This is an easy Boursin Style Cheese Recipe. It’s basically cream cheese, butter, sour cream, some herbs and sweet roasted whipped garlic. I do note that I used dried herbs because it would cost a lot here to buy all fresh herbs. Serving size is always difficult to determine. I’d say that it makes around 12 servings. (Pro Tip – It’s my big fat secret in my deviled eggs that I’ve been making. Everyone says that they are extra delicious)

16 oz cream cheese – room temperature

4 oz butter – room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream

2 oz sweet roasted garlic whipped (roast lots of garlic cloves with olive oil at 300F covered for about an hour – whip- add a splash of honey so it stays fresh or freeze in small portions)

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons parsley

1 teaspoon dried dill

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon chives

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon piment d’ espelette

1/4 teaspoon thyme

Instructions – mix well. Taste. Adjust if you care too!

ENJOY!!!!!

I had an opened pack of egg roll wrappers that I had to use because when they get past their date the egg roll wrappers get impossible to roll. Last week cabbage was on sale for 49.cents a pound so I had extra cabbage here and egg rolls are just mostly cabbage so that is what I made. My recipe made 18 egg rolls.

Ingredients for around 18 egg rolls

1/2 head of cabbage – remove core and slice thin

2 carrots – shredded

1 cup corn kernels

1/2 cup scallions – sliced thin

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon 5 spice powder

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 teaspoon sesame oil

peanut or canola oil to fry – enough to well cover the egg rolls

egg roll wrappers

2 eggs – beaten (to help wrap)

Directions

Put the cabbage, carrots, corning a microwavable container and microwave for four minutes. Mix in the scallions, sugar, salt, 5 spice, white pepper, and sesame oil.

Heat up your oil in a pot to around 350 degrees F.

Take an egg roll wrapper (I put it down in a diamond shape) and brush it with beaten egg. Then fill it with about a tablespoon of filling. I pull the right and left sides into each other. Then I pull the top over the middle and roll it up.

Repeat till done.

Fry what ever feels comfortable to you at a time till they turn crispy and lightly browned.

Serve with Chinese mustard or some kind of asian dipping sauce.

ENJOY!!!!!

I was watching the new TV Show called Tony Shalhoub’s Breaking Bread. He made these Lebanese Pastries called Spinach Fatayer. I found his recipe on the web and I think it was at www.FoodNetwork.com They might have fixed the recipe since I looked but at the time the pastry recipe had a major misprint an didn’t work out many people said. I figure that the recipe for the pastry part is pretty close to pizza dough so I just whipped up m normal batch of pizza type dough. To his spinach recipe I added more spinach and just added feta and mozzarella and a big sprinkle of Alepo pepper but kept the flavors the same. I also added a beaten egg to the pasties for a nice finish. This is only a recipe idea so I didn’t fully figure this out for you. You just have to wing it. But it’s pretty easy anyone can do this and you can even buy pizza dough to make it even easier. I do note that I mixed up the spinach the day before so that it cooked itself.

In a big bowl mix up –

1 8 ounce bag spinach

1 onion – chop fine (I slice thin on mandolin and then chop)

1 large lemon – the fresh squeezed juice

2 heaping teaspoons dried mint

2 teaspoons z’atar (or more to taste)

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (or more to taste)

This gets mixed well and sits in a ziplock bag in your refrigerator over night.

*******Next Day ********

Set your oven to 375F

Take your spinach mixture and try to leave the liquid in the bag. Add your spinach mixture to a bowl and add 4 ounces of crumbled feta cheese and 16 ounces of shredded fresh mozzarella and set to the side.

Get out your meatball scoop and scoop out a meatball size piece of dough. You might need a little extra flour and roll your dough into a circle. Add a scoop of the spinach and cheese mixture. Fold up three ends of the pastry over the spinach filling. you can leave a small hole in the center if you like. These go on a non stick sprayed baking sheet. Then brush them with a beaten egg. They go in the oven till lightly Browned. (about 25 minutes)

A Special Thanks to Tony Shalhoub so I could make what I got here.

ENJOY!!!!

This Cucumber Salad is easy and quick to prepare. It comes out very tasty so you might want to give it a try. I used four good sized cucumbers so I’m guessing that this makes (depending on the size of cucumbers about 8 servings.

Ingredients for about 8 servings.

4 good sized firm cucumbers. – peel, cut in half longways, remove seed center with a spoon. Slice not too thin about 1/4 inch slices.

1/2 large onion – slice somewhat thin and cut the slices in half.

1 cup water

1 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 squirt honey (1-2 Tablespoons)

1 Tablespoon capers

1 Tablespoon dried dill

Directions – just mix everything together in a large bowl.

Enjoy!!!!

I got the idea in my head for Jerk Seasoned Meatballs. I worked carefully on a spice blend and came up with something special. I called them Jerk Inspired because I didn’t make them as hot as real jerk should be. Also “REAL JERK” needs to make made with Scotch Bonnet Peppers that are burning hot. They came out FORKING Fabulous. I think everyone out there would enjoy them. I carefully made up a spice mix. You need to make the spice mix first and 3/4 cup of the spice mix gets mixed into the turkey mixture and the rest flavors the sauce for the meatballs. Serving size is always difficult to determine because I don’t know if you want to make them for appetizers, lunch, or dinner. Today I made the balls a little bigger and got 67 meatballs. I guesstimate 1-2 meatballs per appetizer portion, about three meatballs per lunch portion, and 4-5 meatballs per dinner portion.

Ingredients for Jerk Spice Mix

6 Tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 Tablespoon dry ground ginger

1 Tablespoon granulated onion

1 Tablespoon granulated garlic

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons sea salt

2 ground teaspoons allspice

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 Tablespoon dried parsley

********************************

Jerk Inspired Turkey Meatballs

3 pounds ground turkey

6 eggs – beaten

1+1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

8 cloves garlic – crushed to paste

3/4 cup Jerk Spice Mix

1 cup cooked chopped bell peppers and onions (a couple tablespoons oil)

1/2 cup scallions – chopped

non stick spray

olive oil spray

Directions – Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray sheet pans with non stick spray. Mix together in a large mixing bowl – Turkey, eggs, panko, garlic, 3/4 cup Jerk Spice Mix, onions, peppers, scallions all get mixed together. Ball them out on already non stick sprayed pans and spray the tops of meatballs with olive oil. They go in a preheated 350 degree oven for around 15 minutes.

Sauce-

28 oz can crushed San Marzano tomatoes

Rest of Jerk Spice Mix

Big squirt of honey (around two tablespoons

Either heat up for meatballs or reheat on meatballs.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!]