Zucchini Slice

This is one of my mum's recipes, from her hand written cookbook that I now have. I have no idea where this recipe originally came from, but even so, I adapted it a little. Her recipe added 1/3 cup oil, but I think it's fine without it. There is enough fat from the bacon, cheese and eggs. If you feel the need, add it.

It's quite surprising how simple this recipe is, yet so tasty - you can taste everything. Bacon. Onion. Egg. Cheese. You can kind of taste the zucchini, but it's not too much. Zucchini barely tastes of anything on it's own anyway, it's one of those vegetables that loves to absorb the flavours of everything around it.

Maybe this is one of those dishes I can feed to my kids, and sneak in some vegetables...

I love to eat this (yes, almost the whole pan) for breakfast, then some for brunch, a slice for lunch and then whatever is left warmed up for dinner. It is super simple and quick to put together, yet you will have everyone raving. Serve it with a crisp salad, some crusty fresh bread and you have a meal.

Zucchini Slice
Makes one 8 x 8 pan

4 green zucchini, shredded
1 onion, minced
3 slices bacon, rind removed, sliced and cooked
1 & 1/2 cups cheddar cheese (I used 2 YO cheddar)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and line an 8x8 pan.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Pour / spread into prepared pan, bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until top is golden and middle has set.

Enjoy!

Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

A fabulous recipe for a salad the first day, and then warmed up as leftovers the next day. You could actually eat this salad hot anytime. I am surprised at how delicious and more-ish this dish is. I was a little sceptical because of the maple syrup in the dressing, but it actually worked out quite nicely. You couldn't taste maple at all, so you could sub in honey if you didn't have maple syrup on hand.

It's super quick to put together - the longest task is boiling the noodles, and yes, before anyone says anything, I used spaghetti....shock, I know, but I like spaghetti or spaghettini in place of Asian-style noodles. I prefer the texture, and I definitely prefer the way they hold overnight. It means I can make this dish for my family today to enjoy tomorrow, and no one would know.

Of course, you could use any Asian noodle you like, just follow the cooking directions. I personally prefer the fatter chewier styles to the rice sticks. Just as in Italian cooking, every Asian noodle has it's specialty dish. I use the ones I like.

I also used matchstick carrots, you know those pre-shredded ones near the baby carrots in the produce section at the grocery store? I buy them because I like the shape and texture. You can add them to dishes and they don't break down, as shredded carrots do. They stay crunchy for a long time.

To add to this salad, I sliced up some chicken breast and gave it about 15 minutes in a combo of soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and canola oil. I stirred in about 1/2 clove minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger, and then quickly stir fried. Okay, I sauteed it until the sugars had caramelized and the outsides of the chicken were dark and sticky. Yum, yum, yum!

Noodle Salad
Recipe adapted from here
Makes 6 serves

1/2 lb dry spaghetti noodles, cooked in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.

1 cup matchstick carrots (you could shred your own)
2 stalks celery, sliced thinly on the diagonal
1/2 red pepper, sliced thinly on the diagonal
3 green onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, toasted
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds, toasted (optional)

3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Basically, after the noodles are cooked, rinse them under cold water, until they are no  longer warm. Drain well and mix with the vegetables.
Combine all ingredients for dressing in a small bowl. Mix well - keep mixing even though the peanut butter looks horrible, it will smooth itself out as you keep mixing. Pour dressing over noodles and vegetables and mix well. Season with salt, if necessary.

Enjoy!

Homemade Hamburger Helper

OK, I admit it. I used to really like Hamburger Helper. Kind of gross now, when I really think about it. But, back in the day, I loved it. Just like Kraft Dinner and 2 minute noodles, it had it's place in my pantry. But, I have grown up and moved on from the processed box dinner, and crafted my own hamburger helper recipe.

I remember I loved it so much, that I bought a box of every variety Betty Crocker made and took it home to my sister in Australia. We laughed so much, we also ate so much of it too.

It was cool the other night, and I needed comfort. I needed pasta in a meaty sauce and something that would fill me right up. Without a box of HH in my pantry, I devised this ingenious recipe. It's a one pot recipe - so not much cleaning, and it freezes well, perfect for lunches or quick dinners over the next little while.

All you need is some garlic bread and a big glass of wine. Well, maybe the wine after the kids are in bed.

Homemade Hamburger Helper
Serves 6-8

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb lean ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
750ml passata (pureed tomatoes in a bottle)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup beef stock
2.5 cups dry pasta
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup whipping cream

Heat oil in a large pot. Add onion and cook until softened. Add garlic, ground beef and salt, and cook until ground beef is browned. Stir in passata, ketchup, basil, oregano, pepper, beef stock and pasta. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer gently until pasta is cooked through, 15-20 minutes depending on the type of pasta you use. The pasta should absorb most of the liquid and leave you with a rich and thick sauce.

When pasta is cooked, remove from heat, mix in frozen peas, cheddar and whipping cream. Check seasoning and serve!

Enjoy!

Quick Chicken Quesadillas

From time to time we buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for dinner. It's relatively cheap, it's quick and everyone in our house likes to eat it. Sometimes, when I am sick of making chicken salad the next day, I turn to the quesadilla for a change. With a tiny bit of prep work, you can enjoy some leftover chicken in a whole different way.

I also wanted to try Dempster's new Corn Tortillas. They are soft and yellow and perfect for quesadillas. You can use them right out of the package too. Comes in handy on a weeknight!

Quesadillas are like a sandwich, you can put whatever you like inside, and it's pretty much guaranteed to taste good. Add some shredded cheese and it holds everything together like glue when melted.

