Recipes Discovered

All In One Holiday Cake Recipe

The holidays are all about sharing and giving, and a lot of people have been asking me for my Thanksgiving recipes. On the menu this year, besides the normal roasted turkey with stuffing, and the not so normal deep fried turkey, was macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, candied yams, green bean casserole, creamed corn, and cranberry jello salad. To keep everyone happy (and quiet) until dinner was served, I made a bacon ranch cheese ball and a pumpkin cream cheese dip, which was really great with pretzels. For dessert, there was pumpkin pie, all in one holiday cake (pumpkin, cranberry, apple, and pecans), and brownies. Of course, with all the food we had, Seth and I have a refrigerator full of leftovers. I’ve come up with some interesting uses for them though, including potato pancakes, turkey cranberry sandwiches, sweet potato and black bean chili, shepherds pie, and a macaroni and cheese concoction that I don’t even know what to name. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and hopefully there are a lot more recipes to come during the holidays.

Caramelized Onion Tartlets

For New Years last year, I made a couple different small appetizers. Basically just mini phyllo shells filled with different fillings. Apparently the caramelized onion filling was a huge success though. Everyone really enjoyed them, even those who don’t like onions, and I was asked to make them again for my aunt’s wedding last weekend. The filling is similar to french onion soup and can be made a day ahead of time. Since the phyllo shells are already made (buy them in the freezer section), it’s a really simple appetizer to put together. If they are going to be sitting for awhile, it’s best to bake them for 5 to 10 minutes, just to make sure they stay crisp. Otherwise, just fill the shells with the hot filling and serve. The filling is really sweet and savory, and I think most people are surprised how good the tartlets are.

Roasted Vegetable Spread Recipe

I was working on my blog the other day and watching Good Eats when I saw Alton Brown make this Roasted Vegetable Spread. It seemed so simple, yet it looked and sounded so incredibly delicious, I went directly to the kitchen and made a batch.

I cut down on the recipe quite a bit, since I just wanted some for lunch. I used about 1/4 of a red pepper, 1/4 of an onion, 1 clove of garlic, and 1 cup of halved and sliced zucchini. I tossed all the veggies with oil, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and then roasted them in a 400 degree oven. I’m not sure how Alton roasted his vegetables for 45 minutes. Mine were definitely done after 15 minutes, which was fine with me because that meant I could eat sooner, but just make sure to keep an eye on them. >> Read more

Greek Style Stuffed Peppers Recipe
Stuffed Dates Recipe
Greek House Dressing Recipe

Tonight’s dinner was definitely a Greek delight. Greek Style Stuffed Peppers, Stuffed Dates wrapped in Prosciutto, and a Greek House Salad with homemade dressing.

Have you ever seen a recipe that just seemed to healthy to be good? This recipe for Stuffed Peppers is one of those recipes. Lean ground beef, spinach, zucchini, and bulgur stuffed into a red pepper half and topped with tomatoes. I do like all of the ingredients though, so I tried it out. The recipe really couldn’t be any easier. Squeeze the water out of a package of frozen (but thawed out) spinach, grate a zucchini and mince an onion. Mix all the veggies together with lean ground beef (I used 93/7), bulgur, an egg and some seasonings. Cut some red peppers in half, seed them, and then stuff some of the meat mixture inside. Top the peppers with canned tomatoes and feta cheese. Simple. It takes a long time to bake though – 30 minutes covered and another 30 – 45 minutes uncovered. Theresults are so good though, it’s worth the wait. >> Read more