I make these bread crisps often (recipe on site…just plug in bread crisps)
EZ Bread Crisps with Blue Cheese Butter and Herb Sauce
I just rolled 1/2 the thin for the bottom layer. Then I just added a layer of my fresh pesto. Topped it with a thin layer of the other 1/2 of dough. Then I squirted it with olive oil added sea salt flakes and sesame seeds. This went in my preheated 475 degree f oven for around 20 minutes. (your oven might bake faster…mine leaks but is getting fixed)
I cut it into squares while hot. Note that they don’t come out crisp like the crisp bread. Instead they come out more like a pop tart.
I had some Red Boat Salt that I need to use up so I got the idea in my head to make up Kimchi Carrots with it. In case you don’t know……Kimchi is a traditional Korean Dish of Fermented Vegetables. I read bunches of recipes on how to ferment vegetables. I got an idea on how I want to try it. My way is unique and not like another out there. Serving size is always difficult to tell because I don’t know if you want a very small amount or a bigger amount. I’m guessing that this will make between 4-8 servings so I’ll estimate it at 6 servings.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 lb. carrots – sliced thin
4 oz. radishes – sliced thin
3 oz. Red Boat Salt
2 1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons Gochugaru flakes
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 oz. grated ginger
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste
2 teaspoons sugar.
Directions
Boil the water with the Red Boat Salt.
Pour the boiling salted water over the vegetables.
This needs to sit on the counter two hours.
While this is sitting make the pepper paste.
In a small mixing bowl mix together the gochuharu, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and sugar. Put this to the side or in the refrigerator.
After the carrots sat out two hours you need to drain them.
Mix the pepper paste into your drained carrots.
This goes in a ziplock quart bag with all the air squeezed out in the refrigerator for 3 days up to two weeks depending on the taste that you like.
Nice and tasty but it’s kimchi on the milder side. Not too strong or too spicy.
I think most people would like it. I think this goes well with marinated eggs or something beef.
Kimchi Carrots and Radishes made with Red Boat Sea Salt
Don’t laugh….OK you can laugh……I tried to make ground turkey balls taste like corned beef and I thought that would be great for a party in meatball sized cabbage balls. I used the spices that I guessed would be good for corned beef but my fatal errors were not using Prague powder (stuff that turns beef pink) and also maybe not using beef. ANYWAYS they came out fragrant and tasty but didn’t taste like corned beef. I made a spice blend and used 1/2 in the meatballs and 1/2 all over the cabbage to flavor it. This recipe takes two days to prepare so the cabbage can stay wrapped on the meatballs.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 cabbage
1 quart stock or soup base (vegetable, chicken, or beef)
1 lb ground turkey (I used 99% lean)
2 eggs – beaten
1/2 cup panko
1 Tablespoon (heaping) Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Soup Base reduced salt
1/2 cup already cooked peppers and onions chopped
4 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1/4 cup dark brown sugar – SPICE BLEND
1 + 1/2 teaspoons sea salt – SPICE BLEND
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper – SPICE BLEND
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon – SPICE BLEND
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard – SPICE BLEND
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves – SPICE BLEND
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice – SPICE BLEND
6 juniper berries – ground to powder – SPICE BLEND
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger – SPICE BLEND
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning – SPICE BLEND
Directions
Day One – Either boil or roast the cabbage till soft. Let cool on a counter.
Mix up spice blend. (brown sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, mustard, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, ginger, and Old Bay Seasoning. Split this in half. Half of the spice blend goes in a large that you will mix the meatball mix in.
In a large mixing bowl with 1/2 the spice mix add the ground turkey, eggs, panko, garlic, pepper & onions, and mix well.
Assemble
When the cabbage is cool remove one leaf at a time from the core and remove only the very thick veins of the cabbage. Scoop a meatball into the cabbage leaf.
Place this on plastic wrap and twist it into a ball shape.
Repeat till done.
These NEED to sit on the refrigerator over night.
Next day
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Remove plastic wrap from meatballs.
Spread out the meatballs for cooking.
Sprinkle remaining spice blend all over.
Cook till well done about 20 minutes give or take.
Cheese Blintzes are crepes that are usually filled with fruit, farmer’s cheese, or potato and then fried in butter. Some people like them sweet and other people like them slightly savory. Some people serve them like dessert with powdered sugar and whipped cream. Other people like them topped with sour cream.
I was shopping at Sprouts and farmer’s cheese was at an incredible price that I could not pass up so I decided to make cheese blintzes today. Latter I went back to Sprouts and purchased fruit to make a fruit sauce for the blintzes.
It’s best to make the cheese filling the day before so you can drain some liquid out of it.
Anyways my recipe made me 11 crepes so I will say 11 servings. I did have maybe enough cheese left over for one more crepe.
