Mini Cupcake Ice Cream Cones!

These mini cupcake treats are classic for the hot summer!

INGREDIENTS:

1 box of mini ice cream cones
1 box cake mix
1 pk. almond bark (vanilla)
food coloring
1/2 t. vanilla
decorating sprinkles

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Prepare cake as directed on box.
2. Fill mini cones with 1T. (3/4 full) of cake batter
3. Bake about 20 minutes at 350 degrees until cake has puffed over the top of cone
4. Remove from oven and allow cupcakes to cool
5. Break apart almond bark and microwave 20 seconds at a time until melted and add vanilla.
6. Spoon almond bark into separate bowls and add desired amount of food coloring for the "ice cream"
7. The almond bark should have thickened by now..."ice" the cupcakes and sprinkle decorations on top.

Italian Chicken and Dumplings (Gnocchi)

INGREDIENTS:

5T. Extra virgin olive oil
2 lbs. Chicken breast, boneless, skinless, cubed
4T. Butter
3 med. Portobello Mushrooms, sliced
1c. Shredded carrots
4 ribs celery, sliced thin and on a bias
2 fresh bay leaves
3T. all purpose flour
3c. chicken stock
1c basil leaves
1 clove garlic
handful flat leaf parsley
handful of toasted pine nuts
1 c. grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 lemon zested
1 16 oz pk. pack Gnocchi
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Heat a large pan to med-high, add 1 T. Olive Oil.  Add chicken, season with salt and pepper.  Lightly brown chicken and pour into a dish for later use.
add 2 T. olive oil, 2T. butter and add mushrooms, carrots, celery and bay leaf. Soften 5 minutes and add 3T flour.  Cook 2 minutes and add 2 1/2 Chicken stock.  Whisk until roux is thick.  Add the chicken back to the pan, simmer on low.
Place remaining stock in food processor with basil, parsley, garlic, pine nuts, cheese and lemon zest. blend all well and add remaining olive oil as processor is running.
Melt remaining butter and add lemon halves.
Salt cooking water and drop gnocchi in boiling water., cook until gnocchi floats. drain and add lemon butter.  toss 2 to 3 minutes.
Turn off heat to chicken and stir in pesto.  Serve in shallow bowl and top with lemon butter dumplings.

Fig and Gruyere Quesadillas

Fig and Gruyere Quesadillas

 These are the sweetest, most delicious Quesadillas I have ever had...I hope you enjoy them!
(I served these with breakfast but are a great snack anytime!)




INGREDIENTS:

2 Figs, halved and sliced
1/2 C. Gruyere Cheese, crumbled
1T. Pine Nuts, toasted and finely chopped
4 flour tortillias
2 tabs unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS:

1.Heat griddle to 275 degrees
2.place 2 tortillas on griddle
3.arrange 1 fig (slices) on top, cover with half the cheese and top with half the pine nuts.
4.cover with 2nd tortilla and place the tabs of butter on top of each
5.turn after about 2 minutes.
6.lightly press the quesadilla to ensure thoroughly melted cheese.

Tomato Basil soup, Artichokes with lemon (shrimp) butter, Corn Scallop and Herb baked pork chops.

Tomato Basil soup, Artichokes with lemon (shrimp) butter, Corn Scallop and Herb baked pork chops.

I will start with my Tomato Basil soup,
1(10.75) can condensed tomato soup
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
2 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1c. water
about 1T. chopped garlic
12 large basil leaves (fresh)
2T. Extra virgil olive oil.
salt and pepper to taste...please, please use fresh ground pepper and kosher salt in my recipes :)

(I also make my own crutons to go in my Tomato basil soup, its simple. Take a loaf of sourdough bread from your local grocery store and cut with a bread knife into cubes, make a mixture of butter, olive oil and garlic salt and lightly toss the bread cubes. Put into the oven and bake until nicely toasted.)

I've now chopped my garlic and I'm going to have my oil ready in my pan at a medium temp. (if you cook the garlic at too high of a temperature it will become brown and bitter.) after about a minute I will add all the tomato, water and then my basil. allow to simmer about an hour stirring frequently.

now on to making my artichokes, Clean and steam 3 artichokes. (You can get instructions on various websites if you are not familiar.) The butter sauce you will need 2 sticks unsalted butter (softened), 8 to 10 cooked shrimp, 1T minced garlic, zest of 1 lemon, salt and pepper to taste) and about 1T olive oil blend in processor and then melt to dip artichoke leaves in. Butter will be fluffly and creamy.

The corn scallop is so simple, take 3 cups of corn, mix with 2T all purpose flour, 1t. sugar, 1t. salt, fresh ground pepper and 1/2 c. milk. The bread that is leftover from your croutons, dry out in the oven and blend in the food processor with salt and pepper for your bread crumbs. about a cup is good. use 1/2 breadcrumbs to line the bottom of a small baking dish, fill with corn mixture and top with remaining bread crumbs, bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

And now for the beautiful pork chops, 4 thick, boneless pork chops in a large baking dish with a cup of water in dish, you will top the pork chops with salt, pepper, fresh oregano, thyme sprigs, 2 bay leaves and chives. Bake at 375 for 30 to 45 minutes.

