New Year's Eve

In keeping with our family tradition, tonight will be spent working on puzzles, playing games and eating hors d'oeuvres.

I wanted to share with you one of my son's favorites - the reason this one is so great is if there is any left overs, you can easily make ravioli pasta for dinner tomorrow!


Bacon and Tomato Cups

8 slices bacon
1 cup chopped tomato
3 scallions, thinly sliced
4 oz shredded Swiss Cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp chopped basil
Won won wrappers

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Brush both sides of a won ton wrapper lightly with vegetable oil and press into a mini muffin pan.  Bake for 8 minutes or until light golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack while preparing the filling.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until evenly brown.  Drain on paper towels.

Crumble bacon into a mixing bowl, and mix with tomato, scallions, cheese, mayo and basil.

Place a baked won ton wrapper back into each of the mini muffin pan cups and fill with 1 tablespoon of the filling mixture.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the filling has melted through.  Be careful not to let the won ton cups burn!

Like I said, if you have left over filling and uncooked won ton wrappers, use them for ravioli!

I originally found this recipe on AllRecipes.com, but tweaked it just a bit for work better for my family.

New favorite in the kitchen!

I first read about these pans in Bon Appetite magazine - and they are truly GREAT!  I received one for Christmas and ran out to buy the other two sizes they come in. 

The Bialetti Aeternum nonstick  pans come in 8", 10.5" and 12" - you can buy the sets online, or separately.  Last I checked they are sold out at their website bialettishop.com, but you can get them at Bed Bath & Beyond bedbathandbeyond.com .

The finish is PFOA, PTFE and Cadium free.  The release is amazing, and clean-up couldn't be easier.  I have made eggs and fried bacon in mine so far.  The white interior makes it a bit difficult to see that your egg whites are cooked properly, but I'm sure with experience, this will not be a real issue.  The picture on the packaging shows some very nicely browned scallops - I haven't tried getting to really caramelize anything yet, but my bacon didn't crisp the way it would in a traditional skillet.

Everyone I know is going to get a set of these next holiday season!

Favorite Fruit Cake

My mom received this recipe from our family friend Helen Sheppard.  I'm not sure where she got it from, but it is my favorite holiday sweet - I especially like it with a bit of cream cheese.

Brazil Nut Sensation

3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb shelled Brazil nuts
1 lb pitted dates
1 cup drained maraschino cherries (I used a 9 oz jar)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 300 degrees.  Grease and line a 9x5x3 loaf pan with wax paper

In sifter, place first 4 ingredients.  In a large bowl place nuts, dates and cherries.  Pour sifted flour mixture over nut mixture and mix with your hands until nuts and fruits are well coated.  Beat eggs until foamy, add vanilla and stir into nut mixture until well blended.

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.  Remove from pan and peel of paper.  Cool on rack.

Thank You Card

In the spirit of giving - and therefore receiving - I made a Thank-you card to send out to my family.

I am having so much fun with my Silhouette SD!  In the spirit of trying to use up what I have before going out to get more, the flowers turned out a bit "spring-y", but cute none the less.

Below are the materials that I used for the card.  I have to say, once I started putting them together, it was so much fun!  I even have flowers leftover for some other time - Perhaps to put on a package?

Happy Holidays

Wishing you and yours the Merriest of Holiday Seasons

Looking forward to sharing with you in the coming year.

Yummy Canine Treats!

Today is my day of Holiday Baking!

 

Not to leave our our four-legged friends, I have made these treats for the neighborhood pooches for years now.  The recipe was originally produced in Gourmet Magazine December 2005.  

 

 

Photo: Romulo Yanes

 

 Dog Biscuits

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
• 1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 large egg

Pulse flours, cornmeal, oats, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size butter lumps. Add 1 cup water and pulse until a coarse, dense dough forms.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in parsley and mint until well distributed. Gather, then halve dough with scraper. Form into 2 balls and flatten each into a 6-inch disk.

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 large baking sheets.

Roll out 1 disk of dough into a round (1/3 inch thick) on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, wrap in plastic and chill until firm.) Cut out as many biscuits as possible and arrange about 1/4 inch apart on 1 baking sheet.

Gather scraps and reroll, then cut out more biscuits. Repeat with remaining dough, using other baking sheet.

Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water. Brush biscuits with egg wash and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through, until tops are golden brown, about 35 minutes total. Turn off oven and dry biscuits in oven overnight.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Dog-Biscuits-233290#ixzz1hTzWUu5i

 

I hope you enjoy making them and giving as gifts as much as I have.

I'm finally back!

Let the blogging begin again!