firm. Turn oven off after the 3 hours and about 10 minutes. Crack the oven open and let the cheesecake cool in the oven for 1 hour (or longer if you wish). Then put thecheesecake in the refridgerator for AT LEAST over night. Best after full 24 hours. (Ours was only in the fridge for about an hour. We couldn't wait until the next day. Cooking it slow like this keeps it from being harder around the edges and softer in the middle. It was very uniformly creamy and smoooooth.)

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M-m-m-m-m-m.....This past Saturday I made the best apple pie. I found a box of almond paste I bought years ago and had forgotten about. I didn't know if it would be any good but decided to use it anyway and make the apple pie printed on the box. Because it was old, it was very crumbly and would not roll out. However, the taste and smell were just as good. So I checked out the ingredients and had everything I needed (except cranberries which I don't like anyway) to make it. It was SO good. And it even looked just like the picture above! Needless to say, it did not last more than 24 hours in our house! Here is the recipe I used. You can also find it here at the Odense Almond Paste website. I look forward to making this again for Christmas. Enjoy!

Cranberry Almond Apple Pie

Ingredients

1 box (7oz) Odense Almond Paste

1 unbaked 9" pie shell (in freezer section) (of course, I had to make one)

5 baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used green apples)

1 cup sweetened dried cranberries

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon, divided

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup uncooked rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped almonds

6 Tbsp cold butter, in 1/2" pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Roll almond paste between 2 sheets of wax paper to form a 8"-9" circle. (I just crumbled it all up and spread it around and patted it down like I was making a graham cracker crust)

3. Lightly press the disk of almond paste into the bottom of the pie shell.

4. Mix together in a bowl the apples, cranberries, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. (I always put more cinnamon than called for)

5. Pour mixture into the pie shell.

6. In a bowl, combine the remaining cinnamon, flour, oats, brown sugar, and almonds.

7. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture until crumbs are formed.

8. Spoon crumb mixture evenly over filling.

9. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until crust is golden brown

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I love breakfast. It's one of my top three favorite meals! A month or so ago I found this wonderful breakfast website called Mr. Breakfast.com . It has millions of breakfast recipes. I spent quite a bit of time there drooling over some delicious sounding recipes. One of the ones I printed out was for Coconut Cream Muffins. I finally got around to trying it out this week and it was every bit as good as I thought it would be. Even dh liked them! I've had a time finding the coconut cream and finally found out that they do have it- it's sold in the liquor section which explains why I hadn't seen it. It also calls for rum which I don't have either. It didn't make sense to buy a whole bottle for one tablespoon so I used some very old rum extract instead (I think I brought it in with me when I went on my first furlough back in 1994!). Here's the recipe. Personally, I think they would make a great dessert as well as a breakfast item. Enjoy!

Coconut Cream Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup coconut cream
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup chopped pineapple
2 large eggs- beaten
3 tablespoons butter- melted
1 tablespoon dark rum
2 drops vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare muffin pan with papers or cooking spray.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, and baking powder.
4. In a separate bowl, combine all remaining ingredents EXCEPT shredded coconut and mix well.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Try not to overmix. Mix in 2/3 of the shredded coconut.
6. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling each cup about 3/4 full. Sprinkle remaining shredded coconut evenly on top of the muffins.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out dry.

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Today we tried out a new schedule. Instead of eating our main meal at lunch we ate it at 5:00 so that all four could be together for a meal. I had planned to have cannelloni but never got around to getting a recipe to use. So I just made one up!

I took out an 8 oz. package of cream cheese, added 1/2 onion minced, 4 or 5 garlic things, pressed (I like garlic), opened the bag of Parmesan cheese and dumped some in (didn't measure anything), threw in some grated Holandes cheese that needed using, and then added some grated mozarella. I had a bag of spinach so I steamed it in the vegetable steamer, squeezed the water out, chopped it real fine and mixed it up with everything else. I sprinkled a little salt and pepper, some basil, thyme, and oregano and mixed it all up really well. I then stuffed the cannelloni and put them in my 8" square cassarole dish. On top I spread about 1/2 jar of Prego Spaghetti sauce (the chunky one), then about 1/2 jar of Ragu Alfredo sauce. I sprinkled a little grated mozarella on top then baked for 1/2 hour. It was so good... and so cheesy! I had lots of stuffing left so I put it in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer. I hope it will be okay the next time I want to use it.  The whole family liked it (what's not to like with all that cheese!) and there was none left afterwards. I served it with a tossed salad. For dessert, which all were too full to eat, was a slice of store bought pound cake with a peach half on top.

We didn't haven't much time to eat as the kids had their taekwondo class at 6:00. I'm not sure that schedule will really work for us. I'm trying to find a way for us to eat together as a family. I'm not sure how to work it out. I don't want to eat a big supper at 7:30 and then have to clean up. I'm too much in the habit of doing helpy selfy at night.