Ingredients for around 11 servings
4 eggs
1 cup water
6 Tablespoons sweet butter – melted
2 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt
couple drops vanilla extract
1 cup flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons butter – to fry blintzes with
2 cups farmer’s cheese – for filling
1 cup whipped cream cheese – for filling
1/4 cup sugar – for filling
1 egg – for filling
1/2 lemon – just the fresh juice – or more to taste – for filling
1 teaspoon vanilla – or less to taste – for filling
pinch sea salt – for filling
Directions
Make the filling first.
In a medium bowl combine the cheeses, sugar, egg, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. This goes in a paper towel lined colander over night. The top you can loosely plastic wrap. In the morning I changed the towel so it could drain some more. Keep refrigerated till ready to fill blintzes.
Make the crepes. In a large bowl combine the eggs, water, melted butter, yogurt, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt.
Melt 1/2 the butter on medium heat in a non stick pan.
Use a serving spoon to measure the batter. One serving spoon seemed to be the perfect amount of batter for my pan. You don’t just pour the batter in you have to turn the pan on its side to shape the crepe around the pan………..Once you get a nice round crepe you wait till it looked cooked and flip it and leave it on heat maybe 1/2 a minute more.
I had a pan lined with plastic wrap to collect the crepes. Between each crepe I used more plastic wrap so they wouldn’t stick together.
Repeat till done and add butter as needed.
When you are ready to make the blintzes.
Either pipe or spoon out the cheese.
You roll it up like a burrito.
Bottom and top of crepe over the cheese.
Now you roll till rolled up.
Repeat till done.
Fry the crepes in butter on medium heat on both sides till slightly browned.
You can enjoy now or add sour cream or preserves. Some people like them sweet with powdered sugar……
I made a mixed fruit sauce. It was a pint of blueberries, a pound of strawberries, and 10 ounces of pitted cherries. I added 2 ounces of butter and about 1/2 a cup of sugar. I mixed it together and this went in a 350 oven in two pans for around an hour.
By total accident I created the most FORKING DELICIOUS Strawberry Cobbler. My local Albertsons had strawberries on sale for 97cents a pound limit 2 so I picked them up. When I got them home I found out that they were SO FORKING SOUR I couldn’t eat them. They were even too sour for my husband so I thought if I had to add sugar to them I might as well make something out of them. In my head I was thinking strawberry upside down cake but I didn’t make enough batter for cake. Instead it came out like the most amazing cobbler anyone has ever tasted……WOW what a great accident! I guesstimate that this will make 8-10 servings..
ingredients for around 8 servings
non stick spray
2 pounds strawberries – remove greens and slice in about 1/4 inch slices
3 oz. unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar (to sugar pans)
5 oz flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
8 oz. heavy cream (7.9 oz can)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
Spray two pans (like either pie pans or cake pans) with non stick spray.
Sprinkle the sugar into each pan.
Add the 1/2 the butter to each of the pans.
Add almost 1/2 of the strawberries to each pan and the rest can go in the batter in your mixing bowl.
The two pans of strawberries go in the oven for about 15 minutes to melt the butter and cook a bit.
The remaining strawberries get mixed with flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extracts, cream, and sea salt.
After the strawberries cook for fifteen minutes top each pan with around half of the batter.
The pans go back on a middle rack of the oven till lightly brown on the top. Oven time may differ. (In my oven this took 30 minutes.
Strawberry Cobbler
This came out so FORKING DELICIOUS…my husband usually doesn’t enjoy desserts and went back for seconds. The second one I froze and will surprise people with it latter.
I came across www.ItalianRecipeBook.com and they offer a lot of interesting recipes to try. I came across their Italian Butter Cookie Recipe and it took me back to visiting neighborhood bakeries. As a child my family purchased baked goods from local bakeries. Old women that worked there would always offer me butter cookies that were delicious. This recipe was pretty good and I hardly changed a thing. I did cut the recipe in half and came out with 21 cookies instead of 40 cookies. I used vanilla extract instead of vanilla powder because I don’t have vanilla powder. I made the cookies the right size but for some reason the timing didn’t work out for me…………..Maybe my oven is to blame? Instead of 14 minutes these cookies took me 14 + 5 + 5 + 10 minutes…….but every time I opened the door this oven looses a lot of heat unlike my last oven so opening the door is time costly………….Maybe you won’t have the same problem? These are small but delicious cookies that aren’t too sweet. You might want to eat more than one? This makes around 10 (if you eat two cookies) or 20 servings if you only eat one cookie a serving. I’ll say 15 servings because sometimes you will only eat one cookie.
Ingredients for around 15 servings
4 ounce unsweetened butter – mostly melted
1/2 cup 10X sugar
1 egg
6 ounce flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional toppings such as jimmies, fancy sugars, chocolate chips. cherries, sesame seeds, or nuts
Directions
Mix together everything but the toppings in a medium-large bowl (butter, sugar, egg, flour, vanilla
This mixture goes in a pastry bag with a large star tip.
