Easy Baked Parmesan Meatballs

This is a recipe from Kraft.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup parsley (didn’t use because I had run out of parsley)
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic, minced (I used 1 teaspoon garlic powder)

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Mix all ingredients together. Shape into 12 meatballs.

3. Place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake 25 min or until done.

Verdict: These were good but not great. I’ve tried cheese flavoured meatballs before and the cheese always seems to melt away so that the end result doesn’t really taste cheesy.

Pizza Bubble Ring

This recipe is from Pillsbury.

• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 12-ounce cans of refrigerated flaky biscuits (what we have here are refrigerated dinner rolls, but they also come in the requisite 10 per can size, so we used that instead)
• 40 slices of pepperoni
• 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese, sliced into cubes
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (this seemed like too much, maybe 1/8 cup would be better)
• 1 1/4 cup pizza sauce, heated

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a fluted pan with cooking spray (we used a bundt pan).

2. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter, Italian seasoning and garlic powder.

3. Separate 1 can of the dough into the 10 rolls. Flatten each into a 3 inch round. Place 2 pepperoni pieces in the centre of each round. Top with cheese (we had cut enough cheese to place 2 cubes in each). Bring dough up and seal edges to form a small ball. Roll in butter mixture. Place the 10 balls into the pan. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Repeat with remaining can and place in a second layer over the Parmesan cheese. (It said to pour left over butter over, but we didn’t have any left.)

4. Bake for 33-38 min, until golden brown (ours took about 30 min). Cool 5 min before inverting onto a serving plate. Serve with heated pizza sauce for dipping.

Verdict: This was delicious! They were like breadsticks and pizzas merged together. Twenty balls were probably a little much for 3 people, but they made nice leftovers for lunch the next day.

In Search Of: the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Part 48: S’mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe on another food blog.

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs (we added a third one because the batter seemed dry; this was a mistake, because it made the dough hard to work with)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (didn’t use because we use salted butter)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 6 graham crackers, split into quarters
• 3 Hershey bars broken into rows of 3 squares (4 rows per bar for a total of 12 rows)
• 12 large marshmallow, cut lengthwise

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, salt (if using) and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips.

4. Make 12 S’mores (graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker). Cover with cookie dough (it said to do it with two balls, one on top and one at the bottom, but it was more like covering it as best we could with little bits of dough everywhere.)

5. Place on baking sheet (we mainly built ours on the baking sheet after covering the bottom) and bake 15-17 min.

Verdict: We made 12 large cookies and had some dough left, but not enough for any more S’more cookies. These were good, massive but a little too much work for a cookie. A special event but not all the time type of cookie.

Caramel Tart

I found this recipe in the French Metro newspaper. This is the third time I’ve made this recipe, because the first two didn’t really turn out all that well. The first time I used the Skor chocolate bar indicated in the recipe, but found out that I am not particularly fond of toffee. The second time I substituted a different chocolate bar but felt that it didn’t have the right taste either (the Kit Kats I used got too mushy). This time I thought I would try it with no added chocolate bars.

• 1 1/4 cup of Graham crumbs
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup caramel sauce
• 1 packet of instant vanilla pudding (and whatever is necessary to prepare it)
• 1 and 1/2 cup of whipped cream
• 4 Skor chocolate bars, broken into pieces (didn’t use this time)

1. Mix together the Graham crumbs and butter. Press into a pie plate or round cake mould.

2. Pour the caramel sauce onto the crust and spread evenly.

3. Prepare pudding as directed. Mix together the whipped cream, pudding and chocolate bar pieces (if using), setting 2 tablespoons of the pieces aside. Spread whipped cream mixture over caramel.

4. Refrigerate at least 6 hours (I left mine overnight). Remove 10 min before serving.

Verdict: The third time making this recipe was not the charm. I liked it well enough, just compared to the other two cakes similar to this that I’ve already made, it ranked as third best. Maybe because if I had to choose I always go for chocolate over vanilla flavours.

Crispy Chicken Fingers and Honey Mustard Sauce

I know I found this recipe online somewhere, I just can’t seem to find where anymore.

• 1 1/4 pound chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I think we cut ours smaller, so it was more chicken bites than chicken fingers)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 4 cups corn cereal (we used Corn Flakes)
• Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or cover with parchment paper.

2. Combine chicken and buttermilk and chill for 15 min.

3. In a sealed ziploc bag, crush the cereal with a rolling pin. Transfer to a shallow dish.

4. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Dip each piece in the cereal to coat.

5. Bake until cooked through, about 8 min (ours needed about 10).

Honey Mustard Sauce

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons honey

1. In a small bowl, stir together all ingredients until smooth.

Verdict: The chicken fingers were good, if not as crispy as others I’ve had. I think the problem was that by the end of the dipping process, the cereal in the dish was soggy and it wasn’t coating as well.

