Not Your Ordinary Cucumber Sandwich

Last night I attended Recipe Club for the first time in months.  I wasn't able to make any of the summer get-togethers, and I really missed it.  It was so nice to go last night and eat yummy food and socialize.  Our theme for September was The Sandwich.  While web surfing, I came across an intriguing cucumber sandwich that had not just cucumbers, but tomatoes, pepperoncinis and avocado.  Simply stuffed with veggies. I decided to try it.  Doesn't this look delicious???

Here is the original recipe.  I decided to make a few changes based on my personal preferences. So, this is my version:

Ingredients

• 1 loaf Wheat French Bread
• Reduced Fat Chive and Onion cream cheese, softened
• 2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
• Alfalfa sprouts
• Light Balsamic Vinaigrette
• 3 tomatos, sliced
• Spinach
• Pepperoncini, sliced
• 1 avocado, mashed
• Salt and Pepper

Directions

1. Slice cucumbers and marinate with balsamic vinaigette.  
2. Slice french bread in half lengthwise and toast in oven briefly. 
3. Spread cream cheese onto the bread.
4. Arrange cucumber slices in a single layer.
5. Cover with sprouts.  
6. Layer tomato slices, spinach, and pepperoncini. 
7. Spread other slice of loaf with mashed avocado. Close sandwich and serve!

This is seriously a delicious sandwich. I'm not a vegetarian so I usually want meat in my sandwiches, but I honestly didn't miss it with this one.  There is enough crunch and texture with the sprouts and cucumbers along with a ton of flavor in the vinaigette, cream cheese and avocado.   Give this one a try.  

Peanut Butter Balls

A lovely bridal shower was put on for my sister.   Everything about it was wonderful.  One of my favorite thinks about the shower were the party favors.  One of the women made scrumptious peanut butter balls.  Think cake balls only a hundred times tastier.  They are like homemade Reeses Peaunt Butter cups.  A sweet ball of peanut butter covered in chocolate. YUM.

To make your own, visit allrecipes.com!
Note: For these balls, Wilton's candy melts were used instead of semisweet chocolate chips.  I think the chocolate chips would be just as tasty, but I can understand the appeal of white chocolate for a bridal shower!

Mini Lemon Curd Tarts

I took a blogging vacation. But, now I am back and ready to post some of the various things I've worked on this past month.
Why did I take a vacation you might ask?  Well, I was starting to feel like blogging was taking over my life and that my family was suffering for it.  It was time to take a step back.  Was I planning on taking such a large break?  Nope.  It was only going to be for a few days, but once I got a few days behind, the thought of trying to catch up on posts was extremely overwhelming.  So, I just kept putting it off, figuratively watching those posts pile up on my to-do list.  As the pile got larger,  I would find more things to do as an avoidance mechanism instead of just tackling the posting project.   So, tonight I am beginning the lengthy task of catching up.

I tackled these delicious treats for a Relief Society Activity (the women's organization of my church).

Mini Lemon Curd Tarts

Tart Shell Ingredients:

6 c flour

2 c butter, softened

8 tbsp brown sugar

4 eggs

1. Heat the oven to 400*.  

2. Mix ingredients together to form dough. 

3. Chill for 15 minutes. 

4. Take 1 inch balls and press 1 into each cup of a mini muffin tin with a mini tart shaper. 

5. Bake 8 minutes.  Cool for 1-2 minutes, then take each tart out of the pan to cool.

Makes about 96 tart shells

Next, I filled each of these shells with a delicious Lemon Curd.

Lemon Curd Ingredients

1 tsp lemon zest

• 6 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 c butter
• 
  
• 1. Grate 1/2 teaspoon lemon peel; set aside. 
• 2. In saucepan combine well-beaten eggs, sugar, lemon juice, and butter. 
• 3. Cook and stir over medium heat until it starts to bubble, will thicken, about 15 minutes
• 4. Remove from heat; stir in lemon peel. Chill.  
• 5. Spoon a rounded teaspoonful of filling into each shell.

Top with fresh whipped cream, blueberries and powdered sugar or any other garnish as desired. 

My kids loved these; they couldn't get enough. And they were a hit at the activity. 

Berry Chocolate Flan

I had my Relief Society (women's organization of my church) Recipe club last night.  Our theme for March was "Coming to Terms with Cooking"  We had to make something with a cooking term or ingredient that we weren't familiar with and share it.   My sister recently gave me a chocolate recipe book and I have been dying to try something from it.  Almost every recipe calls for "superfine" sugar.  What is superfine sugar?  I didn't know, so that was my term.  Superfine sugar is granulated sugar is finely pulverized so that it dissolves much more quickly than regular granulated sugar. Bartenders use it for its dissolving properties, and it is often called for in light or uncooked desserts such as meringues, mousses, and soufflés.  It comes in a little box at the grocery store if you are lucky.   I wasn't.  So, I made my own by running granulated sugar in my food processor until it was a little powdery.

