Mashed potatoes & cauliflower

My friend Lois gave me this tip. Mash potatoes then cook cauliflower and mash them into the potatoes too. It tastes so good.


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Cheese Souffle for One

I always thought a souffle was really hard to make..........well finally I tried it. I cut the recipe down only because Tom isn't here to help me eat it. I also had leftover whip cream, so I threw in a couple of spoonfuls. Very smooth.

To start to make the souffle, you make a cream sauce base. Melt the butter, add the flour, and stir......get rid of the lumps! Next I added the milk...I put a bit of mustard in with the milk. A dash of salt and pepper is nice.

The cheese goes in the sauce last, let it melt and stir until very smooth. Let the sauce cool, because when you add the sauce to the eggs you don't want them to cook before your eyes.

Next you get out your beaters, and beat the egg whites stiff....smooth and standing up. Don't totally go nuts, there is a point of no return.
Then in a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, then pour into the creamy cheese mixture, mix up till smooth. Now the tricky part, fold in the egg whites...gently just a quick fold....it may look unmixed ....leave alone...you want all the air bubbles in the eggs to make the souffle rise.

Now for the dish....I don't have a proper one, I only used a corning dish. Truthfully, if you live on a boat you only have a couple of dishes anyway. If you grease the dish it will wash better, but if you don't the souffle will rise better. The choice is yours! I did the later, so now I pay the price. The pan is soaking in the sink.

Cheese Souffle for one

1T butter
1T flour
1/4 c milk
1/4 t mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c cheese grated
2 eggs separated


Cheese Souffle for 4

3T butter
3T flour
1c milk
1/2 t mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cheese grated
4 eggs separated

Cheese Balls

I remember when I was little my Mom use to make this recipe. Unfortunately, she passed away and I didn't get her recipe. Thanks to the internet I found this.

One of my pictures are the balls before you cook them, then you will see the finished ones. Maybe I needed to put more flour in them, they seem to melt. I did put them into the refrigerator before cooking them, to harden them up a bit. One thing is for sure...............they tasted really good.


1 1/2 cup of graded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup of flour
1/2 t Worcester sauce

Soften butter, add Worcester sauce, add flour & cheese. Mix well. Roll into one inch balls, put on baking sheet.


Bake at 400F for 10 minutes.

French Apple Tart

French Apple Tart

This is really fast and easy.

½ cup softened butter for crust
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup Flour
1t vanilla
Preheat oven 400°.
Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla and mix. Add in the flour to the mixture. Press in to pan.
Bake at 400° for 15 min.

Filling
8oz cream cheese, I used 500g….I didn’t know if that is exactly right but it worked. I used the stuff in the tub instead of the block, it tastes better and easier to mix.
1/4 cup sugar for filling and ¼ cup sugar for the apples on top
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
Almonds or walnuts for the top of the pie
Preheat oven 400°.

When you remove the shell from the oven, leave the oven on because once the mixture is made it goes right back in.
Beat one egg, then add cream cheese, vanilla extract, then the sugar. Beat until smooth and pour into pie pan. Slice apples for the topping. In a bowl sprinkle the apples with cinnamon and ¼ cup sugar, arrange in a round circle on the top of the pie. Sprinkle the almonds on the top.
Bake 400° for 30-40 minutes

I got this recipe from the food network, here is the link you can watch the video.
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/guides/Thanksgiving/video.html?releasePID=riTfn3O7XgnDh6K32VXOhOcK5b0Zmy5Q

Pizza

Finally a pizza that really tastes like pizza. The crust turned out pretty good. I used the bread in the bucket to make it. As you can see I could have stretched out the crust a bit more.

For the tomato sauce get out the frying pan. Brown one onion, garlic, chop up two tomatoes and throw them in. Juice a lemon ........or limes guess what throw it in. Now you need some honey or sugar to sweeten it up a little. Make sure you taste it. Add your favourite spices. I used rosemary, basil, parsley, salt and pepper, just sprinkle them. Let the sauce reduce.........simply cook until the juice evaporates ......but leave a little bit in the bottom.