My sister was our guide when it came to the honey mustard sauce, comparing it to the best she’s had at restaurants (note to one unnamed restaurant out there: mixing honey with yellow mustard is not honey mustard sauce). She thought this recipe had too much of a mustard taste so we added a second tablespoon of mayonnaise to cut it. One of her friends recommended adding basil so we did that as well. The final word was that it was perfect as a base and it will just need to be tweaked a little here and there.

Jam-Filled Almond Muffins

I found this recipe online (though I am not 100% sure that was the original page I found it on).

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup jam (we used raspberry)
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup of sliced almonds (we probably didn’t even use half of this and we made more than the 12 expected muffins)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (we used a pinch of sugar for each muffin. So for 18 muffins, I am not sure if that is more or less than 1 tablespoon)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, mix together whole wheat flour, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together eggs and brown sugar until smooth. Add buttermilk, orange juice, oil and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.

4. In a small bowl, mix together jam and almond extract.

5. Scoop half the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Drop a generous teaspoon of the jam mixture into the centre of each. Top with the remaining batter. Sprinkle almonds and sugar on top of each muffin.

6. Bake 15 – 25 min (ours were ready after about 20 min).

Verdict: The first time I tried almond extract in a recipe, it was an M&M cookie recipe and I thought I had messed something up because the cookies didn’t taste that good. My mom and my sister tried them and loved them, so I worried that it was the almond extract that I didn’t like. This is only the second recipe I’ve tried with almond extract and, so far, it’s not looking good. Then again, I didn’t mind the jam centres of the muffins, it was the muffins themselves that seemed to lack any taste overall. Plus this time it wasn’t just me. My sister was also not a fan of these.

Macaroni and Cheese

I found this recipe in the French Metro newspaper.

• 2 cups macaroni
• 450g cheddar cheese, shredded
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Crushed up soda biscuits (I actually had no idea what this was. We used Social Tea cookies.)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Cook the noodles as directed.

2. Place 1/3 of the noodles on the bottom of an oven dish. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat layers twice more.

3. Cover with crushed biscuits/cookies.

4. Beat together egg, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over cookies and noodles.

5. Bake 20-30 min.

Verdict: We left ours in the whole 30 min and I think that was too long. Despite all of the cheese in the recipe, it was very dry. I also think we probably used the wrong type of cookies, because they gave a sweetness that was unexpected in the dish.

In Search Of: the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Part 47: Almond Chcocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe on another food blog.

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 ounces Almond Paste (we couldn’t find this at our store, so we used marzipan, which is supposed to be similar)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (didn’t use because we use salted butter)
• 1 bag of chocolate chips (we only used 1 1/2 cup of chocolate chips)
• 3/4 cup almonds, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add almond paste in pieces, until well combined. Add in eggs and vanilla.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt (if using). Add to wet ingredients. Add in chocolate chips and almonds.

4. Drop by spoonful onto baking sheet. Bake 10-12 min. (Ours needed a little less than 10. We made 5 dozen.)

Verdict: These had a nice taste to them, but were a little too crispy.

Chicken and Garlic Potatoes

I found this recipe online somewhere, though I can’t remember where.

• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced (we used 6. I think we sliced them too big, because we had some problems cooking them)
• 1 large onion, cut into wedges (we used a small onion)
• 6 chicken breast halves (we used boneless instead of bone-in)
• 1 teaspoon tarragon
• 1 teaspoon sage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 garlic bulb
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place potatoes and onion in a large baking dish. Top with chicken.

2. Combine tarragon, sage, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle over chicken.

3. Cut off the top of the garlic bulb (where in comes to a closed point) and expose each clove. Place cut side up in baking dish. Drizzle oil over everything.

4. Bake at 350F, covered with foil, for 60 min. Uncover and bake 10-15 min longer (we needed to bake ours quite a bit longer for the potatoes to be even slightly ready).

5. (The original said to mash the garlic lightly and toss with onion and potatoes. Since our potatoes weren’t well-done, we mashed everything together).

Verdict: This was not a successful recipe in terms of execution. Our potatoes really brought the whole dish down, because they were too big initially and then slowed up the whole cooking process. The final product of a nice garlic flavoured mashed potatoes never materialized because they were still bits of uncooked potato that escaped the mashing process.

In Search Of: the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Part 46: Second Version of Brown-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe on another food blog.

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt (didn’t use because we use salted butter)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon half-and-half or milk (we used milk)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Mix together flour, salt (if using) and baking soda.

3. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Stir often, until butter is browned (it was a little hard to see with the bubbles).

4. Meanwhile, mix together sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl. Once butter is browned, remove from heat and add to the sugars. Add milk (or half-and-half), lemon juice, vanilla, egg and egg yolk. Add flour mixture. Add chocolate chips.

5. Roll dough into balls and place on baking sheets. Bake 10-12 min (ours only needed 7).

Verdict: We made 5 dozen. These had a taste to them right after they came out of the oven. They were crispy, but still a little moist. But only about an hour later they had hardened up so that they were just crispy. No amount of time in the microwave helped. I don’t really enjoy my homemade cookies to be crispy, so this was a deal-breaker for me in regards to this recipe.