Ingredients:
- 2 T butter (can be sub by 1T olive oil)
- 1 t minced garlic
- 12 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
- 1 (8oz) wedge Brie cheese, rind remove, cubed
- Phyllo dough mini cups (or puff pastry mini cups) pre-cooked
- 2 ½ T grated parmesan cheese
Preheat the broiler. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter (or heat olive oil), sauté the garlic and mushrooms until soft and brown. Mix in the Brie. Cook and stir until melted and well blended. Place the phyllo (or thawed puff pastry) cups on a baking sheet. Spoon the Brie mixture into the little cups. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese. Broil for about 10 min or until top is slightly brown.
Submitted by Julienna Viegas-Haws altered from allrecipes.com
Capressi
Ingredients:
- best tasting tomatoes you can find, preferably cherry tomatoes (2 small crates should be enough), these have to be firm and ripe in order for the capressi to be yummy
- fresh basil
- mozzarella cheese ball (don't get a block of mozzarella cheese, the best kind to get is mozzarella that is still in brine)
- balsamic vinegar
- kosher salt
Chop the tomatoes in cubes and add to a bowl, chop the basil and add it to the tomatoes, you'll need quite a bit, this is a main ingredient, so don't be stingy with the basil. Cube the mozzarella into fairly small cubes and add to the tomato, basil mixture. Meanwhile you can start boiling your balsamic vinegar. I would boil at least a 1/2 cup of vinegar. Boil it for a while until it starts getting syrupy. Once it does this, you can add it to the tomato, basil, mozzarella mixture. Add kosher salt to taste. Mix and enjoy.
Submitted by Carli Fabrizio
Greek Cake
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 1 ¼ c flour
- 1 little pouch of instant rising yeast (follow package instructions)
- 1 T olive oil
- 1/3 cup whole milk, warmed up lukewarm
- ¾ cup Swiss cheese, grated
- 1 c feta cheese, crumbled
- 1/3 cup black olives, sliced
- ½ green pepper, finely chopped
- ½ red pepper, finely chopped
- 1 t black pepper
- 1 t salt
Mix together feta cheese, olives, peppers. In a separate bowl beat eggs, add flour, yeast, salt and black pepper. Slowly add oil and milk. Add Swiss cheese then feta mixture. Pour everything in a bread pan bake at 375º for 45 min (or until toothpick comes clean in the middle)
Submitted by Stephanie Moore
Roasted Red Peppers and Salami
Ingredients:
- 7-8 red peppers
- fresh garlic
- red wine vinegar
- extra virgin olive oil
- hard salami (preferably freshly sliced from the deli)
- 1 loaf of French Bread (Baguette)
Place about 7 or 8 red peppers on a large baking pan. Don't cut them or take out the stem, just put them on the baking pan as they are. Turn your oven on to broil. The red peppers will start to blacken. Don't worry, you're not burning them. Once one side is black, rotate it. You will repeat this step until the red pepper is almost completely black. It's okay if there are a few brownish spots, but really the whole thing needs to look completely burnt. When this happens, you will remove the pan of red peppers from the over and let them cool for a few minutes. Then, pick them up and pull the stem out. As you pull the stem out, most of the seeds should come out with it. Start pulling off the skin of the red pepper. If they are cook thoroughly enough, the skin should just peel right off. Make sure when you peel of the skin, that you get any remaining seeds. Try to keep the peppers somewhat pretty as you are doing this. You might have to slice them when you're done peeling the skin off. Usually I just pull them apart long ways. After you've done this, put all the peppers in a bowl. Add quite a bit of olive oil. I would say not quite 1/2 cup. Then add about a little less than 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. Make sure that whatever amount of red peppers you do, it's always 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. Add about 6 cloves of fresh garlic, minced. Mix in about 1 tsp kosher salt. Let marinate for at least 1 hour prior to serving. Serve on a baguette with hard salami. Enjoy!
(P.S. Just a little tip. When you make roasted red peppers. It's cheaper to buy a big bag of them at Sam's or Costco. Since you need so many of them. Buying them individually can get very pricey. :)
Submitted by Carli Fabrizio
Spinach Feta Tarts
Ingredients
- Cooking Spray
- ½ cup chopped red onions
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ t freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ t salt
- 1 (10oz) package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
- 3 large egg whites
- 1 large egg
- 2 T chopped fresh parsley
- 1/12 T chopped fresh oregano
- 2 T 1% low-fat milk
- 6 (18x14-inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
- ½ cup (2oz) crumbled Feta cheese
Preheat oven to 375º. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, and cook 5 min stirring frequently. Add garlic; cook 1 min, stirring constantly, Stir in pepper and salt. Add spinach; cook 2 min, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, and cool slightly. Combine egg whites and egg in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add spinach mixture, parsley, oregano, and milk, stirring to combine.
