New Digs!

You can find my recipes over at Recipe For Disaster.

Fudge Topped Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 cups sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
2 1/2 cups Semi Sweet Baking Chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. In large bowl, stir together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, eggs, milk and 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla; beat well. Stir in nuts. Spread batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake 40 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan.

4. Just before brownies are done, in heavy saucepan, melt CHIPITS Semi-Sweet chips with sweetened condensed milk and remaining 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla.

5. Immediately spread over hot brownies. Cool in pan on wire rack. Refrigerate. Cut into bars.

Bacon Wraps

REQUIRED

Water chestnuts
Bacon
Toothpicks
Sweet & sour sauce

Homemade sweet and sour sauce:

1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
Squirt of mustard
4 Tbsp soya sauce

DIRECTIONS

Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Wrap a piece of bacon around a water chestnut, and hold together with a toothpick. Spoon sweet and sour over top so that each wrap is covered.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes (Ish – it depends on your oven). Keep an eye on them so that they don’t burn.

Try to stop at one. It’s impossible.

Chocolate Bark

One of the quickest and easiest recipes I have. The fact that it tastes amazing is a bonus.

INGREDIENTS

Eight squares semi-sweet chocolate (Can use bittersweet if you prefer)

Six squares white chocolate

1 cup whole, toasted almonds

1 cup dried cranberries (Optional. We don’t do fruit in our chocolate, so we leave it out.)

DIRECTIONS

Place semi-sweet chocolate squares in a small bowl and microwave for two minutes on MEDIUM power.

Remove from microwave and stir until chocolate is completely melted and smooth.

Repeat with the white chocolate.

Stir 1/2 cup of almonds into each of the bowls and stir to cover.

Drop spoonfuls of chocolate onto wax paper on a cookie sheet, alternating white and dark chocolate.

Use the end of a knife to swirl the chocolates and make the marble effect.

Chill until firm, then break into about twenty pieces.

Enjoy!

Veggie Supreme

This is a veggie casserole that we make at least once a week over the winter.

INGREDIENTS:

Veggies:

2 cups broccoli
2 cups cauliflower
1 ½ cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced mushrooms

And:
1 cup grated cheese
1 box seasoned croutons – crushed

Sauce:

2 eggs
½ cup mayo (or Miracle Whip) (Use low fat to be “healthy”)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 can cream of mushroom or chicken soup (I use the low fat variety)
½ of the cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350. Steam veggies for 5 minutes – drain. Put in casserole dish. Beat eggs, and add rest of the sauce ingredients. Pour over vegetables. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese and add croutons*

Bake 20 minutes covered, and 20 minutes uncovered.

* In place of store-bought croutons, I usually take whole wheat bread and crumble with a chopper. They are softer and healthier as well.

Carrot Cake/Muffins

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour (You can substitute a cup of whole wheat flour)
2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder
2 tsp (10 mL) cinnamon
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
3/4 tsp (4 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) each granulated and packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup (175 mL) vegetable oil
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
2 cups (500 mL) grated carrots (I used pureed carrots. I am all about the HIDING of the vegetables.)
1 cup (250 mL) applesauce

Icing:
1 pkg (8 oz/250 g) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (50 mL) butter, softened
1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla
1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar

DIRECTIONS

Grease and flour 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal cake pan; set aside.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth; pour over flour mixture and stir just until moistened.

Stir in carrots and applesauce. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven for 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack.

Muffins take less time to bake. I set the timer for 20 minutes and see how they are faring. It all depends on your oven.

Icing:

In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth. Spread over top of cake/muffins.

These can almost be considered healthy. Almost.

Fresh Veggie Salsa

I got this recipe from a girl I used to work with. She grew up on a farm and was the canning QUEEN.

8 Jalapeno Peppers (I use 4.  I used 8 once and steam literally blew out my ears. I kid you not.)
7 cups chopped tomatoes (peeled)
1 cup chopped green pepper
2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro
3 cloves garlic crushed
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 tsp cumin

(This time around I had some red and yellow peppers on hand that I added as well.)

DIRECTIONS

Make sure you wear gloves when chopping the jalapenos. I learned the hard way that the juice STINGS.

Mix everything in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until desired consistency.

Spoon into jars. Pass plastic spatula along sides to get rid of any air bubbles.

Put jars in canner. Boil 500ml jars for 20 min, 250 ml jars for 17 min.

Voila!

Plum Chutney

This is Karen’s Grandma’s recipe.  I felt bad for eating all of Karen’s stores, so I made my own batch. Twice. OK, fine. Four times.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup white vinegar

~~~~~~~~

1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional) (I did not use it)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp mustard seed
2 large cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 cup sliced onion
1/2 cup candied ginger, sliced
3 1/2 cups pitted prunes, also sliced

Combine sugars and vinegar. Bring to a boil.

Add rest, and simmer until thickened (One to two hours)

**I usually double the plums to at least 7 cups, and am generous with my measurements of mustard seed, ginger, garlic and onion.

Enjoy!

(7 cups of plums should yield about 4 cups of chutney)

It goes well with samosas…and potatoes, rice, crackers…basically anything you can smear it on.

Zucchini Bread

So. We have a garden.  Matthew has planted a plethora of vegetables in said garden, one class of which was zucchini.  We have harvested two batches of three zucchinis each.  Sounds minimal, no?

LET ME SHOW YOU THE ZUCCHINI.

Need perspective?  I placed a pop can next to the legumes.

So yeah.  LOTS OF ZUCCHINI.

The good news is, you can grate it and freeze it for up to six months.  I spent two hours (!) grating zucchini and placing 2-cup portions into Ziploc bags.

I also made some zucchini bread and muffins.

My original recipe is this one:

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups peeled and grated zucchini
3 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup nuts or chocolate chips
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Directions:
Stir together eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. Add to zucchini mixture.

Stir in vanilla and nuts or chocolate chips.

*** Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour, but it may take longer.  Check with a knife.

*** I had used my loaf pans for a batch of banana bread.  I instead used an 8×8 pan and a muffin tin.  The baking time was approximately 40 minutes.

Souvlaki

You can use pork for this. I personally dislike pork (Except for bacon!), so we use chicken. This recipe makes approximately 6 servings.

It also goes well with a Greek Salad.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lemon, juiced (or lemon juice)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soya sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 pounds chicken (or other meat), cut into 1 inch cubes
2 medium yellow onions, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 green bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
skewers

DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, mix together lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, oregano, and garlic; add chicken, onions, and green peppers, and stir to coat.

Cover, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

Preheat grill for medium-high heat. Thread chicken, peppers, and onions onto skewers.
Lightly oil grate. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or to desired doneness, turning skewers frequently for even cooking.