Baked Apples

This is a yummie Fall Dessert! Enjoy! :)




Ingredients
Apples
Brown sugar
Butter
Cinnamon
Marshmallows (optional)

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.Scoop out the core from top of the apple, leaving a well. Do not cut all the way through. Stuff each apple with 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 tablespoon butter. Place in a shallow baking dish and sprinkle with cinnamon. Optional: Stuff Marshmallow on top!



3.Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until sugar begins to caramelize and apples are tender.

Mussels with Fries

I love mussels and fries! I don't know why more people don't do this at home because it's really easy and way cheaper than eating out at a restaurant. This is my MIL's recipe, but you can add a whole bunch of stuff if you want. It's just as good when it's simple. We eat these with our hands. It's one of the rare dishes that the French actually eat without a knife and fork. You eat the first one, and the empty shell of your first mussel serves as a grabber.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:1 gallon fresh mussels

2 small or 1 large onion, chopped

2 tbsp butter or margarine

Directions:

1. Soak the mussels in some water and clean them well. If there is any greyish or green moss on the shells, scrape it off. This is the longest part.

2. Sautee the onions until just a bit golden in the butter in a large pot.

3. Add the clean mussels WITHOUT WATER , and cover the pot. Cook on medium to high for 10-15 minutes stirring once in a while. The mussels should all be open. If there are a few that are not, its because they are no good. Do not try to eat them. They do not need salting because they are already salt watered.

Serve with fries.

Some people add white wine or beer or cream to the mussels while they are cooking. All versions are excellent!

Mint Cucumber Cocktail

This is more of a Summer Cocktail. But you can still pull it off with 90* Palm Springs Fall weather. :)

2 cucumbers
Small ice cubes
1 cup fresh mint leaves
2 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from 2 to 3 limes)
4 ounces (1/2 cup) vodka
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) Cointreau

1.Cut 4 thin spears from 1 cucumber, and reserve for garnish. Peel remaining cucumbers, and quarter them lengthwise. Scrape out seeds with a spoon, and discard. Coarsely chop cucumbers, then puree in a food processor until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible.

2.Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add mint, sugar, and lime juice, and shake. Add 3/4 cup cucumber juice, the vodka, and Cointreau, and shake. Strain into 4 glasses filled with ice. Garnish each cocktail with a cucumber spear.

Leek Pie

Hello everyone, I'm back! I haven't posted in a while because I seriously haven't been cooking, and when I do, I've been making things I've already posted, or heating up ready made dishes. I make this about once a week, and when there is company, they volunteer me to make this. I have been cooked for a bunch, but my MIL makes food that you need to spend at least 2 hours in the pressure cooker on, which is impossible for the working woman who does not own such a device.....So, when she contemplated the Leeks in the garden and then declared "tonight is Leek Pie," I jumped for joy and grabbed my camera!
Serves 4 as a main course, or 8 as an appetizer
Ingredients:
-1 pack of low sodium bacon, cut into little pieces with the big fat cut off
-1 pie crust in dough form
-4 Leeks (those things that look like giant green onions)
-Bechamel sauce
-3 egg yolks
-shredded swiss cheese
Directions:
1. Clean the leeks by cutting lengthwise and rinsing all the dirt out. Cook them by boiling them for a long time.. like 45 minutes... or stick them in the crock pot the night before so they're tender, then let drain until they are nice and dry, then cut in little bite size pieces with kitchen shears.
2. Cook the bacon in a pan and drain the grease.
3. Put your pie crust in your pie tin, and poke holes in it with your fork.
4. Place a layer of leeks, then bechamel, then bacon
... and then do another layer of each
5. Cover with shredded swiss cheese
6. In a bowl, whisk your 3 egg yolks and brush them onto your pie
7. Cook for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven

We served some home fries with this, but did not even eat them because it was so filling. Otherwise, serve with some salad as a side to make a complete meal!

Bechamel Sauce

Bechamel is one of the sauces I use to make my Lasagna, but it is also a very common sauce used for many different French dishes. This time, it is for my Leek Pie, but I will later on bust out another recipe where bechamel is used.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 large Tbsp butter
2 cups milk
Salt/Pepper to taste
Directions:
1. In a sauce pan, melt the butter on medium heat and wisk in the flour.
2. Take off heat, and pour in the milk, a little bit at a time while wisking.
3. Once all the milk is in, put back on heat and wisk until it thickens a bit. It should not be watery, but it should not be as thick as mashed potatoes. It should be like a thick sauce. Watch it, though, because you don't want it to burn. Once it is at its desired thickness, take it off the heat. Some people add a dash of nutmeg.