Now for the cheese. I used mozzarella. I cut it in little squares (they say that if you cut the cheese in squares it's not so oily) or you can use shredded. You can use better cheese or a mixture of cheese but I wouldn't use cheddar.

First sprinkle corn flour on the greased pizza pan. Of course if you don't have corn meal........don't worry it still turns out. If you used the bread in the bucket for the crust, you have to remember to let the dough rest after you take it out of the fridge. Leave it for about 40 minutes it needs to warm up a little. You might need a bit of flour on it............it's really sticky. The flour will make it so that you can work with it.

Spread out the dough......Add the sauce, not too much you don't want a soggy pizza.
cut up your vegtables and add them, I used mushrooms, red peppers add whatever you like. Add the cheese........you can put it on first....no big deal.

Bake 400F.........about 20 minutes.

Bread in a Bucket

This is so easy.

Get a bucket with a lid.

1 1/2 T salt
1 1/2 T salt yeast (I used two packages)
6 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 3 cups whole wheat, 3 1/2 all purpose)
3 cups warm water.........out of the tap

Nothing fancy about making this bread. First dump the salt and yeast into the bucket. Pour in the 3 cups of warm water. I put the lid on and let it sit a few minutes for the yeast to start growing. But you can go crazy and throw in the flour. Stir it up with a wooden spoon. You need to get all the flour mixed in. Put the lid on the bucket and lift the corner so that it's not completely air tight some of the gases need to escape. Let the whole mixture sit for two hours. It will grow, you will see the air bubbles. It looks like a big sticky mess.

Lift the lid, sprinkle you hands with flour, pull off some of the dough & shape into a ball. Should be the size of a grapefruit. Put enough flour on it so it doesn't stick in your hands. You don't have to knead the bread. Only shape into a ball. Put on a pan, I used a pie plate cover with towel. Let it rest for about 45 minutes. It will grow again because of the yeast.

After resting the dough slash the top. I had trouble with this, all the air came out of my loaf..........making it look like a blob......my slashes didn't look so good.
I used spray oil on my pan, and a sprinkle of corn meal. (you don't have to do that)
Before I put the dough in the pie plate I poured warm water on it. This warmed the plate up. Yeast grows better in warm areas.

Set the oven 375F. Put the bread on middle shelf of oven with a pan of hot water underneath. This makes a crunchy crust. Oh don't use a glass dish for the warm water underneath the dough........they break.

Bake for 25-35 minutes.

Put the rest of dough in fridge. You will get at least 3 more loaves. You should use it within two weeks. When you take dough out of the fridge let it rest with a towel over top for about 45 minutes before you bake it.

It took me longer to type this then make it.

If you can watch this video it explains it all better than I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFJZPm-_2-M&feature=related

Let me know how you do on this. It's really good and so easy.

Pasta

This is very simple and tastes delicious.

The Sauce

2T Olive oil
1 Onion
1 Garlic glove
1 Tomato
1 Green onion
1/2 a lemon also use the lemon zest. (Grate the lemon only the pretty yellow stuff when you get down to the white........too bitter)
1 T Parmesan cheese or more if you like
2 T honey or sugar
a pinch Rosemary
a pinch Basil
a pinch Parsley



To make the sauce heat the frying pan, add olive oil and fry onions and garlic until golden brown. Chop tomatoes and add to mixture. Salt. Keep frying, add green onions if you have them. Squeeze 1/2 a lemon and add to mixture. That gives you the sour taste, now balance the taste with sweet, add some honey or sugar if you don't have honey. Taste...always taste..........add spices salt, pepper, rosemary, basil, parsley. Remember if you have the real things.........they are 100 percent better than packages or stuff in bottles as far as flavour goes. Let the mixture cook down or reduce as they say, so you don't have a lot of water, but all flavour.

For the pasta..........salt the water so it tastes like the ocean. Add pasta and cook. Drain, and pour sauce over top. Top with Parmesan cheese.