Calzone

This is another recipe from the French Metro newspaper.

• 2 merguez sausages (we used Italian sausages), chopped
• 2 cups of grated zucchini (about 2 zucchini)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped (we used about 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder)
• 1 pizza crust
• 1/2 cup béchamel sauce (we used tomato sauce instead)
• 1/2 cup grated mozzarella
• 1/2 cup grated gouda (we used old cheddar instead)
• Pepper to taste
• 1 egg yolk

1.  Preheat oven to 475F.

2. Cook the sausages 3 to 4 min, in a bit of olive oil, with the zucchini, onion and garlic.

3. Roll out the pizza crust into a circle. Spread the sauce over half, leaving a border.

4. Add a bit of the cheese to the sausage mixture and spread over sauce. Cover with rest of cheese. Pepper to taste. Fold dough over and pinch to close. Using the yolk, give the top an egg wash.

5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.

Verdict: This wasn’t a bad recipe, but I didn’t find it to be anything special. I couldn’t even taste the zucchini.

Italian Hamburgers

I am mostly sure that this is another recipe from the French Metro newspaper.

• 6 tablespoons dried breadcrumbs (unseasoned)
• 1/3 cup chopped onion (I think this is maybe a little too much onion)
• 1 garlic clove, minced (or 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder according to online. Hm, I think I have been doing that wrong. I would probably use 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon myself)
• 3/4 teaspoon oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pound ground beef
• 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• 1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1. Combine breadcrumbs, onion, garlic (or garlic powder), salt and pepper.

2. Add meat and Parmesan cheese. Mix well.

3. Shape into 6 patties (I made 7, but the seventh was small) and brown patties in skillet for 2 min on each side. Combine tomato sauce and Italian seasonings and pour over patties. Cover and simmer for 10 to 15 min until patties are done. Serve with pasta if desired (I put my patties in the oven after this and melted cheese on top and served with fries, because it is a hamburger! And you have to have fries with a burger!)

Verdict: I am not sure about these. I don’t love them but I don’t hate them. I may have to try them for a third time to decide, or just see if I can find a better burger recipe. I also felt like it maybe needed an egg to bind everything together, because a couple of the patties fell apart.

Mexican Shepherd’s Pie

This is another recipe from the French Metro newspaper. Although I should probably think of a new title, because with the changes we made to the ingredients/spices, it probably isn’t very Mexican anymore.

• 5 potatoes
• 2 lbs of beef (we used closer to 1 lbs)
• 4 Merguez sausages (as I have heard these are lamb based, we used mild Italian sausage, but only 2)
• 2 onions, chopped (we used 1)
• 2 cups of frozen vegetables, thawed (we used 1 small can of mixed vegetables)
• 2 cans of corn (we used 1)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons chilli powder (omitted)
• 1 cup Heinz chilli sauce (we used plain tomato sauce)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup 35% cream
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons fine herbs (we used parsley)
• Mozzarella cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Boil the potatoes.

2. Meanwhile, brown the meat. Add the onions and chopped sausages.

3. Add the vegetables and corn to the cooked meat.

4. Mix in the paprika, chilli powder (if using), chilli sauce (or tomato sauce), salt and pepper. Mix well.

5. Mash potatoes. Add butter, cream, Parmesan cheese and herbs.

6. In an oven dish, spread out meat mixture. Cover with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top. Bake in oven for 10-15 min (we finished it off under the broiler for a couple more min to brown the cheese a little more).

Verdict: While not exactly what the recipe intended, we enjoyed it. I probably wouldn’t use any sausage next time, because I don’t think it added anything.

In Search Of: the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Part 15: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe online on another food blog.

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (omitted because we use salted butter)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar.

3. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

4. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, salt (if using), baking soda and oatmeal. Mix into wet ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.

5. Drop spoonfuls off dough onto baking sheet. Bake 10-12 min (we made ours on the smaller side, so our only needed 9 min to cook).

Verdict: Delicious. And addictive. These cookies stayed moist and didn’t crisp up right away like other cookies. And they had the perfect amount of chocolate chips. We made about 5 dozen cookies with the recipe.

Yum!

Syrup Glazed Chicken

This is another recipe from the French Metro newspaper.

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pinch each of cinnamon and ginger
• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1. In a medium casserole over low heat, heat the butter, syrup, honey, cinnamon and ginger until butter melts and mixture is homogeneous.

2. Place chicken in a single row in an oven dish. Pour mixture over it.

3. Bake at 350F for 25 min, until done, basting from time to time.

Verdict: This wasn’t a bad recipe. It makes a lot and it has syrup taste. Even when frozen and reheated later. It just wasn’t an amazing recipe.

Garlic Egg Chicken

I found this recipe of AllRecipes.com. I was surprised to read something negative about the site on another site I go to, because I’ve never made anything horrible in any of the recipes I’ve tried from the site. I am pretty sure one of the rice recipes I like came from that site.

• 1 egg yolk (we used 2 whole eggs, because we were making more chicken pieces than the original recipe called for)
• 6 cloves of garlic (we used 6 teaspoons garlic powder)
• 4 skinless chicken breast halves (we used 6)
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Beat eggs and garlic together in a glass dish. Place chicken in egg mixture and turn to coat. Cover dish and refrigerate chicken and marinade for at least 4 hours, or overnight. (We put them in a re-sealable bag and refrigerated about 6 hours.)