Place 1 phyllo sheet on a large cutting board or work surface (cover the remaining dough to prevent drying); lightly coat with cooking spray. Repeat layers with remaining phyllo and cooking spray, ending with phyllo. Gently press phyllo layers together. Lightly coat top phyllo sheet with cooking spray. Cut stack lengthwise into 3 (4 ¼ inch wide) strips, and cut each strip crosswise to form 4 (4 ½-inch) squares. Carefully place 1 layered square into each of 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray; gently press squares into pan to form cups. Fan corners of phyllo cups. Lightly coat the corners of each phyllo cup with cooking spray. Divide the spinach mixture evenly among phyllo cups. Bake at 375º for 15 min. Remove from oven, sprinkle evenly with feta cheese. Loosely cover; bake an additional 3 minutes.
Submitted by Whitney Smith
Cinnamon-Almond-Chocolate Tart
Almond Crust:
- 1c all purpose flour
- 2 T sugar
- 1 c slivered almond
- ½ cup butter or margarine softened
- 1 egg
Filling:
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- 1 T corn syrup
- 1/8 t almond extract
- 3 eggs
- 3 oz semisweet baking chocolate, melted cooled
- 6 T butter or margarine melted
- Whipped cream
- Additional ground cinnamon (or shaved semisweet chocolate)
Heat oven to 350º. I food processor, place flour, 2T sugar and the almonds. Cover and process until almonds are finely shopped. Add ½ c butter and egg. Process until well blended. Press mixture in bottom and ½ inch up side of the ungreased 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light brown. If crust puffs while baking, poke with fork.
In a medium bowl, beat ½ cup sugar, 1 t cinnamon, the corn syrup, almond extract and 3 eggs with wire whisk until smooth. Stir in chocolate and 6 T butter.
Pour filling into hot crust. Bake 18-24 minutes or until almost set in center. Cool on cooling rack at least 30 minutes before serving.
Serve tart topped with whipped cream; sprinkle with additional cinnamon (or shaved semisweet chocolate) – 8 servings
(If you want to add to the presentation add a couple of fresh berries on serving plates)
Submitted by Julienna Viegas-Haws thanks to Betty Crocker
Cranberry Pudding
Ingredients:
- 3T butter
- 1 c sugar
- 1 ¾ c flour
- 2 t baking powder
- ½ t salt
- 1 c evaporated milk
- 2 c raw cranberries
Cream butter and sugar. Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Alternately add evaporated milk and dry ingredients to butter and sugar beating to blend after every addition. Fold in cranberries. Coat a 8x8 pan with cooking spray and pour in batter. Bake at 350º for 25-30 min until light golden.
- Butter sauce
- ¼ c butter
- ¾ c sugar
- ½ c heavy cream
- 1 t vanilla
Bring to a boil all ingredients except vanilla. Simmer stirring occasionally for 10 min. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve hot over warm pudding.
Submitted by Whitney Smith
Fruit Trifle
Ingredients:
- angel food cake
- pudding,(whatever kind you like, I used french vanilla, but you could use vanilla, banana cream, banana, coconut cream, no chocolate)
- cool whip,
- coconut (if you like),
- and fruit; strawberries, bananas, blueberries, peaches, kiwi, mandarin oranges, really anything you like.
On the bottom of your trifle bowl, begin with a very thin layer of pudding, then put some fruit around the edges, like you saw me do at Dining Divas. Do a layer of angel food cake to hold the fruit in place. Put some pudding on top of that, and then some more fruit, in the middle, and around the edges. Then add more angel food...pudding....fruit. You can just break up the pieces of angel food cake. They don't need to be slice neatly or anything like that. Continue this process a few times. You can really do whatever you think will look pretty. It's all about the presentation, it's just a bonus that it tastes yummy. When you get to the top of the bowl, your last layer should be pudding. Then on top of that, spoon on the cool whip. As much as you like. It's okay if it goes above the edge a little bit. Decorate the top with fruit and sprinkle coconut. Serve!
Submitted by Carli Fabrizio
Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust:
- 2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs (about 32) – (our family prefers regular Graham crackers crust after trying both – your choice)
- ¼ cup butter or margarine, melted
Filling:
- 4 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
- 1 ½ t ground ginger
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- ¼ t ground nutmeg
Heat oven to 300º. Grease 9-inch springform pan with shortening or cooking spray. Wrap foil around pan to catch drips. In small bowl, mix cookie crumbs and butter. Press crumb mixture in bottom and 1 inch up side of pan. Bake 8 to 10 min or until set. Cool 5 min.
In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed just until smooth and creamy; do not overbeat. On low speed, gradually beat in sugar. On low speed, beat in eggs, one at the time, just until blended. Spoon 3 cups of the cream cheese mixture into pan; spread evenly.
Stir pumpkin, ginger cinnamon and nutmeg into remaining cream cheese mixture; mix with wire whisk until smooth. Spoon over mixture in pan.
Bake 1 hour 25 min to 1 hour 30 min or until edges are set but center of cheesecake still jiggles slightly when moved.
Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 min longer. Remove from oven; place on cooling rack. Without releasing side of pan, run knife around side of pan to loosen cheesecake. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 min. Cover loosely; refrigerate at least 6 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake again; carefully remove side of pan. Place cheesecake on serving plate. Store cheesecake covered in refrigerator. 16 servings.
Submitted by Julienna Viegas-Haws thanks to Betty Crocker (great dessert even for non-fans of cheesecake)