Crusty French Bread

I've made this bread from my favorite bread recipe book for over 13 years.  Thankfully I blog my recipes so I was able to salvage this particular recipe from my other blog.  I lost all my cookbook collection (over 200) in my divorce I've just gone through.

Please enjoy and love this recipe as much as I do!!

INGREDIENTS:

1pkg. dry yeast

1 1/2c. lukewarm water (it is so important to get your water right, if its too hot it will kill the yeast and if not hot enough it won't activate it)

1 1/2t. kosher salt

4c. unbleached flour

 

DIRECTIONS:

 

1.Place the water in a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and stir to dissolve. Add salt. Begin adding the flour gradually until all 4 cups are used. Be sure the flour is well incorporated. The dough will be very stiff and you may need to use your hands to make sure the mixture is well combined.

 

2.Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, with a large wooden spoon, work through the dough. Do this 5 consecutive times, letting the dough rest 10 minutes after each time you work through the dough. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and shape into a rectangle, roll the dough as for a jelly roll making it as tight as possible. seal the seam and the ends and taper the roll slightly.

 3.Grease a baking sheet and dust it with cornmeal. Place the roll onto the sheet and score diagonally 6 times. Let the loaves rise 1 1/2 hour, brushing with cold water through out. place a shallow pan of hot water and preheat oven to 400.  Bake for 10 minutes and brush with cold water. Continue baking another 20 to 30 minutes until done.

Asparagus wrapped in Smoked Alaskan Salmon and Bacon

INGREDIENTS:
8 fresh firm stalks of green asparagus
12 fresh firm stalks of white asparagus
4 strips of bacon
1 small pack of smoked Alaskan Salmon

DIRECTIONS:
Clean and trip bottoms of asparagus.  Blanch and steam the asparagus.  Move to paper towels to drain. I've taken 2 green and 3 white wrapped them in strips of packaged smoked salmon and then wrapped that in a strip of bacon. (Maple, peppered or Smoked hardwood bacon, either is fine)

*please do not add salt as the salmon provides plenty.
*you can do a light drizzle of olive oil if you wish

Put asparagus bunches into oven and bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.

OPA! (The best way I know how)

Our menu tonight is...Lamb chops with fresh herbs, Dolmas with cucumber sauce, Fresh tomato and corn salad and crusty bread with Black Truffle butter.

We will start by making out herb mixture...this will generally go in everything to carry our flavors through all the dishes.

Take leaves of fresh mint, basil and thyme and chop finely. Chop about 1 or 2 cloves of garlic. keep aside.

mix herbs (keep some thyme to the side for the tomato salad.)

Make a cup of rice (2c. water, boil, add 1c. jasmine rice turn to low and cook about 20 min.) I added about 1t. white truffle oil and a bit of kosher salt to the water before boiling.

Boil 2 or 3 ears of fresh corn, not until mush either, you want fresh crisp veggies!

Lets make our Dolmas! Saute garlic in a bit of extra virgin olive oil, Brown 1/2 lb. fresh ground lamb to the raw meat you will add kosher salt and pepper, Cayenne pepper, allspice, cinnamon and lemon zest. (maybe 1/2t. of each)

Now to your rice you will add 1/2 the fresh herb mixture and the meat mixture. Wrap in a single grape leaf. Take a spoonful of the rice into your hand and shape into a football shape. set in center of leaf and fold sides in to cover then roll up. Steam 20 minutes.

Now is a good time to season your lamb with salt, pepper, garlic powder and the some of the fresh herb mixture.

On to the Tzatziki sauce. Take 2 small containers of Greek honey yogurt add a bit of garlic and remainder of fresh herb mix and finely chopped cucumber, salt and pepper. Whisk until smooth.

Fresh cut the cooled corn (don't cut too deep into cob and don't scrape cob either we want no mush and please be careful!)

cut 3 tomatoes in half and quarter each half. slice a shallot and mix in. dash some Balsamic vinegar and top with saved Thyme. Move to the refrigerator until time to serve.

Cooking the lamb is easy. use 3T. unsalted butter and 1/4c. olive oil. Use the olive oil to retain the heat but still get that good butter flavor. Fry med. high temp for 4 minutes on each side. Ask the butcher to keep all the chops cut at the same thickness for better cooking.

I get my Black Truffle butter from a specialty market down south. You may can find it on the Internet or if you happen to be able to go to Whole Foods, I HIGHLY recommend it...

I've simply sliced a loaf of bread on a bias and lightly buttered the bread with the truffle butter.

(this was 10 bucks for 1/2oz. of this butter, So keep an eye on it!)

 *I don't know why I don't have a picture of filling the Dolmas. My apologies