Ham and Cheese Pie

*The single gal I am, I just made a small pie for myself*

• *Oh, and my pie is quite pale 'cause my oven is dumb...only bottom heat...well, the bottom is real crispy though...*
• 
  
• The cast of characters

• 12 sheets phyllo dough (14 inches x 9 inches)
• 1 cup cubed fully cooked lean ham
• 1 cup (4 ounces) cubed or shredded swiss cheese
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• a tad ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• some white wine to taste

Directions

1. Spritz one sheet of phyllo dough with butter-flavored spray. Place in a 9-in. pie plate coated with cooking spray; allow one end of dough to overhang edge of plate by 3-4 in. (Until ready to use, keep phyllo dough covered with plastic wrap and a damp towel to prevent drying out.) Repeat with remaining phyllo, overlapping the sheets (staggering the points around the plate) and spritzing with butter-flavored spray between each layer.

2. Combine ham, cheese and onions (I actually added some fresh mushrooms as well), and then spoon them into crust.

3. In a bowl combine eggs, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic and wine. And pour over ham mixture.

4. Fold edges of dough over filling toward center of pie plate. Spritz edges with butter-flavored spray.

Cover edge of crust with foil. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake 10-20 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. 

5. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

This can be made ahead really great!

*I cut mine too early, its not really stiff yet*

For more great recipes visit Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays and Tasty Tuesday.

Coconut Poached Chicken

Looky what I got in the mail the other day!!

Of course I had to try it right away! This is the recipe I choose to be the first one:

What you'll need:
2 cans unsweetend coconut milk (be sure to only use the unsweetend one, not cream of coconut or the one used for making cocktails)
2 pounds skinless, bone-in chicken breast (I used a boneless one; I am just lazy like that)
1 piece (about 1 inch) fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 scallion, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
Coarse salt
1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
Serves 4

How-To
Combine coconut milk, chicken, ginger, garlic, scallion and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a 4-quart saucepan.
Bring just to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium; simmer until juices run clear when chicken is pierced, 15 to 18 minutes.
Transfer chicken to a platter.

Raise heat to medium-high.
Cook until poaching liquid is reduced by half, 3 to 4 mins.
Strain liquid through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl (discard solids); stir in fish sauce and lime juice.

Remove the chicken meat from the bone in one piece, then slice across the grain into 1-inch-thick pieces.
Divide among four plates; drizzle with some sauce, and serve the rest alongside for dripping.
I served it with rice and salad.

I am linking this up with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday. Make sure to go visit those sites for more great recipes!

Happy

First I wanna shout out a big Thank You to Geri at Heart N Soul Cooking for giving me this Happiness Award! Make sure to visit her blog she has some really nice things cooking over there!

Second I wanted to let you know that i decided on a cake for tomorrows brunch at school:

This is a Peach-Marzipan-Tarte. I thought it sounded quite yummy (and i had some leftover marzipan from christmas). I never had this before so I don't now if it is any good (and I can't try it since I don't want to take a cake where there is a slice already missing).

Just in case it does taste somewhat good there might be a pretty good chance that I'll share the recipe with y'all!

Any ideas?

We are having something like a brunch in school on thursday. I volunteered to bake a cake. But now I don't have a clue which one to make. I need to be able to transport it easily (without messing it up), it should not take too much time in preparation and since I am the 'mom' of the class it needs to be good and imressive :) Any suggestions?

Punsch Cookies

Here comes another cookie recipe!! Are you tired of them yet? ha!

I am linking this up to Tempt my Tummy Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday. Make sure to go check out all the other great blogs linked up over there!

