Apple Brie Panninis

These are the ingredients, also found at Costco:

Here's the recipe:

Slice baguette into rounds. Slice Brie thinly. Slice Granny Smith apples thinly. Layer Brie, Granny Smith Slices, and Pecans on baguette. Top with another baguette slice. Spread outsides with butter. SInce I don't have a Pannini Press, I cook in a skillet pressing down with a smaller pan with aluminum foil between the sandwich and the top pan. I cook until both sides are golden brown and the brie is melty. The key is dipping the sandwich in the poppyseed dressing after you finish cooking them. I pour dressing in little bowls for the kids to dip.

Creations from Cost co

With a large group of boys--growing boys--Costco has become the grocery store of choice. It used to be that the bulk sizes of things would go to waste before we could use them up. That is no longer the case. I get tired of the huge bags of chicken nuggets, bagel bites, and other junk food the kids always want so I've tried to mix it up a bit. Here are a couple of 'gourmet' type recipes my kids actually like. They are super easy, so I thought I'd pass them along.

The pictures are the ingredients. I boil the noodles to al dente. Drain. Then, I mix in the pesto, some sundried tomatoes, and crumbled bacon. I sprinkle feta on top. Voila! There you have it. I serve alongside some Salmon Patties (also courtesy of Costco). I melt some butter mixed with olive oil, put in the salmon, squeeze on lemon juice, and sprinkle with lemon pepper.

Geoff's Nut Butter Chocolate chip cookies

My friend, Erin, shared this recipe with me. It's kind of a hippie recipe, but these cookies are seriously good.

Ingredients:

1/4 C Almond butter
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 C Maple syrup
3 T olive oil
1 T vanilla
1 egg
1 C whole wheat pastry flour (I only had stone ground whole wheat flour, and it turned out just fine. You could also substitute with 25% almond meal.)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
chocolate chips and or chopped almonds (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350*F. In a large bowl, combine natural almond butter, maple syrup, oil, egg and vanilla extract until well blended.

In a separate bowl, mix together whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, along with chopped almonds, and stir until just combined.

Let sit for five minutes. Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into balls, flatten to about 1/3 of an inch and place onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Makes 18 cookies.

Mustard Pretzel Dip

This recipe may be a fun one to try as a game time appetizer, now that football season is here.
I recently made this for a Relief Society meeting and was continually asked for the recipe throughout the night.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup prepared mustard
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup dried minced onion
• 1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix

Directions

• Combine ingredients, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Serve with pretzels. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 3-1/2 cups.

(Photo & recipe are from tasteofhome.com. The original recipe called for horseradish, which I excluded.)

Since peaches are on now

When I was a girl, we always went up to the Weber when peaches were on and Grandma Wood always brought fresh peaches to cut up and serve in a bowl for breakfast. We have the cabin reserved this month. Don't forget!

I recently came across a cornmeal cobbler recipe in the Houston Chronicle and thought I’d give the topping a try. I’m glad I did. I believe that fruits and vegetables that share a season naturally go well together. Corn is also now in season, which is why I think cornmeal goes so well with these fruits.

Blueberry peach cornmeal cobbler (adapted from the Houston Chronicle)
For the topping:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup heavy cream or half & half

For the filling:
1 1/2 pounds peaches
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 and grease a 9-inch cake pan.

For the peaches, to peel them cut an X at both ends of the peaches. Add them to a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, scoop out, rinse with cold water and then peel off the skin. Slice the peaches and remove the pits. You should have about 4 cups

To make the topping, in a bowl mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon. With knives, a pastry blender or your hands, work the cold butter into the dry ingredients until it’s crumbly. Stir in the heavy cream until all ingredients are combined. The dough will be really sticky—this is how it’s supposed to be so don’t be worried.

Place the peaches and blueberries into the greased cake pan. Toss the fruit with the lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Spoon the batter on top and bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until brown and bubbling.