I made a berry chocolate pudding that was delicious for mature taste buds that like a dark chocolate.  All of the women last night RAVED about it.   I had a little extra that I made in little custard dishes for the boys so that they could try it too.  Their taste buds weren't mature enough and they hated it.  So, this recipe is great for adults, but it isn't very kid friendly.  But doesn't it just look scrumptious?  

Berry Chocolate Flan

Pie Crust:

1c flour

¼ c unsweetened cocoa

½ c confectioner’s sugar

Pinch of salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 egg yolk

Filling:

1 ¼ c heavy cream

2/3 c blackberry or raspberry jelly

8 oz semisweet chocolate chips

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Sauce:

1 lb 6 oz berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries in any combo)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp superfine sugar

2 tbsp berry syrup

Sift the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Place the butter and egg yolk in a center and mix into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter.  Knead lightly and form into a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hr.

Preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough on lightly floured counter. Place in a 12x4in flan pan (or similar sized pan). Prick with a fork. Bake 15 minutes.  Set aside to cool

To make the filling, place the cream and jelly in a saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Then stir in the butter until melted and smooth. Pour mixture into pie shell and set aside to cool.

 Place about 6oz of the berries onto the cooled chocolate filling. 

Then put the remaining berries, lemon juice and superfine sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the berry syrup.   Drizzle over the top of the berries and filling.

Serve the flan with the remaining sauce on the side.

Brie and Pesto Fondue

Once a month, I attend Recipe Club.  Its a group of women from Relief Society, the women's organization of my church, and we get together the second Tuesday of every month to eat, swap recipes and socialize.   We pick a theme for the month, and everyone brings something that fits the theme.  We then gorge on wonderful savory and sweet dishes while we sit around and chat for hours.  Its delightful!  We email the recipes to our host, and she then sends out mass emails to everyone with all of the recipes.  Sometimes we bring tried and true recipes we want to share, and other times we experiment and try something new and exciting. Sometimes the experiments are wonderful and sometimes they are less than delightful.
I experimented this month.  Our theme for February was "Dip It."  I thought this would be a perfect time to try a new fondue.   I was right.  I made this yummy Brie and pesto fondue that was melt in your mouth good!  So good that decided that I needed to share this recipe to more than just my friends in recipe club.

Brie and Pesto Fondue

¾ lb (3 cups) Brie cheese, softened (can substitute Camembert or Explorateur cheese)

1 ½ c ginger ale (original recipe calls for white wine, but we don't drink!)

1/3 c pesto sauce

½ lb mozzarella cheese, diced into ¼ inch cubes

1 TB corn starch

1TB water

Salt and Pepper to taste

1.   Scrape the top rind off Brie, scoop out interior cheese. Discard bottom and side rinds, set aside.

2.   Combine ginger ale and pesto sauce in a heavy 2qt saucepan and whisk well. Bring to a simmer over low heat.

3.   Add Brie and mozzarella by ½ c measures, stirring constantly with a whisk in a figure-eight pattern. Add additional cheese after the previous addition is melted.

4.   Combine water and corn starch in small bowl. Add to fondue to bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.  Cook over low heat for 1-2 minutes, until fondue has thickened.

5.   Transfer to fondue pot and serve with crusty bread, broccoli, cauliflower, gnocchi, cooked tortellini, or bite sized pieces of cooked chicken. 

Cake Balls

One of the treats we made for my sister's open house after her wedding was cake balls.  They look and taste scrumptious.  Here is the recipe:

1 box cake mix
1 tub coordinating frosting
Melting Chocolate

1. Make the cake according to mix directions.
2. When its cool, crumble it up.  Then mash the cake crumbles with the tub of frosting.
3. Cool in refrigerator or freezer.
4. When mixture is cold, roll into teaspoon sized balls.
5. Using toothpicks, dip in the melted chocolate.  Pull out toothpick and dab hole with small amount of chocolate. Embellish with white chocolate streaks, sprinkles or serve plain.

This recipe makes about 75 small balls.   We tried chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (our favorite combo), white cake with white frosting and red velvet with white frosting.   The Ghiradelli Chocolate Candy Making and Dipping Bars worked the best for dipping the balls. We tried almond bark but it was not smooth enough for easy dipping.  It also didn't taste nearly as good!