2. Preheat oven to 400F.

3. Melt butter in an oven dish. In a bowl, mix together breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. Coat chicken pieces in crumb mixture and place into oven dish. Pour remaining egg mixture over.

4. Bake 15 to 20 min or until chicken is cooked through.

Verdict: We enjoyed this dish, though we found it did not taste much like egg or garlic. It tasted mostly of the Parmesan cheese. I don’t know what pouring the egg mixture over the chicken got us but something that looked like scrambled eggs when the dish came out of the oven. I don’t think I would make this recipe again, even though I enjoyed it, because I already have some similar recipes and it didn’t taste too different.

In Search Of: the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Part 14: Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

I am not sure where I found this recipe. I tried finding it online, with no luck. It might be from the French Metro newspaper, which means it would have had salt in the original version, or maybe it’s a recipe from an old magazine.

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened (the recipe called for salted butter – so maybe there was no added salt in the original – but we used semi-salted)
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups of raisins (we used 1 cup)
• 2 cups chocolate chips (we used 1 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 300F. (I misread and preheated to 350F.)

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking powder.

3. In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

4. Add flour mixture to wet ingredient. Add raisins and chocolate chips.

5. Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake 22-24 min (at 350F they only needed about 12 to 15 min to bake).

Verdict: We made 6 dozen cookies.

They were very good. I will be keeping this recipe.

I don’t understand why the recipe would call for two cups each of raisins and chocolate chips, because that would have been too much for the batter. One cup each was perfect.

Banana Crumb Muffins / Banana Crumb Loaf

Not 100% sure where I found this recipe. But it’s an older one, so I think the French Metro newspaper. Although it could have also been online somewhere on a site I no longer have linked.

I just made these muffins last week as a going away present for someone at work (who was leaving on vacation) and they were loved by everyone who tried one!

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (I sometimes use more. I love cinnamon)
• 1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease muffin moulds.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda and baking powder. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until just moistened. Pour into muffin cups.

3. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is coarse and crumbly. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

4. Bake 10 to 15 min or until done.

Love these muffins!

I made this latest batch with a gingerbread men pan so the muffins came out like little people. The recipe made about 20 decent sized muffins and one tiny muffin.

When we first made this recipe my mom said we should make a banana bread recipe out of it. And the Banana Crumb loaf was born! It’s made the same way, but depending on the bread mould you use you may need to use 1/3 cup brown sugar in the topping. And it bakes about 30 to 40 min.

Pizza for the Upper Crust

I found this recipe in the “Eat, Shrink and Be Merry” cookbook, though I wasn’t as strict with the ingredients as they are.

•  1 can (540 ml) tomatoes with Italian herbs
• 1/3 cup pizza sauce
• 1 pizza crust (they recommended a thin crust, but our homemade pizza crust was more of a thick crust)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese (we used Parmesan)
• 3 ounces (85 g) of mozzarella cheese (we used closer to 130 g, to ensure the top of the pizza was well covered by cheese)
• 1/4 cup basil (we used less, just a sprinkle really)
• Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425F. (Alternatively, preheat a grill to medium with the lid closed).

2. Drain the tomatoes. Crush the tomatoes, pressing down to remove as much liquid as possible.

3. Spread pizza sauce over crust. Top with the crushed tomatoes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. (At this point, we also topped half the pizza with some pineapples.)

4. (The original recipe calls for the mozzarella to be sliced and evenly distributed over the pizza, but that’s not how we chose to do it.) Cover with grated mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with basil and pepper to taste.

5. Bake for 10 min (we kept ours in a little longer. If grilling, grill for 4 min with lid closed, checking after 2 min to make sure crust is not burning. After 4 min, turn grill off but keep lid closed and cook another 3 min, until cheese is melted).

Verdict: My mom, sister and grandmother loved the pizza, with my sister saying it tasted like a restaurant pizza. My thing with pizzas is that they are not my favourite food. I used to love them but I don’t as much anymore. I keep trying pizza recipes in the hopes of finding one that will have me love pizzas all over again, but this wasn’t it for me.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I am pretty sure I found this recipe online, but I can’t seem to find the website where I originally found it. It can currently be found online on another blog, though I know this wasn’t the site where I first saw it.

• 1 cup shortening (we used 1 cup butter)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 6 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (omitted because we use salted butter)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup chocolate chips (we used a little more, because that’s what was left in the bag)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease 2 9X5 inch loaf pans (we did one loaf pan and six individual loafs in this cool pan I bought. I have to get a picture of it sometime in the future).

2. In a large bowl, cream together shortening (or butter) and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add mayonnaise and bananas.

3. In another bowl, mix together flour, salt (if using), baking powder and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Add in chocolate chips.

4. Pour into prepared pans and bake 50 to 75 min or until a toothpick (or chopstick) comes out clean (well, minus any melted chocolate chips it hits! Which, for me, is all the time. Our smaller ones took 20 min, but the large took an hour).

Verdict: This was a very tasty banana bread recipe. I don’t know if I would rate it better than some of the other banana bread recipes I have tried, but I liked it!