Ingedients

For the dough:
250g Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
75g Sugar
1 teaspoon ground orange zest
2 Eggs
100g Butter
50g ground almonds
For the filling:
3 tablespoons Rum or rum flavoring
100ml Red Wine
1 teaspoon ground orange zest50g semi-sweet cohocolate
125g ladyfingers (I usually use some of the baked cookies that don't look that good)
some red current jam (or some other flavor)
Topping:
65g powdered sugar
ca. 2 tablespoons milk
(sorry all the measurements are metric but I am too busy lately to convert them into US)

How To
For the dough sift flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add sugar, orange zest, eggs, butter and almonds. Whisk with the dough hook on high.
Knead thoroughly until smooth. If the dough is too sticky wrap in cellophane in set in fridge for a while.
On floured counter roll dough out thinnly and cut out cookies using some fun christmas cookie cutters (now thats the fun part. ha!) Make sure you have at least 2 cookies of each kind since you need to put 2 together at the end! Put cookies on sheet and bake for ca. 10 minutes at 200°C.
For the filling crumble the ladyfingers (or some cookies).
Heat rum, red wine, orange zest and chocolate until the chocolate is melted. Pour over ladyfinger crumbs, stir well and let cool.
Spread some jam on one side of the cooled off cookies. Then spread some of the filling on the cookies and put 2 cookies together.
Mix the powdered sugar with as much milk (I use milk here 'cause that way the frosting looks whiter) until its a thick but spreadable mass. Spread over cookie tops. Heat some of the currant jam and drizzle a couple drops on the still wet sugar frosting. Using a toothpick blend the jam into the sugar until you have a marble looking top!

Berlin Bread

Look who made its way into the oven (and out again of course:-):

There is actually a history to this popular recipe - it was created during WWII. Because ingredients were scarce or restricted at the time, the recipe produces a leaner dough than you would encounter in more plentiful times. But this makes the treat more healthful, certainly an added attraction. It is also worth noting that this recipe does not really produce a bread, but more of a bar cookie (it’s also unclear if it’s really from Berlin!).

Ingredients:

4 eggs

2 cups brown sugar

½ nutmeg, finely grated

1/4 teaspoon cloves

3 tablespoons cocoa

1-1/4 cups whole unpeeled hazelnuts (increase nuts if desired)

1-3/4 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups flour

How To:

Beat eggs with brown sugar until foamy. Combine remaining ingredients and add to egg-sugar mixture. Spread dough into a large, greased baking pan with 1" sides.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 325° F.
When done, the top is a light gold, don’t let the bread get too brown. Cut into pieces while still warm.
Bake well in advance to improve it's flavour, as it will keep for a few weeks. Wrap in foil or store in an airtight container and keep in a cool place.

Will they ever get finished?

...Stay tuned

Happy Thanksgiving

Cinnamon Truffles

Ingredients:

For Truffles
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
ground cinnamon (take as much as desired. I love cinnamon for christmas so I use A LOT)

For coating
Powdered Sugar
Cinnamon

How To:

Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil.
Take off the oven and add chopped up chocolate immediately.
Stir until all the chocolate is melted and smooth.
Let cool off a couple minutes. Then add the butter and cinnamon stirring until smooth.
Cover and place in the refrigarator until the truffle mixture is firm (This might take a couple hours or overnight).
For the coating mix ca. 2 tbls. powdered sugar with ca. 1 tsp cinnamon and place on a plate.
Remove the truffle mixture from fridge.
With hands form small bite-sized balls out of chocolate mix.
Roll the truffles in the coating and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or tray.
Cover and place in fridge until firm again. Truffles can be kept in the fridge for up to a couple of weeks or else frozen for a couple months.
Bring to room temperature before serving.

Chinese Cabbage Salad

I totally forgot about this recipe. So I post it on here to remind myself to do it again some time soon!


Ingredients

1 small head cabbage
6 green onions, sliced
1/4 c. browned sesame seeds
1/4 c. browned almonds, slivered
1/4 c. vinegar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. oil
1 pkg Ramen noodles, browned and crumbled


Directions

Spread the ramens seasoning over almonds, sesame seeds and noodles.
Brown noodles, almonds and sesame seeds in oven carefully as seeds burn easily.
Mix/ shake together vinegar, sugar, oil and soy sauce in a jar.
One hour before serving, chop cabbage and green onions into thin strips.
Pour dressing over cabbage and onions. Set in fridge.
Before serving top with seeds, almonds and noodles; toss slightly.

This salad can be prepared ahead of time.

Go check out Tempt my Tummy Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday for more delicous recipes!