These sandwiches made for such an easy dinner. Grilled cheese is always delicious, but the addition of tart apple slices and yummy bacon make it extra tasty. I usually add sliced tomato to grilled cheese sandwiches, but I might make these apple & bacon grilled cheeses my new go-to sandwich.
I used white cheddar cheese, granny smith apple, thick sliced bacon and sourdough bread spread with dijon mustard for the sandwiches. You could make these in a skillet, or in a panini press (which is what I chose to use). Serve along side a bowl of tomato soup or a green salad.
Grilled Cheese with Apple & Bacon
Serves 2
Ingredients
4 slices of sourdough bread
Dijon mustard
8-10 slices good cheddar cheese
4-6 slices cooked bacon
8-10 slices tart green apple
butter
Directions
Spread bread with Dijon mustard, then layer cheese, bacon, apple and cheese. Top with second slice of bread.
Butter outside of the bread and grill on hot skillet or panini press.
The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!
Maybe I did something wrong with the mousse. It didn’t have the great maple flavor I was hoping for. I’m not creative enough to make a fun container, I just did simple pastry dough baked in a mini muffin pan. My pastry cups weren’t what I was hoping for either! All in all, I wasn’t exactly pleased with the results of this challenge.
It was fun to make the mousse. I’d never tried anything like that before, so there is a bright side to this baking story!
Directions:
1. Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and pour a little bit of the maple syrup in while whisking (this is to temper your egg yolks so they don’t curdle).
3. Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed.
4. Measure 1/4 cup of whipping cream in a bowl and sprinkle it with the gelatine. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Place the bowl in a microwave for 45 seconds (microwave for 10 seconds at a time and check it in between) or place the bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, stir to ensure the gelatine has completely dissolved.
5. Whisk the gelatine/whipping cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.
6. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white.
7. Whip the remaining cream. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the maple syrup mixture. Fold in the remaining cream and refrigerate for at least an hour.
8. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.
A bottle of canola oil fell out of the pantry. The plastic cap busted, and oil spilled all over the floor. I found another container for what was left in the bottle, but there was still some that wouldn’t quite fit. What to do? I wasn’t going to throw it out. I needed to find something to make using about a cup of oil.
The ingredient search on allrecipes.com is nice when you’re trying to find something to make when you’re limited in your resources, or just want to use something specific. One of the problems I’ve encountered is that when I type in what I want to use I find a recipe that requires something I don’t have. That wasn’t the case this time! I found this pie crust recipe using that feature and figured I’d give it a try.
I’ve always made pie crusts using cold fats like butter or shortening, which are cut into the flour, adding cold water to bind the dough, and then refrigerating the dough before rolling it out, always being careful not to over mix so that a tender flaky crust is achieved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a recipe like this one for pie crust. There’s no careful mixing, no chilling time, and canola oil is used instead of butter. You even mix it all up in the pie plate, so only one dish gets dirty! I had to give it a try.
This does not yield a traditional flaky crust. It’s more like a cross between a sugar cookie and a graham cracker crust in texture. The flavor is similar to a plain pie crust, a tad salty, which went well with the sweet and tart lemon filling. This lemon meringue recipe (also from allrecipes.com) was pretty good. My mom has a lemon meringue pie recipe that is more delicious, and a little easier. I need to get that recipe from her. This one is quite good though. I should know, since Ben doesn’t like lemon meringue, I had to eat the entire thing myself…over the course of a week.
If I find myself pressed for time, I would use this crust again. If I find myself pressed for time and happen to have a Pillsbury refrigerated crust…I would use that instead.
Here are the links to the recipes. I made no changes.
We ate this for dinner Friday night. I wish I’d had this recipe a few weeks ago when it was still chilly. This is really more of a cool weather meal, and it definitely qualifies as comfort food. Despite the warm weather we’ve had this past week, this was still a wonderful dinner and I will be making it again.
I did everything but bake it in the morning and kept it in the fridge until dinnertime. That meant I could sit with my husband, a glass of wine and some good cheese and crackers while it baked instead of cleaning up dishes.
Kate sent me the link to this recipe from The Kitchn (Apartment Therapy’s food blog). I don’t currently subscribe to the blog, but she’s shown me so many great recipes from it that I might just have to break down and add it to my reader. Here is link to the blog and the recipe. I’m being lazy with the blogging tonight and not retyping or reposting the recipe here. I am tired, and I need to go to bed.
The only thing I changed was to use emmental swiss instead of gruyere. The smallest block of gruyere at my grocery store was $15. I just couldn’t justify spending that much on cheese. The swiss was lovely. I got quite excited when it started bubbling away under the broiler. There is something magical about cheese in that state. Yes, magical.
Serve this with lots of good crusty bread. You do not want to waste any of the yummy juices. Enjoy.