Yield: 8 servings

Vegetable Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze

This is a great recipe. I saw it online here and have been anxious to try it. Last night I finally did and wow am I glad I have leftovers for work today! (click to read her glowing recipe introduction)

With base ingredients of carrots, onions and celery, this makes a perfect companion recipe to Chicken Noodle Soup (after making the soup, I always end up with half a bag of carrots and half a bunch of celery that eventually gets thrown out).

Enjoy!

recipe and photo from jana laurene

ingredients:
1 T. butter
2 T. olive oil
5-6 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
2 carrots (finely diced or grated)
2 stalks of celery (finely diced)
1/2 medium white onion (finely diced)
1 zucchini (finely diced or grated)
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 c. parsley (finely chopped)
1 lb. lean hamburger
1 lb. hot jimmy dean sausage
1 c. panko bread crumbs
1/2 c. parmesan cheese (grated)
1/2 c. ketchup
2 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. worchestshire sauce
2 t. hot sauce (chalula)
2 T. BBQ sauce
2 T. steak sauce (A1)

glaze:
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
1 T. worchestshire sauce
1 T. BBQ sauce
1 T. steak sauce (A1)
1 t. hot sauce (chalula)

* side note, if you don’t have all of these sauces, don’t worry. just remember that the ketchup and balsamic vinegar are the only 2 that you shouldn’t change.

*RZ side note - I only used ketchup, balsamic vinegar, KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce and A1. Delicious.

directions:

preheat oven to 400 degrees.

heat the oil and butter in a large saute pan. add the garlic, carrots, celery, onion, and zucchini. saute vegetables until almost soft, about 5 minutes. salt and pepper vegetables, to taste. set aside to cool.

whisk together the eggs and parsley in a large bowl. add the meat, bread crumbs, cheese, sauces, and cooled vegetables. mix until just combined – it’s usually best to do it by hand. [side note: like i said, if you don't have all of the sauces, don't worry. the ketchup and balsamic vinegar are the most important. as for the rest of them, just throw in what you have. those were the sauces that we decided to use, to give it a little extra kick, so feel free to leave some of them out or add some of your own].

mold the meatloaf on a baking sheet. whisk together the ingredients for the glaze, and spread it across the entire meatloaf. cook for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. [use a meat thermometer if you have one, cook to 165 degrees]. *RZ - let the meatloaf rest for 15 minutes after you take it out of the oven for easier slicing.

Orange-Dill Pasta Salad

Mix the following and refrigerate overnight, if possible:

2 C. mayonnaise
1/2 C. orange juice
1 tsp. minced garlic
2-3 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tb. dried dill weed
2 dashes Tabasco sauce
1 Tb. sugar
1 tsp. black pepper
*Optional:
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar (I think I prefer it without)

The next day toss the dressing with the following:

16oz box/package (approx.) of pasta - whatever shape you prefer, cooked & cooled
1/2 C.- 3/4 C. of the following (depending on your taste):
sliced, chopped, or shredded carrots
sliced celery
chopped red onion
frozen peas (they thaw quickly)
salt to taste


This recipe came from my Mom's friend, Pam. She recommends using this as a base recipe and adding whatever veggies you like, but I like it just as listed. And it really does give it a good boost of flavor to let this dressing marinade overnight, or at least for a few hours. Let me know what you think, if you get the chance to make it.

Shamrock Oreo Truffles

You guessed it… Mint Oreo Truffles ummmmm… good. These might even be better than the originals (well, maybe). And, they’re just as easy to make, but because I could only find the mint Oreos in Double Stuf, I changed the ratios a little from the regular Oreo Truffle recipe. Here you go…

Mint Oreo Truffles

1 pkg. Double Stuf Oreos – Cool Mint Flavor – (1 lb. , 1 oz. pkg.)
• use 22 cookies with cream centers included
• use 10 cookies with cream centers discarded
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
chocolate bark or candy coating*

1. Finely crush the cookies in a food processor or a ziploc bag with a rolling pin.
2. Stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together completely.
3. Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.
4. Place covered in freezer or refrigerator for a few minutes to help retain shape when dipping in melted chocolate.
5. Melt chocolate as directed on the package and then dip balls into chocolate, tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry.
6. Refrigerate and enjoy!