You make small swirls (20-21) on parchment lined sheet pan(s).
Top the swirls with your choice of toppings.
They go on the middle rack of the oven till lightly browned. (original recipe reads 14 minutes……I did 14 + 5 + 5 + 10……….?
In the end they came out DELICIOUS!
Italian Butter Cookies
A Special THANKS!!!!!!!! To www.ItalianRecipeCookBook.com so I could do what I got here!
You can find some amazing recipes on www.ItalianRecipeBook.com . I found a recipe there for a pate a choux based pastry called Saint Joseph’s Pastry. It differs some than other recipes I tried but I thought their way of making the pate a choux was explained better. Some things about the recipe did differ from what I got………You also might want to double the pastry cream. I only wanted a small squirt in the center. you might want to split more open than what I did and might want to use more.
I got 24 pastries instead of twelve. I didn’t make them smaller either.
There are two hard things about making them….The original recipe says that this should look not like dough and look more like cream………It tells you to use 4 eggs and only part of the 5th egg if needed………..that is what I did….
I used about 4 1/2 eggs but about doing so I think the pastries would have looked better with 4 eggs.
I think I would have gotten more defined ridges on the pastries but there is another issue…….
IT’S FORKING HARD TO SQUEEZE THIS OUT OF THE PASTRY BAG. Not everyone out there will be able to sqeeze this stuff out with a pastry bag.
The other issue is the pastry cream. It’s good if you want it very thick and not flavored much as written……… but a suggestion of lemon or orange zest is suggested. The next day mine was too thick to use so I added splashes of cream, vanilla, and honey to it.
Ingredients for up to 24 pastries
285ml water
200 grams flour
4 oz sweet butter
4 eggs (up to a 1/2 egg more if you want your dough thinner)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/3 cup milk
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1 oz butter (I used sweet butter)
Splash cream (to thin if desired)
splash vanilla extract (to flavor if desired)
splash honey (to sweeten if desired)
Directions
In a sauce pot bring the water, butter, and salt to a boil. Then reduce to low heat. Add all the flour. Cook on low a few minutes. Take off heat and when the dough is cool add one egg at a time. Here’s the tricky part….You can add up to a 1/2 egg more but dough might get soft and not hold shape well.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Pipe 3 inch rings onto parchment paper leaving room for rings to expand.
Let this bake till it turns light brown (in my oven 30 minutes) and open the oven door but leave the oven on with the pastries….They need to get harder….They need 5-10 minutes more with the oven door opened.
Repeat until done with dough.
Make the pastry cream.
Mix milk, cream, yolks, sugar, honey, corn starch, and vanilla. Bring to boil and stir well with a whisk. Thin as needed.
Decorate however you want!
Pate A Choux Pastries (and mini stuffed potatoes)
I made the puffier ones like eclairs by dipping the top in melted chocolate chips and splitting in half adding pastry cream. Some I swirled a little chocolate its de creme in the center and topped with a cherry.
A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!!!!! To www.ItalianRecipeBook.com so I could come up with what I got here.
The Sprouts Grocery in NORTH LAS VEGAS has some really great surprise sales. I walked in and they had BIG BAGS of two kinds of broccoli on sale for 99cents a bag. In case you don’t know Yotam Ottolenghi is a multi award wining and James Beard award wining chef, restauranteur, and cook book author. I figured that he would have a great tender stem broccoli recipe and he did on his website. I didn’t want to change anything in his recipe but I had to change a few things due to what I had around the house. So I made a few substitutions and left out one ingredient that I didn’t have. I also doubled the amount of brown sugar peanuts because I knew I would want more than a 1/4 cup. This came out different and delicious! It might be something that you might want to try? This made four generous side servings for me.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar – peanuts
2 teaspoons soy sauce – peanuts
2 teaspoons olive oil – peanuts
1/2 cup peanuts – peanuts
non stick spray – peanuts
1/2 cup peanut buttet – dressing
2 teaspoons gochujang – dressing
1 Tablespoon soy sauce – dressing
1 teaspoon dark brown sugar – dressing
1 lemon – just the juice
2 teaspoons – fresh grated ginger – dressing
2 garlic cloves , ground to paste – dressing
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon chives – to finish
1 pound broccoli (You can use whatever broccoli you want)
Salt to boil water
Directions
Set oven to 325 degrees F.
Get a small sheet tray ready and spray it with non stick spray.
In a small mixing bowl mix together the brown sugar, soy sauce, and oil. Then mix in the peanuts. Pour this out on your sprayed baking sheet in one layer and spread it out. This goes in the preheated oven for nine – ten minutes.