I like to serve them hot, either straight off the grill or out of the pan, with some sour cream on the side, and a crisp salad.

Quick Chicken Quesadillas
Makes 6

6 tortilla wraps

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 chipotle pepper, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
2 cups sliced or shredded boneless cooked chicken, from rostisserie chicken
150g shredded cheese (I used mozzarella because I like the melt factor)

Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add onion and peppers and cook over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes. You want to peppers and onions to soften but also get a little charred. Add garlic, chipotle, chili powder, cumin and oregano. Stir for 1 more minute. Remove from heat, stir through chicken meat.

Place 6 tortillas on counter and divide chicken mixture between tortillas. Divide cheese mixture between tortillas, fold over and press closed.

In a clean non-stick pan (or grill plate), heat with a little oil. Cook quesadillas until lightly browned and crisp. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Turtle Cake Pops

A quick post today - these are the turtle cake pops I made for a customer (actually, if you remember my pig cake pops from last year - it's the same customer). Her girls wanted turtle cake pops for their birthday, and this is what I came up with.

Inside, the cake is chocolate bound together with chocolate frosting. Then I picked through a bunch of Skittles to find enough green ones for the feet and heads. I flattened the cake pop before dipping into green candy coating, stuck on the feet and the head before they set. After about two hours, so I knew they had fully set), I piped extra green candy coating on the tops and sprinkled with green sugar. I used royal icing for the eyes and then used an edible marker to draw on the eye balls and the smiles.

Apologies for the lighting, I think I had to take these outside at 5am to get enough light before they were packaged up.

Enjoy!

Olive Rosemary Bread

An abundance of olives, a bush of rosemary and a little bit of time is what I had today, so naturally, I made olive rosemary bread. I used to go to a restaurant in Sydney, Australia called Bayswater Brasserie and they served the most amazing olive bread I have ever had. It looked like a really good bread dough, shaped into a flat log and stuffed with olives. It was so good and salty, I still remember it.

From a quick internet search, it looks like the restaurant has been closed for some time - it's been 12 years since I lived in Australia - which is a shame, because it really was a great restaurant in a prime location. Part of me wonders what is in it's place. I am sure Kings Cross is not the Kings Cross I remember, but hopefully some of the good places to eat are still going strong.

On a side note, one of my other favourite places to go was Roy's Famous on Victoria Street. But, another internet search, and it too has closed. There was that place, too, that made you wear a crazy hat every time you ate there. Oh, I am having some good flashbacks to some great nights out with friends. Makes me a little homesick.

Anyway, back to the bread. It's not the same as the Bayswater Brasserie (btw, if anyone has the recipe and wants to share it with me, I would be much obliged), actually, it's not even close to the olive bread I ate there, but this is still a delicious bread. We ate it fresh, we ate it smothered in butter and we even ate it grilled with a little olive oil and then smothered in Boursin cheese...yum!

Olive Rosemary Bread
Makes 1 loaf

1/2 onion, minced
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 egg
160ml warm water
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, roughly chopped

Gently cook onion in oil, with salt, until softened - it looks like a lot of oil, but it is the fat you need in the bread. Remove from heat and stir through minced garlic and rosemary, and leave to cool slightly. You want the mix to be warm, but not hot or it may kill the yeast.

When oil is warm, combine all ingredients into bowl of stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, and mix until a smooth dough forms. You may need to add a little more water or flour to get a nice dough. Knead for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to proof in a warm place for 1 hour.

Remove from bowl, shape into a round loaf, and place onto parchment lined baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave for another hour.

Preheat oven to 400F. Place bread into oven on middle shelf and bake for approximately 40 minutes. The bread will be well browned all over. Remove from oven and cool before slicing.

*Note, the easiest way to pit olives is to squash them gently with a knife and then basically peel off the flesh. Or, use an olive pitter, or, but them pitted.

Enjoy!

Creamy Creamed Corn

I know it's an odd thing to say, but ever since last summer when fresh corn was in abundance, I have had a hankering for some good creamed corn. By the time I got around to it last summer, the local corn was all gone and I didn't think it appropriate to use frozen kernels. So, a whole 12 months later, here I am gorging on creamy and sweet and absolutely delectable creamed corn. The corn kernels are so tender (I used local Ontario (Canadian) corn ) they just pop in your mouth. And, I would have to mention this recipe is designed to serve 8-10 people, but my husband and I managed to eat half of it last night. We just kept going back for one more scoop. Kind of like ice cream.

I came across a million recipes while looking for the perfect one, and I basically used this recipe from the Food Network, and added some red pepper and parsley. You could definitely leave out those two ingredients and still end up with a wonderful dish. For some reason, I thought a bowl of "yellow" might not look so great in a picture.

I also thought, that some red pepper, minced jalapeno, coriander and maybe some cheese in here and you would have another wonderful take. Might have to try that one later in the week and see how it turns out.

Creamy Creamed Corn
Makes 8-10 serves

1/2 onion, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ears fresh corn
1 red pepper, diced
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
1 cup whipping cream
fresh ground pepper
fresh chopped parsley, to sprinkle

In a saucepan over medium heat, sweat the onion in butter and salt until translucent.

On a large rimmed baking sheet, resting the cob on the sheet in a vertical position, remove the kernels with a knife, using long downward strokes and rotating the cob as you go. After the cob has been stripped, use the dull back side of the knife to scrape any remaining pulp and milk off the cob.

Add the corn and pulp mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium high until the juice from the corn has thickened. Add the rosemary. Sprinkle the corn with the sugar and turmeric. Stir constantly for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle the cornmeal onto the corn, and stir to combine well. Add the heavy cream and cook until the corn has softened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the rosemary. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Enjoy!