My cookware is dying. Maybe that’s because I use it all the time, but I really think it should have lasted for more than 5 years. We got our Calphalon non-stick cookware when we got married, almost 5 years ago. Where does the time go?
So, little bits of black coating are peeling off my pots and pans and making their way into our food.
If I had my druthers and if I didn’t care that there are better things I could do with the money, I would buy a set of this copper cookware from All Clad. I have 2 pieces of stainless All Clad cookware, and they are wonderful. Someday…
Some of you know the story behind why I made these. These cookies didn’t end up making it to their intended destination. On the bright side, I got to practice my cookie decorating skills.
Even though making these requires quite a bit of time, and even though my hands and nails have been dyed by black gel color, I really do love making them.
This is something I have seen advertised for a while. I haven’t used one, and I haven’t even seen a need for it. In fact, I’ve found them to be a bit silly. Are people this lazy? Are bakers this lazy? If you are taking the time to bake something from scratch, then take the time to just scrape the bowl with a good old fashioned spatula. However, while making banana bread tonight I found myself really and truly wanting this tool. Have I officially become lazy?
Even if that is the case, I think this would be a nice thing to own. After mixing my batter for the banana bread I lifted the head of my baby blue Kitchenaid mixer to reveal a a lovely yellow and delicious smelling mixture. Then, as I began to scoop it into my greased and cinnamon sugared pan (yes, more on that later) I uncovered a layer of batter that had stuck quite stubbornly to the side of the bowl. I thought, this would be easier if I had one of those cool blades that scraped the side of the bowl for me! Now I want one. Here is the link. Feel free to buy 2 of them…and send one to me : )
There are a lot of unique kitchen and cooking items out there, and I want a lot of them. When I lived in Austin I suffered from a Williams Sonoma addiction that I have since recovered from (yet another benefit to living in the Panhandle!). I bought things I only used one time, and I often paid too much for them. When you have a baby you start to realize how valuable storage space is. I’ve gotten a lot better about buying kitchen and cooking tools. However, I still enjoy seeing what’s out there. I’ve promised myself not to buy any more kitchen things…unless I really and truly need them.
I found quite a few cool things on Joseph Joseph. Some are truly useful kitchen tools that I would consider buying for my own kitchen, and others would make wonderful gifts for the cook or baker in your life.
This digital food scale, called the Shell, is not only useful, but modern and sleek as well.
The scale has a removable bowl which makes for an easy transfer of your ingredients. Now the really cool thing is that the bowl, when flipped over, serves as a cover for the scale and makes for simple storage! It reminds me of an over sized computer mouse in this compact form.
These were so incredibly easy. I have a 5 month old, so if I think they were a cinch to prepare, then you could probably do it with your eyes closed and one hand tied behind your back. And because we didn’t eat until past 8 last night thanks to my sweet boy who would not go to sleep, I had to borrow this picture from this site. I cannot take good food pictures after the sun goes down. It just doesn’t work.
I got the idea for this meal from the Tasty Kitchen blog. Here is the link.
Since I am only cooking for the two of us, I used 3 small chicken breasts, and could have easily gotten away with 2. We have enough leftover chicken for a few more pitas and plenty of sauce also.
For the tzatziki sauce I made just a few changes. I could only find a ridiculously huge container of plain yogurt, and I just didn’t want to buy it. So, I bought light sour cream instead. When I mixed up the sauce I added a little milk to thin it out. I also added some chopped parsley, which made this sauce incredible. A little chopped mint with the parsley would have been extra special. There’s something just plain wonderful about fresh herbs.
I filled the pita with the chicken and sauce, but adding some chopped tomatoes and feta cheese makes these even better.
For a side dish I made a tomato and cucumber salad with red onions and feta. Simply toss chopped, seeded tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, thinly sliced red onion, a bit of olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. Oh my. The perfect meal. Enjoy.
Greek Chicken Pitas
Ingredients
Chicken
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (1 chicken breast per person)
Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning
Olive Oil
Pita breads
Crumbled feta
Tzatziki Sauce
8 ounces light sour cream
1-2 tablespoons milk
1 whole Cucumber, Chopped
½ whole Yellow Onion, Chopped
Lemon Juice, from 1/2 a large lemon
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper
Directions
Rub chicken breasts with Cavender’s seasoning, then place in a plastic bag with some olive oil. Let marinate in the fridge for a few hours.
For the sauce: Mix sour cream and milk to desired consistency. Add in vegetables, then seasonings. Taste as you go and adjust to your liking. Cover and let sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Heat grill (or skillet) and cook chicken, about 6-7 minutes per side, until cooked through. Let sit for a few minutes, then slice.
Open pita halves and fill with chicken and tzatziki sauce, and sprinkle with feta cheese.