Put a pot of water on to boil and salt the water.
Mix up the dressing – in a small bowl mix together the peanut butter, gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, salt, and water. Put to the side.
When the peanuts come out of the oven they will be molten hot. You might want to break them up a little before they set and lump up together.
Boil the broccoli for three minutes. Drain the broccoli and either serve or if for latter put in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.
Serve with peanuts and sauce either on the side or drizzled on and finish with chives.
Tenderstem Broccoli with Peanut Gochujang Dressing
A Special THANKS!!!!! To Yotam Ottolenghi for his Tenderstem Broccoli with Gochujang Dressing Recipe so I could come up with what I got here.
This Italian Sesame Cookie Recipe is based on www.ItalianRecipeBook.com ‘s recipe for Italian Sesame Cookies. Maybe due to using a different brand of flour than what the recipe writer used I had different results and my dough was so dry I couldn’t make cookies out of it. I cut the recipe in half too because it made far more cookies than I can even give away. Then to half of the recipe – I added more butter, a Tablespoon of water, a whole lemon zest instead of a half and maybe due to my oven I had to bake the cookies 25 degrees F higher to make them come out. In the end I wound up with delicious not-too-sweet cookies. I made about 34 cookies (with 1/2 of the original recipe) I can see eating one or two cookies for a serving……so I’ll estimate about 20 servings.
Ingredients for around 20 servings
1 3/4 cup flour
4oz unsalted butter – room temperature and slightly melted
1 Tablespoon water
1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 lemon – just the zest
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup sesame seeds
Directions
Set Oven to 375 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet or sheets with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl mix together all the ingredients except for the sesame seeds. (flour, butter, water, sugar, egg, zest, baking powder, salt)
The dough gets rolled into small logs (something between a pen size and your pinky. Make each log almost as long as your thumb. Dip the log in water and sprinkle and roll in sesame seeds. Space some on baking sheet and Repeat till done.
The baking sheet goes on the middle rack till lightly browned. Ovens do differ some. In my oven this took 25 minutes.
Italian Sesame Cookies
Italian Sesame Cookies
A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!!! To www.ItalianRecipeBook.com for sharing their Italian Sesame Cookie Recipe so I could come up with what I got here!
I made pizza a few times before here but I usually don’t measure and tried to explain what I do the best that I can. I always made two pizzas at a time because it is just about as easy to make two as one and then you have leftover pizza for at least another time or times. Home made pizzas are made different than Pizzeria Pizzas…….The home oven just doesn’t get that hot and is electric or gas……For a home made pizza you can add olive oil to the dough and cook the crust first at the highest heat that you can. The second baking should be done on a stone to try to get a crisp crust. Serving size is always impossible to determine. I don’t know if you want one slice or four slices……So that means between 16 servings and 4 servings depending on if everyone eats one slice or 4 slices……….I’ll rough guesstimate……I’ll say the two pizzas will be at least 6 servings.
Ingredients for at least 6 servings
2 cups 110 degree F water
1 Packet yeast – 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
Directions
This goes in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
You wait (up to an hour) till you have a nice thick foamy top.
Then you add
16 ounces flour (today I used all purpose)
1 Tablespoon sea salt (I prefer course sea salt)
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit at least an hour.
Then you add another 16 ounces of flour. Knead and knead and knead forever……or at least 6 minutes.
You won’t use all the flour but will use most of it. some the dough will sit in and you cover your dough ball bowl with plastic wrap again and leave it alone for a few hours. I start my dough between 7 and 8 am and use the dough between 1 and 2pm.
Preheat your oven for as high as it goes……….(Mine goes to 550 degrees F)
My pizza pan and my pizza stone can’t handle 550 degrees so I use a baking sheet that I first spray lightly with nonstick spray to avoid sticking……Then I spray with olive oil….and sprinkle the sheet tray with semolina.
The dough gets sandwiched between parchment paper and plastic wrap. I roll it with a rolling pin. Then peel the plastic wrap off and flop the dough over the pan and peel the parchment paper off.
Pat the dough to fit better in the pan…….Place on a middle rack for 7-8 minutes or until lightly brown on the ends.
If you have a pizza stone….You can leave the oven door open to cool off the oven a bit and when it’s down to around 300 degrees you can put your pizza stone in and heat it up to around 450 degrees (to PREFERABLY MANUFACTURES DIRECTIONS) for about an hour and top the dough to your liking till melted….maybe only 5 minutes…not much more.
ENJOY!!!!!
(below is pizza with fresh mozzarella cheeses, pesto, sauce, tomato, basil
A few other pizzas I did.
heirloom tomato pizzaMy Heirloom Tomato PizzaScaccia also called Lasagna Bread (different dough but rolled up pizza)Leek pizzaPepperoni pizzaArugula Balsamic and Tellegio Pizza