I very unfortunately do not have a picture of this... sorry

Salmon with Pesto Sauce

PESTO SAUCE
(you can use store bought pesto sauce too... i have done both)
Ingredients:
Basil
Pine Nuts
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic, cloves
Parmesan Cheese
Mayonaise

Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a food processor. Set Aside.

SALMON
Ingredients:
Salmon Fillets
1/4 cup olive oil
lemon juice
Italian Seasoning

1. Preheat Broiler. Rinse Salmon with Cold Water. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Set aside.
2. For marinade, in a large zip lock bag, combine olive oil, lemon jiuce, and Italian seasoning. Add Salmon. Massage bag to coat fish.
3. Broil Fish about 4 minutes on each side or until fish is flakey. (make sure the fish is about 5 inches away from heat... i started an oil/foil fire once! no joke.)
4. Serve salmon with pesto sauce.

REMIX!! Stef's Stuffed Tomato Salad

Here is Stef's Stuffed Tomato Salad!! It was a yummie summertime snack...and easy to make! ;)

Meatballs in Tomato Mint Sauce with Pine Nut CousCous

4 cups Bread Crumbs
1 cup Milk
1 Lb ground beef (or lamb or ground turkey)
1 egg
1/2 cup grated parmagiano-Reggiono
Salt
Black Pepper
1 pinches Ground All Spice
2 tsp Lemon Zest
4 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 small onion
3 tbls EVOO
1 28oz can crushed Italian Tomoatoes
2 cups chix stock
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup mint springs
2 tbls butter
1 1/2 cups cous cous
3/4 cups pine nuts

1. In a mixing bowl, combine bread crumbs, meat, egg, cheese, salt, pepper, allspice, lemon zest, and 1 garlic clove. Grate 2 tbls onion onto the meat. Use your hands to combine the mixture. Then roll into balls the size of walnuts. You should have about 20 balls.

2. Heat EVOO in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining garlic and grate remaining onion into EVOO. Saute Garlic and Onion for a few minutes, then stir in the tomatoes and 1/2 cup of chx stock. When the sauce bubbles, add the meatballs and simmer for 7-8 minutes. Stir in the Parsley and mint and season the sauce with salt and pepper.

3. While the meatballs cook, bring the remaining 1 1/2 cups of stock and butter to a simmer in a saucepan. Add the couscous, turn off the heat, and cover. Let the couscous stand for 5 minutes. Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for three minutes or until light golden. Add the pine nuts to the couscous and fluff with a fork.

Serve the meatballs and sauce on a bed of couscous.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Re-MIX!

Re-Re-REMIX! Here are Amber's Bacon Wrapped Shrimp.

It was oh so deliciouso.

Hoisin Chicken & Pepper Skewers

When Marc and I lived with Kellie aka KDub and Jimmy for a couple of months, I really liked how she would take random foods she had in the fridge that were about to go bad and make something delish with it! Now, I have been trying to do the same thing :). Since, I bought some Hoisin sauce for the lettuce wraps, I decided it would also be a good marinade for some chicken and we had a few yellow peppers left. So, in honor of Labor Day yesterday, Marc and I decided to BBQ something. I seriously love when we can make something that both of us put our efforts into, it always makes the end result better tasting. Marc enjoys BBQin', it's his goal to make his food juicy and I must say he's getting it down pretty well! Here is what you'll need:

INGREDIENTS - (makes enough for 2)

2 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts

2 tablespoons of Hoisin Sauce

1/2 of Lemon

3 to 5 yellow peppers - seeded and cubed (we had mini peppers, if using large I am sure 1 or 2 will do)

1 Tomato (make sure it's almost ripe, so it's more solid and doesn't fall apart on the skewer)

8 Skewers

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut chicken breasts into little cube cutlets or however you please. In a large mixing bowl combine the chicken and Hoisin Sauce, mix around until majority of the chicken cubes are covered. Squeeze lemon juice into bowl and stir.

2. While the chicken is marinating, soak bamboo skewers in water for one hour so they will not burn on the grill.

3. Preheat the barbecue to a high heat.

4. Cut Yellow Peppers and Tomato into cubes, leave aside until ready to skewer food.

5. Thread chicken onto skewers, and in between two chicken cubes add a cube of bell pepper, then add two more chicken cubes and a cube or two of tomatoes. (You can be creative with your threading.)

6. Drizzle remaining sauce over finished skewers for extra flava!

7. Grill skewers, turning once, over heat for 4 to 6 minutes; or until just browned and cooked through.

The end result was tasty!! For the next run I will def. marinade the meat longer, but an hour still gave the chicken a lot of flavor.

Suggested Sides:
I cut up some Avocado for something fresh and cool, and made a Wild Grain Spanish Rice by Rice-a-Roni. Oh! and some bread is always nice too! :)