*Or, go green:

white chocolate bark/candy coating for dipping
green candy melts for dipping

1. Make your green and/or white shamrocks first (see picture below). You can use a ziploc bag with a small corner cut off or a decorating bag with with a small round tip attached to make the shamrocks. Use a toothpick to direct chocolate into desired shamrock shape. (Of course, in hindsight, this would have been a lot easier if I had found some little shamrock sprinkles.) Let dry.
2. Then, dip half the truffles in white chocolate and the other half in green.
3. If necessary, dip them again for a smooth finish. I found it necessary, especially for the white ones.
4. Then, on the second dipping, while still wet, press your cooled shamrocks gently on the top of your truffles.
5. For another effect, you can take the ziploc bag of chocolate and drizzle across each truffle with the alternating color.

Makes about 36 truffles.

I used a brand from Hobby Lobby for the green candy melts and regular white chocolate bark found at Kroger for the rest.

http://www.bakerella.com/its-no-sham%E2%80%A6these-rock/

Puff Pancakes

Puff Pancakes
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 C Milk
1/2 C Flour
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Vanilla
dash of Salt
dash of Cinnamon

1. Melt butter in pan in oven while it is preheating.
2. Whisk all ingredients together in bowl, pour into pan w/ melted butter and move to oven.
3. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes or until the pancake has risen and is firm.

Serve right away (it will start to puff down, that's ok) with fruit, syrup, powdered sugar... whatever you want!

*we always double it so we each get our own.
http://taza-and-husband.blogspot.com/2010/02/our-weekend-snowed-in-walks-around.html

Dirt Cake Garden Tea Party

You'll need six, new, 3 or 4-inch terra-cotta (clay) glazed flower pots, thoroughly washed. (I used 4 inch pots from Home Depot.) Even with glazed pots, I think I'd line the inside of the pot with aluminum foil, just to be safe. Another option would be to use plastic cups, inside, cutting them down to the right height.

You also need 6 flowers, either real or faux....gerbera daisies work really well. I opted for faux flowers and bought a big bunch for $1 at Dollar Tree. (Important: If you use real flowers, make sure they are pesticide free.)

You'll need 3 boxes of the cheesecake mix if you use 4 inch pots. While your cheesecake mix is mixing away, place a cookie in the bottom of each clay pot to cover the little hole, if you didn't line the pots with aluminum foil. Most recipes suggest using vanilla wafers, but I used little shortbread cookies since I like them better. Spoon your cheesecake mixture into each pot, stopping 1/2 inch from the top.

Now, the recipes I found said to use a plastic straw for this next part, but I found these cute little cereal straws and thought they would be more fun...plus, they are edible! :-) If you use real flowers, you may want to opt for the plastic straw. One cereal straw, when cut in half, was the perfect height for the pot...so it only took 3 straws for all 6 pots. Just press the straw down into the center of the cheesecake mixture. If you find one is a tad tall, just take your kitchen scissors and snip off the top a bit.

Now, for the fun part! (insert evil laugh here) I bought some gummy worms at Dollar Tree...just take a worm and position him on your cheesecake...like he's slithering right out of the pot. :-)

You'll probably only need one bag of Oreos for this next part, that was all I used. I broke up the Oreos before putting them into my mini-Cuisinart. I used my little Cuisinart to crush them, instead of my big one. It took 3 batches in the mini one; if you use a full size Cuisinart, you could probably do the whole bag at once.

Sprinkle your "dirt" over the top of your pots. Then chill them in the frig until you are ready to serve.

At serving time, just poke the little flower stem down into the cereal straw and your done! Just place a worm or two on the saucer of the pot for some added fun. :-)

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2009/04/welcome-to-36th-tablescape-thursday-and.html